PoV: Anya

We started our day by leaving the pokecenter and looked for a place to have a breakfast, it was quite hard for us to find any as most of them did not allow Pokémon to enter. In the end we still managed to find a remote cafe that had allowed us to enter, I was really surprised to see that the cafe master also had a Pokémon with him, a Persian.

The cafe master introduced himself as Jacob and his Persian as Persimmon. I also bowed while Samuel introduced himself and me afterwards.

We sat near the counter on a short coffee table I was brought a stool, which surprised me. I was grateful as I didn't have to awkwardly sit sideways on a chair. We ordered our breakfast, I ordered myself a fruit salad, while Samuel got a sandwich.

Persimmon approached me while we were quietly waiting for our order and listened calm jazzy music coming from the speakers. She then sat on a pillow near our table. So that is what they were for

"Hey" Persimmon started talking to me "We usually don't have that many Pokémon coming here so, I thought I could also greet you myself"

"Oh, H-Hello" I greeted back awkwardly, still not totally used to talking with my own voice. Taking a deep breath I faced her again. "Nice to meet you Ms. Persimmon, my name is Anya as you might have heard from before."

The Persian in question chuckled at her. "Now, now, No need to be so formal, Just call me Persimmon" the feline smiled gently

"O-Okay, Persimmon" I also forced a smile.

"Just relax" Said the Persian while stretching on the pillow. "I am not here to hurt you, just wanting to talk. I haven't talked to anyone in days, It gets a bit boring here every now and then"

I looked around the cafe and saw that even thought there were many customers there really wasn't a single Pokémon amongst them. "It's okay... I know the feeling, it has been..." I tried to count the number of days but didn't know the exact number so I said "Weeks, over a month now, the last time I talked to someone" I said sadly.

"Ho-? He doesn't seem like a bad trainer to me"

"He isn't, he is great. He has been helping me a lot"

"I hear a but coming? Is it because he can't really understand you? I have that problem quite often with master"

"No, We are capable of communicating to a great extent. The problem lies with him not really having that much time to be around me as he needs to prepare for his job as a Pokémon professor." The Persian's eyes opened from her usual tired look.

"He is the professor? Doesn't look like one" She said while taking a look at Samuel, who was watching our interaction with each other, he waved at her.

"He is, believe it or not."

"Okay, okay, I still have some question for you but it seems like your food is coming"

I looked at the kitchen door and Jacob came out of the kitchen carrying a tray with his hands. He came closer and put the tray on the table and said "Enjoy you food". Then he quickly left, Persimmon was also standing up. "You don't have to leave" I said. "I-I really appreciate your company..." The cat smirked and laid back on the pillow. "Alright, since you asked so nicely" she said.

"So what it is that you wanted to ask me?" I said before I started to eat. I slowly munched on the fruit pieces, enjoying their taste. Persimmon asked me a question "What are you? I haven't seen one of your kind before"

"I am a Leavanny" I said to her "They are not a native species of Kanto nor Johto"

"Interesting" She said while smirking, her eyes crescent. I calmly continued to eat.

"I have two more questions still"

"Go ahead, shoot"

"I saw you ordering that salad, I know our lists have pictures but you pointed at the text instead of the picture. Does that mean you know how to read human?"

I was shocked, I didn't expect the Persian to just calmly ask me about that, what should I answer her? It is not like it is a secret and from my experience back at the burrow wasn't too bad. Before I could say anything Persimmon continued talking.

"Okay, I'll take that as a yes, but I understand if you do not want to talk about it"

"No, I-I- It is not a problem, you just surprised me, that is all"

"Really?" she clearly wasn't convinced.

"Y-Yeah, I can read some human as you called it. That language is really known as Unown Script and the letters come from the shape of different Unown Pokémon."

"Uknown Pokémon?"

"No, Unown, Un Own, not Un Known" I tried to explain

"Oh, that is a thing?" she asked curiously

"Yes, they are letter shaped Pokémon, or other way around, the letters are shaped after them?"

"You don't seem too sure?"

"I am not, I don't really know the answer to that" I said in defeat.

"No worries"

"You still had a question right?"

"Yes, two more"

"You said two before"

"Yes, but I got two more now" she smirked again, her fangs peeking. She seemed to enjoy our conversation, so why not.

"Sure, what is your second question?"

"You said you could communicate with your trainer better. What did you mean?"

"Hmm, Well, you know how I can read right?" she nodded

"Well, what if I just write what I want to say to him?"

"You will need hands, I have tried to hold the pen before"

"Not necessarily, We have a thing at home that is called a typewriter, it writes the letters I want easily, I just need to press buttons around this size" I held a piece of fruit that was approximately the size of a single key.

"That is so cool!" she purred excited.

"One more right?" I said while I looked at my empty plate of salad, surprised it had disappeared so suddenly. I also looked at Samuel who was also done with his sandwich, He obviously noticed my look and said "No need to hurry, we still have some time. I am glad you have found a friend to talk to" while smiling happily. I nodded too.

Persimmon noticed out that our brief exchange was over and asked her final question in excitement.

"Can you teach me how to read?" The question was surprisingly simple.

"I can try?" not sure if it would end well. I looked at Samuel for a moment, thinking how should I teach her. I could just open the menu and try to help Persimmon with that. Nothing better came to my head and I opened the menu again. This time Samuel was also curious, he just looked us silently.

I put the book in front of Persimmon and opened the first page.

"The Unown script has 28 letters, which the first one is A" I said while pointing at the 'A' letter on the menu.

Teaching her was hard, or so I thought. Somehow her mind couldn't recognize the letter in front of her. From her description the symbol for 'A' was a random squiggly which looked exactly like the other squiglies next to it. I sighed and tried to tell her that the letters were different and she should try memorize a part of it. None of it worked out and I didn't know why, The word 'squiggly' came to my mind and I had another idea. This time I took out paper from Samuel's bag.

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I also took the menu and placed it in front of him. He was surprised.

I looked at him and pointed at 'A' letter, which became the usual word chain puzzle game.

"Me, Pen, Paper, A" he said slowly and I nodded "You want me to write 'A' on the paper?" I nodded again. He then wrote 'A', the wrong one... I chirped and shook my head. He looked back to me "You, A" I motioned, His eyes flashed in recognition and he wrote a crude version of my 'A'. It would have to do.

I took out the paper in front that had two 'A' written on it. One in Unown and one in Latin, placing the paper in front of Persimmon, I said.

"This here is 'A' Letter, and this one is also 'A' letter, one is in Unown script and one is not. What do you see? do you see the similarities?" The Persian in question studied the paper for a while and said.

"Similarities? no? a bit?, This one" she said while pointing at the first one "is a squiggly, and this one is...'A'...!?" She froze, only her eyes were moving, back and forth between the two letters. She continued for a while before stopping, she said "I, I think I can recognize the 'A' letter, it is somehow less squiggly than before"

Honestly I was surprised, I thought she could at least recognize the Latin 'A', but somehow managed to use the Latin 'A' to overwrite the Unown 'A'. Most likely how I also could read the Unown script naturally but the moment I started to inspect the letters themselves they turned to hard to understand 'squiglies' as she had said.

We tested it out and took out the menu again. I asked her to point at an 'A' letter. The first 'A' she found was the same as the one I had shown her, I asked her to find another as this one could have just been her memory telling her that there is an 'A' there. She complied. She intently looked through the menu for a while, Me and Samuel curiously looking at her. Samuel had also understood what I was doing and had written the rest of the letters in both scripts side by side. I wondered when had he learned the other one.

After a while, A tear dropped down from Persimmon's eyes and wet the menu in front of her, she hadn't found any other 'A' letter in the whole book. She still could find the one 'A' I had shown her.

Still, she was crushed, she tried so hard, yet failed miserably, I carefully put my cutter on her side away from me and gently hugged her, trying to soothe her with comforting words at the same time.

It was already midday, but I didn't mind at all. Neither did Samuel it seems. We both didn't really have anything better to do. I just sat leaning to Persimmon and carefully pet her in silence.

The pale tan colored cat had stopped her sobbing and leaned silently into my arms. "Why, can't I do it?" her quiet voice directed to no one. I answered "It takes practice" my voice calm as I could. "If everyone succeeds on everything the first time, then the reward and satisfaction of doing something disappears", "Know this, The moment you can read, your world will be flipped upside down. Not in a bad way" I continued.

"Y-you think I still can le-learn to r-read?" she said while lifting her head toward mine.

"Of course" I smile at her "You have already taken the first steps"

"I have?" she asked curiously

"Yes, the willingness to try and try again is a requirement, no matter how many times you fall down, that is how I learned to walk, most likely you did too" I said with an awkward smile reminding me of my first days at the forest.

I proceeded to explain the rest of the letters to Persimmon, how to recognize them and how to pronounce them. I gave the paper with the 28 letters to her and promised her that I would come to check out her progress some day and help her with her problems. Shame that I lived so far away. We had made another small test afterwards, where she had to locate the same 'A' in another menu, which to my surprise she succeeded in.

She was happy that something had succeeded. Even if it is in recognizing a certain letter from a certain booklet in a certain page. To me that is odd, the recognition of Pokémon brain works differently I see.

She said resolutely that next time we meet she will at least find the 'A' letter. I was about to tell Jacob about our deal but Persimmon stopped me, said that it was personal and she wanted to surprise him.

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PoV: Samuel

We left after eating lunch at the cafe, never would I have thought that Anya would start to teach the Persian how to read, but I also learned something fascinating.

Anya has shown a different side of her that I hadn't seen yet, her teaching and comforting the saddened feline who failed, was odd to see. She was very aware of her cutters and awkwardly used them to wrap Persimmon in a hug, while chirping comforting and motivational words to her.

I had seen many Pokémon trying to teach others to do moves and maneuvers but intelligence training has never been one of them. Most Pokémon are smart enough to heed orders and learn quickly what to do when explained to. I haven't really seen a Pokémon cry out in frustration, somehow it was totally heart aching.

Me and Anya silently walked through the busy streets of Viridian and walked around. She showed some interest in the Gym building for some reason.

We went to the local battle park where some trainers were battling, Anya was interested in a familiar looking middle aged man with a Persian who was decimating its opponents. Many young trainers tried to challenge me, but I had to decline, even using my weakest Pokémon would be an overkill.

Anya too had many people interested in battling her, I just told them that she was a non-combatant and was only looking. She was intently studying the Persian and its trainer for some reason, the trainer had noticed her gaze and me standing next to her. He came over and asked us "Greetings professor, what do I owe this pleasure".

"Greetings, don't mind us, my friend here seems to find you interesting" I gestured at Anya

Anya chirped something and the Persian next to him was alarmed. What did Anya say? Anya continued chirping something while gesturing with her hands and the Persian calmed down soon after and nodded to something, it came closer.

She then crouched and carefully put her cutter on top of the Persian's head and chirped something to it while petting it a bit. The feline purred and Anya nodded. She rose up and did something odd, she bowed deeply at the trainer before turning away. Both of us stunned, me and the trainer, there was certainly something off with Anya today. Maybe it was something that Persimmon had said to her earlier.

We left the trainers and went somewhere else. We browsed through some shops and stalls, bought some snacks and went to a Pokémon friendly restaurant. We tried another one before this but was shooed away. I am growing mighty annoyed with the treatment of Pokémon, I hadn't really even noticed it before as I usually had my Pokémon in their pokeballs and they were fine with their usual food stuffs I give them.

The day was coming to an end and we went to bed, tomorrow we were on our way back to Pallet Town after a quick check up on Persimmon and a breakfast at the same cafe we should be on our way home.