A/N: Aiko's prize for the Pokemon short oneshot comp!
How to Grow a Puppy from Sinnoh to Unova
Cynthia was nice, but a hard task-maker. Maybe that was why half the Gym Leaders in Unova are regular visitors, as well as Shauntal and Caitlin of the Elite Four. Or perhaps Shauntal and Lenora, at least, were there for other reasons: their love for history, for books, for myths… And Caitlin technically owned the villa so perhaps that's her excuse. But Skyla and Elena aren't the bookish short.
It was a girl thing, they'd tease, but then Hugh wouldn't be here getting his butt kicked by them. And Hilda wouldn't have gotten her own butt kicked a year ago… but then again, she was a girl too. So was Rosa, but Rosa had skipped off to do something else and Hugh had come like a puppy looking for the fangs of a feral dog.
Actually, Cynthia did that better: the impression of a puppy transforming into a feral dog and then back again. Probably why she was Sinnoh's Champion at such a young age and for so young… until an even younger girl defeated her and Sinnoh's legendary beasts. A girl like Hilda, probably, or Rosa… But even Hilda loses to her more times than she wins so maybe the monsters of Sinnoh are a different breed. They call themselves the centre of creation, after all: the place where Arceus descended to create the world.
But if Cynthia was that strong, then it just meant he had to rise to the challenge. He'd gone for fangs, after all: thorns in roses and maybe that bit was a girl thing, beautiful faces and no mercy but a wealth of power underneath – but Clay was a no mercy kind of guy too, under the permanent layer of dirt on his face. And Brycen was a movie star actor with a gym on the side, so it wasn't like one could judge a guy by his cover either…
So maybe Cynthia wasn't training all the lady League members of Unova or maybe she was, but Hugh didn't really care too much so long as he got stronger out of it all.