New Beginnings – A Pokemon Slice of Life. [OC/Isekai/Move Tutor/Breeder]

“Everybody! Please calm down!” Ethan yelled as he frantically waved his hands in front of the small crowd in front of him.

Currently, in front of his home, a splattering of trainers yelled out in desperate attempts to catch his attention. The girl who’d spotted him originally was along with them, her Aipom standing on her shoulders waving its arms and tail in excitement, completely unaware of what was going on but joyously joining in with the yelling.

“I would like—”
“Please, hear me out—”
“My Luxray is close to learn—”
“I can pay more than—”

“♫ CHAA-TOOOT! ♫”

Chatot’s ear-wrenching wail caused all nearby trainers and pokemon to cover their ears, returning a comfortable silence to his peaceful ranch once more.

As Ethan looked across the group of trainers once again, he could see even more of them making their way into his ranch from the cobblestone path. While he was glad to have customers, this was getting way out of hand. While Ethan knew he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, he wasn’t an idiot. His sign was not this effective. Something else was the cause for the sudden surge of trainers.

“Thank you, Chatot. Now, can someone please tell me why you’re all here in a desperate rush?”

“You taught—”
“The Swi—”
“I am willing to pay—”

Ethan sighed as he ran a hand down his face in exasperation. “Stop! One at a time. You! Please explain!”

He pointed to the girl with the Aipom who had spotted him first. The young girl did another fist pump, falsely assuming that Ethan was going to teach her pokemon first just because he chose her out of the group.

“Champion Cynthia had her Swinub learn Mud-Shot from you. After she sang her praises after the Junior Journey Cup, why would we not choose you over the others?” The girl said matter of factly as she brushed her hair over her shoulder with supreme confidence.

Ethan’s brain short-circuited as he blankly stared at the girl. He blinked a few times and shook his head, recreating the famous meme. He’d only taught one Swinub, and it was Cici’s. The trainer with long blonde hair, who was his age… who had a carrying capacity well over the league standard… Who had a black trench-coat…

He raised a finger into the air and parted his lips to speak, but closed them. After rummaging through his pocket, he pulled out his phone, walked off onto his patio, and dialed Cici... Cici... C C… Champion Cynthia…

OH GOD! Ethan thought as the phone’s slow dial tone rang in his ear. He closed his eyes in defeat, embarrassment, nervousness, and ample amounts of cringe. Should he treat her the same as he had? What was he even calling for? Did she—

“Hello, Ethan.” The supremely smug sounding voice of Cici—No, Cynthia came from the speakers.

“Hello… I’m calling because a horde of trainers just stormed my ranch. They said that they heard Champion Cynthia praising my tutoring work on her Swinub. Is this true, Cynthia?” Ethan asked nervously, afraid of the response.

“Ethan… I said you could call me Cici, remember? But, yes. I might have told everyone at a little tournament I went to about how you tutored Swinub. How many have shown up?”

Ethan turned to look over his shoulder at the murmuring and excited crowd. He quickly turned away as he clutched his phone up against his ear with both hands. “Seven, about to be eight. Cici—Cynthia. I can’t tutor all of these people in a day like I did Swinub! Even if I could, I can’t tutor all of these people in a week! What am I supposed to do? When I finish helping one of them, five more will appear!”

“Then turn some of them away or have them leave their pokemon with you for a while. Sorry, but I wish you the best of luck Ethan. I’m currently a little busy as some very vital information has found its way to me this past month. I’ll call you later to see how you’re doing. Bye-bye!”

*Click*

Ethan stared at the smooth wooden floorboards of his patio as he slowly and blankly put his phone into his pocket. His mind reeling with the suddenness of everything.

His hands covered his face in embarrassment as he thought back on all of their discussions they had. In hindsight, It was so obvious… He said that she was the strongest in front of her face and even mentioned her pokemon.

Oh god… he had trauma dumped in front of her! He wanted to crawl into Shuckle’s hole and die.

The loudly murmuring crowd behind him knocked him out of his pity party. He took a few deep breaths and straightened his back. There was a surefire way to get through this mess, and it was a tried and true method of coping. He’d put it to great use while lost, and would use the same method here!

Forget about it and deal with it later!

He turned around with a forced smile and got down to business. “Okay! Everyone, please line up in a neat and orderly line. I’m going to ask each of you some questions, then according to the answers, you will be split into groups. Anyone not complying or causing a scene will be asked to leave. Am I understood?”

The nodding of heads and sure-of-themselves smirks didn’t give Ethan very much hope for the outcome of this on-the-spot business attempt. But, sure enough, they did as he had asked and lined up in a straight line directly in front of his home. As he stood in front of the door, he was several steps above them so he was speaking down to them—literally, not figuratively.

“Okay, let’s begin.” Ethan took out his phone and brought up the note taking app he’d been using, as he didn’t have anything to write on just yet. “Your name?”

“Joji Ito. I’d like for you to tutor one of my pokemon.” The younger, dark-haired trainer said.

Ethan typed his name and what he wanted before continuing on. “What pokemon, and what move?”

“My Noctowl. The move would be Stored Power.” Joji said as he shifted uneasily, knowing the request was difficult.

Ethan didn’t make any indication of his feelings as he inputted the information. “Okay. Any special requirements needed to accommodate your pokemon? Special food, care, grooming? How is your pokemons attitude? Are they picky, calm, gentle, aggressive… things like that?”

Apparently, this wasn’t a question Joji had been expecting, as he floundered for an answer. Ethan gave him a comforting smile to assuage his fears. “Just answer truthfully. This is for your pokemon.”

After roughly clearing his throat, Joji answered to the best of his ability. “I–I feed him the standard large avian pokechow from the Pokemart. He gets along fine with most pokemon, but tends to wander off. He always comes back quickly, though!”

“Okay. Thanks for being honest. Would you be willing to keep him here until his tutoring is finished? Or would you like to wait and set-up camp in the campgrounds near the entrance? I cannot guarantee success or give you a suitable time frame. I will also need to ask some questions regarding some of his current moves if we decide you want to be a customer.”

Joji looked flabbergasted, caught unaware of the interview like questions being thrown his way. “I’d like to stay here and be with him. I’d be fine camping, and I, of course, understand that this is not guaranteed.”

Ethan nodded with a smile as he swiped to create a new page of notes. “That’s great. Go ahead and step off to the side and I'll come talk to you once I'm done with everyone here. Feel free to let your team out to rest and enjoy my ranch, but do not antagonize any of my pokemon, wild or not.”

Joji nodded his understanding, his confidence and cocksure attitude gone with the wind. As he walked off toward the meadow, Ethan spoke up without looking. “Be careful of the Oddish, they’re a few feet to your left.”

The young trainer nearly jumped out of his skin as he looked down to find a frowning, glaring Oddish peeking at him with one eye open.

The rest of the trainers side-eyed the Oddish warily, and they all began to come to terms with who they were speaking to. It didn’t matter that they were some hot-shot trainer, rich battle connoisseur, or some beginner trying their best. They were going to be treated as equals, and Ethan was in charge. This was his land, and they were about to be interrogated, judged, and sorted. If they acted out? Well, there were seven Oddish ready to pounce less than twenty feet away if the need arose.

“Next… Your name?” Ethan asked, and the same process continued on, even as new trainers arrived and lined up at the back of the queue.

—-------------------------------------

“Your name?” Ethan asked again, this time to the girl with her Aipom.

With smothered assuredness, but still slightly confident, the trainer spoke up. “Elizabeth Flamburg, and as I said before, I’d like my Aipom tutored, and the move would be Double-Hit. I would be willing to camp out while I wait, and he is cheerful and friendly. I feed his berries, which isn’t the most common, but I don’t think you’ll have a problem with that.”

Ethan nodded along as he filled in the information, slightly appreciating the fact that she saved time by answering them all at once. It was also nice to hear that Aipom ate berries. Every other trainer he’d talked to so far all used the standard pokechow for their pokemon’s respective type.

“I assume you’re trying to evolve Aipom into Ambipom?” Ethan asked offhandedly, as he was still taking the time to fill in the information provided.

“That’s correct.” Elizabeth answered with her chin held high as Aipom clapped his small hands in happiness, eyes crinkled with joy.

“Understood. Please step over with the other tutor candidates willing to camp. Next!”

—--------------

By the time Ethan finished gathering the information from the trainers who’d shown up, his legs were sore from standing. It was only roughly forty-five minutes, but he was in full business mode the entire time and finally being able to sit down on his patio’s rocking chair was a relief.

Thirteen trainers had been the final tally as he finished, with twelve of them here for tutoring and two here for breeding—Or what they referred to as a daycare service.

Apparently, there were two different types of breeding operations. The first were breeding farms. These were what he’d read about when it came to the starter pokemon, Eevee, and Growlithe, and they were what he envisioned his breeding service being. But, lo and behold, the system similar to the games existed as well, and they were what the majority of trainers sought out during their journey.

By what he could find out stealthily on his phone while pretending to write down notes, daycare breeding was both a mixture of give and take. A trainer would leave their pokemon with the breeder with little to no expectations other than that their pokemon would be cared for and have a pleasant time—similar to a vacation or break from battling. The trainers did this to lower their carrying capacity, enabling them to catch more pokemon for their travels and to build a team for a future gym. If the pokemon left behind at the daycare produced an egg, the trainer in question would either take the egg for a fee, or leave the egg with the daycare breeder, lowering the cost of their stay.

As Ethan didn’t have any baseline for what this service typically costs, he copied the median price for daycare services. He would be using that as his asking price. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that expensive in the grand scheme of things. It amounted to thirty-thousand pokedollars, or what he imagined to be three hundred USD, for each week per pokemon. Not too bad of a deal, and Ethan would give a fifty percent discount if there would be an egg, and the trainer decided to let him keep it. This would give Ethan the opportunity to get some eggs and begin learning to care for them.

For the tutoring, most of the moves requested he felt comfortable with. The hardest one in his mind being Stored Power for the Noctowl. The rest were fairly simple, staple, and versatile moves like Swift, Mud Shot, Bulldoze, Low Sweep, and Sucker Punch.

But… There was one trainer who he was going to flat out refuse.

Ethan searched around the entrance to the meadow looking for the man he’d have to deny and found him leaning up against the fence surrounding the meadow, separating it from his berry fields. His frazzled hair, scowl, and tarnished suit was the dead giveaway. Ethan made his way over catching the gaze of all the nearby trainers as he approached and tapped the man, Edgar, on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry Edgar, but I’m not going to be tutoring your pokemon. You may leave.” Ethan said politely, but his face showed no emotion.

Edgar swung around like an affronted bully, posturing to intimate Ethan. His frazzled hair having sticks and leaves stuck in it from his trek through the forest. “What did you say?” He ground out through gritted teeth.

Ethan gestured toward the cobblestone path leading out of his ranch. “I’m not going to teach your Gabite Frustration. I’m going to have to ask you to leave. Now.”

Edgar took another step, entering into Ethan’s personal space, but Ethan stood a solid six inches above the smaller man. “Do you know who I—”

“Now.” Ethan said flatly as he cut him off.

Edgar gazed around at the inquisitive eyes of all the nearby trainers, causing his face to redden in embarrassment and anger. He brushed past Ethan, shoulder checking him as he stomped off to leave.

“Pachirisu, follow him to make sure he leaves without causing trouble.” Ethan said to the electric-rodent glaring daggers at the butt-hurt trainer from within the leaves of the Oddish.

“Pachi…” With a simple nod and the ruffling of leaves, Pachirisu disappeared into the surrounding forest.

Ethan quickly sent a text to Cici—Cynthia mentioning Edgar and what move he wanted tutored. While he wasn’t sure if it was illegal, the insinuation of wanting to learn Frustration said more than enough about how he treated his pokemon.

After a deep breath and a long suffering exhale, Ethan turned toward the other trainers. “Well, then. I’m willing to work with the rest of you. Let’s get down to some specifics…”