Chapter 4: The Purple Aura Found You

Route 5-Kanto/ En Route to Cerulean
12:54 PM/ Friday

That’s not a pokemon, Karma thought to herself.

She had spotted a Growlithe. Walking alongside some pokemon trainer down 
Route 5 towards her and had immediately gotten the feeling that the Growlithe 
was much more than what it appeared to be.

As the trainer and the Growlithe passed by her, the trainer gave her attire a 
stunned gawk and gave her a faint, pitying, smile. The Growlithe ignored her 
completely.

It wasn’t unusual for people to stare in surprise at her clothing. She was 
dressed completely in purple. From her jeans to her hair, which had been 
dyed. Purple.

She turned around on the spot and surveyed the back of the Growlithe through 
narrowed eyes.

A blue aura? No way! She thought.

“Excuse me!” she said out to them. The Growlithe and the trainer froze and 
she walked towards them.

“Uh, can I help y-,” said the trainer but Karma cut him off by walking right 
past him and approached the Growlithe. “Huh?”

“Your not a real pokemon are you?” she asked the puppy which was now looking 
up at her.

Karma looked into the Growlithe’s eyes and the Growlithe looked into her 
eyes. Finally it opened it’s mouth and said calmly, “Purple contacts?”

Karma had asked the Growlithe a question but had not actually expected a 
verbal response. She was a little surprised by this but recovered quickly.

“No, my eyes are…naturally purple,” she said.

Chris sighed. He was bending over a pot, trying to mix in spices, vegetables, 
and salt into a stew while trying to tend to the fire. Behind him Growlithe 
and the weird girl were talking enigmatically.

After their unusual introduction earlier, the girl had decided that she was 
hungry and tired. Growlithe had agreed and they had stopped at a spot a 
little ways from the main route road to make a little camp for lunch.

Chris had been charged with making and preparing lunch the food while the 
girl and Growlithe just laid about lazily.

It turns out the girl’s name was Karma Metrawire. She was a teenager from 
some other region, her occupation was something she called a "Friend", 
although she failed to elaborate . Somehow, by just looking at Growlithe when 
they had walked past her earlier, she had managed to find out the puppy was 
for lack of a better word, unusual. She had also almost completely ignored 
Chris, instead referring directly to Growlithe when speaking and only saying 
to him once, "get started on lunch".

He sighed again, he really disliked her.

“How did you know I wasn’t a ‘real pokemon’?” asked Growlithe from some grass 
he was laying on.

“Your aura. It’s blue,” said Karma serenely from a boulder she was sitting 
cross-legged on.

“My aura?”

“Yeah, I’ve always been able to see the aura of living things,” she stretched 
and yawned. “Yours is blue.”

“So…a blue aura…is weird?” asked Chris, more to himself than anything, he was 
not really expecting an answer.

“Yup! For a pokemon anyways,” said Karma. Chris was so surprised to have 
gotten an answer, he dropped a potato. Karma took a deep breath and then said 
back to Chris with a touch of annoyance, “Don’t be such a klutz.”

“What do you mean, 'for a pokemon'?” asked Growlithe.

“When it comes to the auras of living things,” Karma explained while closing 
her eyes, “they come in three forms.”

Chris dropped some potato slices into the pot. He couldn’t help but think 
that Karma was a 100 percent certified nut. Talking about auras and dressed 
like she belonged in a crayon box. Yet he really was in no position to point 
fingers at insanity. He had after all, just agreed a few days ago to help a 
living pokemon avenge it’s murder. That perhaps was stranger than talking 
about auras.

“If I look closely, I can see a colored fire surrounding a living thing. In 
other words, an aura,” said Karma with closed eyes. “Humans are blue, pokemon 
are red, and plants are green.”

“You said I have blue…so I have a human’s aura?” asked Growlithe with a touch 
of curiosity in it’s voice. “Huh…am I the only thing you’ve ever seen with a 
wrong colored aura?”

“No…actually once…” Karma’s voice dropped and Chris looked back from the fire 
and saw that she had a troubled look on her face. “A long time ago, I saw a 
man with pokemon that all had black aura. Those pokemon…well they just 
felt…wrong, evil…shadowy.”

“Shadowy?” asked Growlithe.

“That was a long time ago though. A long time ago, another region ago,” 
finished Karma, it was obvious she didn’t want to continue down that road of 
conversation.

The importance of the information that Growlithe had a ‘human aura’ was not 
lost on Chris. He turned around and gave Growlithe a fleeting look. They were 
both in agreement, whether this girl, Karma, was a loony or not, her saying 
that Growlithe was somehow human could shed some light on the question Chris 
and Growlithe had been wondering about for the last three days. Had Growlithe 
been human?

Since last Wenesday, when Chris had agreed to help Growlithe, the two had 
been working towards finding information about the Growlithe before it was 
murdered. They hadn’t found much, nor would they. They had plenty of leads, 
but until they found something secure, they could not proceed.

However, based off the information that they had gathered, Chris had an idea 
of what to do. He had not yet told Growlithe of his plan, but he had hinted 
that he had an idea, and this had been good enough for Growlithe. So they 
were on their way towards Saffron City. Towards Chris’ ‘idea’.

Yet, Chris’ plan was totally based on unverified information. If they were 
wrong, they could totally miss their chance. It was in this manner that Karma 
was a godsend. She could be crazy but if she could somehow tell them more 
about Growlithe, then maybe Chris’ plan could have some strong foundation. 
They just needed to know more.

Yet…being able to see auras can’t really be called a strong foundation, mused 
Chris as he stirred the stew, which was starting to bubble.

“How can you see auras?” asked Chris.

For the first time, Karma turned back at him and answered his question while 
looking at him. “Don’t drop the potatoes this time ‘kay? I suppose you could 
call me a psychic.”

“Psychic?” said Chris, his hopes for solid information dropping.

“Well, not really. I’ve heard of those people with amazing psychic ability, 
like Sabrina of Saffron. I’m nothing like that. I’m a mediocre psychic to be 
sure.”

This was true, there were actual psychics out there, like Sabrina. Chris 
himself had encountered a few in his journeys. It wasn’t a complete stretch 
to believe that Karma could also be gifted with some psychic power.

“Well Karma, what else can you tell about Growlithe with your…ability?” asked 
Chris carefully. He wanted information from her, but he didn’t want it to 
seem like they absolutely needed it. For some reason, she struck him as a 
crafty person and he didn’t want to give her any leverage at all.

Karma didn’t say anything at all for almost a full minute, suddenly she 
sprang up on top of the boulder she was sitting on and gave a long stretch 
and yawn.

“Karma?” Chris asked, turning around sure that he had once again been 
ignored.

“My psychic ability may be limited but I really excel at empathy,” she said 
finally.

“Empathy?” asked Growlithe from the grass.

“Reading emotions. I can tell when people lie and how they feel,” Karma 
turned and looked directly at Chris again. “I can tell that he doesn’t like 
me. So I’ve been ignoring him.”

“N-no…it’s not that I don’t like you, it’s-,” said Chris quickly while 
suddenly feeling very exposed.

“It’s alright, I don’t care. I’m used to it,” she said flatly and turned back 
to face Growlithe. “Though, it’s interesting. When he asked if there was 
anything else I could tell about Growlithe, all I was able to read from both 
of you was tension. Pure tension.”

Growlithe and Chris looked at each other and back at Karma.

“So here’s my conclusion teacher,” she said while closing and opening her 
fists in quick succession. “You guys need information on Growlithe. Anything 
you can get. The more the better. You guys are doing something and the only 
way it’ll work is if you get info on Growlithe. So you guys were gonna sucker 
me into giving you any information I could about lil ol’ Growlithe, then you 
were gonna ditch me and go on with whatever it is you were doing.”

She paused there and took a few quick breaths.

Growlithe took the moment and gave a long low bark like noise that sounded 
surprisingly like a whistle. “You make us out to be nothing but deviants and 
rascals, you do.”

Chris was shaking a little. His mouth felt dry. Everything she had said was 
spot on to what he had basically been planning. She deduced it all from a 
feeling. He had been right, she was crafty. Worse yet, now she had leverage.

“So the question now is, will I help thee?” asked karma, but it almost seemed 
like she was asking some unknown source because her eyes were closed.

“Look…we didn’t mean to…use you…we just-,” Chris wasn’t sure what to feel 
right now. He felt shame but now that he knew she could read him through what 
he felt, his emotions were in a tangle.

“It’s okay, I’m used to people thinking they can use me,” she said flatly. 
“Also, don’t try to mask you emotions. From what I’ve seen, it makes people a 
nervous wreck and they can’t think fluently.”

Growlithe didn’t look shameful or worried. Or maybe it did, but maybe the 
Growlithe emotion for shame looked a lot like amusement. Either way, Chris 
couldn’t figure it out.

“Anyway, let’s cut to the deal,” Karma said suddenly.

“Deal?” asked Chris.

“Your not getting info from me for free,” she simply said. “I’ll tell you 
everything about Growlithe I can find, and in return, I get to come on your 
adventure.”

“You want to come…” said Chris a little surprised.

“It sounds fun in any case,” said Karma. “So you get information, and I get 
to know where you guys are going and what your doing. Then I can choose go 
with you if it sounds like fun.”

Chris and Growlithe looked at each other. Chris felt concerned while 
Growlithe still looked simply amused.

“Anyway, have your answer ready after lunch,” said Karma while getting off 
the boulder.

“After…lunch?” asked Chris.

“Yup,” answered Karma. She point behind him at the pot he had forgotten. 
“Looks and smells done. So I guess it’s done. Lets eat.”