The Lumiose City entrance was bustling with tourists from other regions. The loud sounds of cars honking, people talking, and Pokémon drowned out my thoughts. Trainers were flocking around battles, tourists were taking pictures in front of the gate, Gogoats were carrying people through the gates and into the city. I wasn't even in the city yet but I still found myself getting distracted by everything.

The city felt alive, almost chaotic in energy, but nothing bad really happened. An organized chaos of sorts. Most of the buildings were multi-storied and rather thin, especially pronounced given the people flowering plants or drinking out of a mug on the balconies of most floors indicating the upper floors were apartments. On the bottom floors were little shops and cafes, quite literally sprawling all around. Each street had small specialized food shops, a cafe or two, a flower shop, a Pokémon related store, gift shops, and clothing stores between the avenues.

I noticed trainers, indicated by the Pokéballs around their belts or gloves, beelining in one direction. I could only assume where they were going. I followed the direction they went, soon arriving at the lab, which was crowded with trainers. There were several tables set up to help the trainers sign up for the tournament. I waited in line, thinking to myself I needed a pair of headphones for these situations.

'I wonder what type of music has been made in this world.'

After signing up, I went to the PokéCenter to heal up Inkay. There wasn't much here. Nurse Joy was pleasant, as always, but the PokéCenter felt way more hectic than the one in Santalune city. I left once I received my Pokémon, now heading over to Prism Tower. I walked down Vernal Avenue, passing several more small shops before seeing a bright red shop with the words "Stone Emporium" written in white.

It had many stones, dull, shiny, multi-colored, monochrome, sparkly, metallica, just about any different way one could describe a rock was found in the shop. I saw a few stones with flickering rainbow colors swirling inside of it. A waving crest, an abysmal black color, was in the middle, visible in the same shape no matter where you viewed it from. They were on display from the front window, enticing everyone who walked by to enter the shop.

I shook my head, an automatic reaction to make sure I continued with my main objectives. The Prism Tower, located in the middle of the city, was a towering, heh, structure seemingly made of sterling silver based on the color it shined. It looked similar to the Eiffel Tower, which made sense since Kalos was based off of France. There was an entrance at each leg of the tower, with a small lobby and stairs in each.

A larger lobby was in the middle, stairs connecting to each leg and an elevator that went up through the tower stemming from the middle of the lobby. In front of the elevator was a front desk with three workers in front of computers. The left computer had a sign that said "Ticketing and Information," the right computer said "Venue Access and Reservations," and the middle said "Gym Registration and Applications."

I walked to the middle computer, where a portly woman sat with a wide smile. She, along with the other workers, had gray business suits with yellow trimming, a yellow pen and flower in the front pocket of the suit, and yellow dress shoes. The woman's eyes could not hide how tired, and annoyed, she was.

"Hello, welcome to the Prism Tower! How may I help you," she greeted me.

"Hi, I would like to register for a gym battle, please" I responded.

"Ok. The next appointment is in three days, Wednesday at 4:15pm. Can you make that?"

"Yes," I replied, "that is perfect actually. Thank you, hope you get to go home soon."

With that, I waved as I left. It is 5:53pm and time to eat. I walked northwest from the tower, heading towards Hibernal Avenue. It was a nice evening. It was warm with a cool breeze blowing by. Many performers were out doing their routines for large audiences of tourists. Some performers were singing, others were dancing to the music being sung. I also saw a magician and a mime. I walked through the avenue and hurried to Restaurant Le Wow.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

A sign outside the restaurant said only Pokémon smaller than 3m (10ft) were allowed inside. I was able to get a table for the three of us, releasing Inkay and Ferroseed as soon as I sat down. Soon, a waiter came up to bring us water and ask if there were any other drinks we wanted. After ordering MooMoo milk for Inkay, a metal smoothie for Ferroseed, and an orange soda pop for myself, the waiter left us to think about the food we wanted.

After eating our dinner, which consisted of Spearow alfredo for Inkay, a small metal beam for Ferroseed, and Krabby cakes with rice and veggies for me, I booked a room in the PokéCenter on Magenta Plaza. I was really tired. While I could train for hours, being in a busy place for prolonged periods of time was too draining for me. So I opted for some early rest tonight for earlier training in the morning.

I fell asleep very quickly, dreaming about a magnificent battle between a giant Charizard and a godly Bidoof. Every clash ended with a change of scenery. The Charizard opened its maw, gathering a dark purple energy that flickered and pulsed violently. Once the ball of energy was twice as big as its body, Charizard sent it crashing towards Bidoof. The Bidoof stood strong, valiantly sending a stream of Water Gun towards the Dragon Pulse.

The energy attack approached, inching closer and closer as Bidoof switched to Rollout and started rolling in place. Just before the Dragon Pulse landed, Bidoof sped into it and-

*BEEP* *BEEP*

"Fuck, it just got to the good part."

I looked up at the clock to see 4:00am before rolling out of bed, upset that I didn't get to see the result of that epic battle. I brushed my teeth, used the restroom, then woke up Inkay and Ferroseed. We started the morning with a jog, going around the perimeter of the entire city. After that, we began our weight training session. We were currently working on endurance/muscle stamina, trading a higher amount of reps and sets for lower weight. After that, I began shadowboxing while the other two practiced their moves on each other non-stop. We stopped for breakfast, eating an absurd amount each, before resting for 30 minutes. Then, I had Inkay and Ferroseed battle each other.

While I would occasionally give out commands, I mostly let both Inkay and Ferroseed decide for themselves what the best move to make was. This helped both of them train their reaction times and instincts, while I was able to prepare myself for using both in a double battle and give out commands on the spot. After that, we meditated and stretched. Well, I stretched. Inkay and Ferroseed did… something.Once all of that was done, it was 7am. I didn't have much else to do, so I visited Professor Sycamore's lab.

I didn't expect to meet him just yet, though Calem might have tipped him off about me. I entered the sleek building, noticing all the technology packed into the waiting room. Even the lobby had seats with a computer embedded into it, looking like a middle school desk with the attached chairs.

The entire first floor was simple enough. Tablet-chairs for people to input data, register for events, sign in for meetings, and whatever else that could expedite the job of secretaries. There were screens all over the room to show who was holding what meeting, which lectures were going on, where the professor was. Past the lobby was a security area. It was just three guards with a Pokémon out each.

I walked towards one of the chairs, sitting down since I wasn't sure how long I was going to be here. I touched the tablet screen, which prompted a question about what business I had with the lab. I scrolled through the options, deciding to click on "Attending a Lecture." It then gave me the timetable of all the lectures that were planned for the day. I looked through them, deciding if I wanted to waste an hour on any of them.

A few caught my attention, though some were at the same time. After a few minutes of juggling the possible content of each, I decided on three lectures. The first, scheduled at 7:45am, was a lecture on the differences between Pokémon attack energies. Prof. Hawthorn, a professor from Orre, would be giving the lecture since he apparently specializes in Pokémon energies in general and how they relate to physical capabilities.

After that, I would attend a lecture at 9am, this one given by Prof. Laurel from Alola. Her specialty is the evolution of Pokémon attacks, and her lecture would be about how weaker moves can turn into stronger ones. An hour and a half after that, at 2:30pm, was the last lecture.

This one was by Prof. Sycamore himself. He would be talking about the bonds between Pokémon and trainers and how that bond can produce beneficial effects for trainers. This would also give me a chance at meeting Prof. Sycamore. It was currently 7:23am, so I decided to sit and enjoy access to the tablet. I watched a few battles from previous PokéLeague Championships, the most impressive being a battle between Dawn and Cynthia. I knew from the games that Cynthia was a beast in battles, but the video proved that was a gross understatement. The power from each Pokémon had me excited to see how far I could go with Inkay and Ferroseed.

The battle between reigning Champion of Alola Elio and Tristan, a youngster, had me engrossed the entire time. They both used very unusual tactics for their teams. Elio, on multiple occasions, would have his Kabutops use Rock Slide and the Aqua Jet to force their opponents under the Rock attack. Tristan, to counter this, had his Alolan Exeggutor jump towards the Rock Slide and use Wood Hammer to send the boulders towards Kabutops.

I spent the entire wait watching battles like these. Soon it was time to attend the lecture. I walked into a large lecture hall, with about 200 hundred people already there. Professor Hawthorn walked in a minute before the lecture was supposed to start and connected a computer to a large screen at the front of the room. A presentation popped up, with very few words and a whole lotta diagrams. He then proceeded to drone on about the different types of energies Pokémon utilize in battle. They can draw upon elemental energy, which is where the different types come from, physical energies for most attacks that result in some sort of physical contact, and any other energies, dubbed special energies, for attacks that hit an opponent but don't require contact between the two Pokémon.

At least, I think that's what he talked about. His voice was very monotonous and nearly put me to sleep on multiple occasions. That's why I hated college. At least I would be able to get access to the presentation via my League profile, meaning I could go back and refer to it as often as I wanted. This would definitely be useful in helping me understand more about battling. It could probably explain to me how different stats like attack, special attack, defense, and special defense worked. With this, I'll be better able to maximize the effects of training.