Neela hammered on the door to the bathroom. “Luvy, you’re still showering? Let’s go!”

  Right. Oops.

  “One second!” She had been so involved in thinking up nicknames for Mudkip that she’d forgotten the shower was supposed to be a race.

  “Meehd!” Mudkip squeaked at the door.

  “Are you in there with Mudkip? What the hell!”

  Luvia felt the blood rush to her face. “She needs water on her skin, silly!”

  Neela chuckled. “Are you naked in there?”

  Luvia groaned, turning the shower off. “Shut up, Neela! Give me a sec!”

  “Hurry up!”

  Luvia put on her spare change of clothes, a pair of black 3/4 chinos, and a plain white T-shirt with a big Oceanic Museum logo on its front which her father had brought for her during a previous visit to the island.

  She looked in the mirror, tying her hair into a ponytail, excited to see the city with Neela, but more excited that she’d have Mudkip with them.

  Her father had warned her to steer clear of trainer hotspots if she was going to have Mudkip out its ball, but it didn’t worry her too much.

  She looked into her own eyes and made the bitchiest face in her arsenal. The coldest look she could manage. We’ll see who dares challenge me to a battle…

  She broke out into a smile and turned to leave. “Mudkip, you ready?”

  “Maahd!”

  It wasn’t even 3 o’clock in the afternoon yet and Luvia already felt like she had spent a week in the city.

  Not in a bad way.

  In the same way you get on so well with someone that you feel you’ve known them forever.

  Every moment felt alive. Full of possibility.

  The sisters walked on the sunstruck Slateport roads with Mudkip trotting and hopping behind them. They got a few looks and a few compliments about the little one, but no one ogled or stared to the point of being creepy. The city moved on with or without you. You were just another passing breeze.

  Neela seemed most interested in the fashion side of things, making them stop at any store or boutique that caught her eye.

  “I’ll buy you a dress, Luvy. We’re not just window shopping, you know.”

  They both had a sheen of sweat on their faces. The mainland sun seemed hotter. Or maybe it was the abundance of building and paved roads that drank up the sun and radiated the heat like cooking stones. Many of the buildings were painted white or made of a pasty color brick for that reason.

  “A dress? … Hmmm” Luvia preferred more outdoorsy clothes. Clothes that wouldn’t get in the way when she walked through the woods, or clothes she wouldn’t have to hold down if a gust of wind blew past her.

  “Or something else – What do you want?” said Neela inquisitively.

  Luvia gazed around at the bustling city, across the streets to other shops. She wasn’t sure.

  She took the plastic water bottle from her pocket and squat down beside Mudkip, eyes up in thought. “Hmmm…”

  She unscrewed the lid and dropped some cool water on her hand, right over Mudkip, who shook its tail in a rapid bout. The water filled her cupped hand and began trickling down on Mudkip, who happily remained under it.

  “Ooh!” Luvia shot Neela a look. “How about a swimsuit?”

  Neela frowned at first, then her eyebrows relaxed and she tilted her head up in thought.

  “Yes! A swimsuit!” Luvia insisted. “Let’s get new ones!”

  When the water in her hand had all but trickled through, she patted the remainder of it around the back of Mudkip’s head.

  “That’s not a bad idea, actually,” Neela agreed.

  Luvia stood up, feeling a sudden bout of excitement. She would pick out a good swimsuit. One she could use on the cold waters of the beach back at Clearcloud. She’d never had much reason to enter the water unless it was with her friends or on a family outing, and definitely not in the early morning hours when the water was coldest.

  Now, she had a feeling Mudkip would turn her into a water-obsessed beach rat.

  They found a shop five minutes later with a surf board for a sign, and they went right in. As the AC greeted them with a cool breeze, the first thing that stuck out to Luvia was the curious scent of chlorine.

  There were a few people glancing around the shop floor, browsing through spinner racks and peg rails full of different kinds of swimwear. The girls spotted one big Swellow perched up near the ceiling, on metallic structuring overlooking the entrance of the shop from afar.

  “Luvy,” Neela said, nudging her on the arm. Neela was pointing at a sign on a support pillar with the silhouette of some large bird pokémon with an eye symbol right above it and words below it that read: You are being watched for customer and shop security.

  They read the sign and looked back up at the Swellow, who spared them a lofty glance from its perch before turning its attention back at the entrance.

  The sisters giggled to themselves, finding it weird and cool.

  “Can you imagine this working back home?” said Neela.

  “Never,” replied Luvia immediately. “The taillow there would probably help you shoplift instead.”

  There were another two Swellow perched at opposite sides of the store, watching the store with a calm boredom.

  Every once in a while, a rouge, wild taillow would zip into the store and flutter around for a few moments before one of the swellow would let out a whistle or warning chirp that sent the taillow zipping right back out.

  Taillow liked to make nests everywhere they could find, but with the three watchful swellow, there was no chance of that happening.

  That’s pretty smart, Luvia thought.

  Back at Clearcloud Island, shopkeepers didn’t mind taillow building their nests in their establishments. Or it was more accurate to say that they couldn’t afford to mind. Unless you spent the money on a constant supply of repel spray or pellets, it was thought to be impossible to keep them away. You learned to live with them.

  “Do you want a bikini?” Neela asked as she cycled through a few options on a spinner rack.

  Luvia made a face at her. “No!”

  “Maahd!”

  Her elder sister blew out a breath. “Are you sure you don’t need a dress? You’re always in joggers or jeans or other boyish clothes...”

  Luvia was glancing around, till her eyes fell on a set of full-body swimsuits pegged up against the far-back wall behind the shop’s only counter.

  “What about those?” She started toward the tills and Neela turned from her browsing to look.

  “Which ones?” the elder sister said.

  Mudkip followed behind Luvia and Neela after them.

  “Luvy, those things? They’re for surfers!”

  They reached the counter and Luvia asked about them.

  The till person was a young girl, only a few years older than Luvia, with a cute set of glasses and light brown hair.

  “Those are wetsuits,” the till girl said.

  “Wetsuits,” Neela echoed as if she’d just remembered what they were called. “Exactly.”

  Luvia kept staring at them. There was a nice sky blue one with two black stripes angled like a V running from shoulder to waist, and black knee patches that spread to the calves. It looked like it might fit her.

  “They’re not even swimsuits,” said Neela with a slightly whingy tone. “I wanted to get you something stylish, Luvy. Something pretty.”

  Luvia blew a short breath from her nose. “What do you mean – that one isn’t pretty? It looks amazing.”

  “Blegh.” Neela frowned at it, trying to see what Luvia saw. “Don’t tell me you actually want it, Luvy.” Then she turned to the till girl and asked,

  “How much’s it cost?”

  The till girl gazed up at the one Luvia pointed to and grabbed hold of a long, hooked pole to bring the wetsuit down. She fumbled around with the zipper and pulled out a tag from inside.

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  “This one is one-thousand-four-hundred-and-fifty poké-dollars.”

  Luvia’s jaw dropped. So did Neela’s.

  “A thousand-and-what?” said the elder sister.

  The till girl only nodded with a light, sympathetic smile. “They’re not like swimsuits. They’re insulated and keep you warm in the water, so they’re mainly made for divers and people who spend a lot of time in the water, especially wild waters like seas and such.”

  Luvia was blushing at the steep price, but hearing that…

  It’s perfect. That’s exactly what I want.

  She stole a look at Neela and saw that her elder sister was still gawping. Neela turned and their eyes met.

  “Luvy…”

  “You don’t have to get it. We’ll pick something else.”

  Neela appeared to relax, but then she looked down at Mudkip and back at the wetsuit hanging from the till girl’s arm.

  “Don’t you do any discounts?”

  The till girl shook her head. “Not right now – but we do accept League credits, if you have those.”

  “League-what?”

  “League credits…” the till girl repeated, pushing up the frame of her glasses.

  …

  “Are those like, you know, trainer things?”

  The till girl blinked at the question.

  Luvia glanced sideways, slightly awkward. Hillbilly alert, I repeat, hillbilly alert!

  “The credits are given by the Hoenn League. You can use them to buy stuff with partnered companies and such. We’re partnered with the League, so we accept them.”

  “Oh…” Neela seemed like she just barely understood. “So, no discounts… How much’d you say it was again?”

  “?1,450 poké-dollars…”

  Neela went into her purse, and it was Luvia’s turn to gawp at her. “Neela – no!”

  “Chill, Luvy, chill, okay?” The look on her elder sister’s face puzzled her. It was almost as if she wasn’t about to splash a week’s wage on swimwear.

  “Maahd!” Mudkip commented.

  “You’re seriously getting it?” Luvia was thrilled but felt guilty all the same.

  “Well, I saw the way you looked at it,” Neela replied. “And the way it matched with Mudkip, so…”

  Luvia hadn’t even thought of that.

  “Do you want to try it on?” the till girl said. “There’s a pool round the back as well…”

  The sisters stared at each other and after a brief pause, Neela emphatically said, “Yes!”

  It was perfect. Luvia felt a little exposed wearing it as it hugged her body tightly, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. In fact, she felt lighter with it on. Nimbler. Tougher. Like a loaded spring.

  It was perfect.

  Neela was beaming. “Look at that little figure of yours! You’re like a gymnast!”

  Luvia craned over her shoulder to look at herself again, smiling.

  In the pool area, there were two square pools – one shallow and one deep. There was a single Golduck sat on an elevated seat overlooking both pools, wearing a red wetshirt with white ‘+’ sign on it. It was a Golduck lifeguard. Not that the girls needed one.

  Mudkip hopped in the deep one without hesitation, floating around on its surface waiting for Luvia to get in.

  “Meehd!”

  “Get in the water, Luvy, hurry up! I want to get ice cream next!”

  Luvia stepped to the edge of the pool, and dipped her toes in. “Eeek… it’s cold,” she muttered to herself. But it wasn’t as cold as ocean water.

  She took a deep breath and dropped herself in.

  Bubbles rushed past her face as her body contracted at the sudden change in temperature. The pool was 3 meters deep, so she had to swim herself back up.

  The first thing she noticed was that unlike her exposed hands and feet, the rest of her body did not feel the bite of the cold. It was manageably cool.

  The second thing she noticed was that staying afloat was easy. Super easy.

  Oh my god… this is amazing.

  Suddenly, the wetsuit’s price made a little more sense. She would never have guessed a piece of clothing could change the experience in the water that much. It was a world of difference.

  She dove back down and saw with blurry eyes that Mudkip had dived down with her. It made her laugh and the air rushed out of her lungs.

  “Neela! It’s amazing!” she cried out, coming back up and pulling her hair away from her face.

  “I admit, I’m surprised. It looks way better when you put it on.”

  “No, I mean the… the-uhh…It’s just really light! I feel like a Goldeen!”

  “Why don’t you make Mudkip pull you around? Can she?”

  Luvia was grinning already. She turned around, looking for Mudkip and saw that the little one was down below, nearly touching the pool floor.

  “Mudkip!” she yelled out, her voice ringing around the indoors. “Mudkip!” She slapped the surface of the water to get its attention.

  Mudkip heard her. It angled itself up toward her and swam back up slowly. When the little one breached the surface, Neela cheered and stood, watching expectantly, one hand reaching into her purse for her camera.

  “Maahd!”

  Luvia gave her a little squeeze on her submerged paw and frowned.

  “How are we supposed to do this?” she asked Neela.

  “Just ask her, maybe? I think she understands you.”

  Luvia tried right away.

  “Mudkip, I want you pull me to the other side of the pool… understand?” She pointed there, some 10 yards away.

  “Meehd!”

  Mudkip’s tail vibrated as it turned itself to face where Luvia had pointed. “Meehd!”

  She shot out like a missile, tail fin buffeting the water and splashing Luvia on the face.

  “Ahh!” the girl flinched, laughing. She could hear Neela’s ringing laughter too. Even the Golduck lifeguard was gazing over at them aloofly.

  Mudkip had reached the other side in a second.

  “She’s fast!” said Neela cheerily.

  Luvia tried again. “No, Mudkip! Me! Take me there!”

  …

  “Meehd?”

  The little one swam back slowly toward Luvia.

  “Maybe try grabbing onto her!” Neela suggested. “And tell her to go slow.”

  When Mudkip reached her, Luvia shifted around and reached with her hands under the surface, gently grabbing one of Mudkip’s hind legs.

  Mudkip kept trying to turn, probably wondering why Luvia was doing that.

  “Swim Mudkip,” she said softly, almost a whisper.

  She felt the little one’s leg continue trying to worm itself from her grasp.

  “Mudkeeep,” Luvia cooed even softer. It made Mudkip pause. “Swim. Swim.”

  Like that, the little one’s tail fin began to vibrate. Slowly. Neela gasped. Luvia smiled.

  They went off in a small circle at first, but as Luvia kept encouraging it, Mudkip began to understand, and it widened the arc… until eventually, it was swimming in a straight line.

  They reached one end of the pool and Luvia whispered to her again. “One more time, Mudkip. Swim.”

  Neela pointed her camera.

  *snap* *snap*

  “Now do a Water Gun!” the elder sister cried.

  Luvia let out a huff of laughter. If Luvia would make a good coordinator, Neela would make a good circus manager. The girl was treating them like an exhibit. Luvia did so anyway. Neela was going to splash out buying the wetsuit, after all. The least she could do was do as asked for a day.

  “?Muuudkeeeep? … Water!”

  Neela snapped with her camera some more.

  After buying the wetsuit and gorging on mixed-berry ice cream, Luvia felt like there was nothing else she needed in her life.

  It was coming to 4 o’clock now, and the sun was on its downward dip towards the horizon. The show wouldn’t start for another four hours, but the girls decided to head back to the apartment. Neela wanted to have a nap and wake up fresh for a night of their lives. Luvia doubted she’d be able to sleep.

  They had meandered deep into town and had to ask directions from strangers a few times.

  They even saw posters for the night’s event. It was being held at the Slateport Contest Hall, in northwest part of the city. A 15-20 minute tram ride away from town, according to a stranger.

  “Hey, Neela,” Luvy said, pausing. “Look.”

  They were short-cutting through one of the citie’s suburbs, where the roads were narrower and the bustle way less. There were more trees too, and the houses more rustic-looking, with old coats of paint that were crumbling off the walls and tall, ivy-laden stone fences.

  At the other end of the road they were on, Luvia had spotted a couple of courts with a bunch of people gathered.

  Neela gazed over but kept walking. “Put Mudkip in her ball, maybe?”

  Even from this far away, Luvia could tell what was happening.

  Battles.

  Her heart thumped anxiously… or was it excitement?

  She was about to pull out her pokéball and recall Mudkip, but something made her stop and made her step after Neela instead.

  She glanced down at Mudkip beside her. “Come on.”

  Several steps later, Neela realized Mudkip was still not in her ball, and she gave Luvia a stare.

  “What are you doing, Luvy?”

  Luvia shook her head quickly. “Nothing.”

  Neela gave her sister a searching look then carried on walking. “You want to battle?”

  “No.”

  “What if they challenge you?”

  “I’ll decline, sis, don’t worry.”

  Neela looked kind of stumped, but she said nothing else.

  As they came closer to the courts, they heard the whoops and cheers of the crowd – two dozen people or so. They saw a bird rise up over the crowd and swoop back down.

  “Ice Punch!” a boy yelled, and the animated crowd fell silent, then the next second, let out a roar of disbelief. The roar kept building and building, then – *flash!*

  Luvia saw a light blink from the court, and the crowd went wild.

  There was a crashing noise and the frustrated, shrill cry of a pokémon.

  “Meehd! Meehd!”

  Mudkip left Luvia’s side, hoping on its little legs across the narrow road and in the direction of the courts.

  “Mudkip!” she yelled, but the little one didn’t listen.

  “Luvy! Recall her!” said Neela, but that wasn’t Luvia’s first instinct.

  The youngest Juneworth dropped her shopping bag and crossed the road after her Mudkip, where the cheering sound of trainers was loudest.

  What is she doing! Luvia wondered.

  Mudkip was moving fast. Faster than Luvia had seen her move on dry land. The next thing Luvia knew, she was stepping onto the court’s canvas, right behind the crowd.

  “Mudkip!” she hissed, clumsily stepping after it.

  “Meehd! Meehd!”

  With dismay, she watched as Mudkip pushed and weaved its way past the legs of the crowd and disappeared onto the other side.

  “Mudkip!” Luvia yelled this time.

  The noise of the crowd had begun to die down, but someone then said, “Hey! What is that!” and the murmurs rose to cheers.

  Luvia was already trying to push her way past the crowd, when she heard a familiar, “Ghhh!” and the crowd burst into a mix of laughter and cheering.

  “What the – ” went someone as Luvia squeezed past. Her heart was hammering hard, her mouth going dry, followed by an incredible sense of surrealism.

  When she managed to push past the crowd and poke her head into the court, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

  “Mudkip!” she called, but the little one did not even look back at her.

  A weird, humanoid pokemon stood there, with Mudkip facing it directly. The pokémon was small. No bigger than a toddler, but the look in its eyes were anything but infantile. It had pale, purplish skin that showed well defined muscles beneath it. It even had a smirk as it stared down at Mudkip.

  Luvia spotted a pidgey roosting on the ground next to them, its eyes droopy like it had either just woken up, or was on the verge of fainting. An older boy stood to one side, a slightly sour expression on his face. Likely Pidgey’s trainer.

  Heart still hammering, feeling like she wanted to disappear, Luvia instead did the unthinkable and stepped into the court to stand behind Mudkip.

  The crowd fell back down to murmurs.

  “Is that yours?” called a young boy, wearing a backwards cap, standing some yards away from the strange, humanoid pokemon. Coincidentally, he had the same smirk the humanoid pokémon wore.

  Luvia was flustered as could be, but her voice, surprisingly, came out firm. “Yes.”

  The boy’s smirk grew into a smile. “What the hell is it?”

  “It’s a Mudkip!” someone else answered from the crowd. “A water-type!”

  Luvia stared evenly at the boy.

  …

  “Well, your Mudkip’s just attacked my pokémon for no reason… What’s up with that?”

  Hearing that, Luvia almost fainted herself. That’s when she spotted the small streak of water glistening on the canvas beside the boy’s pokémon.

  “Battle. Battle. Battle…” someone in the crowd began, and soon, the whole crowd was chanting it.

  Luvia looked for her elder sister in the crowd, but she couldn’t spot her. She felt like the world was closing in around her. Her skin prickled uncomfortably.

  The backwards cap boy was still smiling, and when the crowd finally stopped chanting, Luvia shook her head.

  “We don’t want to battle.”

  The booing drowned her. She could feel resonating in her bones. It almost made her knees wobble.

  The sour-looking boy went over to the pidgey and picked it up, then went into his back pocket and pulled out a small fistful of bank notes. He dropped them on backwards cap boy’s hand and stepped off the canvas holding Pidgey in his arms.

  “Meehd! Maahd!” Mudkip cried.

  The boy’s pokemon lowered itself into a fighting stance, looking squarely at the Mudkip before it, and the crowd loved it.

  “No, Mudkip!” It finally occurred to Luvia that she could recall it back into the ball. Her hands moved to the big knee pockets on her chinos, where Mudkip’s white pokéball was.

  She pulled it out amongst fresh booing from the crowd, but right before she recalled Mudkip, the little one looked back at her.

  Her small, beady eyes looked… fierce. It made Luvia pause.

  “Meedh!”

  …

  She wants to battle.

  Luvia sent another look at the crowd, looking for Neela, and saw her standing further along the court, at the tail-end of the crowd. She was watching them with shopping bags in hand and a serious look on her face. She was waiting to see what Luvia was going to do.

  Breathe.

  Luvia remembered the look she’d given herself in the mirror, before leaving the apartment…

  Her hands were shaking, but she took in a breath, closed her eyes for a moment, and relaxed the muscles in her face.

  Mudkip was whining now, growling almost, at the pokémon before them.

  The rising cheers of the crowd picked back up.

  “Battle. Battle. Battle!!!” they chanted again.

  Backwards cap boy raised his eyebrows at Luvia and shrugged.

  Luvia put on the coldest glare she could muster and shrugged back.