Five days of pure training left me so out of touch with reality that it even took me a moment to recognize the Pokemon Center we were staying at.

  I entered through the automatic sliding doors and there they were, the three young trainers travelling with me, seated on a table near the entrance; Dendra was sloped forward with a hand supporting her head, pouting at the other two, Aiden sat straight as always, arms crossed, his training as a clan’s scion making itself present, Jess was draped over her seat in a casual manner, arms wide open as she talked about something to the other two. Dendra’s eyes curiously glanced at the doors, and then widened like plates. She stood up from the table, surprising the other two.

  “Scott!” The fighting trainer jumped off the sofa, across the table, and ran across the room, ignoring the stares from the few people around.

  “Dendra–” Thin arms crushed my torso before I could blink. “Argh! Can't breathe.”

  “Oh! Sorry! Sorry!” she quickly let go while wincing, but then she narrowed her eyes and bawled her fists. “You know what, mister!? You deserve it!” She latched once again, not as hard as before but hard enough for me to feel.

  Jess and Aiden suddenly sprung out behind her. Jess was smiling and Aiden, mostly still stoic, let out a sigh of relief.

  “You finally came back, teach?” Jess said as she hummed.

  “Yeah, and after five days outside I have a few pokemon to check in and maybe something sweet to eat.”

  They let me go soon after. I walked to the counter and checked in all my pokemon, and then passed through the cafeteria where I bought a piece of cake to eat. I didn’t have a sweet tooth like my companions, but I did like sweets. I took my desert to the table and sat down with my… friends.

  They immediately asked about my side of the story, but I told them to tell me about their matches first and how they spent the five days since I was still eating.

  “You didn’t see my match.” Dendra pouted. In a barely audible tone, she said. “It was incredible.”

  “Not as good as Jess’ though,” Aiden cut in, surprising me with the tease. Something he never did with Dendra or Jess.

  “What can I say?” Jess said. “Four badge matches are just different.”

  “Grr, just wait until I get there! I will have a better match.”

  “Anyways,” Jess said and then leaned forward, staring at me. “Velocity evolved.”

  “Wow, that’s great” Her Starly, while young, was already powerful as a first stage pokemon, and now she might be even more. It was actually a surprise that she hadn’t evolved yet.

  “That’s right, and she became very strong, Cape might have to watch out.” Dendra bragged through her friend, who glared at her.

  “Really? Cape will like to hear that.”

  Jess playfully grabbed and pulled the lean cheek of Dendra, “Hey, are you trying to kill my Staravia.”

  “Noooo, I’m not,” she said, trying to hide a smile.

  “And you Aiden?” I said turning to the dragon trainer. “I just met Morty at the city’s entrance. He let me know the result.”

  He sighed, “Yeah, Morty read me like a book. I tried something similar to what I did against George, but Morty simply disabled Harpoon’s Waterfall, which left Horsea weak without his water.”

  I nodded and catalogued the name of the Gyarados in my mind.

  “Yeah, that sucked,” Dendra said.

  “It’s alright,” He said, and really seemed to mean it. “I did lose, but I’m improving and that’s what matters until the last two months of the circuit.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Jess said. “Now you. What the hell happened out there?”

  I ate the last of my cake and told them. I started from the beginning, walking around for hours, the pair of ghost and grass types that guided me through the forest to a burned clearing, and then described Blaziken as best as I could, doing my best to convey how powerful the pokemon was, what we did, how we did, and the battles we fought. Trying to condense five days was hard but I think I made a good enough try, seeing as their eyes widened the more I explained.

  “That sounded–”

  “Awesome!” Dendra said, completing Aiden.

  “Also that, but there’s just one thing I don’t understand,” The dragon trainer said. “Why did Morty, or the League, do that?”

  “What do you mean?” Dendra asked, looking between the three of us.

  Aiden, Jess and I exchanged glances.

  “Morty couldn’t have issued this challenge without someone in the League approving it,” Jess explained. “Especially…”

  “Especially after what happened to Giovanni,” Aiden nodded.

  Silence descended over the table, even Dendra’s energy dropped a little. She might not be from here but seeing as she came to Johto, she certainly had been warned about the Rocket War and the Gym Leader’s later betrayal. That doesn’t mean that she was aware of some cultural differences.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “It might surprise you, seeing as you’re not from here,” I said, “but everyone who passes through the school system has to take a two year class on pokemon training and journeying starting at ten years old, even if they don’t want to go on a journey or become a pokemon trainer.”

  “Really? We didn’t have that in Paldea,” she said, eyes wide with interest.

  “That shouldn't be a surprise, after all, pokemon training is the most important profession in the entire world,” I could feel that Aiden was surprised that Dendra didn’t have that growing up.

  “From what I read, Paldea and the other regions of the new continent don't like to say that out loud.”

  “Interesting, but getting back to the issue,” Aiden said and then looked at Dendra. “Every decision of a Pokemon Gym Leader that deviates from the usual protocol must be reported and approved by the Indigo Plateau.”

  “Maybe they’re preparing to snatch you?” Jess asked.

  “That’s very probable,” Aiden said. “They weren’t going to train someone in teamfighting unless they plan to put him somewhere high up at some point.”

  “There’s something you might’ve been missing,” I sighed. “I don’t like to think about this because of the pressure, but Professor Oak has a 100% success with his sponsored trainers.”

  “What do you mean?” Dendra said.

  “Let me guess, they always end up very successful?” Aiden asked.

  I nodded, “Professor Oak sponsored fifteen trainers in total before me, all of them became at least elite trainers or renowned pokemon professors. I researched them after getting the sponsorship and thirteen are in high positions in many places, even in other regions, and the last two are still too young for that.” I didn’t need to tell them who those two were.

  Dendra and Aiden were suitably impressed as I was when I read that. Jess wasn’t.

  “Wow, that means that if you don’t get there you’ll be Professor Oak’s first failure?”

  “That’s mean,” Dendra said, lightly punching Jess arm.

  “But that is very interesting,” she continued. “You technically gained a free lesson disguised as a challenge. If that continues to happen and you become an elite trainer, would you say that you achieved that because Professor Oak saw something in you or because people gave you stuff like that for being? a Professor Oak certified trainer?”

  If anyone else asked that question I could see it being a kind of insult or something like that, but Jess asked the question with such an even and curious tone that it was impossible to say that.

  Before I could answer however, Aiden interjected, “As someone who’s in the same position, I can say with certainty that it's a mixture of both. You’re in this position because Professor Oak did see something, and the things that will be provided to you will only help you get you where you’d already get alone.” The three of us stared at him until he flushed and ducked his head. “At least that’s what the Elders say.”

  Dendra smiled, “I like that answer, but can we change this talk. It’s making my brain hurt.”

  “All right, whatever this is aside,” I said, reaching for my bag. I pulled out my laptop, now powered by my Minccino, turned it on, opened Johto’s map and put it on the top of the table so that we all could see it, “I assume you guys want to get out of Ecruteak today or tomorrow?”

  “Today, definitely,” Jess said.

  “What route were you guys thinking about taking,” I asked.

  Jess glanced at Dendra, “Tell him.”

  Dendra leaned forward and pointed the route on the map, “I said to the two of them that I wanted to stay a day or two in Sumo Village, a village created to host a Sumo Conference. It’s after the Silver Conference, but it's guaranteed to have a lot of great Sumo battles for my fighters!”

  “And since it's a village on an outer route and normally we don’t take the normal route anyways, I don’t see why we couldn’t go,” Jess finished.

  I looked over the route, zoomed on the land between Ecruteak and Olivine and traced my finger over that route, among the other five other routes to get to Olivine, that route diverged the most to the north and then dropped. But also, it was in that area.

  I turned to Aiden, “Can you pass through there?”

  “Sure.” He shrugged, but his body tensed a little.

  “What do you mean?” Dendra asked, looking between the two of us.

  “The town overlooking the area is Cherryhill Town, the seat of the Joy Clan in Johto.”

  -

  As expected, the girls didn’t see the significance of a Blackthorn walking around Joy territory. Yeah, yeah, your ancestor lost against their ancestor, duh, clan stuff that happened over two hundred years, get over it. Yeah, it was mainly Jess. Dendra even tried to take back her suggestion, but Aiden wouldn’t back down now.

  As someone who likes to read history I knew it wasn’t just something that happened two hundred years ago, it was something that happened two hundred years ago that started two hundred years of tension between an upcoming clan–who was now very powerful–and the greatest clan in Johto.

  In the end, we decided to leave after lunch to have time to buy some extra things and check up on our teams. I saw mine after the Pokemon Center released them. They were sore and tired but well and wouldn’t need to stay away from battles, something I suspected the Blaziken did on purpose. The team then revised what we’d learned the rest of the time until the meal, formations, commands, and covering for each other.

  We met the others back in the Pokemon Center and had lunch in its expansive backyard with our teams out, something we didn’t do often but it was a good way to get them to meet each other again. It was pretty funny seeing the interactions between them. Chopper and his team harmless jealousy of Blaziken’s training, Jess' team bragging about their supposedly amazing victory, and the reserved curiosity of the Aiden’s dragon types.

  We were ready to leave when a man wearing messenger clothes embroidered with Blackthorn sign entered the Pokemon Center, his gaze sweeping over the crowd as he made his way to the counter. He froze in mid stride as his eyes found Aiden and analyzed his clothes and face.

  “Aiden Hageshi?” he asked as he approached.

  “Yes?” Aiden said.

  “I have something to give you from the Blackthorn Clan Council,” then he glanced at us. “If we could take this to a private room?”

  The dragon trainer looked around at us and then shrugged, “Of course.”

  They walked to the counter and asked for the private meeting room service that the Center offered before disappearing through a door.

  “Seriously, not even an ‘excuse me’?” Jess asked.

  “It sounded serious, though,” Dendra asked, fidgeting.

  The two stayed there for five minutes before they left. Aiden looked extremely happy, probably the happiest I’d ever seen him as he gave goodbye to an equally cheerful messenger. He approached us and raised a pokeball.

  “The clan decided that it was time to give me my fourth pokemon.”

  “Oh, that's great Aiden!” Dendra jumped forward and hugged him. “Congrats!”

  “Thank you,” the suddenly shy boy said.

  “So, what pokemon did you get?” I asked.

  Aiden’s eyes flickered between Jess and I, his eyes growing as he considered something new about the situation.

  “I see now,” he said. The dragon trainer looked down at the pokeball. “It’s a Gible.”