The boy walked up to the counter wearing a backward hoodie with a bulbasaur glowering out from inside the hood. He handed over a piece of paper.
๐๐ ๐ซ๐พ๐ต๐ซ๐ช๐ผ๐ช๐พ๐ป ๐๐๐ช๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ช๐ป๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐๐ฎ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ท๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฝ. ๐๐ช๐ท ๐๐ธ๐พ ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ป๐ธ๐ช๐ฝ? ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฝ ๐ช ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ. ๐๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ผ ๐ท๐ธ ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ผ ๐ ๐ด๐ท๐ธw ๐ธ๐ฏ.
"Well, sure," Emily said. "It's probably damage from a chest hit, though. You should be careful when battling with small pokemon like these."
The boy shook his head and showed her his notepad. ๐๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ผ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ท ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ช๐ท๐ ๐ซ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ต๐ฎ๐ผ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ๐ต๐.
"Sure," Emily said again, because "Do you seriously expect me to believe you?" was considered poor customer service. "And your other pokemon?"
๐๐พ๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ท๐ฎ
"Even if your other pokemon aren't injured - " she started, because the assumption was another one of those polite fictions in front-desk work.
๐^ ๐๐พ๐ผ๐ฝ ^๐ฑ๐ชv๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ท๐ฎ, the boy amended.
"What, really?"
The boy nodded.
Emily actually looked at him for the first time in the conversation. The boy was slouched down, like he was apologizing for taking up space, something she'd only ever seen from much younger trainers. Could he have just started...? As the still glowering bulbasaur blinked, she realized its eyes had a teary shimmer to them. "Hm... Bulbasaur, could you open your mouth for me quick?"
The bulbasaur made a sort of whining growl with its mouth shut. The boy tapped it on the bulb, and after a moment of delay, it opened its mouth. She peered in. "Oh, that does look a bit red." It closed its mouth again with a snap. "Cheer up, you'll feel better soon!"
The boy worked its claws out of the hood and placed it on the counter along with a pokeball, a coloring book and a box of crayons with ๐๐๐ช๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ผ ๐ซ๐ธ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ผ๐ฒ๐ต๐ written on it. "And your license?"
He pulled out a card with a piece of paper taped to the back. Christopher Greenfield. ๐ ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ.
"Okay then, Kit, this shouldn't take too long."
The boy nodded. He took his license back and headed to one of the couches, which he sagged into as if suddenly exhausted. Maybe he wasn't used to carrying the bulbasaur around like that.
She headed through the doors. Behind her, someone coughed loudly.
#
The zubat sent itself flying into his ponyta's face with more force than he'd have thought possible, knocking the weakened pokemon off-balance. The ponyta stumbled back a half step, her rear leg hitting a stone. She struggled for a moment to remain balanced, then collapsed onto the jutting rocks.
John whistled. He really hadn't been expecting this when he'd seen the girl standing around in front of the signpost like a lost kindergartner. He watched the zubat land clumsily, one wing evidently sprained or broken by its attack. "You're good - you're amazing," he said. "I've never seen anyone so in-sync with their pokemon. It's like something out of a TV show. How long have you been doing this?"
The girl smiled. It was dazzling. ~Thank you,~ he heard in his head. ~I hope to be a great trainer. First, though...I still need to figure out the map.~
"Oh, right."
He took it from her and spread the paper out on the ground. "Right, so...okay, we're here." He pointed. "Which is kind of the middle of nowhere, but it's surrounded by a lot of somewheres. Hearthome City is down and up this way, along with the pass between the mountains, and Pastoria is to the east. And if you're some sort of champion hiker, you could just head up and cross the mountains yourself. I wouldn't recommend it normally, since it's hard going and there's tough pokemon on top of that, but you seem more than able to handle yourself!"
~Thank you! And thank you for the help. I have trouble reading.~
"Oh? My cousin's got problems with the letters moving around too. He wears special sunglasses, says that really helps, filters out extra light or something." He pointed on the map then tracked backward. "Nearest pokecenter is here by this road, you should stop off and ask if that'd help. It'll be hard traveling if you have trouble reading maps."
~I'll do that,~ she said with another dazzling smile. ~But I'm sure I'll get better with practice, too.~