Slingshot

A Clover Guild Story
By Ribombee-anon

As a flightless Ribombee, I usually traveled around on my partner Sneasel’s head. I liked being high up; it helped me forget that I was so tiny after being transformed from a human into this new body. But when the two of us entered combat, I would always move to one of Sneasel’s belt pouches and stay there, supporting her by giving her items as needed.

During an ingredient-gathering mission to the mystery dungeon of Spice Tunnel, I was once again riding in the pouch at my partner’s left hip while she engaged in one of her favorite pastimes: fighting a feral Pokemon. I crouched lower in the bag and peered over the edge as she flung shards of ice and nimbly dodged the enemy’s attacks. After watching her for a little bit, I took a quick glance over my shoulder to see if anyone was sneaking up on us. I made a habit of doing this often, and typically saw nothing. This time, I saw an angry Aron slowly waddling towards us.

“Um, Sneasel...” I said.

“I’m busy, Booker!” my partner shouted as she dodged another attack.

“But—”

“Not now!”

Her current opponent was giving her trouble, and in her frustration, she refused to divert her attention. I didn’t want to bother her, so I decided to try handling this myself. I held out my hands and remembered what I’d been learning from my friend and guildmate, an Aura-wielding Combusken with the humorous nickname KFC. He had been teaching me how to use moves, specifically Fairy Wind, though I hadn’t met with any success yet. Still, I tried to summon up my energy and attack the Aron.

Nothing happened.

As it came closer, I quickly gave up and tried something else. I dug through the items beneath me and took out a Tiny Blast Seed. It resembled a small orange pinecone about the size of my head. It was a weaker cultivar than the usual kind, but since it was smaller, I was actually capable of throwing it. Sneasel and I bought it from a shop on a whim recently. I figured this was a perfect time to try it out.

One of the seed’s many scales was notably larger and brighter than the rest. Following the instructions the merchant gave us, I forcefully yanked the scale off as though I were pulling the pin of a grenade. The seed hissed and smoked, and I flung it at the approaching enemy as hard as I could.

It fell short and exploded on the ground halfway between us and the Aron.

Sneasel yelped and looked back. “What was that?” she yelled.

“Enemy behind!” I shouted—realizing I probably should have said that to begin with.

Sneasel quickly looked back at her first opponent, dodged its incoming attack, and then scrambled to the side. She repositioned herself and confronted both enemies at once. She kept her distance and finished off the first one before moving to the second, which put up less of a fight. They both faded into smoke.

My partner sighed and looked down at me. “Alright, what was that boom?” she asked.

“That was me,” I said. “Sorry. I knew you were focused on the first feral, so I wanted to do something about the one behind us. I tried throwing a Tiny Blast Seed at it, but...”

“But your arms are too scrawny,” Sneasel said.

“Well... I wouldn’t have phrased it like that, but yeah. I couldn’t throw it far enough.”

“Don’t worry about it. You don’t need to fight enemies. Lemme handle that. As long as you toss me the items I need, I’m happy with that.”

“But I’m NOT happy with that,” I said, lying down on top of the berries and seeds that filled half of the bag. “I wish I could actually help you fight. I know I’ve said that before, but... I’m sick of just playing support all the time. I want to be more useful.”

“Well, that’s why you’re working with KFC, right?”

“Yeah. He’s been doing his best to train me, but it’s slow going. I know it’s only a matter of time until I figure out an attack, but I don’t know how long that’ll take. And until then, I’m helpless...”

“Hey, maybe we can think of another way for you to fight—without using moves or throwing things,” my partner said. “You think about that for now, and I’ll focus on getting us through this dungeon.”

“Alright. Just... let me know if you need any items.”

“Sure. And by the way: thanks for trying to warn me about that Aron. But you’ve gotta be more forceful if you wanna get through my thick skull.”

She laughed and carried on through the dungeon, while I considered ways to help her fight. By the time we made it back to Capim Town, delivered our acquired ingredients to the guildhall’s kitchen, and went to our dorm, I had my answer.

* * *

Sneasel was lying on her side on her bed of Whimsicott cotton, propping up her head and watching me pace back and forth on our desk.

“I thought of a way to help you fight,” I began, “without using any moves.”

“Lay it on me,” Sneasel said.

“Obviously, it’s a dumb idea for me get up close and personal with any enemies, so I need a way to attack at a distance. But as we saw in the tunnel, Ribombee aren’t known for their arm strength. My arms are like toothpicks. I can’t rely on them to throw things around. So I need a tool to help me.”

“Makes sense. Got anything in mind?”

“I’ve got plenty of things in mind. Over thousands of years, humans have invented lots of ways to launch things farther than we can throw them. Most of them are probably too complicated for us to build, though. Guns, crossbows... we could maybe make a bow, but I feel like we should go for something even simpler. I thought of a boomerang, but I don’t know how to shape it.”

“That’s too bad. You could’ve named it a beemerang.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” I said, rolling my eyes at her pun. “Anyway, a really simple projectile weapon is a sling. Those are actually surprisingly strong. And it worked for David when he fought Goliath—and everything is a Goliath compared to me—so I’m sure I’d find it useful. But I think you need fingers to use a sling, so...”

“Wait, who’re David and Goliath?”

“I’ll tell you later. Point is: a sling is useful, but I don’t think I can use one. I’ve got another idea, though. If I can’t use a sling, maybe I can use a slingshot.”

“What’s that?”

“Another human weapon. More modern than a sling. I’ve never made one myself, but I know what they look like, and they’re not too complicated. One problem, though: if we’re gonna build one, we need something long and stretchy. Humans use rubber for that, but I bet we don’t have rubber in this world.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve heard of that before. But based on what you said, I bet vines could do the trick instead. You’ve seen how Tooca and Chespin use their vines. Well, we haven’t seen Tooca for a while, but you know what I mean.”

“Oh, yeah. Maybe we can find a good type of vine and use that.”

A fang-filled grin slowly grew on Sneasel’s face. “Hey, how about we ask Chespin to donate one of his vines? I’m sure he won’t mind. He’s got a spare, right?”

I stared at her in horror. “W-what? Wait, no—”

“What’s wrong? It’ll be easy. One little chop, and we’ve got what we need. And it’s for a good cause, so—”

“Sneasel!” I screamed.

My partner laughed. “I’m kidding! I’m kidding. Sheesh, I’d never hurt my guildmates. If we want a vine, let’s get it from a forest—or better, a feral. I think that’ll be stretchier than a regular old plant vine, cuz Pokemon vines get moved around a lot more instead of just sitting there all the time.”

“O-okay,” I said. “Sounds good. Better than your Chespin suggestion, at least.”

“I said it was a joke, okay? Lighten up!”

We paid a visit to the guild cartographer, Macom, to decide on a destination. With help from his maps and my notebook, we chose a good mystery dungeon for our purposes: Ironwood Forest, a new dungeon that recently appeared in a nearby woodland. It was inhabited by many vine-wielding Pokemon, and full of trees with unusually tough wood (possibly due to the influence of the dungeon itself) that would let us make a sturdy slingshot.

My partner and I packed our supplies, but before committing to this trip, we stopped by the town’s general store to see if they had any vines we could obtain more easily. They had none, though the merchant offered to buy any extra vines that we found. Next, we visited the leatherworker and bought a small scrap of low-quality Slowpoke tail leather for a single coin. This was officially the first piece of our slingshot, but it was useless by itself.

After this, we left Capim Town and traveled to the forest. Fighting the local low-level ferals was easy work. Sneasel’s agility helped her dodge their attacks, and her claws easily sliced off their vines. Most of them retreated after losing just one, but others stayed until they lost all their vines, and some even fought to the “death”—although they were merely illusions, like most feral Pokemon, and faded into nothing when slain. I noticed the vines remained even after they vanished; Sneasel explained that even though the main body of a feral Pokemon would turn to smoke when it was defeated, pieces broken off would remain.

After an hour, we had defeated many plant-based monsters and collected a whole bundle of vines. Some were stretchier than others, but I was sure they would serve our purposes. However, they were all too big. Many of them were as thick as my whole body. Even the thinnest one was still too broad to be useful. But Sneasel could help. With surprising care and precision, she used her claws to slice one of the smaller vines twice lengthwise, cutting it into four long strips. Each one was a good size for a slingshot now. We kept the other vines intact for the time being, and Sneasel draped them over her shoulders to carry them.

As we made our way through the dungeon, we also made sure to gather up some sticks. I told Sneasel to look for small Y-shaped pieces, and we found plenty. She tested their strength by trying to break them. We discarded the few of them that snapped. Considering the durability of these fallen twigs, I had to wonder what caused them to break off the trees in the first place. My mind began racing with images of terrifying winds or powerful monsters, but we luckily left the dungeon before we met anything threatening.

And with that, we had all the components we needed: leather, vines, and twigs. We eagerly hurried back to town, where we sold some extra vines to the merchant and returned to our dorm. There, I floated off Sneasel’s head and landed on our desk, while she took off her belt and the cut vines and tossed them next to me. She flopped down onto her cotton bed and sighed.

“Mission accomplished,” said Sneasel.

“Not yet,” I said. “You fought well, though. But we still need to actually make the slingshot.”

“You do it. You didn’t do any work in the forest.”

I went to Sneasel’s belt. I immediately saw the problem. I had to get inside its two pouches to reach the twigs and leather inside. But both of its pouches were much bigger than me. Try as I might, I couldn’t even undo the flaps. For each pouch, a raised metal button was attached to the main body, and went through a hole in the flap. This would be easy to undo if I was still human-sized, but after my transformation into a Ribombee, it was downright impossible.

I finally gave up and looked back at Sneasel pleadingly. She was grinning, and laughed. “Yeah, I thought you’d get stuck. Here, lemme help.”

She got up and opened both pouches in a matter of seconds. She took out the leather and twigs and lay them out around me, alongside the vines. I walked among them, looking them over.

“Alright, thanks,” I said. “I’ll need your help to put this together. Here’s what we need to do...”

I started by explaining the basic idea of a slingshot, so Sneasel knew what I was planning. We’d have to connect the two-armed twig and the scrap of leather with a pair of vines, and tie knots to hold it all together. First, Sneasel took the leather—which was probably around one inch square—and gingerly cut a pair of holes at either end of it. Then she chopped a vine into shorter segments. We took one piece and tried to string the end through one of the slots in the leather, then tie it in a knot to hold it in place. Unfortunately, I had no fingers, and my partner’s four fingers were tipped with blades. Plus, the vine was smooth and hard to hold, and the knots we had to tie were extremely small from Sneasel’s perspective.

After fiddling with the vine for entirely too long (and suffering some accidental scratches on my exoskeleton from Sneasel’s claws), I concluded that we couldn’t do this by ourselves. My partner gave up, threw one vine piece across the room, and grumbled in frustration. She glared at the unfinished slingshot, as if trying to intimidate it into crafting itself. I sat to the side and tried to come up with a new plan.

Soon, something came to mind—or rather, someone.

“Hey, Sneasel,” I said. “Can you go see if Natu’s available?”

Sneasel nodded and left the dorm, happy to be away from the troublesome slingshot. A minute later, there was a blinding flash, and a round green bird stood before me. I yelled and stumbled back in surprise.

“What’s up?” Natu asked bluntly.

“D-don’t teleport in my face like that!” I stammered.

Natu shrugged and looked at the pile of materials around us. “So, your partner said you were building something, and you guys need my help?”

“Uh... yeah. She’s too big, and her claws are too sharp. I need someone with a more... delicate touch.”

“You’re saying I’m delicate?”

“N-no, I... j-just help me tie these knots, please.”

Natu was the second-smallest member of the guild, after me. He would be perfect for this small-scale project. We went to work trying to tie the first pair of knots, with me using my hands and Natu using his beak and talons. It went well—too well—as if he knew what to do before I asked him to do it. I had a feeling he was reading my mind, but I wasn’t sure. To be on the safe side, I recalled a trick Macom used with our guildmaster, who was psychic like Natu: whenever Macom thought someone was reading his mind, he would start mentally playing a certain card game to cover up his thoughts. I attempted to mimic the trick, based on what little I knew of it.

Natu snorted and glanced at me. “That’s not how you play the game.”

“W-well, the rules are... complicated,” I said. Then my eyes went wide. “Hey, wait a minute—I knew it! You really are reading my mind!”

Natu quickly looked back at the slingshot and started whistling innocently. I rolled my eyes and kept giving him instructions, while doing my best to continue the card game in my mind. After threading the vines through the holes in the leather and securing them with tight knots, I selected the best-looking Y-shaped stick for the next step. Sneasel had returned by now; she sat at the desk and watched me and Natu as we finished tying the vines to the arms of the twig.

And with that, all the pieces were together. At last, the slingshot was complete. It was the smallest slingshot I’d ever seen, and probably the weakest too, but it was perfectly sized for me.

Sneasel poked it with a claw and smirked. “This is so tiny,” she said. “You sure this is gonna work?”

“I hope so,” I said. “And it’s made of ironwood, so hopefully it won’t break, even though it’s so small. Let me see...”

I picked the slingshot up and looked it over. With my fingerless hand, I couldn’t hold it as firmly as I would have liked, but it would be sufficient. I curled my other hand to pinch the back of leather “pouch” and pull it back. The vines stretched as expected. I tugged back and loosened up a few times, trying to see if the twig would crack or break. It held firm. Despite its tiny size, it was sturdy. To avoid dry-firing the weapon, I kept hold of the pouch as I eased up the tension all the way, and the slingshot gently went back to normal.

“Thanks a lot, guys,” I said, looking over at Natu and then up at Sneasel. “I couldn’t have done it without you two.”

“I know,” Sneasel and Natu said in unison.

I frowned.

“So, what is this thing, anyway?” asked Natu.

“A slingshot,” I replied. “A human projectile weapon.”

“Kinda like a gun?”

“Kinda, but—wait, how do you know what a gun is?”

“Oh my, look at the time,” Natu said. He saluted with a wing and teleported away.

I shook my head and kept toying with the slingshot. “Well, anyway, this looks like it’s done.”

“Cool,” said Sneasel. “Now, I bet you wanna test it, huh? Should we go to the dojo?”

“Yeah, sounds good. But I need ammo for this. I remember seeing a pile of pebbles in the storeroom. I even used one to help me get a map from a high shelf one time. Can we go see if they’re still there?”

We went to the storeroom. It had been rearranged multiple times since the founding of the guildhall, but it was still a mess. Luckily, the conical pile of pebbles was still there, and it seemed even bigger than last time. I drifted down from Sneasel’s head and put as many pebbles as possible into the two pouches on my belt. My pouches were very small, but together, they were able to hold about ten little stones. After this, Sneasel put me on her head again and we went to the dojo.

The dojo had a sort of shooting range, a long room with hay bales on one end, each decorated with a piece of paper that had target painted on it. Most Pokemon used this room to test their long-range moves. I would use it to test my new weapon.

We were the only ones in the shooting range, so Sneasel walked up close to the targets, past the safety line. I assumed it would be impossible for me to hit the targets from the line, so we needed to move closer. We stopped about five feet away, but it seemed a lot farther from my perspective.

“You ready?” asked Sneasel.

I nodded. “Yeah, this is a good distance. Here goes nothing.” I tapped Sneasel on the head and added, “Stand perfectly still.”

She did as I asked, standing as stoic as a statue. I stood up on her head and stepped back with my right foot, turning diagonally against my target. I clutched the slingshot tightly in my left hand. I’d never used one of these before, but this was a good time to learn. I just hoped the slingshot wouldn’t self-destruct when I pulled on the vines.

I held the slingshot close to my chest. I placed a pebble snugly in the leather pouch, gripped the top edge of the pouch with my right hand, and then moved my arms apart. My left arm went forward as far as it would go, while my right hand stayed close to my cheek. My arms quivered as I tried to keep a steady aim. I exhaled, then let the pouch slip from my right hand. The stretched vines shot forward, flinging the pouch along with them. They went past the slingshot’s body, and as they came to a sudden stop, the pebble’s momentum carried it onward. I watched as it flew at the target and slammed into it, then bounced off and tumbled to the floor.

Sneasel no longer stood still. She was shaking with laughter. “Awesome!” she said. “Do it again! Do it again!”

I smiled and reloaded. I repeated the same motions as before, but with less shuddering in my arms. The pebble struck closer to the center of the target.

“This is cool!” Sneasel said. “Never seen anything like this before. I’ve gotta get me one of these slingshot things. Think we can build a bigger version?”

“We could,” I said. “But you’ve already got your Ice Shard, right? And you’re really good with that move.”

“Aww, thanks. Yeah, you’re right. I am pretty good with it. I guess I’ll stick with that move. But as for you... this looks like it could be pretty useful.”

I launched a few more pebbles. I felt like I was getting the hang of it—I even hit the bulls-eye once. I kept pulling the pouch slightly farther back each time, and I asked Sneasel to gradually move farther away from the target so I could practice shooting from a bigger distance away. Things were going a lot better than I thought they would.

When I spent all my ammo, Sneasel gathered up the scattered pebbles from the floor. “Hey, can you pull it back real hard next time?” she asked as she handed me the last pebble. “I wanna see how strong that thing really is.”

A little voice told me not to, but I was too excited from the success of this project, and Sneasel’s encouragement was firing me up. I loaded another rock, then pulled the slingshot farther than ever before. I held my left arm straight out in front as usual, while my right arm went back even past my head. The vines resisted me, but I kept pulling as hard as my little arms could.

I heard a crack. A split second later, the slingshot broke.

One of its arms snapped clean off. Now freed from the main body, the tension of the vine caused it to rocket back directly at my face. It barely missed my eyes and slammed into my forehead with a loud crunch. Searing pain shot through my head. The shattered weapon fell as I screamed and stumbled backwards.

At the same time, I heard Sneasel call my name, but my hearing was growing muffled, and darkness was creeping into my vision. I stumbled back more and stepped on nothing. I fell off the back of Sneasel’s head and plummeted down. I vaguely saw a blur of movement, then I landed on something—but it wasn’t the floor. My mind was fading, but I could tell Sneasel had spun around and caught me in her hands before I could hit the floor.

“Booker!” she shouted. “It’s okay! I got you! What happened—wait, you’re bleeding!”

My arms felt as heavy as lead, but I weakly put a hand to my forehead, then held it in front of my face. The dark chitin of my hand had a smear of blue-green liquid dripping from it.

‘Is that my blood?’

That was my last thought before blacking out.

* * *

I woke up on a soft surface. I was lying on a cot, far too large for me, made from cloth stretched over a rectangular frame and propped up on legs above the floor. I recognized the bed, and my surroundings too. I was in the main ward of the clinic. It was a place I’d visited several times, usually when my reckless partner was injured and needed to be healed more than what an Oran Berry could manage. I’d never been here for one of my own injuries before (excluding the time I got sick from eating something my insect body couldn’t digest), because I was typically careful enough to avoid getting hurt. But there was a first time for everything.

As I looked around the familiar clinic, I spotted an Audino standing nearby, organizing some medicine bottles. She wore a nurse cap and apron decorated with clover insignias, along with a bow at her neck. She wasn’t looking in my direction, but her big ears wiggled as she heard me stirring. She came over and looked down at me with a smile.

“Hello, Booker,” the nurse said. “How are you feeling?”

“K-Kina,” I said. “Hi... I’m a lot better now. You healed me?”

“Yeah,” she said. “My Heal Pulse works wonders, doesn’t it? Your exoskeleton was cracked, and you were leaking blood—or, I guess it’s called hemolymph, since you’re a bug. Anyway, it wasn’t a major injury, even though it looked kind of ugly. I was able to close up the crack and clean off the hemolymph that leaked on your head. You should be all better now. I’d suggest taking it easy for a little bit just to be safe, but there should be no long-lasting damage.”

“Thank you,” I murmured. I carefully rubbed the spot on my forehead where the broken slingshot struck me. Under my fur-like setae, the exoskeleton was smooth again, with no signs of damage. I still felt a dull pain from there, but it was nothing compared to what I felt before.

Kina continued, “I was surprised to see you come in here for an injury, instead of Sneasel. But she told me what happened. You tried making a slingshot and it backfired, huh? You’re really, really lucky it didn’t hit you in the eye. If it did... well, I may not be able to heal that sort of thing.”

“Y-yeah,” I said with a shudder. “I... I just... wanted something that could make me stronger. I still can’t use any moves, and my arms aren’t strong enough to throw anything. I thought a slingshot could help me fight. I just... hate feeling weak all the time.”

“Don’t feel bad about that,” Kina said. “I’m an Audino, so I know what you mean about feeling weak. But I still found a way to contribute here. You don’t need to fight to be a useful part of the guild. Keep that in mind—and please be careful from now on.”

Her words improved my mood. “Thanks. Oh... by the way, is Sneasel here?”

“Yeah. I’ll get her.”

Kina opened the door to the waiting room, went in, and returned with Sneasel. My partner walked over casually and with a straight face, but I could sense happiness radiating from her.

“You’re awake,” she said, somewhat flatly. “Good. You had me worried there.”

Kina smiled at us and went back to the waiting room. Sneasel sat on a stool beside the cot, and rested her hands on the edge. We gazed at each other for a bit. I could have sworn her eyes looked redder than usual. But since she had red irises, it may have just been my imagination. Eventually, she sighed and looked down at the floor. Her happiness was gone now, replaced with a mix of nameless negative emotions.

“Listen, Booker... I’m so sorry,” she said quietly. “This is all my fault. I told you to keep pulling that slingshot harder and harder. I should’ve known it’d break if we went too far. If I just shut my big stupid mouth, you’d be fine.”

“Sneasel, don’t worry about it,” I said. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t force me to do that. I knew there was a risk, but I did it anyway. That was my choice, so don’t beat yourself up over it.”

Sneasel looked at me and frowned. “But I told you to do it. If I didn’t—”

“I probably would’ve done the same thing on my own. I’m a pretty careful guy, but I bet I would’ve pushed the limits too far by accident. I was excited about making this slingshot work, and finally being able to fight. And I thought it would stay together because it was ironwood. But I guess if it’s so small, it’s easier to snap. So, again... it’s not your fault.”

“Well, I still feel bad about this. But I’m glad you’re safe. That’s what matters, right?” She briefly glanced over at the doorway, then whispered, “Hey, by the way... the nurse didn’t tell you anything about... what I said when I came in here?”

I whispered back, “She said... you told her how I hurt myself, but nothing else.”

Kina’s head poked in from the side of the doorway. She had easily heard us whispering. “She was crying,” the nurse said matter-of-factly. “She thought you died.”

“Hey!” Sneasel yelled, her voice cracking. “Kina! I told you to keep that a secret!”

“It’s fine,” the Audino said with a warm smile. “I’m only telling Booker—nobody else. He’s your partner, so he deserves to know how you feel about him, right?”

Kina left. Sneasel stammered and grit her teeth, but soon let out a sigh.

“Well, the nurse is right,” she said, her voice a lot softer than usual. “I know I always put on a tough face, but... I’d never seen you get hurt like that before, and it really freaked me out. When I brought you here, Kina told me you weren’t hurt too bad... but up until then, I couldn’t tell how bad it was. All I knew was it looked bad, and... I was scared. I didn’t wanna lose you.”

I smiled. I reached out for her hand, and she moved it closer so I could reach it. I patted her claw and said, “Thanks for looking out for me. You’re a great partner.”

“Thanks, partner,” Sneasel said. “Same to you.”

She pulled her hand back, and now propped her elbows on the edge of the cot, resting her chin on her palms. “So, what now? You gotta rest for a while?”

“Kina said to take it easy, but she didn’t say I need to stay here. We should ask—”

The voice of Kina came from the next room, answering my question before I could ask it: “Yes, you can leave if you want.”

“Her good hearing is creepy,” Sneasel whispered to me—but not quietly enough.

“I heard that,” Kina said from the next room. She sounded a bit irritated.

“Let’s... let’s just go,” I said. “Back to the dorm. My cotton ball bed’s a lot comfier than this cot.”

Sneasel carefully picked me up and put me on her head again. We went for the front door of the clinic and said goodbye to Kina. The nurse waved and went back into the ward to manage some more medicine. Sneasel almost opened the door, but stopped.

“Wait,” she said. “Before we go. Promise not to tell anyone I got all emotional over you, alright?”

“Sure. As long as you promise to help me build a better slingshot.”

Sneasel gave a start. “Wait—you still wanna try making a slingshot? Even after what just happened?”

“Yeah. I’m not giving up. A slingshot can hurt me if I use it wrong, but it can be really useful too. I just need to figure out its limits, and be more careful with it. Maybe I’ll wear a mask or goggles to protect my face. And maybe we can use sturdier materials so it won’t break next time. Like metal instead of wood.”

“Huh. Well, gotta say, I like that attitude. You know me—I think it’s super important to not give up and always try to get stronger. But I’ll admit, after what happened at the dojo, part of me was hoping you’d give up on the whole slingshot thing so you wouldn’t get hurt again.” Sneasel sighed and continued, “But... even if it’s risky, I don’t wanna hold you back from getting stronger. So I think it’s cool that you wanna keep it up. And I promise, I’m gonna help any way I can.”

“Thank you, Sneasel,” I said with a smile. Then I suddenly felt a bit dizzy, and lay down on my partner’s head. Though my injury was healed, I was still shaken by what happened. “But... let’s wait a while before we start. I don’t want to see another slingshot for at least a week.”