Thursday, September 14th, 2017

Since coming to this world I had been woken up in a variety of ways that I would have never expected. The most common method was flying Pokemon cheerfully chirping their names or hearing grass types similarly greeting the sun, which was extra weird hearing plants make such loud noises. However, all of those oddities were completely eclipsed by the sheer absurdity of what woke me up from where I lay on the living room couch in John's house.

A teenager excitedly whooping, "Woo! School!" at six-thirty in the morning.

I shot up to a sitting position to see Erin and Julie making their way to the front door with Julie continuing to bounce up and down in excitement. Her glee was cut short when Erin lightly punched her on the shoulder and pointed to where I blearily looked back at them. Julie calmed down just long enough to mouth 'sorry' before rushing out the front door. Erin gave me a half-apologetic smile and wave, then followed her sister at a much more reasonable pace.

I slowly blinked several times once the door had closed behind them before eventually deciding to get up rather than attempting to go back to sleep. After rolling off of the couch, I shuffled to the bathroom holding my newly cleaned spare clothes and the towel that John had given me the night before. A minute later I stood under the steaming hot shower and blissfully realized how much I had missed being able to wake up with hot water rolling off of me. When I had finally finished my long shower, dried myself off, and got dressed, I exited the bathroom and was greeted with the wonderful smells and sounds of breakfast being cooked. I hesitated for a moment then walked to the kitchen where I found John sitting at a small table in the kitchen while his mom cheerfully worked on breakfast.

"Good morning!" John's mom warmly greeted me when she spotted my entrance, "Did you sleep well? This'll be ready in just a few minutes so you can go ahead and sit right down."

"Uh yeah, really well, thanks," I replied as I moved to sit in the chair across from John.

My fellow trainer gave me a short nod before stifling a yawn, "Morning. I put out some food for the Pokemon already so you don't need to worry about that." Message delivered, John took a deep drink of his coffee and sighed contentedly.

"Morning," I replied automatically, "And thanks." All four of our Pokemon had opted to spend the night outside instead of in their Pokeballs and I had planned on feeding them after my shower. That is until I had been distracted by the prospect of a fresh breakfast.

"What can I get you to drink, Thomas?" John's mom asked as she put the finishing touches on breakfast, "We've got coffee, milk, and orange juice."

"Orange juice please," I answered after a moment of consideration. I had managed to make it through college without needing coffee and wasn't interested in starting now that I somehow had even less money than I did when I was a poor student. Milk normally would have been my go-to choice, but I had found that there was a weird aftertaste to Milktank milk that I hadn't gotten used to yet.

A few minutes later, the table was covered with a small feast of breakfast foods consisting of pancakes, fruit, scrambled eggs, toast, and some kind of sausage and bacon. After thanking John's mom again, we dug into our meals and I was absolutely blown away by how good everything tasted. From how quickly John was eating I guessed that he was eager for the official start to his journey, but I ate much slower, wanting to savor the taste given that I doubted I would be eating anything this good for quite a while.

"So, Thomas," John's mom started to say between bites of the much more reasonable portions of food she had on her own plate. "What do your parents think of you traveling all by yourself?"

I froze and slowly swallowed as the taste of the food in my mouth turned to ash. I hesitated for a few more seconds before finally saying, "They're not… around anymore." Technically speaking, I was the one who wasn't 'around,' but the semantics somehow made the reminder of my situation even worse.

John had been giving his mom an annoyed look because of her question but returned his attention to me with a sympathetic frown at my reply. At the same time, his mom's eyes widened, "Arceus, I'm so sorry."

"It's… fine," I replied with a small struggle before taking another bite of my pancake. I found that it had gone from fluffy deliciousness to the same flavorless paste that so many of my meals had been over the past week and a half. Thankfully, neither of them pressed me for details, and breakfast was finished in somewhat uncomfortable silence.

The mood finally lightened once we were all finished with our meals and John and I helped clean up the dishes. Once that task was done, John eagerly clapped his hands together and declared, "Well, we should probably get going soon." As if looking for any way to stall us from leaving, his mom said that she would pack us both lunch and insisted when we tried to decline. Thankfully that didn't take much more time so the three of us were standing at the front door fifteen minutes later, with John and I wearing our backpacks and holding our sack lunches.

Just like she had the previous night when John had said goodbye to the rest of his family, John's mom began to tear up. With a good-natured sigh, John pulled her into a hug while I awkwardly stood by and waited for them to be done. After what seemed like the longest hug in the world, they finally separated and she addressed John after sniffling softly, "Now I want you to promise to call every night, for the first week at least. And let us know when your first public battle is so we can come and watch." Once John had dutifully agreed, she turned her attention to me, "And the same goes for you, Thomas. We would all love to come to see you battle as well."

"Uh, sure," I replied with little intention of following through, though if either of them noticed my unenthusiasm they didn't comment. Instead, John's mom started going through a checklist of items to make sure that John had everything that he might need on his journey while the two of us slowly edged our way outside. As soon as we opened the door, we were loudly greeted by Blitz who was nearly jumping up and down on the fence in impatience. The other three Pokemon were much laxer with Peren and Rockruff quietly conversing on the lawn while Wooper dozed nearby on the chair that Erin had been reading in yesterday afternoon. After rousing Wooper and another goodbye with John's mom, we finally exited out the fence with our Pokemon following in tow.

Despite our different destinations, John and I walked together for the first couple blocks, then halted when it was time for us to split up. John spoke before I could say my own goodbye, "Hey, let me know if you ever need anything; as far as I'm concerned I still owe you. My number should already be in your Poryphone."

"Nah, you won the battle, so we're definitely even."

"Only because of Leech Seed," John pointed out then shrugged. "Whatever. Just let me know, alright?"

"Alright, fine," I conceded with a chuckle, then added, "See you around then." When John nodded, I resumed walking north to meet back up with the river and he turned right to start making his way over towards where he hoped to earn his second badge in Hinckley. When he was finally out of sight, I breathed a small sigh of relief. After being nearly by myself for more than a full week, it had been a little exhausting to suddenly be around so many people. An impatient chirp from ahead reminded me that I wasn't completely free of exhausting influences, but I picked up my pace with a small smile nonetheless.

Despite our late start, I decided to end our hike a little earlier than usual since I wanted to try to get some training done. Before arriving in St Cloud, I had simply accepted my Pokemon's limited movesets as a fact and had figured that they would eventually learn new moves on their own. Given that we would have definitely lost the gym battle without Peck and Leech Seed, I knew now that that mindset was no longer an option and that I would have to take a more active role in my Pokemon's development.

Once I'd explained the plan and we had done all of our usual camp setup tasks, I retrieved the disc that I had earned yesterday and had taken up most of my thoughts during the day's hike. My normal inclination during a video game was to hold onto consumables indefinitely, wanting to save them until I absolutely needed them, only to never use them. However, my situation was too real for that sort of indecisiveness to be an option so I had eventually decided that I would use the TM rather than sell it. After another quick explanation for Blitz, I returned him into his Pokeball and turned around the ball, trying to figure out how to insert the TM like how Aeric had said. I didn't see a way to open the thin black line that separated the Pokeball's hemispheres so I was surprised when the Pokeball revealed a slot when I moved the TM near the ball.

After a final moment of hesitation, I inserted the disc and eyed it uncertainly when the slot closed back up and the Pokeball's button started to glow green. While it definitely appeared to be working, I had no idea how long the process would take. Deciding that there was no use thinking too hard about it, I set Blitz's Pokeball on my backpack and turned my attention to Peren who had been standing by patiently.

"While we're waiting for that to finish, let's go over what I want you to try to do," I started and Peren nodded earnestly. "You learned Leech Seed and that's great, but I want to see if you can figure out a damaging grass move as well. I figure that Bullet Seed would be a good option since I bet you can use Leech Seed as a starting point." To be honest, I had no idea if that was a valid approach since I had found online resources for training Pokemon to be extremely sparse. It turned out that most trainers weren't willing to post their training methods online for everyone to read.

Despite my own uncertainty, Peren nodded again as if it made perfect sense so I elaborated, "I think what you need to do first is practice using Leech Seed quickly so that you can send out more and faster seeds. Once you've made good progress there, then try to make the seeds tougher so that they don't open when they hit something and instead pelt them." I decided to leave the final step of my tentative plan unsaid, which was to go the other way with it and launch a single larger seed to act as a Seed Bomb.

A few minutes later, Peren was dutifully practicing on a downed log when I finally heard a ding from Blitz's Pokeball. Jogging back over, I picked up the ball and was surprised to see that the Pluck TM had been ejected and didn't look any worse for the wear after its use. I recalled that TMs had been made reusable at some point, which was a change that always slipped my mind. For once I was glad to see that my expectations of the Pokemon world didn't match up with my new reality. Knowing that Blitz would want to get started as soon as he was sent out, I returned the TM to its case and my backpack before finally releasing him.

Once Blitz was perched on a nearby branch, I started explaining my training plan for him, "So Aeric said that you would know the move after learning it from the TM, but you would still need to practice. I think the best way would be for you to try to Pluck leaves off of trees without damaging them, which I'm guessing will be a bit harder than normal because of Gale Wings." Blitz looked briefly offended at the insinuation that speed could possibly be a bad thing, before taking off to try out his new move.

His first attempt was about what I had expected and the leaf that he'd tried to Pluck from its stem was left as a managed mess. With a cry of frustration, Blitz began making pass after pass against the tree, leaving a section of massacred leaves on his practice tree. I was glad that I had decided to practice on leaves instead of berries until I realized that I hadn't actually seen any berry trees that appeared on just about every route in the games. With a shrug, I decided that they just must not grow here and turned back to watching my Pokemon's efforts.


Friday, September 15th, 2017

About an hour before I had planned on stopping for lunch, the path that we were following sharply turned east. From what I could remember, this section of the river ran almost exclusively south by southeast so the sudden turn was definitely unexpected when we were going upstream. I decided to check the map before continuing to follow the path and found that there was a short section where the river turned east before it made a u-turn and came back west. The footpath followed the river's unusual turn and after a moment of consideration, I decided that it would make more sense to instead trek through the wooded section for a few hundred yards until we met back up with the path. We weren't in a massive rush, but I would still gladly take a shortcut when one presented itself.

I regretted my decision almost immediately. Trudging through the thick forest was much more annoying than having to walk a little extra on an established path, but I was too stubborn to turn back. My Pokemon didn't share my distaste for the new route, with Peren easily walking through the undergrowth and Blitz being completely unaffected from his position in the tree branches.

We continued along the shortcut for a few minutes when the relative quiet of the forest was broken by a loud cry of 'Sssuuuuuuu' to our left. Startled by the sudden noise, I halted in my tracks and was even more surprised when Peren and Blitz bolted in the direction of the sound.

"Hey, wait!" I called, but neither Pokemon gave any indication that they heard and quickly went out of my sight. With a groan I resumed stumbling through the forest after them, hoping that I wouldn't lose track of their path. That ended up not being a concern since I heard a cry from Blitz every time I was unsure if I was going the correct direction and was able to readjust my course accordingly.

Peren was the first Pokemon that I saw when I finally caught up with them, but he didn't acknowledge my presence other than to flick his ears towards me when I stumbled onto what had become a battlefield. Further ahead was Blitz who was wheeling through the tree branches as he fought off two Sneasel, one of which was moving jerkily as electricity arced across its body. After watching the battle for a few confused seconds, I looked back at Peren and finally saw what had prompted them all to come to this part of the forest. Lying on the ground behind Peren was a small blue and white squirrel whose fur was stained with dark red blood. Despite its clearly grievous wounds, the Pachirisu's chest slowly rose and fell as it weakly took labored breaths.

I took an involuntary step backward, absolutely not prepared for the sight of a near-dead Pokemon after such a quiet morning. I was broken out of my shock when Peren turned to look back at me with pleading eyes before returning his attention to the battle that was unfolding in front of him. For a moment I wondered what I could possibly do to help before recalling that I'd been given a Potion back at the Monticello Pokemon Center. After several seconds of frantically rifling through my backpack, I finally found it and knelt down at the badly injured Pokemon's side. Now that I was closer I could see that blood was oozing out of three cuts: one across Pachirisu's chest and two deeper ones that ran down the full length of its tail.

With a sympathetic wince, I began spraying the full contents of the Potion on the wounds and was rewarded with the sight of the wounds slowly beginning to seal. Pachirisu twitched slightly under my ministrations and weakly cheeped but still didn't open its eyes or stir beyond that.

"Liing!" Peren suddenly called and I shot my head up to see that one of the Sneasel had made it past Blitz and was running towards the three of us. The other Sneasel tried to do the same, but Blitz forced it back with a Quick Attack.

"Tackle it!" I frantically told Peren, but the Pokemon resolutely stood still and didn't move until he had already been hit in the side by Sneasel's claws. Peren finally surged forward when the Sneasel paused between attacks and knocked it back with a full body Tackle. While Sneasel started to reorient itself, Peren didn't press his advantage and instead moved back to stand in front of Pachirisu and me. Realizing that he didn't want to give Sneasel an opening to get around him, I switched orders, "Sand Attack and Leech Seed."

Peren began to simultaneously kick up dirt and fire a salvo of seeds towards the predatory Pokemon that had resumed its advance. It might have been wishful thinking, but it looked like our training yesterday had already paid off since the Leech Seeds seemed to be flying through the air faster than I remembered. My hopes were dashed when Sneasel completely ignored the kicked-up dirt and slashed the Leech Seeds out of the air before resuming its charge at Peren. Once again it Scratched Peren before he forced it back with another Tackle, but this time when Sneasel was knocked back I saw that its claws were lightly stained red.

A loud 'Sel' made all three of us turn our attention to where Blitz had been battling the second Sneasel. It must have tried and failed to climb one of the trees in order to have better access to Blitz because I looked just in time to see it fall the last few feet to land hard on the ground. It shakily brought itself back to its feet, but even that small action was made clearly difficult between the electricity that was still arcing across it and the fact that Blitz continued to buzz it. The Sneasel that Peren had been fighting turned to give us a final glare before turning around and scampering towards its ally, making Blitz halt his attack runs. The less injured Sneasel helped the other to its feet and the two ran off into the woods. Blitz turned to chase them down but thankfully he came to my side when I called him back.

Now that the threat was gone, I finally returned my full attention to Pachirisu and saw the barely breathing Pokemon had managed to open its eyes and was staring unfocused at the three of us crowded around it. Realizing that there was still a little left in the Potion bottle, I sprayed the remainder onto its wounds making Pachirisu wince but steady its breathing somewhat. Despite using all of the Potion, the Pokemon's wounds hadn't fully sealed and there was still a small trickle of blood seeping out through its injuries.

With no other way at hand to staunch the bleeding, I turned to what I hoped would be the next best thing, "Peren, if you use Leech Seed and then I return you, can you have it heal Pachirisu like it did with Rockruff in the gym battle?" Peren paused a second to consider before he nodded, so I turned to Blitz for what I thought would be the more difficult ask and was surprised to see him already bobbing his head up and down. "Alright, use Leech Seed on Blitz," I said as I detached Peren's Pokeball from my shirt. Peren lightly launched some seeds that sprouted immediately when they hit Blitz's back and I returned Peren to start the redirection of the healing.

Within seconds the first blob of green energy floated off of Blitz and slowly moved into Pachirisu, but it didn't seem to have any immediate effect. While keeping a careful eye on the transfer, I set Peren's Pokeball on the ground and unclipped Blitz's. I wanted to be sure that I would be able to return him and cancel the Leech Seed as soon as Pachirisu was healed enough that it was safe to do so. After about twenty seconds of carefully watching the transfer, I noticed that Blitz was starting to sag slightly and Pachirisu appeared to be a bit more alert, though its bleeding still hadn't stopped. The next green blob made Blitz's legs give out, but he vehemently shook his head when he saw my thumb shift to his Pokeball's button.

I waited for two more energy transfers, then finally returned Blitz since he was barely staying conscious and I guessed that one more would put him out. I softly said, "You did great," before reclipping his Pokeball to my shirt and sending Peren back out so we could examine the injured Pokemon. Pachirisu appeared fully alert now and its bleeding had almost completely stopped, but I had no illusions that it was even close to being in stable health. With one final idea, I searched through my backpack to find one of my unused Pokeballs. If a Pokeball could halt the effects of a status condition, I reasoned that maybe it could do the same here and do the rest of the work to stop the bleeding.

Even though I was trying to save the Pokemon's life, I still felt it necessary to ask for permission first, "Is it okay if I catch you so I can bring you somewhere to be healed?"

Pachirisu's eyes went wide at the question before darting to look at Peren, who firmly nodded. A moment later, it looked back at me making another soft cheep and weakly nodding. Without wasting any time, I pressed the Pokeball against an unharmed part of Pachirisu's tails and it was sucked into the ball which instantly dinged. Pachirisu's Pokeball was immediately placed next to Blitz's on my shirt and I pulled out my Poryphone as I stood back up. A check of the map confirmed my fears that we were still days away from Little Falls, making St Cloud the nearest Pokemon center.

"We're turning around," I said to Peren and finally remembered that he had also been cut by one of the Sneasel. A quick look told me that it wasn't deep and from the determined look he gave me, I knew that he wouldn't accept being returned so I decided to not bring it up. With careful use of the map, it didn't take long before we made it back to the path to start heading back to St Cloud. As soon as we reached the path Peren and I was able to pick up speed to a fast walk now that I had more even footing.

Now that I was done with the map, I loaded up the Pokemon app in case there was something in there that could help, but the only information that was listed for Pachirisu was that she was female. I was about to put away the Poryphone when I noticed the contacts app and opened it after a second of consideration. I honestly didn't know how I expected her to help, but I knew I was in over my head so I tapped on the button to call Molly Tamarack. While I waited for the call to connect, I noticed that John Zimmerman and Catherine Lewis were also already listed in the app.

Tammy picked up on the third ring and warmly answered, "Hi Thomas! I just got the notification tha-"

"She's hurt bad," I interrupted and for once didn't feel bad about doing so.

Her tone instantly became serious and she urgently asked, "What happened?"

"Peren and Blitz heard her being attacked by two Sneasel and fought them off," I explained as I continued my half-jog. "I used the Potion I had and we did some Leech Seed healing, but it wasn't enough to stop the bleeding."

"Where are you now?"

"On a trail a bit less than a day north of St Cloud. We're heading back now but it's going to take a while," I answered, thankful for all of the endurance that I'd built up so far.

"Okay. I'll coordinate everything so they know you're coming. If you don't hear from me before then, call me back as soon as you reach a road." She clearly didn't want to waste any time, as I barely had time to say thanks before Tammy hung up. Thankful that the Pokemon Center would at least know about our arrival, I returned my Poryphone to my pocket and focused on finding the fastest pace that I could maintain for hours.

For the first half-hour, we had no issues on the trail but then skies darkened and it began to rain. It never got heavy enough to be considered a downpour but was still more than enough to make the trail turn muddy and slow us down. Thankfully, it also stayed warm out so I didn't have to worry about getting chilled given that I didn't have a jacket. The only pause that we made on the trek was so I could retrieve the last granola bar from my backpack to eat on the run. I felt bad that Peren couldn't eat anything for lunch on the go but consoled myself with the knowledge that I could always return him if he got too tired or hungry to continue. Neither seemed to bother him though, and he was able to keep pace with me despite his injury.

After a little more than an hour, my Poryphone rang and Tammy started speaking as soon as I answered, "I've arranged for someone from the Center to pick you up. How far out do you think you are?"

"At least a few hours still," I tiredly replied as I took another step, freeing my shoe from a pile of mud with an accompanying slurping sound. I had long since stopped trying to avoid the many puddles that littered the path. "The rain is really slowing things down."

There were some muffled curses on the other end of the call before Tammy spoke clearly again. "I didn't know it was raining up there. Okay, well, good luck and let me know if anything changes or when you get close."

"Will do. Thanks," I said before hanging up. I checked the map for the fourth time and once again was disheartened to see how little progress I had made between checks. The pattern of checking and being disappointed was repeated nine more times. Finally, I judged that I was about fifteen minutes away from a road so I gave Tammy a call to let her know, and she quickly ended the call to inform whoever was going to pick me up.

When I reached the trailhead I was immediately waved over by a woman with short green hair standing next to a car with an umbrella. Seeing my exhaustion, she hurried to my side and helped shepherd me to the car's passenger door. I barely managed to remember to return Peren before collapsing on the seat and closing the door behind me. As soon as I was situated, the woman rushed back to the driver's seat, started the car, and sped down the road.

I was just realizing the potential stupidity given that I got into a car with a stranger without any conversation when she spoke up, "What's Pachirisu's status? The Professor gave me the rundown but I'd like to hear firsthand."

I barely kept back a sigh of relief that I hadn't just helped myself get kidnapped. I had had plenty of time to think of what to say during my hike so I instantly recited, "She has three cuts: one across her chest and two down the length of her tail. She was bleeding badly and barely breathing, but improved after I used a Potion and my Deerling healed her with Leech Seed."

"The semi-stasis that a Pokeball induces means that she should be fine. And your other Pokemon? Are they injured as well?"

I hadn't expected that question and took a few seconds to try to remember if Blitz had been hit by either one of the Sneasel. I finally answered once I had decided that he hadn't, "My Deerling got cut too, but it didn't look deep. My Fletching is pretty out of it from the Leech Seed, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't hit otherwise."

She raised an eyebrow at that, clearing not having expected that I had used Leech Seed on my own Pokemon. Regardless, she continued, "A healing machine should take care of their injuries. If that's not the case, let one of the nurses know immediately."

I numbly nodded and then fell into a silence that only lasted for the ten seconds that it took me to realize that I was completely soaking. "Uh, sorry for getting your car all wet…"

"What?" She asked, then interrupted before I could repeat myself, "Don't worry about it."

Thankfully traffic was light despite the rain, so we reached the Pokemon Center in short order. Without waiting a moment, she asked me for Pachirisu's Pokeball before rushing inside, leaving me alone at the entrance. I slowly walked through the crowded Center to find a healing machine tucked away in one of the lobby's corners and placed my other two Pokeballs in the grooves. Once I had confirmed that the machine was healing Peren and Blitz, I shot Tammy a text letting her know that I'd arrived and thanked her for her help. With both of those things taken care of, I collapsed into one of the nearby chairs and decided to rest my eyes while my Pokemon were healed.

I must have dozed off since the next thing that I knew I was being lightly nudged awake. I instantly remembered why I was in the Pokemon Center in the first place and jolted back up. My sudden movement made my rouser step back in surprise and when I looked I saw that it was a Nurse Joy. She looked oddly familiar and after a second I realized that she was the woman who had given me a ride to the Center, now wearing a bright pink wig.

Seeing that I was alert, the nurse wasted no time in giving me a status update, "We're still treating your Pachirisu but all signs point to her pulling through."

I exhaled sharply in relief, "Thank you."

She accepted my thanks with a small smile, "Without the Potion and the extra energy she got from Leech Seed, we would likely be having a very different conversation." I made a mental note to thank Peren and Blitz for their efforts in saving Pachirisu. Now that her news had been delivered, Nurse Joy's smile turned into a frown as she looked down at me critically. "But now you need to take care of yourself. You'll catch a cold if you stay in those soaking wet clothes."

I grimaced at the idea of moving any more today but knew she was right, "Is there a Vigoroth's Rest nearby?" I resignedly asked.

"There's no need for that, the Center has facilities for trainers whose Pokemon need to stay overnight. It appears your other Pokemon have finished being healed so I can show you where those are."

Once again I thanked her before grabbing Peren and Blitz's Pokeballs and following her to a room in the back of the center that consisted of a small bedroom and an attached bathroom. I hesitated before entering the room and glanced down at my Pokemon who were staring back at me from within their balls. I cleared my throat and asked, "Can we see Pachirisu?"

"For now get some rest," Nurse Joy said as she just about shooed me into the room. "We'll know more about her condition in the morning and maybe you can visit then. Sleep well." Her last words were closer to a command than a well-wish so I reluctantly closed the door to my temporary room.

Once I'd peeled my still-damp clothes off, I took a shower for the second time in two days, something that had previously been completely normal but now seemed like a luxury. Despite how good the shower felt, I hurried through it so that I could wash Peren off since the healing machine hadn't cleaned off the mud that had gotten caked to his feet. Once both of us were dried off and I had changed into clean clothes, I finally exited the bathroom and sent out Blitz. I briefly thought about finding dinner, but was too tired to give it serious consideration and didn't want to incur the wrath of the resident Joy. Instead, I flopped down on the wonderfully soft bed and quickly fell asleep with Peren curled up next to me and Blitz nestled on the second pillow.


Saturday, September 16th, 2017

It was still dark outside when I woke up but I wasn't even tempted to go back to sleep given how ravenous I was. I slowly staggered to my feet and shuffled back towards the Pokemon Center's entrance with Peren following close behind and a yawning Blitz riding on Peren's back. As soon as we stepped into the empty lobby we were waved over by a Nurse Joy that I was pretty sure wasn't the same one as yesterday.

"Good morning!" She greeted cheerfully and I was about to tiredly respond in kind before her next words fully roused my Pokemon and me, "Your Pachirisu will make a full recovery! We will need to keep her under observation for at least another day though. Last time I checked she was asleep but you'll be able to visit as soon as she's up."

"Thank you so much!" I said with a grin and a glance at Peren and Blitz told me that they were just as relieved and grateful as I was.

Nurse Joy smiled brightly, "Of course! Oh, you must be hungry… I'll go get a bagel and some poffins, and then check to see if Pachirisu is awake while you are eating. Do your Pokemon prefer a particular type of poffin?"

After I'd stammered my thanks and told her that they liked dry and salty poffins, a fact I was fairly proud of myself for remembering, she busied away before coming back with our food a moment later. Once I'd thanked the nurse again and Peren and Blitz had been given the right poffins, I sat down in one of the lobby chairs so that I could check my Poryphone while I absently ate my own breakfast. When I unlocked the device I was greeted with texts from all three of my contacts so I decided that Tammy must have told John and Cait about Pachirisu during their check-in calls.

Tammy had responded shortly after my text the previous evening and simply said that she was glad that I had made it safely and she was glad she could help. John's message said that he hoped that everything turned out well and to let his family know if I needed anything while I was back in St Cloud. Cait's text simply said that she hoped that Pachirisu would get better, but there was a second text eight minutes after the first saying that she hoped I was doing alright too. I sent all three a text saying that Pachirisu would make a full recovery and thanking them for their concern. After a moment of consideration, I sent Cait a second message thanking her for her advice.

Shortly after I finished sending the final text, a red banner appeared at the top of the screen informing me that the battery had run low and that it could only be used for emergency calls. It somehow hadn't occurred to me to charge the Poryphone in the week that it had been since I'd received the device, but that was mostly because I'd never seen it dip below ninety percent. I returned it to my pocket with a mental shrug, deciding that I would have plenty of time during the rest of the day to figure out how to recharge it.

Once we had all finished our food, Nurse Joy let us know that Pachirisu was awake and that we would be able to visit as long as we stayed quiet. After I'd given Blitz a pointed look and he'd reluctantly nodded, the nurse led us back to another small room where Pachirisu was lying on a bed that was barely larger than a pillow. Pachirisu's eyes were closed when we carefully entered the room, but a second later her nose twitched and she perked up in her bed to look at us curiously. Peren, with Blitz once again riding on his back, and I slowly approached Pachirisu while Nurse Joy quietly excused herself from the room.

Pachirisu chirped happily at Peren and Blitz, and the three of them jumped into a full conversation while I silently held back. Since I couldn't understand anything that was being said, I instead focused on Pachirisu's appearance and was relieved to see that her wounds had been wrapped in pristine white gauze, presumably with stitches underneath. She had also clearly been washed since her previous dirt-covered coat was completely clean.

At some point during my inspection, I noticed the three Pokemon were looking at me expectantly so I coughed lightly before introducing myself, "Hi Pachirisu, I'm… Thomas." It still felt a little weird to give a name other than my own, but I didn't have much of a choice given that Peren and Blitz had only ever known me as Thomas. "I'm glad to see that you're doing better. The nurse said that you'd have to stay another day or two, but you should be good to go after that. If you want to, you're more than welcome to come with us, or I can release you if that's what you want."

I had barely finished my question when Pachirisu started shaking her head and excitedly chittering something. I was pretty sure that meant that she wanted to come with us and my suspicions were confirmed when Peren gave me a nod. Smiling, I said, "Welcome to the team then," and my sentiment was echoed by noises from Peren and Blitz. We stayed with Pachirisu until Nurse Joy came back and said that Pachirisu needed quiet to get some rest. After saying our goodbyes for now, we were escorted back to the lobby and I was left trying to figure out what we would do with at least a full day back in St Cloud.

A rumble from my stomach reminded me that a single bagel wasn't nearly enough food after barely eating the previous day, so I decided that our priority would be to get some actual breakfast. After that, we could stop by a store to restock our supplies, and then I could focus on finding something to pass the time. Training was always an option, but I wanted to give Peren and Blitz a day off after the stress of yesterday. I ended up finding the answer for what to do today when I noticed that one of the buildings that we passed on the way to the store was the city library.

My initial plan was to come back after my errands were done, but my attention was caught by a sign out front that simply stated 'Trainers Welcome!' in large font. Since we weren't exactly in a rush and my curiosity got the better of me, I returned Peren and Blitz so I could go inside and find out what the sign meant instead of having to wait until we were done shopping. It turned out that since many trainers didn't have permanent addresses, a trainer registration was a sufficient replacement and I was given a library card after a short conversation with a librarian. With a whole new world of possibilities now available, I spent some time wandering the shelves in an elated daze.

Eventually, I picked out two books to check out, both of which were weirdly similar to books in my world. The first was 'The Great Gastly,' which appeared to have the same general plot as the book that I'd read before, but all of the characters were Pokemon. Conversely, the plot of the second book was very different from the one that I was used to. In this world 'Catch-22' was about an ethical dilemma that a trainer faced as he tried to catch his twenty-second Pokemon which was a sufficiently interesting premise to get my attention.

I left the library excited to get in some reading on what would be our day off but forced myself to prioritize getting errands done first. The next stop was to refill my backpack with easy meals for me along with an extra amount of Pokemon food given that I now had an extra mouth to feed. The reminder of my newest Pokemon made me decide to buy three Potions and a Super Potion just in case. I was glad to have the safety net so that we wouldn't get in a dire situation like yesterday but had to wince when the food and Potions completely burned through one of the debit cards that I'd won at the St Cloud gym.

I sent out Peren and Blitz after I'd finished shopping and the three of us made our way over to a quiet park that was a few blocks away from the Pokemon Center. It didn't take me long to find a park bench in the sun to get started on one of my new books while Peren lay down on the grass next to me. As I'd half-expected, Blitz didn't seem to understand the meaning of a day of relaxation and he resumed his Pluck training within minutes of us arriving in the park.


A/N: Made my goal and got this chapter out on the same day that the chapter ends. Well, three years off but we'll call that close enough. I was pretty excited when I found out that it rained on Sept 15th 2017 near St Cloud and I definitely think that helped the scene even though it was a fairly minor detail in the end.

Thanks to Star for betaing the chapter and for giving me plenty of feedback on my many inane ideas and questions over the last few weeks.

My original plan for the next chapter was kinda lackluster, but I'm actually super happy with how it turned out in my outline so now I'm really looking forward to it. Next up is Chapter 9: Poison/Water vs Water/Poison.