Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Quenched Torch

Part 24: Technical Difficulties

My grin plastered onto my face, I eagerly nodded, prompting Bert to shoot me a grin before stretching his neck. After a few cracks sounded, he tapped his front paws together, apparently trying to figure out how to explain the topic at hand.

"Hm, let's see here... okay, fire a Water Gun," he instructed. I obliged, shooting a jet of water into the air and getting a hum from Bert.

"You've gotten better at that, I've gotta say. Looks more well-rounded than the one you shot off at the river, good to see you've been improvin'. Now then, you clearly understand how your tide works, so I think you shouldn't have too much trouble here," he mused. As pride swelled within me, he continued.

"Now, then, have you been trying to experiment any with your tide?" Nodding, I grabbed my scalchop and waved it in the air as Bert watched, giving me a nod of his own.

"Razor Shell, I'm guessing? Not bad, not bad. Well, then, it looks like I won't have to explain too much about redirecting energy. So, uh, get another Water Gun ready. Don't fire it off quite yet," he instructed. Doing as he asked, I instinctively welled up some energy up through my chest.

"You got it? Alright, try to focus it into a point."

I tried to squeeze the energy in my throat, trying to mold it to as fine a point as I could. As I worked, however, I started to meet some resistance. Growling under my breath, I pushed harder.

'Wait, fu-'

Before I could stop myself, the energy discharged throughout my body, leaving a familiar intense burning in its place. My vision tinged with red, I tried to scream, only for a weak wheeze to escape my lips. I fell to the ground, unable to breathe as my neck throbbed with that red-hot pain. As I writhed on the ground, fearing I was about to black out, I felt something get hurriedly pushed into my mouth. Instinctively biting down on it, I felt whatever it was send juice dribbling down my throat, easing the pain and allowing me to gasp for air.

"...come on, kid, breathe!" I heard a faint voice yell. As my vision cleared and my breathing steadied, I found the taste of Oran in my mouth and Bert kneeling over me, panic clear on his face.

"...sh-sha," I croaked. Bert let out a loud sigh of relief, sitting down as I tested moving my arms.

"I'm sorry, kid, I... I shouldn't have pushed you. You obviously aren't quite ready for what I've got in mind, and I... ugh, discharging is never fun, lemme tell you," he said regretfully.

'Not ready? I... I can do it... just...'

I tried to peel myself off the ground, only for a shoot of pain to force me back down. Realizing my limits, I slumped back down in defeat as Bert kept watching me with shame in his face. Powerless to do anything else, I just stared up at the darkening sky above as I waited for the burning to subside.

'I can...'

---

"Uh, Beck? Where you going?" Rye asked.

"Rivah," I said, not breaking my stride as he followed me out the door and into the rain outside. It had been a day since my disastrous training session with Bert, but I hadn't been able to take my mind off it. Even though I had tried to tune it out with trying to improve my speaking, the thought still weighed down on me. Water Gun was an okay move, but definitely not optimal in the long run, so I was determined to try to get the high-pressure variant Bert had shown me right. However, it seemed Rye had noticed my woes if the looks he'd been giving me during our speech session were anything to go off of.

I mean, I can't blame him. Seeing Bert haul me home in a big heap of sad isn't something I'd easily forget.

As I tromped along the muddy road in the direction of the training grounds, and by extension the river, Rye walked next to me, watching me concernedly.