I scratched the wool around Flaaffy’s neck as she lay beside me on the bed. I’d been so caught up with the tournament the last couple of days that I hadn’t taken the time to properly look at my Pokémon since she evolved. She’d lost most of the wool that had made her so fluffy and the skin beneath was pink and leathery. There’d be no more days of using her as a back cushion while drawing. Which reminded me, I’d yet to sketch her new form. I was familiar with Flaaffy in general – we had plenty around the farm, often taking the role of leaders for the Mareep – but my Flaaffy would be a special entry in my notebook.

  She stretched beside me. Now that she was bipedal, her gestures were more human-like. Nothing that anyone would mistake for human, but even so, the faint resemblance troubled me. I didn’t like it. With Flaaffy it was still okay, but I didn’t understand trainers with truly humanoid Pokémon. It was hard enough to reconcile the relationship I had with my team and the respect I felt every living thing deserved already. If I had a Machoke for example, could I treat them as anything other than another person? What about something like an Alakazam, they could communicate and were well-known to be smarter than humans. A trainer relationship with them felt ugly.

  Flaaffy nipped my fingers. She still had that habit. She also knew I was worrying about stupid things again. Ducky trusted her Pokémon to be able to handle themselves if necessary, and I should do the same. Flaaffy flicked her tail. The orb at the end was now blue, and the faint glow from it gave off an entirely different vibe from the orange glow it previously had. Comfey hung from it like a vine. She was gloomy today too. She had been gloomy since the battle yesterday. So was I.

  It wasn’t that I lost. I had prepared myself for a loss. One against three was unrealistic no matter how I approached it. What hurt was that I had lost to her first Pokémon. It was also silly. I knew that logically. Emotionally, I had somehow convinced myself Flaaffy would never lose a fair fight. She had been incredible lately, and I simply didn’t know how to deal with the undeniable truth that we both had been severely outclassed. It wasn’t either of our fault. We were still inexperienced. Comfey swung above my stomach. It wasn’t her fault either.

  “It’s okay, Comfey. We agreed you wouldn’t have to battle. And you do plenty outside of them too.”

  She jumped onto my face. I had been half right. She was anxious about what she could offer the team. She was also mad I had brought Flaaffy straight to the Pokémon Centre without letting her be the healer. It had, I admitted, completely slipped my mind. I had been in quite the state of shock. I had gotten up first thing this morning to collect Flaaffy from Nurse Joy, then I’d gone straight back to bed as soon as I confirmed it would be a while before I had to prepare to go to see Darren’s battle today. He had won yesterday's round handily. His opponent only had one Pokémon, the fool.

  “I’ll let you heal her next time, don’t worry,” I said. Comfey gave me a pat on the cheek. I took a couple of deep breaths to psych myself up to get out of bed. I was feeling good. Today was going to be great. I didn’t even have any pressure on me anymore. I could enjoy watching the rest of the tournament without having to worry about anything.

  I put one foot on the floor, sat up, and promptly fell back onto the blankets. Flaaffy looked at me with what could only be disappointment in her eyes.

  “I’m trying, okay.”

  On my second attempt, I made it to the door. Instead of pulling it towards me, however, I pulled myself towards the door. My forehead made contact with the wood and I stood there leaning on it until Flaaffy got frustrated with me again and gave me a push.

  As I walked out onto the streets of Rondo City, I looked around as if seeing it for the first time. The main road to Heles Beach was wide and paved it cobblestones. Coupled with the low buildings, there was little shade and the whole place was bathed in sunlight. The only places covered by shadows were the tiny alleyways. Most of them led to dead ends, twisting through thick stone walls.

  There was a drop where the city met the Heles Beach and standing at the top of the wall, the entirety of it was laid out before me.

  “Quite the view, yes?”

  I spun, my face heating up.

  “Elaine! I thought you didn’t like coming to watch,” I said.

  “I don’t,” she said, hopping off Gogoat. “At least, I don’t like the attention, and hiding is a hassle. But I found this on my windowsill this morning. Know anything about it?”

  She pulled out a crumpled note from her bag. She flattened it out and passed it to me. Written on it in a cursive script were the words Stay close to Calla. I couldn’t help but laugh nervously.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “What’s this? Is someone playing a prank?”

  “Maybe, but it’s a very strange one in that case.”

  “Or it’s your dad trying to get you out of the house for the day.”

  “Doubt it, it’s not his writing. Don’t worry about it. I’ll hang around for today and see what happens. I have Sableye with me, he’ll warn us of anything about to happen.”

  We made our way onto the sands. Elaine was dressed in a tracksuit and a large brimmed straw hat she pulled down to cover her face. I couldn’t see where she kept Sableye, though I did notice a certain sparkle in her shadow. As well as hiding her face, she returned her Gogoat in case anyone recognised him. She resisted for about thirty seconds until she needed to tease Comfey from off of my neck and onto her wrist. One thing I’d noticed from being around Elaine was that she was always in contact with a Pokémon. She got fidgety when she wasn’t.

  I didn’t know which pitch Darren was assigned to, but there were only eight simultaneous battles on now and they were all located around the main stage. Four large screens were showing highlight reels, and one had a little box in a corner displaying the schedule for the day. Spotting Darren’s name, we headed to where he was.

  Ducky and Sunny were already there. Ducky saw me first and beckoned us over. She raised her eyebrow upon seeing Elaine, but quickly understood that she was there incognito. Sunny needed her foot stepped on to get the hint. We only had time to get the introductions out of the way before Darren walked out onto the pitch. He and Auri had been making a name for themselves, and the loudly cheering crowd proved it. He was up against one Matthew Groggonhollow, a fighting-type specialist from Everrock Dojo. He wasn’t someone I was aware of, but Elaine assured me that no one from the Dojo was to be taken lightly.

  From the beginning of the battle, Auri was on the back foot. She was up against a Mienfoo and none of her attacks could connect. The Mienfoo appeared to flow away from every rock thrown at her, and when she blinked forward, she landed a Force Palm on Auri faster than I could follow. Auri was tough, however, and between Stomping Tantrums and Rock Slides, she displaced so much sand that her half of the field resembled a massive crater, and Mienfoo’s was increasingly mountainous. Despite her efforts, she had finally met an opponent that could counter her, and after a long, drawn-out round, Auri finally collapsed, having no energy left to move.

  Darren returned her, told her she had done a good job, and clicked the button on his second Pokémon. He looked at his opponent. Mienfoo hadn’t taken any direct hits, but she was tired. Taking down Auri had worn her down. Matthew still had three other Pokémon to follow.

  “Go, Wish!”

  The tiny Wishiwashi flashed out of his pokeball, looking lonely and helpless in the air. That impression lasted for less than a second. In the time it took for him to fall, Double Team created countless copies of himself, using Soak, he gave every copy a watery body and they all congealed into his massive and terrifying School Form. Without missing a beat, he fired a Water Gun that felt more like a Hydro Pump at the crater Auri had created, almost instantly making a pool in which he just about fit. Landing sent a wave of water that even reached us in the spectators' area.

  From that moment, the battle was completely turned around. Matthew’s Pokémon all lacked powerful long-range moves, and coming close to the water always ended in being washed out. Staying away was no better, as there were only so many times they could dodge a Water Gun the size of their body before being blasted out of the pitch. Matthew tried various methods to buy time, perhaps hoping the water would seep into the sand leaving Wish vulnerable. It was a desperate hope. Wish proved to be more than capable of generating water faster than the speed at which it drained. Helped, I only now noticed, by the fact that Auri had ensured all the sand in the crater was hardened and compact. Darren had been preparing the stage for Wish from the start.

  Darren’s win raised our spirits tremendously. I won’t deny I felt a pang of jealousy, but this was overshadowed by the pride I felt that the commentators on the main screen were saying that one of my friends was now the favourite to win the tournament. After Comfey gave a once-over to Auri (she was more exhausted than hurt and would be fine with a little rest), we went to the city to celebrate by finding a place to have lunch.

  Walking down the main street, Elaine and Ducky cheered Darren the whole way. Quieter by nature, Sunny and I hung back a little as he was bombarded with questions about Wish. A garbled croak interrupted them, and a purple hand came out of Elaine's shadow and tugged at her trousers. A jagged finger pointed at Darren’s belt and then at the entrance to an alley.

  “Darren, your pokeballs,” said Elaine.

  He reached to his waist and unclipped a pokeball from his belt. He pressed the button. It didn’t click. Neither did his other one, and when they slipped from his fingers, they made a wooden sound as they hit the stones. Darren fell to his knees, face whitening, and mouth opening and closing soundlessly. Sunny ran to his side, meanwhile, Ducky, Elaine and I tore into the alley. It was small enough that we had to go in a single file, Ducky out-speeding us significantly. I could hear footsteps running from us, but couldn’t catch sight of anyone through the twisting path. Ducky reached a fork and without slowing turned right.

  “You go that way,” she said, pointing to the left. Elaine and I followed her indication. Noises ahead suggested we were the ones on the right trail. More importantly, we were catching up.

  Wings and claws burst into my field of vision. I fell back with a shriek and nearly smacked my head on the cobblestones. I would have if Elaine hadn’t caught me.

  “Calla, are you alright?” she asked. The flying-type, I hadn’t even registered what species it was, had disappeared. I nodded, getting my panic under control. But by then, it was too late. The next turn resulted in a dead end and there was no sign of anyone.