CHAPTER 275

Why was it that people woke up tired when they'd slept for longer than usual? Or at least that's the way I felt after having slept the entire afternoon and through the night inside of the outpost's Pokemon Center. My mouth felt so dry it might as well have been a desert, and my entire body felt numb. The sun was barely rising through the window, though Angel was blocking almost the entirety of the rays. It took a few seconds to situate myself and remember what had happened yesterday. The people I'd saved were alive and well, even if Daniel had a nasty gash on his thigh and their Pokemon needed to be healed extensively. I rolled out of bed, leaving Princess to claim the entire thing for herself as I nabbed myself ice water from the fridge. Lurantis had agreed to stay on this side of the forest, but had needed to get Oddish back with Kadabra. Now that she was back, she'd be able to hang out with Sunshine and Mudsdale all day today. Kadabra had unfortunately exhausted herself by Teleporting too many people too many times— and blamed me for it— so she'd need to take a break for a couple of hours.

It was hard to remember sometimes that the people I worked with were not of average skill level. Not every psychic would be able to Teleport these distances without growing tired.

I had two days left here, not three, then. I wondered about what to do to pass the time while I waited as I slowly went through my morning routine and scrolled through my phone with tired eyes. Intruding too much on Lurantis, Sunshine and Mudsdale might be a little rude, and while I wouldn't disappear, I at least wanted to give them some space. Training was a given, especially since Princess could fly us away from the outpost to have some peace and quiet. Sweetheart could use some more practice with earth-shaping and transitioning into Earthquake, but they never told you how difficult training Earthquake was. In theory, it was just a more powerful version of Bulldoze or Stomping Tantrum, plus we had created Earthbreaker specifically to make that transition earlier, but it was not only about the power behind the move. The level of intricacy needed to create an actual earthquake-like phenomenon that strong went beyond any other ground type moves we'd worked with so far.

Oh, well, power was also an issue, even if it wasn't the only one. There was only so much Princess could fix when the entire area went to hell, and Mudsdale had taken over since, but now that he'd be busy, it would get a lot more complicated. I could see now why people like Craig and Aubri went off in the middle of nowhere to create new moves and practice their old ones. It was not only about secrecy, but also about convenience. Jellicent floated behind me, asking me about my night. He told me about how he had snuck out of the Center while we slept to go practice in the lake nearby and had accidentally scared off every water type in miles.

I snorted as I scrolled through Pastoria's Gym website and smiled when I saw that Denzel had won his Gym Battle, and it hadn't been that close. 5-6, so the same as Chase's, but his Milotic had barely had a scratch on him when he took down Ludicolo. An impressive victory beyond a shadow of a doubt, given the fact that he'd also faced down Gyarados. I was sure his sponsors were very pleased and that his new merch was selling like hotcakes, though I hadn't seen anyone wearing any shirts quite yet. Altaria had been surprisingly effective, with her Cloud Nine ability negating Crasher Wake from stacking any Rain Dances like he'd done against me with well-timed switches, and the power behind her attacks was nothing to scoff at. She'd held her own until Kingdra took her down— the same Kingdra Sunshine had beaten. She wasn't quite seven-badge level, but she was definitely close. The fundamentals that Craig had taught Denzel had carried him far, and were still of use even today.

Now, he was going to leave Pastoria as soon as his team was healed and fly to Canalave with Pauline's help. I was happy to see he'd started his streams back up again too. Always quick to recover, this one, I thought fondly. I missed him dearly— I missed all of them, really, but I was not ready to see them yet. Not until I told them the entire truth, at least.

Well, I felt more capable of it than I was a week ago, so as long as things kept progressing…

"Oh. Mel called me."

I'd been deep asleep when she did, but she was happy about something, from the way she'd only called me once and then texted instead of calling me ten times in a row in a panic. People liked the fact that I'd gone into the woods to save trainers, apparently. I hadn't even done it with Poketch in mind, but it was a nice bonus, at the very least. Better have to have the board happy for when we'd meet, with the way Melody had warned me about the other sponsorship liaisons getting ideas. To be honest, I was surprised that Aubri hadn't spoken out against me at all, but for all the older trainer disliked me, she'd been very professional when we'd met for the photoshoot. Speaking out against people in your own company wasn't her style, now that I thought about it more.

Anyway, I dropped my phone into my pocket, deciding to ignore the fact that June and Aiden had already spread the story of our time in the forest in detail and that most didn't believe them. It was a good thing I hadn't done any training in Eterna Forest or shown off any of the new stuff all my Pokemon were working on, really. This was about the time to start hiding my Pokemon's capabilities from prying eyes in the Conference. Granted, they'd have one last opportunity to look at my team when I challenged Byron. Or multiple, if I lost.

"Well, might as well catch some fresh air. Guys?"

Angel excitedly squirmed, and Princess groaned, asking to get back in her Pokeball to sleep.

"You've slept for as long as I have… but fine. I'll use Angel as a ride today," I said. "Let's go drop Sunshine and Mudsdale off and find something to do. Maybe give the kids a visit."

After returning them, my limping steps carried me out of the Pokemon Center, though I grabbed a quick bite on the way out and made sure I had enough for my Pokemon's breakfast. Lurantis would be waiting inside of the station itself, and it took Angel little time to bring us there with a steady rhythm. My ankle was actually starting to feel better, or at least it did when compared to the first day I'd broken it. I knew it would still be weeks until I could actually walk, let alone run, however. I would have released Buddy so he could go on his own and train some more, but people were starting to say he was terrifying. Honestly, I couldn't see it, with how goofy he got sometimes, but he did exude a hard exterior.

This Ranger Station was a mirror of all others, with a green roof and a tight, modern design that made it look sleek both inside and out. Lurantis had been waiting for us inside in a similar-looking garden with Oddish hiding behind her feet, though this yard was more flowery than the other. It was interesting to see how slow-moving the grass type was at the start of the day without the sun out. Even if Tangrowth sometimes got sluggish at night, he was never this affected by the lack of sun.

When I asked her while my Pokemon ate, she told me that she technically wasn't equipped to be out of the sun for that long, since she was Alolan, and all that time spent under Eterna Forest's thick canopy had taken its toll. She was building a tolerance for it, but it was a slow-going affair. Mudsdale did not explicitly tell her that she should quit if it was bad for her, but she guessed from a single look in his eyes, and she refused immediately, which gave Sunshine a good laugh. Lurantis valued this job far too much, and she wouldn't let such a small obstacle stop her. I was, however, angry that she hadn't told us before coming. Without Kadabra to Teleport us out, she would have been in an even worse state. The grass type brought one of her scythes-like arms up to elegantly cover her mouth and said that that was how building a tolerance worked. She wasn't used to going this deep in the forest for that long, and meeting with her long-lost companions had been a good reason to.

After breakfast, I left them to it and left the Ranger building. Once I made sure Kadabra's prowess had been emphasized enough to the Rangers, I was free of any obligations until Aliyah showed up. Might as well go check on the kids before I go and find a training spot. Close to the water would be nice for Buddy, but worst case scenario, he can just stick around on his own. Maybe I'd give studying Byron another try too—

"There you are!" June called out outside of the station.

She looked brighter than yesterday, that was for sure. Her face was free of any worry, which meant that Daniel Hall's leg injury wasn't too bad. Worse than what Emi had gotten during her trek through here, but recoverable, at least. She'd brought Edith Thurmond with her too, it seemed, though they couldn't look me in the face. Their light brown eyes just stared at their feet while they blushed, their relatively short dark hair drooping downward as they did so. It was chin-length, and kind of looked like a bob cut, but a lot more… messy and free-flowing.

"Come on!" June yelled, nudging them forward. "You've said that you wanted to meet her so many times already!"

How would Denzel go about this? He'd have a wide smile, get into his streaming persona and give his fans the best possible experience, even if that was just for thirty seconds. The problem was, I had no persona. Whatever, I'd just wing it.

I smiled. "Hi. How have you been?"

Edith finally spoke. "G—good. Thanks for saving us."

They didn't made their voice small like Lauren did. It was more of a nervous stutter. I looked around and saw that we were all attracting attention, which was probably making things worse for them, though June didn't seem to mind one bit. For the longest time, I'd been like that too, scared of crowds and people looking at me to the point of barely being able to function due to my anxiety.

"Why don't we go somewhere more private?" I asked, releasing Angel. The anxiety in Edith's eyes melted away, leaving way for awe. "My room will do. Unless your other friends want to come, or we go to Daniel's hospital room—"

"Edith can go without me," June said.

Her friend made some kind of half-hiss, half-grunting noise of pure disbelief.

"What? We've spent a lot of time with her already, so just go," she continued. "Aiden and Art are with Daniel, at the moment. You guys can come visit later, he doesn't like to be overwhelmed."

Why was she lying? I had my empathy at the lowest level it had ever been, and it was as clear as day. Still, there must have been a reason, so I decided to let it go.

"I mean, if you say so," I said with a raised eyebrow.

June was already running off, anyway, waving at us with that sharp grin of hers.

"Well, if it's just us two, I was planning on going training and studying," I said. "My therapist will probably show up in the middle of it, though. Want to go for a ride?"

"On Princess?" Edith gasped. "Oh, Legendaries!"

"Do you like her?" I asked.

"I—I do. She's my favorite," they muttered. "I'm one of the top contributors to her Trainerpedia page, you know? I've watched her fights more times than I can count."

"Trainerpedia? Oh, right, Denzel told me about it, once," I said. It was a website where all of the information about trainers could be written and edited, and each popular trainer had a huge community around their pages. "Sorry, I'm kind of bad at this. Anyway, do you?"

"I do!" they yelled.

Well, they were still shy, but it looked like their excitement had overtaken their timidity for now. I recalled Angel, who was sad he didn't get to be my ride again, and I released the flying type. Trainers watched as I strapped Edith onto the saddle— not too tightly, so they wouldn't be uncomfortable. They did these little flinches every time I accidentally touched them, which made it really hard to strap them in. Honestly, it was kind of weird how many parallels this entire self-reflecting journey had to my first one. Today's was that Craig had done the same thing for me up north, when flying us down to Eterna City, though I supposed I wasn't really flying Edith anywhere in particular. I just figured this would make their day, especially since they liked Princess so much. I handed them my only pair of goggles so their eyes would be protected, and then I hopped on myself.

"I can't believe it," Edith whispered. "I'm on— I'm on Princess."

"Take it easy for this one, baby," I softly said, petting Togekiss' head. I, for one, knew she was annoyed at having to fly two people when that second person wasn't Cece.

Togekiss gently lifted off into the air, and toward the East. Edith was shaking like a leaf, though I didn't know if it was from excitement or nervousness. Probably both, really. I was trying to finish stamping down on my empathy, so ignoring them forcefully made for some good practice. I was sure I'd be able to stay in Eterna City without passing out when I made it there, at least.

"Can I ask questions?" Edith said. They had to ask twice, because they hadn't been used to how loud the wind was this high up when flying, even at a lower speed.

"Go ahead."

"Is it true that Princess has no upper limit on her drills? Like, can she make a hundred at a time?"

"Well, there is a limit. We haven't really tested it in a while, but it's probably north of fifty? Fewer for spears. I won't say much more about it, though."

Edith stayed silent for a few seconds, and then gasped. "Oh, no! I won't put the information out, I swear! This is… between us."

Was disappointing a fan okay? I wanted to tell them no meant no instantly, but that was a rude way of going about things.

"I get it, but I really don't want to risk any leaks, sorry," I said. "Look at the bright side, you'll see us go through some routine training. It's all stuff I don't mind revealing."

"Sweet! You never train in public, so no one knows what your process looks like. Do your Pokemon fight each other? What's your way of coming up with new tactics? How do you get your team to learn moves from scratch…"

Oh, they could really get going when they wanted to, huh? June hadn't been lying when saying Edith was a massive fan. I tried to answer their questions to the best of my abilities, though sometimes they asked for too much and I had to put my foot down. Still, they were practically beaming about this the entire way through, and by the time we landed, most of their shyness was gone. I dismounted Princess at the edge of one of the massive lakes a few hours from Eterna City and helped Edith off too. It felt good to be with people shorter than me, for a change. I wasn't short, I was just friends with a bunch of freakishly tall people.

"Before you start, um, can I have your autograph?!" Edith asked.

"My… what?"

"Your autograph…?"

"My… autograph?"

"Yeah. Like, signing something I own. I was thinking my Litwick's Pokeball, but—"

"Wait, wait, wait," I stammered. "You have a Litwick?" That was a true ghost! People usually never caught those that early, save for Mira!

"Yeah. With a Trubbish and a Tyrogue, but Litwick's my starter, so I wanted you to sign my ball…"

Okay, focus on the autograph for now. "Well, I have a pen in my bag somewhere, but it's not a permanent marker, so it wouldn't stick to your Pokeball. I haven't really done this autograph thing before. I don't even have one of those fancy ones like Denzel does. Would I just write my name?"

"Anything you want!" Edith squealed. "As long as I take a video of you signing it, it'll be fine. Maybe write it in one of my notebooks instead."

They quickly searched through their backpack, pulled out a notebook and handed it to me. Now that I was looking at it, their bag had all kinds of pins on it. LGBTQ+ flags, a Togepi pin, a small plastic knife pin—

Okay, let's stop looking at the pins. The knife was cute, but it was a testament to my reputation that my fan had one of these. Where had they even gotten this? Did they sell knife pins? Could I claim royalties on these? Of course you can't, I silently chided at myself.

"Which page?" I asked, scrolling through the book. "Oh… you draw me?"

There were multiple illustrations of me on here. Sometimes, portraits, other times full-body drawings. There was me with my full team, or me with a single or only a few of my Pokemon. It was mostly just me, though. Despite it just being pencil sketches, these looked really nice— Edith snatched the notebook out of my hands with a face so red they looked like they were about to pass out.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"I— I— I'm so sorry— I didn't— I thought— I gave you the wrong book."

"Edith, this was really cool," I smiled. "Really, it's awesome! I've never had someone do art of me before."

The trainer paused, shifting their feet along the grass and clutching the book against their chest. "You really think so?"

"Yeah! You're really good at it. If you want, I'll sign that one."

They hesitantly handed it back to me, and I gave them the best signature I could manage while they filmed, which ended up not being very good. I ended up just writing my name in cursive, which I'd never really been good at. Cece, though, she could write in cursive like there was no tomorrow and actually preferred to do it that way. Her handwriting was really pretty.

"Now, I'm gonna get my team out and have them start training. Since you're here, I'll only have my Tyranitar work on control stuff instead of pure power, so you won't have to worry about any tremors, or whatever. Is that okay?"

"Grace Pastel is asking me stuff," Edith mumbled. "Yes! Yes, that's absolutely okay!"

Jellicent, Tangrowth, Electivire and Tyranitar all appeared in a sea of red, and Edith nearly jumped for joy. Honey glanced in my direction, though he liked the fact that he was being admired, so he gave them a wide grin and a thumbs up.

"Can you— can you do that again? I want to take a picture…"

Then, Sweetheart and Angel demanded to be in the picture, which caused Jellicent to audibly click in frustration and float over to them, since he knew he'd be asked to be in the shot anyway. Better to just get it over with now and not waste time.

"I'll hold your phone and take a pic of you and them, if you want," I suggested.

Training could wait a few minutes.

—

"Bubble," I ordered.

Jellicent let out a booming whistle, and two enormous bubbles of water rose from the lake, around the same size as Palafin had been able to do, though they were a smidge smaller. I waited for around thirty seconds to see if he strained to keep them afloat or not, but he kept them steady. The only disturbances on their surface were slight ripples, and there was no water dripping back into the lake, so no volume was being lost. Edith watched with a gaping mouth, but they hadn't seen anything just yet, nor did they truly comprehend the sheer amount of control on display here. Had a Pokemon been inside of these spheres, they would have been continuously pulled to the center and kept there through powerful currents Buddy was continuously generating.

"Boil and Freeze," I said.

The ghost type's eyes dimmed, feeling slight irritation at the challenge of having to do two fundamentally different actions at the same time. It was a lot to manage when working with TE, but he braced himself, his body shrinking slightly and his red eyes brightening as he concentrated. To the left, a wild symphony of steam and bubbles surged from the sphere's heart as the water within surged and roiled. This was Scald, but on a more powerful and massive scale, applied over an entire area instead of it just being a stream of steaming water. To the right, delicate tendrils of frost crept along the sphere's surface, etching intricate patterns that glistened in the sun. The air around it was frigid and still, with wisps of vapor swirling across the bubble's surface. This was not Ice Beam, but the manipulation of ice TE itself, and everyone knew that went wonderfully with water.

"Hold. One minute," I continued.

By the fortieth second, Buddy was clearly struggling. More and more impurities appeared on the spheres. The boiling one began to lose in mass instead of being continuously resupplied with new water while the frozen one began to crack, crumbling under its own weight as physics began to win the tug of war against Type Energy. Still, the ghost held for the minute he needed, and with an exhausted, reverberating sigh, he let go. Both spheres crashed into the lake, though Princess' barriers stopped the waves from touching us. The sheer amount of concentration that had just taken was incredible. Just a pure display of skill, and yet we were far from done. What if Water Sport could come out as a Scald so propulsion hurt his enemies? What about using Water Spout and instantly freezing the outgoing water to generate hundreds of ice spikes going so quickly that they were basically impossible to dodge? What about… ice spears?

Okay, ice spears wouldn't be that great in effect, but it was still fun to think about.

"Good job, Bud!" I beamed. "Go take a break and soak in the water, you deserve it."

I didn't have to tell him twice. He instantly deactivated his floating powers, plunging deep into the lake to recuperate. He wasn't the only one training hard, of course. Honey had managed to get Hammer Arm and finally mastered Bulldoze, so now I was looking into ideas for a custom move that would prove useful against steel types. It'd probably have to do with electro-magnetism, but I couldn't start planning until I properly learned about Byron. Angel could use Brick Break as well as Knock Off by this point and was entirely focused on his vine terrain thingy that I still needed to name. When she wasn't busy protecting us, Princess was working on better controlling Mystical Fire and bringing Tri Attack up to speed. The move had proved to have far more versatility than I believed it would have at first. Poor Sweetheart was grumbling while she tried to make a Stone Edge swerve mid-air in different directions. She wanted to work on big stuff, but this was as big of a deal as it got. I'd also finally taught her Rock Polish, the TM I'd gotten from Roark. It had never been useful as a Pupitar when she could fly, but now that she was walking again, reducing drag during battles and improving her speed would work out well for her.

Though it was a double-edged sword. Rock Polish meant that she would be faster, but it also meant that she'd be easier to knock around due to the fact that she'd slide over everywhere and possibly fall over at the first sign of a strong attack. I would have to pick and choose when to use the move properly, and I was sure it was the kind of thing Byron or any trainer worth their salt would instantly hone in on and punish. Really, I wasn't even sure if I'd use it against him yet.

"You do this every day?" Edith muttered. We were sitting in the grass and watching all of my Pokemon's training play out.

"Almost every day. They have breaks sometimes when we just goof off," I explained.

"Like that picture with the flower crowns!" they exclaimed. "I wondered when you were going to post stuff again. I was so happy when you said you were gonna be more active online and you did that stream in Sunyshore."

"You can thank Denzel for that," I smiled. "He basically dragged me by the arm to do it. It was fun, though."

Edith shifted in the grass. "You're a lot."

"Hm? What does that mean?"

"I mean, this is just… normal for you. My mind's getting blown," they muttered. "You're so much better than the fights against Wake or Barry that it's not even funny."

"Want to hear a story?" I asked. "Well, more like a lesson, really."

"I'll always say yes to that."

"You never stopped being in awe of what Pokemon can do, even at my level," I said. "Conference regulars— even those that don't make it out of the group stages— they would destroy me, as I'm sure you know. I think I'd definitely be able to take down a few of their Pokemon, though," I said, thinking of the fight with Zachary. "Maybe get relatively close, in the best case scenario and if I was given time to research, but they would always win. People like Aubri Schneider? They'd look at this," I gestured toward my team, "and laugh at the simplicity of it all, or maybe feel nostalgic for their earlier days. Craig Goodwill or the Elite Four? They would roll over me without even a contest, and that's not even the pinnacle, Edith." I stopped and watched Edith hang onto my every word, like I had to Craig's near Lake Acuity when he had first told me about his goal, and I had taken it for myself.

The Conference would be an entire different beast. I was always used to being the one who did research, and completely unfamiliar with being researched myself. They would all look me up. All of them would know what to expect. This wouldn't be like Solaceon, where I would be able to roll the competition. Even in the group stages, each fight would force me to claw my way up. Fight tooth and nail for each victory. I would do all in my power, prepare in every way I could, and some of those fights would still be impossible to win. Every trainer there would be terrifyingly competent. Everyone who would make it there would not have made it through flukes. The eighth Gym Badge was when the rubber met the road. No matter their temperament, their quirks, what they thought about me, what their relationship was with their Pokemon, they would be the best of the best. As competent as me in their own ways, or better. There would be no crushing victories for me, no matter what I brought to the table, I thought, glancing at Sweetheart.

And Legendaries, I could not fucking wait.

First, I would have to figure out how to blow past the wall that was Byron. Either win through overwhelming power or tricks, Craig had said.

"Grace?"

"Hmhm," I grunted. "I was just thinking about the Conference, sorry."

"What about Cynthia? June talks about her a lot," Edith asked. "I mean, I know she'd win, but… would you be able to land a hit?"

"Oh, she wouldn't even let me see what happened, I'd bet," I smiled. "There's punching up, and then there's punching at her. It would be over in less than a minute, and the worst part is she wouldn't even have to do anything complicated to beat me. Like, she'd just loose her Garchomp on us, and that'd be that. Do you get it, though? The world is so vast, Edith," I exclaimed with a toothy grin. "This is just Sinnoh. Who knows what the other regions are like? How their trainers, Gym Leaders, or Elite Four fight beyond the few videos we get access to?"

It was difficult, getting through regional internet blocks, or at least if you weren't tech-savvy like Mira was. The only reason I'd managed to dig up a video of Steven Stone's old battles was because someone here had reuploaded them here in terrible quality years ago.

"Anyway, that's all to say that this? My team? This is just a portion of what's possible. The possibilities are endless."

Fire burned within me, rekindling what had dimmed after the raid. The warmth spread through my chest, and the world seemed a little brighter. Every breath felt fresher than the last. This was passion. Not lost— never that— but reignited anew.

"You're… really cool."

I snorted. "I'm not. My friends are way cooler than I am. Anyway, that Litwick of yours. How'd you catch it?"

"I can show him to you, if you want," they excitedly said. "He's my dad's, but he was never a battler until he handed him to me for the journey."

Ah, that made a lot more sense. Still, I wondered how their father got their hands on a true ghost, but stranger things had happened. Edith released the ghost, and coldness spread around the small, flickering flame. His bright yellow eyes curiously glanced at me, after which he waved with his stubby little arms and let out a small, ghostly hum that made my skin tingle.

"Hey, little guy," I said. "He smells really good, too. My therapist would probably kill for one of these."

"Don't worry about his flame potentially sucking life energy and stuff, he learned to stamp that down a long time ago."

"Oh, they can do that?" I tilted my head, imagining all the ways I could utilize that technique. Edith could too. It'd be good for them to at least develop ways to use it in case they were ever attacked by something looking to kill. "That's pretty cool."

"You're not scared? Even my friends are creeped out by him."

I watched Litwick bob up and down as his flame danced in the wind, his wax-like skin dripping down all over his head. "This guy? No, he's a real cutie," I said.

"I knew you'd get it!"

—

Aliyah ended up coming while we'd been training and talking, though she disappeared soon after as usual and left us to our own devices.

Edith did end up asking for my number, which I gave them. That way, they'd be able to brag about knowing me to people online, or at least that's what they told me. They were a lot of fun, when breaking through their shyness, though it took a while for them to get out of that fan headspace. I liked instilling wisdom as much as the next experienced trainer, but I wanted to make friends too, or at least acquaintances. I brought Edith back to the outpost after we finished training a few hours later, though they'd asked me to watch their team train to give them advice before we went. They were less of a planner than I was, but our instincts while battling were similar, with how ruthless they enjoyed being. I did have to tell them to chill out with that aspect when training, though. All it did was have them waste potions, which was hard to remember, were actually a limited resource for most trainers. That hadn't been the case for me since I'd befriended Cece and the others, so I'd gotten a really huge shortcut in that regard.

They also asked if they could come with me when I left… which wasn't something I'd expected. It made a little sense when thinking about it. Their friend Daniel would be out of commission for weeks, which basically meant that the Circuit was over for him. As blunt as it was to say this, I doubted that any of them would manage to beat Gardenia on their first tries, and since this was the end of the Circuit, Gym Leaders prioritized people with a higher amount of badges, like six and seven, so they weren't going to get many attempts. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but this was the assumption all of them were going with too.

They were a tightly knitted group, and most didn't want to leave their friend festering in a hospital while they progressed without him. Edith, however, had been desperate to spend more time with me, since I was leaving soon and had taken the plunge. Since they weren't going to try the badges any longer, they figured they'd try to travel with me. I was sure, after all, that if Denzel had the opportunity to, he would have loved to travel with Craig.

I had refused.

The places I was going next— the Lost Tower, visiting Bellatrix, and finally, the ruined city would be too dangerous for a trainer like Edith, and just like Denzel, my ACE Trainers wouldn't protect them. I had considered dropping them off in cities while I went where I needed to, but I had no idea how many days I'd spend for each of my visits, and that'd mean Edith would just be alone in a city most of the time. If that was the case, they were better off with their friends. Really, I liked them, but I also didn't want to lose my alone time either. I did promise I would buy them and all of their friends a ticket to the Conference so they'd be able to come and watch, though, so at least I had that going for me. They were pretty pricey, and their parents hadn't planned on chiming in. Anyway, I'd spent some time with the rest of Edith's friends and played the part of a responsible trainer, who totally wasn't someone who was constantly fumbling in the dark in search of herself. As they all grouped up around me, looking in my direction like I was the best person in the world, I realized something when I stared at Edith, and they averted their eyes with a blush.

They liked me.

The feeling had been developing since they'd actually met me, and I'd become less of an unreachable celebrity crush and a tangible human they had spoken to. Since I had been essentially putting my empathy on mute, I hadn't figured it out until now. It was the hue of a deepening and passionate crimson. Not deep yet— only deepening and growing with every moment, layer by layer. The texture hardened, grew more solid, and that gave the emotion weight. I could have ignored it. I should have. But I had grown curious when I had noticed it, and so I delved deeper. Mesprit had told me that people liking me would be something I loved, as had the previous Shard of Emotion. And this was not love yet, far from it. Still, it was so intoxicating I had to actively stop myself from falling deeper. The worst of it was that even though I did not like them back, or even entertain that notion, that messed up part of me that would never leave wished I could stay longer and keep enjoying this. It was easy to imagine why my predecessor had made a cult, after all. Hundreds— thousands of people, loving him more than anything else in the entire world? How must that have felt? He must have grown addicted to the feeling, perpetually growing his group and molding them to his liking to chase even higher bliss until he died of old age.

I cut the meeting short and left soon after. I couldn't do this. I couldn't.

I wandered around the skies on Princess in silence as I cleared my head, ignoring the subtle giggles at the back of my head and perpetually convincing myself that I hadn't done anything wrong. I hadn't messed with Edith's emotions, or anything. Just spoken to Edith and looked for a few minutes because my curiosity got the best of me, but when I realized what was happening, I stepped out and understood it was… well, it would have been wrong to keep them around, because I'd just be leading them on to use them to make myself feel good. My heart was Cecilia's, and I missed her now more than ever.

"Let's head back down, shall we? Thanks for letting me think."

Togekiss chirped, saying that she was always willing to spend time with me when I needed it and that she'd been working on her Lurantis and Oddish statues anyway. I was starting to like flying to clear my head. The cool and crisp air made it easier to think, and there was no one here but us and the sound of the wind. I forwent protocol, not going through the Ranger building and instead landing directly where Turtonator and his friends had been talking.

"You four are in the exact same position I left you in," I said with a tired smirk as I dismounted Princess.

Mudsdale, Turtonator and Lurantis turned toward me, though the grass type retorted by saying Oddish was in her arms instead of on the ground this time.

"I came to hang out. Lurantis, Mudsdale tells me that you were the planner for your team before Gym Battles? I'd like some input from you if possible, since you've fought Byron before and Sunshine doesn't have any useful input beyond the simplest play-by-play."

Sunshine snorted, saying that her plans didn't pan out half the time and that Drampa and Oranguru were the ones who had truly pulled the strings, causing Lurantis to blow some kind of powder in his nose that launched him into a sneezing fit. Their fight wouldn't have been at the level we were currently at, but it was a start. I sat down next to the three and listened.

—

"Are you sure about this?" I muttered. "Can't we— come to an agreement somehow?"

The sun was setting, now, and Mudsdale had announced that he'd chosen to stay here with Lurantis. The ground type lowered his head, brushing its side against my face as the others looked on with saddened faces. We'd only known each other for a few weeks, and yet it felt like a part of me was about to leave. I'd expected him to come to a decision tomorrow before I was set to leave, not right now. His decision had not only been due to Lurantis wanting to stay here, but also because he knew the dangers that would lurk in my future. Not only about the looming threat of Team Galactic, but the fact that I'd be going head-first into danger out of my own volition too. Mudsdale was a fighter no longer. I'd have to ask the Rangers if he could stick around and become a training instructor for the other Pokemon who worked here, though his service wouldn't be as useful here as in the swamp down south, but ground types always had their uses.

And in the end, despite the fact that I'd always told him I would never force him to fight, he was still entitled to wish for a peaceful life. What he wanted and what awaited me was simply incompatible, or at least that's the way he'd said it. I wanted to try negotiating, saying that I'd never release him during fights, but I knew it wouldn't work, and I had promised Lurantis that I'd let Mudsdale come to his own decision. So I forced myself to hold back in the tears, and I smiled.

"I'm happy for you. Really," I said. "And hey, we still have one more day, right? So let's make the best of it."

I left to sleep extremely late that night, and Sunshine accompanied me back to the Pokemon Center while I rode on Angel's head. I stole glances at him, and though it was difficult to see in the dark, I could sense that there was melancholic air about him. He was not sad, however, or at least not as much as I was.

"How're you feeling?" I asked.

The dragon grunted and said he felt like he should be asking me that.

"Goodbyes are always tough," I muttered. "I really thought… I don't know, that I'd figure something out. I guess life doesn't always work out that way."

There was a way about Mudsdale which I thought had helped smooth the transition between my current self and who I'd been in Pastoria. The peaceful way he carried himself, maybe, always attempting to diffuse situations rather than escalate like I'd grown so used to.

Turtonator looked at the starry sky and sighed. He was sad— how could he not be? But he was happier to see that Kamaile's surviving teammates had finally stepped over the hill and were starting to move on. Their old trainer would always be in their memories. The kindness he had shown each of them, the laid-back way he'd gone about things and his sheer enjoyment when he explored the world. Yet, they were capable of walking their own road, now.

"You're… right," I said. "You've all grown in your own ways. I think Kamaile would be happy."

Turtonator nodded in agreement, and Angel caressed us both with his vines.

The next day passed in a flash. I didn't avoid Edith, because it wouldn't be fair to them, but despite wanting to sit them down and tell them that… this entire thing wasn't happening, I just ignored it instead and acted like I hadn't figured out they had a crush on me. I figured that since I was leaving, they'd stop liking me, and we'd stay acquaintances at best, since we weren't going to see each other until… well, the Conference, if everything went well.

I mounted Princess, and the world below us became a blur as we sped toward Eterna City.