“Why are you even here?”

“Vanessa wanted to cheer you up.”

”? About what?”

”Dunno, I felt that I should cheer you up.”

Silence, for a moment.

Jerome looks like he doesn’t care, Vanessa doesn’t say anything, and Sabrina doesn’t know what to say.

In the end, she turned around on her heel and walked to the house.

With her back facing them, she called them out and indicated with her hand to come here.

”Let’s get inside.”

”Okay.”

Vanessa jumped a bit behind as if she had binkies, and Jerome first turned his head, then the body.

Comfey shriveled a bit at the still positioned as a hair tie.

Sabrina lets the door open, refilling the water boiler to offer some tea.

She doesn’t have any snacks. Would it be weird to offer bread, butter and jam?

”Welcome to the grand gathering room of the fortress beyond the plains of Celadon City.”

The introduction to the lounge was so-so, made with a rather uninterested voice even when it was her own jest.

But she still didn’t forget to change her voice a bit to imitate a herald of some medieval castle.

No one has any strong reactions, even when she keeps up her aloof face.

It makes Sabrina relax a bit, as she did it without thinking. It seems she won’t be judged for doing something like that.

”Here. Do you want some tea or water?”

“You only have water?”

”Well, yes. Soft drinks are nice and all, but they make me feel a bit uncomfortable.”

”I know a great store for snacks and drinks!”

”Isn’t drinks in that context some kind of alcoholic beverage?”

”Just say alcohol.”

”Let people be as specific as they want.”

”But when she doesn’t like soft drinks, and she has water anyway, what do you want her to buy?”

”Energy Drinks, naturally! We can’t function without them.”

”No.”

I already lessened my intake of soft drinks after I got myself a proper water bottle and thermos, with an assortment of tea I liked.

Even though I can’t pinpoint the exact reason why.

My belly was a bit wider and softer as it should be, but it rarely bothered me to the point of dieting.

Probably because seeing the ribcages of people who went ‘dieting’ was scarier than being some kilogram over average weight.

And laziness. It wasn’t a problem, so why should I fix it? Didn’t overshoot even in the two digits.

Actually, it’s still a mystery to me. I just grew fond of tea with time and had a water bottle everywhere I went.

Guess with my liquid intake already satisfied, there isn't any need anymore.

While energy drinks were an absolute no-go.

The tales I hear scare me to no end.

…

I guess I am a scaredy cat if that is already enough for me.

”…abby. Sabby! Great Space Llama Arceus wants to speak with you!”

”Huh, Arceus?”

”What, that worked?”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

”…did I space out?”

”Yes.”

”Yeah, you were like staring into space like you thought back to a hundred-year-old war in which you participated.”

”She is exaggerating. You just stared at your teacup.

”Ah, yes. By now I should take out the tea bag.”

”You didn’t put any in.”

”Oh.”

Vanessa watches Sabrina confused as she empties her cup and refills it, putting a tea bag in this time.

”Was it because the water was colder?”

“Honestly, I am just imitating what I heard about.

Filling the cup first with warm water, heating the cup so it doesn’t take much heat from the tea afterwards.

I actually don’t know how much it influences the tea.”

”Maybe more than we think? It’s a cup that is thinner than your typical mug.”

”What is the difference between a cup and a mug?”

“Um, I don’t know?"

”One is for adults to overdose on caffeine daily. Cups are the one for looking graceful.”

”Ohh, but isn’t it called Cup of Coffee?”

”I just exaggerate part of it, but I believe mugs are more cylinder-shaped while cups have saucers?"

”Still doesn’t explain it.”

”Cafés. You order from cafés in cups, not mugs.”

”Ohh, so the phrasing comes from there?”

”It would make sense. At home it would be coffee, hard to misinterpret, but in a setting of two strangers, more formality would be required. Or at least expected.”

“Aha, so as a proper soon-to-be adult, I should learn to properly order a cup of coffee.”

”First, when you really drink enough energy drinks to run from it, don’t. Abstain from caffeine, please.

You are barely ten by now.”

”It would have been my first time, you know?”

”? Didn’t you say, “We run from it’?”

”Yeah? I heard Jeffrey say that it’s important to live, and I should buy myself packages when I go to start my journey.”

”And Jeffrey is?”

”The loser who lives a NEET life two houses further. He made it to the league championship third spot in his generation.

His Pokémon are still one of the strongest in the surroundings.”

”Vanessa. Nessa. Don’t try to subsidize anything with caffeine. Please. Or at least get properly educated about the consequences of it and make a proper deal with yourself.”

”Deal with myself?”

”Something like, only one can the week or abstain for a month's time when you drank three in a short time.

Also, never take it as the first solution. Plan it properly and don’t imagine rest as a loss of time. It isn’t.

Things like that.”

”Wow. Is that why you are so disciplined?”

Sabrina is currently sitting straight, legs not crosswise and knees at a right angle.

Shoulder properly positioned, even when moving her arms to move the tea to drink.

Minimal trembling and emoting a bit of dignity and grace.

Vanessa’s words hit Sabrina deeply.

No, she isn’t disciplined. That’s the exact reason she knows of the method and has such a habitually sitting position.

That, and practice. And being easily scarred by medicinally proven long-term consequences she saw.

Which makes it even more odd why her little bulge didn’t bother her, but it didn’t in the end, so it’s fine.

”That was unexpectedly productive. Do you use the method yourself?”

”Yes.”

”…”

”That’s all?”

”What did you expect me to say? No, instead I travelled to a faraway land, said to have a room in which time flows differently just to meet Jirachi and get my wish granted.

”Jirachi?”

”It’s a children’s tale.

Some thousand-year-old ruins depict a Pokémon with three pointed ends on its head, which could grant wishes.

A rough run-down would be that it garnet on the first day protection, on the second good harvest, and so on.

On the last and seventh, everyone was healed of anything they had.”

”That’s awesome. Where could I meet such a Pokémon?”

”Vanessa. Signs of it don’t exist anywhere else.

Most archaeologists suspect it having been a children's take even at that time, just having gotten popular enough to spread far enough and deep into the culture so that even so signs can be found.

Only the most tenacious and obstinate still search, trying to prove it might have really existed.”

”Ehh, Sabby, is that true?”

”Why do you ask me? But yes, supposedly, a Pokémon called Jirachi appeared around a thousand years ago.

And suddenly vanished, after a week.”

”See, doesn’t that sound deliberate! Maybe Jirachi is a super secret agent of Arceus, who can’t let himself get noticed, so he had to stay hidden.”

”No, no, I think that’s really far-fetched.”

”Yes, Pokémon don’t have secret organizations.”

”Really? Maybe they are just so good that we don’t even know they exist.”

‘The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.’

Or so the saying goes. Not that I believe in the devil. Christians do that.

’I know I know nothing’ ‘Cogito estus sum, I think so I am’ from Descartes was also along the line of not having any secure knowledge.

And I hear snapping. I probably spaced out again.

”And, do you agree?”

”Excuse me?”

”We both duel against you!”

”Huh?”

”Jerome has three Pokémon, and I do have three, while you have six.

We can tag team against you while you fight with two at the same time.”

”Pardon?”

”I take that as a yes.”