Pokémon: Out of the Woods | A Galar, Unova & Sinnoh Fanfiction

Chapter 65: A Need to Know

Pluto wanted to see Bede's next battle with Laverne. He needed to know it was true that there were more Trainers like Heather and her friends. She wasn't interested, or rather she had something else she needed to do. She needed to ask Desiderio about that book before the press convinced him that she was a murderer.

Tansy didn't actually know Ballonlea that well. She and Nashira went with Heather anyway. The bus to the town centre was late. When it finally arrived, the space for prams and wheelchairs was full of Pokémon. The air conditioning was broken. It was a sweaty 79 minutes, stopping and starting in the incessant rush hour traffic, until they reached the first stop in the centre. They decided to get off there and walk.

Heather had the same impression of the high street as Triton. It was bizarre to see the modern, uniform frontages of chain stores lining a Ballonlea street that was otherwise as quaint as its surroundings. Tansy pointed out a mushroom invading a cosmetic shop's display. A Chinchou floated around in the windows of the No. 1 Pharmacy. Nashira didn't get why it was funny, but she giggled with them anyway.

'So... it must be this alley.'

They spotted the wooden Craving Books sign, tinted green by a giant mushroom that grew out of another shop's open window. The lights were on inside. Desiderio's Indeedee served tea, coffee and cakes to the customers reading on the café terrace above. The mushrooms and flowers contained in hanging baskets and troughs were almost as carefully controlled as those in Bede's garden, although the building seemed to bear some scars from previous mushroom invasions.

An Inkay floated by. The Impidimp that jumped out of a hanging basket waved a Craving Books catalogue. That was interesting, or at least Heather thought it was. Would wild Impidimp help any old person without being bound to them by a Poké Ball? Or would they only help someone who could speak to them?

'Maybe they enjoy the hard sell?' Tansy suggested, 'It annoys people, after all.'

'Actually, yeah. No, dude, I don't need the catalogue. I already have one.'

The door was propped open by a heavy pot of mushrooms. Quiet classical music drifted from the wide-open door. The fans that whirred to cool the stuffy air inside were like the high street: bizarrely modern contraptions amongst the ceiling-high shelves lit in every colour of the rainbow by mushrooms that grew from the shelves themselves. Even more colours crept in from the mushrooms outside.

Heather expected to find Desiderio after spotting his Indeedee. She didn't recognise the assistant stocking shelves, the one manning the till or the cleaner who grimaced as he binned a pile of excrement left by a Kalosian tourist's Furfrou. A notice propped up on the cash desk advised Desiderio's PhD students to call his personal number for study-related queries.

'Hello there!'

Tansy nearly jumped out of her skin. Neither she nor Heather heard the assistant creeping up on her.

'Can I help you find anything today? Anything in particular you're looking for? Need a recommendation?'

'Er... no. Thanks. I'm just looking around.'

'I actually just added some new arrivals to the maternity section!'

'I'm good. Thank you.'

'Is Desiderio here?' Heather asked, 'You know, the owner dude?'

'Are you sure I can't help?'

'I need some expert help. And he's the book bro. He knows me. Tell him it's Garnet from the Gym Challenge. Pluto's friend.'

'Oh, OK... well, he's in the back. I'll give him a shout.'

The man, in a baggy cardigan, apron and cargo pants all filled with books, hurried off. Tansy glanced back at Heather. She giggled.