We approached the city again; despite her bemusement, I Balled Himiko as I went to the Pokécenter.
Once we enter, I make my way to Nurse Joy to drop off Himiko for a check-up and healing but when I go to approach, I find there's currently a line for her attention, so I just turn to the Mart clerk, a different person than last time.
Makes sense since being a store clerk is more accessible as a profession than being a Pokémon nurse so they can rotate shifts more, that does make me realize the Joy's are herculean if there aren't at least 2 members of human medical staff per Pokécenter.
Maybe it's a universal constant that medical fields are understaffed and overworked?
Regardless I approached the Clerk and like before I went for the sell option since money makes the world go round.
Again, the gloves come out when I present the star piece and nugget for appraisal, she only needs to weigh the nugget to learn its value like the last time but with the Star piece, she also had to take out a tape measure to get exact measurements.
"Thank you for bringing these items in sir, The Nugget has been valued at $4800 and the Star piece of this size and weight is roughly between $6000 and $6200, due to store policy and various taxes we can buy the pair for $10,200; Would that be fine with you?"
Hearing the value I just smile and nod agreeing, but internally I'm annoyed at how taxes are stealing tons of money from me.
I grind my teeth and bear it before asking the clerk to retrieve some items. The first one is the dimensional backpack since it is needed, other things on my shopping list are various tools like some climbing gear, a belt for Pokéball, a few Pokéballs for the belt, a Watering pail and a shovel.
Lastly, something I found to be really cheap in the store are various berries of all kinds, so I collected an assortment of them since I have a plan.
Why not do some Gardening in Entralink.
The idea isn't as crazy as it might seem, the island is just a plaza surrounded by a meadow, it seems to have a stable ecosystem since while me and Himiko were there it did actually rain, also with the amount of trees on the north of the island it proves life is viable.
I don't plan to sell the berries though, there for my future team, having an orchard will help mitigate their food costs over time so it's worth it, also another part of my plan needs a constant supply of them.
Now with everything I need I make my way to Nurse Joy, whose line has faded to nothing, so it's just a job of paying before approaching her.
"Oh, hello again, I hope you enjoyed your stay in our city, let me guess you want to give your Pokémon a check-up before leaving," she says with a hand on her cheek and a tilt of her head but with a smile still on her face.
I simply nod and hand over Himiko's ball where she places it in the machine like before, it does some small beeps and produces some flashing lights, but it doesn't take long for Nurse Joy to take her ball back from the machine and return her to me.
"she's fine, slightly bruised near her tail, she'll be fine with just some rest." Hearing this I nod my head and turn to leave.
When I turn around, I come across a very interesting sight.
In front of me entering the Pokémon centre is an auburn-haired woman in blue baggy clothes, I can recognise her since I remembered to make note of all the gym leaders I can remember.
But her appearance alone wouldn't be what I would describe as interesting, it's more the pale-yellow spectre like being clinging onto her back like a backpack.
The weirdest thing is that as Skyla comes towards me and Nurse Joy, no one seems to notice the Pale-yellow Spectre on her back.
As they approach, I do notice that my Xtransceiver goes off.
I take some tentative steps to the side toward a waiting area and take a seat before checking my device, when I do I find it in a 4th hidden app, this one looks like a grid with a spinning hand in clockwise motions.
On the screen of the app though is a Pale-yellow ping drawing my attention, so I click on it and when I do a Text box appears on the app.
[Shadow of Desire]
[Host: Gym Leader Skyla]
[Root: I love flying my plane, more than the role of being a gym leader which I inherited from my grandfather.]
[Shadow Tier: B+]
[Progression: Stage 2 (3 months and 2 weeks until collapse).]
[Do you wish to exorcise the Shadow?]
[Yes][No]
So that's what a shadow looks like. . .
I thought they would appear more menacing but maybe it's because it's a shadow of a non-aggressive emotion and a piss-coloured humanoid made of fog isn't really threatening.
I will say I wasn't expecting to find a shadow so early on and to be clear I feel I'm not even in a position to actually help her right now, I know I've been told to fight them but it's more of a question of how instead of why.
I keep my focus on the app and click around it to try and learn anything, I somehow find a small pull-out tab which leads to a menu with an option called a guide.
Opening it allows me to find a small tutorial that I swear should have been told to me beforehand.
It turns out to exorcise the shadow it can cured in three ways depending on if it's latched onto a Pokémon or a human.
The simplest is for a Pokémon it means I have to battle it, but it becomes way more powerful in some way, for Humans there are two methods, the first being resolving the root of the emotions and the second is a full-blow exorcism ritual but the shadow would physically possess the person and causes them to fight back without morals meaning it's a life-or-death battle.
Aka, to exorcise a Pokémon battle them, for a human to fix their problem or battle them where the gloves come off.
Want to know the worst part of this situation, I have terrible conflict management skills...
Meaning fixing their problems would possibly be the hardest of the three for me.
This means fighting shadows would probably be a focus of actual battles, which means since I'm just starting out with Himiko this is way above our pay grade to tackle.
I make my way out of the Pokémon centre and head towards the west of the town, towards the largest Landmark of this city.
The International Trading Airport.