Chapter 84 New Allies

A cold breeze shuffled the curtains on the window to Satoshi's room, waking him up in the process as the biting cold made him impulsively shiver and pull on his blankets. He wrinkled his nose as if to enjoy the cool breeze but that just made him impulsively sneeze. His eyes fluttered, then it opened and landed straight to the alarm clock that rested on his study table. It read 5:10 in the morning.

'That's weird,' Satoshi said to himself, rubbing his eyes to see if he wasn't dreaming. But there it was, clear as day, the alarm clock really read 5:10 in the morning.

For some odd reason, he didn't wake up when the alarm clock resounded at least half an hour ago. He tried to recall what happened that weekend, how he got so exhausted that he slept through his alarm— then he remembered that his dad and he were up the past two days, trying to turn some animals and equipment and add it to his arsenal. He had a vague recollection of all the new familiars he got but his thoughts once again landed on the fact that he missed his alarm clock. All of that happened in a span of ten seconds and he quickly got up, folded his blanket, and set up his bed and room in order before rushing out of his room.

'Oh, Satoshi what are y— ' Ayumu was about to knock on her son's door when he apparently burst out of it, almost tripping at the nonexistent doorpost and landing on his mom.

"Good morning, mom," Satoshi greeted back before his mom could even greet him first.

Leaving his mom in her thoughts of confusion and puzzlement, Satoshi rushed through the staircase, almost tripping over his foot but he safely reached the lowermost step. He turned around towards the general direction of the kitchen and dining table, only to see that breakfast was ready and his dad was nowhere to be found. He swallowed a considerable amount of dry saliva out of nervousness as he got the urge to go to the bathroom and relieve himself and brush his teeth. But he tossed all those thoughts into the bin as he reached the corner of the living room and pressed his hand on the hidden sensor. 'Dad's gonna be super mad.' Satoshi was jumping up and down while glancing at the clock from time to time. It read 5:12 in the morning. He was twelve minutes late.

From his mind, he could hear his dad telling him that he'll have training every 5 am in the morning. 'Anyway, five in the morning, every day, I'll be waiting for you here in our lair.' Those words verbatim constantly played in Satoshi's mind as he waited for the panel in front of him to open so he could finally travel down to the basement where the Midoriyama Lair is located. He could already foresee his dad fuming in anger while tapping his right foot in an uneven rhythm.

Shiiiing! The sound of soft metal resounded in Satoshi's ears as the platform went down. Once again, just like any other day, he found himself in his parents' lair. He still couldn't believe that this lair also belongs to him after his dad gave him permission to.

"Son, what took you so— did you just wake up? Change into your superhero suit already." There was a bit of disappointment in his dad's voice as he waved his hands, gesturing that he changed his outfit right now since he was still wearing his pajamas. But then again, he wasn't mad at all, much to Satoshi's relief. He probably understood why Satoshi was pretty much drained after a mere two days of pokemon hunting.

Satoshi nodded and headed towards the 'locker area', well it resembled a locker room, and he quickly went towards the locker where he kept an extra supersuit.

To his surprise, something else was there, aside from the supersuit that he typically wears. Usually, his supersuit consisted of a red cap, red shoes, and very iconic shirt and shorts. But now, it was different

His cap was still red but a shape of an orb known as a Pokeball was emphasized on its front. His usual t-shirt was also replaced with a blue and white hoody, with the linings of its pockets a bright yellow color. As for his shorts, it was now pants, and his shoes were brand-new, probably another creation of Silk Girl. It had the notable features of the MX3000 but the color was much darker.

"Dad, what's thi— "

"Pretty cool, right?" Tatsuki patted his son on the shoulder. "Now get to it and let's have some training with your big guns. the inter-high tournament's later, right? You should prepare as much as you can."

Satoshi nodded. It seems like his parents were more excited than him for the inter-high and it made him almost tear up a little bit. He could tell that his parents were looking forward to the moment when he'll awaken his superpower and now that he has it, they were more than willing to support him every step of the way. Just that small gesture, heck, even if Satoshi just heard words of support from his parents, he would've been more than thankful enough regardless of what he awakened. After all, they supported him even though he didn't have superpowers in the beginning.

Unbeknownst to Satoshi, however, his mom and dad were practically crying over the result when they found out that he was chosen as a candidate for the inter-high tournament. Since he was too busy training and preparing for the past week, he didn't notice that his parents were playing all his training footage on a loop, tearing up every single time they watched it. There was even one time when Tatsuki rented a hall and invited everyone he knew just so they could all watch the training footage of Satoshi. Well, everyone enjoyed it though since there was plenty of food and drinks and company from other people. It was also an opportunity for everyone to further their connection so it was a win-win situation for everyone. A few agencies even approached Tatsuki, trying to recruit his son. Of course, that fed his ego but he was more than pleased that they noticed his son's talent.

"Right, now, before we start. I actually have something for you. I ordered this pet ever since I saw your White Lion and who would've thought it would arrive today. Also, Ivan, that guy from the hardware store, delivered something this early in the morning. He said that you ordered a piece of equipment from him and he just received the shipment this morning. But first!"

Tatsuki then approached an aquarium-shaped container draped with a cloth so no one would see its contents. Curious, Satoshi approached it with his guard up.

Without further ado, Tatsuki lifted the cloth and revealed the animal inside the container. It was a lizard— a chameleon, to be exact. And the container actually had two partitions, one had the chameleon and one had the frog.

"Right, now do your thing. You know," Tatsuki tried to imitate Satoshi's hand gestures every time he 'upgrades' a certain animal or object and it turns into his familiar.

Satoshi's eyes sparkled as he saw the chameleon in front of him. He had wanted a pet chameleon for so long but he couldn't bring himself to tell his parents about it. Fortunately, Tatsuki just so happened to check Satoshi's retro computer when he fell asleep one night, and there, Satoshi was browsing for chameleons and if he could buy one nearby.

As for the frog, his dad particularly likes frogs so he thought why not get his son one in exchange for getting him a chameleon.

A light blue flame was ignited on Satoshi's hand and it floated a few seconds in the air before landing on the chameleon. And then, the chameleon turned a bluish color before growing twice its size. Its color changed into blue as well, and it became even cuter. As it opened its mouth and revealed its toothless smile, it crawled up Satoshi's shoulder and disappeared. Satoshi could still feel its weight but it seemed to have vanished into thin air. Thin branches seemed to have come out of the floor as well, wrapping Satoshi's legs and anchoring him on the ground.

"So a plant-type, huh. Not that unusual but pretty useful for sneak attacks. Use that with your cloak and you won't even be seen when you attack someone." Tatsuki said,

Next came the frog. At this point, Satoshi wasn't expecting anything from the frog since it had a weird red and orange flavor. What he didn't know was that the frog was actually a poisonous one. And when his blue flame touched it, its size increased until it was almost as tall as the lair. Its color became that of purple as well and poisonous gas came out of its body.

"Sheesh~" Tatsuki exclaimed. It was his first time seeing such a gigantic frog, well, actually it was his second time if he were to count the time when he watched a certain anime series with shinobis on a certain village.