16 The wandering minstrel

Swole-POV:

"Yaaaawn." Another day in paradise.

A tent roof above my head, a warm and fuzzy Buneary on my chest, thick woolly socks on my feet and absolutely no frostbite at all.

"Good morning." Buneary's eyes had already crept open when I yawned so I could greet her without having to worry about bothering her.

"Grunary"

What the fuck was that? Is she sleepy? "Awww! That's so adorable!" Ouch!

Anyway, "Yesterday was something, huh? I'm still so exhausted from it."

"Bun?"

"Ash, Brock, Team Rocket, a pokemon ranger and an Officer Jenny? What are the chances of meeting so many random people in the middle of literally nowhere?"

"Bun!"

"Yea. You said it best. Well, enough lazing around. Let's get to the river to brush our teeth."

As I open the front of my tent. 

The dew that collected over the night glistens as the early morning sun rays peer over the edge of the cliff, and the mist that sprays off the waterfall creates a small rainbow.

Far off, in the distance is a large bird pokemon, a Noctowl?

And the weaker bug pokemon seem to have gotten used to our presence and have gathered themselves in the trees around us. 

Mostly Wurmple, Burmy and Sewaddle. Just eating leaves and chilling out.

I wonder what they eat for protein? Mundane bugs? Nothing? Maybe that's why they are all pretty weak.

After checking out the campsite a little more, I can see that Buneary and I are by far the earliest risers.

Ever since my adventure to Lake Verity, I lost my ability to sleep in. It sucks but at least I'm not dead tired, unlike everyone else.

But man, I wish I could be eating lunch, right after waking up again.

... Huh? 

"Did you notice Dawn, putting her tent closer to ours?" She nods her head. I must have been too tired yesterday to notice.

Weird. We had set up our camp with a somewhat equal distance between each tent and a lot of space between them in case someone snored in their sleep. 

Now her tent is almost right beside mine.

Before I forget it, I take out mine and Buneary's toothbrushes, as well our shared toothpaste from the backpack. And then I head out towards the river after Buneary hops onto my shoulder.

Brock and Ash have set up sleeping bags at the other side of the camp... Are other people in general just more resistant to cold than me?

~"Why are we brushing our teeth before breakfast?" Buneary derails my train of thought.

I'm still a little drowsy, so it takes me a moment to collect a response. 

"Oh. It's because bacteria builds up while we sleep. Brushing your teeth before breakfast removes them and the associated stench... Which appears to be exclusively a human problem." 

I give her a look of envy.

"And then, it also protects our teeth from any acids we consume during breakfast. At least that's what I read in a book once. Supposedly, it's counterintuitive but true." 

I explain to Buneary, as I squeeze out some toothpaste on her and then on my toothbrushes.

I had already shown her how to use a toothbrush a few days before. 

It was another extremely awkward situation, where I cradled her head in one hand and moved her paw with the other hand to demonstrate how she has to brush her teeth.

Luckily, she can do it now without my direct help.

It was so awkward back then, my ears were red from embarrassment and I just wanted to dig a hole and hide in there the whole time.

Wait.

My hand stops in the middle of brushing my teeth.

Why was I explaining to Buneary the reason behind brushing teeth after waking up? ... She asked... And I understood?

"Ptooey." I spit out the toothpaste in my mouth. "Hey Buneary, can you ask me something again?"

"Bune?" ... Nope. This time it's just part of her name.

"Weird. I could have sworn that I managed to understand you earlier."

"Bune? Buneary Bun-bun!"

"What?"

"Bunnie..." She says dejectedly and her ears are slumping over her face.

"Sorry."

Mom said that at some point I should naturally gain the ability to understand pokemon. 

Maybe this had been it? For just a moment?

She resumes her own brushing. Moving the brush around in circles over her teeth, like I showed her. And after spitting out the toothpaste, she shows me her brilliant smile as if asking for my approval.

Afterwards she washes her face with her way too short arms in a way that is just way too adorable.

As I watch her do her morning routine, I can't help but be overcome with the urge to pet her cute ears.

I know I shouldn't. 

I know that I will get hit. 

But the way she is washing her face is just so darn cute!

So I stretch out my hand... It hovers right over Buneary's left ear... She is probably going to finish washing her face any moment now... 

It's now or never!

Scratch. Scratch.

I pet her head and scratch her ear twice. Buneary freezes in place and growls.

My hand instantly darts back to me. "Are you alright? You seem upset? Did something happen?"

She looks at me, her face shows clear resignation. "She knows that occasional petting will sooner or later happen. It is inevitable." 

She rolls her eyes as I voice my own commentary out loud.

"Anyway, looks like I got away with it."

Oof! "Never mind. In the end, she hit me after all. Hahaha."

---

As we walk back to the camp together, we can see Ash and Brock are already up and about and are packing away their sleeping bags.

Occasional snores come from Lucas' tent and hushed whispers from Dawn's. 

Probably talking with Piplup about her messy hair... Again.

I walk up to Dawn's tent and the whispers stop. "Are you up yet? I want to start cooking breakfast."

"Swole?" She asks.

"Yeees?"

"Good morning!" She says after pulling back the tent flap and poking her head out. "How are you? What's for breakfast?" 

Then she pulls Piplup into a hug as if he was a stuffed animal and joins me on my way to the camping kitchen.

"Dunno. And I can't ask Buneary or else it's just steak for breakfast." Her ears perk up at the mention of 'steak for breakfast'.

There is an app for the poketch that can give balanced daily meal suggestions... But the damn things were sold out every time we checked in the Jubilife City stores.

"How about sandwiches?" Dawn suggests.

... "Will you make them for me?"

She hit me lightly on the arm. 

Or was that as hard as she could? 

"I'm not making you sandwiches just because I'm a girl! You have a pair of healthy hands and can make your own."

"Ouch, haha, I'm just joking! Sorry!" She hits me a few more times but she got nothing on Buneary's casual levels of violence.

Dawn and I start making sandwiches for ourselves. Cheese, lettuce, tomato and salami for mine and Buneary also adds a few slices of ham on hers.

A meat lover's sandwich, I guess.

As we make the sandwiches, Brock and Ash join us and start making their own while Brock is unsuccessfully trying to make conversation with Dawn.

For some reason, she seems a little... hostile(?) towards him.

Lucas wakes up last and prepares his breakfast as we start digging into our own food.

Pikachu seems fine today but I can't help but notice that Ash and Brock are feeding their pokemon pressed pellets.

According to Buneary, they taste fine and I know they are healthy enough, but I know she would always choose normal food over pellets if she has the choice.

And from the obvious, jealous glances that Aipom can't manage to hide, I can tell that their pokemon would rather eat real food too.

It's the damn pet-owners fault. 

They normalized that mass-produced crap as pokemon fodder. For them, pokemon are just pets. Like cats or dogs used to be.

They just don't care that pokemon are thinking beings with their own dreams and desires. 

Or maybe they are just ignorant? 

Because when pokemon do talk, they do it by simply repeating their own names in a seemingly retarded way...

Anyway, Lucas finishes his preparations and he sits down with us before sending Chimchar and Buizel oof, to eat with the other pokemon... 

That's when I notice another discrepancy.

Dawn and I are eating with our pokemon. Buneary on my lap and Piplup, sitting on the foldable camping table, sharing Dawn's plate of sandwiches.

Meanwhile, all the other pokemon are sitting on the ground and on fallen logs or rocks, while their food is stored in pet bowls... 

They don't seem unhappy about their place, but when I compare them with Buneary, I can't help but see them as pets while Buneary is a partner.

"Well!" Ash says after a longer lull in his conversation with Lucas. "We better get going or I'm never going to get to my first gym." 

Then he recalls his Starly and makes his favorites even more apparent in the process. 

Both Aipom and Pikachu get to hop on his shoulders while Starly has to sleep in the pokeball.

Brock recalls all of his pokemon. "Why don't you three come with us? Traveling together is always safer." He says.

Dawn looks a little pale at that and unsubtly shakes her head when Brock isn't looking.

"Sorry." Replies Lucas. "We're staying in the forest for the week as part of our school's survival lessons."

"Ah. Alright, I guess we might see each other again sometime. Goodbye!"

Dawn seems relieved.

"Oh!" Lucas starts and Dawn gives him a look. "We're going to be in Jubilife City next week. Maybe we will see each other then?"

"Maybe. We'll see. Bye!" After a small round of goodbyes and see-yous they head north. Towards Jubilife City.

...

...

...

"Finally!" Dawn is audibly relieved over something, once they were well out of earshot.

"What?" And Lucas seems to be as confused as I am.

"You seemed a little hostile to them. Are you alright?" 

Maybe it's that time of the month for her.

"Brock is a creep. The way he flung himself after Officer Jenny and the way Solana looked at him." A shudder goes over her body. "Yuck. That guy is an enemy of all women. He didn't have himself under control at all. Thank Arceus he didn't try that sort of stunt with me."

"And YOU!" She closes in on Lucas and points her finger in his face. "You told them where we are going to be next week! Don't you have any self preservation instincts?"

... That explains why Dawn put her tent closer to mine.

"Piplup, you didn't hear them do anything while I was asleep, right?" She asks and Piplup kind of shrugs his flippers.

I guess a lab raised pokemon is not going to be attentive enough for that sort of thing.

"Buneary, did you notice anything from them last night?" I ask and she shakes her head clearly.

"You're overthinking it Dawn." Says Lucas. "Nothing happened."

"But something COULD have happened! Didn't your parents ever teach you about stranger danger?"

She has a point.

"We are not going to let creepy strangers sleep in our camp again, alright guys?" She says and I nod my head.

The less weirdos, the better.

Lucas receives another glare and then he nods too.

---

The rest of the day passed without any incidents.

Dawn and I resumed our training together and Lucas let both of his pokemon spar each other.

Occasionally a weak wild pokemon appeared and Dawn and Lucas fought it. 

Buneary obliterated her opponents, if they didn't run away, so I'm not counting her battles.

Dawn remains convinced to focus solely on training Piplup and didn't catch any pokemon.

Lucas tried to catch a Combee that he found especially interesting, but after wasting another pokeball remembered that he can't really afford to have a massive team of random pokemon.

As a future researcher, he needs to learn to allocate his funds properly. He would catch a Combee later. He said.

Because right now, his funds are about as limited as mine.

Each of us can probably feed 3 to 4 pokemon if they don't evolve. If they do evolve and need more food, then the hard limit is probably 2 to 3 instead.

Which matches perfectly with the pokemon gym challenge. By the time we have to fight 4 versus 4 battles, our funds will have increased to provide for 4 pokemon.

After Ash and Brock have left, I half expected a few more random strangers to waltz into our camp, but nothing else happened yesterday.

And today's morning wasn't much different. We did our morning rituals as usual, some of us got punched as usual and then we started training as usual.

But around noon, a little before our planned lunch break, Buneary notifies us of the arrival of yet another intruder.

And now he is stepping into our camp.

... Great. Another weirdo.

He is half a head taller than me, has long, straight, black hair that hides one of his eyes. On his head is a green panama hat and over his back hangs a green cape. 

He looks like he is LARP-ing for Dens and Dragonite.

With him travels a little Budew. Must be a pretty tough Budew to be his only traveling partner.

For some reason he is carrying around a golden lyre, styled like a Mew... Well, the reason is probably that he is weird. He is weird, therefore he carries a lyre.

"Good day dear strangers." He says. Weirdly. "On this beautiful day of sunshine and wind, we find ourselves here in jubilation and... singe?" 

He strums his lyre once and then points out the spot in the clearing where Team Rocket exploded.

Why do we get all the weirdos who are rhyming? They are the worst kind. 

They are cringe. I bet Barry doesn't have to deal with them.

At least this one is actually rhyming. The Team Rocket trio were speaking in haiku, at best.

"My name... is Nando." He makes a deep and flourished bow after a dramatic pause. "And Budew and I wish to partake in jolly confrontation. Battles are, what we seek. Which of you warriors and warrioress would meet me in my desire?"

That has got to be the weirdest way anyone has ever challenged anyone else.

"Whose turn is it? Mine?" I know it's not but I kinda, really wanna fight him. Maybe Budew is another nice challenge!

"You keep wasting your chances." Lucas says. 

The last wild pokemon was my turn and Buneary just chased it away... if that counts, then it's Lucas turn. 

"It's my turn. You only have yourself to blame for getting a starter pokemon that is too strong."

Damn. 

Buneary grins in pure smugness and I turn to Dawn to settle the vote. "Dawn, can you vote for me, pleaaase?"

"Yea, no. Better luck next time Swole. It's not our fault Buneary wins without fighting. And I want to fight him too! I want to show off Piplup's progress!"

Double damn. 

This means I get to watch. So I pick Buneary up and plop down with her on a nearby camping chair, causing it to creak in strain. 

Note to self, don't 'plop down' on the camping chairs.

Dawn picks up Piplup and carries her chair next to mine before sitting down too. "Who do you think is going to win?"

Lucas introduces himself to Nando and they square up against each other on our basic, improvised battlefield.

Nando has no visible pokeballs on his person, which means Budew is likely his only pokemon.

"Lucas. Chimchar has trained up his fire typing since last Friday. And Budew is a pretty weak pokemon with type disadvantage. He doesn't stand a chance."

"He?" She asks. "Say, how do you always just know if a pokemon is male or female? I noticed Akari doing that too but it makes no sense."

"..." ... Huh. "You can't just tell? I just look at them and then... just know their gender. Don't you have, like, a feeling for it?"

"No." Dawn says. "Well... I mean, it sort of, almost feels like Buneary is a girl and Piplup a guy but there is no way that stuff is reliable... right?"

"I think--"

"Hey!" Lucas interrupts us. "One of you needs to play the referee. Come on!"

"Alright!" I shout back before turning back to Dawn. "Just listen to your gut, I think."

After that Buneary and I head over to the side of the battlefield and I inspect the two participants.

Nando, the weirdo, has his Budew in front of him. Lucas, predictably, has chosen his Chimchar for the fight.

They both seem ready. "A 1 versus 1 battle? No items? Are you both ready?" I ask and wait for them to nod after each question.

"Begin!" - "Ember!" - "Water Sport."

Budew summons a blob of water and it explodes over the battlefield. 

Rain, drizzle and finally mist turns the field wet and reduces the power of fire attacks at the same time.

The effect is immediately visible. By the time the fire motes of Ember hit Budew, their size has drastically decreased. 

From tiny fireballs that spew out of Chimchar's mouth, down to small sparks of fire.

Despite the move being super effective, Budew easily tanks the hit and readies normal type energy for his next move. 

"Use growth." Nando orders and the prepared energy quickly turns into large roots that connect Budew to the wet ground below her.

"Damn it, Chimchar, get in there with Flame Wheel."

Chimchar changes from Ember to Flame Wheel as quickly as he can, and encases himself in a shroud of flames before he spins across the battlefield like a wheel.

Steam comes off his attack as the mist and dew evaporates in the heat, but Budew has already prepared herself.

Boom.

Thick roots are gluing him to the ground and he tanks the Flame Wheel head on. He barely budges in place while Chimchar bounces off of him.

Parts of Budew are visibly singed and the bit that was hit directly, glows red hot like a piece of burning coal.

It's the burn status effect. 

Budew's physical attack power is reduced and he will receive damage until the fire type energy is expelled from his body.

"The fires of life only fuel our burning passion for battle." Nando says and then Budew's body seemingly absorbs the burnt bits. "Continue with Solar Beam and present to us the power of the sun!"

Nando is so confident that he is going to win this, that he adds a bunch of nonsense to his orders and a few strums on his lyre for added effect.

... If I had to fight him, this would thoroughly piss me off and might make me make mistakes. 

He is either a massive weirdo, or a manipulative mastermind.

White hot light collects in the ... bud on top of Budew's head. Solar Beam must collect the energy of the sun before it can attack--

What!? Budew's bud has already opened up and he fires a massive beam of concentrated sunlight right into Chimchar's face.

Whoosh!

My eyes are wide open and I rush along the small field to check on Chimchar's state. 

He was tossed across the battlefield by the powerful attack but seems alright. 

He gets right back up with just a bunch of scratches and bruises.

Thanks to the type advantage, he remains in battle.

How did Budew charge Solar Beam so quickly? Every book says that it takes time to charge and should never be used in the middle of melee combat!

"Budew, aga-- Huh?"

My eyes switch back over to Budew and Nando. All of a sudden, Budew's entire body is encased in a brilliant display of light. 

Even brighter than the charged Solar Beam was!

What is going on? Is he about to attack with an even stronger Solar Beam?-- 

Arg! My eyes are burning!

I turn my head away before I get blinded.

How is Budew so strong? Chimchar doesn't stand a chance if he can't even look at his opponent!

"Rose." A flamboyant voice comes from where Budew used to stand. 

The light subsides and as my eyes readjust to the lighting, I can see a Roselia.

Budew just evolved in the middle of the battle! That's so awesome!

Instead of a little guy with a bud on his head, he is now a... slightly taller guy with blue and red roses for hands. 

His legs have grown from little nubs to small stalks but they are still connected deeply into the ground via the Growth-roots.

While everyone is still distracted with the evolution we have just witnessed, Roselia lifts his hands into the air and absorbs solar power yet again.

This time it takes a little longer but it looks a lot more powerful.

"Oh shit! Chimchar, snap out of it and dodge!"

But it was too late. Another powerful laser slams into Chimchar and after the light subsides, I can see the swirls in his eyes.

"Chimchar is unable to continue the battle." I call out. "Nando and Bud-- Nando and Roselia win!"

---

"Chimchar! Damn it!" Lucas shouts out as he runs to his knocked out pokemon. 

"Here you go, buddy." He uses a potion and sprays the miracle liquid over Chimchar's visible wounds. "Damn. I shouldn't have gotten distracted by the evolution..."

"The battle was quite scrumptious, my friend." Nando walks over to Lucas and offers his hand after Lucas finished treating his pokemon.

"I enjoyed myself and Roselia is thankful too."

"Rose!"

"He might not have evolved if it wasn't for you. Are you perchance students from Jubilife City too?"

"Yes. Is it so obvious that I have just started as a trainer?" Lucas balls his fists in frustration.

"No, no. None of that's true. 4 years ago, when I was a student, this is where I came through."

Is he... compulsively rhyming?

Nando strums his lyre one more time before putting it away in a bag.

"Ahem. Your fighting was very good for a young trainer. Perhaps, I think, you should have used Flame Wheel first to prevent the Growth from coming through... Do tell, if my advice is unwelcome. I know that sometimes, pride can make one deaf on both ears."

"No, it's alright." Lucas sighs out. "Actually, how did Roselia-- eh, I mean Budew; How did he manage to use Solar Beam so quickly? I thought it takes forever to charge up?"

I'm also interested in that and I motion Dawn to come closer to listen in as well. Looks like she was discussing something with Piplup.

"A grass pokemon's strength is all about their environment. Growth becomes more effective in fertile and loose soil and the pokemon prefer it, when just the right amount of water is around. And when the sun is not covered by any clouds, like today, then the solar attacks also charge faster." Nando lists a few reasons before losing himself in thought.

"Oh! And Budew is not strong enough to use a full power Solar Beam. It was closer to half a Solar Beam. Those reasons all made his attack much faster."

Nando isn't such a bad guy after all. 

Those are all some very advanced tips. I had no idea I could do so much to improve my odds with grass pokemon.

On the other hand, those are all things I could influence when fighting against grass pokemon too. 

That knowledge might come very handy against the Eterna City gym.

I wonder what some advanced tricks could be for Buneary...

"Thank you very much for telling me." Says Lucas politely. 

He's really laying it on thick. Well, compared to his usual self. 

"One more thing, I noticed that Budew was burnt by Flame Wheel, and suddenly he wasn't anymore. How is that possible?"

"That, my young friend, is due to the ability of Roselia. Leaf Guard. It cures status conditions in bright light. The more sunshine there is, the faster he is cured." Then he points up. "And the weather is quite nice today, isn't it?"

... I have to check the weather reports to optimize battles...

"I have heard about that!" Interjects Dawn. "But isn't the harsh sunlight supposed to make fire attacks stronger too? It didn't seem that way in the battle."

"Harsh sunlight comes in gradients. At the lowest stage, only grass pokemon benefit. And then, when the sun is hot enough for fire pokemon to flourish, the grass and water pokemon are going to dry up." 

Nando seems to enjoy teaching a lot. He answers all our questions with a bright smile on his face.

"But, now that I have answered your questions, what will be your next journey after you finish school? I myself traveled the lands as a wandering minstrel, and learned the cultures of Sinnoh. Now I feel like I am ready to find something new to do... And the money I can scrounge up as a bard is starting to run dry too, haha." He removes his hat and scratches the back of his head.

"I will become a pokemon professor!" Lucas says excitedly. "I'm going to study under professor Rowan in Sandgem Town, starting the week after school and... well... Then I will have to see what I want to focus my studies on."

"A pokemon professor?" Nando responds. "Marvelous! The world truly needs more of them! What about the both of you?" He turns to Dawn and me. "Are you studying to become professors as well?"

"I will take part in pokemon contests and become a top coordinator."

"And I want to take on the gym challenge and then beat Cynthia in the platinum league conference."

"He will join me in some pokemon contests too." 

What? No! ... With her? ... Maybe.

"It is possible to participate in both?" Nando asks. It doesn't seem like he has put a lot of thought into his career until now.

Even I know that you can. The league has specifically designed the whole thing so both can be done in the same year by the same person.

"Sure you can!" Dawn says. "In fact, any trainer who wants to participate in the gym challenge, should try out contests as well. Everyone knows that." 

Everyone knows that, huh? Nice try. 

I doubt Nando is naive enough to believe her weak ploy to recruit more coordinators.

"Hum. In that case, I believe I will try my hand at both. Is it still true that Jubilife City holds the first contest of the year?"

At this point I mentally check out. He is a weirdo.

Dawn is handling any questions he has over contests and Lucas answers stuff like which cities the gyms are in and how many pokemon are allowed per gym.

Speaking of allowed pokemon, I should probably start looking for a second pokemon. 

Buneary is tough but there is no way that she can beat 3 pokemon alone for the first gym.

But she's also the reason why our team isn't expanding. 

Every pokemon we encounter is either far too weak and just runs away, isn't interested in battles at all or is rejected by Buneary for being too weak.

Except for Stantler, who was too strong and too likely to escape or eat us in our sleep.

Should I just catch a weaker pokemon?

Buneary is against it but I'm the trainer... Right? 

I mean, I AM the trainer... But I should still listen to Buneary. She can judge pokemon better than I could.

"I do look forward to seeing you all again." Huh? Oh! Nando is about to leave. "May the fields of battle prosper and grow rich experiences, my young friends."

Right. 

"Bye." - "Goodbye!" - "Thanks for the tips, man! See ya around!"

---

Narrator-POV:

Ever since Nando left the camp of our young heroes, repetitious boredom and normalcy have set in.

Eat, train, eat more, smack around an overconfident, wild pokemon, train more then eat again and finally sleep. 

This is what the rest of their survival lessons looked like. 

Worst of all, they had to cook for themselves. No more parents to cook their food for them.

Despite their idyllic surroundings and the vacation-like qualities of their camping trip, the grueling daily tasks have started to take their toll.

Exhausted and bored as they are, on their final day on Sunday, they decided to review their progress instead of working themselves to sleep again.

For the previous days, Swole has made sure that Buneary keeps up with her Jump Kick practice in between all her other training sets. 

With the goal being a readily available, strong move that does not end Buneary's fight prematurely, due to exhaustion.

During the downtime of their sparring, Buneary was ordered to improve her fairy type by overcharging Baby-Doll Eyes and Sweet Kiss while focusing the energy towards her appendages.

Although her fairy typing competence has increased significantly, no discernible progress was made towards unlocking Play Rough.

The move packs simply far too much power for a non-fairy type pokemon to quickly learn from scratch.

Double Hit on the other hand, a relatively weak normal type attack, that can be easily abstracted from Flail and from Double Kick, took no time at all to gain decent enough proficiency in. 

During Buneary's handicapped sparring sessions with Piplup, she focused entirely on dodging the many Bubble attacks and slapping away any Bubble Beams that overwhelmed her by using Double Hit.

Even though Swole considers the move to be still too slow, to replace Pound completely, it still offers the trainer and his pokemon more options to fight with in a battle.

Perhaps with more training, Quick Attack into Double Hit will be their default attack pattern, in time for the tournament.

Piplup and Dawn on the other hand, kept their training centered around Bubble Beam and Aerial Ace during breaks.

Their training shows incredible results and Piplup has gained tremendous skill over the control of Bubble and Bubble Beam.

Hitting a stationary target all the way across a battlefield is now easy to Piplup, and even a moving target has to look out for surprise attacks now.

As for close targets, Dawn developed a method for Piplup to spread out Bubble Beam, keeping the increased damage, while increasing the area of effect for the move.

Near the end of training, they were even able to reliably hit Buneary. 

Dawn and Piplup do this by giving the bubbles a spin and randomizing the movement pattern of the many projectiles.

Given time, Piplup's mastery of his Bubble Beam will be a force to be reckoned with.

As for his mastery over the flying type energy, encasing his whole body in it is sometimes possible, but turning the energy into faster-than-light movement, is still far out of their reach. 

The young trainers are unsure whether this means that the move is just incredibly difficult, or that their approach is wrong and Dawn pledges to research the move further, once they have returned to civilization.

And for Lucas, his Chimchar focused on Ember and Flame Wheel, analogous to Piplup's Bubble Beam while Buizel trained his Water Gun and swam in the river during his downtime in hopes of learning Aqua Jet.

Swole has also seen Chimchar practicing Fury Swipes on occasion as an improved version of Scratch. 

Last but not least, Swole's personal body training was just more of the same calisthenics routine he has started doing in Jubilife City. 

A tiny bit more muscles and much better endurance, are the results of a week long training with berry supplements.

...

"In summary," Dawn starts after she and Swole have finished a discussion over the basics of battle strategy over lunch.

"Don't waste your time. Peck wastes time if Piplup is at the other side of the field and other trainers will abuse that."

"Yep. I would either prepare Buneary with a stronger move to break through Peck or increase her stats with Defense Curl or something similar, while Piplup is still far away. My battle against Barry was the perfect example of what not to do."

"Then, I should never give up the initiative when I have it, unless I have a good plan. Oh, but what if I overuse attacks? Wouldn't that risk overburdening Piplup's stamina?"

"That's right. You should cycle between different types of attack, but at some point even that doesn't help and Piplup will need to take a break." Swole reasons.

He remembers clearly how out-of-breath Buneary is after every fight because of their aggressive battle style. "Effectively, there is a hard time limit to finish a fight or else your pokemon is going to be too slow and loses... Unless the enemy has the same problem in which case... I guess it ends in a draw?"

"As for defensive strategies," After nodding along, Dawn continues. "If I can dodge, then I should dodge. It's fast, costs almost no stamina and prevents all damage. And overnight I came up with a good idea for Piplup to doge: By having him roll to the sides or below attacks."

Piplup demonstrates a quick dodge-roll.

"He can't run fast enough. And it's better for contests to be as flashy as possible!"

"... Yes... I can see that working! How do you plan to train that? Throwing stones at him?"

"Oh... I haven't thought about that part. I guess I can throw stones... Buneary's hits might be too hard to dodge for now... Maybe I should have captured a second pokemon after all, as a training partner..."

"Anyway," Dawn dismisses the idea of catching a second partner pokemon on their last day outside. "If Piplup can't dodge, he should either counter attack or just take the attack head on."

"Tank it."

"Right. He could 'tank' the attack and then counter attack because recovering from being hit is faster than recovering after hitting something."

"Oh! Remember when I fought Pikachu?"

"Yes?"

"I noticed that he was able to charge up Thunder Bolt between being hit."

"Huh? I thought getting hit while preparing a special attack move interrupts it?"

"It does. But what I think Pikachu did, was charge the attack until a moment before being hit, then pause charging and resume charging while Buneary was recovering. That's what 4 years of extra battle experience looks like... Damn these people from Kanto."

---

Swole-POV:

"Right... Damn them all." Dawn agrees with a chuckle. "Anything else?" She asks and checks her notes, causing me to check my own.

"Doesn't look like it." Both of us have combined our sets of notes, and together we have a very good understanding of pokemon battles. 

All that is missing is years of experience to train the basics into instinct.

"So..." I point out, randomly around me. "It's a little past lunch and we have nothing else to do. I got so used to training every day that I can't think of anything else anymore."

"How about we go swimming? I got a little jealous, watching Buizel every day, and summer is right around the corner!"

Yea. Sinnoh summer. In river water, which is probably coming from some glacier. "Sure. Why not?" 

Because I'm going to freeze my balls off? Because I have to show my embarrassing swim trunks?

"You guys are going to swim today?" Lucas interjects. 

He's sitting a little bit away from us, still in hearing distance but far enough to not be distracted by us. He was writing some notes in his own notebook until now.

Lucas... Fuck! Lucas! I just realized, without him this would have been a private affair with just me, Dawn and our pokemon. 

With Dawn in a swimsuit. 

Now he's going to cock block me. Damn him! "Yea mate. You wanna join?" Damn him to hell!

"Sure! We haven't gone swimming since last year! Chimchar!" He calls out and his Chimchar looks up from playing around with Buizel and Piplup. 

When he notices that his trainer has called him, he excitedly runs over to us and jumps into a hug with Lucas.

My own hand, which subconsciously moved to pet Buneary, who is sitting on my lap, gets smacked away shortly after.

"Do you want to come swimming with us?"

"Chimchar!"

"You do? Great! Don't worry, if you don't know how to swim yet. I can teach you!" 

Yes! Be occupied, teaching your pokemon how to swim!

"Chim-char!"

"Oh? You can already swim? That's impressive!"

What!? That's bullshit! The damn fire pokemon knows how to swim?

Lucas runs off with his pokemon towards his tent.

"Come Piplup, I'm going to get dressed." Dawn says to her pokemon. 

She goes and collects him, leaving only me, Buneary and Buizel behind, who then runs to his trainer.

"Well... Time to get dressed." I say and Buneary hops onto my shoulder. 

As I get closer to my tent, I can see faint outlines of Dawn in her tent which make me stop for a short second. 

Buneary notices it, of course, and makes me move again.

Remembering that Buneary is not a baby, I make her wait outside while I get undressed in our tent.

With Buneary out of direct sight, my heart starts racing again, as it always does whenever I'm defenseless. 

Only the visible outline of Buneary past the tent flap calms me a little bit. 

Would it even be so weird if she was in here with me? It's not like there's anything inappropriate about it.

Well... there is that weird part of the book, which would make it a whole lot more awkward. But that awkwardness would stop after a while. 

Right?

An ice cold feeling washes over my neck, as I pull up my swim trunks and hide my junk. As if some kind of predator was eying me as a piece of prime-meat.

Probably just my general anxiety.

I think nothing of it and look towards Buneary instead to calm me down.

She is still right there in front of the tent. Guarding her territory. And me by extension.

And she stumbles back a little, once I step out. Cute.

Lucas is done already and waiting for us and Dawn is still in her tent, talking in hushed whispers with Piplup. "... I can't ..." I can make out but the rest is too quiet.

After Buneary hops on my shoulder and just before I make my way over to Lucas, she comes out.

Her hat is missing and she wears a high ponytail instead. 

And she wears a new bikini. 

A blue top piece, matching her eyes with a brass connector between the cups and the straps cross over her chest before disappearing past her neckline.

Her bottom-piece is blue at the center... in the crotch region.

And the bottom-piece has white straps that go around her body. Attached to each white strap is a transparent, skirt-like thing that manages to hide absolutely nothing and is purely decorative.

The skirt-thing doesn't even go around all the way. It is only on both of her sides. Nothing is hidden in the front or in the back.

The bikini is clearly designed to make the eyes wander to all the right places.

Her figure is slender and the first contours of muscles are starting to appear on her stomach. 

As my eyes go up and down her body, I can't help but notice she has... grown.

"Do I look good?" - "Nice." What?

Right! My eyes race back up, past her accentuated chest and neck region into her eyes. 

Her blush is clearly pronounced and her posture shows her uncertainty.

"You look absolutely amazing." I say and turn around to start walking to Lucas. 

We have to get into the water quickly before something else grows. "Was that what you girls were shopping for?"

"Ehm, yes. Zoey had picked out a few really... revealing swimsuits for Akari and me, so we settled on this one for me instead. I'm just glad you like it. It would have been so embarrassing otherwise."

I can hear her blushing without having to turn around. It baits me into turning around but I know that really shouldn't. 

I'm like 1 or 2 looks away from having my own embarrassment... 

Embarrassment, that is in addition to the cringe-worthy piece of clothing I am wearing. 

I just hope she doesn't notice it.

On my swim trunks, there is a Lopunny on the side, and it might just be my imagination, but its design appears somewhat suggestive.

Her back is turned towards the viewer and her head is half facing the camera, the piercing, red eyes with back sclera are looking directly at the viewer. 

She has boobs. There is a little bit of visible side-boob. And her ass is the main focus of the picture.

Sex sells, I guess.

It's still hard to wrap my head around the fact that they sold this type of clothing in a reputable store, such as Arezu Anthe.

"Took you 2 long enough!" Lucas shouts as we enter the hearing distance of him as his pokemon. 

His eyes dart to Dawn, but he has the decency to instantly look away from his cousin. "What have you been up to, all this time? Huh? Wink wink. Nudge nudge."

"Haha. Shut up."

"Yea. Shut up." Dawn hits him on the arm with a massive blush on her face.

Then she folds out a towel on the ground and lays down on her stomach.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Tanning."

"I thought you wanted to go swimming?"

"Are you insane? Do you know how cold the water must be? Besides, I said let US go swimming. That means you go swimming with Piplup and Buneary and I stay here."

...

"Hurry up, loser!" Lucas shouts, causing me to turn and walk towards the water's edge with Buneary still on my shoulder.

"... I'm not a loser..." I grumble on my way.

As we reach the river, I inspect it one last time. 

It's pretty deep and the current is pretty strong but not strong enough that I can't swim against it, at the edge.

All of a sudden, Buneary jumps off my shoulder, does a front flip and lands ears first in the water. 

Then, she gracefully emerges a meter downriver, while shaking her ears free of water.

With much less grace, I jump into the water next to her. "Cannonball!"

Oh Arceus! It's so fucking cold! What the fuck! That was such a bad idea!

After I emerge, I can see a pissed off Buneary, hear a laughing Lucas, a Chimchar who is now doing his own cannonballs and last but not least... 

"Hey! You got me wet!" 

"Ha! Phrasing!" I say and Lucas is about to drown from laughing too much.

"Ha! Piplup, use Bubble Beam on the water around him!"

"Hey!"

Piplup swims swiftly through the water and with the gained speed jumps out. 

At the top of his arc, he releases a well aimed, tight beam of bubbles all around me. 

The bubbles pop and burst into the water and dozens of splashes are directed straight into my face.

Just when I thought the splashes would stop, another massive tidal wave comes and sweeps me off my feet and back onto the shore. 

Buneary used Pound on the water!

The splash zone is also far greater than my cannonball and when I look back up, Dawn is absolutely soaked and Lucas is getting some help by Buizel to get back on land.

Now Buneary is the only one who's laughing and the others are all glaring at her.

"Haha, good one!" I say. "Anyway. That felt like we swam enough."

"Speak for yourself! I'm getting back in the water." Lucas responds as he reenters the freezing water.

Meanwhile, I go back to my backpack, pick out 2 towels and plant myself next to the river to oversee Buneary's swimming.

I might as well try to solve my pale skin and get a little tan too.

"What is Buneary doing?" Dawn asks from beside me.

What IS she doing? She is diving in random spots and when she comes back up, she always looks a little pissed off. 

"Oh no."

"What?"

"I think she's hunting."

"What?"

"Do you want to try eating Magikarp? Tastes surprisingly good even without salt."

"..."

"..."

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Nah. I checked... Basically, it happens in nature and in some rural communities. Some wild pokemon can legally be used for food. Goldeen, Magikarp, Krabby, most smaller bug type pokemon... Uhhh, Slowpoke was made illegal at some point because of overfishing. Some, like Lotad, can be harvested multiple times and it's legally the same as milking Moomoo milk." 

I list off the bunch of fun-facts I learned when I double checked that I'm not in trouble for eating Magikarp on my adventure.

She looks thoughtful. Possibly, actually considering it. 

And now that I'm thinking about it again, the taste was really fucking good and I wouldn't mind trying it with seasonings.

"And," I continue, "Kanto, Johto and Sinnoh have the most lax rules on eating pokemon because we ate them historically the most.

"We are not going to eat a Goldeen. They are too cute. But... I guess we could try Magikarp once."

"Hey! Buneary!" I shout over to her and get her attention. "Don't catch anything cute! Magikarp would be best!"

"Bun!" She beams as she gives her response. Seems like she really enjoys hunting a lot... or the result of hunting? Or maybe my approval of her hunting? 

It's hard to say.

After answering a few more questions about how I know what Magikarp tastes like and after describing the taste a little more, eventually a Magikarp came flying out of the water and landed on the shore.

Buneary quickly swims to the shore and runs after it. Dawn is looking interestedly at what will happen next.

Stomp.

Buneary's legs come down in a Jump Kick and instantly defeat the Magikarp.

As I make my way over to the field kitchen for a knife, a fish scaler, a clean work surface and a book, I can hear the recognizable crunching-sounds of a skull being caved in by Buneary. 

Funny, how the sound is already recognizable.

Followed immediately after, by two girly screams. 

One, short, startled and sounding like Dawn, the other sounded more like a frightened girl in a horror movie. 

Funny, how I'm not legally allowed to watch horror movies. But reenacting them with the local fauna is legal. But thanks to the internet, illegally watching horror movies isn't too hard.

The scream of a dying, virgin girl must have been Lucas. 

And out there in the water, he is with a pale face and-- 

Holy shit! Right! We didn't tell him what we planned! This must have looked like a random murder to him. 

Haha.

"Are you alright Lucas?" I ask him and his frightened eyes stare back at me. "Buneary, I think he might have gotten a cramp in the water. Can you... take care of him?"

It seems like Buneary knows exactly what my plan is and evilly grins at Lucas. Who lets out another startled scream. 

"No! I'm fine! No need to take care of me! I swear! I'm not cramping! And I'm blind and deaf on both eyes! I didn't see nothing!"

"Hahaha! Calm down, mate. We're just messing with you. Do you want some fillets too?"

"... Seriously? ... Fuck that! And what the fuck do you mean you're just messing around?! That Magikarp is dead, dude! You're a barbarian if you unironically want to eat a pokemon." Lucas says.

... But Magikarp is tasty. 

... And they are natures' favorite snack too.

I turn towards Dawn. "Well... more for us. Besides, he's dead already. Might as well eat him." 

She looks a little squeamish but it doesn't look like she rejects the idea of eating Magikarp.

"You guys are gross!" Lucas calls out as I put the scaler to work. 

He's still swimming in the water, watching me as I chip away at the large Magikarp scales.

"It is not gross. It is just natural." Dawn replies in defense for us, while pointedly looking off to the side.

The task is surprisingly easy this time around. The scaler easily wedges in between the scales and skin and pulls them out, as I move my arm from his tail towards the head. 

After just a few scrapes per side, the task is already done.

As for bleeding Magikarp out, a deep cut just below the head is easily made with the sharp kitchen knife. 

Same for the second, perpendicular cut that goes across the stomach, to remove the guts and other gross organs.

For a moment, I am tempted to toss some of the guts at Lucas but that's seriously gross.

Haha.

I have to settle on imagining it happening. 

Instead I just toss them a little downriver, closer to the waterfall.

The pokemon down there are going to like the free food.

After a bit of consideration, I also toss the head. It's probably not a good idea to keep something that personifies our food.

Now comes the hard part. 

Cutting off the fillets from the fish bones. 

I bought a tutorial book specifically for filleting fish.

---

And the results are... decent.

Not restaurant-level, but by following the tutorial I managed to make presentable chunks of meat.

If one has never seen a fish fillet before, then they could probably mistake my results for a fillet.

Still a thousand times better than the shovel-cuts from last time.

"You wanna help me cook them?" I ask Dawn who was watching me work from her tanning spot.

"Are they still bloody?"

"Not really."

"... Sure."

As she gets up, my eyes can't help themselves from wandering to certain places.

Her places have definitely grown since last year.

At some point, Buneary had occupied my towel and was similarly watching me work.

But when I start making my way to the outdoor kitchen with the fillets, she gets up and casually hops on her spot on my shoulder for a better over-watch location.

The sudden weight almost makes me drop the fillets.

She shrugs off my glare.

Piplup also gets out of the water and starts waddling after us.

"Do you have a recipe in mind?" Dawn readjusts her bikini bottom while she walks in front of me, almost causing me to stumble, again.

"Nah. I thought I would just make grilled fish with hot sauce. The same I did last time."

"That sounds dumb."

What? No it doesn't.

"I'm going to get mom's cookbook. You can still start by grilling the fish." 

"Alright Ma'am!" I salute with my free hand and she heads off with a chuckle.

For grilling the fish, I start off by adding some oil to a wide pan and heat it up in full power mode.

Then I season all sides of the thick fish in a thick layer of salt. Oh, sweet, salty salt. I wish I had you last time.

Once the pan is hot enough, I lay the fish with the skin side down into the heat and start frying.

The smell hits me instantly and thanks to the freshness of the fish, there is none of the usual, gross, fishy smell in the air to overtone the searing.

After a few seconds, I put a cover on top of the pan to collect the heat.

Dawn comes back and watches me work my magic some more as I lift the cover to baste the meat pieces in some of the frying juices.

"Oh, this smells really good!" She praises my efforts.

With a cake tester, which is really just a thin, long, steel needle, I keep track of how far the fish is cooked through. And about a minute before it's done, I turn the pieces over and keep the lid off.

The skin has darkened a lot, almost charred but that just adds to the flavor.

The juices are dripping down the sides and after a little less than a minute, I remove the pieces from the heat and lay them down with the charred side up for visual effect.

I managed to cut out 6 nice, large pieces from the Magikarp and each received their own plate.

"Arceus, damn! That looks amazing, Swole! I didn't know you could cook so well!"

I actually just memorized the steps from one of the cookbooks my mom packed me.

Dawn then adds tomato and mozzarella slices in an appealing shape around the fish, and pickled artichokes on top.

The whole thing is drizzled with some balsamic vinegar and lemon juice and topped with a few basil leaves.

For Buneary I also quickly make some quick, fresh hot-sauce, which is really just pounding half a Tamato Berry into mush.

I dripped that sauce over her piece of fish.

The whole thing looks pretty amazing.

The bright red meat of the Magikarp goes well with the basil green and the mozzarella white.

The fish is also extremely fatty. The fat is still seeping out of the meat. It's unbelievable how juicy the meat looks.

Dawn and I carry our plates and our pokemon's plates to a table and we start digging in.

Moan

Huh? I look up and see a blushing Dawn who covers her mouth with one hand.

"So good?" She just nods.

Buneary also seems very pleased with the food, to the point where occasional, cute squeals manage to make their way out of her.

Piplup was a little scared of trying to eat pokemon meat, but after seeing his trainer's reaction, he also takes a cautious bite and starts crying in joy.

Honestly, it's a wonder that pokemon aren't hunted to extinction for food.

Although... didn't the lake guardian legend say something about that? One of them supposedly prevented humanity from doing it?

It's the only thing I can think of that would explain it. Otherwise humans would be eating Magikarp all day, every day.

Anyway, it's fucking delicious.

The fatty, juicy, tender and salty meat and the vinegar are just such an amazing combination, while the mozzarella rounds it down so the taste isn't only overwhelming to the tongue.

I am also pleasantly surprised that Buneary has finally started to learn some table manners.

I wholeheartedly expected her to randomly forget them and vacuum down her food, but instead she seems to actually be enjoying her food now.

Maybe her lessons have finally begun to stick? Or maybe she doesn't want to ruin it for herself like she did with the ice cream? Or perhaps she learned that nobody is going to steal her food away?

Either way, I am very pleased with her progress and give her a few pets over her back.

All too soon my portion is gone, and so is Buneary's.

And by the look in her eyes, she is begging for a second plate, that I'm all too willing to give.

Dawn and Piplup aren't hungry anymore so there is more for us.

For just a moment I considered leaving the last piece for Lucas... But the food is far too tasty and he had his chance.

Half way through my second portion, I started to struggle with finishing it but Buneary was more than happy to share my plate.

Seriously, where is all the food going with her?

After Dawn and I cleaned up after ourselves, we headed back to the grassy beach and onto our towels to enjoy a few more hours of sunlight, and do some casual conversation.

I wish I had managed to find a better spot for tanning.

I can't oogle Dawn without being too obvious about it and if I did oogle her too much, the result would be plainly obvious since I'm laying on my back.

While she and I talk about random topics with long pauses in between, Buneary is-- Oof.

She was just swimming around for fun.

Not really interacting with the other pokemon at all. Possibly just training her physical endurance a little bit.

But now she plopped her wet and cold ass down on my chest and lays down to the visible mirth of Dawn.

"Oi!" I complain before picking up another towel and rubbing her dry. She complains and struggles through the ordeal, but I count that as my revenge.

In the end she assumes her extra fluffy appearance that she usually has after showers and Dawn starts cooing.

"Ouch! Hey!" Then Dawn's hand gets slapped away when she tries petting Buneary.

Buneary tries to ignore her and lays down on my stomach and chest.

"Are you tired?"

"Bunnie."

"No? Just lazing around?"

"Bun." She then rubs her head into my neck and closes her eyes.

"Awe. That is soooo cute!" Comes Dawn's commentary from the side.

She definitely is.

When Dawn lays back down on her towel, I whisper to Buneary. "You were doing a really good job this week. I'm so proud of you."

I can see a small smile on her face. "You kept up your training the entire time and improved so much. You're absolutely amazing."

Her smile brightens a little more and I almost move my head in to give her a kiss on the forehead but then I remember that she is neither my girlfriend, nor my daughter, so I ruffle her ears a little instead.

One of her ears twitched and pushed my hand away but otherwise I got no punishment.

That's a win in my books!

"We're going to destroy the tournament on Friday."

~"Yes."