After showing the group of protagonists the berry field, his own home, the meadows and its new barn, the saplings, pond, and Ursaring’s cave. He ran out of things to show them… other than pokemon. Berry Falls, for as large as it was, didn’t have much to offer to humans other than his services. That would need to change in the future.

Anyways, seeing as he had nothing else to show them, he decided the tour he’d been giving was over. With a small clap, he grabbed everyone's attention. “That’s my ranch. Do any of you have questions?”

Brock raised his hand, and without waiting to be called on, started to speak. “When it comes to breeding, are you planning on focusing on a select group of pokemon? The Oddish saplings here are a great start for focusing on grass or poison type pokemon.”

Ethan acknowledged his question with a nod. “I’m not currently planning on focusing on any single type of pokemon. My breeding is much more aligned along with my tutoring. For me to get eggs and then pokemon to be able to hand off to aspiring and suitable trainers, I need pokemon here that will produce eggs.”

Ethan pointed off to the nearby pond, where the two local Maril floated happily upon the waters surface. “Those Maril have the right of it—Love. Whether it be out of a proper relationship or a heat of the moment passion, I don’t want to house pokemon strictly for breeding. So, I need to tutor pokemon or daycare them, and then rely on them having a really good time at my ranch.”

With a raised hand and a step forward, Dawn jumped into the conversation. “Are you going to sell the pokemon you hatch? I’ve looked into getting an Eevee from a breeder, but the price tag…”

Dawn tapered off, but Ethan understood what she meant. He’d seen the price tag of Eevee during his research. “Yes, but I will make sure that the trainer who wants one of my bred pokemon will be a proper match. Although, I doubt I’ll be getting anything remotely as expensive as an Eevee anytime soon.”

Ash spoke next. “Selling pokemon is… difficult. I have a bunch of Tauros back home, and they’ve had some babies while I’ve been away. You can’t sell them against their will, but Oak was running out of space for my stabled pokemon. I think his daughter gave them out as starter pokemon this year to some of the orphanages. It’s a lot to handle.”

That… was surprisingly mature for his imaginative Ash Ketchum. It appeared that aging did do him some wonders. “I’ll cross that road when I get to it—”

*Boom!*

Like a crack of thunder, a blast of sound rang out across his ranch. The group of protagonists looked around with wild eyes, but Ethan had heard this very sound many times before, and even expected to hear it today. He jerked slightly from being startled, but was calm and collected. Looking up into the air, ahead of where the sound originated, he barely caught the tail end of blue and red dipping down into the depths of the forest.

If Ethan was a betting man, he’d say that would be Latios and Tobias.

Kinda anticlimactic for his first sighting of a legendary pokemon, as it was barely a second long and from about a mile away… Ethan mentally shrugged; beggars can't be choosers. “That’d be my customer for this week.” He said to the group as he started walking back to the entrance to his humble ranch.

“What pokemon was that?!” Ash exclaimed with a hint of intrigue.

Ethan couldn’t help it. Sometimes, knowing the potential outcomes of the future was too good to pass up. “You’ll find out one day. I’m sure.”

When the group exited the meadow and passed by Ethan’s house, two heads of pink hair stood waiting at his door. A smile overtook his casual face, and Ethan shouted across the distance. “Joyce! What a surprise!”

Joyce Joy, dressed in her full Nurse Joy attire, turned at the sound of his voice and flashed him a brilliant beaming smile. She then grabbed her tag-along’s shoulders and pushed them forward into the figurative spotlight.

When Ethan thought of Nurse Joy, he thought of Joyce, who either by happenstance or weird genetics, looked remarkably similar to the Nurse Joy’s from his memory. The mini-joy Joyce shoved forward wasn’t an exact copy, but there was definitely more than a family resemblance going on. This mini-joy, and he meant that quite literally as this younger Joy might have stood five feet tall, was petite and obviously nervous, going by her slight wobbling fidget. In her arms, she carried a small Happiny, the baby, pre-evolved form of Chansey.

“Well, how else was little Jocelyn supposed to arrive? It’s much easier for me to teleport her here with Cleffy’s help.” Joyce replied, then came forward and gave Ethan a hug. Chatot took that as the moment to soar, jumping off his shoulder to circle overhead.

As they pulled apart, the sound of a pokemon being released caused both Joyce and Ethan to turn their heads. Mere feet away from them, a Crogunk was desperately tugging on Brock’s hand, pulling him away from Joyce and the awkwardly shifting Jocelyn. Brock was whisper-hissing to his pokemon, and Ethan could have sworn he heard him plead.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Ignoring the small human-vs-pokemon battle going on, Ethan turned to Jocelyn, the new Nurse Joy of Berry Falls. “Hello. I’m Ethan.”

The little Joy craned her neck to look up at him, and he saw her set her face into one of professionalism. “Thank you for hosting me. I am Jocelyn Joy, and this is Happy.” She nodded down to the Happiny in her arms. “I look forward to working with you, and thank you for this opportunity.”

Joyce elbowed Joycelyn, causing her to let loose a small ‘eek’. She then huffed and scoffed. “You’ll be around each other for a long time, and if I know Ethan, I’m sure he won’t mind casual conversation and interactions.”

“That’s right! Welcome to my ranch, Jocelyn. Kill Joy—I mean Bill Joy spent the last few days setting up your Pseudo-Pokemon Center. How about we all go over there now? A tutoring customer is here as well, and I need to greet him.” Ethan nodded off down the cobblestone path, leading towards the entrance to Berry Falls and the new Pokemon Center.

Nobody raised any disagreement, and they soon passed by Jessie and James’ cottage. As they passed, Joyce scanned the building with sharpened eyes, then gave Ethan a pitying headshake.

While discussing the building preparations and Jocelyn's arrival with Joyce, Ethan felt it was important to inform her of the potential danger Jocelyn might face at the ranch due to the other new guests. At first, Joyce was understandably furious. After numerous back-and-forth calls—during which Joyce gathered more details with help from the Joy Clan and Cynthia—she ultimately decided that Jocelyn's stay would proceed as planned. However, Joyce made one thing abundantly clear: if anything happened to Jocelyn, the full might of the Joy Clan would come crashing down on Jessie and James like the wrath of God.

Apparently, those details were relayed to the Rocket Trio. He’d wait and see if they took that threat seriously.

As they stood in front of the building, Ethan decided to make some small talk. “I haven’t stepped foot inside, but I do have the key.” He reached into one of his vest pockets, pulling out both an Oran Berry and the large, old fashioned iron key. He handed the key to Jocelyn, and the berry to the now wiggling in anticipation and babbling Happiny in her arms.

Ash, Brock, and Dawn still stood around observing, but once both Nurse Joys entered the Pokemon Center for their inspection, leaving them alone with Ethan once again, they got into a small huddle and talked to one another.

As they talked, Ethan scanned around for Tobias, not seeing him near the entrance or on his ranch just yet. Distance was a little hard to make out, so maybe he landed a little farther out to hide his pokemon’s identity.

“Pachi-pach!”

“Shuuuuu?!”

Coming from the training field across the way, Pachirisu and Shuckle called out with questioning and accusatory calls. Shuckle, of course, was the questioning one. He had a load of berries in his yellow-noodly arms, and Pachirisu sat on top of his shell, riding along.

“Oh! A Pachirisu!” Dawn squealed, then hastily reached for her belt to release one of her pokemon. As the form materialized, Ethan was confused on why seeing Pachirisu would excite her. When he saw the familiar shape, he immediately understood; memories coming back full force.

“Pachi?” The new Pachirisu looked around at everyone nearby, wondering why it had been released, then looked across the way towards the bright red shell of Shuckle, and the other Pachirisu riding it.

“Pachi?!”

“Pachi-pach?!” Both murmured, then immediately ran at one another.

Ethan laughed as his Pachirisu looked completely overwhelmed upon seeing another of its kind. He looked to Dawn, who had taken out her phone to probably take pictures, then spoke to the group. “That’s my Pachirisu and… Shuckle…” He trailed off upon seeing the brilliantly red shell of Shuckle doing a full on speedrun of ‘Withdraw until you can’t’. Every half a second, the hardening sheen of blue flickered over his shell.

“A Shuckle. I thought about getting one for the Gym back in Pewter.” Brock idly said, his Crogunk standing next to him and giving him the watchful stink eye.

“As much as I love my berry bud, he’s not a battler—not yet.” Ethan remarked as he continued watching the pokemon interact. Shuckle’s noodly yellow head poked out of its hole, then scanned the area before locking onto Ethan. With a large cry of “Shuuuu!” His berry collector pulled himself forward with haste, leaving a tiny groove in the dirt as he hurried towards him.

Ethan met him halfway, then heaved his partner up into his arms. “You worry too much. I would tell you if something was wrong.”

Then, almost as if he had spoken wrong into existence, a chilling, haunting sound of a very traumatizing piano track gently entered his ears.

“No….” Ethan uttered in a mix of disbelief and dawning horror, spooking Shuckle from the tone of his voice. As he slowly craned his head upwards towards the sky, Shuckle, and everyone else around did the same. All conversations came to a standstill, human and pokemon alike.

High overhead, was a Togekiss.

Togekiss was slowly lowering towards the ground in a wide circular sweep. Atop the majestic and graceful pokemon, the blonde hair and trailing black trenchcoat of the champion flickered in the wind. In her hands, she held a small, black, pill-like speaker. He could feel her mocking grin from the ground, and he was going to have some very choice words with the Porygon in his computer when things calmed down.

As Ethan’s heart slowly calmed down from the video game PTSD flashback of the Approaching Cynthia piano song, he spotted another blip in the sky. Before he could even make out what it was, Cynthia landed and slipped off Togekiss with practiced ease. “Hello, Ethan.”

She looked so… smug.

“Am I the last one to arrive?” she asked.

“Yes, although my client hasn’t shown up yet. He landed outside in the forest for some privacy.” Ethan replied, not rising to her baited entrance. This wasn’t the place to have that conversation. There were too many people around.

Cynthia didn’t look put off from his reaction, likely knowing that she’d had the desired effect. With a casual raising of her hands, she stuck two of her fingers into her mouth and let loose a sharp, shrill whistle. Not a second later, a roar of acknowledgment came from the blip in the sky. Swooping down with unnatural speed, and landing with enough force to cause the dirt and grass around them to billow out in a blast of air, a towering Garchomp stood and imperiously glanced over everyone around.

Before Ethan could admire the strong pokemon before him, a tangle of limbs and colorful hair flopped off the back of the large dragon. Crumpled on the grass, James, Jessie, and Meowth looked like they were praying that their ‘ride’ was over. Jessie even had running black streams of eyeliner running down her cheeks.

It… made Ethan feel kinda bad, even though he wasn’t a part of it.