Over the next three days, Ran gets into a comfortable enough rhythm. Whilst Doro takes off early every morning for a hard training session, Ran and his team have a more leisurely start to the day, before heading out towards the Beach for some light training of their own. Unlike Doro, who puts her team through a strenuous workout which she herself joins in, Ran focuses on letting his team work on expanding their move pools, with plenty of time for relaxation.

  Caesar works on Dig, one of the absolute keystones to how Ran envisions his starter’s battling style down the line. His progress isn’t great, as he continues to struggle with calling up the ground-type energy to actually make his movement through the earth as swift and silent as it should be.

  For Aria, Poison Jab is the obvious addition to her arsenal. When she works on it, she shows clear aptitude, but with Ran giving her plenty of freedom as he focuses on the team members who aren’t learning as intuitively as her, her progress is slower than it should be. From what he observes, her delays are due to her preference for watching her team members’ training over focusing on her own assignment. Part of Ran wants to be stern with her over the matter, but considering how well they’ve all been doing and just how far ahead of his schedule they are, he can’t find it in himself to actually carry through on that thought.

  In no small part, because he heavily focuses on working with Golbat, who is the only team member who doesn’t get off lightly for their morning training sessions. Because whilst the others get to work on ‘simply’ learning and mastering new moves, Golbat gets the vast majority of Ran’s attention. Not that the Bat Pokémon is happy about it, as Ran deliberately baits and antagonizes Golbat for long minutes on end.

  He does so by shouting, throwing sand, poking Golbat with a stick and anything else he can think of to irritate or provoke Golbat into snapping. It isn’t fun training of course, neither for Golbat nor for Ran, but it is the best trick Ran can think of to try and teach Golbat how to rein in his temper and instincts. At least Golbat understands and, crucially, he does progress. To compensate somewhat, they spend the end of every training session with some flying training, as Ran hangs on to Golbat’s feet whilst they race along the beach.

  With the majority of Ran’s time devoted to Golbat’s behavioral training, he can’t supervise Skorupi or Croagunk as closely as he’d like to either, but both seem to have well and truly found their feet by now. Skorupi actually makes the most progress of all of Ran’s team members, confidently showing off his ability to use Knock Off by the end of the second day’s training session. Not that the smallest member of Ran’s team earns any time off by mastering the move, as Ran simply instructs Skorupi to join Caesar in trying to learn Dig.

  Finally, as for Croagunk, the notes Chuck provided him with are significantly more exhaustive than what Bugsy sent him on Skorupi - though Ran is willing to concede that Bugsy may simply not have access to as much information as Chuck - which means the options to choose from are significantly more exhaustive. A lot of the options Chuck listed do mention the need for either a TM or tutoring however, so Ran discards all of those for now. Ultimately, though he hesitates for a long time over the option to get Croagunk started on Toxic, he chooses to get Croagunk started on Bullet Punch. Not that an offensive steel-type move adds much in the way of coverage, but its increased speed and ability to cut opponents off before they can get started on their own strategies is strong enough for Ran to value it quite highly.

  When the morning’s training sessions end, Ran meets up with Doro at the pokécenter once more where, after a change of clothes for Doro, they wander out into the city. They spend time visiting shops, watching trainer battles on the beach or near the Port and by examining Olivine City’s many little peculiarities.

  Due to the city’s unique lay-out, it’s almost more like a bunch of villages that just happen to be placed directly next to each other, rather than a proper city. Which, as Doro is happy to show Ran, means that each neighborhood has its own typical lay-out and characteristics, with every day of the week offering some kind of activity or diversion in at least one of the neighborhoods.

  The most obvious of these is the fact that in Olivine City, there is no weekly market, as instead there’s a market somewhere in the sprawling city on every single day of the week, each of which draws tourists and trainers like Beedrill to honey. It becomes a daily ritual for Ran and Doro to seek these markets out, as they take in the many handmade curiosities and local delicacies on display. Of course there’s other distractions as well, like small museums, plenty of parks, pokémon playgrounds and scenic outlooks.

  It’s easy work to fill most of their day with such diversions, only for Doro to inevitably declare that she wants to get started on the day’s second training session. For these, they stick together, with Ran trailing more slowly after the overly enthusiastic Doro, as she leads them to whichever is the nearest publicly accessible area where they can let their teams work out freely.

  Once they make it there, for each of their first full three days in Olivine City, the same pattern plays out. Firstly, Doro’s Croagunk stomps over towards Ran’s, loudly and abrasively challenging it to a spar, which Ran’s own fighting-type is never particularly enthused about. Though each time when Ran does try to cut in and spare his team member from what he doesn’t seem to enjoy, Croagunk waves him off, before trudging after his rival.

  Second, Doro’s three starters all make a beeline for Golbat who, still carrying more than a bit of irritation from each morning’s training session, is more than happy to take them on in whatever order they figure out amongst themselves. Inevitably, those spars end with one or two of Doro’s hitmen and Golbat passing out. They all seem to enjoy it however and none of them are hurt beyond what the pokécenter can easily fix, so Ran is content to let Doro supervise those particular spars.

  Third, Ran is left supervising Caesar and Skorupi as they continue working on Dig. However, unlike in the mornings, when he asks Aria to work on Poison Jab, in the afternoons, Ran simply has her join the other two in trying to learn Dig. His notes are very clear that Ariados don’t naturally learn the move and are supposed to use a TM to learn the move, but with both Caesar and Skorupi already working on it, Ran opts to at the very least let Aria try to learn alongside the pair. A reusable TM would be vastly preferable of course, but even with his recent winnings, the going rates for those are so high as to leave Ran short of breath.

  Progress, across the three days, is extremely slow, but that there is any progress at all is all the evidence Ran needs that he’s onto something. Even if it does slow his team’s overall progression down significantly, the sheer mobility and coverage provided by Dig is too great for him not to try and let each of his team members learn the move. In fact, according to Chuck’s notes, and supported by the natural behavior he’s observed from Croagunk, the poison-fighting-type is also capable of picking up the move, though for him at least there’s other priorities to pursue in the short term.

  Inevitably, despite the slow but steady progress they make, Ran and his team are ready to call it quits in favor of a timely return to the pokécenter, so that they can rest and freshen up before dinner. Doro always continues on for another half an hour or so, before also returning to the pokécenter. Once they’ve both got those team members that need treatment handed in to the staff and their outfits changed for something more suitable for dinner, they head out to eat.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  It’s an enjoyable rhythm. Ran is quite enjoying the relaxed lifestyle, though both Doro and he agreed that they’d spend the next day taking on the Lighthouse Gauntlet. Or at least that was the original plan, but then, just after they’ve finished paying for dinner on their third full day in Olivine City, his pokégear buzzes with an incoming message.

  Josie: Made it to Olivine, you around?

  Ran: Yeah, we just finished having dinner. Are you at a pokécenter or…?

  Josie: Closest one to the Gym.

  Josie: Hang on, ‘we’?

  Ran has to do a brief double take at Josie’s responses. The first reason is the matter of her managing to get a room at the exact pokécenter Ran and Doro failed to get rooms in. But that part he can easily explain, either through Josie having gotten lucky with a room having freed up recently, or because she was willing to shell out the necessary cash for a larger room. It’s her second response, which seems almost like an afterthought, that causes a faint sense of unease in his gut, though he can’t figure out why.

  After a few moments’ hesitation, he responds.

  Ran: Can be there in maybe twenty minutes, if that’s okay with you. We = Doro and me. She’s my new rival. Or well, I’m hers, at least. Long story.

  Josie doesn’t immediately respond, her side of the conversation remaining ominously quiet for what feels like some very long minutes. Finally however, a response appears.

  Josie: Alright, I’ll wait in the lobby, hurry up. You can tell me all about it when we’re catching up.

  Ran: On my way.

  Ran closes his pokégear, looking up to realize that Doro is watching him patiently, clearly waiting for him to be ready to leave the restaurant they had dinner in. With an apologetic smile, Ran puts on his jacket, before joining Doro as they depart the small bistro. Then, not needing Doro to actually voice the obvious question, he speaks up.

  “I just got a message from Josie, the girl that travelled with me from Violet City to Goldenrod City. She just arrived in Olivine and I promised to go over and meet up with her.” Ran explains, receiving an understanding nod from Doro in turn, as her curious expression lightens slightly.

  “Alright. Can I join you, or would you prefer a private reunion?” She asks simply, leaving Ran to blink in surprise for a moment, not understanding why he wouldn’t take Doro along.

  “Of course you can come,” He replies instantaneously, “We’ll probably be hanging out together a lot over the next few weeks, so the sooner you meet the better.”

  Doro doesn’t seem entirely convinced, which leaves Ran wondering whether she’s a bit anti-social or if she got a bad first impression of Josie based on Ran’s stories. It’s something he ponders as they make their way over to the pokécenter closest to Olivine’s Gym, but he doesn’t come any closer to a definitive answer at any point.

  They end up making it to the pokécenter in fifteen minutes, rather than the twenty he’d estimated initially. Not that it really matters, as upon entering the lobby, Ran still immediately spots Josie, who is fiddling with her pokégear whilst she sits off to the side on one of the couches that ring the lobby.

  Ran takes just a moment to take his friend in. It’s been close to a month since they went their separate ways, but it seems to have done Josie a lot of good. Her tan is deeper, there’s two new pokéballs on her belt - so another addition on top of Vulpix then - and even as she fiddles with her pokégear, there’s something visibly relaxed about her. She’s also, though he’s noticed that part before, still very pretty.

  “Josie!” He calls out enthusiastically, approaching her with a grin whilst Doro follows along behind him.

  Josie glances up towards him, meeting his grin with a smile of her own as she stands up from the couch, “Hey!”

  As she gets up, Josie raises her right arm in a kind of half-salute, hovering there for a half second before she pulls it back to play with her ponytail instead. Ran doesn’t quite know what to do with the odd motion, especially as they’d already said hello, but he still offers a half wave of his own. He clearly does something wrong however, as Josie’s smile is noticeably more pinched, probably out of embarrassment over her peculiar salute.

  “How was your trip? I figured you’d make it here before us.” Ran asks valiantly, trying to forge past Josie’s awkwardness, which is enough for her smile to become a lot more genuine once more.

  “I got held up, but with good reason! I don’t want to give the surprise away too early though, I’ll show you later. For now, why don’t you introduce us?” She answers enthusiastically, before shifting her attention to Doro.

  “Right,” Ran agrees self-consciously, scratching at the back of his head for a moment before gesturing apologetically from Josie to Doro and back again, “Right, Josie, meet Doro. Doro specializes in fighting-types. She and I were competitors for a challenge from Chuck. Then we found out that we’re both unsponsored rookies at the same point in our journeys and we got both a reward and an assignment from Chuck. So now we’re rivals and, for now at least, we’re traveling together.”

  Ran then turns his attention to Doro, “Doro, this is Josie, my previous traveling companion, whom I’ve mentioned before. She specializes in fire-types.”

  “It is nice to meet you.” Doro offers first, an acknowledging nod accompanying her words.

  Josie responds with a nod of her own, “You as well, though I’ll be wanting the details of that challenge and your rewards later.”

  Doro chuckles in obvious amusement, but she doesn’t dispute Josie’s request, merely stating that she can arrange for a proper retelling later.

  For now however, before their conversation can really get underway, Josie’s stomach audibly rumbles.

  “Haven’t had dinner yet?” Ran asks with a teasing smile, which the blonde mulishly confirms.

  “I was planning to go and eat with you, actually, but I arrived a bit later than planned and you’ve both just eaten, so I’ll just fix something up in my room,” Josie insists, “How about this, I’ll take the rest of the evening to get the grime of the road off of me and to get used to being in the city once more. Then we can meet up tomorrow and catch up properly.”

  Ran glances in Doro’s direction, who offers a simple nod to Josie’s words, leaving Ran free to accept as well. They work out the details easily, with Josie expressing some surprise upon learning that Ran and Doro aren’t staying at the same pokécenter as her. When Ran actually inquires about her own room however, Josie does freely admit that she booked a two person room for herself.

  That particular tidbit promises to pop into Ran’s head at the most inconvenient moments, but for now, he manages to ignore the implications. Instead, Doro and he merely wish Josie a pleasant evening before leaving the pokécenter and heading to the one they are staying at. As they walk, Ran exchanges a few messages with Grady, discovering that the younger trainer hopes to arrive in Olivine in another day or three.

  He informs Doro of Grady’s plans, admitting that he’d like to meet up with the younger trainer as well, once he makes it to the city. Doro accepts easily, but her attention isn’t really on Grady’s pending arrival. Instead, when she does respond beyond a simple nod, it’s with a statement about Josie, “I believe you haven’t told me the full story of your friendship with Josie.”

  Ran pauses for a moment, surprised by Doro’s words, which shows in his words, “What do you mean?”

  “From what you told me of her, I would have expected a warmer welcome.” Doro replies, pausing for a moment, before letting out a dry chuckle, “Forgive the pun, it was unintentional.”

  “What do you mean?” Ran asks, not letting Doro’s moment of levity distract him, “She was nice, wasn’t she?”

  Doro nods agreeably, “She was. But there was something… peculiar about the way she looked at me. She was cordial, but I don’t think she was happy to meet me.”

  Ran slowly shakes his head, not having noticed anything of whatever Doro thinks she’s caught on to, “She had a long day travelling here, maybe she was just tired? Trust me, if Josie doesn’t like something or someone, she’ll come out and say it.”

  “If you say so,” Doro allows slowly, “I think you don’t understand her as well as you seem to believe you do.”

  Ran doesn’t immediately answer that, not particularly wanting to admit that when Josie and he parted ways, he was struck completely mute by her kissing him out of, to his mind, nowhere. Still, he was pretty confident that she wouldn’t be doing that to Doro, so he felt like his judgement on the matter was still valid.