As the days passed it became more and more obvious. The second, third, fourth, and fifth days were just a repeat. Those with powerful Pokemon were conveniently not put against anyone particularly strong. On the sixth day, I wasn’t even paying attention. The trio and Cara were still interested, but I could tell they were starting to get bored. It was a good thing that we weren’t staying for the second week.

I had been spending my time going more thoroughly through the useless books I had been given, and messaging Professor Oak. I had asked him where I could find recipes on how to make certain things. I knew how to make curry, since the game went into fairly good detail on that and I wasn’t a bad cook. But I wanted to know how to make things like pokeblocks, and poke puffs. Unfortunately he didn’t know.

Rather reluctantly I had asked Professor Sycamore, but he didn’t know either. Or rather than not knowing, he changed the subject asking if I was that bored already. I informed him that it was hard to be interested when it was so obviously rigged. That had actually confused him, as he apparently didn’t know what I was talking about. So I explained what I had observed.

This apparently annoyed him. His annoyance wasn’t towards me, but to the local Association branch that was supposed to be running the League. He hadn’t watched the Prelims in a few years and I guess no one had ever brought this up to him before. It sounded like he had another thing that he was supposed to be checking on that he let slip through.

I decided to not even stay for day seven, and instead I got on a train that was heading towards Geosenge. I was a bit surprised to find the train completely empty, but the conductor seemed more surprised to see me leaving early. The trio had decided to remain in their pokeballs, apparently still a bit tired from all the excitement of the Prelims. Cara however wanted to sit beside me.

It was honestly rather adorable how she showed affection. She always sat close to me, and would sit practically against me if we were alone or she thought no one was watching. I could feel her lean into me. She wouldn’t look at me while she did this, and would sometimes grab hold of my clothing. It was like she wanted to be close but was embarrassed.

On the way I made the call to the ranch. “Nurse Joy of Joy Ranch speaking.” It was interesting seeing a Nurse Joy not wearing some sort of medical outfit, as this one seemed to be wearing a more ranch appropriate outfit. Overalls and a red flannel included.

“Hi Nurse Joy, my name is Jason. I believe Santalune Nurse Joy told you about me?” I hoped that referring to them by what town they were in was the right thing, but I didn’t know how else to differentiate them.

“Oh, Jason. Right, my cousin mentioned you would want to visit.” She seemed rather pleased that someone would actually take an interest in the ranch.

“Yes, well, I’m currently heading towards Geosenge, so I was wondering if you would be available tomorrow?”

“Oh, is it already the second week of the League? I totally lost track of time.” She seemed to lean a bit to the side, checking something that I couldn’t see. “Yeah, that would be fine. I can meet you at the Pokecenter tomorrow.”

“That works.” I was glad that it would be soon.

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She hung up before I had a chance to properly say a goodbye. She seemed quite busy.

The rest of the train ride was rather uneventful. The train didn’t even really stop at all, barely slowing at stations. The whole region was truly obsessed with the League. But I could understand that. The idea of watching Pokemon battles was exciting. But seeing what they were doing, and seeing hundreds of battles in the games and anime, it was rather boring.

Seeing the ocean was nice. There were so many Pokemon out there. Even though the water made me nervous. I shook my head a bit, and Cara looked over and put a paw on my leg, apparently sensing my discomfort. “Ah, I have problems with water.”

“Problems?” She tilted her head to the side.

“It just makes me nervous when I can’t see the bottom,” I explained. She didn’t seem to understand, but it was obvious that she was concerned and did her best to comfort me. Though her comforting simply consisted of petting my leg.

The rest of the ride passed in comfortable silence. There was something about just sort of sitting there with a Pokemon. I really hoped that I would never get used to this feeling.

Eventually we arrived in Geosenge, and Cara went back into her pokeball. I wasn’t really surprised that she didn’t want to walk around the town with me, especially after finding out I was going to go shopping.

The Pokemart was actually really interesting. It was like a compact supermarket. Though the reason that it was compact was because there weren’t many brands. There seemed to only be at most two or three brands for products, and many were only a single brand. The most variety was in Pokemon food, things like high protein meat for carnivore Pokemon, food with metals in it for steel types, special plant mixtures for grass types.

Of the five thousand pokedollars I had, I spent four thousand. Rice, a few types of pokechow, spices, a large variety of curry blocks, and berries. So many berries. I wanted to buy some vitamins, but the cheapest one was ten thousand. I did see maps while shopping, but they were extremely expensive.

I was going to leave when I spotted a clothing rack with dozens of discount jackets. It was rather chilly in Kalos and I had just been dealing with it. But a coat would be nice. I spent a few minutes looking through them until I found one that I liked. It was a black short trench coat with a hood. The coat part went down to my knees and flared backward niceley when it was open. I thought it looked pretty good on me. It cost eight hundred, which hurt my wallet, but I wanted a coat and this was my style.

With all that bought, I headed towards the center of town, following a sign that indicated where the strange rock structure was. It was probably a rather interesting tourist attraction when the League wasn’t going on. It was…rather unimpressive and I quickly made my way towards the north west side of town.

I wasn’t entirely sure what I was looking for, since it was just a large rock in the game. And that’s actually what I ended up finding. It was an off looking rock formation just sitting in the open. This was supposedly the entrance of Team Flare’s secret HQ. “Cara.”

She appeared beside me, looking around in confusion. “What’s wrong?” She was really good at sensing my emotions.

Looking around, I was trying to make sure no one was looking. “Can you sense anyone watching us?” Her eyes flashed violet for a moment before she shook her head. That was actually the first time I had seen her actively use Aura Sense. “That rock. Can you sense anything in it?”

Her confusion only increased, but she turned to look at the large boulder. Again her eyes flashed and she suddenly blinked, tilting her head to the side. “Yes? There’s a room?”

“Damn.” I looked around again, trying to catch even a glimpse of a red or white coat, but it didn’t look like there was anyone around. That probably meant that Team Flare’s base was indeed here, or at least some structure was there probably containing the ultimate weapon.

This was concerning.

“Alright…thank you.”

She was suddenly touching my coat, curious at my new wardrobe addition. “I like it,” she said after a moment.

I chuckled a bit and nodded. “Yeah I like it, too.” There was a moment of silence as she gave me another look over before she nodded and returned to her pokeball. I had a smile on my face as I turned and began to make my way to the Pokecenter. It was about noon, and lunch sounded good.

Glancing back once again at the stone I caught a glimpse of something hiding in its shadow. I stopped, staring at the rough familiar shape of an Espurr. The same Espurr. Was it following me? Or did it just happen to wander here? It had been a while since I’d seen it. And I was confident that it was the same one as it had that same feeling of being off, except now I could see what was off with it.

It was pink. It was a shiny? Pokemon could be shiny in this world? Was it some sort of genetic thing? I had so many questions suddenly. Shiny hunting was something a lot of people did, and I had even tried it a few times but never had any luck even after dozens of hours. I had patience, but not that much.

As I turned to head back and get a closer look at the Pokemon, it disappeared. I paused, waiting for a few minutes, but it didn’t come back. Well, I suppose I will leave it for now. If it was actually following me, it wouldn’t be long before I saw it again. Once is a chance, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern.

~

It was actually kind of jarring to walk into an identical Pokemon center, seeing an identical Nurse Joy, and a Wigglytuff with a little medical cap. “Hi there, how can I help you?” she asked with a smile.

“Uh- Hello Nurse Joy,” I said as I walked towards the table. “Sorry, forgot where I was for a second. Spent so much time at the Santalune Pokecenter.” I rubbed my head a bit. “I’m going to chalk that up to the concussion…” I mumbled.

She blinked at me. “Concussion? Ah, you must be Jason. My cousin has been talking about you.” There was a concerned expression on her face. “Did you want a checkup while you’re here?”

I thought about it for a moment and nodded. “That’s probably a good idea. It can take… a few months to fully recover from a concussion, right?”

Wigglytuff was already making her way around the counter. “Do you need your Pokemon checked on as well?” the pink Pokemon asked.

“No, they’re fine. They haven’t battled since their last checkup. We’ve just been watching the League.”

She frowned at me. “It’s still a good idea to get them checked while you’re here.”

I decided to quickly change my tune and nodded a bit. “Right, right. Don’t want to argue with a medical professional giving good advice,” I said as I removed the clip from my belt.

“That’s right. We know best,” she declared proudly.

“I would usually agree with you,” I agreed.

“Usually?”

“Well no one is incapable of making mistakes,” I reasoned, though it was hard to simply not say that even a doctor can be an idiot. “I’m sure you have disagreed with Nurse Joy before, yes?”

She had to think about this for a moment before nodding. “Yes, there have been times. Like when she overreacted to a newborn Axew that got sick.”

I chuckled a bit. “Oh? Well it is concerning for newborns.”

“Gosh, don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” Nurse Joy said with a huff, having also come around the counter.

This time I laughed. “Sorry, sorry.” I handed my pokeball clip to Wigglytuff, who waddled off with it.

“Alright, come with me,” Nurse Joy said as she led me to the back. It was a quick checkup and only took a few minutes. “Well, you’re healing well. Like, amazingly well. From what I heard you got hit with a bat or something?”

I nodded. “Yeah, messed me up pretty good. But I’m glad I’m recovering.”

She nodded, and a silence fell as she filled out a bit of paperwork. After a few minutes she finally spoke, “Yanno, it’s really interesting watching you talk with Pokemon. I wish I could get to that level of communication.”

“Ah- yeah. I sometimes forget that not everyone can…and it honestly feels like quite a gift. I wonder if it’s because of the concussion. Or something else.” Since Arceus supposedly created the Pokemon language, it wouldn’t be surprising if he gave me this ability.

“Maybe… but I doubt that it’s because of the concussion.” She gave me a bit of a smile. “Other than the residual head injury trauma, which not even Pokemon can just shrug off, you seem pretty healthy.”

“So a Pokemon wouldn’t heal from this quickly?” I asked, curious as the sound of long lasting injuries was worrisome.

“Pokemon are hardy, and heal extremely quickly. Humans aren’t that far behind, especially with medical treatment. It was only because it took so long for you to get help that it was this bad at all. If a Pokemon had received this injury, they would either need immediate treatment, or be put into pokeball stasis as soon as possible,” she explained.

I nodded slowly. I had to admit that I honestly felt a lot stronger and tougher since coming to this world. Which seemed to be the norm? I guess in order to survive in a world of Pokemon you needed to be a bit tougher. “That makes sense.”

She nodded a bit and Wigglytuff entered the room. “Everyone’s all good,” she said with a smile, handing me the belt clip.

“Thank you.”

Immediately she took a step back and put her hands on her nurse hat. “No petting,” she said threateningly.

I laughed. “Yes yes, I know. No head pats, as much as I want to.”

Nurse Joy smiled a bit and tried not to laugh, hiding her mouth behind her hand. “Head pats?”

“Cute Pokemon,” I said as I gestured at Wigglytuff. “Cute Pokemon deserve head pats.”

Wigglytuff puffed up a bit before leaving the room as Nurse Joy broke out in giggles. “Head pats, huh?”

“Yeah, the Santalune Wigglytuff doesn’t like me patting her head either,” I said with a chuckle. “Hopefully the nurse I get will like them.”

“Right, my cousin mentioned you wanted a nurse Pokemon to travel with?” she asked, wanting to confirm.

I nodded. “Yeah. I think it would be a great idea.”

“Can’t say I’ve ever heard of a Trainer wanting to do that. You know she’s probably not going to want to fight, right?”

“I’m not a typical Trainer,” I said with a smile. “And it’s fine if they don’t want to fight. I don’t want to force anyone to fight if they don’t want to.”

She looked at me for a moment, as if trying to confirm if what I said was true. Eventually she nodded. “Alright. Go and rest up. You’re still healing.”

“Yes, Nurse Joy. Thank you.”

~

After we all had lunch, we spent time sitting in one of the rooms provided by the pokecenter. It was extremely familiar, which felt nice. I actually preferred this small little room in comparison to the expensive hotel. The trio had found my new jacket interesting, but eventually lost interest and began their wrestling competitions while Cara watched from the edge of the bed.

I awoke in the morning to find everyone piled on top of me again. It was always amusing to see Cara just laying with her face pressed into my shoulder. Though it suddenly reminded me of the same position someone would take when they cried into someone's shoulder. Did she do that? Did she wait for everyone to fall asleep before crying?

I wasn’t given a chance to think about it more as there was a knock at the door. As usual Cara used Extreme Speed to get on her feet and into a defensive position. She really did not like when someone came to the door.

Since everyone else was still asleep I simply returned them to their pokeballs before getting up. I threw on my coat as Cara opened the door. “Finally. Come on, we’re burning day-” the Joy stopped when she saw not a person at the door, but a Lucario.

The two of them seemed to lock eyes for a moment before I walked up. “Sorry, I didn’t expect you this early,” I said and then looked down at Cara. She was glaring at the woman in front of her, clearly annoyed at being woken up. I put my hand on her head, ruffling her fur a bit. “So aggressive,” I said with a chuckle.

She batted at my hand, but I noticed not with enough force to actually push my hand away. Maybe I should try petting her more when we were alone? “Why is she here so early?” she grumbled.

“Well, at least you’re good with Pokemon. Now, c’mon, I gotta get back to the ranch,” Joy said, though the previous edge to her voice had noticeably dropped.

“Right.” Cara went back into her pokeball as I followed behind this Joy. I waved goodbye to the Nurse Joy behind the counter, and wondered if she ever slept, before exiting the building. There in front of the Pokecenter was the most obvious farm truck to ever truck on a farm. It was even that classic blue, white, and rust that I saw in movies.

“It’s a fair distance outside of town,” she explained as she got in. I got in as well, noting immediately the lack of seatbelts. “Hold on.” Then, much to my not surprise, she floored it. I grabbed onto the bar above the door, and held onto it just hard enough to keep myself from falling out of my seat. At one point I swear I saw Officer Jenny flash by, yelling something, but if she was there she wasn’t in sight for long and I heard nothing.

Cobbled roads quickly gave way to dirt as we flew out of the city. I wasn’t exactly scared, I had been driven by some extremely bad drivers in my last life, and Joy was anything but a bad driver. She was just driving fast. “You could have just told me where the ranch was, I wouldn’t have minded the walk,” I said after a bit, doing my best to keep my voice level.

“Didn’t want you getting lost,” she responded, thankfully not taking her eyes off the road as she spoke.

I wasn’t sure how that would have been possible since we were driving in a fairly straight line. It didn’t even take that long before we pulled up to a large gate. I could see the sign beside it that said ‘Joy Ranch’. Looking out into the fields I could see a few Pokemon, but what really struck me was the massive school-like building off in the distance.

After a moment I saw a Wigglytuff making its way from the school and down the road at a jog. I looked at it, then looked at Joy, and then at it. “I can just… get out and open the gate?” I suggested.

Joy glanced at me, and then at the approaching Wigglytuff. She said nothing.

“I’m… I’m just gonna… Open the gate,” I said as I stepped out of the truck.

The Joy watched me as I went over, unlatched the gate, and pushed it open. I saw in the distance as the Wigglytuff slowed down, already puffing from their attempted sprint. They practically doubled over, gasping for breath.

Joy avoided looking at me as they drove through, and I closed the gate, making sure it was latched properly before moving back to the truck. Joy’s face was quite an intense shade of red. “They uh… might need a bit more physical training,” I suggested as we drove over to the building, passing the Wigglytuff who honestly had not even made it that far.

Joy just nodded, her face still very red from embarrassment. She didn’t say anything until she parked, clearing her throat. “Everyone is out back right now, so… we should go there,” she said as she began to head that way.

I followed her, looking over at Wigglytuff who was making their way back to the building at a seemingly more manageable pace.

“They were told last night that we would have a guest, who was possibly looking for a partner. They honestly seemed pretty excited, though I think that’s just because we never get guests who aren’t here for treatment,” as she finished we rounded the corner of the building. I was met with the sight of dozens of Pokemon; mostly Wigglytuff, but there were also some Audino and Indeedee.

They were all chattering excitedly, talking about this or that, mostly medical things, how their schooling was going, where they were hoping to go, difficult recent patient’s, and other miscellaneous things. However they all seemed to stop when they saw me. I saw their expressions light up and I watched as Joy quickly backed away before they all began to swarm around me, peppering me with questions.

I had honestly not seen so many Pokemon in such close proximity before and it was quite a delightful experience. “Hello, everyone,” I said, unable to keep myself from smiling. “My name is Jason. No, I'm not a doctor. No, I don't work at a Pokecenter. No, I’m not here from the Association.” I did my best to answer some of the questions that I had managed to catch.

None of that seemed to satiate their curiosity as to why I was here and they continued to ask questions, even the ones I had literally just answered.

Their excitement was honestly a bit infectious, and I couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “I’m looking for someone who would want to journey with me,” I tried to explain, but most of them seemed to not be listening as they chattered excitedly. “Are they always like this?” I asked Joy with a laugh.

“Like I said, no one ever comes to visit. This group is the one that’s going to graduate, so they’re excited,” Joy explained.

“Yes, I can see that,” I said, unable to help from laughing a bit more.

I spent the next few hours talking with them, Joy having to leave in order to do some work. She would obviously be very busy. I introduced the future nurse Pokemon to my own Pokemon, who all got more check ups than they probably would ever need. They were even quite interested in me, as I was recovering from a concussion.

What I realized as I interacted with them, was they were all excited to be nurses and go work in pokecenters. All of them. Though some of them thought that exploring the world would be interesting, none of them were particularly enthusiastic about it. That was something they wanted to do later in life, after being a nurse.

Eventually I managed to escape from them, moving away and leaning against the building. This was going to be more difficult than I thought… I might have to give up on getting a nurse for my team. I could live without one, but it would have been extremely useful.

One of the Audino approached me slowly, gently pulling on my coat. “Jason?”

“Mmm?” I looked down at her. “Yes?”

“Cara said you like helping Pokemon, right?” She seemed hesitant about something.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“I try my best,” I said truthfully.

“All your Pokemon say you do,” she continued.

I chuckled a bit, and nodded. “I guess I do like helping, yes.”

“Can you… help my mom?” They weren’t looking at me, staring off into the distance. I followed her gaze, but she wasn’t looking at anything I could see. “She won’t talk to us.”

“I can try,” I said softly, smiling at her.

She nodded. I noticed that there were a couple Audino behind her, all of them looking at me expectantly. “This way.” She began to lead me away from the building, the other Audino simply watching us leave.

Cara gave me a bit of a look, but I smiled at her. “It’s fine. I’ll be back in a while.”

After a few minutes of walking we came across a river flowing through the property. I could see a few water Pokemon swimming about, but the Audino pointed a bit up stream. There was another Audino sitting on the bank, staring at the water.

I was about to make my way over when a hand was placed on my shoulder. I looked over to see Joy looking at the Audino that had led me here, frowning at her. “She needs time,” Joy said, wearing quite the disapproving look. The look seemed to be enough to scare the little Pokemon away.

“What happened?” I asked, looking back at the Audino in the distance.

“She’s…” Joy hesitated before sighing. “She’s retired.”

“She doesn’t look that old,” I said.

“It has nothing to do with her age.” Again she sighed. “She was a breeder while here in school. Raised a lot of talented Pokemon while doing her schooling. She also has a real knack for medicine. But soon after she graduated and got assigned…” she trailed off and it took a few moments before she started again. “A few months ago, there was an attack on her Pokecenter.”

Now it was my turn to frown. “Who attacked it?”

“We don’t know. Some secret organization that hadn’t revealed their name… We don’t know the reason either. She did her best, but she wasn’t trained to be a fighter. The… Nurse Joy there didn’t make it.” I could hear the hurt in her voice, and her eyes were becoming a bit watery.

I gently placed my hand on her shoulder.

She took a deep breath. “I’m fine. But she… she took it much harder, because she was right there. She was right there, and she blames herself for not being able to protect her. Or anyone there. Not many survived.”

A slight, unpleasant, shiver ran down my spine and I was really forced to realize that this wasn’t a game, but real life - my life. People and Pokemon died here. I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “You…don’t mind if I talk to her?”

After a moment she shook her head. “No… My cousin said you’re really good at understanding Pokemon… maybe you can figure out how to help her better than I can.”

“I wouldn’t say better. I’m just lucky I can approach it from a different angle.” I pat her on the shoulder a bit before I started to walk over.

The Audino didn’t even move as I came over, sitting down beside her and looking at the river. She didn’t even look at me, just staring at the water. There wasn’t anything in particular that I could see her looking at. A few Pokemon swimming up or down the river, though nothing particularly large or unexpected.

I just sat with her. It wasn’t that I didn’t know what to say, but it wasn’t really for me to start this conversation. It was almost an hour before she finally spoke, “You’re the guest everyone’s been talking about?”

“Mhm. My name’s Jason, but you can call me Jace,” I said, looking at her. Her expression didn’t change, nor did she shift her gaze.

A few more minutes passed. “You’re here to get a nurse partner,” she stated flatly.

“I am.”

“Then why are you over here?”

I looked at her for a moment before responding, “Your children are worried about you. They wanted me to come talk to you.”

“What’s there to talk about?”

“Oh there’s lots to talk about,” I leaned back a bit on my hands. “Like, the Pokemon in the river.”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” she said coldly.

“Then what do you want to talk about?” I asked, looking at her back. She had scars.

There were several minutes of silence before she spoke again, “Why are you here?”

“Well, I came to the ranch hoping to find a nurse Pokemon who would want to come along with me on my journey.” I sighed a bit. “But it’s pretty obvious that no one wants to come along.”

“And you’re okay with that?” She actually turned a bit, looking a bit towards me but not at me. “You’re okay with failing?”

“Failing? Is that what you think?” She didn’t respond. “I’m not going to force anyone to be my friend, or leave their home, or go somewhere they don’t want to go. That’s not the type of person I am.”

I waited a moment for her to respond, but she just turned her attention back to the river.

“Am I disappointed?” I continued, talking more to myself now. “Sure. A bit, but I also got to experience something by coming here. I got to see the next generation of nurse Pokemon. Who gets to do that besides Joy?” I remained silent for a moment before adding, “It’s not comparable.”

“What isn’t?”

“My experience coming here,” I said before fully laying back. “But I… I do know a bit about how you feel,” I said softly. “I am… so far from home. And I don’t think I can ever go back.” I watched the clouds for a moment before taking a deep breath and closing my eyes. “My friends. My family. I’ll… I’ll never get to see any of them ever again.”

“Why?” I opened my eyes to see that she had actually turned to look at me.

“Because I’m not from here. I’m not… not even from this world. Someone decided that what was in my pockets was worth more than my life. And for some reason," I continued with an unexpected, venomous edge, "for some fucking reason… Arceus decides to throw me here. A place I don’t know anyone. A place I have no family. No friends.”

Again she was silent.

With a sigh I sat back up. “So I decided to make new friends. Make a new family… And I think I’ve done a pretty good job at that so far.” I looked at her a moment before holding out my hand to her. “Audino… You have friends…and family… Who love you, and are worried about you.”

I had expected her to ignore me, turn her attention back to the river. Instead, I saw her face scrunch up a bit as tears welled up in her eyes. Tiredly, like all the strength left her, she seemed to sag. Her head hit my chest, her hands weakly grasping at my coat as tears streamed down her face. I put my arms around her, rubbing her back.

Closing my eyes, I simply held her. It was interesting that this was the second time I had a Pokemon sobbing in my arms. If someone heard about that they would think I’m a horrible person, making Pokemon cry. But Audino was completely different from Popplio. Popplio had been sad because she had been abandoned and ignored. Audino was bottling everything up and pushing everyone away.

It took a long time for her to calm down. She didn’t fall asleep, just slowly becoming quieter with just a few sniffles every now and then. I had no problem sitting with her, gently petting her. She had short soft fur covering her body, and I tried to be gentle because I didn’t know if her scars still hurt. It was interesting to learn that Pokemon could scar, and I wondered what it took to leave scars. Probably a lot.

“Why?” she asked softly.

I made a little, “Mm?” noise, not quite sure what she was asking about.

“Why would someone do that?” she mumbled into my chest.

Closing my eyes a sigh escaped me. “Someone who’s more of an optimist would probably try and reason things out, say that there’s a reason. But sometimes the reason doesn’t matter. Sometimes… people are just evil.” I rubbed the back of her head. “And it’s not fair. It’s not fair that someone can just…decide to be evil and inflict that on others.”

“So there was no reason?”

“I didn’t say that,” I responded quickly. “I’m saying the reason doesn’t matter. There is no excuse that they can make to justify what they did. Some acts of evil are beyond any sort of reason.”

She was silent for a moment before saying, “I don’t understand.”

I had to think about it for a moment. “Stealing a loaf of bread because you’re starving is a reasonable evil. Hurting someone to keep them from hurting others is a reasonable evil. There was probably a reason for those people doing what they did, but it doesn’t matter. What they did was so evil that no excuse or reason they could have could justify it.”

“But… I want to know the reason…”

I sighed a bit, petting her more. “I can’t help you there. You’d have to go to Galar and find out.”

It was a bit longer before she pulled away, sniffling and wiping at her face. I smiled a bit at her, petting the top of her head for a moment before offering my hand again. It took a few moments before she slowly put her hand into mine. I stood up, and pulled her up onto her feet as I did.

She seemed a bit startled at my action, but realized my intent when I started walking, gently pulling her along. There was a bit of hesitation in her step, and I matched my pace to hers. There was conflict on her face, but isolating herself was not going to help her. Shutting yourself off when you’re going through things is not good for your mental health. I learned that from experience.

When we finally made our way around the building we were met with a rather interesting sight. The trio were fighting. Not play fighting as they normally did, but actually battling. I wondered for a moment if there had been some sort of argument between them when I realized they were surrounded by nurse Pokemon.

“Bunch of little battle junkies,” I said with a chuckle.

“Ah, you’re back,” Joy said. She was leaning against the wall not far from me, and I hadn’t noticed her.

I nodded a bit, glancing at the Audino, who was still holding my hand. The other Audino had noticed our presence and their focus had turned towards us. She looked at the ground, avoiding the gazes from the others. “It’s okay,” I said softly, smiling down at her. “They’re your family. They just want you to be okay.”

With a nod she slowly let go of my hand and approached the group. There were a few moments of silence before they all seemed to collectively begin asking if she’s okay and began to hug and touch her, crying as they did so. She started crying too, apologizing for how she had acted. There was a lot of discussion, many of them telling her she had nothing to apologize for, and that they understood she was going through a hard time.

“You really are good with Pokemon,” Joy said as she watched the interaction.

“I’m honestly glad that I am.”

There were a few moments of silence between us. I was watching the trio battle, and were extremely rough on each other. Or at least Rio and Veny were rough, I did notice how they held back a bit against Popplio. Cara was also watching them, coaching from what I could tell. “I’m- I’m sorry none of them wanted to go with you,” Joy said after a time.

“Hm?” I turned to look at her. “Oh. No worries,” I said with a smile before turning back. “I knew it was a possibility. And it’s not like I based my whole life plans on it.” I turned my attention back to the group of Audinos. “Besides… I managed to do some good.”

She also looked over at the group of Audino, who had seemed to have calmed down some. They were now talking to her about other things, catching her up on what had happened while she was recuperating. Like she had just been on vacation. “Yeah… You did. But I still feel kind of bad about it.”

“Don’t,” I said with a bit of a smile. “I’m not going to feel bad about it, so there’s no reason for you to.” While it was true I didn’t feel too bad about it, it was still a bit disappointing that none of the dozens of Pokemon were interested in coming with. Though another thought struck me. “There is something else you might be able to help me with.”

Her attention slowly looked over at me, a bit puzzled and a bit suspicious. “What sort?”

I chuckled a bit. “I just wanted to know if you had information on pokeblocks and how to make them. Honestly I’d even take information on how to make poffins, or poke puffs.”

She arched a brow at me. “Oh is that all?” She stood up from her position against the wall. “Don’t have poke puff recipes, since those don’t really help with recovery or growth, but I’ve got some books on pokeblocks and poffins you can look through.”

That actually surprised me that she had them. “Really? I’d appreciate it. I asked Professor Sycamore, but he said he didn’t know.”

Giggles escaped her as she shook her head, leading me off towards one of the doors to the building. “Doesn’t surprise me. His head is filled with rocks.”

I laughed a bit as well. Knowing his focus of study, it was a very appropriate thing to say about him. “I see.” We entered the building which immediately reminded me of a mixture of hospital and school, clean white halls with fluorescent lights and those extremely familiar ceiling tiles.

“Although, I’m kind of surprised you want to learn to make them. They’re not easy to make, and most Trainers just buy them if they really want them.” We walked for a bit until we entered a sort of library. There were a few Pokemon in here, reading from books.

“It’s partially curiosity, but mostly I want to be able to make them myself so I know exactly what I’m feeding to Pokemon.” I had read some of the ingredients on some of the poke snacks and pokechow and some of them sounded dubious, or had way too much salt or sugar to make them taste better.

She nodded a bit to that, pulling out a few books. “That’s understandable. I can’t let you take the books, but you can look at them.” She placed them down on a table. “Not many Trainers take diet into account when raising Pokemon, and in extreme cases it can be really bad for them.”

I took a look at the books placed on the table, there were three books on pokeblocks, and one book on poffins. Flipping through them they were all just recipes. “Diet is very important. With how active Pokemon are, they need the appropriate vitamins and minerals to properly replenish their energies.”

Joy chuckled. “You sound like a breeder.” She paused, giving me quite a peculiar look. “Were you a breeder?”

My hand stopped mid page turn, remaining still for a few seconds before I looked at her, a bit confused. Then I remembered that most people thought I had amnesia. My brow furrowed as I tried to think of a proper response. That question had caught me off guard. I suppose if you think about all the Pokemon breeding I did in the games, “Maybe?”

“That could be a good clue,” she said as she leaned towards me a bit. “If you were a breeder then you would be registered somewhere. And your knowledge would make a lot of sense.”

I nodded slowly. “But… then Officer Jenny would have already found who I was?”

There was a moment of silence before she suddenly deflated. “Right. Right… your identity would have come up day one…”

Shifting my focus back to the books I realized quickly why there were so many recipes for pokeblocks compared to poffins. Pokeblocks were a lot harder to make, but you could do so much more with them. High quality pokeblocks could actually improve the internal energy of a Pokemon. Of course, these types of pokeblocks couldn’t be fed to a Pokemon too often or else they’ll get sick. Pokeblocks also required some specialized tools to make, like a berry blender and a pokeblock press.

It was all fascinating stuff. I had been super curious about how pokeblocks and poffins worked if they were real, and they seem like super-multivitamins for Pokemon. Something to help in growth and recovery. “Hm… Do you mind if I take pictures?”

“What?”

I pulled out my phone and gestured to the books. “Pictures?”

“Oh! Uh… Sure, go ahead.” She seemed a bit puzzled, not quite understanding what I was talking about.

Going to the photo app that I downloaded I began taking pictures of every single page. I did have to make sure the quality was good enough to read, but surprisingly it was actually really high quality. With that note app that I had I could spend downtime transcribing recipes. Maybe I could make my own app? I had no idea how they programmed in this world, but I could give that a shot.

It took half an hour to photograph every page, and I put my phone away with a smile. “There. Now I can look at all that in depth later.”

“That’s actually a really good idea,” Joy said as I collected the books back up and put them away. “Never seen anyone copy a book like that.”

“Really? It just came to me. I think I’ve done it before,” I mused, knowing for a fact that I had done something very similar. I had no idea what copyright laws existed here, but I’m sure whoever published those books would try and get me if they knew what I just did.

“Hm. Well, it’s about lunch time, so let’s get something to eat.”

After gathering all the Pokemon up, we all had lunch. It was the exact sort of food they served in Pokecenters. Was there some sort of book that they followed? It was a bit interesting how every pokecenter was so similar, though seeing the place where the Pokemon are all trained it made sense that they would all be the same. Then it was time to leave.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to give you a ride back into town?” Joy asked for the third time.

I shook my head. “Nah, it’s alright. I know you have a lot of work today. It’s a straight shot back to town, and I can just catch a train back to League City. Gotta rack up more of a tab on the Professor’s dollar.”

That got her to smile a bit and nod. “Alright. If you’re sure.” We said our goodbyes, and she headed back inside.

We walked down the long road to the gate. “That was fun!” Rio said.

“I’m glad you had fun,” I said, chuckling a bit. Rio was sitting on her mothers shoulders, as Popplio had stolen her seat on Veny’s back.

“It’s a shame that we did not accomplish our goal,” Cara said with a bit of a frustrated look on her face.

I shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. And I did get information that I wanted, so it was worth coming here.”

A lot of padding noise behind us caused me to look back, to see quite a number of Audino coming. I stopped walking, curious to see what they wanted. They all seemed a bit out of breath by the time they caught up with us. One of them came forward and I recognized them immediately as the one who I had helped.

She looked flustered. “You’re just leaving?”

I blinked at her. “Well, yes? Did you think I would be staying?”

“No that’s…” She looked at me a moment before huffing and holding out her hand towards me. In her hand was a pokeball.

I raised an eyebrow at her, looking at the pokeball for a moment, and then at her. “Are you sure?”

“You’re not leaving without me,” she said rather resolutely.

I smiled at her as I held out my hand. “I’d love to have you join us.”

She firmly put the pokeball in my hand, there was a smile on her face. “My name is Deeno, but everyone calls me Dee.” The other Audino cheered and celebrated as they made their way back towards the school. It looked like they were happy that she had gotten better.

“It’s wonderful to have you aboard, Dee.” I was still smiling as I shrank down her pokeball and put it onto my belt.

There was quite a large smile on her face as she put her hands on her hips. “I’m actually kind of excited to go see some league battles.”

“Ah, about that.” I made sure that the group of Pokemon had gotten distance before I started to walk. “While we are going back there, we aren’t going immediately back.”

She moved up to walk beside me. “Then… where are we going?”

I pointed off into the distance towards the mountains. “Reflection Cave.”

The biggest reason I wanted to go to Reflection Cave was because it was literally right there. I honestly felt extremely restricted. Here I was in the Pokemon world, but I wasn’t allowed to explore it. This was the perfect opportunity to do a bit of wandering.

Everyone seemed rather excited about it as well, even Dee. She had been living so close for so long but had never gone. Though her excitement waned pretty quick after a few hours of hiking. She was used to walking around on floors, not hiking up a mountain.

Eventually we stopped near a stream, much to her relief. “It’s our first night out,” I said as I started to pull things out of my bag. “First… we set up the tent.” Said tent was actually inflatable, and could be used as a raft. Following the instructions, I staked it down and then found the inflate valve. There was a small foot pump as well, which I hooked up.

Rather than do it myself, I asked if the trio would like to help out while I make food. They were all on board and I explained what they were supposed to do. And then they made a game out of it. Cara and Dee had actually gathered a bunch of firewood while I was messing with the tent.

As I was working to get the fire going, which was pretty easy since I had a firestarter kit, I had a rather concerning thought. I had never cooked anything over a fire aside from marshmallows. This was going to be a learning experience. Thankfully Dee actually knew how to cook, as it was something taught. And they were supposedly good at it.

Using berries I did a nature test. By cutting up a berry of each of the four flavors into five pieces and asking everyone to try each one and tell me which one they liked. After the experiment I had a good idea of all of their nature’s. Cara was neutral on every flavor, and judging from her personality she had a bashful nature. Rio liked sour and really didn’t like spicy, so she had a bold nature. Veny liked sweet, and didn’t like dry, so her nature was jolly. Popplio and Dee both liked the dry berry, but Dee didn’t like spicy which made her nature modest, and Popplio didn’t like sour which made her nature mild.

It was interesting that only two of them had an overlapping liked flavor. I wasn’t sure of the accuracy of nature’s, but it was how I kept it in my head and for the most part it all matched up. I made notes of it on my phone, just in case I ever forgot. Mostly I did this to know what each of my Pokemon liked rather than knowing their nature. Now that I knew what they liked I would have to make the curry, portion it out into fourths with extra for Cara, and then finish it with the appropriate flavored berry.

Wait. Six. I was here, too. I had to make food for myself, too. Well, I would make everyone else’s portion and taste each one to determine which one I liked more. However in the end I didn’t really dislike any of them, so I tried a spicy berry and a bitter one as well, but I didn’t particularly like or dislike either. Do I have a neutral nature? Or do humans just not have nature’s? That would be kind of lame.

I decided that the best possible thing would be to make up four portions of each flavor, just making a bit extra of each, and then use the remains of all four for Cara and I’s servings. It actually worked out pretty well, especially with Dee helping me cook. She asked a lot of questions, having never heard of a recipe quite like what I was trying to make. Which did make me realize all the food I had was rather basic things.

Food was very important, and in the games and anime food could be used to help Pokemon. So I would ask everyone to tell me how they felt after they ate, if they liked it, if they felt any different. I wanted to know if there were effects from the curry.

Personally I thought it was really good, but I was biased. Though judging by how greedily everyone ate the food, I had to assume everyone thought it was good. “Better than the Pokecenter food,” Rio said, happily rubbing her stomach.

Dee looked like she wanted to say something, but instead sighed. “I do have to admit it is better than what we prepare…”

“Well it’s not really fair to compare it. You have to make it for dozens and dozens of people and Pokemon of all types and sorts, and make a huge variety of it.” I smiled a bit, I was about half way done with my plate. “We can make it special.”

“I think it’s cus you and Dee made it.” Popplio said with a smile; she still had sauce on her face.

I chuckled as I pulled out a napkin and reached over, wiping the sauce from her face. “Well, I’m glad you liked it so much.” I looked around at everyone, not able to see any physical change. “So, how does everyone feel?”

There was a bit of confusion on everyone’s faces, not quite understanding what I was asking. Dee was the first to suddenly gain an expression of realization, and looked down at herself. “My legs don’t hurt anymore?” she said in confusion.

That at least confirmed that it did have some sort of healing effect. In the game, curry would give an experience boost, restore health and energy, and make Pokemon more social. More testing would need to be done to truly know the effects.

The other Pokemon seemed a bit confused, but there was a general consensus that everyone felt better after eating. If that’s all it did, that would be good enough. “When I have more money, I’ll be able to make all sorts of dishes,” I mused, wondering again how best to make money.

Everyone was already looking forward to the next meal. After washing all of the cooking pots, plates, and bowls, I put everything away. I did a quick washcloth wipe down of myself before going into the tent. When I entered I was immediately stunned; it had the same expanded space technology used on the bag. I was really going to have to thank the professor again for all the things he gave me.

Although it was sparse and had no decorations or furnishings, it was an extremely large room. Clearly it was made for really big Pokemon to be able to be in here. Maybe a Wailord? It could easily fit four or five Onyx and have room for a snorlax.

What sort of Pokemon did the Professor think I was going to get that I was going to need this much room? Once Veny reached her final evolution she would be the biggest Pokemon I have. But even then Scolipede were only just about eight feet.

Either way, I set out my bedroll and laid on top of it. Thankfully it was warm enough in here that I didn’t have to actually get into it. As per usual I was dogpiled by Pokemon once they realized it was time to sleep. To my surprise, Audino actually laid down above my head, scooting in close to the point that my head was actually resting a bit on her stomach. She was probably there because she knew I had a head injury and wanted to keep an eye on it.

After breaking camp in the morning, we continued our hike up the mountain. If I estimated correctly, we would reach it in a few hours; well before noon. However, the walk was soon interrupted as my phone rang. I was a bit puzzled at who was calling, but glad that I had service. Pulling out the phone, I could see that it was Ranch Joy.

I answered, “Hello, Joy. What-”

“Is Audino with you?” she asked hurriedly, looking rather frazzled.

I blinked, looking at her for a moment. “Yes, she is,” I said as I shifted the camera view so that Dee was in the background, struggling to keep pace with the rest of the group but somehow managing.

She let out a sigh of relief. “Oh thank Arceus… She wasn’t at the breakfast headcount and I panicked. And I couldn’t understand the other Audinos explanation.”

“Ah.” I looked back at Dee, realizing that she didn’t tell Joy before leaving. And I could tell from her attempt at looking innocent she had done that on purpose. “Well, she followed me out with her pokeball. Sorry, I thought you let her.”

“No, no. It’s fine. She’s officially retired, so it’s fine. I just… I just would have liked to have been informed rather than finding out the way that I did.” She looked rather annoyed as she looked past me at Dee.

“Yes, I can understand that.” With how she had been dealing with her grief, I could imagine the first place Joy checked was the river, and not finding her there made her panic even more. Trauma can lead to people doing very stupid things.

Dee looked a bit apologetic. “I didn’t think she would let me go…”

“You should have still told her,” I said softly, reaching out and rubbing the top of her head.

She nodded, looking at Joy on the phone. “I’m sorry. I just… I really wanted to go and was worried you would say no.”

Joy sighed a bit, shaking her head. “It’s fine. Just, don’t worry your new Trainer, okay?” She smiled a bit.

Dee smiled back and nodded. “Yes.”

“I’m sorry as well,” I added. “I should have checked with you, but she showed up with her pokeball and a group of Audino so I thought you were aware.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. She’s fine, you’re fine. I’ve got to get back to work now.” And then she hung up without saying goodbye.

I blinked and then chuckled as I put my phone away. “You’re a bit more of a troublemaker than I thought you’d be, Dee.”

She huffed at me, but she couldn’t really refute it. With that interesting interaction we all continued our way up the mountain. With such a group as ours, most Pokemon were avoiding us. I could see some run away, like Nidoran, Nidorinas and Nidorinos, though the vast majority did nothing more than watch us pass, like the large number of Starly and Staravias. There was even one of the many Pikachu clone Pokemon, Dedenne, sitting in a bush.

At about noon, after walking through some rather rocky terrain, we came across a rather large cave opening, and I could see the shine of crystals. I decided that before entering, we would all have lunch and so I pulled out the cooking supplies, and Cara took the trio out to collect firewood. With Dee helping to set up, everything went rather quickly.

As Dee and I made food, I could see several Pokemon watching us from a distance. In the game, making curry had a chance to draw in wild Pokemon who would want to join your team, though I’m sure in real life the smell of food would attract all numbers of creatures.

When the food was done and we sat down to eat, I started to do rough calculations in my head on how much each portion was. It cost about three hundred pokedollars to feed everyone, including myself. The most expensive part of it was the berries, the cheapest part being rice. I hadn’t seen any berries while we were walking, which was to be expected considering how many Pokemon there were.

If I had bought food specifically just for curry, I would have had about thirteen meals worth, but I didn’t plan for that. I didn’t know everyone’s tastes, and I bought far more berries than I needed. I had enough ingredients to do four more meals of this quality.

My thoughts were broken by the sound of a bell and my eyes focused from my food to the little bell floating in front of me. It was staring at me, floating there. It had little legs and arms, and two red and white tassels. “Hello, Chingling,” I said with a bit of a smile.

It made noises at me. Again, though they weren’t words, I could understand what it was saying. It was demanding that I give it food.

I arched an eyebrow at it. It wasn’t asking, it was demanding. “Are you going to ask nicely?” I asked as I put my food to the side.

That seemed to incense it, and it let out a rather loud cry. I saw how everyone else flinched at the noise, and it even hurt me.

“Alright. Stop. If you want something, you have to ask nicely, otherwise-”

It interrupted me with another cry, this one louder and even more painful.

“Enough!” I shouted at it. Which seemed to cause it to hesitate. I could see Cara getting up, clearly having had enough of the little bell. I rubbed a bit at my head, having a headache now. “Do you not understand the situation you’re in? There are five Pokemon here, and you-”

Again I was interrupted as it suddenly slammed into my chest, knocking me over. It loudly claimed that since I was the weakest one here, I should give it my food since it was stronger.

I blinked a few times. Despite knocking me down, it hadn’t hurt. Standing up, listening to it gloat, I grabbed hold of the rope it used as tassels, which immediately caused it to stop talking. I began to swing it around and around and around and around as hard and as fast as I could. I did this for a good few moments before letting it go, watching as it shot into the distance, and pinged off of a rock before disappearing out of sight. “What a little jerk,” I said before sitting back down and grabbing my food.

Dee came over to take a look and see if I was injured. Clearly she was concerned since any sort of head injury, even a minor bump from falling over, could aggravate my concussion and make it worse. She was relieved to see that it apparently hadn’t hit me that hard and had more just pushed me over. Still she used Heal Pulse, just in case.

“Thank you, Dee,” I said, trying to get her to stop fussing over me and go back to finish her meal. She seemed very reluctant to do so, but I just started rubbing the top of her head until she eventually did.

Cara glared at the place the Chingling went, watching to see if it would come back. But it didn’t. The trio also made vague threats in that direction, Rio quite vocal about how rude the bell had been.

Once we had cleaned up, I made sure that the fire was out before turning my attention back to the cave. “So, who wants to explore the cave?” I said with a smile. Though it slowly became a frown as all of them looked hesitant. Veny and Popplio immediately returned to their pokeballs. I sighed. “Fine, everyone can go back to their pokeballs.”

And all of them did. I rolled my eyes as I began to walk towards the cave entrance. I wasn’t sure why they were so afraid of the cave, as it looked beautiful even from just what I could see.

The walls were covered in chunks of crystals, entire walls were made from the stuff. It looked a lot like a highly reflective quartz, but I wasn’t a geologist. The floor was rough and uneven, obviously this wasn’t really the official path through the mountain. I would have probably had to go from the town, and there would have been a road, but I wanted to explore.

I did my best to be quiet, just taking in the sight of infinite reflections and the way the light bounced around the cave. I passed under a group of Woobat, taking a moment to look at the little fluff balls of bat. Better than the aggressive Zubat, though I had to admit I had a special place for those flying buggers. A Zubat was my first shiny Pokemon in the games, and I had raised it all the way to a Crobat.

Lost in my thoughts for a moment, I nearly tripped over a Roggenrola, who eyed me with a bit of annoyance. I bowed my head a bit. “Sorry,” I said softly. I quickly realized that there were quite a lot of them, all looking at me. Well, not looking at me, but listening to me since the thing on the middle of their head is an ear not an eye.

They all listened for a moment before they continued on their little journey. I realized they were going into a small hole in the wall. I waited for them to all leave before I continued down the tunnel. There were a lot of holes, offshoots, and crevices leading off from this larger tunnel, but I couldn’t fit through any of them. At least it should be easy to retrace my steps to find the exit.

The tunnel was twisty and seemed to go in a downward direction. However, it eventually came to a deadend. Or at least a deadend for me. I crouched down, looking into the two foot wide hole at the end. It looked like it went on for a while, but eventually it turned and I couldn’t see further down it even with the reflective nature of all the crystals. What was really concerning though is I could see through the floor I was standing on, and it was quite thin.

As I slowly stood up and turned around I was met with an interesting and concerning sight. Squeezing out of one of the nearby holes that I had passed was a tall, cyan colored Pokemon with a scrunched up face and rather jagged mouth. “Oh, hey Wobbuffet.”

It stood up in a strange way, though I was more curious as to how it had come out of such a small hole. Me talking seemed to cause it to realize that I was there and it looked over at me. There was a moment of silence as we sort of looked at each other.

I knew that Wobbuffet was a rather docile Pokemon, so it was probably waiting to see if I would attack it. “Do you want a berry?” I asked as I reached into my bag. I had several berries that weren’t liked by the Pokemon in my group.

That seemed to get its attention and it wobbled over to me as I pulled out a rawst berry. Hopefully this Wobbuffet liked bitter. As I held out the berry and it approached there was a sudden cracking sound. I blinked and looked down to see if that was the source.

Much to my dismay, it was indeed the ground below me. Both I and the Wobbuffet looked down at the ground, and then at each other. It slowly reached out towards me, but rather than try and help, it took the berry and took a few wobbly steps away. “Oh, I see how it is.” I pointed at them. “I’ll remember this.”

And then the floor gave out.