'Now I know. Just a sleeping bag isn't good enough, I need a tent as well.' John's thoughts were bitter, as he trudged through the forest at the early hours of dawn.

John was not an early bird at all. The reason he was up so early was because he could barely get any sleep. First, the night chill and the tree John was leaning on made for some very uncomfortable sleeping conditions. For someone who has only ever slept in a bed, or at least on a carpet, those would be very difficult conditions to fall asleep in. However, that wasn't the only problem. After John had been asleep for an hour or two, he suddenly woke to several Caterpie crawling all over him. One of his arms had been completely covered in string, and all of the berries he had on him had been eaten.

After shaking the string off, John sent out Rhyhorn to fight the Caterpie, but Rhyhorn was fast asleep and wouldn't wake up no matter how much John shouted. Eventually John shooed the Caterpie away himself, but he was not happy about it. The rest of the night was pretty consistent with random Caterpie or Weedle bothering him. Not in as big of a group as before, since all his berries were already eaten. It was still a steady stream of bugs though, preventing John from getting any good sleep. The residual rashes from the poison ivy didn't help either.

At the present moment, John is forcing himself to put one foot in front of the other, praying he can get out of this forest before anything worse happens.

Fortunately for John, the hours of trudging ahead were for the most part uneventful. John had expected to be bombarded with Caterpie's and Weedle's like in the games (and the night before), but very few of them showed an interest. It was a surprise to John, but a welcome one, to be sure.

As the hours past, the sun finally rose high into the sky, dispelling the night chill that had stayed with John. At around noon, John finally started seeing other people, and every single one of them wanted to battle.

John was worried about this surprise gauntlet of trainers. Rhyhorn hadn't healed all the way from sleeping the night before, and he no longer had any Oran berries to make up for it.

This was a stark contrast compared to the abandoned roads John was walking the day before. Fortunately all of the trainers were either youngsters or bug catchers, meaning mostly normal and bug types. The types that Rhyhorn was excellent at handling.

As John was working his way through the trainers, he once tried commanding Rhyhorn to use Horn Attack, and Rhyhorn struck the target with its horn. It appears all the battling they had been doing had brought Rhyhorn up to level 15.

'The leveling here is going pretty good. Even when I power-leveled only my starter, I still had to do a little extra grinding outside the forest to get them to level 16. All things considered, I'm getting stronger pretty quickly.' John mused, happy with his progress so far.

Even if everything was further apart, leveling still seemed to be at about the same speed. Relative to the number of battles you do at least.

It was safe to say that Rhyhorn, being overleveled for the area, and having the type advantage over all of his opponents, was getting through the battles pretty handedly. Exhaustion was piling up, but by the time it got to the point that even John noticed Rhyhorn was getting exhausted, John was able to see the exit gate to the forest.

"Yes, almost out!" John said excitedly. The rush of all the money, experience, and progression John was accruing had temporarily dispelled his own exhaustion.

John happily marched to the exit arch, until a small green shape jumped out of the bushes and into his path.

"Huh?"

"Bulba?" The small green creature with a bulb on its back was staring at him, both curiously, and expectantly.

John was frozen for a moment.

'Wait, I can encounter Bulbasaur here? I thought this was Heartgold, not Let's Go. But if I can catch the Bulbasaur…' The team composition John was thinking of building was getting overwritten, and rebuilt with this new encounter in mind. Originally, John didn't plan to have a grass type, but he would still have good coverage for water, rock, and ground. Now with Bulbasaur in mind, he was working out the new best ideal team for him to collect.

"Saur!" The Bulbasaur made a noise to grab John's attention, who appeared to just be staring at it deep in thought.

"Oh, right. Battle time." John sent out Rhyhorn.

'With Bulbasaur, Brock will be a breeze!'

"Tackle, but don't hit too hard!" John commanded. Even assuming the Bulbasaur was around level 5, it should be weak enough to not knock it out. John hoped that telling Rhyhorn to not hit too hard would prevent the possibility of a crit. He wasn't sure though.

True to his command, Rhyhorn hit Bulbasaur with a Tackle, but it didn't seem to have the same impact as when he used it before. The attack still sent the Bulbasaur tumbling around. Vines shot out of Bulbasaur's body, catching itself on the terrain to stop its tumbling. Those same vines then lashed out at Rhyhorn, extending to cover the distance and smashing into Rhyhorn's side.

Rhyhorn let out a loud roar of pain, as the stone plating on its side visibly cracked. Rhyhorn's jaw was clenched, and its eyes strained to stay open. Rhyhorn partially collapsed to the ground, the leg by the area that was struck now unable to support its weight.

"Just keep holding on Rhyhorn!" John shouted, flinging a pokéball at Bulbasaur. The ball hit it head-on, and the ball absorbed Bulbasaur into it.

One

Two

The ball burst open.

"Dammit!" John shouted.

Before he could throw another one, Bulbasaur struck Rhyhorn with another Vine Whip. This time Rhyhorn could not hold on. More of its stone plating cracked, and its eyes spiraled as it collapsed completely.

"No!" John yelled, now flinging all of his remaining pokéballs at the Bulbasaur. One hit the ground right next to it, the Bulbasaur used one of its vines to slap the second one away, and in John's frenzy his last one missed by a wide margin. The Bulbasaur just looked at John blankly then hopped back into the bush it hopped out of.

"DAMMIT!"

Some of the other trainers in the area looked over at John confused, before returning to their own business.

"Ha ha!" John heard one of the trainers laughing at him.

"And what do you want?" John asked.

"Hmmm I think I want to battle!" The bratty kid said.

This girl was dressed like the Johto picnicker trainer class.

"Rhyhorn is my only pokémon." John said, already figuring the torment that was coming. Npc's that wouldn't leave you alone are always annoying.

'Wait, I skipped the old man's dialogue from before, couldn't I just do that here?'

"Aww, that's unfortunate." She continued. "I guess you have to go back to Pewter City and get healed up then."

John paused.

"Yyyyes. Yes I do." John affirmed.

The picnicker looked a little thrown off her game at John's sudden shift in attitude.

"Now if you don't mind, I'll be going back to Pewter City, where I started."

"Oh yeah, sure…" The picnicker, still confused, just let John pass.

John passed the arch signalling the end of Viridian forest, then chuckled to himself.

'Ha! I thought I'd have to go back to Viridian City after all that, but that really was the perfect opportunity to cheat the system!'

John was used to the game mechanic that would normally send you straight to a pokémon centre when the game detects that all of your pokémon are fainted. Either this game didn't have that, or somehow the interaction with that npc broke it. John hoped that wouldn't ruin his experience too badly. He remembered that time he did just one thing wrong in Red which broke his whole game. It didn't seem like that would be the case here, modern games tended to be much harder to completely break but…

'How far would technology need to advance for a game like this to exist?'

John hadn't quite gotten to the end of Shield before he was transported here, but even then the game didn't seem all that much more advanced than the previous one. A game as immersive as this one probably wouldn't have been made in John's lifetime, and definitely not while he was still young.

John finally looked up from his thoughts, and saw a long, long dirt road ahead of him, with the end out of sight.

John sighed, resigning himself to who knows how much more walking.

Finally after two more hours John arrived in Pewter City. The vibes John got from it was that it was truly the city of stone. The roads in this city were the first time John had seen paved roads in this world. It actually had concrete roads for people riding on larger pokémon, while having bricked sidewalks, wide enough for both people and pokémon to share. The city itself was also a lot bigger than John thought it would be. Viridian city was a lot bigger than John thought too, but when you got down to it, it was more like a village than a city, so it still felt small. Pewter City however, didn't have the small wood houses, but much larger cobble houses, and other larger facilities that looked like it was made of concrete. The only exception to this being the standard issue pokémon centres and Pokémarts, which looked like it was made of a white stone instead of a gray one. Marble maybe? John wasn't a rock expert.

John entered the electronic sliding glass doors, and basked in the first air conditioning that he has experienced since coming to this world. The building was actually pretty big, with other desks off to the side, and rooms upstairs. Those rooms were probably for pvp. John wondered if you could somehow contact Sarah if he went to one of those rooms.

"Alright, time to get Rhyhorn heal-"

There was a line.

"Are you kidding me." John said flatly, like it wasn't even a question.

'Oh wait, I remember there was a time in one of the games where there was somebody in line, and you just had to talk to them to get them to move.' The line was currently eight people long. John went to the end of the line, and tried striking up a conversation with the person in front of him.

"Hello."

"Uh, hey?" The man responded. He didn't really resemble a trainer class John recognized, but his clothes had a fire design, so maybe he trained fire types?

"So… uh… nice weather we're having?"

The man stared at John judgmentally.

"Are you one of those people who only talks to others to bother them?"

"What, no!"

"Shut up then."

John's attempts at speeding through the line were shut down before he even got past the first person.

At least the line seemed to be moving rather quickly, about twenty to thirty seconds per person, so John was only waiting a few minutes to get to the front.

"Hello, welcome to the pokémon centre. Could I please see your pokémon?" The nurse at the front says.

'At least she's always the same no matter where you go. Except the Team Skull one I guess.'

John hands over his Rhyhorn, and she puts Rhyhorn's ball into a machine that looks like it has six slots. She then interacts with a computer in front of her. It had a white and sleek design, but still didn't look anything like a certain popular brand named after a fruit.

'It's funny how this world looks one hundred years behind mine technologically, but when it comes to Pokémon it looks a hundred years ahead.'

"Oh my, it's pretty badly hurt." John heard the nurse murmur. Still though, after about fifteen seconds passed she handed the pokéball back to John.

"Alright, it should be all better now! Have a great day!"

"Thanks, you too." John responded politely, and left the line.

The exhaustion was getting too much to bear.

'Even though it's only around 2 pm, I think I'll have to call it here.' John could now barely walk, and his throat hurt every time he swallowed. His mind was getting hazy, and he knew he probably shouldn't fight Brock in these conditions. John decided to find somewhere to rest and work everything out the next day.

Sarah could confidently say that the ground was not all that comfortable. She woke up much earlier than Jason or Leo, probably due to her less comfortable conditions, and was uncontrollably shivering. The fire had gone out at some point through the night, so Sarah was lying still while the ground sapped her heat throughout most of the night. At least she had a makeshift pillow.

Sarah gathered some berries for when Jason and Leo woke up. They were a little hesitant to eat them, but they still did. They identified the berries Sarah found as Aspear Berries, normally used to treat the Frozen condition. Apparently the juice from the berry had some kind of chemical reaction with ice that brought it above freezing temperature, but it didn't have any similar effect with water. Just another mystery for Sarah to ponder for a few seconds.

The berry itself was kind of sour, but very quenching.

Jason and Leo let Sarah know that Cherrygrove wasn't much further, before packing up. The travelers exchanged their goodbyes, and went on their ways.

True to what Jason and Leo said, Cherry grove was about another four hours away. Even though Sarah was getting hungry for lunch, the sights there completely blew her away. Cherrygrove city was truly a city, extending further than she could see. The buildings were wooden, and styled like traditional Japanese architecture, but with a notable difference, that being it seemed more extravagant than Sarah would have expected. Most of the wooden buildings had a pinkish hue, indicating they may have been made from cherry blossom wood. Regular wood was still used in construction, but this city seemed to be leaning into its cherry namesake. The Ledyba clinging to the buildings kind of ruined the vibe though.

The roads between the houses were wide and smoothly cobbled, with no clear distinction between a road and a sidewalk. From what Sarah had seen so far, she guessed cars weren't all that widely used in the pokémon world. Instead these roads seemed to be exclusively for pedestrians and their pokémon.

Planted on the sides of the roads, in empty patches of grass, and pretty much wherever possible, Cherry Blossom trees grew, making a near constant rain of petals. They may have been different from the kind Sarah knew, but it had felt like mid-late spring to Sarah, so it being blooming season didn't seem far-fetched.

Along with all the extravagant buildings, and beautiful scenery also came with a slightly salty smell. At first Sarah didn't recognize it, but as she wandered into the city it was difficult to not notice the huge boats docked to the south. They looked like the kinds of boats people would pay to be on for some kind of tourism vacation. Like the kinds of boats that would carry thousands of people, and are outfitted with every luxury to accommodate them, but just a bit smaller.

Now having walked to the area of the city north of the docks, it was clearly super busy, the wide roads completely flooded with people and pokémon alike. It seemed like Sarah's guess about the tourism boat was accurate, because so many different species of pokémon were everywhere that it was causing Sarah's head to spin.

'Absol, Darumaka, Klefki, Golet, Trumbeak… Wow, yeah, there's a lot.' Sarah was seeing more pokémon at once than she could mentally individually name, but she was sure most of them weren't normally native to Johto, aside from all the Ledyba on the roads, which the people were struggling to walk around.

Having finally gotten her fill of the sights of this city, Sarah moved to the side of the road to assess her situation.

'Alright, so first, I need food.'

Sarah patted her pockets, and felt nothing.

'Problem, I have no money. Moving on, I need camping supplies if I'm going to keep proceeding through the region.'

Sarah patted her pockets one more time, still not feeling anything.

'Problem, I have no money. I could get money by battling, but…' Sarah considered what the kid had said before. Reward money from battling was because the trainers that battled had bet money beforehand. Sarah knew she was just a beginner trainer, so she didn't like her odds of beating some random person in a battle. What's more, most of the people in Cherrygrove were probably rich tourists, meaning they could afford to give their pokémon first class training. Or they could have just bought strong pokémon to use exclusively for battle. Of course those reasons for not battling were assuming Sarah even had anything to bet. She could bet her backpack, but then if she lost she would really have nothing. Maybe she could forage for some berries and bet those?

Just as Sarah thought that she saw somebody selling berries for ten Pokken each. That strategy might work, but it would take a lot of foraging, and it would bring in a minuscule amount of money. In order to make a lot off of that she would have to win multiple battles in a row, which didn't seem likely, and there was no way to make a considerable amount in one day.

Sarah was feeling pretty hopeless until she had an idea.

'pokémon centres do more than healing, right? I'm pretty sure Ash's party had bought other things from there. Maybe they've got some kind of service to help starting trainers?' It seemed like a longshot, but at least unlike the berries this longshot wouldn't waste very much time to check out.

Working her way against the tide to the less busy parts of the city, Sarah found a building with a red roof, not made of wood. Truth be told she had passed it on the way into the city, but was a little busy wandering around and taking in the sights.

As Sarah entered the pokémon centre, the electric sliding glass doors opening caused a wave of cool air to wash over her. The inside of the pokémon centre looked frankly futuristic when compared to the traditional wooden architecture outside. The floors were polished and shiny, and there were many tables to the sides. Some appeared to be booths for some kinds of non-healing related surfaces, and some appeared to be simply open tables for trainers to use. There was also an upstairs area, but Sarah wasn't really sure what was up there. There was a small lineup for the line in the center, which Sarah guessed was the healing line. Not because the line was in the center of the hall, but because Sarah recognized Nurse Joy's voice coming from the front of the line, thanking the trainer for waiting and wishing them a good day.

Sarah was pretty sure Amber didn't need any healing, so she opted to observe the side booths. Fortunately they were all labelled.

There were 'Information', 'Trainer Services', 'Requests', and 'Lodgings'. All of which sounded exactly like what Sarah was looking for. Information seemed like the best place to start, as it sounded like it could explain the other services more in depth as well, so Sarah walked over to the information booth.

The lady sitting at the information booth seemed to resemble Nurse Joy, but with noticeable differences. First, her hair wasn't styled at all. Nurse Joy typically had her hair up, this lady had her hair down. Second, she looked a lot less friendly than Sarah expected. As opposed to the Nurse Joy that Sarah knew, who was usually smiling and acting politely, this lady looked more annoyed at the prospect of having to deal with people.

"Um, hello!" Sarah started. The lady had seen her walking over, but hadn't said anything.

"Hey. What do you need to know?" She replied in a flat voice.

"Everything."

The lady sighed.

"New trainer, right?"

"Yes."

"Here's a pamphlet I made. Come back if you still have any questions after that." he lady handed Sarah a pamphlet. Just from looking at it a decent amount of skill went into making it. At first Sarah had thought she wasn't taking her job seriously, but now it seemed more like she just disliked talking to people.

Sarah obliged, taking the pamphlet and sitting at one of the empty tables.

Reading over its contents, the purpose of these booths is:

-Information: To guide new trainers on the rules for registering for the league, expectations, and benefits. Also to provide travelling trainers with information on local pokémon, plants, and events.

-Trainer Services: Registers trainers, and provides registered trainers with benefits based on how many badges they have. Trainers with no badges get very few benefits, and trainers with a lot of badges get a lot of benefits. Also deals with updating registered trainers statuses, and ranks.

-Requests: Handles local and region-wide quests. Trainers may complete these tasks for rewards. Anybody can use this service to put forward a quest, but they must provide the reward for that quest themselves.

-Lodgings: The purpose for this service is to give trainers staying in the city a place to sleep. Lodging quality will depend on the number of badges you have.

-The reason why many benefits are locked behind badge numbers is to encourage trainers to become as strong as possible for the pokémon league, where a region will be represented by its strongest trainers. This section was included expecting some people to complain about the preferential treatment towards more accomplished trainers.

This pamphlet was actually pretty in depth. Sarah wasn't sure she needed to ask that lady anything anymore. A clear path was laid before Sarah.

1. Register as a trainer

2. Take on a quest

3. Profit

But there was one thing Sarah wanted to say first.

Sarah went back up to the lady, who was once again looking annoyed at seeing Sarah coming back to her.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Thank you. The pamphlet was very detailed, you did a great job on it."

"Oh." The lady's annoyed face relaxed. "Thank you."

With no further interaction, Sarah went over to the Trainer Service's booth.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" Another lady greeted Sarah, also looking like a not-quite-Nurse Joy.

'Would it be rude to ask if they're like Nurse Joy's in training that just didn't get picked for the main position?'

"I'd like to register to be a trainer please." Sarah said.

"Ah, no problem. I'll just need your name, current pokémon, and confirmation that this is your home region."

"My name is Sarah, my only pokémon so far is Amber, my Eevee, and…"

Sarah paused. Johto wasn't her home region. In fact, her home region wasn't even in this world. Even if Johto would be the most accurate or acceptable answer, it would still be an outright lie.

"No worries if this isn't your home region." The lady said, making things a whole lot easier. "The only thing this answer affects is if you can participate in league matches on Johto's behalf. I can just put in 'Preferred not to answer for now', but if you take part in any tournaments involving multiple regions you will need to fill this out."

"Oh, thank you." Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. This issue has been put off until she can think of an acceptable answer.

"Ah, but I will need your last name, and a picture if that's alright?"

"Lorne, and sure, go ahead."

"Thank you."

The lady spent the next few minutes tying into her computer. From what parts of her muttering Sarah could hear, it sounded like she was running a quick background check, then inputting her information on some kind of form.

"Alright, that's everything sorted out!" The lady announced. "Here's a sheet of paper that you can use for the time being, your trainer card will be ready tomorrow morning."

"Thank you." Sarah thanked her, and moved on.

Sarah skimmed over the sheet of paper she received. It had all of the information she gave on it, as well as some official looking stamps, and a bar code. Sarah wasn't quite sure what the barcode was for. Anyways, next stop is the Requests booth.

"Hello. What can I do for you?" This lady spoke in a more cold voice, unlike the second lady, but not an annoyed voice like the first lady either.

"Could I take a look at the requests available?" Sarah asked.

"Trainer card- or sheet in your case."

"How did you know?"

"I saw you registering."

"Ah."

Sarah handed over her trainer sheet, and the lady scanned the barcode.

"The barcode will also let you access your pokémon Storage on the PC's along those walls." The lady pointed towards the front of the building towards Nurse Joy. To the sides of the large booth Nurse joy was at, the walls were lined with personal computer systems. There were a lot of computers, so the lines to use them weren't very long. The people there typed something into the computers, and pokéballs would either appear or disappear, just like what happened in Professor Elm's office.

"Anyways, we've only got one request available, and I doubt you could do it."

"Oh… what is it?" Sarah wasn't about to let herself be underestimated.

"You know that Cherrygrove is a hot tourist destination, right?"

"I figured that, yeah."

"Well, as we started getting bigger and growing more Cherry trees, we've found out that Ledyba actually love the taste of the cherry petals. Since we've expanded enough for the petals alone to be a valid food source, our city has been accosted by Ledyba every day."

"How long has this request been up for?"

"About a year."

"Huh, I would have expected some strong trainer to have completed it by now."

"It's not quite that simple. The Ledyba commonly hide behind humans when they're attacked, making it difficult for trainers to battle them. Also, even if a trainer does manage to drive them off, they'll only stay away for as long as that trainer stays here. At the current moment, all of the trainers who have taken on this request haven't been able to come up with a long term solution. Considering their numbers, directly attacking their nest would be very risky, even for an experienced trainer."

Sarah put her hand on her chin, deep in thought.

'This does sound really difficult, but there must be a solution.'

"What are the Ledyba's daily habits?"

"Go to the information booth for that." The lady said flatly.

"And one more thing… how would I take credit for completing this?" Sarah asked.

"You outline the method you used, and if the Ledyba stay away for three days after you leave, the request will count as completed. You can claim the rewards at any pokémon centre."

'So I won't get the rewards instantly…' That deflated Sarah a little bit. She didn't want to leave Cherrygrove until she had proper travelling equipment, but now it seemed unavoidable.

"Oh right, what are the rewards for this request?" Sarah finally remembered to ask.

"50,000 Pokken and three free items from the Pokémart Department Store."

"That's different from a Pokémart?"

"Ask the information booth."

Sarah sighed.

"Alright, that's it from me. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Have a nice day." The lady said in an emotionless voice.

Sarah went back over to the information booth and asked the previous questions she had. The lady begrudgingly answered. The Pokémart Department Store was much larger than the Pokémart, and had items more focused on travellers, rather than their pokémon. It would have things like winter jackets, hiking boots, water filters, simple tools, and of course, tents and sleeping bags. Sarah was the most interested in the last two items considering the night before, although water filters also sounded like a good idea.

The annoyed lady said that Sarah would have to come back later because it would take a while to compile all the information on Ledyba's daily habits. Sarah figured this was the case, and had already planned to take some time to explore for the day. She wanted to explore Route 30, since that was where the Ledyba's nest was supposedly located.

When Sarah exited the pokémon centre and started walking north, she noticed swarms of Ledyba now also heading north, like the city was being mass evacuated. Sarah didn't have anything to tell the time with, but based on the position of the sun it was probably around 1 PM. According to a passerby that Sarah asked, this happens every day at around the same time.

Sarah did her best to navigate through the crowded main roads as she eventually made her way out of Cherrygrove City onto Route 30.

Ledyba were certainly a more rare sight outside of Cherrygrove. During her hours of walking, she only saw a few Ledyba that were in large groups. During the later hours of the day, she wasn't able to see any Ledyba at all, however Spinarak became more common. Sarah at one point thought she saw something shiny between two trees, and went over to it only to get covered in sticky webs. It turns out that shine was the evening sun reflecting off the nearby invisible webs. Fortunately Sarah hadn't come into too much contact with the webs, or she may have actually gotten stuck. It was scary to think in this world how there were spiders who could hunt humans without the use of venom, they just so happened to be venomous on top of that.

During her exploration, Sarah did end up finding somewhere that looked like it could be the nest of Ledyba. There were a bunch of Spinarak trying to get close to it, but about a dozen Ledyba were guarding the entrance from any attackers. Sarah decided to not get involved in any fighting there. There were some Sentret, Pidgey, and Spearow here and there. The few Pidgey and Spearow that Sarah saw tended to go after Spinarak, making the Ledyba's job of guarding their nest easier. By sunset, Sarah decided to head back to the city. Thankfully the Route was pretty open, so she didn't get lost at night. If she had to guess, she arrived back at Cherrygrove around 8 PM. The annoyed lady in the pokémon centre had a completed report for her as well.

The Ledyba showed up not long after sunrise, and ate as many cherry petals as they could. They would hide behind pedestrians when attacked, but only left Cherrygrove around 1 PM. This behavior was consistent day after day. The information took a long time to compile because of all the additional trainer testimonies about the Ledyba, but most of that information wasn't all that important. The Ledyba's battle tactics and moves may have been important to Sarah if she planned on fighting or capturing them, but that method was completely infeasible. The numbers were not in her favor, plus, trainers more powerful than her had tried that and failed. Sarah had an idea, but needed to ask one more question for it.

"Do powder moves have an effect on people?" Sarah asked the Information lady.

The information lady looked at her for a few seconds.

"You're not planning on using those moves on anybody, are you?"

"No! I was just wondering if people aren't affected by them because they're pokémon moves?"

Again, the information lady looked at Sarah for a few seconds, though with an expression of judgment.

"Special moves are less effective on humans than pokémon, but they still work. For Powder moves specifically, humans could inhale some spores with little to no adverse effect, but a full on blast will apply that status condition no matter what you're facing."

"So if a pokémon inhaled those few spores, they would still be affected?"

"Yes. And please… note for future reference that pokémon's attacks can and will hurt you if they hit. Don't try tanking a Hyper Beam just because somebody told you it wouldn't hurt."

Sarah made an uncomfortable sound, then agreed.

'I wasn't asking about attacking moves, but my phrasing did make it sound like I just thought pokémon couldn't hurt me.' Sarah knew full well that pokémon moves could hurt humans. It was shown multiple times in episode one for goodness sake. Sarah was just embarrassed about sounding stupid. But it was good knowledge to know that humans actually had a resistance to all pokémon moves. That fact may very well save her life one day.

As Sarah approached the Lodging lady, she remembered that she never actually talked to her. She had no idea what the lodging arrangements were.

She really hoped that asking about the lodging wouldn't get her the answer of "Ask the Information Booth". The cold Requests lady had left a bad taste in her mouth.

"Hello." The Lodging lady said in a pleasant voice, similar to the Trainer Services lady.

'Whew, no more coldness for today!'

"Hello! I… um-" It still felt wrong to outright demand a room.

"I understand. May I see your trainer card?"

Sarah handed over the sheet of paper, and the Lodging lady scanned the barcode.

"No badges, and expecting your regular card tomorrow. I see. Anyway, here's your keycard. It will unlock Apartment 6, room 4." The Lodging lady gave Sarah a keycard.
"You must return this by 10 AM tomorrow, we do not allow anybody to stay in our rooms during the day, and you should have seven other roommates as well."

"Alright." After exchanging some short pleasantries, Sarah took the keycard and went around the pokémon centre. Behind the pokémon centre was like a plaza, surrounded by apartment buildings. From a brief observation, there appeared to be sixteen of them. Sarah went into Apartment 6, and entered her designated room. True to what the Lodging lady said, there were seven other trainers in there. The room itself wasn't very big, and had four bunk beds, and a bathroom attached as well. Unfortunately all the top bunks were already taken. All the beds looked to be pretty cheap, but that was to be expected for free lodging.

There were lockers to store belongings in. They seemed to work on a timer, meaning they wouldn't open until 9 AM, when anybody would be expected to be awake. It was likely a measure to prevent theft from other people in the room. The other trainers didn't seem all that interested in socializing, so Sarah simply laid down on the last free bed, and tried to get some good rest in these conditions. She knew she would have an early day tomorrow.

Non-Canon Corner

"Nice throw!" Sarah said, giving John a thumbs up.

"You better not have been referring to me trying to catch the Bulbasaur." John said in a quiet voice.

"Of course not. I wasn't referring to your capture attempts, I was referring to your battle with it!" Sarah says, laughing.

"Rhyhorn was four times weak to it! What else could I have done?!"

"Returned it just before it got hit?"

John stayed silent for a few seconds.

"How exactly would you have approached that fight?" John asks, genuinely wanting to know.

"Well, I probably would have tried talking to it first. If that didn't work, I'd strategically send out and return Rhyhorn to land hits without getting hit, and then probably get up close to make sure I didn't miss throwing the Pokeball."

"But what if you failed to return it on time?"

"It's not like Rhyhorn is great at dodging anyway. Even if you don't think you can do it, it's always better to try."

"Ah." John says, his voice uncharacteristically full of emotion.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just… if we never got separated… we would probably be unstoppable together, huh?"

"I guess so, but if we never got separated then I never would have met Amber. Besides, it's not all bad, right? You can still learn what to do on your own."

"It'll take something really big to make me learn." John says in a depressed tone.

"How do you know?" Sarah asked.

"I'd… rather not say."

There was a moment of silence between the two.

"Y'know, I'm not without my flaws either." Sarah began.

"Like what? Everything seems to have been going pretty well for you."

"I've been really lucky, but I know that if nobody wanted to help me, I'd be in a similar position to you."

"... Yeah, I guess you'd be in a tough spot if Elm didn't give you a starter."

"Or if Crystal didn't send those pokémon over, or if Mirei didn't want me staying the night, or if Jason and Leo-" Sarah kept going until John cut her off.

"I get it!" John started laughing, before his mood turned sour again. "Luck is a part of skill though, meaning my 'luck' won't get better unless I smarten up."

"Well… I believe in you."

"Thank you."