Grene hummed as she walked alongside Whitney towards Virah's room.

Today was the day their friend was supposed to start her physical therapy and as a show of support, the two of them decided to spend this particular morning cheering her on.

Both she and Whitney were wearing workout clothes in advance though since they'll have to leave eventually to start exercising.

And speaking of exercise, Whitney has actually made a decent amount of progress in her cardio, at the start, Whitney could barely keep up with Grene's light jogs but now, after just a few days of exercising, the pinkette had started to not just keep up, but also go beyond it.

"What do you think Virah is thinking right now?" Whitney's question made Grene focus back on the present, she faced the pinkette, "Virah looked sad when we were talking about her getting hospitalized yesterday right?"

"I think that's normal," Grene replied, dismissing the pinkette's unnecessary worries, "anyone who's been hospitalized will look like that when talking about their situation I think,"

Grene wasn't really sure though since she's never experienced getting hospitalized herself and this is also her first time having someone close to her get sick enough to be bedridden.

"Yeah but Virah usually ignores it when we talk about stressful things right?" Whitney said.

Grene reluctantly nodded, "... I guess," she said, remembering that Virah was particularly pragmatic when it comes to these kinds of things, "but I'm sure that she's... fine. Probably." Grene replied thoughtfully, "Virah wouldn't let this kind of thing affect her that much,"

"What about you?" Whitney suddenly asked.

"Me?.." Grene pointed at herself, that was a good question; assuming that she gets as sick as Virah, how would she get affected by it mentally?

Grene turned her gaze to the ceiling and hummed, "I'll probably be fine, I think," she answered while sounding unsure, "I won't really know unless I experience it for myself though,"

"Just think that you have," Whitney said, "we have two more floors before we reach Virah anyways,"

"Right..." Grene nodded, "well, if, let's say, that I get as sick as Virah and become hospitalized like her right now, I'll probably..." she paused and thought her answer through, "wallow, I think, but not for long,"

Personally, she'll probably feel sad for a day or two but she wouldn't let that kind of thing slow her down since she knows she'll recover at some point anyway, and that her stay in the hospital will only be temporary.

"That's an obvious answer," Whitney replied with a smile, "I think I'll probably cry too," the pinkette softly smiled, "but after that I'll also stop crying and just wait until I get discharged so that I can finally start my journey,"

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Mhmm." Grene hummed, "speaking of that... Virah has one week before we get to start our first gym battle right?" She asked and when Whitney nodded followed by shooting her a curious look, she elaborated further, "do you think she'll be able to heal well enough by then?"

"I think so," Whitney replied, "she'll still be thin, but if she can walk then we're fine, she can just gain weight during our journey,"

Which meant they need to buy more food, and Virah would also need to take breaks as they go through the wilds, and if she's physically weak enough that she couldn't run, then they would need to avoid going to the deeper parts of the routes since getting attacked by a powerful Pokemon they can't beat would be a death sentence.

Those are the bare minimum that they needed to do while Virah recovers but after that things should be smooth sailing.

"We need to be careful at the start of our journey then," Grene said.

"What do you mean?" Whitney tilted her head, "why do we need to be careful?"

"Because Virah wouldn't be able to outrun a Scyther if one decided to attack us," Grene explained, using the only Pokemon Whitney has seen draw blood as a prime example.

And it worked since the pinkette's face lost color and she nodded, "right, that's a bad idea,"

"Mhmm." Grene nodded, glad that she got her point across the otherwise hard headed Whitney, "we also need to make sure that we're in contact with the rangers at all times, which means Ilex Forest and Union cave is not going to be an option for a while,"

"I'm fine with that," Whitney replied, "I don't like forests and caves anyways,"

"Good point," Grene nodded, "another thing that we need to do is actually train more than just our Pokemon since if we're going to go around fighting Team Rocket-"

"Wait what?" Whitney faced her, "where did you get that idea from?"

"I thought you wanted to fight Team Rocket?" Grene said, did she misinterpreted Whitney's words when she said that she wanted to bring the criminal group to justice?

"Wait- yeah, we need to fight them if we want to bring them down don't we?" The pinkette hummed, "alright, I think I get it,"

"Right... well, if we want to take down Team Rocket, we need to train ourselves too, maybe even spar with our Pokemon," the martial artist explained, "don't worry, sparring with their own Hitmons is a normal thing for martial artists to do,"

"I know," Whitney replied, "I've seen people like you fight their own Machoke's and stuff occasionally,"

"Right," Grene nodded, "next... I think we also..." she paused in thought, "actually I think that's it, we need to be careful while Virah is still recovering, then we need to train ourselves so we can fight Team Rocket more efficiently,"

"Sounds easy enough," Whitney grinned, "I'm sure we'll be able to bring those criminals to justice in no time!"

Grene chose not to voice out anything as Whitney started to babble on about how she would defeat Team Rocket and make the two regions of Johto and Kanto into a safer place. It was a rant that, despite being borne out of kindness, Grene couldn't really sympathize with.

After all, the world is far more complex than how Whitney interprets it as, and taking down a criminal organization is harder than what's portrayed on TV- the most likely source for Whitney's beliefs in regards to this kind of topic.

But sadly, Grene couldn't also blame Whitney for everything since, at the end of the day, she did want to fight Team Rocket for hurting her friend.

But she knew she couldn't really take them down for good even if she tried, because if the rangers and police have struggled with them for years, what chance do they- three little girls on the first year of their journey, - have?

Slim to none.

That's the best estimate of their chances.

Sure, they could probably take down an operation or two, maybe remove a few of their safe houses if they tried but how would they even go about doing that?

How many investigations would they have to do in order to get the barest hint of a hideout? How much time would they have to dedicate?

And do they even have that kind of time? Can they invest a good portion of their journey into finding Team Rocket hide outs?

Should they?

Grene asked herself that- should she waste time fighting a criminal organization and risking her life instead of finishing her journey and trying to become an Elite Trainer?

She could... maybe get some people to join her parent's dojo if she took down a hideout but at the same time...

Grene frowned when she remembered the reason for why Virah was in the state that she is now.

Team Rocket can hit her family if she ever does something so stupid and that meant what?

That... they needed to hide their identities if they want to fight Team Rocket because if they don't, the organization would attack their families and Grene was sure that even if Whitney's father was a Gym Leader, the man wouldn't be able to fight back against a swathe of grunts attacking him at the same time.

Hiding their identity is a given and the most vital thing they needed to do when they go about their plans on fighting the criminals.

But how would they do something like that?

Grene turned her gaze to the side and saw a Ninja sitting with a straight posture on a bench to their left, the young woman with purple hair looked as rigid as a Sudowoodo as she sat there motionlessly.

Grene's gaze shifted upward and she saw the mask partially covering the underside of the woman's face and like clockwork, her head connected the dots and she had the perfect idea on how they would hide their identities.