Hitori stretched her body as she got off the train back in Hammerlocke. She was thankful it was nice and uneventful, even if she had to ride in the more crowded seats and pay for it herself. However it did give another question as she left the station, pulling her luggage behind her, namely should she just immediately leave to go on Route 7 to start making her way towards Spikemuth, or stay in the city for a while? It would be kind of awkward to go back home after how much they waved her goodbye.
Eventually, she decided to head straight onto the route, after she bought a couple of things with the first bit of money the league gave her to work with. She'd need to get some food to last her and her Pokemon the four or five days the guide said it took to walk the route, along with some wax that was both food, a treat, and highly helpful in Litwick's growth.
Her reasoning was simple, if she went back home, she felt like she'd put things off, and she'd probably end up wasting a whole week in her room. She knew this because it felt like such a nice thing now. That's why she would push herself to start now because she wanted to use this journey to improve and become a famous and cool, sociable girl! Though she certainly wasn't looking forward to actually walking that much. She could always just visit when she came back again, this time with a badge in hand as proof she did well. Hopefully.
This was why, Hitori took her time staring at the windows of different Pokemarts, before building up the confidence to walk in and browse. She even only barely flinched when the clerk asked if he could help her, she was improving already! It took until the second one, a more specialty store to find what she was looking for, containers of specially made Pokemon food made to cater to different types of Pokemon. The containers didn't list how much to feed each Pokemon, instead just providing a code that led to a site where she could look it up based on the species.
She glanced around the rather empty isles of the store and scanned it right away and began to look up whismur and litwick. No one was around so they wouldn't get mad at her looking things up, would they? 'Hey this gloomy girl is looking things up without buying them, that's illegal get out of my store!' her vision of the worst-case scenario played out in her head but despite the desire to just walk out and look it up in the street before coming back in. The idea of being seen walking in and out like that had a worse image in her mind.
A quick lookup told her that Whismur needed to eat quite a lot. One container would need her to rearrange things in her suitcase to make room for one. Even then Whismur would eat through the contents within two days according to the recommended amounts. Which meant having to get two, maybe three of them. Hitori looked at the price, it'd take up most of the initial funds the league gave her. Ah, it says it can be offset with berry gathering while on routes.
Litwick was thankfully much easier to feed, one container of the fire-type food would last nearly two weeks. She guessed that being a ghost-type meant not having to eat as much. Still, it meant having to get three containers of food in total. At 1300 P each, that was 3900 P total. She had 5000 Poke from the first week. That left her with only 1100 P to buy wax for Litwick. That didn't seem too bad, besides it was what the money was for right?
Hitori was also able to find bars of Combee wax deeper in. After the cost of the food, she was ready to deal with a rather expensive price tag, but was relieved to both find the wax and see that it was affordable. Just 200 P a bar. If she broke the bar up and gave a quarter of a bar to Litwick each day, she'd need, what 350 P a week? The mental math she was running through her head did remind Hitori that she did technically have study materials she could work through while on her journey. Maybe she shouldn't totally blow it off if she was going to have to do more mature things like her own shopping throughout her journey. Hitori shook her head slightly, those were thoughts for future Hitori. She grabbed four bars of wax just in case she needed to feed Litwick more, or Spikemuth didn't have any wax.
Committing to her selections, Hitori found herself thankful for the store having a self-checkout she could go to instead of having to look at the person who manned the counter. 'Technology is incredible!' Hitori thought to herself. Hitori was also thankful for her mom's advice when it came to packing, as it was her mom's idea to leave empty space for just this occasion. She only had to slightly move things around to fit the containers and wax in.
As she left the store, Hitori brought up a map on her phone to find her way to the entrance to Route 7. She was tempted a final time to just go home and rest up the night and use that time at home to practice and train instead of having to find a place to do it on the road. However she shook her head, she already told herself she was going to go straight out! It wasn't that hard to find a bus route that would take her to the bridge that led onto Route 7. While there were other roads out of the city, they led to more rural areas or a section of highway that led to Spikemuth.
Routes weren't the only means of crossing between towns and cities, just that they were used before cars were invented. Since so many people used it on their journeys, the Routes became a cultural icon, and rail, and roads were designed to leave the route as untouched as possible so new trainers could walk the same path their ancestors did. At least that's what the history books Hitori read in class said about them.
Hitori soon found herself on the bridge that led out into the Route. This would be the proper start to her journey. For real this time, she wouldn't be staying in an inn or going right back on a train or anything. Hitori took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves, then let both Whismur and Litwick out of their Pokeballs. "O-O-Okay, o-our journey b-begins now! Once we cross this bridge it's just us and t-the wilderness until we reach Spikemuth," Hitori explained to the two.
Whismur began to shake as she picked up on Hitori's own nervousness, while Litwick instead let out a confident cry and looked forward out onto the bridge. With a shaky step, Hitori began to walk across the bridge, Whismur following right beside her. Litwick tried to waddle along as well but lacking legs, the candle Pokemon was already falling behind the already slow steps of Hitori.
It took Hitori a few seconds to notice, turning around to give Hammerlock a final look when she noticed how back Litwick was. "A-ah Litwick!" Hitori let out and quickly rushed over to the ghost-type. "Aha, I guess walking that much will be hard f-for you. S-sorry for being such an insensitive trainer!" Hitori immediately began to apologize to her Pokemon. Litwick just gave her a look that she couldn't really understand.
After a couple of seconds of figuring things out, Hitori set Litwick down on top of her rolling suitcase. That way Litwick could still be out of his Pokeball without having to worry about keeping up. Now ready, finally Hitori properly began her trek across the bridge. It only took her a few minutes but it felt like a major step. Now if only it wasn't a single, tiny step in the whole scheme of things.
As Hitori and her Pokemon left the bridge and entered the route properly, she could see that it was quite the hilly area, with more sparse trees and plenty of rocky outcroppings. It only took her a couple of minutes until she saw wild Pokemon. Rookidee and corvisquire flying overhead, a couple of nickit who was rummaging through some tall grass, and even an inkay who was floating around in the open. Though the moment the inkay saw her, it hurriedly rushed off into the brush.
There weren't any other humans other than herself, at least as far as she could see. Even only fifteen minutes out from the bridge. It was oddly comforting, the wild Pokemon didn't bother her as much as people did and she could singularly focus on just putting one foot in front of the other. She even began to play music on her headphones that she wore around the neck, the sound was a bit quiet, but she could still hear it while being able to hear things around her. Whismur also heard the music and seemed to enjoy it as well. Meanwhile, Litwick couldn't from his spot on her suitcase.
The minutes soon turned to an hour, and Hitori was starting to lose that feeling of comfort and pep. She didn't consider herself out of shape or anything, but her feet were starting to complain, her shoulder was getting sore from dragging her suitcase behind her, and the sunny day was starting to make her sweat too much. Her Pokemon meanwhile were still fine. Whismur didn't seem too tired from the trek and of course, Litwick was unbothered because he had been riding along the whole time.
An hour became two and Hitori had to stop and take a break. She found a lone tree next to a pond and metaphorically crawled to the oasis provided. Happily dropping to her knees to enjoy the cool shade the tree provided. It wasn't particularly hot, but being out in the sun for hours was different than a short walk. Especially since she was carrying the extra weight of her luggage the whole time. "T-take, O-okay eve- Take a break," Hitori panted out.
Whismur and Litwick meandered off slightly, Whismur to take advantage of the pond to drink from and Litwick to pace around luggage Hitori left a couple of meters away from herself, dutifully acting a bit like a guard she figured. Hitori took her tracksuit top off and used it as a makeshift cushion under the tree as she fanned the band t-shirt she was wearing underneath to help cool herself off. After a minute or two of catching her breath, Hitori finished off the water she had brought with her and begrudgingly left the shade to refill her bottles. She'd really have to thank her parents again when she got the chance for all the helpful advice they gave when it came to packing.
A few more minutes passed and Hitori decided she'd spend some time training with her Pokemon over walking for another two hours or however long she'd go. "Whismur, we're going to train," She called out normally. Having no one around meant she didn't find it hard at all to speak up to Whismur. Hearing her, Whismur happily ran up to her and gave a cry showing she was ready. 'Maybe all the walking only got her warmed up?' Hitori thought to herself.
As Whismur's training began, Hitori started with having Whismur work on Supersonic. while Howl was relatively easy for the Pokemon to get the hang of, Supersonic required much more control. Initially, Hitori had trouble even guiding Whismur along. While playing videos with audio of other whismur using the move helped a little bit. Hitori could initially only watch with her headphones on as her partner tried to mimic the sound, largely coming out as deeper howls and screams than the mind-jostling whistle.
Since she was already sitting down and resting her legs, Hitori tried another way. Looking to build up Whismur's ability to make sound from the ground up. But before she did that, she stopped and got Litwick started on his training. "Ah, um Litwick, can you try, firing off ember again and again? It says that um, other litwick use it as a base to learn Will-O-Wisp," Hitori awkwardly addressed her other Pokemon, holding out the phone's screen towards the Pokemon.
Litwick gave her a rather incredulous look. Hitori interpreted it as him thinking something along the lines of 'No duh I know how to be a litwick'. "A-ah, Well also it should help get you used to it, so the fire can come q-quicker and burn hotter. T-there's also the pond over there so we don't have to worry about starting any fires," She quickly added.
He let out a cry and made the same air guitar motion with a more expectant look. "O-Of course, d-do well and I'll play more for you," Hitori quickly offered. That seemed to get a much more excited look on the ghost-type face as he went off to train. She still didn't quite know how she should act around her newest Pokemon. It wasn't like she could take charge, or act like a proper leader, or be all extroverted.
She watched for a little bit as Litwick faced the pond and swung his head around conjuring the floating fireballs that were his specific ember. He didn't bother holding them around and instead just let them fly out right away. When she read over Ember's entry in the Attack-Dex she got her information from, it explained that depending on the Pokemon, Ember acts very differently. How for a Charmander, it came from a fire-generating sac in the gut, but for Numel, their ember is the result of the small pool of molten rock in their hump that gets expelled. Apparently, Numel have a hard time aiming because of that.
Hitori was letting herself get distracted, the main point was that Litwick's ember apparently contained some ghost-type energy within it. Which is what allows them to control the flames after they are released. As well it's that mix that litwick will construct how they use Will-O-Wisp, Fire Spin, and even how they learn Hex. According to the website at least. Litwick was already seeming to struggle to keep using the attack in such rapid succession, so the training should really help him, probably.
With Litwick set up on his training, Hitori took Whismur back over to the tree so they could practice in the shade instead of in the sun. She took her guitar out of her case, "Whismur, I'm going to play a note can you try to copy it?" Hitori asked, without her usual nervousness as it was just her and her partner now. Whismur immediately gave a nod, though with a bit of a tilt of her head unsure of the point of it.
After first strumming and making sure her guitar was in tune. She started with the first note, playing it once and letting it ring out. Whismur listened to the sound and began to let out something between a hum and a yell. It took playing the same note a few times but pretty soon Whismur was harmonizing with the note, something closer to singing than the noise she was making before. Once Whismur was harmonized, Hitori moved to a higher note. This time she only needed to replay it once until Whismur was harmonized. The next note up Whismur got right away. A smile formed on Hitori's lips, her idea was that Whismur must have had trouble with the sound quality of her phone. That and Whismur's hearing must be sensitive enough that getting the more analog would give a truer quality of the sound being made. Not that she knew much about the science that goes into sound waves.
Once Whismur was started it was very easy to go note after note up the scale. Then she'd start going down the scale of her guitar until Whismur was harmonizing with the lowest notes. As they continued, the two of them started to reach a rhythm moving from one note to the next faster and faster. Right around the same time, the steady move from high to low notes changed to a simplistic song that Hitori used to practice a lot when she was first starting out without realizing it. At the same time, Whismur kept in sync with her trainer singing along to the song.
The sound was carrying over to Litwick who had been struggling to keep up the attack. He stopped when he heard the song start and went still for a few seconds, after which something in his expression changed. He immediately went right back to launching ember after ember with reinforced vigor and determination.
Nearly thirty minutes passed before Hitori realized she was letting herself get distracted just by enjoying playing the guitar. While she continued to play, she then remembered to listen to Whismur's singing. She was surprised that Whismur was keeping up even though the difficulty of the song had increased quite a bit. After the end of that song, Hitori wanted to try the attack again to see how much it helped if any. "Supersonic," Hitori called out while she played a note sliding across the fretboard to go from low to high hoping that Whismur would get the idea to keep going higher.
Whismur gave a nod and let out a cry that was high pitch enough that it only came out a high-pitched ringing in her ear. But more than that very visible rings of light were coming out of Whismur's mouth, expanding as they traveled further before evaporating. "Y-You did it!" Hitori cheered as she carefully set her guitar down on its case to avoid it getting dirty before running over picking her partner up and embracing her happily.
Whismur let out an embarrassed giggling noise as she squirmed around in Hitori's grip. When Hitori finally set Whismur back down on the ground, Whismur immediately showed off by using Supersonic again and again into the air. Which Hitori happily cheered for, all the while happy she was wearing her headphones the whole time.
Once the two of them had calmed down enough, Hitori let out a sigh. "Guess we have to continue walking, huh?" Hitori said to Whismur. Her partner didn't quite get her apprehension to keep walking for more hours so just happily cheered. 'When did my partner become so extroverted and outdoorsy?' Hitori thought to herself, not quite realizing that Whismur was happy purely for the same she was getting to spend around Hitori. Time spent without the loud noises of the city or other people and Pokemon around.
Litwick approached as Hitori began clearing things up. While Whismur was happy to show off the progress of her training, Litwick didn't seem to have the same interest in showing off whatever progress he made in his ember while Hitori was busy. Soon enough they were packed up and back on the road again.
