Episode 7: A moment of sympathy

Niko felt bad.

He truly did. He hated seeing Charlotte upset about anything, much less him. The very idea of her not wanting to talk to him was frustrating, particularly because he was the cause of it. Now he needed to fix it—somehow—and he didn't know how.

He rarely fought with his previous girlfriend, Lauren, until they ended things. Now, with Charlotte, this argument was not only new, but unprecedented in the fact that Niko wanted to stay with her. He wanted Charlotte around, with him and helping him. Being at his side as he would be at hers. In that moment, however, none of this was true. He resented himself for it.

Niko tried to approach her a few times during that day, but to no avail. Charlotte spent most of her day training and practicing the relatively exhausting z-move with Noibat and Rowlet. Niko tried to use it again with Litten, but the Fire Cat Pokémon struggled on the second attempt, actually fainting mid-attempt. Cutiefly, not knowing any normal type moves, simply continued with his training.

Charlotte felt hurt by Niko's comments. Why would he stoop so low to criticize her reaction to her Kalos League loss, especially when he went through the exact same process of emotions when he lost in the Indigo League five years prior? Was he so far removed from his own personal history that he allowed his arrogance to take over? Was this how Niko truly felt? She didn't know, and she didn't care. He still said it, and it disappointed her.

Charlotte looked up to Niko, even if he didn't realize it. She cared about him, and knew he was, in his heart of hearts, a genuinely good person. So, to hear him insult her, for no reason, made her re-consider how she felt. Ultimately, Charlotte decided to wait it out. Who knew—maybe Niko would apologize, and everything would be fine?

After finishing their training for the day, the trio sat down for dinner. None of them talked much, with the exception of Warren trying to create conversation entirely on his own. It was all for naught, since neither Niko nor Charlotte felt like talking and accidentally inciting another argument. Even the Pokémon understood the tension. However, it didn't seem to affect their relationships with one another—Noibat and Litten, for example, hung out on the beach that evening, despite the latter's general aloofness towards his surroundings.

Warren was the first to fall asleep that night, leaving Niko and Charlotte entirely alone. Neither one looked at the other, although it would've been difficult, despite the moonlight giving their figures a silver glow.

After a while, Niko finally said something. "Charlotte, I—huh?"

She was asleep.

Smacking his head, Niko laid down on his sleeping bag and went to bed himself, hoping the following day would be better.


According to Rotomdex, the journey to Iki Town would take roughly a day. The trio would leave Kala'e Bay and head southeastwards along route 1. As they set off, Niko made yet another attempt to speak to Charlotte, but stopped when she started making conversation with Warren instead.

"Bzzzt…you okay, Niko?" Rotomdex asked in an unusually concerned, yet still somewhat emotionless, tone.

"Yep, I'm alright," Niko said, noticing Charlotte turn to look at him and the pokédex. This was the first time they had even locked eyes since their attempts at using z-moves. "Charlotte, can I talk to you?"

"We need to leave though," she replied, pointing to Warren already moving towards Seaward Cave. "Can it wait?"

"Yeah…it can wait," Niko said, slightly lowering his head and moving on, his sandals collecting sand between them and his feet.

Route 1 in Alola was quite beautiful. Once they left the cliffsides on the northern part of Melemele Island, they were greeted by the sight of lush foliage all around. It felt like they were on an island now, instead of on some route in the middle of a massive continent. While they walked, the trio saw Pokémon flying and running around, either out of fear of them, or on their way to do something else of note. Besides the foliage, they could still see the ocean to their left—the cliffsides were nearby, but not nearly as deep as they had been before.

The trio sat down for a quick lunch before training for their upcoming battle with Hala. Like at the beach, they were in a larger, oddly secluded place, which made it ideal for practicing z-moves.

"Ready Rowlet?" Charlotte asked the Grass Quill Pokémon after training with him and Noibat for nearly half an hour. Rowlet nodded, and mimicked Charlotte's movements as they performed the z-move. "Use breakneck blitz!"

Rowlet cooed loudly and energetically as he charged forward, an orange aura emitting around his body. He succeeded in the move before collapsing face-forward into the ground from exhaustion. Seeing this, Charlotte ran over to pick him up affectionately.

"Good job, buddy. We'll give it another try tomorrow when we get to Iki Town. Sound good?"

Rowlet nodded, cooing softly. Charlotte briefly turned to Niko, watching him train with Litten and Cutiefly, both Pokémon working in better sync than one might expect of a cat and a bee fly.

She sat down with her two Pokémon—Noibat was also exhausted, albeit not as much as her teammate. "Am I being too harsh to Niko by not talking with him?" she asked them. Rowlet and Noibat looked up with surprise—Charlotte hardly ever asked them personal questions. "I mean, he certainly wasn't nice to me but…he is my boyfriend. We need to talk these things through, right?"

The bat and the owl, neither having any understanding of human interactions and relationships, simply shrugged. Noibat looked at Niko, who was instructing Litten to perform a kicking move, but to little avail. Turning back to Charlotte, she nodded. Rowlet, too exhausted to answer, fell asleep in his trainer's arms.

"Heh," the brunette said, laying her hazel eyes on the owl. "You always know what to say, Rowlet."

"Again, Litten!" Niko shouted. The Fire Cat nodded, charging forward before spinning on his front paws and kicking into the air. For a moment, Niko noticed his paws light up a bright white color. "Close, we're getting closer. What do you think, Warren?"

Warren, who had been watching Litten and Niko practice, nodded. "I think so. Looks like double kick."

"Bzzzt…yes," Rotomdex, who suggested the move to Niko, added.

"Alright, I think we're finished with that for today, Litten," Niko said, kneeling down to pet the Fire Cat Pokémon. "You're getting better. We'll try again tomorrow. Ready for a z-move?"

Litten nodded with determination. He had felt confident after his first attempt at breakneck blitz, and knew it would be an important skill to hone before their big battle coming up, which admittedly Litten had little idea of.

Meanwhile, Cutiefly was fluttering about, practicing his absorb move on anything that lived. This seemed to annoy some of Warren's Pokémon—especially Poliwhirl, who slapped the Bee Fly Pokémon with an ice-cold hand. It forced the fairy type to spin out of control and crash onto the ground.

"Alright, Litten!" Niko said, standing in front of the road with his Pokémon directly in front of him. "Let's go!" they each mimicked the movements they had practiced, moving in sync as much as they could. "Use breakneck blitz!"

"MREOWWW!" Litten roared out, bursting forward with the transferred z-energy. An orange aura surrounded him as he powerfully charged down the road before accidentally veering to the right and crashing into a collection of trees a hundred yards away.

"Litten!" Niko shouted, sprinting—somehow, in his sandals—towards his Pokémon. However, it was Litten that reached him first, trailed by an angry little bird with a long beak. "Oh dear," Niko said, turning around as well and running alongside a terrified Litten before tripping and falling flat on his face. Just as quickly, he saw a flurry of embers fly past his face, and then a loud "cawk" sound before something hitting the ground just behind him. "What the…?"

The Pokémon was a small, avian-like creature with black plumage. Its beak was gray with a pointed, black tip, and it had large blue eyes. A white mask-like marking ran along its face. The marking extended down its neck before ending in a tuft of feathers on its chest. A large crest swept upward from the back of its head with a red stripe along the top that ended at its beak. The undersides of its wings were white, and it had thin gray legs and feet. It also looked like it had a flat tail.

"Niko, are you alright?" Charlotte asked as she reached out her hand to pick him up. Niko looked up, smirked, and nodded.

"What…was that…?" Niko asked as Charlotte helped him back up.

"Bzzzt…that's a pikipek!" Rotomdex said excitedly as it snapped pictures of the tiny bird, "The Woodpecker Pokémon. It's a normal and flying type. It pecks at trees with its hard beak. You can get some idea of its mood or condition from the rhythm of its pecking."

Niko eyed the Pokémon curiously. It was clearly disturbed by Litten, and lashed out accordingly. He then turned to look at the collection of trees Litten had crashed into, and walked over to it.

The trees held a collection of various berries, but mostly small, blue berries called Oran Berries. Besides that, it was oddly empty. No other Pokémon—pikipek or otherwise—seemed to live in the trees.

"Hey Rotomdex," Niko asked, "These Pokémon live in packs…right?"

"I'd assume so, Niko," Rotomdex said. "Why do you ask?"

"It's empty."

"Oh…well maybe the flock left, or died out," Rotomdex said, just as the pikipek was returning. Niko sighed loudly before giving Rotomdex a reprimanding look. "What?"

"You jerk," Niko said as he watched the pikipek settle back into the nest. When it noticed Niko, it shot an angry look at him and threatened to peck at him with its relatively long beak. "Hey, I'm sorry if we disturbed you. I was practicing a powerful move with my Litten, and we just messed up. It was entirely an accident."

Pikipek looked at him cautiously before turning away and eating an Oran Berry.

"If it's any consolation…" Niko reached into his pocket and pulled out a Sitrus Berry—a small, yellow berry with a plump bottom—and handed it to the pikipek. "Here. I give these to my Pokémon after we've spent some time training. If you're hurt at all, this'll help."

Pikipek eyed the berry and quickly pecked at Niko's hand, grabbing it and angrily throwing it into its nest.

"Also…I hope you don't always have to live alone. I know what it's like—to be away from your loved ones. When that happened to me, it was entirely my fault, and it sucked. Have a good day, pikipek."

Niko turned, motioning Litten to walk with him. After a moment, the Fire Cat collapsed from exhaustion. Seeing this, Niko picked him up and carried him off with the pikipek watching from a distance.

When he got back to his friends, Niko lay Litten down, so he could rest and sat down himself, briefly massaging his face. A moment later, Charlotte sat down next to him.

"Feeling okay?" she asked in a friendly tone.

"Yeah. Falling on my face doesn't exactly feel good," he looked back in the direction of the nest. "That pikipek though…it lives alone, in this massive nest…"

"And you don't know what to do?" Charlotte asked.

Niko shook his head. "No idea. I want to help it, but I don't know how to without removing it from its nest, you know?"

"You were thinking of catching it?"

"Yeah."

"Then go for it," Charlotte said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "If that's how you think you can best improve the life of this pikipek, then go for it!"

He nodded. "Thanks, Charlotte," he said before lightly kissing her cheek and standing up, not noticing Charlotte's face turn light pink. "Cutiefly, come with me."

The Bee Fly Pokémon—who had been reeling from Poliwhirl's ice punch earlier, got up at his trainer's beckoning and fluttered beside him cheerfully. The two set off towards the nest, which pikipek was apparently cleaning up.

"Hey," Niko said as he approached the pikipek, getting its attention. "I have a proposition for you. I'm going on a journey with my friends and Pokémon—this is Cutiefly, one of them—taking on the Island Challenge. We hope to get stronger through this. Would you like to join us?"

Pikipek looked at Niko, and then Cutiefly, before staring down at its nest. Niko saw a look of sadness—and realization. It eventually nodded, but begrudgingly.

"If you don't want to—"

"BAWK!" Pikipek shouted, bursting out of the tree and tackling Cutiefly, dragging him through the air.

"Cutiefly, use stun spore!" Niko shouted instinctively. The Bee Fly Pokémon quickly fluttered his wings, emitting a yellow dust that caused the pikipek to crash into the ground. "Now, fairy wind!"

Pikipek was thrust around across the ground with fairy wind. By the time Niko felt like it had had enough, he reached for a spare pokéball that he kept on his belt and tossed it down towards the Woodpecker Pokémon. It immediately went inside with a red flash of light and wiggled around on the ground. Cutiefly stared at it with a piqued interest, flinching when it made the usual clicking sound that indicated a successful capture.

"Well done, Cutiefly," Niko said with a grateful smile. "You're getting better, too!" Niko then summoned Pikipek. "Welcome to the team, buddy," he said to the still stunned Pikipek. "Let's get you fixed up and introduce you around, alright?"

Pikipek was healed within minutes by Niko and Warren's efforts, and proceeded to meet everyone on the team. It seemed to feel annoyed by Rowlet's presence, for whatever reason, and look at Tranquil curiously. Otherwise, it seemed cordial to everyone else. Niko then explained to him—Rotomdex identified the Pikipek as male—as well as Litten and Cutiefly, what they might be up against in Iki Town. Charlotte did the same with Rowlet and Noibat. By the end of the day, they expected to reach their destination and, within the following days, battle Island Kahuna Hala as part of their Island Challenge.

Niko felt good about his chances. He had three willing, capable Pokémon ready to take on whatever was in front of them. More importantly, he knew Charlotte felt the same way about her chances. Besides that, he had to repair the faults in his relationship with her, hoping to have a more in-depth discussion about it when they reached Iki Town.


Author's Note: Past couple of days have been busy for me. Gonna try and catch up on this story, so expect episodes to just come out randomly throughout the next few days, as opposed to late in the evening when they usually do. Enjoy!