Chapter 16 - Abura Soba


There was still a lot to do in Saffron City, so the group made a weeklong reservation at the Pokémon Center. Logan was still left alone while Yurie, Seshiru, and Maleah all shared a room.

"I was thinking that we can go to the Battle Arena tomorrow," Seshiru said as Logan came to the table. His brown hair was messed up, as he hadn't showered yet, and he left his hat in the room. He sat down some hot cocoa for the group and then yawned, taking a seat next to Maleah.

"I've never seen a Battle Frontier battle before," Maleah said. "I really want to see how it goes down!"

"One big difference between gym battles and the Battle Frontier is that the Battle Frontier doesn't take into account the power of your current team. They use strong Pokémon no matter what," Seshiru said. "I don't really have time to train new Pokémon because of this."

Yurie smiled as she took a drink of her hot cocoa. She looked towards Logan, but he avoided her gaze. "And then, we can go to Logan's battle the day after tomorrow!"

Logan simply nodded.

"I think I'll break off from the group at that time," Maleah said. "It's been fun being with you, but I don't want to give myself an unfair advantage over Logan by watching his battle."

"Have you decided which gym you want to battle?" Seshiru asked.

"I'll battle the Fighting-type gym," Maleah exclaimed.

Logan nodded and licked whipped cream from his lips. "And I want to try my hand at the Psychic-type gym. Which one did you battle when you traveled?"

"I battled the Psychic gym," Seshiru said. "It was one of the hardest challenges I ever had."

"I'm all about challenge."

The Pokémon Center doors slid open, and someone came barreling through them. She was familiar to the group, but she moved so fast, that they couldn't get a perfect picture of who she was. She had long black hair and wore a thick brown sweater that looked like it was handknitted. She smacked her hands against the counter, and in a panic, stated, "Nurse Joy! I need to sign up for the contest!"

"Is that…" Yurie started. She tried to remember back a few weeks ago to her first contest in Kanto. "Reina?"

"Dear, the contest was yesterday," Nurse Joy said. "There will be another contest, but it's in two weeks."

"W-what?" Reina asked. "But… but today!"

"I'm sorry. I can't help you."

Reina lifted her arm and let the large sweater fall to her elbows. She checked her watch, and after a few moments, came to a conclusion. "It's broken!"

The Pokémon Center doors slid open again, and someone else entered. He walked a lot slower than Reina, and to Logan and Yurie's surprise, he was also someone that they knew well. He wore a familiar green button up shirt and black jeans.

"I told you," Yuta said. He sighed and brushed his black hair out of his eyes. "Why would your watch be correct but my Pokédex be wrong?"

"Because my watch was from my grandma!" Reina said. She ran to Yuta and glared at him through her thick rimmed glasses. It was then that they noticed the four other trainers staring at them.

Everyone paused as they tried to process what was going on. Yurie couldn't believe what she was seeing. Yuta was standing face to face with Reina, and out of all of the people that she saw Yuta meeting in the world, Reina was not one of them.

"Hey," Logan said.

Yuta looked at the group, and then back to Reina, and then back to the group.

"Hey," Reina said back. She locked eyes with Yurie. "Yurie! It's too late! The contest is already over! We missed it!"

Yurie laughed. "Yeah. I know. I was there."

"Oh. How did you do?"

Yurie smiled. "I won!"

Reina squealed and she ran over to their booth. She squeezed herself tightly onto Yurie's side, forcing Seshiru up against the window.

"I've been training super hard, and I'm sure I'm a lot stronger now! If we battle, I know I'd win!"

"You have a lot of confidence," Seshiru said.

It was then that Yuta made his way over to the table. Instead of trying to fit into the booth, he just stood over them, his hands in his pockets. "She has a good teacher."

"I am so confused," Logan muttered. "About so many things."

"So, you really found yourself a traveling partner?" Yurie asked.

"Yep!" Reina and Yuta said at the same time. They glared at one another, and then Reina looked back at Yurie.

"Wait, do you two know each other?" Reina asked.

"Yep!" Yurie and Yuta said together. "We're from the same town."

"Sugoi…" Reina muttered.

"I never took you as someone who would travel with another human," Logan said jokingly. "But this will be good for you."

Yuta nodded. He grabbed a nearby empty chair and pulled it up to the end of the table and placed it down gently before sitting. "Yeah. I think it can be healthy to travel with someone else. My training time has taken a nosedive though."

"How many badges have you won?" Logan asked.

"Four."

Reina perked up. "And I've won two ribbons!"

"So, we're tied," Yurie said with a smile.

Yuta looked around the table, and he instantly knew the other two trainers, but he tried to play it off like he didn't. "It's nice to meet you," he said.

"I'm Seshiru."

"My name's Maleah."

Yuta nodded. "Are you both competing in the league this year?"

Maleah grinned. "I am!"

Yuta looked relieved when Seshiru shook her head. "That's good. If I remember correctly, you only made it to the Top 16 in the Manalo Conference, so I'm not too worried. Seshiru, on the other hand, is strong."

Maleah glared. "What in the world does that mean?"

Reina stood up and flicked Yuta on the nose. The boy froze up, unsure of what just happened or how to instantly respond. "What did I say about thinking before you speak!" Reina snapped. Her demeanor had changed completely.

"I did think!" Yuta said.

"Don't think about the results! Think about your words and how they could hurt people!"

Yurie giggled. "This might actually be good for you, Yuta."

The group finished their breakfast, and Logan finally went to take his shower. He no longer bathed with someone else like when he was in Hoenn. He was all alone, so he could enjoy the bath to himself. In a sense, he was a bit lonely, but he was able to now have a bath uninterrupted.

Back in Hoenn, he was taught by Himawari. Before one enters the bath, they are supposed to clean off as much as possible. There were small personal showers at every bath. They would sit on their own stools, and rinse off. First, Logan would fill up a small bucket with insanely hot water. Logan would start with his hair. He'd lather in the shampoo, and then he'd allow it to sit for awhile. Then, he would work on the body shampoo, pouring it into a small rag and rubbing it around his whole body. During this time, the water in the bucket would start to cool. He would rinse all of it off with one quick dump of the water over his head. And then, only after all of the soap and dirt was washed away was it okay to get into the bath.

Meanwhile, the rest all moved to the Pokémon Center's courtyard. They all released their Pokémon, and while the trainers had their conversations, most of the Pokémon played.

Yurie's Pokémon: Torchic, Minun, Turtwig, Oddish, and Squirtle played tag with Reina's Pokémon: Charmander and Butterfree. Seshiru's Poliwrath, Kingler, Floatzel, and Quagsire all relaxed near the small fountain. They continued to avoid the other Pokémon. And Yuta's Pokémon: Sceptile, Salamence, Glalie, and three other Pokémon that Yurie had not seen before, all spent their time in the shade. One of the Pokémon looked like it could have been an evolved form of Squirtle, but Yurie didn't want to assume. Maleah decided to keep her Pokémon in their balls, because she didn't want Yuta analyzing any of them.

"It feels like time is going by so fast," Yuta said. "Now that I have the swing of things, adventuring comes easy. Reina makes it difficult though."

Reina just remained silent. She fiddled with her grandma's watch, trying to get it to work again.

"I travel alone," Maleah said. "The journey can get lonely, but I get to spend a lot of time with my Pokémon. I think we've bonded really well because of it."

Yurie smiled at Seshiru. "Since Seshiru is with us, we're learning a lot about Kanto! She's made the journey pretty exciting so far!"

Seshiru nodded. "It's very nostalgic to walk all of these roads again."

"Maleah," Yuta said. "I'm sorry about that comment from before. I genuinely didn't mean any offense by it. I'm just not very good at…"

"Talking," Reina said, finishing his sentence. "He's a very odd human being with a very human heart!"

Yurie giggled. "You've really grown!"

Yuta tried to hide it, but he smiled at Yurie's compliment. "You too, Yurie. I think, and I want you to know how hard this is to say, I respect you now."

Yurie was frozen. The Yuta that sat before her was not the same Yuta that she knew a year ago. This Yuta smiled and said polite things.

"Get that dumb smile off of your face," Yuta said.

Yurie huffed and then pulled her egg closer, but when she looked away, she couldn't help but smile. Then, the egg started to move. Its movements were different from before, and Yurie panicked for a moment. She set the egg on the table as energy emitted from it. It rocked back and forth before it started to take a new shape. It shifted and morphed, and soon, the energy exploded off of it. What was left in front of Yurie and her friends was a newborn Pokémon that almost everyone in the world was familiar with.

"Swee!" it said. The Pokémon was small, fluffy, and stood on four legs.

"Eevee," Yurie muttered. "My brother gave me an Eevee."

"Wow," Yuta and Reina muttered together.

"It's so cute!" Maleah declared.

Seshiru looked at the Pokémon. Seeing its face was nostalgic for her, but she also was shaken with an overwhelming sadness. She felt herself reaching out to the Pokémon, and to Eevee's surprise, Seshiru lightly put her hand on its head. Eevee spun around and smiled at Seshiru.

"Swee!"

Seshiru's throat locked up as though she was choking back tears. Her arm shook, and it fell to her side.

"It's cute," she managed to choke out. "Treat it with care."

Yurie, not noticing Seshiru's condition, reached out and lifted her new Pokémon into the air. She nestled her face against the Eevee's soft fur, enjoying the warmth of the newborn Pokémon.

Yuta looked at Seshiru with a quizzical look on his face. But rather saying something without thinking, he kept his thoughts to himself.

"What's going on?" Logan asked as he exited the Pokémon Center. He put on his black hat with the white Poké Ball insignia on the front and then looked at the group.

"My egg hatched into Eevee!"

"Sweet!"

"Swee!"

Logan walked forward and lightly poked the Pokémon in the nose. "What's for lunch?"

"We're actually going to get going," Reina said. "I can't afford to be late for the next contest, so it's best that we get our head start."

Yuta nodded. "Yeah. No point in being in Saffron any longer."

"You don't want to join us for abura soba?"

Reina made a face as though she smelled something putrid, and she shook her head. "No. The oil isn't good for my stomach!"

Yuta nodded. "Keep eating like that, Yurie. You'll get fat."

"Shut up!"


AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Because of the corona virus, schools in Japan have essentially shut down. I now have a full month off. It kind of came out of nowhere, so I'll be writing a whole lot during my free time. I'm hoping to get ahead, because I only have up to Chapter 20 written with Kickin' It In Kanto. If you've missed it, I've started to post the finale to Awakening Alola recently.

So, Yurie now has a full team. Torchic, Minun, Turtwig, Squirtle, Oddish, and Eevee. It all came together pretty fast, but I plan on fleshing out their personalities a bit more in Kickin' It In Kanto. I think it's a solid team for a coordinator. I'm excited to see where it'll take her in the future. Her Eevee won't evolve for a very long time, but what do you think would fit Yurie's style the most?

Also, anyone wondering what's up with Seshiru?

REVIEWS:

wisdom-jewel - "I'm guessing that Omari will get jealous of Logan at some point. Also, I can see him try to get all of Kanto to make him and Yurie into an OTP. Maybe he is hoping it would become real at some point. But I want him to grow up and mature a bit. Like understanding that there are different types of love and he develops a type of love that is shared between friends. And Takumi lost his first contest. But that's okay. He might get a mentor of some kind." - Omori will eventually become one of my favorite characters to write. But I don't ever see Yurie truly falling for him. Haha As for Takumi, there's always a chance he could come back.

Haro654 - "So Omoroi is pretty much the Drew in the story?" - I didn't write Omori with that intention, but I guess it'd be hard to argue that he doesn't fit that role. I don't remember that part of the anime too well anymore, but I always thought that Drew was intentionally antagonistic to May while Omori is kind of ignorant of his actions. He thinks he's being cute and endearing.

pokemonking0924 - "Omori reminds me of both Drew and Harley, this OC seems like a playboy and loves to tease, hopefully he won't cause as much trouble as Harley did in the anime. Unfortunately for Yurie he has an eye on her and enjoys messing with her, Logan overheard this whole boyfriend nonsense Omori was blabbing about. The only question is how much Logan overheard and what will he do about Yurie's "boyfriend"" - How much he overheard is a bit open ended, and you can see a bit of Logan being upset by what he heard in this chapter. But if there's anything we learned from Logan in Hoenn, he doesn't know how to handle his emotions.

CrescentApple - "oh good Omori is too hilarious. He reminds me of the "perfect" got a lot of people fall for. But it looks like he knows exactly how he is and doesn't mind at all. I honestly think his infactuation with Yurie is BECAUSE she isn't affected by his charms, and he probably finds that attractive. Almost like a challenge. Hope to see more Omori. The battle itself was pretty good. He has to be a really good trainer of Pichu can use all those fancy moves and become uninjured by them. My favorite is Oddish putting Spearow to sleep. Very unexpected, creative and funny. Logan listening... i don't know. He heard Yurie trying to tell Omori she isn't interested in their fake relationship. But did he hear the part about Omori saying he wouldnt help Yurie get with Logan? If so, then... i dont know what to expect, hehe." - Omori is coming back. Omori and Reina are Yurie's main rivals in Kanto. And every time, he'll still hit on Yurie, ignoring how she really feels.