"All right, here we are," Ash said. "Accumula Town! This is the first proper Unovan town I've been to… it doesn't look all that different from towns over where I've already been."

He checked on Arc Phone, and split his attention between them and Iris. "Is there anything around here that's different to towns around Kanto? Or, for Iris, I guess you wouldn't know… what do Unovan towns normally have besides a Pokémon Centre?"

"Usually shops?" Iris said. "And, do you have a Battle Club in Kanto?"

"Is that a new Frontier Brain's base?" Ash asked.

"What?" Iris replied. "What's a Frontier Brain?"

"They're strong trainers," Pikachu summarized. "Though I have no idea why they use the word frontier. Or the word brain."

"It's the Battle Frontier, though," Ash pointed out. "So Frontier Brain is from Battle Frontier."

"It seems like Pokémon trainers make their Pokémon battle a lot," Keldeo said. "Do they ask if that's okay?"

"Some trainers make their Pokémon fight even if they don't want to," Ash admitted. "I really don't like those. But it's actually hard to force a Pokémon to battle, because they can refuse to come out of their Pokéballs – like Excadrill has been doing."

Keldeo nodded seriously, which was undermined a bit as two Pidove landed on his mane and a Lillipup bounded up to jump onto his back.

"This happens a lot," he said. "But how do trainers make their Pokémon fight, then?"

"Usually it's making them feel guilty if they don't, or expecting them to do it," Ash said. "Sometimes it's worse… but most of the time the trainers I meet are really nice about it. Even people from Team Rocket who I've met usually get on well with their Pokémon, even if they want to steal everyone else's Pokémon."

He shrugged. "I don't really get how stealing a Pokémon works in the first place, because then you end up with a Pokémon who doesn't like you… I guess it could work if you're rescuing them from a bad trainer, though."

After that had been said, Ash snapped his fingers. "Oh, yeah! What's a Battle Club like, Iris?"

"They're for trainers to organize battles against other trainers who are on the right level to be a good challenge," Iris replied. "There's a computer system, and you can connect it with an Xtransceiver, and when you're there you can either find someone already there to battle or set it up and then wait for someone else to pick you to battle."

"Huh, that's neat," Ash said. "Is it compatible with an Arc Phone?"

Iris looked at Ash, then at Arc.

"How would I possibly know that?" she demanded. "You've got the only one in existence, I really hope, and if you don't know then nobody could possibly know."

"Mew might know," Ash suggested. "But otherwise I guess we just go in there and find out!"

It took only a moment to find out that Arc could connect to the Battle Club systems, and Ash scrolled through the system to see if there was anyone interesting battling.

"Oh, hey, someone's got a Dewott," he said. "Oshawott, do you want to see what their style is like? It might give you a hint about what to aim for!"

Oshawott popped out of his Pokéball and nodded, but they'd only just started towards the door when someone came the other way.

"Mr. Ketchum," he said. "It's an honour to have you here, but I'm a bit concerned about the team you registered. You seem to have three Legendary Pokémon on the list, and there's more than six Pokémon on it."

He frowned. "Unless this is some kind of data corruption issue, because I don't think having one of these Pokémon is even possible."

"Did Arc put my team in?" Ash asked. "That's probably… Ibid and Arc are sort of a special case because they're my Pokédex and my phone, and I'm not planning on using Zekrom or Zapdos. And in case you're wondering, Zygarde, Keldeo and Marshadow aren't registered as my Pokémon anyway, and those Pidove keep following Keldeo around. So it's just Pikachu, Noctowl, Oshawott and Lokoko."

"Three of whom have been with you for at least three League Challenges, all of which you won," the man said. "But I suppose that's inevitable for you. My name is Don George, I run the Battle Club."

"Oh, do you have any of the Don Georges in Kanto?" Iris asked. "They all run Battle Clubs here, but I wondered if they did something else in Kanto."

Ash shook his head. "No, but it's nice to meet you!"

Then an alarm started ringing.

"Is that a fire alarm?" Ash asked. "Ibid, you might need to get Silver!"

"No, that's the burglar alarm," Don George replied. "Excuse me, I need to handle this."

"Marshadow, can you help?" Ash suggested.

It took Marshadow only a few minutes to find what had caused the problem.

"This is horrible," Keldeo breathed, staring at the Tepig that Marshadow had found – a Tepig who was dirty and thin, and who had a rope around his muzzle to stop him eating. "Who could do something like this? And why?"

"I don't know," Ash replied. "Tepig?"

The Fire-type looked nervous, and tried to say something.

"We're going to get that rope off you, okay?" Ash said. "I can do it, or if you'd prefer then I can have one of my Pokémon do it. Do you understand?"

Tepig tried to speak again, then nodded jerkily.

"Is it okay if I do it?"

Another nod, and Tepig swallowed before slowly approaching Ash. The trainer patted Tepig on the head, then carefully pulled the rope clear.

"Thank you," the Fire-type said, then coughed.

"Want to have some of the food that my Dragonite made?" Ash suggested. "What do you think of rice balls?"

"What are those?" Tepig asked, then blinked and looked uneasy. "Um… my trainer left me here a few days ago, but he said that I'm not meant to have food until I become a better battling Pokémon…"

"What!?" Keldeo demanded. "That's a violation of rule 319.4 section D!"

"319.4 section D," Arc read off, as Ash showed Tepig a rice ball and assured him that his trainer was a meanie and that nobody should be denied food like that. "The sign outside the registration office must have a capital R. That doesn't seem relevant to this situation."

"I mean the one about how you're supposed to properly release a Pokémon if you don't want them, not do this!" Keldeo said crossly.

"319.4 section C," Arc provided. "Trainers who release or abandon their Pokémon in a state where they cannot reasonably survive are liable for upwards of five years in prison, separate from any actual harm caused."

Zekrom emerged from his Pokéball.

"I suggest we do that!" he said. "Tell the police and we can get Tepig's former trainer to go to prison!"

"But how can you be sure that they actually will go to prison?" Keldeo asked.

"I'm a bit of an idealist."

While giving all the information to the local Officer Jenny – which they did have in Unova – took a while, and Keldeo got quite impatient about how they weren't solving everything themselves, Ash took him aside to point out something the Water-type might have not noticed.

"Hey, Keldeo?" he began. "I know you're used to solving problems yourself… right?"

"Of course," Keldeo agreed. "We have to, because otherwise how do we know if they've been solved right? You can't trust what people say unless you see the proof of it."

"I get what you mean," Ash said. "I trust people a lot more than you, but I do understand what you mean… but the important thing here is Tepig."

Keldeo blinked, and took a step back. "I know?" he said, a bit baffled. "Why is that something you have to point out?"

"Because if we're focusing on chasing Tepig's old trainer down ourselves, we're not focusing on making sure Tepig is okay," Ash replied. "Maybe Tepig will be happier once his old trainer's sorted out, but he might prefer being far away from them instead."

That made Keldeo pause, and he thought about it carefully before nodding.

"You're right, then," he said. "But we'd better not forget about this."

"Sure," Ash agreed. "Arc, can you set a reminder?"

"Beep," Arc confirmed.

"So… I just want to check," Tepig said, at about the same time. "You said that my trainer isn't normal?"

"Not in the slightest," Pikachu replied. "Tepig, Ash works us hard, but that's because we want to be worked hard. Ash has over a dozen Pokémon back at home who don't have any interest in battling, and because of that there's no pressure placed on them to train at all."

He shrugged. "Most trainers can't understand Pokémon the way Ash can, but they can still get the idea if they pay any kind of attention to how their Pokémon feels or what they're doing."

"Have some more Spring Rolls," Dragonite suggested, putting a plate down in front of Tepig, and the Fire-type took another one to eat in three bites.

"Thank you," he said. "And, um… Ash doesn't punish you if you do something wrong?"

"That depends," Pikachu replied. "Very occasionally, someone will do something bad enough to need a bit of punishment, but that's never anything to do with losing a battle or not trying hard enough, and the kind of thing Ash starts at is telling someone off… sometimes, Zorua has gone without pudding but that's with a bit of extra dinner instead so he's not actually hungry. And that's about it."

Tepig thought for about three seconds.

"Is it okay if I join you?" he asked. "I'd be willing to battle, even!"

"It's your choice," Pikachu said. "And I know Ash well enough that if you changed your mind, he'd let you go – that's just the kind of person he is."

"Then let's do it!" Tepig declared. "I'll be a valuable member of the team!"

Pikachu glanced over at where Oshawott was being given a lesson by Zacian.

"I'm sure you will be," he said. "Good luck, Tepig."

"Wow," Oshawott said, staring as Zacian transitioned to Crowned Sword. "That's amazing! So you draw your weapon, and it makes your whole type different and gives you a new move!"

"That's correct," Zacian replied. "It's an extreme case, but the idea is that your blade should be a part of you – you train to use it, though you also train for if you don't have it."

"Let me try!" Oshawott requested, drawing his Scalchop. "Strengthen my heart, Scalchop!"

The Scalchop flashed a brilliant light blue, a sword-shape forming out of it, and Oshawott pointed the blade at a nearby tree. "Ice Beam!"

A splash of ice hit the tree and froze there.

"...I was going to say that's not how it works," Zacian admitted. "But I retract that comment. Keep doing whatever that is."

AN:

Keldeo feels that Law is an important part of Justice, and he's read a lot of it.

He might be a little bit patchy on how you reference it, though.