After their little heart to heart in a Munchies of all places, Nina explicitly told Patrick that she did not want to return home. “I’m scared of mom. There have been times where it felt like she’s more dangerous than any wild Pokemon I could ever encounter,” she said.

Nina did feel a little bad about throwing her mother under the bus like that, but she couldn’t get over Leanette’s manic eyes and that inhuman shriek she made during their last moment together.

It was a good thing that her father easily acquiesced to Nina’s demand and rented a hotel room that was near her school.

“I’m gonna head back home to pack up some of your things cause it looks like we’ll be in this for the long haul. I’ll leave Pikachu here with you for now, feel free to go to bed without me,” said Patrick.

Nina was worried for her father’s safety and strongly urged him to bring Pikachu along. “The hotel’s relatively safe. You need her more than I do.” But Patrick was quite firm in his rejection, saying that Pikachu couldn’t bring herself to hurt Leanette even if he ordered her to.

It was an excuse of course. Nina was confident that Pikachu would prioritize her trainer’s safety over his spouse. It was actually Patrick who could not bear to hurt his wife.

Therefore, it troubled Nina even more to find out that Patrick had returned in the middle of the night with a torn and bloody shirt, and scratch marks all over his body.

“This can’t go on, that woman needs to be locked up in an asylum or something,” thought Nina. Not that she knew if asylums even exist in this world. Psychic type pokemon have done wonders in managing psychiatric and mental health issues.

It might sound heartless, but she had only been living as Nina Jones for two years. Prior to that, she was a thirty year old working adult up til the unfortunate accident. Even an objective observer would agree that Leanette Jones was dealing with some nasty demons and was in need of urgent help.

That, and Nina did genuinely like Patrick. He was a good father and devoted husband, and she could not bear to see him suffer through such a toxic relationship.

“— Nina, Nina… Melina Jones!”

Nina was woken up from her stupor by the fervent calling of her teacher.

Roxy frowned at Nina’s inattentiveness. “Come see me in the faculty office later on.”

It was hard to get a read on Ms Roxy’s tone due to how distracted Nina was, so she simply nodded in acknowledgement, unsure if she was in trouble or not.

The rest of the class, however, snickered at their peer’s predicament. Clearly assuming that Nina was being punished for daydreaming.

***

“Here, I reached out to my alma mater and managed to get a list of reading recommendations that you requested,” began Roxy.

“Thank you,” replied Nina, in a half-hearted manner. She then glanced at the sheets of paper she was given and absent-mindedly flipped through them.

Roxy sighs. “Are you okay, Nina? I was never a genius so I could not even begin to relate. But I can understand that classes at this level must seem awfully dull for someone of your intellect. Nonetheless, as a student, it is important to show due respect and at least pretend to pay attention in class.”

Nina snapped her head back up to look at her homeroom teacher. “W-what?! No. That’s not the issue…” She sputtered, followed by an exasperated sigh.

Nina’s eyes glanced around, seeing that the office was relatively empty owing to the fact that it was now lunch break. She considered her words carefully, not wanting to be misunderstood.

“I… I need help, Ms Roxy. My mother… She’s not right in the head.” Nina’s eyes began to water to really sell the performance. It was all fake of course. She had learned early on in her new life how to effectively appeal to the adults around her.

Ms Roxy was none the wiser. Instead, she recognised the severity of Nina’s tone and beckoned her towards a private meeting room at the back.

Once they were properly settled, Nina began recollecting her family circumstances, taking care to put things into a perspective that was favorable towards her and Patrick, without demonizing Leanette too much. Instead, her mother was depicted more like a victim struggling with inner demons.

“Dad came back to the hotel room last night all bloodied and scratched up. He claimed he was attacked by a stray Meowth, but it was obvious he was lying. I know for a fact that it was mom who hurt him. But despite everything, he still loves her too much to take any meaningful action against her.” Nina took in a shaky breath before continuing.

“What he doesn’t seem to realize is that this isn’t something he can fix. He’s a bureaucrat, a paper pusher working for the League, not a medical professional. And mom is only going to keep getting worse if we continue indulging her like this,” she concluded.

Roxy leaned back against her chair, fingers rubbing on her chin as she was prone to do when she was deep in thought. “Do you mind if I report this to the principal?” She responded, after a period of silence.

“W-why?” Asked a seemingly nervous Nina. She was not actually nervous, but right now she was portraying a traumatized five year old and needed to be consistent.

Roxy gave the vulnerable girl in front of her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble, and neither are you parents. Rather, I agree with what you said about your mom needing help. But in order to help her, we might need to get some social workers involved. And for that, I need approval from the principal. Does that sound okay to you?”

Nina gave a hesitant nod. “It’s not dad’s fault…” she repeated. “He’s trying his best. It’s… It’s all my fault. This is all because of me…” Nina began choking up, her voice wavering.

“Oh sweetie…” Roxy got up and made her way to Nina’s side to pull her into an embrace. “Don’t you ever say that. It’s not your fault, do you hear me? You’re just a child, and an extremely courageous one at that. You’ve done your part, now let us adults take care of the rest.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Nina nodded once more, but deep down she was patting herself on the back for such an Oscar worthy performance. The die has been cast, now she just has to wait and see how competent the school is and take it from there. Everything up to this point was pure improv, Nina did not exactly think her actions through, so she could not help but feel nervous about how her parents would react.

Turns out, things progressed faster than she had anticipated. Nina was surprised to find her father waiting for her after school. Apparently, he had gotten a call from the principal and was asked to come in for a meeting.

Nina wasn’t allowed to sit in with the adults, which suited her just fine. Instead, Mr Larry, the PE teacher was called in to help distract Nina with an impromptu lesson on Pokemon battles.

“Ms Roxy mentioned you wanted to attend trainer school right?” Asked Margaret, the heavyset woman who acted as the principal of Nina’s elementary school.

Nina nodded enthusiastically in response.

Margaret gave her a motherly smile. “Well it just so happens that Mr Larry here used to be quite the pokemon trainer back in his day. He even managed to reach the top 128 during his conference run. Why don’t you head out to the courtyard with him and get some pointers while we speak with your father.”

For context, top 128 in the Indigo Plateau Conference meant that Larry only managed to get past the preliminaries, which isn’t really that impressive. But Nina was happy all the same. After all, beggars can’t be choosers.

***

“Right then, kiddo. Pick your Pokemon.” Instructed Larry, as he presented three identical looking Pokeballs in front of Nina.

The Pokeballs were slightly opaque which afforded Nina a glimpse inside its contents. But she could only make out vague silhouettes. It reminded Nina of her past childhood where there was always a “Who’s that Pokemon?” segment in each episode of the anime.

“Can I ask what’s in each Pokeball?”

Larry gave a hearty laugh before responding. “Nope, either ya figure it out with the clues I gave ya or pray to Arceus ya get a Pokemon ya want.”

Nina frowned, it was hard to discern anything from just the silhouette. So instead, she turned her gaze towards her PE teacher for some context clues.

“Let’s see here… Larry’s sporting a buzzcut and a green tracksuit. In terms of physique, he’s muscular but not overly so. He has a band-aid over the bridge of his nose and… Are those calluses on his knuckles?”

It wasn’t good to stereotype someone like this. Nina reminded herself that this was real life and not a game, but it wasn’t like she had anything else to work with. “So either Fighting, Rock, or Normal. Maybe even a Ground type specialist.”

Nina rotated each of the three pokeballs for further inspection. “This one is likely a Geodude with its arms crossed… This one’s tricky, Nidorina/Nidoran maybe? This one is definitely Rattata.”

After a brief deliberation, Nina went with the one she believed to be a Geodude. She was tempted to grab the one that could be either a Nidorina or Nidoran, since Nidoking was one of her favorite pokemons, but ultimately decided against it. The silhouette was too ambiguous to know for certain. Whilst she was fairly confident with Geodude and its battle capabilities.

Larry grinned. “Last chance to change your mind.”

Nina snorted, as if she would fall for such obvious mind games. “Nope, I’m sticking with my choice.” She declared confidently.

The two of them then went to opposing sides of the field that Larry had drawn out beforehand using chalk.

“Whenever you’re ready!” Declared Larry.

Nina took in a deep breath and clicked on the tactile button of her borrowed Pokeball to expand it. “First real Pokemon battle of my life. How exciting!”

She wound up her arm and tossed out the Pokeball with all her might. “Go, I choose you!”

Larry tossed out his Pokeball at the same time, and what appeared on the field after a flash of light was Geodude on Nina’s side, as she expected, and Nidoran on Larry’s side.

“Dammit!” Cursed Nina. “I wanted a Nidoran.”

Larry let out another hearty laugh. “Well too bad, don’t say I didn’t warn ya.”

Nina sighed. “No point crying over spilled milk.”

“Battle will start once this rock hits the ground!”

“Wait!” Yelled Nina. “I don’t know what moves my Geodude has.”

Larry scratches his head in embarrassment. “Right, my bad. This particular Geodude knows Tackle and Defense Curl.”

Nina stifled a groan. “It would have been nice to have Rock Polish at least. Welp, we work with what we’ve got.”

Larry tossed the rock in his hand… And the moment that it landed, Nina called on Geodude to use Defense Curl.

In response, Geodude crossed its arms in an X shape to guard its body. Its levitation also ceased being as wobbly and became more steady, almost like the rock pokemon has been fixed to that exact point in space.

“Keep your eyes on Nidoran and remain steady, I’ll call out when you need to attack,” instructed Nina, her voice just loud enough to be heard by Geodude and no one else.

“Well what’re ya waiting for?! We ain’t got all day,” taunted Larry. But Nina ignored him and just kept waiting for the PE teacher to make the first move.

“Don’t mind if I do then. Nidoran, use Peck!”

Nidoran charged towards his opponent at maximum speed, a dim glow began emanating from his juvenile horn as it slowly started to accumulate Flying Type Energy.

“Steady… steady…” muttered Nina. And right as Nidoran launched itself from the ground, and soared towards Geodude, Nina called it. “Now! Use Tackle!”

Geodude rushed forwards to meet its opponent, arms still crossed as the two pokemon collided in mid-air. The sound of hammer on nails could be heard as Nidoran was sent flying back towards Larry’s side of the field with a pained yelp.

Meanwhile, Geodude remained solid as a rock (pun intended), and was only pushed slightly back from the recoil.

What Nina had done there was effectively time Geodude’s Tackle to be used as a pseudo-Counter. She was aware that Peck, being a Flying type move, would necessitate a bit of air time at the end, leaving Nidoran vulnerable, especially since he did not have actual wings to maneuver away from the attack.

Larry hummed. “No wonder Roxy calls you a genius. That’s a really smart use of Tackle and Defense Curl,” he commented, as he started shadow boxing on the other end of the field. “The principles of a counter punch in boxing involves using the opponent’s own force against them. A high risk, high reward move where timing is key. Not bad… Not bad at all…”

Despite her reservations, Nina still blushed at her teacher’s compliment. It was good to know that all the time she spent reviewing battle footage was duly rewarded.

“But don’t get too cocky just yet,” warned Larry. “Come a little closer, Nidoran,” he instructed, as he knelt down closer to the poison pin pokemon. Larry then proceeded to do what Nina did earlier and spoke in a volume that was only audible to his pokemon.

Nina frowned and told Geodude to resume Defense Curl. It was evident that her Geodude did not come off from the previous exchange completely unphased, given how its levitation was noticeably less stable. Its arms also seemed a little shaky as compared to how they were not too long ago.

“Alright Nidoran, class is in session,” said Larry, signaling a resumption of the battle. “Go ahead and use Peck again.”

Nina frowned, “Surely this guy isn’t dumb enough to use the same approach, right?” Regardless, there was not much that Nina could do except tell Geodude to hold steady. The Rock pokemon was simply too slow to compete with Nidoran. Chasing after the purple Poison Type would only serve to cede the flow of the battle.

Just like last time, Nidoran charged up his momentum and launched itself off the ground. However, this time around, the moment that Nina yelled for a Tackle, the gaze of the Poison type took on a sharp glint, causing a momentary sense of discomfort to wash over both Geodude and Nina.

That brief interruption was enough to dampen Geodude’s momentum and cause his defensive arms to falter slightly, barely exposing an opening where Nidoran could push through and slam his glowing horn into Geodude’s torso.

The rock pokemon was sent flying back towards Nina, prompting her to clumsily fall to the ground to avoid being smashed by the sentient boulder.

“Geodude was sent out of bounds. Winner of the match is Nidoran!” Yelled Larry, declaring himself the victor.

Nina was absolutely horrified by what she had just experienced. But regardless, she still dusted herself off and went to check on Geodude. She recognised that it wasn’t the Rock pokemon’s fault she nearly got a concussion, Geodude did not intend to harm her.

“Was that Leer?” Asked Nina, when Larry came over to check on her.

“Yeap. Good eyes. Get it? Eyes. Cause Leer?” Larry guffawed at his terrible joke, while Nina just groaned.

She had always assumed that Leer was one of those nonsensical moves that were only applicable in the games, but turns out there were also some Type Energy shenanigans going on. Because that feeling of discomfort she was subjected to was definitely irregular.

“People often look down on ‘weak moves’ like Leer, Tail Whip and Splash, among others,” lectured Larry. “But experienced trainers know that these moves, if used correctly, can often be used to catch your opponent off guard and tip the battle towards your favor.”

Nina nodded, scribbling Larry’s advice down onto a notebook which she had taken out at some point.

“You’re pretty much there already with how well ya used Tackle earlier. Ya just need more experience and in-depth knowledge,” advised the PE teacher. “Honestly, if you’re already so good at this age, I can’t wait to see how far you’ll go in another decade or so.”

Nina thanked Larry for his guidance and returned Geodude. She left school that day feeling a deep sense of fulfillment for finally being able to experience a bonafide Pokemon battle.