Akuma carried the young Cubone on his shoulders as they continued east toward the fishing spots which would lead them directly to Lavender Town after a couple days. Down at ground level, Totodile walked alongside Akuma to take in the scenery. Every few minutes Akuma would have it perform a simple stunt while walking so they could both understand Totodile's capabilities in terms of physical conditioning. There were no complex movements, only simple things such as a quick sprint, jumping, and spinning dodges to name a few. Cubone stayed silent during the whole process, only showing interest when Totodile performed well. However because Totodile didn't have a combative background many of its movements were still clunky and sluggish. Akuma thought about having some of his own Pokémon teach Totodile how to move effectively, but they were used to battle whereas Totodile had, until recently, preferred to run away. If nothing else, at least it was good at fast sprints. After Akuma realized Totodile wasn't making any progress he changed his analysis to notice other talents Totodile might have instead. Even then he couldn't find anything.

While his Pokémon was still a Totodile, Akuma would have to take notice of its major strengths and weaknesses followed by formulating training sessions based on these characteristics which would heavily influence Totodile's rate of growth. When Totodile eventually evolved into Croconaw the training would then shift to focusing solely on offensive strategies for close combat and endurance. Upon evolving a final time to Feraligatr the lesser focused areas would be tempered to complement Feraligatr's offensive capabilities as well as adding special characteristics into the battle strategies and survival techniques. At least, this was the way Akuma had learned to train his other Pokémon. With most of his three-stage evolutionary Pokémon, Akuma had found this form of training to be perfect for offensive battlers. Sadly, he wasn't making any progress with Totodile in the same way.

Each Pokémon grew at its own steady pace for sure, but Totodile seemed incompatible with previous training lessons. Akuma was beginning to get frustrated with himself. Not only did he want a strong water type Pokémon, but he had promised to temper Totodile into a real fighter. He wasn't going to cut his promise, but he couldn't think of a way to fulfill it at the moment. There had to be something else he wasn't getting. Perhaps he needed to devise a new training method specifically for Totodile. But that would need to wait until later. Right now he had to focus on getting Cubone safely to Lavender Town, and judging by events over the past month it wouldn't be easy.

Based on his observations Team Rocket was either becoming more frequent in recent activities or they were focusing on him more than usual. During the last encounter it had been confirmed that at least three Rocket members were trying to recapture the poké balls they had previously stolen from Bill, thinking that Akuma still carried the collection instead of returning them to the rightful owner. It was obsessive foolishness of course, but it had been a while since they had come after the group so they were due for another attack soon, or so he estimated. Training a Pokémon, protecting another, and battling with a third would have him possibly too far stretched to perform his best. Training Totodile was a low priority at the moment. Being by himself in the open left him an easy target for ambushes or a mass attack.

"Okay Cubone, break time is over. My neck is getting really sore now," Akuma said as he brought the Cubone down from his shoulders. "I can't carry you all the way. You need to walk for a while now." Totodile ran over to its trainer and jumped up and down in a begging fashion. "No Totodile, I just got Cubone off my shoulders. I need to rest for a bit. Unless you're saying you want to go back inside your poké ball which I can fix." Totodile shook its head quickly. "We'll walk for a while then. In a couple hours we'll stop for lunch. Since we're getting close to the beach we can go fishing for some food, or at least you can. It'll be a welcome change from the berries we usually snack on."

The two Pokémon walked out in front while Akuma stayed further back so he could keep an eye on them. He also watched the tall grass on either side for approaching Pokémon that might attack the younger two. Fortunately the trip was a boring one. No trainers or aggressive wild Pokémon appeared for a few hours. Akuma began to feel tired as the warm afternoon sun had its effects on him along with the two Pokémon in the lead. He was thinking about taking a break for a short nap off road somewhere when he heard a quickly approaching rustling from the grass to his left. Acting quickly, Akuma snatched Gastly's poké ball from its holding strap as he called for Cubone and Totodile to return behind him as quickly as they could. Totodile got behind him quickly with its signature short sprint, but Cubone tripped and fell to the ground a couple yards away. Akuma was about to rush over when the approaching Pokémon burst out from the grass.

The new Pokémon's appearance was that of a yellow sheep with horizontal cone shaped ears of black and yellow stripes which protruded from the side of its head. It had no legs to speak of, but it did have stubby feet underneath its wooly body which encompassed the majority of the Pokémon. Its tail was also striped with black and yellow colors, ending in a shining yellow globe. Finally it had a cute blue face, but this particular Pokémon, which was named Mareep, didn't seem quite as cute while flinching in pain and thrashing about every time it jumped. Every time it leapt into the air electric bolts escaped from the wool. Akuma realized it must have been attacked after wandering into another Pokémon's territory, but it was a rare occurrence to find a Mareep in Kanto when Mareep herds were raised in the Johto regions; the only exception being a few private ranches in Sinnoh.

Nevertheless, a bothered Mareep was a problem that had to be dealt with quickly before it could do any remarkable damage. Akuma was about to call out Gastly while wishing he had Dugtrio's poké ball with him when he realized Cubone was a ground type which was totally immune to Mareep's electrical attacks as well as being the only Pokémon type to have an advantage over electric Pokémon.

"Quickly Cubone, use your bone club to stop that Mareep's escape!" Akuma called out.

Cubone looked up to see the Mareep escaping into the tall grass again, much too far for a bone club attack to reach. Instead it threw its bone at the Mareep, knocking it aside with a bonemarang attack. The bone continued to fly onward then turned back and smacked the Mareep one more time before returning to Cubone's awaiting hand. Having used the bought time to close the distance, Cubone quickly beat Mareep across the forehead with a bone club strike that knocked it to the ground.

"Or you could improvise I suppose," Akuma said quietly after Cubone had finished the routine. He walked over to inspect the Mareep more closely now that he had the opportunity. There were no apparent injuries so Akuma assumed the thrashing may have come from a confuse ray or supersonic attack of some kind which would have made the Mareep confused and thus causing a panic. Based on the area he assumed it may have encountered a Drowzee, the only Pokémon he could think of that could cause confusion in this area since it was still much too bright for a Zubat to appear. As he wondered whether the Mareep was wild or not, he heard an approaching voice calling out to it. Not wanting to cause any misunderstandings, Akuma stood up and backed a few steps away from the Pokémon before he could be seen next to it. Three seconds passed before the Mareep's trainer appeared from the tall grass next to the road.

The girl was in her mid-to-late-teens, wearing casual clothes, and carrying a small trainer bag for light traveling. She had three poké balls at her waist with one more in her hand. There was nothing unremarkable about her other than her eye color which was a shining golden yellow. She looked like an average trainer anyone might find in their travels from town to town. When she spotted her Mareep she began to hurry over, but stopped when she noted the older boy standing a few feet away.

"Hey, don't I know you?" she asked Akuma after staring a moment.

"Probably, or I'm just one of those faces," Akuma replied.

"No, no, you definitely look like someone I should know. Were you at the Rattata races last week?"

"I wasn't."

"Maybe the ghost hunting competition?"

"Not likely."

"I got it! You were at the beach party yesterday!"

"Ugh, I certainly hope not," Akuma replied in disgust.

"Darn it. What about TV programs then?"

"Okay, now you're just guessing at random. Can I go please?" Akuma said with a shake of his head.

"Nuh-uh, you gotta help me out here. Come on, I'm sure I know you from somewhere."

Akuma gave up and dropped his poké balls containing Infernape, Charizard, and Gastly to the ground, releasing the Pokémon on each side of him. "Does this help you at all?" He asked in exasperation.

The girl came closer to study his Pokémon with what was probably fake interest briefly before her eyes lit up. "Ah ha! Do you have a Metang too?"

"I did last month, but it evolved a while ago."

"That's it, I knew I'd seen you somewhere before! You're the guy who took out all those thieves in the Pewter City museum. I was one of the people in the building at the time. You had your Metang rescue me from one of the thieves using me as a shield. You left before I could thank you properly."

Akuma thought back, taking longer then the girl could apparently tolerate.

"Oh come on, I can't be that hard to forget can I?"

Akuma ignored her question. "Ah yes, now I remember. You tried to subdue one of the guards with a Caterpie's string shot, but he broke out, kicked your Caterpie away, used you as his get-away shield, and I had to risk losing two other thieves to get him away from you."

"Bingo! Two points for you," the girl cheered as Akuma covered one ear. "Why did you run off like that before I could thank you?"

"I had to retrieve the other two thieves that tried to get away while I was forced to help you," Akuma repeated as he used every bit of patience he could to endure the loud girl's exclamations. "Fortunately they hadn't left the building before I brought them down."

"You still could've come back to see if I was alright," the girl pouted.

"There was no need," Akuma explained. "Metang hit its target without any error so you were undamaged. The man didn't harm you before he collapsed and wouldn't have gotten back up after taking a blow like that. You were still conscious and were not experiencing any forms of shock either from what I could tell. Returning to check on your condition, physical or otherwise, would have been a waste of time. Detaining the criminals was what mattered most. By the time I was finished you were probably moving around on your own anyway. There was no need to worry about you anymore."

"Well you still didn't have to leave the museum and city so quickly afterward either. I'm sure a lot of other people wanted to thank you too."

"I spoke to the people in charge of the museum as well as key staff members working there at the time. When I was done there was no point in staying so I left."

"But I wanted to thank you too."

"You spoke a word of thanks before I left you. That was all that was necessary."

"Not to me it wasn't! You kept that man from hurting me or worse. I wanted to thank you properly in person, but I didn't get the chance before you left."

Akuma sighed and shook his head. If it would make the noisy girl leave him alone he would have to humor her. "Very well, I'll accept it." He held his hand expecting her to give him something, but she just stared at his hand questioningly. "Well what else do you want?" Akuma pressed her.

"That uh… wasn't what I had in mind actually," she said hesitantly.

"Well hurry it up then, I don't have all day."

The girl looked at the ground and squirmed slightly while Akuma grew more impatient.

"If you aren't going to do anything I need to leave now. I'm pressed for ti- augh!" The girl had tackled Akuma in a tight hug and was leaning forward as if to kiss him! Akuma quickly stuck a hand between their faces and pushed the girl away and off him before she could do anything more. "None of that. What are you doing?" he almost yelled at her.

"What do you mean?" the girl asked timidly while she blushed. Akuma was nearly surprised at the drastic volume change. "Isn't that what all guys would want, or something like that?"

"Infernape, if she tries that again hit her with a mach punch. I'm not like most guys. Do that again and you'll be eating your meals through a straw," he growled at her.

"But why wouldn't you…? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were… one of those kinds of guys."

Akuma wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed, insulted, or angrier. "I am not, I'm straight! Male to female only here."

"Uh… so you have a girlfriend then, right?"

"Oh for the love of… No I don't. I just don't like any form of intimacy. Stop with the crazy talk already."

"Say who what now? But that doesn't make any sense. You can't be completely against stuff like that."

"I have no reason to take time to explain the ins and outs of my beliefs regarding those kinds of relations," Akuma carefully said. "My reasons are my reasons and my business only. You don't deserve to know anything about me on that level or any other for that matter. You don't owe me a thing and you put the favor on a much higher level than it deserves. I saved you because I didn't want to have a nagging conscience later on. I never expected repayment or any form of gratitude, much less running into you again at any time."

"Maybe so, but I still kind of… um… like you that way." The girl looked down at her toes as she spoke, unable to look Akuma in the eye.

Akuma tried to contain himself. He hated it when he had to put up with love-struck females. "No you do not. You have a crush, that's all it is and all it will ever be. You are looking for and pursuing emotions that are not real. You are only misinterpreting core feelings of gratitude for romantic longing. I know what I'm talking about. You aren't the first and I can guarantee you won't be the last by a long shot. If you've got time to think about love you aren't training your Pokémon hard enough. You won't get anything but a knife in the heart when you notice it for yourself unless you fix your heart and your head right now."

"I guess you're right." The girl looked up at him with a satisfied smile. "I suppose since you've got experience with that kind of stuff you'd know best wouldn't you?"

"Believe me I've got more experience than I care to. I'm not your type either."

"Oh, and what is my type?"

Busted. Akuma thought to himself. "I don't have a clue, but it's not me at all. I'm the kind that would make you afraid to run into me, not cause happiness. I am brutal, merciless, crude, and a loner. I can tell that you don't want to be around my type of person."

"Aren't you selling yourself short? You can't be all that."

"No, I am 'all that' and more. My Pokémon are evidence of that."

"They seem alright to me. I can tell you've raised them well enough to be great battlers. That's a good trait to have is it not?"

Akuma shook his head. "You obviously aren't getting the point. Infernape, show her your flamethrower attack from the time before we began practicing."

Infernape complied by blowing a red hot flamethrower down the road that came close to the grass, but didn't ignite anything.

"Wow, that was a pretty controlled flamethrower. How long did you work on that?" the girl asked.

"We didn't. That was an uncontrolled flamethrower attack of low power compared to others Infernape is capable of doing. There was too much color in the flames and the damage that would have been inflicted was sparse. Now show her your full power flamethrower attack, Infernape. And you might want to give him some room," he added as he took a few steps back.

Once people and Pokémon were at a safe distance, Infernape crouched to the ground on all fives for support and inhaled deeply. Aiming at the sky, he fired an explosive flamethrower of incredible size and power which discolored the grass and rocks around him. When the attack was launched a brief ripple of fire popped from Infernape's mouth as well. Instead of a stream of fire the attack was formed as a gigantic ball of fire that stopped its advance after a certain distance. Inside the sphere, fire could be seen swirling and mixing with the gases Infernape was putting out. Akuma and the girl had to turn away from the blast because the heat was so intense. The attack lasted three seconds before Infernape cut the power. The flames even lasted another half second before they were extinguished.

"Sweet mother of Clamperl, what in the name of Arceus was that?" the girl cried out.

"The result of four month's training on nothing but the power of flamethrower attacks," Akuma explained as he slapped at a smoldering piece of fabric on his shirt sleeve. "My Pokémon take after me in the results of training. We are all brutal and efficient with no room for error. Only four other people have been able to get results such as this from intense training. If you thought that was overwhelming you should see Charizard's fire blast, though we aren't done tempering it just yet."

"Uh, I'll definitely pass unless I get five miles of grace in running distance first," the girl replied as her eye twitched at the thought of it. "What about this Totodile? Can it flood a city with a simple water gun?"

"That's probably impossible, even for a Blastoise. Totodile just started training with me. It hasn't learned a sufficient water gun attack yet. Show her what you can do, Totodile." The little Pokémon complied by spitting a water sphere out of its mouth that splashed harmlessly onto a rock a couple feet away. "We're still working on how Totodile needs to be trained at the moment. I think it's more capable than my Infernape and Gastly were when I first met them, but I don't have experience with water Pokémon so I'm learning while I teach. What are you doing?"

The girl was holding open Totodile's mouth so she could look inside. Ignoring Akuma's question she rubbed its back and stomach then asked it to fire another water gun. After Totodile did so three times she nodded and stood up.

"Totodile is having trouble firing its water gun correctly," she stated.

Akuma rolled his eyes. "Brilliant work, detective. Would you like to tell us where babies come from next?"

"That's easy. Pokémon come from Pokémon eggs so babies come from people eggs!" Akuma couldn't tell whether she was joking or incredibly stupid. "But seriously, Totodile can't fire its water gun properly even though it technically should be able to by now. If you're lucky the problem should be fixed once it evolves, but I'd suggest taking it to a specialist who can tell you details for sure. I agree with you though. It feels like your Totodile has a strong set of lungs. If it knew hydro pump I'd wager it could punch a hole through three inches of steel."

Totodile made a face when it heard that comment. "Seems to me this little one is more dangerous than either of us initially thought," Akuma said to himself. "But I have to get going now. I've lost a lot of time here."

"You're right, I'm sorry. I should've guessed you were busy. Thanks for helping my Mareep by the way. We're even since I helped you learn about your Totodile too, but I still owe you for that time back in Pewter City."

"If I ever need assistance from someone outside my associated group I'll contact you," Akuma said with a nod. He pulled a card from one of his vest pockets. "In case you need to get hold of me to return the favor at your best convenience, use this. Only use it in an emergency though. I'll be there almost instantly."

The girl looked at the front and back of the card confusingly. "Um, who will I be asking for?"

"What?"

"Your name, what is it? It would be proper to know the name of the person I'm calling wouldn't it?"

"Akuma Masurao. Don't try to spell that, just remember how it sounds."

"Brianna Rennis."

"What is that?"

"My name is Brianna Rennis. I'm not a name leech."

"Very well Brianna. I'll remember you next time I see you. Farewell."

Akuma returned his Pokémon, including Totodile, to their poké balls and walked down the road with Cubone at his feet. After a few minutes he looked behind him to see if she was following him, which she wasn't. Finally alone he resumed his usual frown.

"Women," he said to nobody.

Brianna watched Akuma leave then turned down the road to Vermillion City. Even though she had been rejected, she walked away with a smile on her face. She was humming a song in her head when three people dressed in black with a large letter R on their shirts appeared in front of her. Sensing trouble she stopped within listening distance.

"Young lady," the man in front said to her, "we need you to come with us right away."

It might have seemed like another silly and pointless chapter, but this was actually a forced plot point that could have been done so much better. I might have to make a branching path fanfiction just to test how this could have started otherwise for the heck of it. No, I probably won't upload it. Might not even write it either since I'm just thinking out loud. Or something like that. Also I hope you like exposition because I'm putting a massive amount of it into the next two chapters. So much in fact that it would've been too long for a single chapter.

Also I figured out why it took me this long just to put in a concrete plot: I read too many webcomics.