Miya hurried to keep up with Jiro as he led her through the large central aisle of the restaurant to the back, where the gym lobby was veiled behind large red curtains.
"This is it… cool, right?"
Miya looked around. The room by itself was nothing special. It looked like the back of the restaurant, still, dimly lit and cheaply carpeted. Jiro checked back in at the desk. He waved Miya over so she could check in as a spectator.
"What's the spectator fee?" she asked.
"50 PD," the receptionist sighed. He'd glanced at the clock at least four times in the past minute, probably because he couldn't wait to get off work, Miya guessed.
Miya opened her wallet and fished for the money, then slid it across the desk to him. Jiro slapped another 50 PD note on the desk.
"What's that for?" Miya asked. Hadn't he already paid to watch the battles?
"Challenging, dude," Jiro answered, turning toward her with an offhand grin and a wink.
"You'll be the last battle of the night, kid," the receptionist said tiredly. "Better make it worth it."
"I'll try my best."
"Okay, you head downstairs and they'll call you when you're up. And you," he pointed with his pinky at Miya, "you can go through those doors over there to the balcony and watch. No sitting on the railings. Please."
Miya nodded. Jiro made his way to the stairwell door. "Hey, wait," she said, running over. She ended up slamming into him with a hug without thinking. "Good luck!"
He seemed startled for a moment, then returned it warmly. "Thanks a lot."
Miya stepped back impulsively and quickly adjusted her braid. "Give your pokémon a pat for me," she added, gazing intently at the ugly carpet.
"Thank you. I think they'll appreciate that for sure."
"Yeah. Now go get 'em!" she said as he turned back toward the stairs. He gave her a brief salute before disappearing. Miya spun back towards the balcony door, catching the receptionist staring at her as she went. She ignored him, feeling her face heat slightly. Come on. Hugs weren't out of bounds with boys. She'd been traveling with Jiro for a few days now. They'd spent a lot of time together. Lara went around hugging and kissing everybody's cheeks and grabbing everybody's hands and nobody made a scene out of that, surely. Shove it, receptionist, she told him inside her head as she pushed through the door to the balcony above the arena.
"Whoa," she said aloud, taken aback by the size of the place. It hadn't looked gigantic from the outside, but she hadn't counted on the gym being built into the ground. The balcony, empty except for her, was at least two stories above the arena floor.
So this was a pokémon gym. It was different from the battle clubs. For one, there were no bleachers. Gym battles were more personal matters, so it made sense that they weren't too inviting to spectators. The arena was also completely different. Instead of a bland dirt floor, the arena was covered with rocks and small pools. Weird.
She called Milo out of his poké ball and picked him up. "You're getting heavy, Milo," she muttered. "We've got to weigh you soon."
Miya had no right to call Milo fat, thank you very much.
"Look, Jiro's about to go on." She and Milo leaned against the railing. "And you've gotta actually pay attention, because there's no commentator."
Milo snorted. No commentator. Darn. How would Milo ever have a clue what was going on.
"If you're gonna be fresh, I'm gonna push you over this railing," she joked.
And then Milo could get a nice swim in one of those pools down there-
The double doors on the opposite side of the arena slid open with a whoosh that Miya could faintly hear from where she was standing. Followed by an older man with stark white hair, Jiro was talking with a man wearing a crisp vest and a white apron. He looked like a stereotypical waiter, Miya noticed.
Unless that was the gym leader?!
"Milo, could that be-?"
Miya had done her research. This had to be Cilan, one of the three brothers who owned the restaurant and were the city's gym leaders. Cilan's specialty was grass-type.
"That's Cilan, Milo. Do you think Jiro will battle all three of them? Or just Cilan? That's no fair; Navy's got a type disadvantage."
Milo grunted incomprehensibly.
She watched Jiro and Cilan shake hands and make their way to opposite sides of the arena. A flicker of light caught her attention. Across from her, the opposite wall faded to become the same type of stats screen she'd seen at the battle club. Both competitors' pokémon's stats appeared on their respective sides.
The white-haired man who had followed them in, Miya assumed, was the referee. When he spoke, his voice echoed in the big room, but Miya was distracted by the balcony door swinging shut with a bang.
The remaining two brothers settled down a few feet away from her: Chili and Cress.
"Hey," said Cress, the water-type leader, turning to Miya. "Tirtouga, huh?"
Miya smiled shyly. "This is Milo."
Milo gaped at the two gym leaders.
"Hey, Milo," Cress said. "This is my brother Chili, and I'm Cress. I specialize in work with water-type pokémon. Nice to meet you. And…what's your human's name?" His soft slate blue eyes met Miya's as he asked.
"I'm Miya."
"Are you going to challenge the gym, too?" asked Chili, the fire-type leader, leaning over the railing past his brother to look at Miya.
"Oh, no, I'm not."
Cress cocked an eyebrow, the one that wasn't hidden behind cascades of blue hair. Miya wondered fleetingly if they all dyed their hair according to their favorite types, but was interrupted by Chili, who said, "Whoa, they're already starting!"
The four on the balcony immediately turned their attention to the arena below. As they jerked around to look, Cress' elbow grazed Miya, but he didn't move it. Miya stood frozen. She was totally in physical contact with a gym leader. A gym leader! Her social anxiety kicked in; she wondered if he expected her, a lowly spectator who wasn't even a trainer, to move-
Milo must have sensed her inner crisis and weaseled his way between her and Cress. She'd have to thank him later, she noted as a flurry of leaves fluttered past her face.
Pay attention, Miya, you're going to miss the battle, she told herself sternly.
Cilan had sent out pansage, and it didn't look very threatening on its own, but its vines slithered through the air like terrifying animated lashes. That must've been Vine Whip. Miya glanced to the other side of the arena to see how Jiro was faring. He'd sent out Lamia.
Lamia recoiled in pain and hissed. Miya furrowed her brow in concern. She looked to the stats board. Minus twenty hit points, it displayed. "Come on, Jiro…" she mumbled.
"The other trainer?" Cress asked softly. "You know him?"
"Yeah. He's my partner." Miya didn't take her eyes off the arena, watching intently as Jiro directed Lamia to kick up a cloud of sand with Sand Attack. The little purrloin recovered quickly, springing off the ground and bounding off the rocks, stirring up dust from the floor. With a swish of her tufted tail, Lamia sprayed sand into the eyes of the pansage. It was so quick, Miya thought she could have missed it had she blinked.
There was a growing cloud that obscured full view of the two pokémon, but Miya heard the pansage shriek angrily and Lamia's hissing and mewling. It was safe to assume that they were both striking each other blindly, and neither was coming out on top. Jiro called Lamia backwards.
The dust settled and the two pokémon stared each other down. Both pokémon were covered in scratches. Miya was disturbed to see, even from her height, a thin red line of matted fur across Lamia's cream-colored back. She gasped.
"Did they both use Fury Swipes?" Chili whispered to Cress.
"I think so," his brother replied.
Miya avoided looking at both of them, feeling somewhat sickened. They both must be used to seeing this kind of stuff, being gym leaders. She looked down to Milo. His focus was still on the arena; he, too, seemed unaffected.
The two pokémon were breathing hard. At the same time, the trainers shouted commands: "Torment!" from Jiro, and "Vine Whip, quickly!" from Cilan.
Two vines ripped out from the pansage and streaked across the arena, homing in on Lamia, who stood her ground. With a snarl, she ducked behind a rock at the last second, and the vines slapped against solid rock and snapped back, but not before Lamia raked a claw through one of them. Miya blinked. That was clever. Lamia was very good.
"Did you see that?" Cress asked his brother excitedly.
"Of course I did, dumbass, I'm right here."
"That was an awesome use of that move," Cress commented to Miya. "Your friend must've trained that purrloin really well."
"Actually… he just caught her a few days ago."
Cress' jaw dropped. "Seriously? That is one sharp purrloin!"
"Pursue it!" Jiro hollered, as the pansage darted between rocks. Lamia sprang after.
"Work Up!" yelled Cilan. "Get ready to give it all you've got!"
Cilan's pansage had hidden behind a rock and Lamia prowled, releasing a low Growl. Miya held her breath; it took all her willpower not to yell out to Lamia where the pansage was.
They were on opposite sides of the same rock now…
"Come on," Miya whispered.
The pansage leaped out at Lamia and Licked her with its long, pink tongue. Lamia staggered. Obviously, this was not something she expected at all.
"Did Cilan tell his pansage to use Lick?" Miya asked Cress.
"I didn't hear him," he replied. "Sometimes, trainers don't always tell pokémon what to do. They both just know what move will work best."
"Oh." Miya looked up to see Lamia's hit points falter but only slightly; still, her hit points were quite below the pansage's. "Ghost isn't very effective against dark, is it?"
"No, but it seems to have caught her off guard, for sure."
"Yeah."
Lamia shook her furry head. "Trick it!" Miya knew that was Jiro's code for "use Fake Out" after watching him battle over the past few days. Lamia had picked up on that quickly. She leaped after the pansage and acted like she'd missed, then swiped a claw fiercely. It sliced a deep, red welt into the pansage's green belly.
Miya paled. That had to hurt, badly. The pansage's hit points dropped dangerously low. She saw that Cilan didn't have much more color than she did.
Cilan's mouth moved, but Miya couldn't hear what he said. She, Milo, Cress, and Chili leaned forward over the railing raptly to watch the pansage's vines snap out once again and grab Lamia's paws, knocking her off balance.
Jiro began to panic- he danced left and right on his feet, clenching his fists. "Fury Swipes!" he yelled, and Lamia struggled and struggled and slash!- her claws collided with the vines, slicing off segment. Cilan's pansage shuddered and drew the vines back haphazardly and its hit points took a nosedive, but just before they hit zero the pansage disappeared in a flash of red light. Cilan had recalled it, and he raised one finger above his head.
The announcer raised an arm into the air. "Cilan has withdrawn pansage from the match, and it's a victory for the challengers!"