“What do you think, Kerry? Will this be a problem?”
During Sir Clodington’s Evolution process, the Dragon Scale earring he was wearing fused with his skin for whatever reason, forming a teardrop shaped bump on his forehead. Worried that this might sohow affect his health, Nina asked Kerry to do an examination of her Clodsire just for good asure.
Kerry shrugged. “We’ll have to do more detailed scans to be sure. But just quickly examining it, I don’t really see any issues. As far as I can tell, the scale is purely costic and doesn’t really reach beyond skin level.” The girl explained that the phenonon was probably a conscious decision on Sir Clodington’s part, since so Pokemon may choose to actively preserve so aningful marks or scars during their Evolution.
Nina gently caressed the Clodsire with a pair of disposable gloves she got from Kerry. Sir Clodington’s poisonous mbrane had only beco more potent with Evolution. The girl sighed, thinking that her hopes for a cuddly blob pillow was well and truly dashed. “I should go buy a full set of protective gear so I can cuddle with Clody when I feel like it.”
“Have you seen anything like it before?” Nina asked. She had heard of certain costic traits being carried over in so form or another during Evolution, but never a foreign object being fused like this.
Kerry humd. “The closest equivalent I could think of would be prosthetics or implants. I don’t really know, Nina… I’m just an apprentice so I’ll have to ask my aunts about this.”
Nina responded with a warm smile and a gentle pat on Kerry’s shoulder. “No worries, Kerr. I’m just being a bit paranoid. I’ll bring Clody to the Pokemon Center for a more thorough checkup later. Co on, we’re going to be late for the lecture.”
The girl thanked Kerry for her help and beckoned for her companions to follow, which Sir Clodington did, with a deep, drawn out “Clooood.” The Pokemon dragged his body forwards with his stubby little legs, his flabby belly wobbled and jiggled each ti it lifted and landed on the ground, eliciting a swoon from Nina.
“Clodsires are still super cute blobs, even if I can’t cuddle with him the way I want.” Nina really wanted to throw her whole body onto Sir Clodington and just bury her face in all that jelly. But that would likely result in a very nasty chemical burn.
On the bright side, Sir Clodington seed to have llowed out a bit on his zealotry post Evolution. Or perhaps, the spiny fish Pokemon simply beca less energetic with his much larger and cumberso build. Either way, it was a change that Nina welcod, if only for so peace of mind.
***
“Hello there, my na is Professor Ivy,” began the sleepy-eyed, violet-haired beauty. “So of the more studious among you might know my na from my existing work, such as ‘Pokémon Adaptive Variation as a Function of Regional Distribution’.”
The female Professor paused to assess her crowd, only to sigh in disappointnt at the lack of response.
Nina held back a chuckle. “Oh professor, nerds like us aren’t prone to standing out in front of a lecture hall full of extroverted jocks.”
Outside of battle tournants and various outdoor activities, the inter-school et also featured interesting lectures from various guests invited to the event. Professor Ivy’s talk on Interregional Pokemon Folklore being one of them. And naturally, sitting in a musty lecture hall for hours on end wasn’t exactly suited to the disposition of so students. So all around her, Nina could see a bunch of bored kids either sleeping on their desk, quietly whispering to the new friends they made during the week, or playing on their Pokegear underneath the desk.
Nina knew who the woman was of course, Brock’s forr paramour in the ani, an enigmatic researcher from the Orange Islands who dumped the wannabe casanova for unknown reasons, and an expert on the subject of the Regional Differences between Pokemon Physiology.
That last point was because Nina had actually read so of her published work. In particular, Professor Oak had recomnded his protege’s papers when Nina questioned him about Alolan Vulpixes all those years ago. The woman did quite a thorough study on the differences between the two vulpine variations.
Professor Ivy cleared her throat, pulling Nina’s attention back to her. “Indeed, for those of you who have heard of my na, I’m typically known for my work on Pokemon physiology. But did you know? I also take an interest in collecting Pokemon folklore as well — which will be the topic of our lecture for today.”
Nina straightened her back and prepared to take notes. Even back in her past life, Miles always had an outsized interest towards eclectic folklore and myths, an interest that remained as strong as ever in this second life. If anything, that fascination had only grown due to all the fantastical elents of this Pokemon world, which ant that any legends and myths were all likely to have so nugget of truth to them.
“In all of my travels and my ongoing quest for interesting hearsays and folktales. One particular subject was always disproportionately popular among all my gathered material — that of the romance between humans and varying species of Pokemon.”
Nina nearly dropped her pen in shock, a sentint that the rest of the lecture hall also shared as every student suddenly perked up in interest. If this was a deliberate ploy by the Professor to capture everyone’s undivided attention, she succeeded without a doubt.
“One of the most intriguing ones I found pertained to a man and an Octillery.” The Professor continued, completely heedless of the commotion that she had just caused. “Even in modern day erotic dia, humans have always had a fascination with tentacles. And with the sheer amount of stories I’ve gathered with similar depictions among our ancestors of yore, one can’t help but wonder if a certain subsect of humanity are genetically predisposed to developing a sexual interest towards the writhing appendages…”
“What the heck! I thought this was just a bit!” Nina exclaid when the callous Professor started going into explicit detail about various human-Pokemon mating rituals that she gathered over the years. “So of these kids haven’t even started on sex ed yet! Soone save us from this lunatic!”
And indeed, Nina could see various mbers of staff frantically running around, trying to obtain guidance on what to do about this situation, too worried about offending the esteed Professor. To her side, Nina could see Kerry’s eyes glazed over, the poor girl’s soul visibly detaching from her body. In front of her, the twins, Nina’s two innocent juniors, were huddled together in distress, each covering the other’s ears to avoid tainting their fragile minds.
Matsuri, though, seed inordinately excited at the topic and Thomas was furiously scribbling notes into his own notebook. “What the heck are you two doing?! You’re supposed to be our student council representatives!”
The unhinged woman then went on to describe a romantic encounter between a human and a Lapras. But worst of all was the story about a Typhlosion. Oh Arceus, Nina could never look at a Typhlosion the sa way ever again.
Nina raised a hand to ask a question, in an attempt to divert the topic of conversation. “I need to buy ti for the staff to intervene!” The girl determined.
Professor Ivy seed to light up at the prospect of finally getting so audience participation and eagerly permitted Nina to speak.
“Thank you, Professor…” Nina said, with a feeble and exhausted voice. “I err…” The girl sputtered as she received an encouraging nod from the Professor. “In all of these err… stories that you shared. A lot of them end with the creation of offspring between humans and… Pokemon. I was just wondering if that was possible, if these hybrids actually exist?”
“A good question!” The Professor exclaid. “In fact, this is one of my ongoing studies…”
Nina sat down as the Professor spoke, feeling relieved that she successfully derailed the woman’s prior topic.
“On a biological level, there are definitely so Pokemon with uncannily similar DNA structures to humans.” Ivy continued. “But then again, so do certain plant life so that may not be as significant as you might think.” The subject was a nuanced one, because rely sharing related genos with certain species did not make the two related in a broader sense. For example, a human’s DNA is supposedly 50% similar to that of a banana, and yet the two could not be any more different.
“There are certainly storied clans out there who claim to have been descended from Pokemon,” said the Professor. “The Draconids for example, have always insisted that they possess Dragon blood in their ancestry. Their extraordinary affinity with the species, and so of the incredible feats that mbers of the clan have been seen performing over the years certainly lend a degree of credence to this assertion.
“However, one could also just as easily argue that the clan’s proficiency with Dragon Taming cos from untold generations of tradition and guarded knowledge. And that the incredible physical prowess of the Draconids co from the relentless training of their youths and a side effect from the prolonged exposure to their ancestral lands rich with Dragon Type Energy.”
“So does that an that human-Pokemon babies don’t actually exist?” One of the students in the lecture hall chid, sounding a little disappointed as she did.
Professor Ivy let out a wry smile. “The honest truth of the matter is, we don’t know. On a scientific level, it seems nearly impossible. After all, humans are mostly devoid of Type Energy, and we have yet to discover a hybrid between animals and Pokemon in the wild. But then again, outliers like Ditto exist, and certain humans are capable of harnessing Type Energy in the form of aura. So who’s to say what’s possible or not?
“Though it does make
wonder, isn’t it too much of a coincidence? That so many stories from all these different regions depict similar occurrences. Is there truly not a shred of truth to them? Or is it really just a product of humanity’s collective imagination?”
The rest of the lecture proceeded in a much more subdued manner, after one of the staff mbers went up to the Professor and passed her a note from the faculty. Probably admonishing the woman for her previous behaviour.
***
“Maybe we should skip Johto when we go on our journey next month…” said an apprehensive Kerry, as they left the lecture hall.
NIna giggled and pulled her paranoid friend in for a reassuring hug. “Don’t worry, Kerr. It’s all just unverifiable folklore. If Typhlosions were really that degenerate, do you really think Professor Elm would hand them out all willy-nilly as starters like that?”
Kerry nodded, but there was still a great deal of doubt on her face. Even the twins were looking a little frail from the ntal torture of a lecture they just went through. Nina sighed and dragged them along, it was lunchti now and a good al would help distract her friends from the filth that was just forcefully shoved into their ears.
As they walked, Nina could sense a stir in her shadow and a muffled scoff. “What is it Sebastian?” The girl asked, worried that sothing bad was about to happen.
Nina’s shadow writhed and ca to life, depositing Purple Shadow in his butler garb to her side, a feat that she had learned was only possible thanks to the man’s Gengar who was always with him. Having the ronin escort Nina was part of Alfred’s arrangent to secure the girl’s safety from her own self-inflicted blunder.
Purple Shadow scoffed once more, just to reiterate his disdain. “That woman was ssed up in the head, but you’d be a fool if you think Nephilims don’t exist.” He replied.
Nina’s companions, sans Kerry, all jumped in fright at the sudden interloper, but the girl reassured them by saying that he was a subordinate of Lilian’s butler. “When you say Nephilim? Are you referring to human-Pokemon hybrids?” The girl continued to ask her escort.
“Sure, take for example that Psychic kid you t the other day. What was his na? Mash Potato or sothing? I wouldn’t be surprised if he had so Pokemon blood in him.”
“Did you call?”
Nina jumped in fright at the voice that suddenly ca from behind her. Even Purple Shadow took on a guarded stance against the gloomy boy who managed to sneak up to them without alerting his ninja senses.
“Err… Hi, Mash…” Nina greeted as she tried to calm her beating heart. The girl had beco really sensitive to ambushes as of late. “Nope. Not at all! My escort here was just talking about mashed potatoes. Confusing, I know. You must get that a lot huh? Not that there’s anything wrong with your na or anything.” The girl added in haste.
The young Psychic walked up to Nina’s side with a nod, her companions making way for him and shifted to the back in vigilance.
“Indeed. Mob and I do love mashed potatoes. Though we can’t seem to agree on which is best — smooth or chunky? I myself am partial to a smooth velvety mouthfeel, but Mob prefers his potatoes chunky.” The boy said.
Nina nodded in response, feeling a little disconnected from how ordinary the conversation was. “I like both,” she said. “But it really depends on what I’m having the potatoes with, you know? Since it is a side dish and all, it should really complent the main.”
“A salient point.” Mash acknowledged, as an awkward silence descended upon the group. Until the boy spoke up again to break the ice. “Actually, I’m here today because I would like to reserve your ti tomorrow, Nina.”
The girl tilted her head in confusion, too flustered to really think properly. “What about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow is the free-for-all.” Mash explained. “Every year, there will be an opportunity for the representatives of the inter-school et to engage in an unrestricted exchange through battle, regardless of age and academic year.”
“Oh right…” Nina gaped in realization. She had forgotten that was happening. “Right, I did promise you a match with Espy didn’t I?”
Mash nodded with an almost childish smile. “Yes, Mob and I have been eagerly awaiting a chance to cross spoons with her since we saw Lady Espy’s stellar performance in your prior battles. Outside of the trainers in Lady Sabrina’s Gym, it is not often that we encounter a worthy opponent within our imdiate circle.”
Nina chuckled at the boy, fully sympathizing with his struggles. It was the sa issue that Lilian had when she first t her. “Of course,” she responded. “I’d love to make ti for you tomorrow.” There wasn’t really a strict format to the free-for-all. Anyone was free to challenge whover they wanted so long as the other party agreed to it. It was more of an informal tournant than anything else.
And with that, Mash thanked Nina and exchanged a few more pleasantries before disappearing as abruptly as he appeared, invoking another round of surprise from Nina’s companions.
“Damned Psychics…” Nina sighed, a sentint that Purple Shadow was in full agreent with as he quietly sunk back into her shadow.
***
Author's Note:
I just released the last chapter of Part Two over on Patreon. So if you wanna binge it all in one go, now would be a good ti.
Also, I decided I won't be doing daily public releases for that final ten chapters, since it'll coincide with my vacation ti.
Additionally, I might need to put public releases on hold for a little bit after the end of Part Two while I gather up a bit more of a backlog and focus more on the quality of Part Three.
I figured, consistent chapter releases over a longer period of ti was preferable to a long break right?
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