"...All of this, because we tried to rob you? Y-you're a monster," Nova heard the man mutter, as he stared at the body of his friend in horror.
Taking off his glasses, Nova felt a wave of guilt flow through him before he mercilessly squashed it down. That guilt stemmed from imagining himself in the man's situation as he erased that thought immediately.
He refused to put human lives over Pokemon and forced himself to react in the same way he did when he killed Stunky and Gulpin. Empathizing with the man and his flawed character would only make the guilt worse.
Instead, he internalized it as 'just business'. Eventually, he'd get used to it with time and experience. After all, the more that you do something, the easier it becomes to distance yourself.
The easier it becomes to kill again.
"Spare me the victim act, that man was a monster in his own right. You and your buddy planned to rob a child of all of his valuables, companions, and then possibly kill him afterward for profit,"
"And let's not get started on that Purrloin. He tried to sic an abused and starved cat onto someone using a shock collar, probably because it didn't immediately listen to him. At least you trained and probably raised the monkey well enough for it to care about your pathetic life."
Walking over to the body of the deceased guy, he found the Pokeball Purrloin was linked to and took it for himself.
"Hypocrite. You only killed him because we attacked you and not someone else. If you saw us attacking someone else, you'd just walk past like it was a normal day. You're much worse than us," The man spat out in retort.
He wasn't as loud as the big one, but his words were much more venomous. Pure vitriol when he spoke.
Nova scoffed before speaking, "Uhh… duh? I'm like eight. Plus, I never claimed to be a good guy. The strong life and the weak die, get over yourself. Pawniard, use Iron Head."
"Fuck yo-" and before he could finish his last words, his head was cleanly severed from his body.
With that done, he rummaged through the man's pockets and found a Net Ball. Without Panpour alive anymore, it was just a free Pokeball for Nova.
Hoppip started to stir, eyes fluttering open as it slowly woke up from its nap. Nova watched it with a small smile, ignoring the fact he just killed two people a moment ago, before walking over to the still laying Purrloin.
Before speaking, he decided to scan Purrloin and it came up that she was a D-Rank, so Nova figured she most likely wouldn't evolve without special circumstances. He still didn't know how evolution worked, but he could hazard a guess that levels had something to do with it.
"Hey," The Purrloin opened one of its eyes in response, looking at Nova with exasperation.
"I would release you but frankly, I don't know how. Also, I doubt you have any means of survival with this frail of a body and probably no survival skills since you were caught by that idiot," In response, Purrloin opened both its eyes and swished its tail in annoyance.
"Anyway, my point is, you either get a new trainer or learn to survive alone. Which one?" With that, he laid out his two hands as he said both choices.
Purrloin, being observant and cautious, quickly picked up on the meaning of his gestures and words. It stayed contemplating for a short while, staring at Nova's hands intensely.
"By the way, the new trainer won't be me. But, they also will probably just treat you better and use you to steal things instead of battling all the time."
From an outside perspective, the Shade guild seemed especially powerful with people like Sol and her C-Rank guards as the face of it. However, it was common knowledge for those who were actually 'in the know' that the guild specialized in subterfuge and espionage, not battling.
Thus, Nova figured it was a very high chance that Purrloin would be used specifically for stealing, especially since she was a D-Rank Pokemon.
That apparently sealed the deal, as Purrloin let out a meow instead of saying its name and placed its paw onto Nova's left hand. It apparently was willing to try for a new trainer.
"Nice! I hope you find a better trainer than… that." he looked at the man whose body looked roided out and gross.
Finally ready to leave the alleyway, he took the collar off of Purrloin and destroyed it, before returning Purrloin into the Pokeball and walking out.
"Alright, let's go Pawniard. Hop…ip…" he slowly dragged the name of his grass Pokemon as he looked back and noticed it was casually munching on the rest of the Panpour's corpse.
"Hoppip?" The cottonweed Pokemon only looked innocently confused on why Nova called it. After a few seconds of nothing happening, it went back to eating.
'Ah, I see.' Nova was confused as fuck, and had no idea how Hoppip wasn't imploding.
He just stood there for a few seconds before Hoppip bounced over to him and bumped into him, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"...whatever, I'll think about it later," he muttered under his breath, returning Hoppip to its rightful Pokeball.
Walking back to the base was a silent ordeal. There was no blood or proof that he just killed two people, but he had to stew with that information.
Pokemon took to killing others much easier than people because of their lack of bias. If a human or another Pokemon attacked them, they'd attack back and kill without hesitation.
Although Nova wanted to be like that as well, he currently was not. On the way home, he slowly pushed away any regretful thoughts that popped into his head, refusing to be that susceptible to death.
He still didn't want to be rude 24/7, but he could tell the difference between becoming apathetic and cold or just understanding that empathy cannot be a crutch.
As he got home, he decided to turn in the Purrloin first. This rewarded him with peace of mind and the payment for a C-Rank mission. Specifically, he was rewarded with 5,700 Pokedollars.
Missions were split into the same rank as Pokemon Potential, D-Rank to S-Rank.
D-Rank missions don't even require Pokemon and are mostly cleaning and menial labor. Those rewards are from 500-5000 Pokedollars. Most of the time they are all booked, however, so most people take up C-Ranks instead.
C-Rank missions are low risk and may require some battling. The chances of encountering other trainers while doing this are low, they are never zero. Wild Pokemon are common, however. These reward from 3000-10,000₱.
B-Rank missions usually involve one or more trainers and are ones that go beyond just sneaking around and may affect a large group of people. Trainer battles should be expected. As such, they reward 8000-20,000₱.
A-Rank missions are very dangerous and may require entire teams of people to take on. Trainer battles become a given, being one of the most dangerous mission types. To compensate, they are rewarded a ridiculous 15,000-100,000₱. These missions never usually happen, however.
Finally, S-Rank missions. The only time it was ever mentioned was when Sol apparently said, 'If we ever have to do an S-Rank mission, everything will change.' In other words, a mission like that would affect the entire guild to some extent, failure or succession. The reward was apparently just a complete change in status in the guild, letting them basically do whatever they want.
For as long as that person stays in the guild, they will be forever VIP status. And if they decide to leave, they are treated with the utmost respect.
In conclusion, Nova's capture of a dark-type Pokemon that can be used as a starter was a C-Rank mission. He saw it as giving an abused cat a new home, but the money was nice too.
The day was mentally taxing, like almost every other day he's had so far. So when Nova walked into his room, he flopped onto the bed without a care for hygiene.
He just wanted to sleep away his problems.
Hoppip apparently agreed with him as he left the Pokeball on his own and started to snuggle into Nova's back. Pawniard… not so much. He sat against the wall and slept that way, ready for any attack to happen.
His eyes slowly getting harder and harder to keep open, Nova drifted into sleep. It was when he thought, 'How does Hoppip even snore without a nose?' that made him snap his eyes open.
He needed to have a conversation with Hoppip about why it was so attached and what it wanted to do going further. His relationship with Hoppip was much more sudden and forceful than Pawniard, who was still getting used to Nova and vice versa.
Turning over, he knocked Hoppip into the air by mistake, waking it up instantly. Hoppip only tilted its head to the side in confusion, which resulted in its entire body starting to spin in that direction as well.
"Hey Hoppip, I won't lie. The only reason I haven't released you is because I refuse to just let myself be completely scammed without benefit. But after you pay off the amount it cost to buy you with effort, what do you want to do?"
Hoppip only looked more confused, not really understanding the question. It didn't even seem to care about the being thrown out comment.
Noticing this, Nova mulled over it before trying again, "Do you remember that battle we did earlier?" Hoppip looked up in thought and then nodded once.
"I'm gonna be doing a lot of those. I can make you stronger, but only if you want to be stronger. Would you rather do that, or go somewhere else? Stay with me, or leave?"
Hoppip lost all emotion on its face as it looked at Nova blankly. Pushing out of his grasp, it stood on his chest as gold eyes met violet.
It was a tense moment, even Pawniard was looking from his spot in the corner of the room, anticipating something to happen.
Only for Hoppip to completely ignore both Nova's questions and the tense atmosphere, nestle into his body, and fall asleep.
'...I guess that's solved.' Nova was baffled Hoppip just did that, but also had a small smile on his face. Being chosen by a Pokemon wholeheartedly felt completely different than having one only agree to a deal.
Nova enjoyed the sensation, and too fell asleep, thinking about how far they would have to come to reach true strength. It was going to take a long time, but in a month would be their first obstacle.
Basically, now that he had a good amount of money, it was time to train. Incessantly.
A/N: If he does get an Eevee, it won't be in this arc or the next arc of the story. However, eventually it will probably happen. When it does, what Eeveelution should he get?
I'm personally leaning towards Glaceon. Snow Cloak is sick.