After Ekans had subdued the third member of the group the three trainers tied them up together by the light of Infernape's flames. They placed them on a small dirt mound in the center of a pool of acid Ekans had created, the wide moat area being a courtesy of Dugtrio. They had also removed the enemy's poké balls, setting them outside the pool a few yards away. Additionally, Gastly kept watch over them the rest of the night until morning came. Having been very active from the night before however, the three trainers ended up sleeping until almost noon due to exhaustion; Akuma in particular was especially tired. After packing up camp Gastly used hypnosis on the trio before Akuma's group left once again for Vermillion city.
It was a silent trip as they stuck to the main road. Totodile occasionally ran off the path to speak with other Pokémon but returned to the group quickly enough. Akuma kept an eye on it the whole time. When lunch time came around the group foraged for various berries on a nearby berry patch. Akuma had Infernape mash some berries and boil them with a calm fire to make some oran soup. Chad stuck with some pecha berries instead since they were more of a healthy dessert. Kurishimi was lucky enough to find a bluk berry patch and also remembered to wash her mouth after she had finished. Totodile ran around sampling various berries from each bush. When it finally found some it liked, Akuma picked a few berries to analyze Totodile's tastes when they came to the next Pokémon Center.
"Hey Akuma," Kurishimi asked while they were eating, "why do you battle and train Pokémon?"
"Why do you ask?" Akuma said without looking up from the soup he was making.
"It was something I was thinking about last night before I fell asleep the first time. I'm training my Pokémon because I enjoy it and like being with them while Chad's got the goal to be the best trainer in the world. Our motives are clear, but I've never figured yours out. Why do you train Pokémon?" She was trying to be somewhat friendly, but the incident from the night before still disturbed her. She wouldn't even look up from her meal while she spoke to him. Akuma didn't notice however as he kept his eyes on his own food.
"Does it really matter what my motives are? My job is to train you, nothing more than that."
"I know, but I feel like I should know you a little bit better after traveling with you for so long. I thought I had you figured out, but because of the aftermath from your encounter with Raikou, the way you take care of Totodile, and last night's training I'm not so sure anymore."
"My personal motives and habits shouldn't be a factor in our time together. I'm your teacher, nothing more."
"And is that all that I can expect from you? Shouldn't there be trust between teacher and student?"
"You don't trust me then?"
"You aren't exactly giving me peace of mind, much less any reasons for trust out of good faith. You keep way too many secrets from me and I find it very hard to know what it is you're thinking or plan to do. I never know whether I can expect bitterness, cruelness, indifference, sympathy, friendship, lies, or honesty. You've even grown more distant lately and I'm concerned about how long our relationship will last, if it can even be called that."
"Everyone has secrets, Akashi."
"And you have enough to spread around the crew of the St. Anne. Akuma, I don't know what to think about you anymore. It's like you're turning into more of an enemy than someone I can trust."
"So you think I'll turn on you soon?"
"I told you I don't know what to think anymore which is why I brought this up in the first place. You don't seem to have any motive for turning against me, but lately it's like you're more of a danger than an ally."
"Part of your training is learning to stand on your own. In time I won't be around and you will have to stand up for yourself without anyone there to help you. I don't plan to stick around for your entire journey to collect badges then give you an enchanted necklace and send you off on your own into a climactic sunset after reciting a haiku. In time, we will be required to part ways. For every meeting, there must be a farewell. When that time comes you will have no choice but to journey on your own and make your own path. There is only so much you can learn from me before my teachings are irrelevant to you. When you arrive at the point where you can only get better by training yourself there will be no one to fall back on for support because in your own way you will be the best you can be. Even so, there is always room for improvement. It will be up to you on how to find what you lack and what you have too much of."
"I know that, but even so I would prefer to know my teacher a little bit better if I have to trust him with my Pokémon's growth and development as well as my own. I can't exactly follow you on this entire journey based on your skills and promises."
"We had a similar conversation like this shortly after we began traveling together, did we not?"
"I remember it of course. You told me to just trust you since I couldn't get any worse than I already was. I let it go at the time, but the training has been getting more severe lately. You can't expect me to put all my trust in someone I hardly know can you? To be honest the only thing I've really learned about you is that your alias according to members of Team Rocket is 'the hunter'. For whatever reason you have that, it isn't any of my business and if you wanted me to forget it I would, but if that's the only thing I've learned about you lately then it's pretty hard to ignore; especially when I travel with you every day. You've gotta admit that's pretty unfair to me."
Akuma silently stirred his soup while she presented her case to him. He knew it wasn't fair of him to keep this much information from her in the first place, but it was hard to tell her anything, much less know where to begin. His personal life was so much of a secret that he didn't even speak to his peers about it. After the incident in Hoenn a few years back he'd achieved his fifteen minutes of fame among well-known trainers and authorities which was partially the reason why gym leaders seemed to know him. He didn't like being known as a legend among trainers at the time, nor did he enjoy the popularity very much either, though it was nice to know other people weren't taking undue credit any more when he had the spotlight. When his fame had risen to what he considered intolerable levels he'd tried to go into hiding until people began to forget about him as other trainers took the stage in recent news: Wallace becoming the Hoenn champion, three young trainers assisting the Sinnoh champion during the Team Galactic crisis on Mt. Coronet, the invention of a machine that could reanimate Pokémon fossils, all of these and more quickly pushed him into anonymity again. He wasn't looking forward to spreading more rumors about himself for elevation in the public eye again, even if they were true, but he was dishonoring his student by not giving information about himself, especially since she had been so open and forward with him since the beginning. When he had caught Ariados as a Spinarak back when he had Magmar she was defiant toward the way he'd treated his Pokémon and didn't even cringe when he looked at her like others did. She had spirit, and he respected her for that. But in contrast he'd been disrespecting her by keeping her in the dark on purpose. He owed her some answers at least.
Akuma finished preparing his soup and returned Infernape to its poké ball. He turned toward Kurishimi and tasted his soup before he spoke. "All right, I can give you some answers. What do you want to know?"
Kurishimi looked up at him with a face of surprise and hope. "I can ask you anything then?"
"You may ask, but I may not answer everything. I would prefer to keep some secrets of course."
She smiled slightly at him then turned in his direction. "Okay then, answer my original question. What is your purpose in Pokémon training?"
"To get better at it."
Kurishimi rolled her eyes. "You've already passed that point a number of times. Give me a better answer than that."
"What would you want to hear? That I was once earning badges like you and the boy were when I first started out? That I may have been a Pokémon breeder but failed at that path and am now on a journey to find something new to do? Perhaps that I was even a Pokémon master once upon a time, or a hardened criminal? That with all the great personal achievements I found in life I continually caused greater harm to the Pokémon and humans around me every day?"
"What I want is the truth," Kurishimi said in a serious, yet respectful tone.
"I have no purpose at the moment like you do," Akuma finally admitted. "I have goals and dreams that I aspire to make come true, but unlike many Pokémon trainers of the world I do not fall under the classic categories that many have decided to join. I was once a trainer like you, yes. In fact I had collected two badges before abandoning that path. At the time I was less experienced than the boy. To be honest I only won my badges by pure luck. Everywhere else I went I was frequently the loser in battles. I learned much in every loss, but never got any farther in my training. I had no one to teach me, so I returned home a failure. I released many of my Pokémon back into the wild while keeping only a select few that I had a particularly strong bond with and never went back to battling gyms again. I had the opportunities in other regions, but never took the chance.
"Instead I became a jack-of-trades when it came to Pokémon. I learned as much as I could about each little thing but never pursued a particular path. Even now I don't have a long-term achievement I want to fulfill. I have many things I want to accomplish in my life, some I probably never will, but I doubt that I will have the chance again."
"Wow," Kurishimi said when Akuma stopped to have some soup. "I never would have suspected that much about you. You don't seem interested in gym badges or battling at all except when Team Rocket is involved. How are you connected to them anyway? You seem quite strong willed whenever they're involved, so what's the history between you and them?"
"It's a very long story and I would rather avoid details on that subject. I can tell you however, that one of their highest priorities is to capture me for their leader. I've been causing them problems for as long as I've been able, so it's pretty much guaranteed that they would be thrilled to get rid of me should the opportunity present itself."
"Did you do something to upset them?"
"No, they upset me. I won't share details, but know that I won't rest until the leader of Team Rocket has been arrested and they are guaranteed to not rise again. Team Rocket has had many leaders over the years, each more dangerous than the last, save one. They have gotten more and more out of control each time they rise up, but now they have increased their activities to the point where it is impossible to ignore their works any longer. I am the biggest threat to their activities as of late. If I am removed then they will remain virtually unchecked in everything they do."
"So it's a personal vendetta against them, right?"
"It's very personal, yes." Something in the way Akuma said that phrase told her there was more to it than he was letting on, but she shouldn't pry anymore. "That's enough for today. We should get moving if we want to make it to Vermillion City by nightfall."
Totodile cleaned the bowl Akuma used with a light water gun that wasn't much more than a sprinkling of water before the four of them continued down the road. Akuma soon noticed that Totodile appeared bored so he pulled an oran berry from his side pouch and threw it ahead of them. "Totodile, water gun!" Totodile looked up and fired a glob of water at the berry. The shot missed completely. "I said water gun, not snot bubble attack," Akuma told it. He picked up the berry when they came near and threw it again. This time Totodile fired a short burst of water toward it, but missed again. "Apparently you're still inexperienced with using water gun. Try cutting the berry down the middle with scratch instead." Akuma tossed the berry toward Totodile who successfully cut the berry straight through. Akuma let it eat the berry slices that dropped.
Knowing Chad had passed the Pokémon exam in Saffron, Akuma asked the boy about different battling strategies. His questions progressed in difficulty so he could find out how much the boy had learned in his absence. He had promised to train the boy as best he could within the time he had, and planned to keep his word. Shortly into the tougher questions the boy began to ask questions of his own as well.
"How would you capture a ghost Pokémon?"
Akuma raised an eyebrow at the young boy. "Why a ghost Pokémon?"
"Ghosts can pass through solid objects and manipulate the area around them can't they? How could you strike them with a poké ball?"
"Ghost Pokémon aren't like the suspected ghosts of people. They can take a physical form and can be struck by solid objects. They could be struck if you tried clubbing them with a plank of wood should you manage to somehow surprise them, but for the most part any surprise attack is required if you want to guarantee that your physical attacks will connect. Provided they have ample time however, they can simply pass through the poké ball without harm."
"What about dragon Pokémon? They're tough and hard to find, so how would I catch one of those?"
Akuma laughed to himself while Kurishimi did a double take to stare at him with wide eyes. "Now why would you want to know something like that? Dragons are very difficult to find, battle, and even capture. Trainers can search their whole lives and probably never find a dragon Pokémon in the wild, much less a trainer who has one that you could expect to battle. I don't think you'd have to worry about dragon Pokémon for a very long time."
"Maybe, but I'm asking you right now. I'd rather be prepared now than later."
Akuma nodded in approval of Chad's reply. "Good answer, kid. They aren't easy to fight. You either need to hit them with dragon or ice type moves or have a steel Pokémon to defend against their attacks. Dragons are vicious fighters with the skill to match their notoriety. I expected Gyarados to be named a dragon type by researchers, but I guess it wasn't strong enough so it was classified as a water-flying type Pokémon. As to why it became part flying I'll never know."
"Whoa, hold on there a moment. You're saying that dragon types are even stronger than a Gyarados?"
"That's correct. Gyarados can learn some dragon type moves but it isn't a dragon type Pokémon. Actually the same can be said for my Charizard. Even though it's not a dragon type it knows a few dragon moves and has a dragon appearance. Pokémon like them can be a good offense against dragons for that reason, but if you can't hold your own against a Gyarados, wild or otherwise, your best bet is to just run away very fast. If you can't do that just cripple them with various status effects to the best of your ability and then assault them with your strongest attacks until they fall. Or do the first part before running away. Oh yes, and don't get hit. Much pain follows if you fail to follow this rule."
"Oh man, I am so not going to enjoy those kinds of battles. Have you ever fought a dragon type before?"
Akuma's expression changed to a look of hurt and he looked back toward the road in front of them. "Yes. I have fought dragons before." His voice told that the memory Chad had brought up was causing great pain.
Kurishimi looked at him silently from behind. She knew what he was thinking and kept quiet. Chad however, did not get the hint.
"No kidding? What was it like? Did you capture it, or was it a trainer battle? That must've been a real tough battle for you."
Akuma was quiet for a second before saying, "Drop it."
"Huh? What's wrong? Did I say someth-"
"I said drop it!" Akuma yelled. He turned toward Chad angrily with a deranged look of fury. Chad stepped away from him quickly and very frightened. Kurishimi quickly jumped over to Akuma and held him back.
"Hey, let it go. He didn't know, okay?"
Akuma glared at her, but his expression softened. He turned away from them both and walked over to the side of the road and sat down. Totodile was frightened after seeing who it knew to be a calm and caring trainer to have suddenly shown a violent side.
Kurishimi leaned over to talk to Chad softly. "It wasn't your fault, don't worry. I'd suggest not bringing up dragon Pokémon again though. Akuma doesn't have very fond memories of the dragon types."
Chad nodded in hasty agreement. After a few moments Akuma stood up and walked a few paces ahead of them before calling back, "We've lost time again. Let's go." With that he started walking down the road again with the three others in tow behind him at a respectful distance. Kurishimi couldn't tell from his tone how he was feeling at the point. Akuma had been sure not to show them his face after standing.