Trailing behind, Nessa glanced at the back of Allen's head and thought to herself.
"Brace yourself," Bea reminded her.
Which only left Nessa more confused.
Before long, they reached the outskirts of Stow-on-Side.
A ranch sat there, ringed by wooden fencing. Through the rails, dozens of Miltank grazed without a care.
Clearly, this was a Miltank farm specializing in MooMoo Milk.
Nessa wiped the sweat beading on her brow and looked up to see Allen standing at the ranch gate, calling in:
"Old man!"
In under a minute, a white-bearded farmer in work clothes came out with a Miltank, chuckling.
"Allen, Bea, you're early as ever."
Then the old farmer looked down at the little bear at their side, eyes squinting into cheerful crescents. "The little guy's here too!"
"Ah-ya!"
Kubfu puffed out its barely-there belly and answered with overflowing confidence.
Clearly, this wasn't their first visit.
"Double the amount today," Allen said, hooking a thumb toward Nessa and her Pokémon behind him.
"Oh? And a pretty young lady, too. I thought you and Bea were a pair... guess I had that wrong," the old farmer teased.
Bea blew her cheeks up in a pout.
Beside him, Miltank heaved out several stacked crates packed with fresh MooMoo Milk.
"You're giving the Pokémon milk?" Nessa guessed.
Allen's mouth ticked up. He dealt the crates out layer by layer to Bea, Kubfu, Machamp, and to Nessa's Drednaw, Golisopod, and the rest…
"Alright. It's five a.m.," Allen said after checking a timer. "Today's drop points are Postwick and Wedgehurst. Every crate of MooMoo Milk must be delivered before nine."
"P-Postwick and Wedgehurst!?" Nessa's eyes went wide as saucers. She had a bad feeling about what Allen had planned. "You can't be serious. The two towns together are over fifty kilometers from here!"
Postwick was a small town, but famous as Champion Leon's hometown.
Wedgehurst was where her best friend Sonia lived.
She knew both places well.
And after they ran there… were they running back?
That'd be over a hundred kilometers!
"If they're not delivered, the milk will spoil. Any late deliveries come out of your breakfast," Allen snapped. "Move!"
"Aya-yo!"
Kubfu bolted for Postwick without another word.
Bea launched almost at the same time.
Golisopod and the others snapped to, sprinting after Kubfu.
Watching their backs disappear, Nessa swallowed hard.
Before she could collect herself, Allen had already taken off too, shadowing the Pokémon as they ran.
Nessa jolted, then hurried after them without thinking.
"Y-you're running too?" she asked when she caught up alongside him.
"What, the Trainer lounges on the sidelines while their Pokémon grind? Ever heard of leading by example?" Allen shot back.
Nessa's gorgeous face twisted into a smile uglier than a sob.
You make a solid point, but something feels off.
—
Wedgehurst was closer to Stow-on-Side, only about twenty kilometers.
Up front, Bea and the others were first to reach the most eye-catching villa in town, crates in hand.
"Hello! Today's milk delivery," Bea called from the door.
"You're as early as ever, Bea."
The one who stepped outside was a fashionable beauty with a head of striking orange hair who, coincidentally, was Nessa's best friend, Sonia.
"Woof! Woof!"
Yamper at Sonia's feet barreled out, tail wiggling a mile a minute at the crates of MooMoo Milk.
This was the research lab where Sonia worked with her grandmother, Professor Magnolia.
"But running all the way here from Stow-on-Side? Your training's nuts…" Sonia took the crate from Bea, poured milk into Yamper's bowl, and chuckled.
"Hah… haa… hah…"
A ragged breathing outside caught her ear. Sonia arched a brow and stepped out.
There stood Nessa with her face white as a sheet, about to pass out, one hand clutched to her chest, the other braced on the lab wall, gasping for air.
"N-Nessa?! You too—"
Startled, Sonia rushed over and caught her.
Nessa lifted her head with effort, shot her friend a sidelong glance, tried to speak, but not a single word came out.
Right now, she could only breathe, trying to dull the stabbing pain ripping through her lungs.
Normally, Nessa kept her supermodel figure with swimming and yoga.
But a single twenty-kilometer run without falling behind Kubfu and the other Pokémon, or Bea, a human-shaped Pokémon in her own right.
This trip had just about killed her.
Sonia sat Nessa down inside and poured her a glass of water.
Only after a long while did Nessa's breathing finally steady.
"What happened? Why are you with Bea and Allen?" Sonia asked, curious.
"I… I want to get stronger too…" Nessa's face was still pale.
"You didn't have to run with them to do that," Sonia couldn't help but quip.
Allen had been delivering MooMoo Milk with Bea and Kubfu for nearly two months now, so they knew each other.
From Bea, Sonia also knew she was training under this man named "Allen."
But she hadn't expected her best friend to jump in as well.
Fine if you add your Pokémon. But why are you throwing your own life on the line, too?
Are you trying to copy Bea, become a human-shaped Pokémon with Brawl personally?
"Master, at this rate, we'll miss the delivery window," Bea said after downing a can of MooMoo Milk.
Girls in their teens should drink milk to grow tall, that was Allen's teaching.
Allen checked the timer again, then flicked a finger toward the door.
Kubfu, Machamp, and the rest, practiced as ever, grabbed the crates and tore off toward the next town, Postwick.
Seeing that, Nessa's Pokémon didn't dare dawdle; they sprinted after them.
Bea refused to be left behind, cradled a crate, and ran.
Allen turned to Nessa. "You should rest here. We're heading out."
With that, he left the lab as well.
After all, Nessa was just an ordinary woman. The strength she wanted was simply to become a powerful Trainer like Leon.
She wasn't chasing personal power the way Allen and Bea were.
So Allen had never intended to force her to train alongside them.
"W-wait for me!"
Watching their silhouettes grow smaller, Nessa lurched to her feet, but the moment both feet touched the floor,
a wave of pain surged from her lower abdomen up into her skull. She stumbled, nearly going down.
"What are you doing? Rest!" Sonia caught her a second time and tapped her forehead. "Or do you really want Bea's corded-muscle physique?"
Truth be told, Bea's six-pack, which was sharper than 95% of men's, and the faint swell of muscle under her skintight gear did have a different sort of charm than Nessa's or Sonia's brand of beauty.
But becoming like that… Sonia shivered. Over her dead body.
"Drednaw and the others are giving it everything. I… I can't slack off!"
Nessa shook her head and hobbled forward, moving barely faster than a walk as she forced herself to follow.
Sonia watched her friend's back in silence, full of question marks.
Pokémon training, does the Trainer have to grind too?
How does that make any sense?
She suspected her bestie had already been led astray by that muscle-brained master-and-disciple duo, Allen and Bea.