Danm, I didn't break my update record. *Shrugs* Oh well, the chapter is here now. Better now than never right? Theme Music!
Sinnoh Region - Route 204
It had been a little over a week since the Littelfeild contest and Harry was on the road currently making his way toward Floarama Town. As usual, Sylveon was walking beside him as the two made their way down the road through the forested path.
'It won't be long till I get there,' Harry thought. 'What should I do?'
He knew another contest was scheduled there, but he didn't want to rush straight into another contest immediately after competing in one. He also wanted to avoid breezing through the town. One of the main reasons he had set out on this journey was to see this world, and what better way to see the world than by going sightseeing?
He reached into his waist pouch and took out his town map.
"It's called 'The Town of Vivied and Sented Flowers' so they may have a botanical garden or something." He said aloud as he zoomed in on the device.
As he was going to open the information tab on the town he noticed a map marker for a restaurant near, about halfway between him and the town.
"What's that?" Tapping it, the right screen opened to the words "Sweetest Cake Shop" over a picture of a lovely modern building, with large windows and an outdoor patio with tables and chairs. There were dozens upon dozens of photos of different cakes.
Harry's mouth watered slightly at the delicious-looking cakes. He lifted his wrist and checked his pokétch, he and his Pokemon had already eaten lunch early in the afternoon, and they had quite a bit of time before dinner so it looked like a perfect time for a little snack.
"Alright Sylveon, what do you say we stop off for a treat?"
"Syl!" His partner enthused next to him as they started walking down the road more briskly.
After another half hour or so of walking the building from the town map was now in view. People were sitting at the tables outside enjoying their cake and drinking various beverages.
As Harry walked up the steps, he was hit by a sweet scent that seemed to be made up of various sweet flavors.
A bell above the door jingled as the greed-eyed trainer entered.
"Welcome," Was the greeting he got from a young woman as she finished putting something into the display case behind the counter. She had light blue eyes and dark salmon hair pulled into a ponytail and was wearing a pale orange, short-sleeved, collared shirt and blue jeans under a pale green apron. "Do you know what you want or are you still looking?" She asked with a cheerful smile.
"Oh, I'm still looking," Harry told her, a little distracted by the amazing-looking cakes behind the glass, they looked even better than in the photos.
"Alright, just let me know when you're ready." She told him before busying herself behind the counter.
Harry perused the different choices for a few minutes before deciding. He looked down at Sylveon, who looked at all the cakes in delight.
"Sylveon do yoyu want one to?" He asked after seeing and feeling, the amazement his partner had for the excellently crafted desserts. He had already noticed several confectionaries were marked as Pokemon safe.
Sylveon sniffed the air around the display case before turning to Harry looking directly at his side pouch and giving an excited cry.
Harry frowned in confusion, knowing what the fairy type wanted.
"Are you sure?"
"Syl" His partner cried and gave a nod.
"Alright." He agreed before he made his way over to the till where the young woman was.
"Ready to order?" She asked, her cheerful dispassion never waning
"Yes, I'd like a slice of the fruit chantilly cake, and a pot of roserade tea please."
Alright, I"'ll have that ready in just a-Oh my gosh! That's a Sylveon isn't it?" She cut herself off midsentence, only just noticing the Pokmoen.
Harry was caught off guard by her sudden shift from cheerfully polite to excited that it took him a moment to register her question.
"Er yes, it is."
"Wow," She exclaimed, leaning on the counter to get a better look at the fairy-type. "My grandma told me about them and even showed me a picture of one but I never thought I'd see one here in real life. You must be from the Kalos region then, or have been there before right? "
"Mmhmm, I'm from Anistar City."
The woman's eyes seemed to sparkle at hearing that.
"Really? That's amazing! I've always wanted to go there." Harry turned to look when she pointed to a framed magazine on the wall. He could tell what was on the cover right away, he had studied extensively about his "hometown" and its most notable landmark was very easy to identify. The pitcher was primarily of a large multifaceted magenta crystal shaped vaguely like a flame, glowing in the light of sunset. The sundial was a bit hard to make out completely with the light from the crystal causing a magenta glare though it still looked beautiful, however off to the side in the foreground, and easily missed next to the glowing landmark, the silhouette of two people kissing could be seen clearly.
"Seeing that sundial in person is something I've just gotta do someday." She said wistfully before pulling herself back into customer service mode. "Sorry about that. The total will be 6.94"
"I hope you do, it's considered one of the ten marvels of the Kalos region," Harry told her as he went to pay for his snack.
She took the money, pulled the cake from the display, and plated a piece.
"Here you are, I'll bring the tea over when it's ready." She said, handing over the plate along with a knife and fork.
A few minutes later Harry was sitting at a small table in the corner of the shop and eating one of the best-tasting cakes he'd ever eaten, though honestly, he hadn't had that many cakes in his life. The chocolate cake he had while staying with Mis Fig had been ancient and stale, and though well-meaning and appreciated, the birthday cake Hagrid had made him had tasted strange and he had thought that the part giant may have made a few mistakes measuring the ingredients.
Thinking about Hagrid had him stopping mid-bite.
It wasn't often he thought of the wizarding world. Bake in the beginning for the first few weeks he had been here he had tried everything to push the thoughts of wizards and Britain from his mind and focus on the world around him. But after his little breakdown with Professor Rowan that night he had started just to let those thoughts and memories float around and only deal with them as they came. With good memories that brought guilt and regret at leaving, he would think about good memories he had made in the short time since his arrival. With bad memories that made him depressed or angry, he would use one of the meditation techniques he had learned from one of his psychic training books; he would think of the situation in his memories that had upset him and then think about all the reasons that it couldn't affect or happen to him now. But regardless of how he handled the memory flashes, one thing he would always do was search out a Pokemon for comfort; be it actively playing with the Pokemon in the research lab, or just watching them and feeling their emotions as they lived their lives, he would always feel better afterwords.
Seeming to sense his inner thoughts, a real possibility for the still-learning empath, Sylveon gave a gentle tug on his sleeve.
"Huh, what is it?"
"Syl!" Sylveon cried, looking at Harry's waist bag.
"Oh, right! You want your treat."
He reached into his bag to get out his treat basket and took a pokepuff out.
"Here you go, now we can both enjoy goûter." He said handing it over and getting an appreciative cry as his partner took the treat and started eating it with gusto.
"My my, a Sylveon. I haven't seen one in years." A kind but aged voice suddenly spoke behind him. Harry wiped his head around to see an elderly woman looking down at Sylevon, who was now looking at the woman too.
She had kind blue eyes behind a pair of oval glasses and was wearing a purple dress under a light green apron, her hair was grey with a dark mauve undertone and pulled into a bun on top of her head.
"Theresa said that there was a trainer from Kalso with a Pokemon in the shop but it's still a shock to see one here of all places."
Before Harry could respond to her, his attention was caught by the Pokemon next to her walking up to him.
"RaiRai?-Raichu!" It cried quizzically before becoming enthusiastic like all Pokemon did when first meeting the green-eyed trainer.
"Wow, a Raichu!" Harry said as he took out his Pokedex.
Raichu, the Mouse Pokémon, and the evolved form of Pikachu. Raichu's tail functions as a ground and releases electricity into the surface, which keeps it from shocking itself. It can shock with more than 100,000 volts, enough to render a Dragonite unconscious.
"Syl?" Sylveon questioned with a tilt of its head as the Raichu approached it.
"I just met a Pikachu for the first time a few weeks ago now I'm seeing my first Raichu, I wonder when I'll run into a Pichu?" He said to himself as he put away the device and looked down at the electric-type sniffing around at the last bits of Sylveon's pokepuff.
"Syl! Sylveon!" Sylevon cried when it saw what the Riachu was doing before quickly eating the remainder of the puff.
"Relax Sylveon. I don't think Raichu was planning on taking your snack." Harry said with a bit of a laugh.
"Sorry about that, Sugar loves sweets of all kinds and might have gotten excited at smelling something it's never had before. Those are Pokepfuffs correct?"
"Yes, they are. Uhm Sugar?" The green-eyed coordinator asked.
"Oh, where are my manners?" The woman chuckled. "My name is Abigail, I own this shop, and this is my partner Sugar." She gesstured to the Raichu.
"RaiRaiRai"
"Oh!" Harry said, nodding at the cute nickname for the Pokemon, which seemed especially fitting seeing as its trainer owned a cake shop.
"I'm Harry and this is my partner Sylveon, but you already know that. You're the first person I've met in Shinno who has seen a Sylveon before. Have you been to Kalos?"
"Yes, I traveled across the region with my husband, Omar." She told him, saying the name in a wistful tone.
"Granny, he told me that he's from Anistar City." The woman behind the front counter, Theresa, called out.
Harry looked over at her, confused at the significance of that fact and why she announced it until he heard a slight gasp. Turning back to Abigail he was surprised to see her with her hands clasped over her chest with a look of nostalgia, her eyes were unfocused but practically glistening with joy.
Harry watched her for a few moments, not sure what to do. He was about to ask if she was alright when she seemed to return to herself.
"Sorry about that, Anistar will always hold an extraordinary place in my heart and I was just reminiscing and got lost for a moment. Thank you for your time I won't keep you from your dessert, I was just curious about what Kalosian Pokemon was in the shop."
"It's no bother. But, if you don't mind me asking, why is Anistar so special to you? I don't have any memories of it and would appreciate someone else's impression of it."
Both Theresa and Abigail looked taken aback.
"You don't remember?" Theresa asked.
Harry shook his head. "A few months ago I woke up here in the Shinno region with no memory of growing up in Kalso or anything of the like up until that point. I knew my name and age, and things like that. But anything about my home region, Pokemon, or even traveling to Shinno? Nothing."
"Oh, how awful," Abigal said, looking aghast. Theresa was looking at him with a similar expression.
"It's not that big of a deal," Harry quickly reassured the two women. He didn't like when his fake backstory made people look so devastated. "I had some help tracking down my family in Kalso and I'm slowly starting to re-learn everything I should know. I'm lucky that I didn't forget anything more debilitating; like how to walk or speak or something like that. I can make new memories and my- my big sister has been telling me about Kalso and Anistar and how wonderful they are. But I'd like to hear more about it, from someone who doesn't live there day to day, or from some dry history book or website. And you seemed so delighted about your time there, I got curious. "
"Ah, I see," Abigail said with a small sad frown on her face for a moment before she smiled, "Well, in any case, I'd be happy to tell you about my time in Anistar."
She walked forward and sat at the other table next to Harry.
"It was fifty years ago. My husband, though at the time he was still my boyfriend, Franklin and I had just finished our journey together. He had competed in Sinnoh Leadge and I in the Grand Festival. We returned home to Floaroma Town to recuperate and think about what to do next. Then one day Franky came to me and told me that he planned to go to the new region that had been discovered the decade before and compete in their Pokemon league. And he asked me to go with him, and I said yes. Of course, if I had known what being on that ungodly ship for almost a year and a half was going to be like I might have attacked him for even suggesting it."
Harry had to stop himself from laughing when Abigail's look of found nostalgia turned into an almost comical grimace as she recalled the voyage.
"Heh, Grandma Abby can't stand anything more than a brief ferry ride when it comes to boat travel." Theresa chimed in from where she was listening.
"Yes, and that trip is how I discovered that." Abigail drawled, clearly remembering the trip she'd rather forget. "After those unpleasant fourteen months, we finally docked in Cyllage City." She continued, the sour look fading back to nostalgia." From there we traveled across Kalos for Franky to challenge the gym; the last one he challenged was the Anistar gym. And the Anistar gym leader, a young man named Valhalla, was no pushover."
Abigail didn't notice Harry's eyes going wide at hearing his "adopted" father's name.
"Franky lost his first time battling him without being able to beat a single one of his Pokemon. Now my Fancky was far from the best trainer in the world and he wasn't afraid or ashamed to walk away when he wasn't ready to do something be it a challenge in a gym or anything else, but he was as stuber as Tauros when he wanted to be. For almost a month he would do nothing but route between training, sleeping, and re-challenging Valhalla." Abigail frowned as she looked out at nothing as she continued. "I had to practically force him to stop and take a few minutes to eat most days he was training, and right after he'd go straight back to it. At first, I had thought it was because he was worried about not getting his eighth badge before the start of the Kalos league, but when I suggested he try another gym he was adamant that Anistar had been the eighth gym he had traveled to, and it would be the eighth badge he would earn."
She turned and looked directly at Harry, her smile back, and now she looked determined as if she was about to go into a battle herself.
"Then little by little he managed to improve his strategy. With every defeat, he would come up with new strategies, some that worked and others that didn't, but he kept at it. Then on his thirteenth challenge and just a week before the deadline of the Kalos league, after so many losses and seeing Valhalla's battle strategy method time and time again. Franky was finally able to come out as the winner. I don't think I'll ever forget how when the smoke cleared and he saw his Scizor still standing, his face went from pure determination to so unbelievably happy. He ran out onto the field near in tears and almost hugged his poor Scizor to death, thanking it profusely. After he received his badge he asked me to go with him to the sundial one last time before we left town. It was just before sunset when we arrived at the sundial, I had been to see it a few times over the month we had spent in the city but it would be Frankys first and I was so excited to share the experience with him. As we stood looking at that magnificent crystal Franky told me that he had another reason for wanting to come to the Kalso region and challenge their Pokemon league. He turned to me and said; 'Abby the main reason I wanted to come here and challenge the gyms was to prove to myself that I'm good enough to try to aim for the greatest achievement I could hope to accomplish'. Then, he pulled out a Pokeball, pointed it at me before opening it, and said, 'Abby, will you marry me?' inside was a ring. I was so absolutely blown away that I didn't answer for a moment as Frany stood still as a statue with the same determined look he'd had through his last gym battle. Right when my brain had caught up and processed what was happening the sundial started to glow and I cried out a 'Yes' before troughing my arms around him."
Abigail let out a sigh before turning to Harry, who was listening with rapt attention then pointed to the framed magazine Theresa had shown him earlier.
"That was our first kiss right after he proposed."
"Wait, that's actually you on the cover of the magazine?"
Abigail nodded with a smile at his shock. "A photographer was taking pictures of the sundial and one of his shots managed to capture it. A magazine running an article on the historical landmarks of Kalos chose it as the cover shot."
"That's amazing, and a brilliant story too." Harry praised, completely enthralled by the tail.
"Yeah, it is," Theresa chimed in "But my favorite was the one about the time you and Grandpa got separated in the cave and that stocked Grandpa because it didn't want him to leave."
Abigail slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle a sudden surge of laughter. "Oh, that incident was completely ridiculous. You could give me a thousand years to ponder but I will never be able to piece together how your grandfather managed to get himself into that situation," she said chuckling.
"Situation?" Harry prompted with a smile, completely lost but curious about the story that had the two women so tickled.
"Hum? Oh yes," Abigail took a breath and cleared her throat to calm herself down from the mild laughing fit. "Well, it was only a few weeks after we had arrived and were traveling through Refection Cave..."
Abigail had continued to recount Harry with stories of her travels through Kalos and then even moved on to talk about her exploits as a coordinator. Honestly, Harry was a bit awed by some of the things she had done, the woman had lived a very interesting life.
At some point during the spontaneous story time Sylveon had wanted another pokepuff which Harry had readily given to his partner, thought the treat had gotten Sugar's attain and Harry had given one to the mouse Pokemon too and got rave reviews if the happy noise and little sparks coming from the electric types cheeks were anything to go by. He had offered one to Abigal and Theresa who were also just as impressed with Harry's baking skills.
"These are even better than I remember. That or you may just be more talented than the pâtissière in the shops I visited." Abigail praised.
"Thank you, but I don't know about that," Harry said with a blush as he averted his eyes to the basket of treats on the table.
"Mmm, no. Grandma Abby is right, these are incredible," Theresa said, eating a puff across from her Grandmother." They're better than Granny described, I'm so happy I finally got to try it. These were the things I wanted to try most from your stories when I was little."
"Yes, I remember, you would always run straight to the desert section of the grocery store and ask if every pastry you didn't recognize was a pokepuff." Abigal chuckled.
"You said you've been a baker nearly your entire life Abigal, I'm surprised you didn't learn how to make pokepuffs after being in Kalso for so long," Harry commented lightly.
"I wanted to, but unfortunately I made a small mistake," Abigal said with a slight blush.
"I sent a box of pokepuffs home and a little 'how to' cookbook because I wanted to make them for the rest of my family and Pokemon once I got home. But I never took the plastic off the book because I knew I would be sending it home. So I didn't see that it was all written in Kalosian and the measurements were in a metric system that I'm not sure of, so it wasn't much help."
"Oh, well that's some rotten luck," Harry checked his pokétch. "Well it's a bit too late now, but if you're free I wouldn't mind coming back tomorrow and giving you a crash course on making them" Harry offered.
Both Theresa and Abigal looked surprised at his offer.
"Are you sure?"
"It wouldn't be an inconvenience?"
The two women asked
"No, not at all. I don't have anywhere that I need to be at the moment." Harry reassured with a smile.
At hearing that Abigail smiled back. "If you're certain then that would be just lovely, thank you, truly." She said cheerily, before looking out the window. "You were right though, it is getting a bit late."
Outside the sky had already turned a deep orange as the sun started setting.
"Sorry about that, I didn't realize I'd spent that much of the day chatting away?" She apologized, seeming a bit embarrassed.
"No, no, no I enjoyed listening to your stories. It was nice." Harry waved away the apology. It had been a pleasant time for him, and listening to Abigail talk about her journey had amplified his desire to see his 'home' region. Because of his lessons with Professor Sycamore, and the material sent by Olympia, he had a large amount of academic knowledge of Kalos. But hearing about the region through the eyes of someone as they were traveling on a journey made the region sound much more amazing than reading about it in a textbook.
On top of that, Harry had learned early on in this world that he enjoyed listening to people recount their adventures. He had spent many evenings just listening to Professor Rowen or one of the lab assistants talk about what it had been like and what they had done as trainers on the road, so listening to Abigail had been an unexpected treat.
"Alright now keep a firm pressure, and don't go too fast."
"Like... that?" Harry asked as he pulled the pipping bag away from the cupcake that he had just finished decorating with several small swirly peaks.
"Yes, that's very good." Abigail praised.
"Really?" He asked dubiously, looking next to him where she had a row of her cakes that all looked identical compared to his more distinctive-looking ones.
"You're doing fine," She reassured. "All you need is a little practice and repetition to get a hold of the technique but for now that's more than good." She gestured to his first attempt at decorating a real pastry.
The evening before Theresa and Abigail had offered to let Harry stay at the shop for the night instead of going all the way to the Pokemon center and back. Harry had been a bit reluctant but the women had assured him that it was no bother and that they had plenty of room, the shop had been an inn before Abigail had taken it over and they still had several guest rooms to use in the upper floor. After agreeing and getting a good night's sleep Harry had woken up early, like he usually did, and had gone downstairs to get breakfast for his Pokemon where his two hosts were up as well. After breakfast and getting the shop set up, both of which Harry helped with to the gratitude of both women, he started on the pokepuff lesson.
The baking lesson had gone well, Abigail being an experienced baker, had no issue following Harry's instructions and had made the basic pokepuff recipe Harry had shown her. He had also taken the time to translate the old cookbook that Abigail had bought all those years ago and they had also made a batch of those. As thanks, the older women had offered to show Harry some of her backing methods. The greed-eyed trainer had been shocked when she had shown him how she used Sugar's Thunderbolt and Focus Punch to caramelize and then pulverize barries to alter the taste and texture of her cakes. Harry was planning to test and see if Ralts could do something similar to the caramelizing with her Shock Wave.
At the moment Abigail was showing Harry some new decorating techniques on some of the cupcakes for the store.
"Honestly, decorating can be learned through time and practice. But making a flavor like this is an amazing accomplishment too." Theresa chimed in from where she was inspecting the frostings Harry had made.
"Oh, um thank you, but honestly, it's just the result of me messing around with different flavored berries and seeing what happens. It's not that impressive." Harry said, blushing at the compliment.
He had gotten better at accepting praise from people since coming to the Pokemon world but he was still easily flustered by it, especially when it was truly deserved.
"Hey, whatever works, works. Your puffs and frosting are delicious, so what does it matter what your experimentation process is?"
"She's right." Abigail agreed with her granddaughter. "By the way, Harry, do you have any plans for what you'll do after Flowaroma Town?"
"Not really, I guess go to Eterna City from there and challenge the gym?" He shrugged noncomituly.
"Well, if you're not in any particular rush to be anywhere then you may want to try heading to Redbrick Town."
"Redbrick Town?"
"Yes," Abigail took something out of one of the kitchen drawers and handed it to Harry; it was a flyer advertising a baking competition. "Redbrick Town is famous for its baked goods as well as its semi-annual baking and cake competitions. The next baking competition is in a few weeks and I think it would be worth your time to enter."
"That's a great idea," Theresa agreed.
"You think?" Harry asked dubiously as he looked over the guidelines printed on the flyer.
"Mmhm, I do."
"Your pokepuffs are fantastic if you don't win the whole thing I'm sure you'll place high. Plus they have some pretty great prizes for the top 5 entrants."
"Really," Harry asked, curiosity now peeked.
Looking back at the flyer there was a prize list in the bottom corner.
Consolation Prize- Berry Set (Cheri x10, Chesto x10, Pecha x10, Rawst x10, Aspear x10)
5th Prize- A 5 Set of Unique Pokeballs ( Fast, Friend, Lure, Heavy, Dream)
4th Prize- A 6 Set of Evelosion Stoens (Fire, Water, Leafe, Thunder, Moon, Ever)
3rd Prize- A 6 Set of Evolution Stones (Sun, Shiny, Dusk, Dawn, Ice, Ever)
2nd Prize- New City Bicycle (Color Optional)
Grand Prize- Mystery Physical Prize and an apprenticeship with renowned chef, Julie Kid, at her restaurant in Hearthome City.
Harry was surprised at what they considered the lesser prizes, the 5th through the 2nd sounded like they could be a first-place prize on their own. So whatever the Mystery Physical Prize was must be something spectacular.
'Well, part of being on a journey is having new experiences and I've never entered a food companion before.' He thought to himself.
"And Harry," Abigal said, getting his attention. Harry looked up from the flyer. "If you are still not sure about going to Redbrick Town for the bake-off. Then you might want to know that they have a Pokemon Gym there as well."
Harry's eyes widened slightly at that bit of information before he smiled.
Honestly, gyms still weren't all that exciting to him, not in the way contests were, but he truly did want to try again. And just like with his first contest and first gym battle, he had nothing to lose from just trying.
So if it didn't matter what gym he tried next, why shouldn't he try the one that was in the town hosting a baking contest? Two new experiences one trip. There was no downside as far as he could tell.
"Where did you say this town was?" He asked, sounding nonchalant but still sporting a pleased smile.
AN: Alright, for those of you who have watched the anime and know the storyline, know that I'm going to be taking some liberties with the canon with some of the 'characters of the day' that I'm going to be incorporating in the story from time to time. Unless they serve an important role in the canon story, they may or might not have had the same interactions with Ash and friends. Like with Abigail and Suger. Here, Suger only left for a short time to evolve and then came back on his own whereas, in the anime, he was missing for a while, and Theresa asked Ash to have his Pikachu pose as Shuger till the bake-off. Also, I have gotten rid of the icy and moss rock, and added in Ice stone early, although at this point it only works on one Pokemon in the region, Eevee.