Goosebumps appeared across Louis Serrano's body. His arm shook unconsciously, the young adult's heart rate sky-rocketed, and small tears began to form in Louis' eyelids at the sight of the spirit before him.

As she spoke again, the wind wrapped him like a cold grasp.

"You were always quite emotional, young man," said Venusaur.

Louis thought that he was hallucinating. He wondered how the ghost of Venusaur was appearing before him. The young adult collapsed onto his knees.

"I...I..." he struggled. "...I thought you died."

"As long as you keep me in your heart, I'll never die," replied Venusaur, smiling.

Then, a drop of water slid down Louis' face. It wasn't rain. It was the young adult's tears. He wiped it away, but then, he spotted an unfamiliar light inside of his clenched hand.

He opened his palm and witnessed the sight of his pendant glowing a blue light. Instantly, Louis recalled the words Chief Tanaka had spoken to him before his return to the Academy.

"Your pendant represents something very important. It symbolises the connection between humans and Pokémon."

He felt stupid.
He felt embarrassed.
But mostly, he felt regret.

Louis moved the pendant close to his face, holding it in a tight grasp.

"What the hell am I doing?" he muttered.

"You were about to throw away a part of yourself," said Venusaur. "That's what you were doing."

The gust of the surrounding area grew more powerful, pushing tear tracks across his face.

Suddenly, Venusaur's vines flew over to Louis and gently landed on his shoulder. Ghost-like tendrils now wrapped him. Louis could almost feel them.

"There there," calmed Venusaur.

And as she spoke again, the cloud cover broke, and the wind eased. Warmth found him. A warmth that touched the spirit. Somewhere, a Wingull announced the sun's rays returning.

"Child, I know you have been frustrated with your friend," the spirit spoke. "As much as you try to deny it, you still want to be friends with him."

"Yes, but-"

"Please, don't use that word. You may think that he doesn't care, or that he went to Kanto to get away from you and your friends. But, have you ever thought about things from his perspective?"

That question. Louis hadn't thought about things in that way before.

"Azul had a hard life. He is more the product of his surroundings than anything else."

Venusaur paused, giving the young adult a moment to process the details.

"But he will learn," she finished.

It took a while, but Louis' frown slowly formed into a warm grin. The heavy, emotionally-charged baggage that he had carried for the past years was almost gone.

Then, the glow on his pendant began to dim.

As sunlight returned to the land, Louis looked ahead and saw that the apparition of Venusaur had vanished. With that, the glow of the neckwear subsided.

The clouds that threatened to hail dissipated. Taking a brief moment to collect his bearings, Louis placed the pendant back around his neck. He sat down, facing the horizons and began to clear his mind.

At the Pokémon Centre, Roy carried his guitar as he made his way to the exit. But then, a loud voice rang out across the echoing hallways.

"Whhhaaaaaatttt?!" the voice yelled.

Even though he couldn't understand, Roy knew that it was from Incineroar.

Back in Braixen's hospital room, Lucario had just revealed to the team what had happened between Louis and Azul moments ago. Incineroar was absolutely furious.

"What do you mean Azul said that?!" he growled.

"That's what Louis told me," replied Lucario. "And he wasn't lying."

Staraptor scoffed.

"I should've known," she said. "It's like that time we qualified for the tournament."

Then, Braixen began to ponder about what happened just a few days ago.

"Then why did he give us the trophy back in the old gym instead of taking it?" she questioned. "I don't understand that."

"Knowing him, he probably only did that to gain sympathy points," grumbled Marowak.

Incineroar moved past Lucario, approaching the door while cracking his knuckles.

"Wait till I get my hands on him," he growled. "He's gonna be sore in the morning."

The aura Pokémon quickly grabbed Incineroar's wrist.

"Hold on!" he said.

"Let go, Lucario!" exclaimed Incineroar.

"Don't leave! That'll only make things worse!"

"Oh come on! It can't get any worse than it is now!"

The aura Pokémon shot a scowl at the fire-cat wrestler.

"Do you think that Louis would want you to attack Azul?" he said, in a strict tone.

Incineroar froze. As much as he wanted to kick Azul's butt, he realised that Louis would be disappointed in him if he did.

Incineroar eased the tension within and answered; "No, he wouldn't."

"Exactly," said Lucario. "So don't."

Outside of the Pokémon Centre, the man paced back and forth with a pensive gait, as thoughts of his son's troubles ran through his mind like a panicked Rapidash. Miguel took a deep breath, searching for clarity.

'This is almost just like when he quit years ago,' he thought. 'I don't wanna stand by and just let him lose his confidence again!'

A group of students passed by, vehemently arguing correct counter-types to elemental-based attacks.

'There's gotta be something I can do," Miguel internally said. 'Janet and I may have struggled with it years ago, but I'll be damned if I let this happen one more time!'

As he tried coming up with a plan, he recalled a phrase that his wife had spoken to him years prior.

"Give him time, he's different."

She was right of course, as right as any disembodied voice had a hankering to be.

"The boy always has sorted himself out, just let him resolve it."

Miguel sighed.

Elsewhere, the Greninja that Louis had a heated argument with moments ago sat in the shade of a nearby tree, pondering his actions toward his former team throughout the time he had known them.

First, he recalled the time he had first met his team. Then, the memories of when he let his pride get the better of him after the qualifiers years ago, and finally, the choice of words he spoke toward the young adult repeatedly sounded off in his subconscious like a cracked, skipping record.

But then, to his surprise, a blue glare of light emanated from his chest. He turned his attention downward to see that the glare was coming from his own pendant. At first, Azul was bewildered at how the accessory could suddenly shine a small light. But then, like an ice-skater pirouetting, Azul's heart spun as realization dawned upon him. Azul stood up and, with the speed of a ninja, sprinted in the direction of the Pokémon Centre.

"What have I done?" he said to himself.

Wow. I'm glad Louis was finally able to calm himself. Lucario thankfully managed to stop things from getting worse, Miguel wants to help his son, and Azul finally has a realisation. I wonder what will happen next?

Anyway, thanks for reading. Is there something you enjoyed? Can you guess what happens next? Or...what do you hope to see in future chapters? If so, go ahead and leave a review explaining any of these reasons. (Please don't leave hurtful reviews)

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