Into the Unown Ch 112

Author's note:

Something seems to be wrong with Patreon.

Usually when I make one of these post, it automatically defaults the formatting to double spaces in between paragraphs. But now, it's only single spaces.

Everything else seems fine though, so I'll leave it be for now. Do let me know in the comments below if you prefer double spacing or single spacing for the formatting.

I understand if you guys prefer double space paragraphing and will go in and fix it manually.

***

Chapter 112

“Hey Mrs Tanaka, I got some souvenirs for you.”

It had been a while since Nina visited the old librarian in her elementary school library. The old woman took really good care of her, especially during the time when Leanette was first hospitalized . 

She would bend the rules and bring snacks and drinks to her table whenever she was reading. And at times when Nina was feeling bored, she would chat with her too. Nina suspected the old woman was feeling lonely as well, but she appreciated the company nonetheless.

“Oh my, dried squid and prawn crackers,” Mrs Tanaka smiled in delight. “Thank you Nina. I’ll make sure to share it with the rest of the faculty.”

“Yeah, I also got some artisanal senbei here for Ms Roxy. Could you pass this on to her, I didn’t spot her in the faculty room.”

“Oh my, did she not tell you dear?”

Nina tilted her head in confusion. “Tell me what? Did something happen to Ms Roxy?”

Mrs Tanaka sighed. “That girl is as awkward as ever… Ms Roxy has taken leave to go on a journey, dear. This was shortly after your uncle’s wedding I believe. I had assumed that she had said goodbye to you.”

Nina shook her head. “Nope, wasn’t told. Sorry I didn’t come to visit until now by the way, things were really hectic that month.” During that time, she had her breaks with Beverly, so the older girl would always drag Nina here and there. And her downtime after practice was completely packed with events that the Cerulean Sisters arranged for her.

Mrs Tanaka let out her usual matronly smile. “Not to worry dear, the most important thing is that you are doing well. I got to see your performance by the way. Some of the teachers here set up the… What did they call it? Live video? And I got to sit in and watch. You were absolutely wonderful out there, we’re all so proud of you.”

Nina giggled. “Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Though I can do without my face being plastered all over a wall though.” There was a display case in the school, near the cafeteria, that showcased stuff related to notable alumni. And Nina had noticed that they went a little overboard with her part of the display, which dominated most of the space at this point.

There was a framed screenshot of her debut performance, articles written by local news outlets about her various sponsorships and also the two times she tangled with Team Rocket. Someone had even printed out all the various memes and advertisements that featured Aquarium Girl. It was all kind of cringe-inducing if she was being honest.

“Oh pish.” Mrs Tanaka waved off the girl’s embarrassment. “We’re all very proud of you, and that display has been barren for ages. I remember former Principal Williams used to clutter the space with even the most minute mention of our students, be they obituaries or just tacky advertisements for pest control. It was all nonsensical really, I’m glad we finally have a student actually worth celebrating.”

Nina held back a sigh. “Do you know where Ms Roxy went for her journey?” She asked, in an attempt to divert the conversation.

Mrs Tanaka hummed in recollection. “I believe she mentioned something about Hoenn. That girl would never admit it, but she has a great deal of admiration towards Mr Stone. And given that he had just recently ascended as Champion of the Ever Grande League, perhaps she was hoping to catch a glimpse of him.”

Nina nodded. The timeline of this world was a bit weird, and Steven Stone had indeed just became Champion this year in the summer. It was the biggest piece of news outside of Misty’s wedding, much to Violet’s consternation as the woman grumbled about being overshadowed at the time.

The girl and her former teacher continued chatting, even as other teachers and students came to visit the library, until it was time for Nina to go back home.

***

Nina stood to one side of the arena in a white one piece, a pair of wedges and her iconic yellow windbreaker. It wasn’t a bikini, but it was still revealing a bit more skin than she was comfortable with. And knowing that all Gym battles were recorded for posterity did not help either.

The Gym’s rebranding efforts had been very successful, thanks to everyone’s combined efforts, so Nina should have had the option to wear the same cartoony wetsuits that most of the other Gym Trainers had opted for these days. But the PR person in the Gym said that it was paramount she maintained her Aquarium Girl image and insisted on something that incorporated her yellow windbreaker — whose company had apparently decided to sponsor her.

In fact, barring a handful of the younger Gym Trainers and the Cerulean Sisters, most of Nina’s seniors had forsaken bikinis in favour of wetsuits. Even Misty herself had taken to wearing a blue variant of Nina’s windbreaker in an effort to change up her image. Apparently, this was a look that she used to have in the past, so public reception had actually been quite positive, with many lauding it as a return of a classic.

Also, as it turned out, she did have to take everything off when she peed in a one piece. A fact that irked Nina to no end. “I gotta push harder for something else. A sporty looking two piece? Or maybe something cute like an oversized t-shirt?” Failing which, she could probably convince her manager to let her wear just the lower part of the wetsuit with the top unzipped and hanging by her side for a more sporty look. “Actually that sounds good, let’s go for that instead.”

And yes, Nina had a manager now. More specifically she hired Mizuho, one of the long time staff members of the Cerulean Gym. The woman had been around for almost as long as the Cerulean Sisters and commanded a great deal of respect among the other members of the Gym, so she was the perfect person to stand up to Violet’s unreasonable demands.

Not to mention, Nina was offering Mizuho a cut of all the money she earned from all her celebrity work. So the seasoned old Persian was extra motivated to shaft Violet and secure the best deals for Nina. 

“Alolan retirement here I come!” The woman exclaimed when Nina was negotiating her contract. All of this meant that the girl’s own earnings were diminished, but it was all worth it if it meant securing a peace of mind from having to deal with Violet’s greed.

The girl watched with a stoic face as Splashy the Seaking splashed all around the central platform. Meanwhile, her opponent, a Weepinbell, looked around in a panic, unsure of what to do.

“Calm down, Nutnut!” yelled the boy Nina was facing. “Send out a bunch of Razor Leaf into the air, don’t bother with aiming!” The boy’s steady voice was able to reassure his Pokemon somewhat as the Weepinbell settled down and did as he was told.

Nina gave a subtle nod of approval at his handling of the situation. “He’s a pretty decent trainer — calm under pressure. Shame that all his Pokemon seem a little too green.” The young Gym trainer tilted her head in consideration of how to proceed.

“He’s already way beyond the beginner level challenge, but he’s not quite at the intermediate level yet. Close, but not quite.” 

Different Gym Trainers have different approaches to assessing their challengers. Depending on their luck, some Gym Trainers might be lenient and approve someone like Nina’s current challenger for the beginner challenge. Others might be more stringent and rate them for the intermediate level. Nina had decided to be one of the strict ones to shore up the appalling state of young trainers these days, but she wanted to be fair as well, instead of just being mean.

“Let’s push him a bit further to see if his Weepinbell can make a breakthrough during this match.” She decided.

“Alright Splashy, let’s kick things up a notch, Ice Beam spam on the central platform.” By this point, Nina’s loaner from the Little League was now an experienced Gym Pokemon. She knew exactly how far she needed to push her opponents and match their level. 

So despite being able to nail the Weepinbell if Splashy so wished, she intentionally deviated her aim to give just enough room for the Grass Type to dodge, which it did awkwardly by bouncing around on account of Weepinbell not having arms.

Nina frowned. “Yeah, that Pokemon was prematurely Evolved alright.” After a few more instances of Ice Beams, the surface of the platform froze over and became a slipping hazard, hindering the Weepinbell’s movement as it wasn’t able to control the trajectory of its bounce.

After deciding that she’d seen enough, Nina told her Seaking to wrap things up, which Splashy did by completely freezing the Weepinbell. “Hopefully this will push the kid to go a bit further and try again for the intermediate challenge.”

“Why didn’t you tell Weepinbell to use its vines?” Nina asked, after the match had ended. She didn’t bother giving lengthy lectures after each match, but she did try to give pointers whenever she could. Some kids were too arrogant after beating her that they just ignored the girl, but that was their loss. “Instead of bouncing around like that, Weepinbell could have used its vines to move around. You’ll get much more control that way.”

The losing kid clenched his fist and ran out of the Gym without saying a word while Nina just shrugged indifferently and brought up her Pokedex to put in some notes. “Let’s see here, who do I have next…” An amused smile bloomed on Nina’s face as she read the name of the next challenger in line. “Lucy Yokarashi. That’s Justin’s childhood friend, isn’t it?”

The girl chuckled and walked into the break room to heal up her Pokemon. Nina wasn’t one of those picky slave driving women of the Gym and just grabbed a Shuckle juice from the mini fridge instead of asking her juniors to bring over anything specific. In fact, she only called for the twins when she needed someone to rotate her Pokemon.

Justin’s childhood friend was a petite blonde girl with a pixie cut and a fiery look in her eyes. And the girl was glaring very intensely at Nina for some reason.

“We’re going to go two on two if that’s okay with you?” Nina said, to which the girl simply gave a curt nod.

Nina had checked Lucy’s profile before this, and found that the girl only had five Pokemon in her team. A bit unusual since they were already approaching the end of the season. Usually Professor Oak’s sponsored are a bit more impatient than this.

The moment that the referee called for the start of the battle, Lucy sent out her Pokemon in response to Nina’s Marill. And her choice was a stunning looking Manectric. Just at a glance, Nina could already tell that this was a Pokemon worthy of an intermediate challenge. And she had no doubts that Lucy’s abilities as a trainer were matching as well, having already known her background.

So Nina just set up a few tricky scenarios to test the girl’s wits before signalling for her Pokemon to throw the match. She didn’t want to wear them out too much and strain the Gym’s resources unnecessarily.

“Congratulations, you’ve earned the right to challenge the Cerulean City Gym Leader. We have a slot available in about an hour if you’re okay with that? Otherwise, we can also schedule you for another day if you prefer.”

But instead of answering Nina’s question, the girl just burst out angrily at her. “Where’s your Dragonair?!” She yelled.

Nina looked up from her tablet and tilted her head in confusion. “I’m sorry?”

“I came in here for a challenge! Justin must have been lying when he said you were strong. ‘Cause all I see in front of me is a loser!”

Nina sighed. It was baffling how some people didn’t know how Gyms work. There were people who honestly thought that Gym Trainers and Gym Leaders were weak since they always lost and all that. It really gave these entitled children too big of a head, which was detrimental to their development in Nina’s opinion.

“Look, kid,” said the exasperated Nina. “I don’t know how you managed to get this far while knowing so little. This is what? Your eighth badge? Us Gym Trainers aren’t allowed to use our personal Pokemon in these screening battles. All the Pokemons you’ve faced so far, including all the Gym Leaders’, are Gym Pokemon specifically catered to match our challengers’ abilities.”

Lucy’s head flushed bright red as she stomped her in embarrassment. “I- I knew that! Of course, I did! Who do you think I am?!”

Nina let out another sigh at the girl’s defiance. “Say what you will about Justin, but at least the boy knew when to admit his faults and keep an open mind.” Nina was really starting to doubt Professor Oak’s judgement. 

She knew that the elderly Professor always provided for any children born in Pallet Town as a community service of sorts. “So maybe Lucy was one of them?”

“Anyways,” continued the young Gym Trainer. “If you want to face my personal team then you’re welcome to challenge me during off hours. Though whether or not I’d be willing to accept is a different matter. Now, going back to what I said earlier. Do you want to challenge Misty in an hour or schedule for another day? We have other challengers waiting for a turn so please make up your mind.”

Lucy chose to battle in an hour and Nina had to ask a staff member to escort the girl outside, because she was stuck fuming where she stood and reluctant to leave.

***

Just to give an idea on the standards of difficulty for a Gym challenge.

• Beginner - Single moves only. Mainly assesing a trainer's base competence and knowledge on Type Advantage.

• Intermediate - Combo moves and advanced startegies incorporated. i.e. Dig into Sand Attack into Tackle etc. Bonus points for trainers competent in the use of utility moves.

• Expert - Weather and terrain altering moves included. Trainers will be judged based on the overall strength of their Pokemon, how well trained they are and how in sync the Pokemon is with their trainer's intent.

• Star - No holds barred. Standard conference rules. Teamwide cohesion is a must. Pokemon must be fully in tune with their trainer.

There's also a subjective element inherent in each of the difficulty tiers which is dependant on the Gym Trainer doing the assessment. Like Nina said, some people might be more lenient, while others might be more strict. A Gym Trainer is trusted to make fair and impartial decisions to ensure that a Gym challenger is screened appropriately.

I'll have Nina go into more detail within the canon of the story when it comes time for her own Gym challenge.