Matthias

  “W-Whoa, Valerie. Uhm, what’s up?” A cry of affirmation from Larry was all she needed before Matthias watched as the girl walked away, her arms still firmly crossed. When she made it out of her Pokemon’s sight, she slid down into a sitting position behind a tree at the edge of the forest, pulling her legs in close and setting her crossed arms down on top of her knees, her head resting on her arms, “Val-err, Valerie?”

  “…Am I a terrible trainer?” She muttered into her arms.

  “W-Well…” Matt replied noncommittally to a shake of the head by Patrat on his shoulder, “Err- I mean, I-uh, I don’t think so!”

  “I mean, I learned about all this in the trainer school!” She looked up, her eyes brimming with tears as she admonished herself, “Why didn’t I think about it even a little bit! It’s written everywhere that Larvitar need to eat a ton of soil to evolve, mountains' worth of soil! And I just…didn’t even think about it!” She punched the earth with an angry fist.

  “Uhm…” Matthias didn’t even know what to say. He’d never seen another person his age in this kind of state, “W-Well…”

  “I’m so mad at myself…” She complained as she wiped tears on her sleeves, “I’ve been trying so hard to be the best trainer for Sybil and Larry, but it feels like I’m just half-assing it…”

  Matt realized he couldn’t just stand by, so he sat down next to her, “U-Uh, you want to…tell me about it?”

  Valerie took the opportunity, “I’ve been doing so much, trying to catch up to all the other people who’ve seemingly been preparing to become a trainer their whole life. And now that I actually took the chance, stuff just keeps going wrong at every turn…”

  “First, my dad gets hurt and can’t be a ranger anymore, the only job he’s ever had…My first Pokemon turns out to be super rare, and I can barely find any info to care for it. My mom, who I barely ever talk to, shows up and tries to connect with me…Next, it turns out my Pokemon’s mother is in Mt. Silver, so I go exploring in there…Get my shoulder injured…Then I’m suddenly a social media star…”

  Matt winces at the last one, “S-Sorry…”

  “Not your fault…” Valerie accepts, “Now I’m desperately trying to catch up with knowledge every other trainer has been learning in less than a month, all while some crime syndicate tries to steal my Pokemon from me…” She wipes her eyes once again, “No wonder I’m always so tense…I’ve been having trouble falling asleep, too…”

  “Y-You, uh, you’ve had it rough…” Matt agreed, “W-why even become a trainer, if-uh, if it's that hard? You said, y-you wanted to be a, uhm, ranger before, right? D-During our interview…”

  She stayed quiet for a bit before answering, “I didn’t think I’d be happy as a ranger.”

  “W-Why?”

  “Because when I had my first fight with Larry, it was absolutely exhilarating, the most excitement and fun I ever felt. We fought against a wild gang of Magmar deep inside Mt. Silver with three other rangers.” She explained with a reminiscent look.

  Matt balked at the mention, “A-A-A-Are you allowed to tell me this?”

  She didn’t even acknowledge his question, “...There was a high chance that we’d actually die if we didn’t beat them, and we were only saved because other wild Pokemon that knew Larry showed up and took out the enemy for us. We got really lucky.”

  Matt understood the girl a bit more now, “Y-You’re an adrenaline junkie, then?”

  Wiping more tears away, she turned to him and smiled, “I didn’t even know it myself, but yeah, I guess I am.”

  Seeing that teary-eyed smile, Matt couldn’t help but feel something inside him flutter. All that was forgotten, though, as Patrat once again pulled at his ear, “Ack, ay! Stop it!”

  Valerie snickered at their squabble, her sadness from before slowly being forgotten.

  “I-I think you’re an ok trainer, V-Valerie.” Matt commented, not daring to meet the girl's eyes as he fidgeted with his hands, “Y-You shouldn’t put yourself down. You j-just started late.”

  “Thanks…” Valerie sighed, “Yeah, I guess I’m just not used to being a trainer yet…”

  Silence overtook the two before an idea came to Matthias, “T-then how about I go with you?” He felt his face heat up at his proposition, “M-M-My travel series has been, uhm, going pretty well. I-I think my viewers would love it if I continued it…”

  Fidgeting with the strings of his hoodie, he continued, “Uhm…Having someone to travel with would make your journey easier, right?” He found himself stuttering less as he rattled on, “I-I could also help with your training, and so on…”

  “I’d be happy to have someone to travel with, but…Is your family ok with that? They think you’re going on a weekly trip to Viridian City for an interview with me, right?” Valerie questioned, “If you suddenly tell them-”

  “I’ll convince them!” He cut her off with far too much enthusiasm, “I-I think this could be really good for my socials, so I think they’ll see it as a career move!”

  “Uh, really? Sure, I’d be happy to have someone to travel with.” Valerie agreed, still wiping some leftover tears from her eyes, “So you’re simply traveling with me and not looking to beat the Gyms?”

  He simply scoffed in return, “Uhm, I’m not a Pokemon trainer like you, Valerie. P-Patrat might’ve technically won against Larry back there, b-but I don’t think even he counted that as a win.” He turned towards his prairie dog friend on his shoulder for support, “Hm? Right?”

  But he simply turned away indignantly with crossed arms and a scoff, sparing Matt even a comment.

  Valerie smiled at the display, before staring back at her hands, “I guess I’ve just been so stressed this whole time that I kind of forgot to look at myself from the outside…I’ve just been hurrying along, trying to do everything at once to catch up with people I didn’t even know existed…”

  Matt finally saw Valerie for who she was, just another girl starting her journey this year. He’d built himself up an image of the girl who owned the Larvitar, a rare existence who obtained the fittingly rare Pokemon, when in reality she was just your average girl.

  ‘What was I even fretting over this whole time?’ He thought to himself with a smile.

  She sighed, “At least my classes are over after the final test tomorrow, I’ll be able to relax a bit more, then.”

  “O-Oh? W-What have you been learning?” Matt tested to an approving nod from Patrat.

  “Well, you see-”

  …

  Larry

  Something was nagging at the back of his mind as Larry chowed down on his meal. It was something indescribable, but he’d felt it before, he was sure of it, ‘It's nothing physical at least, I think…’ Larry burrowed deeper into the earth, sucking down more and more soil in his attempts to sate his hunger.

  ‘I’ve felt satisfied and full before, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I couldn’t eat another bite. If I really wanted to, I could probably eat that mountain's worth of soil mentioned in the PokeDex Entries, right? It’s a bit harrowing considering I’ve never relieved myself before. Definitely one of the many advantages of Larvitar's life coming from human life.’

  That nagging feeling was still in the back of his head, but no matter how he tried, he couldn’t quite place it. It felt a bit sad, or maybe self-deprecating? Larry couldn’t be sure, so he did what anyone does, ‘Well, if I can’t remember it, it probably isn’t that important! I’ve got bigger fish to fry, or well, bigger rocks to eat!’

  More ground disappeared into Larry's small mouth as he continued digging himself around the forest floor. It was quite amazing just how much he could eat, it also made him wonder what would happen if he ate other stuff besides soil and rocks, ‘I mean, the ground has like deposits of stuff, I don’t think I’ve eaten an iron deposit, and that one time I had a salt deposit, I didn’t recoil in disgust either. It makes me wonder what all the other stuff tastes like…I’ve been shying away from normal food because of those berries, but maybe I should expand my tastes a little bit beyond PokeChow?’

  Continuing with his thoughts spiraling, Larry let that feeling in the back of his head hum around aimlessly, forgetting about it entirely at points until he finally ate himself out a nice place to take a break.

  BUUUUUUUURP!

  “Ohh~ This is heaven, isn’t it?” Covered in muddy dirt from head to toe, Larry patted his stomach as he lay on his side inside the literal crater he’d eaten into the ground, “It's all so soft and easy to eat, I love it!” Back in Mt. Silver, Larry was always forced to break down stones by chewing through them, even the smaller ones wouldn’t go down well if he didn’t. Here in the forest south of Viridan, that wasn’t a concern anymore, “Ahh~ Why didn’t I do this earlier? I don’t think I’ll be able to eat that lousy PokeChow from now on…”

  “You seem to be enjoying yourself.” Larry immediately hopped up at Sybil's sharp tone of voice as she hopped over to the edge of his crater. Her stare was ever prevalent, but Larry felt like it looked far more like a glare right now.

  “Have you eaten your fill?”

  “I think so, but…Better eat some extra just to be sure, right?” Larry tested as he stuffed more soil in his mouth.

  His teammates' tone softened, “So, were you actually starving yourself then?”

  Larry thought about it as he lobbed a pebble into his mouth, “Mmm…Well, at first I thought the PokeChow tasted ok, it was more important to me that I don’t bankrupt Valerie than me eating my fill.”

  “Your fill certainly does not look cheap…” Sybil surveyed the area, seeing that practically everything had been eaten away.

  “Over time, I kind of got used to that amount of food and my body seemingly didn’t mind either,” Larry continued to explain, “So I didn’t even notice that I was this hungry! I guess my reserves from when I still lived in Mt. Silver just finally ran dry. ”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Reserves?” Sybil questioned, “How exactly does your biology work anyway?”

  Stuffing more rocks into his mouth, Larry explained to the best of his abilities, “I have a reserve of soil I’m building up to eventually evolve. I guess because I just starved myself, I basically emptied that reserve.” Shoveling more soft mud into his mouth, Larry cried out, “Oh, this is just divine! You’re unlucky, you can’t have this!”

  She stared down at him with disgust evident on her usually unemotional face, “I think I will be staying with the PokeChow. Although maybe we should petition Valerie to purchase some of that ice cream we had before?“ Sybil turned, going back to keeping lookout, “Please just make sure you don’t scare our trainer like that again, understood?”

  “Sure thing! I’ll eat well from now on! Or well, as well as I can!” He quickly corrected himself before shoveling more soil into his mouth. Not long after Sybil turned back around, footsteps approached the hole, and before Larry could start deliberating who had come, they made themselves known.

  “What the- Larry! I knew you would be hungry, but I didn’t know you were THAT hungry! I’ve been gone for, what, like seven minutes?” Valerie approached the edge of the crater he’d dug with surprise clear on her face, “Arceus! If I’d known, I would’ve bought you some more food!”

  Larry shook his head in response, denying her proposition outright as he shoveled more soil into himself.

  “Are you sure? You’ve definitely eaten more than a truck's worth of soil…” She deliberated.

  Finally stopping his stuffing, Larry dug under the crater and then up and out of it along its edges. Once out, Larry made a motion for Valerie's phone. He was feeling confident, ‘I don’t need any damn charades anymore, I’ll write her what we’ll do!’

  She handed him her phone before wiping her hands off on her pants. She watched as he pulled up the same text-to-speech app on her phone, “Ugh, Larry, you’re filthy! Once we’re back home, I’m definitely giving you a bath.”

  At the mention of a bath, Larry stilled, ‘Have I ever actually taken a bath?`I did get swept away in water, but I don’t think I’ve ever taken a bath.’ He shrugged with a tilt of his head, ‘Eh, I’ll take my chances.’

  He tapped away on the keyboard, slowly and deliberately choosing the correct letters, enunciating every word out loud, “I…will…eat…whiiiiile…we…tra-vel.”

  The female robotic voice repeated his query, better than last time, but still not perfect, “I will eat while wii travel.”

  “That was better than last time, right? Right?” Larry whirled his head around, looking for agreement from the others. The only thing he received, though, was a humored snort from Patrat on Matthias’s shoulder and a strained exhalation from Valerie before she quickly covered her mouth.

  “...It was discernible,” Sybil commented before Valerie quickly cleared her throat with a fist in front of her mouth.

  “Well, I think that should be doable. We have around a week left before we’re supposed to take on the Gym, we’ll come back here if you get hungry again in the meantime, ok?”

  “Sure thing!” Larry nodded back as he lifted Valerie's phone back up towards her.

  She took the device between her thumb and index finger with clear distaste, “...Wow, you only touched it for a minute or so and now my phone's absolutely disgusting…”

  Matt turned over to Valerie as she wiped her phone clean of some of the mud it was now caked in, “W-Wait, you’re still taking on the Gym? I, uhm, I thought y-you’d start with the one in Pewter City.”

  “Hm?” Valerie turned to Matt, only for the boy to awkwardly avert his eyes from her, “I mean, I’m already here, why shouldn’t I?”

  “B-But what about that, uhh, r-receptionist?” Matt asked, Patrat on his shoulder, nodding along fervently.

  “Oh, we got that sorted out. Apparently, Professor Oak has some kind of solution for us on the day the challenge is supposed to happen.”

  Matthias nodded along as he began to turn away, Patrat on his shoulder mimicking his motions, “A-Ah! I-I see…”

  The boy whirled back around when his brain finally deciphered the sentence Valerie had just uttered, “Wait! Professor Oak?!”

  …

  It was now Monday of Valerie’s second week in Viridian City. They’d arrived back on Sunday evening and signed up for the Trainer School on Monday, allowing her an entire five-day week of classes.

  It was surprising, but Larry would say he’d learned more in this one week than he’d done in any other week of his life.

  Sure, it had only been part of a language he’d been forced to relearn, but where your normal school classes at most take up a few hours, Larry had been sitting in his embarrassingly childish-looking high-chair for around eight hours every single day, with additional writing lessons in the evening. A feat he wouldn’t have expected to be achieved by him before.

  If it wasn’t for his knowledge of the English language from his previous lives, the endeavor might’ve taken far longer. His previous life had given him a great boon in that regard. Larry wasn’t the only one to be commended for their efforts, though, as both Sybil and Valerie also managed to finish the material given to them by Cal. Arguably, both of them had far more on their plate in that regard.

  Valerie, in particular, had tackled topics on which she was far less experienced, Larry had at least known the spoken part of the language he’d been learning.

  Today was the final day they’d see Cal, as they were all about to take a final test to gauge how much of the material taught they had retained. They were making their way back towards the trainer school for their final tests, and the air around them was tense.

  “I wonder how much Cal put in the test…He said it wouldn’t take long, but I can’t help feeling antsy. What about you guys?” Valerie turned to her Pokemon as they made their way towards the Trainer School.

  “I am confident,” Sybil answered with a calm tweet.

  “I’ve got it handled, I can already write well!” Larry had taken time out of his weekend to practice his writing, both handwriting and on a phone, since even his second attempt at communication with Valerie was still very rough. He thought he’d gotten it down far better over the weekend, and his brain was still filled with all the correct letters this time around.

  “...Great, looks like I’m the only anxious one…” Valerie wiped her sweaty hands on her pants.

  “What are you even worrying about? Even if you don’t do well, Cal won’t stop you from going on your journey.” Larry questioned.

  “Ugh, I know what you’re saying.” Valerie ran a hand through her hair, “I just don’t want to do badly, cuz that means I’m a bad trainer…”

  “Incorrect.” Sybil shook her head, “You wouldn’t be, you are simply inexperienced, knowledge comes with wisdom and wisdom comes with experience.”

  “Ooh, that sounded smart,” Larry cooed up at Sybil, who bowed at the comment.

  Valerie smiled at the bird on her shoulder, “I didn’t really catch that last part, but thanks for trying to comfort me.”

  Finally arriving in front of the trainer school, Valerie cracked her knuckles and clapped her hands together for effect, “Alright, guys, let’s crush this!”

  “Hell yeah!”

  “Let us begin.”

  …

  It took Larry around fifteen minutes to finish his test, most of which was spent on perfecting his handwriting. Grading three students didn’t take especially long, so the trio was able to receive their results just half an hour after finishing the test.

  When Cal strolled back into their room, he wore a serious expression, one that forced Valerie to straighten herself back up from her hunched posture. He walked past their desks, dropping their papers face down onto their respective students' desks with a dismissive attitude before positioning himself in front of the whiteboard up in front of the class.

  “I have some good news and some bad news.” Cal announced as he wrung his hands, “Which do you want to hear first?”

  All of them exchanged glances before Valerie answered, “Let’s get the bad news out of the way first?”

  “Well…I’ll be getting more students next school year…” He announced anxiously, “So many people have signed up, we have no idea if we’ll be able to accomodate all of them…”

  That made everyone stop, since with the atmosphere their teacher had exuded, they expected the news to be regarding their tests, “Huh, so what’s the good news then?”

  “Oh, the good news is you all passed!” Cal's demeanor changed entirely, as he tucked his arms behind his back with a fond smile, “Congratulations! Please, you can now turn over your tests.”

  ‘Jeez! Almost gave me a heart attack!’ Larry breathed a sigh of relief as he flipped over his tests ot see an 87% smile back at him in the percentage box, with a large A written in red next to it, ‘Oh, I got it down well! Then again, this was on a middle school level of education.’ Larry wasn’t stupid, he’d expected a positive grade, but nothing as close to perfect as he’d gotten.

  Peeking over to his teammate, Larry saw a similarly high, yet even more impressive 100% on Sybil's paper. Next to the S on the paper stood what Larry now managed to read as a ‘Perfect!’, “Whoa! Sybil, didn’t think you’d get it down perfectly! Good work!”

  The bird audibly preened under the praise, but didn’t let it affect her demeanor, “Thank you, I was confident in my abilities.”

  Valerie herself had a grade of 95%, which she stared at in clear amazement. A giddy smile grew on her face as she flipped through the pages to see what she'd gotten wrong, “I'm…surprised I did that well.”

  Cal approached the desk again, “You should be proud. You and your Pokemon learned a lot of different topics throughout the week. You did well to internalize everything I taught you.”

  When Valerie finally found her error, she looked back up at Cal, “Wait, what does the bad news have to do with our grades then? You made it sound so…dramatic…”

  “Well, that's because it still concerns you, Miss Riston,” Cal explained as he took a step back towards the blackboard.

  “You. Sybil and Larry really became star students of ours in the short time you’ve been here.” He began, “People have noticed you in the area, calls to our school increased, and sign-ups for the next year's course are all filled up. We only have enough space for around forty students, and many spots were already filled beforehand.”

  Valerie could already assume what the man was trying to say, “So…People are trying to join the school again?”

  The man simply laughed in response, “While that might be part of it. People saw that a trainer with a rare Pokemon who was recently in the news trusts our school, giving us a jump in our trustworthiness.”

  “I see…” Valerie didn’t quite know how to take the news, but she saw the best in them. “I guess that means you’ll have some more work when the school year finally starts for real?”

  “Oh, yes.” Cal himself seemed far too giddy for Larry's liking at the insinuation of more work, “Though I’m unsure how my coworkers will see the news when they finally return.”

  “Anyway, I congratulate you all on completing the courses laid out for you!” The man brought out three different folders for each of them, laying them over their tests, “These are your certificates verifying that you passed the tests you took.”

  Valerie opened the paper portfolio of her certificate, looking at the ornate piece of paper with wonder, “Wow…I didn’t know I’d get something like this…”

  “While most won’t question you about them, if you or your Pokemon ever want to perform a job requiring some of these certifications, you will already have them.” Their teacher pointed over at him, “Larry, for example, is now officially qualified enough to work as a Pokemon interpreter.”

  The news shook Larry practically to his core. Sure, he’d finished his schooling in his past life, but he’d never actually done anything past that. He hadn’t worked a day in his life, so to now suddenly be qualified to be hired in a specialized job, and as a Pokemon no less, felt like he had somehow woken up into a fever dream.

  “Wow, I didn’t really expect this…” Larry also flipped open his portfolio, looking over the paper with interest, now that he could actually read it, “This is pretty cool…”

  “What jobs does mine qualify me for?” Valeire asked curiously.

  “Well, since I created an entirely new course for you out of a mishmash of different topics, none as is. But if you took a variety of other courses, I think you would qualify as a Ranger apprentice quite well.” Cal put a hand to his chin, “Though I think normal ranger apprenticeship works quite differently, with classes going on over multiple years as they swap between practical work at a ranger station and schooling- Ah…” He realized he was monologing to himself as he looked over the group, “Suffice it to say, it takes multiple years to go through the ranger apprenticeship.”

  “What about the journey then?” Valerie questioned.

  “You do need to be educated to go on a journey, but to allow for most people to take it, the requirements are quite loose.” Cal explained, “It is expected that a trainer learns to care for their Pokemon on the way, rather than beforehand.”

  “What am I even droning on anymore? You’ve probably heard enough of me for the time.” He chastised himself as he roused the three out of their seats, “You passed! Congratulations! Now go out there and celebrate!”

  Allowing her and her Pokemon to be pushed out of the door, Valerie quickly stopped to bow to her teacher, “Thank you so much for everything you taught us, Cal!”

  Both Larry and Sybil mirrored the motion, repeating a simple, “Thank you.”