Sunday. Early morning, poverty dragging Luke's eyes open before he was ready.
He'd planned on a serious training push ahead of the Piplup Cup finals — mostly because he'd finally bothered to check the actual Champion reward.
[$7,000 prize money + $28,000 in promotional resources + 1x Soothe Bell]
The "promotional resources" line was basically a punchline at this point. The Soothe Bell, though — that was the real prize. Technically available through the system too, but as an Orange-tier item, it only cycled through the Mystery Shop irregularly, and even then, ran 30,000 BP a pop. Luke's current balance sat well under two thousand — most of it perpetually funneled into rare Berries and Pokéblock production, with the occasional splurge on fire stones or poison gems to keep Haunter's diet interesting.
Luke had always tried to keep things fair between his two Pokémon. And so far, Eevee's entire gift haul consisted of exactly one silk scarf.
A free Soothe Bell would boost friendship on top of it — might even take the edge off that temper a little. And getting it purely by winning?
That's basically a free item drop. How am I supposed to say no to that?
The pull of free stuff hit different. Luke had never felt this motivated to actually train in his life.
"So the real question is," Luke muttered, rubbing his chin, "how do I even train them?"
Because honestly — even having made the finals, Luke's actual training knowledge remained close to zero. His command instincts rivaled a tactical master's, sure, his Pokéblock craft matched a Coordinator Champion's — but "training methodology" was a category he'd basically skipped entirely. His full training résumé to date consisted of exactly one entry: Haunter's Toxic work, and even that had leaned entirely on Koga's notes doing the heavy lifting.
Not that it mattered. Teacher Luke still had Haunter.
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The barbell set he'd ordered had arrived. Haunter could already one-hand a 30kg dumbbell — a physical stat that had somehow outpaced its Special Attack at this point.
"Don't just drag it up with Haze!" Luke shouted.
"Kojie?" Haunter froze, the Haze dissolving instantly — and the full weight of the dumbbell slammed straight down onto its hand, crashing into the floor hard enough to crack the tile.
Luke swore he could hear his own wallet shrinking somewhere in the distance.
"Kojie~!!" Haunter yanked its reddened hand free, shaking it frantically, tears welling up — a scene that could've been lifted straight out of a Tom and Jerry short. Apparently, materializing its hands fully meant materializing the ability to actually feel pain along with it.
Luke coughed, expression twisting. "Keep going! Eevee's Soothe Bell is riding entirely on your shoulders here!"
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Eevee's training setup, meanwhile, leaned considerably cuter. Luke had ordered an oversized hamster wheel — theoretically, Eevee could just run indefinitely on it, building both speed and stamina in one efficient package.
"Genuinely, I might be a training prodigy," Luke murmured, pleased with himself.
"Vee." Eevee stared at him with something close to pity. He can't seriously expect me to use that.
"Wait, you're not even going to try it?" Luke looked disappointed. "I think it'd look pretty cute on you, honestly."
"Buh... Vee?!"Cute is not the priority here. Eevee puffed its cheeks, hopped awkwardly onto the wheel anyway, glancing around nervously.
Luke grinned and gave the wheel a push.
"Buh... Vee?!" Eevee scrambled, limbs flailing in a full panic — then its ears perked, eyes suddenly lighting up.
Wait. This is actually kind of fun.
"Vee! (≧▽≦)"*
Luke rarely got to see Eevee this openly happy, and it pulled an involuntary smile out of him too.
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What was supposed to be a serious training day quietly dissolved into the usual routine: fussing over Haunter, spoiling Eevee. Finals were tomorrow, and summer break would kick off right after. Luke figured he'd spend the break grinding out enough income to cover his two Pokémon's food budget for the next few years, realistically.
He was reading in his room when a knock came at the door. He opened it to find the neighborhood committee auntie, beaming.
"Luke! We brought you a banner!"
Luke blinked. "...What banner?"
Behind him, both Pokémon went rigid simultaneously, exchanging a nervous glance.
"Kojie?" — did we not clean that up?
"Vee!" — I forgot!
The night before, Haunter had snuck out with Eevee in tow for some unsupervised training — the nearby construction site, wide open and crawling with wild Pokémon, made for a genuinely solid training ground. Meowth, Raticate, Houndoom — territorial skirmishes were basically routine out there, everyone taking their share of wins and losses, more or less keeping the peace.
Until last night, when two uninvited guests threw the whole ecosystem into chaos.
Per eyewitness testimony from the site's security guard: "God help me, that Eevee went absolutely feral."
By the time the sun crept up, the site looked like a warzone. Since most of the local wildlife skewed Normal-type, Haunter had barely broken a sweat — but Eevee, teeth and claws bared throughout, had picked up a handful of genuinely nasty scrapes in the process. Haunter had dug around in its own shadow for a while before finally producing a Potion spray.
Clink, clink, clink.
Eevee's eyes lit up. "Vee vee!" — the professional has arrived!
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The banner Luke now held read, in small print along the bottom: "In recognition of Comrade Luke's outstanding contribution to community stray-cat management."
In enormous letters across the top: "MIRACLE HEALER, MASTER OF WOMEN'S HEALTH."
"...Auntie, what exactly does this slogan mean?"
"Oh, print shop messed up the wording! Just hang it as-is, it's fine!"
Faced with her genuine enthusiasm, Luke couldn't bring himself to refuse, accepting the banner with an awkward smile as she bustled off.
He turned back to the two visibly trembling Pokémon. "Care to explain?"
"Vee vee..."
"Kojie kojie..."
I have no idea what either of you are trying to explain right now.
"Did you two sneak out last night?"
Both nodded.
"Went and trained on your own?"
"Kojie!" — I led the way! Haunter beamed.
"Those wild Meowth—"
"Vee!" — I destroyed them! Eevee announced, head held high with pride.
Luke felt a wave of pure exhaustion wash over him. He sank onto the couch, holding the banner, reading it over and over — until it finally clicked what the whole thing actually spelled out.
Betrayal. This banner spells out betrayal.
"Whatever. It's free anyway."
Luke sighed and hung it proudly on the wall.
MIRACLE HEALER, MASTER OF WOMEN'S HEALTH
He rubbed his chin, studying it. "...Honestly, kind of ties the room together."