Pokemon Tales: The One Called Erufu: Tender Shoots

1. The One Called Erufu

Who is Erufu? That's a question no one was asking. Not by anyone important, at least. Imasukobe Kaname frowned at the hall across the room. She had six children—four astute girls and two lazy boys. Her daughters were grown and had moved out, but the boys, one twenty and the other a prime sixteen, were still loafing around at home, eating up her food and wasting valuable resources.

"I have such inconsiderate sons," Kaname whispered, wiping the bowl in her hand. She cleaned and she cooked, she tidied up after everyone and had been involved along every step of their schooling, and this was how she was repaid. Well, she couldn't say for sure what had happened to Borun—he never spoke to his poor, dutiful mother—but since he had started working part time for his father she was willing to let things slide a while longer. Erufu, on the other hand, had never made any achievements. His grades had always been subpar in school, and he never joined any clubs.

All he did was poke at that remote and stare at anime.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Kaname hissed, turning to the kitchen sink and setting the bowl beside it. She wrung the towel in her hands, numb to the friction. Her eyes swept up and about the weathered gray cupboards, over the tile, back to the family room and the hall. He still wasn't up for breakfast.

"I will not raise an otaku," Kaname told herself at last. She whisked herself by the cold bowls of rice atop the dining table, to the side rooms where the study was. She had a plan. And this one he couldn't quit.

~~~*~~~

Quint dashed up the building's side. A woman pursued him. It looked like Ao but Erufu, in his adrenaline-based stupor, couldn't be sure. He mashed the buttons of his remote in practiced form, guiding Quint up the screen, past shadowy swarms of guardians. As the purple-haired warrior grasped the final ledge to the tower, he froze. Erufu shook his remote, wondering if the game had crashed.

"Told you I was faster."

A familiar female voice lilted over the wall and through the speakers to Erufu's ears. Quint gasped. A flash of pink hair slithered over his knuckles and Ao's face appeared above his. The playfulness they had grown so accustomed to seeing in her eyes was gone.

"Ao," Quint muttered. "It was you?"

"It was always me, Quint; I tried to tell you. You wouldn't listen, like you never do."

"So you stole the accord, as well?"

Ao's face, once serene, overshadowed with dark knowing. Her eyes bespoke what Erufu had feared. What Quint had tried to ignore.

"My mother?" the samurai asked lowly. Ao needn't respond. Quint turned away. After shedding a few tears, his eyes caught a gargoyle some distance below. It had curled horns and spiked ears. Quint's eyes swirled.

"I had to," Ao whispered, resting a hand over his.

He frowned.

"Quint?"

Her hands flashed into his. Quint held Ao, brooding red eyes boring into her soft brown ones.

This wasn't the typical chapter, Erufu thought. It was deep. Quint had more layers than he ever thought possible—it was no wonder to him how the samurai had managed to stealth his way onto his wall. The boy kept a fixed stare over the screen.

Ao tried to writhe away. Quint's greater weight held her fast.

"Traitor," Quint growled. He jerked the assassiness close. "Even on still winds the shedding of blood brings the tide of death."

Ao's face twisted.

The door slammed open. Ao's shrieks drowned below the swif swif of Kaname's trousers. The screen became momentarily blocked by the flutter of an envelope. Erufu's eyes followed it. Horrified, he looked back up, but the screen was on a close up of Quint.

"Mom!" Erufu cried. "You made me miss the final scene!"

"Don't speak so harshly to me and read that letter!" Kaname snapped back.

Erufu folded his arms and glared at the opening sequence for the next chapter of his game. He couldn't even tell what was happening anymore. When his mother slid the room to his door shut again, Erufu sighed. The moment was ruined. Setting the remote down, he picked the envelope up. Curious, he thought. It was addressed to him. From the Branch of Wildlife and Agriculture.

The bold black characters shook.

This envelope could only signal one thing. Erufu wagged his head, breaking the seal with quivering fingers. Maybe it's just another request, he hoped. The first corner was a stamped image of a tree encased in a circle of diamonds, with the silhouette of a pachirisu in the tree's branches. He pulled the letter out a little further, and his heart shriveled. A despaired moan shook the walls.

The envelope flapped wildly in the air a moment, before plummeting beside the gaming console. Erufu scrambled backward. Suddenly, the walls of his sanctuary felt frail and transparent. He grabbed at his elbows, but he knew there was no escape.

The word "Congratulations!" shrieked off the paper across the room into Erufu's soul. His mother had applied him to Trainer's School.