Lessons with Professor Carolina were a curiosity. Compared to the high-intensity training I had received from Cynthia, the Professor was a lot mellower, giving me reading and time to digest what she told me, instead of having Garchomp chase me across uneven terrain while delivering her lessons by shouting. Cynthia’s methods employed a different motivational mechanic, but when it came to pure difficulty, the Professor was worse. Sure, I didn’t have to run until I completed the lesson but on the other hand, the scope of the Professor’s lessons was far wider and deeper. There were only two things keeping me motivated, one was the knowledge that Uxie, the Lake Guardian most likely capable of helping me, was attracted to competent and learned people, and the other… was a sheer-minded stubbornness that made me unwilling to disappoint Cynthia or her Grandmother. I wanted to prove that I was worthy of the effort and attention they had given me.

And so, I spent many hours in the Professor’s library, researching and looking for answers to the questions she gave me. Her lessons focused on Ancient Sinnoh, during a time it was called Hisui, and the differences in culture, ecology and geography. The changes between the past and now were immense, to the point that it felt like reading about a different world, and there had to be reasons for such incredible changes, other than just the passage of Time.

To make matters worse, the sources I had access to weren’t first-hand, they were at best second-hand and more often than not even less direct. They referenced another writer referencing a primary text, at times arguing that the author they were referencing was misunderstanding the original, without ever actually quoting the original. It felt as if they were guessing at best and often just making things up as they wrote.

Not the best sources if you wanted to research.

But I most certainly learned quite a few things, especially when it came to the history of Pokémon. To my understanding, Pokéballs had been developed in the relatively recent past in Kanto, but here, there were references to Pokétrainers, working with Pokémon in Sinnohian pre-history, easily predating that development. How those trainers had worked with their Pokémon was an interesting question, to which I had been unable to find an answer.

Four days after I had begun my lessons with Professor Carolina, our work was suddenly interrupted by an incessant beeping coming from my backpack. I had been carrying the backpack, empty if not for the Incubator, with me the entire time, heeding Cynthia’s advice. If I wanted the hatched Pokémon to recognise me from the start, I needed to have it accustomed to my aura, whatever that meant.

But the beep, loud and piercing as it was, meant that the Pokémon was about to hatch, the most impactful moment. Professor Carolina obvious recognised the sound for what it was, gave me a grin and took some distance, leaving me to my responsibility. She, and likely Cynthia as soon as she was notified, would keep an eye out and give advice if asked, but they wouldn’t interfere unless I made grave mistakes. It was just a coincidence that I wasn’t somewhere in the wild, so relying on outside help would be my last resort.

When I took the Incubator from my backpack, there was little change to how it looked. The thick plate at the bottom was utterly unchanged, if not for the display giving the indication that the hatching process was about to start. Inside the transparent body sat the egg, held securely in a temperature- and moisture-regulated space, making sure that it was in optimal conditions until it was time to hatch.

At first glance, the egg looked just like it had ever since I received it, but looking closely, I could see minute movement, as if the egg was occasionally vibrating. I had no idea how the actual hatching process worked, nor what the egg contained pre-hatching, it hadn’t been covered in my previous lessons, so I could only watch.

For almost an hour, almost nothing happened, the twitching and vibrating only becoming a bit more noticeable. Each twitch made my heart jump, anticipation and worry rising hand in hand. I knew that, supposedly, nothing had or could be done to facilitate the process but at the same time, I knew that this was a being close to Cynthia, so I wanted, or maybe I needed, the hatching Riolu to be alright.

Finally, after a little over an hour, the twitching became a clear shaking and I noticed cracks forming, light breaking out of the shell, so very reminiscent of the evolution of a Pokémon. The moment the light appeared, the shaking turned violent and after two, three, seconds, the egg shattered and the incubator was filled with white light. In that light, I could see the faint shadow of a Pokémon, humanoid, with a somewhat canine face, a Riolu, just as expected.

Suddenly, a beam of red light shot from the bottom plate into the ball of white light that was blazing within the incubator, engulfing the shadow within. That beam came from the prepared Pokéball in the plate, set ready to capture the baby Pokémon the moment it hatched, assuring that it was safe and sound.

Both sets of light, the white and the red, faded away, a hatch at the bottom of the incubator popping open, allowing me access to the Pokéball that had drawn in the Riolu. Reaching in, I immediately took it, just holding it for a moment, feeling the smooth, cold material of it.

Letting out a deep breath, I pressed the button, calling out the freshly hatched Pokémon.

“Come out, Riolu,” I called, not yet having given my new partner a name.

As always, the Pokémon appeared in a beam of red light, standing upright on the carpet, looking around with interest.

When I actually saw the Riolu, without the blazing light of the hatching-moment turning it into a silhouette, I couldn’t help but pause in surprise. Where I had expected a blue body, part of the Pokémon that would ultimately form the protective, blue metal armour of its evolved Lucario-form, I got a golden body, shining with radiant splendour. As expected, it stood roughly a metre in height,

“Wow,” I couldn’t help but mouth, before giving my latest partner a smile, as the Riolu looked at me with a curious expression on its canine snout.

Taking my Pokédex, I scanned it and I couldn’t help but go wide-eyed at the values my Pokédex reported. There were the simple parts, such as that its energy pattern was consistent with the male-variant, and that its current attributes and strength were low, as one would expect from a freshly hatched Pokémon. On the other hand, the indicators for its potential were incredible, dwarfing everything I had seen before. As one would expect from a Pokémon descended from the Ace of a Champion. Now, I only had to prove myself worthy of Cynthia’s trust.

“Greetings, my dear, my name is Dani. I don’t know what to call you just yet, we’ll have to see what sort of name fits you, but it most certainly won’t be something as trite as Goldy,” I greeted my new partner, kneeling so we were at the same height. Offering my hand, I let him make the first move, carefully trying to get him accustomed to dealing with me and other humans. Training him would come next, something I would have to begin as soon as possible, even if I was supposed to rest in town.

At first, the Riolu started to carefully paw at my hand, poking it with his small, three-fingered paws, before pulling it towards his face, sniffing my hand all over and even letting his tongue dart out, the coarse texture ticking my fingers.

It took almost two minutes until the Riolu was happy with his inspection of my hand, even rubbing against it with his head as if trying out whether I was capable of giving the right kind of petting. During that, I realised that while the pads of his paws were soft, with a warm, skin-like texture but the head, and likely everything that was covered in that golden metal-like material, was cold, hard and smooth.

For the next thirty minutes, we slowly got to know each other. During that process, I realised that the little guy had a physique similar to Vio, maybe just a little bulkier, he was almost three times her weight and oh-so-much stronger. Just from his casual moves, I could easily feel that, if he wanted to move me, he could and if he wanted to move through a wall - he could.

Luckily, he was a curious and quite careful fellow, exploring and inspecting, more interested in finding out what the world around us was than destroying it.

But, at the same time, he was a Pokémon and even freshly hatched, I could see a certain wildness and desire for battle in his eyes, something that could either be nurtured or utterly broken. My task would be to slowly nurture him, so he would, one day, be able to stand at the same height as his predecessor, Cynthia’s Rio.