After returning to the Pokémon Center, Aiden immediately got to work editing his footage.
Once the video covering his battle with Elesa was finished, he wasted no time and uploaded the final installment of his Nimbasa Gym challenge series.
After that, Aiden packed his bags, said goodbye to Nurse Joy, and prepared to head for Driftveil City, where he planned to stay for a while.
The moment Joy heard where he was going, she reached beneath the front counter and pulled out a parcel.
“Perfect.
Saves me the trouble of finding a courier.
Take this package to the Nurse Joy in Driftveil City for me.”
“Okay!”
Aiden accepted naturally, without even asking a single question.
Joy narrowed her eyes.
“Wait.”
She kept hold of the parcel instead of letting go and stared at him suspiciously.
“Why didn’t you ask me for a delivery fee?”
“…”
Aiden froze.
‘Hold on.’
‘When did my reputation get this bad?’
He had agreed to help out of the goodness of his heart, and somehow the fact that he hadn’t immediately demanded compensation was now suspicious?
Aiden looked at her with genuine hurt in his eyes.
“Sis Joy, how could you think that about me?
I know how to be grateful too.
If I’m already going there anyway, why would I charge you for such a tiny favor?
What kind of person do you think I am?”
Joy: “…”
After spending this much time around him, she had long since developed immunity to this kind of nonsense.
“Heh.”
She gave a cold little laugh and pointed directly at Sprigatito.
“Then tell me what that is around her mouth.”
Aiden looked over.
There was a smear of white cream clinging to the corner of Sprigatito’s mouth.
“…Milk.”
His expression became completely resolute.
Obviously, there was absolutely no possibility that he and Sprigatito had casually opened the refrigerator and eaten Joy’s cake while passing by.
“That was a gift Lacey bought for Sprigatito.
Right, Sprigatito?”
“Spriga!”
Sprigatito, already fully committed to being Aiden’s accomplice, nodded solemnly.
Exactly.
You couldn’t just accuse an innocent kitty of eating your food without evidence.
Joy stared at the two shameless idiots in front of her.
Her fist tightened.
Thump!
Thump!
“If you do something wrong, you apologize properly!
Understand?!”
“…Yes.”
“Spriga~”
Aiden and Sprigatito clutched their heads and stared up at her with huge, pitiful eyes.
Snivy watched from the side and slowly shook her head.
Embarrassing.
She had told them not to steal food.
But the two idiots had still insisted on nonsense like, “Food tastes better when you have to fight for it,” and, “Sis Joy keeps sighing whenever she looks at the scale.
I’m helping her!”
And now look what had happened.
Snivy had finally come to accept that Nurse Joy might be the only person capable of keeping Aiden under control.
As for everyone else…
She mentally reviewed the people Aiden had met so far.
Lacey inexplicably spoiled him.
Elesa had extremely high expectations for him.
Among his Pokémon, Sprigatito was already his partner in crime and would sometimes actively encourage him to cause trouble.
Golurk was practically a block of wood.
Whatever Aiden asked, it simply did.
Which meant…
If there had to be one Pokémon responsible for keeping Aiden in line—
‘Obviously, it has to be me!’
Snivy puffed out her chest and looked toward Joy with burning determination.
‘Come on.’
‘Once this idiot leaves Nimbasa, I’m the only one who can control him.
Hand me the authority!’
Joy took one look at Snivy’s expectant expression and immediately understood what she was thinking.
Her mouth twitched.
“You were already disqualified when I caught you standing lookout while Aiden stole food, all while telling him he shouldn’t be doing it.”
Snivy stiffened.
Joy genuinely didn’t understand how things had gone so wrong.
Before Aiden arrived at the Pokémon Center, Snivy had been the employee she trusted most after Audino.
She handled every task neatly and efficiently, carried herself with remarkable composure, and could deal with practically any troublesome situation.
Whether it was a Pokémon being boarded at the Center or a difficult patient refusing to cooperate during treatment, Snivy could somehow sort everything out perfectly.
If Snivy hadn’t been so determined to find a Trainer she personally approved of, Joy might even have wanted to catch her herself.
Then Aiden arrived.
And Snivy’s spotless reputation collapsed almost overnight.
All Aiden had to do was act cute and rub her head a few times, and Snivy would immediately become an accomplice.
Before Joy fully discovered the extent of their conspiracy, Snivy had even helped him conceal plenty of evidence.
If Joy actually put Snivy in charge of supervising Aiden, she would probably transform from responsible monitor to co-conspirator within the hour.
Joy sighed and turned back to Aiden.
“Once you leave, I want you to call me every single day.
Understand?”
Her expression became serious.
Aiden genuinely cared about Pokémon.
He wasn’t a bad person, and there was nothing fundamentally wrong with him.
But there was a reason Joy had allowed him to keep living at the Pokémon Center for so long.
Aiden might not have any major flaws, but he had an impressive collection of smaller ones.
Maybe it was because he had no memories of his past, but Joy always felt there was something strangely detached about the way he lived.
If she wanted to put it nicely, she would call him free-spirited.
The less flattering description was that he lived as though he didn’t particularly care whether anyone else survived the consequences of his decisions.
Sometimes it almost seemed as though there was nobody in the world he truly cared about, and he simply wandered wherever his own amusement took him.
Otherwise, what kind of normal person would stand in the middle of a Pokémon Center with a phone held up and loudly announce, “Guys, it’s time to beg for another meal!”?
Fortunately, Aiden had become noticeably more restrained after Sprigatito and Snivy entered his life.
Still, Joy couldn’t completely shake the fear that one day his curiosity would take him somewhere genuinely criminal.
‘Oh?
An evil organization?
That sounds awesome.
I’m joining!’
Then he would get arrested by the International Police.
And eventually, under a single desk lamp in some dark interrogation room, Aiden would sigh dramatically and say—
“It all started back in Nimbasa City…”
Every time Aiden came up with another ridiculous idea, Joy found herself imagining that exact scene.
So even though Aiden found daily calls annoying, and Joy herself knew it would be troublesome to keep track of him, she had firmly crushed every attempt at resistance.
“If you skip a call or ‘forget’…”
Joy slowly clenched her right fist.
“You know what happens.”
Crack!
“…?”
Aiden blinked.
Unless he had imagined it, there had just been a very strange sound when Joy made that fist.
Based on everything he knew about the Pokémon world, the woman standing in front of him had clearly surpassed the limits of ordinary humanity.
She was—
‘A Super Unovan!’
Aiden suddenly remembered the time he had watched Joy subdue a rampaging Primeape with her bare hands.
Everything made sense now.
How else was someone supposed to treat powerful Pokémon every day without a body sturdy enough to survive them?
Aiden looked down at his own still-intact body with newfound respect.
“I can’t believe I survived getting punched by her earlier.
I’m incredible.”
“Spriga~”
Sprigatito swallowed nervously and nodded.
No wonder Nurse Joy was the strongest creature in the entire Pokémon Center.
Even that Gyarados they had boarded here before had behaved itself around her.
Seeing that Aiden and Sprigatito had finally been properly intimidated, Joy planted her hands on her hips.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Spriga!”
Joy nodded in satisfaction at the one human and two Pokémon in front of her.
“Good.
Nice and energetic.
Now get going!”
“Yes, sir, ma’am!”
Aiden snapped off a salute.
“But, ma’am, I have one question!”
“Speak!”
“You’re not actually a Machoke in disguise, are you?”
Joy smiled.
“Would you like to die and find out?”
Aiden immediately straightened.
“No, ma’am.
Goodbye!”