CHAPTER 240

If I had to describe Mira's performance in one word, it would be underwhelming. The way she'd fought had no mistakes I could spot, but it had all been so small-scale compared to what Chase and Denzel had done that she'd been at a disadvantage from the first second of the battle.

"I really thought you wouldn't care," Cecilia told Mira. "I thought you didn't want to bother with badges."

Mira's face scrunched up. "I didn't think I would care. But as it turns out, I don't know what the fuck I care about."

Chase shrugged with his arms crossed as he leaned against the Center's wall for support. We'd just tested if the Voice worked through a phone by having me leave the room, and we'd quickly found out that it did not. Next on the list was trying a delayed command and asking someone to act normally for… say forty minutes before having them do something.

"You slacked off," he said. "That's what happens when you take it easy for too long."

"I— I know," she said. "It's not the stupid badge I care about, it's the weakness. I'm weak."

I raised a hand. "That's—"

"True," Chase said. "She is weak."

"And to think I wanted to stand up to Team Galactic admins? If I hadn't been lucky or hadn't had guards, I might have died a thousand times over. I thought it was at least partly skill… but it was all luck. Luck and that blessing."

"So? What are you going to do?" Cecilia asked.

"I don't know. Gather my thoughts for a few hours, maybe. One thing's for sure, I won't challenge Volkner again. Two weeks is too long to be stuck in this city. We were already thinking about leaving soon."

As soon as Honey had evolved, I subconsciously added.

"But Wake?" She continued.

"I mean, I'll try. But as it stands, I'll lose. I thought I could just do what I usually did… just rely on Teleportation to overwhelm, use my head to find an easy way to win and call it a day, but that's wrong. I need to actually push myself to win and get better so I can fight Galactic."

"So the Conference…?" I trailed off.

"Is a no-go. But hey, if everything goes well, I'll be in the stands cheering you guys on," she said with a sad smile. "This sucks. I fell behind."

"Everyone's been training their asses off in Sunyshore. You needed to do the same," Chase said.

"She did train," I said.

He nodded half-heartedly. "But not enough."

"Not enough," Mira repeated. "Damn it."

There were no jokes. No asking Chase on a date to cheer her up, or that sarcasm we'd learned to know her for.

Nothing.

She was just genuinely disappointed.

—

"Okay," Denzel sighed. "I'm ready… I think. I'm nervous. Do you think we should maybe only have Sylvi out for this—"

"Dude, no," I interrupted. "This problem relates to your entire team, and we've already said they'd be here."

Denzel's face and shoulders tightened. We had decided to do this on the isolated patch of beach I'd found in case things got bad. Sylveon was in a very volatile emotional state, so we weren't going to take any risks and Alakazam and Gardevoir were still getting fixed up at the Pokemon Center. My nose tingled at the salty smell of the ocean and the sound of waves crashing against the sand was constant, but somewhat reassuring. The sun was a semi-circle just above the horizon and the entire sea shone with a bright orange.

"Remember, I'm here no matter what," I reassured him. "You can count on me to help."

"Okay. Thank you," he said. "You're a great friend."

Denzel released his Pokemon one by one. Swablu scowled at me before settling on her trainer's head. Since she was the newest member of his team, she was the one I understood the least, but that was fine. If I really needed help translating, I'd just go through another Pokemon. Roserade immediately tensed, her roses bristling in the evening wind. Milotic appeared closer to the sea, and the waves brushed up against his scales. The sheer anxiety bleeding off his body was palpable, and he coiled up while he waited, comforting himself with the water's touch. Froslass was focused. Not once did she blink in and out of existence, nor did she spread frost around her. Lopunny slapped her cheeks and nodded pumping herself up and her team with encouraging words.

They had all been forewarned as soon as they'd been out of the Pokemon Center.

I released Princess as well, because she was Sylveon's best and possibly only friend outside of his team. She'd gotten much better at hovering, and she instantly started twirling in the air to practice her balance. Princess knew what was coming, but she always spent every minute out of her Pokeball practicing. She hadn't sculpted anything or worked on her moves in days.

"Now, I'm going to serve primarily as a translator, but I only have one mouth, so try to speak one at a time so I can relay to Denzel," I said. Lopunny's grammar still wasn't good enough for text-to-speech and it would be quicker this way. "I'll be a neutral observer too."

"Before we start I want to… I want to apologize to you guys," Denzel spoke up. He hesitated, picking up Swablu into his arms. The flying type didn't nip his fingers like she used to. "I've neglected the problems brewing in the team and for that, I'm sorry."

Denzel was almost always cheerful, so seeing him like this hurt. He was nervous, but he tried to appear confident and smiled for his team. Here was possibly the hardest worker of our entire group. He juggled so many aspects of life that I had no idea how he handled everything at once.

"Here goes nothing— and be calm, okay?" Denzel said.

Sylveon appeared in a flash of red and eyed all of us— at first, with cheerfulness. I supposed it wasn't often that he got Denzel alone to himself at this time of day, since he usually hung out with Emi and Pauline this late in the evening or was streaming, or marketing, or speaking with his sponsors, or…

There was so much.

"Sylvi," Denzel said as he crouched next to the fairy type. "We need to talk about you and me."

Immediately, I felt the dread leaking out of Sylveon. And yet his face stayed the exact same. He smiled, nodding at Denzel. If I hadn't become an empath, would I have been able to tell he feared what was to come? No. And herein lay the problem. Sylveon had gotten so good at tricking his team and Denzel, pretending that everything was fine. If we hadn't decided to speak to him now, who knew what would have happened when he couldn't handle the pressure any longer?

"It's come to my attention that you've tried to ruin my relationship with Emilia and Pauline."

Sylveon's feelers tensed. Now that the confrontation was in full swing, he wouldn't be able to hide any longer. The fairy type was good at hiding his true feelings, but not that good. He shot Lopunny and I dirty looks—

"No. Look at me," Denzel said. His tone was gentle, yet firm. "That's not okay, Sylveon. You can't just meddle in things like that."

The fairy type spoke up for the first time.

"He wants to speak alone," I translated before shaking my head. He probably thought he'd be able to salvage things if it was only him and Denzel.

"No, Sylvi. We're doing this together. All of us. And we won't leave this beach until we've made up."

Sylveon's lips quivered, and he cried out in protest. Denzel's entire team had different reactions. Swablu huffed and I was pretty sure she threw out an insult his way. Milotic profusely apologized, bowing his head over and over but said that this was for the good of the team. Froslass silently agreed as she drifted in the wind. Roserade sat on the sand and closed her eyes, her head hanging low with disappointment. Lopunny told Sylveon that this was for his own good.

"He called them traitors," I relayed. "I don't think he means it."

Sylveon barked at me and told me to shut up. Princess' eyes narrowed and she landed on the beach, glaring at him.

"Stop it," Denzel said. "Just stop. You've been found out. You can't wriggle your way out of this. It's over."

The fairy type took a step back, and for a second, I thought he'd run. He didn't. Instead, he teared up and sobbed. Princess' look softened and she floated over, patting him on the head with a wing.

We let him cry for a while. It would do no good to strike at him while he was at his weakest emotionally. His ribbons drooped to the ground and swayed in the sand and his tears glimmered pink in the setting sun. No one dared to approach, even if Milotic clearly wanted to. Consequences, I thought. Harsh, but unfortunately fair. Better it happen now than when irreparable damage had been done.

After a few minutes, Sylveon was tapped out of tears. He resigned to his fate and waited for Denzel to speak.

"First, I want to ask you. Why?" My best friend asked. "Why do this?"

Sylveon sighed in defeat, but he didn't resist. He explained himself, calling Pauline and Emilia all kinds of names in the process. I opted to glance over those details.

"He says you've been spending no time with him and all of your time with them," I said.

"That isn't true!" He exclaimed. "I make time for all of you— we spend time together every day for hours!"

I waited for the fairy type to speak again.

"It's gotten lower, that's his problem," I said. "And he thinks that if you start dating, it'll go down and down until he barely sees you any longer. He knows that Pauline doesn't like him and he thinks that she's trying to purposefully take you away."

Denzel exhaled, chewing on his next words. "Sylveon. You've been such a big part of my life— and things won't change if I start dating anyone."

The fairy shook his head.

"It's always been you and him. He didn't mind when you were just friends with others. You never spent as much time with friends as you do with them. Now he thinks he'll disappear and become irrelevant," I translated.

Roserade spoke up for the first time and shrugged.

"She says Sylveon is being extra and that this isn't like him. That you should be allowed to do whatever you want and that no neglect has come her way or the way of your team."

The fairy type tried to pretend like he ignored the comment, but I could tell he'd felt emotional pain. Roserade— Denzel's oldest, first teammate that he'd caught had just spoken out against him. When I told Denzel what had been said, he raised a hand.

"Don't make it so personal," he tried, but the grass type spoke over him and said that this was personal.

There were no more relationship games. It seemed that Sylveon's behavior these last few weeks had eroded Roserade's love for him so much that she felt no problem speaking out, and the poison type wasn't one to be gentle when she spoke. Milotic stammered out a few words to try to calm the situation down, but Denzel was the one who stopped the dispute.

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"Look. In your ideal world, I know that I just give up and never see Emilia or Pauline ever again, but that's not possible. Even if this thing doesn't work out with them, then I'd like to stay friends," Denzel said. "And I won't be single forever, even without them."

Sylveon barked.

"One woman, he could maybe handle. That was a really shaky 'maybe'."

"So the number's the problem?" Denzel sighed. "I get it. I mean, it's kind of weird to me too, but it hasn't made me uncomfortable yet, at least."

Lopunny talked this time, and Sylveon nearly gasped in disbelief.

"She says she really likes Emilia and Pauline's company, and that they make her laugh," I said. "Froslass likes Pauline too, and Milotic likes Emi—"

The water type shrunk, retreating further into the water.

"Sylveon's the only one with the issue, and he'd like to figure out a way to fix things together."

"We all would," Denzel nodded. "Is there a— a compromise that can be reached, somehow?"

Sylveon laughed dryly.

"I'm serious," he said. "Let's communicate. We should have been doing this from the start. I don't want you to feel the need to hide things from me."

Milotic hesitantly murmured to Sylveon.

"Milotic's saying that Sylveon spending time with Pauline, Emilia and their Pokemon instead of always glaring at them could help—"

Sylveon pushed him away with his ribbons, and Denzel shot up.

"Hey! Relax, okay? No need for anything violent."

Milotic shrunk away, nearly crying as Froslass floated toward him. The ice type placed a cold hand on his head while Swablu landed on his back and chirped. I'd never heard the flying type be so comforting. Sylveon whispered an apology to Milotic, but no one bothered to listen.

He was losing all of his friends.

"Milotic's suggestion was good, but I'll throw in something else. I can't just ask you to give something. I'll give something away too. Now that we've got our badge and we're in a good spot money-wise, I'll take some time off streaming. What do you say?"

Sylveon blinked, and then turned his head.

"He's saying that things will just return to how they were as soon as they leave Sunyshore," I sighed.

This was difficult. Far harder than I thought it would be.

"Compromise is how we work through this," Denzel said. "Please. Give it a try."

Swablu squawked at Sylveon in agreement, saying that even if she thought Pauline and Emilia were dirty, she still wasn't demanding anything out of Denzel. Lopunny chimed in and said to just try and she swore that things would get better. Froslass tried to lift the mood with a joke, but I didn't hear the end of it before Roserade told him to stop being a baby and return to how he used to be.

He was always the same, I thought to myself. Just better at hiding it when Denzel wasn't in anything official. He had hid or dragged Denzel away while they trained on multiple occasions and despised any girl that looked to have feelings for him even if he didn't return them.

They all spoke as one, and Sylveon stepped back again, but he was cornered— Denzel approached him, walking on his knees since he'd been crouching. Sylveon screwed his eyes shut, closed his eyes and screamed to leave him alone—

"Princess—"

The ribbons lashed out like whips in every direction. They cracked against the sand, Sylveon's own body and… Denzel's shoulder. I quickly dug through my backpack for a bandage while almost all of Sylveon's team jumped on him to restrain him from doing any more harm. Froslass raised her hand, and all of Sylveon's ribbons froze in place. Lopunny tackled the fairy and pinned him to the ground. Milotic wrapped around him and held him tight. Roserade watched and shook her head in disappointment, but Denzel called out to them and raised his arm.

The front of his shoulder had been branded red, and blood dripped onto the sand, both from Sylveon's ribbon and the gash in Denzel's skin. His face was pale and his breaths trembled, but he wasn't scared.

"Let him go," he winced. "Thank you for the help."

This time, Sylveon looked ready to run, but the guilt superseded his need to get out of there a thousand times. He cried, desperately apologizing for what he'd done.

"I know, Sylvi," Denzel said. He dragged the fairy type into his arms and brushed his fur. "I know."

I sighed in relief, but still whispered to Princess to stay ready. Her new form had made her instincts grow awkward. It was hard to instantly put up a barrier when she was spending so much of her brain power focused on floating. When they finished hugging, I patched Denzel up with a bandage around his armpit and shoulder. He'd have to go see a doctor as soon as possible. We all knew that he was only putting on a brave face. His paleness showed that he was in extreme pain right now.

"My offer's still on the table," Denzel said. "And tell you what, why don't I look into hiring a… uh, manager or something so I don't spend as much time working."

My eyes widened. "That's a great idea! If you had your own Melody, then you'd have so much more free time! They can help you with your online stuff too. Like, a secretary."

My friend took a bit to answer due to the pain in his shoulder, but he nodded. "Except that they'd be independent instead of bound to a single company."

"Coordinators do it all the time, no?"

"Well, not all the time… but Emi's been looking into them lately. I wasn't sure if I needed one before this, and it's kind of scary to give so much control away, but I'll do it—"

Sylveon shook his head. He was sobbing so uncontrollably that he was almost impossible to understand. Half of Denzel's shirt was soaked in tears.

"He says you don't have to change anything. And that he's sorry. Multiple times," I said.

Lashing out against Denzel had been as big of a wake-up-call as he could have gotten. He was ready to fold so easily now.

"No."

Denzel's team stared at him in silence. There was no sound but the sea brushing up against the sands and the cries of a flock of Wingull overhead.

"I'm the trainer. I am responsible for this," he said, touching his bandage. "I should have spotted that something was wrong. I should have done this much earlier before it blew up like it did. It was hard without understanding you all besides a few common words, but with Lopunny getting better at writing, I'll hope that if you have a complaint— any of you," he paused and looked at every teammate. "That you'll have her tell me. No matter what it is. And Lopunny, I trust you to actually tell me the problem this time. Okay?"

The normal type nodded, apologizing for keeping this hidden from him for so long. She teared up and began to blame herself, and Roserade tapped her on the back. The grass type might have been a thorny flower, but she loved her team all the same.

They all did.

In the end, Sylveon agreed to try to spend more time with Pauline and Emi to learn to know them, and this time, it truly felt like there had been a breakthrough. Like it would turn for the better after so many months of burying the issue.

"Could you let us be for a bit," Denzel asked. "Just for ten minutes or so."

"Okay," I said. "Um, I'll be behind the rocks, okay? You really need to get to a Center."

"I will. Just… let us watch the sunset."

I dipped my head and called on Princess, who followed me without missing a beat.

"And Grace. Thanks for the help. For everything."

"I love you, you oaf," I smiled.

"I love you too."

Sylveon ended up falling asleep next to Denzel. He was emotionally and mentally exhausted, but my friend hadn't stopped saying how much Sylveon had apologized while he drowsed off. When we reached the Pokemon Center, he was taken into the human wing to get looked at by a doctor. I didn't really know the extent of the wound, but the sound the ribbon had made when touching Denzel's skin was still fresh in my mind. I hadn't known when I'd gotten tired either, but my bed seemed like the best thing in the world right now. I considered telling Pauline and Emilia about the intervention and Denzel's wound, but I decided against it. Denzel would prefer to tell them himself, and I doubted the doctors would keep him for long.

I spent around thirty minutes with Justin and Cecilia before heading off to sleep.

Princess really did make a good pillow.

—

As it turned out, Denzel's wound wasn't as bad as it looked when I had bandaged it, but his doctor had said that it would most likely leave a shallow scar on his shoulder. Even if he'd spoken to Emi and Pauline last night, I knew he had a lot to do and he'd be busy the next few days, so I only saw him once in the morning.

I would have slept in, but today was an important day. It was my first practical flying lesson with Princess, and if I was even more than five minutes late they'd give my spot to another trainer. I had passed my first test with flying colors, getting 95% because of some stupid nightlight question I had gotten wrong. They had to be attached to the Pokemon, not the trainer, although putting some on both was common. It was the best way to avoid collisions mid-air in the dead of night.

The closer I got to Flight School, the more excited I got and the more my tiredness melted away. I ran toward the courtyard, which was currently only occupied by my apparent teacher and ten other students. Far fewer than had been in my theoretical classes, but that was probably because she needed to focus on us individually. She was a tall-looking woman with a towering Staraptor standing next to her with a saddle already on his back.

As soon as the clock struck ten in the morning, our instructor started to speak.

"Good morning, aspiring fliers!" She smiled. "My name is Coraline Herrera, but you can call me Coral or Ms. Coral, if you want to be formal. Today's your first day actually flying. How are you all feeling?"

Excited cheers ran through all of us, and I would have been lying if I hadn't yelled too. Who wouldn't be excited at the prospect of flying?

"Excellent! Now, the first step is actually the most important— you always need to check with your Pokemon before you fly. If they're feeling tired, angered, or emotional in general, accidents may happen…"

I internally groaned. Procedure again? I wanted to get in the sky already! After she rambled for at least five minutes, she continued.

"Next up, this is the 'bird' body type class, so you'll be able to pick up your saddles over here on the hanger," she said, pointing toward the edge of the courtyard. "When you've got them, release your Pokemon and I'll teach you how to put on your saddle on each of them. Even with the same body type, every Pokemon species is different! I already see some of you rolling your eyes. For the people who swear they won't need a saddle, you'll be learning how to ride with one in my class. If that bothers you, you're free to leave."

Her amusing demeanor disappeared in an instant. Ms. Coral took flying very seriously.

I grabbed the saddle (which looked a lot bigger from up close, but they were all foldable to fit in bags, just like the one I'd buy), and we all released our Pokemon. Two Pidgeot, another two Staraptor, a Corviknight, two Unfeazant, a Talonflame way bigger than Cece's, a Bombirdier, and a Swanna. I released Princess, who looked uncomfortable in front of all of these new faces, but she puffed up her chest and closed her eyes to show off.

As it turned out, putting on a saddle was a lot more difficult than I thought it was, and I was the only one with the problem. Everyone else had finished in a flash, and Ms. Coral had to help me buckle the straps around Princess' wings. I swallowed the embarrassment and listened to our instructor tell us about making sure the saddle wasn't loose anywhere by having our Pokemon move around to check, and maybe even take a small test flight for a few seconds.

Then, we put on our eye goggles, and she told us to always wear them just to stay safe. There were a few stories about trainers getting their eyes hurt, or even worse, injured from getting stuff in there while they flew.

But at last, we actually mounted on our fliers. I felt goosebumps on my arms as soon as I stepped on Princess' back. I strapped a belt around my legs and waist to keep me from falling over.

"It's up to you now, young trainers!" The instructor cheered as she got on her Staraptor. The flying type flapped his wings and slowly rose up into the air. "You know your Pokemon better than I! We'll do a loop around the courtyard at first. Follow me!"

I was amongst the last to rise, mostly because Princess was incredibly nervous she'd drop me. Her wings trembled and the little crown on her head twitched.

"We'll be okay," I softly said, petting her head. "Just relax. Act like I'm not here."

I froze up when the air around her swirled, and she floated up— just a few feet at first. Then, she rose far above the courtyard and joined Ms. Coral in the skies.

The ocean lay in front of me in all of its glory, and for the first time, it did not feel like an insurmountable barrier any longer, despite how foolish that thought was. The Lily of the Valley island sat there, imposing as always. I adjusted my goggles and gasped, in awe of everything.

My feet dangled in the air, and a cold brush of wind blew past me.

I was in the sky.

We were flying!

"You're doing great, Princess," I said, leaning in toward her ears. She chirped in response as we followed Ms. Coral around the courtyard.

Everything felt so freeing, as if I had wings of my own. For an instant, I wanted nothing more than to tell Princess to speed up and fly away to anywhere we wanted, but I was sure she'd disagree even harder than Coraline would. This was how people that flew felt every time? How liberating! I wanted to scream for joy. My bindings had been smashed and I could finally be free. I giggled as I caressed Princess' head. She was starting to get into it and have fun too, and she was even speeding up at times.

To hear the wind whistling past my ears when she'd be able to go faster… I couldn't wait.

"This could get addicting," I told her.

Unfortunately, the lesson only lasted two hours. We learned how to handle ourselves on a saddle (and I learned that sitting on that saddle design for two hours straight hurt my back), how to handle sharp turns, all kinds of landings, and we even had a few of our Pokemon use attacks while we were flying on them. Aerial battles are a skill that every trainer with a license needs to know, she had said. I understood completely. Craig had told me that he often got attacked on Roxie's back when he flew near Mount Coronet.

I stretched as Princess hovered over me next to the bus stop.

"That was fun, wasn't it? I wish we could take another class right now."

The fairy type chirped, but she said that I'd need to watch my back.

"I'm alright! Now that I walked around for a bit, it's feeling really good. We might have to take breaks during extended flights, but that'll be fine."

Princess nodded and wondered if she'd be able to sculpt while flying any time soon to pass the time.

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves," I laughed. "But maybe one day."

We waited in silence for a few minutes, and she was such a baby that she landed in my arms. The hold was extremely unsteady and awkward, but she was only eighty pounds. I had to recall her when we got on the bus.

All of my goals for after the seventh badge were now within reach. First, I'd head to Lake Verity to talk to Mesprit. Then, I'd loop around and visit my dad for a day or two in Jubilife… maybe I'd see my mom in Twinleaf too and visit Denzel's parents, come to think of it. Then I'd go to the Lost Tower to speak to Ruth and Mathilda about finding Honey's old parents, visit Bellatrix and Night with the paint and books I promised to buy, and finally, I would enter the ruins on route 210 to find a Claydol before flying back toward Canalave.

Had I been on foot, this would have taken months. With Princess? I could be on the other end of Sinnoh in days.

And I would do it all on my own. I had never traveled for that long without my friends, so it would be a new and unique experience, if anything.

Oh, and I also had something else to ask Ruth and Mathilda.

Was truly killing a ghost possible? Mars' Dusknoir flashed in my mind, and I shuddered as I sank into my bus seat.

And what would I feel if I looked at him again now that my gift was fully developed?

Questions for later.

—

When I entered the Center, I thought nothing would be able to sour my mood after having flown on Princess for the first time, but I was evidently wrong. Cecilia sat at her desk with Louis, leaning against her hands with her phone next to her. Not crying. Something worse. Her fingers tightened, interlocking with each other and her breath was perfectly steady. She was quiet, and Louis breathed a sigh of relief when he saw me enter. Cecilia was like ice. Unmoving, just thinking to herself about whatever had happened. Even my presence didn't soothe her. There was no immediate beaming smile or soft greeting. There was only a terrifying silence I had never seen from her before.

It was rage.