Nurse Isabelle and the Kanto Pokédex: the Diary of a Travelling Nurse

#109 Koffing

Koffing, the Poison Gas Pokémon. If Koffing becomes agitated, it raises the toxicity of its internal gases and then jets them out from all over its body. This Pokémon may also overinflate its round body, then explode.

Occasionally, Nurse Isabelle would visit the tiniest of villages, far away from the main routes aspiring Pokémon Trainers took. Such an outing brought her to a canyon-like area. Travelling on Ponyta's back, Isabelle managed to make much better distance than she had been before she captured the blue-maned horse.

Groans and terrified squeaking caught Ponyta's attention before Izzy could hear it. Listening to Izzy's instructions no more, her fiery steed dashed off towards the cliff, startling her rider. However, the horse drew to a stop a few meters away from the edge. By now, Isabelle could hear the squeaking as well.

Kneeling on the ground near the edge, she could see two Pokémon stuck just below it on a small ledge from which Ivysaur could easily lift them up. As she summoned her Grass-type, she inspected the situation.

The first Pokémon was an Abra, barely conscious and bleeding heavily. Despite his injuries, he tried to get away from the other Pokémon, which was a Koffing. What was bothering Koffing was unsure, but the gaseous Pokémon was all puffed up like a Jigglypuff and smoking like a Charizard with a sore throat. In this state of agitation, Koffing could explode any moment!

"Ivysaur, grab Abra!" Isabelle decided and the psychic Pokémon was carefully lifted into safety. Koffing, however, could not be helped anymore. With a groan, the Poison-type shut his eyes and exploded. The force of this explosion pushed Isabelle back to the ground. Abra and Ivysaur skidded a tiny distance, and Ponyta reared, bucked, and dashed off for safety.

When Isabelle looked over the edge again, the tiny ledge the two Pokémon had been lying on was gone. Koffing must have fallen all the way down, unable to levitate now that his gas had exploded. She feared the worst.

With trembling hands, Izzy went through the motions of bandaging Abra's cuts to stop the bleeding and feeding him some medicine to start the long healing process. As she made a call for an ambulance to come and pick Abra up, her voice cracked and tears ran down her face.

Why did this have to happen? What would have happened if she'd gone for Koffing first? Would Abra have fallen or would both of them have lived? The worst thought of all bothered her for months: Had her fear for Poison-types caused her to pick Abra over Koffing?

In her report of what happened to Abra, Izzy honourably mentioned the Koffing, hoping someone would look for it in the canyon below. From the look on Joy's face who listened to the report, Izzy saw her own fears: Koffing was not likely to be found alive. No one could survive such a fall, especially not when injured.