"I didn't realize there'd be this much paperwork," I moaned, filling out my fifth form in twice as many minutes.

Hana shrugged. "It's part of the process, Derek. Would you rather have there be fewer restrictions?"

I frown, feeling a little guilty. "No, I guess not."

Now that we'd made it to Cerulean, the time had come to sell off the Bronzor and Parasect from Mt. Moon. Over breakfast, Hana had let us know what the process was like, given that she'd already gone through it with Pinsir. Whichever one of us decided to put the Pokemon on the market, the Global Trade System, had to go through a vigorous background check and fill out almost a dozen different disclaimers. Once our paperwork went through, we were allowed to sell up to two Pokemon every thirty days, though we would have to re-apply every year. It was a huge pain, but it actually made a lot of sense. Since we wanted to sell three Pokemon, somebody other than Hana would need to go through the process, and I'd volunteered. Well, Yuji had disappeared into the woods to train and Amy didn't want to do it, so I was 'volun-told'. We were now at the lobby counter of the Center so I could get everything done and registered.

"Ms. Kanael is correct," Nurse Joy chuckled. "This is all necessary to make sure that our system stays as secure as possible."

"No, yeah, that makes sense," I agreed, flicking my pen as I signed my name for the thirtieth time. "And honestly, this isn't that bad. I'm getting in some autograph practicing time, and it only took like fifteen minutes."

Nurse Joy shook her head sheepishly, and Hana let out a little sigh. "Derek," Hana said, "that was the privacy release. You haven't even started the real paperwork."

Ignoring the fear that inspired in me, I spoke words that no man should ever utter. "I'm sure it's not that bad."

Thud!

Nurse Joy placed a stack of paper larger than my forearm onto the counter, causing it to shake a little. Multiple heads turned our way at the noise, and even strangers balked at the pile. I leaned over the pile with wide eyes, almost pulled in by the paper's dense gravitational field. I reached under the counter and slid out a stool, getting comfortable.

"Welp," I dramatically cracked my fingers and neck. "I'm too far into this to quit now."

Nurse Joy smiled, though she shook her head at my antics. "I'll leave you to it. Once you're done, ring the bell. Blissey or I will make sure to get it faxed to the right office."

"Faxed?" Hana looked green at the thought, and she gripped her laptop a little tighter. "It's archaic and draconian to force someone to use one of those!"

"Hana." I looked her dead in the eye. "I'm sure their fax machine doesn't use dragons. The papers would get all messed up."

To her credit, Hana didn't blink or groan or make any reference to my terrible joke. Instead, she gave me a blank stare and pulled out her phone.

"I'm going shopping," she declared, pulling up her list. "Do you need anything while I'm out?"

"Yeah, actually," I said as I started on the top of the paper pile. "Can you pick me up a couple of grooming kits? I can send some money with you."

Though I'd been exhausted during it, I hadn't forgotten Lester's advice about caring for his Pokemon. I wanted to reward my team for all the hard work they'd put in during Mt. Moon, and for the work they'd be doing later while we trained, and this felt like the perfect way to do that.

Hana nodded, looking thoughtful. "That's a good idea. I'm assuming you want a ghost and fairy one, but do you want ice or water type for Artis?"

"Ice," I said without hesitation. It wouldn't really make a difference, but each kit was made with specialized tools, treats, and ointments for Pokemon of each type. They didn't boost a Pokemon's power, but the brief research I'd done on them mentioned that they could potentially get a Pokemon in the right mindset to use moves of the designated type. Given the research I'd done on the Cerulean Gym yesterday, Artis and I were going to be training his ice type side hard.

Hana jotted it down and waved her goodbye, and I felt a tiny pang as she left. In Pewter, I probably would have gotten a side hug or a teasing joke before she departed. While a lot of things were starting to go back to normal, that wasn't yet.

I attacked the paperwork with renewed vigor. It gave me something else to think about, and it would do anyone any favors to dwell on something outside of my control. I was already seeking out help, and I had my first therapy session tomorrow. I could analyze all of that there.

Once I popped in a headphone, the work went quickly. Honestly, after a month of non-stop action, doing something as mundane as signing my name eighty-thousand times was pretty relaxing. Trainers would come and go from the Center, but the vibes remained immaculate. The lobby was well-lit from the sunny day outside, and whoever was in charge of the thermostat had it at the perfect temp between twenty-two and twenty-three degrees. Nurse Joy's Blissey even went out of her way to bring me a cup of tea, which was a genuinely kind and gratefully received gesture.

It took me a little over an hour to finish. As I started to wrap it up, I popped out my headphones and got ready to ring the bell, but I tilted my head toward a conversation being whispered a few meters away. I wasn't sure if I'd heard them right, so listened carefully before making any decisions. Rules number one and two both rang in my head.

"...yeah, that's definitely him," a dark-haired trainer whispered to their friend at the end of the counter. "That's Tracy."

"We should challenge him, then," the brown-haired friend whispered back. "Bring him down a few notches. Maybe he'll skip town before he starts any trouble."

The first trainer shook their head. "Nah, he's not worth it. If he goes around waving any flags, then somebody'll deal with him. He should know better than to pull that in this town, anyway."

I kept my expression neutral, but a lot was going on in that quick exchange. These guys were obviously trainers who didn't like me, and probably because of the stunt I'd pulled at the Pewter Gym. I'd invited this kind of behavior when I'd decided that I was going to make a 'statement' to Kanto.

Legends, I don't even know what that means, I thought regretfully. I did something loud and stupid when I hadn't even fully thought out my goals. I mean, these guys are at least a little nationalistic, so I was probably going to piss them off somehow anyway, but I gotta take at least a bit of the blame for them considering jumping me.

I shrugged off the comments, pretending like I couldn't still feel them still watching me from across the room. I rang the bell and Blissey took the papers off of me, waddling them into one of the back offices. I collected my stuff and headed out of the Center, sending Amy a text that I would meet them out by the river. I needed their help with a training thing that I wanted to try.

As I walked, I contemplated my actions in Pewter and online. In what I had to now admit was a tantrum, I'd decided that I was going to play some kind of villain to the people of Kanto. I'd taken on the name '@TrashTracy', and I'd taken my time in the spotlight to distance myself by waving my regional flag. I didn't really regret either of those actions, but I did regret that they hadn't been done with a bigger purpose. As of last night, I was officially signed on as a sponsored trainer of the Oak Lab, so I needed to be more thoughtful with my actions. Since he hadn't mentioned anything about it yet, I figured that Professor Oak was at least not opposed to my current public persona. I still didn't want to accidentally embarrass him or his lab, though. If I was going to do something disruptive, it needed to be with a clear goal in mind.

I wasn't going to decide on that goal right now for a few reasons, the main one being that I'd included 'No sudden declarative statements' on my list. I needed to take the next few weeks to grow without trying to define myself so tightly. Once I had an idea of where I was, I could start deciding where I was going.

I met Amy not too far from the Pokemon Center at a spot by the river. While it was technically on Route Twenty-Five, the park clearing was too close to the city to actually be dangerous. Amy had suggested it as a place to train because they'd used to go on picnics there with their moms. Since it was downriver, there was no clean wall dividing the river from the shore. Instead, the waves gently lapped at a muddy sandbar, little grasses and roots sticking out of the water.

As I approached, Amy waved. "Sup," they said casually, yawning at the end of the word. The discarded blanket nearby told me they'd been having a nap when I'd texted. "How'd the mountain of paperwork- I'm not even going to ask. Your Presence looks terrible."

"There's that word again," I pointed out. "You mentioned it at the outpost. What exactly is a 'presence'?"

Amy's face had an odd look on it, like they were pleasantly surprised that I'd asked. "Oh, uh," they scratched their head. "I was doing some research on some psychic stuff, ya know, since I've been using it a bit more lately."

"But not too much," I reminded them.

"Not too much," they agreed. "But when I did start using it too much, down in the caves, I noticed some stuff was changing. Like, I've always been able to feel other people's stuff, all their emotions and everything, but I hadn't been able to see them. Somewhere around the canyon, I realized that everybody was starting to have this outline, like they were glowing. It would change colors and stuff when people started getting worked up, or when they got angry..."

"Or when they when getting anxious," I finished for them. "And that's how you've had such an easy time seeing what's going on with me and Hana, our Presences."

Amy nodded, looking both a little proud and a little sheepish. "Yeah. It's not really that different from when I could just feel it, but now I know exactly where the emotions are coming from, which is new. I used to have to guess."

"That's awesome, bean," I said, fully meaning it. Being friends with a psychic in training meant that there was always going to be at least a little bit of a lack of privacy, but I'd gotten over that a while ago. Amy was at least respectful enough to not pry when they knew you needed space. "I'm glad it's all coming together for you."

Now that I'd shown interest, Amy brimmed with excitement. Their grin grew. "Yeah, and actually, Gong, my Bronzor's name is Gong, by the way, has been a huge source of inspo! Like, you know how he vibrates to make noise when he's happy, or whatever? Well, I noticed that his vibrations are, like, one-to-one with his Presence, so it's been helping me figure out how to read little shifts and stuff. After my nap yesterday, we just spent the whole day playing with it!"

I sat down on a root while Amy talked. It was really nice to listen to them ramble about their hyperfixation. They'd lived their whole life without anyone really guiding them, and they'd made almost no progress on understanding themselves in that time. Just a few weeks of traveling, practicing, and interacting with psychic types had them discovering new abilities and embracing themself. It was really awe-inspiring.

I let Amy tell me all about the colors that they saw in a Presence (apparently I'd been hovering over a light brown lately), and what the different frequencies of Gong's emotions looked like in their Presence. Amy and Pennywise had both taken to the new team member instantly, and Amy was excited about everything they'd be able to do together. They tugged at their beanie, twisting the end whenever they got really excited. Not once did Amy mention their Cerulean gym challenge, which really made me happy. They'd been agonizing over it for weeks, and now it was the least of their worries.

"-and I noticed Hana was feeling purple, but I don't know what that means- oh," Amy stopped, blinking like an owl. Their face flushed in embarrassment. "You came here for help, right?"

I chuckled at them. "Yeah, but I was enjoying this. It can wait."

"Nuh-uh," Amy disagreed, hopping to their feet. "What's up?"

I laughed again, shaking my head. "Well, if you're ready," I said as I got up. I brushed myself off. "I was hoping that I could get Pennywise to use his Barrier for an experiment."

"Oh, yeah sure. That's an easy one." Amy released the psychic type in question, who waved when he saw me. I waved back.

I leaned down to the Mime Jr. "Hey, dude," I said. "When you make your Barriers, are they water-tight? Like, could you keep water from flowing between them?"

He didn't even contemplate the answer before he vigorously nodded his head. "Mime mime!"

"Dope!" I flipped through the Nav, pulling up a screencap I'd grabbed from my research yesterday. "This is the Cerulean Gym," I explained, pointing at the image. "See how the field is just a big pool? I want to re-create that here in the river. I have an idea for how Artis can win our battle, but I don't want to accidentally break something expensive. Do you think you could try that?"

This time, Pennywise stared at the photo for a long time. He studied it, even holding up his tiny pink hands to get an idea of the space. Finally, Pennywise nodded.

"Hell yeah," I gave him a tiny fist bump. I glanced back up at Amy. "Is it okay if I borrow him for an hour or two?"

The enby gave me a grin. "Sure, sure," they waved me off. "I can get some training in with Gong in the meantime. We haven't actually tested their battle abilities," they added sheepishly.

Amy moved to the other end of the clearing and released Gong. The Bronzor buzzed in contentment when they saw their trainer, and the two of them got started on some light conversation before training. I turned back to Pennywise and the Mime Jr. was already standing at the edge of the river. He closed his eyes and pressed his tiny hands together, and a light pink light started to emanate from him.

Starting about fifteen meters into the river, I saw the telltale glow of Pennywise's psychic energy flicker into existence below the surface of the water. Like a knife through butter, the edge of a psychic barrier slid a few centimeters out of the water. It was quickly joined on either side by another pair, and another, and then another until the barrier panels had created a rectangular shape that was almost the exact dimensions of a battlefield. The water within didn't stop moving immediately, but you could tell that there wasn't a current there anymore; it had been fully cut off from the rest of the river. The tiny impurities and floating leaves on its surface swirled in a spiral within the bounds of the barrier.

"Alright, that's pretty sick," I murmured in amazement. "And it's not too much?"

"Mi mime!" Pennywise shook his head, though his arms did wobble under the strain. It was easy to forget just how powerful this guy's Barrier move was, given that it was the thing he'd trained the most. Even if the Cerulean River was moving slowly, he was still diverting hundreds of gallons of water around this part of the bank so that we could train.

"I'll try and make it quick," I promised him. I pulled Artis's ball from my belt, releasing him. My Sealeo hit the ground with a loud thud, his tongue lolling in excitement when he saw where we were. I laughed and pulled up the timer on my phone. "That's right bud, we're going to test out that thing that we talked about! Let's see how quickly you can freeze it!"

Artis got to work immediately. He rolled forward, blasting a Powder Snow from his snout. The white explosion of icy snowflakes was beautiful and way denser than when we'd first learned the move, brilliant and shining under the afternoon sun. Within seconds, the snow had covered the surface of the pool. Most of it melted on first contact, but every flake cooled the surface a fraction of a degree, and there were hundreds of thousands of flakes in each breath. It wasn't long before they held their form as they hit the water. Artis redoubled his efforts, inhaling through his nose to keep his move as consistent as possible. Chunks of snow compounded in the water and froze the moisture in their immediate vicinity, creating sheets of wavy and unclear ice that slowly pieced themselves together. When we could no longer see liquid water, Artis stopped and I clicked the timer.

48.12 seconds. I didn't feel let down by the timer. I'd known right away that Powder Snow wasn't going to do what we were looking for, not in the amount of time it would take, but this gave us a benchmark for what we needed to hit. We'd need to get it down to less than five seconds for the plan to be viable.

"Alright, bud," I said to Artis. "Jump test."

"Leo!" He barked, backing a few steps up the bank. Once he was about even with me, he tucked his big blubbery tail under his chest and pulled his body into a ball. He didn't activate Ice Ball or Rollout, but Artis was used to moving like this. He built up a bit of speed, rolling down the slope of the shore, and propelled himself into the air as he hit the edge of the pool.

Crack! Sploooosh!

Artis had only risen a few centimeters over the ice before gravity brought him back down, but the impact was enough to shatter the ice layer we'd built and send Artis tumbling into the river. Given that he was a water type, the sudden rush of water around him didn't seem to bother him, but he did let out a tiny noise of disappointment. I nodded to Pennywise, and he let the Barrier go. The current slowly started to pull the remnants of our experiment downriver.

I walked up to him, petting his snout and pulling a chunk of ice out of the water. "That's okay, bud," I comforted him. "We knew we weren't going to get it on the first try."

"Seal leo," he whined.

As I rubbed his snout, I inspected the ice that I'd pulled out of the river. It was heavy and cloudy, and I could see the individual layers that had been built up by his Powder Snow. It was maybe three centimeters thick, which we'd want to double if we wanted the surface to be able to handle Artis rolling on top of it. The layers made it brittle, and it crumbled under just a bit of pressure from my thumb. If we wanted our plan to work, we were going to have to get Artis started on his next ice type move.

The realization I'd had after the Rhydon battle had inspired a plan for dealing with Cerulean's Sensational Sisters. Unlike most gyms, Cerulean had a trio of sisters who all took turns battling gym challengers as the Leader, and all of them were water type specialists. While I felt pretty confident in Wisp's ability to overpower most of their Pokemon with a Charge Beam, I didn't want to leave it all on that. So, I created an idea to give my team an edge. Even though Artis was a water type, he just wasn't going to be as fast or as nimble as other water types in the Cerulean Gym's specialized battlefield. He'd spent his entire life on land and his main mode of transportation was Rollout, which wouldn't work underwater. That was where step one of the plan came in: freezing the surface of the pool. We'd be simultaneously disrupting the Leader's familiar territory while setting up Artis to be able to take advantage of the ice, since he was already used to skating around on slick ice from Ice Ball.

I also had a plan to involve Wisp with this training, once I'd gotten Artis started, but the ice needed to come first.

"Alright, bud," I said, dropping the ice chunk. "I'm going to have Pennywise set up a smaller pool for you, and I want you to start training to use Aurora Beam. It's going to be your first ice type move that works a little differently than the others, so don't be surprised if it takes us a while to get it down. You're going to focus on just cold. Not ice, not snow, just cold. You shouldn't be creating anything physical with this move, just manifesting a beam of ice type energy. Once you can start getting solid layers of ice, I want you to practice breaking it with your Iron Tail. If you get it thick enough that you can't break it with one swing, we'll know it's strong enough to support you."

I'd lost Artis somewhere around 'differently', but he tried his best to follow what I was saying. Without me directly asking him, Pennywise waved his hand had created a meter-by-meter section of river behind Artis that he could practice on. Having still water for this was important, because freezing moving water was going to be unrealistic compared to what we wanted to accomplish with the gym pool. We wanted to sign up as soon as possible, after all, so we couldn't spend too long training.

Artis nuzzled my face and yipped with determination before turning back to the river. This was the most important step of the plan, and he knew it.

After I got Artis started with his training, I released Wisp from her ball. From across the field, I could see Amy's head whip around at the sudden ghostly presence. Wisp turned, and the two of them stared each other down. After a moment, they both begrudgingly accepted the other's existence and huffed as they turned their backs on each other.

I couldn't help but laugh and shake my head. These two were never going to be friends, but the fact that they weren't actively arguing was a big step up.

"Hey, training time," I said to Wisp, and her dour expression disappeared. She glanced at my hands in excitement, looking for something, but I shook my head. "No, no new TMs," I laughed. "We have to practice your natural moves before we even look at another one of those."

Given that the last time I'd let her use a TM, Wisp had gotten access to a type of power she'd never had before, I could see why she'd be excited to try another one. The problem was, though, that I'd only taught her Charge Beam as a bridge to get her used to electric type moves. Now that she has that, she might be able to learn some new ones without the use of a TM.

"I actually have two moves that I want you to work on today, as well as a new way of fighting," I said. "It's up to you which one we do first, though. Do you want to try and learn another electric type move, or do you want to focus on something sneaky?"

Wisp's face took on a dark amusement, and she giggled. "Mis mis!"

"Number two? I thought so!" I grinned. We'd be saving Thunder Wave for later, then. "Okay, let's get started."

When I told Wisp what move she was going to be learning, she giggled so loudly and manically that it bordered on a villain laugh. Amy looked over at us again, and I gave them a thumbs up. That didn't seem to placate them.

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

By the end of our first day of training in Cerulean, Artis hadn't fully cracked Aurora Beam, but he was getting close, and Wisp had almost instantly picked up her super secret new move. Honestly, it wasn't surprising to me that my Pokemon were making quick progress. Both of them had gone above and beyond in the caves, and Artis had technically been in the headspace to learn Aurora Beam as far back as our training in Pewter. Now that they had a direction for their training, my team was thriving.

And soon they won't be the only ones, I thought as I walked back to the Center, feeling the egg incubator against my hip. I'd taken to carrying it on me at all times, if for no other reason than it being close made me feel better. Nurse Joy had given it a clean bill of health, though its time spent in the cold had disrupted its normal egg cycle. That just meant that Nurse Joy wasn't sure if it would hatch next week or next month. The longest she could see could see it staying an egg for was six weeks, though, given its current growth.

I got back to the Pokemon Center in time to catch another one of my companions coming back from his own training. Yuji was dressed casually today, in a dark compression shirt and leggings underneath a set of basketball shorts, and he'd left his hair in a Ponyta-tail. He didn't notice me wave as he walked by, too distracted by a video that was playing on his phone. His face was furrowed in concentration. Yuji absentmindedly hit the button for the elevator and, since I didn't want to interrupt him, I casually stole a glance at his screen as I waiting behind him.

Yuji was watching a battle recording. Not his own, but a professionally filmed and commentated one. There was a tiny chyron at the bottom of the screen that I could barely make out, but my glance was enough to realize that it was someone challenging a figure that was familiar to me. I'd seen him battle in person. Elite Four Bruno's Machamp was duking it out with the challenger's red-gloved Hitmonchan, and it was not a close fight. Hitmonchan's face was purple and swollen, and they were cradling their left arm. Machamp went for a four-armed volley of punches and it wasn't long until I could hear the referee's whistle echo from Yuji's headphones.

Yuji grimaced at the result, which confused me. As far as I was aware, Bruno was Yuji's favorite battler. It was the second or third thing I'd ever learned about him, after his love of martial arts movies and karaoke. Maybe he'd been trying to learn something from the footage, or he maybe knew the challenger personally, but Yuji sighed as he pulled his earbuds out and stowed his phone. The elevator arrived, and I made my presence known as I stepped in behind him.

"Sup, Yuji!"

To his credit, Yuji only gave the barest hint of surprise when he turned to see me standing next to him. "Hello, Derek," Yuji said with a pleasant smile. All hints of his previous disappointment were gone. He clicked the button for our floor. "How was your training today?"

"Honestly, we're kind of killing it," I grinned. "I've got Artis going on a battle plan for the Cerulean Sisters, and Wisp learned a brand new move, so she's getting set up to learn another one this week. What about you?"

I was genuinely curious about Yuji's training, especially with how hard Achilles getting rocked by Rhydon had shaken him. I couldn't help but wonder if he'd found any solution for the holes in his strategy. Maybe that was why he'd been so mesmerized by the battle footage.

Like always, Yuji's expression was almost unreadable beyond his calm demeanor. "I think we're doing well. Achilles has fully recovered, and his loss has driven him to train harder. We've moved to a new training regimen to get around some walls that we've run into. Despereaux-" Yuji stopped, considering his words. "He is doing his best."

That was a measured sentence if I'd ever heard one, and it was hard to hear from Yuji. He'd always been Despereaux's number-one supporter, and that meant that the Rattata wasn't making progress. Yuji wasn't someone who held his Pokemon to unreasonable standards; he was more likely to let them create their own goals and just helped with their drive and training. If the little guy wasn't getting stronger, I couldn't imagine how either of them must be feeling.

Oof, I thought.

Yuji frowned, giving me a look.

"Oh no," I muttered, realizing what had just happened. "I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"You did," he confirmed, looking straight ahead.

The elevator dinged, the doors opening to our floor. Yuji stepped out, and I followed behind him. We walked without another word, and the awkward energy in the air was palpable. I didn't know what to say without rolling back what I'd already accidentally let out, because honestly, 'oof' was a pretty accurate response to how I felt about the situation. Despereaux was hitting the upper limits of what a Rattata could do without serious experience or monetary intervention. Every Pokemon had a limit, and a first-stage Pokemon like Despereaux was going to hit that earlier than a lot of other Pokemon. There were definitely still techniques and moves Yuji could teach him, like he'd done with my TMs, but Despereaux was only going to get so strong and so fast.

I'd never asked why Despereax hadn't evolved yet. I'd wondered a few times, especially once we'd beat Brock, but Yuji had never brought it up or made it seem like it was something that he was interested in. It was a little weird, considering that Despereaux had definitely been stronger than Paige and Artis earlier in our journey, and had been almost guaranteed to evolve first. Since it was something Yuji had never brought up, I decided to keep leaving it alone. It wasn't just rule seven that kept me from asking questions, but the fact that I respected Yuji too much to question how he was training his Pokemon.

Instead, as we got closer to our rooms, I put a hand on Yuji's shoulder. "Hey, man," I started. "I was thinking. We haven't gotten the chance to just hang, you and me, in a while. After we get cleaned up, you wanna head down to the rec room and commandeer the TV? I'm sure there's gonna be a martial arts movie or two that we can stream."

Confusion bloomed on Yuji's face, followed quickly by a curious grin. "That sounds-" Just like earlier, Yuji hesitated. His hand drifted toward his pocket where his phone was, and his expression sobered a bit. "I think I should stay in tonight. We want to sign up for our badge challenges tomorrow, right? That only gives us a week to prepare for the Sensational Sisters."

I gave him an understanding nod, though I could feel my face fall a little. "Yeah, that makes sense. You do what you need to do." I let go of his shoulder and turned to head to my room. "Let me know if you change your mind, though."

Before I got more than a few steps, Yuji called out to me. "Derek?"

"Yeah, man?" I turned, hoping he'd changed his mind.

Yuji held up his phone, stepping just far enough forward to let me see it. "Saw this today. I thought you might want to know about it."

While I was let down that Yuji still seemed like he was going to turn down my offer, the forum post on his phone was enough to distract me for a moment. It was a link to a news post that read 'CHAMPIONS COLLIDE: BATTLE BETWEEN LANCE AND STEVEN CONFIRMED'.

"No friggin' way..." My jaw genuinely dropped, and Yuji was nice enough to let me hold his phone to read it. Lance, Kanto's Champion, and Steven Stone, my champion, had sat down this morning to talk about doing a show battle this season. According to the article, they'd come out of talks with an agreement that they would be battling in two months at Indigo. The battle was going to be a full-on feature match, with both champions using their strongest six Pokemon in a no-holds-barred match. Tickets for the match would be going on sale in two weeks, and it was going to be televised. The article speculated on the cause of their show battle, but nothing had been confirmed yet.

It was crazy to know that Steven Stone was following me to Kanto. I mean, obviously I wasn't the reason that he was coming, but it was cool to know that my champion was going to be here at the same time as me. Steven was the strongest guy in Hoenn and I'd looked up to him for a long time. I still remembered his battle against our former champion, since my dad and I had watched it together at the big TV in the Ace Trainer station. We gone all out, buying t-shirts and cheering for him to win even though a lot of the Ace Trainers there had pegged him to fail. If I had decided to stay in Hoenn, he'd have been my final obstacle in the Ever Grande Conference.

"This was not on my bingo card for this year," was the first thing that I could force out. "They've never..."

Yuji nodded, showing some excitement himself. "The two of them have never battled," he confirmed. "This will be the first time we've seen two champions battle since Sinnoh and Unova's champions a few years ago."

"That's so fucking cool! I wonder if- Legends, I can't even imagine Metagross going up against Dragonite." I was almost foaming at the mouth at the thought. "I mean, Steven's going to win, but that match is going to be insane!"

I was hoping that Yuji would rise to the bait of my implication that Steven was stronger than Lance, but he just shrugged. Instead of jumping into speculation with me, Yuji stepped back toward his door.

"Anyway," he said, turning away from me. "I just thought that you would want to know."

There was a click, and Yuji was through the door without another word.

"Yeah, man. Thanks." The words felt a little hollow since he wasn't there to hear them.

I was left standing in the hallway, feeling down and confused. My rival was somebody who was normally full of fire. Even though most people would see him as calm and mild-mannered, Yuji had an unbreakable spirit and the indescribable drive of a fighter. I'd seen it from him time and time again, and I didn't know what was going on that had left him so subdued. With both the movies and the champion battle, he was holding himself back from getting fired up. It was weird.

I so badly wanted to knock on his door, but I knew that I wasn't the person who was going to fix anything here, not unless Yuji asked me for help. Instead, I sent a brief text to Hana and Amy. I didn't mention any details or what I'd been observing, but I did tell them that I thought Yuji was acting weird. They'd been his friends longer, and if there was something that could be done, they were more qualified to give advice and help. It was a hard game, walking the lines between respecting his privacy, keeping my involvement to a minimum, and caring about my friend, but this was the best I could think of.

I walked the rest of my way to my room, releasing my Pokemon before I got cleaned up. Yuji's subtle rejections stuck in my head the entire time. This was one of those moments. Three days into my list, and I was already being faced with a test. The Derek of three weeks ago wouldn't have been able to let the matter lie, so the fact that I was sitting on my bed staring at my list was showing growth. Rule seven glared at my from the Pokenav+.

#7 - Let Problems Be Problems

I frowned at it, trying to find a mental justification for why this particular situation should be an exception. I was both frustrated and grateful that I'd written my reasoning right below it, because moments like this were the exact reasons that I'd written the list.

I growled, slumping onto my bed. I felt something wet and warm nuzzle my palm, and I knew that Artis was pressing his snout against me. I glanced over the edge of the bed, and Artis looked up at me. His big brown eyes were concerned.

"I have to let it go, huh?" I asked him. "I don't want to, though."

Artis stared at me. He tilted his head.

"I know...." I mumbled, turning over to be able to scratch his head. "It's just- I'm just having a harder time with this than I thought."

"Sealeoooo...." Artis yawn, pressing his hand against my nails. He was still a little damp from the river, and he was exhausted after the amount of training we'd done. My Sealeo rolling onto his side, grateful for the scratches and unconcerned now that I'd started to justify my decision.

I wasn't the only one to giggle. I looked over at Wisp, who was sitting against the egg's incubator on the desk, and she too was smiling. "Mis mis," she said.

"Yeah," I chuckled. "There's not a thought behind those eyes."

Wisp nodded, and Artis barely grumbled in disagreement.

We all took a little nap after that. We would have to leave other people's problems to themselves. At least, until they asked for our help.