Meeting Heroes

Narrator-POV:

It is 6:20 AM in the Sinnoh timezone. The sun is barely peeking over the horizon on a beautiful Friday morning. It is expected to be a comfortable 14°C and it is forecast to rain with a probability of 40%.

In fact, at noon it will rain for a short shower but nobody knows that for certain yet.

Today is the 25th of March. The first month of spring and the first month of the year. Just the way that Arceus has intended it and any calendar saying otherwise, is wrong.

Right now, our hero Swole Solo lies on a couch. He is currently psyching himself up to spend the whole day training. And he vows to only watch a few reels of Zoey's contest during breaks so he does not waste any time.

"I can't just train the whole day." He tries to argue. Uselessly. Since he has nothing better to do today.

"I literally can't. That's 14 hours of training. That's impossible." But no alternatives come to his mind, so despite the harsh workout he has put himself under yesterday, he accepts his fate and spends the whole day training.

And he does not plan to waste any time with cooking, so it is actually 15 to 16 hours.

"I could go check out the library... Right! I wanted to check out information on Lucario, ""Sir"" Aaron, Lucas and Mai anyway!"

"Urgh. Shut up..." Dawn presses her face into the pillow while she tries to carefully disentangle her legs from Akari's and Marley's. "It's so early... Who are you even arguing with?"

After a bit more wiggling around, she gives up and falls back asleep.

"Good morning, Swole." Akari turns around in the girls' shared bed and pushes Dawn's leg off of herself in the process.

Swole is already overwhelmed.

His future wife has greeted him with a good morning and he does not know how to respond.

Eventually, after way too much time has passed and the situation has turned awkward, he settles on the neutral option. "Uhhh. Good morning, Akari."

"Are you going to train today too?" She asks, despite the answer being obvious.

"Uhhh. Yes. With Dawn. You?"

"Oh, we did not manage to find everything we needed and thus we will continue our shopping tour today. And then in the evening, we are to meet up with our new boss. He will be giving us further instructions and objectives for our journey through the wilderness."

"Cool..."

"Have you used my dowry yet?" Akari asks the struggling young man.

He in turn thinks for a moment to give his brain the time it needs to restart completely.

He remembers that Akari gave him the TM Protect as a gift.

An incredibly useful TM. "Are you sure you want me to have it? Didn't you want all your pokemon to learn Protect too?"

"Indeed. However my balls do not seem to accept the disk. I used it like you explained it to me, but nothing happened. I will just train my pokemon the traditional way."

It is because Akari's pokeballs are all handmade and from the distant past. They are incompatible with modern technologies.

And since TMs are only locked to a trainer after reading the trainer ID from the pokeball, that means Swole can still freely and legally use it.

'That's actually an amazing gift...' He thinks to himself. 'But if I use it, there will be no turning back.'

And so he puts the TM to a distant corner in his mind, until he can get a moment to really think about the situation.

Today, he decides he will do a lot of simple and dumb muscle training. Because he can think best, when not needing to think.

And with his motivation back in place, he gets up and prepares to go back to the playground for training.

Eventually, he has his pokemon and egg in place and stands in the doorway, ready to get going. 

"Dawn, are you coming?"

"Grrr..." She grumbles through the pillow. "5 more minutes, mom."

"Okay. See you all later."

And with a slightly relieved sigh, Swole continues through the door and closes it behind himself.

---

Swole-POV:

The door shuts close.

Finally. 

"Good fucking grief. Finally a moment to myself."

What the actual fuck actually happened yesterday. 

"How?" Just how did that happen?

The steps of my feet echo through the empty hallway.

First Zoey. Which I get. Boyfriend and girlfriend after some fooling around and chatting. Nothing extraordinary about it. Happens all the time.

But Akari?

She specifically told me that our 'date' wasn't a date. I didn't even know she was interested in me like that and suddenly we're getting married?!

I couldn't say no to her either... Not because of the 'dowry'. But because I'm still worried about her sanity.

Why does the wife's family even give dowries? It makes no sense--

Never mind that.

Akari worries me. I can't properly imagine what must be going through her head. Everyone she knew is gone and we're all that she has now.

If I said no, who knows what would have happened to our friendship... And now I'm stuck with my decision.

... As I silently step through the city, early in the morning, I brush Buneary and Salandit off my shoulders to get to my backpack and the TM within.

I still make sure that they don't touch the ground... It's a little too filthy for my liking. Salandit easily clings to me and Buneary finds a spot in the sling, next to Lucario's egg.

TM Protect. An incredibly useful move. Can block any move and can be used again after a relatively short cool-down period, compared to Fake Out.

But if I use it, I would effectively be accepting my fate.

"What do you girls think about this?"

But my pokemon just stare back at me in confusion. "What's your opinion on marriage?"

~"What's a marriage?"

~"Don't you get anything from context? It's rather obviouss. Akari is now an official member of hisss harem. It will only be a matter of time before they make eggs together."

~"Idiot lizard! Humans don't lay eggs."

~"How would I know what you dumb mammalss do!"

I try my best to stop listening in with my aura. The rest of their bickering is just random pokemon sounds that make for nice background noise while I put back the TM and continue my walk.

It's not a very good walk.

There are too many homeless people. I have no idea why they have decided to occupy the inner city.

Are the refugee camps full? Do they get more handouts here?

At least there are still none around the playground.

Just... some smooching teenagers...

It's still early in the morning and as I'm looking towards the playground equipment, a young couple, around my age actually, is sharing a single swing and they are going at it.

... I think I will go to the library first.

It's on this side of the river that goes through Canalave City's harbor and a little more distractions would do me good.

I pick up my pace again and try not to think about the couple...

Or Zoey...

Or Akari...

Or even Dawn...

At least Marley doesn't cause me any stress. She's nice.

And Salandit and Buneary don't seem to mind it too much either, that I keep rejecting their advances. "You two are the best."

~"I know." Buneary replies with confidence and smugness soaking her voice.

Salandit responds by licking the side of my face. Which is weird, but very cute.

Good to know that I can still act the same around my pokemon.

But I don't know how to treat Akari anymore! Or Zoey!

Do I need to write 'good morning' to Zoey? Maybe she's still asleep?

"Good grief. Girls are so hard to deal with."

"Bro, I know right?" Another random teenager comments when he passes me on the sidewalk.

He reminds me of Barry. 

I wonder what's up with him?

I check my phone, specifically the Retards group chat. The last messages are just me and Barry chatting with each other about our adventures.

Swole: "Yo, @Barry. What's up? Still catching some Zs?"

Swole: "Dude. Guess what. I'm getting married." I also add a shitty top-text bottom-text meme.

Its captions say "Me: I'm just going to focus on myself for a while. Life: Surprise! You're married now."

I hate it. It's cringe boomer humor but damn: If it doesn't fit well right now.

...

Swole: "Oh, and I have a harem now. Cool, huh? U jelly?"

... I really do have a harem now. That's so weird. 

And I don't know what's so good about it anymore. I'm not even getting kisses out of it.

I open my chat with Zoey and send her a message.

Swole: "Good morning my girlfriend. *Kiss."

I wish I could be sleeping in again. Everyone else is asleep.

... Didn't I want to be alone right now? What's wrong with me?

Why don't I just... know what I need to do and what I want?

...

Well. I want to be the pokemon champion.

I want my friends to be happy. Even if that means that I have to get a harem.

Every man wants a harem, including me. Even though it seems like a lot more effort right now than I thought. With a lot less kissing too.

I guess that's it. In that order too. Just 3 things and I'm happy.

And I'm counting my pokemon as my friends. "Do you girls want anything?" 

But maybe I shouldn't call my pokemon 'girls'.

~"I want to become stronger!" Buneary responds.

~"I want you to fu--" Salandit tries to respond but I stop listening before I hear what I don't want to hear.

"Good to know that you both want to become stronger, but I meant from the bakery over there. How about some snacks for breakfast?"

"Bune?"

~"Yeah! What she ssaid! You never hand out ssweets."

"Wait, how do you know about sweets, Salandit? Is someone messing up your diet when I'm not looking?"

~"She steals from Dawn."

"Sa-- Salandit! ~ It's not even true!" I didn't get the first part.

~"Yes it is. You keep waking me up when you dig through her stuff."

"Oi. No more stealing Salandit. A--"

~"Ssstop blaming me! I didn't ssteal!"

I believe Buneary. I shoot Salandit a glare but she remains unaffected.

Maybe I should only get Buneary a treat.

~"Nooo! I'm ssorry! Pleasse get me something too!"

Hehe. Cute. "How could I refuse you like that? But why exactly are you craving sweets? Do you need more calories?"

~"She eats like a furnace."

~"Sshut up! I do not!"

After a few more rounds of bickering, we each got some donuts and coffee for breakfast and headed to the library.

---

The vast library, which belongs to Canalave City's university, contains a lot of historic texts that have yet to be digitized.

It's where I can hopefully find out something about Lucas or Mai.

But what would the professor be doing here?

"Oh! Professor Rowan, what a coincidence to see you again."

The graying old man stands in the history section of the library. He replies with his usual gruff voice.

"Hum. Indeed, Mr. Solo. I apologize for brushing you off yesterday. I was in a hurry to make it to a meeting. How is your work coming along? Have you made any interesting discoveries yet?"

I discovered that Salandit has nipples, but I'm not going to mention that.

"Nothing interesting yet. But a weird irregularity is the amount of food my pokemon eat. They both eat almost the same foods I eat. I haven't found out why yet."

"Oho? Do tell if you manage to find out why that is. I remember reading a few papers that had mentioned pokemon with unusual appetites."

"What exactly are you doing in Canalave City? If you don't mind me asking?"

"We are here to investigate route 218."

"We?"

"Me, a few colleagues of mine... Come with me. I will introduce you."

With steady and precise steps he marches off. Catching back up to him is easy since his old bones are so slow.

He leads me through the geography section and then all the way to the back of the library to a very secluded reading niche. 

When I turn the corner and see the round table where his colleagues are sitting, I end up star struck.

It's Professor Oak!

Holy crap, I recognize like most of these people.

Next to professor Oak are his famous grandson, Gary Oak, and Bill - THE Bill. The guy who invented half the stuff where 'nobody knows' how it works.

At the other side of the table is Miss Mars in her Team Galactic officer uniform.

"Rowan, there you are!" An older lady with faded blonde hair and wrinkles all over her face greets the professor. "Did you forget to bring the books I asked you to?"

"I did not find them. History is your expertise, you will need to get your old bones up and look for them yourself. But before that, I would like to introduce one of my field researchers. Mr. Solo."

"Oh? Is he coming with us?" The old lady asks. "My name is Carolina Shirona. Nice to meet you."

My eyes widen in surprise. "The Carolina Shirona who wrote the 'Ancient Sinnoh History' book? The grandmother of Cynthia Shirona?"

"Oh? You have read my work? And yes, I am the grandmother of the greatest pokemon champion the world has ever seen! Hahaha!" She expresses joyfully before sitting back down as if exhausted.

Next, a younger lady, maybe in her early 30s speaks up. "Which edition did you read? Sadly, I'm not mentioned in any of the censored versions. Oh, and I am Professor Aurea Juniper. Nice to meet you." 

She gets up to shake my hand across the table and I lose against my instincts to look at her décolleté. Beneath her lab coat, she wears a very open blouse and a short, green pencil skirt.

"Eyes up here, young man."

"Sorry!" My face heats up at being caught. "Ehm, I remember reading your name in the book. I think it was the chapter on pokemon marriage?"

"He... he." Now it's her turn to blush. "That's the one."

That was such a weird chapter... Wait, didn't I try forgetting about it? ... I can't remember.

All I remember is that she was the one who claimed that there is probably something with the same principles as mega evolution that allows humans to ... you know ... with pokemon.

"Ahahaha!" Professor Oak laughs out. "That was one of the best chapters! I still remember the looks on the faces of those league-farts when they discussed our work with us. I'm professor Samuel Oak, but I bet you heard of me before. And this is my grandson, future professor Gary Oak."

"Hi. Nice to meet you." Gary also gets up to shake my hand.

He looks to be around my age... and I think he should be 14 too. Since he started with 10 and became famous 4 years ago, a little bit like Ash.

Miss Mars speaks up next. "We met each other before. I hope you remember what to call me?" Her voice still carries a seductive tone with it.

I didn't talk with her a lot at the award ceremony of the school tournament, but I distinctly remember her calling us 'strapping, young winners'.

"Yes. You prefer to be called Miss Mars, right?"

"Very right. Good boy."

Once again, I feel a blush coming onto my face, until professor Carolina speaks up again. "Oh, stop it Mars. He's not even half your age."

"Whatever do you mean? I am only 21."

"10 years ago perhaps." Carolina rolls her eyes.

"I'm as old as Cynthia; Are you trying to call your granddaughter old? Huh, old lady?"

Carolina's eyes stop mid-roll and widen instead. "... You are right. I apologize. You are both actually very young."

"Now." She continues. "Mr. Solo, did Rowan bring you for a reason or are you here just for an autograph, haha?"

I can get autographs out of this? 

I pull out the book and hand it to professor Carolina. "I will take the autograph, if you don't mind. Professor Rowan... I don't think you had a reason to bring me along, right? I wanted to go check out some books and then get back to training."

"Huh. I haven't seen a first edition in a while. Make sure not to show it around too much, Mr. Solo." Carolina says before writing something on the inside of the book-binder.

Then she passes it along to her colleagues to add their own autographs. 

Cool.

Bill and Gary decline to sign. Bill says he did not contribute to the work and says his signature wouldn't make sense.

Which didn't stop Miss Mars. She was happy to add her autograph last before handing the book back to me.

"Well, it was really nice meeting you all. But I need to get going. My gym fight is on Monday and we aren't ready yet."

"I will make sure to tune in on Monday then." Replies Miss Mars. "I want to see if you are still my strapping young winner."

Holy shit. She actually said that out loud.

Even her colleagues are looking at her in bewilderment.

She's taking confidence to a whole new level.

"Goodbye. And be sure to check your autographs." I leave before my blush can get any worse but I do notice her winking at the end.

After turning a corner, I speed up to get out of earshot.

Then I finally check the book.

5 names and 2 phone numbers... 'My granddaughter is still single' is written before one phone number.

'Call me <3' is written under the other.< p>

Hot damn!

I'm so popular with women! 

That's so cool!

Narrator: Actually, Mars wrote down the number to the Team Galactic recruitment hotline.

---

I quickly checked out a bunch of promising books and let the librarian make a bunch of free copies for me, so I can take them with me and not bother with any return-dates.

After wasting more time in the library than expected, I had to pick up my pace a little to start training as soon as possible.

"Where have you been? I waited for you." Dawn had waited for me by the playground and after giving my pokemon basic training instructions, I told her about what happened at the library with the professors.

Afterwards I sat down on a swing, making sure not to use the one that the couple used earlier, to make a final decision regarding the TM Protect.

I have my priorities straight now.

Number one is becoming a pokemon champion and this will make the path to it easier.

Number two is making my friends happy... 

And Buneary's goal is to get stronger too. This will make her stronger and therefore happier.

And Akari wants to get married to me... This will make her happier too...

I really like Akari and she looks amazing but... I- I kinda want the romance!

I don't want to have a loveless marriage! I only have 10 years left! I don't want to die like my father lives!

Urgh! Mom's movies have ruined it!

Why can't I just be happy with having hot women around me?!

Why can't I just be happy? It's great!

Fuck! "Fuck it." 

You know what!? I'm just going to go through with it!

My parents loved each other when they married and see how that turned out.

And nothing stops me from dating Akari normally after we are married. 

We might even fall in love like they do in the movies afterwards.

There is nothing bad about it, except my expectations of what is and isn't normal. 

I need to get my head out of my own ass and just press onward.

And with that, my gaze finally settles on the TM. 

"Hey Buneary, come here for a second."

It's always funny to spectate Buneary. With the first sound I made, her ears stand up straight. Then she turns her head before she starts hopping in my direction.

So cute.

She was training Jump Kick by using a battered, public practice-dummy.

"Bune?"

"I need you to return to your pokeball for a moment. You're going to learn a new move."

In response she just nods her head.

I lift up her pearly white pokeball and pause for just a moment.

Then I press the button to recall her.

The red beam shoots out and Buneary disappears. 

Our bond is still there and I know she is just a press of a button away.

After pressing the TM against the pokeball, it slides in between the two halves of the pokeball, like a DVD, and it sounds like it starts spinning inside.

A minute or two later, the noise stops and the disk slides back out.

With a little more urgency than necessary, I press the button to release her back out of the pokeball.

"So... Do you feel like you can use Protect now?"

She nods with a hint of uncertainty and after concentrating for a moment, a tiny, translucent shield appears in front of her, covering a quarter of her body at best.

"I'm setting a new timer on my phone. Every time you hear me calling out 'Protect', you need to drop whatever you are doing and use Protect. You got it?"

"Bun!"

"Good girl." I pet her head a little before sending her off to continue training Jump Kick. 

Fewer children are watching us today since the novelty has worn off but the few remaining ones cheer a bit after seeing Buneary continue.

A few are shouting for us to do some more practice battles but I have to teach Salandit Protect first.

"Salandit, it's your-- Woah." She has already leaped on my lap, ready to get some more personal attention from me.

"Same deal for you. Get in the ball." She looks down at my groin. At where her luxury ball is clipped to my belt.

Except, she does it herself. She moves her clawed paw... and misses the button of the luxury ball.

"Saland?" She asks as she touches the bulge in my pants.

"Bad girl. That's a no-no-touch." I unclip her pokeball and return her before she can touch me anywhere else. Which... doesn't make sense. It's not like I have a worse spot to touch for her.

Anyway, I slide my Disk right in there. 

I wonder what it feels like for her. Does it feel good for her? Or is it intrusive? Maybe painful because it's her first time?

I can't imagine what it's like to just have your mind manipulated like that. To have false memories and experiences inserted into her like that. 

To be penetrated like this, on such a visceral level.

Wait! I can! Mesprit messed with my mind too. It was rather pleasant back then.

The disk slides back out and I release Salandit.

"Did you finish? Did it feel good for you too?" I ask her.

~"Yess. Thank you." She responds with her eyes half-lidded like usual.

Applause and cheering suddenly reaches my ears. 

Buneary must have done something cool, impressive and truly spectacular for the children to start cheering like that.

I made Salandit show off her Protect move and send her on her way to continue training. "Now, off you go, you little troublemaker. Do your best at training again, and I will give you another petting session before bed."

"Sa!" This made her run off with excitement and she continues to... do her... basic training... of her poison and fire type.

Oh no. OMA! I forgot to adjust her trainings-plan!

Am I retarded!? I'm wasting so much time by making her train her old moves over and over again!

Nurse Joy even gave me a copy for Salandit's species!

I pull it out... 'Joyful Pokemon Anatomy' - wrong book!

I pull it out, a book by Professor Elm. This one on the Salandit species, fresh from Nurse Joy's printer.

This, together with my general books on the poison and fire types, should contain all the information I need to put together a new training plan for her.

---

Narrator-POV:

With newfound urgency/panic pressing his actions forward, Swole designs the new trainings-plan for Salandit.

Despite Fake Out being a really good option, he quickly realizes that his Salandit does not have a bright future when it comes to physical moves.

With her physical strength being as bad as it is, he decides to skip all physical moves for now. 

However, he makes sure that Salandit continues to use Fake Out every 15 minutes during their sparring and he writes down Poison Fang as a decent option for the future.

For her poison type, he decides to focus on Venoshock. A strong poison move that is supposed to summon poison around a target and drench it in it. It is twice as strong against poisoned targets.

However, Salandit's Corrosion ability does not allow her to hit steel pokemon with poison moves. 

All it does is allow her to apply the poisoned status to a steel target - a small but important distinction. Venoshock is useless for the gym battle.

Which is why Salandit shares her poison trainings-time-slots with more Poison Gas training.

For Salandit's fire type, Swole decides for her to train Incinerate. A move that is not a lot stronger than Ember but after hitting a target, the fire stays around any equipment that the target holds. This often forces the target pokemon to drop any items that it held when it entered the fight.

And last but not least, her normal type.

Her normal pool already receives a tiny bit of training through Protect and Fake Out. But that is not enough to keep her busy, so Swole makes her train Swift too, by encasing Ember projectiles with normal type energy.

With that plan in mind, the group continues their training. 

Buneary and Salandit train their moves. Swole his body. And even Dawn trains her body to the best of her ability, while directing her pokemon to use their moves in pretty and creative ways.

Dawn tries a few pull ups and push ups but quickly gives those up since she cannot even do one. In the end, all she does is distract Swole by making her boobs bounce while running and by contorting her body while doing yoga.

Hours pass until it is time for lunch. Dawn went and cooked for Swole, herself and their pokemon while Swole continued to train his body and his pokemon.

More hours passed and shortly before dinner, the humans' bodies began to fail.

Once again, Dawn drags herself to the public kitchen in the pokemon center to make Swole some more food.

Just as Arceus has intended it.

"Huff. Huff... Thank you so much, Dawn. Huff. You must be an angel that Arceus himself sent to earth." Swole, who still had not taken a real break, agrees with the narrator's sentiment.

"Hehe. Don't mention it." With which she means, he needs to mention it more. "For how long will you continue training today?"

"I won't stop. Because I don't stop when I'm tired, I stop when I'm done." Swole Solo is determined to do the most with his time. 

But his arms finally fail him when he tries to pick up the sandwich that Dawn put hard labor into, to produce. "... I might be done at some point." He admits.

"At some point? Are you insane? Take a break. Now."

"Alright, alright. Mom." He rolls his eyes but secretly he is glad to finally take a proper break.

He tries to sit down, but once again his muscles give up and he plops down and ends up on his back.

"Oof. Buneary, Salandit; We're taking a break. Come and get food." He shouts out but can only hope his pokemon follow his orders. His body is too sore to even turn towards them to check.

"D-do you want me to f-feed you?" Dawn blushes as she offers him the sandwich again.

Swole takes just a moment to reply while his own blush grows to match Dawn's. "Yes. Please."

"O-o-open u-up. H-here comes the airplane." Jokes are not enough for Dawn to get over how embarrassing this is for her.

But open up he does. And he takes a bite from the food that is so graciously offered to him.

As he chews through the sandwich, he remembers that his berry case is nearby and could cure him of the acute level of physical exhaustion with a single Oran Berry.

But wise as he is, he decides not to mention that and takes another bite from the Sandwich instead.

"Are Buneary and Salandit doing okay?" He asks after yet another bite and Dawn reassures him.

"Yeah. Don't worry. They are just exhausted. Do you want me to carry them closer to you?" She knows that Swole has issues when it comes to the absence of his pokemon.

"Yeah. That would be nice."

But Buneary and Salandit have listened in to his conversation and made their way on their own. 

Buneary continues her meal while sitting on Swole's stomach, while Salandit picks his thighs as a seating spot. 

Although she does move closer to his pelvis than strictly necessary.

Nonetheless. "Awww." Dawn finds it very cute and precious.

"Say... Will you watch my performance tomorrow? ... It will start at 4 PM."

Swole is not really interested in the contest. But he knows he cannot simply talk his way out.

"How long will it take?"

"2 hours at most. It won't interfere with your training if you watch it during your break time."

~"Shit." 

Dawn glares at him.

"Good grief. I will be there."

"Thanks! T-that means a lot to me." She grins brightly and infects Swole with her happy mood.

That is when Swole notices Dawn's hand caressing his arm. 

Despite not saying anything about it, Dawn feels his muscles tensing up and his eyes darting towards her. 

"Sorry." She pulls back. "Do you want an Oran Berry? Do we even have any left? We went through a lot today."

The group consumes a total of 50₽ per hour. With the local market prices it even rises to 75₽ per hour.

"Yeah. I got a lot in my berry case left. I went through the numbers yesterday to make sure I don't have to go shopping here. But I will be out of Leppa Berry around Sunday evening. It's also when we will stop to recover for the fight."

"Sheesh. You're really overdoing it. Enjoy your life a little."

"You mean enjoy my life with my girlfriend who is all the way over in Oreburgh City? Or my fiancée, who is busy?"

"Orrrr, with one of your other very close friends."

"You're right. I should call Barry. He's probably taking a break right now too." Swole says with a grin on his face.

"I meant me, you dick. You know what? I don't think you deserve an Oran Berry right now." Buneary chuckles at Swole's mistreatment. "I think you deserve to lie helplessly on the ground some more."

A few silent glances are exchanged before Swole's growing worries make themselves heard again. "What about your pokemon? Don't they need to take a break too?"

"Don't worry about them." Dawn waves his concern off. "They took a break the moment I took my eyes off them."

The pokemon in question stiffened up at being caught off guard.

"Yeah! I have eyes in the back of my head! You two better get back to practice dancing!" Dawn, the slave driver, shouts out.

"You used your aura for that?"

"Nah. Just womanly intuition. I can't feel further than a few centimeters yet."

"Heh. I can monitor the entire playground already. But only if I concentrate on it... I need to get better at it. I don't want to get surprised by a mugger or something like that." 

With great effort he tries to move his hand to the berry case but Dawn simply swats his hand away.

"By the way, can you get me an Oran Berry now? Like I said, I don't want to be caught off guard by a mugger."

"You're being paranoid. This is a playground. Nobody robs people here."

"... If I get stabbed by a homeless person, it's your fault."

"Bu- Buneary!"

"Oh. ... You're right. I don't need to worry about homeless people with you around."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? Does that mean you trust your exhausted pokemon more than your best friend forever?!"

"Yeah... Pretty much. I don't trust you to guard anything. If I was a robber, I'd rob you blind easily. Besides, Barry and-- Well, Barry is my BFF. You're a girl. That's different."

Dawn replies by sticking out her tongue at him and putting the berry case further out of his reach. "I'm a woman. You child."

"I'm a man. You're the child."

"No you."

"No you."

The riveting discussion continues for a while.

"Can you hand me my phone? I'd like to check if my BFF wrote anything to me."

"I don't know. Can I? I guess I would need to be some kind of special friend to dig through your pockets."

"Oh you are certainly a very special friend."

"Why did you pronounce special like that, huh?" Dawn pokes Swole in his chest.

"Ouch. Careful, I'm tender. Now, can I have either my phone or an Oran Berry?"

"Humm..." Dawn taps her chin in thought. "I think you have almost suffered enough. Tell you what. Since I can't be your BFF for some stupid boy-reason, that just means I'm you BGFF, deal?"

"My best girl friend forever?"

"Ha! You said it. Now you can't take it back. I wonder what Zoey will think about that, hehehe."

"What? That's not fair. I said girl friend. Not girlfriend."

"Tomato, tomato. Anyway, I hope you don't mind if your best girl friend forever digs through your pockets now."

"Oi, oi, oi! I think I prefer the Oran Berry by now."

"Too bad. F-for you!"

---

Swole-POV:

...

...

...

"I'm going to set an alarm for tomorrow, 8 AM. Alright girls?"

"I am fine with that." - "Hmm." - "You're waking up at 6-something anyway."

The girls in question reply together as they settle into bed... Together.

"Well, who knows. But I know I'm not going to miss my gym battle tomorrow."

Various forms of 'yeah yeah' come from the girl-pile.

"... Man, I wish I wouldn't be banished to the couch."

"Yeah, I bet you wish." - "..." - "What do you mean? Is the couch not comfortable? But I am not sure what we can do to change that."

Oh Akari... How can you be so innocent?

"He means he wants to sleep with all of us in the bed."

"Oh no. No, Swole. You cannot do that. It is not permitted for men to share beds with women they are not married to."

I might be the luckiest guy in the world to have an actual harem and an incredible looking woman like Akari lining herself up to marry me... But I might as well be the unluckiest guy in the world too.

There is no way any other guy has to deal with that nowadays. "Could I... at least get a kiss?"

I'm probably reaching here. She's going to say something like 'no sexual contact before marriage, Swole'.

"Sure." Huh!?

"Wait, really?" I sit up on the couch and watch as Akari climbs back out of the bed, to the protest of the other girls. "Isn't that too sexual for you?"

"Of course not. A father also kisses his daughter goodnight. There is nothing inherently 'sexual' about it. It is merely a gesture shared between two loved ones. Not just husband and wife."

What a weird logic.

But I'll take a win wherever I can.

"But please close your eyes. This is quite embarrassing."

She is just incredibly adorable. "Okay."

I trust her not to play a prank on me so I wait with my eyes closed and my lips ready for some action.

"Smooch." She plants a very short kiss on my lips and retreats again. "Good night, Swole."

"Good night, Akari."

It wasn't what I expected. 

It was short and tender. 

So much different from Zoey's kissing. 

But... I liked it. I want more.

I open my eyes again and it almost looks like she's running away and trying to hide under the blanket.

"Good night, Swole."

"Good night, Dawn."

"Uhm... good night... Everyone?"

"Good night, Marley."

"Bun." - "Sal."

"Good night you two."

Buneary and Salandit snuggle a little closer to me after they heard me saying that. So cute.

But I'm not quite tired yet... Well, I am absolutely exhausted and my body feels like it's made from lead, but my mind is still racing.

Tomorrow, I will fight my first gym battle. 

And unlike Barry, I won't lose. 

My strategy will work.

Today, we finished training a little earlier, when we ran out of Leppa Berry.

Saturday, I watched Dawn manage to make it into the top 2 in her contest. Which makes her debut one of the better ones in history, supposedly.

What really surprised me about the contest was that Cynthia herself was one of the judges. She is technically a top coordinator, but from her comments made during the show, it seemed like she knows as much about that stuff as I do.

Prinplup did a really good job in the big arena with all the floodlights to create a very pretty bubble and light-show.

And then Mawile and Prinplup got her through the fights, all the way into the finale. But then Prinplup was too exhausted to continue and a slightly winded Mawile had to fight the final battle. 

Mawile was seriously unlucky and lost. Astonish and Bite both hit their target but didn't make the opponent flinch and Fire Fang didn't manage to burn the target either.

I had to listen to Dawn complaining about her luck for the rest of Saturday, until I passed out from exhaustion on that day.

On Friday, after Dawn finally gave me my phone, I saw that Zoey had lost in the top 4 this time. Getting one round further than in her previous attempt in Jubilife City.

Once again, she lost against this 'Jessilina' woman. 

Looks like Zoey has managed to get a serious rivalry going.

And... "Yawn." And Barry has his next attempt scheduled for Thursday.

Looks like I'm going to blast ahead of him.

Hehe...