CH63 (585), Logistic (1)

I finished my final week at the nursing home and chose to not stick around Emerald City for the weekend. I did briefly consider whether I should spend the last two days before the start of my new phase making use of old Raticate's experience to look for any decently strong Pokemon that were old and dying but decided against it.

While Raticate had reached a respectable age, he had already shared that he had spent his whole life in and around the Emerald City area, so once I left that zone, he would have nothing to contribute experience-wise. Not that his knowledge of the Emerald City area was all that useful regarding aged Pokemon since he only knew about 3 of those.

Apparently, Raticate had not been the most sociable since he had spent most of his life training, scavenging, and battling, so he had no real friends since the ones he had grown up with had already passed away. The three Pokemon he did know that fit the bill were ones he either came across during his search for goods/resources or had fought against with neither party managing to "take care" of the other.

Honestly, the Arbok that one applied to did arouse my interest a bit, but I seriously doubted that using an Arbok that old and probably set in its ways as a guardian for a bunch of Rattata as well as birds was a good idea.

Everything I knew implied that the Ekans line had to be trained from youth, optimally from birth/hatching, if one wanted the Pokemon to be cordial or friendly. It was not impossible to find "decent" ones in the wild or even somewhat correct their attitude after the formative years, but it was quite difficult. Most Ekans or Arbok of that kind required a constant display of superior might over a prolonged period to act at least cordially with others.

Unfortunately, Raticate's description, no matter how biased it probably was, made it clear that this Arbok would not be fit for the role of a sanctuary guardian. As for the other two "seniors", they simply did not arouse my interest enough to bother searching for them.

Instead, I made my way to Azure City since that was where I would be staying for the duration of my 2-month-long logistic phase. Once I made it to Azure City, I found a secluded spot to enter Utopia and spend the rest of Dialday/the evening with my Pokemon.

The next two days were spent getting a lay of the city. Finding the important locations such as the most recommended restaurants and fast food joints as well as the local KFC and KFP branches. Naturally, I also took a look at where the logistic building I would be working at was. I likewise made sure to memorize where I would be able to buy or sell resources in case I needed them. This included the PokeMart as well as other stores.

The knowledge of the location of at least one PokeCenter in each "ring" of the city could naturally not be missed as well since scouting out those places was something each trainer should do upon reaching a city. At least that was what my own experience, the trainer school, and family as well as friends had told me.

Anyway, on Arcday, bright early at 6:20 a.m. I left Utopia to report to the local logistics department of the alliance. I made it there in less than 5 minutes since I had made sure to enter Utopia not too far from the building. I spent a few minutes eating a sandwich while sipping some delightful OO juice and entered the building as soon as they opened the doors at 6:30 a.m.

Upon reporting my arrival at the reception, I was asked to wait for a moment, and within a few minutes, someone came to pick me up. When I asked about my accommodations, I was told that they did have an employee dorm, but that I was free to find myself another place to stay if I wanted. I took him up on that offer since I preferred staying inside Utopia over any dorm room they could offer.

I quickly learned that this phase would be pretty much completely useless to me. The previous phases at least had either a hidden or obvious lesson that was still applicable to me. However, this did not apply to this logistic phase since I already knew and applied pretty much everything they were trying to teach/acquaint the aspiring trainers with.

What steps to take upon arrival in a city, the route system, or the "wild", as well as journey, route, or action planning, inventory keeping, reserve limit determination, procurement options, optimal storage methods, and so on were all things I already knew and used.

Hence, it was no wonder that I was quite bored by the end of week 4. I was honestly proud that I managed to hide my boredom and discontent for so long since it would have been unfair to the workers who did their best to impart to me what they saw as essential knowledge for any aspiring trainer.

Admittedly, I did call Professor Oak at the end of the first week to see if I could be exempted from this phase and if possible the finance one as well which came after this one. Unfortunately, he made it clear that I would have to suffer through both phases even if I "knew" what was being imparted to us.

Nonetheless, after I found out that I could not escape, I made sure to keep my discontent to myself since it was not the fault of my current co-workers and any "tantrums" of mine would have only made me look like a petulant child. As an esteemed Junior Professor, I obviously could not do that, which was why I was currently on my way to the local "Aldini's".

Eating and spending time with my Pokemon were the ways I dealt with the frustrations I accumulated at work. The happiness and joy I felt at those moments were like a balm on my weary soul. I was planning on spending the weekend inside Utopia, so I ate a few more plates to compensate for those two days.

After making the branch owner very happy, I left and headed to one of the secluded places close by. Unfortunately, I could feel some malicious emotions following me, making me a bit disgruntled. I had hoped that the bounty matter had settled down by now since the last attack had been more than 3 months ago, but it seemed that I had been wrong.

Still, I could not help but harbor some hope that it was not an assassin after all, so without turning around I extended my psychic senses and used my telepathy to check whether this was just some random thief/mugger or someone who wanted to kill me for the bounty. Sadly, it ended up being the latter.

The irritation I felt at that revelation was rather intense, and for a moment I could not help but consider taking a rather extreme step to intimidate everyone once and for all. However, rationality won in the end and I shelved the idea of forcing the guy to mimic a Noctowl. Instead, I made him slip and bang his head against the wall of an adjacent building.

He was cursing and holding his head in pain while getting back to his feet. Yet, he didn't give up and hurriedly moved forward to keep up with me. Seeing him persist, I made him slip once more and this time he banged his head on a bench on the roadside. The second slip made the guy suspect foul play, yet even while groaning due to pain he still insisted on following after me, so I made him slip a third time.

This time around he banged the back of his head on the ground and got knocked out. I briefly considered leaving him there like that, but in the end, I still ended up calling Detective Monroe. I told her what happened and asked her to contact the local/Azure City police so that they could take the guy into custody. They would probably have to stop by the hospital first, but that was not my problem. He only had his clumsiness to blame for that. Yep, it had nothing to do with me and no one could prove the opposite.

Anyway, after ensuring that this guy would not wake up for at least another 30 minutes, I took out a large piece of paper and wrote "criminal, do not touch" on it in bold red before placing the paper on the guy's unconscious body. With that done, I resumed my trek and eventually entered Utopia. I spent the rest of the evening talking with my Pokemon and the topic of spars came up.

At the end of that conversation, we ended up deciding to hold a tournament tomorrow, and I already had the format in mind. It would be those of the same stage facing each other, though I would have to add a few of the Utopians for Squirtle and Beldum because two participants hardly made a tournament. Similarly, I would be adding quite a few silver Utopians as well, since there were currently only 3 main members at the silver stage.

We started the first tournament right after breakfast. Naturally, we were moving from the bottom to the top, so Squirtle and Beldum got to go first. Well, after I selected 10 iron stage Utopians with decent strength. Even if they were there to make up for the missing number, I wanted them to at least provide a challenge for my iron duo. Squirtle actually ended up winning the final battle against Beldum by relying on Bite and Aura Sphere.

The bronze group followed and I only had to add 3 Utopians to their tournament. Everyone gave their best, and the final round ended up being Igneel/Charizard against Gaara/Gabite. Igneel ended up winning that one due to aerial superiority. At that point, I decided to drag lunch a bit forward so we had an early lunch before the silver group got to battle. For this one, I had to recruit 9 silver stage Utopians to supplement the number. Fortuna/Togetic lost against Melinda/Mienshao, and the final battle ended up being Melinda against Po/Pangoro, which Melinda won.

After that, the Golden Club got to compete and their tournament ended up taking longer than the previous three combined, which was not surprising considering that their club had the highest number of members at 22. Quite a few of those battles ended up being rather close, but ultimately Tatsumaki/Alakazam got to face Anubis/Lucario in the finals.

The battle between those two took close to 15 minutes because Tatusmaki decided that grinding down Anubis would be for the best, and it worked since she ended up winning, though Anubis did a good job since he managed to cause quite a bit of damage to Tatsumaki by counteracting her a few times.

Seeing how there was not much time left until dinner, I decided to wait with the dark gold tournament until after dinner. An hour after everyone had eaten, I started off the dark gold competition, and the final round ended up being Mothra/Butterfree against Stan/Gyarados. Honestly, Horus/Xatu was a bit unlucky since he ended up facing Mothra during the quarterfinals, while Moka got to face Mothra during the semifinals.

Anyway, due to her excitement, Mothra ended up pulling all stops during their battle, and since Stan was quite large, Mothra actually made use of her talent to assume a giant form. I had to say that their battle was fantastic and I was positive that I could have sold it as a Kaiju battle/movie in my old world if I sold a recording of their fight. I mean, it was a clash between a 20-meter-long flying water serpent and a 20-plus-meter-tall Butterfly with both sides using elements against one another with the occasional physical clash.

Prime material for a blockbuster, and definitely great to watch, but eventually Stan ended up succumbing to the onslaught of Mothra's moves, crowning her the winner of the tournament. With that victory, Mothra affirmed her position as the strongest, at least for now since quite a few of my Pokemon got fired up and proclaimed that they would win the next time.

-----------------------------

Advertising plug-in:

Currently, the lowest number of advanced chapters available on patre'on is 6, while the highest number of advanced chapters is 10.

Sketches, drawings of the MC, Variants and maps can be found on my Patre'on. A patre'on exclusive Legendary Lore series can be found there as well.

Help me stay motivated.

patreo*n/Azrail93