Viridian City seemed rather like a smaller Celadon, if Hana remembered the latter correctly. The occasional office building on the outskirts of town soon gave way to a more open area with plenty of housing and open parks. Closer to the center of town, the Pokémon Center was straight ahead, and she could see the Gym in the distance. But Gary's challenge wasn't the goal for today. There was a good chance he would still be fuming over the conversations at the Lab.

She looked to the others. [color=00aeef]"Does anyone need to patch up Pokémon? I would use the time to cook something for the road ahead."[/color]

Lilith nodded. [color=cc5500]"The Pidgey I captured still smells faintly of KFC. And I hate Kanto Fried Chicken. So it should be healed."[/color]

Like a trigger, the mention of food sent a sensation of emptiness through Ezra's stomach, despite the snacks he and his partner had crushed on the walk down the route. [color=00ffae]"You're cooking? What's uh...what's on the menu?"[/color] He asked with some hesitance and anticipation.

[color=00aeef]"I had thought of preparing some travel food. Something a little different from trail mix or energy bars. I take it that means I need to make enough for everyone?"[/color]

[color=cc5500]"The spirits would be appeased,"[/color] Lilith confirmed. The thought of eating food she didn't have to cook herself was appetizing, especially since her culinary skills topped out at coffeemaker ramen.

[color=e3ca19]"Osh!" [i]What she said![/i][/color] Brie piped up, already ready to make a friend she could pressure into cooking for her.

[color=00aeef]"All right, I'll be upstairs. Hopefully the backpackers' kitchen is free at this hour. Feel free to come along and observe if you're curious."[/color]

Sure enough, once Hana had found her way, the communal kitchen was free. There was one other occupant finishing what appeared to be a late breakfast, early lunch, or combination of the two. She set her backpack down, dug her cooking pot and frypan out of it, and popped open her suitcase. [color=00aeef]"Let's see, one for everyone means... that much."[/color] Several careful measurements later, she had the pot on the stove, steaming nicely, and a timer on her phone was ticking down. [color=00aeef][i]If you look, the rice won't cook.[/i][/color] She knew that mantra well.

Hana turned her attention to Satomi, who had been waiting patiently to contribute. [color=00aeef]"Right. Time for you to help out."[/color] She took a small river stone and a cleaning cloth from her suitcase, setting the former down before her partner Pokémon. [color=00aeef]"Let's see those blades nice and clean, first,"[/color] she said as she set to work. One could never be too careful. Once she was satisfied Satomi's blades were clean, Hana let her sharpen them for a moment on the river stone. The scrape of metal on rock wasn't a pleasant sound to hear, so she quickly collected Satomi and lifted her onto a seat near the kitchen bench. Carrying a Pokémon whose body was mostly sharp edges wasn't the easiest thing in the world, but they were both used to it.

[color=00aeef]"Six pieces, please. Usual width."[/color] Hana passed over a thin sheet of soybean paper and one of her cutting boards. Satomi was quick to get to work, carefully cutting evenly-spaced pieces away from the sheet and stacking them up. It didn't take her long. [color=de0000]"Ya!" [i]Done! What's next?[/i][/color]

[color=00aeef]"Good work. Next step, we need to decide what else is going into them."[/color] There was still a few minutes left before she had to tend to the rice. Hana took the opportunity to open her recipe book and pick out a suitable flavour. Each page was written in her own hand, neat and elegant with no errors or editing needed. She flipped through a few of them, but settled on one in particular, and picked out a sachet of powdered Oran Berry and her small bottle of cooking oil. [color=00aeef][i]Take one minute off the timer at the end of stage two. That'll help stop it falling apart in the pan.[/i][/color]