A/N: Good news! The new SwSh chapter didn't contradict my characterization of Hop and Leon (at least in this fic)! Bad news, college is busy and stressful, and I'm officially changing this fic's update schedule to every two-three weeks. Thanks for your patience, and please enjoy!

"Oh! I found something!" Hop exclaims, tossing his shovel aside and scraping the caked earth off his new find. It's smooth and hard – that's a good sign! But as he brushes the rest of the dirt off, he recognizes the rock in his hands and huffs out a sigh. "Never mind… It's just another Everstone."

"Those are quite common around here!" comments one of the Digging Duo, the brothers who lent Hop some of their tools so he could dig for treasures here. "Don't give up – I'm sure you'll find a rarer treasure in no time!"

"I sure hope so," Hop says, tossing the Everstone into the small pile of treasures he's accumulated. At least they're worth a decent sum of money, so this excursion won't be a total waste even if he doesn't find the exact ore he's looking for.

Suddenly, his backpack starts ringing, and Hop quickly unzips it to let his Rotom Phone jump out. The name "Lee :D" flashes on the screen, reflecting the expression that appears on his face when he sees the name. He hops to his feet and jogs out of earshot of the Digging Duo before answering the phone.

"Gooood morning! How's my favorite little brother doing today?"

Hop blinks and glances up at the sky. "Lee, it's past noon already."

"Oh. Is it?" Lee yawns. "I had a meeting early this morning, so Chairman Rose gave me the rest of the morning off. I was gonna call you right after, but I thought I'd take a nap first… Must've slept longer than I realized."

"Well, better oversleeping on your nap than oversleeping and missing your meeting," Hop smirks.

"Definitely. We were meeting with DENSOKU about potentially getting them to sponsor me, and it wouldn't have gone as well as it did if I had slept through the whole meeting," Lee chuckles.

"So you got a new sponsorship? You're gonna get more free stuff?"

"Hop, there's a lot more to a sponsorship than getting free samples of their products. And the contract hasn't been finalized yet, so they could still back out at any time." He pauses. "But, yes. If the sponsorship goes through, I'll get free stuff."

"Wicked!" Hop grins. "I'm gonna need new shoes soon. All this traveling around is really wearing out my old ones."

"If you need new shoes, Mum or I can buy you some…"

"Yeah, but those wouldn't be free DENSOKU shoes. And that makes them a thousand times better!"

"Anyways," Lee says pointedly, "that's got nothing to do with why I called you. I saw you beat Kabu yesterday! You've cleared the first real roadblock of the Gym Challenge – that's a huge accomplishment!"

"Aw, thanks!" Hop says, cheeks growing warm. "It was really close, though… I nearly lost."

"True, but the important thing is that you didn't give up! You thought on your feet and got yourself out of a sticky situation. With that perseverance, you'll be able to beat every powerful Trainer that stands in your way – all the way up to me! I've got no doubt about it!"

Hop grins. "You know, you're starting to sound a bit like Kabu."

"Oh? You talked to him?"

"Kabu came to see us off – me and Schildemilia, that is," Hop says. "Nessa and Milo were there, too. He did this little cheer for us, and man, was he loud! I think that old man has an even more booming voice than Schildemilia! Who knew?"

"Yeah, Kabu gets pretty loud when he's fired up," Lee says fondly. "And let me guess. The cheer was 'Hustle, hustle, hustle, Tate! You can do it, you can do it, Hop!'"

"Y-yeah, that was it exactly. How'd you know?"

"Because he does the same thing every year. He, Milo, and Nessa have been seeing challengers off together since Nessa became Gym Leader, and before that he did it with Nessa's predecessor and Milo, and before that he did it all by himself," Lee explains. "In fact, he did it for me and my friend back when we took the Gym Challenge," he adds, a hint of wistfulness in his tone.

"Whoa, no way! You never told me about that," Hop says, eyes widening. "That's so cool!" It fills him with a rush of excitement to remember that he's participating in the same time-honored traditions that his brother did a decade ago.

"Oh, and speaking of Schildemilia," Lee says. "Did you hear? She found one of her missing Pokémon!"

"That's right! Kilo the Arrokuda! It had wound up in a swamp around Motostoke Outskirts," Hop says. "The poor thing had gotten swallowed up by a Cramorant, but we were able to rescue it!"

"Oh? You helped, Hop?"

"Of course I did! I couldn't pass up the opportunity to help a friend in need," Hop says. "And I got a Cramorant out of it, so it was really a win-win situation!"

"So you rescued Kilo from the jaws of Cramorant, and then you caught it? That's an interesting way to meet a new partner," Lee chuckles.

"Oh, and another thing," Hop says, glancing around to make sure the Digging Duo haven't wandered any closer. He lowers his voice all the same. "She figured it out…that we're related. I expect she's told Sou and Marvin by now, too."

"It was bound to happen eventually. I'm not surprised that she's the first – she seems pretty sharp," Lee says. "Does it bother you? Knowing that she knows?"

"A little," Hop admits, drumming his fingers on his lap. "She seemed to think that it was the only reason I told her about spotting an Arrokuda in the swamp. But that's not true at all! I like her, and I–"

"You like her? Or you like-like her?" Lee asks, a teasing lilt to his tone.

"She's a friend!" Hop exclaims, face reddening. "And I feel bad for her losing her Pokémon! So I wanted to help her out!"

"That's a good motivation to have," Lee says. "Did you tell her that? What did she say?"

"Um…no, I didn't mention it."

"Then you should! She and Sou are getting all kinds of attention for being challengers endorsed by the Champion – you should let her know that that's got nothing to do with why you're interested in her."

"I'm not–" Hop splutters incoherently for a moment. "Okay! Sure! I'll tell her that the next time I see her! For now, I'm just going to focus on getting ready for my next Gym Battle!"

"Alright. The Stow-on-Side Gym is up next," Lee says. "It's the first one with two different Gym Leaders, so–"

"So I get to choose which one I want to face, I know," Hop says. "I already decided which one I'm going to take on! Allister will be much easier than Bea, thanks to Wooloo and Snorlax being immune to Ghost-type moves!"

"You can't always win a battle just by relying on type advantages, you know," Lee reminds him. "If that were true, you wouldn't have struggled against Kabu the way you did."

"Right, right," Hop says, rubbing the back of his neck. His plan to sweep Kabu's team with Cramorant was thrown out the window when Kabu's Arcanine pulled out a surprise Thunder Fang and knocked it out. While Wooloo and Corvisquire were able to help him through to victory, the battle ended up being much closer than Hop expected. "But this'll be different! I did some research on Allister's team, so I know he's got a Cursola that can immobilize your Pokémon if it uses a move that makes contact. That's why I just taught Snorlax Fling, and I'm looking for a good held item to use with it!"

"Great idea! I recommend using an Iron Ball if you can find one. If you can't, a Hard Stone should do the trick."

Hop nods. "That's what I'm looking for," he says. "But I don't want to take too long – I'm already behind all my rivals as it is!"

"Right then! I should let you get back to it," Lee says. "Good luck! Talk to you later! Love you!"

"Love you too!" Hop chirps. Rotom beeps to indicate that the call has ended and whizzes back into his bag.

Hop gets to his feet and pumps his fists, freshly energized. He's got a good feeling about this next dig – he's gonna find an Iron Ball for sure this time! He races back over to the dig site, picks up his shovel, and gets back to work.

(Five minutes later, he finally unearths an Iron Ball.)

A/N: DENSOKU is a shoe brand in Galar that you can do a few Poké Jobs for, and their logo also happens to be the logo on Hop's shirt! So I think he's a pretty big fan.