"Judging by the shining and smooth feathers your Unfezant has, you have been taking care of your Unfezant very well." Jude said to a boy who wanted him to evaluate his Unfezant's well-being and their relationship together. "And by the response your Unfezant gave me when I asked about you," Understanding Pokémon language is pretty advantageous when you're a Connoisseur. "He likes you very much, and you guys most likely have a long friendship, I bet you guys have been together for at least 5 years. Am I right?"
"Wow, you're right, we've been together for nearly six years now." The boy replied, smiling. Except there was something wrong with the way he is smiling. His lips were curled up at the edges, but the smile didn't seem to go all the way to his eyes. It sort of stopped at his gums.
Jude frowned. "Something wrong?"
"No, nothing, it's just that…..there was this girl who wanted to evaluate my relationship with my Unfezant, but she said that my relationship with him was worst of the worst, and insisted I get another one. I don't know who I should listen to." The boy mumbled.
Jude narrowed his eyes. "Who is it?"
"It's some girl called Burgundy." The boy replied. "She said she's an expert in telling the relationship between trainers and Pokémon, since she's a Connoisseur too."
Jude tried to remember where he heard the name from.
"Oh, Burgundy? She has a rivalry with Cilan, but if you ask me, it's one-sided on her part. She kept boasting that she's a great Connoisseur, but she doesn't know shit. When I first met her, she's pretending to be good enough to run her own Connoisseur shop, and she made me show her all her Pokémon, and she said all of them were horrible and I need to replace all of them, and seemed to want to replace them for me. She doesn't even have any reason to back up her claims. When asked about her rank, she's a C-Class Connoisseur, but she thinks that all professionals would say the same thing she did about my relationship with my Pokémon." Ash rolled his eyes at what he remembered about that girl.
"Sounds to me she's just a conceited little brat." Jude replied.
"She is, alright." Ash nodded.
Jude then realised she was mentioned when Ash told him about his travels in Unova. Back then, he was eager to hear Ash's stories as his hometown was Humilau City in Unova.
"Oh, that girl." Jude waved him off with disdain for Burgundy. "She's just a C-Class Connoisseur, a novice class, so why are you even listening to her? She's not allowed to open her own shop, and people from her class are only allowed to work as assistants to A-Class and above. Listen to me. I think your relationship with Unfezant is great. Don't let that wannabe's word get to you."
"Really?" The boy's smile was wide. "Thank you!"
Jude waved, as the boy returned his Unfezant to his Pokéball and left after paying Jude, which Jude reluctantly accepted.
Jude sighed. He had been dealing with a long line since lunch break, since besides offering a professional Connoisseur's service, he also runs a bookstore and café, the latter only built the beginning of this year since the café used to be a sweet shop next door that was ran by a family, but it shut down last year after an ancient water pipe burst in the ceiling, destroying all their stock.
The Elites had the idea of installing a café in the former sweet shop and knocking the wall between Jude's shop and the café down, which gave him more business. However, as far as running the shop goes, while he is good at physically making sales and running a service at the same time, he needed help in running the café, so he usually hired assistants to do it. However, he isn't very good at bookkeeping and bill paying, numbers not being his forte, which is why Pakura usually handled these things.
"Tired, Jude?" Purrloin asked.
"Yeah, pretty much." Jude yawned. "What wouldn't I give just to go for a swim?" His last swim was interrupted by Ash's message to get his ass back to the Plateau because he got his invitation.
"I'll go get some juice." Purrloin scampered to the café to get a drink for Jude. She returned with a mango juice for Jude.
"Thanks, Purrloin." Jude took a sip. "How I hate arrogant people like that Burgundy girl." With that, he went out his shop for some fresh air, Purrloin following behind.
The first thing he noticed was that someone had set up a portable shop station somewhere next to his café. Jude heard voices inside the station, and approached closer to listen in, since there was a female voice shouting.
"You got to replace that Swablu!" the girl declared.
Jude opened the curtains to find a girl dressed in a long-sleeved pink shirt and over it was a red sleeveless shirt with four gold buttons at the stomach, a red bow at the collar, and black pants. She had purple hair with matching eyes, and had an arrogant look about her. A little girl was trembling at her voice, clutching to her Swablu.
"What are you doing?" Jude asked, interrupting the Connoisseur.
The girl turned to him, surprised.
"I'm just telling this girl that she is better off with a Swablu that has Natural Cure instead of Cloud Nine." The Connoisseur explained.
"Oh? And why is that so?" Jude asked.
"Well….it's because…..because….Are you doubting the words of a Connoisseur?" She demanded.
Jude smirked. This must be the Burgundy girl Ash was talking about. "Yes I am. Exactly what Class Connoisseur are you?"
"Er….I'm a C-Class. What about it?" Burgundy stuttered.
"Shows what you know." Jude turned to the little girl. "Listen, you go to my shop for now, and wait for me there. I'll evaluate it for you, if you like." He smiled at the girl. "My café is just next to this fake station."
The little girl nodded. "Thanks, mister!" With that, she left, and Burgundy lost her customer.
Jude then turned to Burgundy. "Listen here, in PAL, we don't appreciate fakes who pretend to be professionals. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, doing whatever you like in our region."
"And who are you to tell me what to do?" Burgundy asked.
"Ignorant, isn't she?" Purrloin asked. Jude nodded.
"It's for me to know, and for you to find out. One more time I catch you doing this, I won't hesitate to take your license. Now if you excuse me, I have a shop to run and customers to attend to." With that, he left, back to his shop.
When he returned, he attended to the little girl from earlier. Jude deduced that they had been together for two years, so their relationship is not very close yet, but by spending time and training it, she'll most likely have a great relationship with her Swablu in times to come. He also stated that her Swablu's Cloud Nine ability is useful as it negates the effect of weather attacks, thus Swablu wouldn't get damaged from them, and may lessen the damage of attacks that are strengthened by weather.
"And this is how you evaluate Pokémon." Jude concluded to Purrloin. "I wonder why they pay me for my services, though."
"That's because you are one of the best. Your try your best to make the relationship between Pokémon and Trainer sound as good and close as possible, and give positive advices on how to improve the relationship. It also helps that you understand Pokémon language, and can ask the Pokémon what they think of their trainer, and you are honest, quoting the exact words the Pokémon said. That's why they pay you even though you never said they had to." Purrloin answered.
"Well, if you say so." Jude smiled.