Once, when I was a child, I visited my grandparents house in Vermont. Most of the memories of that age were hazy for me, but one thing was clear in my mind’s eye - one day, right before I had to leave to go back home, they took me to the Ben and Jerry’s factory where they made most of their ice cream.

  It was a fond memory of mine, everything seemed so big and fascinating, and the way they made their ice cream felt like magic.

  Now, however, I got to feel what the experience would have been like for my grandparents.

  “And here’s the vat where we mix some of our liquid ingredients!” The tour guide said as she gestured to a large, stainless steel vat.

  A Machamp in a white jumpsuit and a hairnet waved at us with one of its hands, while the other three held a giant paddle, slowly stirring the liquid slurry in the vat.

  Venus mewled in jealousy and awe at the sight, and Kōjin had a line of drool coming off of his mouth.

  “We use only the freshest Berries and ingredients in all of Sinnoh, sourced locally from nearby farms!”

  In the games, the Poffin House had been a small, single room building where the player character could play a fun mini-game to make Poffins for their Pokémon. In real life, however, The Poffin House was a famous company with a massive factory.

  The Poffin House was the brand Venus and my other Pokémon preferred eating the most, and their Poffins were sold at every food store and Poké Mart that I’d seen. There were sweet ones, sour ones, bitter ones, all of the flavors in the Pokémon games, and more. Variety packs, speciality offers, custom made flavors for famous Pokémon Trainers, The Poffin House made them all. Cynthia even had her own personal flavor - ‘Get a Ga-bite of This!’ which was supposed to be made specifically for Dragon-types.

  And just like the Ben and Jerry’s factory, The Poffin House allowed tours of its facilities, where they of course encouraged Trainers to let their Pokémon out.

  “After the liquid is mixed, we come over to our ovens! A single industrial-grade oven can cook hundreds of Poffins at once, so just imagine how many our full array can cook - and they do it every hour of the day!

  “Now, if you’ll follow me, we’ll come to the tasting area, where you can try out the different flavors of Poffins that we make here!”

  I could feel my wallet groaning with pain as my four Pokémon turned to look at me with wide, hungry eyes.

  /^\

  When we finally left The Poffin House, my wallet significantly lighter, the sun was just beginning to set on Hearthome City, casting the buildings in beautiful shades of gold.

  All of my Pokémon were in their Balls, happily sleeping off a mixture of exercise and Poffins, so I just… stopped.

  There were plenty of benches spread out all across the city, and it was easy enough for me to find one and sit down, putting my bag to the side. Then I really took a look at Hearthome and its people.

  Hearthome tried to cater itself as the most family-friendly city in all of Sinnoh, and everywhere I looked I could see that it was working. Even as the sun was setting, there were families happily laughing and walking, sometimes with their Pokémon out, and sometimes not.

  Kids were running around, oftentimes without any escorts or parents watching over them, simply being kids and enjoying life.

  It was vaguely nostalgic in a way, even though my own childhood had never been like that.

  I wondered what it would have been like to grow up in this world. I was fairly sure that I would have been happier as a kid. Having Pokémon as a companion would have been a life saver in some instances.

  At the same time, would I have been able to appreciate them as much as I did now? One of the reasons I loved my new life was because of how much I had used the Pokémon games as a lifeline growing up. They were where I escaped from the “real world” whenever it had become too much for me.

  If I had been born here, there was every chance that I wouldn’t be able to appreciate everything as much as I did now. It wouldn’t be so magical, because it would be so ordinary for me. A life without Pokémon would have been unthinkable.

  I would have been a completely different person.

  As much as my life sucked up until now, as much as I had wished things were different, without those experiences I wouldn’t be who I was today.

  That didn’t mean I thought all of those experiences were good, or that I would wish them on anybody else. But they did make me the woman I was now.

  A cry grabbed my attention, and I looked up to see a young girl, hardly older than six, crying over a scraped knee where she had fallen.

  I began to stand up, to go and help, but somebody else got there before me.

  A little Flabébé drifted out of a nearby patch of flowers, drawn by the girl’s pain.

  It cocked its head, considering the wound, and then glowed briefly. When the light faded, the only sign that the girl had ever been hurt was some dirt and a tiny bit of rapidly drying blood.

  The girl took a few seconds to realize she was no longer in pain, blinking the tears out of her eyes. She slowly, carefully poked at her knee, gasping when it no longer hurt.

  She timidly extended a hand towards the Pokémon, saying something I couldn’t quite make out. The Flabébé considered the hand for a moment, then floated over her palm.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  She giggled, and continued talking to the Flabébé, standing up on her healed leg. Then, carefully cupping the Pokémon, she ran over to a couple who were just coming out of a shop.

  I smiled, and leaned back onto the bench as the girl eagerly babbled to her parents, showing off her new friend.

  Then again. I thought. Maybe there’s magic and wonder in the world regardless of where you come from.

  /^\

  I did have to get back to the hotel where I was staying, however. There were plenty of small motels and lesser known hotels all across Hearthome, but I had decided to splurge a little.

  After all, if I was going to be in Hearthome City, I wanted to really experience it: and that meant staying at one place.

  The Pokémon Hotel was the premier place to stay in the city, even if the accommodations themselves were nothing special. That’s not to say they weren’t top notch, they were, but a person could get the same kind of quality in major hotel chains across Sinnoh.

  No, what the Pokémon Hotel specialized in was in its name - it was the Pokémon Hotel.

  When I had booked the room, they had done a perfunctory set of questions for me - did I need one bed or two, smoking or non-smoking, that sort of thing.

  But they’d had an exhaustive list of questions when it came to my Pokémon. What species were they, how old were they (if I knew), what were their favorite foods, their favorite flavor, did they normally sleep inside or outside of their Poké Ball, and even more esoteric questions than that.

  I got the feeling that it was as much of a test of my knowledge of my Pokémon as their Trainer as it was for them to tailor the experience for my team - if I had answered poorly, however that looked, the hotel might not have been willing to let me get a room.

  Thankfully, I had passed whatever standards they had set for their guests, and my companions were having the time of their lives.

  I don’t know how the hotel managed to do it on such short notice, but each of my Pokémon had their own, special place to stay while I was there.

  Zetian had an entire small tree, where she could rest on the branches and enjoy a box of flowers that had been wheeled in. Jira had a patch of rocks and gravel that seemed like it should be uncomfortable, but she had let out a happy roar and was spending her time rolling around in the rocks.

  Venus had a patch of darkness that was created by what was essentially a tent, and a little lamp that somehow replicated what the moon looked like. When she was curled up and the lamp was off, she was all but invisible.

  Kōjin had actually provided the hotel the biggest challenge, mostly because nobody really knew what a Hisuian Growlithe would like. After some back and forth, the hotel had provided a mix of Jira’s rocks, as well as a patch of grass that had been burned to ash.

  He loved it, and was currently wiggling the ash deeper into his fur.

  For my part, I was sitting on a fairly common bed, albeit with very nice sheets, and was plotting out my next steps for our time in Hearthome City.

  The hotel had even provided a map of the city, which was nice, although the assistant manager who had provided it was an exceptionally tall man. My first thought was that it was AZ, but I’d quickly dropped that idea. After all, why would AZ, who was basically immortal, be spending his time learning about running a hotel?

  No, the simplest option was that the man was just very, very tall, which wasn’t impossible. After all, people were born with natural hair that ranged across the entirety of the color spectrum - being very tall was far from the weirdest thing I’d seen so far.

  “Maybe a contest?” I said, twirling a pen through my fingers as I looked over the map of Hearthome.

  Venus opened one red eye - the only thing that was visible in her little patch of shade, then snorted.

  “Hey you never know, somebody might like it! I don’t want to compete, but it could be fun to watch.”

  The red eye rolled, and disappeared into darkness again.

  “Could always visit Amity Square. See the cathedral.” The Gym was right out as an option. “At some point I want to make sure we get some supplies for the trip up Coronet.”

  The more I thought about it, the more I was sure that I wanted to climb to the summit of Mount Coronet and see the Spear Pillar. Something about it just felt right in my mind.

  I ended up spending the next thirty minutes poring over the map. Hearthome City was one of the largest cities in Sinnoh after all, and there was a lot to do.

  My eyes landed on a label, and closed for a moment as I swore.

  Well, I guess I know where we’ll be going to get some supplies.

  /^\

  I stood in the entrance of the Feebas Pro Shop, and stared in slack-jawed disbelief at the sights before me.

  It was, without a doubt, one of the single largest stores I’d ever seen. There were countless aisles of every single kind of sporting good that I could think of. Fishing rods, bicycles, clothes, sports food, Pokémon training supplies, protein and nutrition supplements, there was literally everything I could think of.

  There were even entire boats for sale along the back wall and in the parking lot outside.

  “This has to be a joke.” I muttered, staring.

  “No joke ma’am!” A helpful employee said, popping up out of nowhere by my elbow. “This is the Feebas Pro Shop flagship store here in Sinnoh! If it’s related to the outdoors, you can guarantee that we have it in stock!”

  I flinched at his sudden appearance, then stared closer at him.

  There’d been plenty of days that I’d worn the sterile smile of a retail worker, just trying to get through the day. But the look on this man’s face… he actually seemed to like working here.

  Weird.

  “Is there anything I can help you find?” He chirped.

  “Uhh, yeah?”

  “Great! What can we get started for you?”

  “Well… I guess I’m planning on climbing Mount Coronet, and need to get some supplies.”

  He nodded so fast I was afraid his head was going to fall off. “I see, I see. Are you planning on going up the path? Or climbing up the face? Or are you planning on taking most of the trip through the lava channels?”

  “Lava channels?”

  “Ahh, good choice.”

  “No that wasn’t-”

  “If you follow me, I can show you our spelunking gear. Have you ever been in a cave before?”

  I snorted despite myself.

  “I see, I see.” He said. “You’re a bit experienced in that regard. I can see why you’d choose the lava channels then. A bit more exciting than the path, while not as stressful as the face of the mountain! An excellent choice.”

  “What path are you talking about?”

  “Why the Pilgrims' Path!” He said as if it was common knowledge. “It’s the original path that the builders of Spear Pillar took to get up the mountain side. These days there’s plenty of ropes and bridges that have been built to make it easier to get up. Most of the more common hikers prefer the path, you see.”

  “Does the path take you up to the summit?”

  “Oh good Arceus, no! That’s been blocked off. Safety hazards, you see. All that wind that high up tends to make the marble structure of the Spear Pillar a bit unstable. No, there’s a landing just below it though. Lovely view of Sinnoh, you can see all the way to Kitakami from there!”

  “I see…” I said, not seeing at all.

  “So! Let’s get you started with some gear, why don’t you tell me what you already have, and we can get you set up from there!”

  My stomach dropped. I’m going to spend a lot of money here, aren’t I?