“J-just keep holding him steady okay?” Virah shakily held the knife Whitney handed to her while staring the Caterpie down. And the Bug Type in response glared at her while struggling to get out of Hollie and Kitten's grip.

“Machop!” Hollie said with a carefree grin, the fighting type was even encouraging Virah to go on by nodding.

“Mroww~" Kitten, meanwhile, taunted Virah with a smirk, clearly enjoying the constipated look the human had while staring at the Pokemon that was about to be their meal with barely hidden hunger.

“I can do this,” Virah's eyes looked away from the Caterpie for a split second to stare at her friends and she saw Whitney covering her eyes- while also opening them a tad bit so she could see what was happening, - with her hands while Grene just looked on impassively, or was trying to but the curled fists on either side of her person clearly told the entire story of how she felt.

Virah took a deep breath- she knew that her friends wouldn't be able to kill the Pokemon themselves and it was her job to do it. She nodded in resolution, “I can do this,”

A brave step forward was a good start in her book, and she took another- and unfortunately, she didn't see the outstretched foot of Kitten, causing her to stumble and fall and before she knew it, she felt the knife she was holding dig into flesh- she heard a scream followed by a whine and blood was on her shirt and- she was breathing hard- and- and-

Another whine entered her ears and Virah snapped out of her panic to stare at the bleeding Caterpie, who was still struggling even with a knife embedded in its belly- “C-Caterpie!” Its nose glowed white and it was about to shoot out a String Shot when Kitten slapped its face, “C-Caterpie!”

“Mroww~" Kitten's saccharine tone slithered into Virah's ear and then a paw touched her hand.

Virah sucked in a lungful of air, “right, I- I guess I should end its misery,” she pulled out the knife and then placed it on top of the head of the now screaming Caterpie, it struggled while trying to keep its head away from the pointed tip of Virah’s weapon.

Virah exhaled, “Here goes-”

Fake Out struck her then and the knife plunged deep into the Caterpie's head without her knowing- Virah let go of the handle and stumbled backward, she crawled away, chest heaving up and down.

She stared at the corpse of the Pokemon- and- and something warm was running down her cheeks- what- “oh Ho oh-”

Hollie's hand touched her cheek and Virah turned to the Machop, “Machop,”

“I- yeah, I did,” Virah nodded.

“Machop.” Hollie patted her back, “Machop!”

Even as the Fighting Type congratulated her, Virah's only thought is that what she did didn't deserve praise.

With Hollie's help, Virah slowly got up and she went back to her friends while shaking.

“I-” she couldn't finish what she was going to say before a weeping Whitney suddenly hugged her, and Virah realized at that moment that the whines didn't come from the Caterpie, it was from her friend. Virah rubbed the pinkette’s back.

“It's okay,” she said softly.

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It was their Pokemon who had prepared the Caterpie for them, and Virah didn't know where Kitten had learned how to cook or why Hollie was so good at chopping the Bug Type into tiny pieces but she… was glad, honestly- she- she wasn't sure if she could stomach cutting the Caterpie anymore than she did.

All three trainers only watched as their Pokemon cooked, and even Whitney, who would commonly scold Kitten when he took more than he should foodwise, didn't say anything when the Meowth grabbed a berry for himself in the open. The Meowth didn't even try to hide it and Whitney still didn't say anything.

Eventually, after around 15 minutes of waiting, a nice smell wafted out of the pot, it had the strong smell of pecha as well as the dry scent of oran, the two most common berries that the girls found on their foraging.

“I- is it cooked?” Whitney asked shakily and got a dry stare from Kitten in response. She laughed nervously, “I- I guess it is,”

Reluctantly, they neared the pot and waited for the Meowth to serve them a piece of the Caterpie, it was… pretty big, around the size of Virah's fist? No, it was larger than that, she realized that after comparing it directly. The flesh of the Pokemon must have sucked in the soup of the pot and grew big because of that, it oddly reminded Virah of tofu-

She shook her head, ‘this is a Pokemon, it's better if I face that directly instead of avoiding it,’

Virah grabbed her spoon and slowly, she cut a small piece, it went up till it neared her nose and the aroma that she smelled made her stomach growl- but her heart wasn't in it-

“Mroww~” Virah met Kitten's eyes and put the spoon in her mouth without hesitation or time for second thoughts- she blinked.

“Huh,” she said after she gulped down the rather delicious flesh of the Caterpie, “I- I hate to say it but it actually tastes kind of… good?”

“Agreed,” Virah turned to Grene and saw that her own piece had a large chunk taken out of it, “it's soft, and mellow, like the fat of a Pilloswine,” the martial artist said, “my compliments to the chefs,”

Up front, Hollie, who had been eating in silent contentment, raised her spoon and shouted her name, “Machop!”

Kitten just let out a soft purr of contentment in response to the compliment and Virah considered that- she smiled, just now realizing that Kitten had respected Grene all this time.

Whitney, meanwhile was… eating with eyes closed, tears still streamed out of them though, “w-why does it taste so good?!”

Virah chuckled, “I think it's because of the pecha berry's sweetness mixing with the cheri berry's spiciness,”

“Mhmm.” Grene said, “that- and I guess Kitten had also used the weird antenna thing Caterpies have as a broth of sorts? He placed it there alongside the few cheri berries that we had,”

“Mroww~" Kitten purred in agreement.

“See?” Grene gestured towards the Normal Type, “he did think it through… but now I'm actually kind of curious about how your Meowth knows how to cook Whitney,”

“Well, he uh, kinda sits on our kitchen counter every time my mom cooks so…” Whitney trailed off.

Grene nodded, “that makes sense,” she replied with a smile, “and it's a better reason than me teaching Hollie swordplay,”

“Is that why your Machop knows how to use the knife so well?” Virah asked, Grene nodded, “huh,”

Virah's gaze went to the Kakuna silently eating the soup and meat Virah had given him. Nitro will turn into a Beedrill one day, or one of these days even, that's just obvious, but that also begs the question- how will he learn to use his drills more efficiently?

The answer to that is simple; get Hollie to teach him sword play!

“Say, do you think your Machop can teach Nitro how to use a sword?” Virah turned to Grene.

“I think so?” The martial artist eyed the golden colored pupa, “yeah, I think it's possible- but why?” Grene returned Virah's question, “Beedrills are already you know, kinda adept at using their natural weapons?”

“It's better if he has moved to go by I think,” Virah replied, “and since you know, it's mostly us who uses swords during battle, I think it makes sense that we can teach a Beedrill how to parry, swing, or stab with their weapons more effectively, right?”

“I guess,” Grene admitted with a shrug, “but don’t put your trust in me to do that, or even Hollie, we're the punching kind of martial artist so we're not that good at swordplay,”

“It's fine,” Virah waved her friend's concerns off, “it doesn't have to be good, just enough for Nitro to you know, have some foundation he can either build off of or, when I find a better tutor, something he can learn more from? I guess? I don't really know how to describe it,”

“You want him to learn the basics so that when you find a proper sword master, all he has to do is learn from him?” Grene guessed.

“That.” Virah nodded, “took the words out of my mouth honestly,”

The martial artist smiled, “I think I can do it,”

“I think Kitten can also teach your Beedrill,” Whitney chimed in, “he's used to using his claws during fights and also, he's very agile, making him the perfect sparring partner for your own starter,”

“I agree,” Grene nodded, “it's a good idea,”

“It is, yeah,” Virah hummed in consideration, “so since we're already talking about it, uh, how do you guys feel about talking about team composition? I think it's a pretty good idea since this exam is the perfect time to grab a potential team member,”

“I think so too but I want a Poliwag, or maybe a Mankey?” Grene said in thought.

“It's better than finding Pokemon to eat them at least,” Whitney said, adding, “but… this also tastes good so- ugh!”

Virah laughed at her friend's frustration. The Caterpie does taste good though.