Out of all the places I’d been looking forwards to visiting on my Pokémon journey, Caprice City topped the list. Fine, that wasn’t really true. At the time, I was too young to think too much about where I was going in a geographical sense. I had other things on my mind. I didn’t appreciate art history and culture enough either. Sure, I knew a bunch of facts, and even remembered a few I found interesting, but to feel history as an ongoing process that I was living through was far too much for a young mind to achieve. Anyway, I digress. I knew Caprice was the cultural capital of Silín. I knew generations of artists had come from, or lived, or met in Caprice. I knew it was known as the Painted City, the Artist’s Retreat, the Smeargle Zone (dear Arceus, the Smeargle; they were everywhere, every tail another colour. Fun fact: Caprice was the only city in Silín where all but the most obscene forms of graffiti were fully legal. It was a practical law; policing the hundreds of Smeargle in the city was a vain endeavour that had failed multiple times in the past). In any case, the city had more nicknames than the rest of Silín’s population hubs combined, and I still don’t know half of them, but for all the importance it had related to my favoured hobby, at the time, I had a casual interest in it because Mum had mentioned I’d like it, so I felt I should.

  For all that, I didn’t get to do all I might have wanted in Caprice. The days after our arrival, I spent every free moment I had training and preparing for the tournament, but true to its fame, its beauty and atmosphere were unmistakable. We arrived midday on the day after leaving Silverwind, and the full light of the sun exploded the city into a rainbow of colours. Yellow and green squares were painted on every wall of the road we walked down, as if we’d suddenly been shifted into a Teip Nairdnom canvas. The rest of the city was just as vibrant, with differing styles and palettes being painted and repainted by stray Smeargle and partying teens. With all the colour, I expected it to run the risk of being too much, it was a baseless worry. The Smeargle were the artist’s Pokémon for a reason, deftly weaving shapes and shades together to make it exciting, but never cluttered, interesting, but never demanding. I liked it from the start, for obvious reasons, but it wasn’t until I got to the park that I fell in love with it.

  We checked into a Pokémon Centre and registered for the tournament, and did all the things that were becoming routine by now. Then we decided to split – Jade had to finally face the music, Luca wanting rest and to get to know her new partner in the comfort of her room, and Darren and I looking for a place to train. Asking around, we were quickly pointed in the direction of Petilil Park. Calling it a park was unfair to every other park in Silín. Taking up the whole southside of the city, it had the typical manicured lawns, and cute stone fountains, and touristy cafeterias with their round tables. It had playgrounds (yes, plural) and sports complexes, and lake boat rides, and canoeing in the river and still had twice the area left over for botanical gardens that were a certified paradise for grass-types and gardeners alike. It was a place to get lost in, and without care, it was frighteningly easy to do so.

  Trainers weren’t allowed to train wherever they wanted, naturally (though how well that rule was followed had been tested harshly, particularly in recent years), but there was an area sectioned off specifically for us that, even with the hundreds, maybe thousands of trainers gathering, still had enough space to fit everyone two times over. It wasn’t the most beautiful area, consisting of mostly flat, green fields, but the terraforming effects of Pokémon moves used liberally gave the place a rough look that was charming in its own right.

  “Here we are,” said Darren. He sat on a bench, taking a brief rest before beginning training. I sat next to him and tried to relax under the sun. I wasn’t often alone with Darren; at the very least, Sunny was there with us. In fact, apart from a few instances at home, I was struggling to remember if we had ever been alone together. It mattered because conversation didn’t flow freely between us. Or maybe it was just on my end. I don’t know if he felt as awkward as I did, searching desperately for the right words to not fall into an uncomfortable silence. It was because, despite travelling together for so long, I didn’t know all that much about him still. At least, I didn’t feel like it. I liked him fine, but felt so much closer to Sunny, and even Luca. He wasn’t as open as they were, and I wasn’t as naturally friendly.

  “Here we are,” I repeated, because why not?

  “Yep, we’re going to do good this tournament, I know it,” he said.

  “We are. I want to perform well, this time,” I said. “And I have a good feeling.”

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  “That’s the spirit! We’ll shine here, then in Everrock, Bagatelle, Crescent and Nocturne. Sure, it’s been touch-and-go a few times, but we’re only getting stronger. Next time we meet Sunny, we’ve got to prove we’re still doing well.”

  I ducked my head and dug the toe of my shoe into the earth. This was a conversation I hadn’t been anticipating with pleasure.

  “About that,” I said. “I’m not sure I’ll be going to Everrock. After this, I think I’m going to quit the circuit for this year.”

  I couldn’t get a good read on his face when I peeked, but I could tell he was shocked.

  “I’ll still be a trainer,” I added hurriedly. “And I’ll participate in future circuits. But remember Ducky said this year was her first time participating? She doesn’t feel like a first year, and I think, I want some of that too. I mean, I want to explore Silín without worrying about tournaments, or getting to places on time. And besides, there’s something else I want to do, though I don’t know if I’ll be able to yet. But either way, I don’t think I’m going to Everrock. I’ll probably head west, towards Sandfire Town. There’s a whole half of Silín we haven’t set foot in.”

  “You’ve never been to Everrock either,” he said. His tone was accusatory. And more hurt than I expected. I shied away from his eyes.

  “Calla, you can’t quit,” he said. “Weren’t you going to become the youngest champion?”

  “But I can’t!” I snapped at him. I hadn’t meant to. My eyes were wet. “I can’t be the youngest champion. I can barely get a few rounds into a small-scale tournament. Even if I do, somehow, manage to squeeze out enough points to get into the Nocturne Championship, there’s no way I’m winning that. Not with my current strength, and not with the strength we’ll have in a few months.”

  “You don’t know that,” said Darren, his voice as heated as mine. “Pokémon grow quickly. I’ve seen the improvements you’ve already made with your team. If you catch three more, strong Pokémon, you’ll be a serious contender.”

  “I won’t, and I don’t want to catch more just to win a prize. The whole thing’s a sham anyway. The strongest trainers are out there bounty hunting, and probably breaking the law while they’re at it. The fools doing the circuit are showmen and nothing more.”

  “That’s not true, and if it was, all the more reason to win. Become the strongest in the circuit and outside of it. Make the title of Champion mean something.”

  “That’s not the point; it’s not about one person, but it doesn’t matter. It’s not just about my skill, or my experience, both of which are lacking, but also, I can’t afford to raise a top team to be ready this year. The sponsorship I got from the professor helps, but I’m already straining his generosity with all the TMs I’ve asked for. And that’s for three Pokémon. Three!”

  “So what, you’re just going to leave? Abandoning your dream like that?”

  “I’m not abandoning anything. Wanting to win everything at fourteen was just childish pride. I’ll train better, and be better next year, or the one after, or after that, I don’t know. But I will be champion, not because I want the title, but because I’ll be the strongest trainer in Silín.”

  “You get stronger by keeping going, not quitting. We get stronger by having each other to fight against, but now you’re leaving, like Sunny.”

  I took a breath, finally noticing Comfey hopping up and down in my face. Maybe she wanted to stop the fight, maybe she was angry we’d woken her, it didn’t matter. I was able to calm down a little bit and listen to what Darren was really saying.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, cupping Comfey in my hands and cradling her. “I tried to be your rival, along with Sunny. It was a nice story, the three of us going into the world to challenge it together. But she had to leave, and I think she made the right choice for herself. I do too. It’s true what you said that keeping going is one of the best ways of growing, but I feel so far behind that pushing on now is going to hurt in the long term, I know it. I need time. For my Pokémon, and also for me. I’ve discovered more about myself in the last few months than in years before that. I need to experience new things to shape me into someone I can be proud of. This is what’s good for me.”

  Darren put his face in his hands. It was hard, seeing him so upset. I thought this conversation would be awkward, not, whatever this was.

  “I’m sorry too, for blowing up at you,” he said. “It’s not your fault, it’s just, with Sunny gone, and now you too. It got to me and I was being immature. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s fine. For what it’s worth, I think you do have a chance to become champion, even this year. You’re a better trainer than me right now, and your team is pretty solid, even if it is only half-formed.”

  “And I, or my parents, have the money to make it work,” he added bitterly.

  “It’s just the way things are. And it wouldn’t mean anything if you weren’t a good trainer.”

  “You really think so?”

  “Yep. With a bit of luck finding the right Pokémon to fill out your team, you could be a serious contender. Elaine will be hard to beat, but if it’s you, in eight or nine months, I think you’ll manage. Don’t tell her I said that.”

  “I won’t.”

  “And I’ll catch up to you eventually. I’m not backing out of that promise. It’ll just, take a little longer.”

  “Okay. I’ll hold you to that.”

  “Alright. Let’s train together today.”

  “Let’s.”