Like No One Ever Was (Pokemon SI)

[Heavenly Mark]

Love it

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter
The Journey continues
Cheers!

 

[Skyfyre]

"Nemona, are you… ok?" Friede asked worriedly, waving a hand in front of my face. It was unnecessary, but I understood why; I'd been staring at Freddrick and the Pokeballs on his belt ever since the match ended with laser intensity. All the adults looked nervous, but Cyan and Arven were excited, watching the matches. No fear that I could fail. Wish I could say the same.

"I'm fine," I bit out, running through plans in my head. Dammit, I have no good ways to fight a Corviknight. How did an entitled prick like that- oh, right, probably his family. Focus. Steel-Flying is a nightmare for Dun to deal with, it'll resist any of his STAB Normal Moves, and outright ignore Poison Jab and Earthquake, two of his best non-Normal Moves! Not to mention, that bird just looks incredibly tough. To be expected from a fully evolved Pokemon, but still.

The tournament was a beginner's tournament for a reason - it wasn't expected that anyone would be showing up with a fully evolved Pokemon. Of course, they could hardly put in a rule that outright forbade it. Some Types and specific Pokemon lines evolved very fast or had no evolutions. Excluding a Pokemon from being on your team just because it belonged to your family before was also dismissed. They could be your beloved family friend, how could someone ask that you give them up or restrict them from going with you on every step of your journey?

By that same standard though, it was considered quite rude and more than a little cheap to show up to a tournament with a Pokemon that you hadn't had a major hand in training. I suspect that was why the referee was giving Freddrick such a dressing down for his 'reckless behavior', not that the young man seemed to care.

That Lechonk won't be permanently hurt, though that speaks more to the incredible health care tools available to Pokemon than Freddrick's 'restraint.' Dunsparce is a lot tougher, but that also means that he'll be more likely to push past his limits. Plus, the jerk definitely has it out for me, so he'll be sure to go harder.

"You can drop out, you know. It's not wrong to be afraid." Leah's gentle voice cut through my thoughts. I glanced down at my Pokeball, wondering if I should ask Dun if he wanted to battle before discarding the idea as foolish.

He would be offended if I'd even ask him. Dun is the type that would fight a Legendary to prove how strong he is… I might need to pull him out of danger someday. But not today. Today was his moment to shine, to show what months, nearly a year of training had done for him. As if sensing my feelings from within, the ball shook a bit, as if in anticipation.

"No, we'll fight." I gave her a determined nod and smiled at my friends (and sister) before catching Turo's curious gaze.

Am I teaching him the wrong lesson here? To push on, despite great odds. Sure, sometimes you need to do that, but other times, the most determined thing you can do, is quit. I sighed. It wasn't my job to keep an adult from making a terrible mistake; my job was to win this battle.
I lacked the focus to spare on analyzing the other battles, just making a plan for the next one.

Occasionally, I'd whisper a bit of my strategy to Dun in his ball. While it wasn't great for carrying out a full conversation, this was just a slight adjustment to the plans we already had, so he'd be ready when the time came.

Soon enough, it was time, with the announcer calling up the first match of the semi-finals. "It's Nemona Glitterati versus Freddrick van Grough! Two of our most surprising competitors. Can the young prodigy beat the experienced student?"

He hardly seems experienced, from what I've seen. Turning brightly to face my opponent at the other end of the arena I shouted "Let's have a good match!"

"I doubt it," he sneered back, actually earning a few boos from the crowd. "Oh, come off it!" He yelled back at them. "She's got a Dunsparce. What's it gonna do, bore me to defeat?" Shaking his head, he added "It's a shame that this is what the once great Glitterati family has been reduced to. Was that really the best Pokemon your parents could get you?"

"I found Dun on my own, he's my choice of starter."

Frederick crossed his arms. "That's even worse! What's the point of having money if you can't get the best?"

"Oh, don't worry; I'm fighting with the best Pokemon in this tournament." I smirked as I heard a few gasps and 'oohs' from the crowd at my banter. It took Freddrick a moment longer to get my meaning there, and he dropped his arms, hands clenched in fists.

Before this could go any further a new referee stepped up and cleared his throat. "Trainers ready?"

I released Dunsparce in response and he did the same for Corviknight. The massive avian stared down at Dun, who met it with a fierce glare of his own. The fully evolved Pokemon gave an odd squawking sound like she was laughing at Dun.

"In that case, let the battle… begin!" As the last syllable left his mouth, Dun made his Move. Flooding his eyes with Normal energy, he turned his glare into a Glare, one that sent even the advanced Pokemon stumbling and twitching backward.

The moment that Move was complete I shouted "Belly flop!" Dun slammed the mosaic ground, causing it to rise in chunks and shake, slamming into Corviknight, still too Paralyzed to get off the ground. Usually, a Flying Type was immune to Ground-Type attacks because they could fly up and had a near instinctive sense to avoid even the more airborne Ground Moves.

Here, where she couldn't flap her wings properly, the Move hit her hard. Freddrick rallied, crying
"Get off the ground!" It was a valiant attempt, as she struggled to flap her wings, the Corviknight trying to push past her muscles not working. To her credit, she managed to get a few feet off the ground… before Dun Body Slammed her down from above, the earth-shaking helping boost him up and distracting our opponents from his movement.

Corviknight shrieked and tried to knock Dun away with an awkward wing sweep as she fell, but Dun easily slipped around the Paralyzed and disoriented bird. "Earthquake!" I called out, Dun moving to shake the ground again.

"Get off the ground already!" Frederick shouted, and this time the metallic bird lifted itself, above the shifting ground. As the arena settled, I saw Corviknight was dirtied, but not much more than that. The attacks did so little to it? I knew Body Slam would be resisted, but I thought Earthquake might have- no, it looks like even if the attack connects, even with the Steel Typing, the Flying half makes the Move not very effective, maybe less.

In the background, I heard the crowd cheering me on, shocked gasps at how well I was doing/how poorly Freddrick was faring, but I was less optimistic about our odds. That surprise attack didn't do nearly as well as I hoped, and now I have to see what his response will be.

Freddrick didn't hesitate in calling out his next Move, and I had to fight to keep the smile off my face as I heard it. "Hurricane!" Rising higher till Corviknight floated almost twelve meters above the ground (the limit on how high one could fly above the ground when not facing another Flying Type in this tournament) she began whipping the wind around.

"Go to the center!" Dun dutifully moved into the center of the gathering storm, having plenty of time to reach the Eye with Corviknight's movements slowed by the Paralysis. The winds were moving so harshly that I could barely see anything within them, but since Dun wasn't crying out in pain or panic, I assumed it was fine.

"Gah, stop that! Iron Defense!" Freddrick called out and I bit back a curse. The winds died as the gleaming feathers grew brighter. I have to stop that!

"Dun, taunt," I called out, covering a hand over my mouth. He read the signal easily and rolled over, Yawning and closing his eyes. "Man, didn't realize you were going to be so boring," I taunted. "We might as well take a nap."

Whether from thinking we had used a different Move or from falling to my own taunt, the angry boy changed tracks. "Corvi, forget about that, Fury Attack!!"

The powerful Pokemon twitched as she let go of the energy she had been gathering to defend herself. From the sigh that escaped its beak, I knew that twitch wasn't from being Paralyzed. This battle would have been so much harder if we were fighting that Pokemon without Freddrick.

For balance reasons, the games had Pokemon of too high a level traded to or caught by you refused to follow commands, but that didn't work that way in real life. Here, Freddrick's family Corviknight was loyal to a fault and followed all the orders he gave out. And that fault, his ineptitude as a trainer, is the lever we'll pull on to win this fight.

"Roll around and get away!" Dunsparce gave up pretending to be asleep and tried to get away, but this time with the aerial advantage, he only managed to dodge twice before Corviknight's talons clawed into him twice.

"Yes! Now grab him!" The opposing trainer commanded.

"I-uh- Body Slam!" I stammered out. Dammit, did it not work? Dun is in a terrible spot here. I hadn't seen a way out of it, however, so a last-second attack was all I could call out to get some damage in before he was inevitably grabbed.

Dun squirmed within Corviknight's talons, but he couldn't slither out of this tight grip. All he managed to do was make small lacerations on his own body, struggling against the sharp claws.

Freddrick laughed maniacally. "See how helpless you are? You should have forfeited while you had the chance."

"Uh, I still could. It's not like there's any rule about when you give up." I pointed out, and everyone, even much of the crowd, paused.

After a moment Freddrick, red in the face, said "Well? I'm waiting!"

"Oh, I'm not going to. Just like, you were wrong." A beat passed and I caught the droop of Corviknight's head and added "Thought you should know."

He gave an inarticulate scream of rage. "You-you- you little brat! Destroy that worm."

"I'll have you know, he's more a snake, and now is his time to strike!" I countered as the Yawn finally took full effect and the big bird landed with a clanging crash as she fell to the ground, asleep.

"What?!" The boy at the other end looked confused and worried. "How did you do that?"

Not wasting any energy on him, I spoke to Dun instead, my Pokemon slipping out of the now relaxed grip and ready for payback. "Body Slam, as many times as you can!" He threw himself at the sleeping bird, crashing into her several times. Dents started forming on her steely feathers, but she remained sound asleep through the onslaught.

It couldn't last forever, though. Eventually, either Dun's attacks or Freddrick's increasingly desperate pleas got through to Corviknight, and she woke up with a start. Her wing slapped out, tossing Dunsparce across the arena. That was more due to the differences in mass between them than the damage it did, but I couldn't deny that Dun was looking a little roughed up.

Ok, a lot roughed up, I admitted to myself as I took in his wounds. He had tiny cuts all over his body, a nasty-looking abrasion on his tail, and one of his eyes was swollen, probably bruised.

Dun gave as good as he got though, Corviknight's metal wing feathers bent and broken in places, and a small crack on her beak. She was glaring down at us both with angry red eyes and I knew that even if Freddrick kept on underestimating us, his Pokemon wouldn't be anymore. I gripped the ball in my pocket, ready but not willing to use it quite yet.

"Hurricane, blow them away!" Well, I guess even if he doesn't underestimate us, he can still make poor choices. On the surface, it seemed like a solid play, especially since Corviknight had managed to shake off her Paralysis and could direct the stream of wind too fast for Dun to dodge if he tried to move into the center again.

"Ride it! Don't fight against it, float like a leaf on the wind!" The heavy winds picked him up, but rather than let them send him spiraling out of control, he flew with them. Adjusting his trajectory with his own tiny wings, he rose through the air until he shot off near the top, propelled into a heavy Body Slam that snapped the Corviknight's head back.

As Dunsparce and Corviknight landed back down, both of them were able to catch themselves before they hit the ground, though it was a close thing in Corviknight's case. She snapped out of her daze at the last second, but from the way she was holding herself, it looked like that had put a serious crick in her neck.

"You shouldn't use Moves your Pokemon aren't suited to," I told Freddrick.

"Huh?"

"Corviknight had no mastery of Hurricane. What did you do, just teach it to her from a TM and never practice it?" I teased him again. Probably true, but that raven is no joke. She was already adapting the Move and if she kept on pelting us from above, we'd lose. Dunsparce doesn't know any ranged Moves that can hit a flying target and he won't be able to close. If it was someone else I might let them tire themselves out with repeated powerful Moves, but that Corviknight just has too much experience and strength to lose that way.

"Wing Attack, then dive in and Fury Attack!" Dual wing beats sent a burst of air too quick to dodge, knocking Dun into the corner beside me. As Corviknight advanced on him, I gave out commands of my own.

"Parry the claws, then Body Slam!" Dodging would have been useless, so Dun turned around and spun his tail drill, knocking into the claws that came his way. Turned around, he couldn't see the attacks, instead following the motions of my free hand as I directed him on how to block every talon that reached down to rend him.

After a quarter minute of attempts that Dun expertly blocked, Corviknight backed off for a moment, which gave Dun the chance to turn around and fulfill the second part of my command. Spinning back around, he jumped up at the low-flying bird, and with his wingbeats, pushed ahead to hit Corviknight.

The impact resounded throughout the arena, leaving a small dent in the solid metal armor plating in front of her chest. The pain was not enough to stop her from grabbing Dun in her claws as he fell, however.

"Yes! Rip him to shreds! Drill Peck until he's dead- defeated." Freddrick quickly corrected, seeing the referee suddenly turn to glare at him. The man still gave him a warning, but it was clear he wasn't going to be disqualified for that slip of the tongue, so I focused on the battle. Dun was struggling under the assault, waving his tail around wildly to deflect against her beak and other claws, but without leverage, many strikes were getting through and he was starting to bleed profusely from the pecks.

"Bite the feet! Force her to let you go!" The dark energy gathered around his jaws was faint, but stronger than it usually was. Desperation from the pain helping him align more with the Type energy of the attack, he bit down hard, and Corviknight let him go. Not wasting the opportunity, I pulled the ball-shaped object out of my pocket and pressed the button.

The Tera Orb shook violently with the power contained within and I gripped it with my other hand. Spinning around once, I gathered the momentum needed and tossed it out, over Dun, where it exploded in a burst of light, right as the last sliver of sunlight faded beyond the horizon.
The light was accompanied by the usual crystallization surrounding Dunsparce, causing his foe to stumble back, squawking in surprise. The crystals shattered and revealed Dun covered in a prismatic sheen and a large clear gem resting above his head like an oversized hat.

"Why, I can't believe it! Folks, we are witnessing Terastalization firsthand!" The announcer called out, and the crowd was going wild. Frederick was seizing with rage or disbelief. Either way, he wasn't ready to stop us.

"Body Slam, show that oversized crow your true power!" I told Dun. He complied with gusto, leaping forward with newfound energy, hitting Corviknight hard enough now to send her stumbling back. Again and again, he attacked and she was on the back foot. She tried to grab him again, but this time Dun's attacks were strong enough to break through, and she let him go after he snapped one of her talons with his gem-covered head.

"Just- just attack!" The van Grough boy screeched eventually and she did just that. Corviknight was flying off the ground, holding one of her claws gingerly, but she didn't let that stop her. Furiously, she'd Wing Attack, Peck, and (with her good leg) claw at Dunsparce. With Terastalization adding on to his power though, he was giving as good as he got, despite the Type resistance.

After a minute of brutal attacks on each side, they broke off, one last Wing Attack whipping up the winds and making space between them. The two of them were breathing heavily, panting as they glared at each other. Dunsparce's bulbous body was swollen, more so than usual. One of his eyes was so puffed up that I was pretty sure he physically couldn't use Glare till it healed. He was bleeding all over from the numerous peck and claw attacks having ripped through his scales. Nowhere critical was injured, but I didn't like how it looked.

On the other side, flying high above, was Corviknight. Dents all over her armor, feathers torn and bent, matching one of her talons, which she held gingerly even while flying. The damage she took was more bludgeoning than cutting, but there were still a few trickles of blood dripping down from her feathers. Despite it all, the determination and confidence she held from the beginning of our fight hadn't left her steely gaze.

It's much more… real than the bruise effects they showed in the anime. I couldn't help the giggles that escaped my mouth at the absurd thought. Something that my opponent took offense to.

"You think this is funny, huh? Do you think you could possibly win? NO! I refuse, I'm the greatest, it's my name that will rise to the top! The van Grough's are in no one's shadow!" I blinked at his unhinged rant. Dude has issues. "That's it, Corvi, Sky Attack!"

"It looks like this will be the end, everyone! How can Nemona hope to survive…" The announcer rapidly commented, my focus was on the battle in front of me.

In the darkness of the night, the usually dark-steeled bird became a glowing beacon, rapidly surrounded by a harsh light. Something about the radiance forced my gaze away, down to the other source of light. Dun was covered in wounds, staring up at the bird turning to a descent position. Am I just getting him needlessly hurt by continuing this? He's fought well, no one could judge him poorly for this. I still have a second left, I could recall him-

My thoughts cut off as I saw his gaze, his one good eye firmly facing upwards. This is his moment. Everything he's been training for, almost a year now we've been together, to prove that promise I made to him on the beach true. I can't take that away from him now.

"Hit her with everything you got!" I shouted as Corviknight dived down. Dun leaped up to meet her, but something changed midway through his jump. Rather than losing momentum, it increased, a star-like energy surrounding him and propelling him forward at greater speeds.

"It's so bright! I can't make out who won!" Larry cried out, most of the fans averting their eyes. I didn't, but still couldn't make out what exactly happened, just seeing them pass a moment after.

Dun kept on rising for a few seconds, like a comet falling in reverse while Corviknight crashed through the ground, her landing kicking up mosaic tiles into the barrier. Gravity soon took hold of my Pokemon too, and he crashed down as well, landing with a heavy thud.

Silence filled the arena, everyone staring with bated breath at the two unmoving Pokemon.

"Unbelievable! It appears that both Pokemon are unable to battle! It's a ti-"

"Un." The sound was faint, but enough to be heard by Larry and the referee before he could swing the flag in the center to call the match. "Un. Arce," Dun said, slightly clearer as he shakily rolled over. Then, trembling, he planted his tail into the ground, raising his body to stand on it, as tall as he could. Taking a deep breath, he announced to all of Mesagoza "DUUUUUUUUUUUNNN!!!!"

He started to fall over but before he could hit the ground I was already there, running and sliding to catch him. "You did it! You did it!" I shouted, hugging him close and then holding him up for the crowd to see. They roared in response, cheering and hollering, my friends and sister jumping up and down. I could barely even make out the referee calling the match in my favor.

"Sparce." He replied tiredly, leaning into my arms, a content smile on his face. I started pulling out potions with one hand while still holding onto him. They stopped the worst of the bleeding, though I would still have plenty of his blood staining my clothes, and didn't care one bit. There was technically another match we had to win to win the tournament, but I couldn't worry about that right now.

"You did great, Dun. Just like I said, you're gonna be the best."

Spoiler: A/N:

This was the biggest, toughest battle Nemona has been through to date. With this the semi finals are complete and next chapter will be the end of the Junior Tournament, see ya next time!

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

...float like a leaf on the wind!

Click to shrink...

The last person to hype themself up with that phrase didn't do so well... but Dun winning was super epic!

 

[Norwest]

I bet the other finalist is biting their nails hoping Nemona's monster will be too tuckered out to repeat this display.

 

[Skyfyre]

Freddrick stomped off well before I could even offer a handshake, muttering about how this was unfair. I barely noticed, cheering a few more times before returning to my cohort. "That was truly spectacular, Young Miss," Leah greeted me. "I'm sure your parents will be thrilled to see you in action." She said, putting away her phone before excusing herself to go off and collect her winnings.

"Excellently done, a wonderful use of Terastalization." Professor Turo congratulated me as well. He put his own Rotom Phone away. Was he recording the match as well? I wonder why. Turo seemed quite pleased, and I wasn't going to question it. His fellow Professor was a bit more critical, though.

"You pushed Dun pretty hard, will he be alright?" It was true, he looked pretty rough even after the healing items I had used on him.

Holding him up to look him in the eyes, I asked him "How's it going? You did great so far, if you don't-" he was starting to squirm in disagreement. "No really, you beat the strongest Pokemon here." Dun quickly glanced over at Tulip's compact mirror at her side. "Besides yourself, of course," I rolled my eyes. "We can bow out here and it wouldn't be bad at all."

He thought about it momentarily before shaking his head, still keen to go on. "Dun, Dunsparce!" Friede ruefully shook his head at that before nodding in understanding. He might have been surprised that we went that far, but could accept Dunsparce's desires and my efforts to achieve them.

"Alright then, just one round left," I said, glancing over at the arena where the other semi-finalists were getting ready. They had a Pawmi and a Clodsire. The Pawmi could be a problem, but the Trainers seem equally skilled, so the Clodsire will probably win due to Type advantage, and we have ways of dealing with a Clodsire.

"Yeah, we got this. Rest up buddy, you'll need your strength for what's coming." Returning him to the ball, he could rest slightly easier in there, though the Potions had already had a huge effect. I don't think it's going to be that hard - no one else in the tournament was anywhere near as strong as that Corviknight. Still, good to keep him hyped and in the zone.

"Heck yeah, you got this! That was so cool. I never saw the point of battling before, but I might want your help in teaching Popplio a few Moves when she hatches" Cyan admitted.

"Sure thing sis." Inwardly I was already thinking about the kinds of Moves that Popplio could learn. They gain the Fairy Typing once they evolve, but they can probably learn a bunch of those Moves as well early on, good to get them used to it. Plus, they probably have access to most voice-based Moves, beyond Boomburst.

"That was incredible, Terastalization is amazing! I want to try it too, Dad!" I gaped at Arven's words. Did he not give a Tera Orb to his own son?!

He blinked. "I didn't realize you were interested in battling, my son."

"Well, I mean Nemona will probably push me into it anyways. And it looks really cool!" At that, Turo smiled.

"I'd love nothing more than to teach you all about Terastalization." Arven cheered, pulling out a Tera Orb from his pocket and releasing Maschiff, excitedly telling him the news. Ah, maybe I jumped the gun in assuming the worst there. Arven already has a Tera Orb but just didn't feel confident using it on his own.

Watching the tender moment, I wondered if I was wrong about other things. If there was still a way to pull Turo away from his ruinous experiments. My thoughts of the future were dragged back to the present by Dendra and Tulip moving closer.

"Osuuuu! That was an epic, blood-pumping battle!" The martial artist girl cried out, punching the air excitedly. Even the fashionable girl beside her had lost some of her cool and was looking on at Dun and I with awe and worry.

"It's not to my taste, but I was right; your beauty shines the most when you battle." There was an odd shimmer in her eyes. She's viewing my Aura, isn't she?

I hadn't won the tournament yet, but I couldn't help but ask: "Soooo, what did you think?"

The fashionable teenager let out a heavy sigh and I felt some trepidation. "I'm really regretting making that deal."

"So you'll teach me? Awesome! Wait- why are you regretting this?"

Shaking her head, she clarified. "Because I fear - no I can tell - you're going to want to learn everything, and truthfully I know little on the topic. I have a gift for it, but I only learned the basics before pursuing other goals."

"Oh." Right, that makes sense. While she's had little displays of power, she's no Sabrina. I didn't think she could read my thoughts, but she might have felt something there, her eyes narrowing.

"Ah, I mean that's fine. Anything you can teach me would be appreciated."

"You're welcome. It might take a while, but I'll try to track down my old teacher and see what more I can learn." I notice she's not mentioning Aura directly. Maybe it has something to do with the Professors being around?

Her friend offered her support as well. "Osu! And I'll be happy to train you too! I might not know everything she does, but I've got some solid conditioning plans in mind for you and your Pokemon."

"Thanks! I've- that sounds super cool." I corrected myself before I could say something wrong. Right, 'Nemona' hasn't had any martial arts training, while I have almost twenty years under my no longer-existent black belt. I might be able to tell Dendra I trained before, but Cyan would know I was 'lying' about that. Still, this is going to be awesome. Honestly, I'm almost as excited for the martial training as I am for the Aura stuff.

The semi-final match ended, with the Clodsire winning as I expected (It almost certainly had the Poison Point Ability given the way the Pawmo had been staggering after it had laid its fists on him, I'd be ready for that).

Then again, Clodsire's trainer has familiar green hair and she's wearing a button-up shirt… I think that might be Rika! I hadn't expected to face a future Elite Four today, but in any case, I was pumped up. This is gonna be great!

Surprisingly, they didn't call for the next match right away, most of the officials were busy somewhere else. It was getting later in the night, the full moon rising above us, but I didn't care. I was riding a buzz like I got from a great D&D session and was sure that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep for hours after.

My friend and sister were cheering me on, excitedly chatting about the matches. Turo and Friede debating the matches and their merits. Dendra and Tulip discussed some training plans and exchanged their phone numbers with me. Leah returned, smiling smugly as the bookies reluctantly handed over the money and barred her from making a bet on the final round.

Which is when it all came crashing down. "Attention everyone, we have an announcement to make," Larry said in an oddly somber tone. What was even more attention-grabbing were all the different referees gathered beside him as well, including the head judge. This doesn't feel like they're just about to announce the start of the finals.

"We have deliberated and decided that Nemona Glitterati is disqualified from the 27th Junior Tournament." Whispers spread through the crowd like wildfire.

"What do you think she did?"

"I knew there was something wrong with a girl that young making it this far."

"Will the rest of the tournament go on?"

I could barely comprehend what was going on, my mind struggling to put it together. "Why?" My words came out as a broken whisper that Larry definitely couldn't have heard. Nonetheless, he did elaborate.

"After much consideration, the judges have decided that Nemona's use of the Tera Orb broke tournament rules, and therefore-"

"Wait a moment!" I shouted, finding my voice again, and stepping forward. All eyes turned back to me and I could feel their stares weighing me down. "I didn't break the rules, there was nothing against Enhancement Effects being used here, only Battle Items, but Tera Orbs were ruled as an Enhancement Effect." The whispers grew louder, with some people sounding fairly angry. I was pretty sure I heard Dendra shout behind me 'You tell 'em!'

"I- uhhh…" Larry looked at a loss, glancing between me and the head judge, who stepped up and grabbed Larry's microphone. The head judge was a tall man with long white hair and a thin mustache.

"Some places may have ruled it as such." There was a quick glance back to one of the other judges, the familiar-looking woman who oversaw my quarterfinal match. It was easily overlooked, but it was clear there was some dissent at the judge's table. "Tera Orbs were not listed as such in our rules." At the end of the day though, he had the final say.

He continued. "As such, your act of throwing it onto the field counts as interference by the Trainer, thus costing you the match. Given your age and inexperience as well as, ahem, difficulties in rule interpretations, we will not be placing this on your record. It has no bearing on your ability to compete in future Junior Tournaments. In light of the error in this breach not being called immediately, we will be giving both you and Miss Delcroft the reward prize fitting for third place."

The Pawmo's trainer perked up, seeming pleased with that. The rest of the audience generally nodded along as if this was reasonable. As if this was in any way shape or form right. I shook in place with barely constrained rage, but they didn't notice, already moving on.

Larry took the microphone back from the dry head judge. "Thank you Mr. Rovali. This was a tricky situation, but don't fret for what it means for the finals. Luckily, young Freddrick van Grough is ready and able to compete, despite the injuries Corviknight took."

The smug boy stepped forward, snatching the microphone out of the announcer's hands.

"Corviknight can't be put down by some worm." But she was! Dun beat your Pokemon into the ground!! I wanted to scream.

"Thank you for that," Larry said, taking the microphone back. His words were much less sincere this time, especially since the mic caught him muttering "What is with everyone grabbing my mic?" Then he cleared his throat. "Ahem, with that little issue out of the way, who's ready for the finals?"

There were grumbles of discontent, hardly the cheering that would have usually proceeded the announcement of the last match. But no one stood up, no one challenged it (I'd already taken my shot and the judges had overruled me). Soon enough, everything settled down, like nothing had ever happened. Like all of our sweat and tears up to this point didn't matter. Like Dun, struggling to prove himself to the world meant nothing.

Amidst the din of chatter and cheers, I heard Freddrick's voice, whispering to the head judge as they walked away from the center. "Thanks for helping me out Uncle, I owe you one."

"Yes well, don't try to make a habit out of it. Geeta was quite obstinate…" The older man whispered back.

Seeing red, my body started moving forward. Visions of me grabbing Freddrick and punching his smug, dumb face danced in my head. Taking him down and just wailing on him, fists and elbows until I broke his- "Nemona, stop!"

Tulip's panicked words snapped me back to the moment and reminded me where I was. Halfway across the battle court, making a beeline for Freddrick. The crowd was whispering, wondering what I was doing. My friends looked confused, all except for Tulip, who looked worried for some reason. Then it clicked for me, remembering she could sense my emotions. Could See all the rage and anger I was feeling and likely guessed what I was about to do.

Like a glass of cold water splashed in my face, I brought myself back under control. My emotions were boiling under the surface but the shock was enough that I could wrestle them back under control. Turning, I started walking away before Freddrick taunted me. "Gonna run off and cry, little girl?"

Blinking, I realized tears were welling up in my eyes. The temptation was there to turn back around and lay into him. Verbally, physically, whatever. But it wouldn't be right, it won't help things. With great effort, I kept on walking, off the battlefield and through the crowd.

Picking up speed, I ran until I made my way off the main plaza. Behind me, I could hear the others calling for me but couldn't bring myself to go back. Everything that happened was so embarrassing, and then I made an even bigger fool of myself, what would they think of me? So I ran. Of course, that's the problem with running - there's always an ending.

My ending was a bench on a side street nearby, as I was caught between having nowhere else to go but not ready to go back. There were few people here at this time of night, and those that did pass by either didn't notice a small girl silently crying on a bench or didn't make it their business.

A minute or two passed until a tall shadow loomed over me. Looking up (and up and up) I saw the referee from before looking down from me atop her Espathra. "You gave us quite a scare there."

"Any other admonishments you want to throw my way?" I spat out bitterly. Some distant part of my mind recognized that was uncalled for. The rest was angry and sad. The fact that she paused at that didn't help matters. "Oh wow, you really do."

"I… would advise caution in your future matches. Personally, I felt you pushed your Dunsparce too close to the line."

"What the hell do you know?" She raised an eyebrow at my vitriolic words. Wow, tell a referee she knows nothing about her job, great job me. I should try to shove in the other foot next. "It's fine. I… I pushed him hard, but he'll be fine. He needed this." Or at least I thought he did.

She gave a tilt of her head, partially conceding the point. "Perhaps." She got off her Pokemon and we were both quiet for a moment.

I was always bad with awkward silences and this one being interrupted by my sniffling didn't help, so I broke first, asking her: "Why are you here? Don't you have a tournament to preside over?"

"My fellows don't seem to care for my opinions." The bitter words slipped out of her mouth, seeming to surprise even her. "Apologies, I meant to say that I was sent to look out for you. We care about the well-being of every participant in our tournament. I've also been authorized to give you your reward for achieving third place." Her Rotom Phone floated out and my Rotom did the same, a small buzz from each as the transfer was received.

"Yay," I said, lifelessly. Rotom gave me a concerned look but decided not to say anything with the referee around and floated back into my pocket.

"You did quite well, you know." She tried to encourage me. "Getting third place in your first tournament is quite an achievement, especially at your age. 50,000 League Points is nothing to sneeze at either-"

"I don't care about that! It- It doesn't matter how far we made it. If Dun had been taken out by that Sky Attack, if it had been a bit faster than him, though really it was already so fast, that Corviknight was sooo strong, but it didn't and he wasn't and he won and if it was fair he should be the winner still and- and-" I was babbling and breaking down. "And then Freddrick just goes up to his uncle, the head judge, and gets me kicked out-"

"Wait, what?"

"Freddrick, that jerk was thanking the judge after his speech."

"I… didn't hear that." She admitted and I looked at her oddly. You were so much closer to him than me though! But… how did I hear that from so far away? I didn't imagine it, did I? Before anything more could be said on that we both heard Leah exclaim as she saw us, running down the street towards us. "Ah, it appears your caretaker is here. I'll leave you in her care, but I hope you aren't disheartened by this experience. You have much potential." I nodded fiercely, blinking out the last of the tears out of my eyes. This may have ended on a sour note, but I'm still going to be Champion someday. Nothing is going to stop that. She added, "Rest assured that I will be looking into this match. There were a few discrepancies that need to be investigated."

"Good evening," she said as a farewell to Leah and me, while the maid wrapped me up in a near bone-crushing hug.

"Oh you're alright, thank goodness. Do you know how worried we were? What were you thinking, running off like that?! It's going to be ok, you did fine…" She alternated between berating me and trying to console me. She's as frazzled as I am.

"Can we go home?" I asked tiredly. I knew I'd be chewed out for running off (and rightfully so), but I couldn't deal with that at the moment.

"... That's fine, Young Miss. We'll need to find the others first, they're looking all over Mesagoza for you." I whipped out Rotom and began sending out texts to all of them, letting Dendra, Tulip, and Arven know I was fine but heading home and telling Cyan where I was. "Oh, so now you can use your phone?"

"Bzzt, apologies ma'am," Rotom offered. "It appears I was still in 'Do not disturb' mode and missed your prior calls." Leah calmed down, accepting the excuse. I wasn't sure that they were being truthful about missing the messages, but I understood that they were just trying to give me a minute to calm down, which had actually helped

Very quickly I saw a familiar Charizard flying over, Friede and Cyan on his back. They landed and Cyan jumped off, running over to hug me. Leah went up to the young Professor and thanked him. I picked myself off the bench to do the same, my sister holding onto my hand.

"Thank you, Friede. You helped me out a lot today and I deeply appreciate it. Sorry tha-" he cut me off raising his hand.

"It's no problem, honest. It was good to get out of the lab, and I learned a lot today. You're quite the insightful young girl." I couldn't resist a small dismissive huff at that. I'm really not. He wrote out his number and exchanged it with me. "If you ever need a hand or want to ask about anything Pokemon-related."

"You might be the one needing my expertise," I said, sticking my tongue out. My puffy red eyes probably took away from the friendly teasing and just made me look sad, but Friede laughed easily.

"I might just take you up on that. Have a good night." Waving us goodbye, he flew off and we went and hailed a flying cab.

Leah told the cabbie to go fast, and they did, rocketing us home so fast I had to double check

we didn't have a mega-Latios flying us (we did not). When we got there, the house was quiet, with most of the staff on site sleeping for the night. Hamber greeted us, letting us know that my parents were still out and I just mutely nodded, marching up to my bedroom.

Here, Dunsparce popped out of his ball, wondering what was going on. "Dun dun, ar?"

"Hey there. Sorry, but it looks like we won't be in the finals. We uh, got kicked out."

"Unn! Arce dun?!"

"They said Terastalization was against the rules- I know, I know! We checked it should have been ok- but… Freddrick was able to get the judge to rule his way, so we're out."

"Dunspar! DUUUUN!" He squirmed around angrily, crashing about the room, and knocking over the chair to my desk. I winced but a part of me wanted to do the same. I think he's more likely to hurt the room than himself, but I should still stop him.

Scooping him up into my arms his tail-drill whirred angrily, but I gave him a look of warning and he calmed down enough for me to climb into bed. There was still rage radiating off of him, but he made no other moves in my arms and I just lay there in my bed as I slowly drifted into unconsciousness.

***

When I woke up, I could see through the dim light that my room was something of a disaster zone. There was the damage Dun had caused, but also the fact that I hadn't focused on keeping it tidy before the tournament. But that wasn't the first thing that caught my attention.

"Billy? O'Nare?" I asked as I saw them both on the bed, lying on either side of me and Dun.

"Dear?" O'Nare asked me blearily, looking tired and a little confused.

"Uh, Mom, Dad, what's going on?" I asked, sitting up. Dun made a sleepy croak and I moved him to my side. My parents, rumpled and wrinkled from sleeping here, were dressed in their usual work clothes. My clothes were pretty much the same, but at least mine wouldn't need ironing.

Billy answered me, shaking off his own sleepiness. "Ah, Nemona, dear, after we got back, we heard from the staff that you might be a little upset, so we came over here." So they decided to sleep here to cheer me up in the morning. Despite everything else, it brought a small smile to my face.

"What happened to you guys? You got back later than us." Considering that they had to leave in the early morning, this must have been a pretty big deal.

"O'Nare was in the midst of a delicate dispute with some Pokemon that were being displaced by a construction crew at one of her projects. It was quite a tense situation!" Billy announced, waving his arms to emphasize the supposed severity of the situation.

My Mother shook her head vehemently. "No, it was your father who showed true Glitterati skill in stopping the poachers' attack on the Rotom phone company!"

"What- I thought it was a recall? And what was the situation with the Pokemon living where the construction team was? Wouldn't the rangers have cleared any wilderness construction ahead of time?"

"They had checked but hadn't seen anyone living there, but who could have suspected that there was a small clan of Zoroark living there!" O'Nare still had bags under her eyes but animatedly threw herself into recounting the story about the mistake, how she'd had to fly out to deal with the situation personally.

The Zoroark clan had apparently demanded to speak to the 'leader' of the construction team… which the people there had decided was the President of the Reality conglomerate. Did they really feel that the Zoroark needed to talk to Mom, or did they just kick the problem up the chain?

O'Nare didn't seem to hold any such doubts, acting as peppy as ever. "The Zoroark matriarch calmed down after I explained it was all a big misunderstanding. They even agreed to leave the area and move to another site so the team could continue their work."

"Really? Just like that?"

"I had another development that got canceled part way through and was sitting without any buyers, quite a secluded location, perfect for the Dark Types. I offered it to them and they agreed!"

She was simplifying a fair bit, I imagined. There was probably much discussion over the matter, having to calm the riled Pokemon down, show them the site, and convince them to pack up and move all over there. "We're now in the process of converting that location to a

Reserve, to ensure that no one else moves in on the pack. We also get to make use of a place we couldn't and turn it into a tax write-off," she finished

How charitable and pragmatic all at once. My father was just in awe of her, stars in his eyes as he gazed lovingly at his wife. "What wondrous business acumen! Turning what would be a terrible trial into an opportunity! You're a shining star of the Glitterati family." He leaned over me to give his wife a quick kiss.

"Oh, no more than you! How daring to face off against insidious thieves? How dashing to fight them off?!" She leaned over and returned the favor with a quick peck of her own. I don't need to see this.

"Ahem, what happened at the Rotom Factory?" I pressed, hoping to get them back on track.

Billy cleared his throat, and I saw his eyes flit upwards as he began mentally putting it all together. "Well, we were told that there was an issue with one of our new mid-range phone models and needed an emergency recall. I came down to check on the matter when I noticed one of the boxes wasn't in the right area. I tried to move it back only to hear someone call out 'Ouch!'

Naturally, I apologized to the person inside for the rough handling. But then I realized that someone was inside there! People aren't supposed to be inside boxes! I asked them who they were and they said 'I'm just a Rotom.' But there was no 'bzzt'!"

At that point, I couldn't resist face-palming. Dun copied me, coiling around and slapping his face

with his tail. My father continued unabated.

"I tossed open the lid to reveal not a Rotom, but a man crouched inside! He stepped out, announcing himself as a poacher, describing his vile scheme of how they had faked the recall, using it to slip inside the factory. He capped it off by proclaiming that he and his compatriots were going to steal the Rotoms! I declared that I would stop him!"

"Wait, but you don't have any Pokemon," I pointed out.

"Yes!" He announced proudly, puffing his chest out. "This was a fact that the poacher noticed as well. He released his Krokorok and threatened me, and I boasted that I was so dangerous that I didn't need any Pokemon to defeat him, quelling him into submission… until one of the other thieves came in to check in on what was taking him so long. She told him to get on with it and called my bluff." After a moment of incredulous silence he added: "So I ran!"

He described how he ran in and around the facility, bumping into and evading a total of five would-be thieves. My mind started playing the Scooby Doo music as I imagined Billy running about.

I can't believe how ridiculous my parents are. Holding back laughter I ended up still snorting at his antics, catching a quick glance shared between them out of the corners of my eyes. Their faces softened and I saw their over the top 'shock' and 'awe' at the events being recounted shift for a moment to smiles full of love and tenderness as they looked down at me. I guess they heard at least some of what happened to me.

"... eventually, they had me cornered, right outside the Rotom farm itself. All the poachers had powerful Ground Types chasing me, but I had a secret weapon." O'Nare squealed in delight, clapping her hands together as the story reached the 'dramatic' finale. "I had grabbed some of the discontinued Wash Appliances and put them in my Sliph Co. bag. As they moved in on me, I-"

"Wait! Why are the Wash Appliances discontinued!?" I interrupted. Billy blinked, caught a bit off guard by that.

"Oh, well they tend to get water all over the place. Trainers just didn't like that one as much I guess?" He offered. I refused to have any of it.

"It's one of the best Rotom Forms! With Water/Electric Typing and Levitate Rotom only has one Weakness, four Resistances, and an Immunity! It's only rivaled by Heat Rotom which has 2 weaknesses but a bevy of resistances…" I realized I had stood up on the bed at some point and was just ranting. "Sorry about that." Sheepishly I moved back to let him speak. It must have shown, for he smiled at me in the way dad's do.

"Not a problem, it's wonderful to see you so enthusiastic. And I agree, it's a remarkable form - when I opened the doors to the farm, I also tossed in the washing machines, which a few brave Rotoms possessed, and then washed the poachers clean out!"

"Good to hear. Did you find out why there were so few employees there to handle the recall?"

"Ah yes," He held up a finger dramatically as he remembered that important detail of the story. "When the police came and apprehended them it was revealed that the ringleader of their group was an employee we were in the process of letting go. Adrion Blanchard, he hacked into our system before we were done, arranging the whole thing. He set it up so the recall notice would come through at the same time that he arranged for almost everyone else working there to be given forced time off. The police even found Sharpedo Jet Boats stashed nearby for a quick getaway so they could flee the country!"

"That's… incredible." Perhaps a bit silly in how it all turned out, but I mean it. They both did good things yesterday while I… Both of them hugging me pulled me out of my thoughts.

"We're so sorry we couldn't make it to your tournament, dear. We know how hard you've been training for it-" I cut my mother off.

"It's fine."

They shared a disbelieving glance before moving on, clearly opting to discuss 'it' (i.e. me) privately. "You must tell us all about it now, though. We want to hear how it all went, and umm…" He trailed off, obviously searching for the words to ask about why it ended so badly, but in a way that wouldn't upset me.

"It went well-"

"Dun dun!" My starter countered angrily.

"You didn't let me finish! It did go well, at first. All the way up until the end. We got disqualified because the referees-" I grumbled barely coherently about my disdain for them before regaining my composure. "They made a decision on Terastalization and said that I was disqualified for using it in the semi-finals, even though it hadn't been outright stated in the rules."

"What?"

"No!"

"This is terrible!"

"We should call these officials and explain that they need to undo this immediately."

"I-" A part of me was tempted, a large part that wanted to burn Freddrick and everything he owned to the ground. But that's not right, it won't help anything. "No, don't try to undo it or anything."

"Are you sure honey?" O'Nare asked. "This sounds wrong. It-" Her voice broke for a moment. "It sounds like it hurt you."

I gave her a small nod. "It sucked, yeah, but we can't fix this. Please don't try to 'undo' the ruling." Even if they could get it reversed, no one is going to appreciate me getting the win like that, and the moment has already passed. Worryingly, they might well be able to force the officials to undo that; they had a lot of economic power in Paldea and together they might be able to cause the officials to undo this, or try some other forced rematch type situation.

I already got a firsthand account of how having friends in the right places can alter outcomes that should be set in stone. It wouldn't make me a better trainer though, wouldn't help me learn Aura, or even earn me any respect, 'winning' like that. Dun hit the bed a few times, lightly enough to not cause an Earthquake, but I could tell he wasn't happy with this. Me neither, buddy.

Scratching his head to soothe him a little, I said "I thought I heard the head judge and my last opponent conspiring after the match. Freddrick called him 'uncle', but there's no way his uncle could have been allowed to rule for him, right?"

"Freddrick…" My mother mused. "The Van Grough boy?"

"Yeah, I fought him. I told one of the other judges, maybe she'll be able to find something out about that." They shared a look, some unspoken communication passing between them and Billy said:

"We'll look into it. That cannot stand." There was a steel to his voice, matched in my mother's gaze that reminded me that they led massive international companies, and what it might take to lead them, silly stories aside. "Our connections can find any sign of foul play and expose them."

"Th-thank you," I stammered out, wiping at my watery eyes. It might not fix everything, but getting Freddrick and the head judge to see justice would be nice, at least. "I might want to hear about those connections later, but for now," I moved on, wanting to focus on brighter things.

"The battles were really good though. I think Leah has some videos of them if you want to see them."

"Actually, she's already transferred the files to me, bzzt," Rotom announced, making their presence known as they floated over in front of us. Stretching out to tablet size, they loaded up the first video. "Bzzt, would you like to watch?"

"Oh yes! This will be fantastic, to see our daughter in her first official tournament battle." O'Nare said, Billy heartily agreeing.

"It will be a spectacle for the ages!"

"My first match isn't super impressive. Wait till we get to the later rounds." With my implicit permission, Rotom began playing them and we settled in to watch. From the first Earthquake to Dun's last ditch attack against Corviknight they were gasping and 'oohing' in awe.

I didn't think I needed them. 'Parents'. Not in this lifetime. I already had a perfectly good set, once upon a time. Why would I try to replace that? So I told myself it didn't matter if these people were busy or weird. But sitting here with them, watching them cheer on past me… it's nice.

***

By the next day, pretty much everyone in the house had seen my battles, my parents showing them off to all the staff.

Everyone seemed pretty impressed with my performance. It made me feel a little better about how things had gone. Hamber even raised an eyebrow! Maybe both eyebrows, hard to tell with his weird hair. Still, as much as I appreciate their support, I want to see how the world at large took it, too.

"Spar!"

"Later, you know what Nurse Joy said," I told Dunsparce, much to his frustration. We'd taken him to a Pokemon Center, and she'd healed him a bit and said he'd be fine, but that it would be best to rest for a few days before training.

Instead of training, I uploaded a video of our semi-final again. This time, it wasn't one that Leah had made, but one that a viewer had made and uploaded to a forum. The video was shakier and more blurry, probably shot with a less expensive camera, maybe just from a regular cell phone, not a Rotom one. There was no better footage, as the tournament officials didn't see fit to release the official footage of the game that disqualified me, which only seemed to attract more attention and speculation online.

Let's see what others have to say about me. This wasn't just me being vain; my family thought my fighting was amazing, but random people online might be more critical of my fighting. And boy, are they more critical. Of... everything.

First of all, instead of the battle forums, my search brought up the latest news article.

"Controversial end to the Junior Tournament!" was the headline of one of the larger Mesagozan newspapers. Reading through the article, the wording was careful not to be overtly offensive to the League staff, but it was quite critical of how the judges had handled the "Tera Orb" situation.

This was followed by a Poke (this world's version of a Tweet) by the Official Paldean League account stating that International Tournaments would use Tera Orbs as Enhancement Items with all the rules and regulations those had and that all future internal tournaments would post any changes from those within those rulings well in advance going forwards.

From there it was onto the forums, and the results were mixed. The first and largest forum by far was Pokemon Trainers Online, and PTO had a lot to say about this decision. I skimmed over some of the more heated parts of the discussion in the early segments that were more reactionary.

@adriontompkins: 'Why is this such a big deal? It was a good match, but the little girl clearly wouldn't have won without the Tera Orb. And really? Bringing a Tera Orb to a Junior Tournament? Isn't that like bringing a Mega Evolution out?'

@IceShredder: 'Yeah, and so is bringing a freaking Corviknight to such a torney. Besides, that's not the real problem, the problem is when the ruling happened. Maybe if they had called it right after the match, people would be less upset.'

@adriontompkins: #IceShredder 'Point. That does feel pretty unfair too, but how are you supposed to judge a trainer for the Pokemon they bring in? I've got my Growlithe from my Ma, and yeah he battled a bit before but nothing serious. I'd hate to have been not allowed to battle with him just cause the League felt it was unfair'

@Fishergal233: 'Does it make a difference? Like, the other semi-final match wouldn't impact the result of the first so…? Sorry, I'm kinda new here, just saw this thread blowing up'

@FasterthanU: 'Understatement of the century, I've never seen people get so riled up about a Junior level Tournament before. Making that ruling at all was wild. The sorta thing that would only happen if someone was cheating - and before any brings up that derail again, Nemona Glitterati was not cheating. She had every reason to believe that what she was doing was allowed.'

@DragoniteDeservesAMega: #FasterthanU 'She had every right to believe it because she was correct. The head judge made a terrible call and backed it up with phony logic when called out on it.'

@kickman34: 'Enhancements being allowed at all feels like an oversight. I've double checked, and nobody brought in Megas in the Junior Tourney history, and once the Alolan adjustments were made, they didn't have to worry about Z-Moves anymore.'

@Havin'aKarablast: 'To play Giratina's advocate here, it is probably true that Teraztalization shouldn't have been allowed. On the other ghostly hand, did the little girl deserve to be punished for the fact that the League didn't get their shit together in time?'

@Fishergal233: 'Ok, this is a lot. What are the issues here?'

@Wilkins19: 'The issues are the corrupt league that let them get away with this blatant cheating!

*User has been warned, keep the discussion civil and productive*

@DripWithStyle: 'Tone it down, buddy. EDIT: See the mods already got to that. While we all agree that this shouldn't have happened, we can be clearer than that. I don't think the entire League is evil, but I don't know what the head judge was smoking to make that call. And after the second semi-final round too? That was egregious.'

@IceShredder: 'Does it matter when the ruling was called? It was a bad call, but it wouldn't have mattered before or after the other round in affecting the finals.'

@TaxiMan09: 'I've been scratching my head trying to make sense of the ruling there. It just don't seem to fit with what should be going on. Perhaps the head judge was just confused in regard to the latest change made for the international rules?'

@KrossKueen: 'Nah, just the League acting up again. Read betwen the lines they dont like his ruling, but don't want to come out against him so they just 'clarify' how things work now.'

@Historybuff48: #Fishergal233 'Anything and everything. To wit:

• Should people be allowed inherited Pokemon in tournaments? (Van Grough's Corviknight belonged to his father originally. Lot of heated debate there)
• Should Enhancement Effects be allowed in low-level tournaments? (Honestly not sure how that one was ever allowed in the rules in the first place. There's some off topic debate a few pages back about where the cut-off badge-wise should be)
• And the big one: The ruling on Nemona's 'loss'. Should the head judge have called a rematch? Should the call have been made sooner? Should they have not made the ruling at all? I.e. was it an illegal ruling?
• Finally, if there was something wrong, could it be changed now? (answer if not likely. People are upset enough about the change happening when it did)

@WaterK1ng: 'Glitterati, they make the Rotom Phones. Do you think this loss will hurt their stock?'

@CuteHat3nnA: 'Wut? Why would their daughter 'losing' hurt their stocks? If anything it should boost them - no such thing as bad publicity, right? Plus, she did really well for a little kid, the final ruling notwithstanding.'

@Hater4Lyfe: 'I can't believe the people weren't rioting. Is there something in the water in Paldea?'

@PoisonFan7008: 'I'll say. If something like this happened in Kanto we'd spontaneously learn to copy Weezing and literally Explode on the spot.'

@GurdurrMyLoins: 'I was there, and it wasn't mind control. Paldeans are a bit more laid back than Kantoans anyways, lol. We were just a little shocked and tired. That tournament had been going on for over 8 hours. In summer. Paldean summers get freaking hot, let me tell ya.

But that doesn't mean everyone was happy about it. Her Dunsparce looked a little derpy at the start but he grew on me. Like a Foongus. Watching that little guy push so hard to win and then get it taken away, man that sucked.

@Havin'aKarablast: 'Yeah, I think the crowd got yelled at by the professor guy for booing earlier? I wonder why he didn't say anything about it?

@DragoniteDeservesAMega: 'Oh yeah, we didn't riot, but there were a lot of angry fans left after we realized this wasn't a joke. Some people stormed out after Nimona left'.

@Paydayz: 'People were yelling at the table too! I got ripped off by them on my Corvi winnings'

@GurdurrMyLoins: 'Come off it, they transferred the bet on Freddrick's semi-final to the final, making it a null round bet. You probably got back what you 'lost' by betting on Freddrick in the final! This was a tough fight. Clodsire fought hard, but Steel/Flying is a tough match for a Ground/Poison. That Sky Attack of Corviknight sure is scary.'

@WaterK1ng: 'What happened to the people who bet on Nemona?

@Havin'aKarablast: 'I'm not sure, I think the betting table tried to get the winners to return the money they had won? Which didn't go over too well, but a lot of those bettors had already placed bets for the next round, which the table would keep if they didn't... There was a lot of arguing from that section of the court.

@IceShredder: 'This whole thing was a scam, Nemona got ROBbed'

@Wilkins19: 'This wasn't just a scam, it was an injustice. We should storm the League and make them pay in blood for this travesty of justice!

*User has been banned. Do not support political violence over a kid's tournament*.

@CuteHat3nnA: 'I see what you mean about people going crazy...'

Quite a few comments supported Dun and I. Saying it was unfair, that we should have won, that we had a better shot, that the judges were to blame, etc. Even memes.

A picture of Dun curled up with the caption "Don't tread on me. Had me totally freaking out. Guess some things will cross the universes even without my influence. There were other funny pictures, some with captions and some not, like Dun with his back turned to Corviknight, blocking her attacks. 'Parry Thi- oh. You did.

'

It was nice to read those things, but there were other comments too…

'What was she doing?'

'I didn't expect the Junior Tournament to be so violent… glad I wasn't there in person.'

'Someone should take her license away.'

'The only reason why she 'won' was because her opponent must have been feeling sorry for her and didn't want to kill her snake. Glad the judges fixed that and the best trainer became the true winner. #Freddrick van Gogogo!'

'Dunsparce are dumb. Glitterati's are loaded and there's like thousands of Pokemon to choose from, why did she pick a Pokemon like that? Wtf lol.'

'Wow, a Corviknight lost to a freaking Dunsparce? That's sad.'

'She must have been cheating. I see why she was kicked out now, no way she could beat a majestic Corviknight.'

Ok, I can probably discount the last comment from MurderOfChivalry73, but still. Those were the minority of the comments, I knew. Dozens of more supportive comments for any of those (and hundreds more just confused or undecided). Any anonymous asshole online could post whatever they wanted, and I was scanning thoroughly through multiple forums. Why can't I help but fixate on these types of comments? They shouldn't get to live in my head, plague my every waking moment.

At least people are ragging on Freddrick here too. Stupid, nepotistic, asshole, gonna beat your fucking face in- I cut off that line of thought. Deep breaths, in and out.

"Arce?" Dun tilted his head to the side, wondering what I was doing.

"Ah, sorry, just trying to calm down," I said, forcing a smile out. Can't make him upset just because of what I'm dealing with. "Some of these comments rile me up. But! There's some good stuff here. Like, that Move you did at the end? It's called Last Resort, that's one of the strongest Moves anyone can learn!"

"Dun dun! Unarce!"

"Yeah,- oh." I stopped for a moment as I read another comment. I sighed and read it aloud to Dunsparce (he could read too, but not as fast as I could).

"It looks like the Dunsparce used Yawn here. Interestingly, Nemona seems to have taught him an invisible variation without the usual visible cloud enveloping the opponent. This clever move caught her opponent off guard and allowed Dunsparce to capitalize on the fact that the Corviknight was falling asleep'".

"That's why Yawn wasn't working properly! We only succeeded about half the time because we were missing part of the Move." I groaned. "At least now we can fix that."

"Isn't it useful to have an invisible version to catch an opponent off guard, bzzt?" Rotom asked.

"I mean, yeah, it is. But in battles where the opponent can't switch, more accuracy is useful. Plus, it can be useful on its own to try and 'force' a switch from your opponent when you have a bad matchup." Some trainers would use their switch-up way too early to prevent their Pokemon from falling asleep. As Corviknight proved, sometimes a Pokemon can just outlast it.

After a minute I added "You are right though, it's not bad to have more options. We were in a rough spot against Corviknight there because we hadn't trained enough Moves to cover a Steel-Flying Type."

"Dun. Spar!" Dun pouted.

"Hey, hey, it's not your fault, it's mine. I should have realized how useful things like Ancient Power would be and had you do some training in that."

Dun shook his head, wiggling up and awkwardly trying to type on it till he found what he wanted. Turning around he pointed at it with his tail (more of a jab that Rotom thankfully backed out of the way of).

"Last Resort? I- no, we can't practice that Move. It's great that you know it, but that Move…"

Everything I'd read online about it was that trying to train it was practically torture. Maybe minus the practically. It wasn't like a game where you could order your Pokemon to only remember Fake-Out and Last Resort, in this world Last Resort was a true last resort. You didn't need to cycle through every Move your Pokemon knew, but they needed to be feeling desperate and have used a good deal of your energy before it was even possible. People are already telling me that was too much. If we're forced into it, sure, I'll use it. I don't need to try and push Dun that hard on the regular, however.

My starter didn't seem to feel the same way, though, pouting. "C'mon buddy, let's go outside. Some fresh air will do us some good." I scooped him up, but he wiggled out of my arms.

"Du."

"Hey stop that. Look, I know you're upset about what happened. Frederick is a dirty cheater, but we shouldn't let that ruin-" I covered my ears as Dunsparce let out a sudden, shrill sound that had me clutching my ears. "Ahhh! Dun, stop!"

"I get it, you're upset," I said after he calmed down. "But there's nothing we can do, so there's no point moping here."

"Dun dun!" My Dunsparce countered.

"Bzzt, unfortunately, Nemona was the only one to hear their collusion, so we can't report him to the authorities," Rotom pointed out. Dun had a different idea, wiggling into the space behind my bed, jabbing his tail into thin air, then wiggling out and making odd chirping sounds.

"What are you- no. No! We are not finding Freddrick in a dark alley and attacking him! Why would he even be in a dark alley?!"

"Arce dun!"

"You're right, that's not the point, the point is we aren't going to go after him." No matter how tempting that sounds. "He'd beat us anyways. We got lucky last time and this time he'll be ready for our tricks-"

"DUUUN!" My Pokemon shouted, slamming the ground and causing my room to shake.

"Dunsparce! What-?!" I fell to the ground, surprised by his sudden aggression. Awkwardly, I reached for his Pokeball and recalled him. "What was that?" I asked the empty air (technically Rotom was here too, but I didn't expect them to have a better answer than I did).

Holding up the ball I said to the Pokemon inside "Just… cool off a bit, ok?" There was no response, but the fact that he wasn't bursting out made me think he got the message.

***

The next few days didn't go any better with Dun. He was feeling strong enough for light training, but that wasn't what he was interested in.

"Dun, use Screech." I pointed at a small pile of old glass I'd placed around the beach as practice targets. The winged land snake made no sound with his mouth, instead propelling himself at the glass. Since this was the third time he had attempted this and once again failed to manifest the star-shaped energy from a successful Last Resort that would push him ahead faster, I had plenty of time to recall him to his Pokeball before he would have smashed headfirst into them.

Releasing him a second later left neither of us impressed. "Dun, why are you so obsessed with that Move?"

"Dunsparce!" He was angry, tail thrashing into the ground and kicking up sand, but I couldn't tell why exactly. This is an element from the show and games I didn't see as much. That language barrier. I can tell he's frustrated, but I'm missing the little details.

Switching tracks I turned to Rotom. "Hey Rotom, how about we start on your training." I gave them a big thumbs up, as if that would somehow make the fake smile on my face more real. They hovered about, plasmic eyes shifting on their body as if looking for a way out (despite us being in the open).

"Oh boy, bzzt." They said, unenthusiastically. No, not unenthusiastic, just nervous. They still want to train, it's just a big step.

"Don't worry, we'll start easy. Just some basic Thundershocks on the sand, to get a feel for your Electric energy. That's the Type that will remain the same no matter which Form you are in, so it's good to have a solid handle on that Type."

"Bzzt, I'm not sure I can do that in my phone case."

Nodding, I agreed with them, much to their disappointment. "Yeah, you will need to leave your case for this. Don't worry I'll hold on to it while you're training and take good care of it."

"Dun, un un. Arce." Dunsparce muttered dismissively at the scene. Then he slithered to the bottom of the stairs, jumped up, and headed back up the path to the house.

I waited until he was out of sight and punched a nearby tree in frustration. "Gahhh!"

"Young Miss, bzzt?" Rotom asked worriedly as he hovered close to me.

"Oww. I'm sorry, I'm just so angry. Freddrick is a dirty cheater and - I don't understand why he has to act like this." I shook my hand, throbbing with pain at my ill-advised moment of frustration. "Could you talk to him? Find out?"

"Bzzt, excuse me, but I find I understand him only as well as you do. Maybe less well. I didn't realize you were so upset about Freddrick," they commented.

"Well, of course I am. I hate Freddrick for what he did." For the past few days, I had been distracted by imagining increasingly unlikely situations in which I would find Freddrick. Sometimes I'd beat him in a Pokemon battle, other times I'd trick him into confessing something. Mostly, my fantasies were just about beating him up.

I sighed. "But lashing out doesn't help anyone, least of all yourself." I glanced at the cracks I'd left in the tree. Impressive, for a girl a few days off seven years old. But still pointless; my hand hurts, and hitting the tree didn't help anything either.

"Bzzt, you might be looking at this too logically, Young Miss." I gave them a look, which they accepted with a small bob of their body. "I know, I can fall victim to that way of thinking too, bzzt. Dun's not thinking of the consequences of that, just being frustrated at not being strong enough."

I shook my head, blinking. "What do you mean, not strong enough? Dun is incredibly strong."

"Oh, he is, bzzt. For any other… quirks he may have, he's quite strong. Bzzt right now, I think he doesn't feel very strong. If he had been able to win without Terastalization, then Freddrick couldn't have used that excuse to get you kicked out, right?"

"Oh." The epiphany hit me so hard that I looked up to make sure an apple hadn't fallen on my head to grant me this insight (it didn't, not the least of which was because this wasn't an apple tree). That was just some offhand comment I made because I was trying to deflect from my anger.

"He doesn't realize I'm just as angry about it too because I'm trying to hide it. My reasoning for training him on different paths than Last Resort and what I said about him losing if we fought Corviknight again, and then abandoning training with him… argh." I moaned as I put the pieces together. "He thinks I'm giving up. On fighting, on the promise I made to him! He thinks I think he's weak and he wants to prove he's strong!"

All because I suck at communicating. God, I'm so stupid. No! Enough self-recrimination, focus on the situation and how to actually fix it! I doubt that what I've thought of is the only reason why he's acting this way, there's probably something else here. Still, that's the main thrust of his issues with me, and that's what I need to address right now.

Dun not being strong was the furthest thing from my mind - Dun had been incredible in that tournament. Facing off a fully evolved Pokemon and winning despite having only resisted Moves? Insanely strong. His determination was amazing, and I wanted to see him shine to his fullest.

"Maybe not that much, but you should tell him that, bzzt," Rotom advised.

"Yeah. Wait no, I should show him that." A plan started forming in my head. Only a few days left, but I think I can do it.

***

Dun remained in his ball most of the time or moping around the house in the follow-up from our spat on the beach. I let him avoid me for that time as it let me work on my surprise. Which hit a few snags, admittedly. I hope he likes it.

With everything ready, I woke Dunsparce on the big day. Before he could slither out of my room I barred his path. "Hey Dun, we need to talk."

"Un." He turned his head slightly away from me, reluctant. Does he feel guilty about how he's been behaving? Well, that is a good sign, he was being a bit rowdy. Still, I gotta acknowledge my part in missing his feelings in this mess too.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding on my part, about why you've been so upset recently. I've been trying to keep down my rage at Freddrick and the tournament as much as possible, because…A lot of reasons. I get too angry, and let little annoyances take over my life, and he was more than just a little annoyance. Or, was he?"

"Uuuuun?" He said, confused.

"Freddrick Van Grough cheated and cost us our victory in the tournament. That, while frustrating, should not be a big thing. He's a small, pathetic little pissant, and while I hope he gets his due... He's so small that we shouldn't be focusing on him, though I know that's easier to say than do. What's big, what truly matters, is you."

"Dun?" He said hopefully, and more than a little confused. Then he added "Ar, arce, un."

"You're asking if this means just letting him go?" He wobbled his head before shaking it.

"Hmm… oh! You want to make sure this never happens again?" I hazarded, to which he eagerly nodded. Nice, I think I'm getting a better grasp on what he's 'saying'.

"Well, we're not going to be running blindly into a mess like that again, especially with such a new ruling. I'll be looking into anything like that much more carefully, checking ahead of time with the officials to ensure that no one can pull the rug out from under us again."

"That's an interesting saying, bzzt," Rotom commented.

"Huh, is that not a thing here? Weird. Wonder what took its place culturally." Dun shifted on the ground, the sound reminding me of what I was doing. "Right! So I'll also be using the contacts my parents gave me. A full-on legal team, on video call whenever we need them, in case some argument like this gets brought up again. I won't run away, I'll fight it properly." That pressure of feeling like the crowd was staring me down was a lot. Hopefully, in the future, my preparations will ensure I won't ever be in this situation again. Honestly, I hope that nothing like this does ever crop up again, and my preparations aren't necessary.

I had some doubts I could avoid anything like this, given my meta-knowledge. I hadn't been thinking about Penny or Team Star, but I would have probably just tried to be their friend but not realized what kind of pressure they faced from the authority of the old staff. They pointed out that she did nothing wrong, but Penny was still forced to leave. I've got options that could help her this time.

Options that I would be reluctant to use otherwise. My parents had somehow gotten me the personal number of the current Chairman of the Pokemon League. A nuclear option to be sure, if I used it in a match I'm certain there would be public outcry against me, no matter how reasonable or necessary the situation. But if I do need it, I have it.

"D-Dun. Dunspar?"

"Ah, that," I said feeling a bit awkward as he asked about a more recent issue, in what I had said about how he would lose against Corviknight if they fought again. "I was getting fixated on the wrong things there. Kinda like the referee who found me." At least I hope so. She meant well and was willing to listen to me and investigate the matter. According to my parents, a League official is looking into it, so hopefully we'll see results from their investigation.

"People can be bad at communicating, and I'm no exception there. I shouldn't have been making the point of how technically without Terastalization you might be weaker than that one Corviknight. I should be talking about just how strong and incredible you are."

"You want to show that you're strong, and I know that. We went into that tournament, not to win, but to get stronger. Being Champion would be nice, but I just want the strength to go anywhere in this wonderful world, and by that metric? This tournament was a great success. None of that invalidates the promise I made you, though. I'll aim for Champion, because I want to, and also to show the world the truth: One day, you will be the very, very strongest." Walking over to my gigantic closet I opened it up, pulling out what I'd hidden there last night.

It was a large trophy in the shape of a tall bowl-like cup. The top of it reached up to my neck and there were two loopy handles on the sides. At the base, I had metal plates with the words carved in 'The strongest Dunsparce in the world'. Hefting it up, I presented it to him. "As proof of what I said, and to celebrate everything we've done so far. I may not have been able to get you a trophy for the tournament, but you've more than earned this."

Quickly, I placed the trophy down before Dunsparce rushed towards me doing a passable impression of a Tackle. Or a Dragon Rush, oof, I thought as he bowled me giving sharp, happy cries as he nuzzled into my arms.

"I'm so sorry I didn't realize how you were feeling before." My eyes were still a little watery, but I was so happy to have Dunsparce back in my arms, acting like his usual self. After a minute of hugging him, he squirmed to indicate he wanted to be let out, and when I did he wiggled right over to the trophy inspecting it from all around, getting a good look at it.

Gah, it feels so embarrassing. I know it's my first work but it doesn't look anywhere near as good as the trophy they handed out at the end of the tournament. Dun didn't seem to agree with my evaluation, cooing over it all, eyes wide open as he took it all in. He could just be appreciative of the gesture, or maybe because I made it clear I recognized him. But, I guess in the end it doesn't matter. So long as he's happy, I'm happy.

As I wiped away my tears, I heard Rotom's camera shutter go off in the background, taking pictures of this moment. "Thank you too, Rotom, for helping me realize what I needed to do."

"Dun, un, sparce sparce." Dunsparce said to Rotom as well, and the phone blushed for a moment, seeming both affronted yet proud. I question Rotom only understanding Dun as well as I do because they definitely got more of that exchange than I did.

"We'll probably need a whole room for all the trophies you guys will win in the future, but for now I was thinking of putting this one in my bedroom, so you can see it often. Sound good?"

Dunsparce nodded eagerly and I carefully picked it up, placing it on the desk in my room. "Now, I've got another gift, and this one is for both of you. Let's go down to the beach for me to unveil this though."

"Un."

"Bzzt, let's go!"

"Just wait a moment you two!" I said, laughing at their impatience. All three of us likely would have zipped out of the room, however last time we did that I accidentally bowled over a butler, and Dunsparce knocked over a vase (not sure if that one was accidental or not because the thing was a pretty hideous shade of orange), and we all (even Rotom) got chewed out for it by Leah.

Once outside, however, there were no such limits and we raced down to the beach. "First!" I called out, as I reached an arbitrary rock in the sand. Dunsparce skidded past me a second later, but turned pretty sharply, using his tail to counterbalance and spin 180 degrees. His maneuverability is improving and in a straight line, he's faster than me. The curved path down is probably the only reason I was able to beat him.

"Alright, so the other present." Fishing them out from my bag I pulled out a dozen Technical Machines. "Ta-da!"

Dunsparce looked eager, while Rotom was kind of confused. "Bzzt, didn't you want to focus on fundamentals, and not use the machines?"

"That was the reason I gave, and it was true, but I've been thinking about it more." All the strongest competitors, Atticus, and even Freddrick, used plenty of Technical Machine Moves. And I was using them too, with the ones left over after the Haxorus incident.

I scratched my chin, trying to think of how to explain this right. "I think I was shying away from using my family's money to advance as a trainer, only using the TMs I already had. I wanted to make it more 'on my own'. Which is honestly kind of silly - everyone has advantages they use to be a better trainer. I can't hold back because I have some advantages other people don't, even if I could wish that the world was a more even playing field. All I can do is my best by you two, so you rise up and become the best you can be."

It might be selfish of me to think like this, but it's true. I'm not holding back my knowledge or intellect from being reborn in this world, so I'm not going to hold back on using the money I've been given either. It's not like other people beat themselves up over way bigger isekai cheats than I have. "That's not to say it wasn't right to focus on what Dun knew at the time. Your Moves were incredibly strong because we honed those few to perfection, which got us that win, no matter what anyone else says."

"Dun!" He agreed with a determined look in his eyes.

"But there are also gaps in your training. I focused too much on just maneuverability and strong Physical Moves. Luckily, we don't have the time crunch we had for the tournament. Now we can spend a good long time practicing these Moves and making all of them just as strong as the ones you had in the tournament. And the good news is, a lot of these Moves can be learned by both of you!" I flashed out two copies of Thunder, Hyper Voice, and Protect each. They probably don't actually consider it 'good news', but I do; I can use their rivalry to help spur each other on.

They were already exchanging competitive glares with each other, so I considered that scheme a success. Just as Rivals help improve Trainers, a bit of that often helps Pokemon improve too.

"Of course, there's also the Moves you can learn naturally, which we'll keep on practicing." Catching Dun's gaze I scratched the back of my head. "I guess I didn't explain my resistance to Last Resort all that well either. Let me try and sum it up."

"Last Resort is a really powerful Move, and it gets that power from being a Move of desperation. Being frightened, exhausted, feeling doom crushing in around you, combined with a drive to fight through. You've got plenty of the latter, but it's the former that worries me. To really train the Move, would mean getting better at using it, reaching the mental state to call upon it more often and faster. And feeling that bad constantly… It can twist your mind and I don't want that for you, ever. So while I'd be open to trying to use it at the end of a tough training session once or twice and there might come another day when we need it, but I hope you can see why I don't want your training to focus on that."

Dun let out a large sigh but nodded his large head. "Don't fret, proper tactics and using your Moves well can make up for sheer power. And well, I did say it was only 'one of' the strongest Moves, right?" I pulled out a final TM from my pocket.

"This right here is the strongest Move. Bar none." Ok, technically, bar Z-Moves or V-Create or Prismatic Laser, but I'm not counting those. "It has its drawbacks, of being draining to use, but I think that will be a lot healthier of a drawback to tackle and try and train with. And it is even stronger than Last Resort."

"I thought Hyper Beam was the strongest Move, bzzt," Rotom commented, hovering over to look at the Giga Impact disc.

"Pshaw, Hyper Beam this and that, everyone's always going on about that Move. Yes, it's really strong too and has a similar drawback to its use, but Giga Impact is just as strong as it.

Dunsparce as a species tend to lean more towards Physical attacks anyways, so this will be the best for him." Turning to him I added "You won't need Hyper Beam anyways. After you evolve, you'll be able to learn a really powerful special Move called Boomburst that only a few other Pokemon can learn. Boomburst is as strong as Last Resort, but none of the drawbacks of it, or even the other really strong Moves like Giga Impact or Hyper Beam." Okay, blowing out all the windows in a large radius around you might be a 'drawback' in some situations, but it's true that once he learns that Move it'll be a lot easier to spam than the others.

"Dun?" He asked, wonder shining in his eyes. Ah well, that's a fair ways off- oh, no, he's not focused on Boomburst. The other thing I said.

"I don't think your evolution is that far off. By my next birthday, I'm pretty sure you'll be a Dudunsparce." His eyes widened further, making me wonder if he was actually straining them. "If you want, there's no rush to evolving, don't even have to if you don't want-"

"Du, dun, sparce!" I laughed at his enthusiastic response while idly wondering about Pokemon speech patterns. Do Pokemon often evolve with similar names because it's easier for the vocal cords to adjust? Why do Pokemon only speak like that?

Over the horizon, I could see a flying taxi headed towards my house, and knew that meant Arven would be here soon. "All that is for tomorrow though. Today it's time to celebrate. My birthday, and the day I met you. Thank you, Dun."

***

We went up to meet Arven to play some card and tabletop games, Cyan joining us soon after. We didn't have any of the more niche board games I liked to play in my old life, but it was still plenty of fun to play Pokeopoly and Trainer Journey (like Life™).

"How's it going our wonderful birthday girl?" O'Nare said, sweeping through the doorway, Billy following swiftly behind her.

"Mom, Dad!" I ran up to give them a big hug each. "You're home early." It was barely into the afternoon. I'd noticed they'd been working at getting back to a more regular (for them) schedule ever since they missed the tournament, but this was still pretty early. "It's going great, I'm whooping Arven at Trainer Journey."

"It's not fair, she's just too lucky!" Arven pouted, crossing his arms, his long hair obscuring most of his face as he slumped over.

"All skill," I countered, showing my incredible maturity by resisting the urge to stick my tongue out at him. Though honestly, luck has played a decent role in it. I might have picked optimal paths when given the choice of where to go or how to hedge my bets, but I got pretty lucky spins on the wheel too. Rotom is probably planning this the best out of all of us but has abysmal luck.

"Why is Maschiff in the corner?" Billy reasonably asked.

"Cheating," Arven, Cyan, and I deadpanned simultaneously. Cyan gave the hound the stink-eye, having been the one to catch him stealing notes out of the 'bank', a look the dog returned with a pained yowl at the injustice of it all. I see the evil smirk in your eyes though, I know what you're up to!

Nonetheless, the Dark Type was let back into our next game which my parents joined in as well. Unsurprisingly since it was a variation of Cheat, Maschiff swept the floor with us all (though I at least got second place). It was a rather small 'party', but I honestly liked it that way; too many people would make me feel crowded and awkward like I'd say the wrong thing and someone I didn't know as well would judge me. This is nice.

After the games was dinner where we had steaks and steamed vegetables with pan-fried potatoes. It's not quite like how I made it in my old life, but this is definitely delicious. Our guest agreed too, though he was more focused on another aspect.

"I still can't believe you guys get meat every night for dinner." Arven said when my father had pointed out that this was 'delicious even for standard fare'.

"Yeah, I guess we're pretty lucky." Another thing to be grateful for. Regular animals are a lot rarer here, so only the rich can afford to have meat in their meals often.

Noticing O'Nare opening her mouth I quickly continued, before her line of questioning might determine that a Professor's son might count as a 'commoner.' "It looks like we're almost done, so let's get dessert, and then, the presents!"

I had presented a small but appropriate list this time well in advance to my family so that there would be no repeats of a surprise Haxorus this year.

I'd asked for Pan au Chocolates for my birthday rather than cake, and the chef had done a masterful job of them (my dislike of cake had carried over from my past life, but having a live-in kitchen staff meant they could easily accommodate my weird tastes). They were fluffy, and warm, with a delicious chocolate center.

After dinner, they brought out their gifts. "Here you go!" Arven said, rushing up eagerly, the first one to give me a gift. The gift looked lumpy, made of something soft. The paper that wrapped it was messily applied, and I felt a bit of saliva on the outside. Maschiff must have helped him, and I think his work is a little neater than Arven's.

Opening it up I saw it was a holster, one that looked designed for a singular Pokeball. It could be worn around the waist and connected to a larger belt, or adjusted to be strapped to the thigh or arm. But why would I need a single extra Pokeball holder- oh!

"This is for my Tera Orb!" My face lit up as I realized the purpose of his gift.

"Yeah! I saw at the tournament you just had it in your pocket and thought you might need a better place to put it. Also, my dad included something as well." He pointed in the pouch and I flipped it up to see a thin red rectangular device within.

"Is this… a Pokedex?!?"

"Yeah, he said it might be handy. You aren't an official lab-sponsored trainer or anything like that, but he said you can put in any notes or obsavations you want. It has a buncha fun facts on it too!" I was wondering why he was being so nice here, given his aloofness at the tournament.

Arven motioned for me to pass it to him to demonstrate, which I did with a slight roll of my eyes he missed. Kids. Always wanting to try out someone else's gifts. As he did so, I strapped the Pouch around my arm, placing the Tera Orb securely within.

"It says here that Alakazam have an IQ of over 5,000, wow! Did you know that?"

Stifling a giggle as he passed it back I said "I'd heard the rumor."

"Aw man, you know everything Nemona. Looks like you won't need that much." I shook my head vigorously at his words.

"No way, this will still be incredibly handy." The anecdotes in the Pokemon's entries may be less verified, but there's a bunch of information in here that will be super useful. Much more reliable than trying to sift through the forums and people making random claims online. "Your gift is great too, I really like it."

He blushed, mumbling how it was 'nothing'. While he was doing that, my sister pushed ahead with her gift. "Open it!" She demanded eagerly.

From the outside look of the package I could guess what it was, but I was still very pleased to open the wrapping paper and see it confirmed. "A guitar! I didn't think you remembered." I had mentioned wanting to get into music a few months ago but had been too busy to look into it afterward.

The guitar was wooden with a sleek body. There were six strings across the neck and a slot at the bottom to connect it to an amp if I wanted. With this, I might be able to bring back some of the songs I knew in my old world. I only half-remember a lot of them, but I'll do my best.

Then came my parents' gifts. Neither of them had wrapped their gifts, making me wonder if they had tried to do so on their own but been unable to perform this mystic 'commoner art.' Given that Billy's gift was in a bag and O'Nare's was in a small case, I couldn't tell what they were exactly. I didn't tease them about it of course, because I knew they were trying very hard… and to save as blackmail for later. Not just parents that get to save up embarrassing stories from childhood!

Mom went first presenting the case to me, which I opened up to see a bunch of small bottles inside. "No way, is this…?" I asked for this only a couple of days ago, I'm so glad she got them!

"A year's supply of nutrient supplements for Dunsparce! Iron, Carbos, Protein, and the like to make sure he grows big and strong." Oh, they'll do that and then some. These things can help bolster a training regime, and fetch a high price for it. She went on to explain that the rest of the year's supply was being stored in the kitchen and would be mixed into Dun's meals in the future.

Billy passed me the small black one strap backpack he had been holding, which upon closer inspection I saw was a Sliph Co. bag. "Oh this is great, it can hold so much stuff in it."

"Indeed, and you might just find something already in there," he said, practically vibrating in anticipation. And I thought I was supposed to be the excited one. And the kid. I still opened it eagerly, stretching the opening quite wide.

Within the extradimensional depths, the dark-purple swirl of the pocket dimension, I saw a familiar-looking machine. Pulling it out made for an odd sensation as I could easily heft it out of the bag, but when it started exiting, gravity began exerting itself on the small-ish red washing machine I pulled out. "A Rotom appliance!"

Rotom flew around it, still inside their phone. "This is quite something, bzzt! I can sense the potential of this device from here, the energy it holds. It looks so durable too, bzzt!"

"I- oh. That's not the only one," I said as I caught sight of something else in the bag. Pulling them out one after another I placed the different Rotom Appliances in front of me. Oven, Refrigerator, Fan, and Lawn Mower all joined the Washing Machine. "All the Rotom forms…"

"You mentioned how good Heat and Wash were, but I figured all of them would be good just to be safe-" He began before I cut him off by hugging him tightly. "Oof. Not just smart, our baby girl has gotten- so strong!" He wheezed before I let him go and hugged my mom too.

"Thank you guys so much! Dun and Rotom are going to be so strong with this! We're going to win every battle and become the best champion there ever was!"

Spoiler: A/N:

So... that was an update or three (originally Chapter 21 was two separate chapters). This was one of the hardest parts of my story when I originally posted it, and it received a lot of backlash. The majority of it was accepted with time as the story unfolded, but I did edit a small part to better show the audience's reaction this time around. I hope that posting these together will help with any bad feelings on the matter as we move on to the 'Tutor arc'. The story between Nemona and Freddrick isn't over, but for now things are at rest.

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Gettin' hit with a Double-Slap of Chapters! Truly we are blessed. Having said that, here are my knee-jerk reactions to what I just read.
1) Fuck that guy and his whiny ass! How dare her bring a third stage evolution that's been juiced up with TMs and other things and still have the gall to cry about his loss.
2) Conversely, from the POV of your average trainer kid that signed up for this Junior Tournament, they got hit by the paywall hard and had to watch Ironman have a money fight with Batman.

I don't think Nemona sees exactly how privileged she is and how smooth she has it. Prime example being the Haxorus Incident, but also being able to afford All the Rotoms.

She most definitely put in the hours and so did her 'mon but lil' two-buck Timothy only has his pet 'mon and a backyard while she's had a regulation field, TMs, Super New Not-Mega-evolution Gimmick, and enough dosh to pave her path as smooth as possible. and in Tim's eyes, the spectacle of the match was great but in the end it was a "he said she said of richie riches"

Tim has to hustle however he can and Nemona might see it and go "I don't need this extra ceremony. I just wanna fight" and He might be offended at the "nepo baby" for knockin on his grind.

edit: sorry for the rant. Love the progress. Keep up the apparently resonating work!

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter
The Journey continues
Cheers!

 

[Xsyq]

Always difficult to pull off an undeserved loss in a Pokemon fic. I remember the Will debacle in Hard Enough.
Looking forward to how things turn out from here though.

 

[Skyfyre]

Charizard let out a tired yawn beside my desk before slumping back down again. He was curled up on the floor of the school laboratory I was 'working' in. I reached a hand down to absently scratch the top of his head as I went over the acceptance letter one more time.

'Dear Professor Friede, we were thrilled to see your application letter and are happy to welcome you aboard as the latest member of Exceed. Your thesis was nothing short of marvelous. We look forward to…' Yada yada yada. A bunch of nice words thanking me and telling me to get ready for 12 hours a day in an office or maybe a laboratory, if I'm lucky.

My partner stopped enjoying my service and looked up at me with a big sigh.

"No clue, Charizard, just in a funk."

With further prompting from my partner, I added:

"This was supposed to be what I wanted, everything I was looking for. Everything we worked so hard for." The flying lizard next to me may have been more inclined to take to the skies than read dusty textbooks, but when it came time to study for exams, he was always right there. Whether it was pointing out something I had missed or simply creating a light with his tail that I could study by deep into the night.

"Char char. Rizard."

"It's a nice offer, really generous given my inexperience. This Director Crave seems to love my ideas, I just... I don't know." Charizard cocked his head to the side, puffing out a small ring of smoke nearby the acceptance letter. "Yes, I could turn it down, but what then? Work for the League? All of them are gearing up for Turo's big expedition." It was still many months off even starting yet, but the scientific world was abuzz with the idea of another foray into the Great Crater.

Probably have all the papers printed about as soon as the 'great Professor Turo's' next research becomes public knowledge- No, I couldn't think like that. Sure, it sucked to have my big achievement of becoming the youngest-ever accredited Pokemon Professor be overshadowed, but that wasn't the dude's fault.

Having met him, I found him to be somewhat stiff, but not rude or condescending. I could totally join up with him, especially for a shot at exploring the Great Crater!... If it wasn't for what that little girl had said.

Why was she so convinced it would be bad? Maybe she was just acting weird, little kids do that, right? It felt wrong, like a conclusion that fit the current data at first glance, but was completely wrong when you delved deeper, correlating the wrong evidence and getting an incorrect result.

No, that's definitely not right, Turo was acting very strange. I was waiting for him to say something, defend his invention, and then he just... didn't. Seemed more interested in whatever was on his phone while we were all shocked, then almost annoyed at having to look for Nemona after she ran off.

The door to the laboratory opened suddenly, and I turned to look at the newcomer. She wasn't dressed like any Professor or student, the tall woman wore a dark blue suit. Her long black hair with yellow streaks looked familiar, but it wasn't until she opened her mouth that I could place her.

"Apologies, this wouldn't happen to be the bloodwork lab, would it?" The referee who helped us search for Nemona before asked.

"Nah, it's down the hallway. Why's a referee asking?"

There was a flicker of a frown that crossed her face before she smoothed it out. "Ah, you remembered me. I'm Geeta, a League Official," she pulled out her ID to verify her words as she spoke. "I'm investigating a certain matter and got permission to use these facilities."

Well, that answers less than nothing, I noted before getting up. "Professor Friede. Let me show you where they are, the testing apparatus can be a bit tricky."

As we walked down the hall, I also thanked her. "Thanks for helping us find Nemona, we were all kinda worried when she ran off like that." From the few messages she'd sent me, she seemed to be doing much better, but I knew it was hard to tell how someone was doing from just a few texts - and she, in particular, had a plethora of hidden depths.

"It was no problem. Are you close to her?" The question was polite enough, but there was something steely about her gaze that made me think there was more going on. What it could be though, I have no idea.

"Not really, I met her the day of the tournament. Nice kid though, real bright." I said as I opened the door to the blood works lab.

"As bright as yourself?"

"Hah! Well, maybe," I added after a moment of reflection. What she said about Hisuian Zoroark was true after all. I dug through damn near every document in Uva Academy on ancient Sinnohan Pokemon to collect barely what she had told me off-handedly, but the facts were there.

She raised an eyebrow but didn't press the topic, moving over to the analysis machines. From her pocket, she pulled out a vial with a blood-soaked cloth within.

"Alright, you'll want to place that here to begin an analysis. What's the sample from and what are you looking for?"

"Any traces of unusual vitamins, drugs, or the like in this blood. Belongs to a Flying/Steel Type."

"OK, given those parameters you'll want to be running these scans…" I walked her through the basics and she was able to run her test, the results popping up on the screen.

"Looks like a female, decent health, high-ish iron, but that's to be expected for a Steel Type, and some trace Powerephenol." At her questioning glance, I clarified. "Power Herb. It's an ingredient only found in that plant and where the chemical takes its name from."

"I see. Is there any chance this trace element could be a false positive or have been consumed long ago?" She inquired while pressing the button to print out the results.

"No, no way. This equipment is state of the art and it's quite a distinctive chemical. Powerephenol gets burnt up fast by any Pokemon that eats it - that's why Power Herb is a battle item, it's best eaten and used to power up a Move right away. Even a trace amount like this could have been consumed no more than half an hour before the sample was taken."

"Could a 'trace amount' still affect a battle?" She pressed.

Ooh, that's a toughie. "... I think so, yeah. I believe Professor Fir did a study on it and proved that there was a noticeable effect on Moves at any point where we could still measure the Power Herb in the system. Double blinds were done to ensure that there was no placebo effect as well."

Geeta blinked. "That's quite knowledgeable of you. I see that the standards for Professorship remain high." She nodded, seeming quite pleased with that fact.

"Why thank you," I said back faux modestly. Then, I added: "Honestly, part of it is just looking into other studies, running my own confirmation tests while waiting for my applications to go through. And now, I'll be able to run my experiments." Sure, I'd have tasks assigned to me by Exceed, they had their corporate interests, but I'd have plenty of leeway to run my own projects as well. I might not be able to supervise them all that closely due to my responsibilities for Exceed, but having those resources to run them is a bright side. I have to remember to keep looking out for those.

Her Rotom Phone chimed and floated up to show her a new message, and I caught a glimpse of just the person who sent it. They were titled 'G. Investigators,' and whatever they had to say had her quickly giving her farewell. "I see. I wish you the best in your future endeavors, and thank you for the help you've provided me." She gave me a small bow before turning and walking out.

"No problem, best of luck in your investigation." Whatever it is you're looking into. A Steel Flying Type using Power Herb eaten early sounds like a weird case… my mind flashed back to the final battle Nemona had, the glowing Corviknight diving down at Dunsparce.

"Were you-!" I ran out the door, but in the time it had taken me to put the pieces together, she was long gone. Curse her long legs!

I explained the matter to Charizard, who was upset but didn't know what to do. "Me neither."

This feels like something Nemona would want to know, but should I tell her? Especially before the investigation is over, it might just make her upset.

Resolving to review the matter later, I still brought up my phone to text and check in with her.

Friede: 'Hello young scholar, how's it going?'

Nemona: 'Lol, told you, Friede, you don't need to call me that. I'm doing well, just had my birthday party. I got a bunch of cool gifts, especially stuff to help me train Dun and Rotom!'

Sounds like she's feeling more chipper. She hasn't mentioned anything about the end of the match. I kinda want to ask, but if she's avoiding it, might be best to let things lie.

Friede: 'And you didn't think to invite me? How cruel, everyone knows I love cake '

Nemona: 'Ah, I didn't think you'd want to come. Also, there was no cake.'

Friede: 'What? No cake??? But I thought you were loaded.'

Nemona: 'Yeah, and being rich doesn't preclude me not liking cake.'

Friede: 'I don't know if I can trust the scientific acumen of someone who can ignore the fundamental greatness of cake.'

Nemona: 'Hah, I can kick your butt any day of the week in Pokemon knowledge.'

So formal in her texts, but also childish. It was an odd mix that seemed to define the young girl.

Her last text was also a decent opening so I decided to pick her brain a bit on something I'd been wondering about.

Friede: 'I doubt that. Though now that you mention it, you did say some interesting stuff about Hisuian Pokemon before…'

Nemona: '(Biggrin) What is it you wish to know, oh humble seeker of knowledge?'

Friede: 'Alright big brain, what's your theory on some of the regional variants of the era? The stuff about inactive volcanos and polar shift can only explain so much.'

Nemona: 'They can explain some things, like the more base Elemental Type changes. As for the other changes, while I can't be certain, a lot of those regional variations were only recorded by Professor Laventon and the Survey Corp, during the Sinnoh Crisis. At that time there was a massive distortion field hanging over the land. That kind of environmental influence could have had a huge effect on the Pokemon there at the time.'

I blinked, staring at my screen. Of course, how did I miss that? No, how did she figure that out? For a little girl to have instantly figured out a solid-sounding hypothesis to my problem… it was more than just impressive.

Friede: 'That would make a lot of sense, especially with some of the Ghost and even Psychic varients at the time! How did you know all of that?'

There was a long pause before she finally typed a message back.

Nemona: 'I like studying the past, there's a lot of interesting stuff that happened back then. And like I said, I don't know any of it, just assumptions really. Gotta go train now, talk later.'

Glancing over at Charizard I saw him staring suspiciously at my screen as well before letting out a scoff of scorchingly hot air. "Yeah, I think there's something off with her too. But for now…"

Taking out a new sheet of paper, I began sketching up an independent research application form for my new employer. 'Study into the effects of heavy saturation of Ghost Type energy over the living space of…' Who to test first, Cyndaquil or Zorua? Hmm, let's go Zorua, they're naturally Dark Types so less likely to suffer any side effects if the experiment goes wrong, not that I think there's much chance of that. 'Zorua, to see if it creates a variation in their natural Typing.'

Already I could feel a bit of the malaise that had been lingering over me start to shake off. "This will be fun. Can't wait to see what happens."

Spoiler: A/N:

Here we get to see some ripples from the people Nemona met at the tournament, and a few hints as to the investigation going on. Also, oh boy, was this one tough. While I like Friede a lot, he is a very difficult character to get right, being both smart, but also very 'chill' most of the time.

 

[Spearow]

Nemona: 'I like studying the past, there's a lot of interesting stuff that happened back then. And like I said, I don't know any of it, just assumptions really. Gotta go train now, talk later.'

Click to shrink...

"The electric geodude only exists because of the magnect field in alola, remove the magnect field and the influence on the soil and the geodude line will be gone, its the same logic"

much less suspicious.

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Hmm, let's go Zorua, they're naturally Dark Types so less likely to suffer any side effects if the experiment goes wrong, not that I think there's much chance of that. 'Zorua, to see if it creates a variation in their natural Typing.'

Click to shrink...

So it looks like we're getting Hisui pokemon research started. Personally I'd like Hisuian Braviary. It's a great SpAtk-er and having a flying mount that can defend itself and attack without using it's body is great.

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Skyfyre]

"Alright, both of you, Thunder!" I called out and my two Pokemon followed my command.

Dun raised his tail, the tip of it sparkling with electricity, before swiping it down like a conductor with their baton. The sky answered the unheard song, releasing a lightning bolt down on the empty path before us, scorching the earth.

In the time it took Dun to fire one bolt, however, Rotom had launched three of their own. The Ghost in my phone was for once, outside of it, floating with their blue-plasma body hovering in the air. A slight glow shortly preceded each bolt Rotom called down from the heavens.

They turned around to give me a big grin. "Excellent work you two. Dun, that was great power, your bolt was just as strong as Rotom's even without the Electric Type. Rotom you called those bolts down very fast and you're not tired yet. That's great, I know it's a big step up from the Thundershocks you've been working with. "

"Dun dun!" Dunsparce cheered while Rotom just buzzed happily. They couldn't talk to me outside of their phone, but they were quite emotive, and I had it close on hand if we needed any clarification.

"Next, I want you to use Rain Dance, Rotom, then we'll try again with the Thunder." I'd planned on training accuracy because I remembered the Move being quite inaccurate in the games, but it looks like that's not the case here. Instead, it seems to be more charge-up speed. Of course, they're accurate against spots on the ground, it's possible the 'inaccuracy' comes from moving targets interrupting you before you can execute the attack. I'd look into that later, but for now, we were just practicing getting a basic handle on the Moves.

Rotom tilted, confused, and zipped back into their phone. "What's the purpose of training in the rain, if I may ask, bzzt?"

"Of course, you can ask. As for that, weather has more effects on a battle than one might think of at first. Rain increases the power of Water Moves and decreases Fire, but it also makes Moves like Thunder or Hurricane easier to use. That's why I got the Rain Dance TM for you and not Sunny Day: Sunny Day would increase the power of your Overheat and protect you against Water Moves in Heat form. Rain Dance will increase the power of Hydro Pump in Wash form, protect you from Fire Moves in Mow or Frost forms, make Hurricane easier in Fan form, and Thunder in every form."

There was a moment of silence and I wondered if I had overwhelmed them or made some mistake in my logic before Rotom spoke up. "Wow, you put a lot of thought into this, didn't you?" Dun chirped smugly, proud to have such a great trainer, and I blushed.

"I mean, of course I did. You guys are the ones that put in the hard work, so I have to do at least this much." I was also somewhat constrained by budget. Realistically, I knew I could ask my parents for money if I needed it, and I had tons of allowance saved up over the past year and a half, but I didn't want to. Plus, mastering six new Moves each would keep them busy for a while.

They both had Protect, Hyper Voice, and Thunder to learn. Protect for being a solid shield and an all-around good option for gaining time, Hyper Voice being a powerful special attack that was fast, hard to avoid, and hard to resist. For Rotom it gave good coverage and for Dun, it had STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) and would be a good stepping stone for his ultimate Move, Boomburst. Thunder had plenty of synergies for Rotom, and just gave a good range for Dun.

"Bzzt, should I change to Wash form for this next test? I could also practice Hydro Pump-" Rotom 'offered' before I cut them off.

"Nope, still just practicing your base abilities for today. It'll help to give you a handle on the changes you'll feel to your energies in and out of an appliance form." It was well documented that in addition to the Type changes, Rotom's also became a bit slower but much tougher, and even a tad stronger drawing from the motors of the appliances.

At the frown on their face I added "Don't be too eager to change, we'll be starting physical conditioning once your training in an appliance begins."

"Must we, bzzt?"

"We must. Every battling Pokemon needs to know how to take a hit." Except Shedinja, but I'm ignoring that because it's not helpful to this situation. "It's the best way for you to learn some Moves too, like Hex. Dun did a good job demonstrating it for you, but it's still hard for you to grasp the Move yourself, right?"

They nodded glumly, while Dun had a sharp gleam to their eyes, clearly eagerly awaiting this. That being said, I could tell that he was happy to see Rotom doing well with Thunder earlier too, which is nice to see.

Dun's other Moves he had learned were Agility and Air Slash. Agility was just a good power-up Move, to help him match faster foes, while Air Slash would be helpful in training Roost. He'd demonstrated a good level of control over both already.

Rotom was going a bit slower, but I could tell that despite their worries about getting hurt, they were committed to this. It showed in how they left the phone and threw themselves into the Rain Dance, wiggling their plasmid body around. And the world answered, the sky opening up and rain pouring down.

Dun turned, readying themselves with Rotom, and the two gathered lightning once more. This time though, despite the storm only stretching out about a hundred meters across, the lightning came much faster, the rapid flashes of light forcing me to avert my gaze eventually, counting the shots by the boom of thunder left in their wakes.

"Ok, I think that's good!" I shouted out over the din, and the lightning stopped. Blinking my eyes open, I saw through the rain two lines in the field in front of us burnt black from the bolts that had slammed into it. Dun had landed five bolts in twenty seconds, decent enough for someone just getting used to the Move and that Type of energy. Rotom's line was over double what Dun's was, probably managing at least a dozen strikes in that time.

There's still attacking a moving target, moving yourself while attacking, and general boosts to power and speed to work on, but this is a great start. And really, there's just something… awe-inspiring about the power Pokemon have. To be able to reshape the elements, the world to your whims, it's incredible. Of course, it came with a toll. Dun was looking quite pleased with his work, but he was a bit puffed. Rotom on the other hand was swaying mid-air, exhausted.

"Excellent work, let's- Rotom can you turn this rain off?"

They waved their plasmic arms up, before drooping them back down and shaking their head/body. "That's fine, let's get out of here then, I think we're done for the day."

We walked down to the beach and I offered them an Ether each, something that Rotom eagerly accepted, and Dun shrugged off.

"Ar, un." He said to the Ghost, literally sparking chagrin from them.

"Hey now, I'm not coddling Rotom. They did excellently with Thunder, it's one of the strongest Moves any Electric Type can use." Rotom beamed at my words. "Especially since I lied about this being the end of Rotom's training." They turned to me, shock and horror showing on their teardrop face… until they saw the small smirk on my face. "Psych."

"Dun du dun," Dunsparce laughed at them while Rotom fumed, moving towards the phone, which I pulled back.

"Wait, I lied about lying, sorry! But those feelings, right there, of the joke I played on you, try and hone those. Focus on how you want to get me back. Come up with some plan, make a Nasty Plot."

They concentrated, face flashing through emotions too quickly to keep up until they settled on a frown. After about fifteen seconds, it turned to a cruel grin, one befitting the Dark Type Move, to the point that I would have realized had worked even if I couldn't feel the ambient level of electricity increasing in the air.

"Well done, ok, now it's over." I held out the phone and they quickly slipped back in. "Sorry about that, but I needed to get you in the right frame of mind to use Dark Type Energy."

There was a light buzzing sound, which felt like incoherent grumbling before they calmed down.

"Bzzt, I understand, even if I don't like it. Hopefully, I won't have to use that energy much beyond that, it felt… wrong."

"Yeah, Ghost Types are pretty diametrically opposed to Dark. Unfortunately, there is another Dark Move you might want to learn eventually, that will help you shore up a potential weakness against those resistant to energy-based attacks." Foul Play is a great Move to turn someone's strengths into a weakness.

"I still haven't even used Will o' Wisp, bzzt," Rotom moaned before hastily adding: "I'm not going to be practicing it today either."

Laughing I said "No worries there, take your break, you've earned it. Will o' Wisp is pretty easily learned by any Ghost Type anyways, and they have worked hard today. They're growing in a lot of ways, that denial was a lot firmer than usual, well done Rotom. You're getting more confident every day. Somehow, that thought called to mind an image of a character from my previous life and I stopped.

"What's wrong, bzzt?" They asked, dropping any wariness in favor of worry for me.

"No no, it's nothing." 'Tails' wouldn't work, they never have a tail, and what even is a Prower? But, maybe… "I just- it's dumb but, I thought of another name for you. Miles."

"Bzzt, from the ancient Imperial measurement system before Paldea ended such use and switched to the base ten Metric one? I don't see how it applies to me, admittedly."

But that's not a no. Every other suggestion got a swift rejection. "Ok so, it's dumb because it only makes sense to me. See, I had an idea for a story-"

"Arce ar dun," Dun complained.

"Hey, I don't have a story for every little thing!" I faltered as he opened one eye up fully as if to say 'really?' "Urk- well, a writer should have tons of ideas! Anyways, this one, I hadn't even put it down to paper yet, but it involves some really incredible creatures. Uhh, I'll just describe them as Pokemon for now." Since that's how I'll eventually tell this to others. "There's Sonic, a Shaymin with blue fur that's super fast, even in land-form. He also had a younger friend, like a little brother to him, Miles 'Tails' Prower. They're a Vulpix who's a genius inventor, and nearly as fast as Sonic themselves, and together with their friends they fight against the evil Doctor Robotnik and his army of robots. He's a mad scientist who often captures Pokemon and uses them to power his machines, and sometimes builds amusement parks…"

I shook my head, realizing I was getting off track. "Tails is incredible in a lot of ways, but they feel like they don't always match up to Sonic. But when they believe in themselves, they realize they're great too, and help save the world a bunch. Sonic gets a lot of credit, and he fights hard no doubt, but many times he wouldn't even be able to do anything without Tails. Just there, you reminded me of Tails. Someone smart, driven, and quite strong, who just needs a bit of confidence. Someone who will definitely grow to be one of the greatest heroes in time."

There was silence after I stopped talking. Did I screw up? Was that weird? I hope not, I should just tell them to ignore it- "You never fail to amaze me, Nemona," Rotom said softly. "I think Miles is a lovely name."

"Even though it doesn't fit or make sense to others?"

"I've never truly 'fit', bzzt. Not with the other Rotoms or with other people, not until I met you. If others don't get it, that's fine. It's not their name, it's mine." There was a steel in their voice that told me how firm they were, and in this moment I believed they could take on the whole world.

This touching moment was, of course, shattered by Dun asking if he was the 'Sonic' in this story.

"Haha, no, you wouldn't be Sonic. Honestly, you'd be Knuckles." At my Pokemon's confused glances, I explained. "So, Knuckles is this Annhilape, crazy strong and tough. He's the last survivor of his tribe who defended a mystical artifact called the Master Emerald. It and the seven Chaos Emeralds are the main driving forces of a lot of the plot, with Eggman and Sonic and friends chasing after them. In their first meeting though, Eggman tricks Knuckles into thinking Sonic is the bad guy and makes them fight each other. Soon enough Knuckles sees the truth and works with Sonic to stop Eggman, but they still have a fierce rivalry later on, Knuckles and Sonic constantly competing to see who's best."

"Dun?"

"Who's Eggman? Oh right, I haven't explained yet but Sonic kept on taunting Robotnik by calling him that, which got him infuriated and he ended up making a bunch of mistakes in their prior adventures when anyone taunted him. Eventually, he realized that it was costing him, so he turned around and decided to own the name. Made his own brand out of it as 'Doctor Eggman', which soon enough became a name feared around the world…"

***

"And together, Doctor Eggman, his newly adopted daughter Sage, the Porygon, Sonic the Shaymin, and all his friends joined forces and defeated The End!" I finished my long and winding tale. It had many backtracks, places missed where I forgot or only half-remembered details and names, details I had skipped, and even complaints from the crowd.

"Du dun."

"I must concur, bzzt. 'The End' isn't that inventive of a name for a final foe." Miles threw in their two cents.

"Oh come on! I didn't write it." Though, I guess in this world I will. I suppose a few edits wouldn't go amiss. "Look, Dun, I don't think you even know how to write, so you have no room to talk." He slumped, turning away. "Oh, I'm so sorry, we can work on writing lessons if you want…"

After a long pause, they said laconically "Dun."

"If you don't want writing lessons then don't act like that!" Miles' case was shaking, sparks flying off and Dun was making his odd hissing sound that I took to be laughter. "I can't believe it, my own Pokemon, teaming up on me," I sighed melodramatically but couldn't keep the grin off my face. This was a great day.

Looking out over the horizon, I saw the sun setting and realized that the day was also coming to an end. "Alright, let's head back inside for some dinner and recharging. You've done great learning all those new Moves so far, tomorrow we can work on mastering them-" Dun lightly headbutted my shin. "What- oh. Right, that Move."

"Dun." He nodded seriously.

"That's fair, you've earned it. Thank you for being patient with me. I don't think we'll have time to use it much today, but we can give it one shot before dinner."

I returned him to his Pokeball and pressed the Technical Machine around the opening button, where it began to spin around. You could teach Pokemon TMs without a Pokeball, but the instructions always recommended having them inside. Better for 'auric information transfers' or something like that.

After a minute it was completed, and the disc finished spinning and fell off. Dun's head swayed a bit, seeming a bit overwhelmed by all the information but shook it off fairly fast. "Dun dun!"

"Before you use it, I want to try Terastalizing you. As a Normal Type Move, this will make it supercharged!" Grabbing the Tera Orb with both hands, I threw it above Dun, Terastalizing him.

"Ok Dun, see that cliff there?" I pointed to the small three-story cliff at the end of the beach. "Hit it with the strongest Move you have, Giga Impact!"

He jumped, launching his body forward, and before he was surrounded by the green light of the Move, I could see how he was moving his body differently. The Technical Machine not only imparted Type Energy information, but also the physical information needed to best use the Move, how to shift his muscles just so to maximize his force.

Like an emerald comet, his crystal-covered body smashed into the cliffside. The boom of impact made a shockwave, the sound like a cannon strike washing over me. I blinked my eyes and through the cloud of dust, I saw a massive crater in the face of the earth where Dun had struck, my Pokemon lying at the bottom of the cliff, the Terastalization effect dissipating as his energy dropped.

Miles turned to me with wide eyes, speechless. "... Maybe no one noticed?" I tried.

A large crack spread out from the point of impact, widening and spreading up and down the cliff as a large chunk of it split off from the rest and tumbled into the ocean.

***

"What were you thinking?!"

People did, in fact, notice. The household had been a buzz of activity as we went back inside, the staff wondering if a horde of wild Pokemon were stampeding only to find out that it was just us practicing. Plenty of them had been amused or relieved, but Leah was not among their number.

"We just wanted to try the Move out…" I mumbled, shrinking in on myself. It didn't feel great to get lectured on this, but I also knew she was entirely in the right for doing so.

"Just look at the damages you've caused. The view from this side is ruined…" she trailed off, seeing that the argument wasn't having much impact on me. "What about any Pokemon living up there?"

"Ahh, I hadn't thought it would- I'm sorry." I hadn't seen any Pokemon fall off from there, but there might have been some who used the cliff as a lookout point, or even for nesting among the bird Pokemon. "We'll fix it up, I promise."

That stopped her lecture, leaving her confused. "How do you plan on doing that? We could call in a construction crew but-"

"No, that wouldn't be me fixing it. Well, me and my team. Dun can learn Ancient Power. We'll practice it until he can lift the cliff edge parts back in place." He doesn't know the Move yet, but he should be strong enough to use it by now, and Dun is pretty sharp when it comes to new Moves.

"It's noble of you, to want to fix your own mistakes," a new somber voice entered the conversation and we turned to see the stately majordomo enter the foyer where Leah had cornered me. "But it is often better to prevent the problem in the first place than work to fix it after."

"Ah, Hamber, sir. I didn't hear you there. Sorry about this." Leah began, and he waved her off.

"It's fine, I appreciate your diligence in this matter," he replied before turning to me, clearly expecting a response.

"I get it, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. I'll… try to do better in the future."

"A good goal to have, and one I may be able to help you achieve." Huh? "Your progress has been prodigious. I've reached out to an old friend, who runs a small shall we say, 'outdoors preparedness training group.' We call ourselves the 'Explorers,' and at my request M- our leader, Gibeon would be happy to accept you into our group."

"Wow, I don't know what to say…"

"I would suggest 'I accept', Young Miss," Hamber said so dryly it had me doubled over with laughter.

"Hahaha, oh man, that was good. Of course! Thank you so much. I'd been thinking about getting some training for stuff like that-" I cut myself off before I could ramble too much.

"Think nothing of it Young Miss, I wouldn't suggest it if I didn't think you had the potential to succeed where so many others have failed." The majordomo said before giving me a brief bow and leaving. Ominous… but that just might be how he is. He has a couple of Ghost Types, doesn't he? Wonder if that is part of why he's so mysterious, or if it's the other way around and his personality meant he was more inclined to catch Ghost Types. Still, very nice of him to offer, I should see if my parents can get him a Reaper Cloth for his Dusclops as a year-end gift.

Leah's words snapped me out of my thoughts. "Don't think that you're entirely out of trouble here. Your parents might ground you once they hear about this." I raised an eyebrow and looked at her oddly, causing her to let out a sigh. "Fine, we both know that it isn't likely."

"I know, and I get trying to make sure I'll behave responsibly, I appreciate you trying to instill those values in me." She chuckled helplessly at my words, shaking her head as if wondering 'What am I going to do with you?' What indeed. My training has made Dun strong, and Miles is well on their way as well. But I need control too. At the tournament, I nearly lost myself and would have attacked Freddrick. Haven't been that angry since, well since I was 'young', the first time. Before I started practicing martial arts…

"There's something else I'd like to do," I told Leah. "I want to start practicing martial arts. I think it will help in teaching me control and good physical exercise."

"I've seen your workout drills, don't think you need any help with your physical exercise. But if you wish it, we can begin looking for classes."

"Actually, I had someone in mind. You remember that girl from the tournament, Dendra? I was thinking I could train with her."

"Ah yes, the loud one. That could work. Tell us what times she's available and we'll arrange a schedule for you, Young Miss."

And now comes the part where I have to ask her. Something I had been dreading ever since the tournament. I'd exchanged messages with Friede a few times, mostly about the past or Pokemon facts, and was always messaging Arven, but I hadn't talked to Dendra or Tulip much since then, just letting them know I was ok. The fact that Tulip hadn't messaged me anything since then didn't leave me with any confidence that she had been impressed with how I acted.

Rather than send the model a message, I decided to put it off and talk to Dendra first.

Nemona: 'Hey Dendra, I was looking to get some martial arts training and was wondering if you could help me?'

Almost immediately I got a reply back.

Dendra: 'Osu!'

Dendra: 'That means yes! I'd love to help you!'

We arranged a time and place to meet up. Given she was still a teenager and not a teacher at Uva Academy, we wouldn't be meeting there. Instead, she lived in Alfornada and invited me over there next week. Before that, however, I had my first meeting with the Explorers…

Spoiler: A/N:

Here we are, kicking off the new arc with some new Moves. Nemona's got some training of her to do. And just a note in regards to Nemona's feelings at the end there before people get too worried/upset; she's not a perfect narrator. She can make assumptions that are incorrect.

Nemona's Current Team:

-'Dun' (Dunsparce, Male, Normal Type, Starter)
- Tera Type: Normal
- Held Item: None
- Abilities: Run Away
- Moves known: Flail, Mud Slap, Rollout, Glare, Body Slam, Poison Jab, Earthquake, Bite, Yawn (Invisible Version), Last Resort, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Hex, Agility, Air Slash, Giga Impact

- Rotom (Rotom)
- Tera Type: ?
- Held Item: None
- Ability: Levitate
- Moves Known: Astonish, Confuse Ray, Thundershock, Double Team, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Rain Dance, Will O' Wisp, Nasty Plot

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Good call on the Rain Dance. Dun can also take advantage of it when he evolves. He can learn hurricane and thunder as dudunsparce.

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter

 

[Skyfyre]

"Does it have to be so dimly lit?" I questioned as Hamber led me through the odd building. Or maybe it's just a very well-furnished tunnel, not like I would be able to tell.

Hamber and I had traveled outside a few minutes walk from the house before being met by an Elygem that had been waiting for us. The odd rocky blue-looking pure Psychic Type was there as transport to the Explorers' base.

We had been teleported into wherever this was.

From the dim light present in this place, I could make out smooth metal plates on the floor, walls, and likely ceiling. On the ground, the plates were interrupted by small glass strips, illuminating the place with a turquoise light, the only source of illumination in the hallway. The width was moderately-sized and spacious, enough to walk three across comfortably, but not much more. It was quite tall, however.

I think most Pokemon could fit through here with relative ease.

"It has a certain unique aesthetic," Hamber commented. "Gibeon appreciates the lighting for his meeting places. For the training rooms, you'll have different levels of illumination. Some are even much dimmer than this place, to help simulate caves or other locations where light is rare and possibly dangerous to make, attracting unwanted attention."

"It's- that's fine, I guess. Just… weird." My feelings as such did not diminish when we exited the hallway and came upon a grand meeting room. It had the same flooring as before, but this chamber was vast, with glowing yellow tubes lining the walls, in the back, there were the same lights set into the wall, but these glowed a mix of yellow and blue and were set in some odd pattern I couldn't decipher.

Some were disconnected, at a diagonal pattern others would bend and stop. The floor still had the same lighting as it had before, but all of this was secondary to the central features that commanded the most attention in the room.

Dominating the center of the room was a large group of purple crystals that reached up like an incredibly elongated candlestick. In front of it were a couple of steps, and in front of them were several strange metal poles that I recognized.

"Holographic projectors?"

"Well, well, don't we have a sharp one? Looks like she might contribute slightly more than the bastard." The somewhat mocking voice came from a young man with wavy teal hair, the presumed owner of the Elygem whose Pokemon returned to their side. He was wearing a rather elaborate getup, a light blue jacket with black lining and yellow clasps, matched by his long, almost knee-length heeled boots. He had on dark leggings and to top it off, an honest-to-goodness cape.

To be fair, it was a larger dark jacket, but with how it hung off his left side and was held in place by a clasp, it was clearly a cape.

"Spinel, thank you for your assistance." Hamber thanked the odd man, before continuing. "I would not call Amethio a 'bastard', however. He has as much potential as Nemona here." That perked my ears up. Someone who can match me? That sounds fun.

"Peace." The words were not a request and came from none of the people in the room but instead from the purple crystals in the center. The two of them instantly turned and bowed to them.

"Gibeon, this is the recruit I mentioned. I believe she will be a fine addition to the Explorers."

"Good. Spinel, make sure to give her the uniform." 'Gibeon' said, and the young man obeyed, pulling out a set of clothes he'd been hiding in his cape. Did he have a Sliph-type pocket in there- probably. He seems extra enough to do that.

Walking up slowly to receive them I saw a light gray jacket that was cut to only cover the shoulders, neck, and sleeves, and similarly colored leggings. There was a skirt with pink highlights and a dark gray shirt with the same highlights. What caught my eye most was the badge on top of the pile of clothes, a black diamond shape cut across by a stylized 'E' with a blue star near the center.

"Uhh, no thanks." Don't feel like wearing a skirt. But also…

Spinel turned to his Pokemon and made a motion toward them, which caused them to raise their arms and flash their multi-colored, finger-like stubs in my direction. Red, yellow, red, green, green, yellow-

"Ugh, sorry, could you please stop that Elgyem? I don't know what you mean and it's kinda bright." The Elgyem turned to Spinel, giving a brief shrug of their shoulders and stopping. The guy seemed the most affronted by that, for some reason. Jeez-though I guess it's kinda rude to order Pokemon you don't own. But I just asked a question…

"How rude, to turn aside the generosity offered by Master Gibeon," Spinel recovered, scoffing at me. "Perhaps I was wrong and you're even worse than Ameth-"

"Is this an evil Team?" I asked bluntly, cutting him off, and dropping the entire room into silence. Do they boldly accept it? Shake it off? Try to imply it's not, but not confirm it isn't? Act outraged? Actually get outraged? So many different options they had here, and I wanted to see how they responded to inform my next move. Even though the GPS was acting wonky here, I could still send or receive messages here, a discreet glance at Miles had told me on the way in.

"Evil Team? Ah yes, I heard those became a new craze recently," Gibeon's voice boomed out from the crystals. Without a face or even body language to place it to, it was hard to tell how he felt, but he sounded mildly amused. Recently? How old are you? There hasn't been a major Evil Team in a decade, in part because there were so many in the decade before that police have been keeping an extra close eye on anything like them springing up.

"Of course, we aren't a Team, Young Miss. Just a dedicated, if slightly eccentric, group banded together by our love of exploring this vast and wondrous land."

I could feel the sweatdrop on my face and it was hard to keep a straight smile, but I managed. That was exactly what a team was!

"Uhuh. So I don't have to wear this uniform or help you steal Pokemon or try to capture Legendaries to remake the world or anything?"

Laughter echoed out from the purple crystal. "Why would I need your help with something like that?" At his words, a white dog-like Pokemon stepped out from one of the shadowy corners of the room. The Pokemon had three hexagonal-shaped patterns on its chest, two green and one red.

It also had a few other green highlights including a stripe around its neck with an odd green protrusion sticking out about two feet in the air, as if it had part of a leash as a feature of its body.

"Z- Zygarde!?" I exclaimed, stepping forward to get a better look. The coloration isn't right, but that's definitely one of Zygarde's forms. Is it shiny? How can it be shiny?!? After a few steps, Zygarde gave a low growl warning me not to come closer, so I stopped and turned to face Gibeon. "Why is it that color? Isn't Zygarde supposed to be black and green?"

Gibeon's next words were for Hamber, not myself. "You were not mistaken when you said she was a bright young girl." Then to me, he added "I've met scholars that were less knowledgeable than yourself. There is an unusual trait Pokemon sometimes possess to give them a different coloration."

"Right, being 'shiny'." Shiny hunters existed in this world, but it was a far more brutal thing than in the games since Pokemon were living thinking beings here. Trying to catch one was the dream of many a collector who would often display the rare Pokemon like a trophy.

But that's for regular Pokemon, where you can eventually find an egg that hatches into that rare color. "I didn't know Zygarde could be shiny. I thought there was only one in the world. Or, rather, spread across the world."

"Spread across- what are you talking about you daft child?" Spinel demanded, glaring at me. Not making friends with him at least. Oh well, this guy feels like he'd be a jerk even outside of this weird group.

"Zygarde is split up into many cells across the world. They only gather in large numbers to unleash its true strength when the world is in danger." I answered. Seeing Zygarde made me relax a little. These people are still weird, but they can't be all bad if they have a defender of the world like Zygarde working with them, right?

"How many cells would you say are in Zygarde as they stand right now?" Hamber asked. Zygarde barked as well, giving me a curious look with its pupil-less eyes.

"Uhh, about 10%? Sorry, it's hard to get an exact read on it, but you definitely aren't at fifty or higher." Immediately after the words left my mouth I had to suppress a wince, noticing the way the two men in the room were staring at me. That was way too knowledgeable, no excuse I could possibly give to know that exact ratio.

The crystals thrummed again, reminding me of the fourth and most important 'person' in this conversation. "Fascinating. As for your question, while remarkably rare, there are instances where even a so-called 'Legendary' can appear as 'shiny'. One such case you may have heard of was the 'Black Rayquaza' from ancient times. They traveled alongside the legendary hero-"

"Nobunaga!" Right! Pokemon Conquest was a thing!

"... Lucien."

There was an awkward moment of silence between us before Spinel broke it by laughing.

"Hahaha, how foolish. Do you not know of the hero Lucien? It's such a common tale. Of how he traveled the world a hundred years ago with the Black Rayquaza, Entei, Moltres, Lapras, Kleavor, and Arboliva before finding-?"

"Spinel," Hamber warned his comrade, finally getting tired of his rudeness. I was happy for the support, but I had my own reasoning to throw in as well. This guy just gets under my skin. Or maybe it's the whole vibe of this creepy place.

"Hey, I don't consider 'a hundred years ago' to be ancient history!" I retorted hotly before adding: "But no, I hadn't heard about him. He sounds like an interesting guy though."

"Different from this, Nobunaga was he?" Gibeon asked, just a tad too calmly to actually be casual.

"Oh yeah, Nobunaga was big on his Dragon Types, though I don't remember the rest of his team. Honestly, I should have realized you weren't referring to him when you mentioned him being a 'hero'. Nobunaga was a warlord in ancient Ransei."

"... Ransei?" Gibeon drew the word out as if testing it out to see if he could figure it out just through pronunciation. Like a puzzle piece that doesn't quite fit.

"Yes, Ransei was a war-torn land hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago, with warlords vying for control constantly. Nobunaga set out to try and conquer the whole place before being stopped by the Hero. The Hero was the one who eventually unified the land against them, which in the end was kinda Nobunaga's goal."

"'The Hero?'" Spinel mocked.

"I don't remember, ok?! I'm not even sure if their name was even ca- something known."

"Where did you hear about this Young Miss?" Hamber finally prompted and I hid a grimace. Ok, time to play the 'how to deflect from having meta-knowledge' game.

"Uhh, I don't quite remember. Maybe from my time in Unova?" I suggested.

He pursed his lips and gave a low hum. I probably didn't convince him of that. Ah well, he still won't guess the truth and it's a good enough deflection for now.

My biggest detractor just shook his head dismissively, his Elygem at his side copying the motion. "Please, you got taken in by a bunk story kid. I've never heard of this 'Ransei' before either."

"Just because you've never heard of it before doesn't mean it doesn't exist!" I mean, it might not. Not in this world, I focused too much on the mainline games and never checked out the spinoffs. It could be true too, though. I just don't know. Still, screw this guy.

"And how do you explain 'warlords' using Pokemon in conflicts centuries before Professor Laventon's research and the Survey Core help Pokemon and humans bond?" Spinel pressed further.

I laughed derisively at that. "Please, Pokemon have been used by society for eons. Paldea had many a conqueror in the past two thousand years, and they didn't just fight through the force of their own arms. Even more ancient societies existed with technologies we couldn't even dream of today, making Pokemon through harnessed souls and machines. We have forgotten and lost more societies than you could ever imagine. Laventon's research is just some of the most widespread base principles of the modern age. The idea that this era is the pinnacle of enlightenment and harmony is only the height of hubris."

"And how does that make you feel?" This time the question was from Gibeon, and I swore the other lights got dimmer or the central crystal glowed brighter. Like the Eye of Sauron turning it's full attention on you.

I opened my mouth before closing it and thinking about the answer. "... Excited. It's humbling, and maybe a little scary to comprehend how dangerous and vast the world is, to know that everything I know could be wiped away in an instant. But to know how much is lost, to think of what I could find… that's exciting." Probably not a great instinct to have at the thought, I can admit that.

Not that Gibeon seemed displeased at my answer, however. "Very good. That's why I founded the Explorers, to discover new horizons, unlock new vistas, and rediscover lost wonders. I understand that this may have been… off-putting for you, but I hope this can put your mind at rest. We simply want to better understand the land so we can explore it together."

"Oh. Well… cool." I finished lamely. "I guess I'd still like to learn if you're willing to have me." You're weird enough that I won't be that heartbroken if you say no, though.

"Of course, Young Miss. And you don't have to wear the uniform if you don't want to, we just thought it might help you fit in with some of the others, like Amethio. He's only a few years older than you and he shows great potential. We could go meet him now if you wish." Spinel made a dismissive sound at Hamber's words, so I had to throw in one last jab his way.

"That sounds great. Spiney, you can just take those away, thanks," I said, dismissively waving a hand at him before turning away. He gnashed his teeth before turning suddenly and marching off, his cape whirling around.

"If you'll follow me, Young Miss," my majordomo requested and I followed while lost in my thoughts. So, this place is creepy and very weird. But are they bad? Nothing I had seen so far was evil, and Spinel being arrogant and full of himself didn't mean that everyone in this organization was like that.

Even that isn't a sign that he's a bad guy or anything. I guess, for now, I'll stick with it. I'll be vigilant! Any signs of cult or gang-like activities and I'm bolting. Their offering to teach me wilderness exploration is nice, but that doesn't mean I owe them anything or need to do anything bad because they asked me to.

Hamber directed me down a different hallway to a large open room, like an empty warehouse. No, a battle arena. The lighting was still regrettably dim, which is why I didn't make it out as a battle arena at first.

I did see the young boy standing there, however. He had split white and black hair that was slightly curly at the ends. He was also wearing the same type of uniform I had rejected, though he had black pants instead of leggings and a skirt.

"Who are you?" He asked, turning around to glare at me, then glance upwards at Hamber.

"Why are your pupils triangles?" I asked back, crossing my arms. The boy was taken aback, eyeing me up like I was out of place. Sorry, maybe I'm still on edge from how Spinel was acting, but that is just kinda weird. How do eyes even work in this world? Do lenses, retinas, and the like work differently here?

"Wha-" The boy began before our awkward first meeting was cut off by the adult we both abruptly remembered was in the room.

"Children," Hamber clapped his gloved hands together. "This is Nemona, she will be joining the Explorers. Nemona, this is Amethio, one of our newest members."

"If she's a new recruit why isn't she wearing the uniform?" Amethio asked me suspiciously. As if I somehow managed to trick my way down here while accompanied by Hamber while missing that.

"Cause I didn't want to." I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at his shocked face, but it was hard. He just looks so completely thrown by that idea!

"Before we give you further training, I thought it best to test your skills as battlers. It'll also be a good chance for you to get to know each other." Amethio didn't look too impressed with me but didn't say anything in response to Hamber's words, taking his place on one end of the field.

Hmm, I think I should give Miles their first fight here. Perhaps I was underestimating Amethio, but I felt Dun would be a bit much for most trainers his age to deal with. Plus, in any case, it would be a good experience for Miles.

"Alright Miles, I'm going to use you for this battle, ok?" I muttered as I opened my bag. They gave a small buzz of affirmation. What appliance would be best?… Probably the oven. Most resistances, few weaknesses. We'd practiced with all of them a little bit, enough that they knew how to possess each of them, but they didn't have any preferences yet.

"What are you doing- what is that?!" Amethio squawked out as I hefted the massive red oven from my bag.

"Miles, I choose you!" I cried, tossing it a meter in front of me. Miles zipped out of their phone case and into the oven, possessing it. The machine stopped falling immediately and was surrounded by red energy, with Rotom's eyes now colored red appearing above the oven door, with a small mouth in between. The red energy also extended out on either side of the oven ending in bulky approximations of hands, particularly hands that were wearing oven mitts.

"Wha- huh?" Amethio just seemed kinda shocked at the display. "What is that?"

"That's Miles, my Rotom. They're in Heat Form! Go ahead, you can release your Pokemon too." I urged and he shook himself out of it.

"Go, Charcadet!" He shouted, pulling up his Pokeball and releasing an adorable little guy. He was just over half a meter tall with an overly large head and a humanoid body. His torso had many flame motifs, and actual flames were flickering out the top of his head, back, and even off his eyes.

"You got a Charcadet? Cool." I never really played with them in the games, though I remember that Armarogue and Ceruledge looked pretty cool. I wonder if he has plans on which he wants to evolve-

"If both trainers are ready?" Hamber called out and I snapped my focus to the battle at hand.

"Yes!" We both called out, locking gazes with each other. I can sense his determination, but also nervousness within his gaze. His nose was turned up at me, but I saw how tightly his fists were clenched at his sides, betraying the nervousness he felt.

"Begin!"

"Flame Charge!" Amethio ordered. Charcadet had already started rushing at Miles before the command was even given, but when it was, he covered himself in a burning aura.

"Rain Dance!" I countered and Rotom waved their plasmic hands in the air and began dancing around frantically. They're nervous, too. It was to be expected from Miles' first battle, but I had every confidence in them.

Despite having the initiative, Charcadet was just a lot slower than Miles, so by the time he reached the plasma Pokemon, rain had begun to fall. Charcadet leaped up to slam into Miles, but the fire surrounding it was fizzling out in response to the rain pouring down. He hit Miles with a dull thud before sliding off. Brushing himself off, he jumped back up, covering his body in weak flames and whaling against my Pokemon not even leaving a scratch on the durable Rotom appliance body.

"Hah," I laughed, mostly at how shocked all three of them were. Honestly not that shocking when you think about it. In Heat Form Miles resists Fire attacks anyway, and Rain Dance is reducing the power even further. I was impressed that Miles had made even a small rain cloud indoors here. They had done fine enough with practicing it outdoors, but indoors added another level of difficulty to most weather Moves.

"Good job Miles!" I cheered, to let them know my appreciation but also to boost their confidence. "I think we've given you enough of a chance, now it's our turn, Thundershock!"

Miles brought their plasmic hands together, letting sparks fly between them. Amethio's cries for Charcadet to dodge were in vain. He was far too close to get out of the way and received a painful shock as the accumulated lightning was unleashed upon him.

"Get out of there!" The boy shouted, and Charcadet jumped away nimbly. Not paralyzed yet. Miles has been working on Thunder Wave, but it's not reliable yet. We could go after him, but if they want us to do the setup, why not?

"Nasty plot." I imagined Miles had a big grin on his face, though I couldn't see it from behind.

"Clear Smog, don't let them build up!" Amethio called out, a look of panic on his face. His fiery partner took a deep breath and let out a bunch of white smoke that washed over Miles.

"Rotototo," they whined, shaking about and exiting the cloud. Immediately I felt that their power had decreased back to normal. Something to get rid of stat changes and deal damage? Nice Move. Pretty sure it's Poison too, so no Resistances to help either.

"Confuse Ray, then blast it." Rotom unleashed a tightly clustered bunch of dancing lights that shot right at Charcadet's face, dazing him. He tried to continue his attack but started blowing the smoke in the wrong direction.

"No, other way!" Amethio shouted, but it was too late. Miles called down a massive bolt of lighting, like a blue spear striking down from their conjured rain cloud it struck Charcadet. To his credit, the tiny Pokemon remained standing after the first bolt. Unfortunately, their body stiffened, Paralyzed by the shock, and so they had no chance of dodging the next three bolts, which each struck dead on. Before the fifth could be called down, he crumpled to his knees and fell over unconscious. "Charcadet!"

He ran to check on his Pokemon. From what I could see, the Charcadet would be fine, but I walked over and offered him a Revive. "Here. You did well."

"Hardly. I was completely outmatched." He scoffed but took the medicine, waking Charcadet back up.

"Well yeah, Miles did great," and I flashed them a thumbs up, which they eagerly smiled back at. "But that Clear Smog was smart thinking on your part. Would have been a lot tougher to deal with if I had that going." I had more to say but was distracted by the rain, a drop falling very close to my eye.

Turning to Miles I asked, "Hey can you turn off the rain?" They tilted their body to the side, the equivalent of cocking their head slightly before waving their arms around to little avail. Alright, I've been considering this since last time. Luckily, this is not a game, and I have an idea. "Just go up to the clouds and release an Overheat."

With a nod, they flew to the center of their dark storm clouds and opened their oven door. A massive blast of heat came out, enough to be felt on the ground, drying us instantly and blowing the clouds away.

The boy muttered, looking up at my Pokemon, "I didn't know Rotom could do that."

"Yeah, they're pretty impressive. Each of their forms has a super powerful move of the other type they gain in that form."

He nodded.

"We'll have to train hard to beat you next time."

"Cadet!"

I beamed broadly. "That's the spirit!" I offered him my hand, he took it, and I pulled him back up from where he'd been kneeling beside his Pokemon.

"Quite a show, both of you. I have a feeling you're both going to make good Explorers." We'll see. Still, if I spend more time fighting quiet but not stupid guys like Amethio and less time around creeps like before, it might not be so bad.

Spoiler: A/N:

Nemona gets her first look at the Explorers and... they're really creepy! Given how they're able to have some of their members hide in public I figure it's possible for them to conceal any wrongdoings, but still come across as very weird. Have I ever mentioned how hard it is to portray canonical characters pre-canon, through the lens of someone who doesn't know what they're supposed to be like? It's tough, but I hope I got them right here, and I'll explore the Explorers (haha) a bit more later.

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Blindly teleported to an unknown location to be scrutinized for secrecy and they have matching uniforms? Toootaly not an evil organization.

 

[Skyfyre]

"Osu! Welcome, to my dojo!" Dendra declared, sweeping her arms out as she opened the sliding door to a traditional martial arts dojo.

The floor was wooden, with a few mats placed in the center. In one corner was a wooden post with several poles sticking out to practice katas, and opposite it hung a punching bag. On the walls hung a few pieces of elegant calligraphy, and a somewhat incongruous motivational poster of a Sprigatito clinging onto a branch with the caption 'hang in there'. Sunlight streamed into the room from a large window, and beside that windowsill a Meditite hovered, carefully pruning a Bonsai tree that rested atop it. They turned to look at me curiously before returning to their work.

Fixing the lapels of my white gi, I followed her inside. I removed my shoes before stepping inside and placed my bag by the door.

"So, uh, what do you think? I know it's a bit old-fashioned but-"

"I love it," I said, excited to be here, and the nervousness on her face evaporated into pure joy.

"Osu!" She stepped inside and took her place at the top of the room, straightening her belt. It's kinda cute, seeing her all eager and nervous like this. Dendra was always enthusiastic in the games, but she was an adult there. Now I'm seeing her as a kid, just doing this for the first time.

Her Meditite finished her pruning and drifted over to Dendra, giving me a polite wave and yawning sleepily before pressing the button on their Pokeball and recalling themselves. Must be pretty young, she looked somewhat small.

"My plan today is to run you through the basics of what martial arts are, some stretches and drills to get you fired up, and practice a few simple techniques. Before we begin, do you have any questions?"

"How did you get this dojo?" I'd been in a slightly bigger martial arts studio in my prior life, but we'd had classes with over twenty students and three or more instructors in that one. I'd also had classes out of garages or basements when times were leaner.

"Ah, well, it's not exactly mine. My Shifu entrusted it to me to keep safe while he trained in the wilderness. I pretty much live here now, not that there's too much to do, but things are too quiet at home." She laughed, but it felt just a little forced and hollow. Plenty of reasons why someone's parents might be gone or missing in this world.

"Is it alright for you to be teaching me here? I appreciate the offer, but I don't want you getting in trouble with your teacher or any other students."

"No worries! I don't think Shifu Chuck will have a problem with me teaching you or anything though, if- when he comes back. And there's no other students left but me."

"Oh, sorry to hear that."

"No no, it's fine," she waved her hands animatedly, plastering a grin on her face.

"The others just got busy with studies and other things, and stopped focusing on being a trainer."

"Huh? What does being a coach have to do with practicing martial arts?" This is about improving my body and discipline, not my Pokemon's, or is it some co op thing.

"Well, you know the stereotypes," she scratched the back of her wild black hair. "Or don't you? You weren't born in Paldea."

"No, I'm--I'm from Unova." I stammer over the words for a second before remembering where I'm from from in this life, and not the past one.

"I don't know if things are different there, but most people around these parts only seriously practice martial arts when training Fighting Types." She quickly seems to notice her gaffe, putting up her arms in a defensive position in front of her

"Not that Fighting Types aren't great, my whole team is Fighting! But in general, people drop the practice when they stop being dedicated trainers, or pick up other Types on their team."

"That's dumb." My blunt words caused Dendra to be surprised for a split second before snorting.

"Yeah, it is. I'd practice Karate forever, even if I wasn't a trainer." I returned the fierce grin she gave me with one of my own. Definitely, I feel the same way.

"Do you plan on training any Fighting Types?"

"I hadn't set out concrete plans on who I want to train, so many cool Pokemon out there. And I just want someone who wants to be on my team and meshes well with me." I wouldn't mind finding one that worked well with me, though. There are some very cool and strong Fighting Types out there.

As if reading my mind she shouted "Quick, name your favorite Fighting Type!"

"Aah, Bewear? Or maybe Lucario! But Hawlucha's great, too..." Heracross and Annihilape are great, too! Does Meloetta count as one? Or doesn't she count? Because she's a mythical, and she can switch between fighting and not fighting.

She laughed heartily. "I know, right?!" Then she caught herself and cleared her throat. "Right, I teach a class here. Ahem. Now, was there anything else you had questions about?"

"No, thanks Sensei Dendra. Or would you prefer Shifu Dendra?" I asked and she put her hands over her mouth.

"Too… cute." She squeaked out and looked like she wanted to pick me up like a teddy bear before managing to control herself. "Uh, Sensei Dendra is fine." She shook her head and took a deep breath.

"Right, the basics of martial arts. I'm going to teach you karate, which I learned from my Shifu in this dojo, but every style has the same foundation. Martial arts is a sport and an art form. It's an expression through the movement of the human body."

"People often look down on them because of this, but almost all styles were designed with a very practical purpose: to hurt others. They're meant to help you refine and arm yourself. As such, I expect you to treat this training with the utmost respect."

"Karate can be used in tournaments, if you wish to do so we can go over the rules of those and how you fight in those circumstances. Outside of those or this dojo, I expect you to only be using it against others as a method of self-defense or to defend others. While people may be weaker than Pokemon, that doesn't mean we can't be dangerous with enough training. Some people also use it as an excuse to hurt others and then pretend the pain they cause isn't serious because it wasn't caused by a Pokemon or a weapon. That will not be tolerated in this dojo, are we clear?!!"

"Yes, sensei."

She let out a sigh.

"Phew. Sorry about that, but that was a strict rule in this dojo and I needed to go over it. I don't think you're going to hurt anyone but-"

"No, I get it." My former teacher always said the first thing you should look into in a confrontation is if you can de-escalate or safely escape without a fight. Using violence, and truly hurting others should always be the last resort.

"We'll begin class by bowing to each other, to show respect as teacher and student."

To demonstrate, she gave me a short bow, back straight and bending at the hips. I returned it with my own, clasping a fist with an open palm.

"Osu! Do you already have training in martial arts?" How did she- right the bow.

Just a sign of respect, but the gesture to go along with it, is something that would have come with training. Especially so instinctually.

"Yeah, I've had a bit of training before I moved to Paldea." Technically sorta true if you squint at it?

"I thought you might have!" Dendra pumped her fist in the air. "Your punches at the tournament were very interesting. What style did you study?"

"It was mixed martial arts. Ju-Jitsu base with a bit of everything thrown in. Karate, Muay Thai, Sambo, etcetera."

"Ohh! That sounds very cool. I haven't even heard of Muay Thai!"

Right, different world, different styles names or just some less popular styles. Martial arts was quite a niche interest here. "Change of plans, we're still going to warm up, but after that you can show me what you know and we'll go from there."

"Osu!" I shouted out… which may have been a mistake as she grabbed at her heart, falling over and muttering something about 'cuteness overload.'

Turning on my heel, I pulled out my water bottle from my bag and splashed her with it. "Wha- ah."

"Ready to begin?" I asked, giving her the chance to recompose herself and not press her on the topics. Cheeks a little red from embarrassment, she nodded. I had Miles start hovering in the back, recording the class for Leah and my parents to review.

The stretches were pretty standard, though I was surprised by how far my body could go. Last life I could just reach the ends of my toes with my hands in a sitting stretch, now I'm reaching like a foot past it. It could have been part of the general upgrades humans had in this world, or just my child body being naturally more flexible.

The push-ups, sit-ups, and other exercises Dendra quickly ran me through were nothing new, all stuff I practiced at home. Even the kettlebell squats and chin-ups were all familiar to me, though using equipment I didn't have, so they worked out muscle groups I hadn't focused on as much in this life, giving me a good burn before my teacher called a break on that.

"Now that you're all warmed up, I want you to show me your moves! Let's start with a jab." She threw her hand out, and I almost copied her before remembering she wanted to see my style.

Bending my knees, I placed my legs apart, in line with my shoulders, one foot facing her in front of me, the other off to my right. I raised my hands beside my face, my fists clenched by my cheeks. Slowly, I extended my left arm out in a jab, letting her see every part of the motion clearly before drawing it back.

"Interesting, you didn't turn your fist over horizontally, you kept it vertical. Do you do the same for your punches?"

"Yes," I said, demonstrating my punch with my right hand. It was similar to my jab, but I turned my shoulder and pivoted my foot with it fully for extra reach and power. "It gives the wrist more protection and is just a little bit faster. I'll turn it for a hook punch or uppercut, but that's mostly to get better angles on those strikes." She nodded and motioned for me to demonstrate those as well, which I did.

"Good, good. You're throwing back behind each punch, even in the jabs where you pop your shoulder a bit. That's one of the most important steps and you've already got it down. You keep a very high guard. That'll protect your upper half, but what about your body?"

"I'd either use my elbows or knees. Possibly catching or deflecting a kick with my hands or arms if I felt it was viable."

Then I showed her the three leg blocks, raising my left leg high, first at an angle out, then in, and finally with my right leg at an angle out as well. "Any strike from an opponent I'm facing can be covered with these and force a lower strike to deflect against the knee or shin."

Dropping my elbow down, I showed how from my high guard I could still cover down to my hip while only dropping a few inches away from my face, giving me plenty of time to return to cover any follow-up strikes. Especially since any attack it blocked would limit any further attacks on that side. At least, from a human opponent. An angry Pokemon attacking me would be a very different story, even before any Moves.

After running through a few more strikes, she said "I think that's enough for now. Run them through for me, together." With that my new sensei started calling out strikes repeatedly, having me chain them together against imaginary foes.

"Elbow's dropping."

"Yes, sensei."

"Overturning your foot there."

"Thank you sensei."

So it went. My knowledge was not perfectly retained, but thousands and thousands of the basics ensured that they stuck in my mind. The muscle memory wasn't there anymore though, so as I started moving at full speed, I got sloppy. Made mistakes. Honestly, it's really impressive that Dendra can already get my style well enough to spot all the mistakes I'm making here, she's a great teacher.

Sweat was just starting to roll off me when Dendra called "Enough! Take a quick water break." I did so gratefully. "Well, I wasn't expecting you to already have a solid base style. Hmm, this is going to complicate things. What do you want to do from here? Keep your style as is and try to add the Karate into it, or start fresh?"

I thought hard about the offer before saying "I want to keep my style. It uses a lot of Karate anyway, probably the second heaviest influence to my style. I should be able to incorporate it without too much difficulty." There were often worries about having to train out prior influences when learning a new style, but I hoped that I could blend what I knew and what I learned without too much difficulty. "I don't want to lose what I learned."

It's funny. Hadn't practiced in a few years before I was reborn but… the mere thought of discarding what I had then cuts like a knife. My old teachers, an old man, and his son flashed through my mind. Maybe I'll never pass this on, I can't make any promises as to how this life goes, but I'll try to make you proud. Hope you're doing well, wherever you are.

"Nemona?" Her voice was tentative, not excited at all, so I turned to face Dendra wondering what was bothering her. "We can take a break if you want."

"What?! No!" I shook my head and felt a bit of water fly off my face. What- oh. I was crying. "I- no, I'm fine. Let's keep going." I wiped my face.

"... Alright. Let's practice some katas. Here, take a Zebstrika stance." I blinked, confused at her words before I saw her stance and realized what she meant.

"Oh right, yeah. Sensei," I tacked on the end as I took what I knew to be a horse stance. Of course, they would have different names.

"Hold your fists down lower, by your sides. Your guard will be lower for this, but there are blocks we'll train from here. Now, follow my lead, osu!"

***

Training continued like that, going pretty well. It wasn't hard for me to copy her moves, a lot of them I knew or were very familiar to me. It just would take a lot of practice until I had them down perfectly, could use them without thinking. Even more training on top of that to make sure they fit into what I already had, but I was feeling pretty hopeful.

Towards the end of the session, Dendra had me practicing on the wooden dummy and then the punching bag. The dummy went well, in part because I was aware of how tough the wood was and was careful not to hit it at full force. A punching bag can feel soft, you don't realize how dense the sand packed inside it can be.

"Ha! Kiai!" I shouted out as I punched and kicked into it.

"Harder!"

"Hah!" Exhaling, I threw a heavy hook into it. My fist felt a bit sore, but my wrist was fine, so I kept on going. Just like my shins, this would just be good conditioning, right?

"Last set, harder!" The words weren't harsh, I didn't have a reason to be upset, but it felt like I was hitting it as hard as I could. If I'd been thinking about it rationally, I'd recognize that I did still have a bit more to give, that it was about seeing if I could keep my form while using all my strength. But in that moment it just sparked a bit of frustration, and I grabbed onto that, Imagining Freddrick's dumb, smug face on the punching bag.

Jab, punch, uppercut, followed by an arcing overhand haymaker I stepped through to deliver. The bag was knocked back hard, swaying on the chain that held it aloft. As I slipped aside from its return swing, I saw my hands and realized they were bloody, something Dendra saw too.

"Stop! Nemona, what happened?"

"Nothing, I just fu- screwed up. Could I get an ice pack?" My hand was throbbing a bit.

"Yes, and bandages, oh gosh." She ran off to the main entrance room, and then down the hall to get some medical supplies.

Can't believe I was so stupid. Waving for Miles to stop recording, I called them back to me. At their worried expression, I said, "Don't worry, this doesn't really hurt."

"I'm so sorry Nemona, I shouldn't have let you get hurt!" Dendra wailed as she burst back into the dojo, her arms full with a box of medical supplies.

"Whoa, I think that's a bit much. I only need an ice bag." Glancing at my bloody knuckles I added "Maybe some gauze too."

"You sure you don't need a bandage or-"

"It'll just get in the way, it's the knuckles that got abrased." She handed me a strip of gauze and the ice pack. Applying the former to my knuckles, I put the latter against my wrist and let out a sigh of relief.

"Don't you need that for your knuckles?" she asked.

"No, they just sting a little bit. I tweaked my wrist with that last punch." I'd had minor wrist problems in my last life, probably from some injuries I'd acquired over my decades in martial arts, and I remembered Nemona having that brace in the game. I don't want to get those problems again, gotta be more careful.

"I'm sorry Nemona, I shouldn't have-"

"Stop it! Sensei," I added much too belatedly, the incongruity of it causing my lip to twitch upwards at the ridiculousness of it. That caused her to laugh and soon we were both just giggling. It's strange how being close to a friend can make everything so much brighter, and flip a bad mood around in an instant.

Once we stopped laughing I made sure to clarify. "Seriously though, it wasn't your fault. I got angry, made a mistake, and hurt myself. Wasn't even that bad, just scraped a bit of flesh off the knuckles. Besides, it's martial arts, I should expect a few bumps and bruises."

"Don't let Tulip hear you say that, she feels that every injury should be avoided." Dendra smiled at me as if to say 'How silly Tulip can be,' but I was distracted. Something about that triggered something in my mind. Didn't Dendra have a scar in the games? I think… I think she did, somewhere on her face, but pretty small. I couldn't see it here though, so it was likely an incident yet to happen.

The older girl continued. "While I'm glad you didn't get scared off or anything… what caused you to get so angry?"

Sitting down I let out a small sigh. "Nothing serious, just picturing beating that jerk from the tournament, Frederick. Figures he gets me in trouble again." I gave a small mirthless laugh. But I know the truth; it's my temper getting me in trouble, not him, even if he is an asshole.

"Do you think we could do any meditation as part of the class?" It's not like I need to meditate here, but it's a nice routine and something I enjoyed before when practicing.

"We could, but you'll probably do more of that with Tulip."

"Huh?"

"Oh right, she's been busy with her modeling and trying to get in contact with her old teacher, but she'll be ready to train you in Aura soon."

"I- I thought she- after my outburst, how I nearly… I thought she wasn't going to teach me that."

"Whaaaat? Why would you think that?!"

"Well, I got really mad, and…" Holding up my injured hand I shrugged. "She saw all that and we hadn't talked at all since, so I assumed…" I trailed off.

"No, of course not! You didn't hurt anyone, and of course, you were frustrated. We all were, that call was bogus! We were all just kinda shocked, and then you ran off, but no one blames you for that. That girl! She accuses me of being scatterbrained sometimes, but whenever the shoe's on the other foot…" she devolved into grumblings, and I smiled. Dendra looks a lot happier when talking about her friends rather than the people not in her life anymore.

"I wouldn't have blamed her if she hadn't wanted to teach me after that, it's not like she owed me anything. Oh, right! I should pay you for the class." She tried to wave me off, but I refused.

"No, this was a good class, from an expert for several hours, you deserve to get paid for it."

"You're a friend, it's not like I have much to do right now anyway…" That won't do at all.

"Ten thousand for the session."

"What!? No, that's way too much!"

"Eleven thousand."

"That's higher!" She shrieked.

"And it'll keep on going up until you accept," I shot back cheekily. Was sticking my tongue out too much? Nah.

"Why I- alright, fine, we'll settle this in a battle! I win and you have to pay me a reasonable price."

"Uhh…" Holding out my still bloody hand and using the other one to gesture at my much smaller body I said. "I don't think that's very fair."

"Not a martial arts match, a Pokemon battle! I love sparring, but I like Pokemon battling too, and I've been fired up ever since I saw your tournament fights!"

"Sounds good. Do you have anywhere to fight?" The dojo might be great for human sparring, but I was sure that Pokemon would tear it apart in a few Moves.

"The backyard has a sand pit that should be large enough for our Pokemon." Heading outside I saw a very spacious backyard, and tastefully arranged at that. Smooth stones were inlaid in the ground to make a nice path towards an empty pond and a tall tree. Hedges lined the edge, with a few shrubs inside. The back half was dominated by a sand pit with even lines running through it that made me suspect someone had been using it as a Zen garden.

Dendra took her place on one end of the rectangular field and I stood at the other. "Osu! Let's have a 1-on-1 battle. Whoever faints first or surrenders loses." She released Meditite, who didn't take to the field but instead moved outside it, taking their place in the center. Ah, they'll be the referee for this match.

"Sounds good, go, Dun!" I released the land snake from his ball and he gave a loud chirp, eagerly wiggling about on the sand.

"Go, Hariyama!" Dendra responded, releasing her Pokemon. He was a rather rotund figure, very humanoid with a pale cone-shaped head and massive orange hands.

She already has a Hariyama, I should have figured. She has a Type advantage over Dun, but given her experience, I don't think Miles would be up to the challenge yet. Plus, we've got a few new tricks to try against Fighting Types.

"On the count of three, we'll begin. Three, two, one… go!"

"Glare," I gave my order out immediately. Considering Dendra was counting us in, that gave me a slight advantage, and Hariyama had no chance of closing his eyes before his muscles started seizing up.

"Arm Thrust, hit him hard!" Dendra cried out, making thrusting motions with her own hands. Her Pokemon lumbered up, trying to palm-strike Dun repeatedly. My starter dodged out of the way of most of them, faster than the debilitated Fighting Type, but the sheer size of his hands meant that one of the shots clipped him and sent Dun tumbling tail overhead across the field from the force.

At least that gives us some breathing room. "Hex!" Purple shadowy winds whipped around Dun for a moment before dissipating as dark purple flame-like energies gathered around Hariyama. The large Fighting Type flinched heavily at that, trying to disperse the energy, only to freeze up part way through.

"Shake it off, Harriyama! I know you got it in you!" Dendra shouted. I would have felt it was a waste of time… if I didn't see her Pokemon do just that. With a quick shake of his head, he pushed aside the Paralysis, his body limbering up and he clapped his large hands together menacingly.

Gah! How did she- whatever, gotta stay in the game. The distance between them… too much for that, but he's going to close anyway, won't he? "Earthquake, followed with an Air Cutter," I gave my command as Hariyama started jogging towards us.

Training on the beach so often meant that sand was no obstacle for Dun to move, his repeated strikes to the ground sending waves of sand rippling out around him. As the waves neared Hariyama, they rose, crashing over him like a tidal wave.

"Nice work Dun!" I called out as I saw the Fighting Type getting pushed back and covered by sand. Hariyama spat out a few grains. More waves came in, which he just punched through, but each hit roughed him up a little bit and slowed him down.

Dun's wings flapped hard, gathering energy and swirling the winds around him even while he didn't move himself. To my surprise, Hariyama proved faster, closing with Dun before he could launch his attack. The wind was released in a cutting slash at Hariyama, who managed to dodge it partially, twisting his large body to the side so the blade of air only cut him in the shoulder before smacking Dun hard into the ground with a slap of his own.

"Dunnnnn!" the land snake gave a pained cry, rolling around away from any follow-up. No, it wasn't that Hariyama was too fast, it's that Dun moved too slow; he took twice as long as he usually does to use that Move.

"Drill retreat!" Dun's tail started spinning noisily, giving Hariyama a moment of pause, which was all Dun needed to escape. We still hadn't gotten the Move Dig down fully, but he was good enough to drill down and make a tunnel to escape, popping back up far away from Hariyama a few seconds later.

"Air Slash, again!" His wings flapped again and blades of air started flying across the battlefield at Hariyama. Much faster this time. It must be because he didn't just use Ground Type energy before it - drilling through the ground isn't the same as Earthquake. I'd taken it for granted, with Dun being so naturally great at using different Type energies, but switching between them rapidly is still a limitation we face for the newer Moves.

Dendra wasn't just going to let us pelt her from afar, however. "Stone Edge the Air Slash." The big-handed Pokemon reached down, condensing sand into a giant boulder twice the size of Dunsparce and hurling it low to the ground at his foe. It burst through the whirling air with ease and before it even reached his target, Hariyama was reaching for another toss with his other hand.

"Protect! Go low and pick up speed!" At the last moment, Dunsparce conjured a hexagonal patterned forcefield around him. The barrier wavered, ripples spreading out from the point where the jagged rock impacted it, but ultimately held.

More rocks were thrown, some of them smashing into each other or hitting the ground, kicking up large clouds of dust neither of us could see through. I'm not worried though, Dun knows what to do.

When the clouds cleared, the rocks breaking back down into sand, they revealed an empty space where Dunsparce had been. "Huh? Oh, I see," Dendra nodded, figuring out my strategy in a second. "Fine, we can play like that. Hariyama, Belly Drum!"

My eyes widened. He still has the energy left for that? Damn it! The big fighter did indeed, joyously slapping his own hands against his belly making an odd sound ringing out through the air. He looked quite beat up, more from his own Move than any of the ones we had landed on him, but he was still standing proud.

Dunsparce poked his head out from the sand and I knew it was time to act. "Strafe him, Hyper Voice!" Dun dashed across the battlefield, and with the Agility he had used underground, he moved quite quickly at that, drawing in a deep breath. Belly Drum is a huge threat, but if he can't reach us we can still win this-

"Bullet Punch." Hariyama rocketed forward, right hand outstretched in a fist- no, like his fist was pulling the rest of him forward. Dun let out a high-pitched screech, causing Hariyama to wince, but his aim was true, connecting with the speedy snake and sending him flying across the arena and into a hedge where he collapsed in a heap.

Hariyama wobbled, dropping down to one knee and placing a hand on the ground. He was hurt but still conscious while Dun… was not. Meditite raised their arm on Dendra's side, indicating she was the winner, but I barely noticed.

"Dun!" I ran over to him and began immediately applying Revives and Potions to him after extracting him from the hedge. He blearily blinked his eyes back open.

"Arce ar?"

"We lost, sorry pal. You did great out there though."

"Dun." He was disappointed, but not upset this time. I feel the same. If we had lost to Freddrick- well, that guy was still a jerk so it would have hurt more, but losing to Rika wouldn't have been bad. I wonder if I'll get to challenge her when I take on the Elite Four?

"Osu! That was incredible! You two were awesome!" Dendra exclaimed as she ran over. I tossed her a few Potions to use on Hariyama, which helped him a bit but didn't clear all of his bruises.

"Thanks, but it was Dun that did great. I shouldn't have played so on the fence around the Belly Drum. Should have gone all in the moment he came out, or maybe gone full defense, waited for you to commit with something else, Glare at a distance and Protect to stop it, then counter?

Or…" my mumblings became indecipherable as I puzzled it over in my head.

If there was any possible way to win, I'm the kind of person to obsess over it. Admittedly, this one would have been pretty hard no matter what. Her Hariyama was incredibly tough, well-trained, and had the Type advantage. I'll face more challenges like that as I grow though, so many more if I want to be the Champion. People who have built whole teams solely to defeat me, and I'll need to counter those.

I noticed Dun slither over to Hariyama and exchange a few 'words.'

"Dun, un."

"Ama?"

"Arce spar, dunsparce."

"Ha ha hariyama!"

Dendra grinned, reading the situation as well as I had (albeit, from the other side).

"We'll be ready to take you on any time, osu!"

"Just you wait, Dun is gonna be so much stronger the next time you face him!"

Her eyes blazed fiercely as she met my determined gaze and I held out my fist for her to bump it. She did so, and Dun did something similar, holding out his tail for Hariyama who tapped it… and sent Dunsparce blasting off.

The three of us looked on in shock and horror before running off after Dun, trying to catch him wherever he landed.

"Oh no, he still had Belly Drum up! I'm so sorrrrry!!"

Spoiler: A/N:

A lot of this is me geeking out over martial arts, sorry if that isn't your thing as much. If it isn't don't worry, the Pokemon battles are always going to be the major focus. In any case, I hope you continue to enjoy my story.

Nemona's Current Team:

-'Dun' (Dunsparce, Male, Normal Type, Starter)
- Tera Type: Normal
- Held Item: None
- Abilities: Run Away
- Moves known: Flail, Mud Slap, Rollout, Glare, Body Slam, Poison Jab, Earthquake, Bite, Yawn (Invisible Version), Last Resort, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Hex, Agility, Air Slash, Giga Impact

- 'Miles' (Rotom)
- Tera Type: ?
- Held Item: None
- Ability: Levitate
- Moves Known: Astonish, Confuse Ray, Thundershock, Double Team, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Rain Dance, Will O' Wisp, Nasty Plot

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Skyfyre]

Nothingness. It surrounded me, I was one with it and everything. There are voids between everything, every particle of matter like the void in my stomach, I'm hungry-

"Focus." Tulip's stern words cut through my distraction but didn't help me achieve that goal. I'm sure she's got her eyes closed just like me, but she picked up on my distraction instantly. Her psychic abilities are interesting- enough of that! Recenter.

Trying to bring my mind back in order, I recalled where I was. I'm in the dojo with Tulip, we're sitting on the wooden floor. The floor is connected to the ground, to the city of Alforanda. The city, a bustling mass of people and Pokemon, buildings and roads, all working together and connecting to each other, and out to the rest of the cities, to the whole land of Paldea. Paldea connected to the rest of the world through the seas and skies. I am one with the universe, and it is one with me.

That was a good start, but next, I needed to focus on what I was doing. I'm meditating, training my Aura. First step? Feeling the energies within me and around me and shaping them… at least in theory. A sharp breath of air escaped me and I heard Tulip sigh in response.

"What's the problem?" I opened my eyes to see the purple-haired woman sitting there in front of me. She wasn't dolled up as elegantly as she usually was, her purple hair hung down straight behind her back. Tulip was wearing jeans and a Gardevoir patterned t-shirt, that while casual, did nothing to hide how beautiful she was.

"I can't seem to get a hold of the energy within me. You're sure I've got a lot of it?"

This time it was her turn to sigh. "Yes, I'm certain. It's easy for me to tell that much, your Aura is likely as great as mine, possibly greater."

"Didn't you say you were rather weak?"

Despite the question being rude, she was hardly upset at it. "Compared to the select few that can actively use Aura? Yes, I'm on the weaker end, though part of that is that I've barely had any training. It would grow if I trained it more, but my modeling and other duties eat into that. Your potential probably outstrips my own."

Other duties mostly included modeling pro bono for her family's business. Dendra mentioned to me that Tulip's parents ran a software company. It was rather small compared to the massive companies Billy and O'Nare ran, but from what I gathered they were decently wealthy, especially with a rising star like their daughter helping in advertisements.

"Well, thank you for helping train me. I appreciate it, though I can't see how I could have more 'potential' than you; sensing emotions was something you could do even without training, right?"

She nodded. "My training gave me better control, just focused on making sure I no longer was overwhelmed by what I could sense. It left me quite awkward as a child," she gave a small, sad chuckle. It was hard to imagine someone as composed as her being like that, but I understood that Psychic powers were something that could be quite difficult to deal with as a child.

"I started training later than you have, but you should have noticed some influence from that energy. Not everyone leans to a specific Type, and some do have more subtle applications of that power than Psychics, but there might be some hint of it there."

Shaking my head, I tried to reign in the hint of frustration I was feeling, knowing that the older girl would be feeling it as well. "Nothing I can think of, my life has been fairly normal." Aside from the whole Isekai deal. I don't even remember dying in my past life, so no extra ghostly energy or anything like that. "No conjuring fireballs, or grass growing where I walk, or draconic… dragoneyness."

"Please take this seriously," Her lips were set into a thin line.

"I am! It's just hard. I can't think of anything unusual, any special powers I might have and whenever I try to grasp this supposed energy within me, I can't get a hold of it at all." After a second I added: "Well, I think my senses might be better than other people's. I was able to hear a whispered conversation better from farther away than someone else who was closer, and my vision is excellent, for detail and distance. Not sure if that indicates anything other than general Aura use, however."

She made a non-committal 'hmm' noise. "I'll keep that in mind. Your personal energy, does it feel like water slipping through your fingers?"

"Not even that. Like there's nothing there, or any energy there is dancing just out of reach, brushing just by me and unable to be held. Or maybe I'm just imagining it, and I'm not actually feeling anything at all."

"Don't become despondent. The training takes time, have patience." Grimacing, I nodded. Intellectually I knew all of that, but emotionally… I'm just getting frustrated, which isn't helping. Look how hard and tirelessly Miles and Dun have worked for their gains. I can put in at least this much.

After our session, an hour no closer to progress, we stopped. "If this doesn't work in a few months we'll try something new."

"Alright, thank you. How much should I pay you-"

"No." The words to try to convince her died on my tongue as I saw the determined look on her face. Dendra had been reticent to accept pay after winning our bout until I showed her comparative prices for training from a martial arts master and the added benefit of one-on-one teaching and she acquiesced to a decent sum each month for the weekly lessons. This is different though.

"Those who have learned Aura teach it for their own reasons." Or don't, I thought, recalling how she had danced around the topics in front of the Professors. "The talent is rare, and not everyone can learn to harness their Aura. My teacher taught me it was a duty to pass that gift on to the next generation."

"Does that mean I'll have to as well? Or that I can't tell the general public about it?" She shrugged, and I could see a certain lightness in her posture. Being under the spotlight almost all the time can't be easy.

"The choice is yours. I'll admit, I didn't really understand the duty to pass it on until I met you."

Part of me wanted to declare that I'd teach anyone, make it public knowledge. More people could be found and possibly helped if it was something more people were aware of. But then again, are there that many people who are getting hurt by the fact that Aura isn't common knowledge? Would it cause strife if it was well known? Invasive experiments, onerous demands to try and force kids to practice while they were young?... Probably not, honestly, this world is an incredibly kind one, and even the strongest Aura master pales in comparison to a Pokemon. Still, I should think about it, and learn more about it, before making any decisions.

"Thank you then," I stood up and gave her a small bow. "Again, I appreciate you training me."

"You're welcome," she rose as well, stretching out.

"By the way who is your-" She shook her head. Makes sense. If they really cared for me to know who they are, they probably would have helped out with the teaching here. I wondered if the unnamed teacher even wanted me to be taught - it had taken Tulip a fair while to 'learn everything she needed to know', and given how spotty even that knowledge was, I imagined some of that was resistance on her teacher's part.

I could admit to myself that I was tempted to find out who this mysterious teacher was, and what secrets they were keeping, but I pushed that part down. It was generous enough that they and Tulip were giving me anything; I could have searched for years and not found any hard answers about Aura.

"It's my pleasure to teach you, though I'm afraid I must be going. I'll only be able to train you once a month or so, unlike Dendra due to my schedule."

"I should be going too. I've got a new music teacher to meet. See ya later!" I shouted, rushing out the door and down to where Rotom had called a Flying Taxi for me.

"Bzzt, you're almost as eager for this as you were for your lessons with Tulip," Miles noted, floating in front of me as I hopped into the basket.

"It should be a lot of fun," I said blandly while reaching out and pulling up a note document on the phone. There I typed my more sensitive answer.

'Music is something I loved and was incredibly common in my first world. But I only ever listened to it, I never learned how to make it. Wasn't great at singing and didn't know how to play any instruments. If I learn how to play, I can bring back some of the great songs I loved.'

There will be some limits of course. A lot of elements are subtly woven into the lyrics that just wouldn't make sense here. Replacing those will be a lot harder for a song than it is for a story as I need to not only find a similar meaning but also try and keep the right cadence and rhythm of the song.

'I see.' Miles messaged back.

'Also… it's a chance to try something new. I have no experience with playing music before, so I'll be judged based on how well I actually learn it, not on how much I was able to remember.'

Miles (and Dun), knew well about my past life and some of the more complicated feelings I had on that. It's part of why I'm so hard on myself at times and other people tell me it's fine. Would they be saying the same if they knew how much experience and knowledge I already have? They praise me enough already.

"I wonder who my tutor will be?"

"No idea, bzzt. The Masters of the house picked them out specifically." For a moment I wondered if that meant I'd be taught by the same guy who taught Ortega. Getting the former Headmaster of Uva Academy does sound like something they'd do- no, wait. He's the current headmaster right now, isn't he? Yeah, I don't think that even Mom and Dad could get someone that important. Not like I need anything like that though, just an ordinary girl learning guitar for the first time.

I decided to push out any worries about my Aura or teacher away and just appreciate the moment, enjoying the breeze as we flew along.

***

"Hassel!? Dragon Trainer of the Elite Four, Hassel?!" I squealed and shrieked out as I saw the man standing in my living room. He had short, bright yellow hair, styled differently than what I knew from the games, but that and his dark green overcoat/cape combo (and the fact that I'd seen him in several videos in this life) made his identity clear.

"Ahem. Yes, that is who I am. However, I am also, as of today, your music teacher!" He declared proudly, trying to shake off the awkwardness my first outburst had caused. I was just confused.

"Music? Not art?" As soon as the words escaped my mouth, I realized they were wrong. Shit! That must be later in the timeline!

He blinked. "I'm more known for my musical talents than my artistic ones, but yes, I teach art. I'm surprised you know about that, you must be quite the fan." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He was a musician too? I mean, I guess that sounds right. I must have just forgotten it.

Still, I was now stuck in a position where my new teacher was feeling awkward. I gotta convince him I'm not a crazed fan or anything. "I just watch a bunch of videos online, I like battles and stuff. You're not even in my top ten favorite battlers, honest!" I was pretty sure that sold the point, with how he doubled over and clutched at his chest as if I'd shot him. Great job brain, 10/10, no notes.

Hassle straightened up after a moment and resumed his stoic demeanor. "Well, I guess it's a good thing your parents didn't hire me as your battle coach then."

"I didn't mean it like- I'm sorry," I forced out, unable to meet his gaze and wishing the ground would just swallow me whole.

His sigh sounded at least slightly fond. "It's fine. Still, we should probably get on with your lesson. You're learning the guitar, correct?"

"Yes!" I said, eagerly leading him up to my room, waving at Cyan as I passed by her room. Once inside I pulled out my case and began getting my birthday gift out. Still, I couldn't help but ask him a bit more about his job. "I'm surprised you have time to teach me. I thought you'd be busy with all your Elite Four duties and stuff."

"They said you were a bright young girl," he mused out loud, giving me a curious look before moving on. "I indeed have many obligations that take up my time and energy, but it's important to make time to engage in one's hobbies. Especially when I get such wonderful opportunities like this."

Read: Billy & O'Nare paid him a loooot for this. That wasn't to say that I thought Hassel wouldn't have taught me otherwise, but the offer probably pushed my name to the front of any hypothetical list.

"What hobbies do you have?" He asked as he motioned for me to pass him the guitar.

I did so and answered "Battling! I love it." Despite everything that happened at the Junior Tournament, I still love to battle. I just, might not be as big a fan of tournaments anymore. Then I thought more about the question, watching him tune the guitar and taking mental notes (Miles was hovering nearby to take digital notes in case I forgot). "I guess that isn't a 'hobby' though. I'm gonna be a Champion one day, so that's more of a job."

I saw him twitch ever so slightly like he was trying to hold back a laugh. "Music might be your hobby then." I frowned instinctually, something he caught as he stopped testing and tuning my guitar. "You do want to learn, right?"

Nice of him to be so considerate, to make sure his student wants the lessons her parents have paid for. "I do, I really do. I have a bunch of ideas for songs in my head and I want to get them out into the world." I just didn't know if that would qualify as a 'hobby' or not.

"Well why don't you try and sing one for me and we can work from there?" He offered, and I tried to keep my face calm while panicking internally. I might not have been lying, but I have no idea how to translate these songs to make sense in this world.

"Uhh, I don't know how to play the guitar yet," I deflected.

"Just sing the words, we'll see if we can add the music after," he said softly.

My mind was racing, put on the spot as I tried to come up with something that would work. Devil went down to Georgia? No, there's no devil or Georgia in this world. Ghost Ship of Cannibal Rats? Of course not, that mentions rats and practically no songs reference regular animals here. The Pretender? Ah, that one really needs instruments backing it up and I don't even want to try it until I'm good enough to play something. Eye of the Tiger? Don't remember anything other than the chorus.

A dozen other songs flashed through my head, songs that I either couldn't remember well enough to sing properly, or that just didn't work. Hassle was starting to look concerned, too.

"Gi- give me a mome- no." I stopped, cleared my throat, and began to sing.

"Gimme gimme gimme some time to think.

I'm in the bathroom looking at me,

Face in the mirror is all I need, ooh."

Hassel stopped, donning a considering mein as he took in my words. It's not perfect, I know. I could hit the notes better but- screw it, this will do.

"Wait until the reaper takes my life,

Never gonna get me out alive.

I will live a thousand million lives, ooh.

My patience is waning, is this entertaining?

Our patience is waning, is this entertaining!"

The chorus came into sharp clarity in my mind and I got more into the song, throwing my head about as I started to get into it; wasn't the same without the instruments to go along with but something in my heart lifted just to hear those old words again.

"I-I-I got this feeling yeah you know,

Where I'm losing all control,

Cause there's magic in my bones!

I-I-I got this feeling in my soul,

Go ahead and throw your stones,

Cause there's magic in my bones!"

Stopping there because I wasn't 100 percent sure of how the next line went, I waited for my tutor's response. There was a long moment of silence before Hassel began slowly clapping his hands together. "Wonderful! Truly wonderful-"

"Shhh! Shut up!" I harshly warned him, causing him to step back in shock. I thought I heard it, just now…

Another 'CRACK' sound came from the other room, and I knew for sure this time it wasn't any weird clap. "It's happening, it's happening!" I shouted out before racing off.

"What!? What is happening?!?" A very confused Hassel shouted, trailing behind me. By the time I got to my sister's room, her door was already being flung open.

"Nims, it's happening!" Cyan exclaimed eagerly before rushing back inside.

"Could someone explain what is going on?" I ignored Hassel, figuring it would be easier to just let him see.

Within Cyan's room, we beheld the Egg. It was still in the Incubator, but that had been placed on the ground with the top taken off. Within the water-filled container we could see the egg, cracks already spreading throughout it.

"Oh my." That was all Hassel had left to say as the cracks spread a bit farther apart. A piece here and there chipped off, but not enough to see within, until suddenly the whole shell shattered, and a Popplio burst out from it.

"Pop?" The newborn questioned, shaking some of the water off its blue fur, looking curiously at all of us. Hassle and I were standing back letting Cyan take the majority of his focus. He had a transparent blue frill around his neck and white fur around his mouth, topped with a pale red nose.

My sister was frozen in place until he cocked his head to the side, hanging off the edge of the incubator with his flippers. "Ahh, you're so adorable!" She squealed, rushing towards him. He still seemed a little confused but was calm - hers was a voice he had heard often while in his egg, so subconsciously he equated Cyan with safety.

"Lio," He said proudly, puffing up a bit, before that caused his tenuous grip to slip. Before he could fall back in, Cyan rushed forward and scooped him up. She's usually so tidy, but she doesn't care about the mess being made at all right now.

I smiled at the scene before inspiration hit me and I rushed over to Cyan's desk, grabbing a pen and paper and quickly jotting it down.

"Nemona? What are you doing?" She asked me before turning back to Popplio. "Oh, right, that's Nemona, my sister and I'm Cyan. I'm going to be your trainer. She can be a bit weird, don't worry about it."

"Popplio!" The small Pokemon cheered, still sounding a little confused on the matter, but trusting that everything must be good if Cyan was happy.

"Here," I said, quickly handing her the paper, which she awkwardly held while still cradling Popplio. "It's a song, for the occasion, well part of one- just, sing it." Popplio's big eyes glanced between me and Cyan. My sister read over it quickly and slowly nodded, taking a deep breath before beginning.

"What can I tell you of the world?

When I know I still have so much to learn

How can I keep you safe? How will you find your way?

What can I tell you of the world?

I want you to have it all

Want you to trust yourself and fear no fall,

Want you to turn out to be, so much better than me,

I want you to have it alllll.

Ohh the places you'll go, with your eyes so wide,

With heart in your hand, with your sword at your side,

Oh the mountains you'll move, the tears you'll cry,

Oh the places you'll go,

Little love of mine."

Cyan sang it quite differently than I remembered, which made sense considering that I didn't have time to write any directions to go down with it. Her voice also grew watery towards the end, and she muttered something after about "Why'd you have to write something so sappy?"

It was hard to hear, however, over the enthusiastic clapping Popplio gave my performance, squirting out a small jet of water from his mouth in appreciation. "Pop popplio!"

My new music teacher was also making it difficult to hear my big sister's criticisms. "That was, so, so… beaudiful!!" Hassel wailed, the tears streaming down his face putting the Water Type to shame.

"Arceus, I can't believe an Elite Four could be such a crybaby," Cyan said while wiping away at her face and using the water Popplio was making to otherwise obscure her own tears. She saw me opening my mouth and decided to quickly deflect "And what was that about being 'so much better than me, huh?" Jeez, and I was just going to say that Hassel reminded me of Izuku from My Hero. Well, I'd say he 'reminded me of a story idea…'.

Popplio added in his two cents, miming at his chest and a void by his body. I squinted for a moment before figuring out his questions.

"Wow, everyone's a critic, huh? It's just a good message, Cyan. And the 'heart in your hands, sword at your side' thing is a metaphor, Popplio. Where you say something to represent another thing without outright saying it's like that."

The blue seal lion tilted his head to the side as if to say 'Why not just say that outright then? Stupid,' before turning away to demand another round of the song from Cyan. Taking my cue to step back, I tugged on Hassel's sleeve and we left.

As we exited, I noticed Miles had been hovering behind us, taking photos of the big moment.

"Nice work, Miles." They gave me a big grin before flying back into my pocket.

Once back in my room, Hassel had composed himself once again. "Apologies for my outburst, it was just such a moving display. And that song you wrote! Off the cuff no less, you'll make an excellent musician someday."

"Oh, no, I had been working on that one for a bit, that moment just reminded me- and that song isn't even finished, that's just the first part. Plus I think I made a few mistakes there…"

"I'm sure you'll make a fine musician, regardless. I can see you being announced at venues all around-"

"No. Well, I might be famous one day, but it's not for music. I just need a way to get the songs out of my head properly, I'll probably give them away once I can do that."

"I- really? But then why would you be famous?"

Locking on to his amber gaze I declared "Because I'm going to be champion someday. The greatest champion ever."

He held that stare for a moment before shifting, straightening his tie, and taking off his jacket to hang off my chair. "Excuse me, it just felt a little stuffy for a moment. I'm sure you'll succeed at whatever you put your mind to, young lady. For the moment though, let's get back to your lesson; in all the excitement I almost forgot about it! Now, here's the first chord you need to learn…" I settled down opposite Hassel, paying close attention as he began teaching me how to play the guitar.

Spoiler: A/N:

And so we see the last of Nemona's new teachers, and they're familiar faces for anyone who played the games. Even if not, I hope they still felt enjoyable and in-character. The lyrics for the songs Nemona sung are Bones by Imagine Dragons and Oh the Places You'll Go by I Fight Dragons.

For some reason this chapter was just really hard to write. Might just be my worries about people being upset about Aura (while I do like it in the story, it's role will always be a small one). In any case, I hope you continue to enjoy this and have a great day!

Nemona's Current Team:

-'Dun' (Dunsparce, Male, Normal Type, Starter)
- Tera Type: Normal
- Held Item: None
- Abilities: Run Away
- Moves known: Flail, Mud Slap, Rollout, Glare, Body Slam, Poison Jab, Earthquake, Bite, Yawn (Invisible Version), Last Resort, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Hex, Agility, Air Slash, Giga Impact

- 'Miles' (Rotom)
- Tera Type: ?
- Held Item: None
- Ability: Levitate
- Moves Known: Astonish, Confuse Ray, Thundershock, Double Team, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Rain Dance, Will O' Wisp, Nasty Plot

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Skyfyre]

"Nims, you need to hear this!"

"Po pop!"

Cyan and Popplio burst into my room one morning, my sister shoving her Rotom in my face.

"Whoa, where's the fire?" Blinking as I tried to stabilize myself from falling out of my desk chair I'd been idly leaning back in. Once I was back under control (an effort that I couldn't claim was helped by Popplio hopping onto my shoulder) I put my homework to the side and took a look at what they were trying to show me.

Cyan had a new article brought up on the phone, a recent one. Scrolling through it I began reading aloud. "Investigation by the League and 'concerned citizens'… Corruption of tournament officials… Van Grough family disgraced for cheating, Freddrick stripped of championship!?" My voice rose as I took it all in and stood up suddenly.

Popplio hopped off of me and on top of Cyan's head, something she'd gotten used to. He does like to climb all around and explore everything.

I thought my sister might be a little upset that the breeder's psychics hadn't been able to properly predict the gender of the Pokemon she would get, but the white-haired girl didn't say a single bad word when the topic came up.

"I know, right? Glad that the cheater got caught. You should have won the whole thing!" The Popplio atop her head nodded very seriously as well, even though I knew he had no real knowledge of the topic.

The support goes both ways with those two, I'm glad to see it. My little sister fawned over Popplio in turn every day, so much so that she was almost busier than me with all my new lessons, just looking after the little guy.

Reading the article in more detail, I saw more treachery involved than just the head judge being connected to him, and even that was different than I imagined. Mr. Rovali wasn't actually Freddrick's uncle but instead was a close friend of the family who must have been like a relative to the boy (which explained why it wasn't immediately detected). There was also the fact that the Corviknight was 'doped' with Power Herb before the fight.

"Wow, can't believe that jerk!" Cyan exclaimed, stomping her foot as she read it over my shoulder as well, clearly having just skimmed it before rushing over.

"I know, wasn't enough that he had to get Mr. Rovali to disqualify me but he was just straight-up cheating too. And there's suspicion that Rovali was fixing the match order as well." That one was harder to prove definitively, but it would make sense. That Pawmo might have been a challenge for his Corviknight but was checked by Rika's Clodsire, who in turn had a tough time against Corviknight.

In any case, the man had been fired and was facing civil and criminal suits. Civil for interference with the gambling organization around the tournament, and criminal for 'abuse of authority.' The League was making big statements about how this incident was an outlier and that they're looking into their structure to make sure nothing like this happens again, standard ass-covering stuff. Still, it'll be interesting to see if it leads to any big changes.

"Looks like Freddrick's paying for it at least. He lost his Junior Tourney championship, lost his badges, and can't compete in any League-sanctioned match for the next ten years at least, they even considered taking away his Trainer's License!" Cyan shouted at the end, and I sucked in a deep breath. That is a big deal.

Being able to train Pokemon was considered a fundamental right by modern society. Yes, you did have to pass a test, but it was fairly easy and you could retake it however many times it took if you failed. To revoke it though? That meant permanently banning you from having any Pokemon partners, a sentence to live life alone. Especially since it's a sentence basically only handed down on real criminals like Team Rocket. People who have their licenses revoked are universally shunned by polite society.

I feel like my parents might have pushed people to come down hard on him if this was even considered, though the officials decided not to go through with it. Without any signs of Pokemon abuse or mistreatment, it was never going to go through, but I couldn't bring myself to feel too much sympathy for the boy after what he did to my first tournament.

Most shocking of all however wasn't the contents of the investigation, but the identity of the investigator at the end.

"Wait, Geeta found this out?!"

Cyan looked funny at me, which also had her tipping her head back a bit, which almost caused her and Popplio to topple over. She was still getting used to him in some way. "Why is that so surprising? You met her at the tournament. She found you when you ran off crying."

My cheeks grew red at that embarrassing reminder. "Thanks for that. But I didn't realize it was Geeta then." And how could I miss something so obvious? Argh. At her strange look, I tacked on "I've talked with Geeta online. She had some good views on Pokemon protection and the like, just didn't realize those were the same person."

Before she could ask me anything more about that, I changed topics. "Well, it's great to hear that Freddrick is getting his just deserts, but I was actually on the verge of heading out. I've got a class I need to get ready for."

"Oh? What is it right now? I keep losing track of your schedule."

"Well…"

***

"What is the first step you must take when stranded in the wilderness?"

"Get supplies, find somewhere safe," Amethio said. Not a bad choice, but you're skipping a step there.

Chalce agreed with my unspoken assessment, shaking her head. Her long, braided dark hair swished back and forth, a few of the ornaments on the ends making a light clinking sound as they tapped each other. She was wearing a white and orange dress with a Japanese RPG character's amount of belts wrapped around it, with a patch attached to the side holstering a few Pokeballs.

"Those are important, but not the first step you must achieve. Nemona?"

"Assess your surroundings. You need to know where you are, and what's around you, before making any moves."

"Correct. Leaping forward can just leave your foot caught in a Stunfisk." Amethio and I winced at the imagery. Not sure if she's speaking from experience or not, but that just sounds painful.

We were in a classroom, of sorts. Honestly feels more like an office room that was repurposed to teach us. The single large table with a projector at the end helped sell that image as well. Still, we had notebooks, pencils, and a teacher, so it made due for a classroom.

"When getting your bearings, you need to find out the type of environment you are in. Above ground or underground? Is there any running water nearby? Any cover? What is the foliage like? Is it particularly hot? Humid? Cold? These are the questions you need to ask first when you find yourself in the wilderness. They can give you an immediate idea of the potential resources and dangers around you."

Amethio let out a sigh, something that Chalce caught, her gaze sharpening on the young boy. "This might seem basic to you, but it's important to categorize these things carefully. Many a mission has been put in jeopardy because of false assumptions at the start, things that could have been easily avoided if they had paid attention from the start." Chalce didn't raise her voice or show aggression, but her stern, thorough method had Amethio avert his gaze, embarrassed while nodding.

I think he's learning more from this than from Spinel's spiels. Then again, I think it would be hard to learn less from him. The Explorers were a small organization, or at least I assumed they were, given the relatively few older members we had as 'teachers.' The base was sprawling, and I was always given something to do in one specific place or another, so I hadn't nearly had time to explore it all. Even with that, I could tell it was much bigger than what was needed for the handful of teachers, Amethio, Hamber, and me.

Are the others off on 'missions' often? And what would said missions be comprised of? I didn't know and could tell the others were keeping secrets from me. Except for Amethio, who was probably too young to be trusted with anything like that. I suppose it's fair though, I've got my secrets, which I'll keep no matter what, so even if Spinel does a shitty job when it's his turn to teach us, I should let them keep theirs.

Given we were only being taught now though, and by teachers of… varying aptitudes, I could infer that this was likely not often used to teach young people. The other methods by which they induct people remain a mystery-

"Nemona, can you tell me which Pokemon these claw marks belong to." I snapped my gaze forward at Chalce's words to the image being projected on the screen.

"Well, there's several different Pokemon it might belong to," I began, frantically filibustering for time to better analyze the picture and pretend I'd been paying attention.

"Give me your best guess. And explain your reasoning."

Urk- ok, I think I've got it. "I believe those are Ursal- ahem, Ursaring scratch marks." She gave me a cool, impassive gaze. "Right, the reasoning, umm."

"There are three claw marks evenly spaced, that's the same number that an Ursaring would have on one hand. The gouges are pretty deep into the tree trunk as well, not a lot of other Pokemon would have the strength or sharpness to go that deep - or if they did it would lead to other signs. Sneasel or Scythers would just cut a tree of only a few feet in diameter in half, a Vigoroth would just scratch everything up, not one mark." There was a slight shift in her eyes and I knew I was on the right track with that idea. Ok, look closer, what else- there!

"Then there's the top left corner, where I think that's a Combee hovering in the frame. Ursaring loves the honey Combees make and will often make deals with the Vespiquen, protecting the hive in exchange for honey. So that mark is a warning sign that an Ursaring is watching over this area, to scare off anyone else that might get close."

Chalce nodded. "Very good Nemona, that was quite the thorough deduction." I beamed at the praise until she continued. "Except that an Ursaring has five claws, though their fifth claw is on their thumb and thus a bit shorter. Still, an Ursaring would leave four claw marks when marking their territory."

"So, what was it then?" Amethio asked, just as stumped as I was.

"Nemona's deduction was quite close, it was a Teddiursa. They were trying to mimic the signs of an Ursaring, hoping it would scare off any predators-"

"Were there three Tediursa stacked on top of each other?!" I couldn't help but exclaim as I put the pieces together. No other claw marks up the tree, so it wasn't one Tediursa that just climbed up and left the mark.

Chalce gave me a small smirk. "That's impossible to say with perfect accuracy… but we did find three Tediursas when surveying the location. Now, onto the next location…" I couldn't help but grin at the image in my mind of three Tediursas working together like that. Can't wait till we can get out there and do some actual exploring ourselves!

***

"Osu! Punch left! Right! Left! Keep your knees bent!"

"Yes, sensei!" I called out, following her instructions, sweating profusely. We were starting to hit a good level, where Dendra could tell just how far to push me in our sessions without it going overboard.

"Good job, now let's move on to punching a moving target." She grabbed the boxing pads while I took a quick drink of water and put on some gloves to protect my hands before going back to the mats.

Dendra had to kneel to keep the pads at an even level for me to punch at. 'Not realistic' I had pointed out until Dendra said that I shouldn't be picking fights with adults. I then asked her if that meant I should be picking fights with kids, which sent her into a spluttering fit of denials.

In the end, she pointed out that this trained good habits, and I agreed. Dendra would call out for strikes, and I'd punch or occasionally kick into held mitts, my sensei moving them around to the appropriate spot. Every so often, she'd throw one of her hands out as if striking back, though the mitts made it so that any strike even if it would connect wouldn't have done much harm.

This is good practice and fun, but… "Can we do some actual sparring, sensei? I know you'll have to hold back, but I want to try!"

The enthusiastic girl frowned instinctually, biting her lip. The teenager was still very nervous about me getting hurt, but I felt better than ever. I'm not made of porcelain after all! It's been two years since 'I've' gotten here and I've been working out for most of it, and now have weekly sessions with a martial arts expert. I must be as tough and strong as I was in my old body by now, which just says how crazy strong people in this world can be.

I gave her my best impression of Baby-Doll Eyes and she caved. "Fine! We can do some sparring. But let me know if anything hurts, no matter if you think you can shake it off or not."

"I'm not that bad- yes sensei," I quickly amended at her stern gaze. We both donned full boxing gloves, helmets, and shin guards for the practice. After it had been decided that I would be doing this regularly my parents had ordered me some of the best gear available, the Hitmon Brand stuff you'd see in specialty stores. I'd also noticed that Dendra's old gear, which had been 'well-loved' to say the least, had been slowly getting replaced with shiny new gear as well (she favored the Blazik Fist brand gear, but had noted that my Hitmon gear was great too).

The heavier gear would limit my ability to use grapples or the like, but that was just the cost of having to spar. Hopefully, if this went well she'd be more willing to go harder in the future. We bowed to each other as was customary to show respect before a fight, and then Meditite tossed an arm down, signaling the beginning of the fight.

Dendra started cautiously, throwing a jab my way. I countered, slapping it just far enough to the side that it missed my head and punched out at her.

She blocked the attack and pivoted, indicating that she was going to go for a Roundhouse kick.

If I'd been the same size as her I might have moved into the blow to grab it and lock her leg against my body, but that wouldn't work here as the kick would likely be aimed at my head. Sliding back, I let her attack slice through the space I used to occupy, then moved for a step-through side kick (one of the only times my style allowed for my legs to cross, however briefly).

Aiming high, I hit her in the stomach, pushing her back a meter with a grunt. "Osu!" She said an eager smile on her lips before moving back in and striking back.

Punches and kicks were traded more easily after that point, as we ran through our different techniques. Her control is amazing. It was very easy to get too eager in a fight and have your control slip and use a bit too much strength or speed, and I was well aware that Dendra exceeded me in both those areas. She didn't once go faster than me, though. Despite that, she still landed several more strikes, and more clean hits against me than I could against her, however.

Even keeping to my level, she just had more reach than I did. Trying to get in close might have helped, but she stymied my attempts there, her footwork good enough to shift around whenever I tried it.

Eventually, I went for a flurry of blows a 'Vertical run', where I just made a lot of straight punches while running in. It could be surprisingly effective, especially when catching someone off guard. And it did surprise Dendra… for a moment, after a few blows however, she slipped to the side and caught me with a low punch to the gut.

The blow took me off my feet and I hung in the air for a moment before landing back down. I had the instinct to break my fall, slapping my hands out to the side, and distantly noted that the fall didn't hurt that much. Distantly, because most of my thoughts were on how hard it was to breathe.

"Oh my gosh, Nemona are you alright?!" My sensei rushed over to me

I wheezed for a moment before saying "Fine… just… solar plexus." Dendra winced and nodded, clearly familiar with that feeling. Getting punched in the solar plexus could make you feel like you couldn't breathe and would be annoying for a few minutes while that feeling and the pain subsided.

"I think we're done for today," Dendra stated, and I nodded.

Once I got my breath back I asked "Could Miles and Meditite have a battle?"

"While you're like that?" I waved her off, getting back to my feet.

"I'll be… fine. Besides, they're the ones that will be fighting." Meditite perked up and was eager to go, walking over to his trainer and looking up hopefully. Contrary to popular belief, Fighting Types aren't always eager to fight… but this Meditite does seem to fit the stereotype. She had a Medicham on her team in canon, didn't she? I wonder if this is the same one.

"Ok, we'll do it. Osu!" She cheered as we went outside. Once there she asked "How much has your Rotom battled before? Meditite hatched not too long before I met you, and has trained with the team, but hasn't been in any battles outside of it before." It was a very reasonable question to ask, especially for a single-stage Pokemon like Rotom. They could range from rather weak to incredibly strong, and unlike in the games you couldn't just look at a Pokemon and find their 'level.'

"Oh, Miles has trained a bit against another trainer, a young kid. Other than that, just training with Dun and I." I would have challenged Arven to a fight, but he had been pretty busy recently with his dad, and I didn't want to take any of that time away from him. "Where did you get the egg from?"

The question caused Dendra to stop mid-stride for a moment before Meditite tugged at her gi pants and she shook it off. "Ah, Tulip gave his egg to me after… my parents passed away."

"Oh. Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No no, it's fine," she said with a bit too much cheer, though even that quickly faded to genuine happiness. "Meditite has been great for me, but I gotta do my part as a trainer for him too."

I nodded, feeling the exact same as I took my place opposite her on our usual battlefield. We didn't have Pokemon battles after every session, but it was a common enough occurrence.

"Yeah, let's have a good battle."

"Osu!"

***

"Ooom... I would like to know more about Aura... Ooom..." The almost imperceptibly huff of air from the other side of the dojo told me that Tulip wasn't as amused as I was with my antics there. Or maybe I've suddenly manifested Psychic Type energy, I thought sarcastically before shaking that thought off and opening my eyes.

The fashionable teen across from me had her eyes open as well. "This meditation doesn't work if you keep on getting distracted."

"I can't focus right now anyway, so might as well make this time informative, right?" I asked, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice. While we'd only met a few times, I'd been working hard at trying to meditate at home, but to little avail.

I was not sure if she saw what I was feeling there or just decided it wouldn't hurt to go over the basics a bit more in-depth, but she nodded. "As you know, every person and Pokemon in this world has some internal energy colloquially referred to as 'Aura'. It's a bit different for humans than Pokemon in what can be done with it; we don't have Moves, no instinctive formalized constructs we form with Aura, not even those gifted with very strong Auras."

Would I be considered 'very strong' among active Aura users? Tulip has said I have more potential than she does, but she also considered herself fairly weak. In any case, I should probably just be happy that I have some talent with it to start; someone without that talent wouldn't have my superior senses or anything like that, to begin with, and would have to work a lot harder under a great teacher to even begin showing signs of active Aura use.

She continued, ignoring the constant whirring of my mind. "Aura users can use techniques, shaping the energy in generalized ways based on whatever Type they lean most to. Things like someone with a Fire Type Aura conjuring sparks by snapping their fingers, or someone with Water Type Aura breathing underwater."

"Ok, that makes sense, general manipulation and adaptation to the element your Aura corresponds to. What about the weirder Types?" At her quirked thin eyebrow, I expanded. "Like sure, Ice might give you cryokinesis and make it so the cold never bothered you anyway, but what about something like Bug or Dragon?"

"Many Bugs are known for their ability to crawl anything, so you might develop the ability to stick on walls. Dragons... are very intimidating?" She tried, and I smirked, realizing that part of her snappishness before was because she didn't actually have an answer to the 'dragony draconic ness' comment I had made off-hand.

She frowned, but quickly expelled such frustration, her facial expression becoming neutral once more. I wonder if that's a skill from her model training or her Aura training. Maybe both.

"I'll admit, I hardly know everything about Aura and all of its different Types. Even then, you'll likely innovate expressions of your Type in your own unique ways. The element can give you a framework, but don't let it be a limitation to what you can do with it."

"Alright, thank you, Tulip. I just wish I had a better idea of what my Aura is so I could know how to better use it." Within what I said was an almost fully buried frustration, at how she still hadn't told me what her own thoughts about my Aura were.

"Keep at it. If we don't get anywhere before next time, then we'll try something different." At the slightly worried look on her face, I threw myself back into my meditation, hoping that this time I could get it and we wouldn't have to do whatever was bothering her. Unfortunately, that session ended like the others, without me being any closer to my goal.

***

"Miss Glitterati, this is most unexpected," Hassel answered with his own Rotom Phone. I could see a rather green living room on the other end, the Elite Four member himself sitting on a burgundy couch. "What are you calling about?" It was a fair question, I didn't call or talk to Hassel outside of our lessons, not wanting to impinge on his free time.

Time to 'face the music', I suppose. Taking a deep breath, I began. "Sooo, I was practicing a couple of days ago, like you said. And uh, I did some strumming with my fingers, and well…" I held up my hand as I trailed off.

"My dear! How did that happen? I only asked you to practice for half an hour. Even finger-picking shouldn't have caused that."

"... when I said I practiced 'like you said', I mean I practiced the chords you specified for a duration of time that may not have matched what you specified, which is very similar to what you said."

"Nemona," he growled out, and in this moment I could see how the stoic artist was indeed the draconic guardian of the Elite Four.

"Anyways, I just wanted to call you and let you know for tomorrow we should probably practice stuff like sheet reading or singing." I tried, retracting my bloody fingers out of camera view.

"This girl," Hassel muttered, and I heard another voice from that side of the screen go "Hmm?" The Rotom tilted up a bit and I saw a familiar man with wild green hair standing behind the couch.

"Ah, hello Brassius. Sorry for taking up your time again, Hassel, just wanted to give you a heads up, ok bye-"

"You know of me?" Brassius questioned before I could hang up. Opening my mouth, I then immediately closed it. Darn it, he's not a Gym Leader yet!

"Uh yeah, you're an artist, right?"

He frowned, nodding. Or maybe just drooping his head, it was hard to tell. "That's right, though of late I've found little inspiration to ply my craft. I'm surprised you could recognize me." Because you aren't super famous yet, nor a gym leader. Right, need to get off of that topic.

"Oh, that sucks." It was true, it did. Writer's, or in this case, Artist's block sucked, and I didn't have a great answer for him on how to fix it.

"Umm, I'm not sure if this helps, but me and my sister make these comics. I do the writing for them, and she draws them. I could send some over with Hassel tomorrow and see if they can spark anything?"

He gave me a sad smile, clearly not expecting anything to come from this, but having the tact not to say such a thing to a little girl. "That sounds wonderful, Miss Nemona."

"Alright, thank you, and sorry again, bye!" I quickly said, hanging up before I could further embarrass myself. After taking a moment to gather my thoughts I said to Miles "Ok, I need to look up everything Brassius has ever made in case Hassel asks me any questions about it."

"Wait, you don't actually know of him, bzzt?"

"I know he will be the Grass Type Gym Leader of Artazon someday, and he's made this famous statue called the 'Sundering Sunflora'- wait no, 'Surrendering Sunflora'. Actually, I don't even think he's made that one yet."

"Your future knowledge is incredible. Bzzt, it never fails to amaze me what you know, Nemona." They said in an awed tone.

"It never fails to amaze me how much I can nearly mess things up even with that knowledge." I groaned. After slapping my cheeks to get me out of that funk, I refocused. "Alright, let's get to work."

***

While that was how a lot of my days went, I wasn't the only one learning and growing.

"Go, Hex!" Dun gave the large fan Miles was possessing an evil grin before charging up the Ghost Type energy, and I swear I heard a large 'gulp' from Miles before it hit, despite the physical impossibility of such an action.

Dark purple ephemeral shadows surrounded Miles, who winced at the attack but managed to shake it off.

"Miles, Shock Wave, Dun Protect!" Both my Pokemon responded to my commands, Miles spreading out a wave of electricity expanding all around them in a large sphere that covered the field we were training in. Dunsparce quickly dropped the ghostly assault and conjured a far smaller spherical barrier of their own, easily weathering the electrical attack.

"Drill Run!" Dunsparce turned around, his tail spinning fast and he accelerated backward. The drill tail cut halfway through the dirt and churned up the ground, spraying dirt all around as he sped under the Rotom Fan. Miles wasn't even touched by it, their innate Levitate ability and Flying Type easily letting them drift above any dirt that would have been spun up towards them.

"While he's doing that, Nasty Plot, quickly!" Miles smirked, conjuring wicked plots, or perhaps simply anticipating what would be coming next. After my starter had cut a few paths through the grass, I said "Miles, Thunder, hit Dun… 5 times. Dun, take it." The land snake gave a small sigh before giving me a small, determined nod.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

The sound of the impact washed over me as the lightning bolts came down. As I blinked the spots out of my vision, I saw Dun, singed but still conscious. He's twitching a bit, probably Paralysis. I ran towards him and gave him a few sprays of Paralyze Heal and he was moving smoothly again. "How are you doing Dun?"

He gave me a flat stare. "Un."

"Sorry, I know this part sucks, but I think you're getting a lot closer to mastering this. Just gotta push a little harder." Then turning to Miles I said, "You know what's next, kick it up!"

Quickly darting out of the way, Miles began spinning their fan fast, the air whipping up the field. Burnt grass and dirt rose into the air, as the wind started swirling around Dun. They're getting a good handle on their different elemental forms. Miles is nearly horizontal with Dun but is making the Hurricane spiral vertically around Dun. Fan was one of the Forms we had practiced with the least, so I had high hopes for how well they'd do in a serious battle.

The wind gathered enough speed to lift Dun into the air, something Dunsparce assisted with, flapping his little wings to rise even higher with it. Peaking over a hundred meters in the air, he crested above the whirling winds below him and drifted above the world. Wow, must be great to be that high up and just look down on… everything.

My Rotom stopped making the winds wild, and as it died down I shouted up at Dun. "Descend and Roost!" Dun pulled his wings back, entering into a steep dive, and as I saw his face, for some reason I couldn't help but think of Dwayne Johnson for a moment.

Flaring his wings hard, he managed to slow his fall at the last moment, a few bursts of wind helping cushion his landing, likely being modified Air Slashes. Excellent thinking, that will get him feeling the Flying Type energy he needs to then 'lose'.

On the ground, Dun settled down, curling into a circle and flapping his wings down before resting them on his body. As he settled in, I saw the scorch marks marring his scales fading away before my eyes. "Excellent work Dun, thanks for putting up with that." He gave a pleased cry in return, snapping back to battle readiness in an instant.

Roost is a weird Move. It gives healing as great as the famed 'Recovery' that few Pokemon can learn, but it causes you to lose your Flying Type… but not every Pokemon that can learn it has the Flying Type. Dunsparce was one of those exceptions, and this Move was going to be incredibly important for a tanky Pokemon like him to use. Because of that, it's basically free healing for him. Of course, not being the greatest flier ever means it can be tough for him to tap into that Move.

The Move was getting better, but not perfect yet. Even now, I could still see a few red spots on his scales, where the recovery wasn't complete.

"That was great, both of you. Dun, you've got the Move, now we just need to get you using it even when you're on the ground. Practice your Air Slash on those three trees, work on the precision and strength behind each as well as feeling the Flying energy, and the drop between it."

"Dun." He got to work right away, undeterred by any fatigue from his efforts thus far. To Miles, I pulled out the Rotom Oven from my Sliph bag.

"Get into Heat Form and we can practice Will O Wisp. It's got a lot of ghostly connections, but it is still a Fire Type Move. Conjure the flames several times and try to move each of the flames independently of each other."

"Ro-to-to." Miles agreed, slipping out of the fan and into the Oven, which they possessed and began controlling. I shoved the fan back into my bag and watched the two of them go at it.

Dunsparce was flapping his wings back and forth, shifting his body as he did so (not dissimilar from how I'd move my shoulders when punching in martial arts, I noticed). Ripples passed through the air, gouging into the tree, each one hitting just a few centimeters above the last.

Out in the open air, Miles was 'spitting' out purple flames in clusters of three at a time, the oven door swinging open to let the flames out each time. With six groupings of three, they began making them dance through the air. The first two clusters moved in a helix pattern, but trying to add more just had the others or the ones they were controlling already drifting off.

"Try controlling just one group at a time, but push the others forward on a trajectory to meet them," I offered, and rapidly they began making quick micro-adjustments to push them through the air, closing in like a net on an imaginary target.

That's great. They're both getting so strong and capable. Dun has been mastering so many different Moves, and Miles is catching up fast, getting stronger every day. The rest of Paldea isn't gonna know what hit them once we start taking it on.

Though the Pokemon nearby might have an idea since they were already giving us a wide berth - the devastation and power my team could bring was well known by all the local Pokemon, and few of them wanted to challenge us. In turn, I made sure to double-check that none of the environments I was using as target practice would be putting some poor Pokemon in the line of fire or ruining their homes.

As our training came to a close with the setting sun, I gave Dun his last order. "Agility a couple of times, then Last Resort." Dunsparce started slithering around, picking up speed as the blue psychic aura surrounded him. Moving faster and faster until he was a blur speeding around in a circle and eventually launching himself out at a small boulder he had formed earlier today with Ancient Power.

As he flew towards the target, I noticed something different with the Move. Instead of being surrounded by star-like energy, there was a rainbow corona as he corkscrewed towards the rock, smashing into it head first and shattering it into a million pieces.

"Whoa, what was that?"

"I do not know, bzzt," Miles said from their phone form. Their stamina was improving quite a bit, but Dun could go on for days if he needed to, so Miles would often need to take a break before Dunsparce did.

I ran over to Dun and saw that he had a large bump on top of his bulbous head. "Ouch," I hissed, taking out a Potion to spray over the injured area, and he sighed in relief. "Well, I don't think that was Last Resort. Probably some sort of recoil Move, maybe Take Down? We can look it up later. In any case, it's quite strong," I waved a hand at the multitude of pebbles scattered around.

"Duuun." The Dunsparce said with a measure of tired pride.

"Let's go home-" Miles started ringing a custom theme I'd made for him. Answering the call I said, "Hey Arven, what's up?"

"This is what's up!" The young boy on the other end exclaimed eagerly, pointing at a lighthouse behind him. Hmm? That lighthouse looks familiar- are those movers in the background?

"Wait- you're moving here? Like, right next door to me!?" I squealed. I can't believe it's happening so soon. We've come so far, but it feels like only a few weeks. Time just keeps moving on huh?

It was a bittersweet feeling, as I was so happy to be here, but also sad for what I had lost. But even that pain is dimming with time. I'll do my best to cherish my loved ones from my past life, but Nemona- I have so many friends and family I care for here, and that's what I have to focus on.

"Hey, Nemona, you there?"

"Oh right, sorry, just lost my train of thought."

The boy laughed. "Haha, you can be so airheaded sometimes. Wait, are you crying? Is everything ok?"

"It's fine, must be some dust in my eyes. Dun's been kicking up a storm with all his new Moves! Look," I said, having Miles show him some of the results of our training. My tone was happy and calm all the way through, to help sell the fact that there was nothing to worry about. And there really is. I don't want to burden him with all the knowledge I have.

Arven shivered. "Uh oh. I don't think Maschiff should battle you when you come over." The dog Pokemon in question agreed, whimpering and hiding behind Arven's legs.

"Aww. Oh well, guess that means I'll have plenty of time to spar you then. I've been training a lot too, ya know?" I said rolling back a sleeve and flexing my arm.

He froze for a moment before turning away from me and towards Maschiff. "I need you to take one for the team."

"Maschiff!?"

"She is going to beat my butt-" It was hard to make out anything more distinct from there as Arven tried to push Maschiff forward, the Dark Type having none of that and trying to remain behind him. They fell in a pile, tumbling and roughhousing around.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow, ok?" Then I hung up, leaving them to their squabbles. Should be fun to see Arven again… and I might be able to find out what Turo's been up to.

Spoiler: A/N:

Here we go, another few snippets of what Nemona's tutelage with her new teachers has been like. And of course, a conclusion to how the Freddrick situation ended. I probably won't be going into her tutors teaching her in anywhere near as much detail after this arc, but I hope it's been enjoyable and paints a picture on some of what she's doing when time is being skipped/inbetween major events.

One slight change I made from the base games was giving Fan Rotom Hurricane instead of Air Slash, just because I felt it fit better in comparison to the other Moves the other Forms gained.

Nemona's Current Team:

-'Dun' (Dunsparce, Male, Normal Type, Starter)
- Tera Type: Normal
- Held Item: None
- Abilities: Run Away
- Moves known: Flail, Mud Slap, Rollout, Glare, Body Slam, Poison Jab, Earthquake, Bite, Yawn (Invisible Version), Last Resort, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Hex, Agility, Air Slash, Giga Impact, Roost

- 'Miles' (Rotom)
- Tera Type: Electric
- Held Item: None
- Ability: Levitate
- Moves Known: Astonish, Confuse Ray, Thundershock, Double Team, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Rain Dance, Will O' Wisp, Nasty Plot, Hex

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Great interactions with Arvin. Don't have time to mope about being a pseudo-orphan if you're constantly being pummeled by Nemona!

 

[Skyfyre]

The lighthouse was much the same as I remembered it from the games, and from the times I'd seen it in my training or walking to or fro Los Platos. It had a brick base with a rectangular building attached to the cylindrical white and red-stone-mosaic tower jutting out into the sky.

Something felt different about it knowing people were living inside it. Most of the moving trucks had left by now, and only a few tire tracks in the dirt road indicated they had been there. That, and the few cardboard boxes stacked outside.

Hopping up, I knocked on the door of the building part (the tower entrance just led to a ladder to climb up the lighthouse). Arven opened the door eagerly. "Nemona!" He cried out, all worries of yesterday forgotten. Foolish, but you will learn young padawan.

The interior was done in a very sleek stainless steel layout. There was a large table in the kitchen right behind Arven, with appliances lining the walls. In the living room to the side was a desk and computer set up, a coffee table, and tons of bookshelves lining the walls. It must have been remodeled recently, doesn't feel like this was part of the original Poco Lighthouse design. Such a thing would seem like a massive undertaking until I remembered that Pokemon could shape the world around them with ease.

I gave him a big hug. "Arven, good to see you." I was a bit of a hugger, at least around people I knew well. It also lets me get underhooks, to prevent escape. "You ready for our battle?"

"Oh, uhhh…" He tried to pull away only to find himself trapped. "Ahh, help!!" Maschiff lifted his head to look at his trainer's horrific fate. Raising a paw up to his head in a mock salute honoring Arven's sacrifice, the dog went and hid under the coffee table. "Betrayal!"

"What is all this noise- oh, Nemona," Turo said, having walked away from his desk to see what was going on. "It's good to see you again."

Benevolently letting Arven go I turned to face his father. "Professor," I said, giving him a brief nod. "I didn't realize you were moving over here."

"A spur-of-the-moment decision, but one with good reasons. This will keep us closer to my League sponsors in Mesagoza, and Arven will be closer to you." Makes sense… but you would have moved here anyway in the games, even without Nemona and Arven being close. So is there some other reason?

Glancing over at the table I glanced over at a magazine on it. "Occulture? I didn't realize you read that stuff." Turo blinked, scratching at his five o'clock shadow.

"Ah well, I feel there are interesting details in their articles. Supposedly, Zapdos has been spotted near this very lighthouse."

It took me a moment to realize he was a little embarrassed about his hobby, but not enough to stop himself from getting excited about it. This dude does not emote well.

"Kantoan or Galarian Zapdos?" I inquired.

He brightened up a tad. "Kantoan. Not many people realize there are regional variants of the three Legendary Birds. I suspect that it was attracted here-"

"Because of the light at the top, right?" The lighthouse had some ancient, massive battery powering it in the basement to constantly illuminate both the Poco Path and the ocean out beyond. Some old empire had created it to both help guide the citizens and spot any danger incoming to Paldea. While we had advanced past the technologies used to make it nowadays and hardly had any need to worry about invasion fleets, it was still a solid structure the people of the modern age could use.

If Turo was upset by my interruption, he didn't show it. "That's my theory, yes. The bright light and electrical signal might have drawn Zapdos' attention."

"The storms probably help too," I nodded.

"Storms? The forecast claims it's rather calm in this area."

"Ooh, are you using Formcast?" He nodded and I winced. They're generally a good weather prediction site with their Castforms that the employees have, but… "That site doesn't keep track of Pokemon like Pelipper out in rural provinces like this."

"Ah," he said simply before turning to Arven. "I think we should bring those boxes inside, now."

"Huh? Why?" The boy asked.

"I'll help," I said, moving to pull the boxes inside. Jeez, these things are heavy. Are they just filled with books? I would have thought someone so futuristic as Turo would keep more on databases or flashdrives. Then again, he's obsessed with the Violet Book, isn't he? I'd tried to obtain a copy of the rare book, but found it surprisingly difficult, even with my family's resources.

As we struggled with the heavy boxes, I said to Arven "Pokemon have Abilities. These are passive powers that can help in battles, or just generally. Some have Abilities that change the weather around them. Pelipper has one that can summon rain, and they're pretty common around here."

"Whoa. What Ability does Maschiff have?" The boy said eagerly, forgetting all about the boxes we were supposed to be moving until I gave him a hard stare. That's right, don't leave the work all to us! Turo and I were doing the majority of the work anyway, him being an adult and me abusing the nature of this world and getting all the gains.

"I'll-," I grunted, breathing heavily. "Tell you later," I said as I shoved one of the boxes back towards the end of the kitchen. They might not have much space for making dinner, but that sounds like a future problem. I could even invite them over to my house and welcome them to the 'neighborhood.' While there were a few people who lived around here and a decent number of travelers and hikers who passed through, there wasn't any sense of community in this corner of Paldea. Too much wilderness, and too close to Los Platos for anyone to try and set up any small town or the like when they could just join up with the one that was already there and closer to Mesagoza.

There was something still bugging me, so I asked: "Why were these left outside anyway? Seems like the movers could have at least helped you put them inside."

"They were getting too nosy," Turo said, his voice harsh. By the time I lowered the box I was carrying down to look at him, his face was neutral, and his tone was back to normal. "I've gained some notoriety over the past few months, some people will go to quite the lengths to try and invade my privacy."

A reasonable explanation, totally normal. But I know what I heard. The first hint of the paranoia that will lead him down a dark path. How do I get him to turn away from that darkness? It was a question I still lacked an answer to, despite all the years spent here and all the hours pondering the topic.

A sort of awkward silence settled on the three of us after that. It was easily ignored when we were working, but after we got the last boxes inside I could feel the social pressure squeezing down on me. Or it could just be the boxes. There are a lot of them and suddenly the small house feels much smaller. It made the living space even more cluttered, but we could at least squeeze in and out of the entrance.

To stop the silence I turned back to our previous discussion. "Ok, so I actually don't know what Abilities a Maschiff can get."

"Whaaaaat? How could you not know that?" Arven gasped and I scowled.

"I'm not a living Pokedex, I don't know everything!" I said, blushing lightly. "I'd guess that Intimidate is a possibility, however." Mostly just because Granbull and Arcanine can get that one, so it feels right that a Dark dog Pokemon could access it as well. Turo took this as an opportunity to cut in.

"That's correct. Maschiff can have one of three Abilities. Intimidate, Run Away, or very rarely, Stakeout. Abilities are much like Moves, my son. Every Pokemon starts with one, and most Abilities are available to several different types of Pokemon. While he could train up other Abilities, I would hypothesize that your Maschiff knows Run Away."

He had an adorably serious expression on his face. "That's good. I want Maschiff to be able to get away if anything scary shows up." I winced as Maschiff barked happily, trotting up to his trainer. Turo leaned down to scratch at the top of the dog Pokemon's head. "Wow Daddy, you must know everything!"

Looking up at his father with awe, I turned my gaze away from the scene. He thinks so highly of Turo. What am I supposed to do? Tell him early that his father is going down a bad path? Let him stumble into despair while placing him on a pedestal that slowly cracks away to nothing? Fuck.

Lost in my thoughts, I was caught off-guard when Turo suddenly asked me a question. "Would you mind helping me test something out?"

"Sure," I responded without thinking. Ah well, it can't be too bad, right?

"I'd like to have a Pokemon battle against you." That threw me off guard for a moment.

"Huh? I mean, sure. I didn't realize you were a battler." I said as I shifted outside. The dirt road was wide and curved around in front of the lighthouse, making for a decent enough battlefield.

"I'm more a man of science than battling, but hopefully this experiment should produce fruitful results." He replied cryptically. Arven trailed behind him, cheering him on.

"Go, Dad, you can do this! Beat Nemona!" Ouch. Then again, I guess I have been beating Arven for over a year now and Turo is his dad, but still.

I took my place twenty meters away from him, holding up Dun's Pokeball. "Ready when you are." He held up his own in his right hand, taking his left hand out of his lab coat pocket and pulling out a tablet. Odd.

Considering that Arven wasn't going to be taking the place of an unbiased referee, I decided to count us in, fitting for a somewhat informal match. "We'll release our Pokemon on the count of three. One, two, three." Two flashes of red light shot out, our Pokemon materializing. Dun, gave a battle-ready cry, while Porygon-Z flipped its blue arms and tail erratically around its round body, fixing me with a crazy stare from across the road with its yellow-ringed eyes.

I suppressed a small shiver. All the Pokedex entries say that something went 'wrong' with the change from Porygon2 to Porygon-Z, and I can see why. Whatever, focus on the battle at hand.

"On the count of three, we'll begin. One, two… three!" With the last word, both our Pokemon began moving, Porygon-Z hovering up higher, and at Turo's command, focusing in on Dunsparce. I had Dun move to the side, a subtle sweep of my hand as I was counting down let Dun know where to go, and pulled out my Tera Orb.

"Lock On!" He called out, glancing down at his tablet. What is he doing, he's the one who asked for this battl- oh. That system. Damn, didn't expect him to have it already.

Tossing my Tera Orb over my starter's head caused the usual crystal blocks to erupt all around him, then shatter, Terastalizing him. "Body Slam!"

While Porygon-Z was still getting a read on him, Dun leaped through the air and slammed into the digital Pokemon, sending it spinning around. I noticed that no matter how its body spun, its eyes remained locked on Dun.

"Hmm, unexpected," Turo muttered under his breath. "Zap Cannon!" He called out louder, which his duck-like Pokemon complied with immediately, gathering a large ball of electricity in front of its 'beak' and firing it at Dun.

"No dodging, block it!" Sitting in place, my Pokemon focused, erecting a powerful barrier around him, just before the lightning shot hammered into it.

The electrical construct broke on impact, bolts of lightning arcing out all around, and even cracking the honeycomb transparent blue barrier Dun had made - but not breaking it. With a pant of effort, he let the Protect drop, having done its job.

"Great work, now Agility! Dash around and break its lock." Dun sped up, slithering around the dusty road like greased lightning. I saw the Porygon spinning around and almost keeping up with Dun, but there were a few moments where the line of sight was lost. Good, Lock On should be done. That combo with Zap Cannon could have been really painful.

The Professor was frowning, staring down at his tablet again. Yeah, it's definitely what I think it is. Alright, I can beat this, I've practiced to beat this person a million times over. "Hyper Voice," I called out before plugging my ears.

A good call, as Dun's following screech was piercing, even with that and on the other side of the attack. A ripple spread throughout Porygon-Z's body, its body spinning even more erratically. Arven and Maschiff opened their mouths, likely giving out cries of pain, while Turo just winced, mostly stoic about the pain.

Right, this Move is a bit too omnidirectional to use in a match where we don't have barriers up. Not that I had to worry for long about losing that tactical matchup, as Turo called out something and Porygon-Z's body became wispy and pale, the sound no longer bothering it. The Porygon line is known for being able to switch Types, must be why he didn't Terastailze yet, hoping to use this.

Taking my hands off my ears, I heard "-ri Attack!" Shouted rather loudly from Turo. A bright beam covered in flames, ice, and crackling with electricity hammered Dun, pushing him across the battlefield and kicking up dust. Dun winced as he rolled back onto his belly, a nasty burn covering his right side. Ouch, and that was without STAB, gotta be careful of that attack.

"Glare!" "Close your eyes." Turo's command came right after mine, too fast to be anything other than anticipating my command. Dun Glared at the Porygon as hard as he could, but to no avail when those eerie yellow eyes were shut tight.

"Twelve degrees down, 46 right. Tri Attack." Turo's instructions let his Pokemon start tracking Dun even with its eyes closed, firing off another beam, one that Dun narrowly avoided. Gah, I underestimated that system. Oh well, time to show it something he hasn't seen before.

"Earthquake!" Dun pounded the ground, raising sections of it to meet the floating Porygon-Z. It was weaker than it usually was, had less radius and the height raised less too. Definitely a Burn, not that I need it to hit. It still would have, a testament to Dun's strength and control over the Move, but Turo was having none of that.

"Magnet Rise, then open your eyes. Fire again." Electromagnetic impulses shot the Porygon-Z up above the sections of dirt that rose to meet it. Another beam lanced into Dun and he let out a pained cry. Crap, is this going too far?

"Duuun!" He responded angrily, spitting out a small wad of blood. Ouch. Not great, but he can still go on. So long as he doesn't take another attack like that. He wouldn't, not if my plan had anything to say about it.

"Bring the storm!" My winged snake gave a mighty cry, and Thunder followed. Well, lightning followed, then thunder, but the Move was called Thunder- I shoved aside thoughts of strange naming conventions as Porygon-Z was wracked by electricity coursing through their now ghostly body. The attack subsided, but they still gave off a few twitches, more subdued and likely from Paralysis rather than their strange behavior.

"He-"

"Tri-Beam, again." Turo interrupted, and Porygon-Z proved itself to be quick on the draw, letting loose another beam at Dun.

"Protect!" His force field once again weathered the blow. Now it all comes down to this. Do you do what's smart Turo? Or what your tablet is telling you to do?

"...Lock On." I grinned widely as he chose the latter option.

"Hex!" Dark Shades surrounded the Porygon-Z, and I thought I saw distorted ones and zeros pass by in those shadows as Porygon-Z started flailing about in pain. The Professor blinked in surprise, shoving his face to the screen and rapidly typing in commands. After two seconds, he grabbed his Tera Orb, making the final mistake of the fight.

"Time to show you the true might of my genius. Terastalize!" His black crystal orb shook violently and he threw it above Porygon-Z, covering his Pokemon with crystals.

"Shoot for the stars, Last Resort!" Covering himself in bright energy, Dun shot forward, the glowing light coalescing like a star suffused through him as he shattered through the crystal blocks and into the Porygon-Z, now a Normal Type once more and with the same Tera Jewel 'hat' that Dun had atop his own head.

The digital Pokemon was sent flying into the side of the lighthouse, spinning its arms around wildly as it tried to float back up. It's still able to fight, crap!

"Zap-"

"Giga Impact!"

"- Cannon."

Porygon-Z tried to gather the electrical power again but Paralyzed and dazed, it wasn't able to do so before Dun smashed into it. The green energy projected ahead of him smashed the Porygon-Z, and even himself into and through the walls of the lighthouse.

The three of us (and Maschiff) looked on in horror as we saw the bricks blasted apart from the final impact, pieces of stone still falling around.

"Sparce," Dun gave a weak cry from within. Through the dust and dark room, I could see Porygon-Z lying there, twitching lightly. Still alive, phew. Not that I thought they'd die from that but- ah, gotta make sure this doesn't get any worse!



Turo was quick to respond, recalling Porygon-Z from the wreckage and back into his Pokeball while I called out: "Dun, use Ancient Power, make sure nothing else breaks!"



Tired, but acting quickly on the urgency in my voice, Dun pulled two large stones from the ground and shoved them inside the new opening, supporting the walls and ceiling from further collapse. A very rushed job, but hopefully should work until we can get professionals here to fix it.

Recalling Dun, I turned to the Arven and his father. "So, uh, want to come over to my place for dinner while we get your new house fixed up?"

***

Turo was quite amenable to the idea, after a few calls and getting a construction team on site within twenty minutes. A tall task usually, but Mom being the head of Paldea's largest reality company gives her a fair amount of connections.

We stayed after they arrived just long enough for Turo to give them instructions, mostly about which of his personal belongings to avoid. Luckily, there wasn't much they would be touching in that regard as Dun's impact had hit most of the lighthouse side of the building, and hadn't even damaged any of its workings too badly. Wiring and walls would need repairing, but the generator and overall structure were fine.

"Very sorry again about that little mishap. Our youngest here can be so enthusiastic," Billy laughed as we sat around the table, digging into another fabulous meal our chefs had made.

"Yes. Hopefully, she'll have learned her lesson… this time." O'Nare added and I sighed, realizing that they had heard about my cliff destruction incident months ago, even if they hadn't brought it up.

Turo shook his head, ever the polite guest. "Nonsense. It is my fault for not calling off the battle sooner. I'm the adult here. Fortunately, there was no serious damage, and the data I got from the battle was worth so much more. I'll have to spend many hours figuring out where I went wrong."

A small sigh escaped Arven's lips, his thick bouncy hair flopping about. No one else noticed, but I knew that look on his face. The disappointment of knowing your parent(s) aren't going to be there when you need them, that they'll be too busy for you.

"I know what went wrong," I said suddenly, letting the knife and fork I'd been using to cut into the duck breast clatter onto my plate. "You built a program analyzing how I fight, yes?"

The Professor nodded. "That's correct. As you said before, I'm not much of a battler, so I designed a program to analyze great trainers and utilize their strategies. I copied your techniques from the tournament, but you were able to best it with ease."

"I wouldn't say that." Awkwardly I scratched the back of my head. Glare is one of my best Moves, especially now that Dun has Hex to go with it, and Turo shut it down even with me trying to counter that program, it's damn scary. And something I knew would be a problem in the future.

Is it right to help him out here, improving yet another defense to his eventual doomsday plot? Or would he figure out anything I could tell him eventually, yet by informing him of what I know now, I might forge a closer bond? A bond that I could potentially use to convince him to turn away from what would be his greatest folly. I didn't know what the right call was, but looking at Arven's sad face, I was pushed to help his father.

"The problem was, I've been beating the me of the tournament for the past six months. Everyone, every trainer in the world is constantly striving to improve, to get better. It's in the name; we train. And on that path to the infinite summit, to be the best, we're constantly looking to better ourselves and our teams. So the strategies you had for the Nemona of six months ago…"

"...Were useless against the Nemona of today," Turo finished for me. He glanced down, lost in thought.

"There's also little things, like the fact that you constantly had to look at your tablet rather than the battlefield, not having the right instincts, etcetera. It let me do things like use Protect against your Tri-Attack - a regular trainer would have just kept at it and eventually beat through Dun's shield, but your program saw the move failed and assumed any further move would fail."

"How inspiring!"

"How insightful!"

My parents exclaimed, and I blushed. It's not that big a deal guys. The next bombshell they dropped felt a bit more pertinent, to me at least.

"With dazzling insights like that, I'm sure you'll be the center of attention at any party you attend." Mom said.

"Huh?" I blinked. What are they talking about? Turo meanwhile, was lost in his own world.

"I see. Incomplete data. I can't just use one trainer's skills, even against themselves. I need an amalgamation of all the best trainers in Paldea- no, the world." He turned to suddenly stare at me intensely. "Thank you, this data will help my endeavors immensely."

To the table, he added "I'm honored to be receiving your hospitality again."

Billy waved his hand. "Oh, think nothing of it. Generosity comes naturally for the Gliteratti family, and you asked for so little."

"It may have been little to you, but to me, it was the final piece in my research, one that let me pave the way for my next, greatest project. I will be spearheading a project to explore deep into the Great Crater of Paldea - the largest expedition planned to reach the fabled Area Zero since Heath's exploration."

My parents and Cyan 'oohed' appreciatively at the idea, but I saw Arven frown. He's not shocked; his dad must at least have told him this was coming.

"What are you looking into there?" I inquired.

"We - that is the Pokemon League and I - are trying to study further into the phenomenon of Terastalization and the strange crystals that reside in this land. No other nation has as great a concentration of Tera Crystals as us, and there's no higher density of them than within the Great Crater. My Tera Orbs are being produced in greater numbers every day, and we will soon need more crystals to make them, and a better understanding of Terastalization would not go remiss."

Reasonable, understandable, and completely false. But I doubted it would be easy enough to get him to admit to trying to build a time machine outright like that. He continued, oblivious to my misgivings. "I won't bore you with the details, but we'll be setting up research bunkers with Area Zero that should give us better, consistent access to the location while keeping the staff on hand safe."

Billy clapped her hands together. "That sounds fascinating. We simply must go there to see what sights it must hold!"

Turo coughed awkwardly. "I understand your enthusiasm, but this is a very restricted mission. The League itself has been very clear that only those vetted can join me on this project. No matter how rich you are," he added, quickly holding up a hand, which seemed to shock my parents almost to the point of offense.

"Something money… can't buy?" Billy said as if sounding the words out for the first time and finding them sour on his tongue.

"This sounds like a pretty big, and long, project. I assume you won't be taking Arven with you then?" I asked, with an unspoken demand 'Why are you leaving your son alone?'. I wasn't sure that he heard it.

"No, it would be much too dangerous for Arven. I will try and visit my son as often as I can," he explained off-handedly, still seeming too excited with his experiment for my liking.



"And this is a multi-year project, there will be long breaks throughout it. But this was another reason for us moving here; I was hoping to ask your family to help look after my son while I'm busy."



That had me leaning back in shock (and almost tipping out of my chair). He definitely didn't do that in canon. But then why did he move to the lighthouse in the game? Would he have moved there anyway, but just not had any contact with the Gliteratti's without my interference? What will this mean for Arven?

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to impose, I know this is a big request-" he began before I stopped him.

"Of course, we'll be willing to help! Uh, right, Mom? Dad?" I asked Billy and O'Nare, realizing I was kinda volunteering their help. My parents smiled brightly, however.

"We'd be glad to look after your son, Professor Turo," Billy said politely, and I breathed a sigh of relief before turning back to the man in question.

"But in return…" I began, causing the man to stiffen and look me dead in the eyes. "You need to try and be there for your son as much as possible when you can, ok? I'm sure you'll do important work in Area Zero, but your son is your greatest creation." Wow, that sounded cheesy, can't believe I said that.

Turo nodded solemnly. "Of course. Everything I'm doing is for his future." Then he turned to Arven and said "I love you, son."

That set loose the waterworks, and Arven started bawling and hugging his dad. Billy and O'Nare smiled at the scene, Cyan was subtly taking a photo, likely for blackmail/photo album purposes, and I was just left wondering if I had done the right thing, or doomed Paldea.

"We'll be happy to help look after your son. Not this coming month though, we'll be going back to Unova," O'Nare said and I dropped the bite of food I'd been carrying to my mouth.

"Wait what?"

"Did we forget to tell you? We're celebrating a long standing business relationship and going to a party that Clay is hosting. This is going to be so much fun!"

Spoiler: A/N:

Here we get an idea of how things are going with Turo and Arven, and soon we'll have a little Unova mini-arc. But before that, another interlude. We've gotten a good idea of how Nemona has seen her training, but this time we'll get to see what her mentors think of her. Enjoy!

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Turo nodded solemnly. "Of course. Everything I'm doing is for his future." Then he turned to Arven and said "I love you, son."

Click to shrink...

Nemona's really loading up that tragedy plane to make it hit harder when it falls.

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Valthorix]

Intellectually I know this probably isn't going to end well, but a part of me hopes that Arven doesn't end up losing his father.