Cascarrafa, The City of Water. Creative name, I know. It is the location of Paldea''s Water Type Gym, and my current place to stay for the foreseeable future.


    The City itself is made up of three levels, with elevators attached to the cliffs to take passengers up and down the stair-like city.


    It was an aesthetically beautiful city with buildings of white and blue, giving off a heavy Mediterranean feel that reminds me of my past life, although the beauty of the city is offset by the major and glaring architectural design flaws that are obvious to anyone with eyes.


    "Why did they not build any stairs?" I asked for what must have been the tenth time since our little group arrived in the city.


    The only way to move from one level of the city to another is through the previously mentioned elevators. There are no stairs, there are no slopes, nothing.


    I get it, Paldea doesn''t have as good a road network as other regions, mainly Galar and Unova, but what if someone bought a shipment from outside the city? How is a truck going to make it from the middle level to the bottom?


    It''s a travesty of city design and I already dread needing to take these elevators every time I need to switch a level.


    "Well... At least the view of the desert is nice, And I can almost see the ocean if I look hard enough..." I sighed, feeling Fanny''s tail already slap against my back, her weak usage of Torment doing nothing more than to pull me out of my bummed-out thoughts and focus on the two other trainers in our group.


    "Yosh! Let''s eat lunch!" Dendra said loudly, her arms swinging back and forth as she marched down the street like a soldier in boot camp, her eyes staring straight ahead. Most of her team returned to their Pokeballs once we entered the city, with only Medicham staying outside, mostly because she causes the least amount of trouble.


    "Where?" Eri, the ten-year-old trainer that temporarily joined our group asked, her Passimian back in his ball, Mankey staying close to her to not accidentally bump into other people or Pokemon on the street, "There are so many options..."


    "Some place that''s fit for lunch, surely," I told Eri. Fanny climbing up my back and laying her chin on my shoulder so she could look ahead, "A cafe could be nice, not too heavy, not too expensive, just right in the middle,"


    "No! A Cafe is for Brunch or an afternoon snack," Dendra said loudly, sharply turning around to stare at Eri and me.


    "It was just a suggestion... Also, you''re the one who''s paying." I told her, "You get to choose where we eat." My hand reached into my pocket, starting to fidget with the shrunken-down premier ball with a tiny Fomantis resting inside, rolling the small ball between my fingers.


    "Right, I get to choose!" Dendra said with renewed vigor, once more turning her back on Eri and I as she returned to marching down the street in search of a restaurant of her choice.


    "Medicham..." The Figthing/Psychic type gave us a look of apology before she ran ahead to catch up with her trainer.


    "Welp, Let''s not let her run away." I told Eri, the little girl nodding as the two of us resumed our walk down the street, her Mankey glaring at the many Murkrow and Squawkabilly that lived on the nearby roofs.


    <hr>


    Dendra decided we would eat at a restaurant on the bottom level of the city, which meant we got the privilege of taking the large elevator down a step.


    The restaurant itself was a place called Jade Palace Garden, which sold the Paldean attempt at making Kantonian cuisine.


    It was an "Asian Restaurant"


    Dendra and Eri both ordered the Ramen bowls, while I ordered the Pepper Steak with a side of Pickled Toedscool and Cucumbers.


    "Are you sure you want to pay for everything? You know I can pay for my own meal, you don-" I tried to ask Dednra, but the fighting-type specialist merely shook her head and said not to worry about it.


    The food itself was fine, the juice from the Pepper Steak soaked into the rice that came with the meal, giving it a juicy flavor, and the pickles were a nice palate cleanser to wash away the oily meal.


    I left a bit of the Pepper Steak for Fanny to eat while I left to go to the bathroom, returning to find Mankey eating the leftovers from Eri''s bowl.


    "Whew~ That was good," Dendra said once we left the restaurant, her hands on her hips as she stretched her back, "What should we have for dessert?"


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Ice Cream!" Eri immediately answered, her eyes wide and sparkling in the way only a little girl could make them, her Mankey joining her in giving Dendra the puppy-dog eyes.


    "I think dessert should be saved for dinner," I told the girls, "Right now, you two need to find a hotel for the night, while I need to update Miss Orchid to tell her that I made it to Cascarrafa," I stretched my arms as I started walking to a quiet bench at the side of the road, the only sound nearby coming from a group of young trainers battling each other several meters away.


    "Fine, we''ll get ice cream after dinner," Dendra said with disappointment before she pointed ahead, placed her hand on Eri''s shoulder, and started marching away, "Let''s go find a hotel! Osu!"


    "O- Osu!" Eri mimicked Dendra, struggling to keep up with the older girl''s longer legs.


    "I''ll meet you at the plaza on the second layer at Five!" I called out to the girls, and Eri turned to give me a thumbs up to notify me that she heard me and would tell Dendra.


    <hr>


    "Gotho... Rita?"


    Outside the Alfronda Battle Hotel, a young psychic-type Pokemon turned her head to look at a small device ringing beside her, sticking out of the small bag that her boss carried around.


    "Go?" She said as she levitated the ringing device out of the bag to look at it, recognizing the device as a phone.


    Two questions popped into her mind, one went along the lines of "Should I go call Orchid?"


    The other went in the opposite direction.


    So of course, she chose the second option.


    "Gothorita~" She said as her small hand clicked on the green button that appeared on the phone''s screen, placing the device next to her ear.


    "Gothorita?" She heard the voice from the other side of the device repeat, her eyes widening as she recognized the voice on the other side of the phone.


    "Ri Rita!" She said with a smile as she started walking in circles around the plaza outside the hotel, ignoring the stares her family was giving her.


    "Look, Gothorita, I need to speak with Orchid, can you give her the phone?" Dishon asked from the other side of the device.


    "Gothi!" Gothorita gave a small salute before she turned to where Orchid was standing, speaking with a few construction workers who were busy taking down a wall from the hotel, needing to apparently replace all the piping in that section of the building.


    <hr>


    I waited patiently with my ear to my phone, listening as Gothorita gave the phone to Orchid, who seemed to be in the middle of a discussion with someone else.


    "Who is- Dishon! Sweetie, how is everything going? All good I hope~" Orchid said the moment she picked up the phone, her tone switching instantaneously when she realized I was the one calling her.


    "Everything is fine here, Miss Orchid, I was just calling to let you know that we made it to Cascarrafa," I told my boss and landlady.


    "Really? I''ll update my friend Isabella, She''s the one I spoke to you about," Orchid told me.


    "About the guest room, yes I remember, It was only three days ago," I told her.


    "Only three days? It feels like an entire year passed since we talked about it... Just joking~" Orchid chuckled from the other side of the phone, "I''ll text you her address once I finish giving her a call of my own, I already sent your bonus to the bank, both for the repairs and for helping take down those Team Flare ruffians~" She distanced the phone from herself for a moment, letting me hear her shout at some people that were too far to be heard, "Anyways, I want you to give me a call tomorrow evening as well, update me on everything, okay Sweetie? See you in three weeks~"


    Before I could respond to her request, she already hung up on me, likely to speak to this Isabella friend of hers.


    Five minutes later, I received the text with the address.


    "Well, let''s go introduce ourselves~" I told Fanny as I stood up, the poison type climbing back up my body and wrapping around my waist, a flash of light from a premier ball absorbing Lemon back into her ball.


    The address led to a house on the west side of the bottom layer of Cascarrafa, which was close to where we already were so there wasn''t much walking required. It was a two-story building with white-painted walls and a sloped roof painted blue, it had a small fenced-off garden behind it that bordered the Asado Desert.


    Beyond the fence and into the desert, I could spot several Capsakids running around in the sand, tripping and dropping their teeth before returning to their game of chase.


    I looked at the door, took a deep breath, grabbed the strap of the new bag I carried, and pressed the doorbell.


    As the door opened, a small boy popped out, roughly the same age as Eri.


    "Yo, are you the guy Mom said will be staying for a few weeks?" The boy asked, the toothy grin on his face contrasting with his lidded eyes, giving him a slightly creepy look.


    "Ehh... Yes?" I ignored the slaps on my back courtesy of Fanny, "Is your Mom here?"


    "Nah, She''s at the Rant, that''s short for Restaurant, but she told me to show you to the guest room once you get here," He led me inside, "Dijon, right? What is that? Kalosian?"


    "It''s Dishon actually, and I''m from Unova originally," I told the kid as we went up the stairs onto the second floor, before stopping at a door at the end of a small corridor.


    "Doesn''t sound Unovan, but I don''t judge~" The kid shrugged his shoulders, "This here''s your room, It has its own shower and bathroom attached, you can thank Dad for that one~ Set your things down, Mom will be back at eight and Dad will get here in an hour or two, yo~" He told me as I opened the door to the guest room and took a look inside.


    "Also, Mom will expect to speak with you once she''s back, so be here before eight if you plan on going out," The kid said with a smirk as I took a look around the room, checking in on the bathroom that was on the other side of the room.


    "Good to know." I told him, "By the way, do you know of any good Ice Cream places around here? I told some friends that we''ll have Ice Cream after dinner."


    "Do I know? Heh~ Don''t sweat it, I''ll show you all the places that are worth memorizing here in the city~" He smiled to himself before he pointed a finger at my face, "Yo! I''m Giacomo! At the deck, I go by DJ Vice! Call me whichever- It''s a vibe either way~"


    "Pawniard!" A Small Pokemon jumped out from behind him, joining the kid in pointing at my face as if they were trying to copy a pose from some cartoon they watched.


    And looking at them, I couldn''t help but note to myself that the next three weeks until the hotel was fixed, were not going to be calm or normal.


    But I guess I should have expected something lively to happen, after all, this is the wonderful world of Pokemon.