“Have you ever heard of Team Rocket?”
It took every ounce of restraint in my body to not react to Casey’s question with immediate revulsion and violence. Even though I’d had an inkling that the conversation was being steered this way, it was very different to hear someone causally bring up a terrorist group like he was talking about a sports team.
Instead of ripping Wisp’s ball off of my waist, I clenched my fist behind my back. It was the only outlet I had that Casey couldn’t see.
Fuck. I didn’t know what to do.
There were a couple of ways to play this, and the longer I took to decide the more I was likely to put this guy on edge. My eyes flicked to his belt. He had two Pokeballs, though he hadn’t reached for either. He was giving me an expectant grin, though it did have an edge of worry to it.
Images flashed across my vision. Aestus kicking an old man, Proton’s Toxtricity destroying the museum, square holes cut into Clefairy’s nest-
A hand clenched down on my elbow. I almost whipped around, but logic kicked in before I did. Amy was clutching my arm. My memories of Team Rocket were replaced with a list that I’d spent an entire night working on, and a week of progress that I’d been making in keeping to it.
I stepped in front of Amy, almost fully obscuring Casey’s view of them, and tried to put on a kind face. “I mean, I have, but-” I gave my best apologetic shrug. “Only bad things. They’re that gang, right?”
In my split second of decision-making, I’d chosen to go the civil and dumb route. If I could keep this guy focused on me, either I could talk him into backing off or Amy could text someone for help. It was a decision made off a few different gut instinct things that I knew:
One, I needed to get Amy and myself out of here without setting this guy off. If he was trying to recruit us for Team Rocket and he got mad, there wasn’t a lot we could do. Three of our Pokemon had already battled a bunch today, two of them still actively poisoned, and I wasn’t sure if Wisp would be able to handle whatever was in Casey’s two Pokeballs on her own.
Two, I now knew that there was no way that Casey had connected me to the Pewter Museum. I don’t know what rock he’d been living under, but if he knew what my experience with them had been, he’d know not to bring them up around me. That gave me a lot of leeway to keep this civil.
Three, he was reaching out to me purely because of how the other trainers had treated me during the Nugget Bridge. Sure, I’d won, but he’d been interested in me the moment that the crowd had noticed me. That meant that he assumed that my frustrations would make me more likely to hear him out, which it was probably best that I didn’t correct him.
Casey shook his head. “Nah, that’s just what the Kanto government wants you to hear about them,” he said dismissively. Casey leaned in like he was sharing the world’s biggest secret with me. “Team Rocket isn’t actually that bad. They just want to put everyone on the same playing field, literally. They focus on distributing Pokemon to their members based on their merits, instead of all the privileged assholes who end up getting rare Pokemon from one sponsor or another.”
I hid the vehement grimace that threatened to endanger me. Not only did that not address where Team Rocket stole their rare Pokemon from, but this guy didn’t know that I was one of those ‘privileged assholes’.
“Oh, really?” A small part of my soul died as I stalled for time. I specifically hadn’t looked back at Amy, mostly because I wanted Casey to forget that they were there, but that also meant that I didn’t know what they were doing. “That’s actually pretty sensible. So they focus on making trainers strong, then?”
If Casey caught that I was laying it on thick, he didn’t let it show. Instead, his worry morphed into a self-satisfied grin. “Yes, exactly! It’s an organization that focuses on training trainers up and giving them the tools they need! The only reason people have been giving them bad press is because they either just don’t get how training is supposed to work, or they're too scared of letting any group get stronger than our weak and biased government. The Indigo League doesn’t want people to know that there’s an alternative. I mean, you’ve seen how stubborn Kanto trainers are when it comes to anything that threatens them.”
The blow to my self-worth from pretending to agree with a terrorist was nothing compared to the hollow feeling of resonating with that same terrorist’s words. The culture of Kanto was stubborn to its core, and though I hadn’t had almost any dealings with the League itself, the local trainers weren’t the best example of acceptance.
But what about the change you saw today? I reminded myself. What about your friends, Daisy, Brock, or Professor Oak?
You had to be a pretty narrow-minded person to paint an entire region with a single brush, and I’d already seen that Kanto wasn’t a monolith. These were just the talking points of a terrorist group, not words that I should take to heart.
It was hard not to think about how much I’d struggled with Kanto’s attitude toward privilege, but I pushed those thoughts aside.
“Man, that does make sense,” I lied. “It’s exhausting trying to deal with people being so arrogant all the time, and the Indigo Conference isn’t really a bastion of fairness and acceptance.”
“Exactly!” Casey’s grin got even wider. “You get it! I figured you would, but it’s nice to hear someone so like-minded these days.”
“Well,” I shrugged, “it’s not like I can’t see exactly where you’re coming from. Aren’t most of the top ten rookies this season sponsored by some big company or research lab?”
I pulled that little tidbit of information from the conversations I’d had with Daisy and Hana before Mt. Moon. Of the top ten, three of them were sponsored by Oak Lab, and another five of them had at least one big-name sponsor each. Portia, for example, I remembered being sponsored by her family business, Miracle Cycle, here in Cerulean City. Elsie had been one of the few that I couldn’t recall having a corporate sponsorship.
“Yeah, and none of ‘em deserve it,” Casey spat. His face took on a look of disgust for a moment. “They’re elitists, the lot of them. Honestly, those Pokemon should be taken and given to trainers who deserve them.”
I let out a long breath. It was really, really, hard to ignore just how open Casey was being with his Zubat-shit-crazy ideas. From the grin that returned to his face, though, he took my silence as a form of agreement.
“You know,” he dropped his volume to a low tone and glanced around suspiciously. The closest trainer had long since walked away, as much as I wished we weren’t alone. “If you’re that interested, I’m sure I could hook you up with a good recommendation?”
I froze. I don’t know why I did, but we were passing my threshold on being able to play this straight.
Memories and emotions I’d been able to keep down from Amy’s intervention rushed back to the surface. A Rocket grunt striking Daisy in the face, Proton and his men walking through the museum entrance, my hearing being ripped away by Toxtricity.
My hand fell to Wisp’s ball.
“Hey, Derek! Amy!” A voice echoed across the field, causing myself and Casey alike to snap to attention. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere! Are you guys ready for dinner?”
Jogging from the direction of Nugget Bridge was our savior, Hana. She’d pulled her hair back in a ponytail and was wearing a green tracksuit. Even if she was acting nonchalant, I could tell that she was huffing and out of breath. She’d run here.
Amy’s hand squeezed mine. I squeezed back, knowing they could feel my thanks.
“Yeah, we were just heading back!” Amy called, trying for jovial but the tremor in their voice gave them away, at least to me. “Derek was just chatting with a friend.”
“Oh, nice,” Hana said, walking up to my side opposite Amy. We made a united little front with our backs to Cerulean City.
“Yeah, we were just wrapping up.” I turned back to Casey, though I’d never let him leave my line of sight. “Anyway, thanks for the talk, dude.”
Casey’s eyes were trained on Hana and I could feel his frustration at being interrupted. His gaze fell to her waist and I had to physically stop myself from smiling when he turned a few shades paler. Hana had adjusted her Pokeball belt to be visible at a glance, and she had six balls attached to it.
His jaw tightened, but Casey kept up his grin as he turned back to me. “Yeah, man. If you ever want to take me up on that offer, ask around. I run the challenge here some days, but I’m also around town.”
“Sure thing.” I wasn’t going to do that. The only time I would be saying this guy’s name again is when I told it to the police. “You have a good night,” in hell, I silently added.
Hana, Amy, and I took off back to Cerulean. We didn’t talk or stop glancing behind us until Casey’s dark figure had been out of sight for a long time. As we got closer to town, we let out a collective breath.
“That was so scary!” Amy was the first person to let out a whine, tears forming in the corner of their eyes. “Holy crap, I didn’t know what to do!”
Hana took Amy’s head into her arms, pulling them into a hug. “You did the right thing,” she assured them. She turned her lime green eyes to me and gave me a nod. “You both did.”
“It was all I could think of,” I admitted. “Keep him talking ‘till help came. It was Amy who did the most important bit: getting you.” I reached for the Nav on my waist, but I had trouble grasping it. My hands were still shaking. “Nice touch, by the way. The belt.”
Hana nodded absentmindedly, staring back down the trail. “I figured that it would help if they thought they were outnumbered. What do we do now?”
I clenched my fists. I concentrated on my breathing and closed my eyes. It was a few seconds before my heart stopped pounding and I could hold the Nav straight. I clicked through it looking for a name that I’d put into it after the museum.
“I need to make a phone call,” I answered her.
----------------------------------------
“-and you said his name was ‘Casey’? You didn’t catch a last name?” Ace Trainer Karen’s voice came over the speakerphone function of the Nav.
“No, I didn’t.” I glanced at Amy, who was curled on the couch next to me, meekly chewing on a spring roll. “Did you, Ames?”
“Mm-mm,” they shook their head. “He only introduced himself once, and he only ever said his first name. I didn’t sense a lie, though, when he said it.”
When I’d suggested calling Karen, Hana had steered us back to the Pokemon Center rather than staying out in the open. Amy and I had turned over our Pokemon to Nurse Joy for healing and we’d commandeered an isolated corner with a pair of couches that faced each other and a small table. Hana had then called Yuji and let him know what had happened. He’d arrived fifteen minutes later clutching a bag of food and covered in sweat, having sprinted all the way here.
“And your psychic powers are reliable enough for that?” Karen’s voice wasn’t judging, just confirming a fact.
Amy nodded before remembering that Karen couldn’t see them. “Um, yes. I mean, unless someone is concentrating on lying to just me, I can pretty much tell. So, his name at least has Casey in it.”
“And he has two Pokemon,” I added. “Two on his belt, though I don’t know if he had more stored somewhere else. I also highly doubt he acquired them legally.”
“Okay,” there was a pause and the sound of typing. “I have your report filed and I’ve sent it to the local police department, they should look into it right away. For now, you should avoid traveling that way again, and stick to Pokemon Centers and Gyms. I’ll let you know if they make any arrests.”
We let out a collective sigh of relief. Amy collapsed backward into the sofa cushions and Yuji grunted in approval.
“I appreciate this so much, Karen,” I said. “I know that this isn’t normally what you do, but-”
“This was the right call,” she interrupted me. “I doubt you know this, but I’m one of two leads on the Team Rocket investigation right now. You’ve just skipped a chain of communication that would’ve ended with me anyway.”
“…oh,” was all that came out of my mouth. I suddenly felt a lot more self-conscious. I’d only ever thought of Karen as another Ace Trainer but if she was leading the Rocket investigation, I was dealing with someone a lot more important than I’d realized, somebody closer to my dad's level.
Hana and Yuji shot me similar looks. It was clear on all of our faces that none of us had quite realized Karen’s rank.
“Now that we’ve got this lead, I’ll make sure it gets followed,” she promised. “Honestly, you’d be surprised how few reports there have been about Rocket recruiters. They know their stuff, so they’re normally not as brazen as this.”
“Yeah, I guess I was… kind of a special circumstance,” I grimaced, thinking back to the crowd’s reaction when I’d walked up. “Since he didn’t seem to connect me to the museum, I must’ve looked like the perfect recruit.”
“Unhappy and strong,” Karen agreed. “That’s their M.O., they find trainers who show promise and push them to get stronger in less than legal ways, often to get back at people who’ve wronged them.”
There was a small pause in the conversation. I didn’t know how to respond to that, and the sinking feeling in my chest hadn’t really left from my conversation with Casey. Even seeing things slightly from his point of view had shaken me.
“Actually,” Karen’s voice was hesitant. “Would you mind if we had a word in private?”
I frowned, meeting my eyes with Yuji. His expression mirrored my own. “Um, I’m not going to up and join Team Rocket-”
“That’s not what this is about.” Ace Trainer Karen sighed over the line. “I saw you after the museum, kiddo. Nobody who walks out of that is going to drink the punch.”
I cleared my throat. “Uh,” I wasn't sure how to respond to that. She wasn't wrong. “I guess, then, sure.”
I picked up the Nav and switched off the speaker, going to leave the room, when a hand landed on my shoulder. Yuji had stopped me. His eyes were worried, and his black and white hair was just disheveled enough to make him look a little manic.
‘Do you want company?’ He mouthed.
The corners of my mouth upturned. Even with all of the weird stuff that had been going on with us, he had my back one hundred percent. Mrs. Clara had been right, like always.
I smiled and shook my head softly, patting his hand. ‘I'm okay,’ I mouthed back.
Yuji looked unsure, but he let me go.
I found a spot a ways away from everyone else and sat down. “Okay, I'm alone. What's up?”
“I've been meaning to check in on you for a while,” said Karen, “but I just hadn't found the time yet. How would you say you're doing right now?”
I paused, genuinely taking her words at face value. “Not as bad as I was doing after the museum,” I finally said. “I've been working with a therapist lately, and we've mostly been going over that stuff.”
“That's good.” Karen’s voice was stilted and I got the feeling she didn't do small talk very often. “Just, given the report that came in after Mt. Moon, I wanted to make sure.”
Ah, that was it. Karen had said she was the lead on the Team Rocket case, so our report would have gone straight to her. “Yeah, that was rough,” I admitted. “But it’s been okay since then.”
“That’s good,” she repeated.
There was a long pause in the conversation. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to keep going, but Karen started speaking again right as I opened my mouth. “Listen, Derek, I’m not sure if this is going to help where you’re at right now, but I feel like there’s something to be said about your current situation.”
When I didn’t immediately reply, she elaborated. “Kanto is going through a hard time right now with this stuff with the Rockets, obviously, and I’m worried that you might be in danger.”
My throat tightened. “Wha- What? Like, from the Rockets or-”
“Not necessarily them, exactly, but you do seem to be a magnet for criminal activity. Your name showing up in three of my reports in less than a month is going to put you in somebody’s crosshairs eventually. But no, I’m more worried about the low-level thugs than anything else.” Karen paused and I heard the tapping of her nails on a screen. “You’re not a ranking rookie, not yet anyway, but you’ve made a name for yourself already and you’ve just accepted a big sponsorship from the Oak Lab. That doesn’t go unnoticed. You do know about his normal three-trainer limit, right?”
“Yeah.” My voice was hoarse. “My- um, somebody told me about it.”
I had a feeling about what point Karen was getting at and I didn’t want to think about Daisy right now. Professor Oak normally only sponsored three rookies each year, and he’d been pretty strict about it for a long time. He’d mentioned it offhand in our first conversation, but I’d been too busy turning him down to notice.
“Well, the old man bent his rule for you, someone who has a lot of resentment built up among the public and isn’t afraid to be known as an outsider. Even if the Rockets themselves don’t go after you, you’re marking a lot of boxes for their recruits who are looking for ways to prove themselves. You’re turning into the kind of guy that’s an easy target to make an example of. I saw that you have a gym battle in two days? That’s going to put you in the limelight again when you win.”
I rested my fist against my temple, frustration pulsing through me again. If I’d just laid low, or if I’d just not acted like an ass hat-
“You’re right,” I felt helpless. “This is going to keep being a problem. How do I stop it?”
“That depends. Best I can see it, there are two ways that you can stay off the Rocket’s radar other than me assigning a permanent Ace to keep an eye on you and your friends. The first one is that you can stay out of sight as much as possible. Avoid sticking out and avoid strangers. Be as unassuming as possible. If you want, I could even make a request with a few of the Gym Leaders to let you do your gym battles in private-”
“No.” The rejection was out of my mouth before my brain could catch up to my words. If this week had been a tiny glimpse of doing that for my entire season, I wasn’t going to do that to myself. I’d rather fly home right now than keep avoiding everyone. “That’s not going to work. What’s the other option?”
Karen chuckled over the line. “That’s why you’re going to be okay, kid. It’s also why I think the other route is going to work better for you. These low-level guys, they want to get stronger because they’re weak. It sounds pretty simple, but it’s the truth. If you really want them not to mess with you, get ranked. If you can get yourself up to the top, you won’t look like an easy target anymore. You’re a rookie, so you’re not going to get strong enough to fight an Executive or anything anytime soon, but you won’t have to worry about the Caseys of the world anymore.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Once again, Karen was right on the money. My memory flashed back to Casey’s face when he’d thought that Hana was packing an entire team. Just that had been enough to ward him away. The grunts that I’d fought at the museum wouldn’t be easy to fight, but I was sure that Artis, Wisp, and I could beat them now.
“Okay, I need to get stronger, then. I can do that.”
“It’s not going to be easy, but I think you can pull it off,” Karen agreed. “Not a lot of people do what you and your girlfriend did at the museum. It takes a special kind of grit to act out that way.”
I gave her a dry chuckle. “Thanks, but I’ve been actively trying to avoid risking my life lately. My friends think it’s bad for my health.”
“Everything in moderation. As long as you stick to the approved routes for your badge level, you should be okay.”
My shoulders rolled at the jab and I laughed a bit more. I wouldn’t be ending up off route again, even if Mt. Moon hadn’t been on purpose.
“And here’s a suggestion: If you don’t think you can sweep another gym right now, find somewhere to train up for a few weeks. You’re right next to Rock Tunnel, right? That’s not a bad place to visit if you want to lay low ‘till you’re strong enough. It doesn’t get a huge amount of visitors this early in the season and it doesn’t go as deep as Mt. Moon.”
As she talked, I pulled out my map. If I traveled east from Cerulean, I would hit Rock Tunnel. It would then take me south to-
“Oh, shit, I forgot about that.”
“Hmm?”
“Lavender Town. A friend of mine offered to pull some strings to let me train with some of the ghost specialists there.”
Karen went silent for a moment. When she resumed speaking her voice was several tones lower and almost traumatized. “I don’t know who this friend of yours is, kid, but the ladies there are no joke.” I could hear Karen shiver. “If you’re seeking them out, make sure you know what you’re doing. That little ghost of yours would grow pretty quick there, though.”
I stared at the map, slowly taking in the route we’d just laid out. The Nav told me that it would take about a week and a half to get from Cerulean to Lavender, assuming I went through Rock Tunnel. It would be another four days of travel between Lavender and Saffron, which is where I’d been hoping to meet up with Daisy when she got back from her expedition. She’d left for that on the twenty-first of April…
I started counting the days on my fingers.
Assuming that I won my battle against the Cerulean Gym, I’d leave here a day or two later, depending on how hurt my Pokemon got. With two weeks of travel accounted for, that only left me five or six days to train at the Pokemon Tower.
My stomach sank. That wasn’t a meaningful amount of time to train Wisp up, especially when she was going to be my lynchpin in Saffron City. Its gym was full of psychic specialists, so Wisp was going to be invaluable there as a ghost type. If I went this route, I probably wasn’t going to meet up with Daisy when I wanted to, and then there were my friends to consider. I didn’t want them to be dragged along with me.
“Thanks for the advice, Karen,” I finally said. “I’ll make sure I let you know when I make my decisions.”
“Make sure you do,” the Ace Trainer said quietly, having let me introspect during the call. “You’re a good kid, Derek. I just want to make sure you stay safe.”
“You, me, and everyone else,” I agreed.
----------------------------------------
When I finally came back to the table, the others had gathered what was left of the takeout in my empty spot and were a little too fast to quiet down when I approached.
Yuji was the first to welcome me back. “How did it go?” His gaze was still worried, but given that I didn’t seem too affected by my call he calmed considerably.
“Well, Karen just- um, she wanted to make sure I was staying safe, given everything.” I wasn’t sure how to start this conversation with my friends. “She gave me some pointers on avoiding the Rockets.”
Hana nodded. “That makes sense. I’m sure that you’re sticking out for a variety of reasons, so she’d want to make sure that you weren’t putting yourself in undue danger.”
“…yeah, that, basically.” Hana’s deductive powers never failed to surprise me. Nor did the suspicious glance that Amy sent my way. Now that they could actively see my feelings, it was a lot more obvious when they knew that everything wasn’t right.
As I sat down, Amy poked me in the ribs. “Was that everything?”
“No, but I don’t want to talk about it yet.” I didn’t feel the need to lie. Not to this group of people.
Yuji cleared his throat. “That’s understandable. If anything, I have something to bring up that may prove a decent buffer between conversations.” Yuji spoke hesitantly, like he wasn’t sure this was the time or place. “Would you mind if we spoke about something that I have been thinking about for some time?”
Hana, Amy, and I shot each other looks. Now that we’d had the time to absorb what had happened at the Nugget Bridge and it was being taken care of, it was almost nice to hear about something more mundane, like what had been going on with our friend. Yuji had been acting weird since Pewter, so we’d been waiting for this conversation.
The three of us shifted in our seats, giving our friend our full attention. Hana answered first. “Of course. You know that we’re here for you.”
“Yeah!” Amy said, slowly grabbing for the uneaten food in front of me. “What’s up?”
Yuji nodded gratefully to both of them, but his eyes looked up to meet mine from his bowed head. He was watching me carefully, waiting for my answer. I gave him the most reassuring grin that I could, and I nodded for him to continue.
Yuji accepted that answer, letting out a long sigh. He kept his gaze on the table after that. “As you may be aware, I have not been achieving the standards that I have set out for myself as a Pokemon trainer. While I have managed to capture a very powerful teammate and have secured myself a badge, I feel as though my actual training has been lacking.”
I sucked in a breath. It wasn’t that I didn’t agree with what he was saying, but it was hard to hear him sum it up like that.
Hana frown. “I disagree, but please continue.”
Yuji’s eyebrows tightened, but he did not dispute her. “Regardless, I have been feeling as though I lack some fundamentals regarding my training, and because of that, Despereaux has not received the attention or growth that he deserves. For that matter, I do not believe that Achilles has grown in strength since I captured him. I have been looking for a way to remedy that.”
This time, Hana and I both went to disagree with him, but Amy’s hand on our arms stopped us. The little shake of their head made it clear that this wasn’t the time for speaking.
“I do not believe any of you follow the world of martial arts, but there is a place in Saffron City, the Fighting Dojo. I trained there for many years and I have a… …I have a complicated relationship with the former owners. For that reason, I stopped training there almost a year before I began my journey. However, there has recently been a change in ownership over the Dojo.”
Yuji pulled his phone out of his pocket and started playing a video. It was of a Pokemon battle, the same one I’d seen him watching in the elevator the other day. The Machamp still brutally beat down on the Hitmonchan, just like I remembered.
“Bruno of the Elite Four, founder of the Fighting Dojo, recently returned from one of his training hiatuses and has reclaimed ownership of the Dojo. Because of that, I would like to travel to Saffron and learn from him before I challenge my next gym.”
Amy let go of both of our arms, letting us know that Yuji was ready for our responses. Now that he’d laid out the whole thing, though, the wind was taken out of my sails. Knowing this information put a couple of things into place, like the fact that Yuji was definitely related to those former owners. Now that I was looking at for it, I could see the resemblance between Hitmonchan’s trainer and Yuji. They had the same eyes and curved noses, though the trainers face was far more severe.
The family aspect put a whole different spin on the situation. The family that had kicked him out were the same people whose hometurf he’d be going to.
“Damn, dude. That’s hardcore,” I grimaced as I watched Hitmonchan go down. “Well, weren’t we already planning on heading to Saffron next anyway?”
Hana answered for him, her voice was severe. “Yuji is saying that he wants to travel there on his own.”
“Oh.”
The man in question tensed his shoulders. “It isn’t that I don’t love every moment that I spend with you all,” Yuji said, “and I know that we’ve had a series of very serious situations recently, so it would make sense that you would feel uncomfortable with me going off on my own. To be honest, I wouldn’t blame you for denying me this. I simply am attempting to remedy where I have been going wrong in my training. I also think I would get a more accurate understanding of my current skills if I traveled alone after my gym battle.”
That was a gut punch and a half. I hadn’t even mentioned the passing plan that I’d had to go to Rock Tunnel, so Yuji was asking this of us while thinking that we were all traveling in the same direction anyway.
“Damn, dude…” I said again. I let out a long breath.
For the first time since we’d started the conversation, Amy spoke up. “Actually, I don’t know that it’s the worst idea…”
Three pairs of eyes snapped to them and Amy shrank in their chair. Hana beckoned them to keep going, so they sat up.
“Well, what I meant was, today showed me that I’m a lot stronger than I thought I was,” Amy said slowly, a small smile coming over their face. “And I got there by training in the way that worked for me. If Yuji needs some time to be on his own, maybe that’s just what works for him?”
I couldn’t disagree that Amy had gotten a lot stronger very quickly. Pennywise had dropped my jaw today, and I doubt that would’ve happened without Gong helping Amy get more in tune with their psychic abilities.
Hana didn’t seem as convinced. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for any of us to travel by ourselves yet. Maybe if we were closer to Triumph Day when the routes would be a bit safer, but Yuji, even if this is going to help you get stronger, what’s going to happen if you run into someone like we did today?”
Yuji glanced my way and grimaced. There was something he wanted to say but chose not to, though I think we all understood his meaning.
Yuji wasn’t the one who needed to be chaperoned. He wasn’t the trouble magnet.
Hana didn’t have an immediate retort for that. All three of them looked my way. I got very self-conscious as I realized that I was the tiebreaker. Amy supported Yuji’s plan, Hana wasn’t for it.
My eyes fell to my Nav. Even though the screen was off, I knew that the route I’d programmed in was still the most recent application.
“Yuji,” I said slowly, “how long would you want to train by yourself?”
His eyes tightened, somewhere between caution and hope. “No more than a few weeks, and if the group wanted to move on before I was ready, I would be willing to catch up with you all.”
“That’s not exactly what I had in mind,” I sighed. “I wasn’t sure how to talk about this, but it’s as good a time as any, I guess.”
I clicked on the Nav, displaying the route through Rock Tunnel and Lavender Town. I explained what Karen had told me about staying out of sight and rising to be a ranked trainer. I didn’t hold any part of our conversation back, since all of the others were putting their cards on the table too. It was the least I could do after Yuji had finally opened up to us.
“…so basically,” I summed up, “I was kind of thinking of going my own way too, though this only just came up. If Yuji was planning on doing his own thing, I already didn’t want to drag you guys along with me.”
It hurt me to suggest this. It was the exact scenario that Mrs. Clara and I had just talked about. I was proposing that I step away from my friends so that I wouldn’t waste their time. Yuji looked so set on going to Saffron, though. Not only had it been our original plan, which I would be altering if we went my route, but he had some real personal skin in the game with going to the Dojo.
“If you guys wanted to come, I wouldn’t stop you,” I added quickly. “This just would be a good way for me to get stronger quicker. And, if all goes well, I would meet up with Yuji in Saffron in a few weeks and we could meet up with you two after that.”
Hana looked like she was ready to tear her hair out. She looked from Yuji to me to her phone, though I wasn’t sure why on that last one. I was aware that this conversation didn’t look great in the context of our ongoing talks about my risk management, but I’d done a good job at laying out all of Karen’s reasons for suggesting it.
Amy, on the other hand, looked contemplative. “I mean, if Yuji and Derek are both trying to go train with people…” Amy leaned across the table and squeezed Hana’s arm. “…maybe we go try and find mentors of our own? Saffron has psychics in it, obvi, so I could probably learn a bunch at the gym. Celadon is right next door, right?”
Hana’s head crumpled into her hands. She sat there for a long moment. None of us broke that silence, instead letting her absorb what we were trying to say. I couldn’t blame her. In the span of a few hours, all of our plans had changed. Not only was Hana the biggest worrier of the group, but she was the planner. This was totally counter to her nature.
She took a deep breath and lifted her head. “I don’t know, guys,” Hana admitted. “I really don’t know if it’s a good idea to split up. I can see the logic in trying to train with specialists, I even think this would probably be the best time in the season for it since this victory will put us back on track to get all of our badges, but I can’t find myself feeling comfortable with all three of you going off on your own.”
Hana turned to me. “And you definitely can’t be left alone. I can’t leave you be for a week without something disastrous happening.” She tried to inject some humor into the situation, but there was real fear in her voice.
Yuji blinked. “Well, wait.” He looked between the four of us. “If you go with Derek, none of us will be alone. The Dojo is right across the street from the Saffron Gym. Even if Amy and I choose to travel separately, then we would be within a block of each other for almost all of our training, assuming our respective institutions take us in.”
Before Hana could respond, I cut in. “No,” I said with a frown. “That means that Hana is the only one getting a raw deal here. We all get to train with specialists for our Pokemon and she has to get dragged along behind me? That’s not cool.”
Yuji pulled back, looking a little guilty. The thought hadn’t occurred to him, it seemed.
“Well…” Hana’s expression drifted to the one she used when she was studying. “Actually, if I was to go all the way to that side of Kanto…”
The three of us watched as Hana slipped her laptop out of her bag and she began to type away. After a moment, she paused and collected herself, fully slipping into her planner mode.
“Alright, I have a proposal,” Hana said. “I will agree to this on several conditions.”
Yuji and I nodded, while Amy tapped their palm on the table, visibly looking better now that a compromise was being made. “Name ‘em!”
“One,” Hana looked at Amy and Yuji. “Even if you two spend the days apart while traveling, I want you to camp together. I know that you can probably handle yourselves, but it would make me feel better.”
“Done.” Yuji was the first to agree, though Amy’s vigorous nod was right behind it.
“Two, we will all give regular check-ins to each other. This is less important for the two of you, but with Derek and I going through another cave,” the collective table shivered, “I want you to know where we are at all times.”
We all agreed to that one. It wasn’t hard and was probably going to happen anyway.
“Three,” it was my turn to receive Hana’s gaze. “because we’re traveling all the way to Lavender Town, I want to capture my next Pokemon there. You don’t have to help me catch it, but I’d like it if you could ask for both of us to be trained with the ghost specialists there. I’ll understand if they say no, but I’d like to try.”
“I’ll reach out to my friend tonight,” I promised. “And of course, I’ll help you catch your Pokemon. Only idiots try and catch ghosts before having four badges, after all.”
Yuji and Amy both smiled at my joke, but we quickly pulled it back when Hana’s face didn’t break. “Four,” she said. “if anything at all comes up while we’re apart, and I mean anything, I want you all to run. I don’t want to regret this, guys. We’ve been a statistical anomaly of near-death experiences, and this is a big risk, all of us splitting up.”
Those words sobered us up. Even if Yuji had been right before when he’d pointed me out at the trouble-magnet, this was going to be the first time our groups had ever been this small, not counting the two days I’d been alone on Route 01. Any number of crazy things could happen in a month, which is what the time frame looked like.
All of us mumbled our agreements. Hana had made some good points. She nodded her head when we did, and it was done.
The table collectively sunk into our seats.
It quickly sunk in that we had picked our next plan of action, starting right after we each beat the Cerulean Gym. If things went according to plan, we would go our separate ways in three or four days at most.
“Oof,” Amy groaned. “Guys, we can’t all get sad at once. I get headaches when that happens.”
“I apologize,” Yuji said with a chuckle. “It just hadn’t occurred to me that you would agree to my request. Now that you have…”
“…it feels final,” I said with a nod. “I’m not gonna see the two of you for a whole month.”
Hana nodded, though she didn’t say anything else. She’d already made her case to us.
I stared at the tabletop, letting my mind wallow in our feelings. I was glad I was going to still be traveling with one of my friends, but there was a lot of this conversation that I’d need to unpack with Mrs. Clara. Things had evolved and changed really quickly, and I still wasn’t sure how I felt about it all.
Amy leaned against my shoulder, letting their hat flop against me. Their presence was warm and familiar, and it made me smile.
I was going to miss having them around all the time, but they wouldn’t be gone forever. We’d already been traveling together for almost two months, there was no way that the next one would be nearly as crazy.
We’d be back together in no time.