Virah pushed a stray strand of hair from her eyes, pressed her chin against the palm of her resting hand, and let out a sigh. She was, right now, no different looking from a bored Mr. Mime. What with her legs crossed together, her elbow pressing against her leg, and her head resting against her arm, she struck the pose of someone thinking.

What? Exactly? Virah wasn't quite sure- or rather, she wasn't thinking of anything at the moment, she was bored while waiting for Grene to come out of the Dojo in front of her, Whitney was also missing, and because of that, the noise that Virah had been oh so used to for the past month had disappeared, and in its place was anxious silence.

She frowned, ‘where are they, anyway?’

Now that was a good question she was asking herself, because, in all honesty, Virah wasn't quite sure why her friends were late, as Whitney usually had an honest to Ho oh Pidgeot to fly her around wherever she wanted and Grene lived in the building in front of her.

Virah tapped Nitro's pokeball with her other hand, “Grene has no reason to be late, right?” She idly said while keeping an eye on the doors of the Dojo up front, “right Nitro? She has no reason to be late,”

The ball shook in reply and Virah sighed, “this is boring,”

She took out her notes on battle tactics and started reading, and after writing down several possible ways a battle against her current Pokemon- Nitro, - could play out, decided that this too was tedious and boring so she put down her notebook and grumpily glared at the doors of the Dojo.

Which, after a few more minutes of waiting, finally opened, and out came a Grene who looked like she had just finished taking a shower- something that Virah could relate to- half an hour ago.

The martial artist neared and bowed, “sorry for the wait,”

“Uhuh,” Virah said in a drawl, “that's all you have to say after not checking if I was out here?”

“... were you?” Grene's expression turned cautious, “because if you were…”

“I was,” Virah sighed, “now come on, we need to get going,” she got up from the sidewalk bench she had spent her past half hour on and stretched. She turned to Grene as they started walking, “what took you so long anyway?”

“Training,” Grene answered, “usually it ends during this time.”

“So wait… when you said that to come at this exact time you meant it?” Virah looked at Grene in barely hidden surprise and the martial artist in turn shot her a confused look of her own. Virah shook her head, “wow… I- Whitney really just screwed with my perception of social etiquette huh?”

“Because?..” Grene trailed off.

“Because I uh-” Virah shook her head, “it's not important, I think- but yeah-” she sighed, “- Whitney kinda told me that I needed to go 30 minutes before the agreed time to be “punctual” or whatever,”

“But we're meeting up casually?” Grene said with a tilt of her head.

Virah raised both her hands in exasperated surrender, “that's what I said!” She huffed, “- but even then, Whitney said that-”

“What did I say?” The pinkette said to their side and Virah blinked and stared at her friend as she casually sipped juice from a straw, Whitney blinked back, “I've been here since an hour ago,”

“... an hour ago?” Virah said to Whitney's nod. She pointed at the bench she had been waiting on, “I've been here since half.”

“Oh,” Whitney said in realization, “... I told Grene to tell you that we could have met on the ice cream shop near their Dojo though?..”

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“You didn't give me Virah's Pokewatch I.D,” the martial artist responded, deflecting the blame in the same way she told Virah how to parry blows with her elbow, efficiently.

“Yeah I did,” Whitney held her head high.

“And I just noticed that Virah doesn't even have a Pokewatch…” Grene trailed off.

“Which is why you should have checked- wait,” Whitney paused, “uh, I didn't actually tell you-”

“It's fine,” Virah's sigh cut into their back and forth and she shook her head at the pinkette, “let's just go to the battle plaza and start our Sunday,”

Nodding, the two girls walked alongside her, with Grene at the front and Whitney somewhere to the side, looking for a place to throw her berry juice. When they passed by a bench with a trashcan next to it, the pinkette loudly threw her empty plastic cup before facing her friends, “so… how do you guys feel about the ranger's exam tomorrow?”

“Confident,” Grene answered, “I'm going to ace it and then get the extended time out in the wilds, and with it, I'll search for powerful Pokemon that'll get me to the top of the Pokemon League,”

“Me too,” Virah nodded.

“I guess we all feel the same way then~" Whitney sing sang, the pinkette started skipping and she hopped onto Virah and put her arm around the green-head's shoulders, “we're going to be a great team together!”

Virah smiled, “I know,” she said as she pushed the arm away from her slowly dizzying head, “we're going to get to the top and all that,”

Personally though, Virah felt that counting one's exeggute before they turned into an Exeggucutor was a bad idea.

She didn't dare voice those words out and all three of them went on to make small talk until they reached one of the many battle plazas present across Goldenrod City; this one was slightly bigger than the one near Virah's apartment, with a wall of railings surrounding the place in a wide circle.

At the center was a circular patch of grassy land full of campers and on the edges, on the barren, grassless soil were large squares drawn on the earth using white paint- battle courts.

Some of them were used, some were free for use, but all had signs of Pokemon battles from days prior. Some of the battle courts had a “referee” waiting near them for any prospective battlers who wanted to hire them, Virah had tried doing that kind of job and she found it relaxing.

Or it was until the trainers decided that it was the referee who should decide the winner of a fight, and then things just get messy.

Virah looked away from them and to any possible opponent she might have, back in her local battle plaza, no one really wanted to fight her given that she and Nitro already had a reputation for being one of the strong ones, so challenges directed at her back there were either for rematches or from someone new to the area.

Here though? A lot of trainers battled her, and sure, most of their bets only reached up to 200 Pokedollars but it added up the more opponents she fought and right now, she was on her 8th opponent, two more and she'd be able to earn 2000 Pokedollars, after that, she'd head to a Pokemon Center to heal Nitro.

Not that it was needed for anything other than a check up since her Kakuna looked no worse for wear even after fighting 8 opponents with little to no breaks in between.

‘Or maybe I'll actually have to take him to a Pokemon Center after this,’ Virah thought in worry as Nitro took in a powerful Bubble Beam from the Crabby they were fighting.

The attack had caused Nitro to let out a cry in pain and if not for the purple glow that enveloped him 5 seconds later, Virah would have thought that she needed to end the fight with her trump card right then and there.

The Black Sludge, like all items, did wonders for Pokemon battles.

She focused on the one she currently had and eyed the Crabby, the Water Type was speedy, and the teenager it belonged to looked like he knew what he was doing- from the two badges hanging on the right side of his chest, Virah thought that he actually does.

Virah looked around the mostly empty battle court, there was nothing for her to do here, and using Electro Web now would just ruin the element of surprise for her trump card, and that goes double when she hasn't even fought a Flying Type yet- the one that she actually designed the move to be used against.

‘Terrain control sounds like a good idea,’ Virah considered and thought that the plan was solid- “Nitro, String Shot! Aim it at the ground!”

The Pokemon let out a cry of his name and started rapidly firing ropey strands of string on the surrounding battlefield. Large balls of white flew from his mouth and fell to the ground, shattering into a viscous heap.

“Kinze, Bubble Beam! Don't let your attack drop!” With a cry of its own, the Crabby started firing blue bubbles towards Nitro and Virah let it happen, hoping that she'll eventually get the opportunity to catch the stationary Crabby and its trainer off guard and get a single String Shot to successfully land.

After a single tick of Black Sludge, she waited, and then 3 seconds later, called out for Nitro to direct his String Shot at the still attacking Crabby and it thankfully landed.

The Water Type's trainer reacted quickly though- “Try to get out of it! Crabhammer!”

Now it was a race for time, Virah knew this well, “Nitro, pull yourself to the Crabby with String Shot and Bug Bite!” She ordered, “Bug Bite again once you're near enough!”

“Bubble Beam on the string Kinze! Intercept it!”

Her Pokemon followed and a thin line of string shot out from his mouth, his body then glowed green, and moments later, Nitro pulled himself towards the Water Type just as it got out, he reared his head back, his body glowing green.

“Meet the attack head on with Crabhammer!”

The Crabby swiftly responded and executed the move with reflexive ease.

The two attacks collided, kicking up a cloud of dust, but Virah knew the two of them were still fine- “Poison Sting then String Shot!”

And from the following order of her opponent, she knew that the teen felt the same way, “Bubble Beam! Point Blank!”

The cloud of dust broke apart and got pushed away by the air caused by Poison Sting and the Bubble Beam's collision, and afterward, the sound of something wet and sloppy echoed out as the Crabby got enveloped in webbing.

“Bug Bite!” Virah called out before her opponent.

“Crabhammer!”

The two attacks collided again, with Nitro being much faster this time while the Crabby was slow and stuck in webbing- it couldn't move to attack successfully and Nitro's Bug Bite connected in a loud crunch.

When Nitro pulled his head back, the sight of an unconscious Kinze revealed itself.