Hard Enough

Chapter 226: Family down time debriefs

i finished crossing my t’s and dotting my i’s on the last summary report for the day.

this was rather easy thanks to my earlier wisdom of setting the gym up with multiple-angle cameras which allowed for me to have highlights recorded and played back for later logging for trainer profiles.

with the benefit of hindsight i was able to point out a few more things in the reports for the various trainers.

still, the standouts for today were joe and giselle. joe for the effort he put in and his return to the fight after literally breaking down.

that was never easy. sometimes when your mental game was done it was impossible to actually muster up a scrap of anything. still, he’d been able to scrounge up something that i could charitably call an attempt to fight on.

his resistance, despite what seemed like overwhelming odds, led to a resurgence in a lot of trainers for the later half of the day. more and more of them put themselves out there and went the distance, resulting in more trainers earning passing marks from me.

then, giselle made her mark by reaching for the second hardest challenge that i had to offer.

i could only thank my lucky stars that she hadn’t gotten it into her head to attempt an elite challenge.

perhaps she had more wisdom than that?

i suspected it was more of a case that she hadn’t considered it, despite the advertising and wide coverage the two matches i’d had so far had gotten.

starting things off with bertha had been exceptional luck. battlecast had supposedly run her match a few more times with the viewer ratings being extremely high.

that had fed into more advertising for the next match which had been a quick hit-and-run match with shin who won a fair amount of praise for his battle. his dashing in and out had people on the edge of their seats as after watching bertha's power and endurance, shin's much faster, more brittle fighting style had stood out.

i was getting some good feedback for this and these were still fairly straightforward fights. i was really looking forward to getting jorm, or sanchez out onto the field, or gawain.

and then of course there was still titan to come.

he might not look it, but i knew he was itching to show everyone how much he’d grown since last year. last year he’d just been categorised as a champion tier pokemon, but this year? with how our bond had grown? i was anticipating being able to pull off some tricks that would blow people’s minds.

then again, i wouldn’t have to wait long as next week was the mid-year shut down, or golden week where some people got to relax. i wasn’t among those numbers as i was going to be taking part in the top ten mid-year match-ups for the ace circuit.

thankfully this year's tournament was not going to be taking place in indigo which, while iconic, wasn’t a great place to take young kids. instead, we’d be going to chrysanthemum city, a new up-and-comer in cities with it having breached ten thousand humans in its registered population a few years ago.

since then, it had exploded onto the scene.

with it being an island city with beautiful beaches i was rather looking forward to the downtime along with my family.

i paused as i clicked out of giselle’s report. my family did remember that we were going didn’t they? i had told them... at some point. i started to feel a headache come on as i realized i might have forgotten that little detail with how busy i’d been.

ah well, no time like the present to tell them.

i rose from my desk, stretching as i did so, a yawn ripping out of me. when i exited my office i took a step out only to twitch when rachel skated past.

“are you sure that’s a good idea?” i called after her, my mind conjuring up various health and safety issues that leaving her to her own devices would result in.

rachel spun around on the spot and made her way back to me, grin in place. “yeah i am! with these babies i am speed! i can almost skate down trixie you know?” she said confidently as she twirled around me.

i tracked her with my eyes, not turning my head or body. that would only lead to vertigo and her winning. instead, i merely grunted. “somehow i think she might be letting you get close,” i said.

which had to be true, considering that i was still run down when i used my ‘cheat’ with rock stepping ability which carried me further with every step i took.

trixie was a freak when it came to physical accomplishments.

somewhere, somehow, i just knew at this moment, she was training.

i smiled to myself and watched as rachel paused to take a breath, having winded herself performing so many tight turns around me.

“so, what was with you asking the girls to sit in with giselle?” i said.

rachel shrugged. “girl needs some friendly faces to wake up to.”

i raised an eyebrow. “two of those faces, she fought not that long ago and crystal... she’s a bit of an acquired taste i would have thought.”

rachel waved her hand. “pish posh! she’s just an excitable lass is all! anyway, greta and yolanda balance her out, they’re all nice girls and giselle, she could do with some age-appropriate company.”

i tilted my head before deciding to not prod the issue any further.

rachel had obviously spotted something of note or formed some sort of idea about giselle. whatever it was, i’d leave it to her for now unless it became relevant to me.

“how’s things looking with the pokenet page over the recent highlights?” i asked.

rachel bobbed her head up and down, sending her rainbow hair bouncing. “it’s doing well. we’re getting a lot of hits with bertha’s fight but shin’s getting some traction. i’ve got some more orders coming in for bertha’s toy due to people buying out bertha’s toy.”

“ho?” i asked, surprised by this little tidbit as i began to move towards my home.

rachel kept pace with me, happily chattering away about how sales had been influenced by the various events and showcases that had been put on. titan’s doll remained the top seller but others had their own peaks.

as i passed various other employees in the hall i gave them a nod.

when i passed the security guard he waved, while from his shoulder a blocky duck-like pokemon peered out.

cypher warbled happily as i passed by before quacking for the guard to head in one direction.

“found something?” i asked, worry rising to the fore only for the guard to laugh.

“nah, cypher just wants to be walked sometimes. he will randomly sweep the gym which is good as it gets out of a predictable routine.”

huh good to see them taking their duties seriously.

i waved them on and entered my home with rachel skating through the door after me. “going somewhere?” i asked her.

“yeah i want to see if the girls are all getting along,” she said. i raised an eyebrow in silent question only for rachel to wink and wave me to lead her through the house.

as we did so, i could only chuckle and shake my head as the noises of a household with seven kids bounced around until it reached us.

“lovely bunch of coconuts!” chanted tilly and billy as they held onto each other and munchlax with what looked like a conga line.

“dad!” shouted tommy as he marched out of his room with a book in his hands. “did you know? that kangaskhan poops are as big as my head!” he shouted proudly.

rachel shot me a stunned look and i merely rolled my eyes which rachel didn’t react to. i decided to instead ignore it and what tommy was up to right now.

“thanks son!” called flint from a door that i knew led to a toilet. i grimaced when i noticed that the door was slightly ajar.

“close the door!” i called back over my shoulder and flint obliged.

“brock’s home!” called suzie as she sprinted out of her room only for the sound of something crashing down followed by a cry of despair to ring out.

i had been in this situation enough times to know what came next.

“brooooooooock!”’ screamed timmy as he hurtled out, causing more crashing sounds in his wake. “suzie broke the tower we were making!”

“and you broke the rest of the town?” i asked redundantly.

timmy backtracked from me to his room and peered in. “ah! suzie, look what you did!” he cried.

i sighed. right, it was going to be like that was it?

“both of you contributed to it but that doesn’t matter, how about we play another game?”

“yeah!” they cheered.

i smirked. “not before you pack up your toys,” i said.

suzie hesitated while her twin charged back in to clean up the playroom.

“yes suzie?” i asked.

“brock, can i look at the egg?” she said with wide eyes. that gave me pause. i eyed her.

“you’re interested in it, are you?” i asked neutrally.

suzie nodded. “yeah,” she said.

i rubbed my chin, a thought forming up. togepi would be a good pokemon for a young girl, and would eventually become a powerhouse of a pokemon if things went her way.

“only after you clean your room,” i said firmly.

suzie turned and sprinted off so quickly i thought for a second she’d used extreme speed. the sound of toys hitting walls came from her room but when i poked my head into the room it looked like she’d simply been throwing them at the wall to make them fall into the toybox.

i watched, amazed at the sudden, intense motivation as suzie slapped together a puzzle, correctly i might add, stashed it on the right shelf and then began packing away all the books they’d had out.

timmy stared at his sister and decided to do perhaps the smartest thing he could and get out of her way. he inched over to his bed and began patting it down. then he took a step away from it and nodded. “all tucked in!” he said.

i stared at the crumbled mess of bed with clothes and toys that littered all over it.

“hello there?” i said carefully, worried what else i might get greeted with.

giselle sunk into mr woofer’s fur.

greta bit her lips and yolanda put a hand to her mouth. crystal had no complications with throwing her head back and roaring with laughter. “oh my sweet arceus! brock’s face! right in his face!”

“stop... please,” giselle whined as she held mr woofers up only for another small burp to escape her lips.

i felt my lips twitch. sabrina glanced into the room to see if it was safe and i coughed painfully.

“don’t worry it happens,” i said consolingly. giselle peeked up at me and i smiled encouragingly but she only seemed to grow more mortified.

sabrina coughed and i sighed. “how about i leave you girls alone, “ i said, deciding that i’d be imposing if i stuck around.

rachel skated into the room before i could leave. she glanced around and then grinned at munchlax who was still staring at giselle with an impressed look on his face.

“damn impressive little princess! i didn’t know you had that sort of hypervoice in you!” rachel said. “i even got a recording of it cause i was messing around with my transceiver!’ she said happily as she pressed something on it only for a huge burp to echo out once more.

crystal fell on the floor with how hard she was now laughing and i sighed as giselle looked ready to bolt.

“let’s not embarrass her too much, “ i said suggestively. i gave rachel a look and she paused realising that something was playing out.

she glanced around and took in the room before nodding. “ah right, probably won’t need this taking up space,” she said before making a show of deleting the video file.

giselle then shot me a grateful look and nodded. sabrina coughed and i glanced away to see what she had to say, only for sabrina to smile knowingly.

giselle’s hand shifted and i saw yolanda twitch in surprise as something clattered to the ground.

i glanced down. huh, one of the rocks we kept around the house had fallen to the ground. i picked it up and tossed it into a stack that i kept in a bowl next to giselle.

yolanda looked from the rock to giselle in surprise.

i paused. alright, i’d missed something here.

sabrina floated a stool over for herself to claim before waving me off. “i think i might enjoy some girl talk,” she said.

i nodded slowly and decided to retreat to the loungeroom where the rest of my family were.

flint had pride of place and apparently the remote as the television was airing a show where a karate gi wearing man was demolishing a wall.

“open plan living is a must for this build and will increase the value!” shouted the man with each punch.

timmy and billy happily copied him, kicking and punching cushions across the room.

i nodded slowly. yeah, this checked out as a pokemon styled television show.

flint glanced over to me as i sat down. “i think we’re going to have to control what we feed munchlax from now on,” he said.

i snorted and bit my lips. “yeah... sure, munchlax will need to watch his diet,” i said. i felt my xtransciever ping and i opened it to find a video message from rachel. huh, turns out she hadn’t actually deleted it before sending off a copy.

i saved it to a separate blackmail folder with a chuckle.

i was just starting to get comfortable when a soft grumble made me peak over the back of the couch where zephyr was revealed with a nest of blankets curled around him.

he stared at me, caught in my loungeroom.

“huh,” i said. of all the pokemon i was expecting to find in the house. my usually very serious and extremely stoic zephyr wasn’t at the top of the list.

i’d been expecting—

sanchez tumbled past with a happy rumble only to cough and stand when he caught sight of me. i huffed. “what?” i said before deciding to just ignore them. sanchez barked a laugh and moved to join me on the couch, leading to all of us watching a show about renovations with a man who blended martial arts with demolition.

on a whim i decided to message janine asking her what she thought about.. “what’s this show called?” i asked flint.

“they call it renovation rambo,” he said before offering me some popcorn, which i took a handful of before offering some to sanchez and zephyr. zephyr happily pecked it out of my hands, trilling as he did so.

i sent off the message and was extremely amused when janine sent back a wall of text. i slowly read through it before nodding and sending her back a summary which amounted to the show being a disgrace to building codes and an accident waiting to happen, but sadly the man was extremely well controlled with his strikes and also sly enough to use pokemon that could telekinetically support the roof and walls that might buckle as more pressure came down on them.

i tapped sanchez and then gave zephyr a look. “feeling ready for next week lads?” i asked.

sanchez shot me a thumbs up while zephyr perked up. unlike the elite challenge, i would be making use of him for some of the matches as a way to change things up from my typical water-rock dominant teams.

the show ended and i had to admit to being rather amused by it and the antics it inspired in the boys. suzie i noted had spent the time snatching wayward pillows to construct a little house around herself and the egg to keep it even warmer.

i decided to leave them to it, as a glance outside revealed that there was still a bit of light out.

“hey zephyr, want to go for a fly?” i suggested.

my noctowl perked up and i grinned. a flight sounded like just the thing to end the day. although just to share the fun i decided to lead zephyr out into the reserve before calling for don, his daughter, and zubat to join us.

don didn’t seem to know what to make of this offer, but i simply waved him up into the sky. i’d had to show him some stick recently and it was time to have some carrot to keep our bond strong. if that happened to mean he got to show off to his daughter, well i could use that fatherly pride of his to just make it that much more special.

and there was no way i was breaking little zubat’s heart by not including her.

we took off and i caught sight of rachel zipping home. i resisted the urge to swoop her and instead directed my pokemon to loop out to the south and over viridian forest.

it made for a rather nice afternoon and when i got back, i found the girls were waving farewell to giselle who was stepping into a limousine much to crystal’s surprise.

i landed and offered a wave of farewell myself as i marched up to the group and joined them walking inside. greta and crystal broke off for their own arrangements and i nudged yolanda.

“so, new friend?” i said.

yolanda nodded with a thoughtful look. “she’s... different but in a good way.” yolanda smirked. “i think crystal doesn’t realise how lucky she is though, there’ve been a few instances when she’s pushed giselle i think.”

“oh?” i asked. “is that alright?”

yolanda shrugged. “she needs to learn that sometimes she can be a brat. i try pointing it out but she sometimes slips into old habits.”

i nodded and grabbed a drink of water. sabrina’s eyes glinted and i hurried to swallow what was in my mouth only for sabrina to say, “crystal’s going to learn that when you talk shit, you sometimes get hit.”

i snorted and water shot from my nose causing yolanda to burst out into giggles.

i shot sabrina an annoyed look before snorting what was left of the water out of my nose. “you’re playful this afternoon,” i said, moving in to kiss her only for her to hold out a hand.

“i’m not kissing you until you clean up a bit,” she said.

i rolled my eyes. “picky, picky!” i said like she was being onerous as i went and did just that.

when i got back, it was just in time for sabrina to reveal that ralts had evolved.

“woah!” shouted suzie in shock as kirlia now stood taller than her... especially with how kirlia liked to stand on her tiptoes.

various children tried to get in close only for kirlia to display her new capacity to move by twirling and dancing around them.

more than a few children ended up with booped noses. the kids wrinkled their noses before giggling.

terra waddled in with all the noise and kirlia tiptoed over her to her friend/rival. she towered over terra and looked down her nose.

everyone watched as terra stared up at her friend only to start beaming with joy.

“lar! larv! itar!” she then began hopping from one side to gesture with her stubby little hands at various points. i got the impression it was like a friend finding another and gushing over how pretty they had grown.

kirlia smiled wider and wider until she started to blush when terra found more and more things to compliment.

“kiiiiiiirlia!” said kirlia with a flap of her hand as she demurred.

terra then hugged her friend and kirlia’s eyes bulged as she realised she’d made a terrible mistake.

like a professional tackler, terra grabbed kirlia by the ankles and the much taller pokemon had a moment to realise what was about to happen.

her eyes bulged as she toppled, her legs taken out from under her. with kirlia on the ground, terra was all over her patting and nuzzling into her and the various new bits.

the kids decided to get in on this and kirlia could only wail and reach out for sabrina who merely smiled on.

i chuckled and yolanda shot me a look. “you knew?”

i nodded. “i forgot to mention it,” i said which made me pause. “oh, did i mention we’re going to chrysanthemum island next week for golden week as well?”

“what?!” “where?” “why?” “yeah! island vacation!” shouted various members of my family.

flint levelled an unimpressed look at me. “you really should have mentioned this earlier, brock,” he said.

i coughed. ah, turns out i had let that slip.

whoops?