Frostvale City's central market.
The Energy Cube section.
Rows and rows of them lined up neat as soldiers, throwing back every color under the lights.
Akiyama went to the Psychic-type shelf and looked at the top row.
You could feel the density of the fantasy energy right through the crystal casing.
Those were the ones.
He cleared the entire row.
By his math, that was about three months for two Pokémon.
Then he moved to the Ghost-type shelf.
The top row breathed out thick black mist.
He took all of it.
Six or seven months of Gengar, roughly. More than enough.
After that came Fairy-type for Comfey. Same quantity.
With the shopping done, he pushed the cart along with one hand and held Gardevoir's with the other, browsing without any particular aim.
Then they passed the pens.
He stopped and thought about it.
"Help me pick one out. I want to give it to Nikozo." He parked the cart and stepped up to the counter.
Gardevoir nodded and drifted off to look at the other end of the display.
She came back shortly with an ink-black pen accented in fine gold.
"Good taste, as always. Let's go with that one." He rubbed the top of her head.
Gardevoir planted her hands on her hips, a little proud of herself.
They put the pen back in its clear presentation box, carried it with them, and pushed the cart to checkout.
He didn't pay attention to the total. No text notification came through, so as far as he was concerned it hadn't cost anything.
Once it was all packed into his backpack, they waited outside the market for Nikozo.
He came out not long after.
Carrying a gift box of his own.
They looked at each other and both started laughing.
They traded boxes.
Akiyama looked down at a gold pen threaded with dark green—showy without being tacky.
The exact opposite approach from the one Gardevoir had picked.
And that color combination happened to match the Miki family crest.
Nikozo was every bit as pleased with his understated pen, and he put it away with real care.
.....
The Ice Gym sat in a corner of Frostvale City, close to the coast: one enormous ice crystal, hollowed out from the inside.
It made you wonder whether it might just melt someday.
But the whole Gym seemed to be built from unmeltable ice. Not a drop of runoff anywhere.
The crystal wasn't clear, so you couldn't see the whole interior at a glance.
When Akiyama tried to walk in, he was informed that challengers needed a minimum of six Pokémon.
That stopped him cold.
Counting Comfey, being extremely generous, he had four.
Gardevoir, Kadabra, Gengar, Comfey.
Looking at the flower crown around Gardevoir's neck, Akiyama sometimes forgot Comfey was a Pokémon at all.
Because she slept. Constantly. Twenty-three hours a day.
"You don't have six Pokémon?" Nikozo sounded genuinely surprised.
"Is that strange?"
Nikozo nodded. "You come across as a really strong Trainer. Somebody like you shouldn't have any trouble catching six."
"Catching six isn't hard," Akiyama said, like it was self-evident. "But you're responsible for every one you catch. You can't just grab whatever's convenient, use it up, and shove it in a corner."
Nikozo mulled that over and nodded. "So what's your plan?"
"Try my luck at the shore. Depending on what turns up, maybe a Staryu or a Dewgong. I know a thing or two about raising both."
"At least I wouldn't be wasting their potential."
That was the goal when they made their way to the beach near the Gym.
The sand was crowded, and the two of them, in street clothes, were the odd ones out.
They bought swimwear nearby, changed, and stretched out on lounge chairs to rest.
A Slowpoke lay next to them, blowing bubbles.
"Wa-wa-wa-waaah."
Akiyama turned to stare at it like it had recited poetry.
Since when do you say wa-wa?
Do it again?
Slowpoke ignored him and kept gazing vacantly ahead, blowing bubbles without any apparent awareness of doing it.
Akiyama started to wonder if he'd imagined the whole thing.
He dug a Berry out of the bag beside him and set it down in front of Slowpoke.
"Say it one more time and it's yours."
"Wa-wah?" Slowpoke lifted its eyelids, tilted its head in confusion, opened its mouth, and got a mouthful of sand.
That settled it. He hadn't imagined it.
"Weirdest thing. This Slowpoke goes wa-wa." He turned to tell Gardevoir.
Gardevoir's position was that where Slowpoke were concerned, literally anything was possible.
She was lying back on her chair, thoroughly enjoying the sun.
Akiyama nodded, let it go, and stretched out beside her.
Nikozo had stepped away to take a call. Akiyama fully intended to tell him about the wa-wa Slowpoke the second he got back.
Slowpoke swallowed the Berry Akiyama had given it in one gulp, then looked over at the backpack in the distance, big eyes suddenly bright with intelligence, and scratched its head like a sloth.
.......
"Physically, the Luxray is more or less repaired. But please—don't ever let a Pokémon who trusts you get hurt like this again."
"Some of these injuries are too old to fix. It would be best to keep him out of battle altogether."
Nurse Joy handed Reika the chart with her brow furrowed, and the disgust bled into her voice whether she meant it to or not.
The way Luxray hadn't made a single sound on the operating table, no matter how much it hurt, was heartbreaking.
"No—it wasn't me!" Reika's face went hot with anger all over again at the thought of that man.
Once she'd explained about the vagrant, Nurse Joy apologized profusely.
When Reika stepped into the hospital room, Luxray was lying on the bed, patient and still, wrapped in bandages over most of his body.
He opened his eyes at the sound of her—yellow, like amber.
He watched her come closer and didn't move.
Reika stroked his fur, light as she could.
It was soft. Good to touch.
He didn't resist. He simply stayed where he was, quiet.
Until her hand found the place where something beat faintly beneath the fur.
His chest.
Then Luxray turned his head to look at this little girl, and those pale green eyes of hers held nothing but tenderness.
"From now on, you're with me," Reika said.
She put her arms around him and buried her face in his fur.
Luxray seemed to be turning something over. After a long moment, he gave the smallest nod.
Only once she'd climbed down off him and brought him food did Reika actually read the chart.
Dozens of injuries, large and small—the record of a long stretch of fighting with no treatment in between.
The organs that conducted his electricity had been damaged. They'd been repaired, but heavy combat still wasn't recommended.
Severe anemia, on top of it all.
Every line hurt to read.
"Why?" Reika asked.
Luxray didn't follow.
"Why would you keep fighting for him when he treated you like that?"
Luxray went still.
His mouth opened.
Somewhere in him was the urge to defend his old Trainer, and not one word came out.
He lay back down.
It doesn't matter. I'll never see him again anyway.
That was what he thought.
And that was when Reika realized what she'd just asked him, in the middle of losing control of herself.
She threw her arms around him and apologized over and over.
Luxray seemed a little moved by it. He stretched out his tongue and gave the back of her hand a small lick.
~~
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