The smell of salt air and the light breeze signalled to us that we'd finally reached Hulbury. The journey had been relatively pleasant, mostly consisting of crossing over a smooth bridge. It felt like a vacation after the claustrophobic crawl through the mines, and I felt full of energy by the end of it, eager to get to the stadium.
"The lack of battles really saved us time, huh?" Alexa remarked, and I nodded in bewildered agreement, staring in shock at the beautiful seaside town in front of me.
"It took us less than a week to cover twice the distance!" Zach furrowed his brows in disbelief. We'd known the congestion was bad, but the journey to Hulbury really showed us just how much time we'd wasted earlier.
We did a quick pit stop at the pokemon center on the way to the stadium, to heal our pokemon and get a room. Alexa had caught a spritzee on the way to Hulbury so she also wanted to get a general checkup done.
The stadium was just as opulent as the others, however, it was considerably more futuristic looking. It was completely circular, with reflective paneling along the exterior and large diagonal beams jutting upwards at the sides of it. The way it glittered reminded me of the way the sea looked when the sun hit it. I definitely liked it more than the Turrfield stadium.
The interior was similar to the other stadiums, although with blue theming to reflect the typing. Our wait time was a bit shorter this time around, which I was extremely grateful for. Luckily, Hulbury was larger than Turffield, and I was sure I could find ways to occupy the time, since I didn't have my sight set on any pokemon nearby this time around.
We were in bright spirits as we headed to a famous restaurant called Captain's Table, which was always featured prominently in commercials promoting Hulbury as a premier vacation spot.
We entered the restaurant through its grand double doors, approaching the hostess who was behind a counter shaped like a ship.
"Hi, we'd like to get a table for three, please?" The hostess beamed, nodding and taking out a laminated menu. "Hello! Is this your first time at Captain's Table?" We all nodded in response, glancing politely at the menu.
"At Captain's Table, we take pride in allowing guests to create custom dishes! The way we do it is every customer goes fishing, and we cook whatever they catch after asking about their preferences. This way every dish is unique! Our custom dishes are our biggest hit, and we highly recommend you try it." The hostess then pointed to another dish on the menu. "If you'd prefer not to go fishing, we also have a selection of dishes made from fish caught fresh daily. We recommend the magikarp curry and the sliced octillery."
"It's not like we have much else to do, and I'm not that hungry, so I wouldn't mind fishing." I looked at my friends, who all seemed to be in agreement. "Yeah, I want to get the full experience!" "Why not?"
"Amazing! You can come back anytime, and we'll give you a price based on what you've caught and the dish we prepare. Do you have fishing rods?" We looked at each other, shaking our heads.
"You can rent them from the restaurant for 200 pokedollars an hour." Once we got all our fishing gear, we walked out in search of a good spot to catch our meal.
"What about the pier in front of the stadium?" Alexa pointed in the direction, where the pier was visible from the restaurant. It didn't take us long to reach the pier. I'd fished a bit before, as part of the test, but I wasn't too good at it.
We settled down on the wooden boards, casting our rods out while chatting idly. Fortunately, after a few minutes, I felt some light tugs. "Drift, get ready." Drift started priming herself up to shoot off a hex, eyes trained on the fishing rod. I waited for a strong tug before I started trying to reel the pokemon in.
My arms were aching from the exertion, my knuckles white from the force it took to keep my grip on the fishing rod, but with a sharp pull I felt a sudden give.
Splash! A long figure finally emerged from the water, and charged haphazardly in my 's right, I recalled, they were known for their poor eyesight. "Now!" Drift unleashed Hex, and fired off another one in quick succession. The arrokuda used Aqua Jet, but the condensed stream of water missed by a large margin. "Shadow Ball! Then Hex!" Drift obeyed, sending a shadowy ball straight into its vulnerable body, causing it to stop moving. The last Hex sealed its fate.
"Thanks, Drift!" I grabbed the small fish, wondering if it would be enough for me and my team, since the majority of the weight was from its jaws, not the flesh.
I turned around, to see Zach and Alexa finishing off their own battles.
"Do you guys think one fish will be enough?" I looked doubtfully at my catch.
"Thunder Wave!" Zach called out, attention solely on his battle.
Alexa turned to me, where she was holding her own arrokuda. "This is Zach's second one." She nodded to another arrokuda laying besides him. "I guess we should catch another one, then." I sighed, before casting, telling Drift we were going to do the same thing again.
The three of us walked back to Captain's Table, armed laden with our spoils. While Zach and I had gotten two arrokuda each, Alexa had gotten an arrokuda and a chinchou. Chinchou were pretty common back in Johto, but arrokuda had to be imported, so I was pretty pleased with my fish.
"Hello! Congratulations on catching your fish! Arrokuda are easy to prepare, and I'll go over a few options for you right now. Usually, we cut off its head, tail and fins to prepare a soup, which is very popular. We can also do a curry. However, we can also grill it up and slice it for you. The rest of the flesh, we can grill it, or put it in the soup to create a stew, steam it with different sauces or bread and fry it to eat with the curry and rice. All those options will cost 500 pokedollars. The chinchou will cost a bit more, around 700 pokedollars, since we need to cut off its antennae."
We told her what we wanted, paid the bill, and went to sit and wait. The aroma wafting from the kitchen made my mouth water, even though I winced a bit at the amount I'd just spent.
"We only get 5000 pokedollars a month." Zach chewed grumpily on a piece of complimentary bread. The league provided us with an allowance every month, which we were lucky for, since money was a big concern for trainers, with the cost that went into travelling and taking care of pokemon. Most trainers relied on battling as a source of income, which made it hard to buy TMs, let alone the outrageously expensive evolutionary stones.
The league allowance was enough to live on, but the costs of potions, food and pokeballs made it uncomfortable. I was planning on buying at least a few TMs once I reached Motostoke, and was thinking about ways to make more money. I was honestly pretty interested in getting a sponsor, although that would come in the later half of the circuit, once I'd distinguished myself in some way. That was the big money maker for trainers in Galar. Some trainers got an incredibly high amount, since they had multiple sponsors.
Every time I saw Leon's cape, I wondered what his bank account looked like. Sponsors absolutely threw themselves at him. Of course, he was a rare case. Most companies preferred sponsoring trainers who had a connection to their product, such as Macro Cosmos Energy sponsoring electric type trainers, or Devon Corp. sponsoring trainers with rare Pokémon for their luxury balls.
This was also done back in Johto and Kanto, but it was only for the very visible trainers, like the Elite Four and gym leaders, and more geared towards commercials. Since everyone was relatively visible in Galar, the advertisement themselves were more about having the logo and using the products, rather than doing commercials and advertisements. Those were only reserved for truly influential trainers.
"We can also check the job listings at the pokemon center," Alexa offered, looking downcast at the thought. "I hear the jobs are really random, and it's really up to luck if your pokemon are even suited for the jobs available."
"We need the money, especially after this meal, so let's hope they are. Oh, I think that's our food!" The mood perked up considerably, as all of us stared at the huge dishes coming our way. Our pokemon were even more excited than us, Zach's canines barely able to contain themselves.
I'd opted for a curry dish and a grilled dish for variety, and the sight of the dishes made me thoroughly grateful for my choice. I had no doubt this would be the best meal I've tried in Galar so far. All of us dug in with gusto, trying each other's choices.
We were only halfway through our meals when suddenly, our waiter approached us, a frantic look on his face.
"I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but the restaurant is closing for today. You must leave now. Your meal will be free of charge, and we'll pack up the leftovers for you to enjoy at home." I exchanged shocked looks with my friends, as we were unceremoniously kicked out.
"What the heck? How could they just do that?" Alexa asked, sounding completely shocked. I had a feeling none of us were used to getting kicked out anywhere, thanks to our privilege at home.
"Who are they shutting down the restaurant for?" Zach asked. A crowd was quickly forming around the restaurant, as we were shoved aside by security guards. I spotted a familiar secretary towering in her heels.
"Chairman Rose," I said, unable to hide the disgust in my voice.
"He has to be meeting with someone," Alexa pointed out, "He's not just going to eat alone with his assistant. I swear, it better be a big celebrity."
We hung around, trading speculations about who had interrupted our meal, when we saw a girl go into the restaurant. She looked very familiar.
"That's Bea!" Zach said, and I stared in confusion. Bea? Like the fighting type gym leader? Although, I realised the gym lineup wasn't the same as from my past memories, since Bea wasn't the current gym leader of Stow-on-Side. "She was the first first-year trainer to get both the grass and the water badge. I watched her match the other day. I think the announcer even said her dad is the current gym leader of Stow-on-Side."
I had a bad habit of skipping through the announcements, and it showed.
"She's the one I heard about, then! Since I know the trainer who was sponsored by Chairman Rose has a gym leader parent," Alexa said excitedly, and I grimaced. Ah, the fast track to becoming gym leader.
"I thought after the incident they were keeping information private now?" I frowned in thought. "Unless Bea wanted it known?"
"She was famous since before the circuit, since she's apparently some kind of fighting prodigy, so I think people would have found out either way," Alexa said longingly, but I had no doubt she was dreaming of the fame Bea had, and not about being a fighting prodigy.
"And we're competing against that? Someone who has private lunch meetings with the chairman?" I asked pointedly, and both Zach and Alexa shared my look. "It's not like anyone can say anything. The chairman owns everything."
"Hey! Don't talk about the chairman like that!" What? Oops. The three of us exchanged startled looks. I guess we weren't very quiet. The boy yelling was young, maybe around ten. He had white curly hair and a very angry look on his face. It would be intimidating, if he weren't tiny.
"Sorry, we were just saying things, we didn't mean it," Alexa soothed, managing to sound sincere, and the boy looked mollified.
"The chairman is a great man. He would never do anything like that. You shouldn't say those things."
"Do you know him or something?" Zach seemed amused, asking him teasingly. None of us were very scared of this preteen.
"He gave me my first pokemon!" Oh, Bede. Remembering how absolutely annoying he was on his quest to please the chairman, I decided to jump in. Boy, did that hero worship start young.
"Do you want to be a trainer? I would love to give you my league card."
Bede looked at me in consideration, but I could tell he was excited. This was going to be easy. I handed him a copy of my league card before pausing.
"Actually, here's my phone number. Let me know if you want any training tips or anything."
Bede's eyes practically lit up, even though he was trying to hide it behind an act of nonchalance. Hopefully, if I couldn't stop Chairman Rose before he started the final stage of his plan, I'd have Bede as a last resort. Maybe I could catch him a ralts or something since I did feel bad for the kid, who was so desperate for adult approval.
"Hmph. I supposed I can give you training tips, you look like you really need it. It'll increase the value of your league card, so I can sell it for a high price."
"Sure, Bede. Sounds good. Let me know if there's any pokemon I can catch for you or anything." At this, his disinterested demeanour completely disappeared as he looked at me demandingly.
"I would not be opposed to a ralts." Bede's head was raised high in the air, gaze narrowed down at me in suspicion, and despite being shorter than me, he somehow gave off the impression of looking down on me.
"I'll see what I can do. You'll probably have to remind me since I get kind of distracted." I noticed that Alexa and Zach looked kind of bored, so I gave Bede a final nod. "I should go now. Nice meeting you."
"I didn't know you liked kids. Especially such a rude one." Alexa laughed a bit, shaking her head in amusement at Bede's antics.
"I felt bad for him. He was waiting for the chairman." I decided to give a half-truth, before changing the subject. "I heard there's a market or something? Do you guys want to check it out?"
We managed to find the market, which was located in the southwest of town. It was bustling with people, crowded but somehow still pleasant, like we were doing a community activity. Vendors called out to us, hawking their wares or services. I wasn't interested in any of the herbs or incense, but I did buy a few specialty treats for my pokemon.
There were a lot of items themed around Nessa and her gym, most notably replicas of the uniforms worn by her gym trainers and Nessa, along with armbands that looked similar to the one she wore in battles. Alexa looked at some gold earrings admiringly, but put them down in defeat. "Knight's going to pull on it for sure. He can't help himself." Dark-types were notorious for stealing items, especially shiny ones. It was the biggest similarity they had to psychic types, who were well known for their admiration of metals. Even though Knight was no longer a dark type, he still retained the shiny-loving characteristic.
The biggest find from the market was a stall that sold evolutionary items. Alexa found a sachet, which was extremely expensive. It cost 30,000 pokedollars, six months of our league allowance. Alexa was on a call with her parents, begging them to send the money over.
Sachets weren't used by any pokemon other than spritzee to evolve, so they were expensive mostly because people who owned spritzee were usually rich, due to their history of being favoured by nobility.
"She's lucky spritzee are known for growing fast," I remarked, shaking my head. "All of my pokemon are so slow at growing."
"Only yamper's fast for me. I think Alexa's only somewhat slow growing pokemon is her corvisquire, and it already evolved so she's going to have an evolved team fast."
Alexa shot us a thumbs up, from where she was paying the merchant. As she walked closer, I could smell the most pervasive scent overwhelming my senses, causing me to wrinkle my nose involuntarily.
"Oops. I'll store it in my bag for now! I guess I got used to the scent. It smells kind of like Spritz, doesn't it?" "Yeah, actually, it does." Zach looked thoughtful, while I was just trying not to suffocate. While her spritzee was cute, I spent most of my time around it sneezing, eyes watering from the aroma. I had no idea how I was going to handle the scent once it evolved.
"After we check out the lighthouse, I'll go and evolve Spritz. I'm too excited to wait until tonight." Alexa was practically vibrating with excitement, and I couldn't blame her. I'd skip the lighthouse if I were her and go straight to the evolution. I guess she had more patience since she'd already experienced her corvisquire's evolution.
"I want to get some battling in, too, so that works out." "Yeah, I have some strategies I want to work on. I also want to see if I can get tickets for one of Nessa's battles. Do you guys want to come?"
The walk to the lighthouse was nice, leaving me refreshed from the nice breeze, but the lighthouse itself was underwhelming. I looked up at the tall structure, wondering why this was a tourist attraction, especially since it was closed off to the public, so we couldn't even go inside.
The most interesting thing there were the two toxtricity statues in front of it, each showing one of its forms.
Zach's toxel looked on in wonder, eyes wide, investigating the amped form closely. It was adorable how excited it was, and I could hardly imagine the cute attention-seeking toxel growing into the aggressive, short-tempered behemoth shown in the statues. I knew Zach would have an absolute monster on his hands, well worth the wait.
None of us were interested in sticking around much longer, so we went back to the pokemon center. Alexa was evolving spritzee in our shared room, so I went to the poke mart on the right side of the lobby. My battle with Milo had shown me a glaring hole in Mischief's battling was his defence. His small size and speed allowed him to evade nearly all attacks, but once dynamaxed, those advantages flew out the window. His large size meant he was easy to hit, while the scale of his opponents attack meant there was nowhere for him to go to avoid it, even with his speed.
Luckily, protect was an extremely popular TM, able to be taught to nearly every pokemon. It was one of the cheapest TM's, but still cost me a hefty sum. It was still easier than getting a TR, which had to be traded for with watts. I watched the numbers in my account go down, knowing it was necessary to survive my battle with Nessa.
I decided to go check the job listings right after, feeling eager to make up for my splurge. Unfortunately, most of the listings were for additional pokemon to help with fishing and working on boats, which my ghost types weren't well suited for.
"Oh, don't worry, dear. The job listings are updated everyday! I'm sure something will come up that you can do," said a kind lady, who took pity after seeing the dejection on my face.
"Thank you so much. I'll definitely check every day," I said, giving her a smile. I decided to focus on the bright side, which was having a TM that would serve me very well against Nessa. I could not wait to whip out Max Guard against her sea beasts.
AN: This one's more "slice of life" but I wanted to do some set-up for some plot points in the future. I also wanted a better understanding of Galar, so I decided to read the manga too, to get all three perspectives (anime, game, manga). Honestly, I stopped reading the manga a long time ago and boy, do I regret not picking it back up before starting this fic. Its inspired me a lot, and given me a new perspective on many characters and aspects of Galar. To reflect that, I've changed some scenes to more closely align with the manga's depiction of gym difficulty. This means that earlier conversations or thoughts about the gym challenge will make it sound even more challenging, and Milo and Nessa will be shown as genuinely difficult to defeat, although not to the extent of the manga where only about a quarter of trainers get the second badge. I've rationalized it as Milo and Nessa are younger here, and not as strong yet. The changes I've made are listed below, not counting some other superficial corrections (grammar, word choice and typos). Hope you guys enjoy it!
Chapter three: Added in that the league tries to help keep trainer information private due to a big incident a while ago
Chapter five: Changed from "everyone's going to beat Milo" to "Most people are going to beat Milo"
Chapter six: Added in that Astoria lost to Nessa
Chapter seven: Added in that people have barely lost to Nessa because the stronger trainers are facing her at this stage. Once more trainers make it to her gym, the numbers will probably more closely reflect her strength.