As Ethan left the rocket’s cottage after handing James his belt of pokemon, he rubbed his forehead and thought about what was left for the day. Jessie, James, and Meowth were being very well behaved, and he had honestly thought that they would have been the biggest wrench thrown into this cluster of meetings. Cynthia, Joyce, and Jocelyn had the trio of protagonists entertained and out of trouble… or at least he hoped so, and Tobias was chilling by himself at the campgrounds setting up his things for his stay.

Looking up to the sky, Ethan estimated that it was a little after noon, and that it was time to feed his pokemon. As he stalked off towards his home, he slowed in his steps and facepalmed. “I’m an idiot.”

With a sudden swerve on his heels, Ethan instead walked off through his berry fields off towards his garden. Jessie and James had no food. Their small cottage wasn’t stocked up, so they were going to have to eat what he ate for a while.

As Ethan walked down the rows of his berry trees, opting to pick his pokemon’s meals straight from the source as he made his way, he saw Jessie and her trio of pokemon wandering through as well. As he approached, he could hear Jessie speaking to her pokemon.

“Slow down! There’s like ten-thousand berries here! They aren’t going to just disappear! If he charges me for these, you’re going to be the ones paying off the cost!” Jessie was admonishing her pokemon, but obviously worried about going bankrupt.

Ethan couldn’t help smiling at his eavesdropping, but her comments did raise a question in his mind. He’d been told time and time again that he sat on top of a fortune of berries, but he didn’t actually know how much they cost. Hell, he found smaller lonesome berry trees off in the forest when he first arrived here. He used them to plant his own trees, as he was too scared to keep wandering off.

It couldn’t be that hard to grow them. He did it with zero knowledge and elbow grease. So, why were they expensive? Were they a hundred pokedollars each? That would make them roughly a US dollar each. If he went by Jessie’s numbers, that meant he had roughly a million pokedollars of berries, or ten-thousand USD worth.

And they grew back faster than he could pick’em.

Looking down at the base of the nearby Cheri Berry Tree he stood next to, Ethan counted thirteen overripe and unusable berries just laying near its base. His small smile from Jessie’s conversation with her pokemon slowly turned into a frown. He was wasting money. Money that he sorely needed.

“What the fuck?! What kind of tree is this?! Don’t eat that!!!” Following Jessie’s shout, a small thunk was heard, followed by an annoyance filled hiss. It was probably Jessie bonking her Seviper to keep it from eating something it wasn’t supposed to, but it made Ethan show himself in worry.

Stepping underneath the low canopy of the line of trees, Ethan cut across into the next aisle and laid his eyes upon the source of Jessie’s confusion. At the end of the row of trees, a new tree had just begun budding. It was short, freshly planted, and not ready to produce any berries, and it was weird! Jessie’s Serviper had coiled around it, and was inspecting the misshapen gray tree from top to bottom in curiosity and confusion.

Each of his berry trees had their own unique shape and size, but all shared similarities with one another in some way, shape, or form. This new tree was sorely out of place. The first oddity was its gray bark and silver leaves, which had tiny white petals of budding flowers growing throughout. There was only one berry on the tree; a small, unripe, miniscule thing growing from within one of the many flowers. It was a mix of dark gray and cream, and it created an upside down question mark pattern across the skin.

This was what clued Ethan in on the name of the tree. “It’s an Enigma Berry tree.”

His statement caused Jessie and her pokemon to swivel their heads towards him. Ethan walked up closer, gently raised his hand, rubbed his fingers across the smooth and silky silver leaves of the tree. He dropped his hand, stepped back, then looked it up and down. “I didn’t plant it, but I know who did.”

Memories of Shuckle and Munchlax trying to hide the evidence of their little berry planting came to the forefront of his mind. They had a large mound of buried berries, an assortment of different types—Probably one, or a few, of every type he had on the ranch. They’d somehow stumbled themselves into making an Enigma Berry tree.

From what he could recall, Enigma berries restored a quarter of the user’s HP if they got hit by a super-effective move… but in the real world, that didn’t sound possible.

What? Would his pokemon just munch on it after they got smacked down? A Sitris would do the same thing! He’d need to do some research on what it did, and even if berries in battle were a thing people used.

“Don’t touch this tree. Let it grow.” Ethan stated as he turned to Jessie's pokemon.

Seviper was a big’ol scary snake, but Ethan was never afraid of snakes in the past. They felt like basketballs, and they were pretty cool. Dustox was gently flapping its wings, causing little sparkles of pollen or some other substance to flutter down on top of the stalwart Wobbuffet who just looked happy to be here.

He spoke to them, not to Jessie. “You can eat the other berries whenever you’re hungry. Do not hurt any pokemon on the ranch and we’ll have no problems.”

He then turned to address Jessie. “They’re free, but only because you’ll be helping out on the ranch. If you and James help me sell them, maybe you can receive a cut of the profits.”

Ethan pointed off towards his garden, which was easily visible from this distance. “I’m grabbing some food to stock in your house. I’m a vegetarian, so you won’t be getting any meat from me, but it’s better than nothing. When you get back to your home, tell James and Meowth that I’ll be over soon.”

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Jessie dumbly nodded, obviously still very unsure about the ranch and her whole situation. Ethan let her be, and then spent the next twenty or so minutes picking fruits, veggies, and grains.

Gloom and the Oddish deserved that Leaf Stone if he had anything to say about it. Every night, they spent some of their energy to help him grow his food and berries. They weren’t even his pokemon, and they did more for him than he could have ever asked for. When more of them evolved, he would surprise them with the chance. Gloom hasn’t been a Gloom for very long, so he would wait a bit before giving him the offer of becoming a Vileplume.

After filling up his white Silph CO bag to the brim, he made his way over towards the rocket’s cottage and knocked on the door.

*Ching-a-ling! Ching-Ching-a-ling!*

“Chiiime!”

Ethan waved at the dangling Chimecho who looked to be having the time of its life. Ethan watched it spin and twirl as it made gentle wind-chime sounds until the door eventually opened, revealing Jessie. Ethan held his bag up. “Got your food.”

Jessie opened the door fully, but didn’t reply. Ethan made his way inside, then started emptying his bag on the counter. Strawberries, Blueberries, Onions, Tomatoes, Green Beans, and more spilled out to cover the entirety of the kitchen countertop. Once finished, Ethan set aside some small bundles of seeds and wiped his hands. He smiled at a job well done.

“That should sort you out for a good while. Make sure to plant your seeds for your own garden! I’ll have one of the Oddish or Gloom come by to help you out with growing them. For now, you can relax or wander about. Get familiar with the ranch and your new home. I live right down the way near the meadow. So, don’t hesitate to come ask for anything that you need.”

“Thanks… Do we need to, like, work or something?” Jessie asked as she leaned on the nearby wall, arms crossed. She was still uncomfortable, and he wasn’t going to blame her for it.

Ethan nodded to her question. “Eventually, yes, but not for now. Take a few days to get yourself accustomed to this whole thing. There’s no big rush. You’ll learn that what I have going on is pretty laid-back.”

Ethan made his way back towards the door and spotted James exiting their small sleeping room with Meowth. He gave them a wave, which James surprisingly returned with some enthusiasm, then let them be.

Before Ethan joined up with the rest of his visitors, he quickly ran back home and prepared a meal for his own pokemon. Chatot was chilling in her nest atop his house and easily spotted him as he made his way down the cobblestone path. She knew what time it was, and must have been hungry, as she fluttered down to land in her rightful spot.

As Ethan sliced berries, fruits, and veggies in for his friends, Chatot snacked on the seeds set aside in a small pile for her to enjoy. She preferred berry seeds, but she would eat pretty much anything he handed to her. At times, Ethan wondered if natures existed. If they did, Chatot would definitely be a neutral one. She was almost as bad as Munchlax… well, if he ignored quantity.

Once the plates and bowls were all set-up with everyone's favorites, Ethan had Chatot go and round up the others as he fed a sleepy Emolga, lazy Skiddo, and excited Tinkatink. His three baby pokemon chatted with one another as they ate—and in Tinkatink’s case, played with her food by smashing everything into a paste before slobbering on it—as Ethan watched on carefully.

Tinkatink was the one he had to keep an eye on, as her hyperactive nature made a mess. Skiddo laid on her side, not even bothering to stand up or sit as she lazily chewed on a wad of leafy greens, and Emolga nibbled on her berries as she talked animatedly. Ethan imagined that she was talking about her flight earlier in the day, but he would never know if he was correct.

As much as he’d like to stay around, today was a busy day, and sadly, he didn’t have time to sit and eat with his pokemon. He’d already ignored the other visitors a bit too much already, with him having been gone for nearly an hour.

As a consolation prize for their long wait, he quickly made up some goodie-bags filled with one of each type of berry, then left to hand them out. As he jostled down the steps of his home, he spotted Munchlax sprinting his way over. For such a hefty and normally slow pokemon, Munchlax could schmoooove when he wanted too.

The not-so-little glutton barely managed a greeting as he skidded to a stop before running inside to feast, joining the others with a loud roar of celebration.

Smeargle was calmly walking up the path in the distance, and as they passed one another, Ethan told him to make sure to watch over the little ones. His artsy painter nodded like it was no big deal and continued on his way for his meal.

When he arrived at the training field, he was just in time for everyone to be leaving. Ash, Dawn, and Brock were leading the way off towards the exit to his ranch, causing the stomach lump that Ethan didn’t even know he had to melt away. He joined the group and listened in to the on-going conversation.

“... been fun, but I have a gym battle at Eterna City in three days! We gotta get a move on!” Ash finished speaking, and Ethan spoke next, much to their surprise.

They didn’t even know he had joined them once again.

Shamefully, he was glad he wasn’t a person of interest to them. Today had been going smoothly; much too smoothly if he had anything to say about it, and he wanted to keep it that way. His ‘I am not important enough for a filler episode’ strategy was working well.

Ethan held out the three goodie-bags he’d just made not ten minutes ago. “I made a small gift-bag for you all. Thanks for stopping by.”

Ash looked like a kid on Christmas and quickly snatched a bag from his grasp with glee, while Dawn and Brock graciously accepted theirs with a more calm demeanor. As Ash riffled through to find out what was inside, Ethan calmly explained for the others in the group. “One of each type of berry that’s grown on my ranch. It’s not much, but hopefully they’ll come in handy. Good luck on your journey.”

“Thanks for the warm welcome, and best of luck to you on your tutoring and breeding endeavors.” Brock replied warmly and held out a hand to shake, which Ethan accepted.

Cynthia spoke next, her tone encouraging. “I hope to see you at this year's conference. Who knows? If you win, maybe you’ll get that battle you asked for.”

“I’ll see you then!” Ash boasted, then spoke to his partner. “Right, Pikachu?”

Pikachu cheered and flicked his tail, determination filling the small electric mouse. “Pika-Piiiii!”

Brock, Dawn, and Ash left his ranch, leaving him, Cynthia, Joyce, and Jocelyn behind. As soon as they were out of sight, Cynthia spoke calmly for all to hear. “There’s no chance he’s going to win the conference.”

Ethan slowly turned his head toward her, face utterly unimpressed. “I wonder how you came to that conclusion.”

Joyce groaned and Jocelyn looked confused as Cynthia replied. “I know someone who knows the future.”