Two days. It had been two days since their rangers exam started and Virah had adapted to the camping life as easily as Nitro did to his new immobile form as a Kakuna, things weren't really all that hard, and really, it was more or less the same as living in her apartment with the only thing changing for her being the fact that she was now sleeping with two other girls.

And that was it- cooking, sleeping in a cramped space, and waking up early in the morning were all staples of her life so far and well, not much of that has changed for her at the moment.

The occasional Pokemon that came by to “visit” their camp was also something that, as far as Virah knew, was a normal occurrence.

Ratata had been an odd constant in her apartment and Snubbulls as well as Houndours even passed by on the streets outside of the building on rare occasions, some were even strays. Grimers did too oddly enough, but unlike the canines, those were quickly taken care of by the Jennies.

Virah dropped the stack of logs she had carried from the depths of Ilex Forest to their camp, these were mostly dried branches with the occasional webbing from Bug Types, those were collected and used as tinder thanks to how easily they caught fire.

She walked away from their firewood pile and towards Grene and Whitney, “how long have you both been here?”

“Some time ago,” Whitney said in a defeated tone, she let out a sigh, “I- I can't do it- catching a Pidgey to be eaten sounds wrong,”

“... but we're running out of food?” Virah said with a pained crack accompanying her voice, she was just as empathetic as Whitney was when it came to eating Pokemon but by Ho oh the rations that the rangers allowed for each student to bring were small and theirs were starting to run out, “we need to eat, Whitney,”

Whitney pressed her hands on her face, “I knowwwwwww-” the pinkette whined, she put her hands away from her cheeks and eyed Virah, “- are you fine with killing a Pidgey?”

"... I'm not,” Virah looked away in guilt, “bu- but I'm sure we'll figure out a way to kill it!”

“That sounds wrong,” Grene said, then she pointed at the two small baskets of berries to her left, the same ones that she foraged, “but I think we'll be fine by eating berries right? So maybe we don't have to kill a Pokemon to survive?”

It was obvious that Grene was also hesitating to kill an innocent Pokemon… which was understandable- Virah didn't even think she could raise her hand against a Spinarak, let alone a Pidgey.

So how do they kill a Pokemon without feeling guilty?..

Virah sat down next to her friends and thought about that kind of thing for a while. She jogged her memories for something and eventually came back to all the times she took her Kakunas out to teach them about the wild, she dug through that and eventually got something that might work-

She remembered watching a Heracross decimate a wild Butterfree and then eating it back in the day and getting her friends to witness something like that should get them to be less empathetic to killing Pokemon right?

Virah got up, “okay, how about this- all of us will go out there to hunt something together?” She suggested while dusting herself off. Her friends turned to look at her, she smiled, “what? It's better than doing it alone right?”

Grene and Whitney locked gazes and a second passed, the martial artist turned to Virah and shrugged, saying, “I think it's a good idea,” Grene's eyes went back to Whitney, “you?”

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The pinkette groaned, “do I have to go?”

“Yeah,” Virah nodded, “or else you'll feel guilty about eating a Pokemon, this way it's all of us who gets blamed,”

Whitney groaned again, “okay- fine, I'll do it,” she conceded, “but it's not going to be me who's going to have to kill it, got that?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Virah waved her off and faced Grene, “well?”

The martial artist stood up with a grunt, “I never thought that I'd have to kill a Pokemon,” she complained with a frown, “but I guess it will have to happen eventually,”

“It will yeah,” Virah nodded, “the wilds are pretty unforgiving, especially if you go around the outskirts or even inside of Mt. Silver,” the poison specialist shook her head, “personally though? I wouldn't want to kill a Pokemon if I could help it but as things stand-” her stomach growled and she sheepishly smiled, “- I'm pretty hungry,”

“Well, I'm not-” Whitney's stomach decided to growl at that exact same moment, “well, I guess I am,” the pinkette sighed, “okay, let's go catch our Pidgey,”

Virah grinned, “that's the spirit!”

Grene stared at her, “you're oddly excited about this,”

“I'm not,” Virah refuted, “I just want to treat this lightly and with an open mind instead of worrying about it,”

“That sounds like your stomach talking,” Whitney said as she passed her by, “if you get a fat butt don't come to me alright? Because I'm already a cow and honestly, I don't know how to get these things off of me,” the pinkette pointed at her chest.

“Heh, as if,” Virah grinned, “I'm not going to be as thick as you, you-” Whitney already called herself a cow so the jibe wouldn't work as well, “- Tauros.”

Whitney faced her with a small grin, “you have nothing to say against my insult huh?”

“Y-yes I do!” Virah stuttered out, “I won't get fat like you- you Swinub!”

Their banter had been a good distraction during their walk and none of them thought about anything death related until they stopped in front of a pond- it was small, but at the same time, deep enough that the water stayed in the shallow basin without drying out.

A Poliwag sat inside all by its lonesome, it glared at them, “Wag!”

“Hi?” Virah waved to the critter as it continued its heated stare, “we're just passing through,”

The Poliwag let them pass without splashing anything on them. When they got far enough, Grene spoke up, “they're clearly smart enough to know that we're hunting them,” she said, “how do we know that they won't fight back or run away before we even get the chance to battle them?”

Virah shrugged, “I dunno,” she answered honestly, “but we'll probably figure it out,”

“Uhuh…” Grene drawled.

They passed by more creatures staying inside different places; from Spinaraks hiding behind leaves to a pack of Houndours stalking them from the darkness to an Oddish deciding to lug behind them.

All were wild, and none of them grabbed the interest of anyone from Virah's group, as most of the Pokemon were weak and clearly not meant for professional battling, and the Pokemon themselves thought so too because when Grene offered her Pokeball to a group of Poliwags living inside a decently sized lake, the group shook their heads in a united denial.

Eventually, they got to witness the very thing that Virah wanted them to see, it was a rarer occurrence than she had initially thought, and it took them a bit of walking before they saw something but they did soon enough-

Whitney tried to cover her gaping mouth with her hand as she stared in horror at the sight while Grene did her best to remain stoic but was clearly frowning and Virah, even after seeing it once, couldn't help but feel shivers climb up her spine as she watched a Scyther bite apart a poor Teddiursa's entrails.

Intestines covered in crimson blood drooped from its mouth, and droplets of blood fell from the bisected body parts as the Bug Type chewed them with its razor sharp teeth.

Virah felt that eating ramen didn't seem so appealing anymore when she saw the Scyther slurp up the intestines as though it was a piece of pasta.

She gulped in fear at the sight, and she tried not to look away when the Scyther flicked one of its scythes, blood was splashed on the foliage in front of it and Virah felt some land on her face.

Or maybe that was just a feeling- ‘sweat, it's sweat,’ she said to herself over and over again as the Scyther brought the arm that the Teddiursa was skewered through to its face, it opened its mouth, revealing a row of dagger-like teeth, not one was flat, and not one lacked edges.

It chomped down and right next to her, Whitney whined.

Virah thought they had seen enough and tapped the pinkette on the shoulder, “let's go,” she whispered and Whitney nodded, causing the tears streaming down her face to stray in their fall.

Slowly, they crept away and the rustling of bushes echoed out.

The Scyther watched them go, more than content on eating its current meal, it knew that they weren't alone because the scent of a Houndoom tickled its sharp senses, somewhere out there, the Fire Type watched it in vigilance and the Scyther wasn't stupid, it knew that the Houndoom was there to protect the kids and so, it didn't dare to pick a fight it couldn't win.

When Virah and the rest left the vicinity of one of Ilex Forest's apex predators, the ranger moved away and followed after them and the choking scent of the Houndoom disappeared.