Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Quenched Torch

Chapter 12: Undertaking

"E-easy, Beck, it won't hurt as bad if you hold still..."

Lying on the ground as Rye put his hand on the wounds on my legs, I shook my head in yet another fruitless effort to get the Treecko to stop with his flimsy plan.

"Shrye... sh-SHAA!"

I cringed violently as Grass-type energy flowed into my body. Although my wounds were closing up slowly, the burning pain flowing through my body didn't help this come across as a good thing.

"S-sorry! I-I haven't done this before, just...!" Rye said through clenched teeth.

After our little escapade through Amber Meadow, we had started back home, only to realize that my wounds from the incidents on the first floor hadn't entirely gone away. Upon Rye's insistence that they'd get infected, he had the bright idea to try to take care of it himself, despite us having used our last Oran back in the dungeon.

After some thought, Rye's best plan to do so was, as he called it, "Absorb but in reverse." The problem was that not only were our respective typings not very convenient for such a process, but his Absorb technique had apparently been entirely replaced with Mega Drain, which he had barely any experience with. Where that had led us was an increasingly tired Rye trying to pump painful energy into my struggling form.

"Beck, please hold still, I'm-"

"SHA!"

Finally fed up with my kicking, an exasperated Rye groaned and raised his hands in the air.

"Alright, alright, fine then, we'll just wait till we get back to the Guild," he said.

He tried to help me onto my feet, but the already present sharp pain only intensified once I put weight on my legs. As I faceplanted into the ground, I heard Rye let out another frustrated yell. After a little while, he defeatedly sat down.

"Ugh, j-just stay there. The sun's going down soon, anyways."

'At least the universe gave us that.'

---

The stinging in my legs had mostly subsided by the time the stars came out, so the two of us could sit and watch them in peace. Although clouds were now partially obscuring the sky and the moon was beginning to wax, it was still a worthwhile view, I'd say. As I itched at one of the many scabs on my leg, Rye, who had stopped fidgeting with the Reviver Seed we had been gifted, turned to me.

"H-hey, Beck? Uh, sorry about earlier... you know, th-the whole reverse Absorb thing. I really just need more practice with it, I guess..." he said. He sat there for a minute before letting out a bitter chuckle.

"Heh. Everyone says Treecko are supposed to be calm and collected, and here I am worrying about everything, ruining everything I try, being a general waste of space..."

"Sha..." I said, reaching over to console him. Cracking a small smile at this, he continued.

"Maybe, uh, it's fate, y'know? A Treecko who can't stand his ground and an Oshawott who used to be human getting together to form a team; maybe someone out there wants us both to become better through this. I mean, it's only been about two weeks since we met, and you're already learning to be a Pokémon pretty well, aren't you? Who knows, I might just learn enough to prove Mom and Dad wrong! I-it doesn't matter what they say, just because I failed Dill doesn't mean I'm a complete..."

Rye visibly paled as he trailed off, turning to look at me.

"...sorry, g-got a little carried away..."

I stared at him skeptically, causing him to shrink back.

"L-look, it's... it's really personal, alright?" he managed. I looked into his pleading eyes for a while, eventually sighing and turning away, much to his relief. We both continued to stare up into the sky as I pondered silently.