Chapter 24: A Bad Day
I watched Gon leave the room before making myself comfortable for what was to come.
'Leon, Huh! He is just like me back when I was young -talented and focused,' I thought reaffirming my decision to sponsor the young trainer who wore loose and mismatched clothes.
Just as I felt a presence in my room, I spoke without turning back.
"You know, he lost the match because of you."
"How can you say that? I too want my baby to grow stronger," my wife's voice rang through the room.
"Really! Don't you believe that if he had worked hard for those TM's he would have known everything about his moves, making the usage of smog to counter the Zubat a child's play," I asked knowing the answer.
"Hmph! Don't think I didn't notice what you did there," she said dodging the topic.
I stood up from my chair and made my way to hug her, which she dodged by teleporting to my chair.
"I told you to give him a choice, not to manipulate him to choose what you want," she said crossing her legs, staring at me imperiously.
"I just wanted what's best for him," I said staring at her impressive hourglass figure.
"Just because you got Grin after breaking free from his parent's Nightmare move, doesn't mean your kids have to do that too," she said not liking me sending our child to Grin's parent, an ancient Gengar.
"You know how much that experience changed me, it made me what I am today," I said trying to hug her again.
She disappeared from the room.
"I know, but you will be sleeping here today."
Her voice echoed in my mind head, making me chuckle.
I looked at my shadow and asked.
"Should I have handled this better?"
Countless eyes blinked in my shadow; horrid laughs rang out making the room turn cold.
" I thought so," I said and prepared for a long cold night.
...…
MC's POV.
I woke up in the morning refreshed and decided to make use of the Centre's bathtub, so I released Cet and Nia.
Cet just like always looped around to take in our surroundings and after realizing it was bath time he began frantically moving around the room.
I ignored him for now and took Nia in my arms and started washing her.
Cet after calming down settled on a rack for a second before abandoning it in favour of circling us.
Nia and I ignored him, on seeing this he flew down and tried to lick Nia, making her shoot a weak water gun as a warning.
Just like always the water gun didn't deter him but before he got excited, I caught him and started washing him.
He struggled for a while, before settling down and started licking my face.
"Don't worry Nia, you will be able to teach him a lesson yourself in a few days," I said to the Ducklett, thinking about the ways Nia can catch Cet with Agility adding to the mix.
'It will be good practice for Cet too, after using agility dodging Nia's water gun becomes too easy for him, but if Nia actively starts chasing him with enhanced speed adding to her already fearsome aim, Cet will pay,' I thought looking at the bat in my arms.
After thoroughly washing them, I recalled them and made myself comfortable in the bathtub.
I left the Pokemon Centre and went into the city, fully refreshed, stopping now and then if I saw a Pokemon I didn't see before.
Just when I was about to cross the gates and venture into the wild, my Pokedex rang.
It was from Gon, with a symbol highlighting that he was not on my contact list.
'Why does his father want to meet me?' I thought, panicking after reading the message.
Gon didn't mention anything helpful in the message except that his father wanted to meet me and asked me to pick a place and time to meet before the afternoon.
'Annoying a novice trainer is different from annoying a well-established and connected trainer,' I thought and started typing a reply, while running, fighting back all my instincts to just ignore the message.
Just as I crossed the Celadon gates ensuring that plausible deniability was on my side. I typed.
"I am outside of Celadon. So, maybe next time."
I released Cet and Nia and took off running.
Well into the afternoon, my Pokedex rang, this time it was a call.
I answered the call.
"Hey, where are you?" a female voice questioned, with a hint of nearly undetectable annoyance.
Recognising the voice, I spoke.
"Somewhere outside Celadon, what's up Celia?"
"Gon messaged me asking whether I knew where you were this morning. Why is he asking about you, I thought after his loss he'd want to stay away from you until he felt confident enough to defeat you," she said.
'Is she chattier on the phone,' I thought before answering her.
"Yes, his father wanted to meet me, it seems. And where did you guys get my number?"
"From the battle logs and Did you meet him, then?" she asked without any inflection in her voice.
"No, I was out of the city by then," I replied making sure my voice didn't waver.
"Oh! Unlucky. He would have sponsored or helped you at least, he did that to many talented trainers in Celadon," she said with a slight difference from her normal voice, making me question if I was hearing mirth.
"I will call you later, bye," I said with a deadpan voice and cut the call.
Keeping the Pokedex in my pocket, I took deep breaths and shook my hands at the sky, silently screaming and dropped onto the ground clutching my head.
I lay there, cursing myself, until Cet came and laid on top of me.
He flew away after giving me a lick, ending my tantrum.
'I could have asked Celia or Gon himself and gathered information about his father, but no I ran away not even considering researching about him. Celia would have known that his father wasn't immature enough to hate me for defeating his son,' I thought before shaking my head and resumed walking, making Nia tilt her head.
'Stupid..Stupid..'
Doing my best to ignore I could have gotten anything from a new TM to delicious meals, I darted into the wild, making Cet and Nia hurry after me.
I ran until I didn't see any other trainers on the route and stopped, not to jeopardize our safety.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, giving way to stars and moon, I set up my camp and prepared for our evening training session.
"Nia, come here," I said to a slightly wound-up Ducklett, making her waddle up to me.
I used the agility TR and showed Nia the video and ordered "Agility".
The Ducklett's answer was to tilt her head to look at me.
Slapping my head and grimacing I acted like a bird performing agility move after calling out agility a couple of times until she could understand.
Nia started imitating me, allowing me to take a break. But before she could stop following me, I spoke.
"Continue." Making her continue to practice Agility.
It was one of the many basic commands I taught to her and Cet. Teaching them was one of the most awkward and cringey things I had to do in my two lives.
'But damn they are worth it,' I thought looking at cute Ducklett continuing its practice.
Cet tried to dive towards the Ducklett, planning his usual shenanigans making me shout.
"Cet, Stop."
He aborted his dive midway and flew towards me, making me catch him.
Once again checking our camp's vantage point, I decided to teach the Cet Double team.
I chose our camping spot with many things in mind, but most importantly for the great visibility it provides.
Making sure no Pokemon were sneaking up on us, I recalled Cet and used Double Team TM.
On its completion, I released him and pointed at the video of the Double Team.
As I was halfway into showing the video pointing whichever way Cet tried to turn his head and half a dozen stay commands, I froze.
'Is he able to perceive this video,' the thought crossed my mind making me freeze and crashing my brain.
'No! Of course, he cannot, the sonar-type sensing doesn't help to know what's happening on a screen,' I wanted to scream. Today's revelations are playing with me, making me question my intelligence.
'That's why Cet took more than average time to learn Brave Bird and Poison Stings,' I thought the reason striking me mute.
'God damn it! Most of my plans were around Cet's sonar ability, and I didn't even consider its disadvantages keeping my sight only on the advantages it provides,' I thought looking forlornly at the sunset for some time.
You make mistakes, you learn, you grow, I guess.
Shaking my head, I looked around to find, Cet dodging Nia's water guns, making me laugh.
'Little bugger, can't be still for a single second,' I thought laughing and called back Cet to resume his practice.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
soul_words
soul_words As I decided to slightly push my limits, two more chapters will be coming on Friday or Saturday.
Cheer!!
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