Nova stared at the quickly dissolving Gulpin, placing a hand on his chin while he thought, 'The book on Pokemon anatomy described them to have an odd biology, everything except the skeletal system being a construct of a certain type of energy.'
'The book then completely ignored the subject of energy, describing the different bones seen in each Pokemon and their purpose. It was sufficient for an anatomy book, sure, but the way the topic of energy was glossed over smells of information suppression.'
'Either that, or there's another book that goes over it. Probably both.'
'In any case, there are only two energies that I can think of off the top of my head. Aura, and whatever Psychics use. So, it has to be Aura, something once described as the essence of living creatures.'
'Wait, now that I think about it why haven't I been attempting to manipulate my Aura? Can I accomplish it via mediating or something? Maybe I could get a Lucario to help me out? Questions for later.'
'To imply that Pokemon are literally just Aura would be a game-changing discovery. Though I doubt higher-ups haven't already discovered this. After all, Pokeballs somehow digitize and transfer their Aura in Pokeballs. The only issue is how do they fit the bones in there? Whatever.
'If they really are mostly Aura though, they shouldn't need food. But… they do. Why? I've even read about certain diets being beneficial for certain Pokemon, but why? Maybe…'
"Pawniard," Pawniard, who was lazing about bored, stood at attention. "This might sound weird but can you eat that for me?"
Pawniard looked at him for a moment and then slowly drifted his eyes toward the dissolving Gulpin, before shaking his head.
'Interesting.' Nova thought, knowing that Pawniard would do nearly anything for him as per its nature, and yet it refused.
Laying his two hands in front of him, he spoke. "You can't eat it, or you don't want to eat it? Choose the left hand for the first option and right for the second."
Pawniard nodded and placed one of his knife hands onto Nova's left.
'That confirms that… but I have a few other things I need to make sure of before I can say this theory is correct. Scientific method and all that, after all.'
Done with his current speculation and observation, he took off his glasses and shuddered; A wave of guilt hitting him the moment he did so.
"Alright, I have an idea. Let's go find more Pokemon." Nova gave out his declaration and continued to walk around, looking for lone Pokemon.
Some people who saw him were inclined to approach him, whether with malicious intent or not, but the sight of Pawniard deterred them.
After five hours of searching and ignoring other Pokemon, a foul stench hit him like a bus. If he had to describe it, it would be like a truck full of eggs tipped over and exploded. Pure rotten eggs and burnt rubber.
'Gotcha now, bitch.' he thought triumphantly. He was getting tired of walking around all day.
"Cmon, let's go," Nova said before he started to jog. Pawniard didn't really have a nose so Nova just relied on his own senses to find out in which direction to go.
Luckily, it only took ten more minutes to find what he was looking for. He had to pull up his shirt to cover his nose, the smell getting that bad.
In the middle of a small abandoned tool shed was a Pokemon digging under the broken floorboards, seemingly making a den. A deep purple and cream-colored Pokemon; The Skunk Pokemon, Stunky.
Getting ready to dodge or run in case it decided to attack him directly, Nova beckoned his starter forward.
"Pawniard use Leer and follow it up with a Scratch."
While walking, Nova confirmed that Iron Head takes more Aura than Scratch simply by asking Pawniard which one made it more tired.
Thus, he chose Scratch. Nova didn't want to waste Pawniard's precious Aura if the move happened to miss, after all.
And miss it did. Stunky wasn't idle, immediately spraying out a Smokescreen the moment it heard Nova's voice, dodging the Scratch with ease.
Luckily, the abandoned tool shed didn't have any windows. If Stunky wanted to escape, it would have to dig impossibly fast, break a wall, or go straight through Nova who was blocking the entrance.
A tense moment passed as Pawniard missed and immediately stood in front of Nova, waiting for the smoke to dissipate.
That was until Nova noticed a familiar purple gas overtaking the smokescreen.
"Shit! Stay in front of this door." Nova exclaimed and ordered Pawniard.
Quickly exiting the shed and closing the door behind him, Nova observed the battle through the small cracks in the shed's walls.
The moment Stunky noticed Pawniard was alone, it attacked with a Scratch.
'Smart. It must've recognized that Pokemon are better at fighting when accompanied by a Human. I'd catch it if I was more lucrative. Sadly, I am not.'
"Hug it and use Leer as much as possible!"
Pawniard's eyes flashed with surprise that Nova was still there, but it followed the order nonetheless.
Opening its arms, it took the weak Scratch easily clamping down its torso blades into Stunky and locking it in place.
Stunky struggled and squirmed, attempting Scratch after Scratch. It was on Pawniard's third Leer that it was starting to actually damage Pawniard.
"Just finish it, use Iron Head."
Nova noticed that Stunky was starting to get leeway and decided to end the battle then and there.
The Sharp Blade Pokemon reared its head back as far as it could go, its ax-head shining brightly, before slamming it into the purple skunk with all its might.
Stunky violently crashed into the floor, a huge laceration across its body.
Nova winced at the brutality, but quickly put on the glasses so he could ignore that slight feeling of guilt. He was reaching for the doorknob when he heard a scuffling sound inside.
Unbeknownst to him, Stunky still hadn't fainted. It was limping and barely moving, but it was clearly still moving.
No change in expression, Pawniard coldly walked up to it and stabbed straight through it with a Scratch. Stunky stood no chance, dying instantly.
Nova opened the door and Pawniard walked out, dragging the corpse of Stunky with him.
"Now, can you eat that one?"
Without a response, Pawniard sat down with the carcass and began to eat it earnestly. Nova observed it, not seeing much of anything, just Pawniard eating.
'That's confirmed then. I can't tell if this had any benefits to doing so, but it looks like Pokemon can only consume Pokemon of the same typing. I still don't know if certain types will harm a Pokemon since Pawniard is immune to poison, but I'll find out eventually.'
'Maybe I can ask Sol about it without revealing too much. There's no doubt someone out there has figured out most of this information, but I wanna keep it close to my chest. There's gotta be a device that at least measures a Pokemon's power.'
Nova stopped his musing as he noticed Pawniard finished its meal. He could tell the moment it did so, something changed about Pawniard.
To the naked eye, however, Pawniard looked the same and seemed the same. He would remember that, but for now, he shrugged it off.
"Alright, let's go home. This has been an exhausting experience."
Nova still had other experiments he wanted to do, but for now, he decided to call it a day. He was mentally exhausted and Pawniard wasn't much better physically.
It wasn't as if they were very far, as they just circled a few blocks to find that Stunky. Going any farther could initiate contact with the annoying and ever irrelevant Toxic Gang.
No doubt Pawniard could take on a few poison types due to its immunity to poison but all it took was one Koffing knowing Explosion to ruin everyone's day. Not worth it taking that chance.
Finally arriving at the base after a good half-hour walk, Nova walked straight to his room. He planned to write down his findings in his version of English before going to bed.
He didn't even notice that people were looking at him as if he was trash. His stench was too overpowering and it made everyone get out of his way.
All but one person who bumped into him, also walking through the hallway with a dead tired look on their face.
Nova forgot he was in the body of a child, so what he thought was just a little tiredness was his body screaming at him to go to sleep.
That caused him to not realize he bumped into the only other person in the hallway.
He suddenly stopped when the man grabbed him by the wrist. That small action was enough to wake him up completely, at least for the moment.
"You," A familiar raspy voice uttered.
Looking back at who grabbed him, he was surprised at two things.
One was the fact that Pawniard was pointing one its knife-hands at where the man's heart should be in warning.
The other was that the man was the same depressed-looking guy from earlier in the day, the same Skorupi on his head glaring daggers at Nova's Pawniard but otherwise doing nothing.
The tension was building, and the blood lust between the two Pokemon was nearly palpable. Pawniard looked as cold as ever as if the man's death was certain if he tried anything. Nothing more than a simple fact.
Skorupi's gaze only promised pain and suffering, malice oozing out of it. Despite not moving, it was seemingly ready to give the slowest and most agonizing death possible to Pawniard if it moved even a centimeter closer.
Yet none of this was more surprising than what the man said.
"You stink," he stated with utmost seriousness. "Take a shower,"
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AN: Honestly wasn't expecting that many responses to my previous chapter's question. Thanks for answering :D (i was just gonna go with gen 2 as default if no one answered)