CH61 (583), Nursing Home (1)
The second week of the second month passed, and I successfully finished my first week at the nursing home. I felt that while I was just as "occupied" as I had been during my time at the orphanage, I was much less busy since the residents of the nursing home were much less active than the kids had been.
All in all, the first week went pretty well, and I was pretty sure I had done a good job in my role as a caretaker. The fact that I had been told so certainly played a part in that. I also had to say that after a month of only a single free day, I appreciated an actual full weekend much more than before.
The 4 workday weeks during the 6-month long police phase had really spoiled me before, which the 6 workday weeks of the orphanage phase knocked right out, so the 2 free days I got to currently enjoy were great. Having only a single day off with a 12-hour shift was quite a burden, and I had nothing but respect for anyone who did something like that for prolonged periods.
My second as well as third weeks at the nursing home passed by similarly to the first one, and I had to say that I was a bit surprised that I had not been attacked even once during these three weeks. I mean I could understand why no one tried their luck while I was at the nursing home since it was a military-backed one, but I had made trips through the city during the weekends but didn't experience any ambush.
Don't get me wrong, I was happy about it, but it felt kind of unusual since I had a hard time believing that everyone had given up. Maybe I was overestimating human stupidity or the allure of 7 million Poke. Just maybe everyone who knew about the bounty had understood that the risk did not equal the reward, or perhaps everyone who did think like that had already tried their luck and got beaten up by me before being imprisoned.
Regardless of which one it was, I was simply happy that the bothersome attacks had finally stopped, and I hoped that it would remain that way forever, though that did not mean that I had forgotten about the still active bounty. I still planned to ensure that it got retracted at some point.
Anyway, we had Kyoday and I was currently out in the city, specifically at one of Emerald City's SteakHouses for lunch, which was where the sudden bounty musing had surfaced. The thought suddenly popped up while I was eating my third steak, before being pushed aside by the arrival of the fourth one.
Once I had my fill, I moved on to the main reason I was out and about in the city right now. I was currently on my way to a specific residence to pay a visit to a certain Mr. Bakir, who, according to one of the retired residents of the nursing home I had been taking care of, was actually in possession of a Mega Stone.
Mr. Yunus brought Mr. Bakir up when I told him about the Ampharosite theft case I had been a part of, and my interest in/fascination with Mega Stones. According to him, Mr. Bakir had a Pinsirite that he had obtained through luck, though his playful smile when he said "something like that" after I asked him if Mr. Baker was a collector made me a bit uneasy.
Still, that did not reduce my interest in seeing the Pinsirite, and while I personally had no use for it right now, that did not mean that I could not use it in the future, so there was nothing amiss with letting Utopia analyze the Pinsirite.
Besides, even if I could not use it at the moment, Kinji most definitely could, though I would have to purchase it for that since I currently did not have the means for Utopia to produce it even if I could let it analyze the stone. Admittedly, I was prepared for the owner to be unwilling to sell the Pinsirite, but I really hoped that he would have no problem with me talking it into my hands for closer inspection. I could not snatch it after all, so Mr. Bakir's permission was crucial for the realization of my main goal.
Anyway, I made it to the address Mr. Yunus, the retired veteran, had given me after he had arranged a meeting with Mr. Bakir for me. I made my way to the door of the standalone house and rang the bell. A few moments later a Mr.Mime wearing an apron opened the door. While I was looking at Mr.Mime, who was releasing dark gold stage undulations by the way, the voice of a man caused me to redirect my focus. "How can I help you young man?" the seemingly middle-aged man asked while scrutinizing me.
"Good day, Sir. I've had an appointment with Mr. Bakir. Mr. Yunus gave me the address and arranged the meeting. Would you happen to be Mr. Bakir?" I asked the last bit a bit hesitantly since the existence of humans with a prolonged lifespan made speculating the age of people hard, though the main reason for my unawareness in this matter was that Mr. Yunus did not tell me anything about Mr. Bakir aside from the fact that they served in the same unit.
"Yes, that's me," the man admitted. "Yunus told me that you would be coming over to take a look at my Pinsirite," he added, before giving me a serious look. "I have to admit that I would not have agreed to it if not for Yunus asking as well as your rather impressive background, Mr. Geo. Becoming a Junior Professor, especially at your age, is quite impressive," Mr. Baker finished before easing his stare.
"Thank you for allowing me to come over," I said sincerely since I could understand why he would usually be hesitant to do so. "It's fine. As I said, I agreed because I was interested in seeing the youngest Junior Professor with my own eyes, though do make sure to keep the knowledge to yourself. I don't want to deal with the hassle that information would otherwise cause," he said while waving me inside.
I followed after him and heard the door close behind us, presumably at the hands of Mr.Mime. He led me through the house and straight to his backyard. I was a bit surprised to see a full-fledged mini-grove there.
"Alright, make sure to remain calm and friendly," he said sounding amused, before he shouted, "Pin, buddy, come over for a moment." He then turned to me and said, "And now we wait. He should come out in a moment."
Considering everything, I was pretty sure that I knew what he was talking about, and just as I expected, after some rustling, a Pinsir stepped out of the grove. This situation drastically reduced my chances of purchasing the Mega Stone, which was rather unfortunate.
Still, my attention was instantly drawn to his right arm, which sported a bracelet that had a Mega Stone embedded in it. Pinsir seemed to have noticed my gaze since he let his aura loose, and his platinum stage undulations made Hades/Gengar peek his head out of my shadow, though I quickly sent him back inside.
I directly used my aura and radiated goodwill as well as passiveness on my part, while maintaining a friendly smile. Regardless, I understood now why he merely called the possibility of his possession of a Mega Stone spreading a hassle. With a platinum-stage Pinsir capable of Mega Evolving, he was probably not all that worried about his safety.
Anyway, it seemed like my aura worked as Pinsir retracted his aura, and as soon as he did that Mr. Bakir began to praise me. "Not bad," he said with a nod. "As expected of a professor, you've handled that admirably," he added before turning towards his Pinsir. "Buddy, could you let this junior take a look at your stone?"
Pinsir seemed a bit reluctant to do so and stared at me for a while. I looked him straight in the eyes while maintaining my "I'm a good guy" aura. He eventually nodded and moved closer to Mr. Bakir, who fiddled with the bracelet for a moment before taking out the Pinsirite. He then handed it to me and I took it cautiously.
I felt Pinsir's gaze on me while I took it into my hands, and I knew then and there for sure that there was no way I would be able to buy the stone since Pinsir would never allow it even if Mr. Bakir had been amiable to it.
Anyway, I still had my main objective though Pinsir's close scrutiny made it harder to briefly place the stone inside Utopia. Thankfully, I had considered a situation like this, though I had thought it would be a human that would be keeping an eye on the stone. Yet, that did not change my approach.
I observed the stone for a while before I took out a little box and asked for permission to place the stone inside after explaining that I would try to measure the energy levels and frequency of the Mega Stone with it, which was actually true, though I was not expecting any useful results, at least not with a little scanner like this.
Thankfully, I did not really care about the scan results, but they did not need to know that. Once they agreed I transferred the stone to the box and from there to Utopia. I wasted some time telling them that it wouldn't take long, before slowly closing the lid. Once the analysis was done, I shifted the stone back to the box and finished closing the lid.
Two minutes later I reopened the box and returned the stone to Mr. Bakir, who returned it to Pinsir, or rather his bracelet. Pinsir only truly relaxed once the stone was back in its place, and once that was done, he returned to his grove, but not before I thanked him for his cooperation.
I also thanked Mr. Bakir profusely for the opportunity to check out the Pinsirite, before I left his house and made my way back to the city center. From there I moved inside Utopia at an opportune moment. I spent the time until dinner hanging out with my Pokemon, and after dinner, Gaia/Nidoqueen actually approached me to ask me to check her status.
It seemed her feeling was right since she had in fact completed her limit-breaking, so I gave her a hug and congratulated her on it, before sharing the news with the others. I also announced her upcoming breakthrough over Utopia FM.
As usual, we made our way to Gaia and Seb/Nidoking's place and waited for the rest to arrive. Fortuna/Togetic and I wished her good luck before joining the others in the circle around Gaia, who initiated her breakthrough upon my signal.
Similar to Seb, Gaia's breakthrough also went quite smoothly with a little bright moment, and once it was over, I went over to her to congratulate her after hugging her. Seb along with the rest quickly followed and while they were busy, I checked her new/updated status sheet.
'Name: Gaia
Species: Nidoqueen
Gender: Female
Age: 13+ years
-
Type: Poison, Ground
Potential: Deep Purple (90.13%)*
{Deep Purple (8.66%) -> (10.13%) -> (90.13%)}'
Her potential was just a tad bit lower than Seb's had been after his breakthrough, but it was still at 90%, which was good. She pretty much had light aurora in her bag the next time she broke through, and she knew it since I made sure she knew that she did.
'Bond: Mikail (deep)*
Quirks: Curious
----
Parameters:
Stage: Dark Gold Stage (high)*
Vitality: C
Strength: C
Endurance: C
Agility: D
Energy Capacity: D
Energy Density: C'
Our bond had upgraded upon her breakthrough so no surprise there. Similarly, everyone had felt her new strength, so the same was true for her stage. Still, looking at her parameters and comparing them with Seb's, it was obvious that hers were more balanced. I had to admit that I preferred hers more simply because she had no E-value even though she had no B-value in return, but I guess that this too was a preference thing.
'Weaknesses:
Ice (Minor), Ground (Minor)
-
Standardized:
Psychic, Water*'
I was quite happy to see that her breakthrough helped push her resistance training to completion as well. It was quite lucky that it happened two times in a row and it would have been quite unfortunate if it had not happened for Gaia after it happened for Seb, but thankfully it did not come to that.
Gaia was unquestionably happy when I shared the news with her, evident by the cheer she released. Her happiness at getting a break from being sprayed with water was quite big, and I laughed a bit before finishing her status sheet.
'Techniques:
-
Beginner:
Fury Attack (+)
-
Proficient:
Shadow Claw (+), Superpower (+), Dragon Pulse (+), Hyper Beam (+), Scorching Sand (+), Rock Tomb (+), Rock Blast (+)
-
Advanced:
Fire Punch (++), Ice Punch (++), Thunder Punch (++), Stomping Tantrum (+)
-
Mastered:
Earthquake (+)'
Looking at her moves, I decided that she had enough advanced and proficient moves for now, so our focus for the next while would be on mastering another move, though I would leave the choice of which move to Gaia.
However, the decision would have to wait for now since it was time for her celebration, so I began to pull out everything needed for the party, which attracted everyone's attention and caused them to cheer.
---------------------
---------------------
This part is purely to display Gaia's status screen in one piece and does not count toward the word count.
'Name: Gaia
Species: Nidoqueen
Gender: Female
Age: 13+ years
-
Type: Poison, Ground
Potential: Deep Purple (90.13%)
(Genetic) Modifier: Royal
Abilities: Poison Point, Rivalry
Talents: Keen Hearing
Affinities: Poison, Ground
-
Bond: Mikail (deep)
Quirks: Curious
----
Parameters:
Stage: Dark Gold Stage (high)
Vitality: C
Strength: C
Endurance: C
Agility: D
Energy Capacity: D
Energy Density: C
----
Immune:
Electric
-
Resistance:
Poison (Major), Fighting (Minor), Bug (Minor), Rock (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Ice (Minor), Ground (Minor)
-
Standardized:
Psychic, Water
----
Condition: Healthy, Happy, Pleased, Excited
----
Masteries:
Poison Energy Manipulation (Advanced),
Ground Energy Manipulation (Advanced)
----
Techniques:
-
(Unofficial) Initial:
N/A
-
Novice:
Flatter
-
Beginner:
Scratch, Growl, Tail Whip, Captivate, Fury Attack
-
Proficient:
Poison Sting, Fury Swipes, Helping Hand, Double Kick, Bite, Water Pulse, Shock Wave, Sunny Day, Taunt, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Rain Dance, Thunder, Torment, Shadow Ball, Icy Wind, Sand Tomb, Chip Away, Body Slam, Surf, Brick Break, Shadow Claw, Superpower, Dragon Pulse, Hyper Beam, Scorching Sand, Rock Tomb Rock Blast
-
Advanced:
Poison Fang, Toxic Spikes, Endure, Focus Energy, Sludge Bomb, Sludge Wave, Protect, Sandstorm, Venoshock, Mud Shot, Dig, Crunch, Poison Jab, Iron Tail, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Stomping Tantrum
-
Mastered:
Toxic, Earth Power, Earthquake'
-----------------------------
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