I take a good look at the thick black clouds that have currently darkened the skies, the cause of the unpleasant weather currently over Rustboro city. The rain is neither strong nor weak. At the midway point between pouring and a drizzle, nothing remarkable really…

Unremarkable for any pokemon that isn't a water type. Which I happen to be.

Currently positioned in the Birch family's large back yard I breathe in, feeling the Aquatic aura filling the air, the droplets splashing against my skin. This rain is what I've been hoping for ever since I became Brendan's pokemon, lucky that it took only a week for it to show up. Unlike the way it was back at the forest pond, there isn't any easily accessible aquatic aura in the city. The only ones I can think of are the ponds out in the school yard, but those aren't easily accessible since I'm glued to Brendan most of the time.

Currently it's Saturday, the day after Friday… The day where we specifically had six whole consecutive school hours of Battle class. No math, no literature, nothing. Just Battle class.

Needless to say Brendan is passed out in his room. He's been run ragged by Surge's brutal training, every muscle in his body currently screaming in agony.

Brendan's mother, Louise, and her Lopunny Lola are currently out managing her restaurant chain and The professor is watching TV in the living room… perfect. I've got the whole day to myself.

It's finally time to put my 'long term' plan into motion. One I've been thinking of doing ever since I taught myself how to control aquatic aura. That is… five or six months ago now? The reason I've been putting it off for so long is because it could be dangerous. I've been trying to collect information on whether or not I'll be fine doing it. Mitigating risk factors, taking a dip here and there as a proof of concept. In fact, my concentrated water gun attack is one of those dips.

Now, let's see if this will actually work. The results will not be immediate, oh no… It will probably take months until I start witnessing any results, and that is only considering that it rains for every single one of those days. I'll have to think on getting to those school ponds it looks like… or find a different source of Aquatic aura altogether. I'll see about that.

What I am about to do is actually inspired by one of those Xianxia novels I used to read all the time. I don't really remember its name but that's besides the point.

As it goes with Xianxia novels, the people there try to get stronger and stronger and stronger… Through various different means. The way the main character got 'stronger' in the novel I was reading was by forcing 'Qi' into his 'Dantian'. As a result of his 'Dantian' holding more 'Qi' than it is supposed to hold, it expands, trying to accommodate the newfound 'Qi', akin to an inflatable balloon.

In more understandable terms, 'Qi' is the Chinese version of 'Mana', and 'Dantian' is the Chinese version of…the place where mana gets stored in a Wizard. Huh, odd… Now that I think about it there isn't one unified and generally agreed to way for mana storage in western fantasy.

Well, anyways, the 'Dantian' is positioned somewhere in the abdomen.

The whole thing is like exercising a muscle really. You use it, and use it, and use it, putting it under pressure just a slight bit above the point where it can comfortably do the action. It gets damaged from the strain and the body, detecting that, rebuilds it. But stronger.

I've been 'beating around the bush' on the issue because it could damage me. If you put too much strain on a muscle it might just tear apart, a semi regular occurrence back home. In those Xianxia stories it's not uncommon for people to lose their cultivation or even permanently cripple themselves because they got overambitious about growing stronger. In my case, because I'm still growing, it might have some unforeseen consequences somewhere down the line. But…

I'm confident in what I'm about to do. The thing that finally pushed me to try was the school itself. I've observed lots of different pokemon since my arrival there, talked with some of them pretty openly about what I'm about to do too. Rupho, the Typhlosion who likes to help around in Battle class, has been a great help especially

Although he is a fire type, the manipulation of aura seems to be similar enough between both water and fire type pokemon. He was certainly surprised when I told him what I was about to do, surprised but encouraging.

He confirmed the theory I had in mind, much to my relief. It was a massive boost in confidence. It is one thing to simply have a theory, not being sure whether or not it's true, it is another thing entirely to have it confirmed by someone with two decades of experience. 'Don't overstrain yourself.', 'A bit of pain is fine but if you start to really hurt, stop.', 'Make sure to take a good rest after training' he said.

The most helpful one was that I could train without a problem, despite my young age. By his words, pokemon are able to use moves from the moment they hatch. The problem is their insignificant reserves and the difficulty that comes with learning to manipulate aura… and, do you really want to pull them from their clutch before they're even a year old?

Speaking of getting separated at an early age, I should try and find a way to get the gang back together. It's been a week and I already miss them. That's for later though.

"..."

I close my eyes and concentrate, ignoring the sounds of the rain and the feeling of it splashing against my skin. My only focus is on letting the Aquatic aura flow in. Not letting it flow out. There is difficulty in the process. The biggest problem is that I cannot influence the aura that is even a hundredth of an inch away from the surface of my skin… at least, not directly.

The way I've thought of letting extra aura flow into me is simple: move the aura away from the skin and into the core of the body. By doing that I can effectively create a gradient of pressure between the aura in my skin and the aura in the air…and also a gradient between the skin and my core…

Gradients are a simple concept in physics. If there is a difference in quality/quantity between two points, they start to move into each other. Mixing and mashing until the gradient disappears. A simple example being… Breathing, this is getting more Xianxia the more I think about it, you just can't make this up...

Anyways, when you breathe in the lungs expand, creating a gradient where the air pressure in the lungs is less than the air pressure in the atmosphere. The resulting difference in pressure causes movement of air into the lungs. Same rule applies with breathing out. Lungs contract, pressure in Lungs increases. Gradient gets created between Lungs and Atmosphere, this time with the pressure being greater in the lungs. Air moves out. End of exhalation. Simple.

The difficulty in what I'm trying to do is actually being able to control everything that is happening, not to toot my own horn but I've gotten extremely damn good at controlling this whole aura stuff. Even then this is still hard. I'm continuously moving the aura flowing into me while at the same time trying to keep the aura I've already absorbed from leaving.

I end up doing this for quite a while. Absorbing energy, moving it to my core, compressing and folding it, absorbing more, trying not to let anything flow out…

By the one minute mark I start to actually feel something pushing against my insides. By the five minute mark the feeling is… like I'm having my blood pressure measured? I remember the force those inflatable bands exert on your arm. The feeling is similar, but instead of the pressure pointing in, it is pointing outwards. Like I'm suddenly full of gas… gross comparison though, blegh.

By the seven minute mark I stop, starting to feel a dull sense of pain. Moving some aura to my skin, I make it so that the pressure there is equal to that of the aura in the air around me, effectively stopping the exchange.

I remain like this. Eyes closed, completely focused on my goal. The pain slowly increases over time. Honestly, it is similar to the one you feel when planking. Slowly building up to unbearable levels.

Deciding that this is enough, I release the excess aura that I have collected… In the form of a water gun.

What comes out is several times more powerful than the strongest water gun I've ever released.

I become greatly acquainted with the phrase 'every action has an equal and opposite reaction' because that 'opposing reaction' causes me to literally fly up into the air.

When my short single second flight ends and I meet the ground the inertia causes me to start rolling like a barrel.

The water gun zips through the air, loud and fast, impacting the ground about thirty feet away from me. Luckily I'm undamaged, if a bit shaken up from the sudden unexpected outcome, the mud cushioned my fall. Walking to the place where the water gun landed I see a small crater, maybe enough for two or three of me to fit in.

"..." Wow. I know that mud is soft but still?

Oh I'll be more careful with doing that from now on alright. I definitely didn't expect that I'd be able to release all that stored energy in a single go just like that. Next time I'll control the release more.

Turning to the house I notice that I haven't alerted Daniel or Brendan. Good, looks like the rain masked the sound of that thing.

Overall though… Hah!

I've always thought expressing yourself with such wild actions is silly… but even I feel the need to jump around in happiness.

The experiment was a success! Hell yea baby!

Oooh, I've been waiting for this moment of truth for half a year. It feels so good to finally have done it. Unquenchable craving and curiosity that just made me want to try this. Desire constantly at war with reason. The fear and uncertainty of failure. What if that happens? What if I accidentally injure myself? Unending 'what ifs'.

Well no more!

Of course, it still remains to be seen if I will get a boost in power from this. I'll need to keep up a constant effort and even then in the end it might just turn out to be a massive dud. Who knows… I'm so happy that it worked exactly as I theorized it would. The pressure! The way to compress and suck in the energy from the air! Everything… all according to plan.

I'll see if I can do another exercise at the end of the day. When I've rested a bit.

For now though I'll just go back and watch some TV~ Maybe get something to eat. I hope that professor Birch isn't watching the news or something boring like that…

On second thought, even that would be interesting, otherworldly news sounds good does it not?

I trot back to the house, happy, and enter it. Birch was not happy with all of the mud I accidentally brought in with me from the outside.

- o - o -

I look at the bowl full of food in front of me, examining it carefully.

It's a steak. A very good looking steak might I add, chopped to bits for easier consumption. The separate pieces of the steak are put together so as to not disturb its whole form. There's a blueish, crystal-like reflecting liquid poured over the steak. A form of berry sauce, I presume. To the side there are three different 'salads' if you could call them that. I don't know what they're made from. Everything is positioned into the bowl as if the chef expected an artist to just… walk up to the thing and start painting it here and now. Literal art.

Bruh.

I'm gonna feel bad for eating this, way too high class for my puny mind to handle.

Lifting my head I see the entire Birch family here. Louise, Daniel, Brendan, Lola and the professor's Sceptile. The introductions with him were brief, truly, I don't know a lot about him. Less talkative than Silent bro. He's called 'Celefio' or simply by the nickname 'Cel' going by how Lola and the Professor refer to him. I haven't seen a single hint of emotion coming from him. Just a stoic, unfeeling expression permanently plastered on his face.

We're currently at a family owned restaurant 'Wanderer.' as it is called.

It specifically caters to pokemon trainers or simply people that happen to have pokemon, there's a menu both for people and for pokemon. You wanna give your pokemon a great treat? Celebrate an exciting victory? You come here! It's quite the high class place from the look of things.

Kind of feels like a cat cafe, except it's the customers who bring in the 'cats' . There are pokemon who are both big and small, within acceptable proportions of course. You won't see a Steelix being dined here. The biggest one I see is an Aggron chilling in the corner of the restaurant along with his trainer and fellow pokemon.

He is at least eight feet tall. Crazy…

"...You want to learn how to cook for little Bellum here, do you?" Hearing my name called I shift my attention from the Aggron back to the family. Louise is looking at me with a stoic expression, deep in thought.

I try to think back to what their conversation was about… Oh yea, Brendan was explaining to everyone how his first week of school went. I zoned out midway because I had no interest in hearing about stuff I already knew.

"Mhm, the Battle class teacher gave all of us individual notes for our specific pokemon. They contain a couple of recipes that are apparently good for building muscle when training." Brendan explains to his mother, digging a couple of folded papers from his pants.

"Are they now?" She raises an eyebrow. "Give it here, I'd love to see what kind of dreadful recipes that brute Surge has managed to 'cook up' for his students." Reaching her arm she grabs the papers her son gives her and unfolds them, starting to read.

"You know the teacher?" Brendan exclaims.

"Of course I do! The man is so loud and obnoxious that I have no choice but to know him. Especially since he's one of the teachers in the school I sent you to."

Her expression distorts to something scary as she continues reading the paper.

"Homemade Kibble? Is that what that lunatic feeds his poor pokemon?" I can faintly hear her whisper under her breath.

Off to the side I see Lola almost jump from her seat. "Oh boy. Quick! Bellum, Cel, let's get out of here." Alerted, she grabs me by the scruff of my neck and lifts me up. Also getting my bowl, she turns to leave the table. There's an urgency to her step.

Sounds good." He responds, hastily picking up both his and her own plates, following after her.

As I'm hanging there, dangling in Lolas hand, wondering just what the fuck is going on so suddenly. I can't help but notice the look of utter betrayal the Father-Son duo give to the three of us as we leave.

"What have you done boy?"

"It wasn't us this time! I thought that she wouldn't!"

"Well you thought wrong! Look! Our pokemon have deserted already."

"I know!"

They sound very distressed as they whisper to each other, if you could even call it whispering. I can hear them from way over here. The last thing I see of them is their panicked expression as Lola brings me away.

She sets me down after finding an open spot, placing my bowl in front of me also. It's a place kind of out of the way, in the corner of the room. No tables. She and Celefio sit down, making a cross-leg posture.

"Uhm, might I ask what was that about exactly?" Confusion is evident from my tone.

"You saw her expression, didn't you?

"Yes?" I reply, turning to Cel.

"Take this as advice from your seniors, as Pokemon, we have certain privileges that humans do not have. One of those privileges being the ability to escape one of Louise's rants about food."

"Mhm." Lola agrees "Keep in mind her expression, you saw how it twisted up as she continued reading?" I nod at that, answering the same question for the second time.

"Well, if she makes that expression when it comes to something food related, you should immediately leave. Keep in mind, It's only a short window of time so you should be quick."

"But why though? You speak as if her rants are the worst thing in the world."

""They are.""

"ok."

Cel places his hand on my body "Look, Bellum. You won't understand this analogy yet, but you will with time… Louise looks at food the same way a Religious fanatic looks at the Legendaries. She just… turns into a different person when she talks about food. You want to avoid her rants at all…costs." A slight shudder passes through his form as he utters the final word.

Man, what is she? Sanji on steroids? Do they have to be that dramatic?

"Take it from me, I've been her pokemon since childhood. Even back then she spent all of her time reading culinary books and cooking, day and night the only thing she would do is think about the next recipe." Taking a bite from her food she continues.

"And when she actually became of age? She went absolutely insane! The first chance she got she left her home and started traveling all around Hoenn, going from city to city, village to village. Roaming the lands, entering restaurant after restaurant and collecting all the recipes she managed to get her hands on."

"All in all it took her around two years to do a full Circle around Hoenn. I thought that she'd stop there, but can you guess what she did after that? She went to Sinnoh... because of course she did. And she started all over again, traveling and recording recipes. And she's been like that from the beginning, ever since the first moment I knew her." The is a small hint of outrage hidden in her voice.

Yep, Louise is Sanji on steroids. No doubt about it.

"After Sinnoh she went to Johto and Kanto, to Alola, and everywhere else, visiting all the regions. Then she was happy. Finally returning to Hoenn she opened this restaurant chain. " She gestures with her arms to the whole place. "This is a greatly shortened version of the whole story of course but you get the idea."

"Huh..." That is, interesting.

"Weird, uhm.. Reasons aside. The whole thing sounds like fun. Traveling everywhere and meeting different people and pokemon sounds like a great way to spend your time."

*chuckle* "Yep, it was some of the greatest I'll tell you that much." She suddenly erases the smile from her face and looks at me. Tone suddenly shifts to being more... authoritative. "But don't just gloss over those 'weird reasons' as you called them. To this day I don't understand where her obsession comes from. Even her parents are completely and utterly clueless when it comes to the subject, and oh, they have tried to find out. I guess she just likes to keep it as a secret."

"Anyways, aside from the food thing she's pretty normal" She goes back to eating her food.

Aha 'normal' you say? You can use that argument for pretty much anything, Lola. Aside from 'insert crazy trait here' I'm pretty normal. Said any insane person ever.

Oh well, no point in thinking about it. Better dig into my meal before it gets cold.

- o - o -

"Cool bro?" I hear someone call to me from my blind spot. A voice I recognise…

Turning around, I see the form of something that causes me to do my best Big Smoke impersonation.

"Calm Bro?" I take a moment more to drink his features in and make sure that it's actually him.

"Ooooohhhh Calm Bro! Wassup?" I butt heads with him in greeting.

"Eeey nothing much. You know, stuff, meeting the new trainer, getting accustomed to the new environment."

"This is your brother?" I hear Lola ask as she walks up to us. She leans over him, looking at him carefully.

"Uhm, yes. Nice to meet you." Calm bro seems a bit intimidated by her posture.

Lola doesn't respond to him, but instead reches both of her arms to him…

*gulp*

…And pinches his cheeks.

That comes as a bit of a surprise to Calm Bro. He freezes in place as if suddenly made from stone.

Lola carefully picks him up and hugs him against her fluffy chest.

"Uuuuuuu… So cute… so cute." She twists her waist weakly in place as she holds him, remaining like that for about thirty seconds before turning to Cel.

"Can we keep him?"

"No" He responds, a slight annoyance to his tone.

"Uuuuuuu." Reluctantly placing Calm Bro back on the ground she starts giving him headpats. Going from his wagging tail fin he enjoys it. I'd be surprised if he didn't, can personally confirm that Lola headpats are of the highest quality.

Hesitantly removing her hand from his head she looks at both of us.

"Hmm… I can see that the two of you want to catch up so I won't stop you. Just make sure not to leave the restaurant property alright?"

"Of course!" I respond.

"Uhm, Is the playground out of limits?" Calm Bro asks from the side.

"Not at all." She reaches to give the two of us one final headpat.

"Off you go then." She goes to sit next to Cel, giving us a small wave.

I turn to Calm Bro "Well? Lead the way then."

"Aight Bro."

"I had no idea there was a playground." I say as we leave the inside of the restaurant through an open door, it's dark but the place is lit up by two powerful lights, making it seem as if it's day. There's nobody else here since the rain just stopped barely an hour ago. It's muddy and damp.

"Yea, you know, my first day we were brought here with my trainer to celebrate the first pokemon of the family. We played here for hours, until we dropped! it was so nice~"

"You're the only pokemon in the family?"

"Yeaaah, It was a bit weird the first two or three days, being away from everyone for so long. But my trainer is so nice, she's great, we spend most of our time together." He sits down on a relatively dry patch of grass.

"What about that tall Pokemon, was she one of your family's Pokemon?"

"Yep! Her name is Lola, my 'bigger sister', she's nice isn't she?" I sit myself down next to him.

"Whooooooah bro. A bigger sister for Cool Bro? The smartest and wisest of them all? Nooooo, the world is coming to an end, how can there be… Ow!"

I smack my forehead against his face. He manages to lean out of the way barely in time.

"I don't know if you're making fun of me or not and I absolutely hate it."

"Heh Heh. You haven't become any less violent. Just a step more and you'll be reaching Rocky levels of violence."

*Humph*

"Heh. Anyways, Cool Bro, wanna exchange names? Your trainer gave you a new name right? Mine is Torpo. Also my trainer's name is Zoe."

"Hmm, yes he did. My new name is Bellum, trainer is called Brendan."

"Bellum, Bellum… Ugh" He seems a bit disgruntled. "Alright, I'll be honest Cool Bro, I mean…Bellum, I might forget your name… a couple of times, or a couple of dozen... I have a recently acquired talent, that being the ability to forget almost any name within two minutes of it being told to me."

"Pheh…. Hahahahahahahahaha" I have no choice but to laugh when he says that. Oh my god, this is so Calm Bro, he's so forgetful.

"Ey! Don't Laugh! This is serious."

"Sorry, Sorry.. Hahaha. " *inhale* "You just caught me off guard there for a second. What, did you happen to forget your name a whole lot or something."

"Nooo, surprisingly not. I remembered my trainer's and my own name on the first try… But Rocky, I didn't remember Rocky's name on the first try… or Silent Bro's."

"Wait wait wait… Wait." I Immediately interrupt him. " You met Rocky and Silent Bro?"

"Yeah! We're in the same class. Rocky is so violent! She attacks me immediately if I don't call her by her name."

"Pheh, of course she does." Predictable… should I mess with Calm Bro a bit… Yeeees, I should.

"So, Torpo. What are their names exactly?"

"Can't say, they want to tell them to everyone personally."

"..."

"..." His expression, a perfect poker face.

"...Really now?" how… Sus. I lean into him, putting some mental pressure on him.

...Yeah, okay. I forgot them… please don't tell Rocky. Please?"

"Sure." I stop leaning into him and resume my sitting position."Man, you said that you're in the same class as them? I'm so envious. I'm absolutely alone in my class, no other brother or sister."

"Hah, broooo. You won't be so envious when you hear what I have to tell you."

"Hoooh, I won't? Go ahead then, hit me with it Torpo."

"Well, you remember that man with the Wooper. Back when we spent our first night out of the pond?"

"Yes. I do remember him, his name was Surge."

"Exactly him, Surge, yeah, that was his name. So, you remember how loud he was? How he shouted at that man in the feeding areas, how unmerciful he was Bro?"

"Yees?"

"Well Get this. That crazy man.. Is our Battle Class teacher."

"..."

"..."

"..." Crickets… And he said it with such conviction in his voice too. Expecting me to react in shock.

"..What? He's our Battle Class teacher too? He's not so bad."

"What? Not so bad? Bro! You're kidding, right? He's crazy! That pokemon of his is the literal worst. It's called Battle Class but what we do is anything but battle. To this day I've only had a single battle in that class. The only thing he does is make us run from the beginning of the school hour until it's end. The pokemon of his has no problem hounding us too! I can't catch a single break when he's on my tail!..."

"Oh come on Calm Bro you can't be serious now."

"What?"

"Don't you specifically remember how half of our group told you how you'd regret sleeping for a large portion of the day? I even remember Rocky telling you how you'd and I quote 'Meld with the ground, becoming the one true MUDkip.'"

"You had the laziness problem in our group, only bothering to get up for the Mago berry competition. Oh and do you remember how I was gracious enough to actually sway everyone into calling you 'Calm Bro' instead of 'Lazy Bro'?"

This time I'm the one who receives a headbutt to the face. One which I also happen do dodge.

"Alright, screw you bro. That is enough."

"Hahahahahahahaha. Rocky is having a blast of a time making fun of you isn't she."

"..."

"Well?"

"...I will neither confirm nor deny that statement."

Of course you won't.

"Hah! That's why you should trust us. We're always right. When we said you'd regret it we really meant regret."

"Yea yea, alright I get it Bro."

"Sure you do, I bet that you totally wont slack the first moment that Raichu lets his eyes float off you for even a second." He performs a light scoff at my words.

"Anyways, I have a lot of stuff to tell you about my first week." I grin at him " How about I tell you my story first and then you tell yours, that seems fair, does it not?"

"Sounds good. Cool Bro."

"..."

"You forgot my name, didn't you Torpo..."

"...yes."

It's been literally... one minute since I told him my name.

"It's Bellum."

"Bellum..."

"Where was I? I was just about to tell you the funniest story."

"Oh yeah, now I remember!" I make myself comfortable before I start retelling. "So Calm Bro, do you remember that disgusting kid who dared to feed me the 'Pain Berry'...."

Ultimately we spent a long time talking to each other and exchanging stories. I spend time talking about how Brendan has as weak a constitution as he does. A lot of time talking about how nice Lola actually is and the professor, and even Louise's food obsession. A story I just learned of just today.

He spends time talking about his trainer, Zoe, mostly. And about her favorite activity - Drawing and Painting. A lot of his stories are about what happened in the Battle Class and his hatred for the Raichu Fulgur, Hah Hah.

I really lose track of time, it isn't until Lola and Brendan, along with the girl Zoe came to look for us, that I realized we've spent something along the lines of two hours just simply conversing. I got scolded really badly by Lola for that. Apparently we gave them quite a bit of a scare.

A happy coincidence that I met him here. Definitely glad that Silent bro and Rocky are doing well too.

Overall time well spent~