"Riolu, are you alright?" Orin asked quickly as he rushed over and knelt beside her.
"Riolu!"
Riolu responded cheerfully while immediately striking a flexing pose with one arm as if proudly declaring that she was completely unharmed.
Orin let out a relieved sigh.
"You should be glad I managed to brake in time," the girl on the bicycle said, one hand still resting against her chest.
"That Riolu came charging straight into the cycling lane right as I was turning."
Now that he was closer, Orin got a proper look at her.
She had short orange hair tied into a side ponytail with a blue hair tie, bright green eyes, and fair skin lightly flushed from exercise.
She wore a yellow cropped tank top that revealed her toned midriff along with red suspenders hanging over denim shorts that stopped around her thighs. Over it all was a Mystic House jacket casually left open.
Altogether, she gave off an energetic and refreshing vibe.
And judging from the dark skid marks left across the road and how close the bicycle still was to Riolu…
she was completely right.
"I'm really sorry," Orin said with a wry smile.
"I should've warned her properly not to run onto the cycling path."
Then he looked down at Riolu.
"Riolu, you should apologize to the beautiful girl too."
"Riolu…"
Riolu lowered her head slightly in what was either a bow or an awkward nod.
Well at least she tried.
"A-Ahem."
The girl suddenly coughed lightly into her hand and looked away for a second.
"Well… it's fine," she said, trying to sound casual again.
"No one got hurt in the end, so there's no need to make such a big deal out of it."
"You're very kind," Orin replied with an easy smile.
"I'm Orin, by the way. From Saffron City. First-year student at Nexus."
"Oh?"
Her eyes brightened slightly.
"You're a first year too? And from Kanto?" she asked in surprise.
"I'm the same. I'm from Cerulean Ci—"
She suddenly stopped herself, straightened proudly on the bicycle, and flicked her side ponytail back dramatically.
"Ahem!"
"I mean… I'm Misty."
She placed a hand against her chest confidently.
"The most beautiful girl from Cerulean City."
Orin almost laughed.
Yep.
That was definitely Misty.
Ever since learning Ash was here, Orin had secretly hoped he would eventually run into her too.
He just hadn't expected it to happen this quickly.
"And I don't doubt that for a second," Orin replied smoothly with a grin.
In those tight shorts and that crop top, she somehow managed to look both cute and genuinely hot at the same time.
"…Eh?"
Misty blinked at him, visibly caught off guard by how quickly he agreed.
"Why do you look so surprised?" Orin asked, amused.
"N-Nothing," Misty replied quickly, coughing lightly into her hand.
Then she muttered under her breath,
"He probably doesn't know about my sisters…"
Orin still heard it easily.
Of course, he knew about the Sensational Sisters of Cerulean City.
They weren't world-famous yet, but he had already seen clips of some of their Water Pokémon performances on PokéTube before.
Still, remembering how touchy Misty tended to be regarding her older sisters, Orin wisely decided not to bring them up.
"So, you're from Mystic House, right?" he asked instead, pointing toward her jacket.
"I'm from Lumina. Were you coming this way from your dorms?"
By now, Riolu had quietly moved away from him and was standing beside Elgyem while trying very hard to look well-behaved.
Thankfully, Elgyem was simply hovering silently nearby and hadn't attempted to "scan" Misty yet.
"My dorms?" Misty shook her head.
"No, I was coming back from Nexus Lake."
"Oh—that huge lake near the eastern side of campus?" Orin asked, remembering the map from the handbook.
"I saw it mentioned earlier."
"Yeah!"
Misty's eyes brightened instantly.
"It's enormous. And honestly, it's one of the best fishing spots around here."
"Fishing?" Orin repeated with genuine interest.
"So you actually know how to fish?"
He smiled slightly.
"I'd heard people from Cerulean really loved fishing, but I didn't know it was actually true."
"Hehe, of course it's true," Misty replied proudly as she crossed her arms.
"I'm going to become the world's greatest Water Pokémon Trainer someday."
Her grin widened confidently.
"So learning how to fish properly is obviously important."
"Wow… I really like Water Pokémon too," Orin said quickly.
"But Saffron City didn't exactly have lakes everywhere, so I never got the chance to learn."
Then he smiled hopefully at her.
"Maybe you could teach me sometime?"
"Sure!" Misty replied confidently.
"In fact, there were already a bunch of first years at Nexus Lake this morning. A lot of them were beginners trying to catch their first Water Pokémon."
She grinned proudly.
"Early mornings are one of the best times for fishing, after all."
"The students are already trying to catch Pokémon?" Orin muttered in surprise.
Suddenly, he felt like he was already falling behind.
He hadn't even seriously started thinking about catching more Pokémon yet.
"Well, can you blame them?" Misty said with a shrug.
"Once people finally get permission to own Pokémon, it's hard to hold themselves back—especially the ones aiming to become real trainers."
Then her eyes drifted toward Riolu and Elgyem.
"Though it's not like you've been wasting time either," she added.
"I know Riolu… but I've never seen that other Pokémon before. Where did you catch it?"
"Riolu was the partner Pokémon I received from the academy yesterday," Orin explained with a smile.
"And this is Elgyem. My sisters gave her to me as a birthday gift."
"Well…"
Misty puffed her cheeks slightly.
"Your sisters sound pretty nice."
Orin laughed awkwardly.
"They can be. Sometimes."
Then curiosity crossed his face.
"Anyway, what about you?" he asked.
"What's your starter Pokémon? And did you manage to catch anything at the lake today?"
"Oh!"
Misty immediately brightened again.
"I got a beautiful and amazing Staryu as my partner Pokémon yesterday," she said proudly with a wide smile.
"But I still couldn't catch anything at the lake toda—"
FLASH!
A red beam suddenly shot out from one of the Poké Balls attached to her belt.
The next moment, a yellow Pokémon appeared beside her bicycle.
It was a duck-like Pokémon standing awkwardly on two feet.
The Pokémon blinked around in confusion before immediately clutching its own head.
"Psyyy… Psyduck…"
"…Ugh."
Misty's expression instantly collapsed into frustration.
"Psyduck! Why did you come out on your own again?!"
"Elgyem!"
Elgyem immediately floated over toward the newly appeared Pokémon and began circling around Psyduck while "scanning" him curiously, the glowing gems on her fingers blinking rapidly.
"Psy… psyduck…"
Psyduck simply looked around blankly while continuing to hold its aching head with both hands.
"Wow… so you actually caught a Psyduck at the lake?" Orin asked in surprise.
So far, both of Misty's Pokémon had matched the ones he remembered from canon almost perfectly.
"Yeah… I caught it alright," Misty replied with a sigh.
Remembering the event instantly made her expression sour slightly.
After spending hours fishing and catching absolutely nothing, this Psyduck had somehow wandered past her, tripped over its own feet, fallen directly onto one of the Poké Balls she had left nearby—
and accidentally captured itself.
At first, she had been thrilled to finally catch a Pokémon.
But after watching Psyduck for more than five minutes…
Misty had slowly realized the truth.
She wasn't lucky.
The Psyduck was simply that dumb.
Meanwhile, Orin had already taken out his Pokédex and scanned it.
"Psyduck, Male. NexusDex Number 54. Duck Pokémon."
"It is constantly wracked by headaches. When the pain intensifies, it begins using mysterious powers."
"Huh…"
Orin looked thoughtfully toward Psyduck.
"Even though Psyduck is technically a Water-type, I've heard rumors that it actually possesses strong psychic abilities too."
He glanced back at the Pokédex screen.
"Apparently, because it doesn't properly understand those powers, they constantly give it headaches."
"…Seriously?" Misty asked, staring at Psyduck in surprise.
By now, Elgyem had already finished scanning Psyduck and had moved on to examining Misty's bicycle instead, floating around it in fascination while the glowing orbs on her fingers blinked repeatedly.
Misty kept glancing at the strange alien-like Pokémon with visible confusion.
"Well… I did an internship at the Psychic Center attached to Saffron Gym," Orin explained casually.
"So I know a fair bit about Psychic-types."
Then he smiled lightly.
"Maybe I could help somehow?"
He still remembered how Misty had never really known how to properly handle Psyduck in the anime.
"Really?" Misty's eyes widened immediately. "You'd actually do that for me? Thank you!" Before he could answer, she had grabbed both his hands excitedly.
"Anything for a beautiful girl like you," Orin replied smoothly with a wink.
"And honestly, getting into the good books of the future world-famous Water Pokémon Master sounds like a pretty smart investment."
"A-Ahem…"
Misty coughed lightly, suddenly looking a little flustered.
"Th-Thanks…"
Inside, however—
'See? I knew it!
A handsome guy finally understands true beauty!
Those idiots hanging around Cerulean Gym clearly had no taste at all!
Hmph… I'm obviously way prettier than my sisters anyway!'
Hearing Misty immediately start internally ranting about her sisters again made Orin realize one thing very quickly.
…She had a lot of pent-up feelings about them.
A second later, Misty finally realized she was still holding both of his hands.
"Ah—!"
She quickly let go and took a small step back.
"Sorry," she said with a sheepish smile.
"I was just really worried about how I was supposed to train Psyduck properly, so hearing you offer a solution made me a little too excited."
Then her expression sharpened with determination again.
"After all, I can't exactly call myself the future greatest Water Pokémon Trainer if I can't even train a Psyduck."
"I totally get it," Orin replied with an understanding smile.
"I'm the same way when it comes to Pokémon."
And honestly…
he was pretty happy he had just found himself a very natural excuse to keep meeting Misty in the future.
"So… can I get your number then?" he asked smoothly, pulling out his phone and sliding it toward her after opening the contacts screen.
"Uh… sure," Misty replied.
She quickly typed her number in before giving his phone a quick call so she could save his number too.
Orin grinned as he saved the contact.
"Getting the number of a pretty girl first thing in the morning…" he said lightly.
"This is turning into the best birthday ever."
"Oh—"
Misty blinked in surprise.
"It's actually your birthday today?"
"Yep."
He nodded casually.
"Crap…" Misty muttered while glancing toward the basket attached to her bicycle.
"I don't even have anything to give you as a gift."
"How about going on a date with me instead?"
"…Eh?"
Misty stared at him with wide eyes.
Even Orin could suddenly feel his own heartbeat speeding up.
Honestly… he had no idea why he had blurted that out so suddenly.
Maybe finally meeting one of his childhood crushes in person had short-circuited part of his brain.
Still, now that he had already said it—
retreating would only make things awkward.
So Orin simply smiled and doubled down confidently.
"Getting to spend time with the most beautiful girl from Cerulean City honestly sounds like a pretty amazing birthday gift to me."
"Well…"
Misty looked away for a second before awkwardly brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Alright then. Let's do it."
"Great," Orin replied a little too quickly.
"Rio~"
Looking down, Orin realized Riolu had started tugging impatiently at his pants again.
She was probably getting restless from standing around for so long after all that running.
"Oh, you guys should continue your morning jog," Misty said as she took out her Poké Ball and recalled Psyduck in a flash of red light.
"I should probably head back to my dorm anyway."
"Ah, you're leaving already?" Orin asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We haven't even decided where or when this date is happening yet."
Misty immediately looked slightly flustered again.
"Well… just message me after you figure it out," she replied quickly as she climbed back onto her bicycle.
"I'll be there on time."
Then she gave him a bright smile.
"Goodbye, Orin! And happy birthday again!"
With that, she pushed down on the pedals and smoothly rode away along the cycling lane.
Watching her disappear into the distance, Orin resisted the urge to warn her to keep a close eye on her bicycle—especially around any black-haired boy wearing a cap with a Pikachu on his shoulder.
The next instant, something else caught his attention.
Displayed proudly across the back of her jacket was the emblem of Mystic House.
A glowing Mew surrounded by rings of elemental symbols and a blue aura.
Honestly… it looked really beautiful.
That thought lasted exactly two seconds before Orin's gaze drifted slightly lower toward the bicycle seat—
and Misty's tight butt resting on it as she pedaled away.
"…Anime really didn't do her justice," Orin muttered under his breath with a grin.
---
[Orin Murasaki registered Misty's Number]
---
***
The commissioned art works of:
Misty on a Bicycle wearing Mystic House Jackets (Front & Back)
&
Mystic House Mural
are available for the members of Pokémon Master Tier!