Joey was sitting in a sterile waiting room that he had become very familiar with in his last life, but to which he'd lost exposure ever since being reborn.

Fun fact. Being born a ghost-typed human meant that he wasn't really affected by the diseases that circulated in the orphanage. Even injuries were rare, and if they did occur they healed very quickly if he just shifted that part of his body into distortion and back.

Due to that, ever since his rebirth, the only medical centres he's been exposed to have been poke-centres. These had a warm and fun atmosphere and were often filled with attractive, well-dressed, and passionate people.

The medical centre he was in today was none of these things and gave him flashbacks of measles infections and angina attacks. Surgeries, pregnancies, appendicitis. It always smelled like disinfectant and the chairs were blue plastic and the walls were bone white.

The only colourful thing about the place was the monstera plant in the corner and a few posters about proper care for bug-type Pokemon and human teeth.

Yes, the reason why he was experiencing the sterile environment was because for once the issues that he and Metapod faced could not be fixed easily at the Pokecentre. Back then when he had originally brought Metapod in after their fight against Arbok, Dr Heys had made the journey to the centre, but now that the issue was not that time-sensitive, Joey had booked an appointment in the man's offices. These were a part of the larger hospital for humans, Saffron General Hospital, which was a bit weird.

But, from his last life, Joey knew that labs and professorships and medical expertise underwent several complex procedures and government mandates that didn't necessarily make sense and that caused the weird infrastructure decisions to pop up here and there.

So oddly enough, even though it was Metapod who was scheduled for an MRI scan to check on the size of the Everstone sitting unfortunately positioned in her stomach, he was doing so in a hospital mostly catered towards humans.

He wished he could have gone in with her, but unfortunately, he'd been told that he couldn't. He would have preferred sitting there listening to the stupidly large machine making those horrible sounds than outside here getting flashbacks to past events where he had to wait for people to get out of surgery.

There wasn't anything wrong with Metapod and this was just a normal check-up of something that had gotten better, but just the atmosphere got to him. It sucked ass.

He couldn't even distract himself by thinking about his trainer journey because what Koga had said was still ringing in his ears. Was he not challenging himself enough by refusing to go to Cerulean? Was he missing something? He couldn't beat King in a battle, he was sure of that. 100% sure. Was there a way to change that?

"Mr. Joestar," a male nurse suddenly said from a door that opened further down the hallway. Also white, barely delineated from the walls it was surrounded by. "Dr Heys is ready to see you now," the nurse said and as Joey stood up to approach him the brown-haired man patted him on the back and gave him a perfect white smile. "Everything's great," he said encouragingly even though there was nothing that could have gone wrong in the first place. Metapod was not ill or damaged in any way. If anything she was on the way to recovery.

Joey rolled his eyes and entered the MRI room where the scan had finished. Dr Heys was just in the process of recalling Metapod who was taking up space in the middle of the magnetic resonance machine. The old man with the slightly smaller patch of white hair on the top of his bald head gave him a friendly nod and handed him Metapod's Pokeball.

He then sat down and bid for Joey to do the same opposite of him. It was on those grey cushioned chairs that could spin and roll around on the ground so at least they weren't the plastic ones from the corridor.

The doctor pushed some images towards Joey. It was a complete cacophony of grey and white tones and he would need a doctorate to interpret the goddamn thing. He didn't even bother trying and waited for Heys to point out the relevant parts of it. The only thing he could identify was the crescent shape of the object in question.

"First of all I have to congratulate you on your progress with the poison-type energy," Dr Heys started, picked up a pen and pointed it at the picture on which the crescent was slightly smaller. In the middle, the pen indicated a weird round growth which must have been located where the stomach was, which was about the size of a baby's fist if Joey scaled for size. "As you can see the Everstone has managed to decrease in size since the last time we scanned your Pokemon. Dr Heys pointed to the other picture, the same stone scaled for size was significantly smaller. "A 30% loss of volume, that's quite an accomplishment really," Dr Heys muttered. "In addition, Metapod seems to have grown even more since her last checkup. This seems to be an interesting side-effect of the fact that she's been stuck at this stage of evolution for so long. The nutrients necessary for a metamorphosis are building up and with nowhere else to go they are increasing the size of the shell and the inner organs. I imagine that when Metapod finally evolves she will become a Butterfree that will be quite above average in height and width."

Joey nodded. "Those are all good news, I guess," he hedged, at which point Dr Heys tapped his chin with the black pen he'd been using to point out things on the scans.

"Yes, everything seems to be progressing quite nicely. There's only one worry I have, which is that the process of degradation might slow down. I talked about this subject with another expert on the field before undertaking this evaluation, and he was also unsure about what exactly would occur as the stone is worn down to the smallest point of functionality. There's quite a lot of energy in these things, you know?"

Joey interrupted the man with a raised hand knowing exactly where this was going. Doctors were generally very afraid of giving people only good news and liked to temper those with a bit of realism to not set expectations too high. Joey wondered if it was also possible to sue doctors for false hope spreading in this world or if that was just an occupational hazard.

"I'm well aware that what has happened up till now does not ensure that the same thing will continue occurring in the future. But can you give me a timeline until when we can expect the Everstone to be gone?"

Dr Heys hummed thoughtfully. "Going by the speed of the degradation and accounting for potential variables, I would say it could be anywhere between 6 months and a year."

Joey winced, not particularly happy to hear those numbers. But, they were still better than other options would have been. He nodded. "All right, that sounds fine. Otherwise, she's doing okay?"

"Remarkably good health," Dr Heys said while perking up and rubbing his hands together. "It's not often that we get trainers who actually follow the nutritional plan we prescribe to a T. We can see by Metapod's health and the hardness of the chitin in her shell that you have been giving her the appropriate supplements, if not perhaps even more than the recommended amount. Of course, this might be necessary because the original suggestion we gave was based on normal Metapod size. I am quite excited to see what size she will grow before the Everstone is finally degenerated. Evolution is likely to start immediately after removal. She will of course likely need more medical attention after evolving to check that there was nothing wrong from the prolonged exposure," Dr Heys waffled.

Those were all good points, and he was glad to hear that his Pokemon was in good health. Nevertheless, he was a bit preoccupied and Koga's words were still swirling in his mind now that he knew that his Pokemon would be fine. That the only thing currently in flux was how long she would be stuck in her current state. However, since that had been the situation from the very beginning nothing had changed.

"Thank you for your input, Dr. Heys. I'm very glad to have an expert confirm that she's healthy as can be," Joey said politely and made the stand up.

Dr Heys seemed perfectly content with letting him leave, but just as Joey was about to open the door and bugger off for good, the man spoke up once again.

"That was a good battle against Surge. I caught it live because I was interested in how one of my patients was doing. After all, those unfortunate Pokemon that need my attention are usually retired by that point," the man said thoughtfully. "Regardless, have fun with your next gym challenge. I still remember in my youth when I went on my journey, we had to use Pokeballs made out of Apricorns. It always amazes me how far technology has come. Why back then it was more common to get the badge by doing some community service for the gym leader, I guess that's fallen off the wayside now considering that society has progressed to a point where these things are fixed by the capital incentives of the free market," the man said, seemingly lost in reminiscence.

Joey froze for a second on his way out, before closing the door and slapping himself on the face hard.

Social contributions. A heavenly revelation. There was a way to get a gym badge without battling for it. He had just been too stupid to remember something that he'd have to fill into the exam he'd taken to become a youngster.

Truly into one ear out of the other as was common in the school system.

He left the hospital with a new purpose in his steps. He had a gym challenge to arrange.

-/-

Joey researched the specifics of the gym challenge in the public library where he had sometimes gone when he was still in school to access public information via books or computer, but which he hardly did now anymore, preferring to stick more to the Pokecentre. Not that either had brought him much. He'd needed a disproportionate amount of time to find out that gym challenges even still existed.

The trainers on the pokenet certainly disparaged those who chose this path, when they even remembered they existed. This meant that those who did the gym challenges didn't talk about it as much online, as it would just invite criticism. There was also no further useful information about the challenges themselves because they were completely individual and fitted to the needs of the city that the gym leader was in charge of at the time. They were also naturally never recorded.

The only thing Joey had been able to find online had been some minor allusions that the gym leader of Celadon occasionally offered the harvesting of his many dangerously poisonous Pokemon as a challenge, and that the current gym leader of Cinnabar sent out challengers to the sea to fight off encroaching populations of non-native pokemon from Johto which threatened the ecosystem and thus the valuable natural habitats of the many islands in that area.

Further specifics were nowhere to be found. Even on the websites of the respective gyms, the challenge section was hidden behind several links and simply stated: "If a challenger wishes to undertake the gym challenge instead of the gym battle, they can contact the gym administration and settle any demands to do so on an individual basis. No assurances are given that there will be an appropriate level task available at the time of the request. In this case, the request will be denied," it said simply and clearly.

Joey hummed. He was growing more and more curious about how exactly such a task would look like. While he now remembered reading about them in passing during his schooling, they hadn't covered it in any great detail then either. It had mostly been referred to in history class as relevant to understanding the tale of the first champion who had united the warring clans of Kanto into one government. The government would later be forced to bow down to the League. It was said that the first champion had gone through all of the major cities of Kanto and had completed major projects, or saved them from major disasters to gain the respect of their citizens. The challenges weren't based on these tasks anymore, but this is where they found their historic precedent.

One resource that most people disregarded in their search for knowledge was the most useful, the librarian. It was they who knew the library best, and despite the fact that Joey hadn't found anything on the computer, the truth of the matter was that most data simply wasn't digitized. People who relied only on computer searches to find what they needed often skipped past the most important sources of knowledge, mainly personal anecdotal knowledge written down by people who had undergone the same trials one was curious about.

He walked past the high and relatively new bookshelves reflecting the fact that the Saffron wasn't truly an old city, and went up to the reception desk where a pretty young woman with orange hair twirled in a messy bun was working. From what he could see she was wearing a brown tweed blazer covering a white shirt and was writing frantically in a notebook.

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"Hey, Anna," Joey said, causing the girl to look up revealing a beautiful pair of amber eyes. The skin around them crinkled in an eye-smile as she saw him.

"Joey, it's been a long time. What, almost half a year since I've seen you?" she asked. "What have you been up to? Other than beating up gym leaders like they owe you money?" she asked jokingly.

The youngster shrugged. "You know I love the library and all the resources it offers, but after I got my Pokemon and my licence I just don't have the time anymore. Maybe one day when the process of training becomes automated by artificial intelligence I'll come back more often."

Anna threw her head back and laughed, wiping at a tear from her eye. "Yeah right, artificial intelligence. I remember that one time they tried to make a Porygon do my task to see if it could manage and it just fried all the computers when it had to digitise a book with a paradox inside. Next thing you'll tell me they'll try to automate fanfiction writing!" She turned more serious. "Anyway, what can I do for you? You never visit me just for my personality," she said and crossed her arms under her chest.

"I was just researching gym challenges right now, and I wasn't able to find any information online about what they might look like. I was wondering if you know any autobiographical books that hold information from someone who's gone through them. Perhaps a famous trainer who wasn't as famous in their youth and had to scrape for every badge. I don't know, that's why I'm here."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Well, I see that you still like coming to me with the troublesome requests. It seems that's never going to change." She thoughtfully tapped her chin as she considered. "I mean, I do sort a lot of autobiographies, but it's not like I know what's inside them. There is one title that I immediately thought of when you said gym challenge though. Let me just check for a second." She turned to her terminal and typed in a few words at the rapid pace of a professional degenerate. She nodded to herself a few times before coming out from behind the counter and waving at him to follow her.

Joey used the opportunity when she wasn't looking at him to hop onto the counter and quickly read what she'd been writing in her little red notebook.

Bruno pushed the young red-haired challenger against a rock, growing in his deep voice, "You think fighting is what being a trainer is all about?" as one of his large rough hands seductively trailed down Lance's body to cup his right butt cheek. The young Blackthorn blushed so that his face matched his hair and looked to the side. His plump pink lips parted, releasing a breathless moan as the older man roughly started massaging his rum-"

Joey stopped reading, turned around and ran after Anna before she could notice his indiscretion. His face was stuck in a grimace and he gave himself a mental reminder to pick a very conservative outfit when he became a trainer…

He followed Anna at a respectful distance, knowing that she liked to stop rather abruptly at times so that he would crash face-first into her.

The older girl led him past winding corridors and down two floors where they reached the gigantic bunker-like structure holding all the books that were statistically not as likely to be borrowed. She eventually stopped in front of Road J2749-3877 and led him in between the bookshelves which could be moved by the gigantic wheels hung at their sides and the slides attached to their bottoms.

They eventually reached the middle and Anna pulled out a rather frayed-looking black notebook from in between a cookbook for pescatarian vegans and a manual on how to train quadriplegic Mareep for battle.

"It's one of the least borrowed books in the history of this library, in fact, it's been borrowed exactly once. That's why it's at the bottom of the list for getting transcribed into a new format. So low actually that it will crumble into dust before anyone bothers," she told him. "Quite frankly it will be thrown out soon. That's why I know about it. I once tried to find some merit in the books the library was considering throwing away. However, most of them truly do just contain factually incorrect knowledge and things no one is interested in, such as a dictionary of all slurs ever used in Kanto."

"It doesn't even have a title, how did you find that," Joey asked curiously, looking at the plain cover.

Anna flipped the book open and showed the first page with a roll of her eyes. "It's on the front page, moron."

"The diary of a stinky hobo," Joey read aloud doubtfully.

Anna shrugged. "It doesn't inspire much confidence, but I found that the man who this is about existed and died about 30 years ago. He wasn't just a fictional character."

"Who was he?" Joey asked. "Why is he relevant?"

"He's relevant for a very simple reason, namely that in a very curious case he was a man cursed with a Pokemon-repelling aura. A metaphysical stench so to say. He lived his entire life without a companion, human or otherwise. People considered him cursed which is why they threw him out of all settlements once they noticed that their favourite pets tend to avoid him. It's not a diary in fact but rather a biography written by someone who met the man as he was slowly dying of old age in the forest somewhere. 96 years old if you can imagine it. The man told him some of what had occurred throughout his life and one curious thing about it was that he had eight badges. This technically put him on a stipend from the league back then which is how he bought new clothes and camping supplies."

"Eight badges, without a Pokemon team?" Joey asked, raising all of his eyebrows. That just sounded weird.

"I know right?" Anna said thoughtfully, while scratching her head. "It turns out that because he was rejected by human society, and settlements rather quickly after arrival, he mostly survived doing odd jobs and foraging in the forest. This meant that he was very good at coming up with alternative solutions for relatively random tasks. When he decided at some point to start taking the gym challenges he was perfectly suited for it despite not having any Pokemon. I don't quite remember what they consisted of, I mostly skimmed it. Quite frankly the writing style is fucking horrible," she said with a sigh.

"But it should contain some information even if it is outdated." She handed Joey the book. "You can keep it. You know I don't like throwing things away and this is the inevitable fate of this bad boy. My bosses are all up in my ass about reducing the number of old books to include new literature."

Joey took the notebook and opened it to see that the whole thing was written by hand. Horrible handwriting as well if that wasn't already enough. He sighed.

Some things truly were too obscure.

"Thanks, Anna, I'll give this a glance over, and maybe report back if it helps any. I think my first task will be deciphering this chicken scratch," he said.

Anna shrugged. "Be my guest. Just promise me that you give Flint a few more assholes he can talk shit from and don't get that badge with just a gym challenge when you're in Pewter. Horrible cunt. My aunt who lives there is babysitting his children and this dude is probably the worst father I've ever heard of, just keeps whining about how his gazillion children are holding him back from being the new champion."

Joey raised an eyebrow, being a verified orphan whose parents had run away on their journeys.

Anna defensively raised her hands. "Okay, okay, maybe the second worst father I've ever heard of."

"Thanks," Joey said sarcastically as they exited the sacred bunker of knowledge and went back to the first floor lit by daylight. The youngster left the building after a short goodbye to once again breathe the fresh air that had been barred from him for way too long. 45 minutes. There was something about being a trainer, always spending so much time outside. It made you unused to sitting still, standing still, lying down, being rooted in a place where one had to return every night. He hadn't even left on his journey yet. Crazy that.

Joey looked at the black notebook in his hand and started making his way to his next destination. No matter what was in the book, his decision to do the gym challenge was now quite firm. He didn't think he could win the battle, and he wasn't willing to gamble with the capture of Misdreavus on the line. It was mysterious how he hadn't been able to find anything about it, that was just weird. Made him want to do it just to be one of the people who had done it. If he wanted to he could still challenge King anyway at some point, just for the training. Regardless, before he set out to register at the gym he still had to discuss this whole thing with one more person.

He struck a direction to the league administration centre where he could talk with Ruth, the program coordinator of his licence. Considering she was the one organising the trip to Cerulean she would probably have the most to say about his new plan.

-/-

After arriving at the league administration building, Joey had been informed by the receptionist there, the same blue-haired lady who helped him print his licence all those months ago, that Ruth was currently on a lunch break and that she enjoyed eating her food in the park behind the building. The park bordered the little enclosure with all the tier-zero Pokemon reserved for youngsters. Of course, the enclosure was currently empty, since the next time that the Pokemon would be given out was in 6 months.

Joey left the building, glad to be rid of its haunting bureaucratic aesthetics to stroll through a park on his search for an old lady.

He eventually found her sitting at a wooden bench with her ever-present old Butterfree at her side eating what appeared to be a bento box.

He waved at her from afar as she looked in his direction and she confusedly waved back. Recognition only entered her face after he was close enough for her eyesight to make out his features. He guessed that she didn't see as well as she'd likely used to.

"Jonathan, what are you doing here? I thought you weren't interested in going to Cerulean," she greeted him while she picked up a little sausage from her bento box which was cut to look like a mini octopus.

"Freeee," the Butterfree greeted raspily.

"I stand by my decision to not go there for a battle. I don't stand a chance and at this point, it would just be masochism."

"What changed then? Are you hungry?" she asked, offering him her bento box. It was a bamboo affair, one of the old ones, and filled with a lot of rice, raw vegetables and some more sausages. "My husband always makes too much, he doesn't understand that as I get older I require less sustenance, not more."

Joey waved her off. "I already ate," he lied. It was true as he just wasn't that hungry these days. "Anyway, I learned of an interesting alternative to earn a badge. The gym challenge, not the gym battle."

Ruth seemed to mull over his words for a few seconds. "I haven't heard that term in a very long time," she eventually admitted.

"My question is just if I still get the bus and stay covered. Even if I'm not doing the battle and just the gym challenge?" Joey asked, scrooge that he was.

Ruth shrugged. "Makes sense to me that it would be offered. You get it because you're a youngster trying to get a badge, not because you're a youngster trying to get a badge with a gym battle," she concluded. "But from what I remember the gym might not have a challenge available for you. Did you already contact them?"

Joey shook his head. "I wanted to clear the air with you first, considering you're my program coordinator. If it wasn't possible to get on the bus and sleep over then I would have to reconsider."

"You should call them as soon as possible," Ruth advised. "The sooner you do so the more likely it is that they'll be able to devise a challenge for you by the time you go there even if they don't have one available now."

Joey nodded. "Makes sense to me. I'll just give him a quick call then. See what's up."

"I'll keep a seat open for you and the bed ready while you wait for a reply. But of course, do tell me if it's a no. Then the league can still save some money. Worst case we can also just say you got sick," she told him with a wink, before narrowing her eyes and growling in a very unladylike manner. "Those rotten administrators haven't given me any reason to care about their finances. Spending on the trainer and the youngster programs is completely disproportionate. No shame," she muttered more to herself than to Joey.

The boy simply nodded wondering what kind of additional advantages he would get after he became a trainer officially next year. Currently, he was still a registered youngster, just advanced enough to get trainer privileges.

"All right, that sounds great," Joey said, raising his right fist with forefinger and pinky extended. He jokingly shook it in the air with a small smile. "Fuck the league," he said, for the sake of team spirit.

Ruth gave him a confused look and switched the topic. "How are your preparations for the youngster tournament going? I know we only saw each other three days ago but I imagine you have something planned."

Joey looked at the Butterfree at the side of the old lady. It seemed to have fallen into a bit of a slumber, closing its eyes and snoring lightly.

"I think that Metapod might be decisive in the beginning rounds. She has great physical defence and can also parry most ranged attacks. I can't imagine any of them have ever faced a competent one either. Otherwise, I guess Rattata can be a second pick sweeper and Diglett the surprise." He paused. "Just don't tell anyone."

Ruth shrugged non-committedly. "Well, you know how old ladies gossip," she said with a smirk.

"All right, all right, no offence taken," Joey said, going with the joke. "My opponents knowing about me in advance is just going to better simulate the Indigo conference in the future."

"That's the right attitude!" Ruth exclaimed. "And if you're thinking about the future do get some inspiration for fighting rock-type Pokemon. They're the rarest ones in this part of the region and that's why the youngsters from Pewter might surprise you. They usually use Geodudes and I can't imagine that you've dealt with many," she advised.

Joey nodded gratefully. It was good advice. He really would have to consider more of the typings that he could meet now that youngsters from all over the region were coming to Saffron to participate in the tournament. It was likely going to mean many new Pokemon that he was not that experienced in dealing with yet.

"Take care, Ruth," he said. Then turn to Butterfree. "Sweet dreams," he said and walked away.

-/-

"Hello, this is the Cerulean gym, what can I do to help you?" a pleasant female voice sounded out of Joey's Pokenav as he lay in his bed back in the orphanage. He was about to have an afternoon nap.

"Hey, this is Jonathan Joestar, youngster program, Saffron, three badges. I was wondering about the possibility of doing a gym challenge for my fourth when we visit in three months," Joey said calmly.

The line went silent for a few seconds.

What must have been the receptionist hummed thoughtfully? "It really depends, I would have to speak with the gym leader. Is it alright if I call you back?"

"Sure, take your time," the youngster replied.

"Alright, I'll go speak to gym-leader King."

-/-

The ringing of his Pokenav awakened Joey from his nap, he lazily rolled over, picked up the device and accepted the call.

"Youngster, Saffron, three badges, Jonathan speaking," he said, interrupting his words with a yawn.

"You're the boy who recently beat Surge, huh?" a gruff older male voice said over the phone.

Joey instinctually righted himself up in his bed, feeling the weird need to salute. "Sir, yes, sir!" he instead said enthusiastically.

A laugh resounded over the line. "Always good to confirm," it said. "Haven't gotten a gym-challenge request in a while, but I think we can think of something. You're quite lucky young man, issues which could be treated as a fifth badge challenge are usually urgent and dangerous enough to need immediate handling. For the fourth badge, I'm sure we could find something. Are you alright with coming in without knowing what it is? After all, I don't know myself yet."

"The surprise is necessary to duplicate conditions in the wild," Joey said flippantly.

"Well said, I'll see you in a few months then, youngster Joey. I'm curious how you'll deal with whatever issue crops up, hahaha," the gym leader said before the line suddenly went dead.

Whatever had needed to be said had been said.

Everything was slowly coming together.