About a week after meeting with Cynthia in Mt. Coronet, Steven traveled to Unova to explore Twist Mountain and Chargestone Cave. The former Champion found fossils and many other evolution stones. This had brought him joy to have found these.

"Isn't this amazing Aron? Look how many fossils and stones we found!" Steven exclaimed.

Aron rolled his eyes and gave him a look that said, Of course I know! I found those for you!

But Steven didn't pay attention to his pokemon, only staring at his collection like a boy who found a full jar of candy.

"Why don't we stop by Undella Town for a day or two? It'll be nice to relax by the ocean once in awhile." Steven suggested, since he grew up in Mossdeep City he was used to living near the ocean. Aron shook it's head at the mention of the ocean.

Steven laughed. "I know you don't like water, but I get kind of homesick sometimes, you know?" The Iron Armor Pokemon just sighed and followed its trainer.


Cynthia had decided to travel to Unova to research about the legendary pokemon there, so she was staying at her friend's villa in Undella Town for the time being. The Sinnoh Champion had also wanted to enjoy the nice ocean breeze once in awhile and going to other regions. Cynthia sighed as she stared at her laptop as her glaceon just yawned and curled up on the table next to her. She had been stuck in the villa the whole day, doing nothing but researching on the laptop.

"I'm going out to get some fresh air, ok?" Cynthia called to someone else in the villa.

Without waiting for a reply, Cynthia walked out of the villa and took a deep breath. She stretched then looked around to saw a familiar blue haired man walking toward the beach.

"Steven?" She called uncertainly.

The man turned around and stared at her in surprise. "Cynthia?"

Cynthia walked over to him. She had totally forgotten that Steven told her that he was going to Unova.

"It's good to see you again Steven," Cynthia replied.

"I kept thinking about you, it seems like forever since we've met at Mt. Coronet." Steven agreed, as Cynthia blushed slightly.

"And I'm guessing you went and collected more stones?"

Steven nodded. They stood there for a few moments in silence.

"So…" Steven began. "What are you doing here in Undella Town?"

"Oh, I'm just researching about the legendary pokemon. Since my friend has a villa here and is almost never around, she said I could stay here." After a few moments of hesitation, Cynthia asked, "Would you like to come in the villa with me?"

Steven shook his head. "No, I don't want to bother you anymore."

Cynthia narrowed her eyes. "That's what you said when we were at Mt. Coronet. Really, it's no trouble, I don't mind at all."

The steel-type trainer sighed. "Ok, thank you."

She led him to the villa before stopping and turning around to face him. "Oh yeah, before I let you come in, you should know that I came here with someone else too."

"Really?" Steven asked looking somewhat disappointed.

"Yeah, I also came here with my niece."

"So it's not a guy," Steven murmured, relieved.

"What?

"Nothing. So what's wrong with having your niece with you?" He asked, confused.

"Well… she can be a little annoying at times also stubborn and would probably challenge you to a battle right when you walk into the villa. Just wanted to you to get a heads up so you're prepared." Cynthia said, looking a little nervous.

"No it's fine, I love children!" Steven exclaimed.

Cynthia laughed. "Well, she's actually…" She trailed off as she opened the door. "Shirona!" She called.

A 16 year old girl walked into the living room with a leafeon walking next to her. She had golden-brown hair that went a little longer than shoulder length, and friendly icy-blue eyes.

"Hello, there, who are you? My name's Shirona," The girl introduced herself with a warm smile. Before Steven could answer her, "Wait, you're Steven Stone, aren't you? The former Champion of Hoenn?"

"Yes, it's nice to meet you Shirona." Steven answered returning the smile.

Shirona's eyes sparkled with interest. "Can we have a battle? Please? I've been wanting to battle a Champion besides Aunt Cynthia."

"Not now, Shirona let Steven rest for a bit, he's had a long day." Cynthia replied, looking a little annoyed that her niece was bothering their guest already with a battle.

Steven laughed. "It's okay, Cynthia, I have no problem with battling Shirona, it's also been far too long since I've battled someone."

They walked outside, leaving the Sinnoh Champion sighing with defeat.

Shirona had already sent out her hydreigon into battle against Steven's metagross.

"Hydreigon, use flamethrower!" Shirona ordered.

"Metagross, iron defense." Steven told his pokemon calmly.

Metagross obeyed his trainer and took Hydreigon's attack head on. When the smoke cleared, Metagross looked at Hydreigon with a smirk.

"Use hammer arm." Metagross lunged forward and smashed it's arm right into Hydreigon with full force, which sent the dark pokemon flying into the ocean.

"Hydreigon, get up!" Shirona demanded but then saw her pokemon had washed back up ashore and already fainted. She returned the pokemon and glared at Steven for a few moments.

"Absol, use sucker punch!" As soon as the pokemon came out of its pokeball it attacked Metagross. But the Iron Leg pokemon was still standing, appearing to be unfazed by the attack.

"Use hammer arm," Steven ordered. Looking on pitifully as the Absol was thrown into Shirona and had fainted from the attack.

Shirona again returned Absol back and this time sent out Samurott.

"Use retaliate!" Samurott attacked Metagross, who was now looking like he was trying. "Now use megahorn!" as the pokemon lunged at Metagross.

Metagross had finally fainted after the double attack. Cynthia, who was watching, sighed and shook her head.

"She's not thinking again."

Steven had sent out his second pokemon which was Aggron. Shirona, knowing the type advantage, was smirking.

"Samurott! Use hydro pump!"

"Aggron, thunder!" The Iron Armor pokemon summoned a huge bolt of thunder that leads to Samurott fainting immediately. Shirona was looking on in disbelief. She was now down to her last pokemon, Leafeon, which wasn't good since Aggron could easily win the battle.

"Alright, Leafeon, let's be careful, you've seen all of Aggron's tricks." The Verdant pokemon nodded and jumped into the battle field.

"Use Sunny Day!" She ordered. Leafeon glowed as it used sunny day, making the sun begin to shine with much heat. Due to Leafeon's ability Chlorophyll, it doubled Leafeon's speed greatly.

"Aggron, use iron tail!" Steven told his pokemon. Aggron was about to slam its heavy tail when Leafeon dodged swiftly.

"Now, Leafeon, use solarbeam!" Leafeon glowed before launching a huge beam that seemed to hit Aggron. As the smoke began to clear, Leafeon let out a cry as Aggron used double-edge.

"Now it's my turn to use a double attack," Steven replied. "Use iron tail once more Aggron!" After being dazed by the attack, Leafeon wasn't ready to dodge as Aggron's tail slammed into its body, sending Leafeon flying before smacking back onto the ground.

"Leafeon!" Shirona shrieked and ran over to her pokemon. Leafeon had fainted. She returned it back to its pokeball and glared at Steven as he returned Aggron back.

Steven walked up to her. "That was an excellent battle, Shirona. I'll be happy to battle you again another time." He gave her a warm smile. Shirona kept glaring at him before getting up and running away toward Undella Bay. Cynthia walked up to him.

"I'm sorry about my niece, she always does this. Charging into battle without thinking then if she loses, she can't take it and runs away and hides for a few hours." Cynthia sighed before continuing. "Shirona needs to learn that you can't always win in battle."

Steven was silent for a few moments. "Do you want me to talk to her?"

The Sinnoh Champion shook her head. "No it's fine, she'll come back soon." Without saying anything else, they walked back to the villa together.


Steven opened his eyes and stared out the window from his bed. Cynthia had offered him to stay for the night, and due to the lack of rooms in the villa, they had to sleep in the same room but on separate beds. The steel-type trainer looked at the clock, it was almost midnight and Shirona hadn't returned yet.

"Should I go look for her? It's already been several hours…" Steven thought.

He got up and quietly changed into his normal clothes and went outside. He walked around the town for a few minutes before finding her in Undella Bay, staring out into the ocean. Shirona heard Steven coming but didn't turn around.

"What do you want?" She asked as Steven sat down next to her on the sand.

"Me? Nothing, I was just wondering where you went." Steven replied laughing gently. "Why did you run away? It was only a battle."

The golden-brown haired girl sighed. "Since I'm the niece of the Champion of Sinnoh, everyone expects me to be just like her. And I've tried; my personality is similar in some ways. I've already tried to act like her too, but I can't, and I'll never be as good as she is at battling." As Shirona was talking, she was clenching something in her fist. Steven gently took the paper away and looked at it. It was a magazine and on the front cover it showed Shirona with her Hydreigon. Next to the picture it said "the cool and confident niece of Sinnoh Champion Cynthia." He opened the magazine to an article that read: "Shirona, niece of the Sinnoh Champion Cynthia, is said to be cool and confident like her. However, she is not. Shirona may look like a calm 16 year old girl, who can take on any challenger, but she will never be as good as a battler as Cynthia. After losing against her aunt a month ago, Shirona has been losing against every battle since." Dried tears were all over the page as Steven read on in sympathy. "A few may respect her as a great Pokemon trainer, while many others just see her as just another ordinary trainer who can't even win against Lillipup even if she tried her hardest."

"They all expect me to be someone I'm not." Shirona said in a whisper. "So when I can't do something that Cynthia can, everyone then looks down on me. It's so frustrating to know that one mistake you do; everyone makes a big deal out of it." She wiped away the tears that began to form. "I just want to be free of all their expectations." She took the magazine in his hand, crumbled it and threw in the air. "Hydreigon, use flamethrower!" Shirona ordered as she sent out her dragon pokemon. Hydreigon burned the magazine until it was ashes. The ashes flew out into the ocean as a gentle breeze came by. Shirona sent her Hydreigon back into its pokeball.

Steven didn't know what to say. There wasn't much to say. Then after a few minutes in silence, like nothing had happened, she asked giggling. "So how's it going with Aunt Cynthia and you?"

"Wha- what are you talking about? There's no-nothing going on be-between us!" Steven stammered looking away as a blush crept in.

"Don't be like that! I've seen the way you two looked at each other. I may be only a teenager, but I know what love looks like when I see it." She replied laughing.

"I repeat, there's NOTHING—" He broke off. "Wait, what you mean "you two?"

Shirona replied. "Ever since she's met you at Mt. Coronet, Cynthia can't shut up about you."

Steven stared at the girl. Then shook his head. "That's impossible, there's no way that Cynthia likes me, and I don't have any feelings for her. Cynthia's just a good friend."

Shirona shrugged. "Alright, believe what you want, it's not any of my business anyway."

Steven got up, not wanting to hear anymore. "We should be getting back to the villa."

"No, I'm fine, you go ahead, I'll come back soon, I promise."

The former Champion looked doubtful but nodded anyway. As he walked away, Shirona said, "By the way, I told Wallace about you and Cynthia."

Steven turned around. "WHAT?!" He shrieked.

"Calm down! People are trying to sleep, in case you didn't notice."

"NO! Don't you tell me to calm down! How could you tell Wallace of all people?! He is the WOREST person you could tell!"

"Aha! So there is something going on between you and Cynthia!" Shirona replied, not caring at all that Steven was furious.

"NO! There isn't! How did you even tell Wallace? He's at Hoenn!"

"Well, first of all, I'm related to Cynthia so of course I have Wallace's number! Second, he came here a few days ago to "admire the ocean!" and talking about beauty the whole time or some crap like that. So that's when I told him."

Steven was feeling nervous now. "What did he say?"

"He said, 'That's wonderful! It's about time Steven got himself a new girlfriend! Now that I think about it, he never had a girl—" Shirona burst out laughing before she could finish.

Steven started walking away again.

"Wait! Steven wait!" Shirona called running up to him.

He turned around, furious again. "What?!"

"I'm sorry, I just thought it was funny cuz, you know, I actually thought you looked cute and I was surprised you didn't have a girlfriend before…" Shirona was blushing and was looking at the ground the whole time. "I'm sorry, but I think you and Aunt Cynthia would be nice together."

Steven sighed. "It's fine. I never had a girlfriend before because I just never had the time; I was just always so busy."

"What about now? You don't look busy?" Shirona asked.

He sighed again. "Look, everything's just been so complicated lately and I'm tired so please let me go back to the villa and crawl into my nice warm bed?"

Shirona was silent for a few moments. "Wait, there's only two bedrooms in the villa so…" She looked at him in surprise. "Are you sleeping in the same room as Aunt Cynthia?"

Steven groaned and walked away as Shirona was skipping for joy.

"I knew it! Wait till I tell it to all the Hoenn gym leaders! They kept betting me that you and Cynthia weren't in a relationship!"

"YOU TOLD THEM TOO?!" Steven shrieked again. "Well, going back to home to Hoenn isn't an option anymore." He thought as he walked back to the villa to get some sleep.


What did you guys think? I decided to add in Shirona as an OOC cuz she will be an important character later on. I named her Shirona cuz it's a cool name and she was named after Cynthia! I searched online and it said that Cynthia had a sister so I thought it would be fun to create a new character! Anyway, please review! ;)