Chapter Forty-Seven - Nice Kinda Tired

Choco was a little tired, but it was a nice kind of tired. The sort that came from practising a bunch.

He was pretty proud of how much he'd improved since meeting Broccoli. That had turned out to be a pretty good day, meeting her. He was much stronger now, and wiser, and more humble too!

Right now, he was basking in his own awesomeness while holding one of Broccoli's ears so that it was flat atop his head to keep the rain away.

As they walked around Azalea the rain had picked up a little and started to come down stronger. It wasn't so bad. Broccoli said that they weren't made of chocolate and so wouldn't melt. He wasn't sure what that meant, but she said it with confidence. Besides, Broccoli could make sure that the rain was clean, at least.

So could he, actually.

Choco looked at the paw not holding an ear over his head. Energy roiled around it, bright and clear. Clean-type. Then Normal-type, then back. Fire was close, very close. He could make his paw warm up, and he sometimes saw a glimmer.

So close!

Soon, soon he'd have it, and Broccoli would be proud of him, and he'd clear that bug gym all on his own without needing Marill's help at all.

Choco leaned back a little and thought. He knew a few moves now. A lot of them, actually.

There was Pound, when he smacked someone with a bit of Normal-type energy. Quick Attack, which was more about moving fast then tackling someone or hitting them. He knew Splash, of course. It was the most fun move to use during bath time.

What else... Defence Curl to get tougher—though he hadn't figured out the other elements thing Broccoli mentioned.

His Baby-Doll Eyes move was very strong too. When Broccoli met someone new on the street he'd sometimes use it on them, and then they'd tell him that he was handsome! Sometimes he got candy too!

Then there were the Clean-type moves he knew. Clean Ball and Clean Shield.

"You're humming to yourself a lot up there," Broccoli said. "Thinking hard?"

"Bun," he said with a nod. He was. "Buneary bun bun buneary." I've decided that I'm gonna be the strongest buneary ever.

Broccoli giggled, and Marill sniffed. "Ma Ma rill." You go do that.

"Well, the first step to getting strong is helping others," Broccoli said. She waved to an old lady rushing in and out of her house with a bucket. "Miss! Are you okay? Do you need help?"

The lady turned out to have a hole in her roof which was leaking water into her house. Choco didn't know how to fix roofs, and nor did Broccoli, but they did have some old wood in the backyard and a few nails and a rusty hammer. Broccoli hopped onto the roof and Choco held the plank in place over the hole while Marill kept the bucket from sliding off the roof.

The old lady was very happy when the leak slowed to a drip. She let them warm up in front of their fire and gave Broccoli a big warm towel to dry herself off with. Choco laughed as Broccoli smushed him with the towel, then it was Marill's turn, and she complained about being fine with water.

Broccoli's hard work drying him off was undone when Choco said that fish were also comfortable being wet.

They left the old lady's place and went on the lookout for more people that needed help. They discovered a small gazebo in the middle of a park right in the centre of the town that had a bunch of papers put up by locals. A lot of them were people asking for help.

The first, a young boy who'd lost his rattata, was overjoyed when Choco, Broccoli and Marill canvassed the light forests around his home. It took an hour, and Choco was covered in brambles and burrs by the end, but they did find the rattata. He'd gotten lost about fifty hops away from home, and Choco wrote the rat off as a bottom-percentile one.

Their next and last quest for the day was to help the local apricorn-man.

Choco didn't quite understand it, but there was an old man on the far end of town with a nice house that had a shop built into it. He seemed pretty confident even though he was so old. He somehow knew that Choco and his friends had helped with Team Rocket, but that didn't stop him from asking Broccoli to escort his grand-daughter around the edge of the big forest to pick up apricorns.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The quest turned out to be pretty easy. The grand-daughter had a pokemon of her own, a slowpoke that dragged its feet wherever it went and who didn't seem to notice that the girl was sitting on it half the time. She knew where to go, but didn't have a way to fight off the pokemon that ventured out of the forest.

Those mostly included weedles and caterpie, an aggressive paras, and then a pidgey that didn't want to fight, but who did fly circles around them and tried to steal some apricorns from the girl's basket.

When they returned, the sun was on its way to setting and the rain had let up and was back to being a slight drizzle. Broccoli placed Choco and Marill down outside of the Apricorn-man's house and told them to wait for just a minute.

She was back in no time at all, smiling from ear to ear.

Then it was back to the pokemon centre!

They found Tabitha sitting calmly within the centre's lobby. She had King Krabby on her lap, the krabby holding onto Tabitha's phone between her pinchy claws, and her new slowpoke friend was resting on the floor.

"Hi Tabitha!" Broccoli said.

"Hello, Broccoli. You are... wet."

"Yup!" Broccoli said. She reached down and squeezed her skirt which oozed water all over. "Turns out gambesons are great at absorbing water. It's gonna take forever to dry!"

"Your propensity to wear armour is quite unique. I don't think most trainers would bother with such," Tabitha said. That got Broccoli to launch into a whole story about how armour was great and useful.

Choco had considered it, but Jazz once said that pokemon could only carry one small item into official battles, so no wearing full-plate for him.

"Bun, bunearby bun bun." Hello, I'm Choco the buneary. The slowpoke very slowly turned his way and stared.

Marill bounced across the floor and then hopped up on her tail, using the boost to reach the counter where she sat down and used a lesser version of Baby-Doll Eyes (a move he'd taught her) to stare at the nice nurse lady on the other side of the counter.

She giggled and gave Marill's head a pat-pat. Marill then pointed to a poster next to the nurse and asked the centre's chansey what it said. The chansey stared between Marill and the poster before she explained it.

Marill started doing that thing where she sounded out letters, and the chansey giggled and helped.

Choco wasn't as interested in learning how to read. It seemed like a bit of a waste. If he had to read something, he'd just have Broccoli do it for him.

He was still paying some attention to the reading lessons, because he couldn't let Marill get ahead.

"Slow...slow..." I'm... slow...

Yeah, he was, Choco thought.

"Poke." Poke.

Choco nodded slowly. He wasn't sure if he could endure a conversation with this guy. "Buneary bun bun buneary." It's nice to meet you, Slowpoke. I hope we become friends.

"Sloooow... poke poke... slowpoke... Sloooowpoke." But... my new friends... call me... Slowking.

Nope! Choco wasn't going to do a conversation where he had to wait a minute between replies. He was a buneary, and bunearies went fast!

Broccoli and Tabitha chatted for a while, and Choco was soon bored out of his mind while standing next to Broccoli. He even reached over and held onto the hem of her skirt, occasionally giving it a tug to remind Broccoli to hurry up and finish.

She did, eventually, but only because Jazz came in and scowled at Tabitha. "Hey, let's go out to eat," she said. "Just the two of us and our pokemon! I think Tabitha's busy."

"I am?" Tabitha asked. She blinked, then nodded slowly. "Yes, I suppose I am. Slowking needs his initial training. Have a nice evening you two."

Broccoli scooped Choco up, and he was happy that they were finally heading out.

Marill came along too, of course, and when they arrived at the restaurant—a small place a few doors down, run by the same lady who owned the place. Choco suspected that they actually lived on the floor above!—Marill insisted on reading the entire menu for herself.

It was nice, but he was eager for the morning to come, because tomorrow Choco was going to master Fireballs once and for all!

***