Luvia woke up way too early again. It was not yet six in the morning, but the girl got dressed, mind running with thoughts about Andrea and what the trainer exam notes would be like. She wondered how different it would be from the Pokémon Basics modules she’d studied at school.

  She put on her sister’s jacket to stave off the morning chill and sat out on the apartment’s veranda, watching the city wake up with Mida on her lap.

  The city fascinated her. It never stopped, it was never silent. The perpetual hum of cars sounded somewhat like the sea. Couple that with the all-too-familiar cry of the Wingull, and it was like she never left home if she closed her eyes. It was comforting and exciting all at the same time.

  She had agreed to meet with Andrea at 7:30am at the pokémon center on Doyer Street, the closest one to the apartment, which according to the mainland girl, would be around a twenty-minute walk away at most.

  “It won’t be hard to find,” had said Andrea. “Just ask literally anyone for directions.”

  Luvia had one thing clear though; Mida would be in her ball.

  Getting challenged, or just pokémon battles in general, was not something she was going to get used to overnight. Right now, the thought of it made her feel more anxious than excited, so the easy solution was to simply take it out of the equation. If trainers didn’t see Mudkip, they’d have no reason to approach her. And not just that, but Mida herself had shown that she’d jump into a battle without any encouragement needed from her. She remembered that Ziggy had been that way at first too, when he was still only a couple of years old.

  “When we get back home, I’ll take you out every day and you can battle as much as you like,” Luvia told her, then snickered at the thought of both of them waltzing around the island, picking fights with all the wild pokémon who just wouldn’t be ready for it.

  And the surf too…

  She couldn’t wait to try out her new wetsuit at the beaches. She was a great swimmer, but the ocean was daunting. Mida was still small, but Luvia couldn’t help think about the people who she’d seen get to the island on the backs of their pokémon.

  She’d once seen a woman standing on the back of a Gyarados, holding onto reigns as the massive sea serpent skimmed along the surface of the water at wind-like speeds. Fast as a ship or maybe even faster for shorter distances (since pokémon didn't have endless stamina.)

  It definitely looked like a rush.

  She didn’t yet know what Mudkip’s evolutions looked like, but she was sure Mida would only get stronger.

  “But just so you know, I don’t plan on swimming in any swamps, y’hear?” Luvia murmured.

  “Meehd…” Mida purred.

  “They smell bad, Mida, and there’s so many bugs and mud …” Luvia paused. She gave a little gasp of realization. How had she not pieced it together before?

  “Mud-kip… Ohhhhh…” She levied a slightly worried look at the Mudkip on her lap. “You’re not going to evolve into some mud monster are you?”

  She hoped the little one’s evolution wasn’t called something like Mudpig or Mudbeast or something.

  They spent close to an hour in the quiet apartment before Nana got up and fumbled her way around the small kitchen, asking Luvia for help to work the electric stoves.

  “What are you going to make, Nana? I have to go!”

  “It’s just a quick soup, deary – Here, fill this with water, will you.” Nana was already sorting the few pans and boards, rolling her sleeves up and getting into morning-soup mode.

  “Nana! Can you not cook for just one day?”

  Nana huffed a chuckle. “Imagine if the sun took a day off, girlie…”

  Luvia groaned as she took the pan and ran some cold tap water. “Do you even have ingredients?”

  “They’re in the fridge, Luv. Where have you been living, dear?”

  Luvia groaned again, pacing quickly to the small fridge in the corner and opened it.

  Peppers, carrots, and tamato berries in clear polythene bags. Fresh seaweed leaves in brine and a few yellow limes.

  *pokerface*

  Luvia rolled her sleeves, grabbed a knife, and started chopping.

  Nana gave a pleased nod. “Attagirl.”

  By the time they finished preparing breakfast for the house, it was pushing quarter to seven!

  Nobody else besides Ziggy had woken up yet though.

  “Nana, for real, I’m going now!” Luvia blew on a spoonful of piping hot seaweed soup and slurped it in a rush.

  Nana shooed her away. “Go, girlie, go! You’re going to keep your new friend waiting.”

  Luvia shot her a disgusted look. “You didn’t just say that.”

  Nana tasted the soup, licking her lips, then gave her granddaughter a blank look. “Said what, dear?”

  Luvia shook her head in disbelief. “Like it’s my fault I might be late. I’ve literally been trying to leave for half an hour!”

  Nana huffed and shrugged. “I didn’t force you to stay, girlie.”

  “No, Nana, you know you did! If I hadn’t, you would have talked about it for a week, ‘My granddaughters don’t love meee. My girlies refuse to help around the houseee…’” Luvia mimed in a sorrowful tone.

  Nana chuckled and raised her brows in total aloofness. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, dear.”

  Luvia slurped another mouthful of soup, feet already angled toward the exit, and gave her grandmother a begrudging peck on the cheek as she left.

  “Come on, Mida! Let’s go!”

  “Meehd!” The Mudkip hopped off the sofa in the living room, where she’d been trying to make friends with Ziggy.

  The Zigzagoon had started warming up to Mida, letting her paw at him without growling, and Luvia let them be. If the pokémon were not going to get along, a fight would have broken out already.

  She felt her pocket for Mida’s pokéball and the two of them left the apartment, out into the waking streets of Slateport City.

  That looks like fun.

  Some of the roads had lanes running adjacent to them, asphalted with dull blue concrete, where people rode by on their bicycles or skateboards or electric scooters.

  Some of the pokémon, especially those with wings, were able to keep up with their humans as they rode by on the bike lanes.

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  Luvia was sure she’d seen a pokémon she had only ever seen on TV. A Ninjask. One of the quickest pokémon in the world. Its human had been whizzing by on an electric bike, but the Ninjask kept up all too easily. She was sure she spotted weights on its spindly front legs too.

  “Completely crawling with them…” Luvia mumbled. The mainland truly was overrun by training culture. A totally different pace of life compared to Clearcloud.

  While there weren’t any official gyms in the city, there were a few unlicensed ones. Andrea had said that it was every city’s dream to be the home of a League-licensed Pokémon Gym. As such, anyone could technically start a gym if they had the startup to do it, but getting licensed by the League was a different matter altogether. Slateport didn’t have it too bad though. Being home to the one of the prestigious Contest Halls and Oceanic Museum did enough to put it on the map.

  There was nothing quite as popular or televised as pokémon battling though, so Pokémon Gyms had always had the larger appeal and prestige.

  Of the few unofficial gyms in Slateport city, two or three of them had been established decades ago but had yet to even get a wink from the League.

  To get your gym to become official, your gym needed to meet a stringent set of criteria and even then, the final decision was in the hands of the League Admin Board, who, apparently, made their final choices in ways obscure to the public.

  There were currently eight official gyms in Hoenn, Luvia knew that much. But Andrea had also told her that it hadn’t always been eight. At one point in history, there had been as few as three gyms standing in the way of a trainer and their Hoenn League Challenge.

  That had been ages ago though, even before Nana’s time.

  If one of Slateport’s gyms got League-approved, Andrea assured Luvia that the city would change in a flash. If she had thought Slateport was full of trainers, then she hadn’t seen a real city yet.

  Once Luvia saw the pyramid roof of the pokémon center on Doyer Street, she recalled Mida into her ball and braced herself.

  She had given Nana an earful for delaying her, but she was sure it wasn’t yet 7:30am. Close but not yet. She took a breath as she spotted the trainer boards, where a couple of early birds were already glancing over them.

  Andrea or Hoppip weren’t anywhere in sight yet, so Luvia decided to give those boards a gander of her own.

  She exchanged greeting nods and smiles with the couple of people pacing slowly along the boards and leaned in to read one of the hundred paper flyers pinned.

  She read,

  Posted on June 7th, 225 G.S

  CATCHERS WANTED

  We are offering ?750 to every trainer that captures and brings us an Aron from Route 110 (pokéball cost is reimbursed.)

  A significant number of complaints have been lodged against an emergent group of Aron causing damage to the road and personal vehicles along the route.

  Please refer to the most up to date local wilderness report from your nearest available NPS agent or on the official website on the Pokénet: www.hn.natiopoké.com/national-wilderness-status

  Recommended Trainer Rank: D and above. (Please be safe!)

  * This job is eligible for point rewards from the National League Credit Allocation Administration (We thank you for your service.)

  * This job will remain open until otherwise notified. Check with the local Job Board Office or scan the barcode with your pokégear for the most up to date job status.

  Luvia smiled quietly. Seven-hundred-fifty pokédollars for each Aron you bring in… That was even more than she’d made from her first battle. And that was just for one pokémon.

  Is this for real? … The biggest job she’d ever seen on the tiny island job boards paid something small, like ?250 or something, for fetching a bunch of wild Pelipper eggs.

  Pelipper defended their eggs quite violently. The job stayed on the board for a year. In fact, it was probably still there, getting beaten by rain and sun. Whoever put it up likely had no need for them now (Luvia and her friends thought they could have been for cooking ingredients.)

  She’d seen an Aron before. Small, friendly-looking things. She’d never heard of any Aron attacks on people either, so how dangerous could it be?

  The thing that did worry her was the text in bold saying, ‘Recommended Trainer Rank…’

  Though D-rank sounded subpar to the ears, she was pretty certain that it wasn’t the lowest rank a trainer could be.

  Don’t they go all the way down to F-rank? Something to ask Andrea.

  She took a couple more steps along, fixing her eyes on another flyer.

  This one was labelled as a “Civilian Request” and went on to ask for any trainer with a well-trained Delcatty needed for their 6-year-old daughter’s birthday party.

  Luvia stifled a giggle. ?300 for an hour’s time with Delcatty? Neela would love this. She’s really going to have to get herself that Skitty.

  Another civilian request flyer offered “?100 per photo with your Cacnea, or ?200 if it’s Cacturne!”

  There were dozens and dozens of flyers on the board! So much money!

  How trainers got by on their journeys was beginning to make slightly more sense.

  It definitely wouldn’t be possible on Clearcloud, with its paltry job offers, but out here in the mainland?

  … Is it like this in every city?

  Luvia made the quick distinction between jobs issued by the League and the civilian requests. All League-issued jobs followed a similar format, with the recommended trainer rank always near the bottom in bold. On average, the pay was also higher, and they had that National League Credit Administration thingy, which Luvia assumed were the League credits the shop assistant at the wetsuit shop had been referring to? …

  Civilian requests could literally be anything from hunting a local pokémon pest (which reminded her of that Lombre from Clearcloud all those years ago), to letting your “Marril blow bubbles for a children’s photoshoot.” There were some pokésitting jobs advertised too, but they required background checks and “PCT certificates,” which Luvia was clueless about.

  Furthermore, all League-issued jobs had a barcode to scan at the bottom of each flyer, whereas civilian requests omitted them more often than not.

  Fifteen minutes went by in a flash. Reading the flyers was so interesting! If the boards on Clearcloud Island had even a fraction of these jobs, she was sure that way more many islanders would be more interested in pokémon training.

  It was just so much money.

  Of course there were many factors to consider, like whether or not your pokémon was appropriate for a job, whether or not you had any necessary equipment, or if you could even spare the time. Some of the jobs even mentioned other towns or cities, so the amount of ground to cover could vary greatly. You couldn’t run around doing every job, so it was like turning up with a spoon or a bucket to the ocean – you were limited by your own capacity as a trainer.

  A few more people had shown up to browse through the two 10m-long boards, and soon enough Luvia smiled wide at the sight of Andrea powerwalking toward her, and Hoppip gliding through the air above her.

  The girl was carrying a large folder under one arm. It made Luvia’s skin prickle with excitement.

  Trainer exam notes… She was way too curious to see what they’d be like.

  “Luviaaa,” Andrea panted lightly.

  “Heeeepuh!”

  “Andrea!” Luvia squeaked happily, then eyed the Hoppip warmly. “Salia? – was it?”

  “Yeah, Salia,” Andrea affirmed

  “Heeep!”

  Andrea caught her breath for a second, fanning her face with a hand. “Sorry - Did you wait long? I went to bed so late last night, then I woke up at quarter-past-seven and jumped on tram. Ugh, sorry…”

  “It’s fine – really!” Luvia replied. “I’ve been looking through the boards. There’s so many jobs, it’s crazy!”

  Andrea gave a little smile and shrug. “Not too, too many. I’ve seen job boards in Mauville and Rustboro with more on them.”

  *gawp*

  “More?” Luvia said doubtfully. “You’re kidding…”

  “I’m not!” Andrea laughed. “Some of these jobs have already been completed, people just haven’t bothered to take them down. There’s usually someone from the center who goes through, plucking them off if the boards get too congested.”

  There were still some odd spaces left on the boards, but as a whole, they looked veritably populated. It would have taken one person a lifetime to go out and do every job posted.

  “Do you wanna do one?” Andrea asked, hint of amusement on her face.

  …

  Luvia stared at her. “A job? Now?” A nervous rush went through her.

  Andrea nodded, still smiling, watching Luvia’s face intently. “You said you’ll need to be back by 10 or 11 right?”

  “Y-yeah, but… Wait, you’re serious?”

  “Sure!” Andrea seemed to enjoy seeing Luvia in shock. “Luvia, this is nothing! People take jobs everyday. There… look.”

  Luvia turned to follow her gaze, across the paved road to the other job board, where a kid stood on his tippy toes, trying to angle a device on his wrist at a flyer.

  “Isn’t he like… nine or something?” Luvia whispered, frowning, and Andrea giggled as she nodded.

  “Around that, yeah. Probably got his license like yesterday.”

  A short chuckle came out of Luvia. Still frowning, she eyed that kid, dressed sportily and with a little orange waist pack tied diagonally across his chest.

  She turned back to Andrea, who met her gaze with an expectant little smirk.

  “You’re serious…”

  “We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

  “No, no, it’s not that… I just, uhm… Don’t I need a license for this?” Luvia was finding it hard to deal with the idea that she could simply accept any of these jobs and start earning that kind of money. Getting by on an allowance from your mother just didn’t prepare for this.

  “I have a license,” Andrea replied. Hoppip floated down slowly, landing on her head. “You would just be tagging along.”

  Luvia gave another nervous chuckle.

  “Where’s Mudkip?” Andrea asked suddenly. “You brought her right?”

  “Yeah.” Luvia pulled out and held Mida’s ball for Andrea to see.

  “Let’s do a job then, Luvia! It’ll be fun! Plus, you don’t actually know when you’ll get back, right? You have to!”

  …

  “You sure?”

  Andrea gave a slight, you-did-not-just-ask-that huff and turned to the board excitedly, scanning through the flyers with a pointer finger.

  “Help me look!” she said, and Luvia turned to the board too, feeling no small measure of disbelief.

  How could so much have happened in less than 24hrs?

  This was the kind of life she needed. She started giggling uncontrollably.

  “What?” Andrea said, looking sideways at her, beginning to smile, and Luvia broke into laughter.

  “It’s nothing, nothing! What kind of job are we looking for?” she managed to say after the bout of laughter ended.

  “Something fun – something easy. Anything we can do quick!”