“What’s up, kiddo?” asked Darren. “You’ve been busy recently.”
He had the same goofy smile on his face that hadn’t slipped from its place since the celebrations the night before. It was great seeing him happy and I wasn’t jealous at all.
“Not a kid,” I mumbled, then, as an afterthought, decided to respond.
“I’m working. You won't be the only one going to the last rounds next time.”
“If you say so,” he said. “I'm not sure how far I'll get next time. It's a free-for-all here on out.”
“You’ll be fine, you have both Wish and Auri,” I said.
“I don’t know, here look,” he turned his new laptop to me and alt-tabbed to a forum thread about the tournament. The page showed what were presumably experienced trainers discussing how they could have gone about taking down Darren with only his opponent’s Pokémon.
“Don’t they always do that,” I said, skimming through the conversation. I wasn’t entirely convinced by their arguments either.
“Of course. It’s good practice to analyse battles. Especially your own, but any serious trainer is going to look into the winner of a tournament,” he said with no small amount of arrogance.
Sunny joined us at the table. We were in the lobby of the Pokémon Centre, resting from the previous day’s events. She came with a bag of sandwiches under her arm and a cereal bar sticking out of her mouth. She passed the food around, batting away Coral’s tentacles from reaching for it. She said something to her that was wholly inaudible as more oats than syllables came out of her mouth and everyone else, including Flaaffy who was usually above such antics, erupted in laughter.
“Alright, enough,” she said after swallowing. “That’s the thanks I get for bringing food. Darren, since when did you have a laptop?”
“Since this morning. I bought it with yesterday’s winnings.”
“Look at you,” she said.
“Please do,” he replied.
“He’s gotten very cocky recently,” I told Sunny and she agreed.
“I wonder why,” said Darren. Auri groaned from beside him.
“You're right, of course,” said Darren. “It was mostly you.”
The only one not around the table was Wish, not only because of the hassle of filling his tank, but also because he was even more scared of Caviar than I was. For me, barring any sudden movements, or an invasion of my personal space, the Wingull didn’t bother me all that much anymore. Especially with Comfey’s presence acting as a balance. I wish I could say the same for other flying-types. The incident in the alley still weighed on me. In any case, Wish was convinced Caviar was out to eat him. I couldn’t fault him, even if it was funny that such a monster was such a scaredy-cat in his Solo form.
“Darren and I were arguing over whether Wish is overpowered,” I said.
“I’m saying he’s not,” said Darren. “If you manage to break past his defences, he crumbles instantly.”
“The trouble is getting past those defences,” said Sunny.
“Tricky for someone not ready for something like Wish,” admitted Darren. “But not impossible for those with a bit of experience battling. I’m not saying it’s easy, but relying on Wish alone won’t get me far.”
The debate continued with Darren insisting Wish was not as intimidating as he appeared, and Sunny and I telling him Wish was terrifying. It would have continued for longer if the TV in the corner of the lobby hadn’t started replaying Darren’s interview again. He groaned and said he’d seen it enough times already, but Sunny and I were good friends and we made him watch it with us. The audio wasn’t great, but we knew it pretty much by heart anyway. It had caused quite the scandal.
It started off innocently enough. The interviewer asked Darren how he felt after winning and what he was going to do next. He said he felt wonderful, and that it was thanks to his Pokémon, his family and friends (how cute, I didn’t blush). He said that he was still planning to participate in upcoming tournaments, even though mathematically, a win in one usually guaranteed a spot in the Nocturne Championship.
“It’s not about winning,” he said on TV. “It’s about having the experience of battling all different kinds of Pokémon and trainers.”
“We look forwards to seeing more of you in the coming year then. How would you estimate your chances of winning other large tournaments, and ultimately, the Nocturne Championship?” asked the interviewer.
“I think winning in Rondo and in other cities are two very different things. However, I fully intend on becoming the Champion by the end of the year.”
“We love ambitious trainers here. Since how long have you dreamt of becoming the Champion?”
“Honestly, not that long. For me, the title is more of a means to an end. See, originally I’m from Johto, and I used to joke about introducing the gym system in Silín once I became champion. I wasn’t all that serious about it at first, but even in the short time I’ve been on my journey, I believe that the region could benefit from its implementation. There have been some rumours going around that during the fourth day of the tournament, I had my Pokémon briefly stolen from me. I can confirm that they’re true. Fortunately, the current Champion was around, and she and her Pokémon were able to retrieve them for me, but there existed the very real possibility that Auri and Wish were taken away from me permanently. When that happened to me, I realised that trainers in Silín have very little overview, both in terms of their own security as well as the issues they cause. I appreciate the freedom and the financial support in the form of access to Pokémon Centres among other things, but I believe there needs to be the ability to enforce laws equally to trainers. Without it, you end up with things like the Caprice City incident last year where two out-of-control trainers destroyed the statue of Brionne and faced almost no repercussions. Gyms would help with that. They’re not only a place to get badges for the championship, but, as some of the strongest trainers of the region, Gym Leaders also serve as an authority figure who are responsible for dealing with Pokémon related emergencies in their city. As in stands, we have very few strong trainers with any official authority, and those who do have some are not fixed to any one location making them unreliable at best.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Being the Champion would help me push for the establishment of Gyms. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to erase or devalue the tournaments we currently hold. I believe we have a chance to have a unique hybrid system where both Gym badges and tournament standings are ways to enter the Nocturne Championship. After all, in Johto, Gym Leaders train most of their lives for the position and have the ability to adapt to the challenger's level. This isn’t part of the culture in Silín, so here, every Gym battle would likely have to be against the full strength of the Leader. For trainers confident in their abilities, this is, naturally, a good thing. For newer trainers, it would be difficult to gain even one badge. Having the tournaments for those trainers would allow them to gain experience in battles while not having to worry about facing someone way over their level, much like this one in Rondo.”
The interview didn’t end there. It only got started, really, but that was the speech that had spread all over the internet in a matter of minutes garnering comments of support as well as more unsettling ones, usually along the lines of the Johto boy should go back to Johto, though with less politeness.
Darren didn’t seem too affected by the whole deal. He continued munching on his sandwich ignoring our jibes. When he bit down the last morsel of crust, he cleared his throat.
“Anyway, what’s our plan from here? Popplio Town is gone, or as good as, and the route is impassable in any case. Most are taking a boat to Wavecrest, which I would say is the logical choice, but..”
The ‘but’ was due to the second notable thing which had happened the night before. We had gone partying along with half the city, celebrating the end of the tournament were sipping on our drinks in a bar (juice for me, and supposedly Darren too, though I wasn’t sure about that by the end of the night) when we were approached by none other than Professor Leaf. ‘We’, in this case, were the three of us, along with Jade and her manager, Quentin, who, I was surprised to learn, was not only younger than her but was even more of a party animal when he was off the clock. Sunny had been spending some time with them; she and Jade used to play together when they were children and she lived in Silverwind. Jade was a few years older than Sunny but the tiny village never had more than a handful of children living there at any one time. She boasted that she had always been weird and gone out of the village bounds in search of bugs. When she’d return, and after getting scolded by her mother, Sunny was the one who would listen to her adventures the most, so Jade had fond memories of her. Sunny, on her end, seemed to fluctuate between admiring Jade – both, the impression she had made as a child as well as the fact that she was a famous model – and treating her as a close friend, like Jade obviously wanted.
But I digress, Professor Leaf joined our group, offered his congratulations to Darren, as many people had spent the whole day doing, and then moved on to a more serious topic.
“Pardon me for interrupting your fun. I have an offer for you three and I didn’t know when you were leaving town,” he’d said.
“Would you like us to give you some space?” Quentin had asked, already getting up, but the Professor waved him down.
“No, that’s alright. It’s not too sensitive of a subject, and what misgivings I have are likely just my paranoia. As you know, I specialise in the study of Pokémon evolution. There are two main kinds of evolution. One is what you usually think of, like a Mareep evolving into a Flaaffy. Mega evolutions also fall under this bracket, though they are distinct. The other kind isn’t as well researched, and that is the slow evolution of entire species over long periods of time. I find it fascinating to compare the two, especially in the places where they interconnect. We have records of some Pokémon species that used to evolve into a different form in the past than in the present. Regional forms of Pokémon also owe their existence to this phenomenon. But I’ll skip the lesson.
“Some years ago, an old ruin was found deep in the Greenforest, you might have heard of its discovery on the news. The people who built it were extraordinarily diligent in keeping records of the Pokémon around them. Evidence points to them being an incredibly advanced society for their time. In short, the ruins are a treasure trove for research materials and the discovery would be one of the most significant advances for science and history of our time. Unfortunately, things are not quite that simple. They are located deep in the Greenforest after all. Wild Pokémon were quick to drive away the researchers. Expeditions were mounted, but the cost of hiring bounty hunters as bodyguards was too much to make much progress. The only way, then, to obtain information from the ruins was to buy it directly from the bounty hunters, who didn't take long to find out that a dive into the ruins was a quick way to make a fortune. Not many are interested in selling artefacts to science, however. The highest bidder usually ends up being a rich merchant or politician and scientists can’t compete. Worse, the risk of buying forgeries has only gone up recently and it’s become harder and harder to find a trustworthy source.
“That’s where you three come in. I was going to ask Elaine this favour, to be quite honest, but she ran away from home before I could tell her. Don’t worry about her, she’ll be fine. She was getting restless at home. I should have expected this sooner rather than later. She’s strong enough to mind herself no matter what her mother says. It does leave me without an assistant. The people I would otherwise rely on are occupied with the ongoing disasters. The three of you are new enough to this scene that I can trust you, besides, Elaine likes you, and also strong enough to survive the Greenforest provided you take the necessary caution. You won’t be alone either. If you accept, Kurt will be going with you. He’s the boy you fought in the second round, Darren, and he comes from a well-known family of fire-type specialists. You’ll also be well paid, though I admit, you could likely sell whatever you gain for more to other collectors. I won’t forget the favour, though, and I assure you, a Professor’s backing is valuable. Thanks for hearing me out. Talk it over between yourselves. If you decide to accept, stop by the university before you leave and we can iron out the details. Whatever you choose, I wish you luck on your travels.”
