Virah hummed.

Two weeks.

They have been here for two weeks, and to her shock, she actually got used to living in Ilex Forest after a while.

Things slowly became a habit and a schedule on what they needed to do everyday started to form at some point. By now, they were so comfortable in following that schedule that they had excess in resources, food, and time.

She looked to her left and smiled at Kitten as he cooked their meal.

The Meowth shot her a glare and let out a slow drawl of a purr that conveyed irritation for his job and complaints about how he's the one doing all the work.

Virah shrugged and turned away, Kitten has been complaining like that for a while now and honestly, by this point she was convinced that the feline was just joking every time he does that.

Or so she hoped, with Kitten though, anything could be a possibility.

Virah shifted her gaze somewhere to her right and observed Grene as she did katas and stances with her Pokemon, her eyes soon found Tyrogue, making her frown.

Tyrogue- or as Grene nicknamed him, Knuckle, - was being alienated by the rest of their Pokemon.

And it's not like Virah didn't understand where everyone was coming from, since Knuckle was owned by a criminal before this.

Still, she honestly thinks that the entire thing was a bit too much.

'Not that I can do anything about it,' she thought while swallowing a sigh, 'I'm sure that everyone will warm up to him eventually, it just needs more time to happen.'

She turned away from Grene and her Pokemon and looked at her own team. Nitro and Jet were currently sitting down underneath some tree.

The two of them were doing well when it came to their training.

Her Zubat especially since he started working harder once he realized that he didn't actually need to hunt, just exercise, and once he got to that conclusion, it didn't take long for Jet to exercise until he collapsed.

In fact, Jet was so exhausted after training that Virah had to carry him back to their tent every day.

'Not that exhaustion stops him from continuing to push himself,' Virah thought with a soft hum.

She casually eyed Jet as he did barrel rolls in the air, he fell and quickly stabilized himself. Then the Zubat flapped his wings for lift and once he flew high enough, he let himself drop for another barrel roll.

Virah turned away as Jet continued with his training.

She scanned the camp again and eventually found Whitney messing around with her Teddiursa on the right side of their tent.

Much like her, the pinkette had also gotten used to living in Ilex Forest and by this point, she was used to eating Pokemon but that wasn't enough to really convince her about continuing to eat them while they go on a journey.

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Virah wanted to tell her friend that the canned foods they were planning on buying were Pokemon to begin with but she didn't have the heart to do it, and besides, eating processed Pokemon is completely different from personally killing them.

And speaking of food, Virah looked away from Whitney to briefly inspect the small baskets of berries that they had managed to forage over the course of the exam.

Thanks to Jet's and Galeforce's help, most of the berries they had were of high quality, and not only that, they were also pretty varied.

From the top of her head, Virah knew that they had several chesto berries, cheri berries, as well as a few lum, leppa, and sitrus berries in their baskets.

The most abundant that they had by far though were pecha and oran berries and those were commonly used to make shakes, which, after drinking them every time they finished training, was something that everyone had taken a liking to.

Grene even offered to buy a blender once they got back to the city.

At some point Whitney had even suggested they find a Shuckle to make berry juice but Virah and Grene weren't keen on searching for one so the plan didn't become anything beyond a verbal exchange.

Other than foraging for berries, they have also hunted down Pokemon and they didn't go out of their way to really hunt them but their half-assed attempts at finding game did lead to them eating Pidgeys and Caterpies.

They even occasionally ate Oddishes- a Pokemon that Kitten surprisingly knew how to cook, - as well as a few odd ones.

Out of all the "strange" Pokemon that they had to eat though, Virah found Crabbies to be the most delicious.

She wasn't really one for seafood and the only Water Type she's eaten before this were Magikarp but she thought that the oddly soft and sweet Crabby meat was pretty good too.

It wasn't the crunchiness of a fried Magikarp, but the change in palette was welcomed.

Right now, Kitten was cooking another Pidgey, though instead of putting it in broth or steaming it like he usually did, the Pidgey was being roasted, and from the smell alone, Virah knew that their dinner was going to be nice.

She hummed.

'The two weeks just passed by in a blur huh?' she thought with a bit of sadness.

Honestly, she wasn't sure why but she always felt sad whenever she thinks about finishing the exam.

And maybe that's just some nostalgic part of her talking but she really didn't want to throw away what she and her friends had going here.

"Uwaaaaa~ I can't wait to leave this place next week!"

Well, Whitney clearly didn't mind getting out of here, and that was most likely because she wanted to go back to a bustling metropolis instead of staying in a forest.

At the thought of that, Virah was reminded that they were, quite literally, living in a primitive manner.

If they did stay here, it probably wouldn't take long for their tent to get ruined and when that time comes, she thought about how she would feel when she sleeps underneath the open skies while shivering from the cold air of the night.

'I'll definitely hate it,' she thought with a self-reflective frown.

She knew that she was only feeling temporary comfort and that the current satisfaction that she had right now would disappear at some point.

And honestly? She wasn't willing to wait for that to happen.

She wanted to leave this place while thinking about the fact that she'll actually lose something from doing so, even when she obviously wouldn't.

'If I decide to keep going somehow, I would stay in this forest for at least a few years before getting bored,' or maybe, her getting bored at living in Ilex Forest would come sooner than just "a few years" but there's really no real way for her to know.

"I can't wait to leave too honestly," Virah directed a smile at Whitney to further mask her casual lie.

Her beliefs and wants about staying here were wrong, so going along with Whitney's desire to leave this place as soon as possible is clearly the better option.

"Right?!" Whitney groaned as she sat next to Virah, "everything about this place is so icky!" Virah smiled and nodded but she kept her silence, "I mean, we have to forage for food everyday-"

Virah thought that was a pretty valid point, she did think that it was annoying for her to leave their camp every other day just so she could gather berries.

"- and then there's the fact that the forest is filled with dangerous Pokemon-"

That was also a good point, and one that she never really considered since they only hunted down weaker Pokemon like Pidgeys and Caterpies.

And not to mention, their safety was mostly because they had Rangers protecting them, and if those guys weren't here then...

Virah's thoughts went back to the night they encountered a Gengar and she felt her brittle smile go awry.

"- and like, I don't like it when we have to sleep in some stupid tent! I hate my sleeping bag! I want a soft bed!" Whitney exclaimed to Virah's slow nod of agreement.

"Yeah... I agree with you, I think leaving this place is a good idea," she didn't before, but she does now.

Virah leaned back, "I want to sleep in a bed," she smiled, wondering if she would see Ratata messing up her room when she got back, "and I also want to go to a Pokemart,"

"Me too!" Whitney chorused, "I find everything here so tedious and annoying, we're trainers, we're supposed to just go out in the wilds with supplies and catch Pokemon! And also battle them! Not all of this!"

Virah smiled, that was also another good point, there are no trainers other than them here is there? "I think this place is pretty lonely honestly,"

Whitney stopped ranting and tilted her head, "what do you mean by that?"

"We don't have other people to spar with," Virah replied, "and I feel like if I stay here any longer I'm going to become rusty and eventually forget how to actually battle professionally,"

"I guess?" Whitney said in confusion, "everything here is too easy to beat for my liking," she shrugged, "wait- I don't really care about that since I win a lot anyways, actually, I like it that everything here is so weak,"

"Maybe," Virah hummed, she faced the pinkette.

Come to think of it, Whitney and Grene are currently her best choices when she wants to "sharpen" her slowly dulling skills weren't they?

"Do you want to spar?" Virah suddenly asked.

"Sure," Whitney casually replied, "but just so you know, I won't go easy on you,"

"I think I'll like that honestly," Virah replied with a smile, "it's a battle then,"

"Yep!" Whitney pumped her fist.