Track 20 - Love Again


Enoka observed the area, and he slowly walked forward. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small yellow berry before kneeling and handing it over to Rowlet.

"You've been working hard," he said. "What are you doing in the jungle though?"

"I should be asking you the same thing," Leinani snapped back. She wasn't too keen on telling him about her loss to Plumeria and the emotional fit that came afterward.

Enoka sighed and then stood up straight. "Well, if I'm honest, I've been training hard. I recently suffered a pretty bad loss to Plumeria, and it's been difficult to train for. She's ruthless. Have you challenged her yet?"

Leinani laughed and then put her hands on her hips. "Have I challenged her yet? Of course I have."

"How'd you do? Salazzle isn't easy, right?"

Leinani didn't answer. She tucked her hands into her pockets and then looked away. "Why don't you mind your own business?"

"I see," Enoka said. "Seems like we both need to work on it a little bit more. I'm sure we'll be fine. We still have nine months till the Manalo Conference."

"That's enough time to win the badges and take on the Island Challenge if I wanted to," Leinani blurted out. "I didn't realize how fast I've been going through the gyms."

"Do you plan on doing both?"

"No! That's crazy. It's better for me to focus on just one," she said. "What do you say to training together?"

Enoka's eyes widened. "Together? That's so not Leinani."

"Look, I've changed a lot since our journeys have started. I also did some training with Ulani awhile back, so I've learned about the benefits of having a training partner," she snapped back quickly. "But if you're not down to clown, then so be it."

"I'm down!"

Leinani picked up Rowlet and put her on her head. The berry had restored Rowlet's energy, but because it was day time, she drifted off to sleep quickly. "We gotta go pick up my Pokémon from the center. I won't be upset if you want to come with me. I'm sure we can catch up, or something."

"You asking me on a date?" Enoka asked.

Leinani was very quick to do what she did next. She grabbed Enoka by the wrist and then drove her shoulder into his stomach before flipping him over her. He landed on his back and then she stepped on his chest while maintaining control of his arm.

"If you flirt with me again, I'll break your arm," she whispered violently. She loosened her grip and allowed him to stand up.

He adjusted his shoulder and then smiled once more. "Still haven't changed. I was really hoping that you'd finally say yes. I'll walk with you to the Pokémon Center. Just, don't throw me anymore."

Leinani walked past him and towards Route 8. The quick movements had woken up Rowlet, who was looking around for the immediate threat, finding nothing.

"I rejected you when we were students. I'm going to continue to reject you even as trainers," she said.

"Because your heart belongs to Uhuli?" Enoka asked mockingly. As soon as Leinani shot him a glare, he stepped back quickly, well out of her reach. "Just kidding!"

She looked away, allowing him to mouth 'yikes.'

"My heart belongs to music," she said while walking away.

Enoka shrugged, and he followed along. "Maybe Ulani would be down for a date. She's kind of cute, don't you think?"

"You're not going to make me jealous."

"I'm not trying to make you jealous. It was a genuine question."

"Well, I'd say that I know Ulani pretty well, and I'm positive you're not her type."

"Her type? What's her type?"

Leinani eyed Enoka, examining his clothing. "She likes bald dudes who wear white t-shirts and red shorts. Pretty much the exact opposite of what you have going on."

Enoka felt his spiky black hair. "I could change my clothing at any moment, but I'm not shaving my head for anybody."

"How has your journey been so far?" Leinani asked, wanting to get away from the topic. "I see that your Litten has evolved. That's cool."

"Yeah, this little dude is real strong," Enoka said.

"How did you go about evolving him?" she asked. "As you can see, DJ is still yet to get there. I'm wondering if there's anything that I need to do to take her to the next level."

He shrugged. "I don't think you can really push your Pokémon to evolve. I mean, you can, but I don't know what that would do for your relationship with your Pokémon. I've heard stories of trainers who still manage to get by without ever evolving their Pokémon."

She huffed and then shook her head. "That's good and all, but I think I'll greatly increase my chances by evolving all of my Pokémon. If it comes down to a Rowlet and an Incineroar at the Manalo Conference, I think we know who's walking out of that battle with the victory."

"You should have more faith in your Pokémon," Enoka said. "Type-advantage is key to any battle, yes. But it's not the end all be all. You've heard of the legendary Pikachu trainer, right?"

"Who?"

"There's this boy from Kanto. He specializes in Electric-types, but his main Pokémon is a Pikachu. As you know, Pikachu is capable of evolving into a Raichu, but he supposedly refuses to do it," Enoka explained. He raised his arms and put his hands behind the back of his head while the two walked. "However, this dude has been able to win not only the Ever Grande Conference but also the Lily of the Valley Conference. His Pokémon aren't impressive or naturally strong. He just has a really good bond with them. It's something for you to consider."

Leinani was tired of him lecturing her. She knew what was necessary to get her to the top.

"What about your gym challenge? Any rough patches besides this one?" she asked.

"I earned my first three badges with ease. Guzma and Uhuli were easy to defeat because of my type-advantage with Torracat."

Leinani wanted to throw him once more. He had been able to defeat both of the first gyms using the strategy that she had intended to utilize. She was ultimately happy with Rowlet and what she learned from her loss to Guzma, but she hated that Enoka had taken her strategy. They were more alike than she wanted to admit.

"And the battle with Xerxes was interesting. I got to stay at the hotel for a couple of nights for free. That was great. First-class rooms and dining," he said. "It's been a relaxing journey so far if I'm honest."

Leinani had wanted to skip the first-class room and dining, but Kaiko guilt-tripped her into taking Xerxes offer. He was the worst gym leader that she had met, and it didn't surprise her that Enoka seemingly didn't have any issues with him.

It only took the two roughly thirty minutes to get from the jungle to the Pokémon Center. If they wanted to, it would have only taken them an additional hour to get to Plumeria's surf shack gym. Enoka picked up his own Pokémon from Nurse Joy while Leinani went to her room to get hers. When she opened the door, Kaiko and her Pokémon were waiting. On the table in the middle of the room was a small tray with dozens of bite-sized sandwiches. To the right of them was a steaming cup of black coffee.

She looked over the sandwiches and couldn't help but smile. "Looks like you guys were busy."

Kaiko nodded. "I couldn't decide on a good kind of jelly for you, so we went with a dozen different kinds! Try them out and tell me what you like best!"

Leinani picked up one of the small sandwiches and put it in her mouth. "Oh! Grape jelly! This one is good!"

Kaiko looked at the remaining eleven. "You're not gonna try the rest?"

"No need!" she exclaimed while picking up Wishiwashi's fishbowl. "We're gonna do some training in the back! Feel free to make more sandwiches for Enoka. I'm not sure how much he'll appreciate them, though."

"I-uh-okay," Kaiko muttered. He was slightly disappointed, but he also enjoyed making the sandwiches, so he wasn't sure how much of a problem he had with how dismissive Leinani seemed.

"Let's go," Leinani told her Pokémon. They all stood up and followed her out of the room, leaving Kaiko and Togedemaru alone.

The door closed and Marshadow came up from their hiding spot. They took one of the many sandwiches and slowly chewed on it. They had never tasted anything like it, and they enjoyed how the salty peanut butter mixed with the sweet honey.

"Tasty?"

"Mar-shadow-mar."


"Torracat, use Fire Fang! Trumbeak, Fury Attack!" Enoka commanded.

"Shure, Defense Curl! Vinyl, cloak yourself with Sand Tomb!" Leinani yelled.

Enoka's Pokémon ran forward, preparing to get in their devastating strikes, but Leinani's Pokémon were quick. Sandshrew curled into a ball, and Sandygast took her position in front of her partner. She howled, whipping up a storm of black sand around their bodies. Because of Sandshrew's Steel-typing, he was unaffected by the sand. However, Torracat and Trumbeak were forced to stop.

"Nice," Enoka said. "Alright, let's take a break."

Sandygast stopped her attack and then looked towards Leinani, who nodded approvingly.

They had been training for a half-hour, using combination attacks against one another. It wouldn't come into play for their battle with Plumeria, but it was nice for them to spar and get more of an understanding of their Pokémon's abilities and weak points.

Kaiko walked through the sliding glass door, holding onto the tray of the various sandwiches. Enoka looked past Leinani, and his face lit up with excitement. "Lil Kai?"

"Enoka!" Kaiko exclaimed when he saw him. He set down the tray on the picnic table. "It's great to see you!"

Enoka ran to the table while Leinani leisurely walked over. Enoka eyed the sandwiches, and Kaiko quickly explained what he had created.

"Dig in!" Kaiko said excitedly.

"I will!" Enoka said. "I'll make sure to have a bite of each one and then tell you my thoughts on my favorite!"

"That'd be appreciated," Kaiko said before shooting a look towards Leinani. She didn't seem to notice, as she was messing with her music player.

"Can I drink this coffee too?"

"Yes, please!"

"Awesome!" Enoka said before stuffing his face with a blueberry sandwich. "Leilei, I didn't know that you brought along Lil Kai with you. That's so cool."

Leinani shrugged. "Yeah, I'm a pretty good big sister."

"This one looks good too!" Enoka exclaimed while holding up what appeared to be a pear jelly sandwich. "Kai, if you ever get tired of traveling with grumpy ol' Leilei, you can join me anytime! Traveling can get lonely sometimes."

"Do you really mean it?" Kaiko wondered. "That sounds like it'd be fun."

Leinani huffed. "Don't even think about it. I can't let you go off with Enoka. You'll tell him all of my secrets!"

"What secrets?" Enoka wondered.

"I'm not telling you!" she snapped.

Kaiko put his finger to his lips and thought. "Oh! I have one! When Leinani first met you, she thought you were cute!"

"Oh really?"

"Kaiko! I'll break you in half!"

"Yeah, she said that she met a cute boy at school," Kaiko added. "But once she met Uhuli, she forgot all about you."

Enoka's shoulders slumped. "You could have stopped at 'she thought I was cute.'"

Leinani was fuming. She wanted to crack their heads together and then storm off, but she didn't want to be a bad example for her Pokémon. She instead put her headphones on and then walked away. She scanned her team with her Pokédex and then looked at the different moves that she could teach them.

"Alright, team," she said. "We have a little bit of work to do."


AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Shorter chapter. I'm trying to get into the habit of writing chapters without battles, but it's not easy (especially in Pokémon fanfics).

Alright! Time to take a short break from this story and get into the first 'movie' story for Ascending Alola. As of writing this A/N, I'm having a little bit of trouble with working on the first chapter, but I'm hoping to have it prepared and ready to go by next week. We'll see! The lead of the story will be Enoka, and it'll take place roughly a week or so after this chapter. Any predictions for what special Pokémon it'll feature?

Also, when we come back for Track 21, Leinani's team will be powered-up a little bit. They'll have improved movesets, so I'm excited for that. In the next arc of Ascending Alola, we'll start to dive into the Aether Foundation a little bit more.

REVIEWS:

wisdom-jewel - "This is interesting. She did a totem challenge without knowing she did. I want to know how she would react to learn about it." - If she ever figures it out, I'll be interested in how she reacts too.

CrescentApple - "Ahhhhh. For some reason I thought totem pokemon were a lot bigger than that. Says a lot for Dj to last this long against a totem pokemon on her own. I'm wondering why doesnt Dj evolve. Maybe she likes staying a Rowlet, or thinks Leilani isn't prepared for her evolved form yet... Coffee is delicious. Keiko has the right idea." - I wrote in the size that they are in the games. Six feet for a Lurantis is still really big, I think. As for DJ, she held her own, but Lurantis was much stronger. I wanted it to come off as though Lurantis was thanking Leinani for the Malasada, so that's why she got the Z-Crystal.