Chapter Forty-Five - Scheduling!

Choco stifled a yawn. He didn't need anyone knowing that he was a little bit sleepy, not when it was still hours away from sunset. Though it was getting a little late.

He was splayed out atop Broccoli's head, arms out to the sides and legs just barely touching the back of her collar. His tummy was pressed up between her ears, and his neck was tilted way back so that he could see ahead. It wasn't the comfiest way of laying down, but it didn't require any energy.

He glanced down at the familiar-ish pokemon in Broccoli's arms.

Azu...Marill was humming happily to herself, little legs kicking out while Broccoli held her around her now much bigger tummy. She had Broccoli's pokephone in her little paws and was tapping away at the screen. There was a game where she had to touch falling berries to make them pop, and Marill was hyper focused on it.

The little beeps and boops were the only sound their group made as they travelled along what Choco had been told was Route 33. That was, until Jazz spoke up. "Well, that was tauros-dung," she said.

"What was?" Broccoli asked.

"All of that... thatness," Jazz said with a vague gesture behind them. "They let us off with a warning."

"It could have been worse," Tabitha replied. "We did countermand their orders. Though I think a fair assessment of the situation in the future will show that our actions at the time were not unreasonable."

"Yeah, but like, we should be leaving there with a medal and a pat on the back, not a warning," Jazz said. "We took down Team Rocket! That's... the kind of stuff you hear about in the news!"

"Zubat, zu, zuub?" Is it truly all that impressive?

"Buneary, bun bun," Yeah, I think so. Choco wasn't too sure, but it sounded to him like Team Rocket were all bad humans that liked to cause trouble. He could understand why Jazz was a little annoyed, but Broccoli didn't seem to mind, so he decided not to either.

A town started to appear ahead of them. First it was a farm along the road, then a few of them with smaller yards closer together. They passed a very fragrant berry farm guarded by a huge arcanine who was snoozing on a warm rock in the sun.

Then there were homes, most of them surrounded by a few trees, but as they approached the town proper, the road became bigger and was replaced by a wide cobbled path with little homes dotted around. There were only a few bigger buildings that Choco could see. The pokemon centre was one, and there was a huge building further in with a lot of glass around it and a concerning number of bug pokemon hovering around.

"That's the pokemon centre!" Jazz said. "Thank Arceus."

Choco nodded. The nice nurse lady had shown up after they beat up those Team Rocket Grunts and Gruntettes and after Broccoli smacked their boss around—confirming that his Broccoli was the strongest—and she'd been nice enough to give Choco and all of his friends a quick check up. The chansey had poked and prodded a little, but had confirmed that they were all fine.

They stepped into the cool interior of the pokemon centre to find a mostly-empty space. There were a couple of trainers talking to one side, one of them petting a large green spider-like pokemon on her lap, but otherwise the centre was very quiet.

"Hello, welcome to the pokemon centre," a nurse said. "We restore your tired Pokémon to full health. Can I help you?"

"Hi," Jazz said as she stepped up to the counter. "We just had a check up with another Nurse Joy out in the field, but could you take in Zubat for the night? He's still healing from an injury. And can we have a room for the night."

"Two rooms, please," Tabitha said with a slight bow. "I also have a pokemon I'd like to hand in. He's a new companion who needs his shots and a check-up."

"Certainly," the nurse said.

Broccoli set Marill down on the far end of the counter, far from all the others, then she reached up and hooked her thumbs under Choco's arms and lifted him up. He didn't resist, just letting himself stay boneless and wobbly as she raised him and put him down on the counter.

"Are you two okay?" Broccoli asked.

"Ma!" Yes!

"Bun," he agreed as well.

"Good!" Broccoli said. "Now that we're in Azalea, I bet that Jazz will want us to start practicing for that fight with the local gym leader. Bugsy seemed nice, if a little... boyish, but that doesn't mean he's not a strong fighter!"

Choco nodded and so did Marill. "Marill! Ma marill marill." I want to fight! Teach me to do that thing you did.

Broccoli blinked. "You mean the time I attacked that Team Rocket guy?" Marill nodded her entire body. "Oh, I guess I can teach you some of the basics of the Way of the Mystic Bun, but that would cut into the time it takes to better learn Cleaning Magic."

"Marill, rill rill!" Okay, I don't mind!

"Bunearry bun bun, buneary bun." I think that I mind, I want to be stronger.

Broccoli poked her chin, then nodded. "Okay. I still want you to learn some Cleaning magic, Marill, if you don't mind? It'll be nice to know. Even if you become more of a physical fighter. Did you see that Clean Shield that Choco used? It's a strong move, I think. And Clean Balls... I think that's what we'll call that move, are pretty strong in certain conditions. It's just good to know. And it leads to Fireballs too! I think Choco's almost there."

"Bun!"

"But yeah, if you want to be more physical, then that's fine too! Choco, I want you to learn some of it as well. It'll help you move and dodge better, which can only help in any sort of fight." Broccoli nodded. "Are we ready to start?"

Choco melted onto the counter. "Buunneary." I'm tiiiired.

Broccoli giggled at his plight, then started to pat him on the head. "Okay then, we can start first thing tomorrow morning. Besides, I'm a little hungry myself. How about lunch, and then we can go over some theoreticals? If we feel like it after that, we can do a little bit of sparring between the two of you after!"

Choco could agree with that.

They made their way over to the pokemon centre's cafeteria, which was just a small room with two tables and a long counter along one wall that had a fridge and a microwave. There was no kitchen for serving food here, but there were free ready-made meals in the fridge.

Broccoli poked around, then smiled as she discovered that the meals were all home-made things put into little glass-sided boxes by some locals who wanted to help trainers.

They sat down at the table and pretended not to see the sign that said that pokemon weren't supposed to eat in here. Choco had a Baby-Doll Eyes ready for any nurse that poked her head in.

He actually started to talk to Marill about it. "Buneary bun bun, buneary un." The trick is to look as sad as possible, but you don't want it to look too desperate.

Broccoli was shaking her head as she listened, but she was still smiling a little so it was okay.

Jazz and Tabitha joined them soon enough, both missing a pokemon. The conversation between the humans soon turned interesting, so Choco made sure to listen in.

"The gym here has an online portal for signups," Jazz said. "Did you want to do a trainer battle again?"

"Again? Don't we need to do one every time?" Broccoli asked.

"Only if you want to. You can skip right up to the gym leader. It's a two week penalty if you lose against Bugsy though," Jazz said.

"I will attempt to take on the gym leader myself in three days," Tabitha said.

Broccoli hummed. "We'll definitely be there to watch that! And to cheer you on, of course! I wouldn't mind doing some trainer fights."

"Alright, I'll try to schedule them in for Friday, then," Jazz said. "That's the day after Tabitha's fight. It should be good experience, and with the gym as quiet as it is, we can probably get a fight in against Bugsy the Monday following. I think the gym's closed on weekends? It'll mean stretching our budget a little, but not too much."

"Where are you going once you've finished in Azalea?" Tabitha asked.

"North, to Goldenrod," Jazz said. "Which means going through the forest. I had originally planned on maybe capturing a Bug-type pokemon in there. A weedle, or a spinarak to train up, but with three pokemon that all need training, I think I'm going to hold back for a while."

"I like forests," Broccoli said. "I bet we're going to have plenty of fun camping! But that's for later. We have three days to train starting tomorrow, right? That's plenty of time to get way stronger!"

***