CH25 (389), Uno Reverse Card

The clock struck 12, announcing that it was now noon, and I decided to finally head home. I had not done so yesterday since I wanted to pay a visit to Jessica before I went back to Hope Town for a month.

I came across James and Layla when I went to the PokeCenter to meet up with Jessie, but I declined their invitation to battle, citing that I had no time since I was going to walk around the downtown area with Jessie.

James teased me good-naturedly saying that a date was naturally more important than us battling, and I refuted that it was not a date, just two good friends going out to have fun. That made both James and even Layla, who had been mock-pouting when James mentioned the date, laugh at my expense.

Once they managed to stop laughing, James asked me to stop acting like one of the dense idiots that were prevalent in the fantasy novels people liked to read, but I insisted that I had no idea what he was talking about.

Oh, and the reason I said Layla was mock pouting, was because she was not really annoyed since I could feel her amusement while she was "pouting". Regardless, I corrected them a final time before I walked inside the building. The two followed after me, saying that they were going in for a routine check-up of their Pokemon.

The moment I stepped inside, I saw Jessie waiting for me in the lobby area. She noticed my entrance as well, and gave me a wave with a joyful smile before walking towards me, while I did the same. She hugged me when we met up midway and I returned her hug for a moment before we let go. I could hear James and Layla chuckling but ignored them.

Instead, I asked Jessie if she was ready and after she nodded, we headed out. I waved James as well as Layla goodbye before we stepped out of the door, and I professionally ignored James yelling for us to have fun on our date.

A look at Jessie showed that her cheeks had taken on a slightly red hue, but she stayed quiet, and I was perfectly willing to ignore James' attempt at embarrassing me. Even if I made a mental note to use Mothra/Butterfree during our next Pokemon battle. Why was it so hard to accept that we were just hanging out as good friends, damn it.

Anyway, Jessie and I strolled around Pallet City until we stopped at our favorite public park. Dusk was starting to set in, and I got the bright idea that the atmosphere was perfect to record one of the performances we had been devising, practicing, and revising for her Persian.

The performance involved moves that created bright colorful lights, such as Thunderbolt, Power Gem, and Swift, as well as a graceful, dare I say feline choreography.

That was one of the solo performances we had worked out, so Jessie did not have to be in it, which is why she agreed to let me record it. She probably wouldn't have done so if it involved her as well since she was too casually dressed for a proper performance.

Anyway, I was proven right about the moment, since the performance turned out great. The backdrop, the dimming light, contrasted by the bright colors caused by Persian coupled with Persian's dance made for a mesmerizing video.

The video was so great that I proposed to Jessie to finally upload a video under the account we had registered in her name at PokeTube, and she agreed. That video became the first publicly available video of Jessie's, or at least one of her Pokemon's performances.

After uploading the video we made our way to Jessie's dorm, and we kept an eye on PokeTube to see if the video was being watched. A bit silly I know since the video just got uploaded, and Jessie had no existing popularity due to this being the first video she/we uploaded.

Yet, she wanted to see how it went, so we walked back with our phones in our hands, occasionally refreshing the site to see if the number of views had increased.

Our walk back was unhurried and by the end of our 30-minute stroll to Jessie's dorm, the number of views had reached close to 1000, which took us both by surprise, until we noticed the reason for the fast growth. Well, fast for an unknown account/person.

One of the people that stumbled upon Jessie's video had a modestly sized following and according to the comment we read in the comment section under her video, the (semi-) popular girl made a post praising Persian's video over at her PoryTom account.

With PoryTom presently being the most popular social media platform, and the girl's seeming popularity, a few people got lured over to PokeTube, hence the "high" number of views in just 30 minutes.

Jessie looked really happy, so I was thankful for the happy coincidence, and she gave me a hug as well as a kiss on the cheek while thanking me for my help before going up to her room.

She left me standing on my spot repeating that she was just too happy and that this was still just a meeting between great friends since I felt awkward hearing or thinking the word date while not even being officially 12 years old.

I knew that my body was/looked older and my maturity/mentality more than matched my body's development, but that number still made things awkward for me, even if I seemed to be the only one that thought so.

Anyway, that meet-up with Jessie was why I stayed in Pallet City yesterday. Still, now that I thought about it, I took a look at PokeTube to see how Jessie's video had done now that half a day had passed, only to see that the number of views had surpassed 20k.

I sent Jessie a quick congratulatory message before I went out and began heading to Hope Town. Mom and dad gave me a warm welcome and we caught up.

We began chatting about my time in Pallet since my last visit three weeks ago. It mostly centered around the research on Toedscool and Toedscruel since that was also why I didn't come back for three weeks due to being busy.

Obviously, I did not go into detail due to confidentiality reasons, but there was no problem with generalizing stuff. They seemed interested enough, as one would expect concerning a new species. However, they perked up some more when I began talking about my progress with my ground power.

"You're making good progress, especially with how busy I know you are," dad complimented me and mom nodded.

"Yeah, seems like you're really talented with that as well," mom said before finishing with "as expected of my son."

I had to chuckle when she said that since I knew she only said it to poke fun at dad, and dad knew it, but still reacted as mom expected him to react.

"Hey! What do you mean as expected from your son," he rebutted, "if anything, he obviously has his ground talent from me. I may not like the George family, but it's obvious that Mikail has inherited the ground affinity from yours truly."

*hooo*

"What happened to disliking anything that has to do with the George family, you obviously have no problem using them to claim an edge against me," mom mocked dad.

"I decided to let go of my grudge, so what. I don't care for them, and they are not worth wasting energy on, but I no longer see a reason to deny that my father and in turn I originated from there.

Besides, my son is obviously better than that whole family put together, and he can surpass them any time he wants at the thing they are so proud of," dad declared fake-imperviously.

"Hohoho," mom mock laughed. You know she did the full package deal with her hand before her mouth. They really liked acting out these fake arguments. What can I say? A lot of people had weird hobbies.

"So, you wouldn't mind being taught by Mikail," she countered triumphantly and dad looked taken aback. I felt some undercurrent during this last exchange, seems like they have been talking about this before.

"Those are completely different things," dad shot back, but mom shook her head.

"You said you don't care about that, and that Mikail has his talent from your side. We know you have the talent as well, so you shouldn't mind our son helping you train your elemental affinity," mom turned dad's earlier comment against him.

"I wouldn't mind giving you some pointers, dad," I decided to chime in since becoming a Ground Elementalist was a good thing.

As for him being too old to start or something stupid like that, that was irrelevant since dad still had a long, long life ahead of him. Mom looked extra smug when I decided to chime in, and dad looked between the two of us before giving up and shrugging.

"You know what? Sure, I don't mind," he ended up agreeing and mom cried out in jubilation.

She gave him a hug and a quick kiss to show him how happy she was with his decision. I decided to give out a fake cough and they looked over inquiringly.

"You may call me teacher during our lesson," I said seemingly seriously and mom couldn't help but laugh, while dad looked mock offended.

"Let's not mess with the seniority we have going on," he replied before laughing as well.

"Fine, fine," I made a show of agreement before joining in as well.

Once we calmed down, I decided to get started right away. Beating the iron while it's hot, as they say.

"Well, let's go to the terrace. I'll help you get started," I told dad before heading out.

Mom and dad followed behind me, and I sat down on the grass, motioning for them to do the same across from me.

"I'll be increasing the ground energy around, or rather beneath you by gathering the ground energy around us, and I want you to close your eyes and meditate while trying to feel the energy.

It's okay if you don't get it right away, or even if you fail to enter a proper mediation trance since both can take a while. You may practice the meditation on your own later, and we'll repeat this every day for half an hour to an hour during this month.

For now, just give it a try," I told dad after the two sat down. Dad decided to change into a cross-legged position, but I stopped him.

"Dad, you don't have to do that, if you don't want to. Taking a comfortable position is more useful, and you can even lie down if you want to. Just make sure you don't fall asleep," I said the last bit before laughing a bit and they joined in as well.

Still, dad took my advice and decided to lie down, saying that he wanted more of his body to be in contact with the ground hoping that it would help. I couldn't say that it wouldn't, so I kept quiet, while he closed his eyes and tried to meditate.

Mom kept watching curiously for about 20 minutes before she gingerly stood up and whispered to me that she was going to prepare lunch. I gave her a nod and she went back inside. Dad either didn't hear us or chose to ignore us since his eyes remained closed and he showed no outward reaction to mom's departure.

I kept gathering the ground energy around us for another 40 minutes until we reached the full hour mark before I stopped. I might have kept going for a bit longer, but mom came out five minutes ago and gestured that lunch was ready, so I chose to stop after rounding off the hour.

"Dad, it has been an hour, and mom wants us to go inside for lunch," I called out to dad, making him open his eyes. "If you want, we can continue after lunch," I offered him and he nodded.

"Yeah, let's do that. I didn't feel anything, but I want to try for another hour at least before stopping for today," he commented while we stood up.

We walked up to mom and all three of us headed inside for lunch, while mom asked dad how it went.

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