The spiky blue haired boy who challenged Nina to a battle looked to be a first year just like her. Next to him was a Squirtle who was trying his best to mimic the dynamic pose of his trainer, his adorably awkward demeanor immediately stole Nina’s attention away from the intruder.

“Oh gosh, he’s so cuuute!” Nina grabbed some Berries and held them out to the Water Pokemon. “Here Squirtle, do you want some Berries?”

“Squirtle!” At the sight of the colorful treats, Squirtle immediately gave up on his posing and trotted over with his stubby legs to the girl, causing his trainer to gawk in disbelief.

“Wha?! Squirtle, you traitor!” Exclaimed the kid.

“Hmmm… Your Squirtle’s shell seems a little rough,” chimed Kerry who had also joined Nina in petting the little Water turtle. “Which usually indicates a deficiency in calcium and some key vitamins. Have you been feeding him properly?”

The boy’s face reddened at the accusation. “Of course I have!” He yelled, only to be betrayed by the grumbling stomach of his Squirtle, followed by his own.

An awkward silence descended on the trio as Nina sighed in exasperation. “Go get a couple of bento boxes from the cafeteria,” ordered Nina. “We’ll look after your Squirtle for you.”

The boy began to protest, only to be shut down immediately by a stern, motherly glare from Kerry. Nina chuckled at the sight. “Yeap, she’s a Joy alright.”

The boy dashed off in a hurry and it wasn’t long before he came back with food. Though it was clear that pickings were slim in the cafeteria at this time. So Tini was kind enough to share some of his Pokechow with the Squirtle, even though Nina suspected that the Dragon just wanted to get to his Berries sooner.

“Anyways, going back to what you said earlier. Who are you and why do you want to challenge me?” Nina asked the boy, who was currently shoveling food down his mouth like a starving Snorlax.

“Don’t… talk with your mouth full.” She added hastily, after seeing that he was about to open his mouth and spew food all over the place.

The boy forcefully swallowed the contents of his mouth, banged against his chest and frantically grabbed his water bottle to avoid choking to death. “My name is…” the boy coughed and took another swig of water. “My name’s Justin, and I’m going to be the world’s greatest Pokemon Master!”

Nina sighed. “Regional starter, check. Bad table manners, check. Brash, shonen protagonist attitude, check. A lofty and likely unattainable dream, check.”

“Let me guess, you’re one of Professor Oak’s sponsored,” said the girl.

“Yeap!” Exclaimed the boy, with an irritatingly bright smile that was marred by a piece of meat stuck in between his teeth. “The Professor says that you’re super strong. Probably the strongest of our year. So battle me!”

Nina let out another sigh at the mouthy old man. “No, I won’t battle you.”

“Wha?! Why not? We’re Pokemon Trainers, we’re supposed to battle!”

“Right, Jacob was it? Let me ask you this, how many battles have your Squirtle been in?” Nina had gotten really good at assessing a Pokemon’s strength from her time in the Cerulean Gym, and she could tell that Squirtle was still very green, likely fresh from Pallet Town.

“It’s not Jacob, it’s Justin!” Corrected Justin. “And Squirtle’s fought Lucy’s Charmander before, and won!” He said, with his chest puffed up in pride.

Nina nodded. “So that’s one battle in total. Listen to me kid, my starter Dratini has been with me for four years at this point. I could have my Eevee fight your Squirtle, but I can assure you that he’s going to lose. Badly.”

Nina explained to the boy the importance of mental development for juvenile Pokemon and urged him to get a bit more experience before trying to challenge an opponent that’s out of his league.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“If you send your Squirtle down a losing streak this early on in his life, he’s going to develop an inferiority complex and some bad habits. Or worse, he might get traumatized by something inane and stupid,” concluded Nina.

“She’s right,” chimed Kerry. “It’s a mistake that young trainers often make with their starters because they’re too eager to battle and go around challenging everyone who makes eye contact with them.”

Justin glared at the pink haired girl. “What would you know? Your Pokemon looks like it can’t even battle.”

Nina saw veins visibly bulging on Kerry's face as she took offense at Justin’s rudeness. “I’ll have you know, my Happiny is proof that I’m a member of the Joy Clan. Which is all the more reason why you should listen to me!”

And here Nina thought that Kerry wouldn’t be comfortable flexing her family status. “I guess this is just the wonders of that shonen protagonist aura. Super effective in getting people to open up.”

“And if you don’t want to listen to her then you should at least listen to me,” said Nina, interrupting the childish squabble between her two classmates. “Has Professor Oak told you anything about me at all aside from the fact that my Pokemon are strong?” Justin shook his head in response.

“Well, it just so happens that I’m a certified Gym Trainer under the Cerulean Gym.” Now it was Kerry’s turn to be surprised by Nina as she stared at the girl with wide eyes. “Oh right, I haven’t told her that bit about myself yet,” thought Nina.

“I’ve dealt with my fair share of juvenile Pokemon while working at the Gym. So you can rest assured that my opinion is valid. If you’re looking to battle, our final class of the day is going to be P.E and the teachers will be assessing our starters and your abilities as a trainer. You’ll get your fill of battles then.”

“But I wanna battle you right now!” Whined the petulant child. Nina could feel a migraine coming, she had never been good with this sort of type-A personality.

The girl sighed. “Tell you what, if your Squirtle manages to get ten wins in his record then I’ll let him battle Espy, my Eevee. How does that sound?” The best way to deal with these sorts of competitive nuisance was to direct their spirit elsewhere.

“Deal!” Exclaimed the boy. “It’s a promise, so you better not Abra out when the time comes!” Justin flashed another one of those annoyingly bright smiles at Nina’s challenge.

“At least his Squirtle will be good for practice for Espy…” mused Nina, as she resigned her fate.

***

Nina changed into her gym clothes, which was basically just a pair of shorts and a white T-shirt.

There’ll be a physical assessment for the students at the beginning of class before moving on to Pokemon battles. It was a sneaky way to burn off the children’s excess excitement before the main event, to make them easier to manage.

The first step was a measurement of her vitals; her height, weight, eyesight, proportions and so on. Nina’s body proportions were especially concerning to her because she can tell from the larger numbers that she was beginning to develop curves.

“I thought diving and swimming was supposed to give me a swimmer’s body!” Lamented the prepubescent girl. Nina really did not want to have big boobs. Based on what she heard from the ladies at the Gym, it was nothing but a source of backache and unwanted attention.

In Nina’s past life, Miles had an appreciation of a good pair of badonkadonks like any other hetero male. But the prospects of actually owning a pair did not appeal to her at all.

The physical assessment was straightforward enough, involving an obstacle course and some basic survival skills tests like starting a fire and pitching a tent. The latter of which were already taught at the elementary level, given the world’s uniquely outdoorsy culture.

Nina was fitter than most kids her age and passed handily enough. Though it wasn’t like her classmates struggled either. With how outgoing the Pokemon world’s people were, and with their hyper advanced medical technology, obesity was an extreme rarity. Especially when it came to a bunch of energetic trainer school kids.

The first years erupted into cheers when the teachers announced that they would soon begin the battle segment. Though Nina noticed some kids sitting out, among which was Kerry, so they were probably the non-battlers of their cohort.

All the students were divided into separate groups, each supervised by a P.E teacher. And after Nina was assigned, she went up to her teacher with a question. “Mr Yamada, I know we’re supposed to use our starters and all, but I worry that mine might be a bit too much for the other Pokemon. Is it okay if I use my secondary instead?”

The gruff looking man stared at the girl in confusion and consulted his tablet. “What was your name again?” He asked, to which Nina responded accordingly.

“Ahh…” Yamada exhaled in realization. “So it’s you… Yeah you’re right, your starter might be too advanced for this. Your secondary Eevee is fine. Although…” The teacher began poking at his tablet again. “Give me a sec, I have an idea.”

Nina held back a frown. “Shit! I know that look,” she cursed. It was the look that the adults around her always had whenever they wanted to take advantage of her.

Yamada eventually returned, after running off to consult some of his other colleagues, and informed Nina of his brilliant idea. “Let’s just be honest here, Nina. None of these kids are gonna be much of a challenge for a talent like you. So instead of wasting your time, why don’t we put your Gym Trainer Certification to good use and have you assess some of the brighter talents among this year’s batch.”

“I mean it’s not really a waste of time…” said the reluctant Nina. “ I’m happy to just sit out on the side. I imagine it’s quite troublesome to change the curriculum on the fly like this. Think about all the work that went into optimizing the process, you know?”

Yamada laughed at what Nina said, like it was the most hilarious thing he’s heard all year. “Oh please, it’s no trouble at all. Here in the Vermillion Flame, we’re committed to the development of Kanto’s best Pokemon Trainers. We’d be remiss not to make use of Lady Misty’s prodigy in our midst. I’m certain these little brats can all stand to learn a thing or two about how a proper Gym Trainer battles.”

“Great…” Nina drawled, resigning to her fate. “So what’s the deal, are we still using my Pokemon or do you guys want me to use loaners?”

Yamada gave a toothy smile at the girl’s implicit acceptance. “We’d still like you to use your Eevee, but if she gets too worn out to continue, we have loaners to provide.”

Nina nodded in understanding. “Well at least they’re being reasonable about this.”

And with that, the teachers made another announcement about the change of plans, calling out a list of names that the faculty determined were some of the top talents in Nina’s year — about thirty something students in total. Among which, was the giddy looking face of Justin.

“Damn that kid and his shonen protagonist luck! This is all his fault!”