Finding out the Professor she was supposed to meet on her first day as a Trainer passed away half a decade before left Kumiko stunned. Then who was keeping the lab running?
"Ever since Taki's wife left this world, caretakers occasionally go to the lab and maintain the facilities to make sure it's still habitable for the Pokémon living there." Niiyama explained. "When a Trainer like you needs a starter Pokémon, either myself or Hashimoto over there goes to the lab and assists them in their decision."
"Oh…" Kumiko's voice trailed off. Despite living near it for most of her life, Kumiko had no idea that the lab was actually so desolate. When she was younger, Kumiko always wondered what was going on inside, but her older self had no idea how to reconcile her past imaginings with the presented truth.
"Well, I hope you understand our current situation better." Niiyama concluded. "Unfortunately, my friends are waiting for me, so I'm afraid that I'll have to cut short our engaging conversation right here. Until next time." Saying a farewell to Niiyama, Kumiko then went back to the table Reina and her were sitting at, while Niiyama left with Taki and Hashimoto.
"Who were you talking with?" Reina asked. From what she could see, Kumiko was apparently familiar with the woman close to Taki for some reason. In any war, information was key to victory, and Reina needed to win this battle against her unknown opponent. This was the perfect opportunity to get more information about who she would be facing off against.
"The woman I was talking with is Satomi Niiyama." Kumiko answered. "She's a friend of the Professor, and she helped me make my decision to choose Marcato at the lab. According to my mom, she's quite a well-known flautist and Trainer too, though I had no idea that she was also a friend of the Champion."
"I see." Reina noted. From what Kumiko said, there was clearly no sign of Niiyama being closer to Taki than what was immediately obvious. However, she still needed to keep tabs on her. For personal purposes, of course. "Then there's nothing to worry about."
"Well, about that…" Kumiko looked at the mountain of plates that HTT had left behind in their wake, then remembered what Mugi said to them previously about the bill being paid. "Forget what I just said. Let's call it a night and leave."
Returning to the hotel that Mizore's family owned, Kumiko and Reina crashed onto their beds again after yet another eventful day. Thankfully, they woke up at a more socially acceptable time the next day, and were about to leave the hotel after eating a hearty breakfast when Kumiko remembered something.
"Say, where are Natsuki and the others?" Kumiko wondered as she looked around the hotel's lobby. "Have you seen them anywhere?"
"I haven't seen any of them since we parted ways after leaving the hotel yesterday." Reina informed Kumiko. "Maybe they left before us? Or they're currently still asleep at the moment."
"Well, let's get going now." Kumiko offered, seeing that there was no point in searching for their friends any further. "After all, we could always contact them later on. I've got Natsuki's phone number saved. Do you have Yuuko's?"
"...Actually, I haven't." Reina candidly admitted. As social skills weren't one of her strong suits, it had never occured to Reina that she never asked for Yuuko's phone number in the first place. "Though I could always get it from her when we cross paths again. Other than that, we're ready to go."
Leaving the hotel, Kumiko and Reina almost didn't remember where their next destination was when Reina recalled that they were supposed to be heading towards Minant City to challenge their next Gym. Sending out Eurydice, Reina instructed her to Teleport back to Subdomi City before holding on along with Kumiko as they were warped away.
Back at their last destination before their detour to Ongaku Stadium, Kumiko and Reina set out on the path towards Minant City, nervous about what they were going to face next, though Kumiko was the one bearing the brunt of emotions. Along the route they were walking, nothing interesting happened save for a few encounters with wild Pokémon until Kumiko noticed a sign.
"Looks like there's a beach only several hundred meters from here." Kumiko pointed out. While she wasn't normally that much of a beachhead, any excuse to keep her distance away from Minant City was a good excuse in her book. "Do you want to stop there for the day?"
"I'm more of a winter person myself." Reina answered, but she then did a verbal backtrack after seeing a look of dejection begin to form on Kumiko's face. "...Though I do enjoy going to the beach sometimes. We aren't in a hurry or anything, so I have no objections to your suggestion."
Taking the detour towards the beach, Kumiko and Reina were already staring at the pristine blue sea in front of them after only a few minutes of walking. However, they quickly realized they had failed to deal with the most obvious problem facing them in the first place.
"...We don't have any swimsuits with us, do we?" Kumiko asked, the sea breeze whistling lightly in her ears. "Guess I really did make that decision without thinking ahead, huh?"
"Don't worry about that too much." Reina consoled Kumiko. "At a beach, there's usually a shop that sells recreational gear such as swimsuits and surfboards, so we could search for one here. If not, then we could Teleport back to all the places we've visited before and find a shop there."
"Sounds like a good idea to me!" Kumiko replied, relieved to know that they could still spend a day at the beach together. At this point, her distaste of visiting Minant City had been replaced by the ecstatic and strangely overpowering emotion resulting from having an opportunity to get closer with Reina.
Walking along the boardwalk, Kumiko and Reina kept their eyes peeled for any sign of a shop that sold what they needed. After a while of combing the beach, the pair finally found what they were looking for in a rather-nice looking beachwear shop.
Inside, there was a wide assortment of swimsuits ranging from the bland to the outlandish and the conservative to the risqué. Brushing past some of the more revealing swimsuits, Kumiko and Reina were searching all over the store for something that they liked, while keeping in mind how much the other person would appreciate it.
Of course, this did not stop them from fantasizing about each other in some of the choices that exhibited more skin than was necessary. Though Kumiko and Reina were regularly sleeping in the same bed by this point (without either of them noticing that it had become a habit), their personal desires still left a lot more to be fulfilled.
"Kumiko, how do you think this looks on me?" Reina asked, holding up a sea-blue two-piece swimsuit with baby-blue trim and white polka dots. "Would I look too big in certain areas wearing this?"
Kumiko immediately pulled up a mental image of Reina wearing that swimsuit, and quickly concluded that no matter what swimsuit she wore, Reina would look extremely stunning in her choice of bathing suit. Even the more modest choices would still provide excellent opportunities to show off her ample curves, much to Kumiko's inner delight.
"It would look great on you!" Kumiko replied, keeping her personal remarks to herself. "By the way, could you rate this swimsuit for me? I really like this design." The swimsuit that Kumiko was holding up was a pinkish-red two-piece with a bow on the section covering her chest, reminding her of a school uniform she once saw.
Thinking about her special one wearing that swimsuit was too much for Reina to handle, and she soon drifted off into the world of daydreams. The design could allow Reina unrestricted access to observe Kumiko's long legs and slender physique that she could only dream of having. Curse her genes for not allowing her to grow taller.
Sadly, the pleasant imaginings came to an abrupt end when Kumiko lightly tapped her on the shoulder. "Uh, Earth to Reina? Are you there?"
"Yes, I'm still here. I just got a bit distracted by the swimsuit's design there." Reina admitted in a half-truth. "It would look excellent on you. Now, let's get them purchased. After all, the beach isn't going to wait for anyone."
Approaching the counter, the two girls were about to shell out their money when Kumiko noticed a pair of matching swimsuits hanging on a rack. The two swimsuits were two-pieces with floral patterns, though one was white and yellow while the other was black and blue.
"Reina, how would you like those swimsuits instead?" Kumiko asked. "Since they're a matching pair, wouldn't we look good in them together?"
Glancing at the swimsuit in her hand and the two hanging on the rack, Reina's decision had already been made when she sensed the opportunity to get closer to Kumiko. "That's a good idea. Which one do you want? I'm more partial to the black and blue design myself, though both of them are OK with me given their similar designs."
"Well, I personally like the white and yellow design, so thankfully we can both go with our first choices." Kumiko replied, happy that both her and Reina were satisfied with the outcome. After paying for their swimsuits, the pair then went to a public changing room that Reina had spotted previously to change into their beachwear.
Inside the changing room, Kumiko and Reina averted their gaze from one another, not wanting to be tempted by their lust to perform acts of indecency on each other, quickly changing into their swimsuits and stuffing their clothes into their bags before exiting from opposite doorways.
Once they were both out of the changing room, Kumiko and Reina finally got to see how the other looked in their swimsuits. Having waited a long time for this moment, Kumiko saw that Reina's bathing suit hugged her bosom tightly, causing Kumiko to feel that her own swimsuit was a bit loose in the same area. This was also the first time that Kumiko had seen Reina in a ponytail, which suited her better than expected.
Meanwhile, Reina was silently gawking in awe at how statuesque Kumiko's body was. While she had previously thought about grazing her hands over her special one's lengthy thighs, seeing them in the flesh provoked emotions in Reina that she only felt when Kumiko was with her, though they were much more intense this time around.
"How… how do I look?" Reina sheepishly asked, folding her arms behind her back nervously as she waited for Kumiko's comments. From Kumiko's perspective, Reina looked positively stunning in her current pose and attire, and any attempt to say otherwise couldn't seem to come to mind.
"You're… you're beautiful, Reina." Kumiko spoke without missing a beat, though she did immediately blush after realizing what she just said. Hearing those words come out of Kumiko's mouth, Reina's face also quickly turned a bright red as she realized that her desired was actually complimenting her on her physical features.
After a short while of recuperating from such a wonderful thought, Reina couldn't help but voice out her own opinion on how Kumiko's swimsuit looked on her. "I think that you look quite nice too, Kumiko."
Her current feelings of longing towards Reina rapidly intensifying after her reply, Kumiko didn't really know how to react in this sort of situation, so she went with the most simple answer. "Thanks."
Reina smiled at her special one's feelings of gratitude. "Well, with our swimsuit comparisons over, let's go have a fun day at the beach, shall we? Isn't that what we came here for in the first place."
Still too busy trying and failing to keep herself from staring at Reina's pair of gratuitous assets, Kumiko could only nod with a short "Mm." as she followed Reina down to the seaside.
Walking along the seaside with Reina, Kumiko could feel her bare feet shifting around in the warm sands as they searched for a spot to settle down. Even with the beach being quite crowded today, the two girls still managed to find a secluded area close to a large tree to place their belongings while also providing some shade.
Once that was settled, Kumiko and Reina sent out their Pokémon, who gasped in amazement as they took in the sights and sounds of the beach. For all of them, this was their first time at such an exotic locale.
"All right, you guys and girls!" Kumiko announced. "We've decided to stop at the beach for today, so feel free to enjoy yourselves! We don't want any of you drowning, since none of you are Water-types, so ask Reina or myself before going to play in the sea!"
As their friends scattered, Idina and Demi immediately retreated to the shaded area under the large tree. Being Ice-types, their bodies couldn't handle heat that well, but they were still able to have some fun as Idina scooped up some sand into the air as Demi tried to playfully dodge the incoming 'attacks'.
Using her immense Psychic strength, Eurydice levitated large tracts of sand into the air before Orpheus leapt up and cut them into intricate shapes, forming detailed sandcastles in the sky. Dipping them in the water to consolidate the sand, Eurydice then put them back onto the beach, resulting in an impressive construction that would have taken hours if not days to make normally.
Being a cactus, Marcato was just content to sunbathe by standing still in the sand, emulating the behaviours of his non-sentient relatives. However, he immediately sprang into action as he saw Sparkle about to casually enter the sea, jumping and landing in front of her to warn her about the dangers of electricity coursing through water, leaving Sparkle slightly dejected.
Following her starter's example, Kumiko also laid down in a sunny spot and began to let the rays of sunshine wash over her skin, with Reina joining in a while later. As the pair started to grow too comfortable in the sand, they started to hear cheers of excitement coming from the sea's direction.
Opening her eyes to see what the commotion was about, Kumiko stood up and went closer, where she saw a small crowd of people surrounding the shoreline watching a big wave pass by. Kumiko almost didn't get what was going on until she saw several figures riding on the wave.
A Sharpedo was chasing a young woman riding on a Kingdra like it was a jet ski, who was also clutching a Feebas under her left arm. As the Sharpedo neared the woman and her Kingdra, she did a 180-degree turn on the spot before her Kingdra fired out a single Signal Beam, causing the Sharpedo to be knocked back into the ocean.
Gracefully navigating across the wave, the woman and her Kingdra then slowed down before coming to a stop once they were off the wave. Leaping off her Pokémon, the woman was then greeted by rounds of applause from everyone who just witnessed the daring chase.
However, instead of basking in the glory of her deed, the woman opted to retreat instead, hopping back on her Kingdra before venturing further out into the sea to safely return the Feebas to its natural habitat.
"Judging by her appearance and Pokémon, that must be Haruka Ogasawara, the Water-type specialist of the Elite Four." Reina noted, having arrived by Kumiko's side shortly after to see what all the fuss was about. "I wonder what she's doing here? From what it looks like, rescuing that Feebas from the Sharpedo wasn't what she's here to do. There must be something big about to happen here."
"If something's going to happen, then shouldn't we leave the beach?" Kumiko asked. Though she didn't want to arrive at Minant City for as long as possible, she also didn't want to get caught in the thick of things again so soon.
"Well, if you want, we can stay here and observe what she's going to do." Reina noted that her special one was clearly being distressed at going to Minant City earlier than expected. "Besides, with such a powerful Trainer here, we shouldn't be in much danger."
Looking over to where their Pokémon were, Kumiko and Reina saw that they were really enjoying themselves at the beach, and decided to let them be as they played in the sand with each other. Just as they were about to return back, the pair then heard large amounts of water sloshing as the sea then started to rise.
As people were frantically scampering out of the water, the mass of liquid then began to morph into an amorphous shape, with all Pokémon naturally living in that part of the water being trapped in it as it continued to shift into different forms, still not completely settling on a definite structure.
Kumiko and Reina still couldn't figure out the specifics of what was going on, but their Pokémon immediately recognized the culprit behind their ruined beach day. At the center of the body of water was the same Pokémon that had disrupted their visit to the hot springs: Manaphy.
Wanting to pay the Mythical Pokémon back for all it did to them, Kumiko and Reina's Pokémon abandoned what they were currently doing and went to their Trainers' sides, hoping that they would give them a chance to fight.
As Marcato tried to explain to Kumiko for the second time about the disturbances that Manaphy had caused back in the hot springs, Eurydice simply tapped the Z-Power Ring on Reina's left wrist, wanting to Mega Evolve and gain the extra power needed to fight against such a powerful Pokémon.
"Everyone seems to be really fired up for some reason after seeing how crazy the water's got." Kumiko told Reina as Marcato tried his best to reenact what Manaphy did the last time they met. "Do they want to fight right here? As long as the problem's being dealt with by the Elite Four, I'm sure that we can still have a beach tournament."
Reina missed the collective facepalms of all of her and Kumiko's Pokémon, and continued talking to her special one. "If you're up for it, then we can have a battle right here and right now. Let's go all out."
Upon seeing her Trainer's completely off-the-mark reaction to everything currently happening, Idina sighed to herself. Despite how intelligent her Trainer was during battle, she could be so clueless sometimes in affairs regarding common sense. Thankfully, the two girls' bout of selective obliviousness didn't last long.
"You two over there? Are you Kumiko Oumae and Reina Kousaka?" a new voice rang out. Turning to look over at who was calling them, the pair saw that Ogasawara was coming their way. Now being able to see her more clearly at closer range, Kumiko noticed that Ogasawara was currently barefoot, wearing a yellow bikini top with green shorts and her hair tied in two small ponytails at the sides.
"Yes, we are." Reina replied. "And you must be Miss Ogasawara from the Elite Four. Speaking of names, how do you know ours? Did someone else from the League or Elite Four previously inform you?"
"Well, it all started after Tanaka met you two in Perto City, then the topic of you two came up again after Nakaseko and Saitou saw you battle and battled with you two in Edian City." Ogasawara explained. "You're certainly a pair of interesting individuals from what I've heard. That's why I need your help."
"Help? What for?" Kumiko asked. "We're just some ordinary Trainers only slightly over halfway on our Gym challenge, not Gym Leaders or members of the Elite Four like you? What could we possibly contribute?"
"The fact that the rest of my colleagues have paid special attention to you two means that your skills are quite extraordinary, to say the least." Ogasawara responded. "As for what you two are needed for, I'm going to need some powerful distractions to retrieve the Mythical Pokémon at the center of all this: Manaphy."
Their Trainers finally getting the point they were trying to make, all of Kumiko and Reina's Pokémon breathed a collective sigh of relief before Reina asked a question. "Manaphy? The Prince of the Sea? Why do you need to retrieve it?"
"This Manaphy has been known to be quite mischievous, and is always causing trouble for anyone near a body of water." Ogasawara answered. "Last time I met it, I managed to contain it to a lake not connected to any other water source, but it somehow escaped. To prevent it from causing more havoc, I need to first retrieve it before transferring it to somewhere it can't slip out again."
"I see." Reina noted. "So what do you need us to do now? There are a lot of ways to cause distractions, so I want at least a general idea to guide my tactics."
"Just hit the water structure directly from the front with your Pokémon's strongest moves and get its attention." Ogasawara replied. "While you two do that, I'll sneak up from behind and try to catch it. Manaphy can manipulate large amounts of water, so we'll need to keep it distracted for long enough to split its attention and prevent it from doing so."
"Got it." Heeding the Elite Four member's request, Reina then quickly Mega Evolved Eurydice as Kumiko did the same with Orpheus, then gave out orders to all her Pokémon. "Eurydice, Psychic! Idina and Demi, use Blizzard!"
As Reina's Pokémon stopped part of the water structure by telekinetically holding it in place and freezing it, Kumiko knew that she had to do something as well. "Sparkle, Thunderbolt! Orpheus, Thunder Punch! Marcato, Giga Drain!"
As Sparkle and Orpheus let loose their electrical attacks through an arc and two pillars of lightning respectively, the normal tendrils that appeared when Marcato used Giga Drain instead coalesced into an orb of energy in front of his right arm. Confused as to what was happening, Kumiko was surprised when Marcato let loose a beam of light from it, instantly cutting a hole through the mass of water.
"That must have been Solar Beam!" Reina exclaimed. "A Maractus normally doesn't learn this move until it's participated in more battles, but it seems that we've been involved in so many weird things that our definition of 'normal' may be a bit out of the ordinary."
"Fair enough." Kumiko agreed, then looked at her starter Pokémon. "Nice going there, Marcato! Look's like we've been improving faster than I thought!"
Happily jumping upon hearing his Trainer's praise, Marcato then quickly shifted his focus back to the battle at hand, wanting to exact revenge on Manaphy for all the grief it had caused, and it seemed that the Mythical Pokémon also harboured similar feelings as well.
Reforming the sections of its water structure that had been damaged by attacks, Manaphy then shifted the sections of liquid containing other Pokémon to a single spot, before all of them charged up and fired out a amalgamated Hydro Pump.
Marcato tried to use another Solar Beam to intercept the combined attack, but soon found that charging up the move took far longer than usual. Meanwhile, Eurydice used Psychic to slow down the Hydro Pump long enough for Idina and Demi to freeze it, with Orpheus slicing it into bit for Sparkle to destroy in midair.
Finally able to use his new move again, Marcato then aimed it directly at the mass of Water-type Pokémon Manaphy had mustered, knocking them all out with a single shot. Despite managing to cripple their opponent further, Marcato still felt displeased that he couldn't participate in the team attack. There had to be some way around this long charge time.
Meanwhile, Ogasawara had managed to circle all the way around to the back of Manaphy's water structure, using the diversion caused by Kumiko and Reina to sneak past the Mythical Pokémon undetected. However, the water structure began to change shape again just as she was about to sneak up, but thankfully Manaphy was still focused on Kumiko and Reina.
"Run! It's Mecha Tyranitar!" Kumiko shouted out half-jokingly, recognizing the robotic kaiju from old Kantonian movies.
"It looks like Mecha Tyranitar, but due to international copyright laws, it's not!" Reina thought back to a strange video she previously watched online about the complex legal situation surrounding this franchise.
"Still, we should run like it is Mecha Tyranitar!" Kumiko replied, but upon seeing the disapproving glares her Pokémon were shooting at her, she immediately decided against that course of action.
"Though it isn't." Reina quipped. As Manaphy's 'transformation' was taking a long time to actually finish, this provided ample opportunity for Kumiko and Reina to get closer to it and continue their bombardment of attacks.
With its opponents destroying its water structure more quickly, Manaphy realized that it needed to get creative. Sensing the water around it for any Pokémon that hadn't been knocked out by Marcato's Solar Beam, Manaphy managed to detect a single lifeform before bringing it to the 'head' of its creation.
Upon seeing what its trump card was, Manaphy's face immediately blanched at its rotten luck, and it started to panic at the situation it was stuck in. Somehow, a lone Feebas had managed to survive or avoid the Solar Beam.
"I think that's the same Feebas that Ogasawara just rescued." Reina pointed out, managing to get a glimpse of the Pokémon Manaphy had scooped up. "Feebas are quite rare, so there's very little chance it's another one."
"What's Manaphy going to do with that Feebas? From what I remember, they're quite weak." Kumiko wondered about that for a moment, then her mind dawned on a dreadful realization. "I think it's going to use the Feebas as a hostage! We have to rescue it quickly!"
To Reina, Kumiko's deduction was so eerily accurate that she took it as fact with little hesitation. "Then we need to do it as efficiently as possible so that Ms. Ogasawara's retrieval of Manaphy will be unhindered. Kumiko, let's use our Z-Moves!"
"Got it!" Slipping the Electricum Z she had into her Z-Power Ring, Kumiko saw that Reina had already done the same with her Icium Z as well. Idina already having frozen off the section containing the Feebas along with a large section of Manaphy's water structure using its Z-Move.
After Sparkle finished charging her Z-Move, she then used the massive bolt of lightning to bisect Idina's frozen section of water, cutting Manaphy off from a lot of its supply. As the ice fell back towards the sea, Eurydice then used Psychic to stop its fall in midair before Demi blasted a large chunk of it away with Moonblast, leaving only the section with the Feebas in it under Eurydice's control.
Levitating the remaining ice towards her Trainer, Eurydice then plopped the flopping Feebas down onto Reina's outstretched arms. Cradling the Feebas, Reina then waded into waist-deep water before tossing it back in, wanting it to peacefully return back to its natural habitat after all that it had suffered today.
On the other end of the battle, Ogasawara had managed to seize the opportunity gained from Manaphy losing part of its water structure to Kumiko and Reina's combined Z-Moves to finally get close to Manaphy. Taking a while to breathe in before holding her breath and slipping on a pair of goggles, Ogasawara then patted her Kingdra's back, telling it that she was ready to dive into Manaphy's creation.
With Ogasawara navigating deeper inside it, Manaphy didn't realize that an intruder had infiltrated into the core of its structure until it was too late, being more worried about having a large part of its creation sliced off. As it was gathering more water to regenerate the amount lost, Ogasawara knew this was a chance to land some decisive blows.
Giving a set of repeated hand signals to her Kingdra resembling sign language, Ogasawara silently ordered her Kingdra to use an attack in rapid succession without Manaphy noticing. By the time the Mythical Pokémon realized that something was amiss, several Dragon Pulses had already been fired straight at it.
Unable to dodge, Manaphy was directly impacted by the barrages of Dragon-type energy, which also had the side effect of blasting all the water away from it from the resulting shockwaves, causing it to lose control of the gigantic mass of water.
Now left in midair after all the water Manaphy manipulated fell back to the sea, Ogasawara and her Kingdra knew that this was now or never if they wanted to get Manaphy back. Preparing a Dive Ball, the Elite Four member threw it straight at her target as they both plummeted back to the earth.
With just a distance of a few meters between them and the ocean, Ogasawara gave one more hand signal to her Kingdra, ordering it to use a single Water Pulse to slow their fall down. With Kingdra shooting the burst of water out, the resulting force had enough lift to make sure that both Trainer and Pokémon wouldn't be painfully landing into the sea.
Making a smooth landing, Kingdra took no time at all transitioning back to moving in water, swimming quickly in the direction of the thrown Dive Ball as Ogasawara picked it up, though it was still struggling to fully capture Manaphy.
Riding back to shore, Ogasawara jumped off her Kingdra before recalling it back into its Pokéball, then went over to meet Kumiko and Reina, who were wondering how the water structure suddenly disappeared, resulting in the confrontation abruptly coming to a halt.
Just as Ogasawara was getting close to the pair of novice Trainers, Manaphy burst out of the Dive Ball, though the Elite Four member had predicted this happening well in advance. Quickly sending out her Golisopod, the burly Water and Bug-type quickly restrained the Mythical Pokémon, preventing it from returning to the sea.
Marcato hopped over to the Elite Four member's Golisopod and began a brief conversation, with Marcato punching the Manaphy being held in its arms after it ended. Shortly after, the rest of Kumiko and Reina's Pokémon joined in as well, finally getting an up-close-and-personal chance at payback.
"What… is happening over there?" Kumiko wondered, confused as to what her and Reina's Pokémon were getting up to. After Manaphy appeared, they had been acting extremely strangely. Did they somehow had a bad experience with it before?
"Don't worry about it." Reina reassured her special one. "They must've gotten angry at how Manaphy ruined their beach day. Just let them be."
After Kumiko readily agreed with Reina, the pair headed back to where they placed their belongings, and were about to start packing up when something began flopping out of the water towards Reina. Upon closer inspection, Kumiko saw that it was a Feebas, most likely the same one that needed to be continuously rescued.
"Oh, it's you again." Reina bent down to speak with the Feebas. Seeing that the girl had responded, the Feebas flopped happily at being noticed. "Since you swam all the way here to see me, you must be quite grateful for being rescued by my Pokémon." Another happy flop.
"Do you want to travel with me?" Reina asked, to which the Feebas initially responded with a confused face. "That way, you can become stronger and not need rescuing anymore. You may even be the one doing the rescuing!"
The thought of how cool the girl's partners were when they pulled off the rescue coursed through the Feebas' head before a choice was quickly made. Flopping in joy, Reina also seemed pleased with the Feebas' decision, having already prepared a Pokéball in her hand. "Great to know. Then that's settled."
Tapping the Pokéball at Feebas' head, the Fish Pokémon didn't resist during the entire process, ensuing a smooth capture for Reina. Throwing the Pokéball out again, Reina then scanned her Feebas with her Pokédex while beginning to think of potential nicknames.
"You're a guy, so maybe something like Neptune? Sebastian?" Reina pondered for a while before hitting on a good idea. "Ah! How about Handel? He's the composer responsible for composing Water Music. Since you're a Water-type, it makes sense!"
Though he didn't really know much about classical music due to living under the sea all his life, the newly-named Handel flopped happily at his Trainer's suggestion, overjoyed at finally finding a new home away from all the Pokémon constantly preying on him underwater.
While Reina continued to interact with her newest team member, Kumiko looked longingly from a short distance away. The last time she had caught a Pokémon was when Sparkle joined her team shortly before challenging her third Gym. As Reina's other Pokémon joined in, Kumiko recalled that she still had an Egg upon looking at Demi that had been received the same time as Reina's.
Wondering why her own Egg hadn't hatched yet even after so long, Kumiko decided to check up on it, mentally kicking herself for neglecting to regularly take care of it. Reaching for her bag, Kumiko was about to open it and see if anything had happened to her Egg when she felt something move inside…
A/N: Last chance to place your guess on what Pokémon is going to hatch out of Kumiko's Egg in the reviews!
