Bocchi the Pokemon Trainer!

[Belwin]

"Whismur use Icy Wind again," Hitori Gotoh muttered. She'd apologize for pushing Whismur later. Just for now she wanted, hoped, and prayed that she'd be able to avoid going to the battle café tomorrow. Who even was the one who came up with the insane idea for someone like her who can barely even talk to strangers, participate in a tournament? Hitori looked shivered as her bath continued to get colder, her Whismur lowering the temperature more and more. "Oh. Right, that was me," Hitori mentioned. Pushing herself deeper into the ice water bath "Whismur that's enough," She muttered.

Her Whismur, the only friend she could talk to let up its attack and gave her a worried look. 'Please don't give me that look Whismur, your useless, unpopular, trainer is having second thoughts' Hitori thought. "Whismur… Whismur…" She whispered while reaching and patting the bathtub. Hitori couldn't take it and suddenly stood up in the bathtub. "I'm sorry Whismur… We'll do it, I'm sorry for being a useless trainer!" She suddenly exclaimed.

The sudden noise startled the Whismur who then began to loudly cry out "Whis! Whismur! Mur mur!". Responding Hitori then apologized further which only made Whismur cry out more trying to apologize back, a feedback loop began that didn't stop for another ten minutes when Hitori's mom knocked on the bathroom door and snapped her and Whismur out of her funk.

After her bath and attempt to skip out on the tournament she herself signed up for, Hitori sat in her room with Whismur in her Pokeball and her guitar in hand. Even though Whismur loved her music, or at least Hitori hoped it was that way, the volume was too loud for her so she'd be kept in her Pokeball. She always made sure to play it back for Whismur later with the volume really quiet though! At one point she imagined herself joining a band and becoming a rockstar, one adored by everyone and where she could easily laugh off these isolated days. But when she imagined having to actually join a band, to talk to the bandmates it made her too anxious.

Eventually, it was a streamer that changed her mind, a totally popular streamer who covered Pokemon topics by the name of Gurumin. After Hitori worked up the courage she asked a question in the chat and even got an answer suggesting that she could be a rockstar Pokemon trainer! It was a great idea, she'd have her Pokemon to talk to and not at all have to worry about things like being extorted by bandmates for money or kicked out for being a gloomy loner! Then again it was that same thought that led her to sign up for a tournament she was in no way ready to face, they'd take one look at her and kick her out knowing she was a newbie or something!

Hitori finished playing and airing out her many worries and other feelings. Setting her guitar back down onto its stand she shuffled over to Whismur's pokeball and let her out. "Whismur, you want to listen?" She asked. Her partner fidgeted a bit but nodded repeatedly after a few moments. Hitori let out a small smile at the response and set out her laptop which she had been recording with. The volume was already exactly where Whismur liked it so immediately she pushed the play button and very quietly her playing began to play back.

Whismur let out a quiet giggle and seemed to bob up and down at the music. Hitori's smile grew just a touch wider as she dragged out a second laptop that was technically her father's but he let her use it for just these occasions. She plugged a bluish-purple set of headphones in with pink and black rings like the ears of a Loudred into the second laptop. A quick file transfer later and she began to silently work on editing the video she had taken. The rest of her evening passed in a familiar routine, going perhaps a bit later than she should have into the night but she was in a groove when it came to her work and around two in the morning, long after Whismur finished listening and went over to Hitori's bed and squeezed herself between two sets of pillows to sleep, Hitori finished and uploaded her cover online.

Not that she was popular or anything, with barely more than a thousand followers. Well, she had only been uploading her videos for a month or two by now. With a yawn, Hitori closed the laptop, crawled over to her bed, and let herself fall onto her bed, avoiding the pillows altogether and using a bundled-up portion of the blanket to rest her head on, and fell asleep not too long after.

Despite her best efforts, Hitori woke up feeling well-rested and perfectly fine. Even if she did sleep in by a few hours beyond what she may have intended. As she wiped the drool off her chin, she looked over to see Whismur still asleep wedged between the two pillows. "Whismur… time to wake up it's…" Hitori whispered, lightly nudging her Pokemon while she checked her phone. Ten in the morning, so she still had an hour to get to the battle café she was scheduled to participate in her first tournament. "Ahh! We'll be late Whismur!" Hitori suddenly exclaimed as the math of getting ready and traveling was run in her head. Her loud exclamation was enough to startle Whismur who responded with the sudden start to her day by crying, loud enough that Hitori was forced to cover her ears as she rushed over to the headphones that were still connected to her father's laptop.

While the noise-cancelling headphones were a boon, it still took her ten minutes to calm Whismur down. She made sure to apologize to her parents for having such a useless daughter who required them to pay to soundproof her room because she kept rudely startling Whismur. It took another fifteen minutes to get Whismur fed, brushed, and returned to her Pokeball. It was only then that Hitori could change into the pink tracksuit that she felt the most comfortable in, her blue and pink hair ornament put into her hair. Then in a hurry, she stuffed her guitar into its case, put her headphones around her neck, and fixed the Pokeball holder with its single Pokeball to her case before slinging it over her shoulder.

"I'm off…" Hitori muttered before she left her home. Despite how much time she had already spent getting ready, she wasn't exactly in a rush. Maybe if she dragged her feet enough, she'd be disqualified by default. Then she'd just have to use a new name if she ever got so stupid as to sign up for another one. Her destination was one of the commercial streets of Hammerlocke that didn't see much traffic from anyone except locals considering it was surrounded on all ends by residential area.

Even if Hitori arrived with still fifteen minutes to spare, as she looked over the café even if it looked like many others it still felt overwhelming for her. Maybe it was just the sheer size of a café, as inside was enough space to have a half-sized Pokemon battlefield set-up, but Hitori stood in front of the door. If she opened up, would she just be shooed away? How do sociable people enter such places? Five minutes passed, and Hitori was still standing at the door, her hand at her side as she half reached her hand out towards the handle before letting her hand drop. She repeated this motion several times, and each time her courage failed her at the last minute. It was only when another trainer, and it was a trainer if the belt with two Pokeballs was any indication entered. Seeing another person walk in destroyed the seemingly impossible wall as she caught the door handle as it was swinging back close and slinked into the café. She had done it! She went into a café all by herself!

-----

The inside of the Café was one of those that felt too bright and sophisticated for someone like her, a few people were sitting around, a few pausing their drinks or snacks or other certainly important business to glance at who just entered. It was almost enough to make Hitori run right out. But despite herself, she only blanched at the brief attention. Quietly she approached a counter, the woman who was sitting there looking over at her.

"U-u-um, I… For the… um," Hitori started, mumbling quietly that even the quiet ambiance of the café was drowning her out.

"Sorry I didn't catch that, could you repeat that?" The woman asked patiently.

"T-Tournament… I, I am here for it…" Hitori got out. Surprising herself with how composed she was managing to be.

"Understood, may I see your trainer ID?" The woman replied.

Wordlessly Hitori pulled her card out, already she could feel herself start to sweat as the clerk took the card and checked the number through a computer. Would they find something wrong? Would she get kicked out for lying despite her being sure it was her actual ID? Maybe they just thought she was- Hitori was snapped out of it by her card being handed back to her.

"Thank you Hitori Gotoh. You are participant number five, so you'll be starting in the third battle of the first round. We'll call you up before your match begins. Until then please accept a complimentary drink and take a seat and enjoy the first matches," The clerk so politely explained. Hitori struggled for a bit but simply nodded back for a bit too long before rushing off without her free drink to find a nice gloomy corner to sit in.

As the hour of the tournament arrived, Hitori noticed that there were a few others who were carrying Pokeballs on their person. The tournament was small there were only sixteen participants. However, that may be in part because of the requirements that everyone must be in their first year as trainers, and no one who has already earned a recommendation to the gym challenge was allowed to compete. After all the prize for this tournament was for an invite to this year's gym challenge. She may have no confidence in herself, but it was thanks to Allister, an official gym leader whom she felt something of a kindred connection with giving an interview that she gained her confidence to even try.

During the first two battles of the tournament, Hitori watched as their Pokemon clashed. The rules were that everyone was only allowed to use a single Pokemon and so far she had seen a Rockruff, a Rookidee, a Yamper, and one she hadn't seen before, it was like a Tentacool with boxing gloves. Of them, the Rockruff won over the Rookidee, and as for the current round.

"Clobbopus Rock Smash!" the Pokemon's trainer shouted, dressed in a fighting gi of his own. The Pokemon pounded its fist against the ground before waddling towards the Yamper. Despite the faster electric type, the moment it got in close, the Clobbopus's fight glowed a vaguely orange-brown light and smashed its fist down against the Yamper cracking the ground under it, just a bit. With a single hit, the Yamper let out a bark and fell over knocked out.

For a moment Hitori thought she may have a chance but against a fighting type? She must pray for the Rockruff to win their next match!

-----

"We'll now begin our third round of the day. In the red corner, Hitori Gotoh and in the blue corner Mike Taro," The judge spoke as he waved to the two sides of the arena. While it was technically a proper tournament. For such a low-level tournament in a relatively unknown battle café, there were only at most ten or fifteen people watching. Of which six of which were the other competitors, the rest were either more interested in their drinks or meals or were out supporting a friend competing.

Either way, Hitori was shaking and trying to not be seen. Even the overly energetic look of her opponent was too much for her. Why couldn't she give orders from a private booth? Or maybe just a box? "G…Go…," She whispered as she lobbed her Pokeball out, landing only two feet away from her. The ball bounced and opened to reveal her trusted partner Whismur, that she won many gym battles and even became a famous champion, at least they did so in her head. Whismur was shaking almost as much as her trainer.

Her opponent's energy was too much for Bocchi as he energetically tossed out his pokeball shouting out "Let's go, partner!". Unlike Hitori, the ball flew nicely into the arena and opened before hitting the ground and revealing a Gossifleur. Hitori peaked up and for a moment she felt something approaching confidence. A grass type, she could win this, and take her first step into being a popular Pokemon trainer.

"Gossifleur vs Whismur one on-one, let the battle begin!" The judge announced and shook his flags to signal the start of the battle. "Open it up with Leafage!" Mike announced with a point towards his opponent. Hitori recoiled and shifted to the side to avoid being pointed at. As though that was the issue with everything.

"I-I-I… Ic… Whismur, Ic," Hitori whispered. Though while she struggled to get her command out the grass-type Pokemon gathered the leafage together in a ball of energetically charged leaves before releasing it towards Whismur. Whismur for her part looked back at her trainer waiting for the command "A-ah… Dodge…" Hitori changed her mind and whispered out a dodge. Thankfully for her Whismur had superb hearing and made a dive to the side to avoid the leafage before it could hit her.

"Now Gossifleur use rapid spin while Whismur is down!" Mike shouted. The Gossifleur responded right away, starting to spin itself faster and faster until the wind was starting to kick up around the Pokemon before it launched itself using the momentum gathered.

"W-Whismur Smokescreen…" Hitori whispered out. There was a moment where Whismur seemed to snap to attention now that she had a proper order. Opening her mouth wide, Whismur bellowed out a dark cloud of smoke that quickly covered her side of the arena. It wasn't the best decision as Gossifleur's rapid spin was already pushing the smoke clear.

Hitori paused as the smoke spread out and covered herself. Suddenly unable to feel the casual gaze of the few people watching her battle, it was much closer an environment to what she practiced with Whismur. "Whismur, Icy wind blow the smokescreen out more," Hitori called out with something that resembled proper volume. Her Whismur cried out before with a whistling sound began to bellow out a freezing wind, it may have been pushing the smokescreen out but as the Gossifleur was hit, its rapid spin quickly came to an end as it recoiled and tried to defend itself from the attack.

"Gossifleur no! Use Sing. Wait no Whismur won't hear it, Leafage stop that wind!" Mike called out with a dramatic wave of his hand. Not that Hitori saw any of it. Gossifleur obeyed and began to discharge leaves that glowed with energy, condensing in front of it soon ready to be fired off.

"Smokescreen again, and move around," Hitori commanded, able to order around a bit more properly. Whismur stopped its icy wind and once again began to bellow out smoke to keep visibility low. Hitori heard its footsteps and a faint green outline pushed through the smoke. "Okay, now Icy wind again, you know where to aim," Hitori added.

Whismur's super sensitive hearing worked to their advantage, they were used to next to no lighting. This meant Whismur was free to let off the Icy wind repeatedly, keeping the smokescreen up. Mike's Gossifleur was unable to defend as it was pelted down. Until the judge spoke out over the two trainers. "Gossifleur is unable to battle, Hitori and Whismur is the victor!".

Hitori blinked. Her strategy worked? Did she win? In a real Pokemon battle? She wanted to cheer in joy, but as the smokescreen cleared and she could once again feel the eyes of the audience on her she clammed up. She wanted to feel good about her victory, but she had to hide herself to even give the simplest orders to her partner!

Wordlessly Hitori returned Whismur to her Pokeball and turned to leave the arena in a hurry to return to her nice corner seat until her next match. Only to have her opponent approach her "Good job there Hitori! I wasn't expecting an Ice-type move!".

Hitori's heart felt like it was going to rip out of her chest, "A-Ah I-I Yes," She stammered out before making an ungraceful retreat from the social situation. Only a few more rounds. Three more and she could take her first step into being a popular Pokemon trainer, then it wouldn't matter how bad she was at socializing today. She could go on interviews and talk about how she used to be the gloomy kid. As she escaped the social situation, Hitori was unaware of the eyes of a red-haired girl who had looked up from snapping pictures of her food and drink. Who watched as she made her escape, some amount of recognition in her eyes.

 

[Belwin]

If there was something Hitori appreciated about when her battle had happened, it was that it was in the perfect spot of not right away, but still early enough that she could calm down while watching the remaining battles for the round. It also gave her time to attempt to claim her free drink.

The first step was quieting the voice in her head telling her that she was too late. By asking now they'd kick her out and disqualify her for not being sociable enough to accept a free drink when it's offered. The second step was peeking over towards the counter, quickly snapping back to focusing on the table in front of her as people were already lined up getting their orders. People who doubtlessly were more deserving of it than she was.

Hitori waited a few minutes before looking back at the counter, no one was there. Better yet everyone was watching the current battle and not approaching it. Hitori got out of her seat and walked over, as she reached halfway she suddenly diverted and moved over towards the wall next to the counter. What was she going to say? 'Give me my free drink now?' How rude could she get?

'May you please bestow onto this unworthy Wimpod a drink following the free service you said for trainers participating?' Too long! 'Can I still get that free drink?' Better, let's go with that Hitori thought to herself. Her eyes glanced back at the counter, it was still free, and the clerk wasn't even looking at her and noticing how weird she was being leaning near it like she was.

However as Hitori began to stand back up to finish her approach, mentally repeating her words over in her head another person had come up to order something. Hitori leaned right back against the wall not wanting to deal with the possibility of talking about who got there first. Instead, Hitori turned her attention back towards the arena to watch the current match.

A Dottler was sitting in the middle with a shell of bluish squares made from some kind of energy around it, all the while its opponent, a Skwovet was being hit by some kind of force. She was running out of time, it didn't look like the normal type was going to last much longer. Hitori glanced again at the counter and the person had gone, now was her chance!

Hitori did her best to walk up to the counter without looking like she was in too much of a hurry or doing anything weird. The Clerk smiled at her and Hitori opened her mouth to say her line but nothing came out. A few more attempts and all she could manage were some strained noises.

"Are you okay miss?" The clerk asked her with a most forgiving and kind expression on her face.

Taking a deep breath, all the while the announcer and judge were announcing the winner, Hitori gave her order. "Can I still get that free Wimpod?" She said in a quiet voice.

"I- I I Mean Drink! Can I get that free drink now? I'm sor-" Hitori stammered and began to babble out quickly after realizing her mistake.

Hirori was somewhat cut off by the clerk who again was being far too kind to a sub-Wimpod like herself. "Of course, What drink would you like?" The Clerk Asked.

The battle was over and Hitori could hear some people starting to get out of their seats, either for the next battle or to get another drink in the time between matches. Flavor, she needed to pick one. "M-Melon soda?" She asked, still so quietly of course.

"Coming right up," The clerk said and tapped something on the register before stepping away from the counter into the back where the kitchen presumably was.

Hitori fidgeted as she stood there, unsure if she should get out of the way or wait for her drink. At least she had done it. A minute later the clerk had returned holding a glass showing off the green soda topped with a generous amount of whipped cream. It even had little sprinkles and a disk ornament on it. "Here you go. Even the free drinks come with a chance to win the prize. Here's hoping you're lucky," The clerk said as she set the drink down.

"Prize?" Hitori asked, her mind already starting to spiral in one way or another but before she could get too far the clerk smiled and tapped on a poster that was on the counter. Hitori looked down and saw that they were running a promotional event, each of their specialty drinks came with a chance to win a prize. From free drinks or meals to trainer items, the top prize however was a Milcery. "Oh, thank you," Hitori whispered out before finally making her hurried escape back to her seat.

Back in the safety of her seat, Hitori took a sip of the drink and her eyes widened. It was good! She wasn't putting any thought into the drink itself, rather having gotten stuck on the idea of doing what she thought she should have. With a smile, she took another sip, then used the straw to scoop a bit of the whipped cream into her mouth.

"Whismur, come out," Hitori quietly said as she released her partner onto the table itself. Whismur looked around for a bit before letting out a whisper of a cry. "Want a sip of this soda? It's really good," She asked.

Whismur tilted her head as she looked between the green drink and Hitori before nervously taking a step toward the glass. Hitori bent the straw to be level for Whismur and it took a big sip all at once. Hitori panicked for just a moment as what if Whismur didn't like it or maybe it fell over, what if she drowned? But those worries were all pushed away in a moment when Whismur made a joyful cry that was even a touch louder than a whisper.

Remembering the disk on top, Hitori pulled it off while Whismur took a few more sips. The front side of it was of a Milcery, swallowing some spit that had built up she flipped it over. 'Better luck next time' Was written on the back with a smaller, apologetic-looking Milcery on it. Hitori let out a relieved sigh. She didn't know how she'd be able to handle it if she actually won something, she'd have to go up again and probably make a scene, embarrassing herself as she tried to redeem it.

"Whismur you drank that much already?" Hitori asked in a mixture of worry and panic as she turned her attention away from the disk. Half of it was already gone and there was even a large bite taken out of the whipped cream. Whismur let the straw out of her mouth at Hitori's words, frozen in some kind of emotion. Glancing between Hitori and the drink the Whismur whimpered and cried as it was clearly starting to panic and worry in a way that resembled her trainer.

"No no it's fine please don't cry! It's your reward for working so hard!" Hitori hurriedly told her partner, hoping to calm her down before she started crying. She'd definitely get disqualified and probably charged for the drink if that happened. Unfortunately, it seemed that Hitori's own panic would feed into Whismur's. Hitori could see how Whismur's eyes and mouth quivered. "Sorry in advance Whismur!" Hitori half whispered as she returned her partner to her Pokeball.

Letting out the breath she was holding in, Hitori took a sip of what was left of her soda. Win or lose, she'll buy Whismur a poffin, a sandwich, or something as both an apology and thanks for putting up with a trainer like herself.

Distracting herself from that, Hitori watched the remaining battles and finished her soda. Unfortunately, as the second round began, the Clobbopus won over the Rockruff meaning she'd be sending Whismur out against a fighting type if she somehow managed to win her battle. It also meant her battle was now minutes away. Hitori quickly finished what was left of the melon soda.

-----

Hitori quietly approached the arena for her second round. Her hopes of Rockruff winning over the Clobbopus dashed, she wasn't exactly feeling confident. Not that she ever really felt that confident. Regardless she did her best to lob her Pokeball into the arena letting her Whismur out, who announced its appearance with a quiet whimper.

On the opposing side was someone who was dressed in a rather rock outfit if Hitori was being honest. Ripped jeans, black and pink t-shirt with a sleeveless leather vest. Most notable was a pile of keychains of a guitarist that of course Hitori recognized. Both a gym leader and guitarist, from Spikemuth, Marnie. "Come on out Nickit!" The man said as he tossed it ball out confidently, releasing his Pokemon.

"We will begin the second match of our second round, Whismur vs Nickit. Begin!" The judge announced loudly.

"Best use Beat up before that Whismur can start to bellow out that smokescreen!" Hitori's opponent yelled out.

"W-whismur, smokescreen," Hitori did her best to speak up but it only barely came out instead.

At least her partner could still hear her and that was the most important thing. With a short cry to psych herself up, Whismur began to bellow out the thick smoke once again. Though it needed time to spread out enough, all the while Hitori was ducking low to hopefully cover herself sooner so she could at least let her voice out. She certainly didn't feel good about it, but it worked last time and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to do anything without it.

While Whismur let out the smokescreen, Nickit approached and began to ram against Whismur. Paws slamming down, tail slapping across Whismur, and even a headbutt, whatever the small Pokemon could do to hit the Whismur. Whismur cried out from the repeated attack and seemed to be getting agitated more and more with each hit. Hitori felt bad for her partner getting hit just because she couldn't raise her voice like she should. But at least she knew how to take advantage of her weakness.

Whismur took a few more hits from beat up until it seemed rattled enough that Hitori, now safely hidden within the smokescreen could speak up at least enough to sound to others like a regular indoor speaking voice. "Whismur, now run away and start letting out Echoed voice," Hitori commanded.

"Don't let 'em get away, quick attack Nickit!" Hitori's opponent cut in with his own command. Nickit had backed off while his trainer was giving him his command. With a cry of his own, the Nickit rushed forward leaving behind a line of white light from the attack.

But to the surprise of Nickit, his Trainer, and even the audience Whismur blurred out of the way. Visible because the speed of was enough to push the smokescreen around. Then came the volume, Whismur began to cry, loudly. Immediately Nickit's trainer put a hand to his ears, shouting out. "Quick Attack again! Quiet that crybaby up!".

Though as Nickit chased after Whismur, it moved just as fast even without using an attack like quick attack. All the while its crying only got louder and louder, until everyone had to hold their ears to try and deafen it even a little bit.

Hitori meanwhile under the cover of the smokescreen which by now only really covered her rather than the battlefield had taken her headphones and put them on to protect against the sound. She mumbled apologies to all the good patrons who came to watch and enjoy some nice food and drink, and she was ruining it with her cowardly strategy. But the volume was Whismur's strongest point.

Luckily for everyone's eardrums, Nickit was the target of the brunt of most of it, and so soon fell over and fainted. "Whismur you can stop now," Hitori said, which despite the sheer volume going on, her Whismur heard her and nearly immediately stopped her crying and looked towards Hitori with a smile on her face.

Hitori returned the smile with a faint one of her own. If nothing else she was proud of Whismur who was being braver than she was. With that Hitori took her headphones off, setting them back down over her neck. Once the noise was gone, it only took a second for the judge to recover and call the match, "Nickit is unable to battle! The second-round winner is Whismur!".

Despite how much trouble Hitori had made for everyone, she flinched both at the announcement, almost expecting her racket to have disqualified her, and at the fact that there was some clapping going on. Which Hitori could scarcely believe, no way they could be clapping for her right?

"Oi Girlie, How's your Whismur so fast?" Her opponent asked, having returned his Nickit, and walked over while she was in her head.

"I-I-I Um. I, W- Whismur," Hitori started stammering and stuttering. "Whismur's ability… isn't soundproof. It's um, rattled," She eventually said barely above a whisper.

"That so? Ha! I must have been playing into your hands the whole time! Well, done girlie!" He yelled out far too loudly for Hitori's liking. She didn't know how to react or answer back and so she just retreated, fleeing to her seat where she could await her next round.

As she fled, she heard the man whistle out loudly "Let's give it up for the gi- Hitori! Yeah!" He yelled. Making matters more awkward for her was some people did give at least something of a cheer for her. As she sat back down, she buried her head to hide herself away from the attention. Though she couldn't say it wasn't totally bad. It was part of what she wanted, wasn't it?

-----

While Hitori kept her head down hoping to let the rather riled-up audience die down and hope she could blend into the background, suddenly there was something said. Then things exploded in noise, people cheered, and a jingle even started playing. Hitori spent a few seconds pushing herself deeper mortified that it could somehow possibly be something more done for her.

After a few more seconds she peeked up from her table to see everyone was looking at a red-headed girl who was a classmate of hers from school! Hitori buried her head once again, she never talked with anyone back at school, not for a lack of trying. But the idea of being recognized and suddenly approached would be too much for her right now.

Another few seconds of noise passed by and Hitori braved another peek at what was going on, the cheers were dying down a bit and her classmate, Kita she believed was at the counter with a wide energetic smile that was far too much for her to look directly at. But she got around that by looking slightly to the side.

Kita was energetically taking pictures of a Milcery that was looking up at her. It took Hitori longer than she would admit to put the noise, her classmate, and the Milcery together. The noise died down as people had their attention once again taken by another battle ongoing. If nothing else it meant that no more attention was on her. Something Hitori kind of felt, a smidge sad about. She lifted her head up now feeling comfortable enough to sit normally, looking out over the café. Her eyes for a moment locked onto her classmate.

Hitori felt a sense of dread and panic, which wasn't actually all that new now that she thought about it. They saw each other, well no one talked to her at school so maybe- No she's approaching! She's looking right at me while walking towards me! Already Hitori was glancing around looking for somewhere to hide and avoid the upcoming social interaction.

 

[Belwin]

Hitori wanted to hide, but it was too late. Her classmate had gotten close enough and more than that was already waving at her. She didn't know how to respond so suddenly to talk with someone who recognized her. At least Whismur was still in her Pokeball, otherwise she was sure that Whismur would start crying out of anxiety. Hitori knew because she felt like crying as well.

Regardless of Hitori's quiet wish to have an extra ten minutes to an hour to mentally prepare, Kita was soon right at her table. "You're… Hitori Gotoh right? From Appletun middle school right?" she asked.

A way out, Hitori could just pretend to be someone else, not recognize her or anything it'd be easy and awkward if she was called out on it. "Y-yes…" Hitori quietly whispered.

"I knew it, your battling is so cool, I didn't think anyone else in the class was aiming to be a trainer much less one going for the Pokemon gym challenge!" Kita replied excitedly. 'Else' those words stood out to Hitori who sat there quietly. Did that mean Kita was also looking to become a trainer? Ah, she needed to reply.

Hitori coughed as she tried a bit too fast to say something. "Ah, are you okay? Did something go down wrong?" Kita asked flipping on a dime and looking worried.

"Ah- O- Y-… E-Else?" Hitori coughed out after a couple of seconds of attempts. Her eyes glanced toward a large board located near the counter that had the tournament bracket listed on it. For a moment she inwardly smiled seeing her name had already risen so far, but she focused on looking to see if Kita was on the board.

"Yep! I thought I was the only one. I won my recommendation a few weeks ago because of a contest Raihan hosted, isn't that cool? Apparently, the pics I took for Porygram were enough to get his interest, so I won a recommendation from a gym leader himself! Even if he sent out like thirty of them," Kita explained energetically.

It was a lot for Hitori to take in, someone from her school had gotten a recommendation from someone as high up as a gym leader? One as popular as Raihan? Wait from pics? She could never do something like that. It also meant that Kita was already more of a trainer than she was, it probably meant that she had more than one Pokemon as well.

"A, I- um, yes?" Hitori eventually replied going for what she thought would get her out of the situation by just agreeing.

"See? But I think it's so much cooler how you're earning your recommendation through battle! You're Whismur is so cute and powerful as well! I bet you'll go far. What if we end up rivals? You know another Hop and Gloria?" Kita continued regardless. But well Hitori didn't really mind Kita's talking if she could just get by without embarrassing herself too much.

"As if, just kidding, I doubt I'm good enough to get even a little far. I mean I only started training with my Pokemon after getting the recommendation," Kita admitted.

"U- I, um, I think… you'd do… just fine," Hitori whispered after an awkward pause started between them.

"Really? Thanks for the vote of confidence, I'll just have to work harder to meet your expectations!" Kita so cheerfully replied, shining like a sun.

Hitori covered her eyes as though she were looking at the sun, it was just too blinding for someone like herself to bear so suddenly. Did Kita know Sunny Day perhaps? Someone so extroverted like her probably had Pokemon walking up begging to join her like some kind of princess from the movies she watched as a kid.

"Ah, sorry did I get a bit too close to you?" Kita asked. It took Hitori a moment, ah. She had actually raised her hands and covered herself up she wasn't just imagining it.

"N-No, I-I'm fine," Hitori replied.

"We will now shortly begin our semi-finals, if our next-round opponents can come up," The announcer said. Providing Hitori with the best excuse to get out of there before she said something else stupid.

"I'll be cheering for you! You can do it Hitori! I believe in you!" Kita said so energetically Hitori could swear she was taking damage from the energy.

-----

Hitori felt a bit nauseous as she stepped up to her side of the arena while the announcer started their introduction to her round. She had gotten so distracted by Kita that she couldn't think of how she would beat the fighting type. Well, she seemed to be doing well enough with smokescreen. She'll use that again.

"W-whismur…" Hitori whispered out before lobbing her Pokeball, releasing her partner who didn't let out a cry. Hitori could tell that Whismur was just as nervous as she was. Or maybe she was just picking up on how nervous her trainer was being and following suit?

"Come on out Clobbopus!" Hitori's opponent called out and hurled the Pokeball far, it didn't touch the ground before the ball opened and let out the Clobbopus who punched its two large tentacles together and let out a cry. Hitori noticed that while she let out Whismur basically right next to her, Clobbopus was let out as close as his trainer could get to the line separating their sides of the arena.

"We will now begin our first semi-final battle! Whismur vs Clobbopus, Begin!" The announcer said before bringing their hand down like a flag.

"Leer right off the bat!" Hitori's opponent shouted out to the point that both Hitori and Whismur flinched over the noise. Clobbopus obeyed and his eyes became so much more menacing and threatening looking. Not only that but without a command, Clobbopus was already moving forward.

"S-Smokescreen h-hurry," Hitori whispered her command out. Whismur, still startled by the shout from earlier was slow to start bellowing out the smoke.

"Bind now! Don't let it hide in the smoke!" Clobbopus's trainer barked. The Pokemon leapt up as its tentacles, normally rather small extended out like a net. Whismur panicked and let out a cry, stopping the half-formed smokescreen and on her own, dove out of the way to avoid the Clobbopus.

"N-n… Whismur, i-i-. Smokescreen please," Hitori called out stumbling over her words as she already was kicking herself for forgetting to tell her partner to run while letting the smokescreen out. Whismur quickly picked itself up and began to blow out the smoke once again but soon found a tentacle lunging forward and wrapping around her.

"Good, now deliver the rock smash!" Clobbopus's trainer shouted, slamming his fist into his palm as though the Pokemon needed the visual aid to understand how to use the move.

"W-whismur, S-smoke-" Hitori started once again, letting herself get distracted with the need to hide before she thought to do anything else. Whismur certainly tried to keep letting the smoke out even as another tentacle wrapped around the normal type trying to push her mouth closed.

Then Clobbopus's larger fist-like tentacle, glowing the faint orange-brown light slammed into Whismur causing her to let out a pained cry. Hitori gasped as the ground cracked slightly below the two entangled Pokemon.

"Good, once more! Don't let up!" Hitori's opponent commanded. Hitori could feel herself sweating and panic starting to rise.

"A-A-A-A-Astonish," Hitori called out in a strained cracking tone. Whismur stopped its attempt to let out smoke and for a moment looked over at her trainer. It went quiet for a moment as Clobbopus's tentacle was once again starting to glow with the telltale energy of its move. Suddenly, Whismur unfurled her ears and in a surprising display of strength from it slammed then, on either side of Clobobpus's head while letting out a cry that was half teary and half roar.

The sudden action was enough to make Clobobpus recoil back, flinching and loosening his grip on the normal type. Something Whismur was able to take advantage of and pull herself free regardless of being ordered to or not. Then she ran, crying out all the while.

Hitori saw the rough-looking patch on her partner's head where she had taken the hit. "W-Whis-" She started but before she could say anymore her voice was overpowered by her opponent.

"Leer once again, don't let them recover!" He ordered and while Clobbopus did start to glare at Whismur once again. Whismur, understanding what her trainer wanted, responded with a smokescreen once again.

This time without the initial startling yell of the trainer, Whismur was able to get enough of a cover that neither she nor her trainer would have to see the intimidating stare of the fighting type. But more importantly, she was finally able to generate enough smoke that it was starting to cover Hitori up.

"I-icy wind, d-don't move," Hitori gave her order, even if she had to kneel to get low enough to cover herself. As embarrassing as it was, she just couldn't give commands with everyone looking at her. Whismur let out a cry that seemed a bit more confident. For a moment Hitori wondered if it was her being able to act more confident in the smoke as well, or if Whismur was able to act more confident because she was?

"Rock smash!" Hitori's opponent called out. As Clobbopus's tentacle glowed with energy he jumped forward towards where Whismur was standing before being covered by the smokescreen. A moment later the icy wind blew the smokescreen away from Whismur and onto the now air-borne fighting type.

For a moment the Clobbopus's trainer thought he had it in the bag. After all he knew Clobbopus was used to cold waters and weather so the icy wind wouldn't slow it down as much as he expected his opponent was hoping.

"Jump in and use Pound, then Astonish," Hitori did her best to properly announce her attack but even covered by her smokescreen it was hard for her to raise her voice like that. Whismur, having extended the smokescreen leapt forward and collided with Clobbopus in the air with her tackle.

With much of the field now covered by the smokescreen it was hard to tell what was going on but a moment later Whismur was shot out of the smokescreen nearly reaching the other end of the arena. Another large bruise on her body, clearly losing the exchange and getting hit with another rock smash.

"Echoed Voice, don't let up," Hitori called out. Whismur was visibly struggling to get to her feet but once it was it began to cry once more, loudly her voice reverberated around the café. At least the patrons were prepared for it and they covered their ears in time before the sound hit them.

"Clobbopus, hurry! Get over there and use rock smash, one more time and we'll win!" Hitori's opponent called out, though panic was starting to show in his voice. There was a delay in response from his Pokemon. "Clobbopus, Hurry!" He called out once again.

Hidden under the smokescreen his trainer hadn't realized that Clobbopus hadn't gotten out of the exchange scot-free either, having once again been temporarily disorientated by Whismur's attack. Not only that but as he began to march over towards the Whismur, emerging from the smokescreen, it dawned on his trainer. The icy wind may not have slowed Clobbopus down that much, but it still was having some effect on him.

Every second it took Clobbopus to reach Whismur was another second that her cries reached the fighting type and rattled it from the force of the sound waves. Every second it took was another for echoed voice's effect to get stronger the more time it had to build up. The gi-wearing trainer looked over at where Hitori was crouching and hiding in the smokescreen as realization hit him.

It was planned. That's why she had Whismur jump to meet Clobbopus's attack. She wanted Whismur to get knocked back, astonish and Icywind was meant to delay Clobbopus's approach, all for this chance to use Echoed voice.

"Clobbopus-!" He shouted hoping to give some kind of order to his own partner, but it was too late, he watched as Clobbopus fell over, and fainted.

"W-whismur y-you can stop now," Hitori whispered before standing up. Whismur took a moment to stop her cries but when she finally did, she gave out a final whimpered cry before falling back onto her rear, panting. Hitori could see the tears welling up in her partner.

"Clobbopus is unable to battle, the victor is Whismur!" The announcer declared loudly.

At the end of the battle, Hitori heard the audience cheer for the battle that had taken place. She even heard Kita cheering for her, but her thoughts, positive or negative were placed secondary to her partner. Nearly tripping over herself she stumbled over towards Whismur and picked her up. "A-Are you okay Whismur?" She asked in a panic.

Whismur looked at her panic and began to cry, cutting off the cheers as they rushed to cover their ears. In turn, Hitori panicked more, clutching Whismur tight to avoid dropping her. Compared to how usually this would have made Whismur only cry more as has happened so many times back at home. Whismur quieted down from the embrace, even if she was still whimpering. "A-Ah, P-potion, I'll get you a potion Whismur," Hitori said in a panic.

-----

"W-Whismur it'll sting a little bit, p-please don't cry, okay? I-I'll get you another soda if you don't," Hitori bargained with her partner as she shakily held a potion in her hand. Right now she was in the employee's change room since they didn't have a more official place to tend to any injured Pokemon. Though they were nice enough to provide free potions and other necessary supplies so she wouldn't have to run looking for a Pokemon center.

Whismur whimpered some more but seemed to be putting on a brave face. "O-Okay, here we go…" Hitori said as she spritzed Whismur on the bruised top of her head. Whismur's whimpering got louder for a few moments but soon quieted down. Hitori was rather amazed at the potion's effectiveness, already the bruise was looking better. According to the instructional bit on it, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes for the entire effect of the potion to apply.

"L-let's see, apply no more than two sprays to each visibly injured part of the Pokemon, i-if injuries persist, wait thirty minutes before applying another dose. I-if two doses aren't enough, look to bring the Pokemon to a Pokemon center, or use a stronger dose," Hitori read the instructions and carefully stared at Whismur as she counted the minutes away.

Maybe she was staring a bit much as she zoned out, worrying about this that or another thing, only snapping out as Whismur let out a happy cry. Hitori blinked and looked at Whismur once again, other than looking a little red around her eyes, she looked just fine. Hitori let out a sigh of relief, "You were brave Whismur," Hitori complimented.

Whismur let out another cry that seemed a bit more pleased with herself. Then she let out another cry, and another. Her small hands pointing to something. Hitori turned around seeing a box of empty glasses. "Oh right, I'll get you another drink I promise, but it may not be until after our last round," Hitori explained.

Whismur's attitude took a complete turn around and she slinked away finding a dark corner to shove herself into. "Ah, no Whismur, it's not your fault! I just don't know how long we have until our next round!" Hitori started to beg while trying to pull Whismur away from the dark, inviting, cardboard box she was climbing into.

-----

In the end, it took five minutes to convince Whismur that she hadn't made any mistakes. At least Whismur seemed somewhat pumped to hurry up so she could get another drink. Now returned safely into her Pokeball, Hitori walked out of the employee's changing room to see that the other semi-final round was similarly over.

"Wooloo is unable to battle, the victor is Dottler!" The announcer exclaimed.

Hitori looked over at the arena to see the bug type right before it was returned to its Pokeball. Her Trainer was younger than herself, with long unkempt green hair. While she was wearing a school uniform, on top of it she was wearing a lab coat that was clearly too large for her.

She seemed to be proud of herself. As Hitori had that thought it seemed to draw the girl's attention as she looked up at that moment looking directly at Hitori. Not only that but she immediately began to march over.

'Not again!' Hitori thought, she was still recovering from being talked to by Kita and she was helping her Whismur heal. Could she maybe reschedule? Hitori quickly looked away, eyes finding any good place to hide for as little good as it would do.

"You're the other finalist, right? Well, I'm going to tell you know that I'm going to win, and you won't even get to lay a hit on my Dottler!" The girl confidently declared, arm extended, pointing at Hitori. At least she assumed so, the sleeve of the lab coat was still covering her hand up.

Hitori froze up at those words. She looked around hoping to find someone who'd miraculously save her from this. "A-a, um…" Hitori started but didn't go anywhere.

"Hmm, so focused on your upcoming battle? I see, this is the thing where we don't even need to exchange words, our Pokemon will do all the talking for us! Maybe you're not a total newbie, you'll make a good starting step to my championship victory!" The girl continued before walking off past Hitori and into the employee-only changing room.

Hitori quickly escaped from the situation before she was forced to deal with more social activity. However, she did wonder why the girl was going into the employee-only area. Maybe her Dottler had taken some damage, and she didn't see it?

There were a few minutes she had until the finals, so at least she could take some time to breathe and focus. "Hitori! You did so well in that battle!" Kita announced from halfway across the café. Hitori dived under her table to hide.

 

[Belwin]

Hitori took a deep breath, one more, just one more battle and she would be able to participate in the Pokemon League. She, just needed, to go out there once more onto the arena. Before her nerves could totally betray her, Hitori walked onto her side of the battlefield, doing her best to not make eye contact with anyone in the audience, or the judge, or the girl who would be her opponent who seemed to be kind of red in the face.

"Welcome everyone to the final round of our tournament. One of these talented trainers will win our recommendation to the Pokemon Gym Challenge! On our left, with her loud partner, It's Hitori Gotoh!" The judge started. Hitori froze up and shut her eyes as she heard people, the audience clapping for her. Some were even cheering, she could hear Kita, and the trainer with the Nickit who was yelling something she didn't understand.

She felt like apologizing, she was going to mess things up somehow. Maybe she'll end up losing so quickly that everyone will demand refunds and she'll banned forever from Pokemon battling for being such an embarrassment to Pokemon trainers everywhere. Hitori's body was shaking but she still forced herself to take the Pokeball and hold it at the ready.

"On our right, With her ever-stalwart partner, Natasha Bathory!" The judge continued. The girl, Natasha had a confident grin on her face as she posed with her hands on her hips. There was another round of applause for her, something she seemed to bask in at least from what Hitori could tell after she forced herself to crack an eye open to look at her.

"Trainers, release your Pokemon," The judge said.

Natasha was first to comply, "Let's go Dottler!" She announced before nearly dunking the Pokeball onto the ground of the arena. The ball opened and released the bug type who didn't let out any sort of cry. Instead sitting where it was released, eyes looking around. Hitori did notice that it must have been an intentional move to release Dottler as close to the edge of the arena as possible.

Right, it was her turn, she lobbed her Pokeball as she had been, her Whismur coming out with a cry before quieting up to focus. "Aa-h, W-Whismur c-come o-o-out," She muttered out after releasing her Pokemon. Ah, she was supposed to do that in the other order, will she get disqualified for that?

Thankfully she didn't and even more thankfully, no one commented on her obvious mistake as instead, the judge gave Pokemon a look to confirm their readiness. "Whismur vs Dottler, let the battle begin!" The judge waved their hand down to herald the start of the battle.

"Light Screen, Whismur will attack from a distance," Natasha immediately declared. Right on her command, Dottler sprung into action. Well sprung would be the wrong word to describe it as he didn't budge from his spot. Instead, his eyes began to glow a blue hue and around him, yellowish light began to weave.

"S-S-smokescreen," Hitori whispered out. It was shameful she knew, but as long as she could use smokescreen to hide herself everything could come later. Thankfully it looked like Natasha was giving her time to get the smokescreen ready. Whismur let out a small cry before opening her mouth and starting to blow out the smoke.

For a few seconds neither side did anymore, the smokescreen continued to expand and spread out over the arena. Covering Whismur, Dottler, and most importantly of all, Hitori. Allowing her to take a breath feeling safe and hidden. Though in that time, Dottler had more than enough time to finish weaving his light screen, the hexagonal barrier covering the Pokemon in a half dome.

"Now, Confusion blow that smokescreen away!" Natasha commanded with what sounded like a rather mean tone from what Hitori could hear. Through the smokescreen, Hitori could see the light emanating from Dottler's eyes intensify before a similar blue glow envelops parts of Whismur's smokescreen. Then it began to shift and fan away in inconsistent bursts. Like one was using a broom to sweep away the smoke.

"A-Ah, Whismur E-Echoed voice," Hitori called out to try and stop Dottler. Already pockets of the smokescreen had been pushed aside, at least Whismur and herself were still hidden under it. Whismur let out a small cry, giving Hitori the bit of time she needed to put her headphones back on. Then the volume came, slowly gaining in volume as Whismur's voice bounced off the walls.

Briefly Hitori thought she may have already done it, Dottler was still far away and Whismur would have time to get her attack nice and powerful. This was cut off in a moment as suddenly her partner was knocked into the air and out of the smokescreen. At least from what Hitori could tell by lightly peering out of her cloud.

It took her a moment to get her headphones off, only to hear what Natasha was commanding next. "Now Confusion again! Back to the smoke to clear it away from Whismur's trainer," She had said.

"Eh?" Was all Hitori could say before a sudden wave of force pressed against her. Well not a full force but more like a sudden breeze or gust of an attack landing near her. Murmurs rose from the audience and Hitori couldn't help but notice the light now covering the arena from the ceiling, the eyes on her murmuring what she no doubt was assure were, she shook her head and tried to focus on the battle.

"W-whi, I-Icy. N-no um E-e-e-e-e-" Hitori stuttered and nearly bit her tongue as she let herself be distracted. "Smokescreen…" She eventually managed to whisper out.

"Don't let them! Interrupt their strategy it keeps them off balance, Confusion again!" Natasha ordered. While Whismur opened her mouth to let the attack loose, the same bluish light enveloped her before at once she was sent flying to the side as though Whismur was sucker punched.

Hitori wanted to apologize, this wasn't part of any strategy she just couldn't handle the light of the arena or the gaze of the audience. Maybe she should have taken a box then they wouldn't be able to get it off her so easily. Whismur got herself back up onto her feet and started to blow out smoke again. Only to once again be enveloped in light and knocked away.

More than that, a few seconds later the smoke was enveloped and pushed away keeping the field as clear as it had ever been from any of Hitori's battles. No, she needed to focus, it was Whismur getting hurt out there while she was worrying. "A-ah W-whismur- I-icy w-wind" Hitori forced herself to whisper out any attack to hopefully make it not so bad on her partner.

Whismur was just recovering from another sudden hit of psychic energy. Hitori's own uncertainty was reflected onto Whismur as she spent a second looking back at her trainer for confirmation. In that time another hit of confusion had time to build up and knock the Pokemon aside. At least when Whismur pushed herself back up again she began to let out the icy wind.

The hexagonal barrier of Light Screen was blocking the white bluish energy filling the air as it mostly parted around Dottler. "Confusion again!" Natasha said. The light began to build up once again, but this time Hitori noticed, as Whismur was tensing herself for another attack the light didn't match Whismur completely.

"D-d-d" Hitori started but her nervousness and anxiety slowed her down. Once again Whismur took an attack that Hitori knew only happened because she was being a failure of a trainer. Whismur was even starting to look more beat up after taking so many. Maybe she should give up before Whismur got too hurt.

"Confusion again, we're almost done here!" Natasha confidently exclaimed with a swing of her arm. The glow in Dottler's eyes intensified once again. This was it, Hitori thought. She maybe could at least say she tried to be a trainer. Her hands went to the Pokeball, thumb fiddling with the device as she came closer and closer to just returning Whismur.

"I-" Hitori started slowly holding the Pokeball out but stopped when she noticed Whismur. Her Partner was shivering and looking just as nervous as Hitori was. Ah, that's right, Whismur was just as much of a shy, anxious girl as she was. She was just acting bravely, for her. Because Whismur had the same dream as she did, because Whismur trusted her, and she was, and she was going to let her down by giving up.

"D-dodge back now!" Hitori called out, voice crackling not used to coming out with any volume. Hitori coughed a moment later as well, but Whismur perked up and kicked back just as the glow was reaching its more intense. A moment later the psychic force slammed against empty air, the thin smokescreen still over the arena providing a nice visual aid in showing the clear miss of the attack.

There was a pause as everyone took in how Whismur dodged the intangible psychic attack. The audience, the judge, Natasha, and even Hitori were surprised that Whismur could do it. "Tch, we've been found out. Dottler reinforce your Light Screen!" Natasha broke the momentary silence with her command. Dottler quietly obeyed as it built up more psychic energy feeding into the fading hexagonal barrier.

"W-Whismur, E-echoed voice," Hitori called out, her attention focusing more narrowly on the battle. Tuning out the other voices, their gazes, to focus on Whismur. Whismur's confidence seemed to return as it wasted no time opening her mouth wide and crying loudly. Hitori flinched as she realized she hadn't put her headphones on.

But under the loud ringing of Whismur's attack, Hitori continued "N-Now, G-get in close and use Astonish,". Whismur stopped her crying and began to run forward towards Dottler. The run-up allowed Whismur the time to put more energy into the attack, to the point that her ears began to faintly glow a purplish color signaling the ghost-type attack.

"She's getting close, swap to Reflect!" Natasha shouted back. The glow of psychic power emanating from Dottler's eyes flickered a few times like an LED light. After it stopped, the hexagonal barrier began to shift, from hexagons to squares, and from a yellow light to a blue one. "Now get ready to use confusion!" Natasha added on right after.

Whismur leaped to cross the last distance, ears extending and slamming down onto Dottler. Rather than hitting the bug-type Pokemon, the barrier stopped the attack in its place. All the while the bluish hue of psychic energy had been building up once again. "Dod-" Hitori started, but her timing was off and Whismur was suddenly pushed back as she took the attack.

As Whismur sailed back, landing on Hitori's side of the arena, Natasha was already shouting more orders, "Switchback!". Again, Dottler's eyes flickered and the barrier shifted back towards Light Screen now that Whismur was no longer close by.

"W-Whismur, I-icy wind," Hitori called out, an idea starting to form in her head. It didn't seem like Dottler could keep both Reflect and Light Screen up, and it wasn't Protect, so Dottler should be feeling some of the attack. Whismur nodded and opened her mouth wide and began to bellow out the attack.

Predictably the wind was once again parted around the barrier. "Confusion while Whismur is still!" Natasha called out. The light built up and Hitori watched it carefully, she'd seen the attack enough times to know when it should go off.

"Dodge forward, go in for Pound," Hitori called out her voice steadying as her focus continued to close in around Whismur and the battle. Whismur obeyed and jumped forward as the psychic force again slammed against empty air. Then Whismur was on the run towards Dottler.

"Again, switch. Then have confusion ready!" Natasha responded the moment she saw her confusion missed.

"E-echoed voice, once you're close," Hitori whispered out, looking to intentionally take advantage of Whismur's hearing to give a command that no one else would hear. Whismur let out an understanding cry, even as she ran forward, and the barrier shifted from hexagonal to square.

Whismur leapt up as she got close enough and already the blue hue was forming close to the Reflect around Dottler anticipating where Whismur would land against the barrier. But as Whismur reached the apex of her jump she opened her mouth wide and screamed. The force of her sound pushed her and kept her momentarily airborne. The Confusion dissipated without going off as the soundwaves rocked against Dottler, his perpetually open and glowing eyes closing as he endured the attack.

"Struggle Bug! Get Whismur away!" Natasha called out, panic starting to show in her voice. Immediately Dottler's eyes snapped open and from the points in his carapace, yellow-green lights emanated out and erratically moved out. Converging around Whismur as she was landing.

"Whismur! H-Hang in there and T-take it, Please," Hitori replied uncertainly. Whismur had already taken so many hits, that she didn't know if Whismur could endure anymore. But if she could, Whismur's Rattled could activate and she might be able to close the battle out. Whismur let out another cry as she braced herself. While the lights seemed rather slow and harmless, the moment one contacted Whismur it burst with energy nearly knocking Whismur back.

Hitori fought against telling Whismur to dodge after each attack hit her, the lights continued to fire off from Dottler. Three more to take, two more to take, one more to take, "W-Whismur c-come back and use i-icy wind," Hitori called out. Whismur rushed back, kicking up dust as she sped back. As she came to a stop next to Hitori it was clear that Whismur was agitated and jumpy from Rattled having been built up. Not only that but it was clear that Whismur looked beat up and was low on breath.

"Light Screen, then Struggle Bug minefield style!" Natasha yelled out. Dottler shifted his barrier once again, all while continuing to let out struggle bug. The lights rather than approaching Whismur, instead spread out around Dottler, none of them wholly stopping creating a field of moving lights.

Whismur opened her mouth wide and began to bellow out the icy wind. As the wind reached Dottler's side it began to push the struggle bug out of the way though they pushed back against the wind as the attack tried to take their spots back. As well like before the Light Screen shielded Dottler from the brunt of the attack.

Both trainers watched carefully as their attacks continued. Dottler's struggle bug slowly creeps forward toward Whismur. While Whismur's wind blew them off course. Seconds passed before it was Hitori who broke the seeming stalemate. "P-pound!" she nearly screamed, voice cracking.

Whismur stopped the wind and rushed forward. The struggle bug, no longer held back by the icy wind, began to converge on Whismur. Whismur dodged through the barrage of attacks thanks to her increased speed, closer and closer she got to Dottler. Natasha gave an order, and the barrier was already starting to shift.

But it was too slow, Whismur reached Dottler and slammed her weight into the bug-type. Whismur's body moves right past the hexagonal barrier. Dottler let out a cry for the first time as he was pushed off his feet. "Forget defense, Struggle bug Whismur is so close!" Natasha shouted out. Dottler's eyes focused again, regaining his footing and beginning to release the lights once more.

"Astonish!" Hitori called out focused to the point that she paid no attention to any audience or the growing cheers. Whismur extended her ears and brought them down onto Dottler's body. The sound of the attack echoed out as everything came to a halt. Dottler went still, and Whismur fell back panting from exertion.

Things were quiet, the lights of struggle bug had gone out and both Pokemon lay in the arena. Seconds passed, but in the end, it was Whismur who pushed herself up. "Dottler is unable to battle! The winner is Hitori Gotoh and Whismur!" The judge spoke up and called the match.

Hitori blinked, Whismur had done it, she won. Only now did Hitori realize just how fast her heart was pounding, the sweat covering her palms. Then the audience erupted into cheers, their focus entirely on her. She was almost too tired to care, almost. She froze up for a second before stumbling to grab Whismur's Pokeball, quickly returning her partner and running straight for the door.

-----

Hitori had only turned a corner into an alleyway before slumping down behind a trashcan. Her heart was still going a mile a minute and she was taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down. It, it probably wasn't the best way to make her exit. She still left her Guitar case behind as well, so it was going to be more embarrassing regardless to have to go back for it.

Regardless she couldn't help but laugh, a nervous laugh mind you, but laughing either way. Hitori brought her hand up to cover her mouth and muffle herself lest she attract more attention to herself, there she realized that despite her anxiety at how it'd look when she walked back in, her worries over maybe losing her recommendation over that action, she was smiling.

It took Hitori fifteen minutes until she felt calmed down enough. That and she watched as people had started to leave the Café, maybe she could just wait until it was empty to get her things. With that hope, she justified those fifteen minutes she took to build the courage to go back in. As she opened the door, it thankfully looked like she was right, there were much less people and no one suddenly trying to talk to her.

Carefully she approached the counter. "I-I-um, Sorry. Um, for- I'msorryforrunningofflikethat" Hitori quickly said to the clerk who was still being so patient and just smiling at her.

"Your first tournament win must have been overwhelming for you, either way, congratulations you did well! Please, take this as your recommendation for the Pokemon League Gym Challenge," The clerk replied and Hitori took a small breath of relief.

"It's already partially filled out, but please have it filled out before handing it in at Hammerlocke Stadium," The clerk continued.

Hitori blinked, ah right, she'll have to enter such a large building with people no doubt so much better than her. Would they even let her in? Would they make her battle 100 people in a row to prove she is a worthy trainer? Or it- it's the Dragon-type gym, did she have to go catch a dragon just to enter?

"Pardon me? Did you understand?" The clerk asked and Hitori suddenly shook her head back and forth as she snapped back to reality. "Oh, things like your trainer ID and name have already been filled in. Along with things like the Café's information regarding your recommendation. There's more to fill out but you can do that whenever before handing it in," The clerk helpfully explained again. Ah, Hitori was beginning to think this clerk was an angel to socially anxious girls like herself.

"Ah, T-t-thank you," Hitori answered finally noticing that some paperwork had been pushed forward towards her. She accepted the luxurious seeming paper and hurriedly made her way to her guitar case. It wasn't that bad, all things considered. Maybe, maybe it wasn't that bad at least dealing with people at counters.

"Hitori you did so well!" Kita suddenly called out from Hitori's table. She hadn't been paying attention and didn't see her at all.

"AAAIIEEE!" Hitori suddenly screamed out at being surprised. Grabbing her guitar case and bolting. She was wrong, Cafes are far too dangerous for timid girls like herself. Without thinking she ran out the door and again into the alley's safety. However, she needed to go further and hide herself in a trash can. At least it was empty.

 

[Belwin]

It was a good night for Hitori, she finished editing another cover and was now waiting as it uploaded to her channel. Whismur was listening happily to the song, played on a very low volume of course to not agitate her sensitive ears. The only thing Hitori was worried about right now was that it was a Sunday, and she was set to go back to school the next morning.

While Whismur was using her father's laptop, Hitori opened another browser and opened another site. Whismur had done well, way better than she was expecting, maybe it was a sign that she should continue with Whismur's training? That she'd be ready to learn more moves? With that in mind, Hitori opened a site called the Attackdex, made by one Professor Kukui from Alola.

At least according to the front page of the website. Made to document every Move that every Pokemon could learn. A few keystrokes later and she was on Whismur's page, Moves were separated into two categories, Instinctual and Tutor-able moves. Her curiosity getting a bit ahead of her, she went right into the Tutor-able moves portion and scrolled down to Icy-Wind.

A click later she was presented with a description of the move. More than that, there were a few below it, only 3 of them. The first was from a Pokemon photographer, or at least that's what Hitori figured as the clip was shot from behind some rocks. It showed a wild Whismur using the move on a Zubat that had intruded on their nest. The second was from another trainer who had demonstrated the attack from their own Whismur.

Finally, the third video was one she had taken and uploaded. It didn't include her in it. Ah! She could hear herself crack her voice trying to speak up for the video. It was in her bathroom, showing off her Whismur using the move over her filled bathtub. Showing off how ice was forming in the water thanks to the move. Ah, it was embarrassing to watch back! She quickly clicked back.

Unfortunately, despite her own embarrassment over her recording, she was quietly hoping she could have taken a higher spot. After all, there is a feature that changes the order the videos appear based on how useful it is, or it was popularity. It wasn't just chronological because she knew from other visits that the order would move around.

She was getting distracted though, she clicked back and went to the instinctual page. There the moves listed were a lot more obvious, Pound, Astonish, Uproar, Howl, and so on. Moves that pretty much every member of the species would learn naturally as they got older or stronger. But just because they were naturals at a move, didn't mean they wouldn't benefit from being taught the move or training with it.

With that in mind, Hitori looked over what move she should train Whismur in next. Hitori began to dig through the information on the site, as for the instinctual moves there was a lot of information regarding when in a Pokemon's growth they start to exhibit the move naturally, or things to look out for to see if a Pokemon is strong enough to start using a move.

For example, when Hitori was looking at Stomp, it said that Whismurs should be taught to use Stomp only when their ears start to spend more time unfurled rather than curled up, as it's a sign of incoming evolution. Or Roar which is apparently rare for Whismur to learn, but according to the site, they could learn once they've grown to be at least 1.3 times the average size of a Whismur. Apparently because only once they reach that size do their lungs have enough capacity to…

She was getting off track again! Hitori quickly clicked back a few more times and focused on the moves that Whismur should start being able to use. Which after some looking was Uproar, Howl, or Supersonic. Hitori continued to flip between the pages trying to guess from quick viewings of the many available videos of the moves which would be easiest to teach next. Compared to the harder moves, each of the moves she was looking at had hundreds of videos of various trainers showing off their own Whismurs.

Hitori was taken out of her searching by a sudden cry ringing out through her bedroom. The surprise made her trip over herself to get up and look at her partner. Whismur was crying loudly having stepped away from the other laptop. "Whismur! What's wrong?" Hitori asked rather loudly momentarily forgetting Whismur's sense of hearing. Of course, the sudden noise only made the Pokemon cry louder.

It took her maybe longer than she'd admit to anyone the reason for Whismur's crying was that Hitori had let herself get distracted browsing online that she missed dinner. Which meant that Whismur also was getting hungry. She rushed out of her room, closing the door behind her to keep the rest of the house insulated from the noise.

Hitori hurried over to the kitchen and grabbed the usual bag of Pokemon food and one of the plates, filling it up and rushing back. The noise was quiet as she walked back to her room, she wondered if Whismur had already quieted down. But as she opened the door she was met with the loud crying once again. Ah, so that's why her parents or Futari never complained about Whismur's frequent outbursts.

"Whismur, I have your food here, look, see?" Hitori quickly said holding the plate out towards Whismur. The Pokemon turned to look at her, she kept crying but it did quiet down a bit, even as Whismur began to waddle herself over to a specific corner of the room staring at the empty place where her food was usually served.

Hitori let out a sigh of relief as she moved to set the plate down, only for Whismur's crying to get louder again as her patience had worn thin. Which in turn forced Hitori to hurry up nearly tripping once again. But soon the plate of food hit the ground thankfully not breaking the plate and Whismur finally stopped crying, if only because she immediately began to shovel food into her mouth.

With that Hitori let out another sigh of relief, even as she tensed up almost expecting another incident to happen each time she did so. When it didn't come, she could slow down and watch her partner eat. After a minute or two of quietly watching, her stomach growled, reminding her of her own skipped dinner. Which came with it the thought that usually her mother would come looking for her if she wasn't at the table for dinner.

Whismur let out a cry getting Hitori's attention once more. She looked to see her partner holding out a piece of food towards her. "Ah, no it's okay Whismur. I'll get my food, so eat up," Hitori quietly replied as she patted Whismur's head. Whismur let out another small cry before going right back to her food and eating in a hurry.

Whismur taken care of for the moment, Hitori stepped back out of her room now to answer the issue at hand. Where had everyone else gone? No longer rushed by Whismur's crying, Hitori quickly found the mundane answer. A note was left on the kitchen counter telling her that her mom and dad had taken Futari and Jimmi-hen out. The note even explained how they sent her messages asking if she wanted to come along. Hitori pulled out her phone and ah, yep the messages were there. Her phone was on silent since it wasn't like she ever had to worry about texts or calls from people.

Hitori wasn't exactly bummed out or even disappointed about not going out. After all she got editing done and a video uploaded… Two hours ago, spending the rest of the time looking up Pokemon Trainer information. Grabbing a small plate of whatever looked easy to eat with no preparation, Hitori took her plate with her back to her room, she had to make sure Whismur didn't start crying again.

It was back in her room that she slowly felt the anxiety of going back to school in the morning build. Was Kita going to suddenly approach her? She didn't want to go, the more she thought of it, the more she didn't want to go. Slowly she turned her head to Whismur, maybe this time it'll work? Those battles a few days ago surely made Whismur's Icy Wind stronger right?

That was another thing! She still had to actually register that recommendation! Well, she could put that one off for a few more days, or weeks. As long as she submitted it before the due date it'll be fine. Unless it was some kind of secret test, and only those who submitted bright and early with extroverted energy were allowed to join.

Hitori grumbled as she nibbled on a carrot, her eyes slowly moving back to her laptop. The allure of putting it all out of her mind and mindlessly searching through the internet, or working with Whismur on a new move becoming more and more tempting. Then an idea struck her, quickly she typed up and did a quick search.

A couple of minutes later Hitori jumped up, "That's it! My way out!" She exclaimed.

"Ah…" She let out a moment later as Whismur, spooked by the sudden volume began to cry once again. "no no! Whismur please stop crying I'm sorry for scaring you!" She suddenly called out to her loud partner. A few minutes and the promise of a treat later Whismur had calmed down.

Hitori turned her attention back to her laptop, specifically a piece of information that she just confirmed her school had. Since so many people spent time on a Pokemon Journey, many schools had flexible schedules to accommodate it. More importantly, those with recommendations to participate in the Pokemon Gym Challenge were allowed more freedom in time off to focus on their training. More than that, her school offered a skipped year for participation.

No more school, at least for a year! She could avoid having to go to her class and best of all when she returned, she could possibly be a grown-up, amazing, famous, popular, rich Pokemon trainer that everyone would come to her to talk about. It was win-win! She just needed to fill the form out and submit it first thing in the morning, then it was right back home to send in a thankfully electronic form about getting the time off!

Now motivated, Hitori finally took the recommendation and filled it out. It was like a weight was off her shoulders, she had made a step forward filling it out, now with nothing else she could possibly do at the moment. Her consciousness was clear when she returned Whismur to her Pokeball, grabbed her guitar, and played late into the night. Only interrupted for a bit when her family came back, and she explained her plan to her dad.

-----

It was bright and early when Hitori set out on her quest to hand in the recommendation to Hammerlocke Stadium. For one she needed to get it turned in early enough in the day that she could let her dad go and have her excused from classes. But also going so early meant that maybe there'd be no one there. Or maybe that was a dumb idea, it just meant everyone who was there would stare at her, see her as a gloomy, unpopular trainer, and chase her out. No no! Hitori shook that thinking out of her head, she had to focus!

The bus she was riding came to a stop and it was enough to help bring her back to reality as she checked around her, then back down to her phone to compare it to the online map she had. Well, actually, she probably didn't need it, she could see Hammerlocke's stadium looming overhead, probably only like a couple of stops away now.

Unfortunately, as she looked out at the streets, even so early in the morning it was busy and filled with people coming and going from. With a few deep breaths, Hitori did her best to calm herself down as the bus started moving again. Two stops later she was getting off the bus right in front of the stadium. Even with the amount of foot traffic going on, no one was going into the stadium. That probably made some amount of sense to Hitori, it wasn't like the season began yet so there wouldn't be challengers and there were only so many people who got recommendations.

A smile crept onto Hitori's lips as she started walking towards the entrance. That's right, she was one of only a select number who earned a position! One of, up to a thousand each year. It was an accomplishment, right? She could brag about even being selected to participate. She could even appear on TV since every gym challenge was recorded and shown to audiences region-wide, if not worldwide.

For reasons certainly not because of that thought, Hitori turned a sharp ninety degrees and began to walk in another direction. She was just… Checking the stadium out from every direction, yep it was probably something trainers did, know their battleground or something!

Not that Hitori even got that far, because a sight caught her attention. Someone with a large Pokeball mascot head, dressed in a red t-shirt and white skirt. Wearing some kind of bodysuit so their arms and legs were just as white. 'Oh right, Ball Guy' Hitori thought.

Ball Guy doesn't wear a skirt! Hitori's mind pointed out a moment later. Indeed, with a second look, she could see that the not Ball guy's Pokeball head was designed after a Premier Ball, with eyelashes that usually designate a female character. Ball Girl? Did the Pokemon League have such a mascot? Slowly Hitori moved towards the entrance of the stadium the confusion having her forget her cowardice around the Stadium itself.

As Hitori approached the stadium she kept an eye on the mascot, she seemed to be doing what Ball Guy would be doing. Which was approaching people and handing out Pokeballs to passersby. Which meant she needed to make sure she wasn't seen. The last thing she wanted was to be attacked by a weirdo in a mascot costume.

Hitori must have displeased some Legendary because the moment she had that thought, the mascot stopped and slowly turned toward her. Hitori felt her blood run cold as she glanced towards the door, if she hurried maybe she could avoid having to talk to them. As she glanced back, the mascot was doing stretches, followed shortly by starting to sprint over to her! Run Hitori this isn't one of your delusions!

Even trying to make a run for it, Hitori wasn't fast enough, and soon the mascot was coming to a skidding stop in front of her. "Aye, ya going to be signing up to the Pokemon Gym Challenge Ain'tcha? I can see it in ya recommendations, ah that brings me back! Well, I can't just let ya go without something ta motivate ya! Here, take this gift from Ball Girl and use it with confidence!" Ball Girl said to Hitori before pushing two Pokeballs into Hitori's hands. Or more specifically a Level ball if the plastic wrap with Pokemon League branding was anything to go by. The other one however was a Premier Ball.

"I- um, ah," Hitori started. But before she could stop her stuttering and say something, Ball Girl simply continued.

"How many Pokemon do ye got? Cause if ye got two then we could have ourselves a battle! More specifically a double battle, if ye win you earn a big prize!" Ball Girl explained.

"Ah- no, um, I only have one Pokemon, also she's totally injured and unfit for battle!" Hitori quickly threw out before making a run for it towards the entrance.

"Then take 'em to a Pokemon center once you have yer registration! They'll heal 'em up right quick and for free for League Trainers!" Ball Girl shouted back with a wave. Not that Hitori was paying attention as she swung the door open and entered. Ball Girl remained still for a few seconds before perking up and turning to see another fortunate and lucky individual in need of some extra Poke Balls. Some girl wearing a lab coat that was far too big for her.

-----

Surprisingly for Hitori, after the craziness of whoever was hanging around in a Mascot outfit. It felt almost relieving to just stutter and hold out the recommendation to the first manned desk she could see. She didn't even agonize over which desk she should be going to or anything. It was the wrong desk, but they were polite in telling her where to go.

Which brought her to another desk and soon into a private office and her anxiety was already starting to build once again. As one of the league workers came in, what followed was a brief interview, mostly asking if she ever worked for groups such as Team Rocket, Magma, and so on. Did she come off as a criminal? Was she going to be jailed as a criminal? She eventually stuttered out a no and they moved on to another question.

By the end of the interview, Hitori was sweating expecting any one of her answers to get her declined, kicked out, or arrested. But instead of any of that happening the league worker simply said, "Well then Hitori Gotoh, everything looks to be in order. We're happy to have you participate in our Gym Challenge,".

It was a heavyweight on Hitori's shoulders, more so because it meant she had the reason she needed to avoid going to school now! "T-Thank you," Hitori stuttered back.

"Now there are some final things to prepare before the start of the season. For one is the contract, We'll be happy to explain anything you may not understand. Though we recommend you take a copy home and look over it closely, we'll even provide a reimbursement if you go to a lawyer to look it through," The league worker explained taking a small stack of paper out and pushing it forward towards Hitori.

"Aah, okay," Hitori said quietly accepting the contract as it would be much easier than asking any questions. Not that she signed it, though only because the worker wasn't assigning any pressure to do so. If they did, she… probably would have signed it without looking it over.

"Right you're in school right now aren't you?" The league worker asked after checking something on a computer. Hitori nodded. The worker nodded back typed something out and with a hit of a button printed out another form. "Here you go, an official notice of participation. Use it to get the time off from School or Work necessary to compete," the league worker continued.

Hitori nodded once again. Then, with a few more minutes and another congratulations Hitori was almost numbly walking out of the stadium, a large folder now in her hands. That wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it would be.

 

[Belwin]

Hitori made a mistake in what she believed her perfect plan was. Something she felt hit her multiple times from realizing that she'd have to be present at the school when her dad went to get her excused from her classes. Then again when the timing of it all was still in the morning and her walk into the school was just after the first break period started, because that meant people were still wandering the halls, and seeing her walking with her dad attracted way too much attention. Finally, when the principal she was sitting opposite of had chided her for skipping her classes, telling her that she could have gone after school both to turn in the recommendation and get excused from classes.

So Hitori sat, eyes firmly looking at the floor as she berated herself for her stupidity, mentally apologizing to her dad who was sitting next to her going over some of the details of having an incompetent daughter. Ah, she probably should be paying attention.

"While Miss Gotoh will be allowed to miss the rest of the school year, she will have to test into the high school of her choice. Of course, she will also be able to repeat the year with no demerits on her record because of her journey. It will be from the beginning of the year however, our exceptions can only go so far," The principal explained to the two.

"I see, that's good to hear that she won't be missing out on any opportunities because of this," Hitori's dad said.

Hitori despite herself already started zoning the conversation out again. Her mind drifted to one particular idea that came to mind. Visions of her walking into high school and turning everyone's heads. They'll all whisper to her about how they can't believe they have a big-shot trainer attending their school. Maybe even the newest champion. She'll take her sunglasses off and give them a confident smirk and strike a pose one she'll doubtlessly be known for like the legendary champion Leon is. Friendship, popularity, she won't even need to try to get those things! "Battling advice? Of course, it'll be easy…" She absentmindedly said

"Miss Gotoh, do you have a question?" The principal asked snapping Hitori out of her delusion and bringing her back to reality.

Immediately an embarrassed blush crept onto her face and she began to stutter "Ah- n-no, actually, how would I go to high school if I miss my classes?" She asked in a whisper. Hopefully, it was the kind of student-y question that would distract from questioning any weird expression she had on her face or what she had mumbled out.

Hitori's father gave a look of surprise and pride at her daughter possibly growing up and taking studies more seriously. Just another thing Hitori would need to apologize to her dad for when she had the confidence for it.

"Very good question Miss Gotoh. We provide a number of resources for students going on their Pokemon journies. For one your student login will remain valid for the rest of the school year so you may access the school's online textbooks whenever you may wish. As well we provide self-driven lessons and tests to allow students to continue their classes while on their journey the best they are able. If requested we also can provide physical packets with notes and worksheets that are in line with what is being taught in person," The principal explained.

That didn't seem too bad to Hitori. It didn't sound like they were expecting her to do the same amount of work as if she were attending class. Maybe she'd be the type who worked better with those lessons, Hitori thought even knowing she was the type who didn't study unless absolutely forced to. She gave a small nod to the principal to show she was listening and her dad soon chimed in and continued their talk.

It went on for a while longer, papers were signed by all of them and soon she was given a small slip of paper and a business card from the principal. Something that he told her to try and keep on her person as it'll act as evidence in case anyone like a concerned police officer thinks her to be skipping school or a runaway from home.

---

As Hitori was leaving with her dad, she considered what to do with the rest of her day. She still had quite a bit of time before she even needed to think about how she was going to go to Motostoke to attend the opening ceremony. Something she was doing her best to pretend didn't exist and happened in a nice gloomy place.

"Ah, Dad I can make my own way home?" Hitori asked for once a natural volume and tone as they were leaving the school building.

"Are you sure? Is there somewhere you want to visit? We're already out, I don't mind another stop," Her dad graciously offered. As well as politely not touching the Beedrill's nest of her friend situation by thinking she'd be wanting to say goodbyes to them. Better to continue in willful ignorance in that matter.

"No, just um. I wanted to train with Whismur. I, I'll have to work harder with her if I want to do well. I'm going to try and teach supersonic next so I'll be making a lot of noise," Hitori explained.

"Getting right to work? My daughter is growing up so fast!" He said in a bit of a teasing tone. "Alright, I'll see you back at home," He added before giving her a light pat on the shoulder. The two of them naturally split off, Hitori off towards a park she knew wasn't that far away while her dad went to his car.

-----

"Hitori! Wait up!" Hitori had barely made it off school grounds when she heard her name being called. It took her a second to even realize she was being called and stopped to look towards the source of the voice. A voice that was familiar to her. Kita was running out of the school and waving to her.

Hitori flinched and sped up if only to get out of sight of anyone who may be able to see from the windows of the school. Not that she was fast enough to get out of sight of Kita who quickly caught up to her. "Hitori where are you going? I didn't see you in class, are you sick?" She asked in that cheery extrovert way that Hitori wasn't sure how to respond.

After a second Kita took a step back and let out a chuckle, "Sorry sorry, that's probably too much at once,".

"Ah, no, um, I was, getting excused from classes. F-for the Pokemon Gym Challenge," Hitori eventually whispered out.

"I see, I already have that as well. But I figured we still have a couple of weeks before it starts, so I could stay in school before then. Maybe I'm just taking this whole thing easily then?" Kita replied.

"N-no, I- I just wanted to try and get Whismur a new move or so before the start…" Hitori said, technically telling the truth even if it was hiding the other fact that she was just skipping school.

"Cool, Um unless you are really busy, would you mind having a battle with my Milcery? I wanted to get some practice in with you since we're both from the same class and going to be competing together. I was going to ask you this morning, but I didn't see you," Kita explained, fishing out a Pokeball from her bag.

Hitori wanted to say no, she wasn't mentally prepared for a battle. It took her nearly a full day to motivate herself for the few battles she had to get her placement. But saying no was much harder than simply not wanting to do something, and with Kita looking at her with those sparkling eyes. "Okay…" Hitori let out.

"Really? Thank you! So want to go to the school grounds, or a Pokemon Center or…" Kita jumped excitedly over the chance to battle, moving into a more casual tone as it wasn't as though they could just let their Pokemon out in the middle of the street for a battle.

"P-park, I w-was going to train at a park. W-we could battle there, t-there is spaces set out for that," Hitori muttered.

"Sounds good!" Kita energetically replied. Together the two began to walk towards the park, even if Hitori was lagging behind and mostly following Kita rather than leading her or going side by side. Maybe the park would be closed for cleaning? Then there'd be nothing for it but to hold it off, she could always practice in her room with its soundproofing.

The walk was awkwardly silent, though Hitori didn't mind it at all, it wasn't like she knew what a popular girl talked about anyway. As they arrived at the park, Hitori was happy to see that it was almost empty. Sure there was an old woman there feeding some Rookidees, but that was basically it. Just within the park was a portion of flat grass with posts in the corners that marked one such arena for people to have Pokemon battles.

There were even signs on the posts explaining the park rules about battles. Namely things like contacting a number if the field gets damaged and needs a ranger to fix up. Or to do things like clean up after yourselves. "H-here we are," Hitori said, as she shuffled towards one side of the field.

"Here we are! So it'll be a one vs one right? My Milcery and your Whismur? Do we go until one faints?" Kita asked suddenly seeming more nervous.

"Ah, yeah, um faints or if it's obvious one lost? Or maybe like pushed out of the arena?" Hitori offered some other conditions as examples.

"Sounds good! I don't really want to see Milcery get super beat up if that's okay," Kita said, as she held out her Pokeball. Hitori gave a nod of her own as she picked out Whismur's Pokeball as well. Without a judge or someone in that role, they both just vaguely tossed the balls out at the same time. Hitori once again weakly lobbed her ball, while Kita tossed it high into the air.

Whismur came out first and looked around for her opponent. Getting startled a second or two later when Kita's Pokeball hit the ground and released Milcery who let out a small, cute cry that only it believed to be intimidating. "S-smokescreen," Hitori called out in a quiet tone.

"You can do that to Milcery, Aromatic Mist, all around you!" Kita called out. Milcery nodded and began to spin around while letting out a cry. Wafting off the Fairy-type Pokemon's body was a pink mist. Meanwhile, Whismur had opened her mouth wide and started bellowing out the dark cloud of smoke. The two colored airs hit each other as they spread out, but rather than one overpowering the other, they created a clear distinction where one ended and the other began.

Already Whismur was well hidden within her smoke screen, while Milcery's mist wasn't dense enough to hide within. "I-icy wind," Hitori ordered now that there was enough smoke. Whismur let out a whispered cry before opening her mouth once more and blowing the frigid air. The smokescreen rolled and folded over itself as the attack blew it around. However it was there that the oddness of fairy types could be seen as while the attack pushed through the mist, it didn't seem to budge from the wind. Still not letting a puff of smoke into its area.

As for the attack itself it reached Milcery, forcing the young Pokemon to let out a cry and be blown back a bit, it's creamy body now looking stiffer from the cold. "Right, we need to get in close Milcery! Aromatic Mist once again while rushing in!" Kita called out after a second of thought.

Milcery nodded and gave another spin deepening the pink hue that surrounded Milcery before floating off towards where Whismur's attack came from. Its mist clung around her and easily forced the smokescreen away. Which in turn revealed Whismur who was in the middle of waddling over to a new spot. "E-echoed voice," Hitori called out.

With a hop Whismur stopped its attempt to move, turning towards the approaching Milcery, and began to scream forcing Kita and Hitori to cover their eyes, the force of the sound even pushing some of the mist and smoke away. "Tackle!" Kita yelled back hoping that her Pokemon would hear her.

Despite the force of the sound, Milcery didn't waver as her body was temporarily covered in a white glow before ramming into Whismur. Not that it was very effective, Whismur's body was pushed back but with how small and light Milcery was, Whismur's feet didn't budge from it's spot on the field. "Pound," Hitori said with a touch more volume.

Whismur swung back slamming its own body back into the fairy type to much greater effect. The cream Pokemon nearly burst as it splattered against the field, looking like a puddle of cream over the Pokemon it was a second ago. A moment passed and both trainers let out a surprised scream. "Ahh! Milcery are you okay?!" Kita called out running into the field. Hitori meanwhile was wondering if she'd be jailed, she'd be hated, she should have told Whismur to be more gentle!

As Kita reached the cream puddle, two white eyes opened up on the puddle looking at Kita. Then a mouth formed, and the cream shifted towards the face until the whole puddle lifted back off the ground and reformed into the recognizable shape of Milcery. "Oh thank goodness I thought you were seriously hurt! Are you okay Milcery? We can stop if you want!" Kita fretted over her Pokemon. Milcery meanwhile let out rapid-fire cries before turning to face Whismur and charging forward.

"A-ah d-do we continue?" Hitori asked feeling relieved that she didn't make Whismur into a Poke-murderer but also still feeling anxious in general.

"I think so, I think Milcery wants revenge," Kita says as she brings herself back onto her feet and hurries out of the field.

"O-o-okay, W-whism-" Hitori started but was interrupted as Milcery already tackled her Whismur this time succeeded in making the normal type take a step or two back in recoil. "A-astonish," Hitori finished.

Right away Whismur gathered the ghostly energy into her ears, unfurling them long enough to slam them down into Milcery with an accompanying loud cry. The attack caused a chunk of the cream Pokemon to distort inward. "P-pound again," Hitori called out.

Milcery had ignored her body becoming misshapen in favor of ramming into Whismur once more. All the while Kita had been watching and fretting over if she should be calling out whenever Milcery tackles or try and get her to do something else. In the end, after the latest Tackle, Whismur slammed her body back and knocked Milcery back once again causing it to lose shape and splatter against the ground.

This time Milcery was much slower to reform, with glass clinging to her cream body, swaying back and forth in clear exhaustion. "I'm calling it! Milcery return!" Kita called out. Milcery blinked and turned to look at her trainer for a moment before letting out another series of cute cries.

"No no, we've clearly lost this one!" Kita answered back. Milcery let out a final cry and slumped as she floated back to Kita. "You did well though Milcery for our first battle we held out for a while didn't we?" Kita consoled her Pokemon as she reached into her bag to pull out a potion and began to read the instructions for herself.

Hitori wasn't sure what to do here, it wasn't like the tournament where she would just have to leave the field so they could continue the next round. Should she go over to Kita and talk about the battle? Was that what friendly trainer battles were supposed to be like? A-ask for money? No no, she could never do that, that was way too much for someone like her. Maybe she could just take Whismur to another part of the park to start training with her?

Whismur at this point had shuffled over to Hitori and looked up at her, her trainer was getting distressed. Which to Whismur must mean that there was something worth being distressed over. So she handled it the only way she knew how, Whismur began to cry loudly.

"Whismur no! What's wrong are you hurt!?" Hitori suddenly cried out as she used one hand to cover her ear while she bent down to grab Whismur to pick her up. Thankfully it was enough to get Whismur to stop crying early. "Let's see, I'll get you a potion soon okay?" Hitori said as she began to look her partner over and other than some small bruise near her stomach she looked fine.

"K-k-kita, I-I'm going to h-heal Whismur okay? T-then I-I'll start training with h-her, Okay bye!" Hitori stuttered her way through telling Kita her plan. Before running off even before she was done talking.

 

[Belwin]

A one-stop spot for the Pokemon teams of noted Pokemon Trainers featured in this fic. I think it could get hard to keep track for people as more characters are introduced, teams grow in size, and Pokemon expand their movesets. It will be updated as of whatever the latest chapter is. So if you're reading this in the future when things have developed more, be mindful of potential spoilers.

Also, this is as good a place as any to mention that Pokemon won't be limited to four moves at a time.

Spoiler: Hitori 'Bocchi' Gotoh

Whismur ♀
Ability: Rattled
Known moves: Pound, Astonish, Echoed Voice, Smokescreen, Icy Wind, Howl

Litwick ♂
Ability: Infiltrator
Known Moves: Astonish, Smog, Ember, Minimize, Confuse Ray, Acid Armor,

Spoiler: Ikuyo Kita

Pikachu ♀
Ability: Static
Known Moves: Thunder Shock, Thunder Wave

Eevee ♂
Ability: Adaptability
Known Moves: Helping Hand, Sand Attack, Quick Attack

Milcery ♀
Ability: Sweet Veil
Known Moves: Aromatic Mist, Tackle

Vanillite ♀
Ability: ???
Known Moves: ???

Spoiler: Ryo Yamada

Persian ♀
Ability: ???
Known Moves: ???

Spoiler: Ball Girl

Greedent ♂
Ability: Cheek Pouch
Known Moves: Bite, Body Slam, Stockpile, Swallow, Spit Up, Counter

Voltorb
Ability: Soundproof
Known Moves: Charge, Thunder Shock, Spark, Screech, Rollout

Voltorb
Ability: Soundproof
Known Moves: Stun Spore, Charge Beam, Swift, Energy Ball

Spoiler: Natasha Bathory

Dottler ♂
Ability: Telepathy
Known Moves: Confusion, Struggle Bug, Reflect, Light Screen

 

[Belwin]

After finding a bench to sit down on, Hitori let Whismur out on the best next to her to heal her. Whismur hadn't needed any more than a single spray of potion to help her bruises heal. Whismur let out a pleased cry that nonetheless was at the volume of a whisper once the brief stinging of the medicine was over. "There there, you did well Whismur," Hitori quietly told her partner while patting the Pokemon's head.

After a minute or so of making sure the potion did its work, Hitori had taken her phone out and began to bring up the attack-dex. She scrolled through the attacks that a Whismur could learn. Between Stomp, Howl, Screech, Supersonic, and Uproar, Hitori decided against Uproar right off the back. She was already too worried about getting in trouble for Whismur's noise. Then she discounted Stomp because according to the site it was recommended once they started unfurling their ears which her Whismur hadn't.

Leaving her with Howl, Screech, and Supersonic, Hitori flipped between the pages for the moves. She had read through them more than a few times already when she first found the site. Screech was probably out as according to the site most Whismur learned Screech after getting used to raising their volume through Howl, which left just Howl or Supersonic.

Howl was simple to learn and would get Whismur more accustomed to intentionally raising her voice, as her Echoed Voice was closer to just crying out loud. Supersonic meanwhile is harder to learn as it requires more fine control over her volume, but that control would start allowing Whismur to direct sound in a way that didn't cause everyone's ears to risk damage.

Not that it made sense to Hitori's understanding of how sound worked. But it was true, she's seen it on the live broadcast of some of the Gym battles, Pokemon would use Screech, and other than visible waves of sound it wasn't picked up by the microphones at all. Unless they were somehow editing the volume out and she was just mistaken.

"Ah, Whismur Howl or Supersonic? Is there one you'd prefer?" Hitori eventually asked her partner who at that point was fully recovered and just clinging to Hitori's side. Forgetting her question for a moment Hitori just smiled happily at her partner and pet her head some more, Whismur usually huddled together whenever outside their cave. Something that Hitori empathized with. "Whismur," Hitori said this time getting the Pokemon's attention.

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out the headphones plugged them into her phone, and placed one of the speakers by Whismur's ears. "I'll show you both, okay?" Hitori said. Whismur gave her a nod and Hitori pushed the button to start playing through videos of other Whismur using Howl. Her Whismur stared at the phone and listened to the Pokemon using the attack. Then she did the same for Supersonic.

At this point, Hitori figured she'd be teaching both moves to Whismur in preparation for the Gym Challenge. It was just a matter of which one to teach first. While Whismur listened Hitori could see it already, covering the battlefield in smoke while also ringing out supersonics that further disorientate her opponents. No one would even be able to hit Whismur while she was free to fire off Hyper Beams. Okay maybe not that, but it would make her free to use whatever attack. Add in Icy Wind's chilling effect and Hitori was already imagining her Whismur taking down all sorts of opponents.

Before Hitori could let herself fall further into that daydream Whismur let out a whispered cry as she gently poked at the phone. "Huh? Oh did you pick?" Hitori asked, snapping back to attention and looking at her phone. The current video was of another trainer Whismur using Supersonic. Whismur nodded and gave another whispered cry.

"Okay, let's try by trying to go as high-pitched as you can," Hitori suggested. Whismur nodded and Hitori realized a second too late that she should have put the earphones on before Whismur began to cry out loudly. Hitori flinched as her ears were assaulted and fumbled to get the headphones on. Once they were on, she was able to listen to what noise got through. "Aha, maybe I should just start keeping the headphones around my neck all the time. It does look cool after all," Hitori commented more to herself than to Whismur or anyone else.

It was good that the park was largely empty as the cry continued for a few more seconds. As Whismur closed her mouth she turned and looked at Hitori expectantly. "Ah, that, wasn't it. I'm sure your pitch needs to go higher, like this," Hitori said as she quickly took her phone and swapped to a video of someone going from too low to high. Showed the video to Whismur to explain it rather than even attempting to embarrass herself by trying to do it herself.

Whismur stared at the phone for a short while before starting to let out a low hum which slowly rose both in volume and pitch until it was a sharper scream. Ending it shortly after and once again turning to look at Hitori for her feedback. "I don't think you have to start so low, try just doing the high part. Alright?" Hitori asked.

Another nod and soon Hitori and Whismur fell into a pattern of working on training Whismur's voice. It was easy enough to get the Pokemon to shriek in a high-pitched tone, but that was just the first aspect of the move that needed to be learned. Which by itself still took the better part of an hour to do. By the end of which Hitori did feel a slight headache from the constant high-pitch screaming, she was next to, it even dampened through her headphones.

"Alright Whismur, I think that's enough for now. Ah, this probably counts on working on Howl as well," Hitori said initially to signal a break for her and Whismur. But as the idea struck her she turned to Whismur. "Okay first let's try one other thing, Not as high pitched but louder, and try and use that feeling of when you're using pound," Hitori explained.

She wasn't an expert by any means on how Pokemon moves worked but most of them seemed to utilize some kind of energy. It was what made the difference between Whismur ramming into a wall and using pound on it. Probably whatever gave Whismur's body that glow when using it. So maybe teaching Whismur to use other moves would mean getting her to use that same energy, whatever it is.

Whismur inhaled for a second, closing her mouth, and looking like she was focusing. Taking an additional second before yelling out the loudest she had yet. Hitori was surprised when it wasn't the usual loud crying but something closer to a proper yell. She was both surprised and a bit intimidated by the cry, jumping up off the bench when she was hit with the sound. It only lasted a second before Whismur stopped, once again turning to look at Hitori with a smile on her face.

"A-ah, good job Whismur! You did it! I'm not sure if it's Howl, but you did well!" Hitori immediately praised her partner. Crouching down to pet Whismur's head. "We'll compare to the video alright? But first want to get something to eat?" Hitori offered. They had been at it for a while by now. At least both she and Whismur were already used to spending hours practicing so she probably wouldn't have to worry about Whismur's motivation throughout her training. Apparently, it was a problem for newly caught Pokemon to find training that wasn't battling boring rather quickly.

As for getting food, she barely had to leave the park to come across a convenience store, Whismur following along, hiding behind Hitori's legs. Something Hitori felt just a bit jealous of, she'd love to have someone she could hide behind while they did the shopping. Already she could imagine it, her Whismur having evolved into an Exploud being the one to approach the cashier. For now, however, Hitori walked hesitantly into the store and pointedly not looking at the cashier as she entered.

Hitori could feel the eyes of the cashier on her, or maybe more accurately at her legs where Whismur was. That was right, just because the park was empty didn't mean Whismur's voice couldn't carry outside of it. Was she being a bother? She must have been a bother, she's sorry for being less than a Wimpod. With such thoughts, Hitori quickly shuffled into the aisle and out of sight. Only then could she start looking through the selection of largely snack foods.

As much as Whismur liked to eat, the social setting was enough to have the Pokemon more interested in clinging to Hitori's leg than looking at the options. Battles were one of the only things that Whismur was able to get past her skittish nature. "Whismur, i-is there anything y-you want?" Hitori whispered as quietly as she could to hopefully both give something for Whismur to focus on other than the cashier and to hopefully start to make it up to the cashier for being such a nuisance.

Whismur first looked up at Hitori before moving over to look at the different snacks that were lined up on the shelves. After a short deliberation, Whismur pulled off a bag of watmel berry candy off the hook and held it up with a whispered cry. Hitori accepted the bag grabbed a few other berry-flavored snacks and slowly made her way to the cashier. She did her best to try and not do anything weird as the cashier scanned the items.

In the end, it was no trouble for Hitori and Whismur to pay and leave with her goods, neither of them getting too startled and making a scene. From there they made their way back to the same bench they were training at. Once seated, Hitori opened the plastic bag and pulled out the bag of candy Whismur had picked out. Ripping it open she held out the berry for Whismur who quickly snatched it out of Hitori's hand and shoved it into her mouth.

Hitori watched Whismur chew happily for only a second before she swallowed and looked on expectantly for more. Her partner had worked hard so Hitori was happy to keep feeding the candy one piece at a time, knowing that if she left Whismur with the bag she'd eat them all at once without taking any time to savor it. As she watched she took a piece for herself and popped it into her mouth. It was very sweet and tasted close to the melon soda she had back at the café.

The two continued their break eating not just the candy but the other snacks Hitori had bought. It wasn't the healthiest lunch to have but it was okay once in a while, right? As they ate the nearby trees and bushes began to rustle. Normally Whismur's sensitivity to sound and Hitori's own skittish nature would bring their focus over to it, but the snacks were enough to distract them.

From the bushes a Pokemon emerged, small with a bushy tail that was curled in on itself. A Skwovet, he slowly approaches the bench that Hitori and Whismur were sitting on, eyes laser-focused on the small pile of berry snacks that were between them. Once he was able to cross roughly half the distance between his cover and the bench he looked back and let out some quiet chittering, a signal to those behind him.

More Skwovet emerged from the bushes and trees and into the open. They exchanged glances at each other before inching closer and closer towards the bench. Cautiously, one of them saw and took their chance lunging forward and onto the bench to grab as much as he could. Immediately Hitori and Whismur let out surprised yelps and moved back away from the sudden Pokemon.

In the next moment they processed what was going on but already one after another more Skwovet lunged forward to grab what they could. Hitori huddled up unwilling to confront the Pokemon, while Whismur, facing the loss of her snacks relied on her instincts and began to cry. Loudly unleashing an echoed voice out in every direction.

Most of the Skwovet flinched back and tried to cover their ears with their paws. Hitori attempted much the same with her hands, only a second or two later reaching for the headphones. Though the first of the Skwovet was resilient enough to grit his teeth and after a moment leapt and slammed his body down onto Whismur.

The sudden attack quieted the whisper Pokemon for a second as she was knocked back a bruise already forming on her body where she was hit. Hitori blinked as she saw her partner get knocked back and for a moment all of the anxious thoughts that were swirling around in her head came to a stop. "Whismur! I-icy wind," Hitori spoke out in a shaky voice.

Hearing her trainer call out her name, Whismur adjusted herself to land on her feet even as she was now off the bench and amongst the gathered crowd of Skwovet. Opening her mouth wide she bellowed out the teal-hued wind around with enough force that the grass began to frost over at once. While it was enough to catch and push back a number of the other normal types.

A few of the Skwovet, however, were undaunted as they pushed back against the wind towards Whismur now thoroughly angered. With a noticeable exception of the first who ignored Whismur and was shoving whatever he could grab with his tail, eyes locked not onto Whismur but on Hitori as if daring her to try and stop him.

"W-wh-wh, p-p," Hitori tried to stutter out a command to Whismur. Even the one Skwovet staring at her so intensely was enough to break what bit of confidence she had built up. So, she just watched as her food was scooped up by the Skwovet. 'It's fine just let the Pokemon take it. Whismur is too busy trying to keep the others away' Hitori thought as she looked over at where her partner was still bellowing out the icy wind, constantly turning to push back a different Skwovet and thus was unable to help her.

"Thunder-shock! Quick Attack!" A voice called out. Two seconds later a bolt of lightning flew forward and nearly hitting the Skwovet that had been staring Hitori down. The attack may have missed but it was enough to spook the Pokemon into dropping its pilfered snacks and turning to face the source of the attack.

Meanwhile, an Eevee rushed forward slamming their body into a Skwovet that had leapt to attack at Whismur's back.

"Hitori are you okay?" Kita called back. By her side, a Pikachu was lowering the voltage and ending the attack she had unleashed.

"K-ki-kit," Hitori tried to call back both in confusion at her appearance and in relief at someone coming to help deal with, well everything that was going on so suddenly. Before they could talk more, the Skwovet had already begun to regroup and now looked at the two new Pokemon angrily.

"We'll talk after let me help you out," Kita explained. "Another thunder-shock! Eevee, Helping Hand," She followed with a set of orders to her two Pokemon. Eevee sprinted back away from the group towards Pikachu and with a cry began to cheer on the Pikachu as the electric mouse began to gather electricity up for her attack.

"A-ah, W-whismur P-pound," Hitori got out as she tried to follow Kita's lead. Despite not actually specifying which of the Skwovet she wanted Whismur to target, Whismur stopped her icy wind long enough to jump up and tackle the Skwovet that had been staring Hitori down. Whismur hit her mark though rather than knocking the Skwovet away like Hitori hoped, the other normal type managed to hold his ground, only being pushed back a couple of inches.

The Skwovet had a glint in his eye as he retaliated by biting down on Whismur. It was harsh enough to make Whismur let out a pained cry and step back, though at the same time, the dark-type attack caused Whismur to become agitated. "I-icy w-wind, b-be ready to m-move to dodge," Hitori ordered as she did her best to push as much of the snacks into a bag and back up.

Yes, she understood it wasn't worth it to battle so many wild Pokemon for what was left of their lunch. But even she could get angry at them for attacking her partner. Near her, the thunder-shock from Pikachu fired off with more force than the last one. This time it hit its mark the poor Skwovet was hit by the attack letting out a cry before falling over with a dazed look in their eye and faint burn marks on their body.

That attack was enough to get some of the Skwovet to turn tail and run unwilling to continue their attack anymore. While the ones that didn't were turning their attention fully onto Kita and her two Pokemon. With little prodding, they began to rush forward looking to attack as a swarm. Kita however kept her cool more or less and gave her orders "Thunder wave! Sand attack!".

Pikachu responded first gathering electricity in her tail for a second or two before swinging her tail in a wide arc toward the group of Skwovet. Lightning flung forward in a growing arc. As it passed the group of Skwovet the electricity was enough to startle and stun them even if it didn't have nearly the stopping power that an attack like Thunder-shock would have had.

Meanwhile, Eevee had turned around and began to rapidly kick with his legs digging up and spraying dirt and sand out into the group further disorientating them and blinding a few of them for the moment. "Alright, Now another thunder-shock! Eevee, Quick attack any that get too close!" Kita ordered with some more cheer now that she was seeing it work.

Whismur had been blowing out her icy wind at the Skwovet and dodging from side to side as the stand-out Skwovet continued to try and bite at her all while taking the brunt of the ice-type attack. However, as another bolt of electricity hit another and another of his pack, he turned away from Whismur and leaped up in the air suddenly.

"K-kita, Sk- watch, watch out!" Hitori tried to call out in time. Eevee was the first to respond, blurring forward with a quick attack, ramming into the Skwovet. However, the force behind Skwovet's attack was stronger and pushed Eevee back instead. Pikachu who had been more focused on directing her electricity only could gasp as the normal type landed on her with enough force to slam her into the ground with a pained cry. "Pikachu are you okay!?" Kita worriedly cried out.

At the same time, the remaining Skwovet had taken the opportunity to once again change targets. With their leader battling the two, they could turn towards Hitori and Whismur with their bag of food. "I-icy wind," Hitori immediately stuttered out upon feeling their gazes on her.

Whismur inhaled for a moment to get enough of a breath before letting out an icy wind over the remaining Skwovet. Now that they were grouped so that she only needed to worry about one direction and with the height from the bench, her attack was free to sweep over the other normal types. With a good few already knocked out from Pikachu's attacks and the horde of Skwovet already weakened from the earlier use of icy wind, a few began to fall in a daze from the attack. With a few more finally breaking away to run.

"Q-Quick attack please!" Kita hurriedly asked her Eevee. Who with a cry blurred forward and rammed into the leading Skwovet. Who this time jumped back off of Pikachu to avoid the attack and watched as Eevee accidentally collided with the knocked-down Pikachu.

The Skwovet looked over at his group, by now the rest had run or were on the ground knocked out. Skwovet began to loudly and angrily cry out at the Pokemon who so rudely attacked his pack fully unbothered by the fact that he was the one to start this whole mess. As he complained, he was soon enveloped by a bright white light. His body shifted slightly as he grew to twice his previous size. As the light dissipated, he was a Skwovet no longer but a newly evolved Greedent.

 

[Belwin]

Hitori and Kita warily looked over the Greedent as he was momentarily distracted by his evolution. It only lasted for a few seconds before he turned his attention to the two and began to charge forward. Despite the new form, it was obvious that he was slower as a Greedent than as a Skwovet. "Ah, I-icy wind," Hitori reacted first, stuttering out a command to her partner while Kita was more distracted by her Pikachu currently lying injured on the ground.

"Eevee, Helping Hand with Whismur! I'm going to help Pikachu!" Kita gave her order before running forward, already digging a potion out of her bag. Eevee meanwhile let out a cry before running up to Whismur who was inhaling for her attack. As Eevee got closer, Whismur flinched and took two steps to the side to keep some distance from the still unfamiliar Pokemon.

Eevee responded by walking up a few more steps and beginning to cheer and jump around Whismur. As Whismur let out her attack it came out stronger, the winds were faster, the teal-ish hue a deeper color, and the grass freezing over more than just being covered in a layer of frost. The stronger wind hit Greedent who flinched for a moment but continued, now in a more determined march rather than a run.

Even that only lasted for another few seconds before the evolved Pokemon stopped and instead sucked in air before scrunching his body up, a faint glow appearing on his gut. "T-that's a move r-right?" Hitori asked herself more than anyone as she tried to figure out what to do next. Whismur continued her attack and now the Greedent was just sitting there taking it, does she continue? Stop and use something else?

Kita meanwhile had picked Pikachu up and brought her back behind Whismur and Eevee where she was kneeling and applying the potion. Again, Greedent sucked in air causing the glow on his belly to intensify. For a while, it seemed as though everything would work out easily for the two trainers. Whismur's icy wind kept Greedent back and soon Pikachu could aid in attacking from a range.

Then Greedent made his move, the glow from his gut moved up to his cheeks which had puffed out. Opening wide he let forth a ball of pure energy that flew fast ripping through the icy wind and exploding out as it reached Whismur and Eevee. It was only Eevee reacting quickly and pushing Whismur out of the way that kept both of them from being knocked out at once. The explosion of light was strong enough to rip up the grass and leave a small crater behind.

As the dust settled, Eevee was laid out on the ground covered in bruises and unconscious. "Eevee!" Kita cried out as she got up to get to Eevee, Pikachu still in her arms. Whismur meanwhile was quick to get back onto her feet. However, confidence was quickly draining from the Pokemon to keep battling. Something both trainers were feeling just as much, Hitori reconsidered just throwing the food and running away.

Now that the icy wind was no longer slowing Greedent down he began his approach once more. Hitori fumbled with her pocket as she searched for where she had put Whismur's Pokeball, she'd return and leave the bag and just run. She stopped her searching when Whismur spoke up with angry cries as she stomped back and forth in agitation.

For a moment Hitori was confused as to why Whismur was so agitated, sure she must have been mad about getting hit and having her food stolen, especially since Whismur was a bit of a glutton. But the only times she saw her partner like this was- 'Ah!' Hitori thought as she realized. When Greedent had been a Skwovet he had used bite, a dark type move against her. "W-whismur, echoed voice, r-run to the side y-you're faster," Hitori slowly called out finding a thread of confidence through her partner.

Whismur let out a surprisingly loud cry and took a few steps forward before crying aloud. Hitori was on time putting her headphones on this time, even if she flinched when she realized that Kita and her Pokemon were both now clutching their ears to try and dampen the volume. Ahh she'd have to apologize later for being so insensitive! Greedent covered his ears as well and shifted his approach to a run now aimed a Whismur specifically.

Greedent was only able to somewhat close the distance before Whismur had stopped her crying only to scurry away just as Greedent committed slamming his weight towards the other normal type. Quickly making a bit of distance before crying out again, a touch louder this time. This time Greedent approached a touch slower keeping his hands to his ears, a much dimmer white glow appearing on his gut.

"H-he's g-going to use that attack again! B-be ready to dodge," Hitori called out nervously considering how much damage it did last time. While Whismur didn't give any indication of hearing Hitori over the noise she was making, as Greedent opened his mouth wide and fired off a smaller ball of white energy Whismur jumped away the moment Greedent stopped to attack.

"Y-You're doing it Hitori! I'll get my Pokemon healed up as soon as possible!" Kita chimed in spurred into action by the display of Hitori and her Whismur handling the situation. Not that there was much for her to do considering she was already in the middle of applying the potion to her Eevee. Her Pikachu already starting to lose the bruises from the attack and standing on her own.

"A-ah um t-thanks G-Greedent is s-slow so we should focus on how fast o-our Pokemon are," Hitori shared her plan with Kita, even if they could barely hear each other over Whismur's continued assault. Timing their discussion between attacks where Whismur was dodging rather than using echoed voice.

Greedent looked as though he was slowly being worn down, but as he was just starting to look winded, he came to a stop and clenched his body up, bringing the glow in his gut up once again. Whismur stopped her attack standing at the ready to avoid another, larger blast like the first. There was a pause as both sides seemed to wait for the other to make the first move. Then Greedent made an audible swallowing noise as the glow disappeared, replaced by a green light washing over the Pokemon. As the light faded, any injury the Greedent had taken had all by disappeared in an instant.

With a confident cry, Greedent immediately began to charge the light once more. Learning to better understand his new form as time went on, like how rather than try to catch Whismur he'd be content to stay and fight from a distance. "Quick Attack! Both of you!" Kita called out.

The hit-and-run strategy of Whismur's had turned Greedent around so when Kita's command came out, Eevee sped forward and tackled Greedent from behind. There wasn't enough power to knock Greedent off balance but it was enough to distract him as he was immediately turning to slam into Eevee. Only for Eevee to dash away in time for Pikachu to ram into him now from the side. Again, he turned towards his attacker, this time his teeth taking a dark hue as he snapped at the Pikachu, but the electric type was also fast enough to dodge back.

"P-pound," Hitori called out, a second or two later, Whismur had closed the distance and slammed into Greedent as well. This time before Greedent could even fully turn to face Whismur, Eevee was slamming into him with another quick attack. This quickly became a pattern, no matter who Greedent tried to turn and attack, they'd dodge and he'd take two more attacks from the others.

Even Greedent's attempts to dodge the attacks were met by avoiding one, only for another to hit him from another direction. The white glow on his gut continued to build up, but as he took attack after attack, he swallowed the energy once again, using that stored energy to heal himself rather than attack. It may have only been delaying an inevitable defeat, but it was giving Greedent time.

Time spent further acclimating to his evolved form. Eventually, Whismur went in for a pound, ramming against Greedent's large curled tail. Only, as she hit and nudged the evolved Pokemon forward, did an orange glow of a fighting-type move splinter over Greedent's body where he was hit. This time, the retaliation wasn't delayed, Greedent's tail rocketed out like a fist, countering Whismur's attack with his own. Sending Whismur flying back with a heavy-looking bruise and a pained yell.

"W-Whismur!" Hitori shrieked out. Unprepared for the change in reaction, Eevee and Pikachu both used quick attacks to ram into Greedent, again creating cracks of orange light over Greedent's body. Both of them suddenly get knocked back by Greedent's tail whipping around into them. Greedent took a moment to swallow once again, healing off the damage their attacks did just as the orange light faded away.

"Pikachu! Eevee!" Kita called out. As she and Hitori took a step towards their downed Pokemon, Already the three of them were pulling themselves up with determined looks in their eyes. Whismur in particular looked especially determined. She began to stamp her feet for a second or two before letting out a loud howl. The sound was visible with small red lines in the air rippling out from the normal type's mouth.

Hitori blinked as she realized what it was, Whismur had used howl. An idea then began to form, that the attack that hit Whismur must have been Counter. "K-Kita, c-could you, um h-have Pikachu distract Greedent? I-I think I have a plan," Hitori asked. While Greedent wasn't approaching, it was taking the time the other Pokemon were taking to get up to build up the glow in his gut once again.

"E-eh? Of course, I just need to not get hit by that blast right? Pikachu is pretty fast," Kita replied. "Pikachu you heard right? Use thunder shock, but focus on dodging if the Greedent attacks!" She quickly turned to her own Pokemon. With a cry, Pikachu nodded and dashed forward towards Greedent, electricity building up in her cheeks.

"R-r-right, W-Whismur, H-howl again and again," Hitori commanded. Whismur stopped her howl for a second before going right back to howling, her Eevee stood at the ready, unsure of what part he'd be playing. As the sound of the howl washed over the Eevee, around the edges of his and Whismur's form a red glow began to slowly form.

Meanwhile, Pikachu had engaged Greedent having hit the evolved Pokemon head-on and looking to have dealt enough damage to force him to spit up the energy before it could get too large. But as they started to get into a rhythm Greedent glanced over at Whismur and Eevee, understanding that something was being planned before them. With his next blast of energy, he aimed it at them instead.

"Milcery Aromatic Mist!" Kita called just as she threw a Pokeball out. Responding right as she emerged between Greedent and the other two Pokemon, Milcery began to spin around releasing the pink mist all around herself. As the blast of energy reached the mist, it was visibly dissipating in the short distance it traveled. Even as it collided with the fairy type, Milcery's form stretched as it took the brunt of the attack. But it did not splatter or break holding surprisingly strong against the attack.

"K-Kita, could you maybe, um use thunder wave to s-stun Greedent? T-then have Eevee a-attack with Whismur?" Hitori asked.

Kita blinked at the request but slowly pieced together the strategy. Slapping her forehead with her palm she let out a 'duh' noise. "Got it, Pikachu, thunder wave! Eevee, you heard Hitori! Time your Quick attack with Whismur!" Kita gave her order.

"Whismur, pound after a little more howling," Hitori added. Right away the three Pokemon jumped into action, Pikachu getting in a little bit closer before unleashing the electric attack with a swipe of her tail. Whismur continued to howl making the glow around Eevee and herself reach a deeper, brighter color. Finally, Eevee let out a confident cry before getting ready to dash at a moment's notice.

At the glow reached as far as it was going to go, Whismur began to run forward joined by Eevee taking a longer route to circle around Greedent with his faster speed. Already the red glow was starting to fade from both Pokemon. Greedent, seeing their approach curled his body up fully intent on taking the attack and countering like before.

But as the two normal types got closer, Greedent suddenly jolted and loosened his body from the shocks from the paralysis. Seeing their chance, Whismur and Eevee took this as their chance to attack. From the front, Whismur kicked off the ground leaving a small depression in the ground as she flung forward like a missile. Slamming into Greedent, for the first time the evolved Pokemon was knocked off his feet and flung back, a deep orange glow emanating from the point of impact.

Before Greedent could hit the ground behind him, Eevee appeared above him and with a spin slammed down into him. Greedent was knocked down with enough force to kick up a large dust cloud on impact. Eevee leaped out of the cloud and took a spot next to Whismur and Pikachu as the red glow was now back to a faint level. All of them standing at the ready in case Greedent hadn't fainted yet.

Hitori and Kita both held their breath as the cloud of dirt and dust slowly drifted away. Revealing Greedent lying on his stomach in a small crater, his face visible, clearly and decisively knocked out. "W-we did it! I can't believe it that was so hard!" Kita cheered while Hitori fell to her knees as every bit of energy and confidence she had been bringing out left her at this point. Seeing that it was safe, the three Pokemon slumped down as well to catch a breather. Though Milcery who hadn't been returned was looking as though it was going to slap Greedent around for daring to hurt her.

"W-why h-help m-me?" Hitori asked as she could finally wonder about Kita's appearance. Without her, she'd have been bullied by a pack of Skwovet.

"Ah well after our battle I went to go heal Milcery right? Well, I thought we'd train together or something, but like when I found you, you were busy with Whismur. So I went to a different spot to try and train with my own Pokemon. I just happened to see you when you were carrying snacks. So I thought we could talk and train together then. Then well, I saw you get attacked, and from there I mean," Kita was happy to share the entire story energetically, ending her words by gesturing in the fainted Pokemon's direction to emphasize the last of her words.

"A-ah, o-okay," Hitori said as she was feeling quite overwhelmed. Not just of Kita speaking so fast and seeming to get closer the more she talked, but just in general. Idly she wondered if her whole journey was going to be like that. Wouldn't it just involve more nice scheduled battles? That was why they had gyms right?

You wouldn't have a situation where you'd accidentally lock eyes with someone, and they'd run right up to you and start demanding to fight. Not even giving you a chance to respond before they were letting their Pokemon out to attack. Then when you'd lose they'd demand money like it was a mugging. "I'm sorry this is all I have," Hitori suddenly said as she held out a handful of coins she had as the change from her shopping trip.

"Eh!? What? Money? Huh? No, you don't need to pay me for helping you, I should be thanking you as dumb as that might sound! I got a lot of training with my Pokemon today!" Kita said suddenly jolting from Hitori's actions.

"H-huh? Oh u-um, please ignore this sub-wimpod with this then!" Hitori said as she carefully laid the coins down and bowed before shuffling under the bench she was sitting at before.

"W-wait! I don't need any money or anything!" Kita tried to say.

"T-then I apologize for being so assuming! Please forgive me with this!" Hitori said offering the same small handful of coins for the third time. Eventually Kita, just kind of accepted the coins as it seemed to make Hitori visibly relax and smile. Kita just made a mental note to buy Hitori lunch or something later to give them back.

A few minutes later and they were checking up on their Pokemon, while they were all injured it didn't seem so bad that they needed to start running for a Pokemon center. But at the same time, they did both want to tend to their teams. So after Kita managed to convince Hitori to share phone numbers, they both went their separate ways for the day.

-----

Greedent slowly picked himself up after recovering enough to return to consciousness. The first thing he did was look around for his fellow pack members, only to see that they had recovered first and run back to their burrows. He knew it'd be a bit awkward to return after his plan failed them for once. But now evolved he was certain he'd be able to secure more and more food for himself and the Skwovet.

Still heavily bruised Greedent slowly trudged his way back into the brush. A few seconds before entering the bush something caught his nose, a delicious cacophony of berries much like the kind that he failed to secure. With interest he turned around and followed the scent, it took him away from the bushes that lead to his burrows and into the stone area where humans lived.

It wasn't that far until he had found a nice out-of-way spot a pile of berries piled up so tantalizingly. 'Did another Pokemon gather them up? Ah well, More for me!' Greedent thought before he rushed forward to grab what he could carry before any Pokemon came to defend their stash. He quickly reached it and sniffed the berries closer, better safe than sorry. Nope, nothing wrong with them, fresh and delicious berries of every time he knows! There are even some he didn't!

Grabbing one of the berries, Greedent began to chow down on it. Unaware of the figure that approached him from behind. It was only once the figure was right behind him that he noticed, a sudden itching of his instincts. Even without seeing anything he knew he was in danger. But despite that, he turned around. Only to find a female human with a weird ball head staring down at him with an empty expression.

"Aye, you've caused quite a bit of trouble for those two haven't ya? Especially for someone so young" The female human said without moving her mouth. Greedent felt sweat trickle down the back of his neck as he considered if he could run with an armful at least. How did this human know of his raids? He didn't remember anyone like this nearby.

"Hmm? You're wondering how I know? I mean people talk y'know, told us bout wild Pokemon being more aggressive than usual. Now Noramlly it'd be rangers who'd come to give ya the boot back to the wilds. But you got me curious. So young but so strong, and smart. So you're either a real outstanding example of yer species, or…" The human continued, never once blinking.

It was too much for him, He turned around and grabbed as many of the berries as his tail could grab at once and started to bolt away. Only the moment he took a step there was a noise and only his instincts saved him, making him stop and back up as suddenly there was a hole in the stone where he would have been. The stone broke apart without so much as cracks forming around the hole.

Greedent for a moment considered the other directions, but as though responding to his thoughts a few more noises and additional holes suddenly opened in the ground in either direction of him. From above he saw a fully evolved Inteleon walking down the flat walls as though unbothered by gravity.

"Sorry bout that, guess that's bad cop as it would be, but I ain't lying 'sides I think you're smart enough to understand a good deal. Become my Pokemon and I'll be able to give ya all sorts o berries you'll never see if you just stayed in a town like this," The ball-headed woman explained as she knelt to be closer to eye level with him.

From her pocket, she pulled out a berry whose smell was so unique and tantalizing it made the pile of berries from before seem boring and mundane, not that he didn't want both. Then with her other hand, she pulled out a Pokeball, well one that was grey instead of red with additional bumps on it. "What do ya say?" She asked.

Greedent looked towards the Inteleon who had reached the ground and stepped from the wall to the floor holding her hand up with a lazy, casual smile. Then back towards the pile of berries the Trainer offered along with the Pokeball. This human was right though, he felt he was smart and if he could have all these berries then it wasn't much of a choice. He finally let out a small affirming cry and walked towards the trainer.

The human pulled her head off revealing that it was a mask and smiled at him before lobbing the ball at him. He didn't put up a fight as he was enveloped in a red light and entered the Pokeball. It shook three times before clicking and confirming his capture as his trainer's newest Pokemon.

-----

AN: I'm going to be mentally nicknaming that Greedent Mahoraga since while writing I kept using the idea of him adapting the more the battle went on. As well I felt that was my first time writing something that I felt was kind of close to a JJK jumping in Pokemon battle form.

 

[Belwin]

A week had passed since Hitori got herself excused from school, and she didn't spend it all relaxing around in her room, Promise! She continued training with Whismur, refining her Howl and getting further along towards Supersonic. While Whismur wasn't quite able to use the move, it was getting closer. For now, as the week had come to a close, the time until the Pokemon League's Opening Ceremony was only a day away.

While a more outgoing trainer may have used the week to take the trek through the Wild Area that separated the two cities, Hitori was standing at the train platform waiting the final minutes until boarding a train going to Motospoke. "Are you sure you have everything? Papa could still hurry back if you missed anything," Hitori's mom asked, fretting over her daughter.

"I-I'm good, I-I packed everything yesterday and we checked then," Hitori said, embarrassed to have her mom publicly babying her like that. She had a rolling suitcase with everything she needed for her journey. Spare clothes, her laptop, camping equipment, and other odds and ends recommended by the Pokemon League. Her Sleeping bag and disassembled tent tied to the suitcase. In Hitori's arm was her guitar's case, with her dad willing to let her take what was technically his guitar with her on her journey.

"If it gets too much don't worry about coming home! Or if you need some extra funds just send us a message, and we'll top your account up," Her dad added with a proud look on his face. Even Jimmyhen, dad's Linoone was barking as though saying goodbye.

"I will, b-but I am that's what the Pokemon League's stipend is f-for r-right?" Hitori said thinking it was the right thing to say. It was confident sounding right? They weren't noticing how her legs were shaking and how she was hoping she could just push it off for another week. You know, when Whismur learned Supersonic, obviously.

Hitori's parents shared a look for a second, but before they could say any more a notification came on informing everyone to start boarding. "Well, our little girl is going off on her journey now. Do your best Hitori! Your parents are so proud of you!" Hitori's mom said with a wave. Her dad joined in and even Jimmyhen got onto his hind legs to wave.

It was enough to fill Hitori with just enough confidence to nod and wave at them before hurriedly making her way onto the train. Doing what she could to get to the front of the line and flashing her ticket so she could get a seat before everyone walking around got too much for her. Thankfully her ticket was one given to her by the Pokemon League which even came with a private room for the two-hour ride.

The car had a hallway pushed to the side with three sitting rooms connecting to it. The sitting room had two benches facing each other probably meant to hold four people. Still, Hitori was happy to have it to herself, as she sent her suitcase down she took a seat and took a breath to calm herself down. Now that she was on the train she was thinking about the ticket. It did seem awfully generous; it wasn't like she was sponsored by a gym leader or anyone more important. Her recommendation was one of the ones they handed out to whoever to give out.

The ticket also came the day after she had done her paperwork, maybe it just took a little while for them to register it? While she was considering the ticket, the door to her room opened. Hitori flinched as she was expecting to have the place to herself. A young woman with a brown bob hairstyle walked in. She looked familiar but Hitori couldn't place it. "Ah, Hello there see I wasn't tha first one here," She said with a smile taking a seat in the other corner away from Hitori, her only luggage a backpack.

"H-Huh? A-ah, u-um," Hitori stuttered. First one? Why did this woman act like she knew she was going to be here? Hitori tried for another second before the door opened once again and she saw another girl walk in.

She was more familiar to Hitori, the labcoat was a bit more recognizable to her. It was, uh well she may not remember the girl's name but she was the one who had a Dottler in the Tournament where she got her recommendation.

"You!" The girl shouted with a dramatic point of her finger towards Hitori. Something that made the pink-haired girl flinch even harder and look away hoping it would do anything to keep her from being talked to. "That tournament was supposed to be mine! I nearly couldn't get a recommendation thanks to you!" She angrily said as she stepped inside and took the seat opposite Hitori.

'Supposed to be hers?' Did she somehow accidentally mess up a rigged tournament? Did that mean this girl was some rich or important girl that Hitori shouldn't cross? But she already did and made an enemy out of her! Now she'll have to be on the lookout for people in black suits looking to take her away never to be seen again. 'Ah, Mama, Papa, I'm sorry but your daughter won't become the trainer you hoped she would' Hitori thought to herself.

"What I'm trying ta say is that you can't count any battle a sure victory no matter how good ya are or how much you practiced. How about instead of antagonizing her, focus on winning next time ya battle," The brown-haired woman was talking to the girl in the lab coat. Hitori blinked, ah she hadn't been paying attention to either of them she realized.

"Next battle? But it's not like gym challengers are made to battle each other at the gyms, where will I get the chance to get my revenge?" The labcoat girl snapped back, though she seemed less angry now and was taking in the older woman's advice. 'Wait, Revenge!? She wants revenge!? Was it too late to get off the train and go back home?' Hitori thought to herself.

Her worried expression was noticed by the older woman who gave her a reassuring smile before answering, "Well, for one, stop thinking bout it as revenge. You lost, use that loss as motivation for you and your Pokemon to get stronger, then if you beat her down the road, I'm sure this young lass would use that as motivation to get stronger herself. By battling each other you can both push each other to higher heights than if ya just trained off in the forest somewhere,".

If the woman was hoping that would assure or motivate Hitori, it wasn't working. The socially anxious girl choked on her words trying to get something out, telling them both as politely as possible that she would rather not have to do something like that. The girl in the labcoat seemed to be taking the words with more consideration, seeing this the older woman clapped her hands to get their attention back onto her. "Well, how about this? For now, let's just introduce ourselves. Knowing yer names sounds like a good first step to becoming friends. How bout you start us off lass?" She asked, gesturing to the girl in the lab coat.

After blinking a few times, the girl cleared her throat and straightened up. "Natasha Bathory, 14, I'm going to be the next champion!" she introduced in a rehearsed manner. It was subtle, but Hitori did notice that something about that introduction amused the older woman.

"Nice to meet ya Natasha, now how about you lass? Don't have to go announcin yer aspirations or age or whatever, just yer name is fine," The woman responded easily before turning her attention to Hitori.

Hitori froze up and could already feel herself breaking into a cold sweat at having to introduce herself. No! she couldn't be like this, she'll have to give interviews and the like when she becomes a totally cool, popular, and rich trainer. Swallowing her saliva Hitori answered "A-aah, I-I'm, H-Hitori Go-Gotoh. F-f-f, fifteen. I-I-I-I".

The woman cut Hitori off, more to save Hitori from struggling more with her words, "Nice to meet ya as well Hitori, thanks for introducing yerself!". The woman chuckled, "There, Natasha, Hitori, now that you know each other's name and got a look at each other. Ya don't look quite as much as strangers to each other anymore, right? Right?" She continued.

Hitori didn't get it, she still knew nothing about the girl, no Natasha, besides she was still worried about guys in black suits showing up. Ignorant of Hitori's reservation, Natasha took the woman's words much more earnestly. "I see, So Hitori, we'll battle each other again, then I'll show you how much stronger I got," Natasha said, even as she was looking more at the woman for guidance.

"A-ah, u-um o-okay," Hitori eventually whispered out. She wanted to say no, but under the expectant looks of the two, any ability to refuse was brushed away.

"Wonderful! Though, maybe you want to hold off till yer both on yer journeys proper," The woman added giving Hitori something of a lifeline and relief from her thoughts already spiralling towards how she'd have to battle that Dottler again. From there the three of them began to talk more normally. Or more accurately, Natasaha and the other woman talked to each other with Hitori eventually forcing out a whispered answer.

The woman was impressive, Hitori may be less than a Wimpod when it comes to talking, but the way the woman was able to easily lead the conversation around and include someone like herself. It was the kind of eloquent, cool attitude she wanted to have. It was only as the hours passed and the conversation died down into a more comfortable silence that Hitori realized, the woman never introduced herself.

Even with that realization, Hitori didn't exactly dare to ask. After all what if she introduced herself earlier when she was zoned out? She'd look so stupid, maybe the woman would take back what she said and send Natasha and the men in black suits that were surely behind the girl after her. In the end Hitori kind of stewed anxiety for the rest of the train ride. It was a great relief when the train finally came into the station. The first moment she could, she grabbed her luggage and ran out of the room. Ending up one of the first off the train even.

-----

It was Hitori's first time alone in another city, and that alone was already enough to cause her anxiety and worry. But adding on top actually having places to go for official reasons and meeting up with someone for the first time in how many years? Elementary? That was enough to make the new trainer's legs shake with each step. As she walked down the unfamiliar streets, luggage dragging behind her marking her as a visitor to the city and attracting the attention that comes with it, Hitori checked her phone again and again to confirm the time, a bit past three in the afternoon.

Her only solace was that she still had quite a bit of time before her arranged time to sign the contract. That and a large number of other tourists and visitors who came to participate or watch the Pokemon League's opening ceremony meant they took much of the attention off herself. A few minutes passed before Hitori's phone buzzed with a notification, which even after a week made her jump, and that was when she didn't miss it from having all of her notifications off.

"Hitori! I just heard the train from Hammerlocke came in! I know it's earlier than we said but want to meet up now? We can get something to eat!"

"I missed lunch!"

"If you already ate on the train don't worry I can just grab something quick and meet you wherever!"

Hitori read over Kita's messages needing a second to parse through the emojis, as well as looking at the picture she added after of her Milcery who already was looking a bit larger than before. Typing slowly from a lack of practice Hitori responded, "No problem".

"Nice! Where do you want to eat? I could go for something sweet!"

"Oh, I have just the place in mind, it shouldn't be too far from the train station either!"

"It's this place that serves burgers, I think it opened only a bit ago,"

"I'll see you there, just look for a Coalossal sign!"

Once again Hitori was impressed at how fast extroverts were able to type on their phones and answer. She looked up from her phone to see if it was anywhere next to her. It wasn't, Hitori gave a small "Okay" reply back to Kita before she began to walk around now with more of a goal in mind.

Fifteen minutes later and Hitori was lost in a back alley, she had been looking all over but the sign was nowhere to be seen. At least she was by herself away from the crowds of people, still she wanted to vent her frustrations just a little bit. Taking a seat next to some trashcans that further hid her from sight she took out her guitar and began to play. Not any song in particular, just making something up to suit her mood.

In a few minutes, she'd have to just ask Kita for more specific directions. While she was at it she also needed to find a place to let Whismur out so she could stretch her legs, a new location with so many people would doubtlessly make the girl cry out. She knew because many people was making her want to cry herself. But for now, Hitori could just play and focus on her music.

A couple of minutes passed, and some clouds must have passed by overhead as the alley began to seem darker. As well as a bit cooler, or maybe that was just Hitori making herself comfortable in a gloomy place such as this alley. But as she finished her second song for a moment Hitori felt a pair of eyes on her and a brief bluish, purple light. Though when she flinched and turned to look nothing was there.

"M-maybe I s-should look for that r-restaurant s-some more f-first. I d-don't want to bother Kita a-after all," Hitori mumbled to herself. As she did, she noticed the purple light once more, only this time it was in a different direction deeper into the alleyway. But again looking at the light only made it go away. "I-I didn't go that w-way yet anyway," Hitori said to herself more to help build her confidence.

She walked deeper into the alleyway which rather than connecting to a street, only seemed to lead to an intersection where both ways were more alleyway. As Hitori wondered why someone would even design a town like this, she once again noticed the light in the corner of her vision attracting her to the alley on her right. Rather than think too much about it, Hitori just took it as a reason to go down that alley. It wouldn't be the first time she daydreamed, and usually, it was weirder like her imag- her thinking about a cartoon character she sometimes doodled.

Reaching the end of that alleyway it repeated a few more times, the purple light appearing just long enough to bring her attention to one turn or another. Eventually, she found herself walking out of the alleys, suddenly on a busy street right next to the train station. The bright light of day made her flinch and blink until her eyes adjusted. Right next to her was a large carboard cutout of a Coalossal.

"Ah, Hitori there you are!" Kita called out as she peeked her head out from the cutout. It was Hitori's first time seeing her out of her school uniform. Dressed in more comfortable-looking shorts even if her shirt looked very similar to what she had as a uniform. She also had a rolling suitcase carrying her things, already they looked a bit more worn than the pristine freshly bought suitcase of Hitori's.

"H-Hello," Hitori mumbled out.

"Sorry, I should have sent you the address, but you found it just fine! Let's go in!" Kita said, sparkling brightly as ever. Hitori was a bit blindsided by, enough that she felt compelled to turn away to shield her eyes. In the process looking back into the alleyway and saw the purple light a final time, though this time she felt she could make out some white below it. However, she blinked, and it disappeared when she opened her eyes again.

Turning back towards Kita, Hitori followed along into the well-illuminated restaurant. Thankfully she didn't have to interact with any of the waitresses, even then perhaps she could have just let Kita handle any of that. Finding a seat in a corner booth where she would feel as disconnected from everyone else, she relaxed just a touch. See? She could enter a place she had never been to before in a different town even!

"Right this place lets you have your Pokemon out, they even cook custom burgers chock full of berries for them as well, so come on out everyone!" Kita energetically said as she pulled out a set of Pokeballs and let out her team. Hitori glanced as the three Pokemon came out, Kita's Pikachu let out a pleased cry and immediately got onto the table to pose. Kita herself was already at the ready with her phone out to take pictures with her Pikachu.

Kita's Eevee meanwhile came out and after looking around jumped onto the seat half lounged and half relaxed as he rolled on the soft seats. Finally, Kita's Milcery did a small spin as she emerged from her Pokeball, blinking and looking around immediately drawn to the smells and seemed to focus on it, staring intently at the kitchen.

Kita looked away from her phone just long enough to say, "Aren't you going to let Whismur out as well? I'm sure she must be so restless being inside her Pokeball all day,".

Hitori fidgeted a bit but eventually gave a small nod. Taking Whismur's Pokeball into her hand, Hitori whispered to the ball, "I'm letting you out. It's a restaurant, K-Kita is here with her Pokemon. T-Try not to be s-s-scared,". Hitori may not fully understand the technology of the Pokeballs, but they were able to somewhat know what was happening around them while inside the balls. With that she tenderly pushed the button, opening the ball up and letting Whismur out right next to her on the seat.

Whismur, upon coming out of her ball stretched and let out a tiny, almost inaudible yawn. Even if her mouth opened to nearly the size of her body in the meantime. She didn't let out a cry as she warily eyed the other Pokemon. Pikachu and Eevee ignored Whismur, or at least didn't try and make a big deal out of her appearance. Though Milcery broke from staring at the kitchen long enough to stare at Whismur before suddenly approaching with a battle cry!

Hitori was already reaching for the headphones around her neck as she saw tears already welling up in Whismur's eyes at the sudden noise. Thankfully Kita noticed and quickly returned Milcery, there were a few tense seconds as Kita, Hitori, Eevee, and Pikachu all stared and braced for the outburst. But Whismur managed to let out a small whimper and exhaled, and waddling to try and hide behind Hitori. Shoving herself between Hitori's back and the back of the seat to hide from the attention on her.

"I-I-I'm so proud of you Whismur! You didn't cry! O-Our t-training is paying off!" Hitori suddenly exclaimed as she set her headphones back down. There was a small muffled cry from Whismur who had remained wedged behind Hitori, but her trainer kept a large dopey smile at the progress. It was the first time she saw Whismur manage to hold in one of her crying fits!

"I-I'm going to order one of everything for you W-Whismur," Hitori said with a sudden bout of energy. Grabbing the electronic menu and randomly pushing every option available.

"N-now now Hitori, maybe just get Whismur like two burgers instead?" Kita offered as she made a placating hand gesture.

Hitori blinked and blushed in embarrassment. She then slinked down to hide under the table, which revealed Whismur who glanced left and right before diving under the table to join her trainer. "I apologize for my arrogance and loudness. I'll remember my place as a sub-Wimpod from now on," Hitori mumbled.

"No no it's fine it's fine! Please come back up, look I'll pay for you and Whismur as an apology for how Milcery acted!" Kita said in a rather panicked tone of her own as she tried to look down under the table. Her Pikachu only blinked a bit and tilted her head at why the camera had stopped, meanwhile, her Eevee had quietly slinked down under the table and was gently pawing at Hitori's thigh.

"O-Okay…" Hitori quietly said from under the table. A few seconds passed before she spoke again adding, "H-How w-was t-traveling?". She had put all of her energy into thinking up a proper, normal response to try and move things away from herself.

"Oh, It was fun, way more work than the league guys tell you, you know? My first night I thought I was going to die when I realized how hard getting ready would be…" Kita was happy to take the cue to move on and share her experience of spending a week traveling from Hammerlocke to Motospoke.

With Kita distracted by talking about her trip, Hitori and Whismur eventually felt enough comfort to emerge from under the table, sitting back down in their seat. They were also able to order without issue afterward. Hitori bought a large burger for Whismur and a burger set for herself. Hitori tried to ignore Kita's aura as she was taking pictures of her food and her Pokemon posing next to her and her food.

Hitori watched with a small smile as Whismur struggled to properly carry a large burger that was nearly as big as Whismur's body. Whismur's mouth opened wide to take a sizeable chunk out of the burger at once. Somehow the pink Pokemon was able to hold the large bit in her mouth without any sort of issue. However, Whismur had to set the burger down to chew. Hitori's smile grew a bit more as she watched a smile grow on Whismur's face as she ate, muffled by her chewing she was letting some kind of hum, one that Hitori recognized as one of her songs.

 

[Belwin]

After an enjoyable though probably a bit early dinner, Hitori could no longer avoid the meeting she had to make with the Pokemon League in the stadium. Both to finally sign the contract and to get a few things she needed to pick up. At least she wasn't alone, she had Whismur giving her support from her Pokeball. After all the noise of the city is still too much for a Whismur.

More tangible was the emotional support of Kita who was by her side. Having declared "I don't have anywhere else to be, so I can come with you at least to the stadium. I've been there already so there's no chance of getting lost!". Hitori couldn't really argue with something like that, besides it did feel good to have someone who had no problem walking into populated places like the stadium next to her. If for no other reason than seeing her walk in could broke the mental barrier of a place like this being off limits to a random person like herself.

As the two reached the pathway leading into the stadium, which was quite busy with many people coming and going. Some bought last-minute tickets to the opening ceremony, others new trainers like Hitori and Kita who were hanging around until their appointed time, trainers who were unable to get recommendations and making a nuisance of themselves, and finally, trainers who were past their first year at the league showing off to anyone who'll look. It was something that made Hitori that much more grateful for Kita's presence as no doubt if alone she'd not be able to approach.

"Oh no," Hitori suddenly whispered. Just as Kita turned and looked at her confused, thinking Hitori had just forgotten some of her luggage, Hitori hid behind Kita. Looking out to what Hitori was hiding from, Kita saw Ball Guy and what was a new female mascot, probably named Ball Girl or Ball Woman standing off to the side of the walkway talking to each other.

"What? Hitori are you afraid of mascots? Don't worry if you just greet them and keep moving they'll ignore you pretty fast," Kita said providing some useful information that Hitori made sure to remember. Still, Hitori shook her head to indicate that Kita had it wrong.

"A-ah, that's not it… Um, the w-woman challenged me to a battle before. B-But I didn't have two Pokemon. I-if she sees me now with y-you here, s-she'll challenge me for sure," Hitori stuttered out her explanation.

"I see! Okay, just stay by my side and we'll walk past! Even if they see us I'll just say no! No rule says just because two trainers' eyes meet, they must battle!" Kita said with a nod.

It must have looked silly, but Kita didn't really mind if it helped a friend out, so she shuffled sideways to provide a larger base of cover for Hitori to stay behind her. It looked silly, the amount of luggage they had meant it was obvious someone was behind her, and Hitori's guitar case poked out from behind her anyway. People may have been giving them looks but it didn't bother Kita, not one bit! Honest!

It did seem to help Hitori as they made their way the rest of the walkway and almost into the entrance of the building without Ball Girl noticing her. As they were ascending the stairs to the main entrance, Kita saw Ball Girl slowly turn her head towards the two of them. Unblinking mascot eyes stared directly at her and for a moment Kita could understand why Hitori feared her, the mascot had a pressure about her. But despite the thoughts that ran through Kita's head at that moment, the mascot only held up her hand and gave a thumbs up to her, or maybe it was to Hitori.

The moment they were past the doors, both trainers let out a sigh of relief, stepping off to the side of a bench to take a seat from their impromptu stealth mission. Kita tried to hold back a chuckle as it was kind of fun in hindsight, even if Hitori and her had their picture taken by some of the crowd. "T-thank you K-Kita," Hitori said after taking a few more seconds to compose herself.

"No problem! Don't worry it's all a formality from here," Kita replied.

Hitori gave a small nod as she approached the counter. Thankfully all she had to do was show her recommendation and the person manning the counter was able to quickly type something out and she was taken to another private room that was a carbon copy of the one she was in before when first presenting her recommendation.

What came was some final explanations of her expectations during the gym challenge. They were all things already outlined to her in the contract, but she supposed not everyone read it over if they were going over the important parts again. "During the six months the challenge runs for, you are expected to make at least one gym challenge a month. Exceptions can be made provided you make multiple appearances in a month. On the flipside, there is no limit to how many times you can challenge a gym. However, as each gym battle must be scheduled ahead of time, repeated challenges may result in having a period of up to a month delay to allow other challenges time to battle the Gym Leader," the suited official had started his explanation.

The more it went on Hitori kind of zoned out, she had read the contract a few times over. Oh, she was still worried, after all, every gym battle was both recorded and played live. Anyone in Galar knew that. Just, it still felt far away, so she was leaving it to future Hitori to worry about, she had a whole extra month to think about how she was ever going to appear in front of so many people.

"Now in the past, we used to allow each new challenger to choose their number to print onto their gym outfits and trainer cards. Though with former Champion Leon's defeat, too many new challengers attempted to use his number. So now the challenger's numbers are assigned to them. Let's see, Hitori Gotoh you'll be number 104," He continued.

Hitori only nodded in return. It wasn't like she had any sort of number in mind. At least this way no one could attack her for picking their number. It was like having your group assigned to you in group projects! It was easier that way than picking your own. Where everyone else would split into their friend groups and she'd always be stuck trying to gather the courage to ask someone. Only to be left alone in the end, embarrassing herself as the teacher had to ask her if any groups had room for her.

"Each trainer will be given a debit card owned and maintained by the Pokemon League. While there is no limit to what you may spend the money added to it on, the Pokemon League only will deposit a small amount each week to the account. As you can see by this chart, for each badge you obtain the amount will increase," Hitori zoned back into his explanation as something caught her attention.

"A-ah, u-um," Hitori started.

"Oh sorry you have a question?" He asked.

"T-the c-contract um, l-listed it as a m-monthly amount," She asked.

"Ah, let me see," He answered before taking the small stack of paper and quickly flipping to the appropriate page. "This page was accidentally included from last year's version of the contract. Last year new challengers were indeed given their funding at the start of each month. However, because of this, certain trainers spend all of it within the first day of the month. A change was made to prevent such a thing from occurring, or at the very least prevent them from making their journey harder due to a lack of supplies. I can assure you that the amount is the same as last year," He explained.

That made enough sense to Hitori so she only briefly looked over the replacement page and nodded to his answer. From there he continued his explanation once more. She ended up zoning out again, but nothing else felt like new information to her, so in the end she successfully signed the contract in the ten different places it required.

"Thank you, now two more things and I'll let you go on your way. First is the matter of the opening ceremony. Before leaving head to the stadium's gift shop and hand the person at the counter this form and they'll provide you with your gym outfit for no cost. The first replacement at each stadium is also free, though more than that and it'll cost 15,000 Poke per outfit. Then please report back to the front desk tomorrow morning before ten for the Ceremony" He explained pushing a small filled-out form. It had Hitori's size and trainer number, and it was marked as pink as she wanted.

Though that came with its pool of anxiety, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. She was stepping up and doing official trainer meetings. She could do something like just handing in a form! Probably. It was prepared for her specifically, right? So, she wouldn't be kicked out because she asked for something out of stock. But what if she somehow was deemed unworthy and kicked out because of it, Hitori suddenly shook her head and banished the thoughts from her head. She couldn't let herself become so gloomy.

"Finally, accommodations have been made at the Budew Drop Inn for all new challengers. Your reservation information is here. It is only for two nights, so if you are staying in Motospoke for longer I would recommend making your own arrangements," He finished his explanation with a final sheet of paper.

Hitori nodded a final time she was finally done with this official business that felt tiring just to listen through. "Ah sorry, I forgot one last thing, before leaving please have your picture taken for your trainer card. It says here you haven't had one made yet," He added.

"Eh?" Hitori replied.

-----

Hitori opened the door to her hotel room and quickly made her way inside. Taking only a moment to push her suitcase to the side and let Whismur out of her Pokeball before collapsing onto the bed. Getting her photo taken and the trainer card made took longer than it really should have. Not that she could blame anyone but herself and her, 'what was the opposite of photogenic' she wondered for a moment. At first, they wanted to try and get a picture of her with a smile, or confident grin. When that failed they tried for a more neutral passport-like photo.

Hitori's inability to look people in the eye made trying to look at the camera a Sisyphean task. Eventually, they got a picture where she didn't look like she was about to curl into a ball and cry while looking forward nonetheless. After that Kita wanted to spend more time with her, but at that point she was already feeling tired from dealing with so many people.

Whismur was happy to be out of her Pokeball at least and was exploring the room. A few minutes passed before Hitori sat up and pulled her phone out, she may not have had the energy to deal with people but it didn't mean she couldn't look at the comments on her videos. Those always made her feel better about herself. At least when they didn't inadvertently make her feel worse by talking about their friends and classmates and all that.

Her latest cover was well received, which made her smile grow wide and a goofy laugh erupted out from her. She was quite the guitarist, wasn't she? Fifty comments all saying the same thing couldn't be wrong, could it? It did make her realize something that she probably should have figured out earlier. How was she going to keep making videos while outgoing from town to town for the Gyms?

Sitting up on her bed and only now noticing that Whismur had gotten up on the bed, so of course before anything else, she made sure to pet Whismur's head. She did have her laptop, guitar, and she could record using her phone's camera, couldn't she? But she didn't have that blank segment of wall that she used as a backdrop. Would they notice the difference in acoustics? What if she had to record outside and people walked in on her? Or worse what if they paid attention to the backgrounds and figured out where she was? They could even figure out where she was going if she uploaded often enough and track her down and find out that everything she said in the descriptions and replying to the comments were all lies!

At the same time, she couldn't just not upload at all, she knew from what people said online about people going on breaks. If she doesn't upload her little bit of attention would go away, she'd be forgotten and tossed aside at the digital side of the road. Better to do what she usually did when things were started to get too much for her to think about. She got off the bed and scooted over to her luggage to pull out her guitar.

Before Hitori could play she took the headphones off her neck and placed them onto Whismur's ears. With that Hitori sat down on her bed and began to play, focusing on pushing past her comfort level. She was playing to improve right now, not just to clear her head or enjoy the music that came from it. While she played, she figured that she could just record in hotel rooms like the one she was in now, it'd solve her problems. Now she just needed to remember that a few hours from now once she was done.

Engrossed in her practice, Hitori had tuned out much of the room outside herself and the music sheets she had taken out, her phone showing herself so she could see her fingers as they played. Whismur had dug into Hitori's suitcase making herself comfortable in the packed clothes with a ripped open back of berry gummies. During this time, the lights in the room flickered, one of them even going out and darkening the room.

Wax slowly began to ooze in from the bottom of the door to the hallway. Unnoticed the wax crept forward towards the human occupant. As it neared, the wax climbed up the wall onto the bedside table. There it pooled, growing larger and larger until a bluish-purple flame flicked to life and a single yellow opened on the bundle of wax, now half as big as Whismur was. The living candle stared at Hitori, and a wide grin grew on its face.

An hour passed with Hitori continuing to practice, Whismur had fallen asleep within the cramped confines of the suitcase. She stopped her playing for a moment to stretch, as well as to sniff at her arm. 'ah I must have been sweating while getting into it' Hitori thought to herself. She was rocking pretty hard on the guitar for an hour straight. She glanced around, the room felt a bit warmer than before. Her eyes landed on a rather large candle that was lit on the bedside table.

'Was that always there?' Hitori asked herself. Though after a second she just dismissed it, she did just immediately went for the bed. "Whismur, bath time," She called out. Her partner jolted awake and pushed herself free of the suitcase. Together trainer and Pokemon made their way to the bathroom to wash up, Hitori stopped just at the door before going to a thermostat and turning it down a couple of degrees.

The candle plumped up, the orange flame turning back to its bluish hue and eyes opening up. The Pokemon frowned but didn't make a move otherwise. Small arms of wax came up to where a chin would be on its small body and a look of contemplation appeared on its face. Eventually, its small arms clapped together, and it nodded to itself.

With still some time until the shower was over, the candle Pokemon moved onto the bed where an ignored phone lay. There the Pokemon fiddled with the screen as He had seen other humans do before. There he managed to get to a channel and could play a video by one GuitarHero. The Pokemon then looked on with his full attention as it played out. Before Hitori could leave her shower, the Pokemon slinked back into his original position.

-----

Refreshed after her shower, Hitori got more comfortable on the bed, with the temperature now down a bit more it was feeling a lot more comfortable. Now that she and Whismur were clean it was time again to get some dinner. While she was dreading having to do something like ordering or going out to eat. Hitori was relieved to see that the inn had a completely remote ordering service. With that load off her mind, she eagerly ordered food both for herself and Whismur.

Normally she'd go right back to playing now, whether to practice or to record something. But the simple fact that someone would be coming by soon meant there was no way she'd be playing until they had come and gone. So, it was back to her phone to browse around. This time not ego-searching her comments but looking up more information on Pokemon battling and raising Pokemon. That and holding her phone out as she looked for a good spot to record a cover.

As she swept her phone over her bedside table, she noticed that the odd candle that sat upon it was larger, with a bigger flame. It looked, impatient if it was at all possible for a candle. The flame seemed to flare bigger at random. Hitori began to glance between the phone's camera and the candle. A feeling of dread dragging up. While to her own eyes, it looked as though the candle was normal if a bit weird, on the feed of her phone the flame was blue and it had eyes that were staring at her.

Just then the picture app's face-tracking software picked the candle up and another app booted up. "Litwick, the Candle Pokemon. Ghost and Fire type. This Pokemon emits a light that absorbs the life energy of people and Pokemon. They pretend to guide lost travelers around, leeching life energy from those who follow it," The 'Pokemon Identification' App so helpfully explained.

Hitori read it and her worry only grew wider, 'how long have I been around it? It was there from the start wasn't it? T-that's hours right? A-am I going to die. I'm sorry Mom! I'm sorry Dad! I'm sorry Futari! I'm going to become a Ghost Pokemon's dinner!' Hitori thought to herself as she turned to look at the candle in reality.

Seeing as his disguise was seen through, Litwick revealed itself fully, impatience gleaming in his eyes. It made some gesture with his small arms that Hitori couldn't quite grasp and slowly backed up. When Hitori didn't respond how Litwick wanted, impatience gave way to annoyance and his flame began to emit a noxious smoke that gathered above it. Again, it made the gesture with his arms.

Hitori was close to just trying to run from it, or maybe try and give whatever she had in her luggage to the ghost type. 'Maybe the snacks in her suitcase that she got for Whismur would be enough tribute?' she thought. But that line of thinking was interrupted by her starting to realize the gesture. It kind of looked like the Litwick was trying to play a Gui-.

Whismur suddenly jumped forward, ears primed with ghost-type energy, and slammed them down into the unsuspecting Wild Pokemon. Her astonish knocked Litwick back with a surprised ghostly shout from the Wild Pokemon. As he landed on Hitori's bed, Hitori was quietly thankful that the bed didn't just catch fire from the ghostly flame on Litwick's head.

Litwick quickly got up, or to be more accurate, the wax shifted into an upright position. The noxious smoke gathered appearing much quicker before with a swing of his waxy body shot forward in a wave of smog. Whismur didn't retaliate back yet, instead giving a loud cry and turning to Hitori waiting for another order.

Hitori however was doing her best to not totally freak out as she wasn't ready to have a battle against a wild Pokemon in her hotel room of all places! Whismur's cries were suddenly interrupted as she began to let out choking coughs as Litwick's attack overtook her. "A-ah, I-icy w-wind," Hitori responded as the experience from the Skwovet attack came back.

Whismur couldn't take in the breath needed to unleash the attack at its fullest. Regardless a blue-tinted wind bellowed out of Whismur's mouth towards Litwick. The attack served duo purpose as the wind from it blew the smog away from Whismur allowing her to breathe once more, while also hurting Litwick however little it would affect a fire type.

Hitori had another moment to think about Litwick's actions from before, 'it really was looking like it was playing an air guitar. If it was there from the beginning, then it must have heard me playing. Then-' Hitori thought. Before she could finish her thought Litwick swung his head around, the flame breaking off into floating motes of fire that hung around his body, the blue hue shifting into the regular orange and reds of normal fire.

"W-wait!" Hitori called out her voice cracking from raising up for the first time in a few days. The flame didn't suddenly disappear but both Litwick and Whismur stopped to turn towards Hitori. "Y-You u-um, j-jjust w-wanted to h-hear me p-play r-right?" Hitori stuttered out. In part, it was because she was kind of realizing this Litwick was the first time someone other than Whismur or her family heard her play in person, which was somewhat overwhelming to her.

Litwick extinguished the floating flames and suddenly had a wide smile and nodded eagerly, ethereal, echo-y cries coming from him with an excited gleam in his eye. Whismur meanwhile shifted her eyes back to Litwick, carefully watching the ghost type just in case it tried to attack Hitori again.

Hitori grabbed her Guitar and began to play, her eyes going right down to the strings as having an audience felt like a lot more pressure than she was expecting. What if she was wrong, or her playing was suddenly not good enough for the Litwick? Still, her safety was on the line she imagined so she played and played. As she played Litwick's head swayed back and forth, the blue flame slowly drawing Hitori's eye up to look at the Pokemon.

It wasn't annoyed, impatient, or even bored. Litwick was watching with an awed expression, as though Hitori's playing was the best thing he had ever seen. There was something to playing to a living, real person that was different from just playing to herself or her camera. Well, person and living may not be the most accurate considering, but the idea was the same.

Hitori's eye shifted back towards Whismur as she realized that Whismur was also looking on with a large smile and pleased expression. 'B-but I'm being so loud, Whismur should be crying from the noise,' Hitori thought as she continued to play. She was always careful to keep Whismur away from the loud noise as those types of noise were what set off Whismur.

Soon her song came to an end, Litwick began to clap and cheer with his wispy voice while Whismur was giving whispered cheers. A blush grew on Hitori's face, this was what she wanted, wasn't it? Cheering fans, it may be the first of steps, but it was proof she could do it. She started playing another song, this time with ever so slightly more confidence.

She continued to play for a few more songs when suddenly a bell rang out, "Room Service," A polite voice said from the other side of the door. Hitori let out a shocked shriek as the surprise and realization that her loud playing no doubt could be heard outside the room. Mimicking Hitori's own surprise Whismur began to loudly cry shaking the room with its sheer volume. This then got Hitori to trip over herself and knock her guitar case down against the suitcase as she tried to deal with everything happening all at once.

Hitori did what she could to calm Whismur down, get the room service that arrived, and apologize profusely for the noise. At least as much as she could while stuttering over her every word. Litwick noticed something next to the now knocked-over suitcase. Turning away from everything that was going on, it moved to the floor and over to the suitcase. Having fallen out was a white Pokeball with a red trim at the seam.

Hitori let out a sigh as she slumped into her bed, already sweaty again despite just showering. At least there were a few dishes lined up on the small table the room had, Whismur was mollified with her food and was eating happily from her dinner. She barely heard Litwick leaping up onto the bed, as she looked over at the Pokemon she saw it was carrying the premier ball that she had stored away. Litwick looked at her, ball in hand and with a bright, begging light in his eyes held the ball out. Hitori pushed herself back suddenly right up against the headboard. She understood exactly what the Litwick was asking of her, he wanted to become her Pokemon. But could she handle that commitment? She already had a lot to handle with Whismur and the opening ceremony. Slowly she shook her head to say no to the Litwick.

Litwick had a moment where he looked dejected, but soon closed his eyes, standing there in silence for a few moments. Then as he opened them once more, he had the exact same expression as before and once again held the ball out. Hitori felt her heart thumping in her chest as for once her worries about being pushed came true, but she shook her head again.

Only to have the same thing play out, Litwick would get dejected then seem to just erase the memory out of his head and ask again. Again and again, until finally Hitori's trouble saying no finally caught up to her. Along with a nagging voice in her head telling her that she couldn't let a fan down, even a ghostly Pokemon one. Letting out a breath, Hitori accepted the premier ball out of Litwick's hand.

Litwick's eyes positively shone with an energy that was almost overwhelming to a girl like Hitori. Still, she turned the ball around in her hand and shakily held it out to tap against Litwick's head. The ball opened and enveloped Litwick in a bright light before absorbing him and shutting. Hitori let the ball out of her hand as it began to suddenly shake back and forth, the central button lighting up with a red light. On and off it blinked and shook for a few final seconds before it all came to a stop. A sound like a soft gong played out and it was done. She had caught Litwick.

 

[Belwin]

Hitori had stayed up late that night. At least later than she intended, catching a new Pokemon meant a sudden new number of things she was expected to deal with. Food for one, then she had to look up a bunch of information on Litwick just to make sure she didn't do something to set the Ghost type off. Of course, she may have gotten distracted once or twice during her internet binge.

When she did wake up, she ended up in a bit of a rush to get to the stadium at the allotted time. At least having the hotel room for another day meant she didn't have to bring all her luggage with her. In fact, by wearing her gym outfit under her tracksuit she could not only save on having to carry as much with her but also avoid the inevitable situation of using a public locker room!

She did almost leave without her Pokemon as embarrassing as it was, requiring her to take the Pokeball holder off her guitar case and properly hook it onto the waist of her tracksuit. At least she felt a bit more like a real Pokemon trainer with two Pokeballs hanging off her hip. Finally, she put her headphones on, turned on some music, and headed off to the stadium.

The streets of Motostoke were busy, very very busy. People were pouring into the stadium as the hour of the opening ceremony approached. Hitori wished she woke up earlier, that way she could have just come before everyone else and had time to find a nice corner to wait in. Hitori found herself pounding on her chest as she drew her courage up as much as she could just to get through the crowd.

At least once she made it inside and showed her trainer card off, she was able to enter an employee-only hallway which was basically empty in comparison. Even if there were still workers moving back and forth with whatever preparations they were working on for the ceremony. Despite her preparations, she still did have to go into the locker room. Thankfully a subdivision of a subdivision meant there were only a couple of other girls in the room changing.

Being able to get out of her tracksuit in peace gave her time to calm her pounding heart in. She stored her tracksuit and headphones in the locker before moving on to another room within the stadium. One of a few that were hosting the other first-time participants who had earned recommendations like Kita and herself, oh also Natasha she supposed. The room was plain and white with just benches bolted to the floors for people to sit on. There were a couple of large TVs on the wall, one was showing the arena while the other was rolling through a set of instructions.

They were simple enough, just reminding the trainers to be ready and that they'll be told to walk out onto the arena when it is time for them to be introduced. It was this that made her late appearance something that wasn't a huge loss aside from her mental stability. She just needed to be in this room when called which wasn't still for another thirty minutes according to a timer on said TV.

Finally taking a seat in the corner, Hitori glanced around at the number of trainers. They were split into three rooms to accommodate them comfortably, still, Hitori could see Natasha wearing a yellow variant of the shirt and shorts along with her number, 784. She was standing with her arms crossed and staring intently at the TV. Hitori was just glad she wasn't staring at her like that, she'd probably melt into a pile of slush. Still, she did notice that Natasha had three Pokeballs on her waist, one of which was a Luxury ball.

Hitori then spotted Kita who was happily talking to a few other trainers, she was wearing a red version of the sporty outfit with the number 136. For a moment Hitori considered moving over to say hello, but just as quickly dismissed the idea. If she couldn't approach any of her classmates, Kita included when she was just in school, no way could she in a setting like this. Though Hitori also noticed that Kita had a fourth Pokeball on her belt, a question of when Kita already got a fourth Pokemon came to mind.

Not recognizing anyone else Hitori focused inward as the creeping dread of walking out to so many people really started to rear its head towards her. She managed to ignore it so far as she had so many other more pressing situations to deal with. But what if she tripped? Her clumsiness would be shown on live TV in front of who knows how many people. She'll probably be forced to resign right then and there. She wouldn't even be able to work a job as everyone who walked into the modest Pokemart that would be the only place willing to hire her-

Her delusion was sharply interrupted by the door opening, rather loudly at that and who stepped inside drew everyone's attention. Not just because of the loud disturbance but because, well they were wearing a mascot head. Hitori nearly screamed as Ball Girl walked in, expression unknowable as her large mask shifted to show her looking over the crowd. There were a few seconds where the clear questions of 'What?' and 'Why?' were clearly present on the faces of a good number of the trainers present.

However, none seemed willing to approach the mascot girl and ask for such an explanation. So slowly their attention turned back to their own conversations or other things they were occupying their time with. For Hitori, at least it seemed she managed to go unnoticed by the mascot again, at least for now. She was able to note that Ball Girl wore a mix of red and white for her outfit, adorned with the number 002. Finally, she noted the number of Pokeballs Ball Girl had on her hip, a full set of six. Each in different kinds, none of which was the basic Pokeball.

Certainly, neither was Hitori going to approach her. Instead, she looked over at the TV which after a couple of minutes was now starting to show some instructions. Fairly basic ones, telling the new trainers that when they are given a signal they are to walk out onto the arena. Not approaching the center ring, not crossing onto the other half of the arena, and not going too far to either side. There were even helpful diagrams. They'd be entering from the side entrances rather than the far ends where challengers would come out.

As for why Hitori was paying such attention to the instructions, well it gave her something to ground herself as worry was already bubbling up. Questions like 'What if she accidentally walked too far?' 'What if she didn't walk out far enough?'. It also gave her something to focus on as the ceremony was beginning, heralded by Champion Hop walking out onto the arena, with the kind of easy-going smile that made him feel approachable, waving sheepishly towards the audience. All the while his Cinderace walked beside him with both hands raised up and drinking in the attention like it was his Arceus given right.

'It was easy, just walk out. No need to wave to anyone or anything, step out, don't trip over anything, I don't even have to go that far out, just enough to be seen the crowds of people who undoubtedly would look at you as the Wimpod you are' Hitori thought to herself, slinking down and under the bench. While she mentally prepared herself, the room began to empty as some of the more eager trainers were going off to take their spots.

A few minutes passed and Hitori finally crawled out from under the bench. The room was more or less empty from what she could see, a glance towards the TVs showed that Hop was still speaking. Taking in a deep breath Hitori took her first step towards the door. Only to immediately freeze as by her side Ball Girl had been squatting down and apparently staring at her.

"I see you used my gift an caught yerself a new friend! How about we have ourselves that battle once the ceremony is over?" She asked in a cheery, extroverted tone that made Hitori recoil just a touch.

Hitori froze up as she struggled to force herself to reply. Though before she could even really start to stutter out an answer the mascot gently pat Hitori on her back. "Course if ya don't want I'm not about to force ya. Well better hurry up we're due to step out in a few," Ball Girl said before walked off with a hum and a skip in her step.

-----

Hitori stood amongst the crowd of other recommended trainers in the hallway leading out of the arena. TVs lined the walls presenting different angles of the arena along with one right above the entryway that just turned from red to green. Hitori walked forward a bit robotically her mind more occupied with the upcoming challenge from the mascot than anything.

'Why me?' Hitori could only wonder to herself. She wasn't paying much attention to anything, not Hop's voice welcoming them in, not the filled seats that- oh no she was becoming much more aware of them now. Hitori's steps became much shakier, her eyes flitted around looking for a place to hide, a particularly broad trainer, a bush, a garbage can, anything would do!

"Now it is my great honor to introduce to everyone the eight gym leaders who these shining stars in the rough will be polishing themselves against! There may be some new faces for those of you who have watched the previous years but trust me when I say they're all more than up to the task!" Hop announced with a flourish that could at least snap Hitori out of her panic for long enough to realize it looked a bit like he was trying to emulate the previously undefeated champion, Leon.

From the other side, the gym leaders began their own walk onto the arena in much of the same way that Hitori and the others had. Hitori recognized most of them, Nessa, Kabu, Raihan, Melony, and Bede. However, there were two that brought a small, awed smile to her face. She was seeing Allister and Marnie in person! Something about the sight of Allister looking like he wanted to be anywhere but in front of a large crowd soothed Hitori, that if a gym leader could be feeling anxious, that it wasn't just her, helped calm her down even if just a touch.

Then there was a face Hitori didn't recognize, and she had watched a lot of gym battles, so she understood that it wasn't the same gym leaders every time. Bea and Gordie often took spots from Melony and Allister for some years. Bede had taken over for Opal, and she knew Marnie would eventually take Pier's spot. This year apparently being the year that it happened. The woman had pink hair in a similar shade to Hitori's own and was wearing a white fur coat over her gym outfit with this hairband that looked like Dustox wings. The other notable feature Hitori saw was probably the smuggest expression she'd ever seen.

Then in only a few more minutes, her role in this large crowd was over. The new trainers were asked to return to the waiting room. Hitori was certainly happy to be out of sight and made a quick getaway. There was more to the ceremony, of course, a few exhibition matches from the gym leaders and the champion to ensure everyone who came got their money's worth. Ones that the new trainers were welcome to stay and watch, there was even a small section of seats reserved for them.

Hitori wasn't going to be taking advantage of that however, she was quick to get to her locker to get her things and get out of there. For one she wanted to get her tracksuit on before the locker room was filled back up. As well, maybe if she hurried enough, she could escape Ball Girl's challenge.

-----

In the end, Hitori only got as far as halfway through the walkway off the stadium's lot before she was interrupted by Ball Girl walking up to her from behind. "Hold up would ya?" She asked nearly in a jog.

"Sorry if I pushed ya, consider this an apology from me!" Ball Girl added before holding out another Pokeball. Hitori couldn't meet the eyes of the mascot head but she did at least turn around to face her. She was being nice at least, pushy still but nice. Hitori looked down at the ball being offered to her, a netball judging by the pattern.

Part of Hitori felt like it was the same as offered candy. The kind your mom tells you not to accept. Or maybe it was closer to a deal with a monster. She had accepted the previous two balls from her, so it should be fine right? With such thoughts in her head, Hitori accepted the ball shoved it in her pocket, and gave the smallest of noises in her attempt to accept the apology.

As she turned to walk away Ball Girl took it as a chance to continue, "Great! So, that aside I have an idea if you're willing to battle me! You must have caught your new Pokemon recently right? I happen to have something that could help you out in exchange,". Hitori wondered how the mascot was able to figure that out, but as she turned around to try and politely decline, she noticed that Ball Girl was holding a Pokedex!

Those were super rare! Not only were they a database of information both curated and not of Pokemon, but they also contained information that hadn't been disclosed by professors. Even more than that it contained a scanner that allowed someone to check the moves, ability, gender, and so on of a Pokemon that normally would require a procedure at a Pokemon center to do. A few questions popped up in Hitori's head, most of all being why a mascot had something like that.

"A-ah, sure," Hitori said without too much thought, agreeing more out of her conflict aversion than anything. She could at least justify herself with the thought that it would save money and she did need to know more about what her Litwick could do. She was planning to have to go down the list within the Attackdex to learn that way.

"Good to hear, ah probably shouldn't be startin any battles right out here in public. I know a place near the Budew drop inn we could use," Ball Girl said before gesturing for Hitori to follow before walking off in the direction of said inn. Hitori quietly began to follow her, while keeping a reasonable distance. That counted as being wary enough of strangers for Mom right?

As it turned out behind the inn was a battlefield that anyone who had a room could use. Apparently according to Ball Girl new trainers kept battling in the lobby so they had it built. "Alright, so let's see your new friend!" Ball Girl energetically said.

Hitori carefully held out the premier ball and with a push of the button it opened and let Litwick out. Litwick took a moment to glance around and orient himself before properly noticing Ball Girl and puffing himself up with a confident grin. "T-t-t-this i-is L-Litwick, h-he s-snuck into my room l-last night and l-liked m-my music," Hitori introduced the ghost type as best she could.

"Hmmmm?" Ball Girl hummed in a tone that definitely suggested she was making some kind of face, but under the mask, Hitori couldn't tell at all. "Well let's give 'em a scan and see what you're working with," She added and with that held out her Pokedex, and after only a second it turned on.

"Litwick the candle Pokemon. Ghost and Fire type. Male. Ability, Infiltrator. Known moves, Astonish, Smog, Ember, Minimize, Confuse Ray, Acid Armor," The Pokedex read out. Hitori paid close attention to all the information about Litwick. She'd still have to have Litwick use each move so she could understand how good he was at each, but it at least seemed like he was decently strong.

"Infiltrator huh? Guess that's how he got into your room then!" Ball Girl pointed out. Hitori didn't respond as she had a hand on her chin looking deep in thought. After a second Ball Girl shrugged her shoulders and walked out to the other end of the fairly small arena.

"So, was it helpful information? Want to test out his skills then?" Ball Girl called out snapping Hitori out of her thoughts.

"H-Huh? O-oh y-yes, I w-was just thinking," Hitori replied. It was only a full two seconds later that she realized the second part of the question. Shakily she stood up and realized that Ball Girl was at the other end of the arena.

"Two Pokemon each, don't worry when you lose I'm not going to ask for anything at all!" Ball Girl explained.

Hitori did catch the 'when' in Ball Girl's words and it certainly wasn't making herself feel any more confident. But she had already accepted her kindness multiple times, she was already here, with her Litwick healthy and looking happy to battle. She probably couldn't back out with her current level of social ability. Hitori gave a shaky nod to her new opponent.

Like that Ball Girl was quick to release her Pokemon, swiftly reaching to her hip and drawing out a quick ball. Flicking her wrist the ball shot out and released a Voltorb who wasted no time starting to roll around Ball Girl's side of the arena. "What'da think? A perfect Pokeball Pokemon for a girl like me huh?" Ball Girl asked with a tone that suggested a grin.

"A-ah, y-yes," Hitori quietly stuttered out an agreement more out of a sense of obligation. Already her Litwick was out so the ghost type waddled into the arena with a puffed-up chest and confident expression, ready to fight for Hitori. She considered returning him to use Whismur who she was more experienced with. In the end, she felt Whismur was probably better to save for later, it was what many other trainers and even gym leaders did in the battles she watched.

There was no official signal to start the battle, instead, there was a second or two giving both sides time to think of their first moves. "Roll on out and build up your Charge!" Ball Girl enthusiastically commanded with a snap of her fingers. Voltorb responded quickly letting out a series of sounds that came out more like static on a TV than anything and sped up its rolling quite a lot by Hitori's eyes. Sparks of electricity quickly start to come off the electric type in the process.

Hitori watched the electric type move for a second as she thought over the list of moves that she learned her Litwick had. "E-e-ember. A-ah, s-spread it o-out," She muttered out as best she could. Being outside the public eye may make it easier for her, but it was still hard for her. She had seen the control Litwick had last night when it conjured those flames, which formed the basis for her initial strategy.

Litwick let out a cry in understanding and with a shake of his head, the ghostly flame split off into floating flames that stayed near Litwick for a few moments before firing off in a wide fan shape. Hitori assumed that Voltorb would have been able to dodge Litwick's attack if he sent them all directly towards Voltorb, this way it should at least hopefully get in its way or even land a hit.

"Bounce and begin the screech!" Ball Girl shouted out almost as soon as the flames had begun to fan out. Voltorb responded by suddenly coming to a stop and seeming to almost squish down, all of its momentum transferring upward and over the flames. It hadn't lost all of its forward momentum as it flew toward Litwick and now began to emit a loud, high-pitched screech that sounded a lot like what happened when an audio jack wasn't properly plugged in.

While the harsh noise made Litwick flinch and clench his body up, preventing him from releasing another salvo of Ember right away, Hitori had reached for her headphones and got them on. "A-astonish," She ordered. Voltorb was coming close and she could understand that Ball Girl wanted her Voltorb to get in close from the start, something she could use to ensure at least a trade of damage

"Thunder Shock! Then it's back to charging!" Ball Girl loudly called out enough to overpower the screeching from Voltorb. Hitori's eyes widened, did she misunderstand the situation? Or did the mascot react to her order in time? Regardless Litwick was already faintly glowing with ghostly energy expecting the ball Pokemon to come in close.

What happened instead was electricity began to arc off the ball with enough force that it propelled the Pokemon up and away from Litwick. All while that same electricity arced down and slammed into Litwick causing him to let out a pained cry. As the attack came to an end with Voltorb finally landing back down on Ball Girl's side of the arena, Hitori looked over Litwick, there were some small burns from the attack but to her relief and surprise, Litwick still looked energetic and ready to fight.

"Back to rolling, build that Charge!" Ball Girl didn't give Hitori and Litwick the chance to recover as she already had Voltorb spinning around her side of the arena preparing for another attack. Hitori didn't give another command right away, instead, she continued to focus on whether Voltorb was going to attack physically or at a distance, and how she could have Litwick respond.

"E-ember. B-b-but keep a few back o-okay?" Hitori nervously called out. Litwick responded quickly once again swinging his head to conjure the flames and firing them out in a fan pattern, with three flames remaining around his body.

"Alright see if we can't knock him out with a charged-up Spark!" Ball Girl ordered. Voltorb suddenly stopped and pivoted to now be charging straight towards Litwick moving between two of the embers. As it got closer Voltorb began to discharge electricity as it used its attack.

"A-acid armor, and u-use your embers," Hitori ordered, her nerves becoming a bit less prevalent as her focus on the battle increased. Litwick spent a moment to turn around to look at Hitori, whatever it was looking for it did seem to find as it gained a glint in his eyes. His wax body became less viscous over the last two seconds before Voltorb rammed into him.

Litwick's body burst outward leaving a large hold in his middle and while Litwick let out a cry from the attack, he held most of it back. As Voltorb pushed through the ghost type, it was in the perfect position for the floating flames to converge on its location and set the electric type aflame. Despite exploding out as Litwick did, already his body was reforming as though nothing had even happened, a more smug expression growing on his face.

Ball Girl meanwhile let out a whistle, "Good job! Guess I'll have to kick things up a bit. Rollout! Build it up and make them come to us!". At her word, Voltorb curved so it wasn't heading towards Hitori and moved back towards Ball Girl's side of the arena. The flames that had hit it were being put out by its own rolling movement. Even still Hitori could see that it hadn't gotten out unscathed.

"Confuse Ray," Hitori called out. It'd be her first time seeing what the attack looked like. Litwick let out a ghostly cry as he built up a blurry light that gathered in front of him, one that seemed to flicker and flash making looking at it hard. Litwick was clearly not used to the attack as he took a while to build the attack up. One by one more lights joined the first creating a truly hard to look at display. When he finally released it, it moved erratically swirling in on itself as it seemed to drift one way or another only to snap back on its desired course.

Despite the long wind-up, Litwick didn't have to aim the attack until he released it, aiming ahead of the Voltorb's path. Even as the ball Pokemon was already turning to avoid the attack, the Confuse Ray's own erratic path shifted to follow after Voltorb. Neither trainer gave further commands, instead opting to watch as the exchange took place. Voltorb shifted its route again and again to move out of the way of the attack. Hitori did notice Litwck's flame flicker with each movement, a sign he was controlling the attack.

At the same time, the more Voltorb rolled around, the more rocks seemed to cling to its body. Not that it seemed to slow the Pokemon down any. Unfortunately, Voltorb was too fast for the tracking of Confuse ray and as it passed by, it missed its target, apparently unable to move backward. Now free of having to avoid the attack, Voltorb was free to rush forward towards Litwick. Hitori and Litwick had been too focused on their own attack to react properly.

Voltorb slammed into Litwick and despite warping around in a more fluid state, Litwick hadn't been able to completely break apart and was flung back and into the ground beside Hitori. Hitori looked over Litwick and it was clear that the Rollout was too much for him and he was knocked out. Voltorb meanwhile hadn't stopped moving, twisting back around towards Ball Girl's side of the field and spinning in place as more rocks gathered around it, its rollout continuing.

"I-I'm sorry Litwick," Hitori apologized before returning Litwick. She should have paid more attention, realized the danger that a rock-type move presented to Litwick, and should have had more of a strategy in mind. Taking a breath to steady the choking feeling she had in her chest she took out Whismur's Pokeball and let her partner out.

"Whismur, S-smokescreen," Hitori immediately called out, really feeling a desire to hide within the smoke right about now. Whismur, having assumed such a thing at this point had already sucked in air ready to bellow out smoke. The moment she exhaled the thick smoke, Voltorb had already taken off and was rushing in towards Whismur.

 

[Belwin]

The smokescreen overtook Hitori's side of the arena, shrouding both herself and her trainer. A second later Voltorb rushed into dark smoke, and more stone gathered up around its body as its rollout continued. "Dodge and use astonish as the voltorb starts to turn," Hitori whispered out so that only her partner would hear her.

Whismur's hearing is strong enough to pick up her words when the opposing trainer would not. More than that, her hearing was good enough to pick up the hum of electricity that powered Voltorb's attack. Hitori couldn't see what was going on, having to trust in Whismur's ability to dodge. The smoke was pushed around in different directions as it both began to dissipate and be pushed around by the two Pokemon moving around in it.

A second or two later a heavy smack echoed out through the arena and both trainers waited with bated breath to see whose Pokemon won out in the exchange. Voltorb emerged from the smoke first, rolling forward out of control and slamming into the wall on the side of the arena, the rocks it had built up falling off as the current was broken up. "Up and at 'em! You still got some fight left in you I know it!" Ball Girl cheered on and already the voltorb was rolling back up right and getting its bearings once again.

Hitori was relieved that her idea of using astonish to disrupt the attack worked out. Still, she had a major concern to deal with, which was if she should try and use something like Echoed voice. Voltorb was a Pokemon who could have sound proof making those moves useless. Doing so would do nothing more than waste her time and give away Whismur's position. "smokescreen again," She called out in the meantime to refill the amount of smoke while she thought things over once again.

"Don't bother getting in close this time, fire off thunder shock, sweep the area!" Ball Girl immediately countered. Voltorb quickly began to arc electricity into the growing field of smoke. Though not indiscriminately. Like Ball Girl had said, it was going from left to right with the idea that it'll hit eventually. Hitori didn't respond yet, instead, she trusted Whismur to dodge on her own. The rate at which the thunder shocks came out and the amount of space between attacks was large enough that Whismur should be able to handle it on her own.

It did clue Hitori into one thing, this voltorb didn't seem to be as skilled with long-ranged attacks as with its rolling. But if it was immune to Whismur's Echoed voice her own option for ranged attacks was limited, still, a plan came to mind. "Icy wind, blow the smoke towards them. T-then get close and start howling," She mumbled out not really trying to hide her intention with more whispers.

Right away Whismur began what was becoming a tried and true combination, blowing the freezing air out and carrying the smoke with it to be slow and blind her opponent. While she blew, Whismur began to walk forward. Voltorb hadn't been expecting Whismur to be where it had already cleared so for a moment it was confused, turning to its trainer for guidance.

"Rollout, spin in place, and be ready for their attack. Just fight through the ice!" Ball Girl shouted out. The freezing smoke hit the ball Pokemon just as it began to spin and charge electricity, magnetizing rocks to themselves once again. Only for Whismur to start howling at the top of her lungs, Even as both Ball Girl and Hitori flinched at the sudden noise, voltorb didn't, confirming at that moment that Hitori was right in her guess.

"Pound!" Hitori called out with a sudden burst of confidence.

"Rollout!" Ball Girl called out looking to make it a clash between the two Pokemon. Voltorb began to run small circles in place attacking everywhere around itself so that Whismur couldn't hit them from any angle. However, Whismur continued her howl as she leaped up and out of the smoke. Slamming down onto Voltorb where the spinning couldn't quite land against her. Voltorb again was sent into an uncontrolled spin. Narrowly avoiding another wall it eventually came to a stop next to Ball Girl, revealing that the last attack was enough to knock it out.

"Good job Voltorb! I'll let you eat your fill of electricity later. Good job to you as well!" Ball Girl Said as she returned her Pokemon.

Hitori could only let out a sigh of relief that she hadn't lost completely. The smokescreen continued to dissipate as Whismur stood with a rather triumphant look on her face, though that could just be the effect of the howl still running through her. "Okay, time for my next Pokemon!" Ball Girl said having already tossed out the ball containing her next Pokemon.

What came out was something Hitori had never seen before. It looked like a Voltorb, or more like a wood carving of one, with one half unpainted wood, while the other smoother. Its expression looked wrong as well, there was no perpetual scowl, if anything it looked excited or happy. Did Ball Girl dress another Voltorb up?

"Surprised ain'tcha? Well don't worry, it's for sure a genuine Pokemon," Ball Girl said. "Now if you're all ready, Voltorb Charge Beam!" Ball Girl suddenly switched to a more serious tone. The wooden Voltorb responded quickly, electricity building up and firing off much faster than the previous Voltorb, a solid beam of electrical energy rather than arcing lightning.

"D-dodge Whismur," Hitori called out as she tried to recover from her shock. If it was using an electric type move, it must have been a Voltorb like Ball Girl had called it. Whismur dove to the side, barely avoiding the attack. But even as the beam faded, electricity was still seen to spark off the odd voltorb.

"Charge beam again, and be ready to respond," Ball Girl called out. The wording about the second part was suspicious but Hitori wasn't sure how she even should respond in the first place? Did it being a weird Voltorb mean it wasn't going to have Soundproof? At least Whismur was able to recover and dodge the beam again. However, Hitori immediately realized that the attack was stronger and came out quicker this time.

'That's right! Charge beam doesn't discharge all of the electricity, keeping it around to boost the Pokemon with each use' Hitori realized. "Keep up the Charge beam," Ball Girl called out, making it abundantly clear that if Hitori couldn't make a move herself then the attack would keep coming out until Whismur wasn't able to dodge.

'if it looks like it's made of wood then,' Hitori thought before giving her command, "Icy Wind,". Whismur had to wait until the next charge beam came in, narrowly dodging once again before she counter-attacks. The frigid air made the voltorb recoil from the cold, frost coating the wooden Pokemon almost immediately.

"Nice eye! This Voltorb happens to be a grass type! Swift," Ball Girl ordered, answering the question now that Hitori could see it for herself. Voltorb let out a cry that sounded like a grainier version of the radio-like noise that the other Voltorb let out. A moment later and it was spinning in place releasing stars of energy that shot off in every direction before bending towards Whismur.

"H-Howl and get in close, T-then use astonish," Hitori ordered. Ball Girl was using Charge beam less for the attack and more for the boost it gave, preparing for Swift, Hitori could see that. So she couldn't hang back. Her hope now was to have Whismur close the distance and make use of Whismur already being bolstered by Howl. Maybe she could even get Whismur behind Voltorb and use the other Pokemon as a shield against its own attack.

The normal type began to shout and howl loudly as it ran forward, causing the stars of Swift to turn and follow after Whismur, slowing down on the turn. A small red aura began to shine around Whismur as the effect of Howl built up. As she got nearer, she stopped her howl and instead built up the ghost-type energy around her ears, unfurling them in preparation for her attack.

"Now!" Ball Girl shouted. The spinning voltorb abruptly stopped, the built-up kinetic force bouncing the Pokemon out of the way suddenly. In its place was a cloud of yellow powder that burst forth from Voltorb at the same moment. Whismur ended up charging into the powder only to seize up a second later, tripping and slamming into the ground.

"W-whismur!" Hitori cried out to her partner.

"Finish it off, Energy Ball!" Ball Girl commanded while Hitori was busy trying to think of something she could have Whismur do to avoid the upcoming attack.

Voltorb gave another cry as it slowly began to build up energy. A green aura shone around the Voltorb. It was slow to come out, taking nearly ten seconds to fully build up. Not that Hitori or Whismur could do much as Whismur struggled to pick herself up while still under the paralyzing effect of the powder.

Once the charge was complete, the attack fired off with enough force that Voltorb was pushed back by recoil. The attack was faster than Hitori expected it to be and had enough force that it was slightly tearing up the ground of the arena as it traveled. Whismur was forced to take the attack head-on, letting out a cry of pain as contact with Whismur caused the ball to explode out into a light show of green. Whismur was flung back and hit the ground hard, bruised up, and clearly knocked out.

Hitori stared at Whismur for a few seconds as her loss registered. It was a bitter feeling as she returned her partner. Once Whismur was safely back in her ball, Hitori squatted down and wrapped her arms around herself the corners of her eyes stinging a bit. Logically she knew she wouldn't go on some undefeated streak like Leon or Gloria had. If anything, she had been expecting to lose since her first battle at the café.

It didn't stop the feeling of frustration, if anything it only made it worse. She should have stayed back, it was obvious that the Voltorb was waiting for Whismur to get close. She should have lead with Whismur, Litwick would have done much better against the grass-type Voltorb. Hitori let out a strained breath as she tried to keep herself from crying over a simple, no-stakes loss.

"You did well! I certainly thought my regular ol Voltorb would have lasted longer against your Whismur," Ball Girl said having approached after returning her own Pokemon. Hitori didn't reply, only looking over at Ball Girl for a moment. The mascot hummed and reached into her bag and set down a couple of potions and a few more Pokeballs. "Well, consider this an additional thank you for helping me train my Voltorbs. Remember that a single loss isn't the end!" Ball Girl to help cheer Hitori up.

Rather than stick around Ball Girl walked off, figuring that Hitori needed some space, time that Hitori spent collecting herself. It was still frustrating, but somewhat enlightening at the same time. Because as frustrated as she was, as much as she felt like she failed, part of her wanted to try again, to prove that Whismur and Litwick could do better. Hitori didn't really expect her to have any sort of competitive streak to her, but that's what she was feeling now.

A couple more minutes passed and Hitori stood up, only to kneel right back down to pick up the potions and Pokeballs that Ball Girl left for her. Wiping away the tears that had formed Hitori made her way out from the arena and directly towards a Pokemon Center to heal her Pokemon up.

It was while she was leaving and returning to the inn she ran into Kita who was pacing around the entrance of the Inn. "Ah, Hitori! There you are! I lost track of you in the lockers. I didn't find you in any alleyways either," Kita said after running over.

"A-ah, I-I got into a Pokemon battle, with the m-mascot," Hitori admitted after looking away from Kita.

"Ha? That person you were hiding from? What's her deal with wanting to bother you so much? So how'd it go?" Kita replied as the two of them began to walk into the Inn. Kita led them over to some chairs in the lobby.

"W-well… I lost," Hitori explained.

"Really? But you did so well in that café tournament and against the Greedant! I guess the trainers participating in the Pokemon League are stronger than the others. Now I'm kind of worried about how I'd do," Kita said, surprised as well as making a bit of a self-depreciating joke.

Hitori simply nodded back not exactly sure how to reply back. Thankfully Kita was happy to continue talking for the two of them, "So, I was going to ask. Are you going to Turffield, Hulbury, or stay in Motostoke? I wanted to go to Hulbury. I mean Pikachu is an electric type, so I figure she'll have an easy time against Nessa. I don't think I'm really prepared to go up against Poison or Fire types yet so I want to have more time to prepare for them,".

"H-Huh?" Hitori asked, jolting up as she was kind of half listening.

"Oh, I mean for our first badge! I was wondering if you had a plan for where you'd be going first," Kita reiterated.

"O-oh, um… I was going to go to S-Spikemuth. T-there'd be much fewer people over there and it's not like we must go to them in any particular order. B-Besides Whismur gets rattled up over Dark-type moves so I thought I'd have an advantage there," Hitori quickly muttered out her own reasoning.

"Ah," Kita let out without realizing it. A silence came over them for a few seconds as Kita seemed to be deep in thought. "Well, I was hoping we could travel together. But I don't think Milcery will be strong enough for a gym right away, I kind of was putting my eggs in one basket with Pikachu," Kita admitted.

Hitori blinked, the idea that someone would want to travel with her honestly not crossing her mind. It was a nice feeling if she was honest with herself. "U-um, I could g-go with yo-" She started to say only for Kita to cut her off.

"Ah no I wouldn't want to mess with your plan like that. We probably shouldn't be treating this like a vacation either… How about this? We can meet up back in Hammerlocke! Would you be going to Circhester next?" Kita suggested.

"Y-Yeah," Hitori nodded. It would work out, wouldn't it? Litwick would be strong against ice types.

"Great then I'll just have to work hard, who knows maybe I'll be able to get three badges by then?" Kita said with a chuckle. Hitori did her best to follow the social cue and chuckle along, though it was a bit awkward.

"We'll have to have a battle when we meet up again then. I don't really want to be super competitive and call you my rival or anything. But It'll be fun and we can work on strategies together after, get some food, and have a little party over it," Kita continued hyping herself up for their eventual meeting even if they haven't gone their own ways yet. Hitori couldn't help but smile at the idea.

"I should buy some of those cool glasses," Hitori whispered to herself. She could see it already, decorations, party poppers, It'd be a totally hip and trendy party. She could even use her house so she wouldn't have to book it or anything. Her smile grew a bit wider and started to giggle a little, "Hey party people yo yo…" She whispered some more.

"I don't… Well if that's what you want no reason we can't dress up for it!" Kita happily replied, overhearing Hitori's whispers.

"Eh? I mean uh, a g-get together sounds g-good. Ah, I'll give you my number so we can, wait you already have my number," Hitori stuttered.

"Great! So, did you have plans for the rest of the day? I kind of figured It'd be like 'Everyone go go!' so I was planning to head out today," Kita asked.

Hitori blinked needing a few seconds to figure out what her plan was. She was going to be heading right back on the train, so she wasn't in any particular rush. Getting some time to start training her Pokemon while she felt the fire of motivation also seemed good. "I'll use the second night they gave us. I need to train more and I can't do that on the train," Hitori explained.

"Hmm, how about we take a look around and you can see me off then? Maybe we'll find some store that has something we forgot or didn't think about, I mean with the whole Pokemon League thing starting there's probably a bunch of stuff being sold for new trainers," Kita reasoned.

"Okay," Hitori replied simply. With nothing more needing to be said, Kita went to gather her things from her room and set off to explore around a bit. Even if it was largely just Hitori following Kita with the redhead talking more than enough for the of them. Not that Hitori minded at all, the feeling of having a friend outside Whismur that she didn't have to make up was still so new to her. So she was happy to just bask in the feeling.

Not that the two of them ended up getting anything more than some snack food that was being sold. Regardless Hitori found herself impressed and equally intimidated by just how many pictures Kita could take of every little thing. More than once Kita would even let her Pokemon out to pose with her or get in on the picture of one thing or another. It was also where Hitori saw Kita's fourth Pokemon.

The two of them thought they had gotten their fill, certainly, Hitori was welcoming the idea of hiding somewhere nice and dark for a while to recharge the moment she could get away with it. That was when Kita had spotted a food truck selling ice cream. She nearly sprinted over with sparkles in her eyes mentioning something about trends and some Unova town, Cast-something. Kita bought a cone with sprinkles and whipped cream on top and then let out her Milcery and a Pokemon that looked like a living ice cream cone and had the two of them pose together for a selfie with the ice cream.

While Hitori did recognize the Pokemon because they tended to show up every winter and could be seen all over the place before streets could be plowed. She didn't actually remember what they were called. She made a mental note to look it up later.

Their time together went on longer than either of them intended but eventually, they made their way to the bridge leading to the Motostoke Outskirts, even now there were still quite several people leaving Motostoke, either returning home after coming to see the opening or new trainers participating in the league. Just from where they stood the two of them could see several battles going on. Some of them even involved people they vaguely remember being among them in the crowd of new participants.

"Well, guess this is where we part for now. Wish me luck Hitori! Oh, and good luck with you as well!" Kita cheered as she started to take a few steps forward, her body turned back to face Hitori.

"A-ah, g-good luck!" Hitori tried her best to raise her voice to match Kita's cheeriness. Though her voice cracked and she began to cough from how foreign it was to her. Kita chuckled a bit good-naturedly and waved as she continued to walk, slowly turning to face forward. Hitori waved back for, probably, no, certainly too long.

Once she had finally stopped, she used the open space to get some practice with Litwick and Whismur before returning to her inn room after an hour or two. Then she spent the rest of the night playing guitar, not only to entertain Whismur and Litwick but to also keep up her practice and even getting a recording of herself playing for her channel.

-----

In another hotel room, the door swung open as two young women walked in. One was the always recognizable Marnie who let out a quiet sigh of relief as she leaped onto one of the nearest beds. The other, a younger teenager with long blonde hair tied to the side. She chuckled at Marnie's reaction. "I guess that answers how tiring being a gym leader is," the teenager commented.

"I wish Piers at least warned me about the hours of meetings that came after," Marnie blankly commented. She rolled around on the bed a bit before finally kicking her shoes off. "Thank you again for coming along to keep me company Nijika," She added.

"No worries, I mean you helped the two of us out a bunch on our first year. The least I can do is fetch you some water between those meetings y'know?" Nijika answered a bit bashfully.

"Also, so I can be the first one to beat you as your first challenger as the official gym leader," A new voice chimed in. A blue-haired teenager had been sitting on a couch holding up a wine glass filled with juice while an Alolan Persian was lounging on the backrest with the blue-haired teenager's head resting against the Persian's side.

The other two had been quietly pretending that she wasn't there until now. Hoping that it may do something to stop her from acting like that. "Well, that's true for me as well, but I'm not nearly as confident as Ryo is. But then again, she's always like that," Nijika said.

"I appreciate it. According to my brother, Spikemuth never got many challengers in the early months. I can't exactly have any concerts either since I have to be able to accept challengers at any time," Marnie replied. "Speaking of, how are you two doing with your own thing?" She added after a few seconds.

Judging by how Nijika and Ryo both immediately looked off to the side to avoid eye contact. "That bad?" Marnie asked.

"Well, I mean, because of you and your brother, Spikemuth has more musicians than audience members it feels like. That and Ryo kept chasing away anyone I tried to get to join us," Nijika explained.

"They weren't rock enough," Ryo explained with a sage nod.

"You should at least try something with just the two of you," Marnie suggested.

"Well, I mean sis let us practice at her place. But last year we got tied up with the Pokemon Gym challenge," Nijika explained a bit sheepishly.

"Maybe lower your standards, just a touch?" Marnie added, though her gaze was more on Ryo with that statement.

"They still need to be rock," Ryo reiterated.

"Better than 'Rock' As well as having at least three badges and being willing to lend Ryo money," Nijika mentioned the current criteria that Ryo was using.

"Well, keep at it either way. I got to sleep, Nijika are you flying with me or Ryo in the morning?" Marnie asked as she rolled in her bed, bringing the blanket with her to bundle up ready to fall asleep at any moment.

"Ah, well I was going to go with Ryo. Her flier has more room y'know?" Nijika explained.

"I'll give you the bandmate discount," Ryo said with a nod. Nijika sighed and gave a light chop to Ryo's head.

"Yeah yeah, let's leave Marnie to get some sleep alright?" Nijika replied.

Ryo hummed set the glass down on the table and stood up, with her Persian getting up and staying right by her side. "Okay," She replied.

"Also when we get back you're paying Marnie back for that bottle of juice you opened. Just because they're in the fridge doesn't mean they've been paid for," Nijika began to explain as the two of them left Marnie's hotel room.

 

[Belwin]

Hitori stretched her body as she got off the train back in Hammerlocke. She was thankful it was nice and uneventful, even if she had to ride in the more crowded seats and pay for it herself. However it did give another question as she left the station, pulling her luggage behind her, namely should she just immediately leave to go on Route 7 to start making her way towards Spikemuth, or stay in the city for a while? It would be kind of awkward to go back home after how much they waved her goodbye.

Eventually, she decided to head straight onto the route, after she bought a couple of things with the first bit of money the league gave her to work with. She'd need to get some food to last her and her Pokemon the four or five days the guide said it took to walk the route, along with some wax that was both food, a treat, and highly helpful in Litwick's growth.

Her reasoning was simple, if she went back home, she felt like she'd put things off, and she'd probably end up wasting a whole week in her room. She knew this because it felt like such a nice thing now. That's why she would push herself to start now because she wanted to use this journey to improve and become a famous and cool, sociable girl! Though she certainly wasn't looking forward to actually walking that much. She could always just visit when she came back again, this time with a badge in hand as proof she did well. Hopefully.

This was why, Hitori took her time staring at the windows of different Pokemarts, before building up the confidence to walk in and browse. She even only barely flinched when the clerk asked if he could help her, she was improving already! It took until the second one, a more specialty store to find what she was looking for, containers of specially made Pokemon food made to cater to different types of Pokemon. The containers didn't list how much to feed each Pokemon, instead just providing a code that led to a site where she could look it up based on the species.

She glanced around the rather empty isles of the store and scanned it right away and began to look up whismur and litwick. No one was around so they wouldn't get mad at her looking things up, would they? 'Hey this gloomy girl is looking things up without buying them, that's illegal get out of my store!' her vision of the worst-case scenario played out in her head but despite the desire to just walk out and look it up in the street before coming back in. The idea of being seen walking in and out like that had a worse image in her mind.

A quick lookup told her that Whismur needed to eat quite a lot. One container would need her to rearrange things in her suitcase to make room for one. Even then Whismur would eat through the contents within two days according to the recommended amounts. Which meant having to get two, maybe three of them. Hitori looked at the price, it'd take up most of the initial funds the league gave her. Ah, it says it can be offset with berry gathering while on routes.

Litwick was thankfully much easier to feed, one container of the fire-type food would last nearly two weeks. She guessed that being a ghost-type meant not having to eat as much. Still, it meant having to get three containers of food in total. At 1300 P each, that was 3900 P total. She had 5000 Poke from the first week. That left her with only 1100 P to buy wax for Litwick. That didn't seem too bad, besides it was what the money was for right?

Hitori was also able to find bars of Combee wax deeper in. After the cost of the food, she was ready to deal with a rather expensive price tag, but was relieved to both find the wax and see that it was affordable. Just 200 P a bar. If she broke the bar up and gave a quarter of a bar to Litwick each day, she'd need, what 350 P a week? The mental math she was running through her head did remind Hitori that she did technically have study materials she could work through while on her journey. Maybe she shouldn't totally blow it off if she was going to have to do more mature things like her own shopping throughout her journey. Hitori shook her head slightly, those were thoughts for future Hitori. She grabbed four bars of wax just in case she needed to feed Litwick more, or Spikemuth didn't have any wax.

Committing to her selections, Hitori found herself thankful for the store having a self-checkout she could go to instead of having to look at the person who manned the counter. 'Technology is incredible!' Hitori thought to herself. Hitori was also thankful for her mom's advice when it came to packing, as it was her mom's idea to leave empty space for just this occasion. She only had to slightly move things around to fit the containers and wax in.

As she left the store, Hitori brought up a map on her phone to find her way to the entrance to Route 7. She was tempted a final time to just go home and rest up the night and use that time at home to practice and train instead of having to find a place to do it on the road. However she shook her head, she already told herself she was going to go straight out! It wasn't that hard to find a bus route that would take her to the bridge that led onto Route 7. While there were other roads out of the city, they led to more rural areas or a section of highway that led to Spikemuth.

Routes weren't the only means of crossing between towns and cities, just that they were used before cars were invented. Since so many people used it on their journeys, the Routes became a cultural icon, and rail, and roads were designed to leave the route as untouched as possible so new trainers could walk the same path their ancestors did. At least that's what the history books Hitori read in class said about them.

-----

Hitori soon found herself on the bridge that led out into the Route. This would be the proper start to her journey. For real this time, she wouldn't be staying in an inn or going right back on a train or anything. Hitori took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves, then let both Whismur and Litwick out of their Pokeballs. "O-O-Okay, o-our journey b-begins now! Once we cross this bridge it's just us and t-the wilderness until we reach Spikemuth," Hitori explained to the two.

Whismur began to shake as she picked up on Hitori's own nervousness, while Litwick instead let out a confident cry and looked forward out onto the bridge. With a shaky step, Hitori began to walk across the bridge, Whismur following right beside her. Litwick tried to waddle along as well but lacking legs, the candle Pokemon was already falling behind the already slow steps of Hitori.

It took Hitori a few seconds to notice, turning around to give Hammerlock a final look when she noticed how back Litwick was. "A-ah Litwick!" Hitori let out and quickly rushed over to the ghost-type. "Aha, I guess walking that much will be hard f-for you. S-sorry for being such an insensitive trainer!" Hitori immediately began to apologize to her Pokemon. Litwick just gave her a look that she couldn't really understand.

After a couple of seconds of figuring things out, Hitori set Litwick down on top of her rolling suitcase. That way Litwick could still be out of his Pokeball without having to worry about keeping up. Now ready, finally Hitori properly began her trek across the bridge. It only took her a few minutes but it felt like a major step. Now if only it wasn't a single, tiny step in the whole scheme of things.

As Hitori and her Pokemon left the bridge and entered the route properly, she could see that it was quite the hilly area, with more sparse trees and plenty of rocky outcroppings. It only took her a couple of minutes until she saw wild Pokemon. Rookidee and corvisquire flying overhead, a couple of nickit who was rummaging through some tall grass, and even an inkay who was floating around in the open. Though the moment the inkay saw her, it hurriedly rushed off into the brush.

There weren't any other humans other than herself, at least as far as she could see. Even only fifteen minutes out from the bridge. It was oddly comforting, the wild Pokemon didn't bother her as much as people did and she could singularly focus on just putting one foot in front of the other. She even began to play music on her headphones that she wore around the neck, the sound was a bit quiet, but she could still hear it while being able to hear things around her. Whismur also heard the music and seemed to enjoy it as well. Meanwhile, Litwick couldn't from his spot on her suitcase.

The minutes soon turned to an hour, and Hitori was starting to lose that feeling of comfort and pep. She didn't consider herself out of shape or anything, but her feet were starting to complain, her shoulder was getting sore from dragging her suitcase behind her, and the sunny day was starting to make her sweat too much. Her Pokemon meanwhile were still fine. Whismur didn't seem too tired from the trek and of course, Litwick was unbothered because he had been riding along the whole time.

An hour became two and Hitori had to stop and take a break. She found a lone tree next to a pond and metaphorically crawled to the oasis provided. Happily dropping to her knees to enjoy the cool shade the tree provided. It wasn't particularly hot, but being out in the sun for hours was different than a short walk. Especially since she was carrying the extra weight of her luggage the whole time. "T-take, O-okay eve- Take a break," Hitori panted out.

Whismur and Litwick meandered off slightly, Whismur to take advantage of the pond to drink from and Litwick to pace around luggage Hitori left a couple of meters away from herself, dutifully acting a bit like a guard she figured. Hitori took her tracksuit top off and used it as a makeshift cushion under the tree as she fanned the band t-shirt she was wearing underneath to help cool herself off. After a minute or two of catching her breath, Hitori finished off the water she had brought with her and begrudgingly left the shade to refill her bottles. She'd really have to thank her parents again when she got the chance for all the helpful advice they gave when it came to packing.

A few more minutes passed and Hitori decided she'd spend some time training with her Pokemon over walking for another two hours or however long she'd go. "Whismur, we're going to train," She called out normally. Having no one around meant she didn't find it hard at all to speak up to Whismur. Hearing her, Whismur happily ran up to her and gave a cry showing she was ready. 'Maybe all the walking only got her warmed up?' Hitori thought to herself.

As Whismur's training began, Hitori started with having Whismur work on Supersonic. while Howl was relatively easy for the Pokemon to get the hang of, Supersonic required much more control. Initially, Hitori had trouble even guiding Whismur along. While playing videos with audio of other whismur using the move helped a little bit. Hitori could initially only watch with her headphones on as her partner tried to mimic the sound, largely coming out as deeper howls and screams than the mind-jostling whistle.

Since she was already sitting down and resting her legs, Hitori tried another way. Looking to build up Whismur's ability to make sound from the ground up. But before she did that, she stopped and got Litwick started on his training. "Ah, um Litwick, can you try, firing off ember again and again? It says that um, other litwick use it as a base to learn Will-O-Wisp," Hitori awkwardly addressed her other Pokemon, holding out the phone's screen towards the Pokemon.

Litwick gave her a rather incredulous look. Hitori interpreted it as him thinking something along the lines of 'No duh I know how to be a litwick'. "A-ah, Well also it should help get you used to it, so the fire can come q-quicker and burn hotter. T-there's also the pond over there so we don't have to worry about starting any fires," She quickly added.

He let out a cry and made the same air guitar motion with a more expectant look. "O-Of course, d-do well and I'll play more for you," Hitori quickly offered. That seemed to get a much more excited look on the ghost-type face as he went off to train. She still didn't quite know how she should act around her newest Pokemon. It wasn't like she could take charge, or act like a proper leader, or be all extroverted.

She watched for a little bit as Litwick faced the pond and swung his head around conjuring the floating fireballs that were his specific ember. He didn't bother holding them around and instead just let them fly out right away. When she read over Ember's entry in the Attack-Dex she got her information from, it explained that depending on the Pokemon, Ember acts very differently. How for a Charmander, it came from a fire-generating sac in the gut, but for Numel, their ember is the result of the small pool of molten rock in their hump that gets expelled. Apparently, Numel have a hard time aiming because of that.

Hitori was letting herself get distracted, the main point was that Litwick's ember apparently contained some ghost-type energy within it. Which is what allows them to control the flames after they are released. As well it's that mix that litwick will construct how they use Will-O-Wisp, Fire Spin, and even how they learn Hex. According to the website at least. Litwick was already seeming to struggle to keep using the attack in such rapid succession, so the training should really help him, probably.

With Litwick set up on his training, Hitori took Whismur back over to the tree so they could practice in the shade instead of in the sun. She took her guitar out of her case, "Whismur, I'm going to play a note can you try to copy it?" Hitori asked, without her usual nervousness as it was just her and her partner now. Whismur immediately gave a nod, though with a bit of a tilt of her head unsure of the point of it.

After first strumming and making sure her guitar was in tune. She started with the first note, playing it once and letting it ring out. Whismur listened to the sound and began to let out something between a hum and a yell. It took playing the same note a few times but pretty soon Whismur was harmonizing with the note, something closer to singing than the noise she was making before. Once Whismur was harmonized, Hitori moved to a higher note. This time she only needed to replay it once until Whismur was harmonized. The next note up Whismur got right away. A smile formed on Hitori's lips, her idea was that Whismur must have had trouble with the sound quality of her phone. That and Whismur's hearing must be sensitive enough that getting the more analog would give a truer quality of the sound being made. Not that she knew much about the science that goes into sound waves.

Once Whismur was started it was very easy to go note after note up the scale. Then she'd start going down the scale of her guitar until Whismur was harmonizing with the lowest notes. As they continued, the two of them started to reach a rhythm moving from one note to the next faster and faster. Right around the same time, the steady move from high to low notes changed to a simplistic song that Hitori used to practice a lot when she was first starting out without realizing it. At the same time, Whismur kept in sync with her trainer singing along to the song.

The sound was carrying over to Litwick who had been struggling to keep up the attack. He stopped when he heard the song start and went still for a few seconds, after which something in his expression changed. He immediately went right back to launching ember after ember with reinforced vigor and determination.

Nearly thirty minutes passed before Hitori realized she was letting herself get distracted just by enjoying playing the guitar. While she continued to play, she then remembered to listen to Whismur's singing. She was surprised that Whismur was keeping up even though the difficulty of the song had increased quite a bit. After the end of that song, Hitori wanted to try the attack again to see how much it helped if any. "Supersonic," Hitori called out while she played a note sliding across the fretboard to go from low to high hoping that Whismur would get the idea to keep going higher.

Whismur gave a nod and let out a cry that was high pitch enough that it only came out a high-pitched ringing in her ear. But more than that very visible rings of light were coming out of Whismur's mouth, expanding as they traveled further before evaporating. "Y-You did it!" Hitori cheered as she carefully set her guitar down on its case to avoid it getting dirty before running over picking her partner up and embracing her happily.

Whismur let out an embarrassed giggling noise as she squirmed around in Hitori's grip. When Hitori finally set Whismur back down on the ground, Whismur immediately showed off by using Supersonic again and again into the air. Which Hitori happily cheered for, all the while happy she was wearing her headphones the whole time.

Once the two of them had calmed down enough, Hitori let out a sigh. "Guess we have to continue walking, huh?" Hitori said to Whismur. Her partner didn't quite get her apprehension to keep walking for more hours so just happily cheered. 'When did my partner become so extroverted and outdoorsy?' Hitori thought to herself, not quite realizing that Whismur was happy purely for the same she was getting to spend around Hitori. Time spent without the loud noises of the city or other people and Pokemon around.

Litwick approached as Hitori began clearing things up. While Whismur was happy to show off the progress of her training, Litwick didn't seem to have the same interest in showing off whatever progress he made in his ember while Hitori was busy. Soon enough they were packed up and back on the road again.

 

[Belwin]

Hitori managed to continue her journey for another two hours despite the soreness in her feet. Managed to reach what appeared to be a clear break point in the route. There was a stream moving down the rough hills, separating it a bit from the rest of the route. Not only that but there was a man-made bridge to get to the other side. The breakpoint was clear of any patches of wild grass in a clear circle that was even raised a bit off the ground. The final point of interest was a wooden picnic table just sitting out in the middle of the area.

While the need to get off her feet was enough to push Hitori over the bridge, another worry arose before she could cross the threshold into the break area. "W-what if it's private property?" She asked herself mostly. If she laid her stuff down would someone come out and arrest her for trespassing? Hitori Gotoh, forced to retire before she could even begin because of a scandal. She could see the court proceedings happening before her eye when Whismur's voice managed to snap her out of it where she noticed that her partner was pointing towards a sign sticking out of the ground. 'Hammerlocke's Route 7 Camping Area. Please clean up after yourselves' It read.

"A-ah, r-right," Hitori awkwardly laughed at the obvious mistake she was making before taking a seat at the picnic table. She let out a sigh of relief to finally be off her feet, taking her phone out she checked her time. It was around 6 pm. She had eaten before leaving so it was probably time to eat right? The fact that both her stomach and Whismur's decided to audibly make themselves known at the same time solidified the first order of business.

Dragging her suitcase up onto the table, she unzipped it and retrieved two of the containers of Pokemon food. As she was unscrewing the lid on the first one she remembered the advice the website had for her. "Whismur, do you think you'd be able to find any berries around here?" She asked.

Whismur, who had jumped up onto the bench next to her to watch the container with a near drool suddenly snapped at attention towards Hitori. She tilted her head slightly at the question before flinching when Litwick spoke up in that wispy voice of his, having found his way up onto the picnic table. Hitori had to admit that he was nearly silent when moving around. Litwick confidently pointed out towards the bridge, his wax body morphing so his hand extended out further. There was a cluster of trees back across the bridge. Litwick continued to speak though Hitori didn't really know what he was getting at beyond there probably being berries over there.

Whismur eventually began to nod along understanding something Hitori couldn't. Litwick began to head off right away while Whismur told her as best she could what Litwick was trying to get across. While she couldn't understand her words either. She did understand what Whismur was trying to get across. 'People throw away berries over there, so the trees are berry trees' or something along those lines. Most of her understanding came from how Whismur moved her arms around while explaining.

Hitori gave Whismur a nod "So he thinks there should be a lot of berries there? Okay, then see if you can find some to save on food. Ah, you can eat as much as you want from what you can find!". Whismur certainly seemed happy at that prospect as she ran off to join Litwick in searching for food. Hitori watched them cross the bridge for a bit with a small smile on her face. She could see the trees from where she was sitting, so if they got in danger she would be nearby. Not that she thought she'd be any able help. Maybe it'll be like a team-building exercise for them.

As that thought sank in, she suddenly recoiled as though she was slugged in the face. Team building, camping, it may have been delayed but it was just the kind of thing she had a complex over wasn't it? Her mind conjured up the image of her partner going off with Litwick and a bunch of other Pokemon and Kita, abandoning her to go be an extroverted, normie Pokemon. Whismur spoke in a weird human tone as she explained how she was going off to a mixer and then off to make more friends in high school and other things Hitori herself barely knew about beyond the word being used by those types.

She slunk down under the picnic table where things would be shaded and gloomy. "Ahhh… Sorry Whismur, please remember your partner when you're off living it up in the big city as a popular Pokemon. I apologize for thinking a sub-wim… pod," Hitori started muttering but trailed off as she noticed a Pokemon emerge from the stream.

That purple and pale blue color, those gloomy yellow eyes, a wimpod. They came out and the two locked eyes. The wimpod wasted no time scurrying over the clear ground to join her under the picnic table. Now normally a Pokemon suddenly approaching her would cause her to freeze up and worry. But not this one, if anything she felt at ease around them. Something the wimpod apparently shared as they only gave her a single glance before happily sniffing around the area.

'I- I really am at the level of a wimpod!' Hitori thought to herself with a slight jump. She knew they ran scared from anything that wasn't fellow wimpod. She was right every time she apologized for being so arrogant to believe herself to be more than a wimpod. She couldn't help but feel somewhat comfortable knowing that even if the rest of the world rejected her, there existed a type of Pokemon that would accept her.

The shock was also enough to help calm her down. Whismur was her partner for years now, but she was overthinking it. Coming out from under the picnic table, she pulled her phone out, there was something she had been meaning to look up. The wimpod meanwhile, expanded their range of shuffling about. Hitori brought up the Pokedex site, while it may not have been a proper Pokedex with access to normally restricted information, it still had more than enough for her.

Bringing up whismur, she began to read through a page regarding their behaviors for an explanation for Whismur's increased appetite. It didn't take too long to find, according to the website, whismur go through multiple growth periods in which their appetite increases massively. While wild these growth periods are much more spread out and serve the purpose of storing fat that allows them to live deep in caves with little food for an extended period. However, when being trained the growth period is actually the first sign of evolution, where whismur begins gathering the energy necessary to evolve.

The site does explain that it doesn't mean they're going to evolve soon. Going into more detail the trigger for these growth periods in the wild is being driven out of their territory within caves, causing them to eat anything they can until they can find a new segment of cave where they won't be disturbed. This is actually believed the main force that causes whismur to evolve into loudred in the wild. While for owned and trained whismur, battles, training, and travel emulate the similar thing which causes the same instinct to gather food.

It is the first of three signs of evolution for whismur, the second being the whismur's ears spending more and more time unfurled until spending more time straight than curled. The final sign and closest sign is a personality shift where whismur becomes very outspoken. It is this sign that usually causes a whismur to leave their pack in the wild as loudred and whismur do not live together.

Hitori was happy to finally have an answer to that question, her taking Whismur to that battle café to battle must have started it. Guess it meant she was going to have to feed Whismur a lot in the future anyway, maybe even more than what the Pokemon food package was recommending. Her thought was interrupted as there was a loud rustling coming from trees, one loud enough that the wimpod had bolted right into the water, glowing yellow-green lights flaking off the Pokemon in a way that Hitori recognized as the move struggle bug.

The rustling soon revealed itself to be Whismur who burst from the foliage running for the bridge with her arms full of berries, even her ears were being used to hold some more like she was a skwovet. Following shortly behind her was Litwick who had a mischievous look upon him, he was also running but was just that much slower than Whismur. "W-w-what's g-go-" Hitori asked as she got up and took a step or two towards the two.

Before she could continue her words, her two Pokemon were then joined by a swarm of karrablast, all of which were brimming with anger. Four, five, six, they kept coming chasing after the two. 'they must have been living in those trees' Hitori thought to herself.

"W-whismur, Us-" Hitori started but stopped when she realized that Whismur's arms were already full. That and as her Pokemon continued to make their way towards her, Litwick stopped upon reaching the bridge and turned to face the Pokemon, a confident cry coming out. It made sense, a fire-type would be effective against bug types. That and Litwick seemed fired up.

"L-litwick e-ember," She called out. Litwick took a pose that seemed to be beckoning the bug types to approach him, without the swing of his head that he needed before, the flame on his hair flared up as a trio of fireballs split off from it. He even pointed forward before sending the attack out. The flames shot out into the rushing group of bugs and while they all made moves to get out of the way, two of them were hit by the attack and were flung back as they were engulfed in the flame.

They were not cowed by a single fire type, however, and soon their horns were glowing with the signs of peck or fury cutter. "E- Acid armor," Hitori called out, changing her mind after a second. Litwick immediately began to become less solid, looking almost as though he was melting into the puddle. When the karrablast reached him and dove at him with their horns, they sank into his waxy body.

"A-another ember," Hitori called out and right away Litwick flared out the flame on his head, conjuring another round of embers that were free to slam down into the bugs that were now caught in his body. A few more were knocked away, even falling into the water. Despite this, the karrablasts that remained pulled their horns out only to ram them right back in to try and take out Litwick through attrition.

Whismur at this point had crossed the bridge and deposited her hoard of berries onto the ground and began to repeatedly cry towards Hitori trying to explain the situation. Though Hitori couldn't quite get the meaning while she had her eyes on the battle. "Ember again," Hitori called out. It may have been a straightforward strategy, but it didn't seem like it needed more than that. Ember looked like it was enough to knock them out and it could even take multiple out as once.

Again and again, Litwick fired off his attack beating back the remaining karrablasts with ease, even if he took more attacks in the process as the final ember knocked out a few more karrablasts and finally made the swarm give up and run away from Litwick and the rest of his group. Litwick swelled up with a puffed-out chest and turned to look at Hitori was a large smile on his face as he pointed to himself. Even if he nearly fell over as his body was riddled with holes and he had clearly taken more damage than he was trying to act like he had.

Hitori immediately ran over, "L-Litwick! A-are you okay?" She asked while fumbling around and trying to keep the candle Pokemon from falling over completely. Litwick proclaimed confidently that he was fine. If anything he seemed overjoyed that he was receiving her attention. "A-ah I'll get you a potion," she said before scooping him up in her arms and running back over to the picnic table. It didn't take too long to get a potion out and start spraying Litwick, whose amorphous body had already reformed back to normal, but Hitori was going to make sure he was fine.

Letting out a sigh of relief once the potion took effect, Hitori leaned back and took in the battle. She hadn't seen much of Litwick's training earlier today but already it seemed stronger and faster. She didn't do anything other than tell him to use ember, so it was just Litwick's effort. Did he just need motivation? Hitori imagined it, her litwick weirdly speaking in a human tongue "Thanks to you Guitar Hero I got all the motivation I need to grow this strong!". The image while probably false, still was enough to make her smile as she drank in the imaginary praise.

Whismur climbed up onto the picnic table's bench and began to complain and point at Litwick, snapping Hitori out of her delusions. "Eh? Hmm?" Hitori let out as she listened to Whismur. She still couldn't understand the specifics of what her partner was saying, but she could understand what Whismur was trying to get at. Something happened in that thicket of trees where it was Litwick's fault, and he started the fight.

"I-is this true?" Hitori asked Litwick, did she already fail as a trainer and now she had a delinquent of a Pokemon? Was she going to be extorted by him and he won't even help out in battles? Before she could spiral again, Litwick began to give his side of the story. Though it was quite short, a derisive snort followed by a few more cries of explanation that she couldn't grasp at all.

Despite that, Whismur went silent before nodding in… Agreement over the reason? "Whismur, what did he say?" Hitori asked. Whismur did try to explain it with several whispers, but Hitori couldn't pick up on it at all. "I, see," She lied.

Changing subjects abruptly to help cover for her lack of understanding, "W-well I guess y-you both still succeeded at getting food, G-good job! Y-yay!". Her voice was a bit strained and cracked a bit as she tried to come off as cheery. Her two Pokemon were happy to draw their attention back to the small pile of berries they had gathered. Even helping Hitori as she moved them onto the table.

"O-okay u-um, if y-you have some favorites s-set them aside, t-then I'll divide them up," She explained. Hitori watched as the two of them began to divide up their spoils, as she expected Whismur to take the sweet berries for herself. Meanwhile, Litwick was a bit harder to pin down, he took a few red berries that she vaguely remembered as spicy ones, before starting to try and assemble a mix of pink, blue, and yellow berries.

Once they had both decided which berries they wanted above the others. Hitori ended up pushing the rest of them towards Whismur, she needed the extra food if the site was correct. Thankfully Litwick didn't have an issue with it. A thought did occur to her, and she took out a bag and put some of the berries they each set aside. "these will go for breakfast and lunch tomorrow," She explained. She was again thankful that the two of them easily accepted this rather than try and get aggressive over their food.

Left alone with the remaining berries the two Pokemon got right to eating. Hitori had to rush to try and get a count of how many berries each of them was going to have before taking her phone out to try and find a calculator for how much it meant she had to feed them more. Once she had, she opened the containers of Pokemon food and was surprised that on the inside of the lid were plastic inserts that were made to be used like plates. She carefully counted out the amount of food she was setting out. As she pushed the two plates forward, she watched as they eyed the food and took a testing bite of it. Her worry was unfounded as both of them seemed to enjoy it and happily moved between berries and processed food.

Hitori finally was able to let out a sigh and rested her head against the table. She would have to add another thing to the long list of things she wanted to thank her parents for. She was starting to get an idea of what being a parent must be like. After a minute or two of watching her Pokemon eat, her stomach began to grumble once again, and she went back to the suitcase taking out some of the ready-made food she had brought for herself, and dug in as well.

After everyone had eaten and the few things she had taken out were put away. Hitori let her two Pokemon do as they pleased with the rest of the evening as she certainly wasn't going to try and walk for another two hours using the remaining sunlight. Before she went to do her own thing, she remembered the wax she bought and broke the first bar up, holding it out for Litwick. The candle Pokemon's eyes shined and excitedly accepted the wax and began to chew on it almost a bit like it was gum.

The other thing was preparing the campsite. Not that there was much for Hitori to do, she didn't have a full tent or anything. But she still spends a few minutes finding a spot and laying the sleeping bag out, lying down on it for a couple of seconds. Only to get back up and try a different location. None of it was like her old bed in terms of comfort and it was out in the open It didn't feel right for someone like her who preferred a more cramped feeling. Her solution in the end was to line up her suitcase and guitar case in an L-shape and use the inner corner as a spot to lay her sleeping bag down, which felt better.

Next came out a solar-powered phone charger and getting her phone plugged into it, Hitori had already used it quite a bit and it was getting low on power. She considered that if she got an electric-type Pokemon, they could be used to charge it up instead. Kita probably already had her Pikachu do such a thing, so they could constantly take, what was it called 'totes grammable selfies?' or something like that. Thinking about Kita, Hitori looked over the message history between them, the last message being from before the opening ceremony.

'C-Could I message her?' Hitori thought to herself as she stared at the phone. She didn't have anything else really pertinent to do at the moment, even if she was already planning to get her daily four hours of guitar practice in with the rest of the evening. While she was considering such a thing her phone beeped with a notification, shocking her enough that she tossed her phone up into the air and nearly fumbled it a few times as she narrowly avoided having it hit the ground. Her heart was thumping, enough that Whismur stopped her bit of exploration to look over at her.

"A-ah, I was just surprised," Hitori told her partner. Whismur's hearing was good enough that she probably heard how hard her heart was beating at the surprise. Whismur whispered something that felt like understanding before she went back to pacing around and exploring the campground a bit. Hitori turned her head away from Whismur and back onto her screen where she saw that there was a message from Kita.

'Hey there Hitori! Tonight's probably your first night out in the wild I bet! How are you holding up! I'm doing great, trekking through the Wild Area before the challenge started totally got me ready for it! Already I'm probably halfway to Hulbury already,' Kita's message read.

Hitori carefully read the message a few times before typing out a response, then deleting it and starting over a few times. Even if she was a bit more used to texting someone who wasn't her parents on the phone it was still very nerve-wracking for her. 'I am doing well this night. I deeply appreciate the concern you have shown me. I do not believe I had gotten very far along the route, however, this was due to taking breaks to stop and train my honored Pokemon partners' Was what she eventually sent.

Kita's reply was almost immediate despite how long Hitori took to figure out her own message. 'That's good to hear, my first day was totally rough and I was kind of worried for you!'. Before Hitori could even finish reading that message, Kita had sent another one already. 'I was wondering if you'd be willing to help me out. I wanted to try and get my newest team member ready for her first gym battle. She uses Icy wind like your whismur so do you have any tips for it?'.

Hitori wasn't sure if she should be happy that Kita was relying on her or scared because what if she gave bad advice and then Kita would lose her gym battle, and then, and then. Hitori shook her head to dismiss those thoughts to try and focus on the conversation. 'My deepest apologies but I have no advice to give. I didn't train Whismur in Icy Wind. I begged my parents for an advance on my allowance and used that to buy a TM for the move' Hitori replied.

'Ah, well too bad! Vanillite can already use the move, so I was hoping you had some kind of secret technique you know?'

'I may have something that can help you! If you look at this site, it's a database for any moves that Pokemon can learn along with explanations for how they used the move and tips on how to teach them. It even has videos you can submit yourself of different Pokemon moves' Hitori quickly replied back. Copying the link to the Attackdex site and sending that over as well. Even if she was expecting another immediate reply from Kita, it took a couple of minutes for a reply to come.

'Woah! That's amazing! I'll have to make sure every one of my Pokemon shows off their moves! Kind of like contests! Kind of a shame we don't have any here in Galar. I'm sure Pikachu and Vanillite would love to show off!' Kita replied. Followed shortly by some stickers of the two Pokemon in question.

Hitori didn't reply immediately, her thoughts occupied with contests. It was a scary thought in more than one way. In a way it was closer to her desire to become so famous and popular that her social issues won't matter anymore, but at the same time. She didn't know if she could handle it, just stepping up to give battle commands was enough to make her sweat and feel nauseous, if she had to perform at the same time? Even worse, she could see herself becoming way to invested and becoming an even bigger weirdo over it. Better she just focuses on her guitar and battling.

'It is indeed a great shame, alas no such contests exist within Galar. So I shall focus my efforts on gathering gym badges and my guitar' Hitori sent. From there, their conversation turned more towards non-Pokemon related things where Kita was happy to once again talk, or rather text enough for the two of them. Eventually, Kita got busy with something as she apologized and didn't respond, so Hitori took that to mean the conversation was done and took a deep breath, another social situation handled, she was getting better at them she believed.

Setting her phone down, Hitori finally turned her attention to what she had been wanting to get to since she stopped her walking for the day, her guitar. She took advantage of the fact that her headphones were able to plug into the guitar to not disturb the wildlife too much. The last thing she wanted was for the campground to be attacked again just because she was playing. Quietly she began to get into her routine, a few chords while she double-checked to make sure everything was in tune. Then she began to play, pushing herself to perform a piece that was just a touch too hard for her. Which was kind of hard to find if there was one thing Hitori considered herself good at, it was guitar, allegedly, according to some of the comments on her videos, and Litwick.

Whatever Whismur and Litwick were doing before was quickly dropped as even without the amp, her playing was enough to get their attention. Both of them find a spot to listen attentively towards Hitori, Whismur leaning towards more quiet enjoyment, moving to take a seat next to Hitori's sleeping bag. Meanwhile, Litwick took a spot on the picnic table and was waving his body around in a manner vaguely resembling the kind of dance done with light sticks at idol shows. From the stream the head of the wimpod that was around early briefly popped out to look at the playing as well.

When Hitori had finally felt her fingers starting to sting and felt like it was a good spot to stop for the day, she finally took in her surroundings a bit, it was dark out and noticeably colder now. More than that, a fire was apparently set up far enough away from her that it wouldn't be a risk of anything catching fire while providing her some light and warmth. Looking around she found Litwick next to the fire with a wide smile on his face. "Did you make this fire?" She asked.

Litwick nodded eagerly before pointing to the cluster of trees and holding his hands out like he was carrying something to help illustrate the source of the kindling in his explanation. "T-thank you. A-ah but I heard you need to make sure to put it out before we go to bed. Or was it just watch it?" Hitori said. She had no idea if it was normal for the Pokemon to do something like make a fire but still, she appreciated it. Litwick just nodded at her and pointed at himself as though to say 'Leave it to me!'.

There wasn't much else she could do at this point but get into her sleeping bag to turn in for the night. Whismur was happy to come up right against her and act like a hug pillow further creating the nice, cramped space Hitori enjoyed. Litwick however didn't go to sleep, instead, he took it upon himself to take watch guard his trainer throughout the night. Just as the minutes passed and Hitori slowly began to close her eyes and drift off she suddenly shot up. "My upload!" She exclaimed. She felt around her pile of things for her phone before tapping away to finalize the upload to her channel, something she had been meaning to do earlier. With that, Hitori dropped back down and quickly fell asleep to dreams of becoming a viral hit.

 

[Belwin]

Hitori woke up quite a bit earlier than she was used to. A combination of going to bed earlier thanks to all the walking and not having all the power she could ask for on her laptop to spend scrolling around. The ground being less comfortable than her bed also didn't help. As consciousness slowly returned to her, Hitori was thankful that she hadn't been attacked, kidnapped, or arrested during the night as she was somewhat worried about.

Slowly she sat up, letting go of Whismur whom she had spent the night hugging like a pillow, careful not to wake her partner up just yet. Blinking the last of her sleepiness away, Hitori looked over at where Litwick had taken up his post to watch over them through the night. The fire he had set up had gone out though Litwick himself was still awake, staring at her. Their eyes met and Hitori quickly sank back down into her previous sleeping position.

Was Litwick watching them the entire time or only because she woke up? It was a bit creepy! But Hitori supposed she had no room to argue, she had sniffed Kita's hair one time and mentally commented how she smelt like the ideal middle school student compared to herself. With that realization Hitori sat back up, if she was going to have a creepy Pokemon then it probably fit her. "G-Good morning Litwick," She greeted.

Litwick gave a salute and a happy cry, most likely returning the greeting. "W-whismur usually sleeps in more than me, so I'll just get ready before waking her for breakfast," Hitori explained.

Once again Litwick seemed to agree to what she was saying but remained staring at her. Hitori crawled out of her bed over to Litwick, grabbing him and turning him around. "I-I n-need to change, okay!" she admitted a bit frantically. Thankfully Litwick seemed to get the message and with a final cry stared out into the wilderness alertly.

With a sigh, Hitori pulled out a clean band shirt and quickly changed into it. She'd have to go wearing the same tracksuit for a few days as she only had one spare with her, but she still had plenty of extra clothes of everything else. Though now that she had Litwick around, the idea of getting a tent seemed a bit more appealing to her. Maybe once Whismur evolved fully, she could even drag the tent around with herself safely away from everyone else.

Whismur woke up not too much longer after thanks to the noise Hitori was making. Which snapped Hitori out of her thoughts and brought her and her team to breakfast. A simple affair that was more of the same, some of the leftover berries and dry food, with a few granola bars for Hitori herself.

While her team ate, Hitori spent more time on her phone checking to see the comments on her latest video. There still wasn't a lot yet as she uploaded at a bad time, but the comments were just as positive and supportive as ever. After looking over the new comments Hitori spent the rest of breakfast watching segments of Gurumin's latest stream. Which seemed to open with a segment about sandwiches of all things. At least the way she described the experience of eating with her friends along with the pictures made it seem more fun than it probably was. That and it started making her hungry, or hungrier. So Hitori began to eat while she watched.

After everyone had eaten, Hitori got to work packing everything she could back up. Litwick had taken that moment to let out a rather loud yawn, his amorphous body stretching to allow such an action to be as exaggerated as possible. "A-ah, I guess even a ghost type would be tired after staying up all night," Hitori commented, more to herself. These were things she'd have to keep in mind as a trainer right?

Litwick snapped awake and saluted with a cry that no doubt tried to make him seem ready for anything. At least it was easy for Hitori to understand what he was trying to do at the moment, acting like he wasn't feeling tired. "We're just walking a bunch, why don't you just go sleep in your Pokeball? I'll have Whismur to keep watch, I doubt anyone would even want to attack somebody like myself," Hitori quickly rambled out. "And I can just let you out if I do get in trouble! So rest up!" She continued after Litwick seemed resistant to the idea.

That was enough to get Litwick to finally slump over and show how tired he was. Hitori took that as her cue and walked over to the holder attached to her guitar case which held her Pokeballs and grabbed his. A second later holding out his premier ball and clicking the button on the center. She watched for a second as the red beam engulfed him before he disappeared into the ball. "Ah, what about you Whismur? Want to stay out and walk or keep resting in your ball?" Hitori asked.

Whismur was silent for a few seconds, glancing between Hitori, the Pokeball on its holder, and finally out into the route they'd be walking. With a small point out into the route, she let out a small whispered cry. Hitori nodded and smiled a touch, "I see. Well you don't have to tough it out if you don't want to, if you get tired just tell me and I can return you,".

For a moment Hitori considered how nice it'd be to be able to return herself and let Whismur do the walking. Her legs were already still a touch sore from all the hours of walking she had done yesterday, and she was supposed to do it all again today. If anything she was supposed to do even more because she wasn't starting at noon. With a sigh she went to finish packing, all she needed to do was tough it out for a few days, and then she could spend a week, no two weeks, maybe more in a nice comfortable room at an inn somewhere in Spikemuth.

With her guitar case on her back and her suitcase rolling behind her, Hitori gave herself one final mental pep talk and started her trek for the day. With Whismur happily walking beside her at least. As she crossed the small bridge and over the small cluster of trees, Hitori tried to keep a wide berth and an eye on the trees. With any luck, the karrablast from yesterday wouldn't suddenly come out and attack her. Maybe she should have had Litwick tough it out for those few extra minutes to get away from them. When no actual attack came and the trees began to disappear behind a hill, Hitori let out a sigh of relief.

-----

The first leg of her day was uneventful, as was the second. A couple hours of walking only to stop for fifteen to thirty minutes to rest before heading off again. On the second Hitori took a longer break, even Whismur was getting tired from such a walk at this point. While they rested, Hitori took her phone out to occupy her time, it was there she had brought up the Attackdex site to once again watch the videos of Whismur's moves. After a moment she realized that Whismur had learned a couple of new moves since then, not only that but she now had Litwick!

"Litwick use Smog," Hitori said trying to keep her voice both audible and as she held her phone out, aimed at Litwick. The candle Pokemon gave a loud cry as the normally smokeless flame on his head began to erupt with a thick smog that poured out around him in an expanding cloud. It only went on for a few seconds before Litwick stopped the attack, letting the cloud dissipate naturally around them, becoming far too thin to be of risk to anyone.

"G-Good job Litwick. N-Now. Litwick use Minimize," Hitori said in a cheery tone before trying to once again get level once again. Litwick again gave a loud cry and soon his wax body began to ripple and lose its form as it slowly condensed in on itself. While it wasn't a perfect use of the move, after a few seconds Litwick was now a mere six inches tall, half as much as he normally was. Despite this, the flame on his head remained burning at the same size. Hitori watched through the phone for a minute before giving a nod to Litwick, prompting him to suddenly expand back out to his normal size.

"W-well done! I'll just upload these to the movedex now! Maybe you'll become the go-to example of your kind for these moves," Hitori complimented Litwick as she started to fiddle with the phone, dividing the recording up into smaller chunks. As well as editing out the failed attempts, which were more her fault than Litwick's. Attempts where she was too quiet or stuttered too much over the move's name. Still, she had practice from her uploads as GuitarHero and from recording Whismur's moves so it didn't take her very long at all.

Hitori stopped after a second, "Right right! You can go back to sleep Litwick,". She fumbled with the ball to return the ghost-type who had dropped the energetic façade he was putting up for the video in favor of slumping over and rubbing his eye.

"Whismur it's your turn," Hitori called out after the few minutes she needed to quickly edit Litwick's attacks and prepare it for upload. Whismur emerged from a nearby bush that she had been hiding under, enjoying the dark, damp space while she rested up. Unlike Litwick who Hitori had to explain the concept to and guide to use his moves where it wouldn't cause problems, Whismur immediately got into place ready to show off.

It was probably for the best that Hitori waited until Whismur had learned the vocal control required of Supersonic. Having her let out visible waves of sound made the attack look much more impressive than just a loud screeching noise. Not only that but when she moved onto Howl, that same control carried over, coloring the visible sound red. It even made an impressive bit of lightwork as the energy of Howl ran along the ground and nearby tree, along with Whismur herself.

"Echoed Voice!" Hitori called out, finding herself not needing to force the energy. Whismur inhaled for a moment before opening her mouth wide and screaming. Unlike before the sound wasn't as ear-shattering though it was certainly still loud. More importantly like the earlier two moves, the sound was condensed to a visible level, somehow. Hitori still had no idea how that worked. The rings of visible sound started rather thin but the longer Whismur held the attack the thicker they became. Even as Whismur stopped to take another breath before screaming out again, the strength didn't reset, picking right up from its strength and continuing to grow from there.

Hitori did have Whismur stop after only two examples of the attack, if only because she was worried that if Whismur continued it may have started ripping the ground apart. Even standing away from Whismur and not having the attack directed near her, she could feel the attack shaking her body towards the end. "Good job Whismur! It's so much stronger now!" Hitori cheered. Whismur was happy to accept the praise, happily cheering though with enough volume that Hitori was once again grateful for her headphones.

Once Whismur had the chance to calm down a bit from the praise, Hitori thought that she should probably use that energy to do some training. She hadn't encountered any wild Pokemon other than the group of karrablast yesterday. Something she assumed would happen much more, that was how it went on a journey through the routes right? Having to fend off wild Pokemon after wild Pokemon and getting stronger because of it.

"I'm going to edit your video now okay?" Hitori explained to Whismur, waiting for her to nod her head and reply before continuing. "We worked a lot on your voice, so maybe now we try something more physical?" Hitori continued after Whismur gave her a cry and a nod. She glanced around the greener area she had settled down for her break looking for something to use. After a second or two, she spotted two trees that were not too far apart, but also not that close to each other.

"I want you to use pound on that tree, then go and use astonish on that other tree okay?" Hitori explained her idea. "Keep going back and forth between them alright?" Hitori continued moving her finger back and forth to help establish the idea. Whismur followed Hitori's finger between the two trees, back and forth before letting out a howl and running off towards the first of the trees.

Hitori watched as Whismur became highlighted with energy, running over, ears glowing white before she bashed herself up against the tree, shaking it with force. Thankfully nothing dropped out and attacked them and Whismur was off towards the other tree bashing into it with the same force. Whismur stopped there and looked back at Hitori, waiting for her to nod and acknowledge her use of pound before starting over again.

After a few repetitions, Whismur stopped looking over at Hitori for confirmation before continuing. All the while Hitori had stopped and taken her laptop out and began to edit the videos. All together it didn't take long, thirty minutes at most. By the end Hitori had her videos cut and uploaded, while Whismur had tired herself out. It was only her suddenly bursting into deafening crying that Hitori flinched and realized that Whismur hadn't stopped when she started to feel tired.

"W-w-w-w-whismur y-you c-can stop!" Hitori shouted out as she held her hands to her ears to try and block some of the noise. At least until she was able to get her headphones on once again. While Whismur had stopped trying to push herself further, it didn't mean she stopped crying over the exhaustion she had brought herself to. Hitori quickly grabbed a water bottle and a potion as she shuffled across the ground to get to her partner.

Thankfully, some water, food, and a promise of rest were enough to get Whismur to quiet down. Eventually, after a few minutes at least. There was some bruising on Whismur's ears that Hitori had to use a spritz of potion to help soothe. It did make Hitori worried, what if Whismur was trying to tell her the whole time and she just missed it? What if Whismur hated her now? Would she have to soon have both members of her team ignore her orders?

Before Hitori let herself spiral too much, she reminded herself that it was okay if she just didn't repeat her mistake. That's what her mom told her when she would cry over some mistake she made when she was younger right? After returning Whismur to her Pokeball so she could rest up, Hitori grabbed her phone and wrote out a note reminding herself to, in the future, make sure to watch her Pokemon so they didn't overdo any training.

Having to push herself to accept that as an appropriate response to everything and that Whismur probably didn't want anything to do with her anymore. Hitori cleaned up the laptop and other things she had set aside for this bout of training. That was when Hitori looked at the two trees she had pointed out, Whismur in her practice had broken the bark away and even some of the wood. Leaving two indents in the trunks. A marker of how hard Whismur was working.

----

Taking to the road now alone, with both Whismur and Litwick resting inside their Pokeballs, Hitori found it was a little bit lonely. Even if she wasn't exactly talking to Whismur or Litwick during these times, she still had grown used to their presence. Even more so than being used to Whismur's presence around the house, she didn't feel that sense of loneliness when she had to go to school or out by herself to buy something for her guitar. Perhaps it was a sign of her growth as a trainer. Or maybe a sign of her developing some kind of weird habit.

Regardless, by herself, Hitori walked a bit slower, no longer trying to keep pace with the more fit Whismur. Along with much more frequent breaks to rest her legs for a few minutes. She progressed like that for the next hour until she heard a series of crows up ahead. Initially, she thought nothing of it, well that was a lie she, for a brief moment, flinched and thought about just hiding against a dip in the route to hide.

As she neared the source, Hitori saw a murkrow. One that was in the middle of a battle as it began to use what looked like peck, diving down onto a wimpod. A wimpod who was curled up on himself trying to endure the attack as it slammed against his carapace. At that moment he tried to scurry off, only for the murkrow to gain a dark gleam in their eye and quickly flew to catch up to the bug, a faint dark aura surrounding the dark-type before it sped up, easily catching up to wimpod and slapping its wing against the bug knocking it back where it was before.

Only now the wimpod was on his back, unable to defend himself as murkrow began to rise in the air, it's-his wings glowing in preparation for what Hitori assumed was wing attack. Hitori gasped as she ducked away, not wanting to look or get the murkrow's attention, certainly not wanting to be the next target for the flying type. But as she did, Hitori saw the wimpod once again, it was fairly big, and kind of familiar.

'A male wimpod, it couldn't possibly be the one from yesterday could it?' Hitori thought to herself. Without really thinking about it she stepped forward instead of hiding away. 'No no no, this is just nature, bug pokemon get preyed on from time to time' Hitori continued to tell herself. Even as she had grabbed Whismur's Pokeball from its holder, just to be ready to defend herself she reasoned to herself.

Then she had locked eyes with Wimpod, they looked at each other, and for a moment Hitori saw how Wimpod seemed to suggest that she should run while murkrow was distracted. Or maybe that was just Hitori's over-active imagination. Regardless, "Whismur I-icy wind," She shouted as she tossed Whismur's ball out.

Her Pokeball sailed through the air halfway toward the two wild Pokemon before opening and releasing Whismur in the middle of the air already sucking in air. With her frigid breath soon enveloping the area, the murkrow let out a surprised yelp, and his body locked up for just long enough for the air to be taken out from his wings, causing him to drop to the ground, only just avoiding a collision before already flying towards Whismur.

"Asto, P-pound," Hitori called, changing her order halfway through as she remembered that a ghost-type attack wasn't going to be as effective against a dark-type. Whismur looked tired still but still stood ready and slammed herself into the murkrow as he came close, managing to get her attack off before the murkrow's peck.

This time the attack was enough to knock murkrow down to the ground, who appeared to really not be able to take much of a direct hit. Through all of this, Hitori had taken a few more steps towards Wimpod, who himself had rushed over towards the safety of a friendly face. Even if he took a curved route to stay away from Whismur.

As murkrow brought himself up, taking a few moments to shake the dirt out of his feathers, he began to loudly caw out. Hitori starting to worry as now she had the bird's full attention. Which meant she now had to win against him, with a tired Whismur and a sleeping Litwick. She was half expecting murkrow to suddenly use something like hurricane, or hyper beam, with how dramatically murkrow was cawing and now was flying up. In the distance, caws echoed out to meet the murkrow's own and soon the single murkrow wasn't alone.

Hitori's worry grew tenfold as the single murkrow turned to two, then three, then five, soon a whole swarm of the flying types was landing where they could around herself and Wimpod. The bug-type obviously sharing her only worry as he tried to back up behind Hitori. 'Wimpod I'm not better than you, I won't be able to protect you any more than I can protect myself!' Hitori thought to herself. The single murkrow that Whismur had knocked back was already getting up, anger surging in it's, his expression.

"W-w-w-w-whismur c-ccan y-you use Icy Wind," Hitori stuttered out. Under the piercing gaze of all those murkrow it was hard for Hitori to even raise her voice above a whisper, regretting not having Whismur use a smokescreen first. But not for the first time, Hitori was thankful for Whismur's amazing hearing as Whismur sucked in air and began to bellow out the ice-type attack. As the frigid air expanded out, the flock of murkrow flew back and away.

Just as Hitori was starting to feel a touch of relief that the attack would keep them away, or even chase them away, two or three of the flying types began to rapidly flap their wings creating a strong gust of wind that pushed the frigid air right back at Whismur and herself. Feeling a sudden shiver from the cold air, Hitori's heart skipped a beat as right after two other murkrows were approaching one's beak glowing with peck while another's wings glowed with wing attack.

"S-sm-smokescreen!" Hitori squeaked out as she did the only thing that came to mind, picking up her partner and carrying her as she ran as hard as she could away from the approaching murkrow. Whismur stopped her icy wind and after another inhale of air began to release the thick cloud of smoke that trailed behind the two of them as they ran. Of course, it wasn't just the two of them, Wimpod took the window of opportunity to run with them. As he scurried across the ground, his carapace flecked off in a struggle bug that lingered in the air.

As the two murkrow continued to rush forward into the smokescreen, they collided with the floating pieces and squawked as it hurt them. Followed by a series of crows from the rest of the flock who begin to chase Hitori and the two Pokemon, avoiding the smokescreen. Even the two who were hit by the bug-type attack had already recovered and joined the rest of their flock outside of the smokescreen.

Still, it had bought Hitori and Wimpod to make some distance between them, and more importantly, it gave Hitori some time to think. 'Murkrow were nocturnal right?' Was her first thought, a piece to somehow get out of the situation without being beaten up by the murkrow and left for the mandibuzz.

The bought time wouldn't last forever as the murkrow had gotten ahead of Hitori and with their cries as warning soon dove into the smokescreen from the front where Wimpod's struggle bug hadn't reached. It was only Whismur suddenly lunging out of Hitori's arms to block an attack from one of the murkrow that kept Hitori safe.

"Whismur!" Hitori cried out in worry, but before she could give an order, she had to dive down low to the ground as she could hear the flying types flying past her, missing her thanks to the smoke ruining their aim. Wimpod beside her soon let out a pained cry as he wasn't as lucky to avoid a strike. Even after getting hit, Whismur continued to thicken the cloud of smoke understanding it as the only thing that kept them from being swarmed by murkrow.

"W-wimpod! A-are you okay, I'm sorry I shouldn't have butted in, they'd probably just take your berries and now you're going to end up lunch thanks to me," Hitori immediately called out in apology to him. 'Should I wake Litwick up? But a ghost-type surrounded by this many dark-types' Hitori thought as she held his Pokemon in her hand.

Wimpod flailed about letting out struggle bug in every direction and somehow forcing the murkrow away from him for the moment. The light of the attack illuminated enough to be seen through the smoke, bright enough for Hitori to see. "T-t-that's it! W-wimpod s-sand attack!" Hitori suddenly called out after a few seconds of staring at the light.

"Litwick come on out please wake up," Hitori whispered as she released the fire-type under her to block the flash of the Pokeball. Litwick looked a bit drowsy but was already up and shaking the sleepiness away from his eyes. "Litwick, e-ember, but keep the fire within the smokescreen, as large as you can, two of them" Hitori commanded.

"Whismur, Supersonic, as loud as you can," Hitori added. The three Pokemon soon got to work, Wimpod looking at Hitori with rapt admiration before his flailing stopped flaking out in struggle bug and instead he began to dig up dirt flinging it up in each direction. Litwick had little clue as to what was planned but was already hard at work creating two large embers that began to float nearby. Finally, Whismur gave a nod before spending a few seconds just sucking in air before screaming out supersonic so loud that Hitori felt it in her bones.

Still, the effect was as Hitori imagined, the dirt at least temporarily darkened the smokescreen enough to hide her actions. From the outside of the smokescreen, the murkrow who was preparing to blow it away and attack again was suddenly met with two large glowing eyes and an ear-piercing scream that startled and confused enough of them to cause a panic to spread amongst the flock.

'What kind of Pokemon did that trainer have?' 'I'm not risking my feathers against that!', and other such thoughts spread amongst the flock and they turned tail and flew away in a hurry. Even if it didn't fool all of the murkrow, once some had fled, others followed, which left even fewer who now considered the odds much less in their favor.

"R-run now!" Hitori called out to Wimpod before returning both Whismur who was out of breath and Litwick who needed more sleep back to their Pokeballs. Now just the two of them they took off in a random direction and ran as fast as their legs could take them. The further they could get away, the less chance the murkrow would find them when they found out about the trick.

Hitori didn't know how far she and Wimpod got or really how long she was running. But she eventually was too tired to keep it up and fell to her knees to gasp and take some deep breaths. By her side, Wimpod had stopped a few steps away catching his breath just as much. He looked over at Hitori and saw that she was in worse shape than himself, and took it upon himself to start pacing around her his eyes going from place to place on alert for any threats.

As a minute or two passed and it looked like the flock of murkrow was properly lost, Hitori finally recovered enough to address Wimpod. For one she was kind of surprised that he stuck around, expecting him to run off or dive into the stream that, now that she was looking around was nowhere to be seen. Slowly she brought herself up onto her feet and checked her things over. Guitar case, check, Pokeballs check, phone check, suitcase.

Hitori felt a cold sweat come over her as she quickly looked around her. Of course, the suitcase was nowhere to be found as a few moments later Hitori remembered how she had left her suitcase behind when she first stepped in to help Wimpod. "Oh no, no no no," Hitori began to mutter to herself. How could she lose something so valuable so early? With all of her spare clothes, food, oh, and her laptop!

How was she supposed to face her dad and tell her that she had lost something so expensive? "C-c-c-come out b-both of you," Hitori stuttered in a panic as she tossed both of her Pokeballs and let out Whismur and Litwick. An action that caused Wimpod to flinch and scurry away into the safety of a nearby bush.

Litwick was still awake even though he looked like he was just falling asleep again. Meanwhile, Whismur looked fine, for all of two seconds before she picked up on Hitori's state and quickly grew to be on the verge of a crying fit. "M-my s-suitcase, I l-left it behind, w-we got to go look for it, d-do either of you know where we were before?" Hitori asked her Pokemon.

Unfortunately, Whismur shook her head and began to sniffle, moments away from a crying fit. Hitori returned her right away even if it was a bit rude to her partner, part of her brain was still alert enough to understand that Whismur's crying would probably alert the murkrow. Litwick wasn't much help either, though he seemed to already be walking off in a random direction, motivated at least to help look.

"S-stay nearby at least," Hitori told Litwick who at least gave a wispy cry back. It was one thing sorted out, that was good, right? 'Take things one at a time right? That's how you managed a crisis right?' Hitori thought to herself as she was taking half steps in three different directions, torn between where to go.

Hitori was taken out of her worried thoughts by Wimpod, who had carefully crawled out of the bush and poked at her leg to get her attention. Hitori looked down at Wimpod who now was pointing in two different directions with two different legs. One was over in a direction that did look like where she had come from. The other however was up at Hitori herself.

"Eh? W-wait do you know where we were before!?" Hitori asked getting a series of rapid nods from Wimpod. Though Wimpod continued to point at her. Hitori first looked behind her, then around her as it took her a while to properly follow where Wimpod had been pointing, namely at the Pokeball holder on her guitar case. She had put the empty Pokeballs on them, it felt more impressive to have a fully loaded holder after all.

With a double take, Hitori looked back and forth between her holder and the Wimpod. "You, you want to come with me? B-But I don't know if I'll be a good enough trainer for you, I already have my hands full dealing with two already," Hitori explained.

For a moment Wimpod deflated and had already begun to scurry back over to the bush. Halfway through however Wimpod stopped and slapped his frontmost legs against the ground before scurrying back and pointing once again at the holder, this time letting out a chittering cry. Hitori blinked. "But, I'm going to be battling… I wouldn't want to frighten you so much because of that," Hitori continued.

Hearing that, Wimpod once again seemed to naturally back up and flee at even the thought of it. But again the bug-type seemed to force himself to walk back towards Hitori. It was then that Hitori understood what Wimpod was doing, it was exactly the pacing she did when registering for that tournament in the café. Just like her, Wimpod was wanting to do something despite his cowardice. "O-okay, I don't know if I'll be the best t-trainer, b-but w-we'll get more confident together, a-alright?" Hitori eventually said.

Wimpod became elated upon hearing that. Even if a few moments later Hitori could see Wimpod obviously having second thoughts, imagining a worst-case scenario. It was somewhat odd to see what it must have looked like when she did the same. Carefully, Hitori took the Nest ball that she had received from Ball Girl after their battle and held it out for Wimpod. The bug-type flinched at the ball, struggling to force himself to push past his second doubts, to see that he crossed that proverbial point of no return, even if it wasn't there.

In the end, his desire to be more won out Wimpod stepped forward, only to trip over his legs into the ball. It opened up and enveloped him in light and sucked him inside. The ball closed and began to shake as the light on the button began to blink on and off. Compared to Litwick it shook for a few more seconds before inevitably stopping and with a ping confirming that the capture was successful.

"Come on out Wimpod," Hitori said as she pushed the button to let him out. Wimpod was shivering as he emerged from his Pokeball, before letting out a clear sigh of relief. "W-welcome to the team, I-I'll have to introduce you to the others later. For now, you know where my suitcase is r-right?" Hitori said. Wimpod blinked and nodded before gesturing with his legs.

"T-Then lead the way. Ah, but first I need to get Litwick back," Hitori said before rushing off where Litwick had started to wander to return the ghost-type. Then finally she and her newest Pokemon began to set off towards where her suitcase hopefully was waiting for her.