6.58 AM:

  Nina awoke to a freezing wet sensation on her cheek.

  “Ngh… Aurora… Alarm’s not ringing yet…” She whined. But the baby Amaura wouldn’t give up so easily as she planted her chilly buns onto Nina’s face, suffocating her.

  “Am! Am!” Aurora yipped, prompting Kerry, who was using Nina as a body pillow, to kick her friend aside and pull at the blanket.

  Nina groaned and repositioned the baby dinosaur on top of Kerry as revenge, before reluctantly forcing herself up through a drowsy haze to face the new day.

  First order of business was the bathroom. But the moment that Nina sat atop her porcelain throne, she was met with a bright eyed little blue sauropod sitting in front of her, staring…

  “Azzy~” The girl called, begging her Haunter to come in and take Aurora away. Being stared at while she was on the toilet was not conducive to healthy excretion.

  Out in the living room, the girl took in the adorable sights of all the sleeping Pokemon. Nitey was by the corner with her family’s Pikachu, the yellow rodent laying comfortably atop his tubby belly in place of her usual bean bag.

  On the couch, Espy was sprawled on top of her favorite cushion with Kerry’s Eevee in her embrace. For all that the tsundere Espeon pretended to not care about the furry little critter, she ultimately couldn’t resist her maternal instincts.

  Sir Clodington was in his Pokeball. The Clodsire preferred sleeping in the special Swamp Ball that Maizie crafted for him while Brucey was sleeping with Brinny in his wings. The Brionne was holding onto a wide-eyed Zed, who didn’t need to sleep as far as Nina could tell.

  Meanwhile, Celebi was nowhere to be seen. Likely still submerged in the Lake of Ether that Daisy brought Nina to yesterday. The Mythical Pokemon was very stubborn about not needing a siesta in Ilex Forest. But judging by how eager she was to soak in all that leyline goodness, it was clear her condition was a lot worse than she had let on.

  “Hmm… Since no one else is awake yet, wanna go on a run with me, Ra-Ra? Or are you hungry right now?”

  “Am…” The Amaura tilted her head in contemplation, the translucent sails on her head blinking blue and yellow, indicating uncertainty.

  Nina giggled. “If you’re not sure then you’re probably not hungry enough to eat. C’mon, let’s go out for an early morning jog. Azzy’s coming too of course.”

  “Am!” And with that, they exited the Jones Family’s modest little apartment. Despite Nina's best efforts in urging her parents to move to someplace bigger, the couple refused on account of sentiments.

  The morning air was brisk and crisp, dewdrops hanging from the nearby vegetation. In the park next to their apartment building, a bunch of older folks gathered around a radio, moving in sync to perform their routine calisthenics.

  Nina ran past and offered a short greeting with her stubby Amaura in tow. The seniors cooed at the sight of the adorable duo and told her to come back for treats next time.

  At some point during the run, Aurora began to tire and lag, her sails blinking red — signs of overheating. It was unfortunate that Professor Elm had been a little too forward thinking in his arrangements. The Never-Melt Ice collar that he prepared couldn’t fit the undersized Amaura just yet.

  Recognizing that it was about time to stop, Azzy emerged from Nina’s shadow to carry the baby dinosaur with hands coated in Ice while they made their way back home.

  Once back, Azzy settled her junior in the vicinity of the Never-Melt Ice while Nina set about preparing breakfast. Two cans of Magikarp for Aurora alongside a generous bowl of Berries lined with ice. Her baby Amaura was growing rapidly and in just a couple of days had compounded her caloric intake by several fold.

  After which, she began cooking some human breakfast for herself, Espy and Azzy. Espy, because she was too much of a snob for Pokechow these days, and Azzy, because although the Haunter didn’t need to eat much, Nina still tried to get her to for the pleasure of it.

  The moment that the bread began to toast, the smell awoke the rest of Nina’s Pokemon who crowded all around her for food.

  Nina giggled. “Go wash up and tidy up the living room first, I’ll have food ready in a bit.” The girl set about laying out the bowls and pouring the corresponding Pokechow into each of them. Nitey’s high-density brand could be eaten as it was, but was best after it had been stewed. Thus, she put a pot of water to boil with cubes of sweet curry roux for seasoning.

  Brucey and Sir Clodington shared the same feed these days so that was convenient. For Brinny, she included a can of Magikarp with his Pokechow and everyone got a healthy portion of Berries on the side as well. Zed didn’t need to eat and Nina had developed the suspicion that maybe the Unown was just feeding on Infinity Energy, given how energised he looked after every time Nina and Nitey did a Mega Evolution.

  7.50 AM:

  Food was ready and it was at this time that Kerry and her parents woke up as well. Good thing Nina made enough breakfast for everyone. Even if her dad grumbled about the lack of sausage meat.

  8.15 AM:

  Leanette, Nina’s mom, offered to do all the dishes while she went to take a quick shower before leaving the house with Kerry and Patrick, her dad. The two girls were headed to the Gym for some morning dance practice while Patrick was going to work, as usual.

  9 AM on the dot:

  Beverly finally arrived at the Gym. And after much urging, hurriedly changed into her swimsuit and joined them at the practice pool.

  As usual, Daisy had the harebrained scheme of putting on a performance with Kerry at the center alongside all of the Gym’s young apprentices. When pressed, the woman insisted that she was definitely not looking to slack off for the month or anything.

  They had 3 weeks before the performance.

  Regardless, Nina acquiesced to the scheme easily enough. Since the whole point of bringing her best friend back home with her was to give the nurse girl a chance to shine in the spotlight. So arranging for Kerry to be at the center of their impromptu idol group suited her just fine.

  12 PM:

  Nina had lunch with Kerry and Beverly before excusing herself. Kerry would spend the afternoon in one of the city’s Pokecenters while Bev needed to do her Gym Trainer work. The youngest Mizuhana eschewed school in favor of a full-time apprenticeship in the Gym. Unlike, say, the twins who were currently still in trainer school.

  Meanwhile, Nina went to go find Eric, Misty’s Slowking, with some Berries in hand. And after much flattery, the Gym’s number one Psychic agreed to Teleport the girl over to the clan’s power spot. He also agreed to assist in Espy’s training with a sadistic smirk, much to the Espeon’s distress.

  They arrived at the power spot in a flash. For a veteran Pokemon like Eric, Teleporting Nina, Espy and Azzy in one ago was easy enough. And the moment that they rematerialized, Eric turned towards Espy with a sinister grin, prompting the Espeon to run for her life, only to be intercepted by a blinking Slowking in no time as she was forced to do a Teleport of her own. Eric, naturally, traced her destination easily enough and followed suit.

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  Nina chuckled, thinking that she wouldn’t have to worry about Espy’s training regimen for today. Hopefully, by the end of it, her princess would have learned how to Teleport more than once without emptying her reserves.

  Next up, she released all of her Pokemon; Nitey, Brucey, Sir Clodington, Azalea, Brinny, Aurora, and even Dhelmise. Nina basically had her full battle roster with her. How, one might ask?

  Simple, really. The League kept track of trainers and their Pokemon through the position of the Pokeballs that the latter was registered in. And in the case of Azzy and Espy, both their Pokeballs at the current moment were technically being held in the Cerulean Gym. Which freed up two extra slots in Nina’s carry allowance.

  It was common sense that one did not handle Pokemon without their corresponding Pokeballs for safety reasons. But in the case of Nina and her two Poke-ladies, she had enough trust that they wouldn’t harm her.

  Of course, this was just a temporary arrangement for Nina while she and her team were undergoing their training arc. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t feel assured to have her Pokemon be without their Pokeballs either. What if they got severely injured and she needed to urgently put them in stasis? Or what if she needed to quickly withdraw them from a distance? A Pokeball was as much for the Pokemon’s safety as it was for the trainer’s.

  “Alright!” Nina clapped. “It’s time for some cultivation!”

  ***

  The moment that she submerged herself in the lake, Nina could feel the abundance of Type Energy, like jelly clinging to her skin — cool and viscous.

  Humans had always been able to perceive Type Energy, but harnessing it was a different matter. Nina knew for a fact that Aura users among humans were a thing. Among her acquaintances, Hattori, Alfred and Hikari were definitely among them, whether they admitted to it or not. There was simply no other explanation for some of their superhuman capabilities.

  “Is this like one of those cliche martial arts novels where I gotta unlock my meridians or something? Nah…” She once teased Hattori about it and the guy just laughed in her face. None of the Mizuhanas were Aura users so she couldn’t exactly ask them. Though it would be surprising if they weren’t at least privy to the secrets involved. “Maybe it really is just a difference in biology. Hattori did say that Nephilims were a thing last time.”

  “Briiiiii~”

  While Nina was floating in contemplation, Brinny was in the throes of ecstasy. As a Water Type Pokemon, the crystal lake was like heaven for the little seal boy. Matter of fact, it took a lot of cajoling just to get Brinny to come out when it was time for them to go home yesterday.

  All that time was well spent though. Nina could already see a further lightening of her Brionne’s skin, the ruffles around his waist steadily receding like the morning tide, and a general increase in the seal Pokemon’s weight whenever Nina picked him up. “It won’t be long now until Brinny’s next Evolution.”

  Aurora was in a similar state, just floating limply on a floatie made of ice, her stubby bottom hanging in the water. The lake was a good motivator for the baby Amaura to train her Refrigerate ability. Because she could feel the richness of the power spot and her instincts compelled her to siphon as much as she could.

  Water Type Energy seeped in through the two crystals on her flank, imbuing it with a pulsating glow as it was all converted into Ice Type Energy. All the while, the pair of sails on Aurora’s head lit up in a kaleidoscope of colors, just like her namesake.

  “Brinny’s been growing too quickly, so we never had the time to work on his Type Energy reserve, unlike with the rest of the team. This is a great way to just cheat it.”

  Type Energy reserve was expanded by straining it. The conventional way to go about it was just to empty it and fill it back up again — a time consuming and arduous process. The other way was to overload it, like what Ash did with Pikachu at the beginning of the anime. Something very frowned upon by health providers like Kerry. Further accentuating just how much of a scumbag Flint was.

  That was not to say it couldn’t be done safely, like in the Vermillion Gym. But Surge’s was a Legacy Clan with a long history of secret wisdom to rely upon. Also, inorganic Pokemon like Magnemite had a higher tolerance since they literally consumed energy for sustenance.

  Dipping her Brionne in a pool of concentrated Type Energy might count towards the latter, but circumstances were different. A power spot was a natural wellspring of unadulterated Type Energy. It could be directly absorbed without the need to subject a Pokemon through the pain of, say, electrocution or frostbite and so on. Basically, allowing all the benefits of the method without any of the associated harm or impurities.

  There were limits of course. Such a convenient wellspring of power was habit-forming. And if Nina did not want any of her Pokemon’s future development to be hamstrung by the need for a power spot, she had to be careful in limiting the amount of time they spent in this space — the same reason why the Cerulean Gym didn’t just do all of their training here.

  Meanwhile, all around her, the fervent sound of Pokemon battling served as a soothing backdrop of white noise to facilitate their meditation.

  Nina had paired up the rest of her Pokemon against each other since they wouldn’t be able to benefit as much from a direct infusion of Type Energy. They could still benefit from the environment, however.

  All Pokemon could convert Normal Type Energy with varying degrees of efficiency. Of which there was an abundance of, courtesy of the neighbouring leyline. Leylines were like the lifeblood of the planet and as such, contained the purest of Type Energies.

  It was only through environmental catalysts like the gargantuan Water Stone in the lake that the Normal Type Energy got converted into its elemental counterparts. Of course, such a node would have been key to the formation of a power spot to begin with. Similar to the Mossy Rock they found back in Ilex Forest.

  So, in such an energy rich environment, Nina’s Pokemon could endlessly replenish their reserves with minimal rest. That was not to say that their staminas could last forever, but all the ambient energy in the air had a profoundly invigorating effect that even Nina could feel. Therefore, the best way to take advantage of such an environment was simply through battling.

  In particular, Nitey was currently battling Brucey with the goal of training the latter’s speed and damage potential. They had actually tried to see if Brucey could learn Extreme Speed as well. But unfortunately the Crobat was limited by his natural physique. Not surprising, really, since Brucey never managed to learn Quick Attack either. More wings did not equal more speed, as it turned out. Rather, the extra appendages only served to hamper him.

  For Nitey, Nina had already decided that they would be spending the tail end of their training day working on his Mega Evolution, since Nitey wouldn’t benefit much from battling Brucey.

  The pair of trainer and ‘mon would need to learn how to compartmentalize their respective sensations during battle or Nina needed to learn how to endure the pain of Nitey getting hit — their biggest cause of instability so far.

  In another corner of the cave, Dhelmise was battling Sir Clodington, who Nina had forbidden from using Swampy Terrain to avoid polluting such a sacred spot. And behind Dhelmise was Azzy, who Nina had asked to be Dhelmise’s trainer for the day.

  Azzy and Nina had been hard at work compiling a compendium of Shadow Signs that Dhelmise would respond to. They even flirted with the idea of creating their own signs and training Dhelmise to respond in certain ways. It was an ongoing process, one that would require much trial and error. Hence why it was important to have Dhelmise engage in battle from time to time to assess the sentient seaweed’s progress.

  As for Sir Clodington, Nina instructed him to block Dhelmise’s attacks using only his Aura and innate Water Absorb as best as he could manage. The Clodsire was their team’s most stalwart tank, and with such an abundance of ambient Water Energy, he was functionally invincible.

  Azzy’s training would come afterwards. She was currently working on incorporating Will-O-Wisp into her domain. Basically, using the Ghostly Fire to create shadows. Nina also proposed using Dhelmise to practice storing living creatures in her shadow and guarding them in Limbo.

  As a Ghost Type, Dhelmise was immune from the negative influences of the shadow realm. And since it was a possession type Ghost with a physical form, it couldn’t dive into the shadows on its own without the use of Phantom Force, despite possessing most other attributes of a spirit type Ghost, which made it the perfect partner to practice with.

  The only doubt was whether or not spiriting Dhelmise away counted as spiriting a living being or just another object, something which Azzy was already capable of. “Hmm… Maybe we can ask Celebi for help? Surely a Mythical Pokemon is capable of withstanding the madness inducing void of Limbo, right?”

  But speaking of Celebi, the little pixie was all curled up in a fetal position and suspended within the lake. Nina had dove in to check on her just now. And best she could tell, she was deep in slumber and utterly unresponsive. So she just gave her a gentle caress and went on with her day, assuming that the precocious little onion would come looking for her once she got hungry.

  “Hmm… Yeah, this isn’t working.” Nina concluded after spending a full thirty minutes submerged in the lake. She could feel the natural energies surrounding her and it was ridiculously cozy, but aside from invigorating her stamina, it wasn’t really doing anything.

  So, not wanting to waste anymore time, the girl swam back to shore and just sat by the edge of the lake with her Pokedex in hand. “I need to go shopping for TMs…” Nina mused as she retrieved a laptop from her backpack.

  “Which means a trip to Johnny’s place at some point… But first, let’s compile a list.” Prying open her laptop, Nina clicked into a spreadsheet she made of all her Pokemon’s known moves and compared them to the League’s database in her Pokedex.

  Isekai hopefuls might be disappointed to learn that this was pretty much most of a Pokemon trainer’s life — just a whole load of spreadsheets. Not unlike being the coach of a sports team in a way.

  And in the case of Nina’s spreadsheet, there were some glaring moves that were missing from her Pokemon’s arsenal for fear of misuse, like Stockpile for Sir Clodington, and others that just weren’t a priority for either budgetary reasons or because Nina had hoped that her Pokemon would be able to learn it on their own but never did.

  “Contrary to popular belief, it’s actually not wise to cram your Pokemon with every move under the sun. Better to just have a limited but effective pool of moves that are well-suited to their particular battle style — a hundred kicks versus one kick and all that. With that in mind…” Nina began typing out a list, including stuff like Trailblaze for her Clodsire.

  “Can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner. Trailblaze is perfect to supplement Clody’s poor mobility on non-Ground terrain.” It was only after seeing how masterfully it was used by the Ride Pokemon of the Crystal Derby that Nina learned how useful it was.

  “I should grab some TMs for Aurora too. Flash Canon would be very nice and actually… Ra-Ra can use Mist and I’ll need to get Misty Terrain for Brinny too. Mist and Mist? One’s Ice and the other’s Fairy though, but it's worth a shot. I know Espy’ll wanna try at least… Oh! And Brucey can learn Sky Attack too! Let’s put Johnny’s network to the test shall we?” Nina chuckled in amusement. That last one was a big ask but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

  “Or maybe we can figure it out on our own. It can’t be that complicated right?” Especially since Nitey and Espy had suffered through so much damage from it back in Falkner’s Gym.

  The girl continued with her plotting until she had a tentative list of moves she wanted to buy. After which she moved on to supervising her Pokemon until a haggard looking Espeon and a smug looking Slowking reappeared in a flash of light.

  Announcement:

  we will be alternating between main and 0.5 chapters during regular release days.

  just a boring old training arc. And I had been intending to do consecutive, near daily releases around this time as a treat for you guys.