In the early morning, as I look at the map for the route I want to take, I realize I’ve made a massive blunder.

 

“Fuck!” Courtney sits up from the armchair she’s occupied at my sudden shout.

 

“What is it?” She asks, wiping her eyes for a quick moment. “And, please, not so loud. It’s early.”

 

I pause a minute to formulate my response before sighing. “Despite my pretty good memory, it seems there’s still faults in it. We’re not going directly to Lumiose through the forest. We’re going to have to take the main road through Coumarine City, so I can fight Ramos and get the Grass-type badge.

 

I try not to frown at the poor job Courtney does at hiding her smile. “Oh, that’s unfortunate. So, we’re going to go the slower way?”

 

“We won’t if you can’t get better at masking your expression.” I turn back to the map, ignoring Courtney pulling out her phone and practicing her facial expressions.

 

Okay, just a short detour. It’s the Grass Gym; how difficult could it be? I have pokémon to deal with that. The only major problem I have is…Ramos’ personality.

 

He’s sure not to do a gym battle in a rush… I’ll have to check if I can make a reservation.

 

———————————————————————————————————————

 

As Courtney and I walk down the dirt road, with our feet, we both idly watch Gwen practice her Psychic abilities on any floating rock or stick that catches her attention. She’s been rather fond of one stick, swinging it around occasionally like a sword.

 

Testing her reflexes, I grab a spare crystal and toss it at her. With her little legs, she can’t really turn fully around in time, so the familiar purple glow of her Psychic powers envelops the rock.

 

*Thwack*

 

Courtney and I slightly faltered as, contrary to our expectations, Gwen was unable to stop the crystal in time. Stopping completely, I kneeled down in front of her. “Gwen, can you try again?” She nods and tries to move the rock again…but she can’t. It’s as if the rock weighs a mountain to her mind.

 

“I know that a Gardevoir can expend enough power to create black holes,” Courtney comments. “So, a Ralts must still have a considerable amount of power.”

 

“Yeah…” I mutter, deep in thought. I’m no quantum physicist, so my rudimentary understanding of energy is as such—there’s photons and electrons. Electrons are essentially conductive energy and photons represent radiation. A photon’s frequency determines its place on the electromagnetic spectrum, but that brings in the question of what the pokémon type energies consist.

 

Possibly another axis to the frequency? Or is it electrons? That might be true for Electric-type attacks, but what is Psychic?

 

From my research so far, these crystals serve as extremely good capacitors for all types of energy I’ve worked with so far, even being capable of holding different types at the same time.

 

However, if uninsulated and it’s conducting with that energy’s ground, then it’ll discharge, so I can barely put any light in it. But what about Psychic? What does that ground with, or does the crystal just become a hole for that kind of energy?

 

New tests! But first…

 

I pick up the crystal and place it in Gwen’s hands. “Practice your abilities on this. It’ll be good in the long run.” It should serve as an effective weight for a psychic mind, and I don’t need to buy spoons.

 

———————————————————————————————————————

 

“How long do you think this will take?” Courtney asks, starting up.

 

“Probably the rest of the day. It’s fine, though. We have time to kill,” I respond, doing the same.

 

We’re both staring at the massive tree sitting within the center of Coumarine city. It’s expected for challengers to climb up the tree with rope ladders and such, but there is a service elevator if you’re here to spectate or you’re unable to climb.

 

“So, are you re”—but as I look over, I see the elevator doors closing with Courtney inside. “…I guess I’ll do it myself.” Similarly to Grant’s gym, I’m going to abuse the challenge and use my Octillery Arms. I mean, what else are they good for? I’m certainly not going to climb a rope ladder with only one hand. I couldn’t even do it with two!

 

It's not even a full minute before I reach the top, arriving at the same time as the elevator.

 

We walk into the hollowed-out trunk of the tree, finding Ramos tending to his garden. He glances up at his before returning to his work. “I presume one of you is my 2:00?”

 

I raise my stump. “Yes, that’s me.”

 

He doesn’t say anything for one, maybe two, minutes. “Why don’t you give me a hand here?” Courtney and I look at each other before shrugging.

 

“Okay, why not?” I reply, grabbing a single glove from a nearby table. Courtney grabs a pair and puts down her hood, likely due to the stuffy air in here. It’s almost as if he’s made the most irritating environment for hot-headed gym challengers.

 

Luckily, I’m not Ash.

 

Courtney and I silently get to work, slowly pulling out all of the weeds and leaving the flowers intact. How weeds got up this high will be forever a mystery to me, but I do know that the work was quite therapeutic. I slowly forgot about my stresses and worries; my concerns and gripes. My money problem and my interest in the Eevees.

 

I had knots in muscles I didn’t even knew I had. And like that, two hours passed in a garden.

 

Not much else to say when not much happened.

 

Here we stand, at the entrance to the garden, all of us standing in a line as we look upon our work.

 

“Well, you passed!” Ramos says with a grunt and a slight chuckle. “Here you go! The Plant Badge is all yours!” Mindlessly, I hold out my hands as he places the badge in them.

 

Courtney looks at us in slight confusion but says not a word. However, I am very much confused and will voice my concerns. “Excuse me? I…didn’t battle you for this.”

 

He lets out a long sigh, turning back to the garden to stare wistfully at them with a soft smile. “This gym serves as a filter for the gym challenge. To earn the right to become a champion, you must show patience. Most challengers don’t have that. If they refuse to garden, then they aren’t welcomed back here for at least a week. If they try to get through the work as fast as possible, I teach them to slow down, and we have a gym battle. For those that do the work, without complaint, without rushing, I award the Plant Badge in full confidence.”

 

I hold the dark-green, leaf-shaped badge up to the sunlight, watching the smaller gold engraved leaves glisten.