"Not many stars tonight. It'll rain tomorrow." Akiyama nodded east.
The whole sky was empty except for a scatter of points way out at the edge.
"Probably." Nanami was watching her Water types, who had all perked up considerably.
Inteleon had planted himself on a branch and was keeping watch like a spy in a movie. Lapras and Mantine were spraying each other, keeping their skin wet. Milotic lay quietly with the occasional flick of her tail.
Kingdra had vanished—along with Kadabra. The two of them had gone off together to gather Berries. Kadabra was extremely interested in cube-making now.
Looking back west from here, the sky over the horizon was still green.
By the time the two of them came back with full loads, Akiyama's eyes were closing on their own. He took Gardevoir into the tent.
Night watch went to Kadabra and Inteleon—one experimenting with cubes, one holding position on a branch.
Nanami recalled four of her five and left Milotic out. She lay down along Milotic's coils and was asleep within minutes.
A tent? She didn't even own a bag.
The night stayed quiet.
Early the next morning, curled up in the loop of Milotic's body, Nanami shivered awake and blinked at a sky that had gone gray and low.
Off to the side, Kadabra floated in Calm Mind with a small mountain of Energy Cubes in every color laid out beneath him. All self-taught, all of them useful.
Akiyama came out of the tent and stretched.
Then he looked at her. Something in his expression was distinctly off.
She met his eyes. Didn't get it.
"Come on, man. Don't just stand there with your back to me."
Now she really didn't get it.
She followed his line of sight downward.
The morning dew had soaked her white shirt against her skin, and the wraps of white cloth underneath were showing right through it.
"Gyarados! Hyper Beam! Blow him away!"
Gyarados stared at his Trainer with his eyes bugging out.
"Ragh?"
Blow him away and who makes my cubes?
Akiyama gives food. Akiyama is good.
Not blowing away Akiyama.
When he didn't move, Linri kicked him in the scales, furious.
Gyarados got even more confused.
Now she's scratching my back?
"Screw you. It's a binder." She made him lower his head, hauled herself up, and sat down cross-legged.
"Ah. That explains it," Akiyama said, nodding slowly and gravely. "I was starting to wonder how anybody could be that flat."
"I will put my fist through your skull!"
She launched off Gyarados's head.
Milotic caught her a foot above the ground and set her gently back where she'd started.
Nanami sat down cross-legged and stopped talking.
Nearby, Gardevoir covered her mouth and shook. She had no complicated feelings about this whatsoever—watching Nanami lose was just funny.
The grin hadn't left the clearing. It had only changed owners.
"Let's go." Nanami 's voice was ice.
"It's barely dawn. You don't eat breakfast?"
"Breakfast? Who eats that outside their own house?"
Akiyama put a hand over his eyes. "What are you, a college kid?"
He broke down the tent anyway and made something for Gardevoir and Kadabra.
Kadabra collected the cubes off the ground with Confusion, sorted out the blue ones, and floated them in front of Nanami .
Subtlety was not required.
Gyarados quietly ate one and looked deeply content.
With a great show of reluctance, Nanami climbed down and let the rest of her team out. With rain coming, all five of them were unusually lively.
"You've got real Breeder instincts, you know that?" Akiyama said seriously, watching Gyarados's face.
Kadabra had heard the word during his years on the road.
Could I do that? Actually do that?
"Sure you could. Pokémon can register as Breeders too. We've got a lot of Gardevoir back home working with licenses."
Gardevoir nodded firmly. Some of her sisters were very good Breeders.
Nanami , working through the instant breakfast Akiyama had handed her, watched Kadabra with an odd look. Then she looked at Milotic. Then at Kingdra.
She appeared to be doing some math.
After they ate, they got moving again. The sky kept darkening as they walked.
Akiyama stopped and looked up. Solid cloud, edge to edge, and the smell of a serious storm on the way.
A cold gust came through the trees and raised the hair on his arms.
He pulled off his pack and started digging for something warmer.
"Hm?"
He went rigid.
Gardevoir felt it immediately and turned.
Akiyama drew his hand out of the bag holding a wooden carving.
A Butterfree. Painted pink.
And carved into the base, a single letter.
R.
"Hikaze." His teeth ground together and his fist closed around the thing.
"If the Gym didn't keep me tied down, I'd see you off myself."
You really wanted to see me off, didn't you.
Great. Real hero of the age.
Something cold spread through his chest, colder than the weather.
Gardevoir stared too. She'd put most of it together.
"What's wrong?" Nanami brought Gyarados down closer.
"See for yourself." He tossed it up to her.
She snatched it out of the air, turned it over, and frowned. "How is this Hikaze?"
"Who else in that Pokémon Center has access to guest rooms? Who else could drop something in my bag? And you're telling me it's a coincidence he came down the stairs about ten seconds after we walked in?"
"Those buildings are soundproofed. He didn't hear any commotion. There wasn't any."
"I actually bought the performance."
Nanami thought about it and nodded. Then: "So why hand you a carving? Why blow his own cover?"
"No idea. Maybe he likes it. Some people have hobbies."
He set the tent up right there, changed into heavier clothes, and packed it away again.
"So what now?" Nanami asked. "You want to go back and have it out with him?"
"He wouldn't have planted it if he was worried about us. Going back is how we get buried. The heat's on—we run."
He caught the carving as she tossed it back and picked up his pace.
He didn't throw it away. It went in the bag as a reminder, and there was plenty of room in there.
The rain arrived right on schedule.
It came down hard, shattering through the canopy in sheets. Nanami , sitting on Gyarados's head, was the highest and most exposed thing in the forest, and she was soaked within minutes.
She didn't seem to register it at all. She stared straight ahead, expressionless.
She'd been through worse than weather.
"Hey," Akiyama called up from under his umbrella. "You sure you don't want one of these?"
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