Later that day…

  'Joan, use Bitter Blade!

  The Ceruledge launched herself at the small mountain they were next to, and the impact of her fiery blades against it created an explosion that could be felt from where Kiran was standing, and it also gouged out a large section of said mountain.

  For some hours now, they had been just outside of Lilycove City, in an isolated area of Route 121 near the water that separated them from a place called… Mt.Pyre? At least that's what the locals called it. They all sounded pretty spooked of the place, so Kiran figured it would probably be a good training spot in the future.

  He looked around at the other pair on his team that was currently working together. Hyacinth, his Roserade had created a mini forest around her, with all kinds of greenery, and now Gobi, his Flygon, was creating a sandstorm around it. They had been working on the concept for a while; the sandstorm causes damage to the opponent, and the noise from parts of the greenery coming apart would confuse the enemy even more, since they'd lose even more track of things. The trick was to have the sandstorm not be too powerful that the greenery isn't gotten rid of, but not so little that the sandstorm didn't cause any damage.

  As a Trainer from Orre, finding ways to fight alongside sand was just something you end up doing whether you like it or not. Kiran figured, why not make that a big part of his battling style?

  'Wal...reiiiiin!', came the cry from behind him, and the air behind the Orrean got decidedly frostier.

  He turned around to see Blubby fire off a Blizzard attack at Athena, who used her powers to attempt to block the entire thing. Being able to control a wide-ranging stream of attack is an immensely beneficial tool, and practicing it was very important. Of course, Blubby was tough as hell, so not everything got blocked.

  Nearby, Slumber, his Quagsire, was testing both physical and special attacks on Lamia, his Grimmsnarl, who was practicing her defensive maneuvers, whether that be Reflect, Light Screen, or just using her hair. It still puzzled him to this day that hair could be used like she did, but he wasn't complaining with how useful Lamia was.

  Hound, his Luxray was testing out a certain combination of moves that Kiran had asked her to experiment with recently. Crunch combined with Thunder Fang. The idea was to infuse Dark-type energy into the electricity to extend the numbing properties of electricity to the opponent's type energy itself - in other words, interfere with their ability to even carry out moves. He'd realized a while back that Dark-type energy was essentially absence, so what if he could implement that in more unexpected ways? That would be a massive help. He was practicing against Athena, who was alternating between helping Blubby and Hound. She was being helped in turn, by being able to practice strengthening her barriers.

  Looking around at his entire team, he decided he felt confident in their abilities. Calling a short break would be fine.

  'Alright everyone, break time!'.

  His entire team cheered a bit. He couldn't blame them, with how beautiful their new environment was, at least compared to Orre. Blubby and Slumberly quite literally jumped into the lake, and the rest of his team lay down to chat and just feel how much better this place was.

  He smiled looking at them all, then brought some food for them out of the large storage box they'd brought with them. Particularly with the money that he and Nysa had been given as they registered for this year's Circuit at the Pokemon Center, and the money Kiran had already won from various different tournaments, and would probably would win in the future, he was happy that money for basic necessities wouldn't likely be something he would have to worry about in the future.

  Well, unless any of them started fighting over the food for no reason. So, of course Lamia proceeded to move near Blubby's spot in the lake and take his Oran berries when she thought he wasn't looking, then chuckled.

  'R-R-R-Reiiiinnn!'. Turns out he did see, and then started… blubbering tearfully and splashing. That's where he got the name, although he had given him that name back when he was still a Spheal, so it was kind of funny that it still applied now.

  Joan proceeded to karate-style chop Lamia in the head, then tiredly said to please not make her do that again on her break. Lamia then tried to look at Gobi, Hound, and Hyacinth, but the former two just copied Joan, and the latter was just rolling around the natural, lush grass around them contentedly and didn't even hear the prankster. Lamia then sighed and just gave back the berries, which Blubby accepted while sniffling.

  He laughed at the sight. His Pokemon were being more lively than he'd seen in a while. Well, at least for something other than battling. Been a while since they could afford to think about anything else.

  He sat down in the circle the Pokemon were starting to form so he could eat his lunch with them. He made sure to pet Blubby's snout and rub his fur to calm him down. 'You all enjoying yourselves?'.

  Everyone cheered in affirmation, and Espeon also spoke into Kiran's mind. 'Yes, it's glorious! I never thought we'd get out of that dump!', 'that dump' being Orre.

  Kiran chuckled. 'Pretty sure this doesn't even scratch the surface, Athena.', to which his entire team looked at him, starry-eyed.

  Well, not Slumber. He was just laying in the lake next to them, with a bunch of wild Wooper lying on top of and around him, without a care in the world, looking up at the clear sky.

  Kiran sighed. Turns out his Pokemon were happier in a world where battling and surviving wasn't all they had to look forward to. He knew he'd just gotten to Hoenn, but he couldn't help but note that all he'd been thinking about was battling.

  He knew, deep down, that he liked battling, and wanted to keep battling, probably for a career in some way as well. But he was getting the first inklings of something inside him that wanted something… more. He didn't have a clue what that might be, though.

  'Kiran. I can sense movements close by. Human ones,' Athena suddenly warned, her sensitive fur suddenly standing on edge.

  'Ugh, I can't believe the paparazzi are annoying here too. Really wish they just wouldn't exist, period.'

  'I really don't know how you even want to be a model with that kind of attention on you. Fucking creeps don't have souls.'

  Kiran tensed up upon hearing the unfamiliar voices, and he and his Pokemon tensed up instinctively as the bushes lining the mini-forest behind them rustled until two women stumbled into the wide-open space.

  The taller of the two had dark skin, blue eyes, black hair with some of it tied back in a bun, with the rest of it framing her face and flowing down her back and almost down to her legs. She was wearing a blue, cropped tank top with high-waisted black shorts, and white sandals with straps.

  The probably-younger of the two had tan skin, gray eyes, and a bobcut of gray hair that went down to her neck. Her outfit looked like a modified gi of sorts, consisting of a cropped top and loose shorts. She wore a bodysuit underneath all that, and partly because of that, it definitely stood out how muscular she was. She also had kneepads on, and was barefoot for some reason?

  'Ugh, sometimes there are definitely intrusive thoughts about th-' The darker woman saw Kiran and froze mid-sentence, clearly not expecting a space all the way out here to be occupied.

  Kiran supposed he shouldn't be surprised – this wasn't a clearing that was that difficult to find, after all. 'You two want to share this space…?' he asked hesitantly.

  It took a second, but the darker-skinned woman nodded. 'Yeah, we were thinking of having lunch here, maybe training a bit. You mind?' she smiled.

  'Knock yourselves out. It's not my clearing, right?' Kiran said. But the bob-cut woman had frozen in place, her eyes glued to what Kiran assumed was his team. ''Knock yourselves out' is a figure of speech, miss.'

  The dark-skinned woman tilted her head at the sight of what Kiran assumed was her friend. 'Bea, what is it?' she asked.

  The bob-cut woman – Bea, Kiran thought – broke her gaze and directed it at Kiran. 'You. You're really strong, right?' she asked. 'I can tell by looking at your team.'

  Kiran gave his team a once-over at that remark, and… yeah he could see that.

  'Sure, let's go with that. What, you want to battle?' he asked.

  Bea quickly grabbed a Pokeball from her belt, which Kiran couldn't help but notice had seven balls on it.

  Kiran knew from some information that he'd been reading Hoenn and other regions that only a select amount of Trainers even had more than six Pokemon, because of regulations regarding the number of badges you needed, and just the fact that one Pokemon would be difficult to raise, let alone six.

  'Huh, so she must be pretty good,' he thought.

  'Sure, I'm down,' Kiran said. Then he held up the ham sandwich in his hand. 'But later, yeah? We've been training for a while here already, so we want a break first.'

  Bea looked disappointed for a second, but her friend smiled at that. 'Yes, we've been doing that too, so I want to eat,' she said. 'You heard her name, I'm Nessa. Nice to meet you.'

  'Same here,' he said in return.

  As they walked over, he noticed that neither of them seemed to be intimidated by his Pokemon in the slightest. Not that they were trying to be that, but strong Pokemon tended to have a sort of… air about them that people often shied away from. His Pokemon having that 'air' was part of how he'd survived in Orre for so long with minimal damage.

  'So they're both strong then,' he thought. Kiran smiled back at them. Eating lunch with pretty and strong women. What could go wrong? 'I'm Kiran, by the way,' he said.

  Nessa tilted her head and frowned, looking like she was thinking of something. 'Kiran, Kiran, where have I heard… oh!' she exclaimed. You're in the tournament, right?'

  Kiran blinked in surprise at that. 'I am. Aren't there a lot more well-known people than me in this? Didn't think anyone would remember my name.'

  'Apparently, this is the first year that Orre trainers were allowed in. We weren't expecting that, so we remembered you, especially since you're the only one from there in the tournament,' Bea explained.

  'Juan in the first round is rough. You ready for it?' Nessa asked.

  Kiran opened his mouth to answer, but Blubby had been listening to the conversation and answered for Kiran, He gave a half-bark, half-moan and aggressively hit his flippers together, trying to express confidence that they would be fine.

  'Well, you heard him. Guess we'll be fine,' Kiran smiled.

  All Kiran knew about Juan was that he was a Water-type specialist, and he was a Gym Leader in this region. Well, then beating him should make Kiran's name really well-known.

  Nessa gave a soft smile at Walrein and motioned for him to come over to her. 'Can I pet him?'

  Kiran looked over to check with Walrein, but apparently it was okay, since he was already moving to her side, so he just gave Nessa a thumbs-up, after which she started scratching him under his chin affectionately. The Walrein barked happily at that.

  'Hmm, he usually doesn't warm to strangers that quickly. Are you good with Water-types or something, miss?' Athena asked. She had slunk over to Kiran's side while he wasn't looking.

  Kiran looked down at her with some alarm. 'Athena, you can't just enter people's minds like that without thinking!' They had learned the hard way that telepathy was not something the human brain was naturally built for. It would feel like taking the sharp end of a hammer to the brain repeatedly, until one were to get used to it.

  Espeon looked up at Kiran, confused. 'She's in this tournament, no? Remember, it's only for people at the level of Gym Leaders. There's no way people like that wouldn't be fine with telepathy.'

  'She's right, we're more than fine with telepathy. And yes, Athena, I'm a Water-type Gym Leader from Galar,' Nessa explained with a smile at the feline Pokemon.

  'Same here, I'm a Gym Leader too,' Bea said. 'Wow, her facial expression hasn't changed since she got here, huh?' Kiran thought to himself.

  'Galar, huh? That's a long way to come, right?' Kiran asked. He didn't know much about other regions – or ever Hoenn for that matter – but he vaguely knew that Galar was way further than Hoenn from Orre was.

  'Usually it would be, but we're also taking a year-long break from our job starting right after the tournament, so we thought we'd take advantage of the fact we would already be here to journey across the region,' Nessa explained.

  'A year-long break?' he asked in surprise. 'I didn't know that was thing. You hate your job or something?'

  They both paused and glanced away from Kiran for a second. Bea spoke up first. 'We don't, but let's just say there are... things and people we are both tired of.' Nessa, with her lips pursed together, nodded at that.

  Kiran realized that might not be the most appropriate topic to breach, for now at least. 'Thought I'd feel like an outsider when I got here. Glad I can use the desire to get away from bullshit as a way to bond,' he joked.

  Nessa snorted at that. 'Yes, trauma is so in right now, it's amazing,' she responded.

  They all laughed at that. That included Bea, so Kiran did confirm she could have other expressions on her face. After that, they tucked into their food, more or less silently, for the next little bit.

  As they were eating, Joan tapped Kiran on the shoulder, and Kiran glanced at her. She subtly glanced back and forth between the two women, then looked back at Kiran and nodded ever so slightly. They're probably fine, nothing to worry about, was the message.

  Kiran let out a small, imperceptible sigh from his nose. As a result of being able to have a connection of sorts to the life force of others, Joan was able to detect the… well, he wasn't quite sure of the word for it. Colour would probably be it. She had an ability to detect the overall colour of the souls of others, which they had learned over time was a pretty decent indicator if people they were encountered were good people or not. Being able to have essentially a bullshit detector had been extremely helpful. Kiran, his team, and his sister might not have survived to this point without it.

  He didn't like having to be that paranoid, but… hold on. He paused eating his sandwich for a second to glance at the two women. He didn't have to be that at all.

  'I still have this mantra inside my head of needing to be stronger, and it just resulted in me violating someone for no reason,' he thought sadly. His mom had told him to not 'lose his light', but he was starting to think he had never really understood what she had meant.

  A few minutes later, and lunch was finished. Kiran couldn't help but notice, with some internal laughter, how Bea had started inhaling her food as she was finishing her meal, probably so they could get the battle started.

  Bea put her food container back in the bag she had brought with her, and grabbed a Pokeball from her gi, and held it out. 'Ready?' she asked.

  Kiran smirked. He had promised, and he could use the distraction from his own thoughts right now. 'Let's do it.'

  ----

  Nessa sat on the grass near the lake as Kiran thought about who to use in the battle with Bea. It was just going to be a one-on-one, and she was sure neither of them wanted to go all out right now, with potential injuries on the line, and the risk of revealing secrets before such a big tournament.

  Leon hadn't said anything specific about needing to do well here, but saying 'it would make Galar look great if you were to display your strength properly' basically meant 'we're going to give you shit if you don't make us look good'.

  It pissed her off just thinking about it. He started a big diplomatic and financial row with Sinnoh, he, even now, refused to admit he could've been wrong to do that, and he drove away investor confidence in Galar – since people were less likely to invest in a country that rips up agreements on a whim – and he drove Sinnoh into the arms of Kanto-Johto, an actual dictatorship. And he had the nerve to double-speak-threaten her?

  Although maybe she shouldn't only get angry at him, Leon was just the puppet, after all. One company. One company runs everything, and most certainly has their hands up the asses of most politicians and leaders in the region. How could Galar criticize Kanto-Johto, then, if Galar may as well be a dictatorship. They were the reason she and Bea had even planned for this break. They couldn't deal with feeling so useless for so long at a time.

  Her Quagsire made a bit of a distressed noise beneath her. She'd released her, and she was now lying in her lap. Whoops, Nessa had been squeezing her too much for a second there. 'Sorry, baby,' she cooed to her long-time partner. 'Just a bit annoyed, is all.'

  Quagsire nodded in understanding, then closed her eyes again to try to rest a bit more. At the same time, the spar between Kiran and Bea was about to start. It looked like Bea had chosen her Machamp, while Kiran had chosen his Ceruledge, and Espeon had also came forward to erect a Psychic barrier for safety.

  Nessa was facscinated. This was the first time she was even seeing a Ceruledge outside of pictures, they were that rare. At least in Galar, anyway.

  She was a Pokemon with a humanoid stature, and a body that was mostly black, but also had some dark blue sections on her head, arms, and legs. She had blades where her hands would normally be, and both the top of her head and the surrounding area of her arms seemed to be constantly coated in a blue-purple flame. On top of all that, almost her entire body was covered in dark-coloured armor, and she was just a bit shorter than Nessa was, standing about five feet tall.

  She looked unbothered, almost regal as she stared up at the taller, and more muscular, Machamp. He was so imposing, yet Ceruledge looked like that. It would be boring to watch this match if that was all just a bluff, so Nessa hoped it wasn't.

  Bea and Kiran looked ready to go, then stared directly at Nessa. 'Oh, I have to ref this, alright,' she realized. 'Uh, no switches, one-on-one, I'll stop it before it goes too far, got it?' They both nodded. 'Alright, go!'

  ‘Bulk Up, then Rock Slide,’ Bea ordered.

  Machamp grunted as the hulking Pokemon’s muscles, all over his body, flexed and glowed for a second, increasing his already-high attack and defense. Then, the ground distorted around Machamp, with clumps of rock forming and levitating around him, before being flung quickly at Ceruledge.

  At the same time, Kiran had also given a command. ‘Bulk Up, then Bitter Blade.’

  Both Nessa and Bea furrowed their brows at that. Bitter Blade? They’d never heard of that move before.

  Ceruledge’s muscles seemed to grow in size a bit too after Bulk Up, then she rushed forward, dodging the boulders being thrown at her by weaving between them with expert precision and ease. The ghostly flame on her right arm then extended to resemble a sharp blade, and Machamp was clearly taken aback as Ceruledge sliced diagonally upwards, leaving a sizable gash on his body and sending Machamp skidding backwards.

  Bea managed to keep her facial expression stable, but Nessa’s eyebrows raised at that. They were just getting started, but she wasn’t expecting none of the rocks to make contact.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Also, something was wrong with Machamp. There was a bluish-purple smoke emanating from the gash. Not the usual smoke of flame, mind you, since the wisp was moving horizontally somehow, towards Ceruledge. However, it didn’t seem like there was an immediate secondary effect right now.

  Bea extended a hand forward. ‘Revenge, now!’

  Machamp flexed his muscles, and his body started to glow blue, while his face scrunched up in anger. He then launched forward, ready to deliver a powerful counterattack.

  Kiran exhaled, and Nessa noticed that he was being very stoic as well, even against a Gym Leader. ‘That shows his experience, I guess,’ she thought.

  ‘Disappear, Joan,’ he said. Ceruledge – or Joan, Nessa guessed her name was – body disappeared from view in about a second, and Revenge ended up not connecting.

  ‘Wow, even Alistar would struggle to have his Pokemon cloak themselves that quick,’ Nessa thought. But Bea wasn’t just some brute who could only mindlessly punch and kick, Nessa knew that.

  Bea gave a small smile. ‘Bulldoze.’

  Machamp jumped up, then crashed back onto the ground, and the entire makeshift arena started rumbling. Surprisingly though, Joan didn’t actually reveal herself. Kiran gave a sharp whistle, and she reappeared behind Machamp, and slashed with what looked like another Bitter Blade, cutting another gash in Machamp, causing the Fighting-type to grunt in pain.

  However, Nessa couldn’t help but notice that Joan actually had some bruises now too. The Bulldoze hadn’t been enough to break Joan’s cloaking, but it did hurt the Ceruledge. Earthquake would’ve worked, but Nessa thought she might’ve been right about Bea not wanting to go all out.

  Meanwhile, Kiran and Joan clearly weren’t about to let up. ‘Fire Spin, then close the gap with Psycho Cut,’ Kiran said.

  Joan put her arms together and pointed her hands at Machamp, and the Ceruledge let out a near-instantaneous swirl of blue fire that roared towards Machamp, while also causing her blades to glow bright pink this time, and the air to distort around them.

  Even at the prospect of the super-effective move landing, Bea looked calm. ‘Just chop through that fire with Karate Chop, be aware of Ceruledge.

  When the fire got near Machamp, fearsome as it looked, one of the big Pokemon’s arms glowed white, and just chopped through it, causing the attack to mostly dissipate, with Machamp taking what looked to be a tiny bit of damage, if his small wince was anything to go by.

  On top of that, Joan had disappeared again, clearly trying to make certain that Psycho Cut would hit the mark.

  But he stayed focused for Bea’s next command. ‘Bulk Up again, then Dark Floor,’ she said with a small grin.

  Kiran slightly raised an eyebrow at that, which was understandable, since this was a custom move that Bea had come up with. Machamp’s body glowed from Bulk Up, further increasing his power, then cloaked his fists, all four of them, in Dark-type energy. He then gave a loud yell as he slammed all fists into the ground, causing a tremor, but more importantly cloaking the field in darkness.

  Suddenly, Ceruledge re-appeared, surprised that she’d been forced out of the Dusk – the dimension that Ghost-types got their powers from. Not only that, she’d been knocked back slightly, and by the way her eyes were scrunched showed that it did hurt, like a super-effective move would.

  It was an impressive display, but Kiran only raised an eyebrow. ‘Just keep mixing between Bitter Blades, Psycho Cuts, and Close Combats’ he said dismissively. To Nessa’s surprise, Joan didn’t disappear this time, and just sprinted incredibly quickly, right at Machamp.

  Bea blinked, then grinned, probably at the straightforwardness. Nessa knew that, while she could deal with unique threats, straight hand-to-hand would always be her true enjoyment. ‘Mix Knock Off, Rock Slides, and Close Combats!’ she yelled.

  What followed for the next minute or so was a flurry of impacts tossing up dust, flashing lights and fire, and blood and rocks flying around. Nessa tensed up, since seeing both Pokemon raise their intensity a bit meant that she might have to put a stop to this soon.

  Eventually, the Ceruledge and Machamp slowed down. Ceruledge was standing tall, with some obvious cuts and a bit of uneven breathing, but nothing major. On the other hand, Machamp was breathing a bit more heavily, with around the same amount of cuts as Ceruledge. On top of that, that wispy entity Nessa noticed earlier was flowing in much larger amounts from Machamp directly to Ceruledge.

  At that point, Nessa thought they had sparred enough. ‘Alright, stop,’ she said as Bea and Kiran glanced at her. ‘That’s enough sparring, let’s end it there.’

  Ceruledge huffed and retracted the fire around her arms to go from imposing blades back to small wisps. Machamp came out of his fighting stance, continuing to breathe heavily. Espeon finally put the barrier down, and Bea walked over to her starter, with Hyper Potions in hand to heal Machamp.

  Kiran had walked over to Bea, still looking as nonchalant as ever, and extended a hand to the kneeling woman. ‘You’re good. Nice spar,’ he smiled at her.

  Bea shook his hand. Her normally stoic expression betrayed a bit of frustration at how that match went, especially because she was the one who made the challenge. ‘...you too. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to come out on the losing end.’ she said. Machamp hung his head. At least his gashes were healing pretty quickly thanks to the Potions.

  For his part, Kiran only gave a small smile at that, having the basic decency not to rub salt in the wound. His Ceruledge… well, they apparently don't have mouths, so Nessa couldn't tell what Joan was thinking, but she nodded at Machamp. Hopefully, that was trying to show respect.

  He then turned to Nessa and opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by… clapping? Turns out the battle had been going on for long enough that it had attracted the attention of a decently-sized crowd somehow.

  'Oh, crap,' Nessa thought. She really did not like unsolicited attention, and even though she'd developed a damn good poker face over the years, more than usual, she was not expecting an ambush here, of all places. She was here to relax, dammit!

  As the crowd seemed like they were getting closer, Nessa noticed Kiran doing a double-take after glancing at her. 'Ugh, is my poker face for crowds slipping?' she thought in a bit of despair.

  'Hey, this might sound sudden, but you two want to get away from here? I don't like crowds that much…' he said, clearly annoyed.

  Bea nodded vigourously, since she hated paparazzi and related people with a burning passion. 'Yes, please,' she said.

  'Oh, thank goodness, I thought we'd have to be nice for his sake,' Nessa thought. 'Wait, but where?'

  They were already walking fast through the crowd, with Nessa giving sparse smiles and waves here and there, the other two pretty much ignoring everyone. Even though Nessa had returned most of her Pokemon, save for Quagsire, Kiran and Bea still had Joan and Machamp out, respectively, so that was pretty good deterrence to anyone who looked like they would potentially get grabby.

  'We could just hole up in the Pokemon Center, no? I heard they have strict rules against bothering people, so that should be fine,' Kiran suggested.

  Nessa agreed with that, as they made the trek back to Lilycove.

  --------

  (still Nessa POV)

  Nessa slumped back in her chair. 'Finally, I can relax,' she sighed. It had taken them a few minutes, but the crowd stopped following them eventually. Then the walk back to the Center was pretty uneventful.

  She noted that this Center was really nice. Of course, a hub like Lilycove would have a nice one.

  Bea huffed abruptly. 'Guess this place isn't some perfect utopia then. Well, I guess it would be dumb to expect anywhere to be…' she lamented.

  Nessa expected Kiran to chime in there, but when she looked over at him, she had to crack a small smile. He was completely absorbed in the food he was eating, not really eating it quickly, but he looked like the parts of his brain that were thinking about literally anything else were not working at the moment.

  She looked down at her own food, which happened to be the same as Kiran's. (mofongo) A dish of plantains, cooked and mashed together with garlic, onions, crispy pork skin, and various other spices. It came in a bowl, along with some beef broth in a separate container. She'd never had it before, but she was here to see and try new things, and it looked damn good. She took her own beef broth, poured a bit of it over the mofongo, and put it in her mouth hesitantly. Her eyes widened, then she went for another spoonful. And quickly, another. And again.

  Okay, enough of the teasing smiles at Kiran, she wholeheartedly agreed with him. She quickly finished the dish and sighed contentedly. 'God, that was good,' she said. Kiran nodded vigorously, his mouth still full with food, maybe because he was trying to savour the food? Nessa wasn't sure. 'We don't have anything like that in Galar Pokemon Centers.'

  Kiran swallowed hastily, trying to respond. Nessa thought he was probably lucky he didn't start choking. 'Don't know much about Galar. Ain't it supposed to be a rich place?' he asked.

  'I mean the specific dish. They obviously have really good food, but there isn't that much variety. The people running the League there always try to fit an image of sorts with Pokemon food, and they try to come off as what they think will be seen as 'rich'. That kind of entitlement ends up producing high quality, but that gets boring pretty quickly, if you ask me. You'd never see something like this mofongo there, comes across as too 'commoner',' Nessa explained.

  That was definitely one thing she didn't miss about her Trainer journey. Now she has her own life, which includes her own apartment, as well as good enough salary that she could use to cook her own food.

  Kiran had raised an eyebrow at her. Nessa huffed and rolled her eyes. 'Yes, I know, first world problems. I can't help it, it bugs me!'

  'There's other food on the menu here that fits the 'commoner' stereotype. I like it,' Bea grunted, who was also in the process of eating mofongo. 'Just glad this region managed to recover after that whole disaster ten years ago.'

  Kiran tilted his head up a bit, like he was trying to remember something. 'That apocalyptic weather, right? Yeah, I remember that. Region almost got destroyed, if I remember correct.'

  Nessa raised an eyebrow at that. He only knew about certain regions, somehow?

  Kiran glanced over and noticed her expression. 'I know a lot about Hoenn and Unova specifically since they're neighbouring us. And that weather reached even other regions' shores, including Orre's. It sucked, to put it lightly.'

  Nessa was more interested in that first sentence. 'Why Hoenn, then, and not Unova?' she asked.

  Kiran frowned and let out a frustrated breath through his teeth. 'Those assholes in Unova would probably have way less of a chance of even letting us in, judging from their recent behaviour towards Orre migrants. Plus, it was too industrial, at least compared to Hoenn.' he explained.

  Bea raised an eyebrow at that. 'What was the difference?'

  'The nature, the way this region at least tries to work in tandem with it as much as possible,' Kiran explained. 'I thought it would be way more refreshing for my sister and I than Unova, so we came here.'

  Nessa nodded in understanding at that. 'That's kind of why we're here as well. This place is a refresher for people from pretty much any other region, save for maybe Paldea,' she explained.

  'You did mention wanting to ditch your job for a while earlier. How come?' Kiran asked.

  Nessa pursed her lips inwards, not sure how to respond to that. Bea was staring at her pointedly. 'I get it, I get it,' she thought. Obviously, she wasn't going to talk about anything that wasn't already public. And Kiran didn't seem like he was even remotely close enough to anything Galar-related for her to worry about getting in trouble with the Galar League over opinions.

  'We've felt… unheard for a while. I think there are… valid concerns that us, and lots of people in Galar have raised about systemic abuse from just one company, Macro Cosmos, being able to rule over quite literally everything, but those are all brushed off, and things keep getting worse for everyone. And we don't know what to do,' Nessa sighed. Bea nodded solemnly in agreement with that.

  Kiran had started swiveling his head between the two. 'Everything? One company? How does that even happen?'

  Bea looked angry even thinking about it. 'Because people, for some stupid reason, or reasons, always have to wait until they're affected by shit, in order to feel like something is wrong. They can't use their heads, and everyone suffers from it. We needed to get away from that, at least for a while,' she huffed.

  Nessa knew it was more complicated than that, but Bea wasn't wrong per se at the same time, so Nessa let that slide.

  Kiran still looked mildly upset at what he just heard. 'I'm surprised you guys can even tell me this stuff with such ass wipes in charge,' he said.

  'No. They do have power over us, but we're well-liked enough that going that far would probably cause them problems they don't want,' Nessa explained.

  They all stayed silent for a bit, since that was a pretty depressing conversation. Nessa turned her head to the left, looking at the people at other tables, and in the main lobby of the center. There seemed to only be newer Trainers out and about right now, looking at all the non-evolved Pokemon surrounding them. One young teenager was running quickly to the counter where the Nurse Joy was, tears in her eyes as she cradled a bruised Skitty with her. Two of them were huddled at a table very close to Nessa and her group, with sheets of paper between them, and discussing things with animated movements. Maybe tactics to succeed on the Circuit with? Some were even looking at their table with awe, since Kiran's Ceruledge was also out right now, eating her second helping of mofongo. Even Nessa had to admit, there was something about the Pokemon that just exuded strength, and of course she was a very rare Pokemon to see in person.

  Nessa had to smile at the sights. Sometimes she wondered why she even bothered with this vacation. She would be going back to Galar soon anyway, and she was assuming, for good reason, that nothing would change there in the next year. It was something about seeing these Trainers earnestly trying their best, and displaying their emotions that invigorated her, and made her relax at the same time. Well, among other things, at least.

  'So after the tournament, you two are just chilling for a whole year?' Kiran suddenly said, shaking Nessa out of her train of thought.

  Nessa shook her head at that. 'Nope, we both want to participate in lots of tournaments to toughen up our Pokemon more. And I've heard about this region's unique relationships and technology with regards to water. I'm actually a Water-type specialist, so I'm curious about all that.'

  How this region deals with climate change and other man-made problems plaguing marine life. How Hoenn revolutionized transport to cities and habitats surrounded by bodies of water, out of necessity when half the region was basically water. Nessa's foot started tapping against the ground repeatedly out of excitement just thinking about it.

  'Same as her with the training, but when I realized we were coming here, I found about this region's Fighting-type Gym Leader. Apparently, he uses really unorthodox methods to train. Like, with surfing, and sand training that I've never even heard of. I want to see what that's about,' Bea said with a small smile. Rarely could things get Bea to smile outside of a really intense close-combat Pokemon match, or really good sweets, and Nessa thought that was nice to see.

  'And of course, we want to do general exploring of such a beautiful place,' Nessa finished. 'What about you, Kiran?'

  Kiran leaned back in his chair and thought for a second. He then exhaled through his nose before responding. 'The Circuit is all I have on my agenda for now. Not sure I really have a specific goal right now. I figure I can get a job somewhere if I prove myself enough with my battling skills?'

  'Mhm, I see. You'll probably do well, by the way,' Nessa said. 'Anyone who can come out on top against Machamp like that is probably around Elite Four level already,' she complimented, nodding at Ceruledge – or Joan, right? – in respect, which the armor-covered Pokemon returned.

  Bea huffed in annoyance in that. 'Barely on top, thanks… but yeah, you'll probably do really well. Are the rest of your Pokemon that strong?' she asked.

  Kiran gave a small smile at that. 'Joan is my strongest, definitely, but I definitely have a lot of other strengths up my sleeves beyond her,' he explained as he reached to his left to rub Joan's head affectionately, to which she made a hollow, echoing noise. Nessa had to guess that was a noise of appreciation.

  That definitely put Nessa on alert, and from the look on her face, Bea too. Though Nessa was definitely excited to see what he could do during the tournament now.

  'After the tournament, you want to travel with us?' Bea asked abruptly. Nessa and Kiran both almost did a spit-take at that, using the water they were drinking. Clearly, neither of them were expecting that. Even Joan sharply turned her head towards Bea.

  Kiran had to cover his mouth to keep water from coming out He managed to swallow after a second longer with some difficulty, then looked at Bea with an eyebrow raised. 'Where'd that come from?' he managed, while wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Nessa wanted to ask the same thing. They hadn't discussed additional companions at all.

  Bea was staring intensely at Kiran, not deterred by either of their reactions. 'You're really strong. I want to keep training against you, as well as with Nessa. You're probably not some weirdo, so it should be fine, right?' she finished, flicking her gaze over to Nessa at that last part.

  Nessa thought for a second. Kiran seemed like a decent guy, he would definitely make a good training partner, and he could at least hold a conversation well. Nessa appreciated the 'weirdo' part from Bea, but she wasn't going to assume the worst about any random guy, especially one that clearly had no idea who she was before today.

  'I'm cool with it,' Nessa decided. Change of pace and environment could refer to people you travel with as well, right? And that is partly what Bea and Nessa were coming here for. 'What do you think, Kiran?'

  Kiran thought for a second, then Joan put a hand – blade, whoops – on Kiran's back. She glanced at both Bea and Nessa quickly, then nodded at Kiran. 'Yeah, you're right, Joan,' he said to her. Then he turned to both women with a smile on his face, which Nessa couldn't help but notice was a bit wider than he'd shown them so far. 'I'm down. Sounds fun.'

  Nessa smiled back, showing some teeth. They were starting their journey across Hoenn with potential new friend already. That had to be a good sign, right?