CH52 (182), Surprise Visitor

I spent the weekend just enjoying the fact that once it was up and Arcday came around I wouldn't have to go to the academy. I especially enjoyed sleeping in on Arcday morning. I literally slept till 11 a.m.

After a late breakfast, I went outside for some sparring with Mars/Ursaring and Tyson/Machoke. We went through one round each before we were interrupted by the doorbell.

I told everyone to do their own thing and went to answer the door, and surprise, surprise, a wild Aaron appeared.

"Aaron, what are you doing here? I thought you were on a mission." I asked him stunned that he had shown up at my door.

"I finished it five days ago and thought I'd stop by since it has been a few months since we've last seen each other." He replied with a small smile that strained for a moment when he mentioned his mission at the beginning. I felt his turmoil in the force when that happened.

"Come on inside and tell me about your mission. It seems something happened, I can feel that you're upset about it." I motioned him in and went towards the living room.

After he sat down on the sofa, I went to the kitchen for some soda and some snacks, before sitting down as well facing him with the stuff placed between us.

"Okay, spill it. What happened that upset you so much on your mission? I thought it was a honey gathering one in Viridian Forest." I inquired as politely as ever.

He sighed a bit before slumping slightly in his seat.

"Noticed that didn't you?" He asked more rhetorical than genuinely, but I still answered.

"Of course I did. We've got aura, remember. Now, would you please tell me what upset you so much? I'm sure telling me about will make you feel better." I said in a slightly jesting tone to alleviate the mood he got into at my question.

For a moment it seemed as if he was going to brush off my request, but then he decided to talk.

"I failed, or rather we've failed, with the mission I mean. Not only that, but I nearly died as well." He began, before stopping for a moment, and I could tell he was really upset.

"If something like that happened why didn't you call me to tell me about it. I would have visited you at the hospital." I asked a bit unhappy that he didn't inform me as soon as he returned after something so serious happened.

"Honestly, I wanted to make sure I and my Pokemon had recovered before seeing others. Moreover, it was my Pokemon that got hurt, I managed to escape with a few scrapes." He returned, but I was not sure if he wasn't downplaying his own state after the mission or not.

That was why I only returned a skeptical "Hmm." Still, it became clear why he was irate when he resumed talking.

"I worked together with three others who took the same mission to gather high-quality honey. Two of them were seniors at the honey-collecting business. At first, everything went well. We went to the first hive at the border between the outer and inner areas, got some honey before we went to the second nest, and did the same there." Aaron began his recounting but I couldn't help throwing in a question.

"So, why did you keep going to multiple hives? Was there not enough honey in the first one?" I could guess why they did that, but I wanted to hear it from him.

"There was, but the seniors said that one should not take more than 8% of the honey per hive, since that seemed to be roughly the amount the Beedrill could tolerate losing before they began to go crazy.

Apparently, that knowledge has been learned by our predecessors at a high cost. So, if that amount was not enough to fulfill one's quota, one simply had to visit another nest until there was enough honey.

Now, this one will be really useful to you. It looks like "professional" honey gatherers mark the three biggest trees close to the hive with the date they last gathered honey so that other gatherers know to avoid doing so if a month has not passed.

That seems to be open knowledge but not many bother learning about it. Still, it is something all "professionals" do, and it allows them to avoid many possibly deadly situations." I let him explain until here but I couldn't stop myself from asking a question.

"Is that why you failed? You guys gathered too much and provoked an attack, or did someone not make a mark that made you collect honey from a "freshly" visited hive?"

He shook his head in denial.

"No, we were nearly done after the third beehive and fulfilled our quota at the fourth hive. I even collected some extra for myself and got some for you as well.

It was what the other non-senior trainer did afterward that nearly got me killed. After we had our honey we began leaving the hive, but Sam noticed a shiny Weedle on our way out.

Despite the warnings of the seniors that capturing it inside or close to the hive would be suicide since Beedrill treasured shinies, the bastard went ahead and did it.

The capture was noticed by a lookout and the whole hive began to attack him and us." He said before gaining that far away stare probably remembering the attack.

I lightly coughed to startle him out of it and he resumed his story.

"The whole swarm attacked and while there were only a few silver stage Beedrill, there were hundreds of bronze as well as iron-stage ones. That was not something we could fight.

We managed to make it out of the hive since we were not far from the exit but they followed behind, and once we left the narrow paths of the hive they surrounded us.

We told Sam to release the Weedle and he agreed to do so but the Beedrill seemed to be all "once our swords have been drawn they need to taste blood".

We called out our Pokemon to defend ourselves, and we managed to hold out for a time, and even got close to escaping while the silver-stage Beedrill focused on Sam. Still, after they killed him and his Pokemon even at the cost of 3 of their own, they turned their focus on us.

With them in the equation, our situation became even direr, and I and the two seniors along with our Pokemon began getting further injured, which we had managed to avoid against only the bronze and iron stage Beedrill.

Just as we thought we would be worn down to death Lucario broke through to the gold stage. His new strength allowed us to achieve a temporary advantage, and I used the hesitation it brought to use my aura to the fullest.

I went up to the Pokeball that contained Weedle to release it and offered to hand it over in return for safe passage. I had my aura on full blast the whole time, and together with our Pokemon, especially Lucario's success at keeping them at bay they agreed.

Ultimately, We managed to escape thanks to Lucario's breakthrough, but by the time it happened Infernape, Kirlia, and Poliwhirl were seriously injured. Especially Infernape, since the Beedrill focused on her the most.

She was only released from the hospital yesterday and has to take it easy for another week. Everyone else thankfully more or less recovered already. We were unlucky that our teammate behaved recklessly and lucky that we survived." He finished narrating and I had to agree with him.

If not for Lucario's lucky breakthrough he would have died there. That showed that it was better to only team up with "professionals" or friends since one could not know if a random teammate would drag one down as that Sam guy did.

"What happened to that guy's body? Did you leave it behind?" I asked curiously, but Aaron shook his head.

"We took his body and that of his Pokemon back with us. We handed it over to the mission center after our report, so that his burial procedures could be handled by them.

His family was informed, and the two Pokemon that he did not call out were handed over to them along with his belongings and accounts. Still, we did receive the standard 20% cut of his money and valuables, excluding the Pokemon, for returning him along with his things." Aaron responded and I had to nod.

In my opinion, the 20% cut rule was a brilliant idea on part of the alliance. It not only allowed those left behind to bury their family member, and ensured they were not left without capital but it enticed people to actually bring back the bodies and properties of the deceased. Because honestly, I was not sure how many would bother doing so without that incentive.

Anyway, after that bit of storytime, Aaron handed over the honey he gathered and I thanked him for it since would be useful for my recipes, and Parvati as well as Prime.

I gave him some of the Pokemon food I made for Tyson, Ali, and fighting types in general, partly as a thank you and partly to help them recover completely.

Afterward, we just kept talking about all kinds of stuff. Exchanging stories and simply talking about everyday stuff. We went out to have lunch at RFP, Rota Fried Pidgey, these guys had a subsidiary company everywhere. Aaron left after lunch and I returned home to resume training with my Pokemon.

Before dinner, I decided to call Jessica to ask how she was doing, which was thankfully good. Apparently, her Lickitung had evolved to Lickilicky even before her Yanma could evolve.

On another note, she had begun an internship as a nurse at the PokeCenter at the same time I started at the Academy, and it seemed to be going pretty good on that part.

After the call with her, I decided to call my other acquaintances living outside of Rota. Samurai/Kinji, Sakamoto, Wendy, and Misty were fine, we exchanged a bit of small talk before I hung up.

However, Takeshi, Akame, and her brother Coco didn't answer my call making me slightly worried about their health. Takeshi did call back the next day. Apparently, he had been training his swordsmanship with his father when I called.

As for Akame and Coco, those two only returned a call on Dialday. It seemed they had been on a training stint with their family regarding their poison resistance. They didn't go into details since it was a family secret, but at least I got to know that they were still alive.

The weekend went by pretty fast as well, and it was Arcday in no time. I woke up pretty early since my parents were coming over today. I did a quick last-minute cleaning.

Not that I needed to do it, since I kept the house clean, either way, but I wanted it to be at its best so I still did it. I wouldn't want my mom to be disappointed after all.

It took me roughly two hours until I was satisfied. Dusting everything took a bit longer than expected, but I was ready now. Taking a look at my watch I saw that it was 10 a.m. Seeing the time I decided to call my parents.

"Hi, mom." I greeted her and she asked me if I was okay as well as if something happened.

"Yes, I'm alright, nothing happened. I just wanted to ask when you two will be here." I returned quickly not wanting her to get worried.

"Great! I'll see you soon then." I told her before hanging up.

It seemed like they would be here in roughly 45 minutes, which was enough to make a large breakfast. I had yet to eat, and since they would be here soon I was going to make some breakfast for all of us.

So, I went to the kitchen to make some pancakes, along with some sausages and eggs. Once everything was ready I set up the table and brought over the drinks as well, just some fresh juice really. It seemed like I was done just in time as well since the doorbell rang only two minutes after I finished setting the table.

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