“Nair… Dra gon air…” Nairy whined, pleading with his partner with teary eyes.

Meanwhile, Espy, who was in her usual spot playing with her Psychic spoon, shook her head in exasperation at her companion’s tantrum.

“I know you love your tub Nairy, but you can’t fit inside it anymore.” Nina sighed. “Look, I’m not throwing it away, I’m just gonna put it aside until we can find a use for it, okay?”

Ever since Tini evolved into Nairy, lots of things have changed for him. Not being able to walk alongside Nina when they were out was upsetting of course, but he couldn’t bathe with Nina and Espy anymore either.

According to the Pokedex, most Dragonairs were around 4 meters in length, but maybe because Nairy spent more time as a Dratini than he should, he ended up exceeding the average and is slightly bigger at a little under 4.5 meters. Meaning he could no longer fit in any of Nina’s bathtubs, whether it be the built in one in the dorm’s bathroom or Nairy’s old foldable bathtub.

“Nair…” The crybaby Dragon whined once more, eliciting boops and kisses from his partner to assuage him.

“I know it sucks, Nairy. But if you try to force yourself into this tiny space, you’re gonna break the tub. You don’t want that, right?”

Nairy looked at his dingy old tub and reluctantly shook his head.

“Tell you what, I saw an inflatable one on the Pokenet that’s round and fairly large, you should be able to fit if you coil your body. So I’ll buy it and we’ll see how it goes, okay?”

With two Gold Nuggets in reserve, Nina was much less thrifty these days than she used to. Based on the current market prices of gold, each Nugget was worth anywhere between six to eight thousand Pokedollars depending on the purity.

And Nina doubted the Blackthorns would skimp on her, so she could very well have around fifteen thousand Pokedollars worth of gold in her hands.

“Nair!” The Dragon exclaimed happily as he nuzzled affectionately against his beloved partner.

Nina sighed. What is the one thing that children, animals and Pokemon have in common? They all get irrationally attached to physical objects.

Nina still remembered that one time she tried to wash Pikachu’s bean bag because it was starting to get all stinky. The electric mouse nearly went feral on her. Not that she could blame them, Miles used to have a favorite teddy bear as a kid as well that he slept with every night and refused to part with.

***

Nina dove into the school’s pool and grabbed onto Nairy with special non-slip gloves as the two swam laps around the water. Nairy’s old harness he used as a Dratini could no longer fit him.

And since the Dragonair needed to submerge his body to maintain the moisture of his skin, They’ve been going swimming every day after school in lieu of his momentary inability to take baths.

As one would expect of Kanto’s number one trainer school, the campus was complete with various facilities for Water Type Pokemon as well, including a massive indoor pool that could go up to several dozen meters in depth.

It was also a good thing that Nina had enough foresight to buy earplugs, because while Dratinis were reasonably fast underwater, Dragonairs can get up to ridiculous speeds. At the rate that Nina was being dragged around, she was liable to burst her eardrums from the water pressure.

After feeling like her body couldn’t handle the strain anymore, Nina tapped on Nairy to get him to stop for a break. The energetic Dragon could probably keep going, but it was time for her to surface.

Nina gasped for fresh air and brushed her hair out of the way as she let go of her rebreather, slowly swimming her way to shore with Nairy playfully circling her like a shark.

“Hey, Nina.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Nina looked over as she got back to the poolside to see Kerry waving at her with a little Poliwag waddling by her side. She waved back in return.

“Hey Kerr, fancy seeing you here. Are you bringing Polly in for a swim?”

“Yeap,” affirmed the other girl. “Her wounds are all healed up, so I figured it was time to up her physical activity.”

Nina approached her friend and bent down to take a closer look at her Pokemon. She could see that there was some faint discoloration on the Poliwag’s body from where she was injured, but overall she looked healthy as one would expect of a nurse’s Pokemon.

“Hey there, Polly. You’re looking good. Are you ready for swimmies?” Nina reached out her hand to pet the Poliwag, but the timid Pokemon jolted in surprise and hid behind her human’s leg.

Nina couldn’t help but swoon at the display. “Oh my gosh, she’s so cuuute!”

Kerry giggled and bent down to reassure the tadpole Pokemon. “It’s okay Polly. You remember Nina right? She was the one who saved you from that nasty Carvanha.” With a light pat on the Poliwag’s back, Kerry encouraged her Pokemon to approach Nina, which she did by hesitantly waddling towards the brunette haired girl with quivering eyes.

Nina held back a squeal and gently caressed the oversized tadpole with a warm smile. Touching a Poliwag was like touching a nice round elastic ball, with a thin mucus-like membrane on the outside that protects their skin and aids in swimming.

However, unlike wild Poliwags, which tend to be quite sticky to the touch, Polly was nice and slippery which indicates the absence of any nasty bacterias coating her body. It was a good sign, one that shows Kerry has been taking good care in grooming her Pokemon.

Nina nodded in approval. “She’s really healthy. You’re right, I think it’s about time for her to start training for real now.”

Kerry smiled and blushed slightly as she looked at Nina with Baby-Doll Eyes. “Actually, that’s kind of why I’m here. I was wondering if you could come up with a training regimen for Polly. Because you know? Since you’re a Gym Trainer and all, you’d know more about this than I do.”

Nina laughed at the girl and pulled her in for a hug. “Of course, Kerr. Anything for you.” She then turned to address Polly again. “Okay, Polly. Can you show me what you can do? I’d like you to use Water Gun, just aim it at the pool and keep going until you can’t anymore, okay?”

Polly looked up at Kerry who gave her a reassuring nod. After receiving permission, Polly turned towards the pool and shot out a thin stream of water until she ran out of breath and plopped down on the floor.

Nina giggled and gave the Poliwag a little pat on the head for a job well done. “Good job, Polly. Why don’t you go for a swim with Nairy for now. I know you want to.” She then called out to Nairy who was still messing around in the pool.

“Hey Nairy! Could look after Polly for us? You remember Daisy’s Poliwrath right? Just guide her on swimming the way that he does. Ten laps should be good enough for now.”

“Is it really okay to have Polly swim when she’s so tired?” asked the concerned Kerry.

Nina nodded in assurance. “Yeap, it’ll be fine. Even for an amphibian like Poliwag, Water Pokemon feel more at ease underwater. They’ll recover faster with the abundance of Water Type Energy they can absorb. They don’t really tire out from swimming the same way that we humans do, rather it’s more tiring for them to walk around on land.”

Nina then moved on to explain her assessment of Polly. “Her Water Energy output is pretty standard as far as her species goes, not excellent but not poor either. That means we have good and balanced fundamentals to work with. You plan on battling with her right?”

Kerry nodded fervently. “Yeah, since Peppy can’t battle… I wanna join you guys in P.E too!”

Nina laughed and couldn’t help but pat Kerry on her silky smooth pink hair. “Alright, I’ll teach you some basic exercises that Polly can do for now. You ready to take notes?”

Kerry nodded again and pulled out her Pokedex to begin typing.

“Right, so… To begin with, it’s good to have a concrete goal to work towards. And a good one for all young Water Pokemons like Polly is to get them to learn Hydro Pump.”

“Isn’t Hydro Pump a little too advanced for Polly?” asked the bewildered Joy.

“Not at all, it’s a move that most Water Pokemon can learn at any stage and a good measure of how much Type Energy they can store. Besides, it’s not like we’ll be forcing her to learn it straight away. There’s concrete and gradual steps that Polly will need to take to reach that point.”

Nina explained that the first step was learning Water Pulse. “Water Pulse teaches a Pokemon on how to compress their Water and release it in a more powerful burst, as opposed to the weak stream of Water that you saw just now.” The techniques that were involved in Water Pulse will serve as the foundation for Hydro Pump.

“Next up is to increase Polly’s capacity for storing Water Type Energy. And I’m not going to lie to you, Kerr. There’s no easy way to do this.” The whole process was just a gradual grind, involving exactly what the Poliwag is doing right now.

“Just like training a muscle, you gotta break it down and wait for it to recover in order to build tolerance. So basically, you’ll need to get Polly to drain all her reserves, either through trial and error Water Pulse training or just have her use Water Gun until she can’t anymore, like I did just now. After that, it’s swimming time until she recovers.”

She also added that swimming while in her Energy deprived state also doubles as very effective physical conditioning, since the Poliwag can’t cheat with water manipulation to make swimming easier. “She eventually evolves into a Fighting Type if you’re wanting to go the Poliwrath route, so best to get her body in shape early on.”

Kerry nodded in understanding and continued to furiously type in her Pokedex. “What about her diet?” She asked.

“Since she’ll be taxing herself, make sure to increase her calorie intake of course. But I’m sure you probably know more about this than I do.” Kerry was very helpful in helping Nina tweak Nairy and Espy’s diet after all.

“And break days? I’m assuming it’s bad to have Polly train every day.”

“Eh, it’s not as bad as you might think. Breaks are mostly for mental care. We don’t want Polly to experience burnout by forcing her to do Type Energy training every day. But there’s no harm in getting her to swim every day. In fact, she might even enjoy it.”

Nina recommended that Kerry allow her Pokemon two days off from Energy training. “Stagger the break days instead of resting consecutively. Helps to prevent Polly from getting too complacent.” She said.

She then went over other details like alternating Polly’s routine so she doesn’t get bored and so on. While Kerry continued taking notes and asking questions all the while.

They continued on until Polly was done with her laps, after which Nina oversaw the Poliwag’s training with occasional assistance from Nairy.

“You’ll also want to battle her at some point,” said Nina towards the end of their training session. “There’s no substitute for actual experience.”

Talks of Pokemon battles actually lit a fire in Kerry’s eyes, eliciting amused laughter from Nina. Despite being a Joy, the girl was still a Pokemon Trainer at heart after all.