I don’t like how the last week of Rustboro had been spent. I know I was the one to bail without having to waste any time, but the end of those days really felt like malingering. They didn’t feel fulfilling and they made you depart on guilty, lazy terms. On the other hand, leaving too quickly doesn’t make me feel any better either.
Somehow, Riesa began to seem so calm. I don’t know about Atashka, but he usually shares my dissatisfactions. This morning, unlike the last, she was the earliest to wake up, and was already bright and showered by the time she came in our room. She sat up with Atashka and made terrible jokes about status conditions. Then after a while they tied my hair like Sapphire Birch, but I didn’t like it.
Riesa said, “Atashka, it’s time for us to move on.”
“Yeah?” Atashka said. “That’s right, I think so too.”
I watched him with mild hostility from my bed.
He said, “Arauve, what are your plans. Are you moving on too? How long are you sticking with us.”
I thought about all the non-implementable responses. “I’ll stay,” I said, “don’t get stressed, I’ll stay with you two for a while.”
“Yay,” Riesa said dutifully. “Okay, so I wanna reach Mauville by sunset at least. Arauve I don’t remember how many hours it is but I don’t like the idea of taking that grass route in the dark,” I shook my head, “it’ll be icky to navigate. I think I could be ready to leave before lunch. I don’t know about you?”
“I need potions,” Atashka said.
“Oh I need to shop too, I can get packed in an hour and spend the rest of the morning shopping,” she said. “It’s all up to you guys.” They looked at me again.
“I’m ready now,” I said.
“Arauve I’ll make you shop,” Atashka said. “Your pants are getting cruddy!”
“I’m not shopping for clothes! They’re fine, this is travel wear.”
“Well then wear something new, don’t wear the cruddy ones.” He looked up into Riesa’s face, who was folding the hem of her pajamas, as if she was doing something significant.
“We’re going to your home!” Atashka said. “Are you excited?”
I looked at her too. She shrugged. “Yeah, it’ll be nice!”
“I wanna meet your family! Riesa you never talk about them.”
“That’ll be nice…” They stared down at the same hem for a few seconds, but then smiled up at each other again.
“Atashka I wish we had a day just for souvenirs,” Riesa said, hitting his shin with her hand. “It’s Slateport. Slateport!”
“So? We can have one. We don’t have to leave today…”
“We do though.” She found her feet on the rug. “Come on guys, no looking back. I’ll go back to my room and pack. I’m meeting you before breakfast, you should be done!”
*
Wherever I go I want to see the ocean. Staying in Slateport taught me that. Riesa feels that way about the sea too. Back when we were little the ocean near Petalburg was like our mother. We only went there in summer, and we left before evening. It was like the meadow behind a class at preschool. You remember the meadow in the back and you don’t remember what happened that day. But now I’ve started to realize, that the ocean is older. The ocean was alive years before we were born. You could have found the ocean twenty or thirty years ago, at the end of a street in a neighborhood near the city, or on the road between two villages beside a country path, or entering the gate of a university, carrying a messenger bag. I think I could get scared of the ocean, but I don’t have to.
I want Arauve to feel like she has a mom… Pokémon are our kids, they can’t give everything I got. Not a mother, not here a home, but an ocean, a sister, Riesa, a grovyle, these things tie together and they can make a sort of family. You can enjoy having them there, like Wally said.
Instead of people, or even stuffed pokémon, Arauve hugs pillows and blankets now. She said yes today, but it looked like she was going to go away again at some point. The date wasn’t chosen though. I did her packing with her, and then mine. Then we showered. Then Riesa came and we went down to have breakfast. The breakfast at Slateport was so good, we didn’t want to know that it was our last breakfast here. It was pancakes with cream and Rawst.
For shopping we just went to the close Pokémart. I didn’t remember anything to get besides potions and full heals. But it was still almost lunchtime when we came back. We spent an hour wasting time again. Then we went down to have lunch, which I was really hungry for. I put on nice clothes for the journey. For daytime with no stopping, they would be fine.
Atashka and Arauve in the back seat of the car, dressed up. Haha, it’s Riesa now. Why did I get out of bed so early and take charge of leaving? Well, it’s a secret. It was a lovely day for leaving, the sky was this streaky blue and it made Slateport white and lavender even after lunch. I love the sea too, I’d find a way to get back to it every day. And if something took me away for a while, I wouldn’t worry, because every little thing you decide because of every time and place is good. In fact, when we went back to the route it was a lot better than what we’d seen yesterday in the late evening, because everyone traveling was a lot fresher and calmer than at the end of the workday, and it still was less crowded.
I wasn’t spacing out like yesterday either. It was so good because Arauve walked us to the side of the route almost when we were out and she said she had something to tell me, making sure Atashka was there too. “Listen, I remember you talking about the last time you were here. The beginning of your journey? And how you spent the whole day in Dewford trying to get lost in the deep cave. I haven’t forgotten anything, I’ve been thinking about it ever since then. Right, Atashka?”
“What?” he said. “Well, yeah!”
I wasn’t expecting anything like that. “Arauve…” I said, but she made herself clear.
“I have to say I don’t understand everything about it. But what I got from it is that you were scared.”
“I can’t deny that…” I said.
“Are you scared now?”
“Come on, Arauve…” Atashka said. “That’s such a bad thing to ask.”
She glanced sideways for just a second, but went back to me.
“No!” I said. “I’m sorry I haven’t told you guys. I feel so much better now. I must have sounded really bad, but Atashka, those days in Dewford, where you and the other trainers took me into your group, it felt like I wasn’t alone for the first time in months. And then when we got to Slateport… being with you two has been some of the best times of my journey. Some of the best, of my life.”
“Buut,” she said. “Aren’t you nervous?”
“About what?!” Atashka said.
“I don’t know, to be honest,” I said.
“Do you want to take a few more breaks, so you can find out?”
“No. I’m… as ready as I’m going to be.”
“That’s good,” Arauve smiled at me. We shared the look for a little while, but she was the first to look away, probably thinking it had outlived its coolness. I didn’t mind; I knew I was going to find a way to make her do something really cute before the day was over.
To be honest, I hadn’t remembered this route much when we came here yesterday, and it was still new to me today. You don’t retain a lot about location when you’re on your first trek before you even know what to notice. I came with only one worry, and that was, if I went back to the place where I’d been traveling alone, without all the things, all the people I had now, then well? Then I might go back to having nothing. I’d felt like I’d become a different person now, and she wasn’t meant to be there in Mauville, in those clothes, in my parents’ car. But what did I feel when I got here? Nothing, because there was no time to overthink! It was way more crowded than we’d counted on in the morning and even considering that it was fall, there was more traffic than you’d expect for just after lunch hour. And they were almost all trainers, too. They didn’t have any better occupation. We had to stop beside the Cycling Road gate and figure out how we were even going to start on the lower road, which like I’d remembered, was much further along the route.
“Isn’t there a short way?” I said. “Arauve, can’t we just go outside the route?”
“Why don’t we just go?” she said. “There’s no strategy to avoiding trainers.”
“Yeah well we got to make it through the journey without spending the whole day this time,” Atashka said. “Because I’m not letting anything get on these new trousers – ”
“Ugh,” she said. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but to go off route you need land borders, not a river. Besides, it takes longer.”
“Excuse me,” said a very small voice. We were up against the Slateport fence, and behind some scattered bushes. A small kid was peeking from behind them.
“Yes?” I said.
“I was wondering if I could… have a battle?”
Arauve looked up at the sky.
“I’m not really good at this yet,” she said, her voice trying to disappear.
The trainer was smaller than I had been, and she wore a frilly white lacy dress that was definitely her parents’ choice. Her name was Isabella. Arauve got very interested in her once she actually saw who she was. And so was I. We made her take out her one starter pokémon, a small wild-looking Electrike, who wasn’t very good at people other than her. Isabella was handling him like a house pet. “Did I have that confidence when I started?” I said.
“You must have been asking for battles on your first day,” Arauve said, standing in front of her who was neck level when they were right in front of each other. “Do you live in Slateport, Isabella?” she said.
“I used to,” she said. “I started a while back. I haven’t – I mean… I haven’t really managed to cross this route yet…”
“It is a long route…” I sympathized.
“You hungry Isabella?” Atashka said. “I’ve got some breakfast buns left over…”
“No!” She shook her head. “It’s okay.”
“Sure?” Arauve said.
“I already ate,” she smiled timidly.
“It’s nice, it’s nice,” Arauve nodded her head. “I don’t think you’re ready to battle us yet, however. You don’t want to go back home again today, do you?”
“Oh… Okay.”
“Let’s take her along though!” I said. “Isabella, you and us have the same problem. We’ve gotta get through this route before nightfall if preferable. That means avoiding trainers is a-okay. After all, we’ll, uh, we can catch up on the training any other day. You want to come with us?”
“How old are you, Isabella?” Arauve said.
“Let her answer Riesa first.”
Isabella flicked her head and said, “Sure! That is, I don’t want to slow you down…”
“No way!” Atashka said. “We don’t care right Arauve?”
“And I’m nine years old,” she said pleasantly. We were taking her back along to the route. Atashka said, “Nine years! But the training age – ”
“That’s for League registration,” Arauve said. “Lots of trainers start their journey in the same year as their tenth birthday. Am I right, Isabella?”
“Yeah… It’s my birthday in October. My – My dad said it would be all right.”
“Right. And I’m getting an idea. The idea is that none of us are wearing trainer clothes today, because of Atashka’s genius plan. We look like we’re headed out for dim sum. Until we actually leave this route, we can just say we’re taking the Cycling Road. In fact, people are not going to approach us. That’s the plan. We won’t get approached today.” Walking through the squinting sun of the open route, it wasn’t really even as crowded as it had looked at the start; we looked safe for the next ten or twenty feet.
“That sounds,” I said, “like a terrible plan.”
She looked back to me. “Thanks!” Another cool smile!
Past the Cycling Road gate and we were on the corridor beside the river, a cute path. There were a lot of people walking down it but they let us be mostly. On our left were thick trees. Then the weird old house again.
“Who even lives here?” Arauve said.
“Isabella?” I said. “Have you ever been down here?”
“Yeah, but this house… This house was a guest house as long as I remember. Then some really rich old man bought it. And since then nobody has been…”
“The TRICK MASTER’S House,” Atashka read. “Look at the sign.”
“Huh.” I read the message underneath the title.
It was really just like any other house. It didn’t even look very renovated or fancy, just new. But it looked really empty. In fact the door seemed open, so someone must have been in, but all the lights were off.
“Is it okay if we don’t, go here?” Isabella said. “Maybe it’ll save time?”
“Yeah, she’s right,” Arauve said. “Come on.”
The low road, and it must have been barely four. I could tell that it was some kind of bridge and it led all the way up the wide, still, white, meandering backwater of the river. The sides of the road were guarded by a thin corrugated metal fence. But it was all earth, and a lot of wildlife was growing on it. Maybe it was one of those floating earth or new earth constructions. Made by Mauville to change the landscape of this route.
“Ever been down here, Isabella?” Arauve said.
The kid said, “Too many times…”
If we met anyone here, there’d be no excuse not to battle. The weeds gave a little bit of hiding place, but it was just too narrow. We stepped into them, peering ahead for any tall intruders. As a large party, I’ve seen that most wild pokémon get discouraged. I still didn’t see anything until I was within feet of it, and a scratchy yellow streak in the green grass sprung up to pose at Arauve.
She held up her pokéball, but paused. “Wanna get some training done?”
“I only have Electrike, actually…” said Isabella.
“Oh…” Beautifly flashed out, and enveloped it in a flutter of wings. Then before it could react, we’d all run past it.
When the route straightened out, we could eventually see that it was just moving over the center of the river. Every now and then you saw two banks on the two sides. It was muggy in the undergrowth. Also, our clothes were spared but we couldn’t help getting our shoes dirty.
Isabella, from my glances, didn’t seem all that much nervous, except she was still self conscious around strangers, but it was more how she went quiet after all of us were walking for a little while. Her quietness was different from our quietness. I had a nice idea, and said, “Isabella, have you ever been to Mauville before?”
She replied in a very low voice, had already forgotten about talking. “Yeah. Once before my, qualification year.”
“Did you ever try the Game Corner?”
“I didn’t try the Game Corner. My dad said it was for gamblers, not for kids.”
“Did you see their TV studios? They have live tours.”
“Really?”
“I used to love going with my friends. I live in Mauville.”
“Oh.” She looked aside to my face.
“Ever seen “City Snubbull”? All the sets are in their Mauville studio. They’re all indoors!”
“That’s cool,” she said.
“And the Pecha Soap commercial. You can get an autograph from the Pecha Soap lady.”
She snickered a little bit, before I looked back.
“Why would you want an autograph from the Pecha Soap lady, right,” I said. I managed to get another laugh from her.
“Isabella, I’m gonna catch up on all the cool new stuff that’s happened in Mauville with my friends. Mauville is the first place anything new ever comes. Maybe we might even see a concert. You want to come with us?”
She didn’t reply for a while.
“We should exchange numbers,” Arauve said. “If you ever have some time, call us up. We’d be happy to hang out with you!”
“Yeah, you’re the coolest!” Atashka said.
She blushed and looked like she was trying to vanish herself. “Thank you,” shaking her head.
I thought of something else, but we got surprised by another wild pokémon. They were all the same from the earlier route. I went to thinking about staying at home with your parents. There were so many people who did. Anyone who didn’t plan to train. But I never thought I’d been expected to, and probably neither did Atashka or Arauve. I heard that they’d been planning to go out training from very young, and I’d more or less thought I was going to do that too.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have other options. Or maybe it was that the real choice was already too obvious. But when you chose it it immediately started feeling like the easiest and worst choice. No matter how much thought might have gone into it. And it was all because I needed to know what I wanted. I didn’t know what I wanted, just that I wanted it.
I wanted to be on this journey with Arauve and Atashka. This was what I’d been looking for. It wasn’t the most obvious thought, but now it could give me an anchor.
I wanted to see the sea with my friends. We hadn’t been on Route 104 together. Or explored the Abandoned Ship.
I wanted to know what Lilycove and Mossdeep were like.
I wanted to make more friends. Atashka and Arauve were my first. I wanted more like them. Pro trainers, school kids going at the same age, little children, old veteran ladies.
All of these had been daydreams I had before. That time was so different. It was strange because I had such different expectations from me. I knew I’d be training someday, but I couldn’t imagine ever going into it.
I couldn’t live the change from then to now… I couldn’t stand having to remember or see back then. It had been pretty good to live at home, I thought. Did the last year ruin all the years before it?
I don’t think I even saw the back we were approaching before it turned around. “Riesa?” it said. Me?
“Alia?” I said. It felt like a rock had been dropped around my neck.
*
She completely relaxed when she saw the new trainer. Her eyes took that puzzled look we’d known from when she was still getting lost in caves. I was looking at her, but I had to see who the trainer was, too: black leather jacket, denim shorts, dark brown shoulder length hair, very pale, with an accent I hadn’t heard, no idea who she thought she was.
However, they hugged. Atashka said, “You know her?!”
Riesa’s hand gripped the sleeve of the trainer’s jacket, which I’d never seen before. “This is a really, really old friend,” she said. “Well, friend of the family.” Alia was obviously at least three years older than us. As for Riesa’s tone, which changed in a matter of instants when she appeared. I don’t think I have to describe it.
Alia’s voice was surprisingly gentle and low. “The last time I saw you, you were minus a few teeth! Right?”
Riesa looked down and smiled. “That’s embarrassing. And not true… So did you finally get to go out?”
“I went out and came back. Now I’m out again. On my retirement trip. My dad… Well, he finally left, is all there is to it.”
“Oh, Alia…”
She looked into Riesa’s face. “Hey. Thank god, right?”
Riesa laughed again. It sounded like a very sincere laugh.
“I was so happy, I got four Gym Badges as a birthday gift to myself. Then I decided, better give your generation a fighting chance.”
“Okay, okay, don’t fall off your crutches. Alia, this is Atashka, and this is Arauve.” She got between us four and put her arm out to point, lingering stylishly over my head. “They’re my best friends. I’d rather have them at my back. And this is Isabella! We just met her today.”
“Heyo, Isabella.”
“Hi.”
“Are you and your electrike doing good?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good…”
“We’re going to get to Mauville before it even starts to get dark,” Riesa said. “That’s the promise we made to Isabella. She started her journey today from Slateport, you know.”
“Ok! Then I’m gonna see you to your parents today. I was looking for something to do anyway.” Who is she to her parents?!
“Aww, you don’t have to.”
Riesa had come to in a gradual process since Alia appeared. It had been very visible. In fact, right now her brown, fuzzy round eyes didn’t quite hit you at your depth. But that could have even been imagination. It was actually nothing more than my suspicion scrabbling out the truth.
“Alia, how many pokémon do you have?” Atashka said.
“I’ve got four pokémon, champ. I’ll show them to you sometime.”
“Are they stronger than ours?”
“You bet.”
“Alia used to train without equipment back when she lived at our house,” Riesa said. “She used a net and she made up all her moves.”
“Huh? Oh, then. We were just all babies back then. Yeah, you can say my starter pokémon is all home bred.”
“A net? What did she do with a net?”
“She didn’t use pokéballs!” Riesa said. “She caught pokémon with stones and nets. Then she released them.”
“That’s so mean!”
“You should have seen what the poochyena did to me when I went out in the route.”
“Shouldn’t have been on the route in the first place, Alia,” Riesa said.
She blew a raspberry.
“I’m so good now Alia. How can you be the battling pro anymore? When we get to Mauville I’m gonna beat you.”
“Ha! I’d like to see the day when little Riesa beats me.”
“I’ll do it.” They stared off, mock sparks between them.
“You better be careful, Riesa,” Atashka said. “She sounds like she’s really good!”
“See? Atashka knows what’s up. You young whippersnappers are growing up. But I’ve seen you in nothing but diapers, running out of the house! You know how you used to love eating mud, Riesa?”
“Alia,” Riesa said, faster than Alia stopped talking. Her words stumbled. “This is the first time I’m having this conversation with you.”
“Yeah, I’d say so!” Alia said. “Can’t have had this conversation before you know.”
She shook her head.
“I mean…”
“I know, I know. This is my first too. Remember, I was younger too.”
There was a polite silence from the three of us. I was not going to talk until this conversational picnic was over. Alia said, “I really wanted to be there for your ribbon ceremony.”
“It’s okay. I know what you had to be doing.”
“Ribbon ceremony?” I said.
“Some cute party they have in Mauville,” Atashka said.
“But…”
“No, she’s right,” Riesa said. “The ribbon ceremony is a thing they have for a particular kind of girl. I’m…” She was looking directly at me. I couldn’t focus; I was fighting an urge to hoist her and carry her the way.
“Riesa is trans.” She looked at Alia in gratitude. I suddenly knew that I was going to defeat Alia in battle at the end of the day.
“Oh!” Atashka said. Isabella smiled too. Atashka said, “She never even told us!”
“It’s a pretty private thing, Atashka…” I said.
“Yeah, Arauve’s right,” Alia said.
The other two kids looked down. “Sorry…” Atashka said.
“No! I really want to talk about it with you guys,” Riesa said. She returned my fixed stare. Her look was my expression, the one I was trying to give. My intention was to beam solid granite. For anyone who thought I was going to act like a coward. But she wasn’t…
Isabella said, “Do you get a ribbon when you’re old enough?”
“Yeah! You get it on your ninth birthday. Three into three, right Alia?”
I said, “As in the three genders?” without breaking our stare.
“Yeah! I’m just a girl, though.”
Alia said, “There was a time when families used to do it for everyone, each birthday. You’re supposed to, actually. Now we just do it when it’s important that you’re a girl, like with her.”
Riesa smiled to look at Isabella. It was like her face filled with warmth, without doing anything to the eyes. “Isabella, for your ninth birthday, you go to your grandparents’ village. You all have to wear traditional robes. Mine was so cute! The whole village put together decorations, just for me. They had my favorite color written down, I didn’t know about it, but they made all the streamers and lanterns that color.”
“What color is the ribbon?” Isabella said.
“The ribbon is always red,” she said. “And you tie it in the back, to make a ponytail. If you have short hair, you hang it on your neck in a kind of tied thing. Then you get dessert.”
“The ribbon,” I said, “is supposed to be from your village’s guardian pokémon, right? It’s like getting a blessing. ‘Who you are will break no more.’”
“Oh my god, that was in the recital for the ceremony! You’re right of course. I don’t even remember what my village’s guardian is…”
“It’s a foreign pokémon, baby doll. Easier to remember…” Alia said. “…”
“You don’t remember either do you!”
“Yes I do!”
“The ribbon is very important,” Riesa conceded after thinking about it. “The blessing behind it, I mean.”
“The blessing is something they’d just better give,” Alia said, “at this time. Begging the guardians’ pardon.”
“How come?” Atashka said. “What happened?”
“Of course nothing happened,” I said, “it’s about…” but I took time framing it.
“Isabella,” Riesa said, “they had dancing with all the children of the village, then just the girls. You know I had to remember so many names? That’s because the birthday girl has to give return gifts back to all the children.”
“Do you have to pick the gifts?”
“No! Thank god. They’re actually just sweets, I forgot what they were called. And in the evening, the girls take turns braiding chimes into your hair.”
“You must have looked soo pretty,” Isabella said.
She glowed, her eyes squeezing narrow. “Thank you! My hair is way too frizzy, I gave those kids a hard time…”
Riesa was out of my hands. And she didn’t need it. I was going to defeat Alia in battle tonight, for my own satisfaction. But my frustration at not performing, today for the first time I seemed to see above my usual vision. It was because Riesa’s and my mood came together, joined by a chain.
“Riesa, did you go on your journey soon after your ninth birthday?” Atashka said.
“Yeah, Atashka,” she said. “Very soon.”
“Was it exciting to go that quickly?”
“It really was good.”
“Our birthday comes in February. February sixth. When’s yours?”
“Mine is November first.”
“We’re gonna have a birthday party for you! Let’s get Mr. Yamada! And the Secret Circle.”
“That might be a little hard…”
“I know how we can treat her,” Alia said. “Don’t worry about that.”
“Riesa you’re staying with us right? Even after Mauville?”
“Of course Atashka. We’re training together.”
“Arauve you’re staying?”
It was a dead topic, so I didn’t look up. “We’re going the same way,” I said.
“Can I…” loud and shrill. “Would it be okay if I um… see Mauville with you guys?” Isabella said. “I don’t want to be… just that, I…”
“Of course it’s okay! Can we take Alia along? She knows Mauville better than I do!”
“Mm hm,” Isabella said.
“Great!” Alia said. “It’s a date then. We’re gonna party for a whole week!”
“Yay!” Atashka said. “Now it’s five people! Arauve, don’t you love big groups?”
Where we were, the Cycling Road was finally not visible anywhere. It was also difficult to make out the outline of the river; while on the left there was a pretty clear shore, the right was a seemingly indefinite mass of backwater hidden behind tree stalks and piles.
“Um,” Isabella said. “It’s getting a little dark.”
“We’re almost out of the woods, baby,” Alia said. It was true, it looked like we were going to run back into shore.
“There better not be a trainer now… Oh, no,” I said.
*
A big guy, in cargo pants and a white t-shirt, was scuffed all over with mud. He stood tall in the middle of the route waiting for us.
“Two weeks,” he said. “Two weeks of shuffling back and forth on this route. The Slateport-Mauville connecting road should be at the forefront of training technique! But no. In all my wanderings, not a single real trainer did I find!”
“Whatever dude, we’re not trainers,” Arauve said. “Leave us alone.”
He looked like he was rocket boosting from how short Arauve was. “Oho! Then what do I see dangling from her, chain belt…?”
We all looked at Alia. “Oh noo,” she said. “I’ve been caught red-handed,” and I giggled.
“A challenge…” He started toward us, bent forward. “A worthy match. It’s all I seek.”
“You’re a nerd,” Alia said. Arauve looked at her with… was she going to stop glaring at Alia already. “And I hate nerds. I’ll battle you. Atashka, you want to see my pokémon’s style?”
“Yeah! Yeah!” I said.
“I think I should offer a decent resistance,” she said, and holding a pokéball in front of her shoulder, flicked it out with her hand. “Go, Bruiser!”
When Andrew saw it, he burst out laughing. “You’re going to battle with THIS?”
“You better get serious quick,” she said. “He’s my starter pokémon.”
“A poochyena? Seems like this battle won’t be worth it either. I, the great Andrew, am going to defeat you!”
Flash! Andrew sent out a lairon.
“Oh!” Riesa said. “Maybe Rideon should see this battle.”
“Better not to, Ree,” Alia said. “If you’re thinking about an aron, it’s just going to get bad memories.”
“Alia’s childhood pokémon all have the personality she used to have,” Riesa explained to us. “It’s amazing how good she was at finding pokémon like her.”
“Bruiser, want to start things off with a Tail Whip?”
He started moving when she said his name. It was amazing how he trotted in the undergrowth like it was down a straight one lane alley. When he got near he slowed down a lot, almost moving in place.
“Tail Whip!” Andrew said. “Well, you can try what you want. I won’t even grace you with a defensive move. Lairon, Headbutt!”
Now Bruiser moved when Andrew called Lairon’s name. Lairon seemed to want to shift but before that Bruiser was already a puff of black over its face. I couldn’t see where the tail was coming in. He nipped around the big pokémon to its back, confusing its attempt to reorient, then bit on a leg that made it roar.
“I thought you called Tail Whip?!” he said. “Control your pokémon!”
“He didn’t do damage, brother,” Alia said. “It’s a legal Tail Whip.”
“But he didn’t do anything?” Arauve said. Riesa looked back and raised her hands, smiling.
“Lairon, Headbutt! Headbutt!” His pokémon roared and charged at Bruiser, who was now at a good distance.
“How’s she going to respond…” Arauve said quietly.
The pokémon impacted and Bruiser squealed furiously. He was thrown around and a few steps back, but not off his feet.
“Hey Bruiser, are ya angry?” Alia said. “That ugly skunk! Are ya angry?”
He howled.
“That’s right! What do we do!”
“Headbutt again!” Andrew said. “I know your pokémon didn’t just shake it off!”
Bruiser reared back growling as his opponent approached. In the last moment, he jumped out of the way and howled again.
“Good job, Bruiser!” Alia said. She called him back in.
Every one on our side watched as she flashed out a lombre.
“Try to go easy on them. Eh, Marsh Breath?”
I glanced to see Arauve, who was having a stroke. The lombre knuckled forward in a way that looked just as evil as Bruiser. Andrew was definitely out of an idea, but he reacted quickly. “Lairon, don’t let them have a head start! Rock Tomb!”
“Nope, we’re faster,” Alia said.
Marsh Breath had leapt straight at the pokémon’s face. They impacted with a splash of dark energy, but unlike what I was expecting, it didn’t disintegrate; Lairon was thrown back but it stayed clamped on Lairon’s face as it struggled away. And Marsh Breath quickly darted to the side and pounced on it a second time, without darkness – straight at the steel armor.
Lairon was behaving like it was in a death grip with a much bigger pokémon. It went on stumbling on its four legs.
“Let, go already,” Andrew said. “You’re not dealing that much damage…”
The dark energy finally released. “Oh good,” Andrew said. Marsh Breath didn’t release, though. She kept on biting, somewhere on the shoulder – maybe a gap between two armor plates?
“Nope,” Alia said.
Marsh Breath’s face was scrunched up like an ant with nothing else on its mind. Lairon tried to ram forward – but it didn’t turn out well. One of its feet slipped and the entire 200 pounds capsized onto its side, Marsh Breath still holding on.
“It’s over!” Alia said. “You should call it off now. Don’t be overly cruel to your pokémon.”
“Y-you should think that yourself!”
He looked down at the struggle. I hadn’t really thought Lairon was so damaged either, but it seemed to be in a lot of exertion over something, kicking its feet, bad enough that it wasn’t even trying to get up.
“Okay. Okay, I forfeit! Lairon?”
Lairon was curling up into a ball.
“Hey, handle your pokémon!”
“Marsh Breath,” Alia said. “Marsh Breath! Let go…!” She recalled her mid bite. “You want to continue the battle?”
“No thank you!” he said. “You’re – you’re – what are you?!”
“Heal your pokémon,” she said. “It wasn’t his fault. Do you have medicine?”
“You’re right I have medicine,” he said, fumbling his pokéball inside and starting to stumble back. “It’s called getting away from you!”
Soon, everything was peaceful again. Alia shrugged and sighed.
I said, “What was that?”
Riesa just shook her head and said, “I’ve known her for that long and I don’t know either.”
“That… That…” Arauve was the slowest to talk. “Was that legal?” she demanded of Alia. “All of the moves, were they really legal?”
“Sure,” she said. “It was a legal battle. Mostly.”
“But you were on… a different plane! You guys were fighting two different battles.”
“Well, I wouldn’t necessarily want to do this in a League battle,” she conceded. “I’d like to get some League trainers to do this to in a battle, though…”
“Haha, Arauve actually understood what was going on,” Riesa said.
“I didn’t understand the first thing.”
“What’s there to understand?” Alia said. “It was a brawl.”
“Well, what was that last move?”
“It’s easy,” she said. “I’m going to make you guess.”
Arauve hmphed and went quiet.
“Bite?” I said.
“Atashka it obviously wasn’t Bite,” Riesa said.
“Crunch?”
“Whatever,” Arauve said. Alia gave her a cool grin.
The end of the route was a new grassy river’s corner. On the side a berry tree was planted, and a man was standing beside the road to Mauville, not a trainer. It was hardly anything. “Where’s the skyline?” I said.
“No skyline for Mauville,” Alia said. “This is it.”
It was a wide road opening between the fences of two lawns. And like that, a row of dark houses started, in an old looking cobbled street. It didn’t look big enough to be Mauville.
“It’s actually cold now!” I said. “Riesa, are you feeling drafty?”
“No, I’m warm,” she said. “Isabella, how are you?”
“Good.”
“We’re going downtown,” Alia said. “Riesa, I bet you want to see your mom and dad soon as possible.”
Riesa looked at her without saying anything.
“Otherwise, you stay at my place today. A three room garbage bin on the second floor.”
She smiled.
“See, I knew it,” Alia said. “Does that mean everyone is ready for a sleepover? Isabella.”
She’d been watching the whole time, but not talking. This made her start.
“We won’t bother you that much, don’t worry. I know it’s not your party. Where are you staying? Pokémon Center?”
“Yeah… Actually,” she said. “I haven’t got any…”
“Hmm? Have you got relatives?”
“No, I don’t really have anywhere to stay.”
“Any ideas?”
“Um… What about you guys?”
“We’re. Are you asking if you want to sleep over?”
“Yeah…”
“Nice! But how’re you going to spend the night with three scary big kids? Aren’t you scared of what they’ll do to you?”
“No!” she said defiantly. “I’m not scared!”
“Hahaha, good answer. Huh, that means I’m gonna have to clean up after all. Not for Riesa. Do you guys know that Riesa actually loves ruined rooms?”
“No way!” I said. “We went to her Center room in Slateport, right Arauve?”
“She’d arranged the stationery on the corner table,” Arauve smirked.
“Wha – ” Riesa said. “The room came like that!”
The border of this neighborhood was a small, artificial looking canal you had to cross. On the other side it got more developed, but they were all boring storefronts.
“Well, it wasn’t like how ours was arranged.”
“That’s right,” Alia said. “But you should see what she’s like when she thinks she has no one to get in trouble with.”
“I’m…” Riesa shrugged intellectually. “I’m over that now.”
“How old are you two?” Alia said. “Are you twins?”
Riesa said, “I never even said they were related.”
“Ha ha!”
I straightened my shoulders to come close to Arauve’s height. She didn’t do the same so it didn’t really match anything. “Yeah we’re twins,” I said, without looking to see if Arauve was also watching her watch us.
Alia looked at us very honestly and softly. Then she looked down slightly deadpan and said, “You don’t look identical.”
“That’s – we’re not identical twins!” Arauve yelled.
“Ha ha ha!”
“It’s called fraternal. God, nobody will ever look it up!”
Alia’s room was just like she said. It was better than a garbage heap, but it was crammed on the second story of a narrow, half-residential street in a busy corner of Mauville, and we got there when it was getting dark. You had to take the back staircase of a fast food joint that was underneath her apartment. The inside was surprisingly cozy, though. Once she cleaned out the largest room to lay mattresses, it was mostly just tables and boxes of books, heavy looking equipment, and strange foreign souvenirs – a tarnished Sea Incense was sitting over my side of the room. We took turns in the bath, and then delivery came for dinner. So this is how an adult lives.
What kind of food does Mauville have? Riesa and Isabella were totally used to it. It was battered pieces of vegetables, stewed in a hot sauce. Alia said it wasn’t even Hoenn food (it was from the kitchen underneath). It’s true, because Hoenn food is sour, salty and watery with lots of fish and curry. But this was just the thing in Mauville.
“Alia are you still trying to star in that show?” Riesa said. “She was trying to get a role in a TV show. It was some really intense street fighting thing.”
“It was street romance,” she said. “And I gave up ages ago. Emmy left,” she smiled sideways.
“Emmy…!” Riesa said, smiling with her. “Alia, do you ever try doing work for an honest reason?! It was Emmy!”
“Hey, I have four badges,” she said.
“I bet you were just trying to look impressive,” she said. “You wanted to walk up to Flannery with four badges and ask for her number.”
“Flannery?! Who said I liked Flannery?”
“Okay you didn’t, but I just said it, because…”
“Because? Because you…?”
Riesa shook her head guiltily. “Obviously not!”
“Admit it!”
“She’s just… an inspirational Gym Leader! A-and what about Emmy? Did you actually think you were going to ask Emmy out?”
“Who’s Emmy?” Arauve said annoyed.
“She’s a pop star. She made an album when she was 16. Arauve, she’s famous.”
“Never heard of her.”
“Famous in Mauville.”
“In Mauville…” Arauve shook her head.
“Anyway,” Alia said. “Where Alia gets her money is not the subject for today. And it’s eleven. Good kids like you are already getting sleepy.”
“I don’t sleep at eleven,” Riesa said.
“Arauve, when did you people sleep in Slateport?”
“Uh,” she said. “Ten thirty I personally, start,”
“Knew it,” Alia said.
“I don’t know what she…” Riesa yelled.
“Hush,” Alia said. “Early morning tomorrow. If we’re lucky and we meet you to your parents, I might get to show you around the city.”
“I already know the city, Alia,” Riesa said, giggling stupidly, “I grew up in Mauville, Alia,”
“You won’t be saying that when I take you to Game Street. I was talking for the benefit of the other kids.”
“Imagine if I forced Isabella to meet my mom and dad,” Riesa said.
“I’m sure she’d love that,” Alia said. “Huh… Oh. She’s already asleep.”
We got tired and yawny even though it had been a picnic day. I got to sleep next to Riesa, but because Arauve wanted to sleep next to Riesa too, she went to her other side. Isabella’s hair and Alia’s kneecap was the scenery around the head of my mattress. Like in Rustboro, the noise and light kept filtering in from the street the entire night, but it was easy to get used to it.
