For the next three days, we camped inside of Iron Island. Although I had set up a small tent in the upper part of the mine, both Nil and I split in different directions to go train. By the second day, I deemed my aim decent enough, and focused my attention towards seeing how fast I could open a portal. On the third day, I went back to practising fighting, but I did my best at incorporating the portals as I fought. It took a lot of practice, but eventually I had mastered being able to open a portal fast enough to block an attack.

I had taken to wearing the crystal pendant while I slept. Although it drained my energy to charge it, I assumed that if I let it charge while I was unconscious, I wouldn't even notice. I was right on all points besides the last. Whenever I awoke, I'd always have a pounding headache.

Still, every little bit seemed to help, and by the third day, I was confident that I wouldn't be helpless should trouble rear its head while Nil and I were separated. I still wasn't a combat monster, however, since Nil had to bail me out when I bit off more than I could chew several times.

Although I mostly trained to pass the time while Nil got back into the rhythm of fighting, a small part of myself knew that there was no doubt that some day, I would need to be able to defend myself.

However, we eventually decided to move on. While we were certainly making progress, there was no point of spending more time here.

One quick refill of depleted supplies and a quick rest back in Canalave later, and we were back on the road.

Our next destination lay to the far north, in a city known as Snowpoint. Having seen this, I quickly turned around and purchased winter clothing. As Nil saw me going for the hat isle, she did her best to make herself scarce.

The trip was lacklustre, save for the occasional trainer looking for a battle, and the omnipresent wild Pokemon around us. Once or twice we ended up fighting off a trainer, but the training had helped immensely. So, rather than worrying, we turned our attention towards the world around us.

*Hard to believe that it's already this cold,* I commented, *We're barely a day's walk from the last town. Compared to this, Canalave was tropical.*

*It's not that bad. Although, I for one did NOT enjoy being soaked by that trainer's Prinplup.*

*Eeesh. That might get slightly uncomfortable.*

*I'll be fine. I've already shaken myself dry. At least we haven't seen snow yet: that would really have sucked.*

By the time we had begun to see snow, we had ceased communicating. These long walks were nice for talking, yes, but even better when it came to just relaxing. Just as I had assumed earlier, I truly did miss doing this, despite how boring it seemed in passing. My mood had only gotten better as we continued onwards; the brisk air helped clear my mind and focus. Unfortunately, it appeared to have put me into an inquisitive mood.

Another day of walking later, the snow had become a foot thick. The leaves of the bushes we passed clicked together like wooden sticks, having lost all elasticity or pliability to the sheer power of the eternal winter. I walked up to one and bent a leaf, causing it to shatter like glass. How exactly did these bushes manage to survive up here, if they were constantly frozen solid?

I looked up to see another trainer, busy romping about in the grass: apparently in search of a wild pokemon. He appeared to have an idea of where to go, and thus might have been of use to get directions from. Not wanting to bother him, I waited for him to be done.

By all means, he looked pretty generic. However, his hat appeared to have soaked through and then frozen solid, and his nose was running faster than… well… me when I screw up. Were other trainers simply unaware that winter clothes existed?

The trainer finally found what he was looking for, and summoned a Luxray. His opponent, a Snowver, took a single hit from a blast of electricity, and then collided with a thrown Pokeball. The ball moved for a little bit, and then ceased. Was this how Pokeballs were supposed to work? It certainly didn't blow up in his face. I noticed that the swirling blizzard around us died down a little bit as the Snowver disappeared from view.

My greatest question came when he retrieved a red device from his pack, and scanned the Pokeball with it. It clicked for several moments, before emitting an audible ping. The trainer then picked up the ball, glanced towards his full holding belt, and instead moved the ball to his bag. It was then that he noticed me.

"Huh. A trainer? Do you want to battle, or something?" he asked, in a rather high-pitched tone.

"Just wondering how close we are to Snowpoint."

"Oh! Shouldn't be much further. I just came back from the gym, and decided a Snowver would help round out my team."

"Also, isn't it cold without winter clothes?"

"No, not really. Personally, I think you look a little dorky in them. Only the people who live here full-time ever wear those."

"Okay. Last question. What was that device you were holding?"

"You're joking, right?"

"No. I seriously don't know."

The trainer rolled his eyes at us.

"You seriously don't know what a Pokedex is? You have one, for crying out loud!"

"No. I don't." I said flatly.

"What? I don't believe you. They're standard issue. Come here, you'll probably recognise it when you take a better look."

The trainer's device was red, and rectangular in shape. I had seen several of them in the Pokemon distributor's office, but was never offered one. I had assumed that they were his.

"So… What does it do?"

". . . It scans Pokemon, and lets you register captured Pokemon as your own. Otherwise, they won't listen to you." his voice was flat, as if I was playing a joke on him.

*. . . What.* I groaned.

"So if… for instance someone didn't have a Pokedex, what would happen?" I prodded

"The pokemon wouldn't listen, that's what! It's sorta pointless going off without a Pokedex. Heck, there'd be no way you'd make it past the first gym without it. OH! And since yknow, the Pokedex registers the Pokemon as yours, anyone could steal your Pokeball and then register it as their own, and you'd have no way of getting your Pokemon back."

*WHAT.*

Nil and I looked at each other for a moment. Had all of our mistakes been caused by a simple misstep, of someone forgetting to give me a tool? Even so, with everything that had happened, and I wasn't willing to even imagine it having changed.

*Remember, if we had been given that device, you'd still be in that ball...* I reminded Nil.

*You're right. Pain is better than imprisonment any day.*

"I uhh… think the person who was supposed to give me mine forgot to."

"So you DO live by Snowpoint then? The clothes certainly match."

"No. Couldn't be farther from the truth. Anyway, this is the seventh badge I'll get."

"What… Really? Six badges without a Pokedex? That's insane!"

He paused for a moment, before replying again.

"By the way, I never told you my name. I'm Jack." He gestured to the Luxray. "This is Spa… This is Kilo."

"I'm Vis…"

"Wait a minute. Were you in Eterna Forest, two years ago?"

"Has it really been two years? It was definitely closer to only sixteen months ago."

"Wait… Did you not have a Pokedex back then, either?"

"Nope."

Jack beamed at us.

"My last two years have been crazy."

I couldn't imagine his experiences having been more crazy than mine.

"Mine too." I said with a small smirk.

"You remember, Kilo, right?"

"Wasn't he named Sparky before?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders.

"I was really really bad at names back then. Kilo actually sounds cool! It's short for Kilojoule! I saw it in a magazine!"

"Well, I should be off."

"Good luck! I nearly didn't recognise you, what with those tight winter clothes and whatnot. Heck, your scarf is completely covering your face!"

My clothes weren't tight. In fact, they were quite loose. I wondered why he had made that mistake.

By the next day, I had finally arrived at Snowpoint. Overall, the trip had taken four days: much longer than any other route in the region. The air here was crisp, fresh, and completely frigid. Dense trees ringed the outskirts of the city, obscuring the countless Pokemon I could barely see flitting about in the darkness beyond. Three young children were building Pokemon out of snow, even as the snow continued to fall about them. It was pretty early, and we were quite tired.

Shrugging my shoulders, Nil and I decided to take a rest in the PokeCenter, before continuing to the gym. If anything, I was ecstatic to be able to defrost somewhere warm. I began removing my thick headgear as I approached the front desk.

Just like last time, they asked the same questions. Name, profession, badges, age. However, unlike last time, I had a bit of a conflict with the last question.

"Excuse me, but you don't look fifteen."

"I'm certain I'm fifteen."

"There's no reason to lie."

"I'm not. I'm really fifteen."

". . . Can I see your trainer card, please?"

I presented my card, foul look on my face.

"Oookay then. You'll be going to… let's just say room B."

I had no clue what was going on.

As I checked into the sleep hall, I was met with mocking and snickering from the other occupants: both of which I did my best to ignore.

"You're a bit short, aintcha."

"You sure you're in the right room, kid?"

I shrugged my shoulders. These novices didn't have crap on the nightmare-wraiths that had plagued me not a month ago.

The evening came quickly.

The first thing I noticed was that my face felt funny. However, the second thing I noticed was that the rest of the room were doing their best to choke back laughter. One of the largest spoke, in a poorly-inhibited voice.

"Good morning."

I rubbed my face for a bit, and my hand came back black. I shot the room an angry stare, before leaving as quickly as I could. Behind me, I could hear a chorus of laughter, but also a single, quieter voice.

"That wasn't as funny as I had hoped. Kid barely even reacted."

My first stop was to the restroom, where I claimed a changing area and hastily moved towards the mirror. It seemed that I had slept in a room full of jokers.

My entire face was covered in black marker, with black rings around my eyes, and several crude drawings on my forehead. Although my left cheek was bare, my right was adorned with a strangely-detailed drawing of a Magikarp, which apparently was on fire. In addition, it seemed that someone had applied lipstick as well, completing the image of being completely humiliated.

Twenty minutes later, and I had managed to completely remove the lipstick, as well as heavily smear the marker. I still looked stupid, but it looked more like concealment facepaint now, rather than just a hideous prank.

I threw my clothes on, walked to the front room, and began absentmindedly donning my winter clothes once more. Of course, my hat was full of snow, which crawled slowly down my back. I left without a word, more annoyed than actually angry.

*Any clue why those people were such jerks?*

*Well, you were definitely the shortest one there.*

*Ah. So just idiots?*

*Probably.*

The Snowpoint Gym was a gigantic ice rink, with a nearly frictionless surface dotted with flimsy styrofoam barriers. There were three layers of this gym, each securely separated with padded barriers: designed to stop trainers without hurting them, I assumed. They were completely opaque, without any sort of hole for falling through. I successfully cleared the first layer, before spending a good two hours trying in vain to complete the rest.

Already annoyed from my experience earlier, I decided to just cheat. I directed Nil towards my target: an obscured stairway that lead up to the Gym Leader's platform. Three seconds of surveying the area around me later, and I had opened a gate to the stairs, out of sight of trainers on both sides. Nil joined me a moment later, as I opened a smaller portal behind her to bring her towards me.

Finally, confident now that my farce had succeeded, I proceeded towards the leader's dias.

The battle was inconsequential, and one-sided in my favor. It was the conversation afterwards that was interesting.

"So, before I give you this badge, tell me how exactly did you manage to get up here without clearing the puzzle."

"I must've picked up something that gave me a bit of friction," I lied.

"Huh, that usually doesn't happen. Are you wearing cleats, or something?"

"No, but I think the pulverized styrofoam slowed me down a bit."

"Crud, another one? Normally we'd have to reset the gym, but since you've already come all this way up… Might as well just give you the win. Hmm… We should hook up a fan or something to clear the ice. This happened before, and I'm sure it'll happen again."

A bit of begging later, and one of the assistants skated over to help me get back to the entrance. I couldn't help but ask about the styrofoam barriers. My response was about what I expected.

"Originally, the barriers were snow. That was fine for a bit, up until the time no one came into the gym for a good week and a half, and we forgot to replace the barriers. … The barrier had frozen solid, and seriously hurt the trainer that ran into it. Since then, we've decided to trade some authenticity for safety. Same thing for the padded rails: some poor kid went flying into the pit once."

The assistant laughed quietly.

"At one point, this gym got us referred to as 'Splatpoint City'. We're still trying to kill that image."

"Does this sort of thing happen a lot?"

The assistant looked at me a bit shiftily.

"More than our leader lets on. Styrofoam doesn't exactly break nicely, but usually it just slides over to the side. However, sometimes the large pieces slow impacts enough to stop someone completely, which leads to your situation. And, just keep this between you and me, but this ice isn't as perfect as it looks: we've seen people able to just walk over it with just a bit of focus."

As we reached the entrance, the assistant gave us a few words of encouragement.

"Good luck, kid! Only one more Gym to go!"

It had been four hours since I had started; and I stood outside the gym once more. The moon had nearly reached its zenith, signalling near-midnight. My options at this point were either to check back into the PokeCenter, or to start walking.

The walk, in the snow, which was freezing, dark, and we were tired.

Or, we could go back to the PokeCenter.

We chose to start walking.