"—huh! Gym Leader in the family, fancy."

    And that's when an Abra suddenly appears right in front of Charmander, causing the latter to jump two feet back and hiss, going on all fours with its legs held long and taut and its tail stretched up into the air, the flame at its tip twice as large as it was a moment before.

Nigel leaps down from Edmund's back and stands in front of him, horns glowing.

        The Abra ignores Nigel entirely and keeps staring at Charmander, but Tōkan just laughs and bends down to grab it under the arms and place it on his head. It nests down on it—it's rather small, even for an Abra—and crosses its legs before turning to stare at Edmund and Nigel now.

"Edmund, Nigel, Charmander, this is Sako. Sako, these are Edmund, Nigel, and Charmander."

    Charmander... relaxes, some, lowering its tail and pulling itself back up to its hindlegs, and watches Abra suspiciously.

"- oh. Hello, Sako."

Nigel's horns stop glowing, and he tilts his head curiously. "Raa?"

"I met her a year ago in the woods and then I was so charming she decided to start following me around."

    Sako scratches one of her ears and yawns. Charmander is still watching her but the wariness is slowly draining from it.

"...huh. A head start!"

"Kind of! We didn't train much. Also she doesn't have a Pokéball because I did not want to have to hide it from my mother who would've absolutely disapproved. Speaking of which," and he grabs one of his empty balls and offers it to Sako.

    She peers at it with an Abra's usual squint and doesn't do anything immediately.

"You can still sit on my head even if you're assigned to a Pokéball, you know."

    Which does seem to be the worry she was feeling because after that she noses the button and accepts going into the ball.

Speaking of which: Nigel, back on shoulders.

"I wonder if I should catch a second 'mon to keep up... I'm leaning no, I should get to know Nigel better first."

"I definitely need to get to know Charmander and figure out how to win its heart."

    It makes another little pah sound at that, sounding distinctly amused.

"Well, yes, but you've got an Abra already... I need to stop thinking like it's a contest. We'll all end up where we're supposed to."

Nigel rubs Edmund's head. Edmund sighs. "Thank you Nigel."

"So, why a Ralts?"

"...I'm... pretty sure I'm going to end up strongly Fairy-type. And a Gardevoir is a strong 'mon with a lot of type coverage."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense. I am going to try to aim."

"For what?"

"Normal!"

"...you might have to unpack that for me."

He laughs. "It's the type with the fewest, ah, sources of animosity? I... really, really hate the idea of Pokémon disliking me because of my aura rather than because of the specifics of my personality, you know?"

"Huh. I've heard you can overcome it... and you'll still have trouble with Ghost-types. But I guess that's as good a reason as any to aim."

"Yeah, but you know, that's the fewest types that'll be trouble. If I could go for no type I would."

    His Charmander looks up at him again in that inscrutable lizard way, although how much it understood of that is of course not at all clear.

"It makes sense. I guess Fairy will make it pretty close to impossible to get any Dragon-types on my team, but... I don't know, it feels inevitable. And I don't want to avoid it, not really, I like the idea of having a stronger connection with Nigel and I like the benefits of Fairy type."

"Why does your face seem to be telling a different story than your mouth?"

Edmund pinches his own cheek and wiggles it furiously. "You stop that."

He giggles. "I promise I'm not judging. Besides, it's cute."

"Well, thank you. I guess... I don't really like the idea of limiting myself any more than you do, but the tradeoffs seem worth it overall? And I'm confident that I can overcome animosity if I have to. But I still don't like it."

"But you're really very sure you'll end up Fairy regardless so might as well lean into it."