#i've had the pokeball for ages whoops just forgot to use it..... my bad;

[ninthextrication]

The Soprano

Rating: G Word count: 1333

Junpei had found himself in the little town in district Lambda with a bit of a frown on his face. In hindsight, that email had probably been spam- but the address had looked real! Who else would have the ‘hivescientist@hivemail.com’ email than one of the scientists, after all? And he would’ve ignored that too, considering he wasn’t exactly fond of the scientists… but it’d said there was BTTF merch out here.

The longer he thought on this, the more certain he was that he’d just been suckered, but he was too stubborn to admit as much by now.

He’d ended up too embarrassed to admit the actual reason he were here to any of the people who lived in the little down, so he’d just lied and said it was for work… which technically, could be true? He could at least tell Boss that he’d been investigating an email scammer out in Lambda… and just avoid the part about how he’d been suckered in by the most obvious lie email possible.

Mountain climbing didn’t really seem like a fun time to him, but at least it made for an interesting walk for his pokemon. Kuebiko in particular seemed to love it, there was plenty of stuff for him to examine, and room enough that he could run around forwards and back as much as he needed. Junpei on the other hand wasn’t enjoying it as much- and after only about a half-hour he’d decided to take the first (of what would likely be many) breaks, resting on a boulder that was beside a stream, in a rather open area.

The view from this place was really nice- the stream was a color of blue Junpei’d never seen before, and the sky and mountain made for something fantastic to look at. He figured he might as well take his phone out to grab a few pics, thinking that Akane might like to see them… but when he looked at the first one there was a weird dark blur in it, like something was falling.

Frowning, he looked closer. It wasn’t Kuebiko- he’d been behind Junpei, and the colors were too off for it to be Inari or Sakuya. So after a moment, he looked up from his phone… and saw a box in the water. It was shrink-wrapped, so it wasn’t soaked yet- a fact that had him heaving a sigh of relief when he realized exactly what it was that’d dropped from above.

Leaping forwards, Junpei scooped the box up from the water- it was the magnetic “levitating” car figure! This thing was worth well over a couple hundred dollars, and he’d just found it? He didn’t even bother to question why or how- he was fucking pumped, and he hadn’t been scammed!

He took immediately to inspecting the box- it’d be hard to tell if it was broken or not like this, but no way was he going to open it way out here in the middle of nowhere. It seemed like this was the best he could do… and then he felt something weird. It was fairly immediate- a weight on his head, and the pricking of little claws. They weren’t from Sakuya, this definitely wasn’t her weight- and he didn’t have time to think much more before a beak pecked him square on the forehead.

“YEEEEEEOWCH! GODDAMMNIT!”

His shout scared the bird, taking off for a short moment, and then landing on the rocks in front of him. It was a weird looking bird for certain, with a blue body and cloud-like wings- after a moment it occurred to him that this was probably a pokemon, but that didn’t make it any less odd to look at. (Or make the pain on his forehead any less real, but that was beside the point.)

“Blu. Bluuuu.”

The bird cooed softly as it looked up at Junpei, hopping around a bit and then looking pointedly at the box.

“This? Oh no. Ooooooh, no. This thing is a collector’s item, it’s not nest material. Sorry bud.”

“Bluuuu.”

“D-Don’t look at me like that! Besides, it’s a bunch of plastic and cardboard- that’s not good for a bird!”

The pokemon seemed to consider his words for a moment, fluttering up- and then landing back on his head once more. His pokemon had taken notice right after his shout of pain earlier, a growl catching in Inari’s throat, but Junpei tried to wave them off. After all- he trusted his partners, but this bird was on his head. There’s a limit to trust, sometimes.

Rather than pecking at him again though, the bird this time started… well, for lack of a better word, dusting him. It was patting off his head and shoulders with its wings, hopping from his head to his shoulders, then onto the box itself. Everything was getting a cleaning, apparently, and Junpei had no idea how to react. Was this… normal? Was this a thing that happened?

Once finished ‘dusting’ him, the little bird hopped over to the stream where the box had been dropped, and started bathing itself. It seemed like the little guy cared about cleanliness, continuing until its wings were somehow more shining and spotless than they’d been before. It then hopped back over again.. and once more, went back to staring at the box.

“Wait… was it you that dropped this?”

“Blu.”

“And… you’re saying I stole it, is that it?”

“Bluuuu.”

“I-I’m not a thief! That’s… ugh. Fine. You can have it back…”

He didn’t really know how he’d managed to lose to a bird, but he held it out to the little pokemon- who instead hopped on top of the box, ignoring it completely and staring at Junpei instead.

“O-Oh, come on! I’m offering it back, what more do you want?!”

“Bluu, bluuuu.”

“I don’t know what that means… guys, help me out a little?”

His pokemon didn’t respond to their trainer’s call for help- Sakuya was content to rest in his lap, Inari had decided that this bird wasn’t a threat so she’d curled up beside him, and Kuebiko was hopping around once more, playing. So much for helping… eh, he couldn’t hold it against them, not really.

However, he had no idea what to do about this bird.

It’d hopped back onto his head at this point, cooing and chirping and occasionally fluffing up its incredibly soft wings. Well, he wasn’t going to be rid of it, clearly- so after a sigh of defeat Junpei pulled out a pokeball, and tapped it against the pokemon. There wasn’t any fight put up there, and once it clicked shut Junpei opened the pokeball up again, not surprised at all to find that the bird near-immediately found its way back onto his head.

“Seriously?”

“Bluuu.”

“Fine… whatever. You need a name now, don’t you?”

“Blu.”

There was something so matter of fact to the way it chirped and cooed, staring right at him. She didn’t seem to be a very patient bird, though, because yet again she was brushing him (and the box) off with her wings, then hopping right back over to the little river to wash up.

“Azukiarai.” He blinked, then nodded to himself- he’d accepted that he now had some sort of ‘theme’ going after picking up Sakuya, so he’d ended up spending time googling up on random Kami and yokai on weekends, in case he found himself faced with another pokemon partner. “Rai for short. Because you keep washing off your wings- that work for you?”

“Twee~”

She was singing now, her chirps happy and light and relaxing to listen to. Junpei was glad at that- smiling to himself, he picked himself up and started his way back down, figure in hand (and Rai still quite content to perch on his head).

“Actually, wait- where’d you find this thing?”

“Blu. Blu.”

“You’re… not gonna answer, are you?”

“Twee~”

“Fine, Fine… that’s what I get for asking, I guess.”

He’d just leave it at that.