<After checking into the pokemon center and securing themselves an actual room for the night, Chad and Ginette make their way to the nearby training grounds outside to practice.>


    Selecting a flat rock under the shadow of a medium-sized tree, Chad crosses his legs and sits down to meditate, but finds himself immediately interrupted. “Really, just gonna go to sleep and leave a girl unattended?”


    A popped eye wanders up and down the blue frog, before he sighs and pulls out their pokedex. “I’m trying to master Rest so I can get a handle on psychic energy, for reasons,” he says, coughing afterwards. “In your case, I did not see any fire or dragon type moves on your list, so I can only help explain what you can do, but you’ll just have to figure a lot of it out on your own.”


    “For example, you could work on Quick Attack to the degree you leave after-images, which would build into Double Team for evasion. If you practice with Water Pulse, you could channel that into adding Water Gun to your toolkit, or with proper temperature adjustment pick up Scald.” Chad explained, opening the sequential entries on the device. “Or, if you want to be really annoying, you could work on your Attract, but that one can really backfire if you aren’t careful-”


    Ginette raised a finger to make a point, before Chad shut her down, “No, I will not subject myself to such efforts.” Immediately her excitement dropped into a pout, mumbling as she stepped away to claim her own practice space.


    Chad, returning to his meditation, began to attempt at circulating the magenta energy, which lightly coated his body before fading, as he cycled between manifesting the energy and its abatement. His frustration with the failure began to build, until each failure was accompanied by a spurt of flame from an exhale.


    Ginette, not really having started her own practice, made her way back over and tried to get Chad’s attention. “Hey, une question, what move are you working on right now?”


    “Rest,” Chad grumbled, as the magenta energy grew and abated again.


    “So, you’re trying to put yourself to sleep?” Chad opened both eyes to grant the amphibian his attention. “Cause it looks like you’re fighting it just as it starts going,” she clarified. Chad blinked, twice, before attempting again. This time, the magenta energy wavered but stuck around, covering his whole body as every muscle relaxed. His breathing evened out and deepened, but his body managed to stay upright on the rock, coated in the psychic energy as Ginette noticed a few signs of exhaustion slowly fade away.


    Satisfied, she snuck away and began pondering herself before coating her limbs in the bright white of normal energy. As described, she began practicing moving around with her body, making quick leaps and abrupt turns, pushing her speed increasingly faster. After a good half hour of various tests and experiments, she notices the slight blur of her colors starting to leak behind her. Stumped, she quietly asks “Any tips, Monsieur Earl Grey?”


    <Technically I’m more of a Chamomile individual, however I did notice that the effect seemed more pronounced when more normal energy was left behind. Maybe try leaving an empty shell of energy when you change direction?>


    With the smile of a child who just conned her parents out of a candy bar, Ginette took off again, this time coating her entire body in the white energy, before slipping out of it with a rapid hop. As she looked back, a watery ephemeral visage of her floated in the air for a split-second before fading. “Magnifique, now to get it to last long enough I can sneak behind that lizard and place an ice cube on his neck.”


    <Ginette continued to practice until sun down, when her grumbling stomach informed her practice was done for the day. She had made great progress, able to leave behind a convincing after image that would last for almost ten seconds if unmolested. However, she now faced a new problem; Chad was still asleep.>


    Ginette, with a frown, stared at her teammate who hadn’t woken up for the past two hours. “Chad?” she asked, half-heartedly, before her frown pivoted to raw malicious glee. Unable to defend himself or dodge, she charged up a particularly large Water Pulse before blasting her teammate with the attack, completely soaking him. As the deluge passed, she waited for his angry retaliation, for a good minute or two. But still as a stone, she couldn’t detect him having moved even a centimeter.


    <Uh, Ginette…>


    The frog crouched down, noticing the water had puddled under her teammate, until she was level with the base of the rock, and could see through the gap between its wet surface, and her teammate. “Is he floating..?” she asked, waving a hand in the gap.


    <Ginette, I believe you may have a problem.>


    “Yea, my attack wasn’t enough to even phase him. Dude must be really tough,” she remarked, gently flicking his nose to no reaction.


    <Not quite, I am certain that such an attack would’ve knocked him unconscious had he been awake. But your main problem is that he is the team chef, and the only one to cook your dinner tonight. You’ll need to find a way to break that psychic cocoon keeping him asleep.>


    Ginette gently massaged her rumbling belly, “...Merde. There has to be something I can do, right?”


    <Yes, but it’ll be unpleasant, and the Author may be upset we’re having you unlock it so early on.>


    “Right, so what do I need to do?” She paused, “Wait, who’s the Author?!”


    <You need to remember your previous trainer, how they mistreated you, abused you, and abandoned you. Channel all of that sadness and rage into a tight little ball in your hands, pretend Chad is that absolute waste of air, and throw it at him.>


    Ginette, sensing she would not get an answer for her second question, did her best to focus on cupping her hands together. There was no pressure, nobody to bother her, and yet the pressure felt like a failure on her part would result in her being sent back to Lumiose, abandoned again. The feelings began to compound, as a tiny mote of the void floated in her hands.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Once the darkness grew to the size of a Cherri berry, she wound up and threw it at Chad, landing dead-center. The magenta cocoon shattered from the impact, as the ball of despair carried on and flattened the lizard against the tree with a satisfying ‘thud’.


    Chad groaned, rubbing the back of his head as he stood up. “Did you have to use me for target practice?” he asked, using his free arm to wipe and wick away as much of the water still on his body as he could. Glancing at the lack of sun in the sky, “Ah, I guess that lasted longer than I thought-” he was interrupted with a loud protest from both his and Ginette’s rumbling stomachs. “Yea, we need to figure out what I did wrong. I was only supposed to be asleep for a minute at most.”


    <Endless loop; the energy didn’t dissipate after you were asleep, so it just kept applying the condition effect.>


    “If it was strong enough to keep me asleep and recovering while she attempted to drown me, I’d call that a success and move on. There’s gotta be a different psychic move I can learn, right?” the dried Charmeleon asked, now heading straight for the center for dinner.


    <Not, uh, without breaking a few established facts, no.>


    “Agility? Calm Mind? C’mon those should be doable at least? I was literally just meditating,” Chad grumbled, the automatic doors sliding open to reveal one of the quietest centers they had stayed at. Chad grabbed some of the supplies from the fridge, getting a side-eye from the other trainers and their teams as he carried some eggs, meat, and flour towards a stovetop.


    <Not available to your line according to canon. And why the focus on psychic abilities?>


    “Hyper-fixation,” Chad responds, washing his hands with soap at the sink while glancing around the room behind him. “If you were planning to try and introduce me to fighting energy before the rock gym, I could be convinced to shift my focus.”


    <I am, but we still have a ways to go before then.>


    Chad grunted, drying his hands while insisting Ginette clean hers. Her visible confusion prompted a clarification; “You’ll be making the pasta, wash your hands.” Reluctantly, she did as bidden while he arranged a small pile of flour with a slight indent. Two eggs were sequentially cracked on the edge of the sink, with the yolk and whites placed in the crater as Chad was patient to ensure no shells landed in the pile.


    “Mix and roll that together into a dough, knead it until it’s thoroughly mixed,” he instructed, as he scooped a piece of butter into a waiting pan atop the stove. “Alright, so no chance I can learn Calm Mind or Agility then? Those are generic enough that many species learn them,” he reasoned, as he laid the meat into the melted butter, causing the pan to sizzle.


    <It is possible, if we just find the right tutor. But I must ask, are we really doing another cooking scene for this conversation? Are you planning to pad out every short chapter like this?>


    No, but the conversation would be rather boring without it.


    “He’s right,” Chad agreed, flipping the seared protein onto its other side, before using a nearby wooden spoon to ladle the melted butter onto the recently-flipped side. “But I also know that cooking anime and manga tend to be popular, so he might be leaning into that.” He turned the heat down, stepping to the side to fill a large pot with warm water, eyeing Ginette’s handiwork. “That looks right, just roll it out into a flat piece about two to three millimeters thick, evenly. Then use your Swords Dance and slice it into long noodles.”


    Chad was aware of his audience by now, but focused on the tasks before him; Ginette’s nerves were definitely starting to creep in as her first cut was uneven and jagged. Chad shut off the water, placing the pot on the stove at max heat to boil. “Relax, just keep trying. And whenever you mess up, just remember we can roll it back up and try again,” he assured her, returning to tend to the meat which was now approaching rare.


    “Pardon,” a voice asked from his left, as Chad looked but was forced to aim his gaze upwards. The white ferret had purple accents and long fire-hazards for ‘sleeves’, but their gaze was locked on the cooking meat in the pan. “But this one could not help but overhear your desire to learn two specific moves. An opportunity arises for a trade, should you be amenable?”


    “I am listening, what is the proposed trade?” Chad responded, careful to match the much stronger mammal’s speech cadence. With the water now at a boil, he gently lowered Ginette’s noodles into the water. Seeing that she was finished, he pointed her towards the sink again, relishing the groan of her response.


    “A meal for a move tutoring; this one can guarantee a rudimentary grasp of the basics with but a single session, especially for such simple moves as those two.” The ferret was steadfast, and certain of its capabilities. His combat experience was evident between his muscles and some faint scarring.


    “A dinner for Calm Mind, a breakfast for Agility?” The stranger nodded, as Chad pointed his spoon towards the fridge. “Fetch the meat for your dinner then, a deal has been struck.” Chad plated the two cooked pieces of meat, reloading the hot pan with more butter just in time for his new ‘tutor’ to refill the pan with fresh slabs. Concerned about the cook time, the fighting type confirmed they did not need to be fully cooked, just flavorful.


    Eyeing the pasta, “Ginette, why don’t you socialize with our new benefactor while I finish his food?” Chad requested, adding extra butter to the hot pan. Ginette led the Mienshao towards an empty table with trepidation, as the chef entered the home stretch.


    Flipping the meat over to sear the other side, Chad was visibly conflicted about serving under-cooked meat, but he also had two plates dying while waiting for the current batch to finish. Seeing the last of the pasta floating on the surface, he swapped over to drain the hot water into the sink, distributing the noodles among the three waiting plates. They were pretty rough, and definitely uneven, but all beginners start somewhere.


    Once he was certain his prospective tutor’s proteins were thoroughly buttered and seared, he placed the last bits on the final plate, using the wooden spoon to ladle the melted butter atop the pasta. After that, a light topping of salt and pepper before he brought the three servings to the table. “Bone appetite,” Chad offered, his thick Unovan accent butchering the pronunciation, causing Ginette to laugh dismissively before taking a fork of her pasta.


    “Quite exquisite given the last minute addition, though this one eagerly anticipates breakfast,” the ferret complimented, as Chad glanced past him to a table that likely had the rest of Mienshao’s team. The trainer was drooling, and the others were likely arguing over who got his servings of that detestable pet kibble.


    “Breakfast hinges on our success this evening,” Chad reminded them, slicing off a chunk of his medium-well meat with a level of manners beyond the table’s other occupants.


    The tutor made a soft sound of affirmation as he dug into the fettuccine, his whole body seemingly unaccustomed to this quality of food. “The lessons can begin now, should thou wish. Simply focus on emptying your mind, let there be nothing but this plate of gourmet food sitting before you. Then, channel the psychic energies you were practicing earlier, but only within your head.” The Mienshao explained, biting off a partially undercooked mouthful of meat as butter dripped down onto their plate.


    Before gobbling another bite, Chad did as instructed, sitting perfectly still with his eyes solely on the fruits of his earlier labor. After a moment, he began to channel the magenta energy from earlier, as the waves washed around his head. While practicing, he slowly lowered a fork, spooled up a roll of the pasta, and brought it to his waiting tongue. The very act of eating emanated an aura of zen as the magenta glow faded away.


    Chad, with a serene smile, glanced up at his tutor, whose facade had broken into a slack-jawed amazement. “Unholy Yvettal, you really did that in a single attempt?” he asked, his persona firmly gone. “Damn, and here I thought I was the wise master. Are you a psychic or fighting type?” he inquired, inspecting Chad as he powered down the rest of the meat.


    “Just a pure fire type trying to expand his options,” Chad explained, parrying an invasion by Ginette as she tried to steal some of his pasta. Her plate had long since emptied, with Mienshao’s not far behind. Chad was eyeing down a two-front war, and began to skimp on table manners in favor of raw consumption. “And just as you said, one session was sufficient. I look forward to part two in the morning.”


    Mienshao nodded, offered his thanks for the meal, then sauntered back to his group to become the immediate focus of attention and conversation. Chad collected the plates and cookware and returned them to the dirty dishes area after rinsing off particularly egregious offenders. “That seemed a little too coincidental, Narrator,” Ginette stated, as the two of them decided to call it a night.


    <That, remarkably, was not my doing. Anyway, the duo relaxed for the remainder of the evening, before a spark of inspiration led Chad to introducing Ginette to the room’s shower. He had thought the hot water might inspire her to learn Scald. Instead, he merely got to watch as she drained all of the hot water and blamed him for not going first. The sleeping situation was even worse, as Ginette took up all the sheets, forcing Chad to retreat to his pokeball or freeze overnight.>


    <The next morning, after making themselves presentable, the duo went down for breakfast to find Mienshao waiting in the cafeteria with the excitement of a kid who was just promised a puppy. Per request, Chad served bacon, eggs, and (thanks to a lucky potato) hash browns. His guidance for learning Agility was equally simple, but Chad had to spend a good part of the morning practicing until he could notice a slight speed boost.>


    <While he had been experiencing the joys of running, Ginette leveraged her experience from the previous night, and managed to master Water Gun before attempting to raise the temperature of it to just above lukewarm. Practice would be needed, but progress was made. In addition, her Double Team images became progressively easier to leave behind, as she combined the two to play ‘water tag’ with herself.>


    <After a quick rinse, and packing of their things, the duo were ready to depart again, passing through the gates for Route 7 just before mid-morning.>


    Is it just me, or did he just stumble upon one of the two Pokemon in the region who would know both of those abilities?


    <The odds are certainly wild, but sometimes luck can be on your side.>