shiningboxofjustice | PSL Post - Athrun Zala and Yukari Takeba

No. To be fair, it's someone I never talked with much, but we were nevertheless comrades. She was a lot closer with a friend of mine.

Oh. I see.

[ There's a pause though... ]

Still, even if you didn't know her all that well, it's still pretty strange, isn't it?

Yeah. I'm not an especially big believer in coincidences, either. I've encountered far too many in my life.

[Encountering Kira in Heliopolis, meeting Cagalli just before her title of princess of Orb would become relevant, being on an inspection of Armory One at the time Phantom Pain launched an attack on it...]

[ Yukari's not really sure what to say to that. She hadn't really encountered too many coincidences before herself. Then again, when you specifically go somewhere in a desperate attempt to get answers for something that happened in the past, it did make things a lot more difficult there.

But before she can finally think of something to say to her, she notices something in the air around their height getting closer and points to it. ]

Hey, does that bird seem like it's flying a bit lower than it should to you?

[That gets Athrun's full attention. He suddenly seems much more alert now as he follows Yukari's finger.]

...I think you're right. Get ready; this may be what we were warned about.

[He assumes a position with legs spread out and knees bent, ready to react. After a second's delay, he also grabs his Charmander's ball.]

[ She was afraid of that, but at least now they know that the warning was true.

Of course, Yukari's first instinct is to reach for her bow... which she kinda doesn't have on her. That really sucks, but oh well.

... Right, there's a ball on her belt, so she goes to grab it, but she doesn't react just yet. At least, until she's forced to duck when said bird tries to peck at her head or something.

It's small, tiny, and brown, landing on the ground and glaring at them despite being so small. ]

... Somehow I expected something that people were warning us about to be a bit bigger.

...Yeah, no kidding. If I had my gun or my knife, I could probably make work of -- WHOA!

[Suddenly the Pidgey takes off again and shoots straight at Athrun's head. Athrun immediately drops backward to the ground to dodge it, then throws himself back to his feet.]

...Okay, it may be small, but if it lands something like that, it's going to hurt plenty. Guess I'll do this the way we were told!

[Athrun immediately tosses the ball, and out pops his Charmander. Immediately, the Pidgey's attention focuses on it.]

[ Yukari doesn't even have time to start to react to what he was saying before the Pidgey was going after them again. She also ducks out of the way, though she really didn't need to since it was going for Athrun. ]

Yeah. Okay. Definitely not trying to fight these things on my own. [ She follows his lead, letting out her Bulbasaur again. With two of them fighting this thing, it wasn't going to be anything to worry about.

... Right? ]

[No such luck. It was joined very quickly by what looked like a large, purple rat.]

No numerical superiority? So be it. Charmander, Scratch!

[Charmander leaps at the Pidgey, with arms extended to swipe at it. The attack connects and it does a surprising amount of damage to the Pidgey.]

[ Oh come on, where the heck did that rat even come from. Oh well, if Athrun was going to be dealing with the bird... ]

Bulbasaur! Tackle!

[ Her Bulbasaur let out what seemed like a growl of some sort, before it charged forward, ramming into the rat with it's body and sending it sprawling back. ]

[Now it was the enemies' turn to attack. Pidgey launches its own Tackle aimed at Charmander. It tries to dodge, but can't get entirely out of the way in time. In spite of the force that a blow like that should have had, though, Charmander doesn't appear to be seriously hurt.]

I think we've got the advantage here. Charmander, Scratch it again!

[Rinse and repeat of last time. Due to the clear difference in strength, Athrun sees little need to use Growl.]

[ Nope. Debuffing didn't really seem to be needed here. Unlike in Tartarus when a full strength shadow could nearly kill you in five seconds if you weren't careful. Still, Yukari can't help but frown when she sees her Bulbasaur get tackled back by the Rattata. ]

Tackle it again Bulbasaur!

[ Her plant dino... thing is more than happy to do that, especially now that he's actually been attacked, and slammed into the other creature again. But this time the rat didn't seem to get back up. Hopefully Athrun wasn't going to have much more trouble with that Pidgey. ]

[Not long. One more Scratch is all it takes. Now that they're both out...]

Well, that wasn't much of a challenge, was it?

No. It wasn't. But... having to fight like this just feels wrong.

[ She's going to go ahead and kneel down a bit to start petting the Bulbasaur. Who's... eagerly nuzzling up against her hand. ]

Yeah...it kind of feels like cockfighting. But...they don't seem to mind, do they?

[Athrun's Charmander is jumping up and down, happy that it won a battle.]

... No. They really don't mind it. But that's not really the point, is it?

[ Her Bulbasaur does seem to realize that she's upset about something though, because now it's trying to climb into her lap or something. So Yukari doesn't waste any time in moving to pick the small creature up as she rises to her feet. ]

Well, maybe we can find out more when we get to the next town. Until then...until then, we give them the treatment we think they deserve. There's nothing ignoble about combat in self-defense, and we have no other way to defend ourselves for the time being.

[Athrun gets on his knees and pats his Charmander on the head.]

We're trusting you, OK? You're our protectors.

[ Yukari smiled, nodding before looking down at her Bulbasaur in her arms and hugging her it a little bit tighter now. ]

Yeah. You're the best. Thanks.

[ The Bulbasaur let out a few pleased noises before it started to wiggle around her arms, and Yukari moved to put her pokémon down and looked back over at Athrun. ]

But you're right. We're just going to have to figure out what to do once we get to that next town. It's not like we have any other option right now...

Yeah. Let's keep walking. Hopefully we can get there without being forced to fight too often. They're definitely stronger than the wild Pokémon, but that won't matter much if they get worn out.

[ Yeah. That'd be... bad. Really bad. ]

Maybe we won't have that much of an issue with it. I mean, they seemed to be ignoring us at first until we put these guys back in their balls, right? Maybe the other pokémon will still be too afraid to come and attack us?

[ Well, they could hope, anyway. ]

We can try, but again, we don't want to wear them out. We still have a ways to go before we reach the next city.

[ Yukari nodded, frowning as she looked over at her Bulbasaur. ]

Yeah. I... didn't think about that part. I'm not really used to travelling between long distances like this.

[ Mostly she just fought things in the giant tower, not having to fight against things on the way to somewhere else. ]

I'm not either, actually. I've never been in a position where I had to walk a long distance. Never been a ranger, an infantryman, or what have you -- just a pilot.

[ Yukari blinks at that. Though he does still seem a bit young to actually be in any armed forces, what was she to say about how it worked in the future? ]

A pilot? You mean like... flying a fighter plane?

[Athrun shakes his head. He should have known going by the time discrepancy.]

The chief machine that the militaries of my era use is the mobile suit. It's a humanoid machine that stands between fifteen and twenty meters tall, depending on the design. That's what I'm a pilot of.

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