2 years later.

"Jun! I'm here!"

The blonde, now 8 years old, turned to the sound of his name. A girl was running up the hill, slightly out of breath. Jun snorted with impatience and hopped off the rock he was laying on to meet her.

"Oi Hikari! You're late! I'm fining you a million bucks!"

Hikari, who had made it up the hill, snorted like her friend and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'll get to that right away. Anyway, what was it you woke up for?"

Jun's annoyance faded away at once and was replaced with joy and excitement. "You know the Pokemon League? Well guess what? They just got a new Champion!!"

"And this was so important that you woke me up this early and dragged me to the lake?"

"Yes it was! I wanted to talk about this in private without our parents listening!" Jun's excitement peaked, eyes sparkling. "It doesn't matter that there's a new Champion! Cuz I'm going to unseat 'em! I'm gonna be the NEXT POKEMON LEAGUE CHAMPION!!!!!"

Champion Champion champion champion champ….

The last part of the sentence echoed off the trees, sending bird Pokemon flying, chattering angrily. It was so loud that all of Sinnoh could hear it, and Hikari was standing right next to the source of it. She rubbed her ears and looked at her grinning(and oblivious to his volume) friend.

"Champion? Why?"

"Because! That way I'll be even greater than my dad! I'm gonna be better than he ever was!"

"Is this about what I said before?"

Jun's face turned bright red with the memory. A few months ago, before his Dad moved to the Battle Zone, Hikari admitted that she always thought that his dad was cute. She wasn't serious about it, but Jun took it hard. It was on that day that Jun vowed to up his father somehow. And today he found out how he could.

Not that he would ever tell Hikari.

"Th-that's not it at all! Do I need a reason for it??? I don't! I just wanna be Champion!"

Hikari smirked. "OK…then I'll try to become Champion too!"

"Huh?"

"You heard me! I'll take on the Pokemon league challenge too! It'll be boring if I'm only on the sidelines."

"Pfft! There's no way that a girl's gonna be the Champion! You have to have tough Pokemon with you! And girl's only have cute weak Pokemon."

Hikari's smile faded a little. She straightened up, her pose intimidating. "OK, so let's make a bet! If I become Champion-"

"'If' is right."

"-then I get to do whatever I want with you! Maybe I'll make you my personal servant!"

"No wa-"

"And if you become Champion, I'll buy you all the snacks you can eat."

Jun comepletely forgot about the other side of the bet in that one sentence. "Deal!"

Hikari turned, whipping her long black hair around, and started toward home. "OK…may the best woman win."

"Yeah, and that's gonna be m-HEY! Get back here!" And Jun ran after his friend, who had already started running.