Chapter 52 Special! (part 2) – What happened lately…

Dec 16: After the festival my cousins offered us to stay with them, not only because we're family but also because surely the pokémon center was booked with all the trainers that ad come, the invitation had also been extended to my father but he retired after the event. It's been a long time since I saw the girls, poor Sakura is still treated as a "little girl" just like Reiji sometimes treats me like a child, I guess it's the bad side of being the youngest, some things never they change. During lunch and dinner we spent most of the time talking about ourselves and what had happened since the last time we saw each other and although Hikari didn't participate much she seemed interested in the conversation. Sakura has become a pretty strong trainer, we had a practice battle and Umbreon not only defeated Beautifly but also even perfected his "mean look"... and to think he started learning that attack just to try to scare away that Espeon. I still don't quite understand what happened yesterday and I'm not sure that Umbreon and her Espeon have fixed things, I just hope that all that drama doesn't affect our performance later in the league. Mao sometimes seems careless and even childish ... quite the opposite of Egumi who trains hard both her pokémon and herself is quite dedicated and strong, but both will be tough opponents to beat, although Valita Hanaki is not behind at all... she has a rather calm personality but always attacks with speed and precision and if you don't catch her style you'll be easily defeated. Her sister on the other hand, seems to be one step ahead of Kari with respect to the standards, although I trust that with her hard work Hikari can win at the grand festival.

Dec 17: At the girls' request we went for a walk around the city again today. We visited several places that we hadn't seen before including a square where I could have a good battle and the Tin Tower trail where we met leader Matsuba again. There was a lot of hustle and a little celebration since the legendary tower's crystal bells had chimed recently and apparently a Lugia had been seen nearby, something that hadn't happened in long and was surely a symbol of good fortune for the next year. Hikari mentioned that she had found a feather from the legendary but to my surprise she didn't mention much more and then changed subjects to the gym battles. The rest of the day was quite calm and as it had started to snow we returned to the dojo.

Dec 18: This day it was also cold and had snowed all day so my cousins decided to spend some time at the thermal waters at the dojo. At first I was going to train with my team but since they seemed more interested in playing on the snow it didn't take long for me to decide leave them be and go to the thermals too. It was very relaxing honestly and even Quilava lazed around enjoying the place's temperature and Pichu wanted to come too though he almost drowned. What I did not expect was to bump into Hikari in the hallway though, she got startled by the suddenness then got very nervous and hid and locked away at her room, ahh I have no idea what happened. At dinner he was very silent and I hope she hasn't gotten angry or something.

Dec 19: We decided to pick up training again and had a few practice battles. Pichu started practicing on his volt tackle and is getting better, especially considering he's still pretty much a baby. Later on Hikari spoke with her mom and with Reiji, including my cousins in the conversation. I decided not to get involved since things are still tense and I'm sure they'll start talking about things I don't care about, plus I'm sure she called to ask about my birthday too, that girl…

Dec 20: Today I was training with the pokémon almost all afternoon while Hikari and my cousins went from here to there decorating the place, to be honest they seemed to have a lot of fun and didn't bother me so that works. Pichu is improving more and more in his volt tackle, but he can't really use it too much since the recoil damage is more than I thought it was, which means he should reinforce his resistance and practice more until he masters it. Torterra really gave his best too, he was unstoppable wanting to improve his power and accuracy, and Hikari's Bayleef looked at him from time to time while also practicing her own vine whip. Kingdra practiced in the lake, trying to take down Honchkrow with a water pulse which he dodged and replied with a dark pulse, quite honestly they spent most of the time dodging by diving and flying accordingly. Later on Umbreon challenged Torterra to a battle also after having spent all these last days with Hikari's Espeon. At dinner Hikari gave me a cup of hot chocolate she had made with the girls and said they would watch a movie, inviting me. This surely meant she was no longer uncomfortable or upset with me and since I had nothing else to do, I accepted. It had been a long time since I felt so calm in a group.

Dec 21: Today I dind't spend as much time with my cousins or Hikari, in the afternoon I took a bath at the thermals again (And this time without problems) and I even had some practice with Koume, who noticed that Espeon and Umbreon were trying to learn how to use iron tail and offered help. I assumed by all the secrets and their actions that they planned something, I'm sure it's some surprise party for me, it is quite obvious and even the Pokémon are accomplices but I just rolled with it, I'm used to my brother pulling that sort of thing.

And so my 13th birthday is approaching, it seems like we'll go back to Sinnoh afterwards, Reiji wanted me to spend the holidays there with him and even Hikari had talked about it with her mom. It's been different lately… and there's still more to come…