[Back to Heath.]

“Good to see you again!” Sherry smiled. Heath rummaged in his pockets and grabbed Oran berries which were surprisingly in good condition still and laid it on their counter. The ladies’ eyes widened but she glanced at Heath weirdly.

“Why are you giving them to me?”

“You are the one that ordered them, right?” Heath questioned

“Yeah, but you can just deposit them with your PokéGear silly and why aren’t they in your SSD or something, y’know, safer?” Sherry asked.

“SSD?”

“This is a first, usually you youngsters be teaching me things not the other way around. Yeah, so SSD stands for, Solid…Solid???” The lady appeared to forget what she was trying to say which made Heath feel doubtful of her information, but he was soon brought out of his thoughts when she smacked her hands together.

“OHH that’s right, SSD stands for Spatial Storage Device. Sorry my memory fails me sometimes which is why my granddaughter asks me to write these things down. I figured what’s the point as we don’t have many of you that don’t know what we’re talking about. Anyways SSD comes in all shapes and sizes but most commonly they are bookbags. They are pretty neat things but you won’t see me using one.” Sherry explained.

“Why not?” Heath curiously asked

“Cause one time I heard that someone fell in one and it took a powerful Gardevoir to get the girl out. Oh lord I don’t know what I would do if my Claire would fall in” The shop lady looked pensive at the idea.

‘Claire has a lot of nice people in her family. Probably why she was so willing to help’ Heath thought back to the first time he met Claire.

“Alright, I’ll take them this time, but next time hand them in via your PokéGear, makes things easier for the rest of us young man.” The older lady smile and accepted the Oran berries, she took out a Poképad and pressed a few things bringing it out towards him.

“Bring your wrist here young man.”

Heath took his wrist near the iPad looking device and a chime with a vibration was heard from both devices. Both pulled away from each other and looked at their devices. Heath saw the device and it said that he received 1000 Pokédollars. Heath felt slightly good about his work and looked towards the smiling lady. He quickly brought out the other Oran berries.

“I had found some extra, so I am wondering if you would buy them from me?”

“I can for the price I said earlier”

Heath thought about but still agreed. He figured he could always just find more berries and keep them if needed. He gave them and a similar transaction occurred.

“What else can I do for you?”

“Do you sell SSD’s?” Heath asked. He hoped they weren’t too expensive but if anything, he’ll just get a regular bookbag until he could save enough to buy one. There was no chance he wouldn’t buy one though.

“Yes, but unfortunately in this little old Town, I have limited options. Here let me show you” The shopkeeper went inside further into the stall and out of Heath’s sight. Hearing a bunch of things being thrown, falling, and being tossed Heath immediately was going to see if she needed any help but before he could she came out with an assortment of different bags. Sherry displayed them out in front of him and like she said they were all different sizes. She explained that they generally held the same amount of space due to them all being bookbags. She had messenger bags, one strap laptop bags but Heath found his interest piquing towards the generic old fashioned adventurer rucksack.

“How much for the dark grey rucksack ma’am.”

“For you 10,000 Pokédollars.”

‘Not as expensive as I thought it would be but I still can’t afford it’ heath thought to himself.

“Do you have anything cheaper?” Heath asked shyly.

“How much cheaper?”

“I only have 1600 Pokédollars.” Heath sighed. Sherry quickly collected all of the bags and went back inside. Hearing ruckus going on, Heath was concerned, but once again she came out although she was slightly dusty.

“Here you go. This is my granddaughter’s old pack but she got a new one before she left and this old thing would be sitting in dust for eons. Give me 200 and it’s yours.” The lady said lifting a dusty burgundy pack. It was clearly heavily worn but inspecting it you can see that it was taken care of. Heath quickly purchased the pack and walked through Littleroot.

‘Where are they?’ Heath thought as he wondered around the town. It got to the point where he filled up his quest by 20% until he heard.

“C’mon May, He’s probably waiting at the entrance.” Max pulled his sister, and hurriedly moving towards the entrance of his hometown. Heath saw this engagement but before he could say anything. Max bumped into him.

“Excuse me…oh Heath. I thought you were going to be at the entrance. Were we that late?” Max glared daggers at May gesturing that she is the reason for their problems. May rolled her eyes and looked indifferently at the situation they were in. Max sighed and turned back to Heath smiling and fixing his glasses.

“ Nah you guys are fine, If anything I’m late” Heath scratched behind his head.

“So, what were you doing? I’m guessing some mission nearby because of what dad said?”

“Yeah, I was just collecting Oran berries and I had a battle with a wild Kakuna. Then I turned in the quest, and bought an SSD” Heath rolled his drawstring rucksack off his back and showed Max.

“Sweet! So, is the Carcass in there? I know Dad would buy it off you for some money. He doesn’t like killing but he does need to do his research.” Max asked and then looked at the condition of the bag obvious by a slightly confused expression.

“That SSD looks kinda old, is it new?”

Heath looked at his bag and thought that was a fair assessment of his bag’s current condition.

“Should we start walking and I’ll explain?”

“Sure” Max smiled. They walked towards the way Heath came as he started explaining that he was currently unable to buy anything with the little amount of money he made. Max again had a visibly confused expression.

“Then why don’t you just sell the Kakuna. Intact they sell for around 5k, and even if the shell is damaged dad will probably buy it around 2-3k” Max explained. Heath hearing this immediately looked towards Piplup who also caught wind of their fuck up.

‘I knew I should’ve kept researching, I need to figure everything that’s available to me. I would’ve taken the Beedrill quest. So much loss of revenue.’ Heath facepalmed. The conversation stopped there until Max asked about Piplup and where Heath received or met him. Heath got nervous for a quick second before saying that they met in his room but some of the details where hazy on how he received him.

Max quickly apologized for forgetting that Heath had amnesia while May just looked slightly sad at the idea.

‘I guess she has a heart’ Heath noted. They soon arrived at a shop which was next to the shop that Heath left earlier. Opening the door, Heath was hit with the smell of sandalwood and he saw racks of graphic tees mostly consisting of pokéballs as a logo. Heath scanned his current attired which and felt that clothes were indeed much needed. Max scrolled through the isles in the direction of clothes for himself and May went to talk to the lady who was at the register. Heath immediately saw a bright smiled plastered on her face.

‘I need to speak to her when I get the chance.’ Heath complained inwardly as he browsed through the pants to see what they had. Since Heath was in Hoenn, he decided it would be best to avoid anything thick, long or too tight as he would overheat immediately in this region’s climate. Hoenn was commonly 75 degrees all year round with either little or an extreme amount of humidity around the place, so fashion took little precedence in Heath’s mind. Heath collected a bunch of light gray cargo shorts and to not seem like he was wearing the same thing every day he grabbed the occasional brown, or khaki cargo pants which he found the shop had plenty.

‘I see where birch gets his attire’ Heath commented. He moved on to the shirts and he chose short sleeved. He obtained a couple of blue, black, and white since he would be buying Short sleeved sweaters that seemed to perfect for this environment. Heath nabbed a couple sneakers, undergarments and other things he would need and brought them all to the counter. Heath looked at May who looked slightly annoyed at him and then focused on the cashier who he helped move the clothes around to make sure she got everything right.

“You’re new around here, right? and from what Mayflower explained, you’re helping her pops, Professor Birch” The cashier commented. The girl was around their age but was obviously slightly older. She had auburn hair and a heart shaped face but Heath just felt a big sister vibe coming off her which simply made him feel at ease.

‘She seems friendly’ Heath took note.

“Yeah, I’m grateful for what Professor Birch has done for me so far and I’ll probably be here for a little while before starting my journey.”

“Nice, is that cute guy your partner, what is he?? I never seen a pokémon like him around here.” The cashier said looking a Piplup who was messing with Max.

“Piplup and yeah we’re partners.”

“Well for the time being, I hope you enjoy the Little Root life and everything that makes the Root special and don’t mind Mayflower here so much, she’s just shy.” The Cashier teased and she finished putting the clothes in bags.

“Vanessaaaa” May exclaimed lazily hitting the cashier. Ignoring her, Vanessa looked at Heath

“That will be 135 Pokédollars” Vanessa made a hand gesture towards the scanner and Heath swiped his PokéGear passed it. A similar chime for earlier was heard and Heath took the bags and put it in his Spatial Bag. Its space was reasonable especially since the bags weren’t expensive. Heath wondered what type of technology this world had at the top of society for common things like this to seem so futuristic by his earth standards. Heath moved over to the side where Piplup soon ran towards to jump in Heath’s arms only to be put on his head. Max finished shopping for himself and banter was made between the siblings and Vanessa. They all turned to leave but before Heath left, he heard.

“Nice to meet you!! Have a nice day” Vanessa said politely. Heath returned the gesture and soon they were back to the rising heat that came with the early midday. May, who was seemingly annoyed by Heath’s presence walked away from the boys in the direct way to her house which caused Max to sigh.

“I’m sorry for her behavior, I’m sure things will blow over soon. Anyways, wanna head over to our house. My mom made lunch and she probably expects you to come over or I can just bring some over to you when we finish” Max offered. Heath thought about it and soon decided that it would be best to train Piplup and himself.

“Bring over some lunch, Piplup and I need to train if I want to proceed with my plans in the future. We can hang out and do whatever you want to do afterwards.”

“Cool. Well, I’ll see you in a couple of hours then.” Max smiled and soon turned to catch up to his sister.

“Thank you, Max.,” Heath shouted as Max got further away from him.

“No problem!!” Max voice seemed small from so far away which made an impression on Heath.

‘Unlike his sister Max is extremely kind, especially for a 12 year old. He’d probably make a good professor’ Heath commented

Heath like them walked back to his apartment, putting away his clothes and drinking some water from a leftover bottle from last night.

Heath quickly unpacked and took Piplup outside.