It turned out that Kirralie knew Ilex forest so well that she was able to navigate her way through it, without stopping to battle, in short of a day.
Which explained why she had caught up with them so fast.
However, once she had discovered that neither James nor Kelsie had challenged Whitney yet, she didn't plan on sticking around. She did agree to spend the next day with them, though, and had decided to wait for them in Ecruteak, once she arrived there.
The three of them headed back down through the department store and back out onto the street. Kirralie hadn't managed to secure a room at the pokemon centre, but Nurse Joy had agreed to let her bunk with Kelsie for the night. The two girls headed up to the room, to drop off Kirralie's stuff, whilst James waited downstairs.
"So, what have you been doing these past two days, if you haven't been preparing to challenge Whitney?" She asked, plonking her backpack down in the empty chair by the door and seating herself on the bed, rifling through Kelsie's belongings.
"Just sight-seeing."
"Oh, I've done that a million times. It's Kanto I haven't seen. I'm hoping to whiz through the gym battles here so that I can get to Kanto as soon as I can." Kirralie gabbled, picking up Kelsie's cyndaquil. "Cute toy."
"Erm… thanks." Kelsie had a hard time keeping up with her. Before she could even comment on Kirralie's travel plans, she was off again;
"'Course, you and James aren't from Johto, are you? So, I suppose, it's only natural you'd want to have a look around. Though, if you ever want to beat Whitney, you'd better start training. I'll take you both on later, if you want."
"Yeah, sure…"
"What's the deal with you and James anyway?" Kirralie half smirked, stopping herself from flicking through Kelsie's pokemon books and facing her. "A guy and a girl, travelling together alone…" She hinted.
"It's a long story." Kelsie sighed. "Our whole journey is a long story, but we're just friends."
"Oh, ok, he's hot." Kelsie said nothing.
The three of them spent the night going into detail about their previous adventures, what their main goals were and their desired, future team. It turned out that, once Kirralie had simmered down, she was pretty easy to get along with.
Kelsie had divulged all of the sights she had visited with her typhlosion, receiving 'oohs' and 'ahhs' in all the appropriate places. Even Kirralie kept quiet whilst Kelsie was talking. Until; "Your typhlosion must be reasonably strong then, huh? I mean, six years, wow." She actually sounded impressed. "The longest I've spent with any of my pokemon is, like, two years. I raised him from an egg. Is that why you decided to take the gym challenge? Because he was getting too tough to handle without the right gym badges?"
James glanced across at Kelsie. They were laying on the grass, enjoying the evening breeze, next to the waterside, out on route thirty-four. James was the closest to the water, skimming his hand across the surface whilst he listened to the girls talk. Kirralie was lounged beside him; having placed herself in the middle, leaving Kelsie on the end, next to the path.
Kirralie had noticed James look up and fixed her gaze, fully, on Kelsie. "What?"
"Actually, he was always rather tame with me. Never disobedient." Kelsie said, softly. "We were on our way to Kanto. There were a few sights I wanted to see there. Still is, come to think of it." She looked at neither of them. She had, suddenly, become very interested in a stray drowzee that was scratching its head in confusion.
Giving up on trying to regain her attention, Kirralie turned to James. "So, why is she in Johto then?"
"Perhaps you should tell her?" James suggested, Kelsie blinked at him. He smiled, kindly, at her.
Not bothering to waste time on specifics; Kelsie explained. Boat capsized, ended up washed ashore, separated, became a trainer in order to find her pokemon. Starting with Johto.
Once finished, the three of them sat in silence. Kirralie was at a loss of what to say. "I'm sorry." She mumbled, eventually.
"If you're wondering," James piped up. "I'm the knight in shining armour who jumped at the chance to help her." He grinned his usual cheeky grin.
Kelsie scoffed. "Yeah right! You hated me!"
"I did not!"
"Yes you did!"
"Well, I don't now!" At least the quarrelling eased the awkward tension that had been hovering in the air.
"Why did you tag along then?" Kirralie asked, feeling left out.
"I've always wanted to be a trainer, simple as." James looked disinterested in this topic of conversation, but Kirralie pressed on, asking questions. James answered them, half-heartedly, telling her about his family's farm and about how he had gotten Rex and spearow. Whilst they were talking, Kelsie took out her egg, giving herself something to do, or, at least look, at. She didn't particularly feel like watching Kirralie try to flirt with James whist he lay there, oblivious. Her egg felt heavier, perhaps it was close to hatching.
"So, what's your story?" James managed to ask, eventually, sensing that Kelsie was bored. She looked round and gave him a small smile to show her thanks.
"It's a long story." Kirralie explained all about how she and her sister helped out their parents; breeding a variety of pokemon, catching specified ones if asked to, and so on. She had started helping out when she was nine, not too bothered that she was expected to help out for, pretty much, the rest of her life.
"Sounds like my story." James joked. He apologized for interrupting and Kirralie carried on.
About a year ago, bored with her life, she had planned on becoming a pokemon trainer; travelling alongside her boyfriend. She had been given, the year before, her shiny pichu, in egg form, and her boyfriend had helped her capture her bellsprout. They had planned on setting off the week after, until his parents had uprooted themselves, and her boyfriend, to a different country.
"So, our plans were disrupted." She explained. "I spent most of my time wallowing and my parents took advantage of that; busying me with tasks that involved me catching pokemon to breed. They thought it would keep my mind off of him and becoming a trainer." But it hadn't. Kirralie had taken to another egg, which hatched recently, revealing her togepi, and her excitement and willingness was back. She had been planning it, behind her parent's backs, before nearly having her pokemon stolen.
After that, she wanted to become a trainer for a very different reason. She wanted to find all of the missing pokemon and stop the poachers in their tracks. "Hence why I want to get to Kanto as soon as." She said.
"They were in Johto today." James scowled, his face turning sour.
"Really?"
"Well… Their gengar was." Kelsie explained what had happened that morning. Kirralie's eyes grew wide with interest. James remained scowling.
"That's awful!" She cried. "Do you think the day-care couple are involved? We should stake them out."
"Of course they're involved!" James snorted. "Why else wouldn't the old bat tell me which pokemon was stolen?" They spent the rest of the evening discussing the day-care centre's involvement in the pokenapping crimes. James and Kirralie were convinced they were the brains behind the whole operation, whilst Kelsie was doubtful that they were even involved at all.
"Oh!" James suddenly cried, when the three of them were walking back to the pokemon centre. "I forgot to ask- what happened between you and your boyfriend? Are you single now?" He asked, something which he would come to regret for the rest of his life, as Kirralie seemed to take his innocent question completely in the wrong context.
True to her word, Kirralie stuck around the next day. She rallied Kelsie and James up for a day of training, roping in some random trainers who were hanging around the same route as them.
"Look at it as a contest." She told them, jotting down names on a pieces of paper. "Those who are pulled out of the bag will face each other. The winners will be put back in and drawn out again. It's fairly simple. I'll face the last one remaining." Kelsie and James pulled a face at each other, groaning, but some other the other trainers seemed to get quite excited.
"Don't worry." Kirralie lowered her voice, sidling over to them. "I'll face you both later too. Just like I said I would yesterday." She winked at James and skipped off to announce who was facing who.
"Someone's got an admirer." Kelsie giggled, but only slightly.
James went red, glancing at Kirralie. She was drawing out the first two names. "Shut up." He muttered.
The majority of the trainers had only one or two pokemon. Kelsie amongst them. She was paired against someone named Kim. Her only pokemon was a vulpix, no match against Polly. She dodged her quick attacks, though only just on a few occasions, and countered the vulpix's fire attacks with her water ones. In a matter of minutes, Kelsie had gone through to the next 'round'.
James' battle was slightly harder. His opponent's diglett; a half-buried, small, brown pokemon, with a distinguishing pink nose, kept using magnitude, which was super effective against two of James' pokemon. Spearow managed to avoid them, by keeping aloft, but Rex was knocked out after a few hits.
"Spearow, peck!" Diglett managed to avoid the attack by disappearing underground. Spearow landed, looking around, confused. Before he could do much else, there was a rumble and diglett re-appeared, bursting out of the ground, slamming into spearow, and knocking him across the path.
Oddish was the only one of James' pokemon left. Her absorb, which was her weakest move, worked wonders against the first diglett, and the second, but didn't do much against the opponent's third pokemon- zubat. It was a battle of energy-zapping for the first few minutes, until a sudden bite attack, followed swiftly by a confuse ray; which resulted in oddish attacking herself, unwillingly, caused oddish to be defeated too. James was out of the running.
"Only six of you left!" Kirralie announced, happily. She rummaged in the bag again, pulling out two slips of paper. Kelsie's next opponent was a man called Eric. He smiled, nervously, at her and released his first pokemon. A big, purple blob oozed along the ground, creeping Kelsie out. She sent out flaaffy and began the battle with a thunder wave, which missed.
She ended up with a badly poisoned flaaffy and a defeated poliwag, eliminating her too. She rushed them to the pokemon centre, where James was waiting. Kirralie wasn't impressed, she was hoping one of them would have won. "Looks like you both need more training." She told them, they agreed, glumly.