V. Sinnoh II

Jileya groaned as she hauled a small plastic pool into place for her daily work, setting it down with a sigh. How many days in a row had she done this, now? She'd lost track, but faintly recalled starting this process in a winter coat. Working on autopilot again, she mechanically spread out the pool and called out her Pokémon. Beautifly fluttered her wings and made right for Jileya's head as she turned her attention to her other two Pokémon. The first was a medium-sized brown Pokémon with buck teeth and a black tail, which rubbed its eyes blearily before turning to look at her. Jileya, for her part, shifted her gaze to her other Pokémon, a white and brown Pokémon almost as tall as her with a fire coming out of its head that was doing its best to stifle a yawn. She wished they could all sleep some more, but there was preparation to be done. Hopefully, the extra minutes they got while she hauled her equipment out here without them would make up for it.

She sighed. The sun had just finished rising, and the most ambitious trainers would be out and about soon. Quickly, she took out a smaller bag from her purse and slid out the contents. She extended the fold-out fishing rod to its max length and handed it to Infernape, who wordlessly stalked off towards a nearby pond, hidden away in the thick forest that surrounded this route. Bibarel, meanwhile, had jumped into the pool and begun to fill it with water from his mouth as Jileya set up the plastic table she kept tucked behind some bushes in front of it, then excavating her journal, a clipboard with several pieces of paper, and some writing utensils. She found the poster board that she had initially decided was too cheesy before reconsidering it when people couldn't identify what she was doing and had Beautifly affix it to the front of her table with String Shot.

FREE ZUNECKOL TESTING - INQUIRE HERE!

Recently, she'd gotten a fair amount more proactive in stopping younger trainers. This was route 202, after all, and with Professor Rowan's advancing age and his assistants being busy in the lab trying to combat this Pandemic, most new trainers had to venture to Sandgem Town to get their first Pokémon. And new trainers seemed to be the most at-risk, for some reason.

Since nobody had shown up yet, she flipped to a page at the back of her journal, a spread full of tally marks. She knew it by heart, but still she looked at the endless array of lines.

Seven hundred forty-two people had listened to her and been willing to see if they were afflicted or not.

Out of those, roughly two hundred had had their lives changed forever.

And thirty-two of those names she had recognized when the news reported their deaths due to the pandemic. Each of those names had felt like a knife digging into her when she saw them, and she always redoubled her efforts when it happened. Now, it had almost consumed her life, trying to save someone, or find people that would be willing to submit to more extensive testing. So far, she hadn't been successful in either.

Just then, her thoughts were interrupted by a splash, and she knew without looking that Bibarel had returned with the first of Magikarp that Infernape caught. Her plan involved large amounts of involvement from all four of them, and they all went home exhausted, but her Pokémon agreed every day, and she was incredibly grateful. She'd come up with this plan in part to draw newer, more at-risk trainers to her station with the promise of a free Pokémon, even if it was just a Magikarp. Infernape and Bibarel had to keep her pool stocked up, and then the trainers would capture the Magikarp and she would battle and defeat it. If the Magikarp turned Comatose, they were afflicted and she would ask them to write their name down and if they wanted to submit to further testing for research. Nearly everybody said no to that last one, for different reasons. Most people still wanted to go on a journey, some people gave up and went home, and the worst…

They were the ones she didn't think about. People who threw the lives of them and their Pokémon away for the name of a challenge or bragging rights. To her knowledge, none of those people had completed their foolish errand without quitting or dying.

Jileya composed herself. Now was not the time for anger, now was the time for hope and science. She could already see people in the distance, and was prepared for a long day.

The sun was high in the sky when it happened. Jileya and her Pokémon had just finished eating lunch when a group of about five trainers, aged within 10 and 14 by her guess. They didn't seem that close-knit, judging by the relative distance between them and the lack of conversation, but they did appear to be somewhat unified. Her eyes were drawn to the smallest and presumably youngest one in the back, who was cradling a blue, somewhat avian looking bundle in his arms. She guessed it was a Piplup, and had likely just started out. The other ones didn't seem much less inexperienced, which worried her. She directed to Beautifly, who leapt off her head and fluttered to stop the group.

"What's this?" The one that was leading the group said. Jileya would've pegged her around 12, slightly old to start her journey, but the changing times may have played a part in that. Based on the reactions of the group, none of them appeared to have seen a Beautifly before, and she soaked up the attention as she fluttered around them before slowly moving back to Jileya. The children followed her, entranced, until Beautifly alit on Jileya's head and most the children clamored around her excitedly. The two exceptions were the boy with the piplup and another boy with black hair that was scowling at her. She ignored him and walked straight to the boy with the Piplup, both of which were visibly shaking. Additionally, the piplup had purple spots on its face and appeared to be sweating, both signs of a bad poisoning.

"May I help your Piplup?" She asked. The boy nodded silently, so she continued, explaining it as she went. From her head, Beautifly flashed green briefly and blew a wave of green particles around her and Piplup. The safeguard would prevent it from getting any worse in the next few seconds. "Piplup has been badly poisoned by something, and its condition has worsened alarmingly quickly as a result. Any sort of physical exertion is especially taxing for a badly poisoned Pokémon, who lose health far faster than a normally poisoned Pokémon."

The group, minus the dark-haired boy, were following her quite raptly. She reached into her bag and pulled out a vial of what could be mistaken for Perfume. She had crafted this with a combination of several Pokémon attacks, which she had borrowed from a friend. She placed it under Piplup's head and twisted the top slightly. "Now, breathe in…" she directly instructed the Pokémon.

Piplup did so, and almost instantly began to relax, and its trainer followed suit. She stood up and decided to impart some knowledge before she continued on with her goal. "You can find Antidotes to cure the Poison in Poké Marts, and should always carry some of those on you, just in case. If you're in the wild, a Pecha or Lum berry will also work. Lastly, when in doubt, go to a Pokémon Centre as early as you can, if it's possible to make it there before your Pokémon faints. Newer model Pokédexes can also check the condition of your Pokémon to help you make an informed decision."

The children took this in, some of them pulling out their own Pokédexes to check its features. She was about to segue into her real task when a voice cut her off.

"It's fake." Said the boy with the black hair, looking disdainfully at the sign on her table.

"What?" Jileya was taken aback. "What do you mean, it's fake?"

"That disease you're pretending to test. My parents say it's fake and that the government's polluting the water to reduce the number of Pokémon trainers so they have less resistance." the boy sneered. "You're just trying to get as many of us tested positive. Too bad for you, I'm too smart to fall for it!"

Jileya sighed a little. Were this kid not at least six years younger than her, she would have several good responses already. Sadly, she had to be professional. "Well, you are free to leave. I am not going to force you to take the test, but I will advise it. You'll also miss out on a Pokémon…"

This was enough to convince everyone but the tinfoil hat kid to stay and listen to her. Satisfied, she went back to her planned explanation. "As you may have heard, the Zuneckol Pandemic has caused Pokémon to enter a comatose state upon fainting if they are caught by a trainer which carries it. Unfortunately, there isn't any reliable indicator of who has this without letting a Pokémon of theirs faint, so we're going to set up a controlled environment for this. Behind me I have a pool of Magikarp. One at a time, each of you will catch a Magikarp and battle my Beautifly. It will most likely get knocked out, but that's the point. If I check the Magikarp and it's fine, you are not afflicted and can keep the Magikarp. If it isn't fine, I'm going to ask you to write your name down and send the Magikarp to Professor Rowan for studying. What you do with this knowledge is up to you. Understood?"

The children nodded with varying levels of enthusiasm, and it went smoothly until just the boy with the Piplup was left. Beautifly jumped off her head excitedly again, and the battle begun. As it was an untrained Magikarp, it had no chance, and Beautifly knocked it out in one attack. But this was different than the other three, and it didn't even remotely bounce back up. The boy fell to his knees as Jileya rushed to the Pokémon to check its condition, even when she already knew the answer.

"I'm sorry…"

She'd said those words to so many people now, enough to realize how hollow they were coming from her. To them, she was a stranger and the bearer of bad news. She was just a person doing her job, informing people of something that probably didn't matter to her but would change their life forever.

If only they knew…

Jileya was brought back to her senses by, of all things, laughter. She looked around, coming back, and saw she had moved mechanically, now holding a Poké Ball containing the poor Magikarp and saw that the boy with the Piplup was holding the clipboard. She looked around and saw the dark-haired boy from before, almost doubled over in laughter.

"Man, she had you all going there! Come on, do you really believe that just happened? You should have seen the looks on your faces!"

Jileya's expression turned almost murderous for a brief second before she composed herself and rounded on him. "If you do not believe in science, that is fine. But when lives are at stake, maybe learn some respect."

They stared at each other for a few seconds, Jileya fighting hard to maintain her professionalism. Then, he jumped up and began walking backwards, sneering. "Well, if you want to believe this crap, that's fine, but you're wasting your time! Later!"

Slowly, the rest of the kids began to follow him, torn briefly before leaving, their lives unchanged. The boy with the Piplup, whose name she read off her clipboard as Luca Thomson, remained there, unmoving from where he was before. Jileya got another glimpse into human nature that day, and as always, it led her back down towards the paths of fighting and long nights and ambition and everything that came with it. This was the kind of thing she had turned to science for, and seeing it in children disgusted her.

But she still had a job to do.

She walked over towards Luca, who was looking at his Piplup intently. He looked even younger like this, and she already would have guessed him to be around half her age. She kneeled down and begin to talk, forcing more tenderness into her voice.

"There's no shame in this. Scientists all over the world are doing their best to figure this out."

He looked at her, and she saw that he'd been crying. Piplup moved closer to him, and he froze completely.

"You won't hurt Piplup by touching it. In fact, unless Piplup faints, you should be able to live a normal life with it."

"It hurts." He replied simply. So many meanings, and Jileya was briefly at a loss for what to say. Quickly, she composed herself, trying not to retreat into the facts again.

"What are you going to do now?" She asked. She'd never asked this to anyone before, as very few people stuck around after finding out. Those that did usually weren't interested in talking to her after the news she delivered. He gradually moved over to Piplup and picked it up again, just sitting there hugging it until he calmed down.

"I think I want to go home." Came the response after about a minute. By now, Infernape and Bibarel had returned; they had to be home early today. Instantly, Beautifly launched off of her head over to Luca. Jileya smiled softly, as her Pokémon were always capable of knowing what to do in a moment. Wordlessly, she handed the Poké Ball containing Luca's Magikarp to Beautifly, as had been done so many times knew that Poké Ball would end up in Professor Rowan's laboratory within half an hour.

"Beautifly can guide you home and protect you from wild Pokémon if you live in the area. How far away is home to you?" She inquired.

"Twinleaf Town."

Oh. The wound in her opened up again when he said that. There was every chance she knew this boy's parents, although they would have had to be in Twinleaf Town for a few years now. She turned to Beautifly, nodding.

"Beautifly definitely knows how to get there, and if you need to battle, tell her to use Signal Beam. And Beautifly, if I'm not home when you get back, the back window is open." Beautifly bobbed up and down in the air affirmatively and Luca nodded before standing up and heading home. She wondered how excited he'd been when he started his journey earlier that day, and what could have happened if he hadn't been afflicted, just like she did with every life she changed. Shifting over to autopilot, she, Bibarel, and Infernape began packing up for the next, and hopefully much better part of the day.

Carson walked through the wide streets of Jubilife City, lost in thought. It had been almost nine months since he'd been back here, and a lot of things had seemingly changed. The city was slightly larger than last time, most chain stores had gotten replaced with new chain stores selling the same things, and the Pokétch company building had once again been relocated further out of the main square. There seemed to be an abundance of people walking with their Pokégear out, talking or playing games or something else. More than once he had to swerve around entire groups of people and Pokémon, and he disliked all of it. But he was here for a reason, and he hadn't seen Jileya since he set out the last time.

The Pokétch on his wrist blinked with a message as he rounded a corner towards his favourite Café, a small establishment called Solace that seemed to survive in a commercial atmosphere off of being very homey. Having the best baked goods in the entire city helped matters as well, and it was one of two things that Carson came back to Jubilife City for.

Jileya saw him at the window and waved. She wasn't in their usual seat, which was taken up by an elderly couple, but it was close enough. She already had both their food ordered as Carson came in to sit down. His black hair was longer now, coming down past his shoulders, and his red jacket hung off him more loosely than before, but otherwise he hadn't changed. She wondered how much different she looked - she had actually bothered to do her hair for this, a rarity these days. She smiled when he sat down, and he did the same.

"So how's my favourite nomad these days?" She asked. Already she felt the coldness her day work gave her slipping away. He shook his head in mock annoyance at the nickname.

"Good. I've got 289 Pokémon fully registered in my Pokédex now, and I've seen an additional 74. Did you know there's a small pod of Wailmer and Wailord east of the Pal Park?" He said, visibly cheering up as he got into describing his travels. This was the Carson she looked forward to seeing every few months, and she held onto every word, just like old times. He'd been south of Sandgem town for the past few months, trying to document the Pokémon closer to home so there was a greater chance of Professor Rowan being able to see it when he found a Wailmer. He'd tailed the Wailmer back to the pod while surfing and had managed to add both it and Wailord to his Pokédex before releasing both of them to stay with the pod. This was very exciting, as outside of an even smaller pod north of Sunnyshore City that was struggling, Wailmer and Wailord had mostly vanished from Sinnoh. Eventually, Carson turned it around on Jileya, prodding her to talk about her experiences.

"Well, you know…" She hesitated. "I've done the exact same thing for close to a year. I set up shop on route 202 and try and test people for an affliction. I ruin a lot of lives that way, and people hate me, and even today I had this tinfoil hat kid telling me it was fake to my face and then insinuating that I was trying to trick them. And even when everything goes right, someone's usually still having their life changed forever. I hate it, but I know I'm doing the right thing."

Conversation briefly paused as they both dug into their meals, Carson seeming to ponder what to say while doing so. Jileya enjoyed the companionable silence, there was something almost ancient in its familiarity. After he swallowed, Carson spoke again.

"Have you ever thought about trying to solve this issue?" He asked. Jileya must have looked as incredulous as she felt, because he quickly added on "finding what's causing this. It has to be a Pokémon or something, right?"

"No, it's some sort of disease." She explained. She felt the old familiar feelings begin to bubble, as they always did around him. She'd estimated half an hour since he'd shown up, this was about par for the course. He looked skeptical.

"A disease that transmits through trainers, but affects Pokémon. Right." He snorted. "Remember the lake spirits? They're probably not causing this, but there are Pokémon out there capable of such a thing that we might not know about."

"Oh, I remember. But science can find the cause and solve this." She said. He laughed slightly and tried his best to stifle it. She glared at him outright this time.

"I think you've spent so much time cooped up studying that you've forgotten what Pokémon are capable of." His voice was slightly rising now, and she could tell that both of them were struggling to remain calm. This was all too familiar…

"No, I think you've spent so much time out in the wilderness that you've forgotten how the world works. You don't even have a Pokégear!" She cried, going after anything she could now. He flared up, and it was just like old times again.

"I don't need one! My Pokétch does just fine! Besides, I don't want to spend the rest of my life looking at a screen." He seethed.

"Are you serious?" She practically yelled. "Do you know how dumb that-"

She was interrupted by a cough, and she turned to look at the couple at their usual table, which were now staring at her. She turned bright red and bowed an apology before going back to sitting down, and stilted conversation resumed as they tried to bring themselves off of the argumentative high. Eventually, they were talking again as though it had never happened.

"So, about the Pokémon." Carson tentatively brought up. "I was thinking of heading to the Spear Pillar to see if those Pokémon we met up there are back and causing this."

Jileya was slightly taken aback by that. One one hand, he'd only just gotten here, and would probably leave as soon as possible, which would cut into their catch-up time. But on the other, he was offering to help her, and it would prevent them from going back into fighting for a few weeks.

"Would you really?" She asked, and he nodded. She thought of something too, to extend her own olive branch. "Maybe I'll go to Kalos and stay with Aria for a few weeks. According to her, there's a Pokémon that brings death every thousand years or so. I have my serious doubts, but it seems possibly worth a look?"

He smiled slightly, knowing what she was up to. He was doing the same thing, truthfully. It's just what they did. "Well, I guess that settles it. Gets you away from the Magikarp massacre too."

This brought a smile to her lips as well, and they continued their dinner normally. Eventually, they split the bill and went back to her house, where Carson would sleep in the extra bed. Tomorrow, he'd set out, and she'd travel in more or less the opposite direction, just like their lives had turned several years ago, before they crashed back together again.

Notes:
Welcome back to the next thrilling installment of Aleris-can't-figure-out-how-long-a-week-is! In this chapter, I remember we have plot and struggle to write it. It was originally much shorter, but I decided I wanted to expand on Jileya as a character a bit more so I went back to the drawing board. Other things that delayed this chapter included school and a several-day-long debate on how to describe a penguin to someone who has never seen one. But it's here, and it's actually long this time.

Fun fact: The number of Pokémon Carson spouts off having in his Pokédex is the exact number I have in my Pearl one, which I'm still trying to complete to this day. All the trainers take names and Pokémon from my various save files, actually, so it's both weird and really neat to try and make characters out of them.

Enjoy!