"Ahhh! You are so adorable!"

Lana shrieked with glee as she eyed the Buneary currently hopping across the exit to Eterna City. Filled with giddiness and pure joy, she started hopping up and down herself, turning to her Pokémon.

"Chump! I mean Slick! I need to catch it! Help me!" Kevin shrugged and jumped in front of the Buneary, frowning. He knew how to battle, but holding back so the foe could be caught? That was another story.

"Okay, um— Ack! What are your moves, anyway?" Lana asked, ceasing her hopping and staring at him blankly. Kevin raised an eyebrow. All right, all right, it wasn't like he hadn't tutored his little brother on the subject before.

He swiped quickly at the Buneary, scratching her face in the process. "Scratch," he announced, "Ember," he said as he shot a small flame at her foot, "and some other stuff, too. Use your head. It's not that hard," He finished by flicking his tail. He really liked having a tail now that he was evolved, and he hoped she'd take the hint…

"Wha… Tail Whip?" Lana asked, bewildered. Kevin sighed.

"Just let me do it," he offered, and then turned back to the Buneary, who was staring at him with a sort of depressed-looking expression. He wasn't sure how to describe it; her eyes were droopy but the rest of her was all right. Then, without warning, one of her ears unrolled quickly and smacked his face.

...Oh. So she made him look bad, did she? Fine then. It was on.

Kevin threw a rapid punch in her face. Mach Punch, it was called, a move he'd learned shortly after evolving. (Technically, he'd practiced it before, but now he was actually capable of doing it properly.) He quickly recalled that he'd just gained a new type, too – fighting – which meant that sweet, sweet STAB was in effect.

Which meant that the Buneary was pretty much toast.

She stumbled backwards, rubbing her cheek and crying. He grinned. Oh yeah. Stabbed.

He glanced at Lana, who took a moment to let out another exclamation and throw a Pokéball. Naturally, the ball wiggled thrice and the Buneary was caught, just as any other weak Pokémon on the receiving end of a super effective attack would. Lana stared at it for a few seconds.

"…Wow. That was fast," she said. She looked at Kevin, tilting her head. "Um, thanks. But what was with the tail thing?"

His tail flicked again, this time half-involuntary. He'd have to get used to that. "You don't always need to use regular attacks, you know," said Kevin.

He paused. Out of everything that was considered normal here, was a Pokémon using its own strategy okay? He hadn't really paid attention to Mist's capture, what with being caught up in a battle himself and all, but he was pretty sure that Lana had battled like the trainers on television, meaning that Styler never attacked without a command.

To him, that was dumb. Sure, he understood the trainer helping come up with strategies for battles and giving suggestions on which moves to make next, but if the trainer couldn't think of anything, couldn't the Pokémon act for themselves? Especially if they were actually experienced? After all, quick thinking was necessary if one lived in the wild.

He decided to elaborate on his point. "I… Well, when I was growing up, I had to battle for myself, right? And sometimes, regular attacks don't work for the situation, so I got a bit creative."

Kari's head perked up, and Kevin groaned inside his head. "Oh, did you now? That's nice. The crowd always loves those."

Deciding to ignore Kari (even though she was actually being perfectly sociable all of a sudden), he set the rest of his tail on fire. "Like this. I was thinking about using it earlier. It's like Aqua Tail except fire type. I could probably try and use Fire Spin with it too, if I wanted, even if I'm not quite sure how that's supposed to work yet."

Styler chirruped. "Neat!"

Lana nodded, smiling. "Oh, okay. So you're saying that contest moves can be used in battle, too? I get it."

Kevin blinked. "There are contests here?" he asked.

Lana nodded again. "Oh yeah, of course there are! Everyone dresses up in pretty outfits and shows off beautiful combinations, and then they battle, but the battles are more flashy than anything else, 'cause half the time neither Pokémon faints, and—"

"And they're very crude most of the time, seeing as most of those 'flashy' moves are little more than a beauty contest," Kari finished.

Kevin snorted. "That's the point. I thought the concept sounded stupid, too, until I saw one," He couldn't help letting out a grin. A Pokémon Contest was a Pokémon Contest, even in this crazy place. Thank Arceus some things were still stable, even if he didn't particularly believe in the guy.

Mist piped up in her quiet voice, "That's strange. Boys usually think they're too girly,"

He crossed his arms. "Yeesh. It's not that bad. Honestly, why does this always come up whenever I talk about them?" If he had a nickel for every time his brother used the same argument—

"I never said it was wrong for you to like them, Mr. Slick," she said in a monotone, "just strange. I find you very strange. You're different, aren't you?"

"Er…" Kevin had no idea how to respond to this girl. Like, no idea at all. What was he going to do, just spill all the evidence that he was "different" to someone who he'd known for two minutes? Not likely. No. Nobody needed to know anything about his—

He stopped himself. She probably just thought that he was a bit off. That was okay. He could explain that. So he would. He opened his mouth.

"Yeah, I'm weird. I'm from Hoenn, that's why. We're a bit different from you… Sinnoh… um, people."

Thankfully, Lana apparently noticed that things were getting awkward, because she suggested that they finally get out of the forest and to Eterna City. Kevin relaxed once he was returned to his Pokéball, but he had a feeling that Kari was going to get Mist on his case now, too.

In the Eterna City Pokémon Center, Lana released everyone in order to meet the new addition to their party.

"Hi," she said, crouching down to meet the rabbit's eyes. "I'm Lana. What's your name?"

The Buneary gave her a sour look and turned away. She eyed the rest of them, giving a much more sour look to Kevin, who glared back.

"…Nini," she finally muttered.

"That's a pretty name!" Lana encouraged, reaching out a hand to pet her. Nini responded with a death glare, to which Lana shuddered and retreated from.

Kari gave her a look of pity. "I suppose you've had a rough life too?"

Nini eyed her again before giving her a curt nod. Oh great, another one on the turtle of sorrow's side.

Clearing her throat, Nini looked at the ground. "Look, I don't like to talk, so I'll say this only once. I'm a Buneary who is destined to fall in love at first sight. We all are. I haven't seen my true love yet, and I'm twenty-eight. Basically, I'm a lost cause with no purpose. I'll battle or whatever you want me to do, but don't expect me to be enthusiastic about it. At best, I'm a hollow shell. That is all." And with that, she pressed the button on her Pokéball and disappeared.

Kari scoffed. "Wow, I thought the whole drama queen stereotype was a joke. It's a good thing you didn't catch one with a boyfriend."

The trainer looked upset. "She's so depressed, though. I thought— I thought they were supposed to be happy and cute and…" Trailing off, she slumped down onto her knees. "I don't understand. Ever since those Shades started things have gotten so weird,"

"The Shades aren't the reason she's upset, Lana, don't be naïve. Anyone can get depressed, the only thing that's different is that Pokémon can tell you, now," Kari said sternly, looking her trainer directly in the eye. Lana sighed and nodded, standing up.

"I'm sorry. I'm going to go buy some shoes now." She reached for her Pokéballs and returned her Pokémon to their Pokéballs, sending Kevin into the black void yet again.

Kevin reviewed the scene in his head. "The Shades" was some sort of event that changed things; giving Pokémon the ability to speak. Kari was a completely normal person when she wasn't being creepy. And Lana was probably a normal girl who was just as confused as he was.

He thought back further. Lana had mentioned something about rights, which was probably connected to the Shades, seeing as the language barrier was definitely one of the main things preventing Pokémon from being treated better in Hoenn. And Naturalists had most likely cropped up around that time too, preferring to be separate from humans and everything. The question was when this had happened and why he hadn't heard about it before.

…Maybe his mother was a Naturalist? But she allowed him access to TV. The news had never mentioned anything. Plus, she'd married his father, who wasn't exactly the most natural thing to live on the planet either. Yeah. He wasn't really natural at all.

His mother said she'd call him back, but seeing as they didn't have caller ID and he was using Lana's cell phone, his best bet was to call her again himself. If anything, it'd be to ensure that the regular world still existed somewhere. And after that, he'd have to ask about the Shades. And then…?

Then he'd go home and apologize for getting caught and continue to watch league matches on TV. And battle his little brother on the side. And then he could just forget about Sinnoh and live happily ever after and yeah.

Sometimes he wished he could be a little less idealistic.