When I asked Bella whether she would teach me how to be a trainer and help me train Tympole, I got an enthusiastic hug and feeling of intense happiness through our connection. It seemed she had enjoyed her time training young pokemon and was excited to do so again.

After we got back, I gathered some Oran Berries for Tympole. Their regenerative properties would hopefully work similarly to the games. Then, once I had everything prepared, I released Tympole. The little guy still seemed a bit out of it, but quickly homed in on the berries.

While he gorged himself, I was thinking about names. I couldn’t just continue to call him Tympole. That might have been fine for the games but would only lead to complications here. I needed something that had a connection to him in some way while also not sounding ridiculous.

Lancelot or Lance could work as an allusion to the knight of the lake, but that felt a bit too tacky. Besides, I didn’t know if the name had the same kind of connotation here. If I was the only one to whom the connection made sense it might as well not exist.

As I cycled through possible names that were fitting, but not ridiculous, I eventually landed on Tym. It sounded like the normal name Tim but still retained an obvious connection to Tympole. A secondary benefit was its length. Short and snappy names were convenient for battling, where every moment could count in certain situations.

I would be the first to admit that it was lacking in the creativity department, but too much creativity would also get ridiculous fast. Better to pick the safe, if slightly boring option than to be saddled with something that was only cool for your younger self.

I scanned the pokeball to register Tym to me and locked in his name. The blank space on the pokedex where my own name was supposed to go stung a little bit more afterward. Feeling inspired in that moment, I named myself Blanc. It was only fair I also got an uncreative name if Tym, and probably also any future catches, had to live with theirs. Besides, blank described me quite well and until that changed the name would do nicely.

In the meantime, the newly christened Tym had finished the pile of berries and was investigating the open area in front of the lab. Unsure how to start, I headed over to him and crouched down.

“Hello there. I’m Blanc and decided that you’re Tym for now.”

My pronouncement was accompanied by positive feelings that I sent over through our link. I held my right hand open over his head his head like I would have done with a dog.

Tym, true to his personality so far bumped it with his head. In the absence of real fighting, it seemed that play-fighting was an acceptable substitute. Since the sun was still baking us, I wasted no thought on starting any kind of training. That would start in the evening at the earliest.

Instead, I heaved the giant tadpole up and carried him over to the stream at the edge of the clearing. His rubbery skin felt weird to hold at first, but only for a few moments. As I carried him, I noticed the first few spots on his skin that looked to be drying out already, which validated my choice to relocate.

Once I sat him down at the edge of the river, Tym used his surprisingly strong tail to flip himself into the clear water. As I saw him happily splashing around while I was burning up in the sun, I decided to join him. I slipped out of my clothes besides my underwear and dove into the soothing water.

The lukewarm water was a welcome change to the burning heat outside and I lamented that I hadn’t done this sooner. Sure, there was the Palpitoad, but I was convinced in that moment that nothing could motivate me to get out of the water anytime soon.

As I floated along the gentle current into the shade of the trees once again with Tym cycling me like a chubby shark, I heard a loud splash. Before I could rethink my earlier statement about not getting out of the water, Bella emerged next to me. She was a seriously fast swimmer, something I wouldn’t have expected with her buoyant-looking body.

My revenge for the scare was swift, and I splashed her face full of water the next time she emerged near me. Tym seemed to take this as a signal to play, and soon Bella and I had to team up to contend with the quick and energetic water type.

After the play session, all three of us were floating in a shaded part of the current, enjoying the last rays of the sun as they found their way through the thick jungle canopy. I really needed this. Compared to this morning, when I still had the belief that pokemon were entirely fictional, my world looked completely different now.

I still caught myself at times feeling like this was all an elaborate dream, but this all felt too real to be a figment of my imagination. I had the opportunity to accomplish the childhood dream of countless people from my world.

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I could gather a team of pokemon and try to challenge the best, maybe become the best. At the very least I could explore the world of pokemon with my own two eyes. I knew of quite a few sites of interest and there were bound to be many more not featured in the games.

As I floated along, dreaming of the future, I’d almost fallen asleep three separate times before Bella decided it was time to head back. With my exhaustion so apparent, any thoughts of training Tym in the evening had long fled my mind. Barely awake, I stumbled alongside Bella on the path to the lab. We had floated downstream for quite a while, so it took us a few minutes until we laid eyes on our temporary residence.

I returned Tym, who had swum beside us, and we went inside. Once there I was presented with a problem. Bella had gathered all the pillows and blankets into a nest and was very reluctant to give any of them up. Since this was the first time she had expressed wanting something to me and I was also very tired, I just laid down next to her. We both snuggled into her nest, and I was out in moments.

Since we had turned in early, we awoke just after dawn. I relished the cool air outside as I did some light stretches. Most of my body was sore from running around for most of the previous day, but those aches were fading fast as I went through the motions.

Notably, I also hadn’t had any bouts of body dysmorphia anymore. Maybe I could chalk that up to all of the excitement of the day before, but I hoped it would stay that way. A grunt next to me ripped me out of my contemplations, and I had to stifle a snort when I glanced over.

Both Bella and Tym were next to me, following my movements. Bella, with her humanoid proportions had no trouble following along, but for Tym it just looked like he was wiggling on the ground, occasionally leaning as far to the left or right as he could without flipping himself over.

Then it was time to get serious. From what Jess had told me the day before, the first steps were always the same. You had to find your new pokemon’s limits, and to get them used to associating the moves they used with voice commands.

“Ok Tym, today we are limit testing. We will use this tree over here as a target, and you will use Echoed Voice as many times as you can.”

I didn’t know how much of the meaning was transported subconsciously when I was only talking, so I made sure to try and convey what I wanted him to do via link. It seemed to have worked since he focused on the target I had pointed out and began his vocal assault. I quickly started a timer on my pokedex and tapped on a counter with each thrown attack.

As the little guy got more and more into it, I noticed an issue that Jess had already informed me about. The more energy he was using, the more he was drawing from me, clogging up the connection. This was the reason I still had to train him to understand my verbal commands.

After ten consecutive attacks both of us were starting to flag, and I yelled for him to stop. This was when I realized that we hadn’t established a command for that, and I could only watch helplessly as he bottomed out both of our energy reserves.

I shot Bella a dark look as she stood over me with a smug smile.

“Point taken. I should have waited for you and asked for advice before starting.”

She patted my head like a chastened child, then the floodgates opened. From her, energy washed through me and into Tym, curing both of our exhaustion in seconds. I felt as if I had downed a cup of pure caffeine.

It seemed the benefits of having a ridiculously overpowered team member were manifold. After establishing a stop command with Tym we tested both Bubble and Acid. I was quite certain that Tympole in the games never learned Bubble, only Bubblebeam. As I had to remind myself again though, this was the real world, and I couldn’t get hung up on the familiar rigid game rules.

When our initial testing was done, we started the whole routine again. This time I would call out an attack and Tym would have to match the right attack to what I was shouting. Around mid-morning the sun started to pack some serious heat, and I could make out some dry spots on Tym’s skin.

Bella and I decided that this was a good stopping point for our training. I was completely drenched from repeatedly using all of my energy and getting refills from Bella. She on the other hand looked just as fresh as the time we had started.

Even if I would have had no other point of reference, her energy reserves alone made it clear just how far Tym still had to go. After a quick dip in the river for both me and Tym, I resolved to bear the top-floor sauna again to update Jess on our progress and get some suggestions from her.

“Well, it sounds like you had quite the day yesterday. I sure know that I wouldn’t have gone looking for a pokemon after the morning you had. Must be the youthful enthusiasm. Anyway, I’ve never heard of a pokemon that can sus out intelligence levels.

You can bet that the researchers on the rescue mission will be all over that as soon as they know. They were originally only included to secure the lab, but I can’t imagine that they can ignore such an extraordinary ability.”

“Should we try to hide it?”

Nah, there’s no point. I’m legally required to record all of our conversations, so it’ll come out sooner rather than later. Best they get it out of their system on your way back, so that you have your peace once you’re back on dry land.”

“Ah that makes sense, I guess. Well regarding the training, we have done the limit testing, and the verbal commands also seem to work. We’ll go into the jungle after lunch to get some battle experience as a team.”

“Wow, you sure don’t sit still kid. I think that’s a good idea as long as the fights aren’t too hard. Just remember not to get too overeager though. You’ll need at least a few days to get the fundamentals down before you can try more complex commands.

If you try to cram in too much at once you could easily overwhelm Tym. Then he’ll learn much slower and set you back far more than if you had been patient. Also remember not to stay out too long, there are some people coming this evening who want to have a chat with you.”

“Okay, will do.”