Denkiteki Part One By: CottonCandy Chapter One The faint whisper of the wind brushed over Tsuchi's ears and moved the blades of grass near her nose, tickling her. She moved an arm up to rub her nose and hide her face. The dazzling sunlight was too much to bear right now. It was warm on her back like a blanket, but not good if she wished to continue sleeping. She buried her nose in her forearm and moaned softly as her body settled back into a comfortable position. "Excuse me, please wake up...um, Miss?" Tsuchi's eyes snapped open in surprise and the bright light was like being shot in the face with a rubber band. She slammed her eyes shut and her body pushed her to all fours as she reeled backward instinctively from the shock of all that direct illumination. She appeared to misstep and she braced herself to fall. Her butt thumped onto the ground and a tremor traveled quickly up her spine. Still hurting from the sun's unforgiving radiance, she covered her eyes with her hands and ground the heels of them into her eye sockets, eradicating all chance of any rays touching her sensitized pupils for the moment. In the back of her mind, she wondered at why her palms felt so soft and why her back felt so heavy, and why her fingers felt so short and stubby... But she had no time to adjust to the sun and investigate the wonderings because that strange voice caught her attention. "Are you alright, Miss? I didn't mean to frighten--" "What are you doing in my room?!" Tsuchi didn't mean to shriek the last part, but from her rude awakening, she felt she needed an explanation, and having this intruder think she was seriously angry was her best bet for getting what she wanted. "Um...sorry, your room?" Tsuchi tried to part her fingers so she could see through the slits in them, but they still felt stubby and numb, so she lowered her hands without opening her eyes and cautiously inched her eyelids open. Once she got enough space to see, she didn't quite register at first the shock of green grass in front of her, nor did she register the shushing sound of wind in the trees, or the chuckling of water in a creek somewhere nearby. Her eyes opened all the way, and the first thing she did see was a giant Mudkip staring at her with an expression caught between bemusement and concern. But his small black eyes sparkled with a human-like intelligence that scared her. He opened his wide mouth and spoke to her. "Can you understand me? I'm sorry if I frightened you." Tsuchi blinked and raised her eyebrows at him. "Wow," she muttered to herself. "This is a strange dream..." "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Miss, but this is no dream. I'm just as real as you are. Trust me, I know." Tsuchi giggled and smiled. "No, I'm pretty sure a huge talking Mudkip is a dream." The Mudkip sighed frustratedly and replied. "I was sure that I was dreaming when I woke up underwater and could suddenly breathe, but sadly I was wrong. So are you, apparently." Tsuchi laughed harder at the absurdity of a Mudkip being astonished by breathing underwater. "I'm serious. You know, you're not the only one who's awoken to find a different skin on their body." Tsuchi giggled and cleared her throat. "What do you mean?" The Mudkip leaned to the side and looked behind her. "There's a stream back there if you really want to know." Curious, Tsuchi twisted around and attempted to push herself to her feet, but found that her strangely heavy back just brought her down onto the ground. Even more strange was the fact that she came down, hit the ground with a point on her back far from where she assumed her spine was, and fell to the side feeling a sharp pain where she KNEW her back didn't extend to. She knew she couldn't have nerve endings where her back didn't physically go, so where was this pain coming from? For the first time, she tried to look at herself by turning around and looking at her back. A green bulb was protruding from her back...and at glancing at the bulb, she noticed that her shoulder was covered in short, green fur with dark green triangular spots. She felt the blood drain from her face as she felt the wind blow again and the fur on her shoulder ruffled a little. It wasn't that the wind was cold; it was that some conscious part of her mind had ruffled the fur to protect against any cold. THAT scared her. "Now do you believe me? You aren't a human anymore. Neither am I. Didn't that voice tell you?" "W-what voice?" Tsuchi looked at the Mudkip now, terrified of looking at the rest of her body for fear that she might go insane. "You didn't hear that voice telling you to look for...well, when I woke up and got over the shock, I heard a woman's voice. She told me to look for a Bulbasaur on the shore upstream. That's when I found you laying here in the grass. I figured there wasn't any other Bulbasaur around, so I waited until you woke up to see if you could tell me about all this. Obviously, you're just as clueless as I. Fortunately, that voice came back when I took a drink a little while ago. She told me that she could only talk to me if I touched water, and that you, the Bulbasaur, were a changed human like me." "Wait, hold on. Back up. Did you say "neither am I"? Does that mean that you..." She gulped dryly as she dared to think the word. "...were human, too?" "Yes." Tsuchi felt a little faint at that simple statement. "Wow...how do you think that happened?" The Mudkip shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure. I wish I could figure it out because I've never heard of something like this happening before." "Neither have I...what's your name?" Tsuchi felt a slight curiosity about this Mudkip, and if they were going to figure out ANYTHING, they couldn't keep calling each other Miss and the Mudkip. "My name's Mizu Kawamoto. I..." A puzzled expression clouded his intelligent eyes and made him frown. "I can't seem to remember..." "Remember what?" "Where I live...or lived. My parents' names, my town...I can't remember any of it..." He didn't sound sad, like Tsuchi would've. "Can you remember anything?" Tsuchi broke eye contact with Mizu and found something, to her relief. "My name is Tsuchi Yamamori. But...I can't remember anything either. I wonder why that is..." She furrowed her brow sadly and felt a lump in her throat. She immediately found a little happiness in that, strangely enough; it was a blessing that she was still human enough that she could cry at all. "Please don't be sad. I'm sure that we'll find a way to be human again and go home. If there's a way in, there's a way out." Mizu sat up and walked on all fours to her side, then sat down again. His presence was comforting. "...really?" "It's pure logic. Can't be beaten, not by anything. Not even something as bizzare as this." He smiled, and the orange fins on his cheeks moved back a little. Tsuchi giggled and smiled with him. Suddenly a rustling noise interrupted the peaceful sounds of the grassy clearing, making Mizu and Tsuchi jump up. Tsuchi found all her feet automatically go to the ground, and was surprised that it felt natural, and much more comfortable than standing on two feet would've been. A Wigglytuff burst out of the bushes twenty feet away from the stream and looked around frantically while he hopped from one foot to the other with the air of impatience. He spotted them and ran towards them with a distressed expression on his pink face. He stopped a foot away from them and opened his mouth. "Please! You have to help my daughter!! She's stuck in the Tiny Woods! She fell down a fissure when a sudden earthquake struck not half an hour ago. I can't get in there; Pokemon are getting angry and aggressive with me, and I'm afraid I can't get her out! What if they hurt my dear Igglybuff? Please, you've got to help me!!" "Calm down, sir. We can try to help. Show us where the entrance to the Tiny Woods is, and we'll find a way to get your daughter back." Tsuchi felt her heart skip a beat; she wasn't sure if it was because of the fact that they would possibly be fighting enraged Pokemon, or because of the commanding tone of voice Mizu used. "Yes, yes! Right this way! Thank you SO much!!" He hopped back to where he had popped out of the bushes lining the clearing and pushed his way through. Mizu followed him with a look of determination in every movement he made. Tsuchi followed as well. "Are you sure we should be doing this, Mizu?" He disappeared into the brush and she pushed her head against the bush, finding a good-sized hole already made. She could see Mizu's large fin of a tail bobbing away down the tunnel, and resolved that she would be left behind if she didn't hurry after him. "This is the first contact with real Pokemon that either of us has had so far, right? Maybe if we help them, they can help us." He glanced back at her and continued after Wigglytuff. "Don't worry. If it makes you feel any better, I'll be watching your back to make sure nothing catches us unawares." Tsuchi felt a twinge of apprehension at that, but she had to trust Mizu now; he was all she had anymore if any of this was real.