Chapter Fifty-One - A Lil More Practice

Their fight was in the afternoon, so that meant they had a whole morning to practice a bit more.

That was how Broccoli had explained it to her and Choco, at least. Marill wasn't sure she wanted to spend even more time practising. After all, the pokephone had so many things to see. So many buttons she hadn't pressed yet. And she had to beat her high score at Pokeberry Smasher!

But training was fine too... mostly.

Marill side-eyed Choco. The buneary was breathing hard, his eyes narrowed. His left paw reached down and tapped the top of a chronometre, then he focused harder... and fired off a Fireball. Choco reached down and tapped the chronometre again.

Marill stretched up onto her tippy-toes to see. Four and a bit seconds. Down from the six it had taken him to use Fireball that morning.

The buneary was growing fast, and if Marill didn't work hard, he'd be slipping right on past her. He was already faster—which she didn't like to admit, and knew more moves than she did.

But he wasn't stronger.

She'd proven it when they played Tackle Tag earlier. Marill might have been slower, but she was physically stronger than Choco.

Broccoli had explained that doing different things built different sorts of muscles. Running fast a lot made fast muscles. Lifting heavy things and hitting hard made muscles that were strong.

Marill was going to have the strongest muscles.

"Marill?" Broccoli asked. "How's it going?"

Marill started, then nodded her head. "Ma!" Good! She refocused on the task at hand. This was move-training time. Later on she'd be doing more physical stuff with Broccoli, learning the basics of the Way of the Mystic Bun, but for now... "Maaaa riiiilll!"

She sucked in a huge gulp of air, then mixed it all up with the watery feeling in her tummy. When she exhaled it came as a bunch of bubbles. Oh, there weren't as many as when King Krabby did it, and a lot of hers popped early and when they did, it wasn't with the same level of strength, but she was getting better too!

"Wow!" Broccoli said. She clapped. "You've gotten way better! I don't know if I could do that one. None of my spells are really water-based."

Marill puffed out her chest in pride. That was right, she was great!

"Keep it up," Broccoli said as she gave Marill's head a pat. "But don't push too hard! We don't want to be tired later. Actually... I think we'll skip physical training. I don't want anyone to have strained anything before a fight. We can do some stretching instead!"

Marill slumped a little. But... she wanted to do more physical training. She was strong, but she wanted to be stronger.

Pouting, she opened her mouth, and a single spare bubble plopped out and floated away with the breeze.

They shifted over to doing stretches, but Broccoli at least had the stretches be related to Way of the Mystic Bun. It was a lot of tilting to the side and slowly kicking her paw out, then rotating around on the spot and lunging very slowly while all of the muscles in her legs stretched.

Broccoli explained what she was doing even as she guided them through the exercise. It was all about making sure each muscle was stretched waaaay out until it was almost at its limit. Never enough to hurt, but right on the edge of that. Apparently, that would help them a lot, making sure that they wouldn't hurt themselves later.

They were just finishing up with stretches when Jazz showed up. The girl bounced on the spot a few times, inhaling and exhaling hard with big puffs of her cheeks. She smelled like soap and her hair was still wet, but she looked like she wanted a fight. "Are you ready?" she asked Broccoli.

"Yup!" Broccoli said. "I'm one million percent confident in my friends!"

Marill's eyes went wide. One million percent? That was so much!

Marill was suddenly not sure if she deserved that much confidence... but Broccoli also hadn't seen her fight since her evolution! She'd do good!

"Marill!" Let's go!

They did go... after stopping by the pokemon centre for a light breakfast of human food. Marill really liked eggs, which Broccoli didn't like as much, so she got to pick from Broccoli's plate. Choco did the same, but his favourite was toast with butter.

She told him that he looked like buttered toast, and he replied that she liked eggs because that's what fish ate.

Broccoli picked them off the floor by the scruff of their necks and shook her head. "No fighting during breakfast, guys," she said. "Also, no fighting after or before breakfast, we're friends."

Marill tried to cross her arms, but it was kind of hard since she was so round. She settled for puffing her cheeks out while Choco did the same.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Once breakfast was over and Broccoli cleaned them all up with a bit of magic and some scrubbing from a napkin, they were picked up, Marill in Broccoli's arms with a backwards hug, and Choco riding up and on top of Broccoli's head.

The idiot thought he had the best spot because he was higher up, but he didn't know that by being in Broccoli's arms, Marill was getting non-stop hugs the entire time! Stupid bunny!

She was smug until they made it to the gym. The building smelled like plants and dirt, but it was pretty clean. They walked into the lobby, and Jazz moved up to the counter and talked to the gym trainer behind it.

Marill looked around, taking in the rather clean building while they talked. This would be her first gym battle. Choco had done two already, and he was quick to brag about it.

Jazz eventually turned from talking to the gym trainer. "Looks like we won't be able to watch each other's fights," she said.

"How come?" Broccoli asked.

"They do all trainer fights in certain blocks here. Up to three at a time. I guess it means that they don't need to do them all day long, but yeah. We'll be fighting at the same time in two different arenas."

"Oh," Broccoli said. "Well, good luck hugs?"

Marill got to be squished in the middle of the good luck hug. She did her best to pat-pat Jazz. But then it was over and they were walking through the gym, following a girl in a uniform. It was a green jumpsuit with a large badge on the lapel. She brought them to a large room with a bunch of trees in it. There were arenas in the room, and they crossed one where Jazz was setting up across from another gym trainer.

The arenas were divided by rows of trees where a bunch of Bug-type pokemon could sit and stare at the fighting.

Marill tilted her head back to watch a flight of butterfrees hover past overhead, and she saw some large spider pokemon starring from their perches on the branches of one big tree.

"Alright," the gym trainer said. She bounced on the spot a couple of times, then nodded. "This will be a two-on-two, second badge level fight. Take as many switches as you want. Otherwise, standard league rules. Understood?

"Yup!" Broccoli said. She set Marill down. "Did you want to go first?"

"Ma!" Yes!

Broccoli grinned. "Alright. Do your best! But no hard feelings if it doesn't work out, okay?"

Marill grinned before bouncing forwards and onto her end of the arena. She was so ready! "Ma rill, maril! Bring it on, losers!

The gym trainer obviously couldn't understand her, like most humans couldn't. "That's one excited marill. Let's see if you can handle my little friend here! Go, Caterpie!"

Marill stared at the pokemon that appeared before her. That was it? A caterpie? This one was pretty large, coming up to Marill's chest, but it was just a big green caterpillar with a reddish horn thing on its head. "Caterpie!" I'm ready!

Even its voice was squeaky.

"Battle... begin!" the gym trainer shouted. "Caterpie, String Shot!"

"Marill, dodge it!"

Marill leapt to the side and rolled over her back, neatly avoiding the long string of goopy stuff the caterpie had spat out.

"Bubble Beam, then get in close," Broccoli shouted.

"Ma!" Got it!

Marill sucked in a deep breath of air, then let it all out as a wash of bubbles. They were as big and fast as she could make them. Maybe she was a little stressed by the fight after all, but that stress was only making her stronger!

The bubbles raced ahead, and Marill, being clever, raced behind them.

"Caterpie, String Shot the bubbles," the trainer said.

Caterpie did just that, firing a string at the bubbles at the front and popping a number of them with little bursts of Water-type energy. A few smaller ones made it past and popped next to the big bug, but it didn't look like it was hurting it too much.

Then Maril leapt out from behind one particularly large bubble. She was right there, on top of the little pokemon.

"Bug Bite!" the trainer shouted.

"Ma!" Hah!

Maril spun around as quick and hard as she could, she pushed energy into her tail, and it glowed faintly as it came around quick as a bullet and Slammed into the caterpie.

The bug pokemon was sent flying back, landing on its side and rolling.

Marill finished her spin and arrested her movement with a paw against the ground. She was preparing a Water Gun next, since it was so fast. If she hit it in the eyes it wouldn't see her coming again and—

"Caterpie's out of this one," the gym trainer said as she recalled her pokemon. "Nice work!"

Marill let the Water Gun dribble down her chin... that was... it?

Oh...

She was so strong!

***