There was a television in my room at the Pokémon Centre, and rather than tire ourselves with more training, I judged that the best thing to do would be to rest, flicking through the channels until dinner time. It was a regrettable decision, as it inevitably wound up with me watching the news.

  There were more protests across the city. I’d seen them in Caprice, too. Passing by, it didn’t seem all that big of a deal, but there were more in other cities. The newest wave had been sparked by some politician in Nocturne being caught in a corruption scandal, or something. He said it was all lies anyway and it made a lot of people very angry.

  That wasn’t all people were protesting, though. There were more of those Free the Pokémon, Ban the Balls demonstrations I’d passed when getting my licence. It was a movement, I only learned then, that hadn’t even originated in Silín.

  Then there were more people being angry about the Popplio and Bagatelle disasters, violent trainers, not enough police, too many police, shady bounty hunters, dangerous ghost types, the list went on. Every now and then, a coherent argument would come on, the kind of thing Jade might say, but it was then drowned out by an awful lot of noise.

  A thirty second clip of the ongoing Greenwood investigation came on. The story people knew was that a group of trainers, on a mission from Professor Leaf to explore the ruins, uncovered a massive smuggling ring and the ruins were severely damaged in the ensuing fights. None of our names (or of the ‘suspected smugglers’, including Killian) had officially been made public.

  It was a fun little story people loved to tear into. Anything from How could a smuggling ring exist in Silín and nobody knew about it? to This is why trainers should be more heavily regulated, the damage to those ruins is a travesty, could be seen in the comments whenever the topic came up on the internet. It wasn’t something I liked to look into, but I’d seen my name and face being leaked on some forums if I looked hard enough, and I couldn’t help checking to see what people were saying.

  Thankfully, it was a story that was losing steam as the official police investigating went on longer and longer, with no signs of resolving anything anytime soon. I didn’t know if it was reasonable suspicion or paranoia, but I suspected there was pressure on them to simply not do anything. Either way, I was definitely being influenced too much by Ducky.

  The final blow to the public interest in it was this new scandal, and now nobody seemed to care, which was simultaneously relieving and frustrating.

  Before I could get too upset, the reporter switched to more hopeful news. The reconstruction of Popplio and the surrounding area was going well. With the sudden abating of the storm, the place was flooded with volunteers and donations, and even TransAqua lending out a number of their boats to help bring the town back to how it once was. The video showed a lot of smiling people and Pokémon working hard and the vibes were pleasantly uplifting. In the short time since they started, quite a lot of progress had been made already. There were few ruins to be seen, and a lot of scaffolding and wooden walkways. Only a cut to a much smaller and harmless thundercloud hovering over the stretch of land that separated what the locals called Popplio’s Pond from the rest of Lake Aria served as a reminder to the devastation that was wrought there but a few weeks ago.

  After much pestering, I’d finally got Elaine to tell me a little bit more about what happened there. She still refused to tell me of the battle with Killian, but she spoke of how she, or rather, Meloetta, got Thundurus to calm down.

  “He had a long, blue body, with big muscles and a thick, human-like chest,” she’d said. “He had clouds around his head and hands, bright yellow eyes, and a long tail of spiked, black orbs trailing behind him. And his head was like some kind of evil, blue Dragonite with a purple horn sticking out from his forehead. He was smaller than he seemed, but it hardly mattered, the air crackled with electricity around him, even where we were, twenty metres away, it was hard to move, or stay standing. When Meloetta appeared before him, though, he changed. The pressure dissipated, and he morphed into a much more human shape. Like an old man, sitting on a cloud, he patted her, as if making sure she was really there, and I swear to Arceus, he huffed and drifted into the little shrine there as if he didn’t care any more.”

  “That was it?” I’d asked. “He’s still there?”

  “He’s still there, but as long as he’s not doing anything what’s the harm. It was a little anticlimactic though.”

  “So what do you make of it?”

  “I’m pretty sure Ducky’s right. I don’t know if Meloetta sent out a distress call, or if they had some other way of knowing, but it’s certain now, she is the reason there here. Once they see she’s okay, they’ll calm down. But that means making sure she stays being okay.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Which means keeping her away from Killian.”

  “That’s the catch.”

  It was pretty enraging that it was all caused by one man’s obsession. It was hard to reconcile the image I had of Killian with the long-time champion of Silín. With all that, however, I wasn’t as forgiving as Elaine was towards these so-called legendaries. Even if there motives were good, and they were worried about Meloetta, it absolutely did not give them the right to tear through our world like that. It was a private thought I kept to myself, though. Even if I did find someone who agreed with me, from what Elaine said, there was nothing we could do to them anyway. Like a storm, we just had to bear them, and hope they wouldn’t get worse.

  Instead, the conversation had turned to if we thought they really were the same Pokémon from thousands of years ago, or if they were the descendents, or something. Elaine said they were the same ones, definitely. I thought the Forces of Nature might be, but Meloetta was probably a descendant. I didn’t know exactly why I thought that, I just felt there was a difference between her and the description of the legendaries. Meloetta herself, despite travelling with Elaine for some time, and having what I was sure was approaching a human level of intellect, stubbornly refused to clarify any personal details. In fact, in the times I was with her, she rarely showed any interest in communication. Only singing and dancing ever made her want to socialise.

  I turned off the news just as my phone rang. Unsurprisingly, it was Mum calling me, pleasantly surprising, it was Lily’s voice I heard when I answered.

  “Calla?” she asked.

  “Hi Lily, how are you?”

  “I saw your match. Junior and Flaaffy were really cool.”

  “Oh, and I wasn’t?”

  “No, mostly Junior was,” she answered seriously.

  “If you say so.”

  “I want to be a Pokémon trainer too,” she said. I winced a little.

  “Maybe wait a bit until you’re older.”

  “No, I’m going to be the youngest champion and beat your record.”

  I forced a laugh.

  “We’ll see about that. And I haven’t set any record yet.”

  “I will. Mummy wants to talk to you.”

  “Okay, put her on.”

  “Hi Sweetie, how are you doing?”

  “I’m good. I won the match.”

  I know, I saw. You’re growing to be a good trainer,” she said and a firework of pride fizzled through me.

  “Thanks. Actually there’s something about that.”

  “Yes?”

  “Well, I’m quitting the circuit after this tournament. For this year.”

  There was a bit of a pause on the other end of the line.

  “Are you sure? You seem to be doing well. But you know you can come home whenever you want. I know it can be a bit much out there.”

  “No, I’m not going home. I want to explore more of Silín, and grow stronger by travelling without having to worry about tournaments. I want to go to the west and see the Gastly Desert and Povar Valley, and I want to see Glacier Road to the south, and so many other places I’d never get to go if I stuck with the circuit. I think I’ll grow stronger that way too, instead of sticking to the major roads.”

  “Ah, that sounds more like you,” she said. “I was getting worried. If you think that’s best, go ahead. I can send you some money too, if you’re running low.”

  “No, no. The Professor is still sponsoring me. I’ve talked to him about it and as long as I complete a few tasks he says I don’t have to appear in public battles. He says he’s very happy with what I’ve been doing so far.”

  “That’s good, Calla. Make sure to thank him. And if you ever need anything from us, you can always ask.”

  “I know, Mum.”

  Dinner was just me, Darren, and Luca. We didn’t see much of Jade or Quentin, apart from when she’d come help me with training, and Elaine preferred not going out in case she was recognised. It left just the three of us, and after being so used to being in a big group, it felt a little bit lonely.

  Despite that, we were in high spirits. Both Darren and I had passed the second round and were celebrating. Luca hadn’t, but she took the loss with dignity. The fight had been a good one. Buzzkill had fought well, taking down one of the opponent’s Pokémon, and nearly beating the next. In the end, he couldn’t do it though, and Luca had decided not to debut Flower (her new Oddish) in a battle she was bound to lose.

  Darren was blasting through his opponents with only Auri. I swear she was getting stronger by the day and she didn’t even look tired after all her matches.

  “I hope I can make it to the quarter finals,” said Darren. “If I’m really lucky, I’ll get the water arena and Wish can show what he’s got.”

  The quarter finals were when battles were moved from the pitches to the main stages, and each arena had it’s own, unique terrain. The city tournaments, apart from Rondo, all had that gimmick.

  “That’ll be fun to watch,” I said. I suppressed the thought that I might be gone by then. It was good to see Darren was back to being more cheerful after his wins and I didn’t want to sour the mood.

  “Sure will. I’m looking forwards to it,” said Luca.