“Artoria, Bubble Cloud!”
Nina and Tini watched as Fuyumi’s Krabby spewed bubbles into the air and all throughout the arena, obscuring the crab Pokemon from view.
Nina couldn’t help but whistle at the sight. Artoria had always been really good at producing bubbles, but to think that her junior managed to modify Bubble Beam in this way was genuinely impressive.
“Unfortunately there’s a flaw to this move,” she thought, as evident by the mild irritation that Tini was exhibiting everytime a bubble made contact and popped against him. “She’s sacrificing damage for utility.”
The source of Bubble Beams damage was in the sheer density of it, creating a pseudo explosion from the chain reaction of bubbles popping. Scattering them like this completely mitigates that aspect of the move.
“Get in there and smash him down, Artoria!”
Taking advantage of the visual camouflage, Artoria used Aqua Jet to dash in towards Tini at a weird angle and slammed a Metal Claw at the Dragon like a hammer.
Unfortunately, the attack missed when Tini gracefully danced around the Krabby, Causing the Metal infused claw to slam into the arena instead. The Dragon had been diligently practicing the use of Dragon Dance as an evasive maneuver, but without infusing himself with Dragon Type Energy. It took a lot of self control, but his admiration for Kingsley made him too impatient to wait for Nina to come of age.
“Just cause I promised you the first five moves, doesn’t mean Tini will just sit still and let Artoria hit him,” taunted Nina, in response to her junior’s frustration. “That’s four by the way, including the Swords Dance which I did catch Artoria sneakily using. You’ve got one move left, think carefully.”
Fuyumi clicked her tongue and glared at Nina, brows furrowed in contemplation about what to do next. “Harden and Endure, Artoria!”
Nina laughed out at her junior apprentice’s cheekiness when Artoria’s shell started gleaming like metal. It seemed as if Fuyumi had unknowingly taught her Pokemon Iron Defense by substituting Normal Type Energy with Steel Energy when hardening. “I wonder if she knows, I’ll ask later.”
“Alright, Tini. Let’s wrap this up by trying out your new Double Pulse,” called Nina. This was a new move that her Dratini had been working on as of late. Since Tini was able to combine Dragon Tail and Aqua Tail, It stands to reason that he would be able to do the same with Dragon Pulse and Aqua Pulse.
“Tiiin!” Tini cried, as a swirly ball of water formed around his mouth, gradually being condensed into a smaller form before eventually being enveloped by a shell of purple draconic flame. Then with another cry, Tini shot the deadly projectile at his opponent in an audible whoosh as the Double Pulse zoomed towards Artoria at a mind boggling speed.
An explosive noise rang out all across the sub-arena as Artoria was sent flying out of the arena and impacted against the opposing wall. The Krabby was still conscious thanks to endure, but was just a fingers flick away from passing out.
“You did good,” Nina said to the pouting Fuyumi, while they were waiting for Artoria to be healed in the Pokemon Center. They could have used the transfer station, but the senior apprentice judged that it was best for Fuyumi to get some air after a frustrating loss.
“That was a creative use of Bubble Beam, quite good for setting the field. I can see it being very useful when you’re up against a Fire Pokemon. Also, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but that hardening move was actually Iron Defense and not Harden, since Artoria used Steel Type Energy.”
Nina gave Fuyumi a smile and a gentle pat on the head. “Keep up the hard work, I can already tell that Artoria is waaay stronger than he was just a few months ago.”
Fuyumi’s pout became even more pronounced as she narrowed her eyes at Nina. “What’s the point…” She whined. “Artoria still lost in a single hit. I should’ve told him to keep attacking instead of defending.”
Nina chuckled and pulled Fuyumi into a hug. “Don’t be like that… I’ve been with Tini for three years now, while you’ve had Artoria for only about a year. You’re making good progress and that’s what counts.”
She then proceeded to give Fuyumi more advice, such as how she should’ve stuck with Iron Defense and Aqua Jet to maneuver around Tini’s attacks instead of staying in place. “Train your Pokemon to use any empowering moves passively. Just like how I’m training Espy to use Calm Mind.
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“Or you could incorporate them into Artoria’s movement like the way Kingsley uses Dragon Dance. I’m sure Artoria can learn to do the same with Swords Dance, that way it’s not as obvious to your opponent.”
Fuyumi nodded, already letting go of her frustrations in favor of self improvement. It was the girl’s best trait, the fact that she just never gives up.
On the other hand, Natsumi was more like a performer with the way that she puts a lot of emphasis on her Goldeen’s form when using moves. The girl cared a great deal about how beautiful her Pokemon looked when battling as opposed to the effectiveness of each move.
She even volunteered Pururu for the monthly shows completely pro bono. Which as it turns out, the girl just didn’t know that Tini was getting paid for his work. When Nina found out about it, she gave quite an earful to Daisy and advocated that she compensate Natsumi properly, even if the girl was too naive to ask for it herself.
“Alright, let’s buy some pudding for Natsumi on our way back to the Gym,” said Nina. “She’s been working real hard lately and deserves a reward.”
“What about me…?” Fuyumi whined her eyes fully in Baby-Doll mode. The cheeky twins have clearly been learning a little too much from their senior apprentice.
Nina giggled and pulled Fuyumi in for another hug. “Of course, you can get whatever you want as well. My treat.”
“Yay!” Exclaimed the girl, her adorable face beaming in happiness.
“Is this what it’s like to have little sisters? I get it now Bev, I really do.”
***
Nina walked out of the exam center while stretching her arms, her joint audibly popping from the strain.
A trainer license could only be issued when a person came of age at ten, but it was perfectly fine to take the exam early. In fact, most kids do, just to avoid delaying their journey or have enough time to retake the exam if they fail.
“I honestly don’t get how anyone could fail such a simple test. You’d think everything should be common sense to people who grew up in a world filled with Pokemon. Or maybe they just take everything for granted here.”
Nina said hi to some of her classmates who greeted her and briefly joined in on their circle of misery as the children all reflected on what they did wrong in the exam.
“I can’t believe I misspelled my name on the answer sheet, do you think they’ll fail me for that?” Said one of the boys.
Another boy laughed out loud. “How do you even mess up your name, bro?! That’s hilarious.”
“It’ll be fine,” assured a girl in glasses. “They identify the worksheet using a barcode at the top that’s tied to your seat number and personal ID. It’s to prevent people from cheating by swapping out the sheets you know? So it’s likely they’ll just deduct a couple of points for your mistake.”
“But what if those couple of points are what I need to pass? I’m DOOOOMED!” Cried the first boy.
“How did you do, Nina?” Asked one of her classmates.
“Hmm. Oh, fine I guess. I mean a lot of it was already covered in class anyway.”
The girl who engaged Nina nodded in return. “Yeah, you’ve always been super smart so this was probably easy for you. A bunch of us are going to go to Munchies later and hang out, do you wanna come?”
Nina shook her head with an apologetic look. “Sorry guys, I have the Gym Trainer Qualification Exam in half an hour, so I’ll have to pass.” She had scheduled the two exams for the same day because she didn’t want to bother making repeat trips to the exam center.
The circle of kids all gaped at Nina’s statement. “Wow… Are you gonna become a Gym Trainer, Nina? That’s so cool!” Said one of them.
“Make sure to go easy on me when I go to the Cerulean Gym, okay?” Said the girl in glasses from earlier. Though Nina could sense a hint of jealousy from her tone.
“Does this mean you’re going to be a mermaid?” Asked another girl with sparkly eyes. Nina recognised her as that one girl who said she wanted an Abra from some time ago. It seems that she has quite a severe case of celebrity-worship.
“Nah,” denied Nina. “I wanna become an explorer. I’m only taking the exam because Misty asked me to. The Gym can get very short-staffed at times, so they want me to come back and help out from time to time. Can’t do that if I’m not qualified,” she explained, before making a move to leave.
“Anyways, I gotta go now. Hope you guys have fun at Munchies!”
The Gym Trainer Qualifications were fairly straightforward as well and rather basic. “But I suppose, just because you have the certificate, doesn’t mean a Gym is necessarily going to hire you.” Much like Nina’s past life actually, having a university degree becomes somewhat redundant when all people care about are abstract metrics like experience.
The most interesting part about the GTQEs is actually the practical portion of the exam. As expected of a Gym Trainer, one needed to be a competent battler. And so, to ensure an even matchup, every examinee was allowed a choice of loaners to battle with.
The matchups were a series of random one on ones and victory was irrelevant. The judges only care about how well you commanded your loaner Pokemon in battle.
Some of the examinees there actually grumbled about not being able to use their personal team. To which the invigilators present responded by mercilessly failing them on the spot and kicking them out of the exam venue.
“In case some of you are still ignorant about why those fools were kicked out. It’s because in a Gym setting, Gym Trainers are not allowed the use of their personal Pokemon when assessing a challenger. All Pokemon used by Gym Trainers are technically loaners registered under the Gym in which they serve. The only exception to this rule would be a Gym Leader during Star battles, for obvious reasons,” said the invigilator, before ending with a muted “unbelievable…”
Nina picked a Marill as her loaner due to her familiarity with the species from her work. And frankly, the actual battle itself was too underwhelming to even note. The first person she faced was using an Oddish, but they commanded it like someone who had just started on their journey, simply spamming moves without much complexity.
Nina’s Marill easily outmaneuvered the Oddish’s Razor Leaf and took it out with a Slam. It was clear to her that Nina had been underestimated by the older examinees in the venue due to her youthful look. But eventually those haughty looks gave way to trepidation when rumors started to spread that she was a Gym Apprentice, which then turned into panicked desperation for whoever was facing her next due to her unbroken win streak.
The invigilator huffed at the end of the practical exam. “Ha! As expected of Misty’s apprentice. In truth, your mentor has already sent in a letter of commendation along with some of your battle footage for our review. We could have just exempted you from the practicals, but we wanted to show these useless braggarts what a real Gym Trainer is like.” He said, eliciting an eye roll from Nina.
“The state of Kanto’s future soldiers is truly deplorable if this becomes the norm. Oh how standards have fallen…” Lamented the invigilator. The use of the word ‘soldier’ gave Nina a good idea of what this person’s political inclination was like.
“He’s one of those ultra-nationalist warhawks who can’t seem to let go of the war,” she sighed. Nina was glad to have passed the exam, but did not appreciate that she had unknowingly been used as a political statement. “I should tell Misty about this. I doubt she’ll just let this lie.”