Chapter 34
(Ryan POV)
It was around 6:30 when I slipped out of the Pokémon Center. Sun still down, streets almost empty just me and my bag and the kind of quiet Jubilife only does for about an hour before it wakes up and gets loud again. I wanted to train. Properly. Outside, no half the city watching, no noise, just open space and the team and whatever we could get done before the day properly started.
Twenty minutes past the east gate I found what I was looking for. Flat ground, stream running along one edge, enough space that nobody was going to catch a stray Rock Blast. Nobody around either. Perfect.
Rhyhorn came out first.
She materialized, looked at the open ground, looked at the sky, looked at me and her expression said everything. Are we really doing this right now. Is this actually happening. Can I not just lie down.
"Rhy."
"Rhyyy." One long slow stretch. Every single joint.
"Horn Attack today. More damage behind it, better angle. You've been hitting too straight."
"Rhy rhy." Yes yes alright fine.
She started moving. Slowly. But she started, which before 7am with Rhyhorn was already an achievement.
Deino came out next. Nose immediately up, doing those slow turns he always does when he first comes out reading everything, getting his bearings. Back in Sandgem that used to take him a full minute easy. Now it was maybe ten seconds before he just walked straight over, head down, and pushed his nose right into my hand.
"Dei." Big smile energy. Full attention.
I scratched behind his ear. "Dragon Rage and Breath today. More range, more distance before it drops. Not just power distance. You hear me?"
He turned toward my voice, nodded once with that slow deliberate nod of his, and walked off toward the tree line.
"I mean it this time!" I called after him. "Not like a couple weeks ago when I said distance and you just made it louder!"
His tail flicked once. Probably a yes.
Such a goofball. I really didn't mind.
Prinplup stays in her ball while the others are going she gets near that stream and nothing else gets done. She knows it. She just doesn't care.
I sat down and watched them work.
Rhyhorn was hitting the boulder I'd found with her Horn Attack, driving into it over and over, testing angles. The force was there. The angle still wasn't right too straight, not enough lift at the end but she was working on it and she'd get there. She always got there eventually, just on her own timeline.
Deino was in the tree line. I could hear Dragon Rage going off at intervals, each one a bit further than the last. Good. That was exactly what I'd asked for. Sometimes he actually listened.
About an hour in Rhyhorn got her angle right on a hit that sent a chunk of rock skidding across the flat ground. She stood there looking at it for a second. Then she looked at me.
"That's it," I said. "That's exactly it."
"Rhy." She turned back and did it again. Same angle, same result. Like she'd just been waiting to find it.
I watched her run it three more times to make sure it stuck, then let her go at her own pace. She was good. They were both good. This was one of those mornings where everything just worked, and you didn't want to mess with it by overthinking.
About three hours in I heard footsteps behind me.
I turned around and there was Mara coming from the direction of the city, Empoleon beside her, walking out onto the completely empty flat ground outside Jubilife like she'd just happened to end up here by complete accident.
We'd said goodbye last night. I was pretty sure we'd said goodbye last night.
"Ryan! What a coincidence that you're here!"
I looked at her. Looked at the empty field with literally no reason for anyone to be here except me. Looked back at her. "Yeah," I said. "Total coincidence."
She grinned. You do you, that grin said.
"Okay but I'm training," I said, turning back to Rhyhorn. "You can watch. Everything else I'm doing myself the only exception is Prinplup's Whirlpool when we get there."
"Understood." She sat down on a rock. And Empoleon stood beside her and looked at Rhyhorn with the mild expression.
I went back to training.
Mara watched for a while without saying anything and I'd already learned that with her that meant she was actually watching, not just being polite about it. After maybe twenty minutes she said "is she adjusting her stance before or after the hit?"
I looked at Rhyhorn mid-swing. "Before," I said, and then I actually thought about it for a second. "Wait yeah, before. She's already in the right position before the horn connects. I hadn't consciously noticed that."
"That's why the force is there even when the angle's off. She's already committed."
I watched Rhyhorn line up another hit. Before. Definitely before. "How did you see that from over there?"
"Field research." She said it simply. "You spend enough time watching Pokémon you start seeing the things they do before they do them."
"Rowan's like that too," I said. "He watched Deino for about thirty seconds in the lab and I could tell he'd already figured out more than I had in weeks." I shook my head. "It's kind of annoying honestly."
Mara laughed at that. "He's been doing it for forty years. Give yourself some time."
"I don't have forty years."
"No," she said. "But you're not doing badly for someone who's been at this as long as you have."
I didn't really have an answer for that so I just watched Rhyhorn get her angle right on the next hit a clean crack, chunk of rock skidding across the flat ground.
"That's it!" I said. "Rhy, that's exactly it same angle, same weight behind it, do that again."
"Rhy." Obviously. She knew.
She did it again. Same result. Like she'd just been waiting for me to notice she'd already found it.
Deino came out of the tree line about an hour later, ears up, looking pleased with himself in a way that meant the Dragon Rage range work had gone well and he knew it and he wanted credit for it.
"Good?" I said.
"Dei dei." Very good actually, thank you for asking.
He clocked Mara, stopped, ears going slightly back. Not scared just recalibrating. New variable in the space he'd been comfortable in.
"Hey. You know her."
He looked at me. Looked at Mara. Walked over slowly and sat about two meters from her, which honestly for Deino with someone outside our usual circle was basically right next to her. Mara didn't move toward him, didn't reach out, didn't make a thing of it. Just waited and let him decide.
After a moment Deino made a small sound in her direction. Quiet, not alarmed. Just acknowledging. Like okay, you're here, that's fine.
Mara nodded back slightly.
I watched that and didn't say anything. Some things you just let be.
"He's doing well," Mara said quietly.
"Better every week. He's still careful with new people but it's different now. He checks instead of shutting down. That's new."
"That matters."
"Yeah." I watched him settle into the grass nearby, already half-listening for whatever came next. "It really does."
I let Prinplup out a few meters back from the stream.
She materialized, clocked the water, and just went. Didn't wait, didn't look at me. She already knew why she was here. One test jet before I'd even sat down completely business and the spiral started, held two rotations, fell apart.
Same as yesterday.
She reset without drama. Studied the current, really studied it, head tilted like she was reading something the rest of us couldn't see. Fired again.
I sat back. Mara dropped down beside me. We watched.
Then Empoleon just walked over. No signal from Mara, nothing from me it just moved to the stream and stood beside Prinplup like it had somewhere to be and this was it, and fired.
The Whirlpool came out clean. Not almost. Not close. Clean. Steady and deep, holding against the current like it belonged there and Prinplup went completely still and just watched it. Didn't move, didn't try anything. Just watched the whole thing the way you watch something when you need to understand every single piece of it before you touch it.
Empoleon let it run. Few seconds. Then stopped, looked at Prinplup, and waited.
Prinplup turned back to the stream. That forward lean she gets when she's not just trying anymore but actually figuring. She fired.
Two rotations. The spiral started to wobble and I thought there it goes
And then she caught it. Something tiny in the angle, something she'd just worked out from watching and the wobble steadied. Three rotations. Four. Five.
Six.
It held.
I stood up.
Ten full seconds before she let it go. She stood at the water's edge looking at where it had been, and then she turned around and looked at me.
"Pluup." Flat as anything.
But her chest was out about two centimeters further than usual. She knew exactly what she'd done and she knew that I knew and neither of us was going to make a big thing of it and she was absolutely making a big thing of it.
"That was it!" I said. "That adjustment in the middle when it started going and you caught it that's what you've been looking for. That's the actual thing. Five days and you just figured it out mid-move Prinplup."
One second of eye contact. Then she turned back to the stream and fired again, the adjustment coming earlier this time, cleaner, like her body had already decided this was just what it did now.
Empoleon had already walked away like nothing happened. Obviously.
"Told you she'd get there," Mara said.
"Yeah." I was still watching Prinplup fire again, the adjustment coming earlier each time, cleaner each time. "Five days. I genuinely thought it was going to take longer than that."
"Five days of not stopping is longer than it sounds," Mara said. "She hasn't let it go once has she."
"Not once. Every stream we passed on Route 203 she was at it. Didn't matter how tired she was or how late it was getting water nearby and she was already at the edge before I'd even stopped walking." I shook my head. "I stopped trying to pull her away from it. Figured she'd tell me when she was done."
"Did she ever?"
"No." I almost laughed. "She never did. I'd have to actually return her and she'd give me this look like I'd personally offended her."
Mara smiled. "And now she has it."
"And now she has it." I watched the Whirlpool spin out steady and clean, Prinplup already resetting for another run, not even pausing. Just next one. Always the next one. "She's going to do this another hundred times today."
"Probably," Mara said. "Would you expect anything less?"
I thought about it. "No," I said. "Not really."
We sat there for a while just watching her work. The stream, the spiral, the adjustment that came a little earlier each time. It was one of those things you could just watch not because it was flashy but because something was clicking into place right in front of you and that didn't get old.
"She's going to be something," Mara said eventually.
"She already is," I said. "She just didn't have this piece yet."
Mara didn't say anything back to that. Just nodded once, slowly, and we kept watching.
We packed up around noon.
Rhyhorn went back satisfied you could see it in how she was carrying herself, that settled look she got when she'd gotten what she came for. Deino went back calm. Prinplup went back last and didn't argue, which meant she had what she needed and was already thinking about the next session.
Good morning. Really good actually.
Mara walked back toward the city with us. The route was quiet, Jubilife getting louder in the distance. She mentioned a Budew colony near the northern river, a trainer she'd passed who had seven badges and still got swept by a wild group Geodude.
"How does that even happen," I said.
"Overconfidence. Didn't call fast enough." She shook her head. "Seven badges."
"Geodude are genuinely underestimated. I've seen it. Rock 'n' Roll on Route 203 nearly actually no, Rock 'n' Roll did not nearly do anything, Rhyhorn handled it completely fine, but the point stands."
"Rock 'n' Roll?"
"Some trainer named his Geodude Rock 'n' Roll. Said it would make sense when it evolved into Golem."
Mara thought about that for a second. "That's actually not terrible logic."
"That's exactly what he said. His friends completely disagreed."
She laughed. We kept walking.
At the east gate she stopped. I stopped with her.
"You're leaving now," she said.
"Yeah." I looked back at the city for a second Jubilife doing its midday thing, loud and indifferent. "Probably should have left this morning honestly but Prinplup needed the stream and I wasn't going to pull her away from that."
"No," Mara said. "You weren't."
"Route 204 today, Floaroma tomorrow or the day after depending on pace." I looked at her. "And then the Windworks. I know what the advisory says."
She looked at me for a moment. Not the easy social look the real one. "I know you know," she said. "I'm not going to tell you not to go."
"Good because I'm going anyway."
"I know that too." She tilted her head slightly. "Just the Windworks isn't Route 203. It's been six days. Whatever they're holding there, they're committed to it. That's different from two people in the dark."
I thought about Marsh and Tovey stepping out of the grass. About how that had felt. "I know the difference," I said.
"I think you do." She nodded slowly. "Okay."
Just okay. Same as always with her. I still couldn't tell if it was genuine or something else and honestly I'd stopped trying to figure it out.
"Take care of them," she said. "And yourself. Not just the team actually you, Ryan."
"I will."
"I mean it. You have a habit of putting yourself last."
I opened my mouth to say I don't do that and then thought about Route 203 and the chair I'd slept in and the fact that I hadn't eaten until Mara had basically dragged me to that counter place. "Okay maybe sometimes," I said.
She laughed. Short and real. "Go," she said. "Before I find another reason to keep you here."
I turned and faced Route 204. Team on my belt. Jubilife behind me. Floaroma somewhere ahead and after that the Windworks and after that Eterna and everything that came with it.
I started walking.