My escort and I took the nearest magnet train to the trainer district. We rode the train in silence. I was curious on how the others had fared and unprepared for my escort's almost casual remarks of their possibly grim fates.

How sure was he that by now, they were currently being digested in the stomach of a Victreebel, hunted by an army of Croagunks or lullabied into the waiting jaws of a Carnivine?

How many times must he have seen children go out, only for none to come out that he became so indifferent to it?

Sad thing was, I could easily see myself behaving similarly in the future.

A sudden nudge disrupts my contemplation. I looked up, disgruntled at my escort.

"C'mon, kid," he said. "We're here."

We quickly disembark and reached the Centre in no time. He told me to take a quick shower and to change my clothes before entering the cafeteria. I didn't argue considering how badly I smelt, like rotten cheese and blackened char.

By the time I entered, freshly clean and healed, the cafeteria was already half-full of trainers eating their meals. I quickly spotted the Gym Leader at a table with other high-ranking trainers. I saw Bradley eating at another table while speaking with some of the trainers there.

My escort was already at the Gym Leader's side discussing something that made Schneider raise an eyebrow in response. His facial scars, two of them running parallel down his cheeks—one of them crossing his lips—and the third ran horizontally across the nose intersecting the other two like a tree branch.

"Speak of the devil," my escort said when he noticed me, the pokeballs already in the scarred Gym Leader's hands, leaving me puzzled as he left the room after finishing his piece.

"Congratulations on passing your Ordeal," Schneider said after inspecting the two pokeballs for a moment. Many of the other trainers called out their congratulations as well. A couple trainers even wolf whistled. "Have a seat," he gestured to the table where Bradley sat. "Once we're done with dinner, I'll need to talk to you and your friend." He sat back down and continued his meal.

I walked over to Bradley and sat down on the empty chair next to him. A moment later the night manager Selena walked up and put a tray of food down in front of me. "On the house," she said, smiling at me before going back to the kitchen. Giving a quick thanks, I dug into my meal like a ravenous wolf.

Bradley stared at me for a moment. "So, you passed huh?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said after swallowing, slowing down the intake of my food, lest I choke. "You?"

"Yep," he responded.

"Any news on them?" I queried.

"No," was all he said.

I chug down some water before looking around. "Where's Caitlyn?" I asked.

"In the barracks, sleeping most likely," he answered. "She didn't pass. Came back bloodied without a captured Pokémon."

"So, she'll have to try again tomorrow then."

"I guess so."

I paused for a moment before resuming my meal.

"So, what did you catch kid?" asked one trainer on the table.

"A Zorua and a Rookidee," I answered.

Everyone at the table stopped eating to look at me. "A Zorua? And a Rookidee?" one trainer spoke up, "How did you manage that? You don't look like you have encountered any hunting groups, and Zorua only appears in—wait, don't tell me—!" The trainer paled considerably.

I nodded and spoke to confirm their fears, "I took my Ordeal in the North-West." Silence fell upon the table. No one asked me questions again, but one did give some advice on how to handle Dark type Pokémon.

"You know," I joked to lighten up the mood, "This wasn't what I meant when I told you to go break a leg."

Bradley rolled his eyes. "I come across a Roggenrola that I tried to catch. That's how this happened," raising his broken arm. "It clipped me with a Rock Blast. I managed to get away from it and decided to cut my losses. I had hoped to catch an Aron." He said sourly.

"Why would you-" I cut myself off when he turned to glare at me. "Never mind. So, I guess you didn't come across any?"

"No, but I did catch a Whismur. I found it sleeping as I was about to exit the cave. I just tossed a pokeball and it was caught easily."

"Sounds like you had it easier than I did." I told him.

"Really?" he asked as he looked at his broken arm.

"Really," I drawled. "At least you didn't have to deal with any swarms of Beedrill, Venipede or a murder of Murkrows."

That caught the attention of everyone at the table again. Fortunately, most of the trainers were nearly finished with their meals so I didn’t get that far in regaling my experiences of the North-West forest that even veterans avoided like the plague. It helped that the Gym Leader also stood up and addressed the room before I even got to setting part of the forest on fire.

"It's getting late, the cafeteria will be closing soon and I'm sure some of you have early morning missions. Time to clear out." Everyone stood up and began clearing the room. Bradley and I walked up to him as everyone were leaving. "Come with me," he ordered.

He led us both to the computer room. There were no trainers in the room. Once he closed the door, he turned to us. "Once again, congratulations on passing your Ordeals. As of right now you both are officially E-ranked Pokémon trainers." He sat at one of the computer stations and pulled out three cards from his pocket as well as our three pokeballs and two trainer arm badges.

One of the cards had S-rank stamped on the front while the other two had E-rank stamped. He swiped the S-rank card on the side of the computer and opened the trainer account app. He then placed one of the pokeballs in a slot in the device next to the computer. A picture of a Whismur popped up on the screen along with some information under it.

Schneider found the appropriate E-rank card and swiped it on the computer. He entered some information and the pokeball device lit up. After a moment we could see the button on the pokeball turn from blue to white. He removed the pokeball from the device and repeated the process with the other card and two pokeballs. When he finished with that, he closed his account and turned back to us.

"Here," he said. He handed us our respective pokeballs, trainer cards and one of those arm badges. "Here are your Pokémon, trainer card and arm badges. You must always have your trainer card and arm badges. The arm badges are there to let everyone know that you are a Pokémon trainer. This is mostly to keep the civilians happy. They like to know when they are in the presence of any of us. That way they can quickly and quietly leave the area," he said sourly. "As if at any moment, we will just release our Pokémon and order them to maul them to death."

"The trainer cards are your primary form of identification. It lets others know what trainer rank you belong to and allows you to take missions of the appropriate ranks. It also doubles as a debit card. When you complete a mission, you must go to the mission office in the central district to receive your pay. That card is the only way to gain access to the money in your bank account. If you lose the card you will have to come to the Centre to have a new one issued. A fee will be taken out of your account to cover the cost of the replacement card."

"Of course," he continued, "at your current rank you are not eligible to take on any missions. You will have to be promoted to D-rank first. I suggest you work hard the next few days to tame your new Pokémon. When you think you are ready for the next rank, just head to my Gym and request a D-rank promotion exam. I will test you and your Pokémon to see if you have what it takes to start taking missions. If you don't think you're ready, then you can always retake the exam after giving your Pokémon a bit more training. Any questions?" he asked us.

I took this chance to ask mine. "Would I need to train both my Pokémon for the D-rank promotion?"

"No, you don't." he said. "It would be better if you can tame one first before you tame the other. Do not forget to let them get used to your presence and feed them though. If you find that you cannot tame your new Pokémon, then we will have to either put it down or put it to work wherever possible." He asked again, if we had any more questions, but this time both of us shook our heads.

"Then you should get some rest. Tomorrow, you will need to get started on taming your new Pokémon. I hope to see you both in my Gym soon," he said. Just before he left the room, he stopped to turn to us. "Before I forget," he asked, "Did either of you two have any unused pokeballs left over from the Ordeals?"

"None." Bradley answered.

"One," I said.

Looking towards me, he said, "Then these pokeballs now belongs to you. Tomorrow morning you should go to the Pokemart and have them register the ball to your trainer account. That way, once you have your Pokémon trained a bit, you would have been able to capture another Pokémon without having to purchase another ball." Bradley didn't seem very happy with this.

"The backpacks and the items inside them now belong to both of you as well. Think of them as a gift from me to welcome you both into the ranks of Pokémon trainers." He said to both of us. After that, he turned and left us alone.

We looked at each other for a moment. I checked the clock on the wall for the time "It's getting late," I said. "Today was a long day for both of us. I'm heading to bed. I want to get up early to begin working with my Pokémon."

"Good idea," he said.

We both headed to the barracks and quickly went to bed. I stayed up late staring at the top bunk above me thinking about everything that happened today. Eventually, I closed my eyes and finally fell asleep.