“Oh God.” I said, stumbling out of the cab. “Let's not do that again.”

  “Arceus save me.” Ted agreed. “I’ve ridden a lot of Pokémon, but nothing was like that.”

  “Oh come on guys! It wasn’t that bad!”

  We both turned to stare at Lucas, who was casually sauntering up towards the main body of the Corviknight.

  “Thanks Auntie!” He shouted up at the woman.

  “Bah! This was a one-time thing, you understand? Next time it’s gonna cost you!”

  “You said that last time!”

  The woman grumbled, but let us go without any fuss.

  “I don’t know how the Galarians do it.” I said.

  “Maybe their lack of tasty food makes them look for excitement in other areas?”

  “Their food isn’t bad!” Lucas chirped. “They have great curry!”

  “And where did they get the curry from?” Ted retorted. “The Four Islands, that’s where. Otherwise they’d still probably be eating Clauncher-flavored potato chips, or that Marmite stuff.”

  The younger man didn’t seem to have an answer to that, which allowed me to take in Canalave City for the first time.

  It was an odd collection of buildings of a variety of different styles. There was no unifying theme or aesthetic sensibility, but I was somehow reminded of Venice, or perhaps vaguely of St. Petersburg.

  That was probably due to the giant canal cutting down the middle of the city.

  It was a very impressive canal, wide enough for several large cargo ships to sail up and down its length, with smaller sail and motor boats to go zipping around them. Long arched bridges spanned the width of the canal, some of wood, some of metal, and even a few of what looked like marble.

  How they managed to stay suspended was something that was beyond me, but they looked impressive enough.

  “So,” I said. “Where to first? Gym? Pokémon Center?”

  The two men exchanged looks.

  “Honestly? I’m kind of sick of sleeping in Pokémon Centers.” Lucas hedged. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have a subsidized place to stay, but after a while they’re a bit…”

  “Small? Cramped? Have a weird smell to them?” Ted offered.

  “Yeah, exactly. I’ve gotten kinda used to sleeping in that hotel in Oreburgh, I’d rather shell out a little extra money to sleep in comfort.”

  “Do you have the money for that? I can help cover it if you need some extra cash.”

  “Nah, I’m good, the Oreburgh Gym was pretty fast at depositing my winnings.”

  Another thing I had missed out on - Ted and Lucas had gotten some money from the Gym for winning. Enough for a hotel room, at the very least.

  Then again, I was also a multi-millionaire from helping to put the members of Teams Aqua and Magma into prison. I could afford to live in a hotel for a good long while, if I really wanted to. Or maybe even buy a house.

  I stopped moving as the thought occurred to me. I could buy a house.

  Maybe not a very big one, I didn’t have that much money after all, but still, a house to myself. I’d never actually even considered the possibility, with the way the economy was going back home, I’d figured that I’d be living in apartments my whole life.

  “Alina?” Lucas asked, worry clear in his tone.

  “I just realized I might be able to live in a house.”

  They exchanged another look.

  “Yes?” Lucas drew the word out. “That's where people normally live?”

  “No, but like a house.”

  “Is she okay?” He whispered to Ted.

  “I honestly don’t know.”

  “Wait, I need to like, start investing. I mean I’m on a Journey right now, but I have a lot of money. Maybe I can start investing in companies? Then I can buy an even bigger house.”

  Frantically I started running through which companies I knew that would be smart to invest in. Devon Corporation and Silph Co. were two of the big ones, of course, but there were others.

  Poké Mart would be a pretty decent company to invest in as well, they had locations in literally almost every town across the world, but I didn’t know if their stocks were publicly traded. They were technically a part of the Pokémon League, after all.

  Lysandre Labs would be a poor investment especially with Lysandre himself being arrested, but there was that other one in Galar…

  Macro Cosmos!

  No wait, that’s the Chairman’s company, if nobody stops him from summoning Eternatus, I’m sure the stock prices would plummet. But then again, if they found another source of energy it might work?

  Maybe I could invest heavily into them now, and if they start talking about solving the energy crisis I could sell?

  “Uh, Alina, are you thinking about insider trading?”

  I jolted out of my thoughts at Ted’s words, looking at my traveling companions with wide eyes.

  “Huh?”

  “You realize you’ve been muttering to yourself for the past couple minutes, right?”

  I could feel my cheeks and ears start to heat up.

  “I, uh, huh? No I wasn’t?”

  “Yeah, you kinda were.” Lucas said. “Something about stocks and solving an energy crisis?”

  “Ahhaha no I wasn’t.” I waved my hands. “Just random thoughts! There’s nothing going on!”

  They didn’t look convinced, but thankfully they let the matter drop, and we continued on our way to the nearest hotel.

  I privately resolved to look into financial advisors when I had a free moment.

  After all, I’d done a lot of good and helped spread information that could maybe save the world, surely I could get some more money out of it, right?

  I’d eventually like a house of my own, after all.

  /^\

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  “So Ted,” Lucas said as we were eating lunch at a nice little bistro. “How’s your other Pokémon doing, Rakkyo, right?”

  We’d gotten a couple of hotel rooms and my plans for financial investments had been put on hold in order to get some food.

  Ted blinked, looking up from his Kalosian onion soup. “Hm? He’s doing fine.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “You never met Rakkyo, did you Lucas?”

  “No, I didn’t. You’ve talked about him before, but I’ve never actually seen him. A Flygon, right? You don’t see many of those.”

  Ted set his spoon down, a small smile spreading across his face. “Yeah. I’ve raised him since he was a Trapinch.”

  “How’d you meet?” I prodded.

  “Well, I grew up near Mauville, in Hoenn. I don’t know if you’ve ever been there,” he was looking specifically at Lucas, but we both shook our heads. “I figured. Well, it’s a lot different now.”

  A melancholic look spread over his face. “Where I grew up, Mauville was a spread out city, and I lived in the suburbs, near the desert. Here, now Watson’s gone ahead and built all of these skyscrapers, it’s weird to think about. Anyways, you can imagine that everybody wanted an Electric-type, every kid wanted to be the next Watson.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Not a lot of Electric-types near Mauville though. Not unless you count New Mauville.”

  Ted nodded. “And New Mauville was mostly off-limits to the general public. Still, it didn't stop people from trying. Anyways, my parents helped manage the windmills near the desert that provided some of the power to the city, and I wanted to see if I could catch any Electric Pokémon near there.”

  Lucas frowned. “But didn’t you just say there were only a few Electric-types? Besides, I wouldn’t think that Electric Pokémon would enjoy the desert.”

  Ted rubbed the back of his head, looking more than a little sheepish.

  “Well, I didn’t know that at the time. I was a kid, and I’d just seen a PokéGeo special on Electric-types. It mentioned how Pokémon like Dedenne, Joltik, and Magnemite would flock to power plants and try to eat electricity, so I thought I could find one and bring one home.”

  “Despite the fact that of those, only Magnemite actually lives in Hoenn.” I said blandly.

  “I was a kid! Anyways, I sneak out of school and hike my way out to the desert, only to get lost in a sandstorm. I’d lived in the area enough to know that they might happen, so at least I was smart enough to pack a scarf and some goggles, but it still got me turned around. So there I am, stumbling around in the desert, and I fall into a Trapinch hole.

  At the bottom there was this tiny little runt of a Trapinch, it couldn’t even chew through my jeans. Turns out, it had tried to bite a Cacnea, and some of the poison needles had been stuck in its mouth. Poor thing was suffering, so I pulled out the needles and gave it a couple of the Poké Blocks I’d been hoping to bribe a Magnemite with.”

  I frowned. “Magnemite don’t have mouths.”

  “I don’t know how many times I have to say that I was just a kid. Anyways, we rode out the storm together in that pit for a whole day. When the winds stopped, it turned out that we were only a couple dozen meters away from the monitoring station where my parents worked.”

  He chuckled. “Man, did I get an earful for that. ‘Irresponsible’ and ‘dangerous’ and ‘stupid’ were thrown around a lot for being out in a desert storm. After everything was said and done though, The little Trapinch that I’d been stuck with wouldn’t leave me alone, so once I was old enough, I officially became its Trainer. And that’s how I met Rakkyo.”

  “But why the name?” Lucas asked. “I mean, Onion?”

  Ted flushed. “He liked onions, okay? I didn’t, so everytime my mom would make them, I would sneak them to him under the table. I didn’t even realize at the time that when he evolved he would turn green.”

  “That’s a cute story.” I said. “He’s not so little now though.”

  “No he isn't! I swear that silly Dragon eats more than a Snorlax does! It cost me all of my allowance money just to keep him fed as a kid. Once he started growing though, he just didn’t stop.” Ted sighed happily, looking off into the distance.

  “But from what I hear from Professor Birch, he’s starting to heal up pretty well. The bad weather thanks to Kyogre slowed down his recovery, but it seems like he’s doing better now that things have calmed down. Still not at his peak yet, but what can you do?”

  “I’ve never really interacted with a Dragon-type all that much, is it true that they’ll refuse medicine?” Lucas asked.

  Ted nodded. “For the most part, yeah. Rakkyo’s particularly ornery and prideful, so it’s a struggle to get him to take any medicine. Any recovery takes just that much longer due to their stubbornness, since they see outside help as a weakness.”

  “Surely they can’t be that bad?”

  “Oh some Dragons aren’t terrible, like Goodra or Dratini, but I hear that the Salamence line are some of the worst offenders.”

  “What about Gible and Garchomp?” I asked.

  “Actually not that bad! Especially Gible, they’re very food motivated, so if you mix in some medicine with their normal food they’ll eat it all right up. Now Deino I hear are very interesting since they can’t actually see, but from what a fellow Trainer once told me…”

  /^\

  I’d spent a lot of my time in various libraries throughout my life, especially when I had been getting my degree. Not that I had actually done anything with my medieval studies degree, but it was the principle of the thing.

  For a while there I had even considered getting a job as a librarian, but any of the decent positions needed a master’s degree to apply for, and I’d been too strapped for cash to afford any further education. My awful retail job hadn’t provided me with a lot of insurance, and I still had to pay out the nose for my hormone therapy pills.

  Back then I’d decided that feeling like myself was more important than getting another degree, and I probably would have made the same decision again if I had to.

  The good thing was, I didn’t actually have to make that decision. If I really wanted to, I could go to school for a library science degree here.

  Of course I would have to figure out how to actually prove that I was eligible for college - even though I was a registered Pokémon Lab Trainer thanks to Professor Rowan and the Pokémon League, I didn’t exist on paper before the past few months. I had no high school degree, no college degree, nothing.

  Which was a shame, because the Canalave City Public Library was a thing of beauty. The main floor was mostly filled with old (to me) CRT monitors and computers, along with some general reference books and guides. The several floors were filled with books of all different shapes and sizes, fiction, history, philosophy, and of course, books on Pokémon.

  But it was the basement where I was now, and the main reason why I had convinced my two traveling companions to come to the library with me.

  Not that it was a hard sell, they were both Pokémon researchers after all.

  “It’s been a while since we’ve had one of Professor Rowan’s assistants come through.” The archivist said. “Most of the time they’re out doing field work.”

  “Well, I’ve spent my fair share of time outside, but there are some things that you just need to read a book for.”

  “Well said! You mentioned you were looking for records from the first settlements of the Galaxy Expedition Team?”

  “Yes, specifically around two years into the founding of Jubilife Village, if you have it.”

  The archivist in charge of the special collections section of the library hummed.

  “We do have a collection of materials from around that time, although we mostly specialize in pre-Expedition history and remnants of the Celestica peoples. You might have to travel to the Jubilife Archive if you can’t find what you’re looking for here.”

  “I might do that, but I’d like to see, regardless.”

  “Of course.”

  The archivist smiled. “Give me a minute, you can sit in the reading room while I get your materials for you.”

  Ted, Lucas and I all settled into the comfortable chairs at one of the tables in the indicated room.

  “Why are we looking into this again?” Ted asked. “Not that I mind being in the library, but still.”

  “Following up on a hunch.” I said.

  The other two grumbled a little bit, but we fell into a comfortable silence until the archivist came back.

  “Here you are.” He said, offering a set of ancient scrolls and a couple of books. “This is all we have from that time. Like I figured, it’s not much, I can reach out to Jubilife if you’d like?”

  “I might take you up on that.” I said, smiling. “But for now this should be fine. Thank you very much.”

  “Of course, I’ll be right over there if you need anything.” He gestured at a desk nearby. “Please, be careful with these materials. I know you’re all researchers, but these are almost three hundred years old.”

  “We will.”

  The man nodded, and stepped away.

  “Alright, if there’ll be any information on Hisuian Pokémon that you want to find, it’ll be here. Maybe there’ll be something to help train Switchback and Kyūdō.”

  That got their attention, and the two men eagerly began looking through the scrolls, and I started slowly unravelling the ancient texts as well.

  It took almost an hour, but I eventually found something that I was looking for, a couple pages of an ancient diary that had some damage rendering parts of it illegible.

  …two years since the founding of Jubilife, and I’m not sure how much longer the vill… We are besieged on all sides by the native Pokémon, they are quite …ifficult to deal with. However yesterday a rather strange young… tered into the town, wearing quite queer clothing. A local merchant known by Volo also was present, and was showing off a peculiar stone. He called it a… and said it had the power to do wondrous… trange rifts have also been seen, expelling extraordinary…. mon.

  I smiled, feeling the weight of the Legend Stone in my pack, even though that should have been impossible.

  A lot of this I had already known, having played through Pokémon: Legends Arceus, but actually having evidence was something else entirely.

  There had been the early PokéDex created by Professor Laventon that Professor Rowan had given me copies of, but having complementary sources was always nice.

  “Excuse me,” I said, getting the archivist’s attention. “Could you tell me what this is? I can’t quite make out the title.”

  The man stepped over.

  “Ah, yes, this is a diary belonging to Sanqua, the captain of the Construction Corps.”

  I smiled. “You wouldn’t happen to have any copies, would you?”

  The man thought, then nodded.

  “We have a scanner, I’m sure we could copy and print something out. For a small fee, of course.”

  “Of course.”