I groaned as my Pokenav+ started buzzing, sending tiny vibrations through my pillow.

I pulled the device out from under my pillow and clicked it off, glaring at the too-bright display in disdain.

I'd specifically set the volume to zero so as to not wake up Amy and Hana because no one should be forced to wake up at six in the morning.

I went to roll out of my sleeping bag but hesitated as the cold mountainous air of Route 03 flowed in, disrupting my perfectly warm cocoon. Shivers took me and I almost curled back to sleep. I really didn't have to get up this early to train...

I shook my head. I had another reason for getting up before the others.

Yuji was already up.

I already wanted to start matching the amount of time that he spent training but yesterday's encounter gave me another reason to want to talk to him without the other two there. I figured that he was a pretty private guy by nature, so maybe asking him some difficult questions would be better if we were alone.

I grabbed my thickest hoodie and set of pants out of my backpack, changed inside my sleeping bag, grabbed Artis and Wisp's Pokeballs, and quietly slipped out of the tent.

The sun still wasn't up yet, and it wouldn't be for easily another half an hour or so. The edges of the horizon that I could see from within the canyon were barely starting to approach a blue color. The stars were still visible, though the moon had long left the sky.

I felt a pang of disappointment flash through my chest. Ever since our conversation in the museum, the moon reminded me of Daisy.

I looked around for Yuji, easily finding him slightly down the trail. Since the trees had basically disappeared once the route had narrowed, there weren't a lot of places to hide. He was out training both Achilles and Despereaux, running them both through similar repetition drills to what he'd seen me doing with Artis. I couldn't help but crack a smile at that. It looked like we were learning from each other.

Instead of his normal regiment of working out with his Pokemon, Yuji still had his jacket pulled closed and sleep in his eyes, resting on a rock overlooking his little training yard.

It seemed that even our most unflappable teammate could still be affected by the cold early morning.

I considered sending Artis and Wisp out to train but decided against it when I glanced at the TM readers attached to their Pokeballs. I'd set them up to start learning their respective TM moves last night, and it was suggested to closely watch over your Pokemon when learning a new move this way. Since I wanted to talk to Yuji for a while, I figured I'd let them sleep a little longer.

Instead, I stepped over Yuji's rock, slipping down and sitting next to him. He glanced over, inclining his head when he saw me. He still looked a little more irate than normal, but he at least seemed happy to see me.

"Morning," he grunted.

"Morning to you too, man," I replied, voice cracking from drowsiness.

We both sat there, letting the quiet of the morning overtake us as we watched Achilles practice his punches and Desperaux do dodging exercises. It was peaceful. Nice, even.

The calm morning seemed almost too serene to break up, but I'd gotten up this early with a goal.

"Hey man, I just wanted to make sure you were feeling okay after yesterday?" I finally asked.

Yuji started at my sudden question but didn't look upset at it. Instead, he nodded.

"I am," he said. "I apologize for my solemnness, I reacted... ...poorly to Baird's philosophy of Pokemon training."

"No yeah," I agreed, shaking my head. "I totally get that, man. I don't know how I'd react if somebody asked me to trade Wisp or Artis out of the blue. Like, I get that trading is a totally normal thing, but it's kinda wild to me that people can let go of their teams."

He shrugged. "For those wishing to compete at the highest level, it can be necessary to trade away members of your team to complete a competitive team or strategy, but normally it is done with respect and understanding. Not his flippancy toward bonds with Pokemon."

"Yeah, but still... ...That hit kinda close to home, right? From what Ames said-" I paused at Yuji glanced up at me, wincing that I'd immediately outed Amy for talking about Yuji's life. The damage was done, though. "You had a hard time even getting Despereaux, right?"

Yuji inclined his head, though his jaw clenched. "My circumstances were not ideal for beginning my journey, that is true. However, I don't blame anyone else for that," Yuji sighed, releasing the tenseness from his body. He pulled his feet up onto the rock, folding his legs in front of him. "To be honest, my anger yesterday had very little to do with Baird's treatment of his own Pokemon and more with his perception of mine."

I frowned, shuffling on the boulder to turn to face him. "What's that mean?"

"Though I admit that I am sensitive regarding my circumstances, and Baird's request did anger me, it was his disregard for Despereaux that caused me to lose my temper," Yuji said regretfully. He reached up, pulling out his hairband and running his fingers through his hair. "I was just so frustrated already with mine and Despereaux's progress that allowed myself more spite than necessary. I should not have, in any circumstance, agreed to his ante. It was foolish, prideful, and wrong of me to risk Achilles the way I did."

"I was a bit surprised you did, but it turned out okay. You took a risk, but I would have-"

Yuji shook his head before I could finish.

"I cannot take risks, Derek," he said resolutely. "I am not you."

I furrowed my brow, biting my lip as we fell back into silence.

It was very obvious I was missing a lot of context for whatever Yuji was feeling. What he'd said about Despereaux's progress and taking risks? There was something deep-seated in those cryptic words. I could piece some of it together from what he'd described and what Amy had told me, but I couldn't guess at the whole swaths of his life that I didn't know.

I did know a few things, though.

This isn't something that just sprung up after yesterday, I thought. He's felt this way for a long time, or at least everything that's happened recently has exacerbated that. He's only ever let his frustrated side show a few times that I can remember: the challenge elevation, Oak's offer, and yesterday. What's the link there?

The challenge elevation had been a pretty obvious reason to be upset: Brock had chosen to challenge me at a higher level than any of them. Yeah, I'd been able to talk him into elevating everyone's challenges, but the initial statement had been there. Brock had even said as much to me.

'Your friends haven't proved to me what you have.' he'd said.

As for Oak's offer, I figured out that one from Amy last night. Yuji hadn't had any options with his own Pokemon, and it made it hard to see someone else be given a rare Pokemon.

Then, after yesterday, Yuji had said that he'd been frustrated with Baird's perception-

Wait. My eyes opened wide. I'm an idiot.

I'd assumed that Yuji had been jealous regarding Oak's offer, but he'd told me that hadn't been the case. He'd even offered to help me make a decision about what Pokemon I wanted to pick. It wasn't about the Pokemon.

It was about perception.

We'd only been on our journey for a little over a month, but I could already rattle off a list of times that Yuji had felt like he was falling behind. He'd said as much to me after our battles with Brock, and then I'd gone and told him about my situation with Oak. That's what I had seen on his face: the thought that he'd fallen behind me.

Yuji worked incredibly hard, so seeing the one-two-punch of one of his best friends getting offered what was basically a sponsorship and the next day getting talked down to by a spoiled kid must've ground his gears. I also couldn't think of the last time that Despereaux had actually won a match. He was way stronger than most Ratatta, but I had strategies against him for both Artis and Wisp, and he'd had to be switched out in the Pewter Gym match.

I glanced over at Yuji. He was still staring at the ground, his brow furrowed. He wasn't angry, but more frustrated and heavy in thought. He gave me no hints as to what I could do to help.

Fuck. I have no idea how to fix this.

I knew that I wasn't the problem, but I also wasn't helping the situation. I'd tried my best at the Pewter Gym to settle his mind, but my fumbling with Oak's offer had started him spiraling into self-doubt. There were also definitely much deeper personal issues at play on his part, but I had no idea how to account for those. I'd never really had friends before, so I really didn't have a basis on how to deal with insecurities like this.

Yuji needed a win, that much was clear. The problem was, I didn't know how to give that to him. I couldn't give him anything less than my best in a battle, because he knew me too well and would immediately recognize me throwing the fight. I also respected him too much for that, but the thought did cross my mind.

I still wasn't sure what I was going to do with Oak's Pokemon, but it was clear at this point that giving it to Yuji would be the same as when I'd gotten Brock to elevate his challenge. It wouldn't erase the statement that the offer had initially made.

I had no idea how to help him outside of those two things. He was better than me at training, and there weren't a lot of opportunities on the routes to accomplish anything that didn't have to do with Pokemon training.

Pokemon training... I mused. There's gotta be something there...

I glanced down at my belt, an idea clicking into my head when the rising sun reflected off of a gray mechanism attached to Artis's ball. I pulled both of my Pokeballs off of my belt and held them up.

"Hey, Yuji," I said, nudging him and pulling him back into the conversation. "Have you ever trained a Pokemon using a TM reader?"

He looked up, frustrated eyes now curious at the question. "No, I haven't personally done so, though I've seen the process done several times," he said, looking over the two gray boxes affixed to the front of my Pokeballs. "I wasn't aware you'd picked any up in Pewter."

"Yeah, since we had a little more spending cash after the elevation, I figured I'd try and expand our move pool a bit."

Yuji nodded, looking at both Pokeballs with interest. "That logic is sound. I admit, I hadn't even considered spending money on TMs yet. Why do you ask?"

"Well, now that they've spent the needed amount of time with their TM readers, I need to actually get them used to using their moves. I figured that I could probably turn it into my first on-route video, but I was hoping that I could get some help? You're a lot more familiar with the content side of stuff, after all."

I inwardly grinned as Yuji started contemplating my question. Was it a little ham-fisted and played up? Yes. But, I wasn't lying. Yuji did have a lot more experience with the online stuff than I did, and more importantly, he was confident in this area. I really hoped that this would go well because maybe it would be a step toward proving to him that he wasn't falling behind.

"What would you need me to do?" Yuji asked, seeming genuinely interested in the project.

Yes! I mentally cheered.

I pulled my camcorder out of my bag, handing it over to him. "Outside of needing someone who actually knows what a video looks like, because I really don't, I could definitely use some pointers on pacing and shooting. If you could, like, direct me, that would be awesome."

Yuji nodded, taking the camcorder. He flipped out the display, checking my video settings and adjusting my light exposure. Like a switch had gone off in his mind, I could see the stress start to fall from his shoulders as he threw himself into the task.

"Given who you are, I think a candid pacing would work best..." he mused. "Besides a short introduction to the video and an outro, it might be best to just shoot the video as though you weren't being observed."

I considered it before nodding along. "I could make that work. Though, I do want to make sure I'm not taking too much time out of your own training session," I said, nodding back to where Despereaux and Achilles were still running their drills.

"It shouldn't be an issue," he said. "I'll give them a few new orders before we begin, but I've structured their training so that they can do it without me observing."

"Still... ...I don't want you to take all this time and help me out for free," I said, pretending to think of a way I could pay him back. In reality, I'd already decided when I come up with this idea a few seconds ago. "Oh! I know!"

I clicked a small button on the front of Artis's TM reader, causing it to eject the gun-metal grey compact disk, before doing the same to Wisp's. Her disk was colored bright yellow. I held out both disks to Yuji.

"Rattata can learn both Iron Tail and Charge Beam, right?" I asked, grinning. "For helping me out, you can use both of my TMs."

I knew that this wouldn't fix what he was feeling. The only thing that would really help would be people giving him the actual respect that he deserved, and I hoped that by doing my part to make Despereaux the baddest guy on the block, Yuji would get more chances to show him off. Maybe, just maybe, if people would just notice that Yuji could train a Ratatta into a beast, they'd stop discounting him.

Yuji's eyes stared at the TMs before flicking up to meet mine. I knew I was giving away the ruse by smiling like a maniac, but I didn't want to try and help him by being entirely dishonest. I respected him too much for that.

His eyes softened and the edges of his face upturned into a grin. He knew what I was trying to do. Yuji reached forward, gently plucking both discs from my hand. He looked down at them, turning them over in his hands like they were precious jewels.

"Yes, they can," he finally said softly. He nodded, tucking both into the TM case section of his belt. "Thank you, Derek."

"No problem, man. You're earning them, after all," I chuckled.

Yuji laughed with me. "Yes, I guess I am."

----------------------------------------

It took an embarrassingly long amount of time to film the video intro.

"Hey, guys," I said, forcing a grin at the camera. "Today we're- I'm- I mean- fuck, I messed that one up so early!"

Yuji sighed from behind the camera, letting out a small chuckle. He gave me a thumbs up when he set a new recording, telling me to go again. We'd already gone about ten times and had a 'usable' one, but Yuji had made several very convincing points about the opening of the video being the most important part.

So, again we tried.

I cleared my throat, putting on a smile again. My cheeks were seriously starting to hurt at this point, and I had a serious case of cottonmouth. How the hell did Terry do this every single day?

"Hey, guys," I tried again. "Today, I'm out on Route 03 training up my team with some TMs I picked up in Pewter! We're gonna be helping Artis learn Iron Tail and Wisp learn Charge Beam! Let's get to it!"

I let the recording go on for a second longer to give a clean cut before pumping my fist in victory. "Finally!" I cheered, letting a real grin replace the fake one. "That took so long!"

Yuji grinned back at me. "Yes, I'll admit that I thought you would take to this much more quickly. I'm actually surprised that it took as many tries as it did."

I shrugged. "I'm not good at the fake presentation stuff. I can memorize any ability or move, but two speaking lines? Nuh-uh."

I let out a sigh of relief before looking around our little clearing. "How do you think I should do the actual training bit? Is this angle okay?"

He glanced around before giving a small nod. "Be natural about it. I'll act as a roaming camera for the most part, so don't concentrate on me."

I inclined my head, pulling Artis and Wisp's Pokeballs from my belt. This was the fun part, the part where I could actually do what I was good at. I waited for Yuji's cue before releasing both of my Pokemon.

"Morning, guys," I said to the both, speaking a bit louder than normal for the camera. "Time for training!"

Artis could not look less impressed. He immediately rolled onto his back, trying to get comfortable on the ground. Wisp chuckled at him, using her Confusion to flip him back over. He groaned, rolling over again. I glanced over at Yuji with worry, hoping this wouldn't make a bad start to the video, but he'd already stepped closer and cut me out of frame. He was watching my Pokemon with a big grin on his face.

A little relief went through me. I wasn't used to doing content yet, so every step was new, but my Pokemon were pretty cute. They repeated the cycle a few times before I stepped in.

"Come on, guys," I said. "Nobody gets breakfast until after we finish training, and I bought you both special berries."

That got both of their attention. Wisp knew that they'd be sweet and Artis just liked eating anything. He needed to put on some weight before he'd have enough blubber to evolve, after all. They snapped up, straightening themselves and getting ready to receive orders. Yuji turned the camera to look at all three of us.

"Very good!" I chuckled. "Now, I set you guys both up with these things called TMs yesterday. It's a little complicated to understand, so I'll just say this: you both should basically know how to use a new move, even though I never taught it to you. Can you both think about it for a sec and see if you can properly use them? It might be hard because neither of you has ever used the type energy of your new moves before."

Wisp went first. She clenched her little eyes tight and shouted in concentration."Drea!" she yelled.

I held my breath in anticipation and smirked when a tiny glimmer of yellow electricity started to arc across her red gemstone beads. She concentrated for a few more seconds, and slowly each of her gemstones started to fill with yellow energy. It was like watching the gauge on a battery charge, the more she concentrated the fuller it got.

I did start to panic, though, when she got to the last gemstone and I realized that she was looking directly at me.

"Uh, oh shit," I mumbled. "Quick, try and release it over at the rock wall!"

Wisp did as I said, turning her whole body not a moment too soon before a thin beam of yellow energy split the morning air, maybe as thick as a pencil.

Bzzzzzn!

I wasn't expecting the beam to let off so much heat. The Charge Beam impacted the far wall of the canyon, carving into it with extreme precision and pressure. Parts of the wall started to crackle and pop, heating up and shattering when the laser toasted it. The path left in its direct wake, though, was glowing molten hot and starting to drip down the wall. Wisp had maybe three seconds of energy stored within her, but it left a permanent burn scar across the cliffside.

Wisp and I stood completely stiff. My shoulders were clenched as hard as my teeth. That had been loud.

A quiet chuckle spread into full-bellied laughter behind us, and I felt mortified.

In getting excited to start training, I'd completely forgotten we were being recorded.

I turned back to look at Yuji, and he had the biggest grin on his face. Even worse, the noise had been loud enough to pull Hana and Amy out of the tent. Obviously, neither one knew exactly what had just happened, but I saw Hana take in Yuji's laughter, the camera in his hands, my expression, and the sizzling cliffside. She quickly put together a basic sense of what was going on and stopped Amy from loudly complaining about being woken up. The two of them started going about their normal morning business but made it clear they were watching.

I gave her a grateful nod turning back to Wisp. The best thing I could do right now was just keep going.

"Note to us,' I said in a shaky voice. "Don't let it charge for that long. I mean, we won't ever get that much time in a fight, but still."

"Mis-drea!" Wisp nodded, staring at what she'd done. She looked more than a little in awe of her own power.

I looked down at Artis. He'd been respectfully quiet while Wisp tried out her move but was now looking at me with big eyes. He was really excited about his new move.

"Okay, your go, bud," I said, gesturing to him. "I don't think we have to worry about the same thing for yours."

"Pheal," He barked, though he looked a little saddened when I implied his move wouldn't be as powerful.

"Mis mis mis," Wisp chuckled at him to the tune of a small child teasing another.

"Spheal-pheal!"Artis said defiantly, turning up his snout to ignore Wisp.

I sighed. "Wisp, that's not helpful. You guys are just training for very different fighting styles. You get to give out a bunch of damage, yeah, but Artis can actually take a punch."

It was Artis' turn to laugh as Wisp went red in the face. She pouted before going invisible.

"Alright, buddy, your turn," I chuckled. "Go ahead and focus on striking the ground with yours. That way we probably won't break anything. Hopefully."

Artis nodded, looking determined. He tensed his body like he was getting ready for a Rollout but stayed in place closing his eyes to concentrate. Unlike Wisp, the move seemed to come to him instantly. His tiny tail glowed bright white before turning a brilliant silver color.

He opened his eyes, barking in excitement when he saw his success. Artis hopped once into the air, doing a full forward spin and slapping his tail down hard on the ground. The impact left a heavy crater on the ground with an exact imprint of his tail.

Artis rolled back over to me, stopping quickly and letting his tongue loll out of his mouth in contentment.

I leaned down and scratched him under the chin. "Good job, bud. You're nailing this."

A quick whistle for Wisp made her reappear, though she still looked miffed about my comment. I rubbed the top of her head.

"You're both doing great," I said. "Now that we know you can both use your moves, I want to make sure we're actually learning how to control them and use them regularly. Artis, I want to work on launching Iron Tail from the middle of a Rollout, so you need to learn how to stop your movement and transfer that momentum into a hit. Go ahead and keep trying until you can do that. Once you've done it successfully ten times in a row, come back to me."

He barked in compliance. Artis rolled away from me, getting to work on my orders. Wisp floated in front of me and quietly waited for her orders.

"Well, girl, you're going to be doing something a bit different. While Iron Tail is going to be a regular part of Artis' kit, Charge Beam is actually just a stepping stone for you."

Wisp brightened up at that. "Drea mis!" she cheered.

"I thought you'd like that," I smiled. "So what I'm going to have you do is focus on the charging part of your move as much as possible so that you're more familiar with electric type energy. Specifically, I want you to focus on filling your beads as quickly as you can, and then you can go ahead and release your beam into the cliff, okay? It should be fine since we already messed it up. Once you can fill all your beads in less than a second, come back to me."

My Misdreavus floated up to my face, cuddling into the side of my cheek before taking off to practice her own move.

I watched them both for a few seconds before I moved on. They were both so intent on getting better that I couldn't help but feel a flash of pride. We weren't powerful yet, but we were hitting the stepping stones that we needed to make something really special.

A shifting of weight in the grass turned my attention to my side, where Yuji was waiting with my camcorder. He was following Artis for now, carefully keeping his leaps and spins and tail slaps in frame. His face was a mask of concentration, none of the stress lines from his brooding were present.

I held in my smile. This may not have counted as a real win for him yet, but he had something to keep his mind off of it, for now.

Now I just needed to find Yuji a real win.

----------------------------------------

"I still can't believe you melted a cliff!" Amy cackled as we hiked through Route 03. "And the look on your face! Priceless!"

I sighed. Having Yuji as my director and cameraman had some upsides, but the downsides were also apparent. Especially when they came in the form of clipping embarrassing moments from my training video and sending them to the group chat. Every few hours since we'd packed up camp yesterday, Amy had pulled up the video to entertain themself.

"You know," Hana mused. "I'd think about that melted cliff the next time you steal some of Wisp's cake, Amy."

A tiny snicker emanating from my shadow mirrored my own when Amy's face went a little pale as they got flustered. Hana gave me a knowing smirk as she helped me up a set of rocks. She'd heard Wisp too.

"It was one time," they complained. "And I bet that laser wouldn't even pierce Pennywise's Barrier. He's really been working on it, ya know?"

I inclined my head like I agreed, but I wasn't so sure. Amy had taken most of the battles on Route 03 when we ran into the odd trainer, but Pennywise hadn't really shown leaps or bounds of improvement. He was still struggling with being the only member of Amy's team, and he still had zero good offensive options.

Though I'd been preoccupied with Yuji's issues the last few days, I hadn't stopped thinking about the rest of the group. Actually, Hana was doing just fine, so I actually hadn't been thinking about her too much. She had been steadily improving Raffelasia's vine control on the slower parts of the route, letting the tiny Bulbasaur walk alongside us. She'd won all the battles that had come her way so far with just Paige, and as far as I was aware, Hana wasn't currently having any existential crises.

Given that I'd done what I could for Yuji, for now, my mind had started to wander toward Amy's predicament.

With their insistence that they'd only train psychic types, there really weren't any options for them in this neck of the proverbial woods. I'd been listening to the audio logs on my Pokedex, and the closest set of psychic species were on the other side of Mt. Moon, given that Abra and Slowpoke could be found around Cerulean. Well, the closest native psychic Pokemon.

There were rumored sightings of several non-native species of Pokemon within Mt. Moon itself, and I'd caught a line on a few different psychics, including Bronzong, Baltoy, and Chingling. The problem was, though, that all of those rumors had been on the lower floors of Mt. Moon, and given that we were planning on taking the quickest route through the mountain, we'd ideally only be dipping down to the second floor of the mountain.

To be clear, Mt. Moon was organized into natural subterranean layers that were colloquially known as 'floors', given that they kind of worked like the floors of a humungous building. Each numbered floor was deeper than the last, so bigger numbers meant deeper underground. There was a really common pathway through Floor One and Floor Two that most people used to get from Cerulean to Pewter and vice versa, which is what we'd be traveling through, but the general rule of thumb was that the lower the floor meant the rarer the Pokemon.

The Pokemon I had my eye on could be found on Floor Two, but was more common on Floor Three. Any of the psychics, though, weren't going to be seen any higher than Floor Four. It was said that Mt. Moon had five publically accessible floors and you needed a special pass to get deeper, but most people generally didn't need to go that deep.

Legends, I thought, glancing down at my Pokedex which still playing information about Mt. Moon into my headphone. I love this thing so much.

In just a couple of days of walking, I'd gone from a complete dunce about the Kanto region to having a working knowledge of the complete structure of a complex mountain route. Having a device like this was indispensable, and I couldn't imagine trying to gather all of this info on my own. I'd already started planning a mental route through the mountain with the maps available on the device.

Maybe, if I act quickly, I could get from Floor Two to-

"I think we're almost there," Yuji called from the front of the pack. "Isn't that the Pokemon Center?"

We all gathered around him, stepping up onto a rocky ridge. As we'd traveled for the last few days, the narrow valley of Route 03 had twisted northward and widened again, becoming a rocky and desolate wasteland. The soil was too dense and craggy for plants to really grow, so it left us with a long corridor of boulders and empty space in front of us.

Mt. Moon loomed over us in the near distance. It was the biggest thing I'd ever seen, to be honest, bigger than both Mt. Pyre and Mt. Chimney. I couldn't even see the distance white peak above the circle of clouds at the top. Steep slopes and terrifying topography were the natural 'no passage' signs that this mountain threatened us with. I couldn't spot a single tree on the massively wide structure, and as we'd gotten closer, it had taken up more and more of the sky.

The vantage point that Yuji had pointed out, though, showed off a shining white and red building at the base of the mountain.

"That's not all," Hana murmured, pointing past the Pokemon Center. "There's the entrance to the mountain."

I followed her finger line, confused. There was nothing where she was pointing, just more cliff cloaked in shadow from the setting sun-

Oh, holy shit.

That wasn't cliff covered in shadow. That was a yawning mouth of darkness and solitude that cut a hole in the side of an already indescribable mountain.

I could use big words when I want to, and the cavern leading into Mt. Moon deserved it. Judging distance and perspective without landmarks like trees was hard up here, but the cavern was bigger than the Pokemon Center in front of it. At its very base, I could see tiny squiggles of color and movement that I assumed were other trainers coming out of the mountain. You could stack ten of those squiggles atop of one another and you wouldn't equal the height or breadth of the cave entrance.

Amy let out a low whistle of appreciation, and I couldn't help but nod along.

"That's a big cave," I said dumbly.

Even Yuji was taken aback. "Yeah," he breathed. "I'd known that it was huge, but..."

"...that's unreal," Hana finished.

The four of us stood on that ridge, staring at the location pulled right out of a fantasy book. Where the Viridian Forst had felt old and malicious, Mt. Moon was just too ancient and massive to care. It stood larger than life, and seeing just how big the cavern entrance was, I now had more than a little trepidation about the creatures that could live there.

----------------------------------------

We reached the Pokemon Center just after dusk.

It wasn't nearly as crowded as Pewter City, though there were at least a few dozen other trainers milling about the common areas when we arrived. As always, there was a trusty Nurse Joy at the counter.

"Good evening," she said cheerfully. "Four trainers for check-in?"

Hana took the lead. "Yes, ma'am. And we each have a few Pokemon that need check-ups too."

Nurse Joy nodded, typing on her computer. "Easily done, though I'm afraid that we have a bit of a queue, so you won't receive them back until tomorrow morning. Is that okay?" When we all murmured in agreement, she continued. "Now, I have a single, a few four-person rooms, and some doubles left. Do you have a preference?"

We all shared a glance in distaste at the idea of another four-person room. I loved these guys, but I was missing my privacy. To take the single, though, felt like a dick move. It looked like everyone else was having the same thought, so we agreed to two doubles. What I wasn't expecting though, was the immediate disagreement between two of us.

"I'm rooming with Amy," Yuji and Hana spoke at once.

I gave the other two a surprised look, but they were giving each other competitive glances.

"Awww," Amy cooed. "Guys!"

Yuji shrugged. "Amy has the least stuff and takes up the least room."

Hana nodded in agreement. "And they pack the best snacks."

What the hell?

We hadn't been in the position yet where we'd had to choose to stay in double rooms before, so I hadn't realized the clear preference that Yuji and Hana had, but honestly, it made sense. Now that I thought about it, I'd be happy in a room with any one of us, but Amy was the clear choice. In the tiny Pokemon Center dorms, being a pocket-sized person with a sweet tooth made you a great roomie.

"Wait," I sputtered. "Now I want to room with Amy."

Amy mock swooned. "Three friends turned rivals at the thought of sharing a lonely room with me. I've never felt more loved," they said sarcastically, absolutely eating this up.

In the end, we decided to draw straws for roommates. Yuji held out three tiny straws that had been hastily grabbed from the cafeteria coffee cart. We'd snipped one of them to be slightly shorter than the others.

"One, two," we counted. "Pull!"

Yuji couldn't keep the self-satisfied smirk off of his face when he dragged Amy off to their room. Hana and I watched them go with a wistful look.

"Next time," I vowed. "Yuji doesn't get to hold the straws."

Hana nodded. "I don't think he should even be in the drawing."

"Agreed," I huffed.

Hana and I smiled, both knowing that this was all still in good spirits. It wasn't like any one of us was a bad roommate, so this was still fine. We headed up to our room and started pulling out all of our stuff. It was basically the standard room Pokemon Center room, so we fell into a familiar quiet habit.

As we were unpacking, though, Hana surprised me by asking a question that I wasn't expecting.

"Hey," she said, uncurling the wires of her hair dryer. "What's been bothering you?"

"Huh?" I looked up from my toiletries. "What do you mean?"

Hana sighed, sitting down on her bed. "I might be wrong, but you've been overthinking something the last few days, right?"

That took me aback. I hadn't thought that I'd done anything noticeable, but apparently, Hana had seen something. At the very least, her eyes were full of concern. I sat down on my bed across from her.

"Yeah, I guess I have. A few things, actually. How'd you know?"

Hana pulled her hair to the side, tapping her ear with her finger. "I hear you on your Pokedex every night. And then, on the trails, you've started hiking with one headphone in, concentrating like you're listening for something. Pairing that with the worried looks you keep throwing the others, I assumed you were trying to figure something out."

Trust Hana to be observant, she was the strategist of the group, after all. Of course she'd picked up my weird vibes.

I sighed. "You're not wrong," I admitted. I put both of my hands on my knees, breaking eye contact to look at the ground. "I don't know, I guess I just... ...I just want to help the others, ya know? They're both in their own kinds of ruts, so I've just been trying to think of ways to get them out of it."

Hana paused. "Is that it?" She asked carefully.

"I mean, yeah... ...basically," I added lamely.

The resulting pause made it clear that we both knew I wasn't saying the whole truth, but how the heck was I supposed to explain the whole Oak thing, Yuji's inferiority, or my plans for Mt. Moon? That was all without the fact that I missed my girlfriend or the fact that therapy was still on the horizon and I definitely hadn't emotionally worked through the stuff with the Rockets yet.

All the little things that were going through my mind were stacked on top of each other, and it felt impossible to even start sharing without dumping over the whole pile. I really didn't know how to tell her what we really going on.

I looked up when I felt a weight settle down next to me. Hana gave me a soft smile, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm not going to push you on it, but you don't have to be Amy to see that someone is struggling," Hana said. "If you ever need to talk or vent, or even need help figuring something out, I'm here."

I nodded, the comfort genuinely appreciated. Hana was just doing to me now what I had tried to do for Yuji yesterday. I felt an emptiness on my hip as I thought about the promise I'd made to Artis in the forest weeks ago.

Hana went to go and brush her teeth, but I spoke up.

"Actually, there is something that I need help figuring out," I said, letting out a tired sigh. "I kind of have a decision that I don't know how to make."

Hana turned back to me and smiled. She sat back down on her bed, giving me her full attention. She didn't say another word, instead choosing to be an active listener.

I grunted, sitting up straight. "So, a few days ago, I got an offer from Professor Oak...."