“Good job Kōjin!” I said from my position on the ground next to the little fire-dog. “Slow and steady, that’s the way to do it.”

The Growlithe wagged his tail tiredly, only letting it swing once or twice before letting it drop back to the ground.

“I can’t believe you’re still in the competition.” Lucas grumbled. “Sunny was doing so well!”

I smirked but didn’t respond, instead continuing to murmur reassurances to Kōjin. We were about thirty minutes into Roark’s competition and already most of the challengers had already dropped out, Lucas included.

The problem Lucas and most of the other Trainers with Fire-type Pokémon had run into was that they had actually trained their Pokémon too well. They had trained their Pokémon to deliver massive bursts of flame and heat - perfect for battles, but bad for the steady, sustained heat required by the competition.

When one Pokémon never really saw more than fifteen minutes of activity in a battle, it didn’t make a lot of sense to train for things beyond that.

Kōjin, however, was built different. He was still young and full of vim as it were, and while we had been practicing his fire-breathing moves for battle, I was cautious when it came to training him.

I didn’t really know how to train Pokémon after all, especially not Fire-types, so I figured that his control over the fire was more important than his power.

A training philosophy that was proving useful, if only in this specific instance.

There were only three Trainers left in the Fire-type category including myself, which meant I was guaranteed at least a cash prize. It wasn’t a particularly hard category, to be fair. Sinnoh was historically lacking in Fire-type Pokémon.

The other two competitors were a frantic Trainer cheering on a clearly exhausted Ponyta, and a much more composed man with a Torkoal.

After another few seconds, the Ponyta stopped its flames, breathing heavily as white sweat shone on its flanks.

“Good job boy.” The Trainer said, shoulders slumping. “That’s enough, don’t burn yourself out.”

The Ponyta whinnied, pushing its muzzle into the chest of his Trainer. The man, who was wearing cowboy boots and chaps of all things, embraced his Pokémon, patting the part of its neck that wasn’t wreathed in flames and murmuring consolations.

The other trainer, the one with the Torkoal, turned to look at me.

He was a massive man, easily six feet tall if I were an inch, and as broad as a tree. His arms were bulging with muscles, and he wore a heavy leather apron that must have weighed ten pounds at least.

For a second I wondered what he even did for a living, then as he turned I saw the hammer slung in a leather belt at his waist.

“Your funny looking Growlithe is seeming a bit tired.” The blacksmith said casually, as if we were enjoying a day at the beach. “Maybe you should bow out? Tatara here can keep going for as long as she needs to.”

Sure enough, the Torkoal didn’t look tired at all, although I wasn’t exactly sure what a tortoise would look like if it was exhausted to begin with. Then the man reached down and patted his Pokémon’s shell, and I winced as I heard the slight sizzle of skin on hot rocks.

The man pulled his hand away, and besides a red mark he didn’t show any sign of having been burned by his Pokémon at all. The Torkoal, for her part, looked smug as she kept powering the steam engine without any sign of stopping.

I looked over at Kōjin, whose tail was laying limply on the floor as he continued to breathe fire, even if it was a much weaker stream than it had been before.

“It’s okay buddy.” I said to Kōjin. “I don’t think we’re winning this one, but you did a good job.”

The Hisuian Growlithe looked over to me in betrayal, and his fire heated up for a second, boiling more of the water in the steam engine that powered the mine’s pumps. Sure enough, the stream of fire weakened once again, before sputtering to a halt.

Kōjin panted, heat radiating off of him in waves as he tried to cool himself down. Small bursts of smoke emerged from his mouth every time he exhaled, and despite the sweat beading on my skin, I reached over and ran my fingers through his fur.

“You did so good,” I said. “You’re such a good boy.”

He gave me a little doggy grin despite his obvious exhaustion, and flopped down next to me on the ground.

We sat like that for another few minutes while he recovered, all the while the Torkoal kept up her constant stream of fire.

“Not a bad showing.” A vaguely familiar voice said from behind me. “Interesting Growlithe you have there.”

I started, looking behind me to see Roark standing with his arms crossed and a satisfied smile on his face as he looked at the water flowing out of the mines.

“Leader Roark!”

He waved me back down as I started to stand.

“Don’t worry about me. You probably placed second after how long you and your Growlithe kept going, although Tatara and Ken are going to be first.”

“Probably?”

Roark shrugged. “We measure it based on how much water you’ve pulled out of the mines. Naturally those who last longer pump more water out, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.”

I nodded at the Torkoal, Tatara, and her Trainer - Ken. “They’re going to be at this for a while, aren’t they?”

“Oh yes. Ken’s a blacksmith, he makes artisanal goods and Tatara serves as his furnace. They’ll keep going all day.”

“Even if they’ve already won?” Lucas said from nearby, where he had been eavesdropping.

“They don’t do it for the prizes.” Roark smiled. “Ken only has one Pokémon - Tatara. In fact, he won’t even take any of the evolutionary stones they’ve won, he’s sold them back to me and given the money to charity to help rebuild Oreburgh.”

“But… why?” The younger man frowned as he tried to puzzle it out. “Those stones go for a lot of money, surely he could use it for something?”

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

“Because of the mines.” I said softly, looking at the tall man staring in satisfaction at the steam engine before him.

“Exactly. Ken makes more than enough money from being a blacksmith, he’s doing this for the town. I don’t know how big the aquifer that spilled into the mines is, nobody does, but what I do know is that without Ken and his Pokémon, there would be a lot more water clogging up the mines. Thanks in large part to him, but also to the rest of the competitors like yourselves, we’ve already started to resume basic mining operations.”

Roark grimaced. “Not enough coal is being gathered to come anywhere close to what we used to export, but the first shipment is almost ready to be shipped out. As much as some of the smaller towns in Sinnoh could use the coal, this one’s been earmarked for Hoenn. Mauville City was hit hard by the storms, and they need all the power they can get.”

“Wow.” Lucas said with awe, turning back to look at the Torkoal. “That’s amazing.”

“It really is,”

Roark looked down at me for the first time, his face turning serious. “But I must admit, I’ve been wanting to talk to you again. It seems like every time you come into town, you have quite the story to tell.”

I sighed and continued to pet Kōjin as his pants of exhaustion turned into gentle snores.

“Trust me, if I could have a normal Journey, I would.”

“Well,” Roark said, and I could hear the faintest trace of a smile in his voice. “Where would be the fun in that?”

/^\

“Professor!?”

Rowan looked up at me from his chair by Roark’s desk and smiled. “Ah, Alina, it’s good to see you again. Lucas! You’re looking well. I didn’t realize the two of you were traveling together. Ted, I hope your research is going well.”

“It’s been interesting, to say the least. I think I’ve made some progress.”

“Good, good.”

“Please, everybody, sit down.” Roark said, gesturing to the mismatched chairs that had been brought into his office.

I sat down, eyes flicking between the Gym Leader and the Pokémon Professor. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to see you again Professor, but this feels like a trap somehow.”

Professor Rowan smiled, a glint of amusement in his eyes. “Calling it a trap has such negative connotations. I prefer to think of it as a surprise meeting of friends. I’m not here to criticize your adventures or make any other kind of negative comments. Just the opposite, as a matter of fact.”

Ted, Lucas, and I all shared a look, but we just shrugged and sat down.

“You’ve done the study of Pokémon in Sinnoh a great service.” Rowan said after we were all settled. “There were scattered reports of a cave system underneath the Underground, but none had been able to be verified until now. We’ll most likely be seeing a new wave of exploration and research once things have settled down after the incidents in Hoenn.”

“A new cave system.” There was a fire in Roark’s voice as he leaned forward. “Pokémon that haven’t been seen in Sinnoh in generations. Gems and stones of a size that beggars belief. And best of all, tunnels that have already been carved, with room for expansion. It’s every miner’s dream.”

“While I have many questions about the cave system, there was one thing I wanted to ask you three about in person.” Rowan stepped in. “I’ve read your reports several times now, and there seems to be a discrepancy.”

Lucas winced.

“So what, exactly, is this ‘Plate’ that young Lucas mentioned.”

I sighed. Lucas had mentioned the Legend Plate when he had talked to Ranger Kimura as the cause of the cave-in. Ted and I had convinced him that it probably wasn’t the best idea to be going around and telling people that we had a potentially divine artifact in our possession, and going forward we had all agreed to say that we were trapped thanks to a random cave-in.

But Kimura had obviously included it in his report, and we weren’t nearly as lucky as I would have hoped.

“It’s a stone tablet, about yea big.” I held out my hands to the approximate dimensions. “It’s engraved with some symbols, and emanates Type Energy. It’s called the Legend Plate, and it’s related directly to Arceus.”

Roark’s mouth fell open, but Rowan simply stroked his chin.

“Is it now?”

His eyes fell on me heavily, and I gulped.

“It is. I don’t know why it was located in a tiny cave outside of Eterna City, but it’s definitely the Legend Plate.”

“Do you still have it with you?”

“I do.” My backpack was sitting on the ground next to my chair, and I could almost feel a magnetic pull from the Plate.

“Can I see it?”

I took a look at my companions. Ted nodded, while Lucas still looked a bit embarrassed to have been called out.

Reaching down, I opened the bag, and stuck my hand inside. The Legend Plate was right there, as if it had been waiting this entire time for me to simply look for it. It shimmered in the sunlight streaming through the window of Roark’s office.

“Giratina’s Breath.” Roark whispered as I gently laid it on the table. “That’s… I don’t know what that is. It almost looks like limestone, but limestone doesn’t have those same kinds of colors. May I?”

I hesitated, then nodded. He carefully picked up the tablet, his eyes widening as he did so. He turned over in his hands, gently ran his fingers across the surface, and even tapped it a few times. After a few minutes of this, he passed it to Professor Rowan.

“I don’t know what kind of material that is.” He said. “It’s not limestone, definitely not slate, it doesn’t feel like granite…”

Roark looked lost. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“I think,” Rowan said quietly. “That’s the point. According to Alina, this is a holy relic belonging to Arceus itself. I doubt it would have the same kind of material composition as any earthly minerals.”

“But… how? I’m not doubting you, not anymore, but how can you possibly know what it is?”

“Alina is a trusted research assistant.” Rowan said firmly. “She knows things that even I don’t, I would trust her knowledge over mine. If Alina says it’s an artifact from Arceus, I believe her.”

That got me a considering look from Ted.

Roark struggled with the non-answer, then sighed. “Very well. If things are as you say, then that thing is probably full to the brim with Type Energy. No wonder it caused a tunnel collapse if it was disturbed.”

“I think,” Rowan continued as he held the tablet. “That it would be best if we kept the truth of this matter out of the reports. There are plenty of people who would love to get their hands on an artifact this powerful, and I can only trust a handful of them.”

“Agreed.” Roark looked at me. “Would it be okay if I held onto this for now? No offense, but I can keep it safer than you can, and I might be able to look at the museum records to try and find anything else about it.”

I struggled with the answer for a second, then sighed and nodded. “Yeah, that should be fine. Just, be careful with it please?”

“Of course.”

I didn’t want to let it go, but Roark was right. A Gym Leader would be much more capable of keeping it safe than myself and my Pokémon would.

“Very well.” Rowan nodded. “That was the main question I wanted to ask you all. Over the next couple of days I would like to talk with you all individually, but for now I think you all deserve to continue your rest. Leader Roark?”

“I agree. You’ve been a massive help to all of us here. I’ve heard that you three have signed up for Gym Challenges next week. I wish I could help speed them up, but unfortunately I can’t be seen playing favorites. Gardenia might have been able to get you a battle faster, but she’s more established as a Leader than I am, and she can afford to be loose with her schedules.”

After a few more pleasantries, we were all gently ushered out of Roark’s office. As I was leaving, Professor Rowan gave me a significant look, inclining his head towards my companions. I gulped, and nodded. A muffled conversation between the two older men kicked up almost as soon as the door closed.

“Wow.” Lucas said after a moment. “That was… fast. I thought we were going to be in a lot of trouble there for a minute!”

“It really was fast.” Ted said, eyeing me suspiciously. “Alina, do you know anything about that?”

I laughed nervously.

“It’s interesting, because Professor Rowan said you were a trusted assistant, with knowledge that outstrips his own.” He continued. “But you, yourself have said that you’re new to the region, and no offense, but you’re not that good of a Trainer.”

“Ted!” Lucas said scandalized.

“No, no, it’s a fair point.” I sighed. “I knew this was going to come up sooner or later.”

“Alina?” Lucas asked.

“Come on, let’s find a quiet place to talk. I need to tell you all something.”