Chapter 15

It was the morning after their detour through the forest that led them to helping Chris apprehend a troublesome Feraligatr and the crew was finally back on track towards reaching their next destination, Camphrier Town. But all was not calm quite yet as Aura was suddenly shaken awake harshly by his rather concerned Riolu.

"Master Aura! Please wake up!" He hastfully pleaded, not letting up on his forceful pushing.

Aura opened his eyes and tiredly stared at his loyal companion sitting on his knees beside him. After a much needed stretch with a satisfying pop from his joints, Aura greeted the Pokemon. "Morning, Prince. What's the rush?"

Prince sat back with his paws on his knees and bowed. "I apologize for breaking free from my Pokeball, Master Aura, but I could feel an overwhelmingly negative emotion coming from Diamond…"

He glanced at her sleeping bag quizzically only to see she had disappeared. "Do you know where she went?" Aura asked.

Prince hesitantly shook his head. "Not exactly. I only just came out after I had felt her presence leave the tent but perhaps I shouldn't have waited. I can however feel a very faint energy similar to hers a short distance North-West, just outside of my current range. The others have already awoken so there is a high chance they could give you more details."

Aura nodded and patted his head. "Thank you. Go ahead and take Stan's ball outside then and I'll be right out." Receiving an affirmative nod from his partner, Prince picked up his teammate's Pokeball and was about to step outside but paused as Aura assured him, "by the way, you guys know I have no issues with you breaking free from your balls. So don't worry about apologizing." With only a nod in response, Prince stepped out to open the round capsule while Aura got dressed to go search for his love.

Briefly greeting the others and asking if they knew why Diamond took off, Dan shrugged and could only recall she seemed to act more distant than usual, pointing out the direction he saw her walk in before continuing to make their breakfast. The entire time he followed Diamond's trail, Aura couldn't stop wondering why she'd suddenly leave the camp without a word to anyone. Eventually after searching high and low in the lightly forested area, Aura came across a small waterfall where he spotted the yellow furred vixen perched atop a large boulder.

As he approached from behind, Diamond's ears instantly straightened up and swiveled back from the sound of shifting foliage. Not knowing who was there, Diamond cautiously swiped her stick from her tail and pivoted around ready to attack. Waves of relief washed over her upon seeing it was just Aura who looked up at her confused. She averted her gaze and sighed, sheathing her stick and crossing her arms before turning back around and sitting down. "Oh… Good morning, Aura." She said coldly.

Growing more concerned, Aura scaled the boulder and promptly sat beside her with his legs hanging off the ledge. "Morning, Diamond… What are you doing out here by yourself?" He asked. "Are you feeling alright?"

She lightly sighed and kept her eyes pinned to the waterfall. "I'm fine… Just thinking about stuff…"

Aura wasn't satisfied with her answer and slid a bit closer. "What kind of stuff?"

She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on top. "Don't worry… It's nothing important."

A loud sigh came from the trainer as he turned his whole body to face her. "Diamond, I can tell something is bothering you. You know that I'm here for you. You can trust me."

She sighed again and glanced away. "I don't think you knew this… But it's almost my sixteenth hatch-day."

Aura raised an eyebrow, he'd heard the term from Kibbs before and knew a "hatch-day" was the Pokemon equivalent to a birthday if they were born from an egg, which although many Pokemon can perform live births, most will lay eggs in the wild to various reasons, thus they call it a "hatch-day."

"I may not be a Pokemon, but isn't a hatch-day usually something to celebrate? Like a birthday?" He inquired.

Diamond sighed with a shrug. "I guess. But for me… it just reminds me of the day I was taken to the lab… the day I lost my mom and dad…" Suddenly Aura felt a lump in his throat as he unknowingly brought up the terrible memories she most likely has tried to suppress, yet she calmly began to give more details about it. "It was ten years ago… I… I just turned six years old… When… those…"

Aura suddenly pulled her close and embraced her. "It's alright. You don't have to talk about it now. I shouldn't have brought it up."

She gripped the back of his shirt and sniffled. "It's okay… You didn't know…"

"Well I do now, but I want you to remember that you'll never be alone like that again. I'll always be here for you and so will the others. We're a family."

Diamond smiled. "Thank you, Aura. I guess thinking about it that way makes me feel a bit better…"

Their embrace tightened. "That's good to hear. Just remember that you can talk to me whenever you need. I love you, and that will never change."

The vixen looked up at Aura and smiled. She glanced at the lake and gave a content sigh. "Yeah. Having you here with me makes it a lot easier to actually cope with this… I know I keep saying this, but I mean it, thank you for picking me back at the lab… you made my life worth living again."

Aura kissed her forehead softly. "Anytime." The two sat there for a few more minutes watching the morning sunlight glisten across the rippling water. "We should probably head back soon. Breakfast should be about ready."

Diamond responded with a faint "yes." She lifted her head from his shoulder and watched him jump down from the rock first, offering his arms up to catch her as she followed behind. Though as she waited and even asked him to put her down, Aura smirked and shook his head, turning her around in his arms and hoisting her up onto his shoulder. They stumbled a little bit but Diamond giggled as Aura firmly told her to just enjoy the ride as he carried her on his shoulders like he had when she was a Fennekin, allowing her to hold onto his head for balance as they walked back to camp.

When the couple returned, Dan looked up from his plate and laughed. "Looks like you found her."

Aura shrugged and lowered to his knees to let Diamond climb down. "Yeah. She just needed some space to think."

Nessa curiously looked at her friend. "Oh dear. Is something the matter?"

Aura rubbed his head thinking it wouldn't be good to address the subject, but Diamond decided to explain the situation anyway. "Kind of…" she began, "I'll be turning sixteen in a few days actually… but the truth is my hatch-day has always just been a reminder of losing my parents…"

Nessa quickly stood up from her food and hurried over to comfort her friend with a caring embrace. "Oh! I'm so sorry that happened to you!" She said only now learning of her unfortunate loss.

Diamond looked up at Aura with a small smile spreading across her lips. "It's okay, Nessa. Thanks to Aura I've been a lot happier and haven't actually thought about it for a while… At least until I remembered how close that day is. But really, it doesn't bother me as much as it used to."

Aura smirked, happy that he had been able to do so much for his mate, but now something else had begun taking over his thoughts. As they should reach Camphrier Town by the following morning, Aura decided this would be a good opportunity to finally give Diamond something to actually look forward to on that fateful day.


As the sun set over their second day back on track to reaching Camphrier Town. A tired vixen lay slouched over her trainer's back cutely snoozing away as they walked.

"Hey, Dan? You think we should start setting up camp for tonight?" Aura suggested.

His friend looked back curiously. "What for? The sun only just started setting and we're making good time."

Aura leaned forward slightly and nodded his head towards the Braixen over his shoulder. "I think Diamond's ready to turn in for the night though." He chuckled.

Dan laughed as well and shrugged. "Alright then. There's no dense forest around here so we should be fine just setting up close to the road." Taking a brief detour off the road, Dan found a patch of dry dirt and gravel void of much plant life where they could safely build their fire. "I'll get started on supper while you put up the tents, okay?"

Aura agreed to this and quickly sought out a place to lay Diamond until their tent was ready. Finding a patch of soft grass close by, he slowly squatted down and carefully set Diamond down while removing her necklace and backpack. She stirred a bit from this but continued sleeping. Aura put the jewelry back into its case while propping up Diamond's bag behind her as a temporary pillow while he got to working on the tents.

Fifteen minutes passed by the time their own tent had been assembled and Aura promptly returned to his mate to bring her inside. "Mmmh," Diamond groaned as she was lifted into Aura's arms. He carried her bridal style into the tent and tucked her into her sleeping bag before heading back out to assemble Dan's tent.

"Man, she's out like a light." Aura said as he went to retrieve his friend's tent.

Dan chuckled and tossed his bag over. "She was up pretty early and already seemed a bit tired when she left your tent. Maybe she had trouble sleeping because of what's coming up?"

Aura sighed and walked away, "Hopefully I can make it a little better for her this year." He muttered, dropping Dan's tent kit near his own and quickly getting to work setting it up.

Now that both tents were securely constructed and ready for the night ahead, Aura re-entered his and Diamond's tent and attempted to usher her awake; however, as she seemed unresponsive he decided it might be best to simply let her sleep for now and returned to the campfire to release the other two from their balls. Asking if they were ready to eat, Stan as usual was quick to bounce about excitedly with a wide smile plastered across his face, however Prince scanned their surroundings before finally looking curiously at the tent. "Is Diamond not coming to join us?" He asked.

Aura glanced over his shoulder unsure. "She's fast asleep right now. Must have been up extra early this morning… Huh, I guess if she doesn't wake up to eat soon she'll probably want an extra big breakfast tomorrow." Aura snickered, though still figured it would be smart to save a portion for her to eat if she gets hungry during the night.

As Prince and Stan planted themselves beside the fire and awaited their servings, Dan started letting out his Pokemon as well. While each of them greeted their trainer and sat down beside him, Missy slowly climbed onto his lap and laid down. Watching this, Aura sighed and asked how Missy was doing.

Dan glanced down at the pink Pokemon and frowned. "Unfortunately I can't really say. She seems to be doing as well as she has been for the past month, but it's hard to tell if that's a good thing." He reached into his bag and retrieved a bottle of pills and popped the lid off, holding one in his palm near Missy's mouth. The Sylveon had a sour expression as she took the medicine before Dan quickly gave her a drink of water.

While Aura had taken to dishing out food for everyone, he sadly watched Dan gently petting Missy's head. Letting out a slow sigh, he firmly put down his plate and caught the attention of the others. "Dan? What would you say if I could maybe do something to help Missy?"

He looked up in shock. "W-wait, you might have a cure?!" He exclaimed.

"I wouldn't say I have a cure, but what I'm thinking is there might be a way for me to restore some of her energy?" Aura affirmed. "Back in the city, Alice taught me a few things about the Healing Guardians and some of the basics on how to use healing aura; she even showed me how to transfer and convert energy from nature to perform small-scaled recoveries."

Dan looked from his weakened Pokemon to the Guardian with newfound hope. "Aura, I am willing to try almost anything at this point, so if you think you can even give Missy more time to survive then please do it."

Firmly nodding, Aura instructed Dan to lay Missy down on the grass so there would be nothing between her and nature itself. "Okay… just don't get your hopes up too high, I've never done this before so I don't know if it will even work." Closing his eyes, Aura held his hands above Missy and channeled his essence as he normally would when using his auric abilities, however this time the blue light emanating from his palms gradually shifted to a green hue as he tried to manipulate the life energy of nature.

It didn't take long for faint streams of green light to slowly rise from the blades of grass and funnel into Aura's palms, strengthening the vibrant light coating his hands before drifting down over Missy and enveloping her in the same light.

Sweat dripped from Aura's forehead from the immense concentration required to not only redirect the potent essence drawn from the earth, but to also ensure it is applied properly to Missy's essence and safely connected to revitalize and mend the damaged parts of her soul.

Finally after what felt like ages passed, the light surrounding Missy vanished and the grass beneath her seemed dried out. Aura leaned forward and firmly planted his hands on the ground while panting heavily and asking for water which Dan hastily handed over.

"So… Do you think it worked?" He asked as Aura drank most of the bottle's contents.

Waiting for Aura to answer, Dan along with everyone else received an unexpected surprise when instead, his answer came from none other than Missy who lightly groaned as she slowly rose to her feet. "I… I think… I think it… worked…?" She said, lightly coughing and rubbing her burning eyes. "I… I don't feel as weak as before."

Dan whipped his head around to face Aura and almost tackled him to the ground with a hug. "Holy shit, Aura! You did it! I can't believe you actually healed her!"

Aura smiled weakly. "I don't think I actually healed her though, all I did was give her some more energy and did my best to repair her essence like Alice taught me. I don't know how long this will last though so you should probably keep giving her that medicine."

Dan held back tears and smiled. "R-right. But still, thanks to you she doesn't have to be in pain for the first time in forever! I can't thank you enough for that!"

Aura awkwardly smirked and rocked back and forth. "Y-yeah… I think transfering so much energy at once like that really did a lot on me as well…" He shook his head and crawled over to his meal with a groan. "I should probably just finish eating and turn in early tonight. Thankfully my energy should regenerate on its own naturally after enough rest."

Dan nodded and thanked him once more before allowing him to finish his meal in peace before instructing Prince and Stan to return to their Pokeballs when they finish as well and promptly heading inside his tent. Upon entering, Aura smiled as he saw Diamond still peacefully sleeping with a small bit of drool dripping from her open mouth. Aura quickly got changed and before long had slipped himself into his sleeping bag and soon fell fast asleep.

The following morning went smoothly as everyone awoke at reasonable times and during breakfast Diamond was given the details of what transpired the night before. She was amazed by Aura's ability and was overwhelmingly happy to know Missy was feeling much better even if it was limited. But as usual, they didn't want to waste any time getting back on the road. So after Diamond's understandably large breakfast and the others had all been returned to their Pokeballs, Aura and Dan disassembled their tents and it wasn't long before they were back on the road. After walking for just a few hours, they finally reached their destination and hurried into Camphrier Town.

The streets were bustling with people, stalls were set up all around selling different kinds of food and souvenirs while some people were seen performing in the streets for small audiences. Diamond looked around nervously as she still seemed to feel a bit uncomfortable being around so many people. "Wh-what's going on?" She asked, inching closer to Aura for safety.

Aura shrugged as Dan began to explain. "Guys, this is the Festival of Good Harvest!" He said excitedly. "It's an annual celebration that takes place near the end of spring after the nearby farms have all finished planting their crops. The festival is their way of thanking the farmers for their hard work as well as praying for a healthy crop and a bountiful harvest in the fall."

"You seem to know a lot about it?" Aura noted.

Dan chuckled and scratched his head. "Well I did grow up in Kalos, and Camphrier Town isn't the only place that holds the festival either. But moving on, during the festival they hold a bunch of events over the duration of a whole week while during the weekend they have a tournament to I guess thank trainers who pass by and celebrate with them."

"A tournament?" Diamond asked with a sudden rise in enthusiasm.

Aura snickered. "I didn't think a tournament would interest you seeing as a lot of people will be there to watch."

Diamond bit her lip and shied away but quickly shook her head and looked up at Aura sharply. "W-well, if we're going to be entering the League, then I need to get used t-to big c-crowds." Diamond's firm stance faltered as she quickly glanced around at the surrounding people and gulped anxiously.

Aura placed his hand on her head and smiled at her. "I know I've said this a lot already, but I'm proud of the progress you've made getting over your fears."

Suddenly Diamond felt her anxiety melt away as she stared into Aura's eyes. "Mhm! Thanks to you! And as long as we're together we'll definitely win that tournament!" She affirmed while pounding a fist against her chest.

"Haha! You're starting to sound like me." He laughed causing Diamond to blush. "Either way, even if we don't win this tournament, I think it will at least be great practice for us, don't you agree?"

"I guess so, but I still really want to win this!"

Aura smirked. "Don't forget that winning isn't everything. If you always win then you'll never think you'll need to improve and losing will only hurt even more. It's always good to know humility." He told her.

Diamond huffed, "Okay, I think I understand… But if we really want to win, then we should start training as soon as possible!" She confidently pounded her paw on her chest again. Aura shook his head with a small grin and a chuckle before pointing out they should head to the Pokemon Center and rent out their rooms before they think about training.

Thanks to some help from Dan's Town Map, the trio were able to quickly traverse the crowded streets and arrive at the Pokemon Center within a few minutes. Entering the massive red and white structure, the trio passed through the surprisingly calm lobby to the front desk where a man in nurse's garbs stood overlooking some files. Once he noticed them approaching, the nurse put the files to the side and bowed to greet them.

"Welcome to the Camphrier Town Pokemon Center, how may I help you?"

Aura and Dan both prepared to take out their ID cards as Aura requested a room for each of them. After a quick look through the available rooms via the computer, the man instructed them each to scan their cards before uploading the room-key codes to their IDs and handing them both a spare keycard as well.

"Thank you. By the way, where can I sign up for the tournament?" Aura asked as they put away their cards.

The man smiled and started to type something into the computer. "Lucky for you that registration is done here as well. And since your ID was just scanned I should be able to just register you right now… Just one moment and...done!" As he said this, a short beep came from the computer and from beside it a little black box ejected a plastic card that was promptly handed over to Aura. "Here you go, contestant number 27. And are you entering as well?" He turned to ask Dan.

"N-no, I'm not competing." Dan awkwardly declined. The cheerful man shrugged and wished Aura good luck in the tournament before they headed off to their rooms.


Shortly after they had arrived in their room, Aura excused himself to meet with Dan to discuss some private matters while leaving his team to relax in their room in the meantime; however, fired up for the upcoming tournament, Diamond quickly informed her teammates of their participation.

"Okay, guys! Aura's counting on us to do our best in this tournament since it will be great practice for when we enter the league! And after losing our last gym battle, we need to train every day and show that we won't lose another one!" Diamond said firmly while standing in front of her teammates, both who simply stared back in confusion.

Prince awkwardly cleared his throat, "Pardon me, Diamond? But where is Master Aura?" He asked.

Stan cocked his head to the side, "Yeah? Why isn't he giving us this speech?"

"Oh, he had to talk with Dan about something." Diamond said and waved her paw in a "no big deal" kind of manner. Stan and Prince looked at each other a bit unsure about the current situation they had found themselves in as all they remembered was Diamond letting them out of their balls and immediately telling them about the tournament with very little context. "Anyway, Aura said he might be with Dan for a while and just said we should relax for now, but I think we should go down to the training field and get to work!" She cheered with another pump of her fist. "Come on! Let's show Aura how determined we are to make it to the league!" With little else to say, Diamond took the spare keycard from Aura's bag and tucked it into her tail before ushering the other two to follow her into the hall. All the while the boys looked at each other curiously but decided to follow anyway.


During this time, Aura was a little ways down the hall in Dan's room where him and his Pokemon listened closely to their friend's request.

"So you think you could help me do this?" Aura finally asked as he finished explaining his ambitious plan.

Dan, Nessa and Spyke all looked amongst one another until Nessa returned her gaze to Aura with a kind smile. "Of course we'd be willing to help! You and Diamond are our friends are you not? It's only right we help you do something this special for her."

Dan crossed his arms and nodded. "Sure, we've been traveling together for almost a whole month now, I consider you one of my closest friends. And what kind of friend would I be if I didn't help you do something like this for your partner?!"

"If Danny and Nessa are up for it then you can guarantee I'm ready to help too!" Spyke affirmed with a confident grin.

Aura clapped his hands together and bowed his head. "Thank you guys! Putting this together would probably be impossible without your help." He stood up with a giddy smile and hurried to the door. "I should head back to my room and get everyone ready to go train, Diamond seemed really determined to win this and she's probably getting impatient! I'll talk to you guys later!"

With that, Aura stepped out and hurried down the hall to his room where he paused to compose himself before stepping in. "Sorry I took so long, but we should be okay to start- what the hell?!" Aura nearly tripped over himself as he looked over the three Pokemon slumped over along the sofa, all three breathing heavily with dirt covering their fur and some minor swelling covered with sloppily wrapped bandages. He rushed over to them and hastily checked over their injuries. "What the hell happened?! Are you guys okay?!"

Stan groaned in pain. "Diamond… Training… Battles…"

He looked at Diamond who didn't seem any better than the other two while only now noticing she was trying to wrap a bandage around her ankle but fumbling with the roll and dropping it on the floor. Aura sighed and picked up the gauze she dropped and started rewrapping her leg properly. "What did you do? It looks like all three of you got mauled by an Ursaring."

She painfully sat up and looked at him, Aura then noticing a bit of dried blood on her lips. "We were… training for… the tournament." She explained through deep breaths.

Once Aura had reapplied the bandages to her leg, he moved over to Prince and did the same for his shoulder. "Jeez, maybe it would be better if I take you guys down to the lobby and get you looked at properly." He went to pick up Stan and Prince's Pokeballs and quickly returned them before looking back to his mate. "Are you able to stand?"

The vixen tried to stand up but immediately stumbled and fell, and she would have hit the ground had Aura not caught her in time.

"S-sorry, Aura. I guess we worked a bit too hard." She quietly apologized.

Aura sighed and lifted her into his arms. "It's fine, I know you're excited for the tournament but please be more careful, if you overwork yourself then you'll be too sore and exhausted to even compete." For a moment, Aura smiled at her and laughed under his breath. "But I can't deny that your drive to battle is admirable. Just try not to be as reckless as I am." Diamond giggled cutely as her mate gently nudged her snout with his nose before planting a kiss on her cheek, however he recoiled and scowled in disgust. "Blegh! After you're properly looked at I think you could use a bath."

Diamond's giddy smile tightened into a scowl for a moment but quickly eased as she couldn't deny the filth coating her fur, making a mental note for herself to next time bring a washcloth to training.