Grey's POV
After I woke up, Bill called me over to talk, and we sat down in a room.
We started our discussions regarding my plans. Firstly, food.
I told him what I wanted, and he had already negotiated with breeders he knew. Dragon food would cost 35K, Normal food would cost 15K, Ice and Water food would cost 20K each, Grass and Psychic food would also cost 20K each, and Fire food would cost 20K.
So, a total of 135K spending from my end.
And mind you, this was with a 35% discount Bill was getting from the breeder.
Unbelievable.
Just when I thought I had enough money, it burned away this quickly.
Still, I was willing to make the purchase, as this food was much better than before and could easily last 2–3 months, which was nice.
While it was a heavy expense, my Pokémon had clearly benefited from buying better food. Apparently, whatever contacts Bill had made such food for Ace Trainers, rich nobles, and maybe even Elites. So I was getting the best possible food for my Pokémon.
Besides, spending on my team was a no-brainer. Them growing stronger would only benefit me in the long run. It was like making a heavy investment to get triple the returns later.
Bill and I also talked about transport, as I genuinely couldn't carry all that food while traveling. Plus, my back was still messed up, even after a week of recovery. There was no need to put unnecessary strain on it again.
One solution we came up with was that I would take small amounts of the food I bought—enough to travel until the next city or town. Then Bill, who had caught an Abra on the Vermilion-Cerulean route, would train it to teleport the next batch of food to me using the GPS in the phone.
We also thought I could keep Exeggcute out of its Poké Ball to carry the bag for at least a month, as I didn't want to pull my back again for no reason.
Next, we discussed my plans for Gym battles.
Man, I hate the fact that I could have gotten the Lavender Gym Badge if Fuji hadn't been arrested.
But it might have been for the best.
If I had gotten that badge, I would have had four badges and wouldn't have been allowed to participate in the SS Anne Tournament.
It was almost like fate, or some higher entity, had been involved in getting me there.
Of course, the ancient Ninetales had already told me I would be there and get injured, though it had explained things in such a cryptic way that I didn't understand any of it.
Stupid fortune-telling fox.
So Bill and I checked out the routes.
I would head to Cerulean after a week and get the badge there. Then I would travel to Pewter through Mt. Moon and earn the Boulder Badge.
Bill had suggested Viridian, but I shut him down immediately, saying the Gym Leader doesn't accept challenges from trainers with fewer than seven badges.
Plus, I had no intention of going anywhere near that Rocket Boss.
I didn't tell Bill about it yet, as I couldn't prove anything. Currently, it was just suspicion.
I thought about becoming better friends with him first and then slowly telling him later.
We checked the map I had, and we found a breakthrough.
Apparently, near Pewter City there was a place called Aroma Town that had a Gym. It was only a minor Gym, but that didn't matter.
A badge was a badge.
Our plan was then formed.
Within one to two months, I could potentially get six badges, which was great.
Bill also asked me if there were any Pokémon he should catch or if there was anything that would suit him.
Weird.
He was a researcher. He should have a fair idea about that already.
Still, I gave him some suggestions.
Since his house was near Cerulean and Vermilion, he could catch a Nidoran♂.
He already had an Abra and an Eevee, which he had previously kept as a house pet but was now serious about training.
I told him he should ask the Eevee itself what it wanted to evolve into, as if he simply trained it without planning, sooner or later it would probably evolve into Umbreon, Espeon, or Sylveon.
To that, he nodded.
I also told him to catch a Water-type. The Tentacruel line or even the Seaking line were available nearby, and he could easily catch one of them.
He was fine with that and thanked me for the suggestions.
I then left to see Nurse Joy at the reception to talk about my injury and argue with her to please let me walk around the city at least.
I was bored as hell just sitting in the Center for so long.
When I reached the reception on my crutch, I saw Lt. Surge talking with Nurse Joy. When he noticed me, he immediately rushed toward me.
Third POV
Surge said, "Hey, kiddo, what's up? It's good to see you moving again. I came to visit you this week to check up on you before, but you were in a coma from the backlash."
Grey replied, "I'm fine. What are you doing here?"
Surge then said, "I was discussing disabled Pokémon with Nurse Joy. I run a camp behind my Gym to help them get back into shape or give them the motivation to continue through rehabilitation. Suddenly, my little noble venture is being used a lot after that SS Anne incident, as a lot of Pokémon were injured, and so were humans."
Grey clenched his fist at that but couldn't do much.
Surge asked, "What are you doing in the reception area, though?"
Grey then replied, "I wanted to convince Nurse Joy to let me get out and walk around or maybe train. Being cooped up here is exhausting."
Surge laughed and said, "I thought so. Most trainers can't stay in one place because of their hyperactivity. Tell you what, kid, I'll talk to Joy, and you can join me at my Gym. Besides, you're injured, and I'm a specialist when it comes to helping injured people. I initially started by treating war veterans with injuries."
He then rolled up his sleeve and showed his arm, which was covered in burn scars.
Grey thanked him but also asked if he could bring his Pokémon to train. He was lagging behind his schedule due to the injury and wanted to make up for lost time.
Surge laughed again.
"Only you, kid, could be such a training maniac. Don't worry, bring them along as well. I'll train your Pokémon with some of my stronger mons. It'll be like you didn't lose any time at all. Plus, I'll talk to Joy about letting you walk around. She'll give the okay since she knows I'm good at handling these matters. I'll also take a look at whatever prescriptions you're on and think of some exercises to help you retrain your movement without that crutch by the end of this week."
Grey thanked Surge, who waved it off.
"You beat that Ryu kid for me. This is the least I can do."
He then told Grey that his rehabilitation would start tomorrow.
Grey nodded and returned to his room to rest for the day.
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PS: Read author's note very important.
Author's Note: I thank everyone for showing such engagement this week since I am on vacation till saturday daily one upload for this week .
I have decided to start a patreon but I will not be uploading any early chapters yet , it will have chapters from this current chapter onwards. I will only start any subscription tiers(for early release) after chapter 100 as I had told before until I feel I have become a known fanfic writer till then I would keep everything free and even after that free content will be always there on the sites.
But I have started groundwork from now, the reason I am giving link for it is I have sent this fic to multiple sites and community for it is fragmented so to club the community and improve comment interaction and simplify things for me I have gone with this move.
You can post comments , fanarts , ideas and I will look into it for this fic . Another reason for this is polls rather than do it in chapter which caused me problems last time as it was in multiple sites , this time polls would be counted on patreon so as to club the community and give a fair chance of vote as last time charcadet was too close to charmander in votes and had there been a unified voting space a better poll could have been done.
I have thought in my mind based on my ideas and my speed of writing etc this fic's Kanto arc can go till 200-300 chapters but I will see to it readers are not bored or its just unnesscary dragging , every chapter will have a meaning.
I am also thinking of starting a discord comment on this line if you guys want one to upload fanarts or engage with each other etc.
The link for patreon is
https://www.patreon.com/cw/logicalRant