Working at the Canalave Library was an interesting job. You never knew what kind of book someone would want, and you never knew what you'd stumble upon, either. Especially during checkout – a lot to be found when everyone's tastes converge into one line.
Speaking of checkout lines, he was handling that today when an eight-year-old boy asked about any books related to fighting that were difficult to read. Since he was school age, he suggested the boy read Sunflora Tzu's "The Art of Warcrimes", but that he was probably too young to understand any of it.
Well, the boy didn't listen, and when he checked out the book, this humble librarian threw in a dictionary to help him out. Even the kid admitted he didn't understand the book yet, and that it was his goal to do that, after all. ...He probably should've given him a more simple dictionary, though. That one was for the nobles to read, but he just saw a dictionary and made it quick. Hopefully he'd give up on the book fast the second he got home, because that Bidoof seemed to understand the problem already.
Well, when Quonk and the Bidoof arrived where they needed to be after stealing some food, the boy opened the book up and found it... impossible to read, to put it lightly. It was written in a very old Hisuian, and it wasn't like the book was for kids originally, either. Since even the simple parts weren't making any sense, he decided the dictionary would be better to start...
But even the dictionary was too much. The definitions were absurdly verbose still, if recognizeably modern, and both Hisuian and Kantonian words were defined, but even the Kantonian made zero sense. A cat was "Felis cattus, a carnivorous domesticated feline", an apple was "Malus pumila, botanical Rosaceae", and verbosity was "Engaging in the conscious and deliberate exercise of employing an intricately fashioned, excessively prolonged, and meticulously constructed assortment of linguistic constituents, extending well beyond the intrinsic and indispensable prerequisites essential for the optimal and efficacious communication of a precisely formulated and distinctly articulated idea or message."
At this point he'd have to relearn both languages starting from the dictionary to understand anything!
...Wait, maybe he could do that, even though his Bidoof was looking worried right now.
And with that, when he had time doing what he needed to survive, he stared at the pages, and eventually lines became characters, characters became words, words became parts of a sentence... and they eventually became sentences.
He could finally read the entire dictionary... and now it was time to read The Art of Warcrimes.
...Interesting information. He'd find it useful against Rocket soon. He just needed to have the skill to execute his plan, so he'd go back to the library, and he'd find a book on Bidoof usage (especially concerned ones), a book on rhetoric, and a book on whatever else. Maybe a Galarian textbook.
That was going well until the following exchange.
"So... your library card's expired. Been like that for two years now."
"Then it shall hereby be declared to be renewed."
"...Sure thing, I'll just need a signature from one of your parents. How are they, by the way? Notice they're never with you when you're here-"
That look on Quonk's face probably nearly killed.
"...Okay, here's your new card, feel free to borrow whatever you like."
With that, he borrowed what he needed to, and he certainly practiced from then on. Hours of training, hours of speeches, hours of the occasional war crime... Seven years passed quickly from the day these things had become necessary originally.
Now, in accordance with the planning he had been advised to adopt... He required a comrade for purposes of aided assaults upon his foes.
And so, he valiantly set forth on the streets of Canalave City again, now to form this alliance, and perhaps eventually a grand organization.