Money gone to the scrafty, I went back to my pokémon and checked the time. Just as I dropped my right arm, the one with my Xtransceiver, two little kids ran up to Pepper, reminiscent of those twins Sylviana and I battled before. Tell me we wouldn't have a battle on this bridge. The scrafty had yet to leave, so a crowd still stood nearby.

The two, a boy and a girl both as tall as Rose's log, squatted down in front of Pepper. "It's so cute!"

"Totally!" As the two got close, Tempest flew off Pepper's back to stand by Rose.

Okay, not what I expected. As much as I agreed with them, who were they? It wasn't like I would chase them off or bring attention to myself at all, though. I stepped back a little and decided to wait it out. Meanwhile, Pepper wagged her tail like a metronome, a huge smile on her face as the two kids complimented her.

"Her ears are like a bunny's!"

"And the tail is so curly!"

To my surprise, the kids knew the golden rule of look, don't touch. Though, they did lean in uncomfortably close to Pepper. But man was she oinking up a storm. Did she revel in it or what?

"She's so happy!"

"Her voice is so cute!" Their compliments had a pretty obvious theme, though it was hard to argue with it. Pepper sat down and held a hoof to her face in a cutesy pose. Was she a model now?

"Did you see that?"

"I love her!"

Okay, the kids were fine at first, but this got kind of old. And their screeching voices did them no favor in my book. I looked to Pawn, who leaned over the guardrail and stared off into the distance. Didn't know he was a romantic. "This ever happen to you?" He waved his hand. I didn't expect him to seriously answer. "Like the view?"

He only grunted and shrugged. Riveting. Again, at least he was having fun.

"Pepper, oh, Pepper." She struck more cute poses and kept smiling at the compliments raining down on her. "How long is this gonna last?"

Rose gave a loud grunt. The sight I saw before me wasn't one I wanted to forget in the near future. Rose took Tempest into her hands and started lifting the bird up and down with ease. Well, pidove weighed like three pounds, so it wasn't that impressive. But boy was the sight funny. Rose with her face like a stone mask, and Tempest clearly unaware of what was happening to her… Beautiful.

"Danny, Evan, time to go home," someone called in my direction. Next thing I knew, the two kids stood up and whined.

"Aw, I don't wanna leave yet."

"We have to. Bye-bye, Tepig!" Pepper oinked after them.

As soon as the kids left, I approached Pepper and tried something. "Aren't you cute?" Hopefully it didn't come out too stiff. She jumped into the air and landed on her hind legs like a horse would.

"Nice moves. Let's keep going, huh?" She walked close to my feet, clearly on cloud nine. So she liked being called cute? I guessed it wouldn't be too hard to remember.

When we got close enough to them, Rose sat Tempest on one end of her log and went to the middle of the wood. She hugged it tightly to lift it, finally with both arms in a way not just for show. Twitching her head, Rose didn't bother hiding her wanting to leave.

"Got it." Behind Rose, I bent down to adjust the angle she held her log a tad to make sure Tempest wouldn't fall off.

~X~

"Finally over." Pawn and I stepped through the gate to Castelia City, Pepper and co. returned to their poké balls. He hummed and poked my back. Was pushing me along Pawn's new favorite pastime?

"Poké center…" Yeah, I needed Sylviana. Even if she didn't know where the center was off the top of her head, she wasn't afraid of getting lost or asking for directions. Castelia City was huge, too.

Pawn held his head in one hand and grabbed my elbow with the other, quickening his pace to match mine. He dragged me straight ahead, dodging and diving through clusters of strangers until finally, a familiar red building sat to my right. This poké center looked kind of bigger than the other two I'd seen.

"Hooray…" We entered the center and I immediately shot for the check-in desk. At least I was more willing to go there on my own after two other attempts.

The line for check-ins stretched from a desk at the back to the wall opposite it. I got in line and waited. That was the one thing I was good at. Waited, waited, and waited as the line inched forward every few minutes. Pawn sat in an empty chair by other people and waved. Ha, like a parent waving goodbye to their kid walking to school alone for the first time…

I did nothing but stare at the clock hanging above the desk, anticipating each tick of the seconds hand, leading into the minutes hand, and a bit of the hour hand. This went on until only five people were in front of me. Possibly less since the way they were standing by each other, they could have been a single group.

My Xtransceiver buzzed. Sylviana's name and number flashed on the screen. Were r u? Meet in front of the library at 1 k, it read.

"You're kidding me," I breathed out, hidden in a sigh. It took us almost two hours to cross Skyarrow Bridge, mostly because Rose practically waddled across. With my normal speed, it might have taken an hour, maybe even under. Even still, my legs ached something fierce! I was tired, and already in Castelia Poké Center. Noon would be upon us in a short while.

But I had to suck it up. What was I supposed to tell Sylviana? No? How would she respond to that? How would I own up to that?

Easy: I wouldn't.

So, I texted back Okay and left the line (which I had waited so long in) to poke Pawn, who had fallen asleep sitting up. "Nacrene gym…" I kind of sang in a low voice.

He was not amused. Crossing his arms, Pawn stood up and shook his head.

"Sylviana is waiting."

He grunted. I knew my brother told him to go straight to Castelia, but Nacrene was viable as well, right? I even had Sylviana waiting on me for this, so I couldn't really say no. That would be more trouble than it was worth.

Unable to make a sound argument, I literally locked up and stared at the floor. I had an obligation to meet up with Sylviana after sending my response, but I didn't want to argue with Pawn. And any longer with this conversation, people would start to stare at us. There was no winning. I hated it.

With a long grad, Pawn went behind me and pushed me toward the exit. I dragged my feet along until I noticed he guided me back to Skyarrow Bridge.

So he caved in? We would return to Nacrene City? That didn't really make me feel better. I managed to look at him from my clouded thoughts. My brother's gallade held a frown and kept patting my back. Boy, did that make it infinitely-times worse.

Why couldn't there be an easier answer, and why did I have to keep burdening Pawn?

~X~

Nacrene Museum was much busier than I thought it would be. Bunches of people scattered throughout the entry floor, most clutching some book close to them. Trying to figure out what all the hubbub was about, I noticed several posters and signs set up, all about some book signing event. I vaguely recalled seeing something like that earlier.

Ignoring the commotion, I let Sylviana push me to the back, where an entrance leading to the very dim library was. There, even more people stood around in hype. At a table to the back nestled between two bookshelves, a woman dressed in black and purple with glasses sat. A huge line of people stretching into the museum area stood in front of her. Beside the woman sat a stack of books. In her hand was a fancy ballpoint pen as she signed a book to hand the next person in line. She was Shauntal, one of Unova's Elite Four; I knew that much. To her side, providing light in the dark library, was a chandelure. I recalled my brother having one as well, so I recognized it.

"Start, El." Sylviana pulled me out of my observations as she pointed to the bookshelf in front of us. Two step ladders stood before it, each leading to a single book facing outward leaning atop the packed books. The same went for the other five shelves in the room. Up high, a hanging sign said we were in the S section.

But, wait, here? This gym's gimmick was in the library? Where so many people were right now? "Really?"

"Uh-huh. I couldn't figure this stupid place out. It took me forever by guessing. It's a stupid riddle game." Sylviana crossed her arms. "Good luck."

"Oh?" How that didn't bode well with me. Beside me, Pawn eyed the bookshelf warily, as if contemplating something. "How do you know this is the starting point?"

"Duh." Sylviana pointed at the book the step ladder led to. The title was Start Here. How convenient.

"So it works like that?"

"Yeah." Her Xtransceiver became her object of interest.

I could only guess I had to find something in that book. I reached up and grabbed it after making sure no one was watching me. Luckily, everyone seemed focused on Shauntal and nothing else. The step ladder seemed more a nuisance than help to me since I just had to extend my arm a little to touch it. And I was average height. It was probably for shorter people or something, but then, why not just put the book on a lower shelf at all?

Instead of continuing my train of thought, I stared at Start Now, currently in my hands. It was a thick book, and there was no way in Hell I was going to read it. It was a motivational book, even.

My initial reaction was to flip through the pages and hope whoever set the gym up made the first hint easy. I thumbed the pages until the very end, where a small message was scrawled on the inside of the back cover.

Welcome to Nacrene Museum, challenger. Congratulations on finding this clue. Let's play a game. There are five more books like this one in this library. Each book has a riddle to find the next one. Can you solve all the riddles and discover the secret of this special place?

Here is your first clue. Let's start with something easy. Burned pokémon experience an overall decrease in their attack power. True or False?

Was this really a thing? The diction on the opening greeting was a little off, even. Did they expect little kids to challenge this gym often? This was ridiculous.

Forcing myself to continue, I put the book back and walked to my right. The answer had to be true, I knew as much. Status conditions and their detriments seemed pretty logical on paper. Above, glued to the shelf hung a sign reading T. Below it, books beginning with T greeted me. True/false could be written T/F, right? They even capitalized the second word in the hint.

Tricks Beget Traitors faced out at the top of the ladder. Without really trying, I took it in my hands and flipped through it like with the other book. Apparently some melodrama about a pair of friends gone to ruin after it turned out one hated the other all along. Yeesh. A card taped to the middle page of the musty text wasn't too hard to notice.

Good work solving the first riddle. Now for the next one. Do you like sports? Then what is the name of pokémon move that is also a football move?

There was going to be four more of these after this one? I couldn't tell if I was relieved or insulted. I knew the answer to this one as well, but what was the catch of this being kind of easy?

I found that out quite soon. The answer had to be tackle. Any other football maneuver, I hadn't a clue the name of. So many pokémon could learn that move. Pepper knew it. So, I went to shelf T. Except, that was where I got the hint from.

There was another book of the twenty-six displayed that had a title that had something to do with tackle? How long would that take me to find?

"What do you think, El?" Sylviana snatched the book from my hands and read over the question. Her face instantly soured. The book then found itself back in my hands.

"Has to be something with tackle…" I had to check every book on display to figure it out, huh? More effort than it's worth.

"And? Wanna give up and just guess?"

No, I actually felt like I could manage. So, as quietly as I could, I walked around to the back of shelf T, where X, Y, and Z crammed into one section. A grunt straightened out my train of thought. I almost forgot Pawn was with me since he stayed so quiet the whole morning. He poked my bag and made a shaking motion with his other arm.

"Want something?" I opened the largest compartment and reached for a stick of gum. Cutting me off, Pawn yanked my notebook out and made a scribbling gesture. "Oh. Good idea."

I ripped an empty page out and wrote down the titles of the books I had seen so far. After finishing, I inched to the end of the shelf and stared at the people. The line divided the whole library in half, straight down the two rows of bookshelves. The ones in front of me formed a small cluster, happily chatting away about some character from the book they each held. Their little group blocked me off from going to the other row.

So, instead of saying excuse me and passing through them, I turned tail and went to the shelf one back from the one I stood at. Confrontation of any sort was best avoided, even when non-hostile.

The O and P shelf stared at me. Ordinary Lifetimes and Peculiar, I Swear went down on my paper. Who wrote these books? As if I didn't have enough reason to not read for leisure.

"What are you doing now?" Coalescence came into view as Sylviana asked this. I may or may not have spelled it correctly. "This is going to take forever."

"I know." Oh, did I.

"Hurry up, please?" If only I could. I didn't get why Sylviana stuck around if she knew it was going to be this boring. And if she wasn't going to help me.

"I'm trying." A clean path to the other column of shelves showed itself at the back of the library. Seizing the opportunity, I scuttled over to Section B. There was no indication of whether or not what I was doing was the most efficient way. However, there was no way I was going to walk back and forth because my memory failed me.

"I guessed it right faster than what you're doing now, you know." What words of encouragement. I would have guessed, if only my luck wasn't so bad. "Don't pretend to know it if you don't, El."

I got what she was trying to say, but it had only been ten minutes since I started this book hunt. And if she were truly bursting at the seams to get to the end, she could have told me the answer. I wouldn't object, really. "Uh… Got it…"

Broken Fishing Tackles Called Mine faced out at me under B. It was the first picture book I saw. Because of its length, I actually skimmed through it. Some story about perseverance and acceptance of failure, through fishing of course.

"Are you sure? Are you sure you're sure?" Sylviana used my favorite line against me. I usually said that to her. And of course, the answer was a big I don't know.

I couldn't outright say that, though. How stupid would I look? This title did have tackle in it, but it didn't mean the same one as the hint did. Was I supposed to take this book anyway? There was no real harm in checking. There also was no real harm in writing down all the other titles.

I got my answer soon enough. I turned the last page of the picture book and taped to the back was another notecard. Nice job! Only three more to go! Was that supposed to be encouraging or condescending?

Do you feel the excitement in the air? Is your pulse racing? What is something we all gain as we grow older, human and pokémon alike? From trying new things to growing stronger, what makes us all the wiser?

What the fuck was this supposed to mean? Either it was pretentious as hell, or the person writing it was a sappy dude, neither of which I cared for. "Come again?"

"Oh, my god, who wrote this?" Sylviana took the book from my hands again and scoffed. Looked like we were on the same wavelength on that.

Pawn pulled me towards the next letter section. He was awful quiet today. Whether it was because of what happened earlier or because Joel told him to have me figure gym puzzles out myself, I couldn't guess. Probably both.

"Where are you going now?"

Wasn't it obvious? Did I give off such an aura that made it seem that I didn't know what I was doing all the time? Yes, actually. "To write down all the other titles."

"Are you sure that's right?" A little overbearing, but okay. Some faith wouldn't hurt either.

"Better than nothing at all."

And so I went on, all the way down to the last shelf with my sheet full of ink. Whether it was legible or not was subjective. Once all 26 titles were in my hand, I ended up crumpling where I grasped it quite a bit. "What was the hint again?"

"Don't look at me." Sylviana tapped away on her Xtransceiver the entire time. I wouldn't have described this ordeal as riveting, though, so I couldn't blame her. But she could still help me a bit.

"No, no…" It dawned on me.

"What?"

"If I had flipped through every book, would I have already found the answer?" How could that have slipped my mind?

"I thought you would have called that cheating, El." She spat cheating. Oh, did I know why… Either way, I honestly didn't care about this book search anymore. Had it been a game, I would definitely have tried my best not to brute force it. But, it wasn't, and we'd already wasted like half an hour just writing names down.

"Well…"

"You're really smart, though. You can figure it out, right?" Her voice became sharp. Before memories of our previous school year flashed before me, I stared at my paper.

"I'll try…" From the previous hint, I recalled the last book had to do something with fishing. I scanned my list and tried to recall the title, but Sylviana staring straight at me made it much more difficult than it had to be.

I read it down once, then up once. Then again. And again. My handwriting became so bad that even I could barely decipher it. I didn't really care that much, honestly.

"There's no way I'm doing this again." The conversation of a nearby group of people drowned my words out. "Oh, this one."

Broken Fishing Tackles Called Mine came back to mind. I wrote Fishing so narrowly that it looked like I scratched something out. Way to go. "To B?" The section sat on the other side of the library.

I waddled over there, talking the route between the bookshelves and the wall to avoid the ever-growing line of people waiting to get their books signed. "Something we get that makes us wiser?"

Looking at my list, anything could have been the correct answer in some way. Well, anything but the ones under S, T, and B if books didn't repeat. Such an ambiguous question. I decided to assume really specific titles could go out the window. That left me with like ten strange or pretentious choices.

Next, I left out titles I guessed felt less correct. What that really meant, I wasn't sure. Hooray for guessing. Either way, this narrowed it down to three choices: Memories in the Devil's Hands, Partners Linking Happiness, and Heart-Pounding Experiences.

Every moment birthed memories. Meeting other people was an inevitability. And experience just seemed like an answer that couldn't be wrong.

Pawn covered his mouth and coughed. Maybe the dust got to him. I poked my head around the shelf we stood at to find the closest of the three books. I spotted the M section immediately.

"This is taking forever, El. Just guess it." Sylviana had no patience. That I knew to be true.

Before I took a step, Pawn coughed again. Once he settled down, he punched his chest a couple times. "Heart pounding." I couldn't help making that pun. Was that even a pun? It was to me. That book sure had a vague yet strong title.

Pawn waved me off and pushed me out of the aisle we stood in. Yet again, he proved himself to be my keeper than my guide.

"Heart Pounding?" Actually, the H section was closer than the M one. It also felt a little familiar. To reassure myself on my doubts about the answers I juggled, I reread the whole hint.

The beginning part of the hint was what made the phrase I said twice feel a tad strange. Is your pulse racing? it asked. Something about excitement. But that couldn't have been part of the actual description, right? It was just a salutation. Otherwise, Heart-Pounding Experiences was the answer.

I didn't really have any reason not to try my guess. I went over at a pace slower than Pepper and plucked Heart-Pounding Experiences from the top of the ladder.

"You know, I asked if you wanted a hand, El." Sylviana came up from behind and almost startled me. Almost. "Just say you need me or whatever."

I barely heard her say that. As much as I tried not to, I very much zoned out and ignored Sylviana and Pawn in my book hunt. The faster I figured things out now, the more time we would have to talk to each other later, right?

Not answering Sylviana, I opened this book, and slapped over the title page was another card. Experience helps us all grow, wouldn't you agree? Aim to make them as sparkling and exciting as you can. Just two more to go! Keep on moving. Next, go to the book under C and finish it!

Finish what? All I could do was put the book back and make my way to Section C. When I got there, I saw that I lost Sylviana. On the other hand, Pawn stuck close, but looked indifferent, which was unusual for him. He at least held a polite smile most of the time.

"Not the most exciting thing in the world." Pawn pulled out a fancy pocketwatch from his fannypack. How much did Joel spend on that? Unable to continue the conversation, I read the last hint again, which I wrote down at the corner of my paper just a minute ago. Finish it how? The only thing to come to mind was to read it.

It wasn't like it was a large novel. It only had about fifty pages, and the font looked larger than others I'd seen before in addition to the large illustrations inserted between sections. No card or hint resided within it, I found out after flipping through it.

Chains Just as Strong stared at me. On the cover, a boy followed by many pokémon, all connected with a chain, walked in a single file. The third pokémon behind the trainer lagged behind, causing all others after him to do the same. Had to have been some metaphor or something. I cracked the book open and started on the first page. A ways away, the line of people inched forward. I made sure to stay out of their field of vision. The first few pages went by pretty quickly.

Every five pages started a new section about the protagonist either catching a new pokémon or battling someone important. Predictability became inevitable, but at least it wasn't completely boring. I had yet to yawn. I read up to about the halfway point and checked the time. "I wasted half an hour already?"

Why the hell were gym challengers expected to read a whole book? This was so stupid. Pawn looked at the book in my hands funny, but when I made a gesture for him to say something, he shrugged. If he knew the answer that I didn't, well wouldn't I have egg on my face? He kept holding his face like he was embarrassed at me.

"Next chapter…" I turned the page and kept reading. There wasn't even an empty chair or something nearby. All the people waiting in line snatched them like assholes. So I was the idiot just standing around, reading a whole book in the middle of the library. At least no one else was in the same aisle as me.

The next few chapters followed the same pattern as the last ones, up until the one a few pages from the end. There, the protagonist had a battle with his rival and lost after sending his starter out, who threw off the team's rhythm and confidence by getting knocked out in one small blow due to his laziness and complacency after evolving or something, unlike his teammates. I don't know. I skimmed the ending because I really didn't feel like having a moral lesson right there.

"Chain's just as strong as its weakest link, then?" I closed the book after checking the last page. "I finished it. Now what?"

Pawn groaned. He put his hands together as if to sign so close. So he did know?

"Uh…" I stood there like an idiot, stewing in thoughts as to what the answer could be for about ten minutes. I checked my title list many, many times and couldn't figure it out. No one was going to help me, Pawn seemed to not want to give me the answer he had to have known, and I ran out of patience a long time ago.

"Screw it. Let's brute force it." I shuffled over to the adjacent Section D and flipped through that book. "Empty." Pawn tried to stop me, but there was no way I was getting this riddle.

"I admit defeat." Without an ounce of honor, I went to the next book and skimmed it as well. "I wasted an hour reading that book and got zilch. I'm not wasting any more time. And where the hell is Sylviana?" As I checked every book, Pawn had his arms up the entire time as if to get me to stop. Sorry, but I didn't care enough. And, no one was looking, really.

Section J was a gold mine. On the first page of Jonesing for Opelucid's fourth chapter "Battle Tendency" was a notecard reading Congratulations! Always try going to new places. You never know until you go there. You have solved the last riddle. Now pull the white book on this shelf out and descend the stairs for your prize.

"Uh-oh… This is the last answer…" I just wanted the answer to the riddle I was on, not the last one! Now I felt bad. There was no real point in finding the other book. Except for pride!

So, I shelved the book I held and went to check the next one. Only when I found what I wanted would I follow through on the last note's instruction. I went all the way down to W, where Weakest Links lay in wait.

"Are you serious?" It just hit me. I said that phrase after I finished reading Chains Just as Strong. So finishing that book meant completing the phrase? A chain is only as strong as its weakest link? I called bullshit, despite the fact that it was kind of clever.

Instead of mulling it over and doing nothing, I mulled it over and flipped to the last riddle thing. Nice job! Are you ready for the last one? Then go to Opelucid and have a battle.

That made sense why Jonesing For Opelucid had its note placed in such a specific place. As opposed to actually going to Opelucid City and battling someone. I walked back to that book and looked for the white book it told me to find. I saw it sticking out of the shelf already. To the left of the shelf was a staircase that had been open the entire time I was at the gym, that I thought was just leading to another floor of the library. Oops, my bad.

But, if the book was pulled and stairs were open, was someone already challenging the leader? I decided to step back and wait for a while before going down the stairs to check things out. As I did that, Sylviana popped out from behind me and pushed me playfully. "What now?"

"Where were you?" I guessed I didn't say it loud enough because Sylviana didn't answer me. Louder, I said "Go down the stairs. But there's probably someone there."

"So?" She pinched my sleeve and dragged me to the stairs. As much as I wanted to argue, I saw someone on the line look in our direction.

Biting my lip, I followed Sylviana. It took a good minute for us to reach the bottom of the stairs. We found ourselves in what looked like a study room. There, a woman and a man stood huddled around a clipboard.

"Can we help you?" The woman noticed us first.

Sylviana nudged my back a little harshly and hummed. Here we went again. "Hello..."

Before I could continue, the man walked up. "Oh, dear, I thought I closed the stairs and put a sign up after I came down. I apologize, but we're having a meeting right now."

"Don't worry about it." The woman clapped the man on the back and came up to us. "How can I help you two?"

"I…" I should have spoken up because the lady kept talking.

"You must have solved the book riddles upstairs, right? Or were you just curious about what was down here?"

"The former," I said.

"Then congratulations! Here you two are." She passed us and approached a bowl full of pins and candy. She took two of each and gave one set to each of us. "I hope you had fun. I'm sorry I couldn't make this reveal as spectacular as I usually do. We're a little busy today. If you haven't yet, go to the book signing upstairs."

The woman put a hand on both of our backs and ushered us to the exit. Pawn made a pushing motion as well, prompting me to shut up, cease brain functionality, and leave. "Thank you…"

"Have a great day, you two! Enjoy the library and museum!" At least she seemed genuine, whatever that meant.

"Dear, the museum from Pewter City got back to us about the fossil upsurge in Desert Resort," the man said once the woman removed her hands from us. I couldn't hear the rest over the sound of my footsteps up the stairs.

Once we were back in the library, I stared at the pin and hard candy in my hand. The way the woman talked, it was as if the whole point of the book puzzles was getting this weird pin that looked vaguely like a gym badge. Rectangle in shape with yellow borders and purple on the inside, but made of cheap plastic.

"You really figured out all the riddles, El? I don't believe you."

I didn't want to admit I kind of cheated at the end. All I did was shove the two prizes I got into my bag. "Wasn't there supposed to be a gym battle?"

"I really don't know. I had a battle there and won. Her watchog was mean. I have no idea what happened, really."

"Pawn?" Maybe Joel battled this gym. The gallade put the tip of his arm to his face in thought. Unsure of whether or not we were even in the right place, I opened a web browser on my Xtransceiver and searched for the Nacrene City gym.

The first result was the homepage of the museum. After clicking on a few things, I landed on a page with a picture of the woman we saw earlier on it. "Lenora, director of Nacrene Museum? Former gym leader?"

"Really?" Sylviana grabbed my arm to read what I just did. "Oh, I guess the normal-type gym is in Aspertia City now."

Sylviana dropped my arm, Xtransceiver now on a page with a list of Unovan gyms. "That's great. Not like I wasted a bunch of time here." I went back to the museum page and dug a little deeper. The answer I wanted wasn't too hard to find. "Of course. This riddle hunt is an attraction for little kids."

"Sucks to be you."

"Thanks, I know…"

There was nothing else to do. I turned to my right to leave, but ended up almost knocking down a rack full of copies of a single book. "Huh?" Upon closer inspection, the author was that Shauntal lady doing the signing. "What the hell." With nothing left to lose, I took a copy from the rack and read the back cover.

"You're seriously gonna read right now, El?" Sylviana knocked the hard-cover book in my hands. "You do whatever you want. I'm gonna find Ricky."

Ah, I almost forgot about Maverick. We rarely conversed. Sylviana left me behind when I looked back up. "Why not?"

Past its flowery and poetic diction, what I got from the blurb was that the book was about a a trainer with a bad attitude and an annoyingly clingy yamask. One day, he died in an accident and awoke to find himself looking at himself, in the body of his yamask. Then, he tried to save his human self, only to find issue in his own bad personality that he kept trying to change.

Interesting enough, I guessed. It actually sounded pretty cool. It was the reviews below the summary that got me.

Shauntal's first step into the world of raw fiction is just as eloquent and heart-wrenching as her other works based on trainers she's battled before. This book tugs at the heartstrings with its tragic dramatic irony, and makes you reconsider what it means to be your pokemon's partner.

Yeah, yeah, power of friendship, whatever.

Other short reviews of similar sentiment followed that one, all sounding just as pretentious. Even so, the tale still intrigued me. I looked around and saw a table with a cash register near Shauntel. Deciding to achieve something today, I ended up buying the book and joining the book-signing line. I didn't even like reading, but doing this was better than nothing at all.

Pawn hummed at me and tilted his head. "Yeah, we're doing this." He stood beside me, waiting for the line to move forward one person at a time. I read through the prologue in the time it took for the line to cut in half. It was pretty good to be honest. Better than books I had to read for school.

Didn't help the fact that I wasted so much time on this wild book chase.


Song recommendation: "Tokimeki Experience" by Poppin'Party. That one book's title and its riddle card were kind of based off this.