I Sting (Pokemon Poison Type Specialist)

In the end, after Virah had successfully captured her second team member, she and her friends decided that instead of venturing deeper into the forest and possibly walking back to their camp during the night, they should just go back to their camp now and start preparing their dinner.

That last part meant that they needed to decide if they wanted to eat another Bug Type again or if they should catch a Pidgey and cook it.

That was the question lingering between them as they made their way back; should they kill a Normal Type or just another Bug Type?

The answer seemed simple but in the end, there’s the problem of them possibly not eating enough if they simply eat Caterpies for the rest of their exam.

After all, Caterpies, while packed with fat thanks to their preparation to evolve into a Metapod, are still tiny Bug Types with a length that’s just a little over Virah’s forearm- and that kind of thing simply isn’t enough to feed all three of them.

Or maybe…

“Actually… it should be enough,” Virah backtracked, “a Caterpie is full of fat isn’t it?” She turned to Grene and Whitney to see the two of them nod, “then that means that there’s enough calories in one of them to feed all of us every single day,”

“But?” Whitney asked, rightfully suspecting that there was a second part to Virah’s suggestion.

“But I don’t think that uh, let’s say it would be great if we just eat Caterpies for a month straight? After all, they are full of fat, it’s probably a quick way to get high cholesterol if we do that,” Virah said.

“Right,” Whitney hummed, “and how bad is high cholesterol anyway? I don’t think I’ve seen anyone with those kinds of problems before?”

“It’s because going out on journeys with Pokemon is encouraged for people of all ages,” Grene answered for Virah, “and if someone walks for miles every day just to get from city to city then they’ll burn enough energy and fat and even get their heart going fast enough that high cholesterol wouldn’t be a problem until they’re very old,”

Whitney stared at Grene like she had grown a second head, “I- since when did you know about all this? I thought Virah was supposed to be like, our brain or something?” She gestured at Virah for emphasis, “she’s the head who makes plans and decisions,” she pointed at herself, “I’m the heart that keeps us bright and happy,” Whitney pointed at Grene, “and you’re the arms and legs that punches and kicks people,”

“... I’m a martial artist, knowing about how our health can be damaged is something that should be obvious,” Grene retorted as if she was offended which, to be fair, might just be the case.

“Okay, okay,” Virah stepped in, “Grene’s right, most trainers exercise for long enough that high cholesterol isn’t really a problem but we’re going to be sitting down on our tent every day with little to no exercise during the exam,” she explained, “and if we’re going to eat Caterpies all day, then… let’s just say that by the time we finish, we won’t be as small and fit as we are when we first started,”

Whitney’s face scrunched up in confusion before her expression shifted into dawning horror, “by Ho oh-” she said breathlessly, “- no! I am not getting fat!”

“You-” Virah paused, it’s probably best not to tell her friend that she was already quite chubby, “as I was about to say, you won’t get fat if we moderate our food intake, like you know, just eating one or two Caterpies a day, or better yet, eat actual protein in the form of meat, which mostly comes from Normal Types like Pidgeys, or maybe a Ratata but… I’d rather not if we could?”

“Then let’s go catch a Pidgey!” Whitney had suddenly turned excited but Virah caught the small moment when her face turned uncomfortable. She followed after her friend, Whitney looked at her, “what?”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to eat a Pidgey,” Virah said, “I know that we can… be close to them and they are smart-” very smart actually, the Pidgeots that she’s seen had the eyes that gave off the feel of being human, “- so it’s only natural that if you grew up with one of them, you’ll feel uncomfortable eating them?..”

Whitney’s face softened and she sighed, “Virah, I’m not as weak as you think I am,”

“You better not be,” Grene stepped in, “or else how would our group’s “heart” keep us positive and optimistic when we’re in the down low huh? If you’re so weak willed, then how will you go up to us and comfort us when we’re crying in some random bench somewhere because we lost a gym battle?”

Whitney chuckled nervously and scratched the sides of her cheek, “I mean, if you put it like that then you know- it just makes me feel guilty for relying on the two of you about this whole thing!”

“Well… to be fair,” Virah started, deciding that the conversation needed a step back, “there’s a world of difference between eating a Pokemon and losing a gym battle,”

Whitney snapped her fingers, “exactly what I was saying!’ She said with an energetic nod, “so yeah, I guess it is fine if I rely on you two for support when it comes to killing Pokemon since you two are like, used to it or maybe just don’t mind it as much as I do,”

Virah nodded, “you can rely on us too, not just you know, the opposite,”

Grene imitated Virah’s nod, “agreed.”

“Anyways… with that out of the way, uhm… what do we need to eat? A Pidgey or a Caterpie?” Whitney broke the ice, “and I mean I say that we “need to eat” but like, what do we want to eat?”

“How about this,” Virah said, catching onto what the pinkette was saying, “it’s fine if you want to eat a Caterpie right now since it’s only our second Pokemon meal but we need to eat a Pidgey by tomorrow if we want to keep ourselves fit and healthy,”

Whitney giggled, “okay, I do want to eat a Caterpie right now actually,”

Virah smiled and took out her bug net, “then let’s go search for one,”

The capture of the Caterpie this time around was so much easier both in process and in their conscience because they were used to doing it now- well, used was a loose term, more like, they’ve already done it so it made things easier for them.

But now that they’re back at their camp, they had to kill the Pokemon and Virah wasn’t sure if she could do it again but when she asked her friends, none of them really volunteered so it was left to her to kill the Caterpie and prepare their meal for the second time.

The words “left to her” are used very loosely in this context since Kitten and Hollie were here to help out again.

They were holding down the Caterpie while she stood idle in front of it, knife held between shaky fingers and eyes looking like they were wet and on the verge of tearing up. Bile rose up her throat as well but all it took for her to deal with that was a simple swallow and a couple of deep breaths.

“You can do this,” she said to herself in encouragement, “how hard can this possibly be?” She laughed nervously, and her fear only worsened when she realized what she was about to do- again- what she was about to do again.

“Okay, okay,” she stepped forward while keeping an eye on Kitten just in case he pulled his stupid tricks again, he thankfully didn’t and Virah was left with eyeing the Caterpie with a nervous, dazed out look after she got close enough, “you-”

She couldn’t even finish her sentence before someone pushed her from behind, causing her to stumble and fall, and then evidently, the knife she was holding plunged into something, and that something started to struggle and cry out in pain.

Virah pulled the knife back in horror but before Kitten could use Fake Out again to make her stab the poor Pokemon, she instead decided to just yell out a loud “sorry!’ And then proceeded to stab the knife on the Caterpie’s head- something squishy broke down from the pointed tip and it was like her knife was inside something gooey.

Virah eyed her “work” and stepped back, she breathed heavily from seeing the sight of a knife directly embedded in a Caterpie’s wide, emotional eyes- a feature that was the most iconic thing about the Bug Type and she- she-

Virah heaved and gagged, “I’m so sorry!”

No cry came out in response from the corpse and the only sound that entered her ears were the disgusted growl of Kitten as he took out the knife and stared longingly at the ruined eyes of the Caterpie, the Meowth looked at Virah dryly, “mrowww~”

“I don’t think that’s the problem right now!” Virah glared at the feline, who just continued staring dryly at her, “your stupid snack isn’t even ruined! It just- it just-”

Virah gagged again when she saw the now bloody eye of the Caterpie and it didn’t take long for her friends to come to her to start comforting her.

Virah welcomed it, and Whitney was right- she was the heart of their group, and also very much needed in the future if things like this kept happening to them.