The forest sat silent, moonlight pouring down pale and clean. Luke picked the Poké Ball up off the ground, feeling thoroughly worn out.
"Tsundere types are exhausting. If you'd just looked back earlier, this all could've been so much simpler."
He'd genuinely, carefully considered Eevee's feelings the whole time. Was I agonizing over nothing this entire chapter of my life?
Inside the ball, the grimy Eevee glanced around uneasily, catching a faint, familiar, comforting scent through the air. It could see out through the ball's translucent shell — it looked up, stared blankly at Luke for a moment, then flopped down with an exaggerated show of indifference, eyes narrowing shut.
I'm just a little tired. That's all. Taking a nap. Definitely not thinking about anything else.
A wave of genuine exhaustion hit right on cue, and its eyes drifted shut for real.
Luke and Haunter exchanged a look, both scratching their heads at the same time.
"What was I even supposed to say back there?"
"Kojie?"
"Eevee, Get ☆ Daze."
______________________________
Teacher Luke stepped over, gave the "unconscious" Raticate a light kick to check it wasn't faking, and scratched his head. "Guess I misjudged this Eevee earlier. Though — why'd it circle back here again?"
He smiled. "Guess it wanted to prove something."
Eevee had no way to explain itself, of course — chasing off the Raticate pack had simply been its own quiet way of settling a debt. It just hadn't expected to run straight back into Luke doing it. The little thing had nearly lost its composure entirely in that moment; thankfully, Luke never caught the tears.
"I'll drop this Raticate off at the Pokémon Center," Teacher Luke said, pulling out a ball, pouting slightly. "Free room and board sure beats living rough in the mountains."
Red light swallowed the Raticate whole. The ball shook three times, then went still.
And that was that — the whole affair wrapped up, with Luke's real prize being one slightly tsundere Eevee.
______________________________
With dusk settling and Eevee still recovering from the fight, Luke let it rest undisturbed for a while, using the downtime to run its Pokédex scan.
[Eevee. Normal-type. Ability: Anticipation.
Moves: Growl, Sand Attack, Tackle, Tail Whip, Quick Attack, Swift, Bite.]
Clearly a lone Eevee, no pack ties — no Helping Hand in its movepool to suggest otherwise. Still, outside of Fairy-type Baby-Doll Eyes, it had cleanly mastered nearly everything else useful for its stage. Battle-tested enough that Haunter had nearly gotten the worst of their first encounter — which said a lot about how rough its time in the mountains must have been.
"You've done well," Luke murmured, smiling. "I've got you now."
The Poké Ball gave a small, gentle shake in response.
______________________________
Review week wound down, and Luke had to head back for finals — plus one more fan match to squeeze in beforehand, keeping his schedule packed. After breakfast and goodbyes with his parents, he boarded the high-speed rail back to Metro City.
______________________________
On the train, scrolling his phone, Luke let out a surprised laugh.
"No way — I'm number one on the Lifestyle chart!"
"Teacher Luke's Midnight Diner" had officially dethroned "Professor Oak's Backyard" for the top Lifestyle slot, and reactions were pouring in.
"wait, is Teacher Luke seriously an all-around creator now??"
"genuinely: a video you could eat."
"thought his BATTLE content was already 'watch while eating' material, didn't expect actual chef skills on top"
"who IS this handsome man, give Teacher Luke back to us"
Under a million views in less than a week, the system flagged the quest as complete.
[Quest: "I'm Really Not an All-Around Creator" — complete!
Objective: Reach #1 on any trending chart (excluding Gaming)
Reward: 2000 BP, Programming Lv3, 1x Silk Scarf
Note: Repeatable quest.]
[Programming Lv3: Fluent command of common algorithms and programming languages. (That "old guy" jogging every morning? Actually a 25-year-old dev who just loves cardio.)]
Luke's eye twitched. "...This isn't going to give me premature hair loss, right?"
[Ding — skills granted by this system carry zero side effects. Use with confidence, Host.]
Reassured, though still faintly wary, Luke muttered, "Still not using this one casually. One bad roll and my whole life's ruined."
The other reward, a Silk Scarf, caught his attention next.
[Silk Scarf: A luxuriously soft scarf that slightly boosts the power of Normal-type moves. (Limited collab edition. You've earned it.)]
Luke rubbed his chin. "I genuinely suspect this system has access to my personal inventory somehow." He'd just caught an Eevee — a Normal-type — and the random reward happened to land exactly on something perfectly suited for it. Pseudo-random or not, in an era where even fictional cultivation systems apparently ran on big data, that tracked.
______________________________
Back at the apartment door, before Luke could even get his key out, Haunter reached straight through the door itself.
Click—
It twisted the knob open backward with a smug little grin, thoroughly pleased with itself.
Haunter: (o)
Luke's mouth twitched. "Are you an actual criminal now?"
That is way too convenient a skill for breaking and entering.
______________________________
Once inside, he opened the ball — red light flashed, and a groggy Eevee emerged, rubbing at its eyes with one dirty paw.
"Vee?"
Its ears perked instantly at the sight of Luke, its stiff tail relaxing enough to give two small wags before going still again.
Luke smiled. "This is home now."
"Vee." Eevee blinked half-heartedly, glancing around the apartment with obvious reluctance, and let out an unbothered yawn.
"Kojie kojie!" Haunter greeted it with an enthusiastic boxer's pose — and got bitten instantly for the trouble.
"Kojie?!" Haunter stared at its bitten hand, eyes welling with betrayed tears.
"Why does this feel so familiar," Luke muttered, rubbing his chin.
Eevee, still visibly wary, paced a slow lap around the living room like it was mapping an escape route.
Luke pulled out the Silk Scarf and held it out. "Here — welcome gift."
"Vee?" Eevee looked up, big dark eyes blank, head tilting in confusion.
"It's for you," Luke said, smiling.
Eevee froze for a second, then whipped its head aside and leapt straight onto the windowsill in a show of total disdain.
Undeterred, Luke reached over and caught the scruff of its neck easily.
"Vee vee! o(≧mouth≦)o" It thrashed with everything it had — which, notably, wasn't much conviction behind it.
Luke just smiled and wrapped the soft scarf around its neck, tying it into a neat little bow. Realizing resistance was pointless, Eevee huffed and let it happen.
Eevee: (○｀3′○)
Luke let go, and it hopped down, giving its head an irritated shake — right up until it caught sight of its own dirt-streaked reflection against the pristine white scarf, and something like genuine distress flickered across its face. It bit the scarf right back off, carried it a short distance away, and set it down carefully out of reach.
"Not a fan?"
"Vee." It shook its head, then licked at its own grimy fur, looking up with stubborn resolve.
Luke considered this for a moment, rubbing his chin.
"Bath, together?"
Eevee held its breath for a long, telling moment, face going faintly red, before finally letting out a low, resigned purr.
"Vee..."