“Is Nina gonna be okay? I’ve never seen her like this before…”
Justin looked towards the beach where the girl sat huddled with her Dragonite, stoically watching over the feeding of her newly caught Dhelmise, stiff as stone. The boy had actually offered to sit watch on her behalf, but was declined by Nina.
Kerry sighed. “That’s because you’ve mostly only seen her in school. Nina might act all mature, but she’s still the sa age as the rest of us, you know? She can be vulnerable when she needs to be. Which is a relief really... No one can stand up to the pressure of being perfect all the ti.”
anwhile Lucy wordlessly stirred the pot and filled up her bowl with another serving of stew. Both she and Justin were absolutely hopeless when it ca to cooking, so being able to indulge in Nina and Kerry’s culinary prowess already made them regret not eting up with them sooner. Even if their fare tended to eschew at in consideration of Nina’s dietary preference.
“She hasn’t eaten anything yet…” Lucy remarked.
“I don’t think she has much of an appetite right now…”
However, Justin disagreed with Kerry’s assessnt. After all, it was Nina who told him before that if he didn’t eat then he couldn’t beco stronger. So he grabbed a bowl, filled it with stew and trudged on over to where Nina was sitting.
“Justin? What do you want?” The boy recoiled ever so slightly at Nina’s chilling tone.
“I err… I brought over so stew. Thought you might be hungry. Err… Kerry cooked it. And it’s super tasty!”
Nina jolted then softened considerably as she shot Justin an apologetic look. “Thanks, but I’m not hungry…”
“Can’t beco stronger if you don’t eat, Nina.” Justin argued, returning the words that his friend said to him a long ti ago.
Nina chuckled and reluctantly grabbed hold of the bowl with a muted thanks. Only to stare at its contents with a troubled look.
“What’s wrong?” Justin asked. “Pretty sure there’s no Pokemon at in it.” Kerry would know better after spending all this ti travelling with Nina.
Nina responded by looking up at Justin with a pitying smile. “You didn’t bring
any utensils, Jessie…”
“Shoot! I forgot. Hold on. Be right back!”
The boy ran back to camp in red faced embarrassnt.
***
Nina mindlessly stirred her bowl and brought the spoon up into her mouth, chanically chewing the mixture as she tried her best to swallow. Her throat constricted, fighting the girl with every gulp as Nina’s gut threatened to regurgitate its paltry filling.
Kerry’s stew tasted especially bland today, despite the generous helping of Chansey’s egg that the nurse girl had put in it.
“Are you sure you wanna be eating while you’re watching… this?” Justin gestured towards the mass of seaweed wrapped tight around the decrepit forms of the bundle of Water Pokemon that Nitey caught earlier. The poor creatures looked all dried and shrivelled up, like the stuff that Justin’s mom used to make soups and broths.
Nina sighed as she set her bowl aside on the ground. “If I plan to keep Dhelmise then this is the sort of sight that I’m gonna have to get used to.”
“What’s wrong with Pokechow?” asked the ignorant boy, eliciting another sigh from the girl.
“I received new info from the two Professor Oaks. They have a few trainers who own Dhelmise.” Nina pointed. “See the way that those Pokemon are all shriveled up? That’s from the Grass Type aspect of Dhelmise sucking their blood dry. But that’s not all…
“Dhelmise is also a Ghost that feeds on the souls of its victims. So it requires live prey. Not all the ti, but often enough that it would need to go on regular hunts to sate its hunger.”
And Nina’s Dhelmise was especially starved. More than likely, it had been relying on stray fish or Magikarp that had wandered into its lair on occasion. Despite a Dhelmise’s surprising deftness in maneuvering its anchor, their movent range was limited. And most of the local wildlife would know better than to stray into its grasp.
“Just like how living beings ca in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, all souls have differing weights as well and will provide varying levels of nourishnt.” This was part of the reason why Dhelmise in the wild only went after larger prey usually — a single Wailord could typically sustain a Dhelmise for at least a couple of months, providing them enough leeway to move around and stalk their next prey.
“But other than that. I could get so special nutrient sludge that I can use to feed it in place of blood. There are other Grass Types with similar needs after all. Like the Victreebell line for example. Actually… Now that I think about it, I should make a trip back to Violet City. With how obsessed they are with Bellsprouts, they should have those products in stock.”
“That’s great then! Once Dhelmise is all filled up, you just gotta beat it up a few tis and talk to it — just like I did with Carvanha!”
However, Justin’s words only served to deflate Nina further.
“It’s not that simple, Josiah… From the intel that the two Professor Oaks provided, it seems that even trained Dhelmise are often treated with extre caution. Not necessarily like Pokemon, but more like tools for battle. They’re definitely sapient, but it's almost impossible to communicate with them — almost like they’re so sort of alien lifeform…”
“So what are you planning to do then?” Justin murmured. The boy knew first hand how much Nina loved her Pokemon and how much she hated so of their more frivolous classmates back in VF who treated Pokemon with heartless pragmatism
In fact, those were the only tis that Nina would actively go and seek out battles during their ti in trainer school — whenever she saw soone mistreating their Pokemon. And to say that Nina was ruthless in her rebuke was an understatent. It was partially how she earned such a fearso reputation, not that the girl would be cognizant of all that.
Nina took in a deep breath and turned her gaze towards the starry night sky. “For now, I’m gonna feed Dhelmise until it’s full. I don’t think… I don’t think I can bring myself to na it. But I won’t give up on trying to talk to it. Until then, I’ll condition it for battle — make sure that it’ll at least learn to obey . And then, well… It’s not like the species is capable of evolving anyway. So I’ll only bring it out for training and battles. Outside of that, I’ll leave it with whichever one of my sponsors have need of it.”
The girl continued with a groan. “Urgh… How am I even supposed to train a Pokemon that I can’t communicate with?! That’s gonna be a whole ‘nother problem…”
Justin just scoffed and waved his hand in dismissal. “That’s a problem for future Nina. Present Nina’s just gotta eat! Otherwise she won’t have enough strength to battle
tomorrow!”
“Since when did I agree to battle you, you brat!” Nina laughed. “But well, I hope you guys made enough food for Nitey, ‘cause he’s quite the big eater.” The girl said as she gave her Dragonite a little pat on the belly.
Justin looked back towards the camp, only to see an uncouth Lucy splayed out on the ground with a rotund belly filled with stew. “Yeah, about that…”
***
In the Gold and Silver gas, Route 32 had a Pokemon Center near the end, where the entrance into Union Cave lay. It made sense, given that both in ga and in real life, Route 32 was the longest stretch of road in Johto.
However, in real life, the building wasn’t just a Pokemon Center but a sizable Ranger Outpost with a hostel and Pokemon Center attached. This was because the massive stretch of land surrounding Route 32 was mostly untad wilderness that required constant managent by the authorities.
So after another week or so on the road, the first thing that Nina did was to get on the transfer station and put in a request to retrieve her Clodsire whilst simultaneously sending Dhelmise over to Bill’s ranch for further study.
The girl had done her best over the past week and Dhelmise was definitely calr now, less ravenous. But still very instinct driven and couldn’t obey just yet. And with an upcoming cave exploration and potential bit of tomb raiding planned, Nina wanted a reliable Pokemon she could trust to watch her back as opposed to a writhing mass of eldritch seaweed that would happily snack on her if given the chance.
“I missed you so much, Clody!” Nina exclaid, on the verge of tears as she threw herself onto Sir Clodington, completely heedless of the toxic Poison eating into her skin, until Kerry and Espy pulled her away.
“Alright, Nina. Why don’t you go get us so rooms while I bring our Pokemon over to be healed at the center.” Kerry commanded, to distract the emotionally drained Nina with so nial labour after taking her Pokeballs from her.
Nina nodded with a sniffle and went to do as she was told. The position of leader in their little ragtag band of adventurers had shifted over to Kerry at so point after Nina’s behaviour beca increasingly more erratic over the past few days. Updates are released by novel??ire
“Hi there, Miss. I was wondering if there were any rooms available for
and my friends in the hostel?” Nina asked as she approached the receptionist garbed in Ranger uniform.
The woman responded with a pitying smile. The dark bags hanging beneath her eyes and her utter neglect of personal grooming really served to accentuate the wear and tear of Nina’s most recent journey through the wilds. Albeit, most of it was self-inflicted ntal strain.
“Of course, my dear. How many are in your party?”
“Four. Three girls and one boy. All carrying full teams of Pokemon,” said Nina as she handed a stack of Pokedexes over for identification.
“Oh my, quite an impressive retinue. One mont please…” The woman advised before proceeding to tap away at her PC. “Ah, and an esteed mber of the Cerulean Gym as well!”
Nina jolted, she could feel her Nina senses tingling. The tone that the woman had was the exact sa one that all the adults used when they were looking to take advantage of her!
“So Miss Jones… We’re quite packed at the mont, since it's the start of the new season and all. But what would you say to getting a full suite in the Ranger’s dormitory all to yourselves, for no cost at all…”
Nina shuddered. The most expensive things in life were the ones that ca for free.
***
Author's note:
Reminder that today will be the last chapter before the break.
So no public release chapters for the upcoming two weeks. Maybe. I'm not sure yet, I may or may not extend the break. Might even cut it short, who knows?
Anyways, Patreon releases will still continue but at a reduced rate of two chapters a week for now.
[This ssage will self-destruct when I co back to avoid causing future confusion.]
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