บท 20: 60-61

 We were back at the castle. It was still a ways off before dinnertime and me and the team were spending our remaining time just laying about at the castle's training grounds. After intense training sessions like that I usually spend the remainder of my free time grooming my Pokémon; trimming their coats, cleaning their ears and brushing out any tangles. As a fire type specialist I was spared from doing any dental cleaning. A fire type Pokémon's mouth was the most inhospitable place in the world for germs, so, my Pokémon always had sparkly clean chompers. It was Raven's turn and I was making efforts to destroy a particularly stubborn cowlick when suddenly Phoebe rushed up to us with an older girl who I have never met before."Egon! I want you to meet my rival, meet Glacia. Glacia this is the kid I was talking to you about."Glacia looked to be around seventeen or eighteen. I knew of her beforehand, mostly from listening to Phoebe rave on about her. This was the first time I've met any of Phoebe's other friends, so I resolved myself to try and leave a good first impression."It's nice to meet you, Glacia. Phoebe has told me much about you.""Was it you?""Uhm I don't really understa..""Phoebe has no other friends on the trainer scene besides me. By process of elimination that must mean you are the one who told her how to evolve snorunt into froslass."'Damn she's sharp.'"Hey, that's unfair! Phoebe's family are the premier experts when it comes to ghost types. They could've figured it out all on their own!""Could've? So, you did help her.""Stop trying to trap me with my own words!""Please tell me you haven't shared this information with anyone else. A trainer like me needs all the advantages she can get.""Hold it right there lady! First off, I only share my extensive knowledge on Pokémon to friends and those who've done me a favor. Secondly as far as I am aware nobody can actually own the exclusive right to an entire branch of evolution.""This isn't about advantages in battle you dork! One of my sponsors chose me based on the fact that I was the only one in the region with a froslass. If that stops being the case, they might stop doing business with me. Do you know how much it costs to feed my dearest Walrein and her two equally amazing sisters?""Which company?""Castella Factories, they make the best ice cream in the entire world! If you haven't had the chance, I highly recommend special ordering a casteliacone. From their singular location in Mauville city.""Casteliacone!!""I had them, they are indeed the best. Most of my Pokémon don't like ice cream but there's one in particular that adores casteliacones."Glacia took one look at the Pokémon who had gathered around me on the yard to renew her assessment of me."Fire types ugh... that's great, and you are from Unova as well I take it?""Well… I have Unovan nationality, but I grew up in Hoenn. Hoenn mother, Unovan dad who left her behind after they shacked up once during the circuit. You know, the typical irresponsible parent scenario.""You too?!"The admission of my household's situation seemed to have effectively pierced her icy demeanor, getting her to lower her barriers immediately. If there is one thing I've learned over the years is that people with comparable pasts are inexplicably drawn to each other. Glacia sat down next to me to continue our conversation."With me it was my mom who left. She stayed in Unova though. When it came time to start my trainer career, I opted to get a fresh start here in Hoenn. Leave all the family drama behind in Unova where it belongs."I could tell that Phoebe was completely baffled by the outcome of this encounter. Glacia must have grilled her for a long time to get the truth out of her. The girl must have brought Glacia here to get some of that heat off of herself."So, ice types. What's that like?""Not much different from training up fire types I'd imagine. You just have to get used to living in colder environments. We resided in Icirrus City for most of my life, so it came with the territory. I even interned at the local city gym for a spell, learning all that I could.""You worked with Brycen?! He's like my second favorite movie star. What's he like in person?"Phoebe took this opportunity to let her displeasure be known."I object! Fire and Ice don't mix, stop getting along!""Take it easy Phoebes, just because we have contrasting specializations doesn't mean that we automatically dislike each other."'Phoebe is still a tad insecure about her friends knowing each other. She's probably thinking something along the lines of: If those two become friends, then they will start coming to see me less and less.'"Does that really happen?"'Yeah, but those kinds of people aren't even capable of making true friends anyway. Only ever being able to see relations under the lens of a cost to benefit analysis.'Glacia being the young adult that she is, could already anticipate Phoebe's state of mind and acted appropriately to defuse the situation."Phoebe how about you show me the rest of your beautiful home. We can catch up with your little friend later, perhaps over dinner?"Phoebe regained some of her youthful vigor and grabbed Glacia's hand before pulling her along. No doubt intending to show off her collection of creepy dolls half of which were close to transforming into Banette. The first time she showed me I had a less than stellar reaction. No doubt the teen was hoping her interests aligned more closely to that of a fellow female trainer. Now that the two of them have left our immediate vicinity Victini uncloaked herself and I continued on grooming Raven. She'd been busy all day getting blasted by fire type moves and although her fur was completely immune to getting scorched it did start showing signs of crinklage."Vi?" "Can I make friends with her?""Sure, go ahead. Enough people know of your existence that it has become pointless to hide you anyway. Just make sure to ask Phoebe if Glacia is on the up and up first. She's from Unova as well and seeing as we'll be going back there next year it'll be good to get some more insider knowledge of the local battling scene."With that my rabbit friend darted off in the girls' direction forgetting the fact that she has a particular effect on women who see her for the first time. Not that it was a problem to me. I rather liked seeing girls gush over her."Ruff.""Don't mind it, she grew locked up in a basement for over a hundred years. Now that she's free it would be overly controlling of me to say who she can and can't make friends with. I want her to gain as many new experiences as possible."Around the same time, I was done fixing Raven's coat. I could hear a loud scream echoing throughout the empty halls of the castle."Kyaaa! You are so CUTE!" Dinner* Glacia laid claim on the privilege of having Victini remain seated on her lap throughout the entirety of the meal. Insisting on handfeeding her bits and pieces from her own plate even though she was perfectly capable of doing that on her own. Phoebe's family seemed okay with letting this play out"She's so adorable! Just like a baby spheal. You must be one lucky trainer to have caught such a special Pokémon."The thin veneer of professionalism was shamelessly thrown away in favor of babying my Pokémon some more."So, I was wondering where one would stable Ice types inside a tropical region such as this. Perhaps some sort of refrigerated warehouse?""Can't, that's way too expensive. I have a deal with a nice older craftsman who camps out inside the shoal cave. He looks after my Pokémon and in return I give him a small percentage of my winnings.""Shoal Cave?! Isn't that the place housing Hoenn's singular Ice Rock?""Yes! It keeps the cave cold despite the region's ambient temperature. It's the only spot in all of Hoenn where you can find wild ice types.""Isn't that…?""So… Have you ever tried evolving an Eevee into a Glaceon?""No though I would wish to. That particular evolutionary branch is kept a secret by the Sinnohian league association. Their native trainers who wish to obtain the method of doing so have to be in good standing and sign an NDA first. Which is not technically legal, but it keeps them in line with all the implied consequences.""Tell her so I can escape!""As we have established before I am quite learned. I could tell you their secret method. On the condition that Victini is to be released and given the liberty to assemble her own plate of food."Glacia seemed to be conflicted for just a moment before reluctantly letting go of Victini allowing the fire type to float off and onto the chair with a booster seat specifically set aside so she could join us at the dining table."My findings indicate that when an eevee is kept in close proximity of an Ice Rock the evolution triggers automatically. It might take a while though I haven't experienced this phenomenon myself, but I do know that the Sinnohian league hides their Ice Rock in some women's garden on route 217 near Snowpoint city.""Phoebe, would you mind me making use of your home computer after this?""Huh?! Why?""I've suddenly found myself in need of a credible eevee breeder."The dinner conversation tapered off after that. I could sense that the elderly couple desperately wanted to talk about the travelers' shrine's more recent visitor but decided to keep quiet until their new guest was done eating and brought back to her own home. Victini's existence was explained to Glacia as being a rare fire type not seen before. Her status as a mythical Pokémon not being explained clearly to the visiting woman. Which in hindsight wasn't a bad move as long as we made sure she didn't start taking pictures of Victini we could always maintain plausible deniability.Glacia and Phoebe eventually walked away after finishing dinner. Which left me alone with the elderly couple who were set to have a more serious conversation with me."So… that's pretty amazing right? That one of the shrine's patron legendary Pokémon came over for a visit.""Indeed we have already hired a traditional woodworker to come and give the shrine a much needed renovation. But there is something else we must discuss. Your grandmother's skill as a baker secured us a repeat visit. We would like to put in an order for a year's supply of her Lava cookies""Uhmm that's…"'three hundred sixty five divided by three times two in case Latias brings over her other half.'"Vi." "Rounded down, that's 243 cookies dummy.""That's two hundred and fifty cookies. My grandma makes each of them by hand. They are artisanal, so I don't even know if we have that many on hand at the moment. Would the two of you prefer that I make the request myself or…?""Yes, with the understanding that you don't elaborate to anyone on why we are buying so much of her stock on such short notice.""Hmm okay, though if my family asks, I am not going to lie to them."The two of them gave each other a glance before the elderly man made an attempt to reassure his wife."It's fine dear I've known Ralph all my life. He'll keep the secret to himself.""I don't understand all the extra precautions though. Latios and Latias are faster than jet planes, can turn invisible and unlike other legendary Pokémon have an entire family unit backing them up. Only desperate idiots would try to forcibly catch one of them.""That's reason enough youngster. History has shown us that offending Legendary Pokémon always ends up badly for the region as a whole."Not wishing to argue the point I wished the couple a pleasant evening before retreating back into my personal guestroom."Will I be able to meet them?"'Well… you could always teleport back. We just need to have someone at the shrine alert us when the next visit happens. I am sure you can convince that old man to give me a call. The way he's raving about legendary Pokémon leads me to believe he would go the extra mile to get on your good side.' Six days later* Today marked a very special day for Rena. The culmination of her weeks of painstaking effort. For the first time since she started this training, Rena was able to increase the sun's intensity without having to execute the move Sunny Day. As we've discussed extensively over the course of our stay here this also meant that I have deemed her ready to evolve. Rena looked forward to rubbing her success in the faces of her impertinent younger siblings; sadly her little brother had already gone back with Flannery, to my hometown, and the only other target of her revenge was living inside her mother's den. This meant me and the team who were also excited to be with her on that once in a lifetime special day currently found ourselves in front of the cave's entrance making nice with said mother."Ninee?""Ahem, you see Rena was able to complete her special training. And we thought it would be nice to share her evolution day together with her family.""Nine!"'Something about a test?'"She approves but would like to inspect our firestone first to assure herself of its quality."'She can check all she wants. I've received this stone as a reward from Professor Juniper's lab for my contributions to the expedition. There's no way he would send me a faulty stone.'Ninetales led us inside the cave and the sight of Rena's childhood home left me astonished. Most of it was fully furnished with furniture of all different sizes most likely put there to accommodate all sorts of Pokémon visitors. She had a bouncy house in the corner and all sorts of stuffed toys were neatly lined up along the wall. Ninetales even had a cold room to preserve perishable food. Although I could see no hints of electrical wiring which probably meant there was an ice type living nearby which would have to visit her home every so often. All the way in the back I could see a large communal bed large enough to fit the whole family and then some. Currently the bed was occupied by a sleepy little sister who was watching us from afar with one eye open."Nine!""You have a lovely home. Rena is one lucky girl to be raised in a place as accommodating as this. Just hold on sec the firestone is in my backpack."My trusty old backpack, which has been with us through thick and thin, was still in excellent condition if one disregards the Zoroark actor's pawprint. I removed it from my shoulders and opened the zipper, peering into its valuable contents. Over the months it had grown heavy with all sorts of rare items, some of them mere souvenirs, others extremely valuable to the right buyers. This time I knew what I was looking for hidden inside a small safebox together with all my other valuable stones and Rena's prized bracelet. The opening mechanism was a passcode of Zinnia's birthday. Anyone who wanted to burglar me would have to bring a strong Pokémon or get specialized tools to get to our treasures. I opened it and removed the fire stone before closing it back up and putting it back where it belonged. With an open palm I presented the firestone to Ninetales eagerly awaiting her approval. She gave the stone a sniff test, licked it for good measure and didn't stop staring at it for a good minute before giving us her judgement."Nineee"I didn't need Victini's translation to figure out what that meant. At this point all the commotion had caused the little sister to give us her full undivided attention. That or it was Rena's insistence at pulling her out of bed by her tails."Pix! Pix!" "Vuuul!"We all watched on as the siblings continued play fighting. My own partner easily getting the upperpaw over her younger less experienced sister. Eventually the younger one submitted crouching down and exposing her belly to the victor. With a small huff Rena turned her back on her defeated foe her point being made. I already knew why Rena was being belligerent like this, she wanted to prove her superiority before evolving to make it clear to her family member what the actual pecking order was. Doing so now sent the message that she didn't need to evolve to beat her impertinent siblings. Strangely enough her mother seemed content having this spiel play out without intervention. A stark reminder that at the end of the day it was the norm for most Pokémon to establish strength-based hierarchies."Are you ready?""Vuuuul!"Needing no further encouragement, I laid out the stone in front of Rena. She observed the stone for a split moment before touching it with one of her paws. The change occurred almost immediately as flashes of light filled the cave and my partner evolved into her final form. I tried to keep my eyes from watering or closing as I bore witness to this miraculous process. Within the span of a more or less half a minute Rena doubled in height and sprouted three more tails. Her red-brown pelt was replaced with thick luxurious golden white fur and the three locks that adorned her head were now replaced by a singular fluffy crest. The firestone was now nothing more than a speck of dust burnt up in the process."Nineeee!""Happy evolution day Rena.""Vi!" "Pretty!""Came." "Arf!" "Lit!" "Vess!" "Nitan!"My little fox now turned big fox preened under the attention that myself and the other team members were giving her. Her mother seemed content to just watch us cheering at her daughter's successful evolution. The little sister sported a look of dismay as if her worst fears had become realized."Pix…"Smiling slyly like a thievul Rena once again approached her younger sister but instead of starting round two she lightly nuzzled her younger sibling's head as if their rivalry had all but been forgotten. Afterwards turning towards her mother and giving the older Ninetales the same treatment. It seemed like her evolution brought out a new perspective wiping away some of that previous insecurity. While all of this was going on my mind was going through a different set of issues.'I'll have to increase her portion sizes. That thick coat, and the three extra tails will inevitably mean an increase in the amount of time I spend grooming.'"Nine!"Ninetales stood in front of me having finished tying things up with her family. Her now blood red eyes staring at me accusingly."I was just thinking… We'll have to buy you a new grooming kit when we get back to Lilycove city. The one I have now is specially made for a vulpix."Not that I had grooming kits for all my Pokémon. Most of my team members didn't particularly care how they looked as long as I kept them at a minimum level of decency. Just keeping their nails and claws trimmed and removing any excess hair was enough. Not that I didn't go the extra mile anyways. However, Rena always required me to have everything done to her exact specifications and I knew that I couldn't achieve that with her old grooming set."How about you and I go shopping at the Lilycove department store later today?""Nine!"Having finished up our business at Rena's maternal home it was time for us to head out to Lilycove city. We had a busy schedule to keep, not least of which was booking a room at their local Pokémon center in preparation for tomorrow's gym battle."Thank you for hosting us. Now that our friend Victini here has gotten familiar with Mt. Pyre Rena can come visit you whenever she likes.""Nineeeee!""No, your mom is amazing and deserves to be visited at least once every so often.""I am sorry ma'am Rena can't be honest with herself. Before we came here, she basically demanded that we stop by."The older Ninetales seemed amused enough by our antics and with a short yip let us know that we had her permission to drop by whenever we wanted. It was unusual for Pokémon to place as much importance on family ties. Numsy almost never talks about his family other than the fact they lived somewhere along the fiery path. While the other members of my team all had their own unique circumstances. From wanting to meet their mother like Halo or not having any family at all like Orin.With things winding down I recalled most of my team members inside their poké balls to streamline the teleportation process. I motioned for Rena to get closer so that Victini could grab the both of us simultaneously."Can you take us to where we need to go?""Easy!"The landscape shifted and what was once the insides of a fancy live-in cave turned into that of the topside of a lighthouse with a view overlooking the entirety of Lilycove city. My acrophobia kicked in immediately and I held onto the railing for dear life."Almighty Arceus! You know I have a fear of heights Tini!""Vi Vi!" "This is the only spot I could teleport to, okay?!""Nine! Nine!"There I was clinging for my life on the edge of what I could only summarize as a two hundred- and fifty-feet tall deathtrap. Rena wasn't faring much better not having anticipated that Victini would put us in such a precarious position she was similarly clinging to the edge her new tails immediately seeing use as makeshift grappling hooks."We can't be up here! Use Teleport again to bring us down quickly!"Victini immediately shifted us back aground not finding any difficulty with making use of the move when the target location was within eyesight. Back on solid ground my body was still in a state of fight or flight. I concluded my next best course of action was to sit on the nearby bench until my body's adrenaline levels had gone back down."Sorry!""It's fine, I just hope nobody saw us. There's bound to be a steep fine associated with breaking and entering private property."Rena took her place beside me on the bench letting her head rest on my lap. She had grown too big of a size to sit comfortably on my lap. By my estimation this would remain the case until I was done with puberty. Any attempt to do so in the interim would make for a comical sight for anyone near enough to witness it.It took a couple of minutes but eventually my body calmed down enough to properly observe my surroundings. There were quite a few beach goers down below and the odds of one of them having spotted us during the scant few seconds in which we were trapped was quite low. At least down here it would be very hard to see anything more than the outline of a person or Pokémon so Victini's identity would have remained a secret even if we were seen."Whatcha doing up there? Oh! Can I pet your pretty Ninetales please?"I turned around and saw a little girl being escorted by what was probably her mother judging by their facial similarities. The both of them had blue-green hair and while the girl seemed only mildly interested in our lighthouse fiasco the mother seemed about ready to give me a stern talking to."Young man, we saw you all the way up, holding onto the railings. What were you thinking?!""Well, my psychic type Pokémon momentarily forgot that I was deathly afraid of heights. It won't happen again. We just have to find another place that's free of pedestrians the next time we teleport on over to Lilycove.""Kids these days are always pushing on ahead without thinking things through. You remind me of my little brother before he got together with his current girlfriend."While I was busy appeasing the disciplinarian mother the overly excitable little girl went ahead and started petting Rena without waiting for permission. My Ninetales had taken an instant liking to the girl and magnanimously allowed the strange kid access to her luxurious golden coat."Waaa …soft! I'll call this new chapter: Unexpected Encounter! Happy Fluffy Accident!""Nineeee."The quirky kid seemed to have a penchant for loudly narrating by herself as if she were standing in front of a large gathering of people. The mother finally realizing what her daughter was up to lightly scolded her for presuming it was safe to start petting another's Pokémon."Lisia… what did I tell you about petting another's Pokémon without waiting for permission?""I don't know but Ninetales doesn't mind right?""Nine!""It's okay Miss my Pokémon likes it whenever someone compliments her on her looks. I can already tell Lisia here is going to be a great trainer someday with that kind of insight.""I've decided you'll be the first!""The first what?""Lisia's…Miraculous…Contest Scouting!""Uhmm…?""When I take a good look at a trainer, I can easily tell… Wait, what is your name?""Egon…""One look at Egon here easily tells me that he already owns multiple badges! But I don't want to see his Pokémon just become strong. There's a whole other side to them that most trainers don't even explore. That brilliantly shining side is drawn out while on stage in a contest!""No no no no. We don't have time for that."The little gremlin completely ignored me and continued on."Take this! This is a Contest Pass with this you will be allowed to freely participate in any…"Her mother, now thoroughly exasperated from her child's antics, started employing a more forceful method to get the girl to start listening to her. It made for quite a sight seeing the overly excitable kid get ear pulled into submission by her guardian."Ow! Ow! Owie! Mommy why?!""Where did you get that Contest Pass?! You know you're not supposed to take your uncle Wallace's belongings.""Uncle gave it to me! He says I can scout whichever trainer catches my eye!""That slowpokehead! Sometimes it feels like I am raising two children."Having successfully disciplined her wayward child the mother readdressed me with an apologetic look on her face."We are terribly sorry for having her put you on the spot like that. Isn't that right Lisia?""It's fine. I am flattered really, and we might take her up on her offer in the future but for now we are solely focused on qualifying in time for the conference.""I still feel bad… how about you come and have lunch with us at my house as an apology? Your Pokémon can eat as much as they want.""We could eat.