Dinner was a hodgepodge. After using up all the remaining ingredients, Mai sautéed everything in oil to bring out the aroma, then stir-fried it all with freshly cooked rice.
They would be arriving in the Snowpoint City tomorrow, and Mai planned to use up all the ingredients she had been saving through frugality.
Luther stopped Mai from adding honey. The honey was extremely pure and could last a long time. He had only gotten a bit of it from an Ursaring, so he wanted to save it and eat it slowly. Putting it in fried rice would just ruin the flavor.
The Pokémon clutched their own feeding bowls eagerly, they had been waiting a long time for this lavish meal.
Mai first set aside portions for herself and Luther, then filled each Pokémon's feeding bowl with the fried rice. She also poured out the leftover Pokémon food as an extra treat.
Marill had just pounced toward her bowl when Luther blocked her.
"Before we eat, I have something to say." Mai also stopped Corsola from diving into her own dinner.
All the Pokémon shifted their gaze from the food to Luther. The scene resembled a family dinner where the parents give a customary speech before eating.
Which, in this case, wasn't far from the truth.
Mai held up the dark green gemstone ring, and Luther picked up the pearl necklace embedded with a Mega Stone. In unison, they asked: "Whose idea was this?"
The Pokémon glanced around at each other, looking left and right, then simultaneously pointed to one Pokémon.
Slowpoke was slowly bringing food to its mouth, seemingly unaware it had just been sold out.
Luther covered his face as he spoke. "Kirlia, Jumpluff, it was you two, wasn't it?"
Mai also called them out. "Eevee, Corsola, Slowpoke stayed behind to guard the camp, you two know that, right?"
Luther pulled Kirlia closer and gently patted her.
"I'm not mad at you guys. But something like this, something fun, should wait until we're awake. We get that you wanted to surprise us… but it almost turned into a scare."
Luther paused. "That Sharpedo must've been pretty vicious, huh?"
Sensing that neither Luther nor Mai was angry, the Pokémon involved in the afternoon's "operation" nodded. Vicious was putting it mildly… If they hadn't had the numbers, that thing could've chewed them up in no time.
"The gifts are amazing, thank you. But that was way too much of an adventure. If anything had happened to any of you, no necklace or ring would be worth it," Mai added, rubbing Eevee's head.
"Mai's right. Don't do this again. These trinkets aren't worth more than even one of you," Luther said, then tapped his chopsticks. "You stirred up quite a storm this afternoon. You must be starving, alright, let's eat!"
The moment Luther finished speaking, Marill darted to her feeding bowl and started devouring the rice. After a battle with a Sharpedo and a brawl with the treasure-hunting trio, she was completely famished.
Seeing how Marill was practically inhaling her food, Luther gave her a portion of his own. Kirlia had told him how much Marill had done that afternoon.
While eating, Mai asked, "So what do we do with these two accessories?"
"Keep the ring, it'd look good on you," Luther said between bites, then suddenly remembered something. "Oh, take out the Mega Stone from the necklace. Cynthia will be in Snowpoint City tomorrow and wants it. Her eyes were practically glowing today."
"Let's just sell the necklace," Mai suggested. "Could fetch a decent price."
"You don't like it?"
"I don't think you do either… You only mentioned the ring. Are you saying the necklace doesn't look good on me?"
Luther let out an awkward chuckle. "I just think that style doesn't suit you. Though honestly, I don't really understand girls' tastes."
"Oh ho? So what kind of accessories do you think suit girls?"
Luther didn't realize the danger of the question. He gave it some serious thought and was just about to answer when he suddenly realized.
'Damn. There's no way to answer this without digging my own grave!'
"I don't know either!" Luther decisively shut down the topic.
Mai didn't press it further.
"It's no big deal, we'll sell it. That way, we have more money for travel, and we can treat everyone to extra meals!"
The Pokémon all cheered, wholeheartedly supporting Mai's suggestion.
Just after finishing his meal, Luther suddenly saw a small white dot flash before his eyes. It was a Frillish, but it was blown away the moment it got close to Courtney.
Luther looked up at the sky.
Tiny white flakes were gently falling from the night sky, drifting and swirling in the cold wind.
"It's snowing."
As someone born and raised in the south, Luther's memories of winter usually meant still being able to wear short sleeves in December or seeing the sun blazing down in the middle of the month.
This was his first time ever seeing snow.
Mai, on the other hand, was unfazed. Snow was just an everyday thing for her. Sinnoh's weather tended to be cold, and the fact that it was already halfway through December before the first snow fell was actually quite late.
In past years around this time, Mai would be bundled up in thick clothes, organizing snowball fights in her family's courtyard with her own Pokémon split into two teams.
Setting rules was always a headache, and the first thing that had to be banned was using Moves.
The first snowball tournament had been ruined by Aggron, who was the first to come up with the strategy of using 'Dig' to dodge snowballs. Naturally, everyone copied him.
The flying Pokémon took to the sky, those who could dig went underground, and the rest just hid wherever they could.
It stopped being a snowball fight, it became a game of hide-and-seek.
So Mai banned the use of Moves, thinking, 'This time should be fine, right?'
But that night's snowball fight was ruined by Dusknoir.
Dusknoir, along with Gengar, used their Ghost-type abilities to cheat, one hiding all over the place, the other lurking in shadows, sneak-attacking with snowballs or stomping on shadows.
The Pokémon who didn't know 'Foresight' were outraged, 'How are we supposed to play like this?!'
Even the Pokémon who did know 'Foresight' were upset, 'We can't use Moves either! What do you want from us?!'
After banning the two serial cheaters from using those tactics, the game finally went smoothly. This was Mai's favorite thing to do after a snowfall. Unlike when she was little, when people would let her win carefully, her Pokémon never held back against her.
Mai always ended up being the favorite target in every snowball fight. Watching snowballs fly around chaotically as she scrambled to dodge, her Pokémon always had a blast.
Mai enjoyed it too, winning or losing didn't matter. That's the whole point of a game.
Luther's excitement over the snow was something Mai didn't really understand. He was acting like it was the first time he'd seen snow. But it does snow in Masago and Twinleaf Town, doesn't it?
Just as she took another bite, Mai suddenly remembered something. She grabbed her Pokédex, flipped through some stored data, then picked up her phone and checked the date.
"Hey hey, Luther, do you know what tomorrow is?"
Luther paused. "Tomorrow? Uh… is it your birthday?"
"Nope, it's your birthday. December 12th. I saw your registration info from when you got your Pokédex from Professor Rowan. I knew the date felt like I was forgetting something."
(End of Chapter)
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