Chapter Fifty-Nine - A Strapping Gift!

Marill noticed that Broccoli was in a good mood about ten steps out of the cafe. She knew, because Broccoli was walking with a bounce to her step. Marill being clutched in Broccoli's arms meant that every bounce was easy to feel. It was probably worse for Choco, but Choco was a stupid bunny and wouldn't clue in to stuff like his friends feeling gooder than usual.

"Ma, marill?" Hey, where are we going?

Broccoli looked down at her, which almost flung Choco off his perch. "We're getting a gift!" she said with a brilliant smile. "One for you, and one for Choco!"

"Marill?" We are?

"Yup! Are you the kind of person that gets too anxious when she learns that she has a gift coming?"

"Un, buneary bun bun, bun, bun." No, I'm not that kind of buneary, but you should tell me anyway.

"Marill, rill rill." I don't mind, you can keep it secret.

She did mind, a little. Broccoli had gifts? Marill loved gifts! She still remembered her mommy giving her some shinies back home to play with, and sometimes coming to their den with berries as a treat. Gifts were great, and she wanted them now. But if it annoyed Choco for her to be calm...

Not that Marill based her entire personality on bothering Choco, that'd be silly. She just based a small and reasonable amount of it on that.

"How about a distraction?" Broccoli asked with a smile. "I'll be honest, I really don't wanna hurt my friends... but at the same time, it makes me kind of happy when I have a gift to give you and won't tell you what it is. Teasing isn't bullying if you get a gift out of it in the end, right?"

"Ma!"

"Un!" Choco disagreed.

"Distraction!" Broccoli shouted, which made a nearby slowpoke jump... sometime after they passed it. "Okay, so, the big gym fight, I think we did a great job out there! Both of you kicked bug butt!"

"Ma!" Marill agreed. She had kicked bug butt! And it was a lot of fun, too! She'd earned her name from it, she was sure.

Oh, Broccoli said that it was just a maybe-tradition, that it wasn't important, but Marill knew better. She could feel it in her heart, traditions were important.

"But! Even after kicking bug butt, I think we can learn from the fight. Marill, you went first. I think you did great!"

"Ma!" Yeah!

"But... hmm, what could we improve on?"

Marill blinked, then wobbled a bit in Broccoli's grip, feet kicking out as she tried to think as hard as she could. "Marill rill rill ma marill? Marill rill marill, marill rill ma ma marill." I think that I could have been stronger? My Bubblebeam wasn't big or fast enough, and I wish I had that Clean Shield move that Choco used.

Broccoli nodded. "That's true! I think if you had a better grasp on Bubblebeam, that first fight would have been over sooner. And more practice will mean that you'll be able to cast that move more often too! I'm still impressed though, you learned that move in only a couple of days!"

Marill smiled smugly, yeah, she was pretty awesome.

"I think, moving forward, we'll work on that. And it's high time we learn more about the Way of the Mystic Bun! That punch won you the second match!" Broccoli said. "What about you, Choco?"

Marill listened as Choco mentioned how he wasn't as quick using moves as he could have been and how he still needed more practice with Fireball to really master it.

Broccoli agreed, and mentioned that once his moves were spent, he still needed some close-quarters fighting, so they'd have to keep practising that too.

"I think you're both doing great," Broccoli said. "Soon you'll both be way stronger than me!"

Marill scoffed. She wasn't sure about that. She'd seen Broccoli move and use a bunch of strong attacks already.

They talked about moves a bit more as they walked across town. Broccoli was saying how the Way of the Mystic Bun had a lot to do with coating one's body in energy and then using that to enhance attacks, and Marill liked the idea of being able to deliver Fireballs and such via punching. It sounded a bit like that Aqua Tail move Tabitha had mentioned once and Marill wondered if she could start with that?

Finally, though, they made it to their destination. "Here we are!" Broccoli cheered.

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They were standing at the end of the fenced-in yard of the Acorn Man's house. The grumpy old guy who made special pokeballs.

"Ma?" Here?

"Yup!" Broccoli said. "I commissioned a couple of special things from Mister Kurt, I think you'll like them. He doesn't just make pokeballs, you know?"

Marill was so curious she was practically vibrating as they entered Mister Kurt's house. It smelled like sawdust in there, and oil, and greasy metal stuff. There were several workbenches on the far end of the room, one of which had a few things on it.

Broccoli couldn't just grab them, though, she had to chat with Kurt for a while because that's what Broccoli did, even if both of her friends were suffering as she chit-chatted along.

Finally though, the interminable talking finished, and Broccoli placed her and Choco on the workbench. "Okay! Two gifts, who wants to go first?"

"Ma ma ma!"

"Bun bun bun!"

Broccoli laughed. "It's a trick question, because there's four gifts! You get the first one at the same time."

Kurt harrumphed as he walked over with a small wooden box, placed it on the table, and opened it up. "I get requests like these all the time, and refuse them just as often. You're lucky you made a good impression on me."

"Thank you," Broccoli said.

Kurt opened the box to reveal... a pair of pokeballs.

But not just any! The first was beige and brown, with a pair of long nubs on the top. Nubs that looked suspiciously like bunny ears! The second was white and blue, like a normal pokeball sorta, but blue where there was red, and the blue had several little circles carved into it in a pretty, repeating pattern.

"I thought that it was a shame that you had to be in pokeballs sometimes, so I asked Mister Kurt, who's the pokeball expert, to make special ones just for you!"

"And yet you mentioned that you didn't intend to use them most of the time anyway," Kurt said with a shake of his head. "Kids these days."

Marill grabbed her new pokeball and inspected it. It was very nice, clearly handmade and well made at that. It didn't feel like the normal pokeballs she'd seen, which were nice too in their own way, but felt... un-unique.

"Okay! Second gift time!" Broccoli cheered.

"Ma!"

Kurt huffed, then pulled out a lump of canvas that he put onto the workbench. "These will need adjusting," he warned.

Broccoli nodded, then patted Choco on the head. "Start with my brave little bunny?"

"Hmph." Kurt unfolded the canvas to reveal... a belt? It was a thin leather piece with a few careful carvings on it. They looked like little buneary heads tilted this way and that. There was also a little pouch.

"It's a berry pouch!" Broccoli said. "Jazz said that they're tournament legal as long as you only bring one berry with you. Some of them act like mini-healing potions, so that's neat! Imagine having a quick nibble mid-fight to heal yourself up? Or to add a bit of pep when you need it?"

"Bun! Buneary!" Whoa! Amazing!

Kurt manhandled Choco to stop moving so much and then fitted the belt around his waist where it was cinched just over his lower half, right above all the fluff.

It looked like it fit really well, too.

"And for Marill," Broccoli said with a grin. "A phone case!"

Kurt revealed another leather thing, this one with four straps marked with little azurill heads burned into them. There, at the front, was a pouch that would sit right in front of the white of her tummy, it was rectangular, and looked perfect for holding a pokephone.

"Ma!" Yes!

"I don't think you can bring it into an official fight, but I don't know if that matters. Let Kurt fit it on, and then we'll see if my phone fits?"

Marill stood still with her arms stretched out to the side as Kurt adjusted the straps on the pouch. Soon, it was hanging tight around her middle. Kurt showed her and Broccoli how to adjust the straps for when she grew bigger and stronger.

"And there you have it," Kurt said.

"Thank you!" Broccoli replied.

Then it was time!

Broccoli grabbed her pokephone and handed it to Marill, who held it in both paws. And then she opened the little flap-flap on the front of her new pouch and slipped the pokephone in.

It was perfect!

***