C070 - Getting back home

In the games, Evergrande City was a poke center at the top of a waterfall and the entrance to Victory Road, the last step before reaching the Elite Four of the Hoenn league.

In this world, Evergrande City was a beautiful town built into the cliff on both sides of a giant waterfall. It was much smaller than Slateport City and was clearly catered to trainers with the many battlefields on four different kinds of terrain available from water to rocky and steep cliff even.

The city fully relied on importing everything except for fresh water thanks to the waterfall. That was why the port that also technically received deliveries for the Elite Four Headquarters was much larger than the water-route 128 in the games ever suggested it could be.

Pete had a few hours checking the high-end shops for trainers because his connecting boat to Cianwood City would depart for a three and a half day trip only then. The boat was apparently a lot slower than Lapras despite being able to be on the water the entire day.

The prices in Evergrande were exorbitant, but the quality was at least acceptable for it. He even found two fighting move TMs that weren't Brick Break, Rock Smash, or grossly overpriced: Drain Punch and Detect.

Drain Punch seemed to be a niche move very few would buy because it was judged that not all pokemon that knew fighting moves could learn it. Pete was willing to find out why that was the case. Maybe something like potential for psychic moves or something related was needed.

Detect was a sort of physical equivalent to Protect that allowed a pokemon to block or parry a move. He hoped his Timburr could potentially incorporate the move in their games to train it. There was so much potential there if the move worked like he thought it did.

Courtney had agreed to at least look at his farm, and if it didn't work out, she would be out of Hoenn and could start anew. When Pete had sent her those luxury balls, she resolved herself to become someone who caught wild pokemon for good people and packed up all her meager yet unsold belongings in her Devon Corp bag of holding. It helped that Pete had offered to pay for her tickets. It made the decision almost for her.

She followed along in Evergrande City, wondering what Pete was thinking the entire time. She was a very quiet person. She talked as little as Jasmine, though on Courtney's part it was deliberate. She wasn't shy like Jasmine was.

"What's on your mind?" Pete asked as they slowly made their way back to the port.

"Nothing," Courtney replied with an even tone.

"Huh, that's crazy. I know legends about aura guardians and psychics who took years to attain an empty mind in their training," Pete quipped back with a playful smile. Courtney did her very small smile once more, and Pete caught it this time.

"So? What is it?"

"I was wondering why," Courtney answered this time.

"Oooh, that's very philosophical of you. 'Why?' isn't asked often enough, in my opinion. We humans certainly favor asking 'When?' and 'How?' more often. As in 'When is it my turn?' and 'How come I have to do that?', right? And if it is 'Why?', we instead ask 'Why me?'... were you thinking along those lines? I can see from those black lines on your head that I did not get that right," Pete monologued with a sly smile.

"You like hearing yourself talk. Is that it?"

"Hehe, I like hearing you talk," Pete teased back at the unimpressed Courtney.

"Why do you do what you do?" She eventually asked as they sat on a bench near the boarding area for the next part of the trip.

"Another good ques- OW! Okay, okay, no need to hit, I'll answer! Let's start with the farm. Why do I do it? The initial motivation was doing it as a sort of remembrance of someone I can no longer see. But it also allows me to surround myself with pokemon and watch them grow. That's very enjoyable to me. I want to look back at my life and be able to think I lived a life worth living! Now for the research part," Pete explained with a carefree smile.

"The research I do to occupy my mind. If I'm curious about something, I'd like to find out the 'why' and 'how', and I don't say that to tease you," Pete continued with a wink before turning back to look at the horizon.

"And if we're talking about the why you? It's simply because you were lucky, I'd like to say. I wanted to establish myself with the farm and knew I couldn't do it all alone. Sure, I won that decade old territory war relatively easily because of my team's typing advantage, their hubris, and all that. I got a gym leader to help finance the house because of luck. And having Jasmine helps, too, but she is her own person with her own goals and dreams. And while they might end on a farm, that won't be the case for a long, long time. I knew you exist. I knew you were close enough, and I suspected that you had enough love for pokemon to fit right in with my goals. Plus you seem to be a very pleasant person. That's what the two articles about you said before that guy interfered with the press and all that."

The boat had docked and put down the plank for the passengers to enter, so Pete boarded without looking back. Courtney had her ticket, and he was sleepy and a little homesick.

"Still not the full story... what is it he can't tell me straight," Courtney mumbled as she boarded the ship and unknowingly copied Pete by going to bed before the ride started.

Three hours before the an announcement of the captain said they would reach Cianwood City, Pete saw Courtney for only the third time since the boat ride started.

Pete wasn't quite sure if he said something wrong before that made Courtney avoid him or if it was something else, but if she did decide to live on his farm she would have to speak up eventually.

"You got everything? And something that can get wet under those clothes?" Pete asked with a grin.

"I still don't get why you want to jump off in the middle of the sea. If I die, I'll come back as a Ghastly to haunt you for life," Courtney answered in a dry voice.

"It's sadly getting a little dark and Duosion isn't quite on the level of Herbert's Exeggutor yet, so we will probably have to sleep in a tent for one night, but other than that Milotic was really excited to let us ride on his back for a short while. You can still chicken out, but there's no turning back once we jump ship," Pete countered, his grin deepening.

Courtney gave him a very unimpressed glare as she mumbled, "That didn't answer my question at all.

Had this ship been as fast as the speedboat from Slateport to Evergrande, Pete wouldn't have minded staying on the boat, but since it was as 'slow' as it was, Pete started feeling cooped up.

As they rested on a cold island in the middle of the sea at night, Pete saw his first wild ice pokemon since coming to this world if you discount Valentino's Lapras that were only 'freshly caught'.

A lone Swinub was getting chased around by a few Seel while a Dewgong with a red maw looked at them with a pleased expression. Combined with it being nighttime with only a small fire that Courtney's Numel lit up to make light, the sight was positively ghast...ly.

Pete's powerful pokemon defended the little toffee-shaped pig with the ground/ice typing, but its shivering form hid behind Courtney. After the Seels were fought off, they learned through Duosion that the small Piloswine tribe on this island was eradicated after a few powerful Dewgong migrated to here. The Swinub was among the last of its family, but it wasn't strong enough to swim away to another island like some of its family members did.

Courtney did close to nothing in the fight or talk much either, but Swinub wouldn't leave her side. Pete later learned that Swinub had bonded to her overnight, which had unlocked her ice affinity. Her second one after fire. For someone who just sat there while Pete's pokemon fought off those pokemon, it was a crazy fast bonding speed.

Maybe the Swinub simply recognized them as a tribe and wanted to get their protection, thus bonding to the first female she saw. Piloswine tribes were very matriachal, or so Pete read.

It was a little ironic that she was bonded to two ground pokemon, yet she had gotten their other typing as affinities instead. And, it was also interesting that she had affinities for two typings that were their opposites to a degree. Pete did not know if that meant something.

It was three hours after sunrise the next day that Duosion finally managed to teleport them to the farm. Pete released all his pokemon, and they quickly ran off to their favorite spots and pokemon that couldn't follow along.

Jasmine, who had seen Arcanine running like the wind, quickly dashed outside the house and saw Pete walking toward it. She quickly took off and jumped into his arms in full sprint. He cleverly maneuvered her weight and did a little spin instead of falling over with her and gave Jasmine a quick kiss.

"Hey there," Pete greeted with his warm smile.

"Hey," the future gym leader answered with a dreamy smile.

Pete coughed a little and leaned backwards to make some space between them and started introductions, "Before it gets awkward for her and then us, can I officially introduce Courtney to you?"

The two girls shook hands, but true to their nature, didn't mumble more than a 'hi' followed by their names. So, with a shake of his head, he asked Jasmine to show her around the house and allow her to freshen up while he put away his gains. He paid the lady by giving her a deep kiss so that she wouldn't hold it against him that he sent her away so quickly.

Since he had five incubators now since Elm had brought over two more on his last visit temporarily, Pete placed the two Eevee eggs in the empty incubators next to his new Dratini egg and the two Smeargle eggs.

Then he went outside and started planting as many of the herbs he got that were ready to be planted in the raised beds. The mysterious seeds he got from the giant Ludicolo tribe leader were placed in small pots in his study to see if they would germinate.

Courtney seemed to be taking a shower, so Jasmine ran back to him as Pete came from the raised beds, and they shared some more kisses until Pete handed over the Baltoy pokeball. The two conversed a little until Jasmine ran over to introduce the new pokemon to her team. Her Numel was still plenty shy, but she was doing better recently. Pete hoped Courtney's Numel would help Jasmine's Numel get out of her shell ever quicker and maybe even increase her confidence in her battle strength.

Pete once more talked about all the new TMs he brought until he walked over to all the pokemon he had left behind. He distributed some snacks he had gotten specially for their typing back in Slateport City and spent some quality time with his pokemon.

Afterward, he greeted his 'in-laws' and distributed some gifts he bought. It was meant as a thanks for house-sitting, but he also really wanted to gift what he found for Herbert without it feeling like he was biased.

A pokedoll in the shape of Torchic for Emily and Sophie, who at first pouted that she got the same thing as a baby but quickly stopped because the doll was just way too cute. A pokedoll of Jigglypuff for Lily because it was pink. And a book on how to decorate a house with plants 'Hoenn-style' for Isabelle. He got kind of lucky with that find because he had no idea what to gift her. It certainly wasn't a doll.

Herbert, though he wasn't here, would get a giant Exeggutor plushy. Pete was sure he would appreciate it greatly.

And of course, Pete didn't forget Jasmine either. He had a Steelix keychain prepared for her, but more than that he had brought those extra TMs, a Baltoy bred by a gym leader and plenty of herbs that would eventually help her pokemon just as much as his. As he handed over the keychain, he still felt a little stupid for not getting something more flashy at this moment. Welp, it was too late to change it now~

As Courtney settled into the last free room, Pete lamented over whether or not he needed to build a guest house soon. He had seen how Carl and Luna did it, and he was sure he could do most of it himself with his pokemon if he had the material. He could just ask an expert like Luna for wiring and piping work later on. It was something to do and a different way to train his pokemon's typing energy. The idea quickly became more and more feasible in his head.

After Isabelle and Pete cooked a giant pot of curry, the young assistant professor let it be known that he would spend the rest of the day in the hot spring to relax from the journey. His Milotic that came with him had already mastered Scald and would use it to fill the hot bath.

"Glad to have you back," Jasmine mumbled as she snuggled next to Pete. Right now, they were the only ones in the hot spring except for Arcanine and Gible, who was dozing off on the hot rocks next to the pool.

And since they were alone, the two of them got a little handsy in the water as they expressed how much they missed each other. It was a little embarrassing since her mom was still here, but Jasmine even agreed to spend her first night in Pete's room. Going all the way would need to wait until her extended family wasn't present at the farm, but to spend more time together with Pete, she could endure the teasing she will surely receive the next morning.