Hong Meiling Sleepwalks Through the Heavens

Along their journey down the mountain, Cynthia introduced Hong Meiling to some basic knowledge on how to become a Pokémon Trainer.

Meiling now possesses Heatran, so all she needs to do is register at the Pokémon League and obtain an official Trainer certificate. The League is dispersed all throughout the Pokémon world, so they can be easily accessed by any Trainer in need of help.

While registering, you need to provide a proof-of-identity, whether it is a birth certificate, student ID, work permit, or even driver’s license. One could even do so online.

Hearing this, Meiling visibly frowned, wondering where would she even produce these relevant documents.

“Uh, I don’t have any identity-thingies on me. What now?”

Cynthia raised a curious eyebrow, as if she was thinking, Really? Not even your birth certificate?

“Did you… lose your ID or something?” Cynthia inquired. “We could go to the police station to get a new one, then register at the League. It will just take a little longer for everything to get settled.”

“I don’t know how to explain this, but I never had a birth certificate.”

Cynthia was dumbfounded at first, but then deduced that, since Meiling was most likely half-human-half-Pokémon, she would be ostracized by society at large. Hence, her parents wouldn’t officially and document their child, and naturally, she wouldn’t have a birth certificate in the first place.

Cynthia, thinking she knows the truth, was proud of herself, but also thought of ways to help out her new friend.

She thought of looking for her human parents, but if they went through the trouble of hiding Meiling, it was unlikely that they would appear. Perhaps Miss Meiling was heavily controlled during her childhood and dreamt of being in the outside world. She got tired of her parents controlling her, and ran away from home when she got strong enough and somehow ended up here… in Stark Mountain.

After a brief brainstorm, Cynthia simply nodded, “Let’s take a detour, then – instead of going down south tomorrow, we’ll go south-west and take a boat from Veilstone City all the way to Celestic Town, where I live. When we get there, I’ll ask my grandmother to get an ID for you.”

Cynthia’s grandmother is named Carolina, and she is a Professor who studies the history of Pokémon. She also acts as the Director of Celestic Town Historical Research Center, and holds deep understanding in terms of the history of Pokémon.

Because of this, her name spread across the entirety of Sinnoh. Alongside Professor Rowan, both of them are probably the most well-known figures in Sinnoh.

“Thank you. You didn’t need to do any of this for me,” Meiling said apologetically. She thought that she had ruined Cynthia’s plans of going to Sunyshore City.

“It’s no big deal,” she brushed it off. “There are still several months before the Sinnoh League is held, which is more than enough time for me to obtain all the remaining badges.”

“And,” she continued. “I could get my grandmother to get you a Pokédex to save you the trouble of buying it.”

The Pokédex is simply an indispensable item for every Pokémon Trainer. With the Pokédex, they can avoid many common mistakes and pitfalls during the training process. Generally, Trainers need to spend money to obtain a Pokédex for themselves, while those favored by Professors will be given one for free. Even then, their supply is limited, and thus, the League only provides it to those they deem qualified. For a regular Trainer, they could only obtain knowledge through books or cards, but they are, of course, much less convenient than the Pokédex, since it can be updated with new information online.

Something like a Pokédex would help Meiling out greatly, and Meiling once again bowed in gratitude towards Cynthia.

And true enough, it was already past seven in the evening when the two arrived back at town.

Cynthia was both tired and hungry after running around the mountain for an entire day. Grasping Meiling’s hand groggily, she took her straight towards the Pokémon Center.

“Welcome to Stark Mountain’s Pokémon Center! Can I help you with anything?” Nurse Joy’s gentle and melodious voice sung when the two stepped into the center.

“Nurse Joy, could you help our Pokémon recover? We would also like to book a double room, two meals, and one kilogram of high-quality Pokémon food.”

Pokémon Centers don’t just provide services to heal Pokémon – they also provide food and accommodation for travelling Trainers.

“Oookay,” Nurse Joy mumbled as she clicked through her computer. “What can I get you two for dinner? Or would you like us to help you choose?”

“Sure.”

“Okay! That would be 350 for the room, 120 for two meals, and 280 for the Pokémon food. Your total is 750 dollars.”

Meiling was somewhat confused by the fact that they needed to pay to stay and eat at the Pokémon Center, but slapped herself in the head almost immediately, Of course they need to charge us! How would they operate without any money?!

However, Nurse Joy didn’t mention any charges regarding their Pokémon recovery services, which probably means that its free.

Wait, but Ash and the other protagonists stayed and ate in many Pokémon centers themselves. Where did they get their money from? Like… they get it from battles, but in the real world, that’s straight-up robbery! Forget it! I don’t wanna think about it anymore!

Cynthia took out something that visually resembled a credit card and handed it to Nurse Joy.

“Ah, thank you again, for paying for me,” Meiling mumbled with guilt.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Cynthia smiled. Indeed, the money spent is nothing to her.

However, this caused Meiling to face a repeating conundrum – work. No matter what world she stepped into, it seemed that destiny had aligned itself for Meiling to find work. If she and Cynthia separates, she might not be able to find a place to stay or feed herself.

Cynthia handed her Poké Balls to Nurse Joy. Meiling, on the other hand, pondered for a moment before handing her own Poké Ball as well.

After all, Heatran must’ve been quite injured from their fight.

The two then went to the Pokémon Center’s restaurant to eat.

The waiter set down two simple meals before them – it was a bento consisting of rice, vegetables, a fried egg, a small porkchop, and a small bowl of soup.

Meiling ravaged through her food, tasting the fried eggs and porkchop on her tongue before a worrying thought appeared in her head, Wait, what meat is this?

There has always been speculation whether ordinary animals exist in the Pokémon world. In the anime, there were ordinary animals, and Ash was seen eating fried chicken and other foods during his travels. However, later on in the anime, it seemed that the producers deliberately tried to avoid mentioning ordinary animals, and Ash and his friends seemingly became vegetarian overnight.

Looking down at the food before her, she gulped, The eggs are made from a chicken. The porkchop is made from pork.

Plus, it seemed ridiculously expensive – it was 60 Pokémon Dollars per meal!

However, Cynthia expressed that this wasn’t much money to her as she downed her own bowl of soup.

The Pokémon Dollar sign seemed to mimic the form of the Japanese Yen from her observation.

“Cynthia, how much do Poké Balls cost?” Meiling asked as she finished the last of her food.

“200 Pokémon Dollars. Why?”

“Just asking!”

This reflected the price in-game too. Life imitates art.

After they were done with their meals, Meiling and Cynthia went back to the counter to collect their Poké Balls. Nurse Joy then handed them their room key and a bag of Pokémon Food, and the two headed over to their assigned room.

Opening the door, it seemed relatively small for a double room – just about 20m². There were two beds, tables and chairs, and two tinier beds that resembled cribs for babies.

Noticing her gaze, Cynthia explained, “Those are for the smaller Pokémons to sleep in.”

Although Pokémon are able to rest in their Poké Balls, some Trainers prefer to release their favored Pokémon out from their ‘cages’ and let them sleep on the bed. Pokémons are comfortable within the confines of their Poké Ball, but a soft and fluffy bed is infinitely comfier for them.

Of course, the cribs were limited to small, tiny Pokémon. Large Pokémons should stay inside their Poké Balls.

Some Trainers sleep on the same bed with their Pokémon, even cuddling them like a human would with their pet in order to bond with them. Meiling thought of letting Heatran out to sleep with her, but immediately launched a rainbow-kick towards her dangerous thoughts.

Heatran is huge! And it might set this entire Pokémon Center on fire!

However, Heatran still needed to be fed. Meiling pushed aside several pieces of furniture and released her Heatran so that she could feed and bond with her new Pokémon.

Cynthia released her four Pokémon too, and the tiny room seemed even more claustrophobic now.

Fortunately, Heatran doesn’t hog up that much space, since it was only about 1.7 meters long. If she had captured an Onix instead, she might have to lead it outdoors.

Translator Notes:

In the currency section, the author used Chinese yuan instead of Pokémon Dollars which… doesn’t seem very in-Universe to me and might break reader immersion. I fixed the dialogue section slightly up until the price of the Poké Balls. For reference, 60 yuan is about 8.34 USD as of 27/2/2024.