Chapter 10

The route to Canalave city, our next destination, had a much different feel than the other legs of our journey we had experienced back then. Although there were trainers about, doing their best to improve their skills, their overall presence was much lighter than other routes: a fact we were both happy about, for it meant that we arrived at our destination quicker. The few trainers that we did encounter on the main road went down quickly; enough to grant us a false sense of superiority.

Eventually we arrived at Canalave. Unlike any city we had seen before, this one was directly on the water: dry-docked boats edged the city limits, and dozens of boats floated in the harbor; ranging in size from a one-man dinghy, to what appeared to be cruise ships. We spent the night at a PokeCenter, where the relaxing sound of water sloshing against the docks and walkways served to calm us down immensely. We felt ready for anything. We entered the gym.

We were not prepared.

While the trainers that staffed the gym used Pokemon that were much sturdier than we were used to, they still failed to put up a meaningful resistance. Unfettered, we pushed onwards, determined to reach the end, as quickly as we could, and take another step in our journey.

Of course, we made a horrible mistake extremely quickly. Unlike his assistants, the gym's leader was no pushover. Simply taking down just one of his Pokemon took several minutes, of frantic dodging and continuous assault. By the third pokemon, Nil had taken a fully defensive stance, focusing entirely upon dodging the ruinous blows that rained down around her. What few attacks she could land were simply opportunistic counter attacks.

Still, Nil succeeded in taking down three of the leader's Pokemon. Through a mixture of luck, and exceptionally close calls, she had managed to avoid a majority of the hits, while suffering only glancing blows in return. Unfortunately, the leader's fourth Pokemon was a Steelix. And this one? This one was faster than the others.

Nil didn't even have time to counter attack the Steelix's relentless blows. Even worse, I could feel the power in each attack: every time a segment of the gigantic snake connected with the ground due to a missed hit, I could feel the ground vibrating below me. Still, we managed to survive for a good five minutes.

Eventually, Nil had decided to try and make an aggressive move, in hopes of putting a dent in the metal monstrosity. However, rather than take the hit, the Steelix lifted its front half directly into the air. It lingered for a moment, as Nil and I both continued on, oblivious. Three seconds later, the titan crashed to the ground with a force large enough to cause me to lose my footing. As soon as it made contact, I heard an audible crunch, and my mind filled with deafening static. I didn't even bother trying to save face.

I quickly surrendered, and in response, the Steelix was recalled. Below where it was before, was Nil. Nil was in bad shape, but very much alive... but unconscious, bleeding heavily, and half of her limbs appeared to be bent the wrong way. I immediately leaped into action, doing my best to bend her limbs the right way, and spraying down her bleeding injuries with medicinal sprays. Then, when I was certain that she would survive the trip, I picked her up, and carried her to the PokeCenter.

The next hour was a mess. I had to explain several times that Nil lacked a Pokeball, sometimes multiple times to the same nurse. Still, they did their work admirably, even though it was obvious they were not used to having to operate upon a Pokemon. I struck up a conversation with one of the people in the Center, in hopes of passing the time while my partner was healed.

"Do... the nurses here not operate on Pokemon very often?"

The person I had asked, a teenage trainer wearing glasses, did his best to answer my question.

"According to the science journals I've read, the Pokeball system works by converting Pokemon to energy. So, apparently, that means that if a Pokemon gets injured, when they come back out the ball, they'll be in the exact same shape as if they were completely healthy. It's really cool. When I grow up, I want to be a scientist... imagine how useful it'd be if you could do that with people!"

I shuddered involuntarily. I couldn't shake the feeling that, no matter what the benefits of such a device would be, I would opt out to the best of my ability.

"So my partner, who doesn't have a Pokeball?"

"Huh, that's a funny way of describing your Pokemon. Do you only have one?"

"Yeah. Only one."

We talked for several more minutes, before one of the Nurses came to get me. Just as she arrived, the static I had been hearing vanished. I was led to Nil, who, while still in bad shape, at least was able to move on her own power. They warned me about it being important to have a Pokeball for Nil, to prevent such a thing from happening again, and even more importantly, to not put her into a new Pokeball before she fully healed. They said something about "Imprinted form" and "reverting", to which I nodded. I wasn't planning on putting her in a ball anyway... Instead, I'd need to be much, much more careful.

Several more minutes later, Nil slowly drudged out of the Pokecenter beside me, legs obviously stiff, body still shivering in pain. She tried to glance towards me, but found herself unable to turn her head. Instead, she slowly walked a circle, until she was facing me. I could feel her pain in her voice... if it really was her voice. I still wasn't sure, back then.

*That was horrible.*

I could only nod sadly.

*I don't think I'm going to be able to much of anything...*

I quietly replied. "I'm so sorry. There was nothing I could have done... And now..."

*So you're going to give up again?*

"I don't see another choice…"

*At least I can walk again; it'd... suck if you had needed to carry me around everywhere...*

"So what do we do now? There's no way you'll be able to fight, definitely not in this condition."

*Why are you asking me?*

I paused for a moment, unsure of whether she was being sarcastic, or asking a genuine question. I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

"Because this is my fault."

* . . . *

We both stared northward, towards the docks. A few boats lazily drifted in an out of the harbor, silent as ghosts, besides the occasional blare of a horn.

"Well... There's nothing left for us here, in Sinnoh."

*Sinnoh isn't the only place, in the world.*

"Maybe. It's worth a shot, right?"

I dug my hand into my bag, searching for the small pouch where I kept my valuables. The bag I had chosen originally had a small, hollow compartment, likely due to an error in manufacturing. I quickly turned this into a boon, and used the false wall to hide things I didn't trust other trainers to loot while I slept. I retrieved a small stack of bills. Although, as always, my money was frugal, I had saved up a comparatively large sum: more than enough to break from the journey for a while.

I turned to walk towards the harbor, before quickly backtracking. I was going to have to move a lot slower than I was used to, at least until Nil...

I cleared my mind. Until Nil was better. She was definitely going to get better: I could feel it in my gut. Still, I decided she might use a bit of help.

"So, do you need me to go get a carry-on bag for you to sit in? Or maybe a furniture dolly?"

*... Not nice. Although, if you could go get a shopping cart or something...*

Five minutes later, I walked inside of the marina, pulling a small, blue plastic wagon behind me. I had purchased the wagon from a family inside the town: apparently, their child had just recently outgrown it. Inside the wagon, Nil was glaring at me in indignation. Still, both of us were glad that we were able to make progress without me needing to carry Nil around, nor waiting for her to catch up.

The interior of the marina was painted off-white with cyan accents, seemingly outlining the obvious shelf on one of the walls, filled to the brim with brochures. Beside it was a beat up corkboard, coated in a thick layer of requests, offers, and the occasional scam. I dragged Nil's wagon towards the corkboard, before flipping the plastic safety brakes. Shrugging my shoulders, I wandered over towards the brochure area, and returned with a handful.

The first few brochures were disheartening. I read them aloud in a mixture of confusion and amusement. I commented on each one, a feat reciprocated by Nil. We were both doing our best efforts to amuse ourselves, despite the situation.

"Kanto: home of the original Pokemon League. How about no."

*Yes, because battling is exactly what we want to get away from. NEXT!*

"Hoenn: tons of beaches!. Not exactly my sort of thing."

*Yeah, I haven't actually ever seen you swim. Are you even able to?*

" . . . I don't think I've ever received training, that's for sure."

I flipped to the next pamplet. It was beige, and... beige. It had a camouflage background style, but the outside of the pamphlet was simply black text on beige. It was inspiringly, impossibly bad.

"I'm not entirely sure why this brochure is even here. It just says Orre: We have stuff."

*Just... What is that thing. It looks like they ran out of budget.*

"This is by far the most boring sheet of paper I've ever seen. I think the value of this brochure is probably much lower than the value of the materials they wasted to make it."

*EXACTLY.*

I stared at the Orre pamphlet for several more moments, before I returned the handful of pamphlets back to the bank in disgust. Every single "Vacation spot" had either an active battling community, or something horribly wrong with it. (In Orre's case, it was a desert wasteland which had so few redeeming factors, that the fact they recently displaced a major criminal gang had made the pamphlet.) Wondering if the ones at the top were simply what most trainers wanted, I dug my hand down to the bottom for one of the pamphlets below the others.

I retrieved a tastefully colored pamphlet, advertising a region known as Almia. It described itself as a Pokemon sanctuary, with a very large portion of the region undeveloped. I fully expected Nil to mock my choice of the region with the most area to explore, but she was too focused at a piece of paper tacked onto the corkboard. Shrugging, I turned my attention back onto the papers in my hands.

"This place seems pretty good. It's forested, more or less anti-battling, and doesn't seem to have many things wrong with it. How about Almia?"

Nil replied, but did not turn towards me. Her response seemed more whimsical than normal.

*Up to you!*

"Okay. What exactly are you looking at…"

I stepped back towards Nil, and traced her line of sight to a piece of paper, boldly lettered in huge text which read: 'Hoping to tell your problem to get lost? Join Wanderlust Anonymous today, and leave your troubles behind!'.

*Look! I found your people!*

"Ha Ha. Very funny."

Paying no further attention to the notice, I grabbed the handle of the wagon and walked with the brochure to the main desk. I placed the brochure down, and rung the bell, hoping to draw someone to the currently-empty reception desk. Eventually, a portly man strolled out, ready to answer my questions.

"Do you have any ships going to a place called Almia?"

He gestured for me to hand him the brochure. I complied.

"Well that's a name I haven't heard in awhile. If you don't mind me asking, what purpose are you hoping to go to Almia for?"

"Just taking a break from the League challenge. I'm hoping to find a quiet place to relax for a while, maybe go sightseeing."

"You're a trainer? They don't take kindly to trainers: they say it's a nature reserve, over there. They confiscate any Pokeball you try and bring over, assuming they even let you through. They say that Pokeballs are "Bad for Pokemon", and if you're unlucky, they'll confiscate your caught Pokemon too. They give your stuff back when you leave, but still. Bad business, them folks."

"I'm sure that won't be a problem."

I gestured behind me, towards Nil. The man followed my finger, towards Nil, who had since sat down, and tried to make herself comfortable. This had taken at least a dozen tries; I didn't envy the pain she likely experienced when she tried to bend her legs. The man stared at Nil, before asking for clarification.

"Uhh... please explain what exactly I'm seeing."

"My Umbreon doesn't have a Pokeball, and is currently injured. I'm hoping to go sightseeing until she recovers."

"Wait, your pokemon doesn't have..."

I cut him off as he spoke. I had already been through this once already.

"Yeah, it's weird. But what's done is done, and I think Almia has a good chance at being a good vacation spot."

"You're still going to need some sort of confirmation that your Pokemon's never been in a ball. Do you think you can provide that?"

"Yeah, I think so."

I reached into my bag and shuffled the tangled mess of scraps that used to be Nil's Pokeball to my pocket for easy retrieval.

"How much for a trip to Almia?"

"It's pretty cheap, because not many people want to go there, besides sightseers. Should come out to about 200 dollars for a round trip? Also, are you going to bring the wagon with you?"

"Stranger things have happened."

I paid the man, and was directed towards a stern looking sailor, who further directed me inside a boat. As I was told, the inside was more or less filled solely with elderly folks, several of whom congratulated me for my keen appreciation of nature, and questioned me about the wagon I was dragging along with me.

The trip lasted through the night, during which I ended up falling asleep; my hand warm from resting on Nil. My dreams were fitful, painful, and confusing. Several times I woke up feeling exhausted and nauseated, as if I had run a marathon; but each time I managed to fall back asleep.

I woke up again an hour later, when a blaring voice jostled me awake. It was early morning, and I at least felt less tired, even if the nausea had not completely faded. Beside me, Nil had taken a more comfortable looking position within the wagon.

"Welcome to Almia, folks. Be sure to take out any Pokeballs on your possession, and give them to the border guards. Remember, capturing or harassing wild Pokemon is against the rules here, so keep your hands to yourselves. Thank you for travelling with Kyogre Nautical. Have a good day."