68 CH7 (68), Excursion Begins

Today is the day I am going to start my first real exploration trip.

Not the little exploring I have done outside our property but a full-blown excursion. My ultimate goal is the coast near Cyan City, but the place is more around 1700 km away, so it will take quite some time to even reach the area I plan to explore. At least the journey there will be an adventure in itself. I plan to steadily make my way down there, by walking until it is time to return home and then use Xatu's Teleport to do so. In the same way, I plan to return to my latest point the next morning and continue my journey from there. Once I reach my destination I will use Xatu's Teleport to move between there and home, which should take a bit more than 2 hours per trip, since the most effective distance Xatu can currently teleport is 200 km every 15 minutes. This distance will increase when either Xatu's strength or his mastery of Teleport improves. I will follow Route 4 until Viridian City, from there I have to follow Route 3 to Cyan City.

From Cyan City to the coast it's a bit more than 100 km. Route 4 is what the "safe" road from Viridian City to Pewter City is called. In the same way, Route 3 is what the road from Cyan City to Viridian City is called.

There are naturally other lower-tier settlements along the Routes but those are the cities that determine the starting as well as endpoints of the routes.

As for how long it will take me to reach my destination, I am currently estimating the journey to take 35 to 40 days, if I don't spend extra days in any of the settlements along the route. The reason for that is that I plan to walk around 50 km per day, which should take me around 5 to 6 hours of walking if I take it easy. While I could certainly walk more than that since I plan to spend 10 to 12 hours outside, but in that case, I would be forced to focus purely on walking, which would contradict the purpose of my trip in the first place. I just finished eating my breakfast and am currently going over my bottomless bag, for what felt like the 10th time, to make sure I have packed everything I would need because my mother was fretting over me going outside. I can understand her worry, which is why I do as she asks without complaining, despite getting progressively more irritated by her repeated questions.

"Do you have enough food for yourself and your Pokemon?" I hear my mother asking. "Yes, there is more than enough food for all of us. I could probably feed a few more people with the amount of food inside my bag." Was my answer to her question. "What about items you need during breaks or emergencies." My mother asks as soon as I answer her previous question while looking at me with a worried look. "I have all utensils necessary to set up a temporary camp, as well as foldable tables and chairs. I even have dishes and cutlery and everything else I need to cook meals. Not to mention the huge amount of water you and dad made me store." I started to go over things I had packed while answering her question, but she seemed to have taken an exception to my mild complaint at the end. "Don't complain, honey, water is indispensable to anyone away from civilization. No matter how much you think that you could return with Xatu if necessary or that you could find some in the wild, you need to have water at hand in case of an emergency keeping you forcing you to stay put or keeping you trapped at someplace. Anything could happen and it's better to be over-prepared than to be underprepared. This applies to anything, but it is especially true for trainers." She chastises me while delivering words of wisdom at the same time.

"Yes, mommy." Is all I can say in such a situation. My mother seems satisfied by my reaction and continues. "Do you have the recovery items we gave you?" She asks while straightening the jacket of my trainer outfit. I am currently wearing the set that resembles the bug catcher outfit a bit, just with long pants as well as a green and yellow color scheme. "Yep, all of them are safely stored and they are labeled in case I forget which one is for what, just like you asked me to." My parents have given me 3 of all standard status condition cures, as well as 20 potions and 2 Super Potions in case of emergency. While I had my berries that could accomplish mostly the same in their effort to prepare for every eventuality warmed my heart. "That's good. Don't be afraid to use them, your health and that of your Pokemon are the most important, so do not try to use less in order to not waste anything or something like that, okay? Do you have all your Pokemon with you? Check your belt to see if anyone is missing." Her concern is as heartwarming as it is stressful, but I honestly feel happy about all this, because it shows how much they care about me. They care so much that they try to not restrict my freedom too much despite my age and their evident worry for my safety. They chose to respect my maturity and strength instead of using my age against me, even if they would be happier if I stayed at home.

I look at the trainer belt and my 6 Pokeballs attached to it. "Yeah!" I nod at her. "All 6 of them are here," I say while patting the belt. I got the belt from my parents, but the balls my Pokemon were staying in were the balls I crafted myself. Honestly, the way I explained the source of the balls was hilarious and I am still unsure how I convinced my parents with that story, but the result speaks for itself. If my parents now believe that a wandering ball merchant called Urahara is traveling around the region selling/exchanging Pokeballs, then that might be my fault. Well if I use that alias later on to sell some of my balls, then I theoretically would not have lied to my parents. As for the balls I used to catch my Pokemon, I used an AirBall for Xatu, since he had no PsychicBall or Psychic/AirBall, and the AirBall was still better suited for Xatu than a CommonBall. Mothra and Butterfree were caught with BugBalls, while Seb and Gaia were caught with PoisonBalls. Finally, Nyx has been caught with a CommonBall. Their balls will be upgraded in the future, but for now, these are good enough.

"Good, good, while you're on the road always keep at least one of them by your side and outside their balls, that way they can keep you safe if necessary, and you won't have to release them from their ball first.

Sweetheart, I know you really want to start, so I'll stop after this. Don't tell anyone your real name and keep wearing your mask at all times. Well, except while eating. Follow the official routes, and don't leave them under any circumstances, okay? It would be ideal if you keep following the central lane. It would be best if you don't use the PokeCenter or any alliance facility that needs to scan your balls. Also, make sure you stay out of danger as much as you can and don't forget to come back home on time. You need to be back before dinner, alright?" She says all at once. "I promise," I answer her. It's not like I can say that I will walk into danger, right? That would be stupid as hell and all she asks of me are things that I plan to do either way. Walking on my own would be boring and having one of my Pokemon watching my back is trainers 101 in the book "How to survive the first day of your journey by Mikail Geo". The book also says to keep a low profile and only reveal your identity to those you trust explicitly. Truly the author of the book is a genius of the highest order. My mask is dark blue and covers everything below my nose, just like the one used by a certain silver-haired one-eyed pervert. I don't need to hide my hair color or eyes because they are not that rare, besides my cap hides both well enough that together with the mask my identity is safe. Now, the reason she asked me to stay inside the central lane, is that it's safer there, so that was to be expected. My parents explained to me that all official routes were kept relatively safe by the Pokemon Alliance, but because they are so long, and most importantly so wide, all of them spanning 100 km in width, the routes are divided into two parts, the central lane, and the fringes. The central lane is 20 km wide and is obviously located in the center of the route, while the fringes are 40 km wide and are located to the left as well as the right of the central lane.

Now, the reason why she mentioned the PokeCenter and my balls, has been explained to me as well. According to them I am currently illegally keeping my Pokemon, as long as they are not registered with the alliance. Now here comes the problem, since I am not an official trainer I am actually not allowed to have so many Pokemon. Civilians, not trainers, can register Pokemon as pets or companions, but that number is limited to 3, as long as they can prove that they can provide for and shelter the Pokemon. Now one would think that I wouldn't have that problem since my parents are official trainers with an okayish class to boot, so they should be able to register them even if there is a limit to the number of Pokemon they can have, right? And you would be right, but there is a little problem with that. If they register my Pokemon in their own name, then I can't use them and it would not be possible to transfer them back to me as soon as I start my journey, since the transfer of Pokemon of a certain strength towards rookie timers is regulated. This is done to prevent rookies from trying to buy or get gifted strong Pokemon by others. Catching them by oneself or raising them by oneself is however no problem. Now here comes the part with the PokeCenter. If I want to use the service of the PokeCenter, then I have to present my identity card to the Nurse.

The System knows which Pokemon have been registered in your name so if you turn up with Pokemon they either have to be already registered or they will be registered during your visit. This would be no problem if I was allowed to have them in the first place. The rules and regulations do make sense, and I actually agreed with the idea, but they were currently working against me, so I had to avoid using most alliance facilities for now. Only places that allowed anonymity could be used but in all honesty, I did not actually need the PokeCenter to heal my Pokemon. My space would heal them over a period of time and I had all those berries to help me with the health of my Pokemon as well. So, as long as nothing extremely serious happens that requires immediate intervention by the nurses or doctors, he would be fine. 'Shit! Hopefully, I didn't raise a flag with that. Murphy stay away, please.' With that happy thought, I pull up my mask, strap on my bag, wear my shoes and give my mother a big hug, before I say, "See you later!" And leave the house. I hear my mother shout after me to not forget to be back before dinner and have to smile a bit. Once I am outside I release Eevee and Xatu, so they can accompany me, making me briefly wonder why I recalled them in the first place before I shrug. "Our adventure has officially begun. Keep an eye out, please. We are going to walk into the unknown," I say to them before I mutter to myself, "at least for us." Xatu as well as Nyx cry out in affirmation, and I walk towards the west, where Route 4 is located at.

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