The next morning, rather than the routine they’ve established over the past three days, Ran and Doro head to the pokécenter Josie is staying at, picking her up before heading to the beach once more. On the way, Josie catches Ran, and by extension Doro, up on just what she’s been up to over the past month.

  “I met Lady, my Vulpix, pretty soon after leaving Goldenrod. I spent some time really working with my team, on stuff like agility, ranged attacks and strategies that were a bit more complex than variations of ‘charge!’. After Whitney, I was actually a bit hesitant about challenging Morty at first, so I went to watch some matches before I booked my own challenge. After spending a whole morning watching people challenge, I realized that my team was definitely strong enough to win their third badge and that it was just me not giving them the right tools to work with which was holding us back. So I booked my challenge and then we doubled down on expanding movesets and figuring out just how to handle opponents that we couldn’t just burn through.” Josie explains, before briefly getting distracted as they reach the beach itself, drawing a delighted smile from the blonde.

  “Oh this is nice! I’m going to have to keep this in mind for in a few months, if my schedule allows for a beach trip.” She declares, to Ran’s amusement.

  “The water’s pretty alright actually,” Ran offers, “Or at least it was in Cianwood, and it's only a little warmer there than it is here.”

  Josie lifts an eyebrow in surprise, “The two of you went swimming already, huh? It’s a bit early in the year for my tastes.”

  “I went with my team,” Ran corrects, “But it was really pretty pleasant! There were a lot of people in the water, over in Cianwood. There’s less tourists here and it’s early now, but there’ll be people in the water by noon, I guarantee it.”

  “You can guarantee it all you like,” Josie responds without blinking, “But you’re still not getting me into that water any time soon.”

  “If you plan on crossing to Cianwood after your stay in Olivine, I would urge you to at least test the water out once you get there, but it is of course entirely your decision,” Doro cuts in, before getting them back on track, “But you were discussing your preparation for facing Morty.”

  Josie hesitates for a moment, before offering Doro a grin, “Right! So once my challenge came around, Soot and Ginger were enough to get me past him without any real difficulty. With me specializing in fire-types, he got me clearance to head into the Burned Tower, which ended up being a very eventful trip in its own right, but I don’t want to hold us up too long, so suffice to say my time there was productive. Then we started coming this way, only to end up in a bit of a situation with this farm I promised my father I’d swing by. It all turned out well enough eventually, at which point we finally made it here. All the way, I’ve been keeping a few things quiet, just so I could reveal them now. Come on out y’all!”

  Josie releases her team, her hands grazing along the five pokéballs on her belt in a swift move. As the fire-types start to materialize, Ran doesn’t know where to look first, as there’s a lot of changes from when he saw them last, though ultimately, it’s the entirely unfamiliar shape that first draws his attention.

  The bipedal pokémon he ends up looking at isn’t all that tall, but it is undeniably an intriguing sight, as, although it isn’t all that strong yet, it is undeniably rare. Not to mention, though it looks a bit goofy, it is also absolutely adorable.

  The Magby takes in its surroundings curiously, glaring distrustfully at the ocean and immediately spitting out some flames around its own feet, as if to make sure that it can’t get wet. It makes for a charming scene, but Ran can’t devote too much attention to it, as his focus is irresistibly drawn towards a large, dark figure, who announces his presence with a breath of flame that has an ominously dark core to it.

  “Houndoooooooooom!” Soot howls loudly, the Dark Pokémon throwing his head back a bit too enthusiastically, accidentally poking himself in the back of his neck with his massive curled horns. At least he doesn’t appear to have hurt himself, merely cutting off his howl a bit prematurely before sheepishly looking towards Josie in what Ran can only consider a clear sign of a rather recent evolution.

  Josie offers a comforting hand for the large dark-fire-type to nuzzle into, which he eagerly does, but she doesn’t take a single step in his direction, as her other hand is rather occupied gently combing through the flaming mane of Ginger, her starter.

  Her starter who has also evolved at some time in the past month, as when Ran turns to look at her, he doesn’t find the Ponyta whose head was roughly of a height with Josie’s face. Instead, his eyes land on a towering Rapidash, her massive horn making for a rather intimidating sight in its own right. Add onto that its flaming mane, fetlocks and tail, and all of a sudden any thoughts of the Ponyta-line being ‘typical’ for girls are very, very, very far from his mind.

  It’s actually a relief to see Chief the Growlithe and Lady the Vulpix scampering around in their unevolved forms, after the near whiplash Josie’s three consecutive reveals give him. Not that said relief keeps him from voicing the praise Josie richly deserves for what is, frankly, an astounding amount of progress on her end.

  “It’s been less than a full month,” Ran expresses in awed disbelief, “Ginger and Soot evolved and you got a Magby as well as Lady?!”

  Josie absolutely glows at his words, almost preening under his gaze before she seems to remember herself, instead meeting his eyes with a smug smile.

  “Yep. Whitney was the kick in the ass we needed! It was a lot of work, but the squad really stepped up. And Chief’ll get his due once I head back to Goldenrod to re-challenge Whitney. Might as well buy two Fire Stones whilst we’re there, though I’ll obviously hold off on evolving Lady until we’re a bit further down the line.” Josie happily informs him drawing an eager yip from Chief, who hurries over to accept head pats from his trainer’s unoccupied hand, whilst Lady more tentatively explores their surroundings.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  The Vulpix’ tentative moves leave Ran curious to find out how she’ll respond when Doro and he release their own teams, but it’s only an errant thought he doesn’t pay too much mind to in the moment. Instead, his focus shifts erratically between Magby and Josie’s two fully evolved team members for a few seconds, before finally settling on the new addition first.

  “So, Magby? How? When?” He asks, struggling for a moment to form proper sentences as he frantically tries to process just how much Josie accomplished in under a month’s time.

  “Her name is Torch,” Josie allows with a grin, “She’s actually why I went into the Burned Tower in the first place. Had to burn my way through a colony of Rattata to find her, but we managed it eventually. She came willingly, damn near volunteering to get captured, but let me tell you, the mom, or dad, I’m not even sure, was not amused at all. It was actually during that battle that Soot evolved into a Houndoom. That, combined with Ginger getting Flash Fire activated was ultimately enough to force it to back down, but it was a very close thing for a while.”

  Ran lifts an eyebrow in surprise, “That sounds like quite the adventure. I’m glad to hear you made it out alright.”

  “Oh yeah no worries on that front,” Josie waves him off confidently, “I still had Chief and Lady in reserve to help us back off if needed. But I wanted a Magby or Magmar and the Burned Tower was my only good shot at getting one without heading to Johto’s Safari Zone. Besides, from what I’ve heard, Safari Zones are always a crapshoot, so I really didn’t want to have to rely on that.”

  Not having visited the Safari Zone near Cianwood City himself, both due to the exorbitant entrance fees as well as his lack of interest in acquiring his sixth team member there, Ran doesn’t argue the point, instead shifting his attention to Ginger.

  “You’ve not mentioned Ginger’s evolution yet,” He states simply, “What’s the story there?”

  Josie’s smile is fond as she answers, her own focus shifting to her starter, whom she’s been gently petting throughout their conversation, “That happened just a few days after leaving Goldenrod. I was riding her along the Route towards Ecruteak, when we turned out from this part of the road that wasn’t in the best shape. You know, it had trees close on both sides and the trunks were pushing up the path a bit, there were a few fallen branches here and there, that kind of stuff. Nothing too troubling, but annoying to ride on, as you can’t really pick up the pace.”

  “Sure.” Ran agrees, not bothering to mention that he can’t particularly empathize due to his lack of riding experience, his experiences clinging on to Aria and Caesar not exactly comparable to a casual ride on Ponytaback.

  “So we came out from between the trees and there was this gorgeous stretch of dirt road at least a mile long. It’d rained a few days before, so it wasn’t dusty, but the ground wasn’t too heavy either. There wasn’t a trainer in sight, nor any wild pokémon near it that might’ve taken umbrage at a racing Ponyta coming through. So I asked Ginger if she was thinking what I was thinking. She made it clear that she was, so there we went.” Josie recounts, eyes almost starry as she tells him of what is clearly a very fond memory already, even though it’s only been a few weeks since then.

  “We’ve galloped before of course, but between it being the first time Ginger really got to properly cut loose under such great conditions, how much stronger she’d gotten since we started journeying and the way the wind rushed by allowing us to clear our heads, she hit some kind of threshold. Partway through the run, she started glowing and shifting. By the time she started to slow down at the end of the mile, I was sitting higher up in the air and her saddle was ready for the bin.” Josie finishes her retelling, the vivid picture she painted slowly fading away.

  Then, with a guilty grin, she tacks on a final admission Ran finds less than amusing, “We had a bit of an exciting moment when she threw her head back to look at me whilst not accounting for the horn, but I leaned back in time and I didn’t like that top anyways. I actually considered texting you to let you know that evening, but I figured it’d be better for me to keep radio silence for a while longer. For my own peace of mind, if anything.”

  Still hesitant to address their text messages in any form, entirely too aware of how awkward he’d felt whilst reading, interpreting and writing each one, Ran simply allows Josie’s point to pass. Instead, he tries to figure out what to say next.

  “Awesome job, Josie. This is extremely impressive.” He manages to muster, even as he tries to figure out what he wants to ask next. There’s a lot of options, ranging from the new moves, to what training she’s been putting her team through now that they’ve evolved.

  “Thanks, that means a lot coming from you.” Josie accepts with a surprisingly tender smile.

  The uncharacteristic response catches Ran even more off guard, leaving him scrambling for a way to continue the conversation even more. Fortunately, he’s given some extra time to order his thoughts and figure out just how he’s going to continue talking to Josie, because Doro, having calmly observed their conversation up until now, finally breaks her silence. There’s a very familiar gleam in her eyes that tells Ran what the fighting-type specialist is about to suggest before she even opens her mouth.

  “Josie, I wish to spar.” Doro announces in her typical deadpan, but her enthusiasm is clearly visible in just how tense she appears, which Ran can tell is a deliberate effort on Doro’s part to keep from getting overly physical in her eagerness to battle.

  The blonde fire-type trainer, whose attention had been on Ran, is clearly caught on the back foot for a moment, but she doesn’t hesitate to answer Doro’s request with an enthusiastic smile, “Awesome, let’s do it!”

  “Happily,” Doro accepts with a smile of her own, “I would request a singles battle, two pokémon each. Quick and Precise need to be fully fit for the day’s training, but Strong, my Hitmonlee, and Toff, my Croagunk, could use a good spar.”

  As Doro makes her offer, she releases her own team, the three different evolutions of the Hitmon-line and her Croagunk appearing by her sides in moments. Josie’s eyes immediately land on Toff the Croagunk, seeming to weigh it for a few seconds, before her attention shifts to Ran’s belt, where his own team’s balls still rest.

  “A reward from Chuck, huh?” Josie huffs at him, obviously amused, shifting her attention from her upcoming match with Doro back to Ran for a moment.

  “Well, I’d apologize, but I kept one little secret and I at least mentioned getting a reward from Chuck. You just showed off two evolutions and an unannounced capture, so you’ll forgive me if I don’t feel too bad about not informing you earlier.” Ran snarks at her, drawing an amused snort from Josie.

  “Fair enough, but there’s clearly more of a story there than what you told me before, so that’s something we’ll circle back to later,” Josie accepts, before turning her attention to Doro once more, “So you’ll be using a pretty new team member and, what, did you have three starters?”

  “I did, yes. It is a long story, but Quick, Precise and Strong have all been with me for the same amount of time and, although Toff has made good progress, I would consider them to be a cut above her still.” Doro acknowledges.

  “Alright, then I’ll use Lady, my Vulpix, and Ginger, my Rapidash.” Josie acknowledges, before her attention shifts once more to Ran, “So, are you going to referee, or are you going to go and train by yourself?”

  “I’ll referee.” Ran accepts, finally releasing his own team as well.