“Que hermosa! Say Luciana, let’s battle!” Nemona pulled out an ultra ball, clicking it so that it expanded from a tiny size to one that fit snug in her palm. “You have a Pokemon now, so let’s-!”

“Miss Nemona, Luciana is a new trainer.” Clavell adjusted his glasses as he stepped between us, using his body to block her from flinging the ball in my direction. He turned to face her, though the two were practically the same height, he wielded a different sort of superiority. That of academic rank. “Surely you aren’t thinking of using your champion team against Miss Luciana’s recently acquired starter Pokemon?”

“Hehe, you’re right, Director…” Nemona chuckled at herself nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. Then I could see a lightbulb ding over her head. “But hey! What if you let me pick a starter too!”

"I beg your pardon?" Clavell tried to interject, but Nemona interrupted him with some story about not gaining a starter when she enrolled last year.

Nemona as a rival character seemed obvious, and she was kind to boot, but what really indicated if a rival character was difficult or not was their choice of starter against your own. Nemona is a champion, so surely she is supposed to be a difficult to overcome rival. Not that any rivals were ever difficult for me. Pokemon as a single-player game was mind-numbingly simple, so much so you could get away with having four attacks on all your Pokemon, even your tanks.

Well, the raids in Sword and Shield were more tricky at the start, but once you beat the post-game, it was always about hitting as hard as possible.

I intently watched as Nemona looked between Fuecoco and Quaxly.

Would she be an easy rival? Or a hard one?

"I'll take Quaxly, he's so feisty!" Nemona poked the duck's pomp, which caused it to turn its head away and shake its wing at her with derision. "What do you think, Luciana?"

Easy it is then.

I smiled and felt a jolt of electricity surge through me. "I think we should battle!"

Despite not really caring about competitive, since I'm a collector through and through, I couldn't contain my excitement about a real Pokemon battle.

It seems Nemona couldn't either. "I'll see you at the court behind my house!!"

She raced off without a care in the world.

Clavell sighed and muttered under his breath, "Not another battle junkie..." He cleared his throat and looked at me head on with a polite smile. "Miss Nemona is a spirited young woman, as you can see. I'm glad to see you might be able to match her energy. Come, the court is this way..."

I followed Clavell, still holding Sprigatito in my arms. I thought about nicknaming it, but I wasn't even sure what gender it was... or if it was even shiny.

I wish I could see stats or something...

That's when my phone, my Rotom-powered phone, leapt out of my pocket and hovered between me and Sprigatito. The grass cat tried to swat at the phone, but it stayed just out of reach as it swayed left and right.

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The screen lit up and showed me a static image of Sprigatito as well as... stats???

Quickly scanning the information, I found the only things I really cared about: nature and shiny status! Nature is... Adamant, which means its physically stronger at the expense of its special attack. I didn't know enough about this Pokemon yet to know if that was a good or bad thing.

Shiny status... well, I saw an image of a sparkle, but it was grayed out.

"Not shiny." I said as I finished climbing down the stairs towards a court on a beach.

I blinked as I took in my surroundings and blurted out, "Nemona, are you loaded or something!?"

"Haha, yeah." Nemona seemed really bashful suddenly. She looked out to sea, her gaze a bit distant. "My dad is a CEO and my mom is a high salary manager... But enough of that!" Nemona shifted gears as she held out her hand to me for a shake. "Let's battle, yeah?"

I shook her head and nodded. We turned and walked to each side of the court.

That's when I heard it...

Music?

It had that familiar beat of a Pokemon battle theme, but had a lot of spunk to it. Was I hearing a trainer battle theme right now?

Or Nemona's???

I looked around, my confusion surely plain on my face, but I felt glued to the spot as Sprigatito jumped down to the court and faced down Nemona's Quaxly.

When I say "glued to the spot," I really mean it. I couldn't move my feet at all! Instead, Nemona and I just sort of stared at each other. She didn't seem confused about this, though. No, she had a smile on her face.

HEY PAL!

Hmm? I looked at Nemona, but she didn't say anything. The voice was robotic and weird. Not anything like Arceus, but it felt like it was beaming directly into my brain.

BZZZT, IT'S ME.

My phone spun in front of my face, it's Rotom-like face displaying on the screen. It moved its mouth, but it felt like I heard its voice in my head.

ARCEUS TOLD ME I'D HAVE TO EXPLAIN SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS BATTLING TO YOU, ZZZT. YOU CAN THINK OF ME LIKE... THEIR LITTLE CHERUB.

Okay...

OKAY, CLOSE YOUR EYES AND OPEN THEM AFTER ABOUT TWO SECONDS.

I did as Rotom-Phone told me, and when I opened my eyes I could see something like a floating display. It showed all the usual Pokemon options like running and items.

NOW THINK ABOUT ATTACKING, THEN THINK ABOUT WHATEVER MOVE YOU WANNA UZZE. YOU JUST WILL IT AND YOUR POKEMON OBEYZZ. WELL, GRANTED YOU HAVE THE RIGHT QUALIFICATIONS. ZZT~

Imagining myself touching the battle button did the trick and displayed its moves, Scratch, Tail Whip, and Leafage. Without any hesitation, I selected Leafage.

Just like in the game, the Pokemon started to move in turn order. First, Sprigatito whirled her head and leaves flew out from its fur and struck the Quaxly, which nearly fainted from just that one attack.

"I should've known someone who knew about rain teams would know about type advantage." Nemona grinned as her Quaxly ran up and kicked Sprigatito for about a fifth of her health.

I could see their HP bars floating in my vision, and honestly, I guess Nemona had to be seeing this same thing, right? Seeing screens like this must be totally normal.

What other weird things from Pokemon translated? I really don't want to stare at screens all day long...

OKAY PAL, IT ZEEMS LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. I'LL BE IN YOUR POCKET IF YOU NEED ANY MORE HOT TIPZZZ!

Rotom-P did a cute twirl and dove back into my pocket.

Of course, the battle didn't last much longer after that. The song ended and Nemona withdrew her fainted Quaxly. She ran up to me, cheering on my victory.

Yeah, she's going to be one of those easy to beat, friendly rivals. That's really sad since she's a champion already.

Was she going to be the champion you fight after the Elite Four like Blue?

"Okay, so I think I'll show you a real battle-" Nemona tried to pull out an ultra ball again, before Clavell put his hand on it and shook his head.

"That's quite enough, Miss Nemona. The commencement begins in an hour and a half, and you need to teach the young miss about our school and give her a tour. Have you forgotten?"

"Ahh, I did, perdóname." Nemona apologized and put her ultra ball back in her pocket.

Truthfully, I sort of wanted to see what she had in store, but there's no way I would be able to beat her at her absolute best right now.

"I'll go on ahead, I'll leave you girls to it." Clavell walked off.

"Oy! I know, we do have a lot of time to kill before we have to get to school... Why don't I show you how to catch Pokemon, Luciana?"

This time, my eyes were the starry ones.

"Lead the way!"