The clearing was just as we had left it, and I realized it had quite a few more battle scars than when we first arrived. They had accumulated so slowly that I hadn’t noticed. I looked around the place as we set up camp, setting up things for the next day when we would once more throw ourselves into training.

As I was making dinner with Dee’s help, Cara approached me. “What can I do to be better?” she asked, staring at the ground like it had wronged her. She had been stewing on this the entire hike here, hardly saying a word, but couldn’t hold it back anymore.

I looked at her and smiled, reaching out and rubbing her head. “You’re so hard on yourself,” I said softly. “It’s said that you are your own harshest critic, and I think that’s where you’re stuck.”

She looked up at me with a confused expression, though she didn’t try her feigned attempts to bat my hand away like she normally did.

“You know where your mistakes were, right?” She nodded. “Then that’s where you need to work. Your speed is good, and it can be better. But if you ever want to reach the level you’re aiming for you need to work on three things.”

Her head tilted to the side as she waited for me to continue. It was nice that my Pokemon didn’t interrupt me, usually.

“Speed. Control. Density. You need to gather your aura faster, control it more precisely, and increase its density.” Her brow furrowed as she mulled over my words. I looked over the rest of the Pokemon. “That goes for every type of energy. Of course, that’s easier said than done. But you just need to keep at it until you get it.”

“How do you know that I’ll succeed?” she said softly.

I moved my hand down, rubbing at her cheek. “Because I believe in you. And it’s okay if you don’t believe in yourself, you just have to believe in me. Believe in the me that believes in you.” I almost felt embarrassed to use that line, but it’s not like anyone would know where it came from.

She leaned into my hand, her eyes closing a bit. This was the first time that she had really let me pet her when there were others watching. That fight had really opened her eyes, and I guess from the way that I encouraged Rio rather than trying to get her out of danger led Cara to rethink some things.

Of course it wasn’t long before she realized what was going on and quickly shuffled away, avoiding looking at me or anyone else. “I definitely think bashful was the correct nature to assign her,” I said with a chuckle.

Everyone enjoyed dinner. I wasn’t sure what Goomy liked, so I simply fed her leaves. It took some coaxing to actually get her to eat, but I knew she was hungry. She’d not eaten anything since I picked her up. In fact she hardly moved, I hadn’t even heard her make a single noise. The only way I knew she was really even alive was that her antenna moved and she blinked sometimes. And of course the fact that she absolutely refused to let go of my coat.

The next morning, everyone got a pokeblock. I even offered one to Goomy, but she wouldn’t eat it. With a sigh I made my way out into the field. “Diancie.” The rock Pokemon floated in front of me, smiling and twirling. I glanced at the Goomy. “You’re about to have a bad time,” I said sympathetically to the slug. “Full range.”

There was the sudden force as Gravity increased. Goomy actually let out a soft noise, but her grip was strong enough that she didn’t let go, though she noticeably sagged. Her eyes darted around as she tried to figure out what was going on, and seeing everyone under the effects just made her more confused.

I made my way around. “Speed. Control. Density,” I repeated what I had said last night, now properly addressing everyone. “You have to gather your energy as fast as you can. You have to control it as best as you can. And you have to make it as dense as possible.” I took a deep breath. “Cara. You will continue your training.”

“Yes…” she said.

“But this time.” She looked over at me. “I want you to touch every spot twice before launching your aura sphere. And Rio will be your target.” Rio suddenly straightened, turning her attention to Cara for a moment before looking at me. There was a look on Cara’s face, but she nodded and jumped to the first position. “Rio. You will be doing the same thing as Cara, but you will not be using Aura Sphere. Instead, you will be blocking or deflecting Cara’s aura with your own and attempting to strike her.”

Rio nodded a bit, moving over to the opposite position of Cara. She looked nervous, but also excited. This was going to be a harsh way to train the two of them, but it should also be extremely effective at sharpening their aura.

“And the other attacks,” I added. “Whirly, you will be doing your poison rollout, your targets are everyone. You’re not allowed to attack the same target twice in a row.”

They all looked at me with a mixture of confusion and worry.

“What? You want to be stronger, right? The best way to do that is to actually attack, and be attacked.” I was definitely taking a rougher way of training, but I had confirmed that the curry had the full heal effect, as well as restoring their energy. The way I had been doing training was effective, but it could be better. Pokemon improved best through actual combat, so if I wanted to see more growth they would need to fight each other. “Dee, and Diancie will be using the striker balls to attack as well. And Dee will be using Heal Pulse as often as possible.”

I picked up one of the balls, which was honestly not as much of a struggle as I thought it would be. I guess I had really gotten stronger as well. “So, we’re just supposed to attack each other?” Whirly asked, her eyes looking over the others.

“Pretty much. But, you have to do it in specific ways.” I looked over at Brionne. “I want you to use Aqua Ring repeatedly, and practice using your Water Gun to move around. You’re the least mobile right now, but that can be fixed.”

Brionne perked up when I specifically called on her. She had been looking a bit dejected because I hadn’t been including her, but now she realized why. “Okay!” she said excitedly.

“Can I have more weight?” Dee asked suddenly.

I blinked, looking at her in confusion. And then I realized I had completely forgotten that she was wearing the weight harness. I pulled out the remote, and noted that she was at forty pounds. She had started at five pounds and that had been a struggle, but she was already at forty before I realized. Looking at her for a moment I nodded and turned it up to fifty.

She struggled for a moment to get her footing before nodding when she situated herself.

And that’s how training started. It took two weeks before I was confident that Brionne could move herself competently if the need should arise. She would have to train again when she evolved to adjust for her change in shape and weight, but that was a future problem. Before I had her join the others, I had her practice Moonblast. It took a day before she managed to do it, but by the end of the third week she could do it consistently. So I added her to the mix switching up between Water Gun, and Moonblast.

It was actually interesting to hear her talk about how the fairy type energy in her body felt weird, but right. Even though Brionne didn’t have the fairy type, her final stage did, so she was probably feeling the beginnings of that energy.

Rolling back to that first week of training, it was in a word: rough. Many attacks didn’t need to get blocked or dodged, as they simply missed, so it was a lot of random moves being thrown out randomly. But as accuracy increased, they all started taking a beating. That second week was probably the roughest for them, because they got thrashed every day. Thank Arceus for curry.

The third week was when they all started getting the hang of it, and then Brionne came in the fourth week and completely trashed all of the rhythm they had gotten in. Which had been the plan. I knew that they would start slipping into patterns, so I planned to change things up every week.

Week five I had Diancie also start using Moonblast, which started off rather weak but quickly became something that very much needed to be dodged or blocked. Or in Dee’s case, tanked. Her weight was also now at seventy five. Her Heal Pulse had honestly gotten to an almost ridiculous range, and she could also now focus it in to make it extremely effective.

By week six, Diancie’s mastery of Gravity had gotten so large that it was now almost affecting the entire field, so I had her condense it down and increase the force over the training ground. Everyone had to stop training, as she had increased the Gravity to ten times normal. We had all gotten so used to five times that it honestly felt like nothing, but just that tick more had brought all of us to our knees, much to Diancie’s delight.

Unfortunately we didn’t have time to do anything serious when we finally acclimated, as I got another request. The liaison had not let up from her multi-daily-check in-texts. I honestly thought about blocking her, she was extremely annoying. But that would mean that I wouldn’t have gotten this request.

“Unknown Pokemon captured. Requesting input. Please come to Association Headquarters in Lumiose.”

“On my way,” was my response.

I had Diancie stop her Gravity, and told everyone we had another request. To my surprise, everyone but Cara wanted to stay and keep training after learning what the request was. I hesitated for a moment, but eventually agreed. I left two days worth of pokeblocks, and enough ingredients for two nights before heading off with Cara, Eevee, and the silent Goomy. I was starting to get worried about my little slug friend, as she still wasn’t talking and I practically had to force her to eat.

Arriving at the headquarters in the evening, I had to show my ID to no less than six different security people, who directed me where to go. “This building is way too damn big, and has way too much security,” I muttered as I entered the room I was directed to. “Alright, I’m here.”

There were four people in the room, one of which I recognized as the old man that had been there during my tests. He was in a deep conversation with the two that I didn’t recognize. The fourth person was Professor Sycamore. “Ah, Jason, you’re here,” the Professor said with a smile, motioning me over. They were looking out of a window.

“Yeah, I am,” I said as I walked over, rolling my eyes. “What’s this-” I paused, my brow furrowing. “Brute Bonnet? What’s a Paradox Pokemon doing here?”

The conversation immediately came to a halt. “You know what that is?” the old man said.

“We were under the impression it was a mutated Amoonguss,” one of the unknown men said. He was taller than me, with brown hair and large glasses, wearing a sort of cheap looking suit.

“Well, that’s not wrong. Though it would be more correct to say that Amoonguss is a mutation of it. Though that change happened over… oh what was it… ten million years? Some ridiculously long time like that. Or a different timeline, but all that is really complicated.”

They were all staring at me like I had three heads.

I just frowned at them. “Well if you don’t believe me, call Professor Sada and ask her if this Pokemon is in her scarlet book,” I said with annoyance. “Wasting my time when you could ask other Professors,” I added as I turned and walked out.

It took a moment before the Professor caught back up to me. “So you really know what that is?”

“I already told you. How it got out of area zero, only Professor Sada, or Turo, would know. Depending on if they’re alive.” I paused. “Hopefully they both are… At this point it might be her AI that’s impersonating her…”

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the completely blank look on the Professor’s face like he had no idea what I was talking about.

I rolled my eyes. “Do you know Professor Sada or Turo?”

“Yes… They’re… In Paldea. Researching something in the crater,” he said after a moment.

“Call Professor Sada,” I said, stopping in the hall and gesturing at him.

He hesitated a moment before pulling out his phone. It rang for a bit before there was an answer. “Professor Sycamore? What do you need? I’m a bit busy.”

“Ah- well… you see… uh… where to start…”

“Give me that,” I said as I snatched the phone. “Professor Sada, is there a Brute Bonnet in your scarlet book?”

I could see on the screen that she froze, not moving for several seconds before slowly looking over at me. “How do you know about that?”

“I know everything. Professor Sycamore can explain it to you later, but please answer my question.” It didn’t look like she was an AI, but I wasn’t sure how advanced it had been so I don’t know how well it could impersonate her. But if Professor Turo was also alive and in the picture, then that meant some interesting things.

She hesitated for a moment. “There…is.”

“We’ve got one here in Kalos, and the Association is freaking out about it,” I explained.

Her entire body snapped towards me and she leaned towards whatever recording device she had, making her appear large. “They what? When? How? What happened? Who has it?”

I looked over at the Professor, who sighed and looked around to make sure no one was around. “It was confiscated off of a Team Flare member.”

“That’s concerning,” I couldn’t help but say.

Professor Sada had a pained expression on her face. “Damn… Any other information?”

“I’m afraid not,” Professor Sycamore said, shaking his head. “He won’t say where he got it from.”

“I- oh, I’m getting another call,” she said, obviously annoyed.

“Probably the Association,” I said with a nod. “They’ll be able to give you a lot more information.” I hung up before passing the phone back to Professor Sycamore.

He blinked at me. “Did…did you just hang up on her?”

“I’ve got some annoying memories of her damn AI. She was so picky about not having an assistant up to her standards that she made one, that was a copy of herself. That’s taking narcissism to an extreme I don’t want to deal with.” I sort of forced him to take the phone and turned away. I stopped before looking back and pointing a finger at him. “Do not give her my number.”

He laughed as he started to follow me out. “I won’t have to. I’m sure the Association will do that.”

“Great, another person that I will have to ignore,” I muttered, shaking my head.

“Another person?”

“That-” I took a deep breath. “That damn liaison the Association assigned me.” I waved a hand vaguely in the air. “She sends me multiple texts a day to check in and ask what I’m doing. You’d think after more than two months she’d get the hint.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Maybe she’s just…being overly friendly?”

“Oh please, how could I not spot such an obvious honey trap?” He looked at me with a blank expression. “Oh, what, you expect me to believe that she got one look at me, some random guy, and fell for me? As attractive as I am, I don’t really believe that,” I said, gesturing at myself.

A snort escaped him. “Talk about narcissism.”

I laughed a bit, shaking my head. “Maybe a little. But I like to think of myself as more of a realist. Maybe a bit paranoid, but with the crap the Association has been putting me through I think it’s more than warranted.”

“You mentioned that. What happened?”

I sighed and explained the hours of stupid questions they had put me through.

When I was finished with my explanation he looked thoughtful. “Well, the type of questions seem to be pretty standard, but the degree of difficulty was very much over the top.”

“I honestly don’t care. But if they keep bothering me for stupid little things like today, I’m going to leave the region,” I said before taking a deep breath. “Like, this could have just been a text? Just send me a text and be like ‘do you know what this is?’ And bam, I tell them what it is.”

A laugh escaped him, and he nodded. “Yeah, I don’t think anyone has ever thought to do that. I know I didn’t.”

I stared blankly at him. I wanted to say that I question the average intelligence of the individuals of this organization, but I felt that may be a little harsh. My otherworldly knowledge and experience has me thinking in a very different way to the people around me. “I’m leaving,” I said after a moment and walked off.

He didn’t follow after me this time, and instead I made my way to the train station and headed back to Santalune. It was technically closer to where everyone was training

Cara stood beside me as we waited on the train. “Are we heading back tonight?”

I shook my head. I honestly wanted to spend a night in a bed before heading back out. “It’ll be dark by the time we start hiking. We can just wait till tomorrow.”

She remained silent for a few moments. “You are upset,” she said softly.

Sighing, I rubbed my face. “I’m a bit annoyed. I would have much rather spent the day watching all of you train than deal with this.”

“Why does it upset you?” she asked.

I paused, trying to think of the right words to explain it. “What if someone told you that you weren’t allowed to see Rio unless you did everything they told you?”

“I’d kick their ass,” she said without hesitation.

I snorted. “Okay, yeah. I guess that’s an option,” I said with a chuckle, my mood was already starting to get better.

“But… I think I understand.” She had quite an intense look on her face, glaring down at the ground in front of her. “You don’t get to be with us if you don’t listen to them.”

“Pretty much.” I glanced at the Goomy attached to my arm, and reached back into my hood to check on Eevee, who was asleep. “I just wanted to be a Trainer. But they put me into a position with responsibilities.” That still rubbed me the wrong way. I felt like the Professors knew something that they didn’t talk about, and decided to use me to help.

Silence fell, but it was a comfortable silence. Being in the company of Cara was pretty nice. Like hanging out with an old friend you’ve known for years, just enjoying each other's company. The train arrived after a few more minutes, and we boarded. It was mostly empty, but I got quite a few looks from the occupants. Not that I really blame them, since I probably looked like someone who had spent weeks in the woods. Which I had.

Cara still seemed a bit uncomfortable with either the crowd, or being on the train, as she was gripping onto my coat. It could have also been that she just wanted to maintain some sort of contact. It had occurred to me that she might have some abandonment issues. From what I had found out, she relied heavily on her mate, and he had abandoned her. It was almost like she thought I would do the same.

The thought of doing something like that hadn’t even crossed my mind, but it was probably something she worried about. I had accidentally put myself in a position where she was heavily reliant on me. But that’s what a Trainer was supposed to be, right? The person that the Pokemon relied on? The thought of how she would react if I ever left her was not a pleasant one. Her reaction from being separated back in the cave was good evidence of that.

Gently I placed my hand on hers and she looked at me. I smiled a bit at her. “You’re stuck with me,” I said softly.

Her face was completely blank as she just stared at me. Slowly her eyes widened a bit and she suddenly looked away and down at her lap. She didn’t say anything but she nodded, shifting her grip from my coat to my hand.

The train ride was short, since we were barely passing through one town before arriving. Cara and I walked to the Pokecenter. Immediately I noticed that it was a different Wigglytuff in the main area, though it looked like the night shift Nurse Joy. I was actually starting to get pretty good at telling Nurse Joy’s apart, but it was something so subtle that I couldn’t quite tell what it was. They just had different vibes. What was really interesting was there were other people dressed similarly to Nurse Joy. While I knew it would be impossible to run something on this scale by herself, even with multiple Joy’s, it was still kind of weird to see other people doing her job.

She also looked busy, so I had to get in line at a desk that had a sign that said ‘Overnight Stays’. It didn’t take too long to get to the front and get a room key. It was always interesting to see a busy Pokecenter.

Entering the room, I gently laid Eevee down. The special shampoo had done its job and repaired the damage that had been done to her skin. She was still very weak and slept a lot, but she could move around for a while just fine now. From the way she had been acting I wondered if she had a timid nature rather than lonely, but that seemed to have stopped. I still had to look after her while her body tried to recover from the disease, but she was a lot more outgoing.

Then there was the Goomy. She was a problem that I was going to have to deal with. And I decided that now would be the best time to start on that, while there were less Pokemon around and we were in the safety of this room.

Slowly I removed my coat, careful to not disturb her or let her know what I was doing. When she did realize, I had already laid the coat down on the bed and knelt down beside it, looking at her. I didn’t reprimand her. I didn’t chastise her for her actions. I just put my arms around her and pulled her in close to my chest, similar to when I had scooped her up.

“It’s okay,” I said softly, “I’ve got you.” I could feel her grab hold of me, clinging tightly. “I’ve got you,” I said again, gently rubbing the top of her head. “I know you’re sad…and scared… But I’ve got you.”

For the first time since picking her up that first time, she started to make actual noise. Unfortunately it was a noise I was fairly familiar with; sobbing. All I could really do was hold and pet the little slug who practically went limp in my embrace. She was sticky and slimy, but the sort of goo membrane around her didn’t actually come off easily. It kind of reminded me of oobleck. I was fairly certain that she had the Gooey ability.

We sat there for probably an hour, and I would have continued to sit there, comforting her, if my phone hadn’t started ringing. I sighed softly, looking over at my bag. After a moment Cara went over, getting my phone and bringing it to me. “Oh. Thank you.” I had honestly just planned on ignoring it.

The number was not one I recognized. Unsticking my hand from the little slug, I took the phone, reluctantly answering it. Immediately I recognized Professor Sada. “Is this Jason?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” I said with a sigh. “Can I help you, Sada?”

She frowned a bit. “The Association gave me your number.”

“Oh I’m sure.”

There was a moment of silence before she got to the reason she was calling. “How did you know about my journal?”

I thought about making an excuse, but honestly I was just tired. “Because I’m not from this world.” Her brow furrowed, and I also saw Cara give me a look. I realized that I had not explained it to her properly and she had apparently not pieced it together from the other conversations I had had, so I decided to do so now. “I’m from a different reality. One where Pokemon, and this entire world, are fictional constructs in the form of games, cartoons, and literature.”

There was just silence as Profesor Sada just stared at me. Cara just looked even more confused.

“I’m not sure why I’m here, but I was beaten nearly to death, or to death, and as I was dying Arceus for some reason grabbed me and dropped me in this reality.” I looked at Cara, seeing her realize that’s how I came to be in the forest.

“I find that hard to believe…”

“Yeah well that’s not my problem.” I honestly wanted to just hang up on her again, but I knew that that was just because I was in a grumpy mood. “Considering your research, you should be more aware of the existence of other realities more than anyone else. Well, maybe your husband could rival your knowledge.”

She didn’t respond for a moment, looking thoughtful. “So, you know me?”

“Technically I know your AI.” I saw the way she jolted, her eyes snapping to me. “You were already dead in the game by the time I interacted with you.”

There was a pause. “How did I die?”

I thought about it a moment, wondering if that would be spoiling the future, or if that was some sort of alternate event. I decided that this would be a good event to try and test. “You tried to stop a fight between powerful Pokemon, and died as a result. And the research station was destroyed.” I waited a moment, glancing around. If I was doing damage to the timeline, surely something would show up, right?

But nothing did.

“I see… What about my husband?”

“That uh…gets a bit complicated. There are two realities that I know of, one where he abandons you and you die, and the other you abandon him and he dies-”

“My husband and I are quite happy, thank you,” she interrupts, immediately irritated.

I rolled my eyes. “We’re talking about alternate realities. I’ve found that my knowledge doesn't match up one hundred percent, but it’s close enough that I know a lot.”

She glared at me a moment before taking a deep breath. “Right. I suppose with endless realities, anything would be possible…”

“Is there anything else? I’m rather busy.” I knew she could see that I was currently comforting a Pokemon, who was still noticeably sobbing and shaking in my arms. She hung up on me without another word. I snorted softly, tossing my phone to the side.

“You are from another world?” Cara said softly, her brow furrowed. She looked unsure how to process that information.

“I am. I was going to explain it eventually, but I didn’t really think it mattered. You see, I-”

“Do you want to go back?” she asked, interrupting me. Her head had drooped and she was staring at the ground.

“No,” I responded immediately. And that was the truth. “While I wish I could tell my family and friends that I’m okay… I don’t want to go back.”

She moved forward, wrapping her arms around me and holding me tightly. I could feel her press her face into my back, and I could also feel the slight prick of her chest spike.

“I’m not going to leave you,” I said softly. “And that goes for you, too.” I gently pet Goomy. The little slugs grip had actually loosened, and I felt that I could actually pull her off. But I was fine just holding her.

Before we all got settled in, I made sure to get everyone food, and took a shower. In the morning we would make our way back to the training ground, but for now we would enjoy the comfort of a bed. Goomy was still clinging to me, but I could tell she had relaxed. When we all finally laid down, Cara was quite quick to lay down, actually nuzzling into my shoulder. When I made a comment about her being extra affectionate tonight, she told me to shut up, but didn’t stop.

~

Before leaving town I bought more food, since my little family had grown and the rate they were eating would increase. Estimating my spendings, it cost five hundred for a month's worth of food for each Pokemon, so I bought two months worth. That included berries for curries, but not for pokeblocks. Pokeblocks were quite costly to make at the quality I could do. Buying them would be even more expensive, but I could make a month's worth of pokeblocks, three times a day, for about a thousand for each Pokemon. So I bought two months worth of pokeblock ingredients as well.

Raising Pokemon at the standard that I was attempting was very expensive. But the results were worth it. Just seeing how much they’ve grown from when we all first joined up was a bit crazy. They were all growing at a far faster rate than I had imagined possible. It was like I had found a nearly perfect way to power level Pokemon by accident, but a big part of that was thanks to the pokeblocks and all of it wouldn’t be possible if not for them. The ones that were purchasable were generic, and being able to make them myself allowed me to give the Pokemon the most boost possible, although it was costly. Thankfully I had such an easy way to make money, at the cost of my nerves.

The sight that met us the next day when we finally made it to the clearing was, to put it simply, a mess. The entire field was trashed. Diancie was throwing large boulders around, Ancient Power I believe, laughing as everyone else tried to fend off the assault. Well, Dee just took the hits like they were nothing and then used a Heal Pulse.

It also looked like Brionne had learned Ice Beam, as she was currently attempting to hit Rio with it and much of the ground had already been frozen. Rio had somehow managed to figure out Bone Rush. Probably from observing all of the rock energy that Diancie was throwing around. Rock and ground seemed to have pretty similar energy after all.

But the most shocking thing was the massive red object that was bouncing off rocks and carving shallow trenches through the earth. I knew Whirlipede was just a short middle evolution, but I didn’t expect her to evolve while I was away. I could barely see her movements, but it looked like she was using some sort of combination of Rollout and Gyro Ball. The craters and trenches she left had hints of purple goop, so she was also using her poison in some way.

I looked over at Cara, who was still standing stunned. “Well?” I gave her a nudge. “Get in there. See if you can figure out how Rio learned to form a Bone Rush.” She didn’t move and it took a second nudge and shoving a pokeblock into her mouth before she snapped out of it and nodded, rushing in.

Making my way over towards the tent I was intercepted by the appearance of an extremely large bug. She was much bigger than the average, standing almost ten feet tall. There was a pleased expression on her face. “I evolved!” she declared.

“I can see that,” I said with a chuckle, reaching out and rubbing at the spot between her horns. Her eyes closed as she made happy little noises at the attention. “I guess I can’t call you little bug anymore, eh?”

Her eyes snapped open as she realized this as well. I guess she liked that nickname. “Ah- uhm… I guess not.” She almost looked sad about it. She was the only one in the group that I actually said the pet name I had for them out loud.

I chuckled a bit more. “I can still call you little bug if you want. But it’d be ironic now.”

She looked thoughtful for a moment before she suddenly leaned in, pressing her head against mine. “You can call me whatever nickname you want. Or you can use my new name, Scoly.”

It caught me a bit off guard that she was suddenly showing affection like this. But I just smiled, rubbing under her chin. “Alright. As long as you're happy, it’s good.”

“Of course I’m happy,” she said, rubbing up against me. “I’m big enough that you can ride on top of me now.”

I couldn’t help but let out a slight snort. “Oh yeah? I guess I could. You can be my bug horse.”

She suddenly froze, and then straightened up. Looking up at her I could see that there was a slight blush on her face. She was embarrassed? She could blush? Before I had a chance to ask, she was suddenly a ball and bounded off away from me.

With a laugh I simply made my way to the campsite, putting Eevee and Goomy down in the tent. I was actually a bit surprised that the little slug had actually let herself be put down, but after last night's reassurances she had finally snapped her out of whatever sort of mental lock she had.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Looking at the spot I had left things for them, I noticed that there was nothing left. They had used both days of food, and gorged themselves on pokeblocks. I sighed, hoping that they at least split them up somewhat. I had hoped Dee would have been a bit more responsible, but I guess she was heavily outnumbered. Though I was more curious as to why all the food supplies were gone.

While everyone was training, I decided to start making food. I did a quick nature test for the Goomy, now that she was far more receptive to interactions. She didn’t seem to like or dislike any of them, though spicy got the most reaction from her. So she probably had a hardy nature.

It wasn’t long before everyone was done with their training, coming over to me. Dee had an almost guilty expression and couldn’t look me in the eye. “I’m not a good cook…” she mumbled when she got close to me.

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“She burnt it,” Rio said with a bit of a giggle. “We had to forage, cus she couldn’t cook.”

Everyone else sort of nodded, and Dee hung her head, her face turning quite a surprising red. I reached over and pet her. “It’s alright. We can work on that if you want,” I said softly. “You always help me cook, so I just assumed you knew how to. That’s my fault.” It seemed that the way they were trained was to rely on someone giving out all the steps and orders. “What I’m more concerned about is the fact that it seems everyone ate their pokeblocks.”

She just nodded, helping me to pass out servings to everyone, while the others either looked guilty or simply tried to avoid looking at me. Goomy and Eevee also get a plate, though I made the little slugs extra leafy since their diet is purely leaves. Eevee was in absolute heaven, fully able to enjoy her meal without needing help to eat. It was so wonderful to see her finally be able to do that on her own and not make a mess.

Goomy seemed hesitant at first, but after the first few bites I knew she was hooked. The greatest way to win someone over, man, woman, Pokemon, whatever, all you need is good food.

The current goal was to train for one more month, before moving on to the next step of my plan. I would be doing my gym run in the third to last month, and go for all the star badges. In the three months between the end of my training, and the start of my gym fights, I wanted to do one thing.

Go to Alola and attempt the Trials.

It was a rather obvious choice to make if we are talking about making Pokemon stronger. Getting my hands on a Z-Ring and a Primarium Z, or any Z-Crystals would be immense. Whether getting those would actually require me to take the Trials, I didn’t know, but I would attempt to do them while I was there. …maybe I could get one for Eevee? I had no idea if she ever wanted to evolve, or not. Hell, they could even gigantamax. I would have to talk to her about that later.

The rest of this last month of training I shifted everyone’s focus. Now wasn’t about trying to rapidly increase everyone’s power, now it was about increasing their combat awareness. We had to be on the same wavelength. I had explained to them that they should be able to fight autonomously, with minimal input from me. That wouldn’t be to say that I wouldn’t give them instructions, but for the most part they would have to fight on their own and understand what I wanted them to do without words.

So we ran basic combat drills, talking to them and teaching them how to act under pressure, and how to react to situations. Not to wait for my instructions, but to drop everything in order to follow them. The most important thing we practiced was how to block out distractions. Every day for a whole week, everyone would get one hour of this. It consisted of everyone yelling at them, and attacking them, desperately trying to get their attention, while I would give them orders. Their only task was to do whatever I tasked them with and ignore everyone else. Because if I was giving an order, it was more important than anything else that was going on.

To my surprise, Goomy actually joined in on the training, though it was more that she was just using the Gravity to get stronger. She had witnessed its effects first hand, and wanted to get stronger. She and Eevee had been getting pokeblocks to help with their growth, though Eevee was still too weak to start proper training. Unfortunately for the little slug, the Gravity had an even greater effect on her than anyone else, so she struggled to do anything. I had given her the task to do laps around the Gravity area.

By the time the three weeks were up, everyone was fairly competent at fighting with minimal commands. Diancie struggled the most as she seemed less combat oriented than everyone else, but she still did a good job. Her response to me not giving orders was to simply use Gravity and then pelt everything with diamonds or rocks with the occasional Moonblast.

On the morning that we were all traveling to Lumiose, as that’s where the airport was, I texted my liaison to tell her I was heading to Alola for a few months. She absolutely freaked out, bombarding me with questions. Just to frazzle her more, I said that my reason for doing so was to see if other branches of the Association would treat me better. She didn’t respond to that. I also messaged Professor Sycamore to let him know I would be out of the region for a time.

When I did get a response from her, it was to tell me that a different liaison would be meeting me at the airport in Alola when I landed. I guess I had actually caused her to realize that I was not about to put up with their garbage forever.

The actual ride to the airport was extremely fast. It was the first time I had ridden Scoly, and I nearly fell off a few times because of just how much speed she would pick up. Thankfully it was actually a pretty comfortable ride and I just needed a little padding. Still, riding bareback was not something that I ever enjoyed doing and I would be getting a saddle made so that she could really go all out in running. Though it was honestly smoother than riding a horse, since she had so many legs.

The airport was rather small, all things considered, and fairly new. Travel by planes was seemingly something new, since most just used Pokemon. The ticket was insanely expensive, costing me forty thousand pokedollars. Thankfully at the time I had over a hundred thousand, thanks to the Association paying me again. But that was still incredibly expensive. And that was just one way. I didn’t buy a return flight ticket because I didn’t know when I would be heading back.

Security at the airport was both super lax, and extremely strict in a way that I was unprepared for. I found out later that the reason was because I was a Pokemon Expert that I was essentially just waved through most of the checks. All of the security measures were for my Pokemon, rather than me. Every Pokemon and their pokeball had to be thoroughly checked and scanned. They didn’t like that I was taking so many, but my identity really didn’t give them the option to deny me.

Unsurprisingly, Diancie caused the biggest fuss and got the most looks. I realized that this was the first time she had been displayed in public, not including the battle in the forest, and it was clear that she absolutely loved the attention. I could already tell my phone was going to explode with text messages as soon as we landed, and the Association was probably going to yell at the Professor.

Annoyingly there was a strict ‘No Pokemon on the Plane’ rule, and I had to reluctantly return Eevee to her pokeball, promising that I would release her the moment that I was allowed. It also occurred to me that I had not captured Goomy. But after explaining to her it was either be captured and come with, or be left behind, she readily agreed.

Yet even after all that, the most annoying thing was the actual flight. It was a fourteen hour flight, and there were hardly any people. I could have had my Pokemon out without problem, but I also understood that they didn’t want to risk damage to the plane. But with how much I paid, and how few people there were, you would think that they would have at least mildly decent food.

Vaguely I remembered that due to the altitude, things taste different. Which is why they served extra salty or spicy things. Or maybe I was just getting too used to my own cooking. In the last few months I had gotten a lot better at cooking, and I already thought I was pretty good.

The most interesting thing that happened during the flight was when one of the other passengers went to retrieve something from the overhead storage. I wouldn’t have paid it any mind, however when they did I was suddenly met with a rather familiar pair of purple eyes attached to a pink Pokemon. It seemed just as surprised to see me as I was to see it. I was too stunned to react for a moment, and then they closed the storage. Immediately I stood up and opened it back up, but they were gone.

The rest of the flight passed uneventfully, though I was constantly trying to see if I could spot the little thing somewhere on the plane. Either I was suffering from hallucinations due to my concussion, or they were just following me and were really good at it and remaining undetected. Espurr espionage? Eventually we landed, and I hadn’t seen the little cat again.

Stepping off the plane, where we had landed could barely be called an airport. It was more just an airstrip. Alola was apparently the newest member of the Association, and their teeth hadn’t properly sunk into this land yet. They had just started to become a hot tourist destination, which is why the ticket had been so expensive.

I immediately released Eevee, checking on her a moment to make sure she was alright before putting her in my hood. Then I released Goomy, since I felt like I was still bonding and earning the trust of the little slug. I held her in my arms for a moment, letting her know that everything was okay. She didn’t seem to like her first pokeball experience.

Once I was sure she was feeling alright again, I placed her up on my shoulder, allowing her to stick in a place where she could see around. All the other passengers had gathered their luggage and left at this point, and I looked up at the mountain. “Mmm… so this is Melemele.”

“That’s right,” a voice said from not so far away.

I turned and immediately recognized who was speaking. “Professor Burnet?” The woman who was in front of me was tanned skin, with white hair, and a gray tank top.

“Oh? Were you expecting someone else?” she asked, giving me a smirk.

“Honestly, yes.” I looked around, just to see if there was anyone else. “I was expecting your husband, or my so-called liaison.”

“Well, good news there, I am your liaison,” she said with a laugh. “Alola. As for my husband, he’s currently not on the island.” She looked me over, and I felt the way that Goomy flinched when she looked at her.

I reached up and gently squished the little slug. “It’s alright,” I said softly to her. “Alola,” I added, remembering that the word was both a greeting and a farewell.

“Augustine said you specialize in traumatized Pokemon, so I wonder what brings you here?” she asked, watching the interaction.

“I wouldn’t say that I specialize in them, but it is true that most of my Pokemon have trauma.” I reached into my coat for my only premier ball. “As for why I am here, there’s a few reasons. First, is this one.” Releasing Brionne, she made a happy noise, not liking having been in her pokeball for so long. I scooped her up, holding her in my arms. She was surprised, but nuzzled me, enjoying this particular show of affection. I should pick up my Pokemon more often, they seem to really like it.

“Oh? You have a Brionne? You-” realization dawned on her face and she snapped her fingers as she stopped speaking. Her mind raced for a moment. “You have a Brionne. Shit…” she mumbled, her own previous comment causing her to come to what was the correct conclusion. “Alright, come on.”

We both started walking, and she looked pissed. “I don’t really care who the Trainer was, or the mother, or the father. I’m here because I promised Brionne to show her the region she belonged to.” I had had a few discussions with the little seal about it all, and she seemed against finding out.

She didn’t answer as we got to her car and she walked around to the other side. I saw as she kicked the tire in annoyance before she got in and unlocked the door for me. “Alright. So some punk ditched her?” she said once I closed the door behind me, Brionne on my lap. She wasted no time in getting the car moving.

“Yes. He was annoyed that she didn’t have the ability he wanted. And then the aquarium…did not treat her well.” I was petting her softly as I spoke. And I could feel her shaking slightly at remembering it all. But she quickly settled down at my touch.

“Lap,” the little Pokemon said, looking up at me as if realizing where she was. I realized that I had only really ever placed Eevee on my lap. Were the others jealous that Eevee got spoiled more than they did? Probably.

I continued to rub her head and back. “Well at least she looks okay now…”

“I am very good with communicating with Pokemon, and I treat them very well,” I said with a smile down at Brionne.

“So, what else did you come here for?” she asked as we pulled into what appeared to be a mixture of laboratory and dockyard. The lab was very close to the airport. We could have just walked…

“I plan to take the Trials.”

There was a bit of a jolt from the car as her foot slipped. She remained silent for a moment until she finally parked, taking a deep breath. “The Trials, eh? Do you mind if I ask how you know about those?”

“Are they a secret?” I responded to her question with one of my own.

“Not necessarily, but we try to not spread it around. Especially to outsiders.”

I snorted. “That’s pretty closed minded of you, Professor.” I paused. “Or do you mean, you just don’t want the Association to know.” The frown on her face told me that I was correct. “Well you don’t have to worry about that. Honestly, I despise the Association, or at least almost every member I’ve had interactions with.”

Her frowning expression turned into one of confusion. “Oh?”

“They locked me in a room and bombarded me with the most difficult questions that they could think of for hours, in hopes of denying me my Pokemon Expert credentials. They made a rather pathetic attempt to seduce me with an attractive liaison, who has texted me-” I pulled out my phone. “Seven times since I left Kalos.”

She let out a soft giggle. “Perhaps she is just…overly enthusiastic about her job?”

“I would be much happier about the situation if that were the case. I don’t need multiple check-ins a day. And with how much she messages me you would think that she’d know a little about me but no, she has made no effort in getting to know me. Granted I have given her very little opportunity to do so, but all she does is ask me what I am doing, or where I am, or brags about the Association. That’s it. Those are the only things she talks about, other than the two times they have requested me as an expert. Not once has she asked about any of my Pokemon. And she is just straight up not my type, which I have tried to be blunt about having no interest in talking or interacting with her, but she still won’t stop texting me.” I continued my rant for a little bit, not having vented to this extent before.

To her credit, Professor Burnet didn’t interrupt me. Though I kind of wish she had.

With a sigh, I got out of the car before she could even say anything, holding Brionne in my arms. She was looking at me a bit concerned. “I’m fine,” I said, petting her a bit. “That plane ride really put me in a bad mood.”

“I’ll say it did,” the Professor said. “Come, I’ll show you to the area we keep the starters. Though we only have the breeders right now.” With that she led me over to the beach. I had expected to actually enter the building but instead we avoided it. We hadn’t even gotten onto the beach when I saw six Primarina playing in the water.

“They’re so pretty…” Brionne said, her eyes shining. Professor Burnet let out a whistle, which got all of their attention as they practically rushed the shore.

“Wow,” I muttered as they all quickly flopped over to us, happily greeting the Professor and asking a lot of questions about who I was and who I was holding. They knew immediately that it wasn’t one of theirs.

“Ah…how do I explain this…” the Professor said, glancing at me and Brionne. She knew what they were questioning her about.

“Allow me, Professor.” I stepped forward a bit towards them. “My name is Jason, but I prefer Jace. This is my Brionne.” I then went into an explanation of how I found the little seal, and what she had been through. It was also the Professor’s first time hearing the whole story, about how the aquarium was treating her. I had to stop several times to assure Brionne that things were okay. She really didn’t like remembering all of that.

By the time I had finished the rather short story, the Primarina were all upset. There were some accusations of whose daughter it must have been, and one of them seemed to accept that it was probably one of hers, though she was very reluctant to take that burden and was just as upset about it as the others. “Are you leaving her with us?” one of them asked.

“No,” I said immediately, shaking my head. “I’m keeping her. I just wanted her to see where her line comes from, and ask if you’d be willing to teach her some things that her mother didn’t.”

“Can she blow bubbles?” one asked.

Brionne turned a bit and blew a bubble, eager to show off. “Yeah I managed that, at least.” All six seals clapped at the show, much to Brionne’s delight. “I’m going to be on the islands for a few months. So, would you be willing to teach her?”

All six of them saluted. “Leave it to us!” one of them said happily as they moved closer to me. They weren’t trying to take Brionne, just get a better look at her.

I was more than happy to show her off to them. “Brionne, show them your special movement technique,” I said as I put her down.

It was obvious that she was extremely nervous. But after a few deep breaths she twisted a bit and used Water Gun to propel herself, launching herself quite a distance before using a bubble to soften her landing. She did a pose, having stuck the landing perfectly. Again there were a bunch of seal clappings and they immediately rushed over to ask her how she did that, and to show them again.

“That’s an impressive trick,” the Professor said, coming up to stand beside me.

“She worked hard on it. She wasn’t mobile enough in a fight, and so we had to come up with a method.” I looked at her. “Do you mind if I release my other Pokemon?”

“Oh no, of course,” she said and gestured for me to do so.

As I opened my coat, Rio burst out before I could even say anything. “Freedom!” She declared, her fists in the air.

I laughed and called everyone else out. Dee immediately started to check everyone over to make sure that everyone was in good condition. “You have a medical Pokemon?” the Professor asked, clearly flabbergasted.

“Yeah, I’m a Joy Clan approved Pokemon Expert,” I said, showing off my license that had the little Joy Clan mark on it. I introduced everyone to the Professor, but only Dee and Cara really gave any sort of respectful greeting.

Yet again it was Diancie who got the largest reaction from her. “Wow… a mythic Pokemon…” Of course Diancie absolutely loved the attention she was getting, twirling a bit and showing off how she shined in the sun. “You don’t see one of those every day.”

“Uh, well. I mean, I do,” I said with a chuckle. Daincie came closer, wondering what I was laughing about. I just held out my hand so that she could play with my fingers, which seemed to be her favorite thing to do.

“Yanno I had my doubts when they said a Pokemon Expert was heading here,” the Professor said, looking at my group, who was now enjoying a sort of vacation on the beach after so many months of hard work. Suddenly she nodded as if making up her mind about something. “Alright. I’ll help you get permission to do the Trials, but in exchange I want some help with something.”

I arched an eyebrow at her. “Depending on what it is, I would be more than willing to help. Just know that I help Pokemon, I don’t really help people.”

She arched an eyebrow back at me. “Is there a difference?”

“There’s a big difference.” I sighed a bit before continuing. “I’m not going to do anything that would be detrimental to Pokemon.”

There was a pause before she asked, “But you would do things that are detrimental to humans?”

I shook my head. “No, I just wouldn’t stop anything.”

There was a frown on her face but after a moment she nodded. “Alright… I think I can work with that,” she said with a chuckle. “Before I talk about my request, I want to make sure that as a Pokemon Expert, you can solve any problem when it comes to Pokemon? That wasn’t just random hype?”

I had no idea who would say such a thing about me, but I responded, “I believe that I could at least come up with a solution, even if I might not be able to implement it myself.”

“Even if it involved one of the Tapu?” she asked, folding her arms.

That caused me to pause for a moment. “One of the Guardian Deities?” She arched a brow at my response, but I had to think about it. Could I solve a problem with a legendary Pokemon? “Maybe…” I said slowly. “Depending on who it was and what the problem was.”

“It involves Tapu Bulu.”

My brow furrowed as I tried to search my memories for what sort of problem that could be. “Tapu Bulu…” I muttered. “Does this have to do with the destruction of Tapu Village?”

The way her expression immediately turned into one of shock told me I’d guessed right. “What- How-”

“Deductive reasoning,” I lied.

She stared at me for a moment before finally finding her voice. “Yes. It does. You see… the Association built a thrifty megamart-”

“On sacred grounds, and in response Tapu Bulu destroyed the town and left the mart in ruins,” I finished.

She let out a huff. “Are you going to let me explain the problem, or not?”

I chuckled softly, waving my hand. “Sorry, sorry. Continue.”

“Yes, well, Tapu Bulu didn’t destroy the megamart, but left it in really rough shape. And now there’s a bunch of talk about things happening in the area.”

“Probably ghost’s,” I said with a shrug.

“Yes, well, it seems a bit more extreme than just ghost Pokemon,” she said with a sigh. Obviously this was an annoying thing that she didn’t want to deal with. “And no one I have asked will go and investigate the place.”

I snorted softly. “So you want me to… what? Go in and rattle some cans? Throw some salt?”

She stared blankly at me for a moment, though I could see the corner of her mouth was up slightly in the slightest of amused smirks. “I just want proper confirmation of what’s happening.”

I looked at her for a moment. “Cara,” I called over my shoulder. “Scoly, Rio, Dee. Come over here real quick.”

All of them quickly jogged over. “What’s up?” Cara asked, eying the Professor suspiciously. Still untrusting of humans.

“We’re going on a quick mission. Rio, Scoly, Dee, I need you to watch everyone.” I pulled out a blanket from my bag, laying it on the sand. I laid Eevee down, before setting Goomy down beside her. Both of them looked reluctant. “It’s alright. I’ll be back before dinner,” I said as I pet both of them. I learned my lesson with taking Eevee on missions that might involve combat, since I was a soft target.

“I’m coming with you?” Cara asked.

“Unless you want to stay, and Rio can come with me. A common pairing with ghosts is poison, and you both are immune.” I never knew until this moment that a Lucario could look pale. “I can’t take Scoly because of her size.”

The large bug immediately narrowed her eyes at me. “I’m not that big.”

“You’re like, four times bigger than me, Scoly,” I said with a chuckle, reaching out and rubbing the top of her head. “You’re wonderfully huge. And I don’t think the building would last against your special technique.”

She gave me a huff before turning and walking away.

“Mom doesn’t want to go,” Rio said with a bit of a smirk. “So I’ll protect you.” She thumped her chest.

I looked over at Cara. She immediately looked defensive. “What?” She folded her arms and looked away. “I don’t like ghosts…”

I laughed and gave her a pat on the head. “Alright, take care of everyone for me, okay? Rio, you’re with me.”

“What about your Diancie?” the Professor asked as we started to make our way over to the marina.

“If I take her, there won’t be a building standing when she’s done.” While gravity is a psychic move and would be very effective against the ghosts, I didn’t know how structurally sound the building was. She was developing this bad habit of trying to make her Gravity cover as big of an area as possible, while also making it as heavy as possible. If she concentrated it, she could get up to twenty times ten feet from her. But she could spread ten times Gravity nearly fifty feet now.

I also wasn’t sure I wanted people to know what she was capable of. She was my secret weapon. “Well, if you’re sure. Should take less than an hour to get to Ula’ula,” she said as she hopped up onto one of the boats.

“Good. This shouldn’t take too long.”

The ride took about forty five minutes, and I was reminded that I wasn’t very good on boats. My problems with water and motion sickness made an awful combo, but thankfully it wasn’t too bad and I didn’t throw up. While we made our trip I tried to think of a few things. The first being, where is Acerola? She should be in charge of one of Ula’ula’s Trial, and that Trial involves the megamart. Was she still at the Aether House? Was that just a game thing, or was I too early in the timeline? I had to be too early, since it sounded like the megamart was a fairly recent thing.

Although actually seeing it, it did not look like a recent thing at all. But it was in surprisingly good shape. Even the windows were fine. “How long ago did it happen?” I asked, standing within the parking lot, the Professor on my left, and Rio on my right.

“A little over a year ago? It was never even opened. They were waiting on the rest of the stock to ship in,” the Professor explained.

“I still don’t know what you expect me to do,” I said with a sigh as I started up towards the building. It was definitely more like the anime than in the game. Just an absolutely huge building, almost mall sized.

“J- Just check it out, you know? Make sure there aren’t any- any violent ghost’s,” the Professor stammered, doing her best to keep her composure but it was clear that she was slipping.

I glanced back at her. She looked nervous and a bit pale. As I got to the building, I knelt down, looking at the concrete pillars. I changed major’s before I got my engineering degree, but I knew enough to judge that it was most likely structurally sound, there at least weren’t any major cracks to be worried about. Plus it was still standing far later in the anime so I’m sure it was fine. I gave the glass a tap with my knuckle, finding that it wasn’t made of glass, but some sort of thick acrylic. That explained why none of the windows were broken. They were also covered on the inside, blocking anyone from seeing inside.

As the other two approached, I caught a glimpse of something peeking out through the nearby pillar. It was gone before I could focus to see what it was. “Alright, let’s go take a look inside then,” I said as I made my way to the door. It was an automatic sliding door, but the automatic part was either broken or turned off. Thankfully, as long as it’s not locked, they’re really easy to just slide open.

Inside was a desolate shopping center, without people or much product. I also couldn’t see any ghosts, but I could see plenty of little things shifting. “You’re just… gonna walk in?” The Professor asked, sticking close behind me.

“Yeah?” I looked at her and it was at that moment that I realized that I was doing her job for her. She was obviously supposed to check out this place and was too scared to do it. “If you’re too scared, you can wait outside,” I said as I walked in, making my way to the checkout counters.

“Wh-what? No. Of- of course not. Why would I be scared?” she said, following after me.

“Uh… Jace… This place is pretty spooky,” Rio said, quickly following so that she wouldn’t get left behind.

“It’s fine,” I said with a bit of a smile. “Ghost Pokemon are just like any other Pokemon. Well, not exactly.”

Without another word, I ducked down, hiding behind the counter. As I did, a purple ghostly figure shot up, making a face at Rio and the Professor.

They screamed, immediately clinging to each other.

Immediately the figure that had burst forth exploded into laughter, pointing at them like it was the funniest thing it had ever seen. Slowly I rose up behind it, a bit of a smirk on my face. “Oh Haunter…” I said softly. It froze for a moment, and then I watched as it counted one, then two, and then looked for three. Slowly it began turning around. Just before it could completely face me, I got really close before flicking on my flashlight under my chin, pointing it upwards to illuminate my face. “Boo!”

It screamed in an almost primal way as if it had never been more scared for its life than at that moment. The noise was like a strangled train whistle. It leaped back and hid behind the other two, clinging to them as they also screamed.

I couldn’t hold it in and practically cackled as I turned my flashlight off, pointing at the terrified Pokemon. “What sort of noise is that?” I cried out, trying to get my laughter under control. “Oh jeez…” I had to actually wipe away a tear I was laughing so hard, before putting my flashlight away. “Oh man, I got you good.”

The haunter huffed, and puffed at me, sticking out its tongue to blow a raspberry. Before floating off it gave me a grin, disappearing from sight. “What the heck was that for!” the Professor exclaimed. Her and Rio were still clinging to each other.

“Oh come on, it’s just a bit of fun. Most ghost Pokemon are playful and like little jokes like that. Especially the Haunter line. They like their jumpscares.” I watched as the Professor pat her chest, as if trying to restart her heart, Rio was mimicking the motion. I turned away from them, looking at the shopping center. “Well, I can honestly confirm this is a ghost nexus.”

“Ghost nexus?” she asked.

I swiftly moved over to them, standing behind them as I started to point things out. “Look, see the movement over there? That’s a few ghosts playing.” I pointed to a different spot. “Those are some Shuppet exploring those isles.” I gestured to the counter that I had hid behind. “There’s a Klefki under the counter here.”

“Okay?” She looked at me with a questioning look. “But what’s a ghost nexus?”

“To put it simply, it’s a place that draws ghost’s to it.” I walked back over to the counter, and knelt down to scoop up the Klefki who made a few annoyed little clink noises at me. I just pulled off one of the sheets covering the register, showing it the metal underneath. It happily began to mess with it. “There’s a ton of ghost energy in this place, which draws in ghosts. More ghosts mean bigger nexus. Bigger nexus means stronger ghosts.”

“How strong is this one?” Burnet asked, suddenly quite interested in what I was doing.

“Depends,” I said as I looked around, moving past the counters. “If that Haunter is the strongest one in here, then it’s not a very strong nexus. But…” I was trying to get a better angle to see if I could catch a glimpse of any stronger Pokemon. “If there’s a Gengar, or Banette, then it’s pretty strong.”

As if on cue, I spotted a pair of pink eyes and a gold zipper. Our eyes locked for a moment as it studied me. “Is it bad if the nexus is stronger?” the Professor asked as she came over. Rio was still staring wide eyed at everything around her, clinging to the Professor.

“No more than any other place where lots of strong Pokemon gather,” I said as I looked over to the two of them. “Is there anything else you want to look at?”

She shook her head, looking around. “No, I think that’s- is that a Pikachu?”

Immediately I whirled around and my focus immediately snapped to the yellow thing that was sleeping in a sort of nest on one of the shelves. In response to the words of the Professor, its head seemed to slowly rotate, making a sort of crickling and crackling noise like sticks being twisted and broken. Both Rio and the Professor, who had been making their way towards it, froze on the spot.

However I couldn’t help but smile, walking a bit towards it. “Hello Mimikyu,” I said softly, crouching down near the shelf, and looking the Pokemon over. “My, you have quite a wonderful costume. It looks so good.”

“Th-that’s not a Pikachu,” Rio said, clinging tighter to the Professor.

“A- a- a-” the Professor was struggling to form words.

However, at my words, the Mimikyu had perked up, looking almost bashful as I complimented it. “Th-thank you. I m-made it my-myself,” the little thing stammered.

“Oh, you’re very skilled.” I couldn’t get the smile off my face if I wanted to. Mimikyu was honestly an adorable Pokemon, and I was actually struggling with the urge to not just snatch them up and take them with me. “My name is Jason, but I prefer Jace.” I offered my hand.

Slowly from under the costume came a rather large shadow hand which slowly reached out, hesitantly grabbing my hand. “My- my name… is Mikyu.”

“Mikyu,” I repeated, smiling even more. “It’s wonderful to meet you.” I had planned to just sort of give the little thing a sort of handshake, but it took the initiative and actually pulled itself up to sit on my hand. I should have expected them to not know what a handshake was. Without really thinking about it, I pulled the little doll into a hug. “Oh you’re just so adorable. Look at you.”

It made a little noise of surprise, but what surprised me was when it suddenly wrapped its arms around me, hugging me back. It squeezed probably a bit too tightly, as I heard a bit of creaking sticks, but it wasn’t enough to actually break one and cause a problem.

As I turned I could see both the Professor and Rio staring at me in horror. “Well? What were you saying, Professor? Nothing else?”

“I-” she seemed to find her voice. “What is that?”

“This is a Mimikyu. A ghost fairy type. Because it's true form is weak to sunlight, and can cause fatalities if looked at directly, it makes a costume to hide itself in order to make friends,” I explained, rubbing the side of the little Pokemon, wondering if it could feel through the cloth. “Most of them choose to emulate Pikachu, due to its popularity. And I think this one’s done just such an amazing job at their costume that it even fooled you, Professor.”

As I was talking about them, Mikyu had shifted around to face the Professor. “I’m M- Mikyu,” she said with a bow, which caused some crackling.

“Sounds like you need some new material for your neck?” I mused, looking down. All I got was some rather crackly nods that caused a shiver to run down my spine. I nodded back. “Alright, let’s get out of here now, okay?”

We started to walk back, and Mikyu suddenly looked a bit panicked. “Y-you’re leaving?”

“Yes, we are,” I said with a bit of a smile, clearly making no effort to put them down.

“M-me too?”

Looking down at them I smiled. “Do you want to stay here?” They rapidly shook their head, which sounded like a tree branch twisting on a stormy night. “Then yes, you too. I’ve always wanted a Mimikyu to be my friend.” Suddenly I felt them squeezing me tightly again.

Suddenly my hand was grasped. At first I thought it was Rio, or maybe Burnet, but I realized that they were ahead of me and already outside. When I looked down, instead I saw the same pink eyes and gold zipper looking up at me. They were looking at the way that I was holding Mikyu.

I smiled a bit. “You too?” I asked, and they nodded. Leaning down a bit, I scooped them up. After that I made a quick exit, else I somehow caught the attention of another Pokemon that wants to go with me.

The Professor just stared at me for a moment when I was finally outside.

With a frown, I turned away a bit to block the two Pokemon from her sight. “Mine. Get your own family members.”

To my surprise, Rio came over and hugged onto my side. I put Mikyu on my shoulder so that I could rub the jackal's head. “That was so freakin’ scary,” she said softly, burying her face in my coat. “I can see why mama is afraid of ghosts…”

I laughed, continuing to pet her. “Well, now our family has two of them. So she’s just going to have to get used to it.” With a smile I looked over at the Professor, who looked quite a bit frazzled from the whole ordeal. “What’s next, professor? Got any upset Vulpix around?” I said with a joking tone, though there was no way that I could say no to an ice fox.

In response, she simply stared at me.

“Wait… is there?” I asked, now a lot more serious.

“Sort of…”

On the way to the Pokecenter, I offered pokeballs to Mikyu and Banette, explaining that they had to be captured if they wanted to come with me. I also explained that I would keep them outside of their pokeballs as often as I could. Both of them hardly hesitated when I told them they couldn’t come with me otherwise.

When we reached the Pokecenter, I was not surprised to find a certain pink haired individual. “Alola, Nurse Joy,” I said with a smile.

It took her a moment before her eyes went wide. “Ah! You’re Jace! Alola! My cousin told me all about you.” She moved around the counter to shake my hand, much to my surprise. Even her Comfey came over, excited to see me.

“Ah, am I really that popular?”

“Of course,” she said with a nod. “My cousin who works at the Kalos ranch made such a fuss when the Association tried to deny your expert status. She actually threatened them. Said she’d cut Association service.”

I laughed a bit awkwardly. “Goodness, I didn’t think I made that much of an impression.”

“Well, everything that every Joy has said about you has been good. An amnesiac who has a way with Pokemon,” she said in an almost dreamy way, but then seemed to catch her blunder. “Ah-”

I put up a hand. “It’s alright. I’ve kind of… well, come to terms with it.”

She nodded slowly. Without lowering my hand, I reached over and rubbed the side of the Comfey’s face, smiling as the little thing let out a giggle and shied away from me. “See? Pokemon like you.”

“Yes,” I said with a chuckle.

“Not to interrupt, but we do have business,” Professor Burnet interjected.

“Ah, right, of course,” Nurse Joy said, blushing a bit as she realized she got carried away. “What can I help you with?”

“We’re here to see the special case.”

Nurse Joy suddenly made a rather sullen face and then nodded. “Alright. She’s out this way.”

Out behind the pokecenter I saw the most one sided battle imaginable. On one side was an Alolan Vulpix, and on the other was an Absol, battling in a hail battered field. Even though the Absol was obviously taking it easy on the Vulpix, there was only so much that the little ice Pokemon could do. Her left ear was torn, the eye on that side looked damaged with three scars running down her face, and her leg was gone. Just…gone. She was scarred all across her left side, and was even missing two tails on that side.

But I could see it. That sort of determination of refusing to give up. She wanted to fight, in spite of her condition. I could tell that she had some actual training, though minimal. The problem was the Absol wasn’t attacking, just defending, as if it was afraid that it would hurt her. She was actually doing a fairly good job now that I was watching. It just looked like she hadn’t gotten used to the missing limb, but when she got her footing it didn’t slow her down.

But it was clear that the Absol was extremely well trained and probably had more than a decade of experience on her. It could read her movements, even if they were fast, and was able to easily dodge everything she threw at it. “Okay, that’s enough!” Nurse Joy called out, her voice rather casual, as if she was calling them to lunch.

Almost immediately the hailstorm ended, and the two of them came over. “I’m sorry, Nurse Joy, but I just don’t know how to teach her,” the Absol said when they got over. “She’s got that spirit, and good battle instincts, but I just don’t know how to help.”

Nurse Joy pat the Absol. “It’s alright. I know you did your best.”

The Vulpix however just kicked at the accumulated hail with her good leg, obviously frustrated. “I’ve brought someone who I think can help,” the Professor explained to the Absol. This got the Vulpix’s attention. “This is Jason, a Pokemon Expert. He specializes in helping Pokemon.”

The Absol looked me up and down. “I’m not sure-”

“You can help?” The Vulpix butted in, practically knocking the Absol out of the way.

I knelt down, holding out my hands to the Vulpix. “Let me get a good look at you.”

There was a bit of hesitation, which was to be expected. But it eventually came closer so that I could get a good look as she sat down in front of me. I examined the wounds, being as gentle as I could. “She got attacked a few months ago. Her Trainer… was in bad shape and couldn’t continue. He’s still in the hospital, and gave her up. He probably won’t ever walk again, but he’s alive thanks to her.”

The Vulpix immediately glared at the Professor, obviously pissed that her Trainer gave her up. I wasn’t sure if that was because she didn’t understand that she wouldn’t be able to battle if she had stayed with him, or if she was just mad that he abandoned her in general. She probably thinks that he didn’t want her because of her injuries. The truth was he probably didn’t have a choice and it was his parents that did it.

“This was done by a Weavile,” I said after a moment. “Several of them.”

Vulpix nodded. “There were four.”

“Can you see out of this eye?” I asked, waving a finger in front of her left eye.

“Yeah, it’s a bit blurry sometimes, but if I blink a few times it goes back to normal.” She blinked several times to demonstrate.

“Minor damage to the outer lens. That should heal eventually,” I said with a bit of a nod. “Does it hurt anywhere? Even if I touch it?” I started to touch over the worst of the looking scars, looking for a reaction.

But she shook her head. “No. It did for a while, though. I couldn’t even lay down.”

I had to admit it looked like she was healing nicely. “What’s your name? My name is Jason, but I prefer Jace.”

“Keo,” she said, sounding a bit sad. Her Trainer probably gave her that name.

“Okay, Keo.” I sat down on the ground in front of her. “I’m confident that I can train you to become powerful, but it’s going to be hard. Harder than any sort of training you’ve done in the past.”

She looked down at where her missing leg was. “Even…with this?” There was even a little stump that she wiggled.

I furrowed my brow. “Why would that stop you from getting strong?”

“I hear them talking,” she said, grinding her paw into the slowly melting hail that was left on the ground. I didn’t look over, but I saw the way that Absol looked away out of the corner of my eye.

“Well, who cares what they think. Who’s the Pokemon Expert here?” I said, sitting up a bit straighter.

“You?” she questioned.

“That’s right. Me. I’m the Expert. And if I say you can be strong, that means you can be strong.” I smiled at her. “As long as you work with me, and listen to me, you can become strong.”

Her tails wagged a bit and she sat up straighter to match me. “Right!” Without another word, she practically jumped onto my lap. “I wanna be super strong!”

I smiled even more as I started to pet her, which I could tell she immediately started to enjoy. People had probably been too scared to pet her because of her injuries. “Here’s her pokeball,” Nurse Joy said with a smile as she handed it to me.

“Thank you, Nurse Joy.” I took it, and tucked it into my coat. “Now then, Professor. I think we should head back.” I stood up, picking up Vulpix as I did. I had a bunch of new family members to introduce when we got back.