Slowpoke blinked and it didn't attack.
Was it that the Pokémon hadn't heard the command or what?
Except Slowpoke had heard the command… it was simply so slow that it hadn't reacted yet.
Its mouth opened seconds later and even the process of gathering water for the Water Gun was happening at the pace of something that had decided not to rush anything, ever, in its entire life.
I think I'm starting to see why this guy is an Eternal Z.
"Fletchling, Quick Peck." I said with a sigh.
The white light surrounded Fletchling in an instant… that familiar flare of Quick Attack energy wrapping around her frame and she shot forward.
The distance between her and Slowpoke closed in under a second, her beak driving into the Pokémon's underside and launching it upward. Slowpoke flipped in a slow, undignified arc with its pink body rotating against the night sky.
Honestly, I was still surprised at how sharp she'd gotten.
We had watched battles between Flying Pokémon together during the afternoon and she was also being mentored by Bill's Pidgeotto, who could fly at serious speed even with weights on.
Come to think of it, I didn't think Fletchling had actually taken her own weights off since Bill strapped them on…
Slowpoke was still descending and Fletchling was already tracking it.
She curved in the air in a tight arc like before with her wings snapping to angle her nose downward and came down with a Peck that hit Slowpoke on the way back to earth, driving it into the pavement with enough force to crack the ground slightly.
Slowpoke let out a cry of pain but its eyes were still wide as it tried to get back up then Fletchling looked back at me.
I nodded.
She turned back and followed up with a rapid series of Pecks, each one drove Slowpoke into the ground again and again and the crowd noise rose with each hit. Slowpoke's eyes finally swirled and went still.
Fletchling pulled back, hovering above the air with her chest puffed out.
"Slowpoke has been knocked out. Send out your next Pokémon." The Rotomphones announced together and Zach raised his Pokéball.
"Slowpoke, return!" The red beam covered the Pokémon and pulled it back into the ball. He stood there for a moment with his hand still raised then exhaled and reached for the next one.
"I… I must win this." He said quietly. "I can't be the trainer that a hundred others used to climb up the ranks."
He stepped back and flung the Pokéball into the ring. It opened mid-air and released his second Pokémon onto the pavement.
It was a Pidgey.
Pidgey landed, looked at Fletchling, and let out its own cry. Zach caught the returning ball and smiled despite the loss of Slowpoke.
"Pidgey, prevail!"
Pidgey cawed again, flapping its wings with considerably more attitude than its predecessor. Fletchling looked at me then she turned back, extended one wing outward, and pointed it at Pidgey.
"Fletch… Fletch Fletch Ling Fletch!" She announced to the field at large.
"You want to show off?" I asked.
She nodded without looking at me.
She had this specific behavior whenever a Flying Pokémon was involved… the need to not just win but to make a statement about it.
She had tried to race Bill's Pidgeotto twice already, whatever she had decided about where she stood in the hierarchy of birds, she felt strongly about it.
"Sure. Show off." I said.
Fletchling turned back to Pidgey with a cry of her own, spread both wings briefly like a declaration, and then beckoned with one.
Apparently she had picked that up from Bill.
Zach sweatdropped.
"Pidgey, Tackle that bird!" He thrust his arm forward and Pidgey launched off the ground heading straight for Fletchling but Fletchling was already moving, flapping upward the moment Pidgey committed to the approach and letting the tackle pass underneath her completely.
She came back down with a Peck to the back of Pidgey's neck on the way by, bouncing off cleanly.
"Fletch!" She said, already ascending again.
"Pidgey, Gust!"
Pidgey didn't listen… Whatever Fletchling had said to it in that brief moment of contact, it had chosen to take personally.
It abandoned the command entirely and chased after her with its own agenda. It's wings pumped hard, climbing toward her altitude with genuine fury.
Either that or the Pidgey didn't respect it's trainer to listen.
"Heh. Couldn't be my Fletchling though."
Zach gritted his teeth.
Pidgey was struggling to match the altitude Fletchling was pulling away to as the gap between them widening with each wingbeat as she spiraled higher, Quick Attack light beginning to trace white lines through the air around her as she looped around Pidgey as well then she stopped climbing entirely, tucked her wings, and dropped.
She dropped straight down with Quick Attack burning white as the speed built aimed dead center at Pidgey who was still pushing upward and had run out of time to adjust.
The collision hit like a point being made. Both Pokémon came down together, touching the pavement in a crack and a burst of dust.
When it cleared, Fletchling was standing on top of Pidgey with her wings spread.
"Fletchhhhh!!" She let out and a brief wisp of fire escaped from her mouth as she did.
So she could breathe fire now… That meant she had leveled up during the battle.
Zach gritted his teeth and I couldn't blame him. Two Pokémon down in minutes with no clean hits landed on either of mine. I'd be angry too.
I raised her Pokéball.
"Return." Fletchling let out one final victory cry before the red beam pulled her back inside. I couldn't let her carry the whole thing, my princess had to shine too.
"Bring out your final Pokémon!" The Rotomphones announced and Zach gripped his last ball. He held it in both hands for a moment, not throwing it yet.
"Pikachu…" He said quietly. "Every single one of my hopes. Every single one of my dreams. It rests on you."
He raised one leg, wound back, and threw the Pokéball into the field with everything he had.
It spun and opened, releasing Pikachu in a burst of light.
The Pokémon landed in a low stance… it was small and bright yellow with its cheeks carrying familiar red circles, it also had black-tipped ears upright and its tail curved behind it in a sharp zigzag.
Pikachu looked across the battlefield at the empty space where Fletchling had been and then looked me instead with a very confident expression.
It was a cute Pokémon and it made me a little sad I was going to wipe the ground with it.
I dropped to one knee and set Ralts down.
"Alright Princess, give them hell." I said and she shuffled forward onto the field.
Ralts moved like she always did… she was walking but with her gown, it looked as if she was shuffling with the hem of her gown dragging on the ground slightly and her horns were already shifting from violet to that deeper indigo.
"Pikachu, Thundershock!"
Pikachu's red cheeks lit up immediately, golden sparks crackling across its fur as it planted its feet and drew on the charge.
The lightning was building fast and even arcing between the tips of its ears… however the psionic waves had already rolled out from Ralts's horns.
Hypnosis washed across the field in deep indigo pulses and it reached Pikachu before the Thundershock could release.
"Pika?"
The electricity sputtered and died.
Pikachu's expression shifted from confident to confused to nothing and then it folded, sitting down on the pavement like its legs had simply decided to stop working, and went still.
"Pikachu, wake up!" Zach had both hands cupped around his mouth and was shouting as loud as the crowd allowed.
It didn't matter.
Ralts's horns shifted to violet and confusion hit the sleeping Pikachu… the psychic force knocking it backward across the pavement crumpling against the boundary of the projected arena then she opened her mouth and began to sing.
Disarming Voice hit clean and Pikachu's eyes opened for exactly one second before swirling.
"This Promotion Match has been concluded!" The Rotomphones separated and flew back to their trainers. "Congratulations… Trainer Paxton has reached Rank Y."
The crowd cheered.
I lifted Ralts back up to my head and she resumed the usual assault on my hair. Sure I felt like jumping and celebrating too but like Fletchling, I had a composure to maintain.
I looked at my Rotomphone screen.
[━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━]
[Welcome to Rank Y, Contestant Paxton]
[You will be notified of the next Battle Zone for Rank Y tomorrow]
[━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━]
I sighed and pocketed the phone. Tomorrow I'd focus on a research task to keep Mable happy.
I walked over to Zach, who had returned Pikachu and was standing with his hands shaking slightly at his sides.
Losing a hundred battles in a row was traumatizing so I genuinely couldn't blame him for. I could see the tears in his eyes.
"Yo."
He looked at me.
"I think it's time for you to give up." I said. "Maybe battling with Pokémon isn't your calling and you just need to…"
"Enough." He took a step back. "I'll accomplish my dream. Don't you hear me?! The only mode of transportation in this city will be taxis!"
He turned and ran, disappearing between the parked cabs, and I sighed deeply.
Could some people not take a hint at all? What kind of psychopath wanted to abolish every form of transportation in a city this size just to force people into cabs?
"Pax!" Taunie ran over while holding Emma's hand with her cheeks bright. "That was a really amazing battle… with Fletchling and Ralts… Did you really get that strong within a day?"
"Yeah, I spent time in the Wild Zone." I said. "After someone abandoned me at the General Store."
I gave her a side-eye and she immediately avoided my gaze with her cheeks going red.
"I'm sorry about that… You see I had to help this old lady past the road and then escort her home and then I helped some kids find their Pokémon and then I also—"
Damn, This girl was genuinely a saint.
"But more importantly…" She bounced on her heels with a teasing mile. "How did you and Emma meet? The two of you seem to know each other. Is there some sort of love~ in the air?"
"Not at all." Emma said quickly. "I was in the Vert General Store when I met him. He was clearly checking me out, especially my breasts and then asked me for help finding Ralts food."
Fuck… I was found out…
"Well I apologize." I said, keeping my voice as even as I could manage. "I really didn't mean to. It was just my first time seeing a dark-skinned woman."
I lied through every tooth in my head. I could not make this worse by admitting I had absolutely been looking on purpose.
"I understand. It won't be the first time I've heard it." Emma said, and she didn't sound particularly offended. "But you really should stop looking at women like that. You'll be a creep before long."
Taunie immediately butted in.
"Come on Em~! I really can't blame Pax, he was just admiring your beauty." She said brightly. "You really are hot, you know. I wonder why you haven't gotten a boyfriend yet."
"Ahem." Emma cleared her throat and extracted her hand from Taunie's. "Anyway. I really enjoyed your battle and it's like Taunie told me, you're genuinely good with your Pokémon."
"Thank you." I smiled at her and she smiled back. Emma had a really cute smile.
"Why don't you both come down to the Bureau tomorrow?" She asked. "Taunie, if you'd bring Paxton along then I'd love it."
"Consider it done. I had something I wanted to ask you anyway." Taunie said.
"Bureau?" I blinked. "What's that?"
"Don't worry." Taunie bumped me on the arm. "You'll see tomorrow."
"Alright." Emma turned to leave, then paused and looked back one more time with a small smile. "Also Paxton… nice haircut."
She jogged off and Taunie immediately bumped me again.
"Smooth talker." She said. "Next thing I know, you'll start dating Emma."
I doubted it honestly. Emma looked like a woman with very specific standards for a man and I wasn't entirely confident I fit them though I wasn't going to say that out loud.
"Anyway, let's head home." Taunie grabbed my hand and started running, dragging me in the direction of Hotel Z. "I'll do the cooking… we've got to celebrate you entering Rank Y!"
…
I was now seated at the dining table with the two other guys while AZ held his usual position behind the receptionist desk. I really did wonder if the man ever moved from that spot.
Lida was in the kitchen with Taunie and honestly I wanted to see her face… she had been avoiding me all morning and while I understood why, I wanted to at least clear the air.
"Congratulations on your win." Naveen said while keeping one earbud in with his eyes on Canari's stream on his phone. "You just got here and you've already made it to Rank Y. Impressive."
Félix gritted his teeth from across the table. Was this an attempt to mess with him? Absolutely count me in.
"Thanks Naveen, but honestly Rank Z trainers were weaker than I expected." I sighed with theatrical weariness. "We barely even broke a sweat. Félix, what about y—"
The young man slammed his hand on the table and stood, glaring at both of us.
"I'll be out." He said flatly. "Training."
He walked out and shut the door behind him with slightly more force than necessary.
Naveen and I looked at each other and laughed. I didn't actually hate the guy but he was genuinely annoying.
"Oh right." I remembered and looked over. "Floette!"
Floette, who had been floating near AZ's desk holding her black flower, looked at me curiously before drifting over. I reached into my bag on the floor beside the chair.
"I asked Marie and she said Floettes didn't have a specific food…" I said, pulling out a small pack of berries. "But you like Oran berries apparently, so I got some."
I opened the pack and lifted one to Ralts first.
"Rara~"
She snagged it and began eating immediately. I lifted another one toward Floette. If I was going to live here then I had to be decent to the Pokémon that lived here too.
Floette looked at the berry then she let go of her black flower with one hand which surprised me since she usually kept both hands on it and took hold of the berry. She bit into it then took several more bites in quick succession.
"Floette!"
She began circling my head while eating, going around once, twice, three times with the black flower trailing behind her.
AZ looked up from whatever he was reading and smiled at me.
"Floette seems to like you." He said. "Take care of her when you can."
Then he returned to his book.
I passed the time feeding Floette more berries and sharing the rest of the pack with Ralts.
I brought Fletchling out of her ball too and gave her a couple… she had earned them twice over tonight. She ate them quickly and then perched on the back of my chair looking satisfied.
Eventually the kitchen door opened and the girls came out carrying trays.
"Tada!" Taunie announced while presenting her tray with both hands. "I present to you… my Croissant Curry!"
The dish was a deep golden brown, steaming, with chunks of curry-soaked filling visible beneath a layer of flaky croissant dough that had been pressed over the top and baked until it puffed.
The croissant layer was dark at the edges and slightly irregular, like someone had pressed it down enthusiastically without measuring.
It smelled genuinely incredible though… even if it didn't look that normal, I was hungry.
I glanced over at Lida and she looked away from me again quickly. I let it go with a sigh. I'd talk to her eventually.
"Ah…" Taunie looked around the table. "Where's Félix?"
"He went outside to train." Naveen said.
Taunie set one of the dishes in front of me and moved to do the same for Naveen, who recoiled visibly the moment it got within arm's reach.
"Don't drop that monstrosity in front of my table." He said, leaning back in his chair. "You know I don't like it."
Taunie stuck her tongue out.
"Come on Naveen~ Just try it, I swear you'll love it~"
"Get back." He shifted his hair with one hand. "Get back, witch. What kind of normal human puts croissants and curry in the same dish?"
He looked at the plate the way someone looks at something that has personally wronged them. "What has the food ever done to you?"
We all laughed and Lida stepped in, setting a stack of sandwiches neatly in front of Naveen.
"Here." She said. "I made these for you."
He straightened immediately and accepted them with more dignity than anyone had shown anything all evening.
Taunie set the remaining three Croissant Curry dishes around the table and sat down, while Lida poured juice for all of us.
I filled Ralts and Fletchling's plates with their food packs and served them while Floette continued her slow orbit around my head, still working through berries.
"Félix will probably come back when he's hungry enough." Taunie said, lifting her glass of orange juice. "But for now… let's celebrate."
She looked around the table. "Congratulations to Paxton for ranking up to Rank Y. Cheers!"
"Cheers!" We clicked glasses.
…
"Hup…"
I let out a grunt as I went down on the one-arm handstand push-up with the other hand held behind my back.
"Ra~"
That was probably Ralts for thirty.
I had started about an hour ago and it was still not easy. While I couldn't remember much about the old world like I knew that the past me knew about Pokémon since I could recognize some without the Pokédex, I now at least knew that I was a little bit of a gym freak.
I could actually remember myself working out for several days on end a bit and also a bit of my former body as well… I used to look pretty sexy while I was naked, not like this scrawny new body so I was going to whip it into shape if it was the last thing I did.
I had also received my Battle Zone earnings from last night this morning which was ₽12,540. It wasn't massive but that was just Rank Z trainers.
If I could keep this pace going as the ranks got harder and the medal payouts increased, I'd be earning close to Mable's salary from the Royale alone before too long.
"Hup…" I went down again.
The door opened.
Lida stood in the doorway looking at me. I was shirtless and in shorts and completely sweaty from an hour of this so I had nothing to hide, I looked up at her.
"Lida. Good morning."
"Morning, Paxton." She said. There was pink on her cheeks but at least she was looking at me directly instead of away… That was progress.
"I uh…" I pushed myself upright slowly, my muscles shaking slightly on the way up, and got there with a grit of my teeth. "I'm sorry for walking into your room unannounced the other morning."
She blushed properly this time.
"N-no… I don't really mind."
She didn't mind me seeing her nake? Then what was all that avoiding about?
"I mean I mind… I uh…" She fanned her face briefly with one hand. "Whatever. I'm not mad at you anymore. I actually made breakfast and I brought some for you. Want it?"
I dropped off the handstand and stretched, completely drenched in sweat.
"Sure, thanks Lida." She stepped into the room and set a plate of pancakes on my bed with more care than the action required then she straightened.
"Enjoy. Taunie was looking for you too." She left.
Nice… we had to go see Emma at the Bureau, right? I couldn't wait.