The Ereri Project (#2)

Race (Pokémon)

"Ready Riolu?" Eren asks.

Several Pokémon stand at the line painted on the ground as the starting line for their race, Eren's Riolu among them.

The little blue and black Pokémon nods and grins at Eren. Riolu is smaller than most of the others he's racing with; a Combusken, a Croconaw, a Doduo, and a Gothorita, along with a few Pokémon that walk on four legs instead of two.

Eren goes to stand with the other trainers whose Pokémon are racing and waits.

There's a festival in Trost today so since Levi set up a booth for his farm with a few adoptable Pokémon, Eren decided to come and check everything out.

His Riolu, as competitive as he is, could wait to race when they found out there are competitions for Pokémon going on all day.

The race for his size and weight group had been earlier in the morning but when Riolu tried to argue, they gave him a number to keep him quiet and happily started stretching.

Eren didn't know how this was going to go but if Riolu wanted to compete, he didn't really see a problem with it. "Is that your Riolu in there?" a girl asks Eren.

Eren smiles. "Yes it is."

She makes a concerned face. "It looks like it could be crushed if one of the others steps on him."

Eren shrugs. "He won't be stepped on."

Her face turned annoyed. "You could stand to be little more concerned you know, this is why Pokémon Rights Activists exist."

Eren crosses his arms. "I'm not making him race, alright? He wanted to compete so I'm letting him, end of story."

"If he asked you to euthanize him, would you do that too?"

"What's your problem, lady?"

"My problem is stupid trainers like you forcing your Pokémon to fight all the time. You're the Shiganshina Champion, right? How many Pokémon did you hurt trying to "earn" that title?"

People are starting to stare and the race is about to start. Eren can feel the back of his neck starting to sweat.

Why is this happening right now?

"I never force my Pokémon to do anything," Eren says. "If they didn't want to fight, they never had to. And frankly, the fact that you're making assumption about me is really rude."

She raises her voice. "I'm rude? You–"

Marowak and Sylveon finally find Eren in the crowd. Sylveon jumps up onto Eren's shoulder and Marowak holds onto his pants.

"Hey guys," Eren grins at them.

"All racers to their positions!" the announcer calls.

Eren dismissively turns away from the woman to watch Riolu. He doesn't notice, but she goes to swing a punch at him. Marowak see and whimpers, pushing her away from Eren. Eren turns in time to see her fall to the ground. "Marowak! What did you do?"

Marowak frowns and frantically tries to explain but settles on hugging his leg. Eren shakes his head and bends over to help her up. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what–"

She slaps his hand away. "Don't touch me, trainer scum."

She scampers away, leaving Eren incredibly confused.

He shakes his head and turns back just as the race begins.

Eren, Sylveon, and Marowak all cheer as Riolu holds second place like a lifeline. In the last meter, the Doduo that had been leading stumbles and Riolu crosses the finish line first.

Eren runs down to the finish line, Marowak trailing closely behind, and kneels, pulling Riolu into a hug. "Great job!" he says.

Riolu grins happily and starts glowing. Eren leans back and watches as Riolu evolves into a Lucario. Eren grins excitedly and hugs him again.

The crowd around them also cheers excitedly and the announcer announces, "It seems the winning Riolu has evolved into Lucario!"

Marowak gives Lucario a high five and Sylveon tell him something encouraging.

Lucario blushes and scratches the back of his head in embarrassment.

The referee smiles and comes over with a plastic medal and a bag of treats for Lucario for winning.

Lucario puts the medal on and struts around arrogantly after that. Eren chuckles and follows him and Marowak back to Levi's booth.

Levi cocks an eyebrow. "Well that's new," he says.

Eren smiles. "He evolved after the race," he says, petting Lucario's head. "How's business been?"

Levi looks down at his sheet. "Three Eevee's, a Pichu, and a Growlithe have been adopted and I have... sixteen appointments to meet with for others this week."

"Good," he says. "Is Hanji going to come watch the booth so you can come watch Gyrados and Milotic race?"

"Hopefully?" Levi says. "I haven't seen her since she disappeared to go buy something deep-fried about an hour ago."

Eren chuckles but stops when he hears a familiar voice. "-all horrible! How could you do this?!"

Eren looks over to see that woman from earlier shouting a man with a booth where people can fish for Magicarp. "Have you seen her?" Eren asks.

"No, who is she?" Levi asks.

Eren shrugs. "She yelled at me earlier for being a trainer. Called me "trainer scum" for "forcing" Pokémon to fight."

"Haven't seen many of those around lately."

"Those?"

"Pokémon Rights Activists. Back before it was law that Pokémon couldn't use steroids. I never used them anyway but a lot of people got pulled into legal trouble because they refused to let their Pokémon be tested for them. Haven't heard much from activists since then, though."

"Weird."

"Well there haven't really been any problems since then. Most Pokémon that are unsatisfied with their trainers just run away or refuse to fight. Unless they're really little, most of them could fight a human off easily and get away."

"Hmm," Eren hums.

The woman looks in their direction but when she sees Eren she walks the other way. He cocks an eyebrow. "Wonder why she doesn't wanna yell at me some more."

Levi shrugs as Hanji walks back up. "Sorry I took so long, go ahead to the race, I got this."

"Finally," Levi says, getting up. "If anyone wants to see a particular Pokémon, just lift that one out of the pen, it's too much excitement to let a person in it."

"Yes sir," Hanji replies, sitting down.

Levi holds Eren's hand on the walk to the water races.