Chapter 59 - The Crabominable and The Snow-Woman - Pt. 1

Today - Sevii, Two Island Marina, Two Island

The fairy lights flickered and danced with the wind. Breeze from the ocean had picked up and now carried the rich scent of chocolate from a steaming jug, enveloping them all in its warmth. Luan strummed away, lost in his guitar strings, and as Bruno gestured them to gather around the heater, Celeste almost thought the evening might not suck.

But that was a big might.

Beneath the surface, Celeste knew Luan’s music was just an excuse for him to avoid eye contact with Delia or herself. Delia, for her part, had her full concentration aimed at her own mug of hot chocolate. Only Lori seemed to spare Bruno her focus, and she looked more annoyed than eager.

Bruno took his time starting. “Back in the dojo, arguments among us trainers were common. Master had this habit,” he began, pausing as if searching for the right words. “Whenever we fought, he’d sit us down and shared a story, like a fable. Truth be told, most of us weren’t exactly hanging on his every word. But, looking back, I guess those stories did us some good.”

Lori’s laugh was barely there, almost smothered by Luan’s guitar. “The Crabominable and the Snow-Woman?” she asked. “If that’s what I think it is, it’s the farthest thing from a fable.”

A grin broke through Bruno’s face, the soft light playing across his features. “You said they aren’t dealing well with some sort of misunderstanding. What better story is there?”

Delia, her voice muffled by her mug, scoffed. “Misunderstanding is surely one way to put it…” she said. “I don’t know if a story will make things better.”

Lori’s eyes darted between them, eventually settling on Celeste.

Misunderstanding.

Lori knew who bought the cookies back in the Clock Plaza was Mia, but said nothing. Celeste didn’t get the opportunity to say anything either—and she was unsure she even would, or if it would make a difference. Delia was super angry, after all. Which, to be fair, seemed wrong. If anyone had the right to be upset, it was Celeste, or perhaps Luan, for all the meddling. Not Delia. To her, it’d been only eavesdropping.

It was Lori’s voice that sliced through the heavy air. “How about I tell it instead?”

Bruno didn’t push back. “You sure you know how to tell it?”

Shrugging off her reservations, Lori straightened her cracked glasses. “This is a silly name for a story. There was no Crabominable and calling me a snow-woman is a stretch,” she said, and for the first time since they’d run into Bruno, her face relaxed. “This only shows you will tell it wrong, Bruno.”

All eyes turned to Lori, and the fairy lights shone like a spotlight above her.

Bruno leaned back, satisfied. “Fine, have at it. But fair warning, it’s still my story, so I’ll be jumping in.”

—*——*—

“It was over two years ago, only a few months into my journey. I believed I had found my stride…”

—*——*—

Two Years Ago - Kanto, Saffron City

Lorelei spread open a big map across the desk of her Poké Center room. It’d been a parting gift from Olga before she departed on her journey. Her parents had given her parting gifts too, keepsakes with sentimental value. Those were now buried deep within her backpack. But the map? Well, it was wearing away at the edge from use.

What could she say? Olga was good at gift-giving.

From a compartment of her bag, Lorelei retrieved a pack of stickers, her movements honed by habit. Her attention, however, was stolen by the towering silhouette of the Silph Co building dominating the skyline and a small smile spread over her lips. “Saffron City, at last. Let’s see what surprises you hold, gym number four.”

She selected a Lapras sticker from the pack and firmly pressed it onto Saffron’s location on the map. This was her method: Lapras for locations visited, a smiley Spheal for each gym badge secured, and whatever else she got left was used for marking pokéballs.

Rey had mocked it when she’d shown him the map back in Celadon.

“Sixteen and still playing with stickers like a little girl,” he’d said. Not that she cared for the opinion of a thirteen-year-old. Lorelei took pride in all the Lapras she had glued around in her map. Sevii and the southern Kanto coast—all save for the Fuchsia area—had been covered. She was still training up to go on that last one. A gym hidden in the woods scared her, after all. And anyway, his laughter had ceased the moment she pointed to the Spheal stickers over Viridian, Vermilion, and Celadon for the Gust, Thunder, and Rainbow Badges.

“Now, the Fist Badge awaits,” Lorelei nodded to herself, with the confidence of not having lost one gym battle so far—be it against trainers or leaders. Even more important, her journey to Saffron had marked her first overland trek, albeit via a convenient shortcut through an underground mall.

Well, any route traversed is a route conquered.

Just as soon as morning arrived, she stepped out from her Poké Center dorm room, weaving through the clusters of trainers and Pokémon in the lobby. She knew the drill by now. Those large groups looked at trainers travelling alone like Pidgey zooming on Caterpie: an easy target for battles. When she beat them (and she always beat them easily) they always nagged her about travelling together, teaching them those “chilling n-ice moves” or whatever stupid ice themed quip they came up with, until finally they left empty-handed calling her a “weirdo” once she explained her preference for water routes.

At the reception, she drummed her fingers, waiting for Nurse Joy to return her Pokéballs while a group of pre-teens bickered about their next move. It hadn’t taken long for her to figure out that travelling alone was what was best for her. If she was going to become the champion and help all the Lapras, then there was no time to waste. Alone, picking a route was as simple as she wanted it to be.

“Here you are. All four of your Pokémon are in top shape,” Nurse Joy said as she handed the Pokéballs back to Lorelei. Her gaze then drifted toward the squabbling group nearby. “They’re still going at it?”

Lorelei glanced over. “Been here long?”

Joy nodded. “All morning. Can’t seem to agree on anything–-breakfast, who gets which room, and now this.”

“To each their own, I guess.”

Joy gave a half-shrug, her eyes briefly resting on Lorelei. “Not everyone’s cut out for solo travel.”

With her Pokéballs now secured on her belt, Lorelei’s gaze lingered on the kids once more.

Maybe not for everyone, but definitely for her.

Her parents had held her back for years, only allowing her to leave home when she was fully prepared to face the wilderness. By sixteen, she had a solid team of three, and both her Seel and Swinub had already tasted victory at the Snowflake Cup (if her Lapras could compete, she’d have racked up even more wins). Still, they hesitated to let her go. That’s when Olga stepped in, assuring them of Lorelei’s readiness. To make the idea more palatable, she had even mentioned her own child would embark on his journey as soon as the Pokémon egg he got for his birthday hatched. In the end, the consensus was that Lorelei could get started, but she would meet up with Rey in Kanto when the time came.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Hah. Imagine that? Travelling with Rey would probably be more harrowing than with the pre-teen group.

It hadn’t been her finest hour when she invited him to stay at her dad’s instead of a crummy Poké Center room in Celadon. He’d eagerly accepted, and she didn’t waste a second to show her dad how far behind he was compared to her. No one protested when she left him with some encouraging words about sticking around and trying to catch some Pidgey for the Grass-Type Gym. She would never say it out loud (mostly because she’d be accused of being a bitter Ice Specialist), but Olga’s choice of a Larvesta for him was questionable at best. First, no one knew where she actually got that egg as they are heavily regulated and second, Larvesta aren’t beginner-friendly. Unlike Lapras, who were endangered for their gentle nature, Larvesta’s challenge was their slow growth, which made them very easy targets.

Rey definitely needed that Pidgey.

Shaking off thoughts of group travels, fire-bugs and the perils of the wild, Lorelei left the Poké Center to the urban maze leading to the Gym. She had scouted the location the night before, when she visited it to schedule her gym test. It was straightforward. Pass the Silph Co building, catch the tram to the North Gate, and there it was—the Fighting Dojo’s wooden doors, oddly fitting in Saffron’s modern sprawl.

“I have an appointment,” she informed the receptionist at the door. “Lorelei Kana. My gym test is at eleven.”

A young girl in a gi nodded. “Green rank, right?”

A puzzled tilt of Lorelei’s head prompted a light giggle from the girl.

“Sorry, that’s our way of saying it’s your fourth badge challenge. You got briefed about the test when you signed up?”

With a confident nod, Lorelei followed her inside. Despite the dojo’s potential charm and the pleasant garden they crossed, she could not pay much attention to it. Her gym challenge was all she could focus on.

The Fighting Dojo tests the limits of the body.

The rules were simple: a one-on-one Pokémon battle stripped down to essentials. No moves were allowed, just the raw physicality of combat—punches, kicks, headbutts, that sort of stuff. She had spent the night coming up with a strategy, only to realise that most of her ideas involved encasing in ice, inducing sleep or swamping with mud. It was a simpler test than most, requiring no physical exertion on her part, yet it unnerved her. Her Pokémon weren’t equipped for that.

Guided to the room of her challenge, Lorelei’s heart sank a notch at the sight of the tatami mats. Shoes were off, as tradition dictated.

“I’ll call your opponent,” the gi girl said, eyes scanning a clipboard. “His name is Bruno. He’ll be here shortly.”

As she unstrapped her shoes, glimpses of the outer arena caught her attention—a gym battle was underway, though the crowd seemed sparse. She put her shoes on the rack and, seeing the gym trainer wasn’t there yet, moved to the window for a better look. A Hitmonchan and Ambipom were trading slaps, and the Hitmonchan was clearly struggling.

“Fifth or sixth badge, maybe?” Lorelei chewed on her mouth. It was strange to see such empty stands. On the previous gyms she’d visited, even for first badge challenges, there were always quite a lot of people watching.

“Seventh, actually,” came a voice from behind. The speaker, adorned with a green belt around his own gi, had a Machoke and the receptionist shadowing him.

Lorelei had to crane her neck upward to meet his gaze. That annoyed her too much, and she let it show in her voice. “Bruno?” she asked through her teeth.

With a casual stride, he joined her at the window. “Looks like Master’s in a tight spot,” he sighed before swiftly changing the subject. “Ready for the battle?”

Eager to get this over with, Lorelei nodded, selecting her Pokéball. She’d never came up with a good strategy, but Aurora, her recently evolved Pilowswine, was best suited for a brawl.

Bruno laid out the rules once more as they took their positions on the mat. “No named moves, no elemental attacks. This is about the strength of body and will of heart…” The gi girl gave him a look, but said nothing as she moved in between them to referee. The other gyms had been much more formal, and Lorelei was quite certain her opponent was in a hurry. Before she could even acknowledge the rules, his attention was already on his Pokémon. “Let’s go, Bro,” he nodded to his Machoke.

This made Lorelei’s resolve harden. She wasn’t about to be bested by someone who treated their battle like a casual spar. Releasing Aurora onto the mat, she braced for the referee’s signal.

The match started with Piloswine barrelling towards Machoke with her tusks aimed low. No moves, just a plain old tackle. Machoke dodged effortlessly and countered, grabbing Piloswine by the humps of its back. This was Submission in all but name.

For a split second, the arena held its breath. Lorelei bit her lip, thoughts racing for a way out. But before strategy could morph into action, Machoke hoisted Aurora up and, leveraging gravity as a weapon, slammed her down.

“Don’t just lie there, wriggle out!” Lorelei’s advice came out in a rush, bypassing the urge to command a Flail attack. Her mind spun through her usual moves—Flail, Headbutt… Oh, an Ice Shard would’ve been perfect right about now.

Maybe she should’ve thought harder about this test.

“Punch down,” her opponent yelled.

A slight sigh escaped Lorelei. Aurora was tough. She could take punches for days, but what good would that do when she was trapped under Machoke? She needed a clever play, a twist, but everything she thought of was off-limits today.

The sound of tearing fabric pierced her ears. The mat was giving way under Aurora’s desperate struggle, yet the relentless barrage from Machoke continued.

Lorelei’s heart raced. Push him. Headbutt. Use ice. Mud. She mentally shut down on each forbidden play.

Had she overestimated this challenge? Previous Gyms had challenged them, sure, but…

Her mind flashed back to the Viridian Flying-Type Gym. The test was an obstacle race. Back then, the odds were even more stacked against her, with two-thirds of her team ill-suited for land. Yet, they had trained, over and over again, until her Seel mastered the art of making ice ramps and slides. They had always found a way… they always trained hard…

She just needed to… to—

“Bro, that’s enough,” Bruno signalled the end, declaring to the referee. “She’s given up. Without the will to fight in her, she’s not ready for the Master.”

Lorelei barely whispered, “What?” as if the word itself could reverse the tide.

The referee, though hesitant, declared the match in Bruno’s favour, leaving Lorelei grappling with disbelief and indignation.

Bruno exited with a curt bow. In the end, his departure was as hurried as his victory.

Lori just stood there. Frozen. Aurora wasn’t out yet… was she?

Her gaze landed on Piloswine—beaten, bruised, with tears welling up, still unable to stand.

She… failed.

—*——*—

“I had lost, and for a time, felt lost. Wandered aimlessly through Saffron, eventually finding myself back at the Poké Center. Those same indecisive pre-teens were still there, still bickering about their next destination. I overheard one of them mention a rare Pokémon, causing a stir on the northern shores beyond Lavender. Normally, I wouldn’t care. There aren’t that many Ice-Types in those parts. But this time, the Pokémon in question caught my attention. It was a Crabrawler. A fighting Pokémon who gains the ice typing upon evolution. I knew right there and then, I needed a Crabominable on my team… “

—*——*—

Today - Sevii, Two Island Marina, Two Island

Celeste shuffled closer to the warmth of the heater. This was not the sort of story she was expecting, but it was interesting. Luan had set his guitar aside the moment Lori mentioned gyms while Delia… was still not that enthralled.

“Your first gym loss was to Bruno?” Celeste probed.

Lorelei shot Bruno a wry glance. “If you want to call it that.”

Bruno’s arms were folded, yet his smile never waned. “See, she never let me live it down. I knew you were going to make it sound unfair.”

“Because it was unfair.”

“Was not.”

“Aurora wasn’t beaten.”

Delia, unable to hold back, set her mug down with a clank. “Oh, please! Fair or not, sounds like you were outmatched from the start. What’s the point of this story? It has nothing to do with our situation.”

Bruno, unfazed, reached for a snack. “Is this a carrot hot-dog?”

Celeste beamed. “Absolutely! Carrot hot-dogs are the best.”

Lorelei leaned back, smirking. “Looks like Bruno found something he likes.” She then turned to Delia. “The story is not done yet. It’s called ‘The Crabominable and the Snow-Woman.’ I believe you can guess where we’re heading.”

“You chased down the Crabawler, then?” Luan interjected with a gentle smile. “Did you manage to capture it for a rematch?”

“You don’t have a Crabawler, though?” Celeste butted in. “Or a Crabominable.”

Bruno, adjusting his posture, added, “Master always says it’s bad form to be impatient. Also to jump to conclusions.”

Lori rolled her eyes. “Care to share why you rushed our match?”

Bruno shifted uncomfortably, peeling the bread off his hot-dog meticulously, then sharing it with his Machamp. He looked up at the others, suddenly solemn.

“There was an Elite Four battle on TV,” he confessed, as if that was the most reasonable thing in the universe. “Anton versus that year’s Conference champion. It’s common knowledge at the dojo I don’t miss Anton’s matches. I told Lori that too. But she doesn’t seem to understand.”

Celeste’s attempt at a neutral face failed. “The Fighting-Type Elite Four member? That’s… not really helping your cause, Bruno.”

Lori fixed her glasses and nodded. It was clear she’d had this conversation a million times before.

Bruno’s explanation grew louder, if possible. “You guys know how Fighting-Types are all about willpower right? We were testing not just the Pokémon’s physical strength but the trainer’s resolve. And there, Lori just let her Pokémon take a beating. That’s bad form.”

“Please, I’ve seen your Pokémon punching Rattata until they were broken,” she countered.

“Those noble Rattata still had fight in them. I can always tell.”

“So did I.”

“Did not.”

At that, Bruno’s Machamp discreetly brought a hand to his mouth and had his shoulders quivering. He was laughing. Lori’s Dewgong, who had been with Powder the last Celeste checked, was in a similar pose. Snout hidden between his fins, sharing amused glances with Machamp.

Delia cut through the mounting squabble. “Will you tell us the rest of the story?”

Nodding, Lorelei resumed. “I caught a bus to Lavender to save time, then rode Fractal to hunt that elusive Crabawler. We made our way to a fishing village—”

“You’re skipping ahead,” Bruno interrupted. “My turn, now!”