Turns out, what Mari didn't mention in her recount, was that Hermes had died. A few days after Hermes' death, Mari started noticing a Gastly that was following her around. She found out that the Gastly responded to Hermes' name. She also remembered reading about some legends that says Gastlys are actually Pokemons' departed soul. She put two and two together and realized that Gastly was actually her Salandit. She captured him again and trained him into a Gengar.

'You are thinking about Neo,' Estelle said, sitting beside me as I stared out from the windowsill.

Arthur had offered us to stay the night (or 'as long as like, dears. Keep an old man company, will you?'). I excused myself after washing the dishes. Mari had continued talking to Arthur who seemed very interested in Hermes. Ghosts Pokemon weren't really well recorded nor were they well studied, so I guess, anybody would be interested.

'You said you won't read my mind,' I told her.

'There is no need. You were wondering why Hermes came back to Mari, and Neo did not come back to us.' Estelle said.

'Yes,' I whispered, tracing my fingers on the window.

'The ways of the Ghosts are not known to us. They are extremely protective of their secrets. What I know is that some Pokemon choose to move on. Those who stayed usually have unfinished business. Or they are not brave enough to go on to the next stage of their existence.' Estelle explained. After a long silence, she added. 'I believe that you have given Neo purpose in his life. A family. That is why he could find peace.'

'He was always brave,' I closed my eyes. 'If anybody deserve peace, he does.'

'Indeed,' Estelle stood up as a crash sounded from below. 'I will check on the little cretin. Do not dwell too much on what has passed. Look on to what may occur.'

As much as the Mudkip took to Estelle, she had also formed an attachment to it. I was mauling over her words when Mari came up the stairs.

'Hey,' She said.

'Hey,' I went back to tracing the windows, the rain hammering the glass pane. 'Someone once told me, that she liked to talk a walk in the rain, so nobody could see her tears.'

'Are you alright?' She asked, taking up the place Estelle vacated, leaning against the wall.

'Yeah, I will be.' A lightning flashed. 'Are you?'

'Y'know, its really weird.' She drew her hand up her arm. 'Hermes died. But not exactly. It's different. It's almost like he's a new Pokemon.'

'They'll always be with us.' I said.

She nodded, a faraway look in her eyes.

'So, Ronnie, huh?' She asked after a while.

So Mari and I exchanged stories. The parts we omitted out when we were recounting for Arthur. I told her of the brown hair girl who made me so happy, then broke my heart. Told her of the poachers (I know, I'm not supposed to. But Mari's my best friend.). Of Neo, my brave Scyther whom she know as the stubborn Pokemon who refused to listen to me. How he became a good friend. The best. And in turn, she told me of her story. Of how she ended up in an ex-champion's house.

'So Fortree Gym?' I asked her.

'I don't know if I'm ready.' She told me, turning to look out as well.

'You team looks fantastic, Mari.'

'So does yours,' She turned to look at me. 'Together?'

'Together,' I promised.

After a while, I remembered something. 'Hey, we should have our rival battle.'

'You only have 4 Pokemon,' Mari pointed out.

It was a fair point. I should start thinking about a fifth team member. '1 on 1? Our starters.'

'Oh Ju will love that,' She smiled.

The next morning, Mari and I had our match, with Arthur watching.

Jupiter sent a bolt of lightning towards Lexy.

'Lexy, dodge into Crunch,'

Lexy rolled on his shell towards Jupiter. Rolling was way faster than his lumbering gait, so it was what Lexy mostly use now. Just as Lexy was about to bite down, Jupiter's tail came whipping around faster than I expected.

'Lexy roll with the hit, then Dragonbreath.'

Jupiter's Iron Tail attack send Lexy rolling halfway across the battlefield. Luckily, Lexy's shell was strong enough to withstand the hit. Lexy came out of it unleashing a stream of draconic breath which hit Jupiter in his chest.

'Ember! Then Headbutt.'

Lexy send a small stream of fire towards Jupiter and followed up with a Headbutt, which was met with a fist crackling with electricity. The force of the blow caused both Pokemons to stagger back. Jupiter released another bolt of lightning, though it still didn't do much to Lexy.

'Dragonbreath!'

Lexy shook off the electricity and released a Dragonbreath at close range. The attack caused Jupiter to stagger back and fell on his bottom.

'Stop!' Mari yelled from the other side.

Lexy lumbered over to Jupiter, checking if he was ok. Thankfully, he was, just worned out. He stood up after shaking himself off. It was a sign of maturity, when Jupiter only patted the side of Lexy's shell in congratulations.

'Bloody brilliant!' Arthur came towards us, clapping his hands. 'You lot just might make it as trainers. Say, why don't you two stay with me a bit? You're going to take on Fortree, eh? I reckon I could teach you somewhat.'

Mari and I shared equal looks of disbelief. To train under an ex-champion? Even just for a little while, it'll be crazy amazing. But why exactly was he offering this? Loneliness only extends so far.

'We'll are honoured, really, but' Mari seemed to be thinking the same thing. Arthur raised his eyebrow. 'Why?'

'I don't have a flying Pokemon,' I admitted, heart twinging at the thought of Neo.

'You lasses remind me of someone,' Arthur smiled, eyes twinkling. 'And don't worry, I reckon this runt is close to evolving.'

While Arthur was a nice old man who opened up his house to two teenagers and fed them biscuits and tea, he became a completely different man when he was training us. He pushed us to what we thought were our limits, and then pushed us somemore. Even the quaver in his voice seemed to have disappeared. 'Oy, quit your whinging.' He'd say whenever we open our mouths to gasp in air. I wondered if he got some sort of sadistic pleasure from whipping us into shape. Not that we were out of shape, we were just not in his ideal shape. He said that if our Pokemon has to train, we humans have to train as well. So that we can keep up with them. And also something about character building. So we were force to do pushups, situps, fartleks, suicides, planks and whatever else he can think of. His imagination was the limits apparently, not our bodies.

And he was experienced, with a good eye and mind that could analyze physical capabilities and potential. He knew what he was doing, developing regimens tailored to us so there was lesser chance of overtraining. Overtraining can have disastrous effects on the Pokmon. At the least, like humans, Pokemons may be more prone to injuries if overtrains. Or if they were trained so much that they evolve, but their abilities are capped. At the worst, they learn new, powerful moves that their bodies are not ready for, and it completely destroys them. For example, a young fire Pokemon was forced to train and learn the powerful move Fire Blast. This may burn and damage their fire producing organ irrevocably, an extremely painful and terrible ordeal for the young Pokemon to go through. But we didn't have to worry too much about that. So we threw ourselves into Arthur's torture. But I have to admit, it was cathartic. There was no time to think about Ronnie. Or think about anything, really. It was also doing wonders for our Pokemon. Dawn learnt Flamethrower. He also told me that once Lexy evolves, I could start him on Flamethrower trainings too. He told me the signs to look out for and gave Lexy a bunch of Ember strengthening exercises for now.

He engaged his Pokemons to help us too. Sebastian the Drednaw, a Ghost typed Polteagiest named Noah, a Psychic and Fairy type Hatterene named Lily. The Hatterene kind of looked like a witch, which just enforced the theory of him luring kids into his cottages to eat. Apparently, turtles, Ghost and Psychic Pokemons were long-lived; the rest of his Pokemone had passed. While that seemed extremely sad to me, Arthur seemed the complete opposite. He had a smile when he recounted his journey with his Pokemons (after training of course). His interest in Hermes also made sense, now that I knew he had a Ghost type. And Noah helped Hermes a lot too, from teaching him how to wield the Ghost power to controlling him when he gets too mischievous. Lily taught Abraxion Psycho Cut, and she spent a lot of time with Estelle. I only know that Lily was teaching Estelle how to learn another move on top of everything she already knew, because Teleportation should be what she could do naturally as a Psychic. But the rest was all hush hush; even Arthur doesn't know what it was about. Estelle said that Ghosts were secretive; but I think Psychics were a lot worst.

'It's been almost a month,' Arthur noted one training.

It was the human's turn to break, thank Arceus, and Mari and I were gulping down water.

'Yes, sir,' I told him. 'Thank you for all of your help. We really appreciate it.'

Mari nodded, still guzzling down water like she had been trapped in the middle of the dessert. 'Thank you, sir. We shall not impose much longer.'

'You're not going, are you?' Arthur seemed surprised. 'I only meant my grandson is due for his visit. I would like him to meet you charming lasses. And please, call me Arthur. Sir makes me sound an old man.'

'Meet Lucas Coburn?' Mari squeaked.

'Yes,' Arthur had a scheming look in his eyes, which were currently on Sebastian who was tutoring Eddie. 'At least stay till this weekend?'

We hadn't really discussed how long our arrangement was going to last, but I guess the weekends is as good a time. And besides, I know Mari will love to meet Lucas Coburn. Yes, she had already met him when challenging his gym, but to have a meal with him? I think Mari will die or have a heart attack. So naturally, as a good friend, I agreed for the both of us.

'Alright then,' Arthur sounded pleased. Then he caught sight of the Mudkips, who had had joined Sebastian and Eddie in their water exercises. 'Oy you twit, get out of there,' The Mudkips, who were mostly splashing in the aftermath of the older Pokemon's attacks, squealed and dashed. Arthur turned back to look at us. 'Now get back to training you dossers. Go on.'

We scampered back to the training floor, before he decides to punish us with a 100 pushups. Or worse, fartleks.