“Well done Opera. Now get some rest.” I say as I return Opera. Across the Field Chai is doing the same, speaking similar praise to his chikorita. We both begin to walk toward each other meeting in the middle of the arena. Shaking hands we both begin commenting on the battle.

“Ah man, You really got me good. Basil wasn’t able to land a single solid hit on your Swablu.” Chai says

I respond “Give yourself some credit. Your Chikorita’s poison powder was way more potent than I thought it would be. A little longer and you probably would have won.”

Chai laughs “It’s good to see our hard work paying off. Me and Basil have been putting a lot of training into making his poison powder as condensed as possible. It’s a big part of our plan for beating the gym leader. Anyway, let's go talk somewhere else and let someone else have the field.”

As we walk I look at Chai’s belt, specifically the second pokeball attached to it. “By the way Chai, what’s your other pokemon?” I ask.

Chai looks at me and grins “I’ll show you if you show me another of your pokemon.”

“Deal.” I say as I grab a pokeball from my belt. In a flash of red light Wiggles manifests. Wiggles lets out a “Puff” as he looks up at me and Chai. A hand extends from my shadow waving at Wiggles as Coraline greets him. “This is Wiggles my starter.” I revealed.

Chai gets on his knees and begins petting the top of Wiggles head. “I didn’t expect a jigglypuff to be your starter. No offense, but I expected something a bit less ordinary after you show off an unknown pokemon and a future dragon.” he remarks.

I giggle at Chai. “Wiggles is just as special as the rest of my team.” I insisted. Wiggles lets out a “Puff” exclaiming how special he is looking at me with pride in his trainer.

Chai gets to his feet and wipes the dust off his pants. “Welp, guess it's time for me to uphold my end of the deal” he says, taking the second pokeball off his belt. Chai opens the pokeball revealing a small sunkern. “This is Marigold, my sunkern. While I was resting by the side of the road she fell into my lap out of nowhere. Isn’t she the cutest.” Chai exclaims, picking her up and holding her out for me to see.

I lean in close to get a better look at the happy little seed pokemon in Chai hands. “What do you mean by falling out of nowhere” I ask confused

“Okay here’s the story. Me and Basil were just off of route twenty nine resting before the final stretch to Cherrygrove. We were both laying on top of this rock in the middle of a meadow. All of a sudden the wind gets knocked out of me as this little guy lands right on my stomach. The sky was completely clear and there wasn’t another pokemon for miles. As far as I’m concerned she is a gift from Ho-oh itself.” Chai says now holding the tiny pokemon above his head.

I struggle to hold in my laughter in vain at Chai’s story. “I’m sorry, that's a really cute story Chai. It’s just that I have the image of Ho-oh dropping Sunkern on you like it’s doing a bombing run.” I say letting out the laughter I’ve been holding in as I wipe a tear from my eye. Wiggles and even Chai’s Sunkern begin laughing as well.

Chai sheepishly sits down on a bench placing Marigold the sunkern on his lap. “I’m sorry for laughing Chai.” I apologize as Marigold continues to snicker. “Anyway, since you have two grass types do you plan on specializing in grass types?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Chai perks back up as I ask this. “Not exactly, While I do plan on having mostly grass types. My goal is to build a team revolving around the sun.” He says excitedly.

“What do you mean by a team revolving around the sun?” I ask.

Chai answers “I mean I want to make a team that takes advantage of sunlight. I got the idea after I got Marigold tested for her ability. It’s solar power.” He says excitedly. He continues “There are plenty of grass types with abilities that enhance them in sunlight. A bunch of grass type moves are enhanced by sunlight. On top of everything, quite a few grass type pokemon can learn the move Sunny day which enhances sunlight. Furthermore, there is this pokemon the league brought over from the Hoenn region that can now be caught in the safari zone that has an ability that intensifies sunlight.” By the time Chai finishes he’s completely out of breath.

“You sure put a lot of thought into this.” I replied.

After taking a minute to catch his breath Chai asks “What about you Alice, what type of trainer are you going to be?”

I smile as I say “I’m going to be the best fairy specialist in all of Indigo.”

Chai chuckles “I think you’re the only fairy specialists in all of Indigo. Honestly, most trainers calling themselves fairy specialists are generalists that happen to have a fairy or two.” Chai glances at my belt “Speaking of which, I can see you already have a full team. What other fairies do you have? I don’t think you would call yourself a fairy specialist just because you have an unknown fairy pokemon, or because you have a fairy as your starter.”

“Who said mimikyu was the only unknown pokemon I have.” I state, causing Chai to look at me surprised.

“You mean you have more undocumented pokemon!” he sputtered. “How many? Can I see ? Are they all fairy types!” effused Chai.

I grin at Chai’s excitement. He reminds me of a more social professor Elm. I can see why Elm took a liking to him. “You’ll just have to wait and see.” I say jokingly. “Seriously though, I have my gym match in a week. I think it'd be nice if you came to support me. I can text you the time if you want.

“Sure, you can come to my gym match too.” Chai beamed. “We can even train together” he says smiling.

“Sounds good.” I say. “Just not tomorrow though. I need to go shopping with my team. You can come along if you want.”

“I won’t be able to hang out all day. Me and my team really need to spend every chance we have training for our strategy to be ready by the time I face Falkner. We can meet for lunch though. I know a really good restaurant downtown.”

I reply “Sounds like a plan. Let’s exchange numbers.”

Both me and Chai both go our separate ways after exchanging numbers. Looking at the website of the restaurant on the way back to the pokecenter I find myself much more excited for tomorrow. Not that my cooking is bad or anything, but I’m really looking forward to eating food I didn’t have to prepare myself.

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Entering the pokecenter I end up running into Dad and Empress in the cafeteria. Upon entering Empress quickly spots me and waves me over. Sitting across from Dad I ask “How was your day?”

He smiles “It was good, As much as I enjoy the wilds I do enjoy being able to return to civilization.” Nodding over at Empress he says “Empress has a bit of a fan club now. She was giving rides to some of the local kids.” Looking back at me Dad asks “How was your day Alice”

I replied “After finally signing up for the gym it was good. They really need to modernize. It took fooorever to book a match. I ended up just going to the battle club after. Me and Coraline fought this crazy kid and I think he made me his rival. I also battled this other kid named Chai who was pretty cool. We’re going to meet up for lunch tomorrow. You can come too if you want.”

Dad smiles “It’s nice to hear you’re making friends. You don’t have to invite me to your lunch date. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing to bring your dad along?”

“First off it’s not a date, we're just meeting for lunch. Second, Dad you're awesome. You could never embarrass me.” I refute. “Sometimes it seems like you forget you’re a top ranger for Ho-oh sake.”

“Ex top ranger.” Dad says correct me. “Besides, I have something I would like to take care of tomorrow.” Dad says not specifying further.

I ended up spending the rest of the evening speaking to Dad about my day in further detail while he chimed in with a question once and awhile. Before I knew it the cafeteria cleared out leaving us the only ones still there except for a chansey sweeping the floor. We both head up to our room and get ready for bed.

I woke up in the early hours of the morning to use the bathroom. When I exit the bathroom I see Dad awake still laying in bed. He has a serious expression on his face as he holds up Empress’s pokeball. Too tired I decide to think nothing of it and head back to bed.