CHAPTER 7

The doors of 51 Galora Street flew wide open as workers marched out in protective wear carrying heavy bags or pushing along carts containing tools and materials. Every single person tossed out a Pokeball that released some sort of transport Pokemon, and the street quickly became crowded from all the figures of both people and Pokemon alike.

Several Rapidash, Donphan, and Stantler made up the ground force. Saddles and harnesses were attached to each Pokemon's back to allow them to carry heavy loads. For fliers, I saw people climbing onto the backs of Pidgeot, Fearow, and even one Noctowl that was big enough to carry its trainer. The birds all gripped the straps of baggage with their beaks or talons.

Random townspeople passing by had stopped along the sidewalks to stare and point at the bustle of activity from the Blossom Hall workshop. If I had to guess, perhaps the company didn't typically mobilize on this great of a scale.

I had hardly looked up at the sky before a big blur of white zoomed down to a halt in front of me, startling three workers nearby into almost dropping their things. Peri huffed a bit in amusement as I threw myself onto his back.

Eric was the last person to leave the building. He wore a hard hat, safety vest, and a distinctive bright red armband, and he carried a clipboard in one hand. With his other, he released an especially impressive-looking Pidgeot from its Pokeball and clambered on.

"Everyone ready?!" he yelled out. When he received a chorus of yeses in return, he pointed in the direction of the Gym. "MOVE OUT!"

If people were staring before, now they truly gawked as a horde of Pokemon swiftly took to the skies as one, Peri included. Below us, the streets trembled as the land-based Pokemon began running down the street.

I was planning on staying with the group and guiding them to the Gym out of courtesy, but Peri had other plans. He twisted his neck back a bit as we flew and grinned playfully at me, chirping a suggestion.

"Heh," I chuckled, deciding to humor him. Flying next to us at the head of the pack was Eric on his Pidgeot, and I turned to him now and waved. He looked at us with confusion.

"SEE YOU AT THE GYM!" I yelled cheerfully. Eric didn't get a chance to reply as Peri accelerated, zipping way ahead of the gawking workers behind us. He really did love flying fast. Within a minute we had touched down at the Cherrygrove Gym's entrance. I shot a text to dad as I hopped off Peri's back, letting him know what was going on. He texted back almost immediately saying he was coming over.

We had to wait a few more minutes before the Blossom Hall workers finally showed up. They began landing on the ground in droves and unpacking their things systematically. The quickly growing sound of pounding hooves let us know that the rest of the crew was finally arriving from town as well.

"Gym Leader!" Eric called as he jogged over. His eyes were wide, but his smile was full of mirth as he stared at me and Peri. "You startled me! I didn't expect you to just take off like that. Your flier is incredibly fast. What kind of Pokemon are they?"

Peri preened at the compliment. "Sorry, Peri here likes to show off sometimes," I said fondly. I scratched the spot between his spikes I knew he liked, and he cooed as he leaned into my touch. "He's a Togekiss, a Fairy and Flying type, and the final form of a Togepi."

It took a few moments for Eric's eyes to light up with recognition. "Oh! That's the same Pokemon that Champion Cynthia has, I think! How wonderful." I nodded. I was well aware of the fact the Sinnohan Champion had one on her team since I'd wanted to fight them many years ago, but I never got the chance. My twelve-year-old self had only made the top eight in the Lily of the Valley Conference.

We chatted for a few more minutes about Fairy types while the rest of the workers busily moved around and unpacked everything needed to start work. Towards the end of our conversation, dad finally showed up.

"Eric," Dad uttered in surprise as he saw who was with me. "I should have guessed Arin would reach out to Blossom Hall about the new gym design. I'm sorry I abruptly put a stop to the previous construction work by the way. I know some of your workers felt a bit disgruntled about that…"

Eric quickly shook his head and held up his hands. "No, no, it's fine, Gym Leader— er, Adriel, sorry. Goodness, this change might take a bit to get used to. Anyway, let me assure you that there are no hard feelings. If anything, we're pretty happy right now with this new project your son has given us!" he beamed. "Let me just say again how lovely the design concept is, it's going to look very beautiful…"

Dad and I listened to him babble on excitedly about the project for a bit. At one point, I quietly excused myself and slipped away. I wasn't leaving for Paldea until the evening, so I still had plenty of time that I needed to make use of while I was in Johto. I knew Eric would call me if any questions arose concerning the construction.

Peri took me back to the house so I could recall Lico, Taffy, and Zuzu into their respective Pokeballs to take with me. Then the Togekiss carried me north of Cherrygrove City.

Just like the route between Cherrygrove and New Bark, Route 30 was a place I was very familiar with. I'd spent many days there running through patches of grass, playing with the wild Pokemon, and dipping my toes into the cool waters of small ponds. It was widely considered to be one of the safest routes in Johto that many beginner trainers passed through on their way to Violet City.

Since the current Circuit only had a month and a half left, there weren't a lot of young trainers on the route. Most of them had probably given up for the year and would only pass through again next season.

My purpose in coming to Route 30 wasn't to revisit old memories but to get a start on acquiring Pokemon for the promotion test. There were a few species of Fairy types here that I had my eye on.

I had Peri veer towards the forest and land in a random clearing we found amid the trees. Most of the local Fairy types tended to be wary of trainers and stayed away from the main road to avoid being captured. While it wasn't exactly off-route yet, it was just far enough that the road couldn't be seen beyond the trees in the distance. Good enough to start looking.

Peri went back into his ball to rest while I released my other Pokemon around me. They had expressed interest in helping me search for suitable candidates. In the case of Taffy and Zuzu, they were also here to help entice members of their own species to join. Lico… Lico was simply curious about the wild Jigglypuff. He was from a different time after all.

Without further ado, we began to wander through the forest. I spotted many Pokemon common to this route such as Hoothoot, Pidgey, Weedle, and Caterpie, who all scuttled away from us in fear or peered curiously from the safety of branchtops.

In hindsight, I probably should have brought Silque with me to have an easier time. She was extremely skilled at detecting presences within a certain radius and could even distinguish further characteristics such as if they were human or Pokemon. Lico's psychic powers were just as excellent but only when it came to battling. He couldn't do the refined stuff that Silque could.

This wasn't bad, though. I did enjoy walking around with my Pokemon as we engaged in idle chatter. Before long, we found a pair of Marill playing in a pond. They tensed when we came into view but didn't immediately flee. I stopped at a respectful distance from them, and they stared at me first with caution and then relaxed curiosity.

Just as I felt comfortable with Fairy Pokemon, Fairy types naturally felt comfortable around me. From what my own Pokemon had told me before in the past, my Ability gave me this sort of… soothing aura for Fairy types, like they could sense that I was similar to them or something to that end. I was also able to more easily distinguish between members of the same species and what gender they were. There were exceptions to my Ability, of course, but I usually didn't have a problem with wild Fairy types.

I was a firm believer of the idea that people should only battle and catch willing Pokemon. Being able to communicate with wild Pokemon from such a young age had quickly opened my eyes to the fact that they were basically just like humans, each with their own lives and aspirations, and they deserved to be treated with equal respect.

"Hello," I began, offering a small wave to the Marill. "I'm looking for Pokemon who would be interested in joining me and fighting in battles…"

I talked back-and-forth with the two Marill for a bit, who were shocked to learn that I could actually understand what they were saying. I had to explain what a gym was since these were very young Pokemon who didn't know much about human society. Next, I offered them the benefits of food and a safe place to live if they were interested, and I even told them about Zuzu, saying I could help make them grow stronger like I had with her. The Azumarill stepped forward at the end to give her own recruitment speech, and the Marill listened intently.

Unfortunately, in the end, both of them ended up declining and said they liked their current lives. They did at least tell us about a group of wild Jigglypuff that lived nearby that we could ask. I thanked them for their time and quickly moved on. I knew we were going to get lots of rejections today, but I also knew there were bound to be interested parties along the way.

For the next two hours, I walked up and down the forested area making similar speeches to other wild Fairy type Pokemon. Some of them already had an idea of what the League and Gyms were so I didn't have to explain as much. My Pokemon were very helpful by demonstrating their strength at times with certain moves or piling on compliments about me both as a person and trainer to the wild Pokemon.

By the time we took a short break, I was happy with the results we'd achieved so far. Five Marill, four Jigglypuff, and three Snubbull had agreed to come with me. Most of them were very low-level, weak Pokemon, but three of them showed much more starting potential than the others.

One of the Marill had a particularly determined personality which would translate well into training sessions, another could actually evolve soon with a bit of work, and one of the Snubbulls impressed me with the power of the moves he knew. I was already looking forward to training everyone and helping them unlock more of their potential.

We began moving through the forest once again. Soon after, we found a lone Jigglypuff… one with a familiar and very stern expression on its face.

My jaw dropped.

"Mr. Puff?" I called out in strangled disbelief.

The Jigglypuff turned at the sound of my voice and squinted at me suspiciously. That suspicion soon gave way to recognition, and he let go of his severe expression to nod and smile at me.

I couldn't believe it.

It was actually him.

Mr. Puff was one of the wild Pokémon I'd become friends with when I was younger. He was one of the oldest Jigglypuff on the route — over 35 years old now I believed — and definitely the strongest. I'd bring berries and the occasional sandwich for us to share, and he would tell me stories about life in the forest. We even frequently played hide-and-seek (Mr. Puff always won because he used Minimize to avoid being found).

Ninety percent of the time, he wore what I called his signature stern expression and basically acted like a grumpy old man, but he was very nice deep down once you got to know him properly. He had given himself the name Mister long before I met him, but I had given him the second part of his name by accidentally calling him Mr. Puff one time. Surprisingly, he rather liked it and started going by that name from that moment on. He had fervently avoided being caught by young trainers — brats, as he liked to call them — whether through fighting them off or staying completely hidden in the forest. I was amazed that he had still managed to avoid being captured to this very day.

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I stepped closer to Mr. Puff. He pretty much looked just as I remembered and seemed to be very healthy still. While I looked over his form, Mr. Puff glanced at the Pokemon behind me. His eyes narrowed.

Mr. Puff looked back at me. He pointed at Lico and, in a loud voice, demanded to know the identity of the strange-looking Jigglypuff. Luckily, Lico wasn't offended and looked more amused than anything.

"This is Lico," I said, and then I coughed slightly. "He's, uh, a very old Jigglypuff from far away." I decided not to mention the fact that he was likely from a billion years ago or that he was technically not a Jigglypuff but an ancestor.

Mr. Puff raised a nonexistent brow at my answer but held his tongue. He lowered his stubby arm and stared at Lico with narrowed eyes.

I held my breath, praying to Arceus a fight wasn't going to erupt. Lico would just mop the floor with Mr. Puff.

Luckily, no such thing happened. I gave a mental sigh of relief as Mr. Puff turned away from Lico. He plopped himself down on the ground and gestured to the space in front of him.

As I took a seat, he asked where I had been and what I had been up to over the last ten years. Apparently, after I'd stopped showing up, he had even braved a trip to the city once to see if he could find me anywhere. Obviously, he hadn't. Couldn't. I was in an entirely different region by then. I felt both touched and guilty that he had left the comfort and safety of his home just to look for me.

A sad smile appeared on my face, and I decided I had more than enough time to give Mr. Puff the explanation he deserved. As my Pokemon sat down around me, I opened my mouth and began the impromptu storytime. "It's a long story…"

It took a bit, but I told him the reason for my departure, went through an overview of my travels across the world, and explained how I had returned and was now taking over the Cherrygrove Gym. Throughout my storytelling, Mr. Puff either nodded along or made comments every now and then.

"I need to take care of some business tomorrow on the other side of the world, but I'll only be gone a day. After I get back, I'll be living in Cherrygrove again," I said once I'd wrapped up my story. Mr. Puff perked up at that, smiling a bit. That same smile slipped a bit as I continued. "I'm going to be pretty busy from now on because of the Gym, especially when the new League season starts in August, but I promise I'll make time to come visit you often. I'll even bring berries and sandwiches like I used to, especially your favorite Leppa Berries. What do you think?"

Mr. Puff didn't meet my gaze. He was staring at the floor with a more stony expression than usual.

"Mr. Puff?" I said hesitantly, concerned about his silence.

I was completely unprepared for what happened next.

Mr. Puff yelled at me.

He jumped to his feet and stomped twice on the floor, screaming that I was going to forget about him with all the Gym stuff going on and that I'd leave him alone again. He even yelled about Lico, saying that I'd replaced him with some weird Jigglypuff.

I was shocked to see small tears well up in his eyes halfway through his outburst. He said, in a voice so soft that it might as well have been a mere whisper, that he had been lonely without me. Life in the forest for him just hadn't been the same after I left.

Finally done talking, Mr. Puff sniffed a bit as he rubbed furiously at his eyes.

I felt my heart breaking as I looked at his tiny pink form. I had no idea Mr. Puff had been so devastated after I left. Of course I had considered him to be a very good friend and still did, and I had even thought about him more than a few times while on my journey, but… I thought he'd been living well in the forest like he always had.

He hadn't ever truly shown the extent of it, but he had treasured our friendship even more than I originally believed. I suddenly felt like a terrible person.

I immediately got up, shuffled forward on my knees, and picked up Mr. Puff in my arms for a hug. He angrily swatted at me with his short arms, but he was so light that it just felt like feather touches.

"Mr. Puff, I'm so, so sorry. I had no idea you'd been so lonely all this time, and I'm sorry I left you alone for so long," I murmured in a voice thick with emotion. I felt Mr. Puff go still in my arms, and he stopped hitting me. I had to swallow before continuing. "Believe me when I say this, but I did think about you a lot while I traveled. I genuinely believed you were still doing well for yourself in the forest, but I see now that was far from the reality."

I paused, patting Mr. Puff on the back gently a few times. He still didn't say anything, nor did he move. "I missed you too, Mr. Puff. I meant it when I said I'd come back to visit you lots from now on. I'm not going to leave you alone again. And Lico? He's my friend, not your replacement. Nobody could ever replace you, Mr. Puff. Can you forgive me?"

I set the Jigglypuff back down on the ground so I could see his face, a hopeful expression adorning my own. Mr. Puff didn't look at me for a long time.

Finally, he looked up at me and gave a very small nod, sniffing. I would be forgiven so long as I gave him lots of Leppa Berries, he told me, and I tried not to snort with laughter as I nodded seriously. He also apologized for his outburst, awkwardly scuffing the ground with a foot as he did.

"I'm glad we made up," I said happily. I got up slowly from the ground with a groan. My legs and back were stiff from sitting for so long. "I should probably head back now. I need to start training the Pokemon I caught here today. I'll visit you as soon as I get back from Paldea, Mr. Puff, I promise."

I blinked in confusion when Mr. Puff huffed in discontent.

He shook his head vehemently and crossed his arms. He told me he didn't want to stay in the forest anymore.

He wanted to go with me, and not just as any companion, but as a gym Pokemon. He wanted to help me.

My eyes widened. "You really want to come with me? And… and fight in gym battles?" I asked in surprise. "But… you hate trainers. You always tried so hard to not get caught by one before."

Mr. Puff made a spitting motion to the side. He did hate trainers, that was true. But he pointed at me and nodded, smiling. I didn't count. I was his friend, and he was okay with me catching him.

Furthermore, he was rather fond of the idea of beating up young brats who didn't know their place in the world.

I laughed, taking out a Pokeball from my bag. Well, I certainly wasn't going to turn him down. I needed all the help I could get.

Mr. Puff floated up and tapped the Pokeball's button on his own, letting himself get sucked inside. A few wiggles later, and the ball went still.

I was about to put the Pokeball in my bag when it suddenly flew open and Mr. Puff let himself out.

"Uh…" I began, but I closed my mouth when Mr. Puff stalked over to Lico. For the second time that day, I was afraid a fight would break out. Instead, Mr. Puff asked Lico if he liked singing. I watched the interaction with a fast-growing sense of dread. This wasn't going where I thought it was going, right?

Lico shook his head and informed Mr. Puff he wasn't a singer. He enjoyed screaming instead. He showed off sharp teeth in a friendly smile, and Mr. Puff actually smiled back, pleased with the answer.

They looked at me at the same time, and I immediately shook my head.

"Oh no. No, no, no, you're gonna disturb basically every Pokemon within miles," I said quickly as I realized what they wanted.

When Mr. Puff and Lico both looked back at me again, this time with big puppy eyes, I knew I couldn't refuse. I sighed.

"Fine," I said with a nod, but I was already backing up quickly with my other Pokemon. Taffy had started putting up layers and layers of Light Screen around us. For once, the normally jovial Pokemon looked scared. Zuzu tugged at her floppy ears anxiously. We had all been subject to Lico's performances before, and this time was going to be a duet.

I gulped, resigning myself to my fate. Lico wasn't called a Scream Tail for nothing. I just hoped the local Rangers wouldn't come swarming. "Have fun."

Mr. Puff and Lico glanced at each other. There was a moment of silence.

Then they opened their mouths and screamed.

One Hyper Voice was already bad enough already, but two at the same time? Two was hell on earth. I thought I was gonna go deaf from the sheer volume of the screeching. Even Taffy's barriers couldn't mute the piercing volume enough. Taffy, Zuzu, and I were in pain, but Lico and Mr. Puff looked like they were having the time of their lives as they screamed out a joyful song.

Needless to say, after they finally, finally stopped, there was no point sticking around. Every Pokemon on the route had probably gone into hiding or run away because of the noise.

We went home.

At the cost of my hearing, at least Lico and Mr. Puff were now tentatively friends from a shared love of screaming.

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Construction on the Cherrygrove Gym was well under way. Faint clanging sounds rang out in the distance, but I ignored them, focusing on the group of small Pokemon looking up at me from the ground instead. I'd introduced the fresh batch of soon-to-be gym Pokemon to their new home in our massive backyard, and they'd been very pleased by all the delightful flowers, trees, and ponds.

Now, it was time to begin training.

"Alright, first things first: raise your hand if you are interested in becoming the strongest you can be," I said with a clap of my hands. It wouldn't be fair to ask them to stay within certain power levels for the promotion test and beyond. Each of them had willingly come with me for different reasons. I needed to respect their wishes if I wanted to earn their trust and friendship.

Along with Mr. Puff, only the three Pokemon I'd previously identified as having a better baseline than the rest raised their hands. The others didn't have as grand of ambitions and were just happy to help out in exchange for food.

I nodded, mentally noting to myself to train these Pokemon harder than the others. The others would be relegated to the lowest tiers of gym battles since they were not as interested in amassing great strength.

It wasn't a lot, but it would do for the time being. I'd recruit more Pokémon in Paldea and again when I returned to Johto to further fill in the roster.

Much to my surprise, my Cutiefly floated over to the gym Pokemon that wanted more of a challenge.

"Cally? What are you doing?" I asked with no small amount of confusion. The Cutiefly waved one of her legs as she buzzed excitedly. Apparently, she was interested in helping out with the gym challenges.

I paused for a moment to think. Cally was the only non-Elite tier Pokemon on my personal team. She was similar to Mr. Puff in regards to the fact that neither of them ever wanted to evolve, but that didn't mean she was weak. I could confidently say she was the strongest Cutiefly in the world from all the training and hard work she'd done over the years.

She didn't get to participate in many battles since a lot of trainers usually didn't want to fight what they considered a 'weak' species, so maybe she was feeling a bit left out compared to my other Pokemon.

I made up my mind right then and there, pointing at my Cutiefly. "Okay. I'll be counting on you to help me then, Cally." She buzzed again in delight, and I smiled briefly before returning my attention to the group as a whole. "Let's start some simple drills first."

To begin with, I had the Pokemon run laps (or in Cally's case, fly). Then I introduced them to different core strengthening exercises depending on their species and body type. They would start every training session from now on with a similar routine to keep in shape.

After everyone was sufficiently warmed up, I had them split up into different groups based on their species and assigned a teacher to them. For example, Zuzu took charge of the group of Marill, and Taffy led the Jigglypuff to another corner. I didn't have a Granbull on my team who could teach the Snubbull, so I assigned Peri to them instead. Out of all the Pokemon I owned, he had one of the most diverse movepools. With his mastery of various type energies and own high level of technique, I trusted him to be able to help the Snubbull with learning the different elemental fangs that their species was known for.

Today's session was going to be dedicated to the basics. I wanted to make sure each Pokemon had a good grasp of Fairy type energy and their basic moves before doing anything else. As my Pokemon tutored their respective groups, I walked around and gave input of my own. I paid special attention to five Pokemon and worked personally with them more than the others.

Cally and Mr. Puff were basically around the fourth-badge level already in terms of strength. I knew for sure I could bring them up to the fifth-badge level in two weeks' time for the promotion test, which removed a substantial amount of my worries regarding that.

The two Marill I had my eye on earlier were going to be great additions to the gym roster. The particularly earnest one sponged up all of Zuzu's teachings with great concentration. She was still young, but I had a feeling she would probably move up badge tiers very quickly if she kept up her rate of learning. The other Marill was much older and actually quite timid, but he had a surprising amount of prior battle experience from defending himself against other wild Pokemon. Given enough training, he would probably evolve any time from a few days to a week later. Depending on the time of his evolution and how fast he adapted to it, there was the possibility that he would be ready for the fifth-badge tier by the time the test rolled around.

Finally, one Snubbull stood out from his peers. He was smaller than the other Snubbull but severely outmatched them in terms of power. Although he only knew a few moves very well, he was already capable of using Crunch and Play Rough to devastating effect. He was also the most enthusiastic of the three about wanting to learn the elemental fang moves.

I nodded to myself in satisfaction as I looked at the group of practicing Pokemon. It was a better start than I could have hoped for.

Part of the way into the session, I had the Pokemon switch to spars so they could learn from their peers. Afterwards, we paused for a break so we could eat and recharge as well as discuss each Pokemon's progress. Then we went right back into individual training.

Time slowly passed, and we wrapped up training for the day when dad called for me.

Dinner was a nice, calm affair. Dad's chicken katsu curry tasted just as good as it had when I was a child. It was a big hit with my Pokemon, too. Dad had been nice enough to make a ton of extra portions for them. We chatted over dinner and shared more stories of what we'd both been up to over the years. There were some awkward pauses where we didn't know what to say, but overall, I enjoyed myself.

Soon, it was time to leave.

Some of my Pokemon volunteered to stay behind to help the new gym Pokemon train in my absence, but most of them wanted to come with me to Paldea to say goodbye to our house. After having lived there for almost four years, there was more than a bit of attachment.

"I'll be back after tomorrow, dad," I reminded him as I hopped on Zuri's back. The Dragonite peered up at the evening sky, shifting slightly in place. "I'll see you soon."

Dad smiled softly at me, nodding. "Have a safe trip. See you soon, son."

I didn't say anything else. Instead, I urged Zuri to take flight.

We rose up into the skies and sped away towards the other side of the world.