“Nghhh…” Nina stirred as a slender pink tail tickled at her nose. “Espyyyy~”

  With a reluctant yawn, the girl stirred, only to find herself completely immobile, sandwiched between Kerry, who was using her as a body pillow, and Espy who had snuggled up to Nina in the middle of the night at some point.

  Furthermore, pressing down on them was the collective heft of Brucey, Nitey, Peppy, Lynxie and Polly who were all huddled around the group for warmth. The only ones who weren’t present were the more cold-inclined Pokemon like Sir Clodington, who buried himself in muddied snow for the night, and Rocky, who was impervious. Even Poppy had shoved himself into the pile somewhere to revel in the intimacy of the group cuddle.

  Nina felt a shiver on her back, not from her, but from Kerry who further tightened her grip on Nina to an almost suffocating degree. “Gastly, help…” The girl squeaked, prompting the Ghost hidden in her shadow to poke her head out and tickle Kerry with her chilling flames, causing the sleeping Nurse Joy to groan in discomfort and turn back around to embrace Nitey’s tubby belly instead.

  With a sigh of relief, Nina carefully extricated herself from the pileup and gingerly tiptoed her way out of their joint tent — a collaborative effort between Kerry and Nina. Joining two separate tents together to make a bigger one required quite a bit of ingenuity from the two precocious girls along with just a touch of Psychic assistance from Espy.

  “Brrrr…” Nina shivered and hugged her jacket tight as she subjected herself to the chilling morning air, a thin layer of snow and ice crunching beneath her feet. Winter may be fading but it hasn't entirely relinquished its grasp on the region just yet. “Gotta start a fire…” The girl murmured while begrudgingly retrieving some of the firewood the Pokemon had gathered and stored within the tent the day before.

  The previous night was spent under the auspices of a certain Dragonite-shaped heater. Which meant that the interior of the tent was nice and toasty from all the circulating Fire Type Energy, more than sufficient to dry out the wood for a fire.

  Trudging over to what remained of their previous campfire, Nina meticulously stacked the bundle and set alight some tissue paper soaked in petroleum jelly as kindling, her hands too stiff to shave strands off the wood. As the fire burned and crackled, Nina shivered once more and spread her arms around the flames to bask in their warmth.

  “Ahhh~ That’s the stuff.” The heat of the campfire suffused her entire being and steadily eased the stiffness pervading her body.

  It was at this point that the quiet chill was disturbed, by a loud snap and the rustling of leaves, a scattering rain of frozen dew shattered against the ground.

  Nina frowned and peered towards the ruckus with a wary glance. “Gastly.” She called, prompting a part of her shadow to split and glide over to investigate.

  “Gasss…” cried Nina’s little phantom when she eventually returned. “Gastly, gasss…” And with her deft, artistic talent, the little ball of gas manipulated the flames surrounding her core to form the silhouette of a rotund form attached to a bulbous tail.

  “Gas!” Then, to punctuate her intent, Gastly proceeded to squish her droopy face around until it formed a fierce (: <).

  “Pfft…!” The girl snorted and smacked her mouth to suppress her budding laughter as she moved in to nuzzle against her precious Ghost girl. “Gosh, I love how silly you are, Gastly~”

  “Gaaasss~”

  “Hehe… So it’s just Sentrets eh? How many of them are there?” The flames shifted to form the number four. “I see… It’s no biggie, they’re pretty harmless. Probably just cold and hungry.”

  With that in mind, Nina went back to the tent to grab her Berry Pouch and came back out with a handful of treats which she then proceeded to lay out in front of the rambunctious bush, the rustling intensified at the colorful sight.

  “Don’t be scared…” Nina cooed. “I’m not gonna hurt you… See? I brought treats.” She then lightly crushed an Oran Berry and dribbled its juices all over the pile of Berries on the ground before lightly stepping back and squatting down in anticipation.

  “Sen. Sentret!”

  “Sen…”

  “Sen-tret~”

  A chorus of conflicting cries travelled from beyond the bush until finally, one of the racoon Pokemon deigned to show themselves, their bulky body all puffed up as they clumsily wobbled out of the foliage, arms raised and striped tail dragging against the muddy snow. All the while, their (: <) face frozen stiff in an effort to appear intimidating to the strange human in front of them.

  Behind the larger — presumably — mama Sentret was a triplet of fuzzy looking baby Sentrets who poked their heads out with unbridled curiosity. It was everything that Nina could do to not squeal at the adorable sight and startle them away.

  The mama Sentret got more and more puffier as she approached, fur bristling and face sterner than ever. Though, Nina could sense the nervous tension in her eyes. The girl didn’t react, however, just maintaining a friendly, toothless smile as she watched the Pokemon cautiously poke at the offering of Berries with her fingers and give it a little lick.

  “Sen!” The Sentret perked up at the deluge of fresh flavors then, begrudgingly, gestured for her children to follow.

  “Sen! Sentret! Sen!” The triplets cheered and piled onto the Berries, one of them — the smallest one — was even considerate enough to hold out a Rawst Berry to their mom before digging in.

  Nina giggled. “Hehe. Don’t worry, there’s plenty more where that came from. See?”

  She held out another Oran Berry and, with her thumbs, pressed into its divot and pried it apart into segments before holding them out for the Sentrets in hopes of being able to establish contact with at least one of them.

  “Sen.”

  “Sentret…”

  “Sen~”

  Her heart skipped a beat as one of the Sentrets approached — the smallest one of the litter. Then cooed softly as her fingers made contact with the child’s squishy belly. “Gosh, aren’t you just the bravest and cutest little Sentret ever!”

  It took a while, but the rest of the family soon lowered their guard and approached as well, after realizing that their youngest was being spoiled rotten by the squeaky human and her magical pouch of Berries. It also helped that they wanted to share in the warmth of the campfire as well, practically melting into content little fuzzballs by the radiating heat.

  And so, Nina eventually found herself surrounded on all sides by fuzzy-wuzzy goodness with the youngest Sentret — the most fuzzilicious of them all — sitting on her lap for belly scratches.

  “Nina? What’s going on?” came a drowsy voice from the tent, startling the brown fuzzballs as mama Sentret puffed right back up again and stood tall on her bulbous tail to ‘defend’ against the intruder. Her beady little eyes practically glaring daggers at all the dangerous looking battle Pokemon trailing the girl.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  The babies jolted as well and clumsily tried to emulate their mother’s behaviour by standing up on their dainty little tails, the youngest one wobbling unsteadily and falling a few times before getting it right, much to Nina’s adoration.

  “It’s okay… There’s nothing to worry about.” Nina assured. “That’s my friend, Kerry, her Pokemon family and the rest of my family. Isn’t that right, Kerry?”

  Nina could see the gears turning in the other girl’s sleepy head as the pieces fell into place. “Yup! That’s right! I’m Kerry, nice to meet you.”

  The girl smiled, her face beaming like the rising sun and instantly deflating the posturing fuzzballs with her family’s patented Nurse Joy smile. And Nina was not jealous at all of her friend’s effortless affability. Nope, not at all. “She didn’t even need to use a single Berry!”

  “Nina, have you made breakfast yet? I’m sure our guests would like a warm meal.” Kerry remarked, pulling Nina away from her musings.

  “Hmm? Oh yeah, I was about to until I found these little cuties. Do you wanna cook us some human food while I feed the Pokemon?”

  Kerry shook her head in response. “I think a single pot of stew would be better. We’ll just bolster the Pokemon’s portion with Pokechow.” She suggested innocently, definitely not plotting to distract her friend from the adorable fuzzballs so that she could play with them instead. Nope, couldn’t be her — Nurse Joys were supposed to be the embodiment of selfless altruism after all.

  Nina pouted and let out a wry chuckle as she got up and handed the tiny warm fuzzball in her embrace over to Kerry before heading into the tent to grab her cooking implements.

  ***

  “CLOOOOD~”

  “Geo…”

  Like a Butterfree emerging from a Metapod, the mound of snow by the campsite shuddered and collapsed as a Clodsire and a Geodude surfaced with a yawn.

  “Hehe. Are you two finally awake?” Nina gave her bouncy brown blob a little pat and Kerry’s Geodude a light smooch. “C’mon, breakfast is ready so why don’t you loosen up and come join us.”

  “Nina, did you ask the Sentrets why they were wandering around in the forest? The temperature’s still a little too cold for them to wake from hibernation.” Kerry asked as her friend settled down with a bowl by her side.

  “Yeah… That kind of slipped my mind. Though I do agree with that.” Checking the weather forecast on her Pokedex, Nina reckoned they were still at least a couple of weeks away before it was warm enough for the local Pokemon to wake from their winter slumber.

  “Espy, mind asking them what happened? Just be nice about it, okay?”

  “Es…” The Espeon waved away her human’s concern with a sashay of her twin tails and turned towards the mama Sentret to address her. “Es?”

  “Sen…”

  A deluge of remembrance flooded Nina and Kerry’s minds; a trio of warmth in her protective embrace, of chilling darkness, a hazy dream, then, an alarming thump and a shuddering tree. The mama Sentret jolted awake and gathered up her three precious furballs before hurriedly shuffling them through an escape tunnel she had previously dug in a blind panic.

  Nina frowned and flitted through her Pokedex and notes to check on the local Pokemon variety. “An Ursaring, maybe? Could just be a Bidoof or a playful Donphan.” It wasn’t like every Pokemon needed to hibernate, but most of the major predators within the forests of Route 31 should still be asleep around this time.

  Kerry nodded. “The latter seems more likely but I’m worried about the possibility of the former.” An Ursaring waking pre-maturely from hibernation could pose a threat to the area’s more vulnerable Pokemon, like the sleepy Sentret snuggling against her. Enough to warrant intervention from the local Rangers.

  “Hmm…” Nina hummed in consideration as she picked up one of the baby Sentrets and nuzzled her face against their squishy belly, eliciting giggling cries from the struggling fuzzball.

  “Let’s go and investigate after this.” Nina proposed, a silly grin still plastered on her face “I would hate to leave them behind to bear such a risk. And if nothing comes up then we’ll just escort them to the nearest Ranger for safety.”

  It’s not that Nina didn’t want to catch them but her team was full and she needed to be careful about her captures to avoid neglect. She wanted to give each of her Pokemon the attention they deserved instead of just leaving them with her sponsors’ and forgetting about them.

  “Yeah, let’s do that.” Kerry rolled her eyes and echoed her agreement. She was concerned about the adorable family of Sentrets too. “But maybe in the afternoon, once it warms up a little.” She added sheepishly. “I also want to do a thorough exam of the little ones to make sure there’re no complications with their health.”

  It was clear that the nurse girl just wanted an excuse to spend more time with the family of fuzzballs. But Nina just giggled and nodded in approval — she wanted to play with the Sentrets a little more as well.

  ***

  “Seeen~” The baby Sentret cried out in protest at the audacious human who was nibbling on his slender ear. A quick check from Nurse Kerry-Anne Joy easily revealed the Pokemon’s gender, which were apparently denoted by the length of their ears and the number of stripes on their tail — odd for male and even for female.

  “Hehehe.” Nina giggled but persisted in her nomming menace, unable to contain herself in the face of such stubborn cuteness.

  The group was currently trekking through the forest with mama Sentret and Espy in the lead to locate their hastily abandoned abode. Nina and Kerry each carried with them their baby Sentrets while all other Pokemon aside from Gastly, Poppy and Peppy had been recalled to avoid scaring away the potential culprit with their overwhelming Aura — Pokemon were really sensitive towards these things.

  “Any clues, Espy, Gastly?” A wave of denial came back in response, though they did manage to find the tree eventually.

  “Hmm… I’m not seeing any large tracks.” Nina observed as she surveyed the surroundings. “Although…” Bending down, she noticed a faint divot by the tree, where the burrow into the Sentrets’ nest lay. “Something weighty seemed to have fallen here.”

  Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as they wandered over to the tree itself where some parts of its bark were chipped and damaged. “Es.” Until Nina’s attention was stolen by Espy who informed her of a presence within the abandoned burrow.

  “It seems someone else has moved into your home, Squishy.” That was the name that Nina gave to the youngest of the Sentret triplet in her embrace. “Gastly, mind diving in to have a look? Try to do so without startling them.”

  “Gas…” The ball of gas separated once more then came back out with a confused look as she once again formed a silhouette with her grey embers.

  Nina chuckled in exasperation. Espy could easily read her mind but the two were likely doing this on purpose to mess with her.

  The image that Gastly drew had stocky, avian characteristics, kind of like a penguin. Which the Ghost girl then supplemented by twisting her features again to form a >(o V o)<

  “Okay, this might be a bit too abstract for me… What do you think, Kerr?”

  “Hmm…” The adorable nurse girl swished her cheeks around in contemplation, her mind rapidly sorting through every known Pokemon in her mental repository. “A Delibird, maybe?”

  “Gas! Gas!” Gastly affirmed with a big old fiery tick once Nina showed her a picture of the Pokemon in question.

  “Deli…” Their commotion must have disturbed the interloper because not soon after, a grizzled red and white form sluggishly crawled out of the underground burrow to confront them.

  “Chansey, chance! Chansey?”

  “Hey there, little guy. Are you hurt?” The pink duo cooed, after noticing the Delibird’s swollen eye and limping gait.

  “Deli…”

  “Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay… I’m a Pokemon nurse and this is Peppy, my partner. We can help heal you if you’ll let us?”

  “Deli-bird…” The white and red feathered delivery Pokemon was wary but ultimately conceded to Peppy’s boundless joy and relented to being examined.

  “Hehe… You’ll be fine. It must’ve hurt huh? I imagine you had a bit of an accident in the dark.” Kerry then turned to Nina and asked for some Oran Berries. “Here, why don’t you have a little snack while we work on fixing you up.”

  “Deli!” The little red penguin instantly perked up at the sight of the Berry and dug in ravenously as Kerry and her Chansey went to work, even debuting Lynxie’s first mission as her portable X-ray lion to scan for any fractures or broken bones. Although, the drooling Luxio kept getting distracted by the Berries that Nina was continuously feeding to Delibird, much to Kerry’s chagrin.

  “Great. No fractures, no broken bones.” Kerry concluded after Espy helped to relay what Lynxie was seeing. “A quick spritz with Potions and some recovery time and you’ll be as good as new.”

  “Deli! Delibird!” He cried out in thanks, already feeling much better after Kerry helped to numb the pain.

  “Hehehe. You’re welcome, Delibird. But I think you owe the Sentrets an apology too. They were really frightened by your little accident.”

  “De, delibird.” The Delibird nodded in affirmation and turned towards the Sentret family to do just that.

  “Sen. Sentret.”

  “Deli. Delibird!” With a little wave of his stubby fins, Delibird reached into his hollow, sack-like tail to produce an Aspear Berry as a token of his sincerity.

  “Oh yeah, I forgot that Delibirds could do that.” Nina mused. The Santa-themed motif wasn’t just for show, they were plenty generous as well in their gifts, often sharing the food they gathered with humans and Pokemon in need. “But hey, if you had Oran Berries on hand, you could have just nibbled on an Oran for some quick healing, you know?”

  Kerry giggled. “It’s because Delibirds are too selfless. The food they gather is usually reserved for their nest. The thought of consuming his own stash probably never crossed his mind. Hehe… Silly little Delibird~”

  One by one, Delibird went up to the Sentrets and gifted them each with Berries, then turned towards Kerry and pulled out a perfectly packaged leg of Oinkologne ham from his tail-sack as well — complete with a ribbon on one end and looking like it had come straight out of a Pokemart’s meat aisle.

  “Errr… Thanks, Delibird… W-where did you even get this from?” asked the perplexed nurse girl.

  “Deli, delibird.” Delibird just waved a flipper at her as if to tell her not to worry about it. Then turned to Peppy with a Berry before stopping in front of Nina, Espy and Gastly.

  The girl giggled. “I have no idea how you store so much stuff in that little sack of yours, Delibird. But just Berries for Espy and Gastly'll be fine. I have plenty of food in my backpack and I don’t really eat meat.”

  Delibird nodded but instead of relenting, he pulled out an Ultra Ball for Nina, much to her delight.

  “Thanks, Delibird! Didn’t know you collect non-food items too. I’ll make sure to put this to good use.” An Ultra Ball was typically priced around 1,200 Pokedollars in the Pokemart. There was no way a miser like Nina would reject such a generous gift.

  Kerry seemed to pout a little at the disparity between their presents but it wasn’t like she could blame Delibird. Most wild Pokemon had no understanding of money. So as far as Delibird was concerned, food was more valuable than some random inedible junk he picked up on the ground. In that sense, Kerry was given the better gift for helping to heal him. And ultimately, it was the thought that counted.

  “Since we have all this food. Why don’t I cook up this ginormous ham and we can share them. Oh, but Nina can’t have meat so she’ll just have to cope with dry rations.” The pink girl teased, feeling a little vindictive.

  The girl in question chuckled wryly. “I mean, it is lunch time. So why don’t we just go all out and cook up a whole feast for everyone. We’re not short on supplies anyway.” Then afterwards, they could safely escort the Pokemon to a nearby Ranger Outpost. Violet City was just a few days' travel away and the isekai girl was feeling a little festive after this latest encounter with the Pokemon World’s equivalent of Santa Claus.

  “““Sen! Sentret!!!”””

  The baby Sentrets cheered, eager to be fed yet again.

  @Pandaemonium04 who was wondering what happened to the Sentrets last time. So shoutouts to them for giving me the idea to do this special chapter. Sentrets are among my personal fave Pokemon, believe it or not. I always thought that if I get isekai'd to the Pokemon World without any of Nina's protagonist luck, I would like to get myself a Sentret and just live a normie life while working in a Pokemart or something to make ends meet.