My feet eventually got me to the Pokemon Center. I handed off my team to Nurse Joy as I sort of walked around in a daze, pacing the Pokemon Center Lobby like some weirdo.

But what the hell. I had won, but I sure didn’t feel like it. I patted the Egg which I had picked back up as I walked almost like a worry stone just gently stroking the to of the shell.

My pokemon were unskilled?

I sighed. Rubbing at the bridge of my nose. Okay. Don’t close down and get irritated, Vicky. What does that mean?

It means. I messed up. Or rather. I got tunnel vision… Big shock there. My tendency to focus on things that worked had bitten me in the ass once again. I had so many plans! Ways to train my Pokemon and make them stronger, but I had hit the Gravity Training, and the effect had been so powerful.

I had put everything else to the side. Even when I trained on the off days I tended to focus on power training for Special Attacks…

I had lost track of what I was supposed to be doing. Training was more than physical training. It was mental.

I puffed out my cheeks. Vicky you idiot. Dumb blonde. Moron!

“Idiot. What are you doing?”

Eh? “Eh?!” I gasped nearly jumping as I realized that hadn’t been my voice in my head.

“Zelos.” I greeted after a moment.

“Vicky. You look… Bad.”

I grumbled. Just because I was still all frizzy from Surges buttheadedness! “I’m fine!”

“Riiiight.” She muttered focusing on my face. “What happened? Get your butt kicked by Surge? Was his trick of blasting everything, and then if it survives blast it again too much for you?”

“No! I beat him… Barely. I got… I guess I got overconfident. Surge told me… My Pokemon aren’t skilled.”

“Did he? I could see it… Fight me.”

“Wha?”

“I didn’t stutter moron. Fight me.” She pulled out a Pokeball.

“Oh.. Okay? Let me get my team?”

“Do that.” She offered with a turn throwing her blonde hair over her shoulder as she sauntered out of the Pokemon Center.

Zelos was trying to cheer me up with a Pokemon battle? How nice! I knew my attitude would work on her eventually!

I caught up to Zelos outside. She was already standing on the Pokemon battling area behind the Center.

“Use your Milotic.” She called out without any preamble, and then she threw a Pokeball and a Serperior erupted from the Pokeball. I was actually pretty shocked as I took in the fully evolved Pokemon.

“Wow! Your Snivy evolved already? That’s great!” I looked over the snake grass Pokemon. It threw me a single haughty look before sniffing a bit and turning away from me.

Rood!

“Of course he has! I was the strongest Trainer in all the schools I went to before yours! You might have been stronger than me then! But now? Go on! Send your Milotic!”

“Right right. Milotic!”

Thankfully my team had been healed from the gym, but I could tell Milotic was still tired out, but he didn’t show any signs of it.

“Miii!” He cried out looking fierce, towards the Serperior. The fact he was easily twice the grass types size, and obviously more muscular didn’t cause any concern in the Grass Snake.

No, it simply kept a disinterested look on it’s face.

“Serperior, Grass Blade Dance!” She called out suddenly and Serperiors tail grew bright with it’s grass type energy and it was on.

Slow. It was really slow. I almost cringed. Of sure it was quick. For a normal trainer I bet Serperior moving at that speed would startle any Pokemon not using Quick Attack.

But Milotic didn’t even lose track as the Serperior rushed in. Then it leapt. I blinked.

“Aqua Tail!” I called, letting Milotic prepare to blast the attack away.

Serperior's leap let him spin, putting plenty of force behind the impact, but it was still not even close to the blows Arcanine and Milotic would trade. But to my surprise that wasn’t it.

Milotics Aqua Tail smashing the Grass Blade aside, worked against us. As it used the rotation to shift and attack again. Milotic out of position had to bend far backwards for the Grass Blade to miss.

And then it was on. The two similar Pokemon trading blows and yet.

Milotics power was only getting in the way. Every blow Serperior was avoiding using the power to simply turn it’s attack into another.

If it wasn’t for Milotics purely superior speed he would have been taking blow after blow.

There was a weird feeling. Neither of us spoke Zelos and I. We simply stared, letting the battle play out

If the battle stayed the same way as it had at the beginning I would have lost. 100% Milotic for all his speed and power, simply couldn’t land a strike against Serperior.

But training strength so much did lead to another benefit.

Serperior tired out first. Eventually he couldn’t quite dodge a blow, and from then on it was over. Zelos and I both called an end to the battle at the same time.

“Hey Zelos. Let’s travel together for a while? I could really use a sparring partner… Please.”

She blinked huffing a little as she rolled her eyes. “I thought that was obvious already idiot. I need more practice fighting your stupid overpowered Pokemon if I am going to show you Kantonian trainers what an Unova battler is like.”

“Sounds perfect!” I grinned.

Now I just had to stop myself from making the same mistakes over and over again, learn a new way of training my team, and make sure I was still keeping up on my other training all a the same time!

Where was my easy fun Pokemon Journey!? Was Nintendo right? Was a Hard Mode wrong?

No. It was Nintendo that was wrong.

“I’m glad you're my friend Zelos.”

“Friends? We are rivals! Rivals you dork!”

She was so nice!

—---

While Zelos left for a bit to resupply. I did the same. I prepped for a much longer travel period than normal. Zelos was on foot, so that meant I couldn’t follow my usual once a week food run… Well I could, but Journeys should be experienced together if you were in a group! So I went to the Pokemon center and bought all the different Pokefood I would need for my group's nutrition.

Otherwise I was ready to go. I waited at the Pokemon center once I bought everything for only about ten minutes before Zelos walked in looking irritated.

“Ready?” She asked and at my nod turned out of the center. I jogged to catch up.

“So you beat Surge?”

“Yeah. A few weeks back. I ended up having to backtrack.” She grumbles. “You Kantonians need to fix your maps… Stupid dead end.”

“Sorry?”

“It’s fine. I got my fifth badge out of it, so at least it like, wasn’t a total waste of my time.”

“Five!? What are you doing back here then? Shouldn’t you be fighting Koga in Fuschia?”

“Are you kidding?” She turned to me like I was crazy. “I’m not fighting your crazy powerful gyms. Three of the badges are from minor gyms. I don’t care if I can’t take part in the Indigo League next year. I want to travel back to Unova after this. I’m going to fight in the Vertress Confrence next year! I have some friends that I need to head home and battle.”

I nodded. Minor Gyms. I hadn’t considered those, they had a bit of a stigma for not being ‘real’ gyms to the people of Kanto, not that all Gyms were created equal anyways. Cerulean comes to mind.

“Oh I get that. You want to travel home. Yeah I guess that makes sense! Are you going to take part in the Musicals in Unova too?”

“What? No? I’m not nearly good enough for those. You have to be really good at dancing and singing for those.” She offers with a shrug as we march down the road. Most people took a boat out of Viridian, but we were going to take a path towards Celedon apparently. I was mostly just following Zelos.

“Oh. I guess I thought it was more popular. What about the Pokemon Movies?”

“Ugh. What do you think Unova is? Musicals and movies? No. It takes a ton of work to get a movie gig. Most of the time they take the Musical Pokemon since they already have the qualifications… Or you have Rare pokemon. What about you? Gonna make a movie?” She riposted turning my question back on me.

“Eh? I wasn’t planning on it. I think it would be embarrassing.” I say with a shrug. The idea made me nervous for some reason.

“Well they would take you in a heartbeat. A Dragonair, A Milotic and an Arcanine? Your Pokemon could be world famous if you went to Unova.”

“I want to go someday, but I don’t think I want to be in the movies… Anyways! How did you train your Serperior so quickly to be so skilled? He was able to fend off Milotic which is amazing!”

“Ugh. Your ridiculous cheating Pokemon! Your Pokemon has no finesse. It just throws attacks out and expects to hit.”

“Does it? They usually hit.”

“No you usually smash through everything in the area there is a difference. Here Serperior come on out!”

I watched as her Grass snake materialized and looked around for a moment before glancing me over and giving a little sniff of distaste… Ouch.

“Serperior. We are going to show off our deflection training!” Then to my surprise Zelos grabbed a rock and chucked it at her Pokemon.

I blinked. Animal abuse!?

But it wasn't, Serperior reached out and to my surprise deflected the rock well enough that it went straight up, without looking keeping his eyes on Zelos is dropped back down, so he flicked it back towards her.

She simply stepped aside letting the rock fly by.

“See? Your Pokemon would have just smashed the rock aside, because they are meatheads. Serperior redirects the attack, and turns it into riposte.”

“That’s really smart… But throwing rocks at your Pokemon is a little…”

“Idiot! I trained him with a bouncy ball! I wouldn’t throw a rock at my Pokemon if they weren’t able to handle it! Moron!”

“A-ah! Sorry!”

—-

So Zelos had this air of being the confident cool girl, even if I could see through it and see the lonely girl in a distant land.

But honestly? After this? All of her coolness points are gone. She isn’t cool.

She is a dumpster fire.

“What are you doing?” I demanded, honestly offended as I watched Zelos prepare her meal for her team. Her poor poor team, forced to deal with Zelos’s cooking.

If you could call it that.

“Making food?” She asked confused as I reached over and pushed her hand holding a ladle out of the soup of Pokemon Chow watching as it splattered down into the cooking pot.

In case you didn’t know. Pokemon chow should not be watery. I nearly gagged before regaining myself.

“No.”

“What? What do you mean no!?”

“That is not food. Everything about that is wrong. Your poor Pokemon. I am so sorry.” I apologized to Stoutland. Her Herdier had evolved at some point on her journey and was currently sitting beside her. Waiting for it’s meal… It even had a cute little bowl!

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“Whuff.” He offered with a shrug.

“Hey! They like food time.”

“Starving Pokemon often like food… Which that is not. Okay first off Zelos. This is not the right Pokechow for your team.” I point out. The bag of Chow on her side was quickly pulled up and the description thrown in my face.

“It says it's good for all Pokemon!”

“Oh Arceus. It's worse than I thought.” I whispered a prayer to the God of Pokemon. This horrible girl.

“Idiot!”

“Not this time. Okay full stop. Toss that out in the bushes it’s garbage. You can use some of my Pokechow. I don’t have a good nutrition balance for Serperior, but I can use some berries to balance that out, but I do have Dragon and Dog chow. Should be fine for Stoutland and Fraxure.”

“I don’t need your food! I just made them food Vicky!”

“Oh sweet summer child.” I sighed. “Listen. That Pokechow brand you are using? It is designed for sedentary pet Pokemon. Meowth that lay around the house all day, but still get supplemental nutrition from treats, or from hunting. Your team are battlers! They need way more nutritionally dense food to keep going… How many times have your Pokemon tired out in battle, or mid training? Heck why do you think Serperior tired out so fast against Milotic?”

My question cut out some of the offended anger as she actually considered it for half a moment, before reddening.

“Okay so sit here.” I demand, putting her next to my pot. I had already made most of a meal. I would just need to do a second for her Pokemon. But first.

“Chansey! I need your nutrition knowledge!” I call out, summoning my Goddess.

“Chanse! Chansey!” She bounced a little pulling me into a hug, before nodding determinedly. Her little arms pumping as if determined. Walking over to Zelos’s Pokemon she immediately began an examination. Zelos’s team looking a little uncomfortable, but all Pokemon know you don’t argue with a Chansey.

Her eagerness made even funnier when Serperior tried look untangle himself from her grasping… Fins? I don’t know what you would call her cute little arms.

But it was to no help Serperiors little “Serp!” Gasp of surprise as Chansey straight up dead lifted him to pull him closer, had me smiling.

“W-what? What is she doing?”

“Chansey is checking your Pokemon for nutrition issues. Don’t worry. Chansey went to a nursing school for this sort of thing. Since they can actually talk to the Pokemon they can ask questions about bone or muscle issues that we might not notice. Nurse Joy helped me at first setting up a nutrition plan, but Chansey is the one that makes sure everything is working.”

I watch as Zelos’s head seems to be spinning as she is absorbing so much information right now. It looked like her entire worldview was changing.

Think of me as an idiot will you!

But I shook my desire to taunt her away. She needed to learn this, cause it was important to her friends! So I pulled her attention away from Chansey back to me, and the Pokechow I had pulled out of my bag.

“This is Dragon type Chow. I had to special order it cause Kanto doesn’t have many Dragon types. But it works great! So first thing we need to know when preparing food. What kind of flavors does your Fraxure like? My Dragonair likes her food Dry, but hates bitter foods. So I use Apicot Berries. They are super dry, which she adores, and are the exact opposite of bitter. I honestly can’t eat them, they are so sweet.”

“W-what?” My question obviously since she didn’t know.

This girl!

“Your Pokemon need to eat to build up strength and endurance Zelos. If you make something they don’t like the taste of, they might not eat it all. So you have to know your Pokemon's preferences.”

“I-I don’t know!” She hissed, sounding embarrassed.

“Okay, let’s find out. Hey Fraxure, come over we are going to do some taste testing!” I call out as I pull out my berry storage. We will find out.

“Is this really that important?”

“Of course! Pokemon break down muscle every time they train, they have to eat the right nutrients to heal the damage to grow stronger. If they aren’t eating the right thing the muscle won’t heal right, or will just eat itself to fix the damage which makes them weaker not stronger! Then you have bones, endurance, fat reserves!” I ran a list of things off my fingers as I walked Fraxure through a taste test to figure out his favorite Berries.

“R-right…” she muttered looking furious for a moment before she took a deep breath and let it out. I realized it wasn’t anger at me. It was at herself.

“Vicky, can you help me set up a nutrition plan for my Pokemon? I want to make sure they are healthy.”

“Sure! This can be fun too! Finding out what flavors your Pokemon like, or just making them a good meal is great! I’ll teach you everything!” I offer with a happy smile as I pull her into a side hug.

“Thanks.”

—--

Traveling with Zelos was different to Ivy. For one, Ivy was much more willing to go with the flow. Get distracted by new Pokemon? Ivy was down to play with them, or wander around a forest.

Zelos did none of that. Slow down?

She left you behind.

Fortunately for me, I had an Arcanine. Over the course of the first week she left me behind three times, but much to her consternation I was there with her again in minutes when I realized she had left.

The first time she had just gone a bit down the road, before stopping. Probably intending to yell at me for not keeping up. Only for me to show up on Arcanine making her realize it really didn’t matter.

It was fun! Traveling slower let me notice all the Pokemon in the area. Even if Zelos didn’t want to stop.

But nothing could stop my desire to play in the woods with cute Pokemon! Judging stares? Hah! As if such a weak thing could hinder me!

Of course we battled all the time. Her pokemon were all… Zippy? I was surprised that so often even Arcanine found her attacks missing as her Pokemon, usually her Stoutland seemed to always know where my pokemon were going to attack, her team was already ready to punish my team.

That was it! A lot of her attacks were ripostes. Always waiting for the attack to come in before hitting back harder. I wondered if she taught her team Counter, and went from there?

It did give me some ideas though.

Funnily enough we both had a small team still.

“Hey Zelos. You haven’t captured any Pokemon here have you? Why not? Lots of Pokemon in Kanto don’t live in Unova.”

“Because, I’m not a Kanto trainer! If I capture a bunch of Kanto Pokemon I won’t even be able to take them all when I go home, and everyone is going to think I’m some foreigner! It's annoying!” She grumbled as she stomped down the road.

“That’s kinda silly isn’t it? You would have rare Pokemon in Unova. Moves that no one else is prepared for. You want to hit the Vertress Conference there. Wouldn’t having Rare Pokemon help?”

“A little, but not as much as you would expect. But there is a stigma associated with people who end up with teams of foreign Pokemon. They are usually purchased by their parents… Worse, I’m going to be a year late. So I’m going to be eleven when I get there. Everyone is going to think I’m weird.” She whined, reminding me despite everything she was just a ten year old.

“Not weird. Different! You will have an experience none of them do. They all journeyed through Unova, but you went to a different region and had to handle new Pokemon, and a different way of battling… Isn’t Unova all about double battles?”

“It's much more common there than here. But not all about it. We do single battles too.” She grumbles kicking a rock down the road as she stomps a bit. “But having Kanto pokemon will make me stand out! I’ll be weird!”

“Different.” I remind her with a smile. “And the thing about different, is that yeah sometimes people will look at you badly, but at the same time. Some will notice how you do things differently, how you work on problems at angles they don’t expect.”

“Ugh. Stop trying to get me to capture more Pokemon.” She says but this time at least she didn't call me an idiot.

It was working!

—--

“Okay so like this?” I ask Zelos. After teaching her how to cook and prepare nutritionally useful food for her Pokemon, which right after had been showing a huge uptick in energy and happiness. She had offered to trade that knowledge with hers on how to make Pokemon more skillful.

Really she just said better at battling, but that is what she meant.

“Good enough. Alright Milotic you got the targets.” She called out. I had set up a series of Targets packed together around him, that Milotic had to strike with his tail without breaking them.

It was meant to help him control his strength, He would use a tail attack and strike each of the targets in a quick order.

“I still don’t really get it though.” I offered, looking to Zelos who immediately turned me with her normal look of irritation.

“Your Pokemon only know how to blast things at full power, but they always attack with very direct motions. This is part of how I taught Serperior to fight with his tail. Your Milotic acts like his tail is a club. But it isn’t. It’s a sword! You don’t have to go full power every time, you can block and parry. This will train the motions into muscle memory.”

“Well if it works.” I mutter. Milotic had broken every target so far. His tail striking out with an uncontrollable power.

I guess it really was a problem. They had power training, but controlling your strength after spending so much time in heavy gravity must make it much more difficult to actually control yourself normally.

So I settled back. Milotic kept hitting too hard, but slowly he started to get control of his power, striking the target just with the tip of a tail before pulling back and striking another.

Over and over we watched him try. Until he was able to start speeding up his tail into a blur as it flashed out and just scraped each target, before moving on to another.

“Damn.” Zelos cursed beside me as she watched. “I really don’t think Serperior can keep up with that.” She muttered to herself as the flashing tail of Milotic was soon a blurr.

“Just means you need more training.” I tell her with a nod. “We both just started our journey. We might be strong in different ways, but that doesn’t mean anything. There are so many powerful Pokemon in the world. So many powerful trainers, that I can’t even imagine the difficult fights that are ahead of us.” I say simply. Imagining all the battles I had seen in the anime against legendary Pokemon.

That only the strongest, most powerful trainers were even able to slow them down.

It made me think of the Shamouti islands. Three Legendary birds that if unbalanced would cause horrible weather throughout the entire world…

Fuck Legendary Pokemon were scary. Damn idiots for trying to capture them! Every bad guy that tries to capture a Legendary ends up totally screwed either due to the power of the Pokemon, or through some upset in the natural world.

I shook that thought away. I could only pray that when that clusterfuck happened, Ash would take care of it…

Fuck.

—---

“Oh it’s Celadon! I call out as we turn a corner in a forest and come across the sight of Celadon City stretching out before us. We had been traveling slowly, just enjoying learning from each other.

Once Zelos realized how important what I could teach was, she was more than happy to learn more cooking skills to make her Pokemon happier. Stoutland practically turned into a puppy, he had so much more energy!

His fur was soft, but Arcanine was softer!

Still, we kept moving slowly every day and now we were here. Our next destination. Celadon not only had a gym, but it also had some huge department stores. If you wanted to buy it, you could find it in Celadon.

Hurrying into the city, Zelos behind me yelling at me to slow down as I rushed towards the city excited to look around.

I could hardly slow down! I wanted to buy an incubator for my little Dratini Egg, to make sure they were comfortable! And I wanted to restock on some vitamins I had been adding into my PokeChow. I had used a lot more in the last few weeks helping Zelos.

Plus! There was lots of other stuff! I could use some new clothes!

“Finally! Stop running off!” Zelos huffed at me as she caught up, slightly out of breath, I was too, but I was more excited.

“C’mon let's go shopping!” I call to her with a smile as she rolled her eyes at my eagerness.

“I don’t need to buy anything.”

“PokeChow.” I interrupted her.

“Tch. I don’t need to buy anything but PokeChow-”

“Vitamins for your PokeChow.”

“... I don’t nee-”

“Some cooking stuff. I won’t always be around for you to borrow my stuff.”

“Fine!” She exploded stomping past me into the massive shopping center.

I grinned skipping as I caught up with her. Guiding her towards the building map, so we could find out where we needed to go.

—--

I grinned as I carried the Incubator. Dragonair and Milotics' egg was resting inside, warm and safe, and more importantly well taken care of. Even if I would miss having it close at hand.

“Is that everything?” Zelos grumbled at me. I had ran her through a few stores for supplies she needed to better cook for her team, and she was grumpy a bit at how much she had to spend.

But she couldn’t rely on my stuff forever! I might not be around and she had to have it.

“Want to check out the Celadon Gym? It's a grass type Gym.” I offer instead pointing at the building that was in sight of the entrance of the Department store.

“Huh. Grass type huh? They any good?” She asks, standing up her bag once more resting against her hip.

I don’t know where she got a Poke Bag that looked like a purse, but all power to her.

“Erika is supposed to be very talented. Very elegant as a battler. Although watch out for Powder attacks.” I add remembering that Erica liked Gloom and that line.

“I can handle that. Let’s go. I want to get a badge today, and you already had me running around.”

“Think of the tasty treats you will make for your team!” I beg as I follow after her, earning a scoff at my teasing.

We both walked up to the Celadon Gym taking in the fact it was more greenhouse than building as we entered. A receptionist wearing a very fancy Kimono was waiting.

“Welcome to the Celadon City Gym. Gym Leader Erika-Sama is currently not taking challenges. The Gym was damaged in a fire a short time ago.” The Receptionist offers which had both Zelos and I frown for different reasons.

Wasn’t there a whole thing with Ash and a fire at Celadon Gym? I don’t really remember… But while I was distracted with that, Zelos was angry.

“What do you mean not taking challenges! That is what Gyms are supposed to do!”

“Apologies. The Gym is not currently safe to battle within.”

“That’s! That stupid! We can battle outside then!”

“Apol-”

“I think that is enough.” A calm voice called out behind us as a woman in a Kimono entered. “Thank you Sandy, and you Ms. Trainer. Please do not harass my people. The Gym is closed. I apologize for the inconvenience.”

“Erika-Sama!” The receptionist called out in surprise at her appearance, rising and offering a bow. “I hope your business was successful?”

“It was. Supplies for the repairs are paid for and on their way.” Erika mentioned with a smile earning a relieved sigh from the receptionist.

“Well I’m here for a Gym Challenge.” Zelos interrupted suddenly, without a care.

Riiiight. She was basically an American. Heh. Yeah we did tend not to care about social norms of other places.

I could see Erikas nose crinkle just a tad at the interruption before she turned to Zelos. “The Gym is not taking challenges currently.”

“So people can come all the way to your Gym but you won’t battle them just because your Gym was damaged? There is plenty of space outside!” Zelos snarked pointing at the door, which indeed, despite being in the middle of the city there was a park nearby that had a Pokemon battle square.

Most did after all. Always good to have a place for the kids to battle rather than let them battle where they wanted to.

“Erika-Sama is-”

“No. That’s fine. I have business to do, but if this trainer desires a battle so much. I accept. I will simply have to make it quick.” She offers with a gentle smile, every inch the Kanto Onna-Bushi. Heh. I couldn’t help but chuckle. I had a feeling that Zelos was about to face a Pokemon team a little higher than she was prepared for.

“Good! Finally.” Zelos snarked back, throwing her hair over her shoulder. The white blonde flowing easily at her movement, despite being on the road for so long. Many mornings were spent waiting for her to finish her hair care routine.

Unlike mine where I just washed it and threw it in a lopsided messy ponytail.

Ain’t nobody got time for that! I had Pokemon to play with! Sticks in my hair? Who cares!

“Excellent. A moment to gather my team.” Erika offered with a tiny bow before turning back inside, as Zelos nodded and marched out.

“Sorry for her. She is Unovan.” I apologized to the receptionist who was looking rather irritated over everything that had just happened. I got a huff from the prim looking woman before I followed after Zelos.

—--

“The Challenger Zelos Bia from Unova is the winner.” I called out. Somehow I had been pulled into the referee position during the fight.

It had been a rough fight. I was right. Erika hadn’t pulled out her main team, but it was one of her stronger ones. And Zelos had been on the back foot the entire battle.

But she had overcome. In a really impressive showing she had managed to eke out a win over Erika.

“Very well.” Erika called out giving a short nod. “You may need to work on your manners, but your love and care for your Pokemon is obvious. Very well. You have earned a Rainbow Badge.”

“Yes!” Zelos called out in delight even doing a little wiggle at her success. Fraxure wiggled as well, delighting in succeeding in the battle, even as he sneezed. Erika’s Gloom, and its many spore attacks had made the battle difficult for him.

“Return Fraxure. I’ll take you to the Pokemon center right away.”

“Good. Your Pokemon battled well. I would hate to make them suffer for any longer than needed.” Erika offered a short bow, well knowing the effects of powder and spore attacks on Pokemon.

“You aren’t too bad. Your Pokemon know how to battle.” Zelos offered, as close to an apology as she would give.

“So it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for me to battle you in this open arena… I would probably end up destroying it somehow…” My memory of what Brocks Gym looked like after our battle comes to my mind. “Can I ask how long it will be before you are accepting matches again Erika?”

“Oh? You are willing to wait? How polite. Very well. I expect the Gym to be back in shape within a week at the most.”

“Cool. I’ll come by in a week or so.”

“Ugh! Vicky! I’m not waiting around for a week!”

“I know. You want to move on, I think we should split up again. It will give us both some time to make sure we understand what we taught each other.” I tell her with a grin. Her attempts at cooking were getting better, but I still ended up needing to ‘rescue’ her from time to time as she got flustered and didn’t know what to do if something went wrong.

“Fine! Next time we meet, we will have another battle! Don’t think you will win so easily!” She demanded with a pointed finger before she walked off towards the Pokemon center.

“Hmm, are you sure the two of you are friends? She seems quite… Difficult.” Erika asked as she watched Zelos walk down the street in a huff.

“Best friends!” I tell Erika with a grin and a thumbs up. Earning an odd look, but in the end Erika shrugged.

It was fine. Most people just didn’t understand that Zelos was a Tsundere!