The moment Xiu stepped back inside the cabin, the tightly wound tension within him snapped. A wave of bone-deep exhaustion, suppressed adrenaline crashing down, washed over him. His legs buckled. He didn't even make it to the bed, collapsing onto the rough floorboards in a heap, darkness swallowing him whole before he could even register the impact. An uncontrollable, consuming sleep.
He drifted in and out of consciousness. Once, through a haze of throbbing headache, he thought he glimpsed a pair of eyes watching him from the darkness – hazy, indistinct, yet profound, like distant, unknowable stars. The image faded, and he sank back into the depths.
When awareness finally returned, it was to pitch blackness. Night had fallen completely. He'd been living here for a month now, long enough for his body to instinctively know its surroundings even without sight. He was in bed. 'How?'
Memory returned slowly, fragmented pieces coalescing. The fight. The Abra. The exhaustion. He must have somehow crawled into bed before passing out completely. He groped around in the thin quilt beside him, his fingers closing around the familiar smooth, cool sphere of the Poké Ball.
He lay there for a long moment, the weight of the ball grounding him in the darkness. Then, decision made, he pressed the central button.
Click.
A beam of red light momentarily illuminated the small cabin before coalescing into the small, yellow figure on the bed beside him. Abra.
In the dim moonlight filtering through the window, the Pokémon simply sat there. No visible alertness, no resistance, just… stillness. It didn't try to teleport away, didn't show any fear.
They remained like that, silent occupants of the dark room, regarding each other. An odd tableau. Xiu felt a strange, unexpected chuckle rise in his throat.
He could see its eyes more clearly now. The vacant, drugged look was gone. They were lively, intelligent, filled with a quiet awareness. The paralytic agent had worn off.
"Hello~" Xiu offered softly, the word feeling inadequate.
The Abra blinked but made no sound. Of course. Abra couldn't speak human language. It just continued to stare, its large brown eyes reflecting the faint moonlight. The silence stretched, becoming awkward.
'Okay, plan B.' Xiu swung his legs out of bed. He possessed a wealth of theoretical knowledge about Pokémon from his past life's games and anime, but this was his first real, tangible interaction with one, especially one like Abra. He felt utterly clueless about how to proceed. Best to put direct communication aside for now and focus on something practical. The poacher's spoils.
He retrieved George's backpack, dumping its contents onto the floor near the faint light of the window. A tangle of miscellaneous items emerged: rope, basic tools, some ration bars, a spare set of cheap clothes... and, most importantly, a thin wad of Poké Dollar bills and a few Pokémon-related supplies.
He counted the cash quickly. Just over a thousand Poké Dollars. 'Pitifully little.' The equipment – the net gun parts, the hand cannon (now useless without its specific ammo), the empty Poké Balls – all looked cheap, well-worn.
"Poor guy~" Xiu muttered, sifting through the meager haul with a touch of disdain. 'All that risk for this?'
His gaze flickered to the Abra. It wasn't looking at him, but at the disassembled hand cannon lying on the floor. A strange, unreadable expression flickered in its eyes before vanishing.
Xiu changed tack. "Hungry?" he asked, falling back on the universal icebreaker. "Want something to eat?"
That seemed to work. The atmosphere, thick with unspoken questions, immediately felt lighter.
He quickly got up, fumbled for the solar lamp, and clicked it on, casting a weak yellow glow over the small room. He went to his cabinet, pulling out his own meager food reserves – a half-eaten packet of plain biscuits and a couple of small, wrapped snacks he'd bought on a rare trip to the park's main area. He placed them on the table.
Among the commercially packaged items was a small, clear glass jar containing crystalline, amber-coloured chunks. No label, no brand. It looked homemade, slightly out of place.
The Abra's eyes fixed on the jar.
"This!" Xiu noticed its focus, picking up the jar. "I, uh, made these myself. Sugar candies. Want to try?" It was a simple concoction he'd experimented with, boiling down sugar bought with his first meager paycheck over his fire pit. A small comfort from his old life.
He unscrewed the lid and offered the open jar towards the Abra.
Its eyes tracked the jar's movement. As it got closer, the faint, sweet smell of caramelized sugar reached it.
Then, something unexpected happened.
The sugar candies inside the jar lifted into the air, seemingly of their own accord, hovering about an inch above the rim. A faint, shimmering blue outline surrounded them.
'Psychic power?' Xiu stared, surprised. 'Abra can use Telekinesis?' His memories screamed that Abra's only innate skill was Teleport. Other psychic abilities came later, with evolution and training.
The floating candies drifted towards the Abra, which consumed them without lifting a finger – or rather, without lifting one of its three-fingered hands. Under the lamplight, Xiu could see the tension in the small Pokémon's posture ease slightly. Relaxation, maybe even contentment, softened its features.
"Here," Xiu pushed the rest of the food forward, suppressing his confusion. "More."
He watched, fascinated, as the Abra continued to levitate the biscuits and snacks to its mouth, eating methodically, silently.
His mind raced. 'Why Telekinesis? Is it a mutation? A regional variant? Something else?'
As if sensing his turmoil, the Abra paused its eating. A soft blue aura enveloped its entire body. It floated slowly off the bed, drifting through the air until it hovered directly in front of Xiu's face. Then, it reached out one of its small, three-fingered hands and pressed it gently against Xiu's forehead.
Xiu froze, startled, but didn't resist. The touch was cool, almost ethereal. The moment contact was made, his mind flooded with images, sounds, sensations – not his own. It was like watching a film reel flickering behind his eyes, disjointed yet coherent.
He saw darkness, then the blurry shapes of other Abra. He felt confusion, isolation. He experienced the dawning awareness of a power different from its kin – Telekinesis, not Teleport. He felt the fear and rejection from the others, the confusion of its own parent figure. Then, a disorienting flash – forced Teleportation, exile. Wandering alone in the vast, terrifying wilderness. Hunger. Fear. Near misses with predators. The sudden, shocking pain of the net, the searing burn, the prick of the needle injecting the paralytic...
When the flood of images receded, Xiu felt like he'd lived another lifetime in those few moments. He understood now. The Abra's origins, why it was here, alone and injured.
'An outcast. Its innate Telekinesis, a deviation from the norm, had led to its expulsion from its own kind.' The inflamed older wounds he'd noticed during cleaning – remnants of its struggles to survive alone in the wild before George even found it.
This psychic sharing... it wasn't just information. It was an explanation. A plea for understanding. 'The unknown represents risk.' The Abra's own family had deemed it too different, too dangerous.
Xiu looked at the small Pokémon floating before him, its large eyes now holding a profound depth. He remembered its stillness earlier, its lack of resistance. Weak, helpless, injured... had it given up then? Resigned itself to death? Self-destruction, the thought echoed uncomfortably.
Driven out by its family shortly after birth, forced to stumble through a hostile world alone, only to be captured and tortured by a poacher. Born different, and punished for it. It had endured far too much for such a young life.
A wave of empathy washed over Xiu.
"You don't have anywhere else to go, do you?" he said softly. "Why don't... why don't you stay here? With me. At least until you're fully healed."
The Abra slowly retracted its hand, remaining hovering in the air before him.
It didn't nod, didn't make a sound of agreement. But it didn't teleport away either. It didn't reject the offer. For Xiu, that was enough. A tacit understanding passed between them.
He offered a small, genuine smile. "Don't worry," he added, trying to sound reassuring. "As long as I have food, you won't go hungry."
— — —
"This whole section, this is the area I'm responsible for cleaning..."
Early the next morning, Xiu was making his usual rounds, but this time he wasn't alone. The Abra floated silently beside him, its blue psychic aura faintly visible.
Normally, his garbage collection took him from roughly six until nine, the window before the first tourists and trainers started arriving in significant numbers.
Today, with the Abra's help, it was different. Astonishingly different.
Employing its innate Telekinesis, the Abra simply hovered near a piece of discarded trash, and whoosh – it flew directly into Xiu's collection sack. No bending, no reaching, no wading into streams or climbing trees. The entire route, usually a three-hour slog, was completed in under an hour.
They finished the circuit far too early. The automated tour bus wasn't due for ages. Xiu sighed. They'd have to walk back to the South Gate.
The Abra, seemingly sensing the lull, retreated into its Poké Ball to rest and recuperate.
The walk back took far longer than the actual work had.
After dropping off the garbage and grabbing a quick meal from the staff cafeteria (packing extra for later, and now for two), Xiu found himself heading towards the small shopping plaza located near the main park entrance.
It was surprisingly large for an onsite facility, stocked with the usual tourist fare – plush toys, keychains, t-shirts – but also a decent selection of practical Pokémon supplies: potions, Poké Balls, various types of Pokémon food.
Of course, being a tourist trap, the prices were inflated. Everyone knew that.
But Xiu wasn't here for souvenirs. He was here to solve Abra's dietary needs. Basic biscuits and homemade sugar candy weren't going to cut it long-term.
The park had just opened for the day, so the mall was relatively empty of customers, though staff were busy restocking shelves and arranging displays. Xiu ignored the colorful distractions and headed straight for the aisle dedicated to Pokémon food, confronted by rows upon rows of brightly packaged kibble, pellets, and mixes. Food tailored for specific types, life stages, energy levels... the variety was overwhelming.
'Okay, where to even start?' He stared at the baffling array, feeling distinctly out of his depth.