“Let’s go see if my mother is still at the Poke-mart,” Spike said to both Medicham and Ares who acknowledged his suggestion with nods.

The trio walked a few blocks down the road and arrived at the blue-roofed building that looked like a one-floored grocery store. An automated entry bell rang to welcome them as they stepped through the automatic front door. Due to this being Spike’s first time visiting an actual Poke-mart, he observed everything around him with a keen eye. Since Petalburg had a relatively lower population than most cities, this Poke-mart only had five main aisles. Three of those contained a variety of Pokemon food, though some basic snacks for humans filled half of the far left aisle. To his right were an aisle containing toys geared mostly toward Pokemon native to the area around Petalburg and a final aisle containing accessories or miscellaneous travel items. A handful of people shopped around placing items in small blue carts.

After noting to himself that he could come here to buy food specialized for Pokemon with unique diets, he turned his head to the counter on his left. It extended from the wall adjacent to the entrance and wrapped around to the far left wall. It looked a lot like the glass case counters used at jewelry stores or the ones used for more expensive cards or special items in hobby stores he used to frequent in his last life. Within those glass displays were a variety of Pokeballs, potions, and various battle items for improving a Pokemon’s performance in battle. To his surprise, some of the performance items like X Attack or X Speed were marketed toward the working class to increase their Pokemon’s work performance as well. Then, he noticed the exorbitant prices that reached upwards of a few thousand pokedollars for some items.

Shaking his head, Spike sighed and mumbled, “Ah, capitalism at its best…”

“Welcome!” A cheery voice called out from behind the counter.

Glancing at the teenage woman standing by the register, Spike waved at her while observing her unique features. Her platinum blonde hair, tan skin, thick make-up, and numerous ear piercings caught his attention for a good few seconds. The girl stared back at him with a wide, friendly smile.

Unwilling to waste any more time being surprised by the girl’s unusual appearance, Spike then looked around for his mom behind the aisles. Not finding her anywhere, he walked back to the counter and waited for a customer to finish purchasing some potions before placing his hands on the glass to get the girl’s attention again.

“Do you need something, little guy?” The young attendant asked with a friendly smile.

“My mom works here. Her name’s Mara. She still here?” Spike answered.

“Heh~? You’re the manager’s kid, huh? You totes look just like her!”

“...Is she still here?”

“Yup! Gimme a sec.”

The girl ran toward a door at the other end of the counter from the entrance that had an ‘Employees Only’ sign on it. Moments later, she returned with a familiar purple-haired lady. Mara blinked in surprise upon seeing Spike at the counter. The younger blonde following behind her snickered playfully.

Glaring at the blonde girl, Mara asked, “When you said somebody wanted to talk to the manager… you meant my son?”

“Teehee~ Are you surprised?”

Mara sighed, shook her head, and ignored the girl. Walking over to Spike with a concerned frown, she asked, “What are you doing here, Dilon? Weren’t we going to the beach? Did something happen?”

Nodding, Spike answered, “Yeah. We found an injured Ralts and brought it to the Pokemon Center. Can we go to the beach after I pick it up from there?”

Hand reaching over to caress her son’s head, she asked, “Are you alright? You didn’t get hurt or anything, did you?”

“We’re fine,” Spike answered.

‘No point causing her extra worry by telling her about the Mightyena.’

Ares looked up at his partner with a raised brow but didn’t say anything. Medicham also seemed to think saying nothing about the earlier encounter was a good idea based on his nod of assurance and thumbs-up gesture when Mara briefly glanced at him for confirmation.

A relieved sigh slipped from Mara’s lips before she said, “I’ll be done working in a few minutes. Can you come wait for me in the back until I’m done?”

“Sure.”

“Ranko, can you bring Dilon to the break room for me, please?”

“Sure! C’mon, you three! There’s a buncha snacks in there we can eat!” The blonde girl said while hopping over to and opening the short swinging door that led behind the counter.

“Don’t mind her antics, Dilon,” Mara said while rolling her eyes. “She’s a nice girl. You can trust her.”

Spike nodded and walked through the opening followed by Ares and Medicham, though Medicham briefly got distracted by some nearby bags of food made for Fighting type Pokemon. A bit of drool slipped out between his lips until he caught himself, sucked it back in, and continued following Spike.

“Hi Dilon, I’m Ranko Kitagawa! You can call me Ranko!”

“Nice to meet you, Ranko. Call me Spike.”

“Pft! That’s, like, super cute! Is that your nickname?”

“Something like that.”

Mara rolled her eyes at her son’s strange insistence on going by that name. She briefly wondered if maybe he had met a strong Ranger with that name or something back when he got lost in the woods a few months ago. While pondering on that, she opened the door behind the counter and held it open for the other four to walk through. She watched Ranko skip down the hall toward the break room with the others in tow and then ambled in the opposite direction back to her office to finish her end-of-shift paperwork.

Meanwhile, Ranko led Spike, Ares, and Medicham to the breakroom and pointed out some free snacks they could eat. Then, she hugged Spike and tried to do the same to Ares without success a few times before returning to the front counter, all the while pouting that she didn’t get to hug a cute Pokemon.

For the next fifteen minutes or so, the trio nibbled on some free snacks. Eventually, Mara arrived to pick them up.

“I’m done for the day,” She tiredly said upon entering the break room. “You need to pick up the Ralts from the Pokemon Center, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know how long it’ll take. I was going to wait there but wanted to tell you first so that you didn’t go to the beach without us.”

“That’s good. Thank you for doing that,” Mara replied with a happy grin. She ruffled Spike’s hair, and Spike vaguely heard her whisper a complaint about Davi not being able to communicate things about his activities as well as a five-year-old.

‘Oh, nice. Good blackmail material… Not sure I’ll ever need it, though.’

After that, Mara walked them outside. Along the way, Ranko waved goodbye to them and yelled, “See you later, Mara! Spike, you and Ares need to visit me again, too!”

“...Sure. Bye,” Spike half-heartedly replied. At his side, Ares sighed, apparently not appreciating the girl’s rambunctiousness.

Returning to the Pokemon Center, Spike walked up the counter with Mara watching over him. Nurse Joy glanced at him with recognition as he asked, “I’m back. Is that Ralts better yet?”

“Welcome back. Her scratches and bruises are better after using a potion, but she still needs to rest for a while due to exhaustion. Since she still seems to be wild, would you like to wait for her to wake up, or have us release her when she wakes up?”

Spike tilted his head and asked out of curiosity, “It is female?”

Nurse Joy nodded.

“I see. Anyway, I’ll wait here and take her back home later. Do you have any cards or anything we can use to pass the time?”

“Sure. There are some on one of the bookshelves in the waiting area down the hall there. I’ll send a nurse aid to inform you when Ralts wakes up,” Nurse Joy answered, pointing at a hallway to her left.

“Thanks.”

Then, Nurse Joy looked at Mara and asked, “Are you his guardian?”

“Yes. I assume you need me to sign something?”

“Yes, please,” Nurse Joy answered with a small nod while pulling out a clipboard from behind the counter.

Mara signed the document as though she had done this many times before. In contrast, Spike stared at the paper she was signing with a raised brow.

After Mara signed the document, the four walked toward the waiting area, and she grumbled, “You’re already so independent, Dilon. It makes mom a little sad.”

Unsure how to reply to that, Spike simply shrugged. To his surprise, the moment they rounded the corner and were out of view of others, he felt his mother’s arms wrap around him with her breasts pressing down against his shoulders.

“How about you give mom hugs more often to make it up to her?” She teased him.

“Um… okay?”

Mara chuckled, held him close for a few more seconds, and added, “You don’t need to grow up too fast, you know?”

Glancing up into Mara’s eyes, Spike noticed hints of anxiousness there. In the hopes of cheering her up a little since he had technically taken away this woman’s chance at having a normal child, he playfully retorted, “Of course I gotta grow up quick. Since dad’s never home, I’ve gotta be the man of the house, right?”

Mara stared at him for a minute with a conflicted expression on her face. Eventually, she smiled lightly, pinched his cheek, and said, “If you say so. How about I buy you some ice cream if you beat me in a card game?”

“You’re on!”