Chapter 52
Virah stood up and smiled at Hollie, "you're pretty much fine save for the microfractures in your arms from blocking Knuckle's Focus Punch," the Machop flashed her a weak smile, "you'll heal those in a day and you'll be able to carry heavy things a few hours later- maybe when the ranger gets here,"
Which was what? Around an hour from now?
Virah hummed as she walked away from Hollie, she should be done healing her and her friends' Pokemon by the time a Ranger gets here to tell them that they've passed.
Pokemon were tough creatures and that naturally meant that they had amazing regeneration, because of that, a trainer only really needs to worry about their team if they suffer mortal wounds.
None of their Pokemon had that and so, Virah took her time in treating them, she made sure to give all of their Pokemon a thorough check up that left nothing unchecked.
Once she was done assessing their health- which was pretty good overall, no surprise there, - she went ahead and started their treatment, which, all in all, consisted of nothing but a brief maintenance.
Nitro was the first Pokemon she treated. She started with his chest, which, as Grene said after her spar with Whitney earlier, wasn't damaged thanks to Virah's Aura protecting him.
His carapace did have a scratch running down its surface, which she assumed was larger than what she's seeing now a few hours ago but the damage wasn't severe enough that she needed to worry about it.
Virah did make sure to give it proper treatment of course, since she knows that when it comes to armored Pokemon like Beedrills and Forretresses, external damage could sometimes hide internal ones.
She grabbed a dish of healing balm from her bag and slathered it on the damaged bodypart before giving Nitro a sitrus berry shake to make him heal faster, after that, she proceeded to balm and oil his drills so that they don't dull.
Nitro's treatment finished once she was done slathering more healing balm on his back, directly next to the bottom of his wings.
And with that, Virah walked away and nodded at her Pokemon; the most common sign she gives him whenever she finishes her treatment.
"I'm going to give you Carbos and Protein later," she told Nitro as the Beedrill rubbed his back with his drill, she smiled fondly, "I know that it feels hot but that's the anesthetic effect of the balm, just ignore it and you'll get used to it,"
"Beedrill..." Nitro grumbled as he stopped reaching for his back, "Beedrill."
"I know, but it's to make you heal faster," Virah smiled.
She felt slightly thankful that it was the balm that Nitro was stingy towards because if it was something else- like the diet of fruits, vegetables, and meat that she gives him to help with his health, - the road ahead of her would have been hard.
Nitro let out a huff as he flew away and made his way towards Hollie, who grinned at him when he neared.
Virah turned away from the two as they talked and moved on to treating Kitten.
The Meowth shot her a harsh glare as she got close but didn't resist when she started treating him, the check up she did on him earlier already told her the extent of damage their spar had done to his body and so, it didn't take long for her to treat him.
First was the Meowth's head, Kitten's fur was fussed up from him throwing and getting thrown at by Nitro earlier but other than that, the Meowth was more or less fine.
Virah brushed them straight and then moved on to checking Kitten's legs, there, she pressed on some areas to check if his muscles cramped up before giving them a brief massage, Kitten winced as she popped the joints in his knees and hissed when she slathered the healing balm on his legs.
The Meowth kept glaring at her as she did the same to his arms before finally relaxing once she finished.
Virah stood up, "other than your legs, which you strained by using Quick Attack on Nitro's webs, you're fine," she handed the Meowth a sitrus berry shake for better healing, "just rest and don't move your legs and you should be fine,"
Kitten let out a grumble of a purr as he stood up and made his way to Hollie and Nitro.
The Meowth would do the things she said, mostly because he's lazy and the only thing he does when he's outside of his Pokeball is to lay down and sleep.
After Kitten, she checked on their Flying Types, who also sparred with each other.
Unlike their seniors though, Galeforce's and Jet's battle didn't end in a tie and instead, finished with Galeforce's victory.
Jet wasn't exactly mad about what happened, but Virah could tell that it affected the Zubat by a tiny bit because he was a lot more reserved than before, his ears were drooping and his energetic micro expressions were nowhere to be seen.
Jet didn't do anything as she cleaned his ears and was content to lay down back first on her legs.
At present, the accumulated earwax that the Zubat had when Virah first met him were nowhere to be seen and the orifices were as clean as the rest of his body.
Though she still made sure to wipe them with cotton weekly to ensure that if there was build up, then it wasn't so hindering to the Poison/Flying Type.
Virah tossed the cotton inside a zip bag before grabbing a box of organic wipes and rubbing them on Jet's fangs, the oily mixture the wipe was full of wasn't alcohol- or at least not the kind used to sanitize hands, what she had was closer to whiskey.
Jet, as a Poison Type, wasn't really affected by it though and the Zubat calmly enjoyed the fact that his fangs were being wiped clean.
The wipes were tossed in with the cotton once she was done and afterwards, Virah proceeded to heal Jet's wings.
A Zubat's bones were already hollow and because of that, Virah was sure that Jet's overuse of Wing Attack earlier had caused microfractures to form on the bones of his wings.
He would heal it off eventually, even without treatment, but Virah wanted to make sure that the damage wouldn't have permanent effects and to do that, she needed to assist in healing her Zubat.
"Calm down Jet," Virah said to the quivering Zubat in her embrace as she slathered his wings with the healing balm
His wings were definitely aching but that was just the balm's anesthetic doing its thing and soon, his wings would go numb and the pain would go away.
Once Jet's wings were on their way to healing, Virah proceeded to grab a brush and went on to straighten her Zubat's fur.
"Your loss doesn't mean that you're weak Jet," to say that Virah was new to the whole "comforting someone" thing would be an understatement but Jet looked like he needed it and so, that is what she would do.
"You'll win at some point," she calmly soothed, "so... uh, don't let this one loss get to you alright?"
"Zubat."
Virah hugged her Pokemon, "that's the spirit," she patted Jet's head, "now go on, I still need to check on Galeforce," she sighed when the Zubat turned to her in betrayal, "we're all allies here, Jet."
Without saying anything more, Jet took to the skies and neared Nitro and the rest.
Virah got up and got close to the Pidgey, who tilted his head, "Pidgey?"
Virah shook her head, "no, I'm not mad," she gave the Flying Type a small smile, "Jet needs to accept his losses and know that it's a natural part of battling," Virah explained before cutting to the chase, "so, how do you feel?"
"Pidgey." Galeforce raised his right wing, "Pidgey."
"Yeah... meeting Jet's Quick Attack with your Aerial Ace does that," the poison specialist replied with a shrug, "honestly, if I were you, I'd take a page from Jet's notebook and shoot out gusts of wind instead of fighting head on,"
Galeforce squawked, "Pidgey!"
Virah chuckled, "yeah, yeah, I know, it's not honorable or some such," she shook her head and offered the Pidgey a sitrus berry shake, "want some?"
The Pidgey nodded and after he drank the entire bottle in one go, Virah proceeded to treat his broken wing, starting by balming it and then putting a cast over it.
Virah patted the now bandaged wing, "well, there we have it,"
"Pidgey!"
"You're welcome," Virah replied with a giggle, "well, see you."
Virah walked away from Galeforce and made her way back to her friends, they talked for a bit as they waited for one of the rangers to come and after a while, Nera appeared in their camp.
Virah eyed the Ranger, noting that her state was much better than before.
Nera grinned at the girls, "do I need to tell you that you all passed?" The three of them calmly shook their heads in response, "well, there you have it," Nera clapped, "congratulations for getting through the exam, you'll have your trainer I.Ds at the start of the circuit next week and you can go and earn badges afterwards,"
Nera nodded at them, "all I can say to you girls now is that I wish you three good luck in your first year journey, I'm sure you three will do well,"
"Thanks." Virah took the gesture of safety for what it is.
Past her might've denied it somewhat, maybe think of something cynical that undermines Nera's gesture but she's not gonna do that right now.
Because it's not like Nera is wrong after all.