Selecting a flat rock under the shadow of a medium-sized tree, Chad crosses his legs and sits down to meditate, but finds himself immediately interrupted. “Really, just gonna go to sleep and leave a girl unattended?”

A popped eye wanders up and down the blue frog, before he sighs and pulls out their pokedex. “I’m trying to master Rest so I can get a handle on psychic energy, for reasons,” he says, coughing afterwards. “In your case, I did not see any fire or dragon type moves on your list, so I can only help explain what you can do, but you’ll just have to figure a lot of it out on your own.”

“For example, you could work on Quick Attack to the degree you leave after-images, which would build into Double Team for evasion. If you practice with Water Pulse, you could channel that into adding Water Gun to your toolkit, or with proper temperature adjustment pick up Scald.” Chad explained, opening the sequential entries on the device. “Or, if you want to be really annoying, you could work on your Attract, but that one can really backfire if you aren’t careful-”

Ginette raised a finger to make a point, before Chad shut her down, “No, I will not subject myself to such efforts.” Immediately her excitement dropped into a pout, mumbling as she stepped away to claim her own practice space.

Chad, returning to his meditation, began to attempt at circulating the magenta energy, which lightly coated his body before fading, as he cycled between manifesting the energy and its abatement. His frustration with the failure began to build, until each failure was accompanied by a spurt of flame from an exhale.

Ginette, not really having started her own practice, made her way back over and tried to get Chad’s attention. “Hey, une question, what move are you working on right now?”

“Rest,” Chad grumbled, as the magenta energy grew and abated again.

“So, you’re trying to put yourself to sleep?” Chad opened both eyes to grant the amphibian his attention. “Cause it looks like you’re fighting it just as it starts going,” she clarified. Chad blinked, twice, before attempting again. This time, the magenta energy wavered but stuck around, covering his whole body as every muscle relaxed. His breathing evened out and deepened, but his body managed to stay upright on the rock, coated in the psychic energy as Ginette noticed a few signs of exhaustion slowly fade away.

Satisfied, she snuck away and began pondering herself before coating her limbs in the bright white of normal energy. As described, she began practicing moving around with her body, making quick leaps and abrupt turns, pushing her speed increasingly faster. After a good half hour of various tests and experiments, she notices the slight blur of her colors starting to leak behind her. Stumped, she quietly asks “Any tips, Monsieur Earl Grey?”

With the smile of a child who just conned her parents out of a candy bar, Ginette took off again, this time coating her entire body in the white energy, before slipping out of it with a rapid hop. As she looked back, a watery ephemeral visage of her floated in the air for a split-second before fading. “Magnifique, now to get it to last long enough I can sneak behind that lizard and place an ice cube on his neck.”

Ginette, with a frown, stared at her teammate who hadn’t woken up for the past two hours. “Chad?” she asked, half-heartedly, before her frown pivoted to raw malicious glee. Unable to defend himself or dodge, she charged up a particularly large Water Pulse before blasting her teammate with the attack, completely soaking him. As the deluge passed, she waited for his angry retaliation, for a good minute or two. But still as a stone, she couldn’t detect him having moved even a centimeter.

The frog crouched down, noticing the water had puddled under her teammate, until she was level with the base of the rock, and could see through the gap between its wet surface, and her teammate. “Is he floating..?” she asked, waving a hand in the gap.

“Yea, my attack wasn’t enough to even phase him. Dude must be really tough,” she remarked, gently flicking his nose to no reaction.

Ginette gently massaged her rumbling belly, “...Merde. There has to be something I can do, right?”

“Right, so what do I need to do?” She paused, “Wait, who’s the Author?!”

Ginette, sensing she would not get an answer for her second question, did her best to focus on cupping her hands together. There was no pressure, nobody to bother her, and yet the pressure felt like a failure on her part would result in her being sent back to Lumiose, abandoned again. The feelings began to compound, as a tiny mote of the void floated in her hands.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Once the darkness grew to the size of a Cherri berry, she wound up and threw it at Chad, landing dead-center. The magenta cocoon shattered from the impact, as the ball of despair carried on and flattened the lizard against the tree with a satisfying ‘thud’.

Chad groaned, rubbing the back of his head as he stood up. “Did you have to use me for target practice?” he asked, using his free arm to wipe and wick away as much of the water still on his body as he could. Glancing at the lack of sun in the sky, “Ah, I guess that lasted longer than I thought-” he was interrupted with a loud protest from both his and Ginette’s rumbling stomachs. “Yea, we need to figure out what I did wrong. I was only supposed to be asleep for a minute at most.”

“If it was strong enough to keep me asleep and recovering while she attempted to drown me, I’d call that a success and move on. There’s gotta be a different psychic move I can learn, right?” the dried Charmeleon asked, now heading straight for the center for dinner.

“Agility? Calm Mind? C’mon those should be doable at least? I was literally just meditating,” Chad grumbled, the automatic doors sliding open to reveal one of the quietest centers they had stayed at. Chad grabbed some of the supplies from the fridge, getting a side-eye from the other trainers and their teams as he carried some eggs, meat, and flour towards a stovetop.

“Hyper-fixation,” Chad responds, washing his hands with soap at the sink while glancing around the room behind him. “If you were planning to try and introduce me to fighting energy before the rock gym, I could be convinced to shift my focus.”

Chad grunted, drying his hands while insisting Ginette clean hers. Her visible confusion prompted a clarification; “You’ll be making the pasta, wash your hands.” Reluctantly, she did as bidden while he arranged a small pile of flour with a slight indent. Two eggs were sequentially cracked on the edge of the sink, with the yolk and whites placed in the crater as Chad was patient to ensure no shells landed in the pile.

“Mix and roll that together into a dough, knead it until it’s thoroughly mixed,” he instructed, as he scooped a piece of butter into a waiting pan atop the stove. “Alright, so no chance I can learn Calm Mind or Agility then? Those are generic enough that many species learn them,” he reasoned, as he laid the meat into the melted butter, causing the pan to sizzle.

No, but the conversation would be rather boring without it.

“He’s right,” Chad agreed, flipping the seared protein onto its other side, before using a nearby wooden spoon to ladle the melted butter onto the recently-flipped side. “But I also know that cooking anime and manga tend to be popular, so he might be leaning into that.” He turned the heat down, stepping to the side to fill a large pot with warm water, eyeing Ginette’s handiwork. “That looks right, just roll it out into a flat piece about two to three millimeters thick, evenly. Then use your Swords Dance and slice it into long noodles.”

Chad was aware of his audience by now, but focused on the tasks before him; Ginette’s nerves were definitely starting to creep in as her first cut was uneven and jagged. Chad shut off the water, placing the pot on the stove at max heat to boil. “Relax, just keep trying. And whenever you mess up, just remember we can roll it back up and try again,” he assured her, returning to tend to the meat which was now approaching rare.

“Pardon,” a voice asked from his left, as Chad looked but was forced to aim his gaze upwards. The white ferret had purple accents and long fire-hazards for ‘sleeves’, but their gaze was locked on the cooking meat in the pan. “But this one could not help but overhear your desire to learn two specific moves. An opportunity arises for a trade, should you be amenable?”

“I am listening, what is the proposed trade?” Chad responded, careful to match the much stronger mammal’s speech cadence. With the water now at a boil, he gently lowered Ginette’s noodles into the water. Seeing that she was finished, he pointed her towards the sink again, relishing the groan of her response.

“A meal for a move tutoring; this one can guarantee a rudimentary grasp of the basics with but a single session, especially for such simple moves as those two.” The ferret was steadfast, and certain of its capabilities. His combat experience was evident between his muscles and some faint scarring.

“A dinner for Calm Mind, a breakfast for Agility?” The stranger nodded, as Chad pointed his spoon towards the fridge. “Fetch the meat for your dinner then, a deal has been struck.” Chad plated the two cooked pieces of meat, reloading the hot pan with more butter just in time for his new ‘tutor’ to refill the pan with fresh slabs. Concerned about the cook time, the fighting type confirmed they did not need to be fully cooked, just flavorful.

Eyeing the pasta, “Ginette, why don’t you socialize with our new benefactor while I finish his food?” Chad requested, adding extra butter to the hot pan. Ginette led the Mienshao towards an empty table with trepidation, as the chef entered the home stretch.

Flipping the meat over to sear the other side, Chad was visibly conflicted about serving under-cooked meat, but he also had two plates dying while waiting for the current batch to finish. Seeing the last of the pasta floating on the surface, he swapped over to drain the hot water into the sink, distributing the noodles among the three waiting plates. They were pretty rough, and definitely uneven, but all beginners start somewhere.

Once he was certain his prospective tutor’s proteins were thoroughly buttered and seared, he placed the last bits on the final plate, using the wooden spoon to ladle the melted butter atop the pasta. After that, a light topping of salt and pepper before he brought the three servings to the table. “Bone appetite,” Chad offered, his thick Unovan accent butchering the pronunciation, causing Ginette to laugh dismissively before taking a fork of her pasta.

“Quite exquisite given the last minute addition, though this one eagerly anticipates breakfast,” the ferret complimented, as Chad glanced past him to a table that likely had the rest of Mienshao’s team. The trainer was drooling, and the others were likely arguing over who got his servings of that detestable pet kibble.

“Breakfast hinges on our success this evening,” Chad reminded them, slicing off a chunk of his medium-well meat with a level of manners beyond the table’s other occupants.

The tutor made a soft sound of affirmation as he dug into the fettuccine, his whole body seemingly unaccustomed to this quality of food. “The lessons can begin now, should thou wish. Simply focus on emptying your mind, let there be nothing but this plate of gourmet food sitting before you. Then, channel the psychic energies you were practicing earlier, but only within your head.” The Mienshao explained, biting off a partially undercooked mouthful of meat as butter dripped down onto their plate.

Before gobbling another bite, Chad did as instructed, sitting perfectly still with his eyes solely on the fruits of his earlier labor. After a moment, he began to channel the magenta energy from earlier, as the waves washed around his head. While practicing, he slowly lowered a fork, spooled up a roll of the pasta, and brought it to his waiting tongue. The very act of eating emanated an aura of zen as the magenta glow faded away.

Chad, with a serene smile, glanced up at his tutor, whose facade had broken into a slack-jawed amazement. “Unholy Yvettal, you really did that in a single attempt?” he asked, his persona firmly gone. “Damn, and here I thought I was the wise master. Are you a psychic or fighting type?” he inquired, inspecting Chad as he powered down the rest of the meat.

“Just a pure fire type trying to expand his options,” Chad explained, parrying an invasion by Ginette as she tried to steal some of his pasta. Her plate had long since emptied, with Mienshao’s not far behind. Chad was eyeing down a two-front war, and began to skimp on table manners in favor of raw consumption. “And just as you said, one session was sufficient. I look forward to part two in the morning.”

Mienshao nodded, offered his thanks for the meal, then sauntered back to his group to become the immediate focus of attention and conversation. Chad collected the plates and cookware and returned them to the dirty dishes area after rinsing off particularly egregious offenders. “That seemed a little too coincidental, Narrator,” Ginette stated, as the two of them decided to call it a night.

Is it just me, or did he just stumble upon one of the two Pokemon in the region who would know both of those abilities?