Third Person POV
After some more discussion with Cloyster, Grey finally returned to the Pokémon Center. He still had a few things to sort out before he could properly begin rotating his team, and the first step was sending Cloyster over to Bill's house. The Pokémon Center had a machine specifically meant for Pokémon transfers, allowing trainers to send their Pokémon directly to another registered location without having to physically travel there.
Grey placed Cloyster's Poké Ball into the machine and entered Bill's registered location. After confirming the transfer, the machine activated, and the Poké Ball disappeared from the center, being teleported directly to Bill's house.
A few moments later, Grey's Pokenet device connected to Bill's system, allowing him to see what was happening on the other side. Bill had already received the Poké Ball and released Cloyster from it.
"Alright, Cloyster is here," Bill said as he looked at the Shellder evolution. "I'll show him the ground and the area where he'll be staying. I've also arranged for one of the butlers to be here twenty-four seven whenever Cloyster is awake. He'll be able to take care of whatever Cloyster needs while you're travelling."
Grey nodded. That was one less thing for him to worry about. Cloyster was not exactly a Pokémon that could simply be left alone and expected to take care of everything itself, especially when Grey wanted it to continue training while staying with Bill.
A young man then stepped forward from behind Bill. He looked relatively young compared to what Grey had expected from someone working as a butler, but he carried himself professionally.
"This is Ken," Bill introduced him. "I'll give you his contact details. Whenever you need a Pokémon swap, just message Ken and he'll help you with the transfer."
Grey nodded and gave Ken a thumbs-up.
"Nice to meet you, Ken."
Ken seemed to appreciate the casual gesture and gave Grey a small smile.
"Likewise, Grey."
Bill then added, "Ken also has a beginner's license for breeding, so he knows how to handle Pokémon to some degree. You don't have to worry about Cloyster being left unattended."
That was actually reassuring. Grey knew that Cloyster could be difficult at times, and having someone who at least understood Pokémon care was useful.
Food was also not going to be an issue for Cloyster. Bill already had the special food prepared back at his place, the same food he had been sending chunks of to Grey every month anyway.
Grey then remembered something else.
"Actually, while we're talking about food, could you also look into getting some special food for Rock and Ground-type Pokémon?"
Bill nodded.
"Sure. I'll look into it and let you know the price once I find a suitable supplier and work out the deal."
"Alright."
Grey looked back toward Cloyster through the screen. The Pokémon seemed to be examining its temporary surroundings, probably already judging whether Bill's house was good enough for it.
"I'll swap you back tomorrow once Bill gets the Teleport TM," Grey told Cloyster. "We'll work on Teleport for a while, get the basics down, and then I'll either send you back here or send another Pokémon in your place."
Cloyster gave him a nod. It clearly wasn't thrilled about being left behind, but it seemed to understand that this was only temporary.
Grey then looked toward Bill.
"Thanks, Bill. I'll talk to you later."
"Sure. Good luck with everything."
The call ended, and Grey put his Pokenet away.
He had one more thing to take care of.
Grey headed toward the Poké Mart and bought some basic food for Larvitar. It was nothing particularly special, just enough to keep the Pokémon properly fed for the next week or so until Bill could arrange the proper Rock- and Ground-type food.
Once he had everything, Grey left the village streets and headed toward an open area where he could finally deal with the newest addition to his team.
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Grey brought out the rest of his team and told them to welcome Larvitar. He looked at the Ultra Ball in his hand, which had enlarged now that he had six Pokémon with him, and then looked at the others before saying, "Come out, Larvitar."
A green, chubby Pokémon with a red belly and a body made of rock appeared in front of them. Larvitar looked around curiously before noticing the group of Pokémon standing around it. They all looked strong, and that immediately caught its attention. It then looked toward Grey, who smiled at it.
"Welcome to the team, Larvitar. These are most of my other Pokémon."
The Pokémon began introducing themselves one after another. Each of them told Larvitar their names and explained a little about themselves, while Larvitar listened carefully to everything they had to say. It was clearly trying to understand the group it had just joined.
Larvitar was surprised when it noticed that Cloyster was missing. It remembered seeing the same Pokémon fight against the gigantic Golurk inside the ruins, so it had expected to see it here as well. When Fraxure explained that Cloyster was currently staying at Bill's house, Larvitar became a little sad and lowered its head, thinking that its arrival had somehow caused Cloyster to be sent away.
Fraxure quickly noticed the expression and reassured Larvitar that Cloyster was completely fine and was more than happy to stay at Bill's house for the time being. He also explained that Larvitar would be able to meet Cloyster tomorrow anyway, since their trainer intended to keep rotating his Pokémon.
Larvitar immediately became happy again, and seeing its little expression change so quickly, Fraxure could only think one thing.
Kawaii.
Grey, meanwhile, brought out Larvitar's food and removed the small bottle containing the rock-type energy essence he had found earlier. He carefully added two drops of it into Larvitar's food before placing the bowl in front of the Pokémon.
Larvitar stared at the food for a moment.
It had only eaten rocks until now, so the strange meal naturally made it hesitant. Still, it eventually took a bite. The moment it tasted the food, its expression changed. Larvitar quickly began eating more, and before long it was happily devouring the entire meal.
Grey watched with some amusement. Apparently, Larvitar liked the food quite a bit. More surprisingly, after finishing it, Larvitar seemed to feel more energetic than it normally did after eating rocks.
Grey made a mental note of that. The rock-type essence seemed to be doing something, although he would need to understand its effects properly before deciding how often he should add it to Larvitar's meals.
After Larvitar finished eating, Grey checked its moveset with Nurse Joy's help. Since the Pokémon had been inside its Poké Ball when it was captured, Grey had not gotten the chance to properly check everything it could use.
Larvitar currently had access to Rock Throw, Bite, Rock Slide, Sand Tomb, Tackle and Headbutt.
It was a decent moveset for now. There was certainly a lot that they could work on in the future, but for a Pokémon that had only just joined his team, Grey was satisfied with what he saw.
Grey then decided to begin training for the day. He wanted to keep things light for Larvitar, so he assigned Fraxure and Heracross to train with it. Their job was mainly to help Larvitar test out its moves, improve its timing and get a better understanding of how it should use its current moves during an actual battle.
Larvitar immediately got to work with the two older Pokémon.
Grey then looked toward Charmeleon and Persian.
The two Pokémon looked at each other with clear irritation. They normally did not get along particularly well, but Grey had been meaning to put them together for training for quite some time.
This pairing was long overdue.
Persian could use Water Pulse, which would give Charmeleon a reliable opponent capable of exploiting its Fire typing. At the same time, Charmeleon would force Persian to work on fighting against a fast opponent that could attack from multiple angles.
It was exactly the kind of training both Pokémon needed.
Exegguttor was given a different task. Grey told it to work on its Psychic abilities for the day and improve the moves it already had in its current toolkit. Tomorrow, once the Teleport TM arrived, Exegguttor would have something new to focus on.
For now, however, there was no reason to rush.
That was the basic training plan for the day, and one by one, all of Grey's Pokémon got started with their respective partners.
Larvitar had officially joined the team, and Grey intended to make sure it had a proper place among them.
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Bills House Cloyster's POV
Cloyster was having a surprisingly nice day. Normally, one might think getting separated from his trainer and the rest of his team would make him sad, and to some extent it did. He had spent a lot of time travelling with Grey and had gotten used to having the entire team around him. Still, there was one benefit that he could not ignore. He did not have to see that stupid marimo's face anymore, at least for now, and that was definitely a positive.
The butler was good too. Ken had taken Cloyster to an open area around the house where he could freely practise his moves without having to worry about disturbing anyone. There was plenty of space, and Cloyster quickly realised that this arrangement had some advantages that he had not considered before.
In fact, Cloyster now understood why the original four members of Grey's team had wanted to come here. At least he knew Fraxure and Exeggutor had the same idea. They wanted to continue training. Normally, while travelling with Grey, there would be times when they were inside their Poké Balls while Grey walked around, visited places, or dealt with other things. Here, however, Cloyster could remain outside his Poké Ball most of the time and train whenever he wanted.
There was also enough space for him to move around freely, and the food was good enough that he could eat whenever he needed to. That alone made the arrangement considerably better than Cloyster had initially expected.
Cloyster guessed Persian probably wanted to come here for another reason. The cat would probably have enjoyed being pampered by the butler. Ken seemed to listen to whatever Cloyster wanted, or at least he tried to understand it whenever Cloyster communicated with him. That was already more than enough for Cloyster to appreciate the human.
There was only one small problem. Cloyster had to point at the mobile phone quite a lot before Ken finally understood that he wanted him to play the videos of the moves Grey had told him to work on.
Eventually, they managed to get everything ready, and Cloyster decided to start with Blizzard.
Ken opened the PokeNet and played the relevant videos for him. Cloyster watched carefully, trying to understand how other Ice-type Pokémon gathered and released the enormous amount of energy needed for the move.
To be fair, Cloyster did not really understand how he was supposed to start learning this. The move looked simple when watching another Pokémon use it, but the actual process of creating that much Ice-type energy was completely different. Cloyster already knew Icy Wind, but Blizzard was on another level entirely.
Ken eventually paused the video and looked at the recommendations on the phone. Cloyster watched him for a moment, slightly surprised by what the butler was doing. He had expected Ken to simply play whatever video Grey had requested, but apparently the man was actually thinking about how Cloyster could approach the move.
Ken spoke after looking through the recommendations.
"I see. Sir Grey wants you to learn Blizzard and get some better Ice-type coverage, correct?"
Cloyster nodded.
Ken then looked at the screen for another moment before saying, "I think we should learn this move first."
Cloyster looked at the screen again and saw a video showing an Ice-type Pokémon summoning hail around itself. The Pokémon slowly covered the battlefield in falling ice before beginning to gather the surrounding Ice-type energy.
Cloyster tilted his body slightly as he watched.
Ken explained his idea. "Blizzard has a guaranteed landing effect in hail, and you already know Icy Wind. Blizzard is basically an advanced version of that kind of Ice-type attack, so you already have some experience with manipulating that energy. If you summon hail first, you can use the Ice energy around the field created by the hail rather than trying to create the entire Blizzard attack directly."
He paused for a moment and continued, "Maybe you can learn to walk before running. First learn how to use Blizzard while the environment is already filled with Ice-type energy. Once you understand how to control it properly, you can work on using Blizzard without hail."
Cloyster stared at the screen for a few seconds.
That actually made sense.
Instead of trying to force himself to produce an enormous amount of Ice-type energy from nothing, he could first create an environment where the energy was already present and then learn how to gather and manipulate it. Once he became comfortable with that process, he could slowly reduce his reliance on hail and eventually learn to create Blizzard directly.
Ken looked towards Cloyster.
"What do you think?"
Cloyster nodded.
This butler was smarter than he had initially thought.
Cloyster had expected that staying here would simply mean having food and space to train while Grey was away. Instead, Ken actually seemed capable of helping him understand the moves he needed to learn.
Cloyster was having a good day.
Author's Note: Maybe I might do a persian's day out chapter for making a persian in bills house someday.