Chapter 39: The Berlitz Blitz Pt.4

(A/N: Merry Christmas and happy holidays to y'all. I'm looking to move out soon from the place I'm living in currently and afterward I should be able to settle down semi-permanently. In the meantime, I've been taking up reading again so I've been reading light novels, some manga, and watching a bit more anime than before so that has been nice. Most importantly, I've been playing through Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and living through my childhood nostalgia. Currently my team is Torterra, Togetic, Jirachi, Gyarados, Staraptor, and Luxray, w/ 5 badges so far. Anyway I'm trying something new in this chapter, where I try to have the speakers dialogue be more natural. Let me know what you feel about it since this is still a work in progress from my end.)

General

It wasn't entirely true that Platina's parents didn't know who Red was.

"Who's the boy?" – was a true statement in that Platina's parents were initiating a question for Platina to field. Introduce the boy you just brought to an important family meeting, and also, explain why this boy is worthy of being introduced in this context.

To be sure, Platina's parents weren't like Cinderella's evil godmother. They were fairly reasonable and well-educated intellectuals that were respected amongst the whole of Sinnoh and many other parts of the world.

That kind of intelligence also applied to their child-rearing habits. Platina was raised in a loving but fairly strict household. Her mother, Johanna Berlitz, was the matriarch of the family and was the actual pureblooded Berlitz family member.

Her father, Jonah Berlitz, married into the family after working his way up the academic ladder. In short, he went from a regular university student majoring in pokemon evolution, into a PHD program where his masters started the theory (in Sinnoh) that pokemon could temporarily evolve beyond the current "final evolutions" that were believed to exist in the past.

His PHD thesis built upon his master's thesis about the existence of these temporary evolutions through his research trips to Kalos, where rumors about such a phenomenon occurring had caught his attention from his master's years. During this trip, Jonah had gotten close to Johanna who was a local celebrity at Jubilife University.

She was known for her amazing Berlitz lineage, impeccable looks, pokemon contest abilities, and incredible intellect. Meanwhile Jonah was from the more modest Cedar family that had some academics in its history but nowhere near the level of the Berlitz family.

During the trip, Jonah was able to confirm the existence of a phenomenon known as mega evolution, as well as documenting the general conditions for it. Along with Johanna, they were able to bring back their discoveries and 20 years later, their efforts lead to the more widespread knowledge about the existence of mega evolution in the SInnoh region.

The longer term results were that Jonah was able to win Johanna's respect and admiration for his intellect, and he was eventually (after much difficulty) welcomed to the Berlitz family.

The last thing to note was that while the Berlitz family was a very elite family, they were not royalty (at least of the governing kind). One of the results of this small fact was that there was no strict rule that someone had to be from a prestigious family to marry into the Berlitz family.

However, another result of this elite status did include the unspoken rule that someone marrying into the Berlitz family would need to be up to par so that they could continue to improve the Berlitz family.

With all this history in mind, the simple question of "Who's the boy" held a lot more baggage behind it than how it would sound to the typical bystander.

Platina was well aware of the implications of this question, Red… was not.

Red was even more nervous now compared to his walk over and that was without knowing the context behind the seemingly simple question from Platina's mother.

"This is Red, I met him during my mission over in Unova and he has been helping me ever since then."

"That's not what I'm asking dear, I know that you're aware of what I mean here. We're expecting a visit from Paul Etchy from the Poketch company in a week. The Poketch company is one of the most important companies in all of Sinnoh and they've modernized the access of knowledge to most of Sinnoh. The heir to that company, Paul, after hearing that you were on the way home, immediately made time from his busy schedule to meet you within a week. That's nearly unheard of in Sinnoh as I'm sure you know…"

"Right, sorry about that mother… Red here is the team captain of the mission we're on, an incredible leader and teacher for me, and … my soon to be fiancé."

Platina looked up nervously at her parents and to her surprise, it didn't seem like they were completely against the idea.

Johanna was the first to speak, which was the usual case as her husband generally acquiesced to her stances unless something was fundamentally wrong.

"I see, so you've actually brought home a potential fiancé, that's laudable, but how can your Dad and I trust that this boy is worthy of you?"

"Well Red is…"

Platina was cut off by a small gesture where Johanna used her index, middle and ring finger closing in on her thumb.

"Not you dear, Red, let me know why you're worthy of our daughter."

Red was put on the spot, Platina was about to step in and intervene on his behalf, but surprisingly Red started to speak soon after this request was made.

"To start with, I love her."

"Oh?"

Johanna and Jonah didn't say much besides making a sound there, but they shared a subtle impressed look with each other.

Red didn't seem to notice this but Platina would have if she was looking their way.

Right now though, every fiber of her being was lingering on the words he had just said.

"Love, he said that he loved me right… I know that logically he's just saying it for my sake, but in reality I can't help but hope it was genuine." Platina was lost in her thoughts but Red didn't know this so he continued on with nervous enthusiasm.

"I have traveled to many places in the world and I can easily say that Platina is special to me, I learn so much from her everyday. Her passion for pokemon and her careful planning really has my deepest respect."

"Hmm… I can see that you respect her, but you still haven't answered my question young man, why are you worthy of our daughter?"

Red thought about it briefly, it wasn't hard for him to come up with reasons why his friends were amazing, it just took him being honest about what he thought about them. Conversely, when it came to talking about himself, while he wasn't completely unconfident, he didn't want to come off as arrogant during his first meeting with his (fake) fiancée.

"I'm not sure I'm worthy in terms of the experience department. I have never dated anyone before so I can't promise that I'll do everything correct the first time. What I can say… is that I will do my best to keep her and her pokemon safe and happy. Even if it's at risk of my life, I will always prioritize my loved one's lives over my own when it comes to it.

In fact, this ties into what I guess would be my only main qualification. In my home region of Kanto, I fought alongside my friends and was able to repel the threat of Team Rocket to the whole region. I then continued to defeat them in Johto, and later on I also helped defeat multiple criminal organizations in other regions as well. I think I can safely say that when it comes to keeping others safe and happy, I have a respectable track record."

Red recalled all these events that he felt really defined his worth as a (fake) fiancé, and then waited to see the Berlitz reaction.

Johanna looked like she was contemplating something and then she gave a slightly gentler smile as she asked "That's very impressive young m… Red. I was wondering though, weren't you going to mention anything about your actual resume as a trainer outside of taking down criminal organizations?"

Red looked sheepish and surprised by this request but earnestly responded "I did win the Kanto pokemon league back when I was 11, but since that really didn't have much to do with me making Platina happy… I wasn't sure if I should mention it."

Jonah was surprised by the modesty Red showed here, he remembered how he had to push for every one of his achievements just to get his in-laws' acceptance back then.

Maybe it was naivety, or perhaps this young man actually could (sub?)consciously perceive what was really important when it came to being worthy of Platina.

Johanna thought similarly, when Paul Etchy was trying to gain the Berlitz seal of approval, he certainly was quick to show off his immense wealth as well as the inventions he (and his company) had come up with.

While they were certainly impressive and one would be hard pressed to find a young man in his early thirties with a similar resume. At the end of the day, he didn't really mention much about how he'd make Platina happy.

Being worthy of the Berlitz family had the obvious implication of being someone who was either accomplished, or had the strong potential to be accomplished. But the unspoken adjustment that Jonah had proposed to Johanna when Platina was approaching marriageable age, was that they also had to be worthy of making Platina happy.

Platina herself didn't know of this stipulation, so she was constantly stressed by the prospect of being engaged to someone she didn't like. Little did she know, her parents had actually tried to compensate for her concern as reasonably as could be expected when it came to having an arranged marriage in this day and age.

Of course, since Platina didn't know this was the case, she was extremely torn.

On the one hand, Red had said some incredibly touching things about protecting her forever (he did not say this) and how much he cared about her happiness (he did say this).

On the other hand, she wasn't sure if his attitude towards his pokemon champion status was going to sit well with her parents. And even if it did, would they think that was good enough? Personally, she thought it was more than enough, but she was hopelessly biased on these matters so she couldn't objectively judge it one way or another.

While all these thoughts were running through Platina's head, something dawned on her. While she didn't want to actively think about it, the reality of the situation was that Red was only here so they could help her avoid the inevitable engagement that would… hamper her ability to help with the mission. It was certainly not because she wanted to have as good of a chance to vy for Red's affections as possible… well not entirely at least…

Platina's parents were summing up Red as he sat there and just patiently waited for their response. The Berlitz family's intellect was not limited to academics, they had an intelligence network and strategic mind that clearly showed itself in Platina's pokemon battling skills. Thus, it wasn't remotely surprising that Platina's parents knew who Red was ahead of time.

The second it was known that Platina was traveling with a boy, a complete profile was done on him to figure out what his background was and whether it was safe for Platina to be in his vicinity.

Maybe someone could argue that this was a bit hypocritical for Jonah and Johanna to implement, considering the circumstances that they had met under.

However, since there was an element of danger in this mission that Platina was undergoing (although she couldn't share more with them than that), they decided that they could kill two birds with one stone here by making sure their daughter was protected from both physical… and emotional harm.

Luckily (for Red), there were no problems found in Red's general resume, and he was an extremely impressive individual.

Being an impressive individual alone though wouldn't necessarily make him much better of a fit than Paul (besides the obvious age difference Paul and Red had. The difference between being around 20 years old and being around 30 years old was a major one relative to Platina's tender age of 20).

That's why it was reassuring to hear that Red first touched upon his abilities relative to Platina's needs and the Berlitz parent's concerns. This was a rare approach to hear from any suitor, as these impressive individuals who tried to court Platina, had no lack of self-confidence. Typically they had no qualms about bragging about themselves, and at best you could say they were fairly justified narcissists.

With that in mind, Johanna had one last thing to ask Red.

"So that's an impressive background and all, but do you truly think you're worthy of our daughter Platina?"

(A/N: I've been gone for quite a while once again, and while I know it isn't fun for my loyal readers (and new ones as well) to wait so long between chapters, I will continue to write whenever the ideas and inspiration come together at the right time. I hope you can continue to bear with me, and I hope this chapter makes your Christmas (or the day after Christmas in some regions) just a little bit brighter. I'll be enjoying BDSP during the holiday break and maybe some inspiration will hit me so that Ch.40 can come together just a bit earlier. On a personal note, the company I work at has put out a new mobile game called Adventure Chef: Merge Explorer, it's on iOS and Android so check it out if you like cooking/merging games. And also I've gotten into keyboards somewhat recently, and I can now say I'm a proud owner of a custom Nakiri Ayame themed keyboard /a/cLY5Pga in case were interested. Have a great holiday season and I hope y'all get some rest out there, I sure as heck need it.)