CHAPTER 233 - Debut

The atmosphere changed as Denzel clicked the 'GO LIVE' button. His and Emi's face seemed to shift, like they were more relaxed and natural somehow even though I knew for a fact that they were faking it— or at least performing for an audience. My body tensed, and I readjusted my sitting position, leaning back to appear more comfortable. The stream had just started and the viewcount was already above ten thousand and rising fast.

Denzel didn't exactly have a special introduction like I'd expected him to have. Even after all these months, I had seen him stream, but never actually seen him start one. He stayed silent for around ten seconds and then spoke.

"Hi guys. Emilia and I have finally managed to finagle Grace and Cece into a stream," he grinned. "Is the sound alright?"

I watched in awe as a flurry of agreements flooded the chat. It was like a hivemind, where a few repeating messages could cascade into a wall. Emilia and Denzel proceeded to explain the concept of the stream like they'd done for us for the viewers who had missed the announcement. Every time they spoke, their voices were upbeat. Not unnatural, but just slightly forced so they could be more entertaining.

"Okay guys," Emilia said, turning toward us. We were both sitting in the center and their chairs were flanking us. "Go ahead and introduce yourselves!"

"Grace Pastel. Pokemon Trainer."

"Good evening, I'm Cecilia."

"Come on, give it a little bit more energy before we jump in," she rolled her eyes. "Don't clam up. Here, if you had one thing you wanted to say to your fans watching the stream right now, what would it be?"

"Thank you for your support," Cece dipped her head. "I know I don't interact with the world as much as you would like, but I appreciate you."

Woah. That had been a lot more professional than what I had planned on saying. My mind scrambled for something to say as Denzel and Emi both turned toward me and the chat was filled with people awaiting my answer.

Of course, I memorized a few usernames of people who had trash-talked Cecilia while she spoke. They'd be swiftly dealt with after the stream.

"I think it's interesting to have different people rooting for all of us," I said. "Y'know, when I started all of this— this journey, the fact that I'd grow a following went completely over my head. It feels kind of surreal. But still, I'm a trainer first and foremost, so expect me to keep focusing inward. Denzel and Emilia are the group's influencers. We're just… people."

The chat flooded with hearts and other cute emotes, which I assumed people were spamming to support us. I let out the smallest sigh and my shoulders felt lighter.

"You saying we're not people?" Denzel joked.

"You know what I meant. We're normal, you're actually starting to be a celebrity," I said.

"Well, people here don't think you're normal," he shrugged. "Let's get into the questions. Originally this was just going to be a Q&A for Grace, but there'll be questions for Cecilia too. You won't believe what I had to go through to get her to agree to this stream…"

Denzel recounted our interaction, filling any dead air while Emilia scrolled on her Chatter page by using the hashtag Denzel had designated. I only caught a glimpse of the screen but those were a lot of questions that we wouldn't be able to answer. Through some nifty movements that I didn't understand, she put up Chatter on the stream and divided the stream between us and the website.

"So they're going to start answering questions now," Emilia said as soon as Denzel finished his story. It was like an unspoken signal had been given. They were completely in sync. "Feel free to pick and choose which ones you'd like."

"Oh? Does that mean we can just ignore them and scroll until the time passes?" Cecilia joked.

The community seemed to love that, spamming laughing Lopunny emotes. I had noticed a few others in the short time the stream had gone on. There was one for a happy Milotic, a disgusted Roserade, a disgusted Swablu, and a Sylveon with a heart, which was the one they'd used earlier.

"Look at you, getting into the spirit of the stream," Emi smiled. "Obviously no one can force you to answer things, but try to approach this in good faith."

"Fine," she said. "So… do we just go?"

"Yeah. Go ahead."

Cecilia hummed as she scrolled down for a few seconds. A lot of these were actually appropriate because Emilia had sorted the page by the posts that had been liked the most, and it didn't take long for her to settle on a question.

"Do you like this one?" She asked, mousing over the post.

I nodded. "Yeah. It's cool. Plus the stream seems to like it."

Sotaisei

#DenzelQ&A Is there a particular reason why the both of you stay out of the limelight so much? All the information we get regarding you is basically crumbs, and I think that's a real shame considering the talent you both have. You could be building a brand like Denzel.

"Do you want to go first? I feel like we have somewhat similar reasons," I said.

"Sure. It's not like I avoid attention on purpose, I just don't care about it at all," Cece said. "I'm taking this year to grow as powerful as I can as fast as I can, and I don't think I'd be able to do that if I split my attention too much."

"Her attention's mine," I smirked. "And her team's, of course."

I could tell that she wanted to answer and keep flirting, but Denzel spoke before she could.

"Guys…" Denzel muttered.

"Sorry," I raised my hands. "Should I answer now?"

The stream seemed quite satisfied with Cece's answer, although I saw glimpses of people who thought she was making the wrong move. Personally, I knew her true intentions were to start pushing for fame once we made it to Unova proper and not Sinnoh, but she hadn't revealed her intention to leave next year yet. Denzel motioned at me to answer, and I did.

"I mean, I'm kind of similar. I put in one hundred percent of what I have in Pokemon training, which is why I don't really care for fame."

"But you actively avoid it, unlike Cece," Emilia chimed in.

"I mean, I kind of do. It just honestly seems overwhelming. I imagine that Pokemon training and hanging out with Pokemon in general is a lot more fun than doing meet and greets, streams, brand deals, negotiations… yeah, it's just a hassle. Except with the Poketch Company, who thankfully lets me be."

I knew I definitely had a team of employees watching my every move, so it wouldn't do any harm to gas them up a little bit. After a pause where I ignored some people calling me a sellout, I continued.

"I'm a sellout for focusing on Pokemon training? How does that make any sense?" I scoffed. "I genuinely mean it when I say I'm thankful to the Poketch Company for letting me do my own thing. I'll remember your usernames, by the way."

"Okay, well let's calm down. Don't let the voices of a few get a rise out of you. Most people are supportive," Denzel said.

"Denzel does do both, but that's a lot of work," Emilia nodded. "I sometimes wonder how he can fit all of it in a day. Anyway, I suppose we can move on to the next question. Grace, why don't you pick this time?"

"Uh, okay," I said.

I placed my hand on the mouse and scrolled until one question regarding Sunshine caught my eye. This one was addressed only to me, so I glanced at Cece to ask if that was fine. She answered with a discrete nod.

Ope7re

#DenzelQ&A Many people have been curious about your Turtonator. You've owned him for months, and we still haven't seen him in a battle since Zachary, so I was wondering if he plans on cooperating with you any time soon? We all know how difficult gaining the respect of a dragon is, especially one that's a lot stronger than your other Pokemon. Is the relationship awkward with your burns and all?

I had done more battles with Sunshine in Veilstone, but those had been in private with Poketch Company lawyers making our opponents sign an NDA because they hated when I lost in public. What was important to me was clearing up his reputation. A lot of trainers had been burned or scared away during his multiple days spent grieving in Mount Coronet.

"Sunshine's an angel. Kind of grumpy, but when he opens up to you, he's the sweetest dragon ever— what's this emote? Doubt?"

"It means what it says," Denzel awkwardly said. "It's kind of incredible that you say that— not to me, but to most people! Seeing someone that was harmed so much by a Pokemon and calling them sweet just a few months later is kind of insane."

"And something I'll never understand," Emilia agreed.

"Well it… it was hard, but he was having a hard time too. An even harder time," I said. "Everyone knows his trainer died. It was in the headlines. No one's going to be thinking straight after that. If I had to choose, I'd do it all over again to save him."

Cece placed a hand on mine for support.

"Um, regarding the battles, you can expect him to fight against Volkner, so stay tuned for that, but seriously, he's a great person. I'm proud of all the progress he's made and I love him."

"There you have it," Denzel said.

There was a lot of hype for my statement about the battle but none for Sunshine's emotional state. That was streaming, I supposed. I leaned back to hide my annoyance, leaving the mouse to Cece and while she scrolled, Denzel spoke up again.

"It's not uncommon to find trainers with scars anyway," he shrugged. "The rest of us in our group mostly got lucky. Louis has one on his left cheek, Lauren has that small burn on her leg, Cece has those scars on her leg and it took a long time for her to be able to walk again—"

He paused, realizing that the public technically did not know why her leg had been screwed up like it had. The chat jumped on the opportunity, begging for him to reveal what had happened. It was honestly scary how so many people could unify like this and ask the same thing. The chat felt like a living, breathing hive mind.

"That's for another time," Denzel said. "But yeah, the thing is, with people with scars like Grace or Carlos— people know Carlos, right?"

"With how many times he was with Mira, yes," Cecilia said, still leaning toward the computer.

"The thing with them is that they tend to… well, die and not survive. You know that picture of the plane with all of the Pokemon attacks on it that Kanto used to figure out where they needed to reinforce their planes during the war that's become sort of a meme, but it wasn't telling the full picture because of survivorship bias? That's why you don't often see trainers with huge scars like them."

"I get what you mean. Grace is a tough girl, though," Emilia said.

"I'll take that compliment."

"I found a question!" Cece said with a devilish grin.

keepca1m_

#DenzelQ&A This might look weird, but when did the both of you start dating? There was no announcement, and that tends to be the case when two famous trainers get together. With you two, you kind of just started with the PDA out of nowhere around Hearthome, although some people say it was earlier. Nice rings, by the way.

Denzel groaned. "Are you serious—"

"It's a question, is it not?" She interrupted. "You said we could pick and choose. I think that's appropriate, especially when we won't be able to during the interview."

He sighed but resigned to his fate.

"It was Mount Coronet. As most of you know, I was in a terrible headspace back then, but… my friends came to save me. They pulled me out of that dark place and I'm happier now than I've ever been. Grace had just told me she liked girls a few days prior in Eterna, and I realized right then and there that I loved her. I told her when we met again in the mountain's depths and kissed her there."

"Knowing Grace, she would still be bumbling around if you hadn't," Denzel shrugged. "Let it be known that I was their wingman."

"I mean, they were basically dating even before that. I wouldn't call cuddling all night long something very friendly," Emilia mocked. "It's possible, but if you see two people do that, odds are, they're dating."

"Shut up," I mumbled.

My friend laughed. "You know it's true. You guys were like Deerling in headlights!"

"You didn't even know any better!" I yelled.

"I did actually theorize a little with Pauline when we were in Eterna, but I was convinced you were straight," Emilia said.

"H—how is that even possible?" I asked. "Like genuinely?"

"I don't know. I was still in the closet back then, so I guess I pushed my insecurities onto you? Pauline thought you had a crush on Cece, but she said it was better not to say anything."

"Let's actually segue into something else," Denzel said. "Unless you have something else to say, Cece?"

"I'm done, unfortunately. You can expect me to hone in on any relationship-related questions, by the way."

Denzel shook his head in disbelief. "There's no need to find a question for this one, this was one of the most asked questions that we got. Your Pupitar, Grace. People know you got her in Mount Coronet, but the circumstances of that are still basically unknown. You just kind of showed up with her on my stream one day."

"So should I say how I got her?" I asked.

"If you think that's appropriate, yeah."

"Well I first saw her in Mount Coronet, obviously. Her… her mother was fighting a Rhyperior, but she was losing terribly—" I paused as the stream exploded. People couldn't believe that we'd seen a Tyranitar and a Rhyperior in the wild and lived to tell the tale. "Tyranitar opened up a chasm in the earth and Denzel, Cece, Chase and I fell down to a lower level of Mount Coronet. Sweetheart stuck around with me for protection, but we ended up bonding and I caught her. I didn't want her to die. She was still really weak back then, even though she'd throw a fit before acknowledging that. She wouldn't have lasted a day."

More questions popped up in the chat, asking a flurry of different things that were mostly about Tyranitar and Rhyperior's capabilities. I bit the inside of my lip in annoyance, but Denzel shot me a knowing look.

"There are only a few known wild Rhyperior, and they're very deep in Mount Coronet, so they want to know if it's one that's been seen before," Denzel explained. "Behave guys, this is a sensitive topic."

"How many in total?" I asked.

"Six if we count Palmer's. Five without. The one's that's the most well-known has a nasty scar on his torso and is missing some of his orange stones there. He got it when he fought Craig a few years ago."

"I guess he does train on Mount Coronet," I muttered. "But honestly, I was way too scared to know if that was the one."

"I didn't see any scars," Cece said.

"It was another one, then. That'd make sense, since we were nowhere near the summit. Let's get back to the questions. Grace, feel free to pick," Denzel said.

I was starting to understand his strategy now— if I could even call it one. He wanted to go through as many questions as possible to satisfy his audience and in order not to bore them. The viewer count was at 53,466 now, which was a lot more than his usual number.

"You know, it is interesting that no one knows Rhydon's evolution," Cece mused while I looked through the cesspool of questions. "Not even the League. Palmer caught his as a Rhyperior, correct?"

"Uhuh. In Mount Coronet," Denzel said. "But it wasn't during his journey. He was already incredibly strong when he did so and he was… one year older than Craig, if I remember correctly? I'm not well-versed in Battle Frontier personalities."

"Well you're way better-versed than me," Emilia laughed. "I wonder what Lauren's going to do."

"Rhydon are powerful even when they don't evolve," he shrugged. "Blue Oak has one on his personal team and he's Champion level."

"I mean, most Pokemon can reach that level without evolving anyway, right?" Emilia asked.

"Yes. Evolution's a shortcut, but theoretically, a Bidoof could be that powerful. The diminishing returns would mean that it would probably take a century unless you were really gifted," Denzel said. "But Rhydon's basically as powerful as a full evolution anyway, so you don't lose out that much."

I subconsciously nodded, thinking of Mathilda. She was a Sinistea, and yet had been overwhelmingly powerful. I still was nowhere close enough to taking her or Ruth down even at my current level, although I might be able to get out of there alive if they both attacked me. Maybe.

"Are there any trainers that use non-fully evolved Pokemon at a high level?" I asked.

"Well, there's Temperance and her Dragonair," Emi immediately answered. "Even if she's a coordinator, she's strong. She says her Dragonair doesn't want to evolve because Dragonite's ugly."

Denzel scoffed. "I take personal offense to that. To answer your question, there are a few, but it's mostly because the Pokemon doesn't want to evolve, not some self-imposed challenge. Uh, there's… Declan Hornsby that has a Sneasel, and he placed top 64 last year at the Conference. Uh, Ali West still has a Doublade because he prefers their offensive style over an Aegislash which would be more balanced."

"Where did he place?" Emi asked.

"Group stages. But that was mostly because he got really unlucky and got put in with a bunch of older trainers."

"I got my question," I cut in. "Unless you want to keep going?"

"No, no, this is a Q&A," Denzel said. "Go ahead."

StarThomas

#DenzelQ&A Hey guys, I had a question regarding Gym Leaders for you and everyone else in the room. What was the favorite battle you ever had and why? Another question was, is there any particular reason you all skipped over Byron? I think he would have been easier should you have challenged him early.

"For everyone in the room," I repeated. It was a subtle way of wasting the runtime. "I'll go first. My favorite battle against a Gym Leader… definitely Gardenia. I still watch it over with my team sometimes for old time's sake. It's where I really found a style that worked for me, and Gardenia's my favorite trainer, so that's a plus. I look up to her a lot, and I'd love for her to teach me about body language one day."

"That was an insane battle," Denzel nodded. "That Solar Beam that she threw at you was so powerful that I thought the barriers were going to give. They probably had a weaker Kadabra on shift since it was a bunch of weaker trainers in a row. Cece?"

"Go first," she said.

"Okay. Uh, I'd say Maylene, believe it or not."

No one in the chat believed him, and it was easy to see that remains of the hate toward Maylene were still there and fresh.

"I'm not joking. In hindsight, I think it was sort of fun to play around her, and it was Milotic's first big battle too. He did awesome."

"I'll have to say Candice," Cece continued. "It was where Zweilous evolved and I managed to snap her out of whatever she was in. She was going way too easy on me at the start."

We turned toward Emilia, and she let out a nervous chuckle.

"I'm not a trainer, but I guess Roark? I mean, it's the only one I won against. It wasn't very fun, I just pushed through with Metang."

"Pauline?!" I asked, raising my tone. Denzel shot me a look. "What? They said everyone. We're doing Lopunny too."

"Fantina!" She yelled. "Beating her ghosts up was fun!"

I internally cursed when I realized she was keeping it short. "Lopunny?"

The normal type answered Gardenia by using her phone and said that it was when she got her first big boost of confidence. It was hard to remember how shy she used to be when Denzel had first caught her, hiding behind his legs with her scarred ear. The scar was still there, but it was a lot smaller and almost unnoticeable now that she'd evolved.

"Denzel and I were traveling together when we decided to skip Byron, but it was mostly because we were scared of his experience and we had a terrible team to deal with steel types. I had Togetic and Frillish while he had Eevee and Budew—"

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Sylvi did have Double Kick."

"And yet you were the first one to suggest skipping," I smugly said. "We decided to bide our time instead, and I don't regret it one bit. Keeping one of the strongest Gym Leaders for last sounds like fun."

"Good luck stabbing through a steel type," Denzel joked.

I paused, and I felt an excited shiver run down my spine.

"Watch me."

"For us, it was mostly because we were put on a pre-determined route by Louis' father," Cece shrugged. "There wasn't really a reason."

"Wait, what? This is the first I'm hearing of this," I said.

"We were meant to save Byron, Fantina and Volkner for last to impress people," she shrugged.

"That routing… is basically impossible unless you have a flying license or spend like two days in each city," Denzel said.

"Now you know why they were so shit in their planning," she smiled. "I hope Harvey's having a grand old time in prison."

I let out a small, surprised breath. Cece almost never swore, but when she did, she meant it.

"So you were saving the strongest for last? Or they were, I guess," I said.

"Hmhm. They wanted us in the headlines."

"Assholes," Denzel muttered.

Pauline yelled, "Hey!"

"Not your mom, Pauline. Your mom's fine. Kind of. Next question! Cece, go ahead and look."

Cecilia obliged him, and he kept going.

"You know, I wonder what— wait! Fuck!"

"What is it? Did I mess up something?" Cecilia asked, abruptly lifting her hand off the mouse.

"No, I just forgot to put on some background music. Sorry everyone," he sighed.

"Don't just scream like that for something so minor!" Cece angrily said. "I thought I screwed your setup."

Denzel quickly put on some copyright-free music, and Cece found her next question while we trash-talked his horrible music tastes.

"I don't want the stream demonitized," he said. "You'll thank me later."

Stripy2000

#DenzelQ&A This is a question specifically for Cecilia. It's getting pretty late in the year, and the seventh Gym forces you into a six-on-six, and you haven't caught your sixth Pokemon. I was wondering if you thought you were going to struggle to catch up whoever your sixth will be. P.S: I recommend an electric type, since you'll be fighting Wake and you lack one.

"Okay, well first of all please don't backseat which Pokemon someone should get," Denzel said with tired eyes. "We all hate it when it happens, and it's very annoying. Cece, go ahead."

"Well, I'll win five-on-six if need be, but what you say about the Conference rings true. I've given myself a limit. I won't allow myself to leave Pastoria without a sixth Pokemon with me. They will no doubt struggle against Byron, but alas, sometimes it's just the way the cookie crumbles."

"You know, the funny thing about that is—"

"Are you going to say something funny?" Emilia jokingly interrupted.

"No… not at all actually. You got me," he rolled his eyes. "This is a well-known phenomenon, though. The Five-Pokemon syndrome. Trainers are so unsure of who their sixth Pokemon should be that they spend way too long with a team of five and fail to win their eighth badge because of it. Sometimes they'll get desperate, catch something and realize that they dislike who they caught."

"So?" I asked, clenching around my armrest.

"Uh… so they release them. Or treat them terribly," Denzel said. "It sucks, but it's a symptom of forcing people into a six Pokemon limit before the eighth badge. People will always be assholes."

"You'd better hope I don't find anyone like that," I said.

Knife emojis flooded the chat, and Denzel didn't seem to like that at all.

"Uh, moving on!" Denzel panicked. "I will say that… wait, Cece, can I say this?"

"My sixth is already planned, and I won't catch an unwanted Pokemon or a Pokemon that doesn't want to come with me," Cece said. "Mienfoo or Croagunk. There you have it."

Denzel paused, looking at the screen. "Yeah, they seem happy about that reveal. Grace, your turn."

I nodded and got to work. Only ten minutes had passed so far. I would have to do more than one hour of this?

"Better be picky than catch a Pokemon you don't want and hurt them," Denzel continued. "Granted, people could technically call me a hypocrite since my Swablu was unplanned."

"Yeah, but you treat her right," I said. "If you hadn't, I would have yelled at you."

"Come to think of it, you don't really get angry at other people often," Emilia said.

"Oh, not with you guys," I said. "You're amazing friends. Oh, your chat knows about your casino stint, by the way?"

"They know. I was telling them all about it in Veilstone, and it ended with me shit-talking the Game Corner and making a video about how terrible gambling is."

"You could have become an addict," Cecilia chided.

"I think I was addicted, honestly. Gambling is fucking terrifying."

"Got one," I said. "Addressed to me, Cece and Denzel."

"Are you doing this on purpose?" He asked.

"No, I just think it's a really good question."

Philexusson

#DenzelQ&A This is a question for Grace, Denzel and Cecilia. If you make it past Byron, where do you think you're going to end up in the Conference? A lot of people have been speculating and it's basically impossible to know until the month of, but it'd be nice to hear your opinions.

"Well, top sixty-four would be nice," I said with a dreamy tone. The prospect of an incredible amount of battles with powerful trainers already had me excited even if it was still months away. "But my goal is to get out of group stages. Isn't that luck-based, though?"

Denzel spoke. "There's some luck involved. There are trainer rankings—"

"Rankings?" Emilia scoffed.

"Well, not rankings per se, but we're just put into different… power categories, for lack of a better term. It depends on previous performances, your team, your skill as a trainer, and things like that. We're all divided into four tiers, and they draw a number of trainers from each tier randomly and put you into a group."

"Tier one's Craig?" Cece asked.

"People like Craig, yeah, but even then he's a lot more powerful than the average tier one. Anyway, you'll basically be guaranteed to have at least one tier one trainer in your group. The goal should not be to win every match, but to win enough points to get past group stages."

"How many points gets you through?" I asked.

"That depends on the year, really," he shrugged. "In a year like this with a lot of people, you'll need more points to get past group stages and into the top 256. To actually answer the question, though, my goal is top 128."

"Top sixty-four for me as well," Cece said.

"You guys sure are ambitious," Emilia said.

"Well, what's life without a little dream or two?" I smiled.

The fact that seedings weren't completely random was something I welcomed, though. Arceus forbid some poor first-year was put in a group with a bunch of Craigs. Plus, no one would want all the top contenders to have a chance of getting eliminated that early. The Conference wasn't just a tournament to pick the potential next Champion, but a tournament that millions of people enjoyed.

But really, it was mostly because of companies. A boring Conference was a Conference with fewer viewers, and that meant less advertising.

"What really interests me the most is items," Denzel said. "That's a whole facet of battling we've never explored before. Berries that make type effectiveness matter less, rocks that make weather moves more powerful… it's going to be exciting."

"Items are kind of cool, but honestly I'm starting to think I'd enjoy battling without," Cecilia said. "Of course, when in Kalos, do as the Kalosian do. I won't put myself at a disadvantage."

"Since Pauline is here, why doesn't she answer the question?" I asked.

"No, no, we're moving on," Denzel said.

"I'm good," the redhead nodded.

Come on, where was your usual fiery passion? I internally screamed. This time, it only took a minute for Cece to find the next question, which meant we had very little room to speak about random things.

TR_Supersonic

#DenzelQ&A This is a question for Grace specifically. You've been hanging out with Jasmine Whitaker. Can we know what's going on there? A group of teenagers said she scared them off with her Metagross on the beach and that you Teleported somewhere. You being so close to a foreign Gym Leader is kind of insane.

Cece nudged her head at me, and I nonverbally thanked her for the easy question.

"Jasmine's my friend, and she's helping me train Honey to his full potential," I answered. "She's been a great teacher and he wouldn't have been anywhere near this strong if she wasn't there. Sometimes she goes on these tangents about her home, but I like it."

"Grace does have a knack for meeting important people," Emilia said.

"People in chat are asking how you convinced her to teach you, if you feel comfortable answering."

"Well at first we met completely randomly on the beach, and a second time when I met Craig in a bar. After my battle with Denzel, she said I was interesting."

"She called you unhinged, more specifically," Cece said with a slight huff. I had already told her all about how Jasmine had said that every trainer at the top had some degree of strangeness to them, and she vehemently disagreed.

Cece and Denzel were pretty normal, and I was too, so her point didn't really stand.

Or at least that's what I believed until a bunch of 'TRUE's were spammed in the chat.

"Guys, no one here is crazy, alright?" I sighed. "Jasmine's just very opinionated."

"You two are crazy," Denzel said, raising his hands. "I'm just a guy."

"Sure, dude," I shook my head. "Anyway, Jasmine says my temperament is already there, and all I need is the skill to back it up, so she was helping me get there. And don't start acting crazy in front of her just because I said this, okay? She has a lot on her plate already, and she might go for the throat if she's angry."

"Go for… the throat?" Emilia asked with a deep frown.

I had apparently confused the viewers too, because they seemed to think that meant kill.

"No, no, not murder. It's… well, it's hard to explain, she's a lot better at it."

"Guys, she's dating Volkner and killing a trainer would start an international incident, okay? You're all safe— how did we even get here? Cece, I thought you were going to stop Grace from bringing this stuff up."

My girlfriend innocently tilted her head. "Hm? She didn't say anything wrong, though. She just brought up something Jasmine said."

Denzel pinched the bridge of his nose, and Emilia gently rubbed his arm. I didn't miss Pauline smiling at the contact, although she immediately stopped when she noticed I was looking at her.

"Sorry, I was just relaying what she said," I apologized half-heartedly. "But we're good, right? I mean, this isn't even in the top ten of worst things I've said."

"There's a top ten?" Emilia asked with a raised voice.

"I don't know, I just assume there is. There are a lot of misunderstandings about me. Why else do you think stabbing became a meme?"

"Because you stab things."

"Yes, but that's because it's effective in battle. I haven't stabbed anyone personally."

"Well yeah, thank the Legendaries," Denzel said, slightly out of breath.

"I mean, what would I even do it with? I don't have a knife. A pencil? Scissors? Those always have rounded tips anyway, I paid attention to them a lot when I was in school. It's technically possible, but stabbing is a lot harder than it looks, and I'm not that strong anyway."

Denzel blanched. "Goodness, let's just move on from this topic— chat do not say 'not yet!'"

Cece nudged her head at me, and I nodded.

"This was all hypothetical. I don't condone stabbing or anything of the sort, this was all purely hypothetical since the topic came up," I said.

"Grace," Denzel pleaded. "You brought it up."

"What? Doctors stab you a bunch during surgery, and you don't say anything to them. Hell, I was stabbed in the arm multiple times when they had to do that skin graft on me!"

"Next question!"

"Wait, what does 'based' mean?" I asked.

—

The one-and-a-half hour of questions had passed agonizingly slowly, and Denzel looked exhausted by the end of it. I had mostly picked Pokemon training questions, answering about my process to analyze my mistakes after each battle, how I trained, how to come up with custom moves, and funnily enough, someone had asked me how to budget. I was technically the best at budgeting in the room. Cece had her leftover money, and she would for a while. Pauline and Emi were billionaires, and Denzel had blown all of his money on multiple occasions without even having an emergency fund. The favorite question I had answered, however, came from a trainer with a Togetic of her own. She'd even posted a selfie after the picture, and she asked me how to get as good with Ancient Power as we'd gotten. Needless to say, I rambled about it for ten minutes until Denzel himself had to stop me.

Some strange person called Grace's Twin kept sending donations saying that we were meant to be together until they were banned, but they came back with alternate accounts eleven times, just adding numbers at the end of their name until they stopped.

We were already segueing into the interview section with Goalducc and Archive. Denzel had only muted the microphone for a few minutes.

"There's no break? You look like you need a break," Cece said.

"A break means losing traction. People's attention span is fickle nowadays," he said as he stretched. "Try to keep yourselves under control for the interview, please— ah, they're ready to start. We'll be on the sidelines for this one. Be nice."

"We're nice people," Cece said.

"And remember that these will be a lot more invasive than the others because you can't just scroll past the ones you don't like."

Denzel dragged his and Emilia's chair out of the shot, and he launched the call with Goalducc and Archive.

"Hello? Is the sound alright?" A voice rang out. It was deep, but smooth.

"Yes. Who is this speaking?" Cecilia asked.

"Oh, where are my manners. This is Archive. Thank you for giving us the opportunity and for joining us here tonight. Andrew?"

"Y—yeah. We appreciate it. Do you have any questions before we start?"

That was Goalducc, then. His voice was shaking like a leaf while Archive seemed confident.

"We can start if you're ready," I said. "Cece?"

"Go ahead, gentlemen."

"Okay! We have a list of topics we want to approach if that's not too much to ask for. Andrew, take it away."

Goalducc cleared his throat. "Let's start with a question that's been on everyone's mind. And we saw you scroll past these, but it's about your closeness with the League, along with your friends Mira Compton and Chase Karlson, who unfortunately aren't here with us. You've been known to speak to Champion Cynthia on multiple occasions, have ACE trainers as guards and you even refer to her by her first name. Could you go into that at all?"

He had stammered or hesitated multiple times, but he'd gotten his question across. I stared at Cece and wondered what we should say. We could technically answer with no comment, but I wanted to see what she thought.

"Well, we can't really go into it that much. We're in the LTIP, so we're somewhat close to the League that way," Cece said, exuding confidence. "I know first-years are never admitted into the program, but there are always exception to the rules, isn't there?"

Archive jumped in when his colleague seemed too out of it to answer. He was probably fanboying over the fact that Cece had just spoken to him.

"That doesn't explain everything, though. LTIP members don't just speak to the Champion, and you've done exactly zero jobs for the League so far. It seems that everyone else would have been kicked out for inactivity by now. There have been a lot of strange events surrounding you since the Darkest Day in Solaceon."

"I'm afraid we can't answer," Cecilia said.

"Would you say it's confidential information, then?"

"She said she couldn't answer," I interjected. "So we won't answer."

"Okay," Archive said. "Grace, something happened to you while you were in a park in Veilstone. This is all second-hand accounts, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but you were attacked by… something? Some people say an Abra, others say Pikachu or Sandshrew. It happened so quickly that no one really had a good look at it. ACE trainers intervened and saved the day, but we can only theorize that you're being targeted by… someone."

"No," I shut down. "Let's move on, now."

"I just want to let you know that you being quiet on the issue creates countless conspiracies and that clarity would help a lot," Archive said.

I bit the inside of my cheek and imagined countless ways I could blow up this computer.

"I don't appreciate this questioning, Archive," Cece said. "I thought this was a friendly podcast."

"Well, we just wanted to start with the heavy questions first," he laughed. "This is on everyone's minds, but fine. Next up, we have a question for you, Grace. People say that you can speak to Pokemon. Like, understand the literal words that they say, not just guess off of bonds and body language. Would you confirm whether that's true or not?"

"I'm just close to my team," I said.

"Are you implying that people that can't understand their Pokemon after a few months with them aren't close to their teams?"

"No," I said, restraining a groan. "I just have a talent for it, that's all. Some people will be better at things than others."

"But rumors say that you can understand every Pokemon, not just your team."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Archive?"

The man paused. "Yes?"

Not worth it, I told myself. "I don't feel like answering the question."

"Let's switch topics, Archive," Andrew said. "Sorry about that. We did say we'd let you have boundaries. Uh, the next thing we have on the list is for Grace. It relates to your battle with Maylene and your more… sadistic leanings. Do you have any regrets of how you fought her? As you know, she's taken a one-month break while her Gym Trainers and her Lucario run things. Do you plan on battling everyone that isn't a friend that way?"

"I have some regrets, but I guess I never did address that battle," I sighed. "I think it was a net good as a whole, but I could have gone at it in a different way."

"You preventing the Infernape switch was pretty egregious," Archive said.

"I mean, it is taboo," I nodded. "It's not something I think I'll do much more of. To answer your question, I will pull back on that way of battling for the most part. I won't just spare my friends. Plus, Maylene was the only one it would work on properly anyway, Gym Leader wise."

"Do people say Grace is sadistic?" Cecilia asked.

"Sometimes they do. Like, for example instead of using Air Cutter repeatedly against Denzel's Roserade, she stabbed her in the gut and shoulder," Goalducc said.

"That was mostly to shake off her focus. Constant, sharp pain is good at that. Air Cutter wouldn't have done well enough and Princess would have fallen faster. It's not that I like inflicting pain, it's that inflicting pain is good to win battles."

"See, a lot of trainers wouldn't really say that out loud," Archive said.

"It is true. We all know it," I shrugged.

"I guess this is a good segue into your different battling styles, then," Goalducc said. I internally sighed in relief now that we were finally getting back to normal topics. "C—Cecilia, you use wide destruction and speed as a weapon. Where do you see your team at their apex?"

"It's hard to imagine something so far away," Cece muttered. "But I have two kinds of Pokemon I want. The heavy hitters that can alter the terrain in many different ways and the speedsters or fliers that can easily navigate what I pick. It's not just about strategy, though. It's also about taste."

"Could you elaborate on that?" Archive asked.

"Isn't destroying things just a lot of fun? I dream of the day I can flatten a mountain and point at it, saying, that was me. I altered the face of the earth forever."

"Well, there are regulations against that type of thing," I interjected. "But I get what you mean."

"Seeing my Pokemon destroy the environment just fills my heart with so much joy," she smiled fondly. "Well, not as much as I get when I'm with Grace."

I couldn't help but grin while Archive and Andrew stayed silent for a few seconds.

"Okay. So you like destroying things. Is that final?" Archive asked.

"Yes."

"Did she stutter?" I said. "You better not call her weird for it."

"Erm, okay. What about you, Grace?" Archive asked. "Where do you see your battling style at its apex?"

I hummed, tapping a finger against my lip. "I think it's all about field control and psychological tricks for me," I said. "Of course, using out-of-the-box tactics sounds like fun too, like the pain thing we were talking about."

"I thought you said you wouldn't do psychological tricks anymore after Maylene?"

"Oh, there's a difference between what I'm capable of and what I'll actually do," I said. "I have a bunch of ideas that are too rude, disrespectful, or taboo to use."

Like making trainers flinch by attacking them directly, or completely obstructing their view with a giant wall, or subtly trash-talking in the middle of a match, and many other ideas that never made it past the conceptual stage.

"But there's a difference between ideas and reality," Cece quickly added. "Grace respects what it means to be a trainer."

"I mean, it is sort of arbitrary, but yes," I said. "I don't want to be an asshole."

"Thank you for the answers," Archive said. "You're quite the pair, aren't you?"

"Next up, we have plans after this year's Circuit," Goalducc said. "Denzel has already said he plans on going through Sinnoh again and we assume it's the same for you two, but some people aren't sure. Would you be willing to share with us today?"

"Well, we'll most likely have a lot of things to do this summer, so we'll be in Sinnoh for… possibly all of July and some of August," Cecilia said. "But after that…"

She looked at me, and I nodded.

"Unova's the plan," she said. "We want to go through the Circuit there— well, I wanted to, and Grace agreed, which I'm still very thankful for," she continued, grabbing my hand.

People in the chat were not happy about that, and even our friends were surprised. We had floated the idea of going to Unova to them a few times, but we'd never actually confirmed it to them, so this was new for them as well.

"Interesting! Why Unova in particular? Is it just because it's Cecilia's home country?" Archive asked.

"That's mainly it, yes," Cece nodded. "And we think that taking on the full ten Gyms might be fun."

"Plus, traveling through an entire new place is nice," I said. "Going through Sinnoh again would probably just be me flying around cities and beating the Gyms there."

"Will you not fly in Unova?" Andrew asked. There was a hint of sadness in his voice, and knew it was because it was going to be way harder to track us abroad. I pushed down the jealousy that was rearing its ugly head. How was I jealous of someone Cece didn't know anyway?

"We were thinking about walking through the region for the most part," Cece said. "I may be Unovan, but I never walked through the routes themselves."

"Exploring and camping is fun," I nodded. "Plus, the routes are apparently super safe, so there are no drawbacks, really."

"That is something Unovans like to boast about," Archive nodded. "Okay, Andrew?"

"You all traveled as a group before, but you've splintered into smaller and smaller ones as time went on," Goalducc said. "Is there a reason for it? Some people think there was a falling out."

"A falling out?" I scoffed. "We're all still amazing friends."

"We all had different things we wanted to focus on," Cece said. "Groups are malleable. We don't even know how we'll travel to Pastoria. If the group will reform, or split further… we don't know."

"Well I was thinking I could go with Emi and Pauline?" Denzel said. "Because it's not often that Emi can travel on a route, I mean."

Liar, I thought. "Fine by me, even though I'll miss you."

"So you're still friends, then?" Archive asked. "No drama?"

"Do people not see us hang out and talk every time we're in a city?" I asked. "I mean, come on, people."

"People just like to look for drama where there isn't any," Cece shrugged.

"That is true," Goalducc said. "People were theorizing that you broke up when Grace went and traveled to Veilstone on her own."

You would have loved that, wouldn't you? I internally huffed.

Andrew spoke again, "Continuing, we have a topic that's… kind of related to a question that's on everyone's mind and might be somewhat controversial and is related to something that was already asked during the Q&A. At this moment, between all the trainers in your group, who do you think is the strongest currently, and who do you think will make it the furthest in the Conference."

"I don't know," I said, tilting my head. "I'm currently stronger than Denzel, I guess, but he did get this super secret training with Craig that he won't tell anyone about."

"That's because Craig doesn't want me to say it," Denzel complained.

"Shush now," I teased. "You're not in the stream. I guess… hm, it's hard to quantify. I feel like Lauren's the best currently, but the gap isn't as wide as it once was."

"I agree with that assessment," Cece nodded. "What about you and I?"

"Well… I'd say bar Sunshine, we're pretty equal, no?"

"Saying that you're equal is kind of copping out," Archive said.

"Well it's what I feel," I said. "I think that depending on the day, I'd be able to win or she would."

The chat flooded with demands for a battle between us, and Goalducc and Archive asked for the same thing.

"Well, I wouldn't want Honey in a Center for multiple days currently, but we might after my Gym Battle," I said. "Regarding who has the best shot of making it furthest in the Conference… it's impossible to know before we get there."

"Come on, give us an answer, at least," Andrew sighed.

"Me."

"Me."

I turned toward Cecilia and we both laughed. Even Archive chuckled, which did a lot of work to break the ice. The podcast continued in a more friendly fashion. Goalducc's nerves calmed down, Archive grew more understanding of questions we couldn't answer and dare I say it, I kind of had fun. Denzel bid his viewers goodbye, listing all of his sponsors before ending the stream.

"That wasn't that bad, was it?" Emilia said. "Rocky start, but we made it."

"It peaked at around 80,000 viewers," Denzel nodded. "Thanks for participating, girls."

Pauline stretched. "Arceus, I'm tired and I wasn't even talking. I must have banned at least sixty people, if we don't count that crazy Grace's Twin guy."

Lopunny nodded, not even bothering to type on her phone. She only grumbled that her fingers were tired. Being a moderator was hard work, it seemed.

"How much money did we make?" I asked.

"You have a one-track-mind, don't you?" Denzel said. "DailyTube takes a pretty large cut, but the stream made around 120,000 Pokedollars in total. Split it four ways, and you have the number. Payout takes around three to five business days, so you'll have to wait.

"30,000 in three hours isn't bad," I said. "Why doesn't everyone just do this streaming stuff?"

"Why don't you do it?" He jokingly said.

"It's annoying."

"You've got to realize I'm in the top 1% of the 1% of streamers," Denzel shrugged. "The majority of people are stuck at 1 viewer the entire time."

"How lonely," Cece muttered.

"Well, that's that!" I smiled. "Denzel, I have a list of usernames for you to ban."

My best friend stammered. "What?"

"People that were rude to Cece. Cursed_Meowth_Images1, ReticentoneWNs, ShmokerChain1028, RoorooR, aDELAIDE—"

"Wait—"

"—DetectiveDylan, Nashetovich, Defeat4t… and Dreamville. I can write the names down for you if you want."

"Thank you, Grace," my girlfriend gently said.

"Okay, relax," he sighed. "We'll look at their chat logs."

"Thanks!"

"And you're going to Unova? That's confirmed?" He asked.

"It is," I said. "Sorry you found out like that. I guess it never came up."

"Please keep me informed," he sighed. "I already feel like I'm out of the loop—"

"I know. It was just plans between the two of us, though, not League stuff," I said. "Are we okay?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Well, I'm going to shower, change clothes and then we can hang. It's been a while," I said.

—

Melody Summers felt like she was out of breath as the stream finally ended. Multiple times, she thought she would have gotten a panic attack from the way Grace had behaved, but she thankfully never stepped over the line. She still couldn't believe they had wanted to market her as a relatable, everyday girl. She was anything but normal.

That comment about scissors? That had been weird. Incredibly weird. Melody liked Grace as a person, but she couldn't deny that there was a lingering worry for her there. Still, the members of the board hadn't minded too much, especially when she'd spoken well about the company multiple times, worn her watch and had said that she found the Poketch laptop great to take notes on when someone had asked about tips for training during the Q&A section. They also loved that she was going to Unova. In fact, it was what they were the most excited about. Melody closed her own laptop and sighed as she stared out of her window in her apartment in Hearthome.

"Looks like there are no fires to extinguish today," she muttered to herself. "Thank the Legendaries."

Melody was basically Grace's manager at this point, even if the girl didn't know it. It was her that coordinated her appearance on the front trainer magazines (and they were still using pictures from that one photoshoot they had), that asked people in different news network to bring her up and talk about her during their sections about trainers and that constantly shielded her from the board's ignorance. Next on the list for her? Another photoshoot for new pictures and as soon as she got a flier and time to swing by Jubilife, a meeting with the board itself, face-to-face to plan their launch in Unova and talk about the rivalry with X Technologies.

Of course, that meant that she needed her Shiny Stone. The bonus had already been agreed to, and now all she needed to do was beat Volkner, but even that wasn't an obligation any longer. Not with the text she had sent two days ago.

Honey's going to fight Volkner's Electivire during our Gym Battle for reasons that I can't really get into, so you can warn the board ahead of time.

Melody had wanted to ask a thousand questions, but the most important one had been how? How the hell did she do things like… that?

The only answer she could muster was okay and good luck.

And now, she was probably going to Unova with her and would have to get approved for hormones there. The Unovan medical system was a hassle. Hopefully Grace would mellow out with age, because between the League and her antics, Melody felt like she had aged ten years in the few months they'd been working together.