CHAPTER 38

The problem with having a ridiculously huge tent was that it also took a long time to disassemble it. While Denzel, Justin, Emilia, and I took care of cleaning up camp, the rest of the group tirelessly worked on folding all of the tent parts back up. Denzel nodded to his right, toward Justin, which I immediately noticed and answered him by mouthing out ‘later’. He apparently didn’t care.

“So Justin, I don’t believe you’ve talked to my friend Grace here yet?” He asked.

“I have not. Would you formally introduce us?” He answered.

“Uh, well, Grace, this is Justin Gardner, and Justin, this is Grace Pastel. She’s a little shy, but don’t hesitate to pester her a little if you want to know more about her.”

I held back a sigh and met the teen’s eyes. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise. And my friend Emilia here thinks the same,” Justin said, nodding toward her. She huffed before introducing herself.

I tried my best to initiate a conversation about Pokemon battling, asking if they had any Pokemon we hadn’t seen yet. Justin answered enthusiastically, showing us his team. I had only seen his Growlithe, but the boy released a Sandile, which I excitedly scanned with my Pokedex. Since they were from Unova, these were extremely rare in Sinnoh.

“My father had her imported from Unova,” Justin explained, petting the Sandile’s rough skin. “Their evolved forms are fearsome. I’ve even heard that they can learn dragon type moves.”

“Awesome!” I smiled. Sandile didn’t seem too interested though and looked like she just wanted to get back in her ball. “What about you, Emilia?” I tried. The girl wasn’t keen on talking to us, but one judgemental look from Justin made her speak.

“You saw that I used a Rockruff and an Aipom during the tournament, but I also own a Beldum.”

I gasped at the mention of Beldum. Metagross were among the most powerful Pokemon in the world, not only having psychic abilities rivaling Alakazam, but also being extremely physically lethal. Emilia didn’t release it, though, which made me question if she had something to hide. She hadn’t used a Pokemon as powerful as Beldum in the tournament, and even now, she wasn’t showing it to us.

“You guys have such good Pokemon,” Denzel said. I sensed a little bit of bitterness in his tone, but I didn’t think the others caught it. “If you train them properly, I have no doubt that you’ll make it to the conference.”

“I sure hope so,” Justin sighed. “I would bring shame upon the Gardners if I didn’t.”

I paused. “Is your family pressuring you into winning the conference?”

Justin laughed. “Me? Win? Of course not. They just want me to get in. The conference is the most watched event each year. Millions of eyes will be glued to their screens for the duration of the tournament. My family is sponsoring me, you see. That means I’m representing Pherzen and attracting potential customers.”

I thought back to what Denzel had told me. Pherzen was the pharmaceutical company that supplied most Pokemon Centers with whatever high-tech devices they used to heal Pokemon, although they also had products intended for human use.

“You do enjoy battling, though, right?” I asked.

“I do. I think it is a fun activity, but it’s not my passion. I’ll only be doing this for two years. That is the deal I had with my father: two years in the conference, and then I’m free to return to Jubilife.”

“Damn,” Denzel said. “I was forced into not participating in the Circuit last year, and I was furious. I can’t imagine what it’s like being forced to risk your life by participating in it.”

Justin sighed sadly. “It is what it is. Originally we were supposed to get a flight to skip Eterna Forest, but our families gathered together and came to the conclusion that their children being caught not going through the Circuit ‘properly’ would hurt the image of their companies.”

“And so here we are,” Emilia spat, kicking a can of food. “Stuck living like pea—” She stopped herself, eyeing us. “Like… like animals!”

“Calm yourself, Emi. You only have to do it for a year,” Justin said.

“I hate it! I hate these Arceus damned routes! I want to get back to a city already! I want to be able to go to a bathroom!” She yelled.

“Did you have the same problem with your parents?” I asked.

“We all have it. And it doesn’t bother Pauline, Louis, or Cece because they actually want to do this trainer thing, but us two? Justin says he likes it, but he’s just trying to convince himself!” She said.

“Emi—” Justin tried.

She interrupted him. “And me? I absolutely despise it, but I wouldn’t have cared if we could have actually stayed in cities! I hate living in the wild.”

“Please forgive her, that tone is unbecoming of a young woman,” Justin said.

I frowned. “What? What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“I mean that young women shouldn’t speak like this—”

“Bullshit. Let her speak how she wants to speak. I don’t care how it is at your house, or houses, or whatever, but I won’t stand for it here,” I fumed before storming off.

These people! They were nice enough, but every so often, something would slip, and it was like we were from completely different worlds. We finished clearing up camp, and the tent was finally folded back, and soon enough, we were ready to start traveling again. I looked up in the sky where Frillish still hovered. He had stayed there the entire night.

“Buddy! We’re leaving!” I called out. He glared at me, reminding me of the days when I had just caught him. “Come on, Frillish, get down here!”

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There was no reaction from him.

“Please?” I begged.

Frillish turned toward me again and reluctantly floated downward.

“Come on, I know you hate large groups, but you can’t be acting like a child the entire time,” I said, holding one of his tentacles. “Right now, it’s alright because the Pokemon on this route are relatively weak and tend to stay away from us because of our numbers, but Eterna forest is going to be different. One thing goes wrong, and we could get seriously hurt or… or die.”

“Fri…” He said, bowing his head.

“Thanks for apologizing,” I said. “I’m sorry too. I should have told you about this beforehand. I just got so excited that I forgot. I’ll make it up to you somehow.”

The water type bobbed his head and rubbed me with his tentacles.

I chuckled. “Alright, alright! That tickles!”

I recalled Frillish to keep him away from the group. It had been my first time seeing him like this since I had just caught him, but I was glad I had at least learned something new about him. It was kind of confusing too, because he didn’t seem to mind cities or towns, but the problem was when I actually traveled with others.

While we were on the road again, climbing the gentle incline that would lead us to Eterna forest. Denzel quietly approached me.

“Sorry about Justin,” He apologized. “He didn’t say anything about women when we talked yesterday.”

“Not your fault, don’t apologize. Next time, speak up with me instead, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Anyway, any progress on that Buneary?” I asked.

“Nope, but I haven’t looked that hard yet. Today I want to actually start actively searching. Think I can ask Cecilia’s Fletchling for help?”

“Cecilia’s nice enough, so I think she’ll say yes. I can also get Togetic to help you look.”

Denzel thanked me and made his way toward Cecilia. I wondered what was determining what Pokemon Denzel chose. At first, I thought he was copying a part of Cynthia’s team— a part because she had more than six Pokemon, while we trainers were forced into having a maximum of six of them on us at a time because the League didn’t think we were capable of taking care of them adequately. The Champion didn’t have that problem, and neither did the Elite Four or the Gym Leaders. Cynthia had ten Pokemon in total, and maybe even more that she hadn’t shown yet.

Denzel could have evolved Eevee into Glaceon, and then had a Roserade and Milotic, but Buneary broke the streak of Pokemon they’d have in common, so clearly, he was after something else. I would need to ask him soon, but he was probably going to tease me again, dangling the information in front of me. Either way, this was making me think about a potential fourth member. It was common sense for trainers that the earlier in the Circuit you obtained six Pokemon, the better it was, because you would have more time to spend with them and train. But it also wasn’t good to rush and capture the first Pokemon you saw on any route, there were a lot of factors to consider.

First, what types did I want? My mind immediately jumped to dragon after seeing how Deino and Gible performed, but I had to be realistic. If I considered the types I already had, I needed a fire type, a grass type, and the last could be anything to give the team a bit of variety, but if I could choose, I’d probably take a steel or a rock type. Something that could take a ton of hits.

Sinnoh was an extremely cold region, and winter was coming, so the fire type was out for now. We were going into Eterna forest soon, though, meaning that if I wanted a powerful grass type, the forest was the best area to get one. Plus, a grass type wouldn’t help offensively in my fight against Gardenia, but it sure would help defensively, and it would also help immensely against Wake and Volkner. I smirked. That settled it then, I would try to catch whichever grass type caught my eye in Eterna forest.

Fletchling screeched as she began flying overhead, so I released Togetic and described to her what Buneary looked like. She flew off into the sky and began to search. As soon as Louis stopped sticking to Cecilia, I walked up to her, hoping to ask about what kind of food she fed her Pokemon. She was talking with Pauline, so I found it awkward to interrupt, but once she saw me, she called me over with a gentle smile.

“Grace,” Pauline said dryly.

“Sorry,” I said. “I had a question, I hope I’m not interrupting?”

“Oh, we were just talking about Pauline’s mother and her new venture into the fashion world, so nothing too interesting,” Cecilia waved her hand. “What is it?”

“I wouldn’t call it uninteresting. More like mindless small talk,” Pauline said.

“Isn’t that what uninteresting means…?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. I stopped when I saw her glare at me. “Anyway, remember how you talked to us about how diet affected your Pokemons’ effectiveness in battle?” Cecilia nodded. “I was wondering what that paste you were feeding your teams was.”

“You’re not getting any—” Pauline started.

Cecilia interrupted her softly “Pauline, you promised to be nicer.”

“Hmph. I’m going to discuss my mother’s business with Emi.”

Pauline stormed off, flaring up that temper I had learned to expect since that time at the tournament. I apologized to Cecilia for making her argue with her friend.

“Oh, don’t worry about it too much,” The girl said. “Pauline has always been like this except with Emilia. They’ve known each other since they were toddlers. Anyway, regarding our Pokemon food, it’s made by a team of hired breeders and airlifted to us every time we get to a city.”

My eyes almost fell out of their sockets. Airlifted? And it was all homemade? They didn’t even buy it at some expensive store?

Cecilia continued. “It’s a special mix that contains every vitamin a Pokemon needs to grow stronger— and all top quality, of course. This isn’t known amongst most trainers, but vitamins not only keep your Pokemon more healthy, but they also give them a boost. One or two meals are negligible, but over multiple months? It’ll stack up and result in your team being much more powerful than an average trainer’s.”

“Arceus…” I muttered. I couldn’t help but feel jealous, even though much of that jealousy was overshadowed by the happiness I felt just speaking to Cecilia. “So if I save up enough money, I should feed my team vitamins?”

Her eyes widened. “You won’t ask for some?”

“Nah,” I said flatly. “I don’t want to seem like I’m just milking you for money. I mean, you’re already lending me and Denzel your potions, right?”

Cecilia grinned and bumped her shoulder against mine as we walked. I had to stop myself from shutting down. I knew I had no chance, but by the Legendaries, just talking to her still felt amazing.

The next two days were uneventful. We trained with Cecilia at night and kept traveling toward Eterna during the day at breakneck speed. I was slowly getting closer to Justin— we weren’t close to being friends yet, but I’d say we were at least acquaintances. Emilia wouldn’t talk to Denzel or me and instead preferred hanging out with Pauline and Cecilia. On the fourth day, Louis attempted to join us during our training session.

“May I join you three tonight? Gible has been restless these last few days, and I believe Deino needs a sparring partner,” The blond man asked.

Cecilia smiled. “Of course. I was starting to worry that I was neglecting his growth. Could you wait until we’re done, though? A fight between dragons requires my full attention, and I have to watch what Denzel and Grace are doing.”

“I also have Prinplup to take care of,” He said. I had known that Louis had a Prinplup from the forums, but I had yet to see it. “Surely he can join.”

Cecilia paused, seemingly considering his offer. “You know what, it would be a good test. Why don’t you and Grace do a mock battle?”

“Excellent! I have wanted to battle Grace since I saw her fight with your team at the tournament.”

I grabbed Elekid’s Pokeball before Cecilia shook her head. “The type advantage would make the battle too one-sided. Why don’t you use Togetic for this fight?”

“Alright,” I said nervously.

Louis released his Prinplup from a Luxury Ball. The Pokemon announced himself with a weird honk. That wasn’t at all what I expected it to sound like. I grabbed Togetic’s Pokeball and sent her out. She chirped and floated a few feet in front of me. Unlike my mock battles with Denzel, where I didn’t care who won or lost, I couldn’t help but be nervous about this one. I felt like I needed to prove myself to Cecilia by winning against her fiance.

You gave up on her already, I thought to myself. Stop these silly thoughts.

Either way, the battle was about to start, and since I hadn’t expected it, I didn’t know any of Prinplup’s moves. I’d have to craft a strategy on the fly.

Which was probably why Cecilia made it happen in the first place.