Chapter 45: The Beginning of Cultivating a Master (Patreon)

At the counter, Nurse Joy took out a package that had been left in her care for several days.

"Trainer Renan, you have a letter from Pewter City waiting to be collected."

Renan thanked her and took it, but didn't open it on the spot. He tucked it into his spatial backpack instead.

Then he made two calls from a corner of the lobby, one to Lance and one to Officer Jenny Hong.

Lance didn't pick up. He was probably out on a mission.

Officer Jenny Hong did. She chatted with Renan briefly, then teleported all five Poké Balls holding Squirtle over to him.

Inside the Cerulean Gym, Violet, who had already packed her luggage, was sprawled on a lounge chair by the pool, slacking off.

When the boy walked in and glanced her way, she didn't think much of it. She just raised a hand in greeting. "Don't mind me. Make yourself at home."

Renan did exactly that.

He walked to an open patch of ground, tossed out his Poké Balls, and let the three little ones and the whole Squirtle Squad out.

"Charmeleon, Nidoran, Pidgey, you two start by running or flying twenty laps around the grounds."

"After that, Charmeleon, you stand in that open space and let Nidoran and Pidgey attack you with horn and beak. You dodge and weave, and remember, you can only dodge, no counterattacks. Nidoran and Pidgey, no gathering energy into your horn or beak either. Whoever disobeys orders and goes rogue gets their meals cut in half today."

"Finally, keep count of each side's hits and successful dodges. Whoever has more gets extra food later."

"Did everybody understand?"

"Roar!" "Nido!" "Pii!"

The three little ones all signaled that they had no problem with it. It wasn't their first time playing this "little game," after all.

Back when Charmeleon was still a Charmander, the three of them had played it in a 1v1 format. The loser stepped out and the next one rotated in, and whoever lasted longest on the field got the best meal of the day.

"Good, then let's begin."

Once he'd confirmed the three little ones' morning training, Renan turned to the Squirtle Squad.

Seeing them all gazing at him with hopeful eyes, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

"You lot don't need to rush. I'll give you a physical checkup first."

"Mm, let's go in order: Lao Da, Lao Er, Lao San, Lao Si, Lao Wu."

To tell them apart more easily, Renan had given every turtle in the Squirtle Squad a nickname starting with "Lao."

As for who went first and who went last, the turtles had talked it over among themselves and decided.

After all, Renan was a Novice Breeder, and that job involved a lot more than just making Pokéblocks.

In fact, back when he first saw the Squirtle Squad at the cave entrance the day before yesterday, he had already made a rough estimate of each Pokémon's potential from its build and condition.

Of the five turtles, two were in fairly good shape.

They had no obvious old injuries, and while their spirits weren't exactly full, that was normal for Pokémon living in the wild. When you eat one day and starve the next, simply staying alive is the greatest victory.

The Squirtle Ash caught in the anime was one of them. Renan called it "Lao Da."

The other was "Lao Er."

The remaining three weren't so lucky.

Lao San was missing two claw nails on its left paw, and Lao Si had a crack in the shell over its belly, visible to the naked eye.

Then there was Lao Wu, in the worst condition of all: sunken eye sockets, wrinkled skin, clearly the result of long-term malnutrition.

By Renan's judgment, if Lao Da and Lao Er trained sensibly, they could well evolve into Wartortle, even Blastoise.

Lao San, Lao Si and Lao Wu would depend on luck.

Still, in theory, getting all of them up to Veteran level was something he could manage, at the very least.

The checkup results, however, caught Renan completely off guard.

On the Pokédex, Lao Da had the highest level at 12. Palpating it, Renan found no spot where energy had built up.

The runner-up was a surprise: not Lao Er but Lao San, at level 10. Its body was in better shape than expected, too. All it needed later was plenty of calcium tablets mixed into its food while the missing nails slowly grew back. Its aptitude might still drop a little, but the ceiling it could reach through normal training would be only a level or two below what it once was.

Next came Lao Er, level 8, with no major physical problems.

Last were Lao Si and Lao Wu, who needed the most careful nursing.

On one point, Renan and Officer Jenny Hong had both been wrong. Not every turtle in the Squirtle Squad had been abandoned by a Trainer.

Or rather, the other four members fit that description, but Lao Wu didn't.

Even Lao Si, who had been with a thoroughly unreliable Trainer that had badly damaged its potential, still carried faint traces of having been raised by a League facility after birth.

With proper nursing from here on, some of the lost ground could be made up.

But Lao Wu…

Its case was the most complicated in the whole squad. By the turtle's own account, half gestures and half "Squirtle, Squirtle," it had never once had a full meal from the time it first had memories until it met its current brothers and sisters. It had nearly starved to death several times, and only by luck had it found some rotten Berries to fill its belly.

Never mind a Pokémon that needs a great deal of energy. Even a human treated like that as a baby wouldn't turn out healthy.

A shortened lifespan was the mildest outcome. More often, they couldn't even grow up safely!

In reality, that meant Lao Wu was only level 3!

Violet had wandered over at some point. Seeing the boy frown, she asked out of curiosity, "Something troubling you?"

The Squirtle Squad's situation wasn't a secret, so Renan told her about his arrangement with Officer Jenny Hong.

Violet had put most of her energy into her water ballet performances, but she was still a gym Trainer's child. After hearing Lao Wu's story, she gently stroked the little one's head, her heart aching. "So what do you plan to do now?"

Renan shrugged. "I promised them, so of course I'll keep my word."

With that, he picked up Lao Wu and looked at it with calm eyes. "I'll try to make up for what your body is missing. But your situation is different from Lao Da, Lao Er, Lao San and Lao Si, so it may take a lot longer. And for most of that time, you'll need to stay by my side."

"So, what do you say? Accept, or refuse?"

Pokémon are creatures that crave strength, and Lao Wu, who had been born in the wild and tasted what weakness was like, even more so.

Hearing Renan's question, it first looked to its brothers and sisters. When it saw them sending back looks of hope and blessing, it hesitated no longer and nodded hard.

"Squirtle!"