Real quick before the chapter, I want to say that due to being away from my laptop and having no access to a computer during the time I posted this, I didn't do any final edits to fix any mistakes because it's a pain to do on a phone. So apologies for any small errors in the writing.


Chapter 33: A Generous Gift

After arriving in Shalour City, the group made their way straight to the Pokemon Center to settle in and relax. Entering the large building, they all paused for a moment to view the massive interior of the largest Pokemon Center they'd ever seen.

The lobby alone was enormous, almost looking more like a mini-mall with all the different types of shops built into the walls, one in particular caught Aura's interest right away, making a mental note to stop there later during their stay.

Passing by a small lounge area with a few sofas and a large flat-screen TV showing a news broadcast, the crew slowly approached the reception desk where Nurse Joy sat with a pile of papers stacked by the computer.

She looked up from the paper she was writing on and smiled at them, "Good afternoon and welcome to the Pokemon Center, how may I help you?" Joy beamed.

"Could we get our Pokemon treated and also rent a couple rooms for a while?" Aura asked, glancing down at Diamond to make sure she was okay.

Nurse Joy happily nodded and set down her pen, "Certainly, I'll get someone out to take care of your Pokemon right away." Turning to the computer, Joy pressed a small red button with a white cross on it next to the keyboard, a tiny LED blinking red right above it. Not long after, the door behind the desk opened with another nurse stepping out. "Vanessa, would you mind taking these trainers' Pokemon to be healed?"

Vanessa bowed, "Right away." The nurse went back into the room for a brief moment before reimerging with a small cart and pushing it around the desk, "If you would please set your Pokeballs in the trays," she said. Dan and Aura did as they were asked and set each of their Pokeballs in the slotted trays, Aura then asking Diamond to follow them as well while him and Dan rented their rooms.

Nodding, Diamond stepped beside the cart and began to follow Vanessa around the counter to the back room. Once the door had shut, Nurse Joy turned back to the pair and held her hands over the keyboard, "Now, what kind of room will you be renting?" She asked, pulling up a ledger of all the Center's available rooms.

Aura held up two fingers, "Just a single room for each of us." He told her.

Joy smiled and tapped the keys, "Okay, if you could just swipe your ID through the scanner for me?" The trainers promptly readied their ID cards and scanned them in the card reader, Aura scanning his card first, but as his files appeared on the computer's screen, Nurse Joy paused as she reviewed the name and softly grinned, "You're Aura Borealis?" She asked. Aura looked at Dan puzzled, then returning his gaze to Joy and confirming her odd question. Nurse Joy bent down and slid open one of the desk drawers, "We've been expecting you for a few days now, we already have you booked for one of our VIP suites as well."

Aura's eyes widened as him and Dan now both shared the same absolutely confused and shocked expressions. Aura began looking around the lobby for someone he might recognize, but there wasn't a single person in the room he'd ever seen before. He turned back to Nurse Joy as she continued to rummage through the file drawer, "I'm sorry, but there's gotta be some kind of mistake, who would book such an expensive suite just for me?"

Nurse Joy staightened up with two envelopes in her hands, one already opened and the other still sealed, "No mistake, this letter has your name printed multiple times, and the other envelope is directly addressed to you." She held out the open letter, "Would you like to read it?" Taking the letter, Aura unfolded it and began to read it aloud.

"To Nurse Joy of Shalour City. I wish to inform you that you should expect the arrival of a young trainer by the name of Aura Borealis within the next few days. It has come to my attention he is a person of great importance and has accomplished many feats along his travels, and at the request of a dear friend as well as someone with great power, I ask he be given a VIP suite during the time he resides within the city.

The final request I have, other than the suite provided, is that Mr. Aura Borealis is not treated any differently than a normal trainer merely staying at the Pokemon Center; however, this may come to change if needed as I will be arriving in the city two weeks from the day these letters was delivered.

Lastly, the second letter you recieved is addressed to Mr. Aura Borealis directly. Please deliver it to him as soon as possible.

Sincerely, Diantha."

Dan leaned back in shock as Aura read who the letter was from. "Dantha did this? Like, the Kalos Champion Diantha?" He asked, looking at the signature on the bottom right corner as Aura returned the letter.

Nurse Joy nodded and took the letter, then holding out the closed envelope for Aura to take, "That's right, we had a League Official visit yesterday morning to deliver the letters before leaving shortly after." She took a couple key cards from a drawer with a lock and handed one to each of them, "I will admit it is a bit confusing that she'd ask Aura only be given a VIP suite but not the whole VIP treatment."

Aura stared at the closed envelope and shrugged, "I don't know, but maybe she explained it in this letter, and if not I could probably ask her when she gets here." Aura put the keycard in his wallet and the envelope in his bag. "Thanks, Nurse Joy, we'll be waiting over in the lounge area for our Pokemon."

Joy bowed with a polite snile, "Of course, I'll be sure to let you know when they're ready to be picked up."

As the two trainers walked away, Aura continued to looked around the lobby at the hundreds of things to do, "Honestly I don't think I've ever seen a Pokemon Center this big, sure there are some that are similar in Johto and other regions, but like this?" He blinked at a nearby map and walked over to it, reading all the different kinds of recreational areas built throughout the Center, "Look at this, there's so much to do here. A tennis court, basketball, a swimming pool, even a freaking arcade!"

Dan laughed and pat Aura's shoulder, "Yeah, this is probably the largest Pokemon Center in Kalos because of the amount of people who visit here. But I've heard they plan to renovate and build Pokemon Centers like this one in almost every city across the world, even in some towns depending on how busy they can get."

The trainer blinked as Aura just continued to read the long list of locations, mumbling to himself about certain ones he would have to visit while he had the chance. Suddenly pausing, Aura pulled out his phone and checked the time, "Diamond and the others should still take a bit longer before their ready to be picked up. Wanna check out a few of these shops while we wait?"

Dan rubbed his head, "I don't know, there's a lot of them in the Center."

"No, I mean just ones that are in the lobby. I'd rather not get too far without the others." He paused to look at the shop he noticed coming in, "Like that imported goods store over there. They've probably got lots of stuff from other regions there."

Dan looked at the small shop and shrugged, "I guess so. I might even find some exotic herbs or medical books from other regions."

Coming to an agreement to only browse for now, Dan and Aura walked into the open shop where a young woman stood behind the counter. "Welcome, is there anything I can help you with?" The woman asked, her long black hair and flower necklace hanging as she politely bowed.

Aura awkwardly waved his hand, "No thanks, we're just browsing for now." The woman smiled in understanding and let the two trainers walk through the store. Only a few feet away from the counter, they stopped at a small wood stand filled with containers full of sweets. Stopping for a bit while Dan went on to look for some medicinal herbs, Aura decided to grab a few bags of Pokepuffs from the stand for the others. "I think they deserve a treat." He muttered before walking a bit further into the shop and browsing along with Dan.

Finally the pair paused and looked around the room as a light ping echoed and a soft voice came through an intercom. "Aura Borealis and Daniel Sanlow, your Pokemon are ready to be picked up. Please come to the front desk."

The two looked at each other a bit surprised, "I never knew they had an intercom? Wonder why we never heard it before?" Aura said as they headed for the register.

Dan shrugged, "I think it's mainly for these huge Pokemon Centers, plus it was really quiet, even in here. So we probably just tune it out instinctually or something." After buying the bags of sweets, they quickly headed to the front desk where Nurse Joy greeted them again.

The doors behind the desk swung open with the same woman from before walking out with the a similar cart and their Pokeballs set in the sockets. "I'm happy to report all your Pokemon have made full recoveries." She said once she stopped to let them retrieve their Pokeballs. Thanking the nurse, Aura, Dan, and Diamond all finally headed to the large hallway to the right of the reception and scanned the walls, noticing the elevators next to the wide staircase that looped around halfway up.

"You gonna be okay riding an elevator every day?" Aura asked Diamond. The fox looked up and nodded, remembering when she rode the moving boxes at the hospital in Lumiose City.

With a quick push of the button, the elevator descended to their level and slowly opened, allowing the trio to enter and ascend to the top floor where they would be staying. The moment they exit the elevator, the trio were met with a pleasent smell wafting through the fancy hallway, the floor was covered with red carpeting and small potted plants lined the walls every few meters. They started down the hall with Aura double-checking the keycard he had received and searching for the corresponding door, though it was very easy to find considering there were only about eight rooms on the whole floor.

Stopping in front of their door, Aura took a breath as he swiped the card through the scanner and turned the handle, what waited on the other side left them totally shocked. The main room was massive with a small kitchen in the south-east corner, and a huge "C" shaped sofa facing the west wall where a flatscreen TV sat atop a wide wooden stand. In the center was a well crafted coffee table made of polished mahogany.

"This is enormous!" Diamond blurted out as they all stepped inside, the fox walked around and sat on the sofa, gently bouncing on the plush cushions, "Why did you get such a huge room for us?" She asked, looking over her shoulder as Aura and Dan set their bags on a foldout table near the kitchen.

"Honestly I tried to just get a normal room, but apparently the Champion booked us this VIP suite for some reason." He told her, walking toward one of the two doors on the east side and poking his head in, finding a large bedroom inside with it's own bathroom.

Diamond tilted her head and stood up, "The Champion?" She asked, not too familiar with the term.

Aura turned to face her, "The Champion is the highest position in the entire Pokemon League, just about every region has one." He walked back into the main room and continued looking around, "Although I'm still confused about why she'd book us this place. Of all the trainers to pick she picked…" Aura paused as he quietly whispered "me" with a blank stare.

Diamond looked at him a bit concerned, "You okay?"

Shaking his head, Aura held his hand against his head, "She wouldn't… Would she?" He asked himself silently.

"What are you mumbling about?" Dan asked as he stepped out of another bedroom.

Aura groaned and shook his head, "Nothing, just thinking about this whole VIP thing." He faced his friend and smirked, "I guess for now let's just accept this gift and go on with our day, I'll have to ask Diantha about her reason when she gets here, but for now we might as well let everyone else see the place and get comfortable." Giving a quick nod in agreement, Dan followed Aura's lead as the two trainer let their Pokemon out all at once into the center of the room. It didn't take long for them to realize the much larger than normal room they were in.

"What is this place?" Stan asked as the Luxio wandered toward the sofa looking around curiously. Tia and Lilly wandering toward the small kitchen with the same question running through their minds too, the Lopunny peeking over the polished countertop at the various appliances and utensils.

Awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, Aura calmly sighed and glanced around, "Well, this is where we'll be staying for the next two weeks." Each of his Pokemon paused and looked at their trainer in confusion, he could already tell what they were thinking. "Right now we're in one of the Pokemon Center's VIP suites, apparently the Champion had sent the Pokemon Center a message to book us this suite for as long as we need, and that she'll be coming to visit in two weeks so I can ask her about why she did this."

"I have no complaints, Master Aura." Prince said with a short bow of respect.

"Same here!" Stan called as he poked his head over the back of the sofa with his tail flicking behind him, "This place is awesome! I wouldn't mind staying even longer than just two weeks if we had too!"

Aura laughed at the Pokemon's excitement, "Well I'm relieved you all seem so happy about our situation." Hearing a faint clacking coming toward him, Aura looked down to see Tia walking over with her head lowered. "Something wrong?"

"Not to sound ungrateful, but doesn't this place seem a little big?" She asked, glancing away shyly, "I-I mean, it is a very nice place, but… do we really need this much room for just us?"

Aura quietly blinked and started looking around the room, "I guess I can see your point there, normally we make do with just a single room." He rubbed his chin with a smirk, "Although now that I think about it, I might have a solution for that problem." Walking to the center of the room with Tia staring at him puzzeled, Aura cleared his throat to grab everyone's attention. Lilly and Diamond poked their heads out of one of the bedrooms while Stan, Spyke, and Nessa all looked over from the large window. "Alright guys, since there's so much more room in this suite than the ones we usually stay in, I figured that while we have the chance you could all stay out of your Pokeballs while we're here and enjoy a bit more freedom."

"You mean we can sleep wherever we want?!" Stan excitedly asked, still on the large sofa. After receiving a confirming nod from Aura, the Luxio lifted his forelegs off the sofa and cheered, clumsily flopping back onto the plush cushions with a content grin.

Following the energetic feline's short celebration, Aura walked over to the kitchen counter and began to remove his Pokeballs one by one and set them next to his bag. "I'll also leave your guys' Pokeballs somewhere easy to get to as well, just in case any of you want to go back in for whatever reason, it's up to you." Aura walked around the counter and started digging through his bag, "Now that that's all settled, who's ready to eat?"

With a collective sound of agreement from everyone, Aura started looking around the kitchen for the utensils. "Want some help?" Dan asked, stepping behind Aura as he searched the bottom cupboards.

"If you're offering. Let me just get everything ready first." Pulling out a large frying pan and a pot, Aura set them on the stove and turned toward the others. "Hold on a second." Dan watched Aura a bit confused as the Guardian walked toward the living room and picked up the TV remote, "It'll probably be a while before the food's all done, so in the meantime I'll put something on to keep you all busy." Flipping through the channels, Aura finally stopped on a live broadcast of some kind of tournament. "This should be good." He muttered. Setting down the remote, Aura made his way back to the kitchen as the Pokemon started gathering around the sofa. "Now let's get cooking."


After roughly an hour of cooking, Aura and Dan called everyone over and began setting down their food, each thanking the trainers for the food before digging in. Finally, Aura and Dan walked over to the table where Diamond had been quietly sitting for the past hour. As Aura set the plate in front of her, he noticed she was silently cleaning her necklace of black markings. Sitting down beside her, he continued to watch as she polished the silver chain completely unaware of the food on the table.

Aura smirked at her, "So you gonna eat or..?" He asked.

Diamond flinched and lowered the chain, staring at the roasted vegetables and small slab meat on the plate. She blushed and looked at Aura, "Sorry… Thank you." She apologized, setting her necklace aside with the smooth cloth and pulling the plate closer.

Chuckling silently to himself, Aura turned to his own food and started eating. He was happy Diamond appreciated that necklace as much as she did, this wasn't the first time he had caught her spacing out as she would silently clean the chain. Eventually he bought her the proper supplies for it and since then she'd polish it almost every other day.

Noticing Aura staring blankly in her direction, Diamond spoke up and asked if he was okay. Aura flinched and awkwardly laughed, "I'm fine. Just thinking about stuff." Looking at him for a few more seconds, Diamond returned to eating as Aura silently smiled, returning to his own food as well.


I decided to stop this chapter here because I wanted to get it out sooner. Next chapter should hopefully be a short one as well but hopefully not take as long to write, but only time will tell.

Anyhow, thanks for reading, and hopefully you enjoyed the chapter and the story thus far. I appreciate helpful feedback and seeing what you all think of the story. I make sure to read reviews and respond to them if possible.

Until next time. ~Aura