Virah let go of the door handle and closed her eyes, she sucked in a lungful of air, then heaved just as the door to her apartment snapped shut behind her, within the darkness of her mind, the two sounds intermingled in a chaotic mess that left her annoyed for a split second and then… there was nothing but serene silence.

It took a while before Virah opened her eyes again, but when she did, she didn't bother staying in her own head and walked forward to meet the consequences of her decisions.

But… it is also worth admitting that…

… going back to her room after such an eventful day felt nice, and Virah was starting to understand why the more reclusive residents of the apartment building were the way they were, as the feeling of safety provided by such a personal space simply felt too relaxing to ever leave and here, she didn't have to bother with fighting other trainers or even worry about what she needed to do for tomorrow.

It was just her and the walls, her worries were non-existent and everything outside was nothing more than a fantasy-

“... just like how this room feels,” she let out a sigh and walked to her bed.

She threw herself on the mattress and thought that the feeling of relaxation and niceness- warmth that her room provided was nothing more than an illusion and she knew that but it just felt so tempting to stay- she sighed again and faced the music.

The pokeball hanging from her belt went unclipped and Virah tossed it, the sound of a digital scream resonated within her room followed by red light, and a second later, a yellow pupa with eyes materialized at the center of the space.

Nitro's eyes trailed over to Virah and then it let out a cry of its name- “Ka-kakuna!”

“I know, Nitro,” she crawled out of bed and with her knees still pressed against the floor, spread her arms wide to hug her starter, “it's probably very weird in there isn't it?”

Nitro felt… oddly warm- wait no, she's studied about this before, Kakunas as a rule had high temperatures because of the changing process going on within them, and that sort of warmth should not be mitigated or increased, and the best way to deal with it is to just let the Kakuna do its thing until evolution which… unlike a Weedle turning into a Kakuna, wouldn't take long.

A month, maybe.

Virah broke the embrace and backed away until she was leaning against the frame of her bed, “I'm sure that you'll be fine Nitro,”

Her voice cracked and she pretended to ignore it, she laughed nervously, “uh, I'm confident that your evolution earlier is… a good thing, I think-”

She couldn't listen to herself lie any longer-

Virah cut her sentence off and suddenly stood up.

She heaved and she recalled her Pokemon.

Virah pushed past her anxiety and walked to the door, then swiftly got out, she didn't even check if it was locked once she left, and her panicked footsteps soon disappeared from the confines of her apartment building and continued on the streets below.

Virah got to the Pokemart as fast as she could and when she entered, her heart sank at the sight of the unfamiliar teenager manning the cashier but she didn't give up, she got near and asked where Carl was, “him? I think I saw him taking his break to the back of the store, why?”

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“It's nothing,” Virah shook her head and headed straight for the back, going around the entire building had only increased her anxiety but she sagged in relief when she saw the ex-gym trainer leaning against the wall while eating a burrito, “Carl,”

The guy in question stopped eating and turned to her with one eyebrow raised, “hm?” He swallowed the food in his mouth, “what's up?”

“My Weedle evolved into a Kakuna way earlier than I expected… or what's considered to be normal,” Virah voiced out in concern, her voice picking up in pitch and starting to sound panicked.

She started walking back and forth, “is it because of the new diet? Or something else?” She hastily said while grabbing both sides of her head in stress, “I don't know and I'm scared because this never happened before to all of my-”

Something soft struck her head and she stopped pacing and blinked.

“W-” she eyed the fallen, bunched up piece of paper rolling on the ground, “I-” she glared at Carl, “did you just throw your empty wrapper at me?”

“Did your Weedle use String Shot on himself? Or maybe got hit by a String Shot from another Bug Type?” Virah… slowly nodded, Carl grinned, “huh, guess happy accidents do happen,” he chuckled, “your Weedle's fine, that's normal,”

Virah's body sagged as she relaxed, “oh thank Ho oh-”

Virah's brief prayer to the Johtonian God got drowned out as Carl continued with an extra tidbit that got Virah to believe his claim of Nitro's sudden evolution being normal- “I think Bugsy encourages that sort of thing during spars between his gym trainers now, especially since it's not really a secret method to make Weedle and Caterpie evolve anymore,”

“That's…” Virah looked at Nitro's Pokeball in relief, "... good,” she smiled, “thanks,”

After giving her thanks to the Bug Type specialist, she walked away from the alleyway and back to the streets of Goldenrod. For a split second, Virah felt tempted to buy more Pokefeed for her Kakuna but quickly decided that it wasn't a good idea.

Kakunas did require higher food intake- especially if a trainer wants their Beedrill to be strong, - but they didn't need it immediately, let alone the first day after evolving.

When she got back to her apartment, Virah checked the lock and hummed, “guess I locked it earlier,” she said in relief and walked in, when she saw the Ratata staring at her from beyond the door with its arms crossed, she sighed, “I forgot to lock the door didn't I?”

“Ratata!” The rodent said with a shake of its head, “Ra- Ratata, Ratata.”

“I know, I know,” Virah raised her hands as she listened to the Pokemon start scolding her, “geez, you don't have to be so harsh,” Ratata gave her a dry stare, Virah giggled, “thank you for locking it for me though, I appreciate it,”

Ratata nodded, then pointed at the bag of Normal Type Pokefeed Virah had on hand, “Ratata.”

“Alright, alright, I'll pay you,” she said in fake surrender, personally, she felt that the little guy deserved such a reward for being such a diligent guard of her apartment. Virah poured Ratata a bowl of Pokefeed, “here you go~" she said as she pushed the bowl to the Normal Type, “happy… uh, eating?”

The Ratata swerved its head away from her, protective of its meal.

Virah found the mean act cute.

Moving on from Ratata, Virah let Nitro out of his ball and put him on her bed, “okay,” she said to the stationary Pokemon, “I'm going to start a check up so uh, be still.”

Virah was sure that the stare Nitro was giving her turned even drier.

She giggled, “okay, okay- now then,”

She grabbed her notebook and started comparing her notes on Kakuna health to Nitro's own, “your sheen is actually pretty good, reflective even,”

She stopped shining her flashlight on Nitro's shell, and started with the second part of the check-up, which was related to the toughness of said shell. Virah knocked on it once, then twice, and hummed, the metallic gloss Nitro was giving off wasn't just for show it seemed, “Iron really helped you out in the shell department huh Nitro?”

The two tiny arms in front of her Pokemon waved about and since they were already moving, Virah decided that these were what she was going to check next, she grabbed the scythe-shaped appendages and raised them high, then she pinched them and put pressure from both top to bottom and nodded when the appendage's casing wouldn't give in.

“Your drills are going to be powerful,” Virah said in satisfaction, “which is good since they're your main weapons,”

Grabbing her flashlight again, she checked on the eyes of her Kakuna, noting that the Compound Eyes ability was still present, as the light of her flashlight reflected in an odd way.

Once she was done, she put the tool down, “your pupils seem fine and you still have Compound Eyes Nitro!” Virah clapped, “that's a good thing and I'm sure that once you evolve you'll have the ability Sniper,”

Now all she needed was the move Focus Energy and her Beedrill would have a good chance at landing critical hits.

Virah continued the check up, she checked his belly, his head, and when all the results of Nitro's shell came back positive, Virah went on to carry him downstairs and to the nearby infirmary- for Pokemon and humans alike, - and checked on his weight as well as size.

And the results that came back were expected; Nitro was heavier and much more larger than the standard Kakuna found in the wild, and it must've been why Virah was heaving as she carried Nitro down the apartment building.

“Now I'm regretting that I didn't just put you back in your Pokeball earlier,” Virah tapped Nitro's Pokeball with an exasperated sigh, “well, at least you're in there now and I didn't have to carry you up the apartment building,”

Virah shuddered at the thought of carrying a Kakuna more than half her height up four flights of stairs.