Chapter 36: The Berlitz Blitz
(A/N: Happy Canada Day, 4th of July and whatnot to my readers in North America, I've been slowly enjoying my break between jobs and coming up with ideas for the story at the same time. Hope you guys have been doing well. I've made it halfway through MH World and am currently waiting for Ayaka's release in Genshin Impact. It hasn't been as long since the last chapter so I don't have much more for y'all, hope you enjoy the chapter!)
General
As Platina's words seemed to roar through the room, time screeched to a stop for everyone there.
Red's brain was 150% sure that there was no way Platina would have said such powerful words to him.
Maybe he had only heard a 90% accurate version of "Be my Fiancé". Maybe she had said something like be my … financier…?
While everyone else in the room had mixed looks of confusion or shock, Red decided to break the ice and confirm if he had misheard Platina's potentially outrageous statement.
"Umm… I'm okay with it, how much money do you need for me to be your financier?" He asked while hoping that his guess was right, and that the word "Fiancé" wasn't what was actually said.
As always though, reality wasn't nearly as kind to Red and Platina shattered his hopes immediately.
"Financier? What do you mean, I asked you to become my fiancé."
She said this in such a matter of fact way that Red and the other dexholders weren't sure how she could be so composed while dropping such a bombshell.
While Red was recharging from the shock of Platina's statement, Serena recovered enough to ask Platina "Wait are you really just p-proposing to him right now?!"
Platina blanked for a moment, looked around at the stunned expressions of the people around her and her cheeks reddened deeply when it dawned upon her.
"WAIT! I forgot to mention the most important part, I meant that you should become my fiancé in name only." She managed to blurt out while averting her eyes from Red in particular.
Red was surprised that Platina would forget to mention such an important point and the next question that naturally followed up this revelation was "Wait, why do you need me to be your fake fiancé?"
Red was genuinely curious as to why someone of Platina's caliber would need to fake having a partner so early in life.
In Red's pokemon battling obsessed head, he believed that when you stood at the summit of pokemon battling, there would be very few reasons to commit to something as big as a marriage.
As a result, why would Platina need to fake one at this point in her life, she should have more than enough going on to keep herself busy, and her parents should see her as a busy and successful individual.
Unfortunately, Red's lack of life experience showed here as Platina's reply came.
"I guess it'd be important to start from the beginning, I come from an old and prestigious family known as the House of Berlitz. I originally had my adventure throughout Sinnoh to complete the family crest at the top of Mt. Coronet. Throughout my journey, I became enamored with pokemon battles and contests. I ended up beating 6 gyms in 25 days, and all 8 gyms in less than 80 days. Still, even though I managed to achieve so many things, my parents believed that I should still come back home and inherit the house along with a partner of their choice." Platina explained all of this while the rest of the group were floored by the revelations just given.
Red, Sapphire, and the other gym challengers there had already known about Platina's status as the record holder for beating the gym challenge in the shortest time ever. This was news to Lisia, Korrina, Crys, and Serena though.
Korrina in particular was shaken up by how ridiculous that achievement was. As a proud gym leader who worked really hard to get to the position of gym leader, it felt like a bad joke to hear that someone could beat down a whole region's gym challenge in such a ridiculous amount of time.
One had to keep in mind that earning 6 badges in less than 25 days didn't just entail the time it took to train for and challenge the gym leaders. In most regions, just to travel between six gyms it would probably take three weeks or more on foot. So this meant that she essentially traveled to the gyms and beat them usually in the first attempt and probably without having to prepare much at all.
"That was a fearsome thing to consider… maybe Platina's parents didn't understand how amazing those achievements were." Korrina thought as she saw the tactician in a new light.
Platina continued speaking after letting the first part sink in "Of course, I still wanted to continue my journey and I definitely did not want to get married just yet. I haven't even had a boyfr… never mind. My parents didn't seem to think that winning the gym badges meant much as it wouldn't benefit the world like the Berlitz family had been doing for years through its research and financial investments. Anyway… when Professor Oak reached out to me about this mission, it sounded like just the right opportunity to do good in the world and show my parents that I could really make a difference. I told them that this was what I was setting out to do, and they told me that I could embark on this mission, but only on the condition that I had to come back with a fiancé that was worthy of the Berlitz family name."
Red and co. were following Platina's parents' logic up until the last part about the fiancé, where it once again was too unclear to understand why her going on an adventure should logically lead to her bringing home a worthy fiancé.
Yellow spoke up first and said "Isn't that pretty unfair to you? The mission could be potentially dangerous, how could they expect you to bring home someone under those circumstances?"
Platina smiled with a slightly defeated looking expression and replied with "Unfortunately, my parents have always been pretty big on efficiency. They believe that if I'm really going out there trying to change the world, I'll be able to meet someone who is also attempting to do similar things and then I can be safer on my mission as well as coming up with a fiancé on the same original schedule they had made for my engagement."
Red wanted to say something against this line of thinking… but honestly it did sound like a somewhat logical approach for a parent to take when it came to prioritizing the future of their daughter as well as her safety.
While Red may have thought this was reasonable, Blue had a whole different set of thoughts on the matter.
"Your parents might think they're being reasonable by letting you "choose" someone during this mission but there are so many things wrong with their premise! First of all, having to stress about finding a potential partner while being on a serious mission like this one is just totally reckless and could easily lead to you losing focus or being distracted from your main objective. Trust me, I don't find it easy at all being on a mission while trying to pursue lov… pursue my future! Secondly, they seemed to have moved the goalposts on whether it even makes sense for you getting a fiancé in your early 20s. You should be the one who decides when you're ready for future planning, not your parents." Blue spoke her mind with passion and genuine concern showing through her voice.
It may have benefitted Blue for Platina to not present Red as a fiancé to her parents, but when it came to her friends and looking out for their well-being, she wouldn't let personal feeling get in the way of trying to help them.
Platina recognized this intent and replied "I definitely agree, this is why I'm trying to pass Red off as a fake fiancé. I figured there would be few complaints when it was someone of Red's renown. He has been the champion of Kanto, and saved multiple regions from Team Rocket in the past, there really are few bachelors out there that are more impressive than that in my age group."
Platina said all of this in a matter-of-fact sort of way while trying to keep her facial expression consistent with her tone.
Meanwhile, Red felt surprisingly embarrassed by the high praise he was getting from Platina, even if it was true, Red was not used to hearing this from someone that he was close with.
Out of curiosity, Mei asked "Now that we're going to Sinnoh, do you have to meet your parents right away? Couldn't we do our mission and potentially slip out of the region and visit them at a later time."
She certainly wanted to avoid having Red have to fake being someone else's fiancé, but there was also the question of the urgency of the mission ahead of them. They did not have a lot of free time to be greeting the parents while doing all of this.
As usual, Platina seemed to have an answer for everything and she replied this time with "That shouldn't be a problem, we have people who work for the main family everywhere in Sinnoh, the second I touchdown in SInnoh, we should expect my parents to arrive soon after on their private jet."
Red and everyone else there who wasn't named Lisia in the group couldn't even begin to fathom what kind of wealth and influence it would take to do such things while Lisia, a superstar in her own right, was still strongly impressed by the amount of influence that the Berlitz family had.
"I-I see…" Red managed to stutter out as he thought about all the implications that would have. He would have to be in his first relationship, albeit pretend, and have to meet the parents of his partner immediately after? Not only that, but her parents were extremely powerful and influential so any mishap from his end would probably lead to intense scrutiny.
Strangely enough, Red felt like this meeting was just as stressful, if not more stressful than any of the difficult pokemon battles he had ever had to face.
White chimed in after hearing Platina's story, "What should the rest of the team be doing while you meet with your parents then?"
Platina paused and started thinking about it for a bit… it would seem that she hadn't really gotten further than mustering up the courage to ask Red the big question.
After a few moments, she replied with "For now, we should try to see where the detector brings us and then we can make a plan based on where Team Neo is hiding out. Ostensibly, I can see a world where we might have to split up and I'll have to handle things with Red separately from the rest of the team. If we're lucky, I won't need to do too much for the family and Red and I can catch up with the team after a small while." Platina listed both options that came to mind.
Simultaneously she thought to herself, "either way this will be my chance to have a date with Red too."
While there were some grumblings about Red having to fake an engagement with Platina, nobody was so hung up on the idea that they were actively against it. When it came down to it, it seemed like everyone was going to get a turn to bond with Red anyway so this was just the same thing but with parental supervision.
With that matter settled, Platina began making arrangements for a jet to come transport them to Sinnoh, since time was of the essence, the team decided not to ask for Professor Oak's help this time around and just use Platina's Sinnoh connections to get there ASAP.
As preparations were being made, Red realized that Lisia and Korrina were still sticking around for the planning as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
He was not one to make others feel left out and after some pondering, he looked over at Pika who seemed to read Red's mind and nodded his head in agreement.
"Hey everyone, if Lisia and Korrina would be okay with it, could they come help us out at least for this part of the mission? With me and Platina potentially being out of commission, I think this could help us plan for the worst case scenario." Red said in a persuasive manner.
Lisia and Korrina's eyes both lit up at this suggestion and they both immediately said "No objections here!"
Platina was grateful for the help and also happy that this would make the potential interference from her parents a little less of a burden on the rest of the team.
Everyone had gotten help from Lisia or Korrina in some manner during their adventure so far and it seemed that there was unanimous agreement to get their help for this part of the mission.
With all the loose ends being tied up, Platina got a notification from her family's pilot that he would be there in three hours.
The rest of the team was again astounded by the amount of convenience such wealth could afford someone.
Platina didn't seem to think it was anything unusual and she led the way outside the Tower of Mastery so they could make their way to the coastal private airfield of Shalour City.
When the whole team arrived at the airfield, Blue's phone went crazy as the detector seemed to have picked up a huge spike in energy from the meteorite.
Whatever had caused the spike in energy also helped the detector more accurately pinpoint the meteorite's location.
While Red didn't know much about the city, he had still heard of it, apparently the dexholder's (and co.) next mission would be in Driftveil City.
(A/N: Hey y'all I was able to get this chapter done while being on break between my old and new job. I start next week Monday so I will probably be less active once again (sorry!) until I get used to my new job and the creative juices start flowing again. See y'all in the next one and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!)