Chapter 10: In Pursuit of a Dream

Takeshi looks down at his Pokégear and sends out a text message. A couple of minutes after he sends it, a short, blonde girl walks outside of her Poké Mart and looks around. He places the Pokégear back in his pocket and makes his way over to the girl.

"Takeshi-kun!" The girl waves to him from the shop.

"Konnichiwa, Ai-chan." He limps into the shop, scratches and bites covering his body. His body is soaking wet from the rain that came out of nowhere.

"What happened to you?" Ai looks him over as they enter the shop.

"It's a long story," He looks over at Ryota who is still finishing up the cleaning from earlier, as he sits down in a chair. Ryota tosses him a towel, and he starts to dry off his body.

Ai grabs a first aid kit and starts cleaning his wounds as he rips off the remainder of his shirt. He winces as she pours rubbing alcohol onto his skin and starts wiping it down. Ryota grabs his chair from behind the counter and sits down next to Takeshi.

"So, guessing your day ended well." Takeshi looks at him and glares. "Hey. I had a bad day as well. Some dumb teenagers came in here and wrecked the place. Well, Ai-chan wrecked the place but they were the cause."

"Teenagers?" Takeshi's interest is peaked. "How many?"

"Four, I think." He thinks about it for a moment. "Yeah, four of them. Three guys and a really cute girl."

"Lecher." Ai says under her breath.

"Four of them and one is a cute girl..." He stands up suddenly then winces and slams back down in his seat.

"You have to let me finish or you'll get an infection." She continues to clean his wounds making him wince more from the stinging of the alcohol.

"That must have been my target. She managed to escape me earlier thanks to Kyoko-chan."

"Izumi-senpai was in here earlier. She got fixed up with an amazing disguise. Maybe she went after your target. If I had known, I would have stopped them when they came in here."

"Hey. I offered for her to stay with me. Unfortunately, Ai-chan stopped me." Ryota leans back in his chair and stares up at the ceiling.

"Pfft. Like she would have stayed with your dumb ass anyway." Ai sticks her tongue out at her brother.

"It's fine. She's proving to be quite difficult to acquire. I will get her though. She is very valuable to what Sakaki-sama wants." He stares up at the ceiling as Ai finishes cleaning his wounds. 'I have to capture her or my perfect record is gone. Plus, I've never had a woman like that turn me down before. She will be mine.'

Takeshi's Pokégear starts going off in his tattered pants pocket. He takes it out of his pocket seeing Kyoko's name pop up on the screen. He scowls and places it back into his pocket after muting her call.

"Who was that?" Ai asks him as she starts bandaging up his limbs.

"No one important." He looks over at Ryota. "Hey."

"Yeah?"

"I need to borrow some of your clothes. I need civilian clothes though. I'm going to ride Arcanine into the next town and see if I can catch up with the targets. I need some way to blend in a lot better."

Ai finishes bandaging him up and picks up her trash, taking it to the trashcan. Takeshi stands up and stretches as he thanks her. She empties all of the dirty cotton balls into the trashcan and offers for Takeshi to take a quick shower. He agrees and tells her that he'll make sure to keep his bandages as dry as possible. Ryota stands up and follows Takeshi out of the room and down the stairs to his extra wardrobe. He turns on the light and opens a brown, wooden door. Inside the room is a large wardrobe bigger than most females. In fact, it is even bigger than Ai's normal wardrobe and her extra one combined.

"You have way too many clothes for a straight man." Takeshi says as he looks over the rows of hanging clothes and boxes of shoes.

"I wouldn't complain if I was you. You'll be happy that I always have something for the occasion."

~Back to our Main Party~

Rina pulls out another sandwich from her bag as she watches the rain fall outside. She takes a bite of her food as Michio sits down next to her. She swallows and reaches around in her bag grabbing a ripe banana she received from the villagers. She peels it and hands it to Mankey who starts chattering happily. She pulls out a bag of Pokémon food and opens it, placing it in front of Vixy. Vixy sticks her muzzle into the bag and starts eating.

"So, what are your plans? I know you want to train to become a better trainer. There is a gym in the next town. It would be a good place for you to start. Even if you don't defeat him, you'll at least get a better grasp of how trainer battles are supposed to go. Besides, you'll have to fight the warmer trainers first before you'll even be able to fight the gym leader."

She swallows another bite of sandwich, "Well, I want to catch and see more Pokémon. Right now, I only have one extra in my party."

Mankey's ears perk up as he listens to their conversation. Rina releases a Pokéball and brings out her Rattata, freshly healed by Nurse Joy earlier. She sets down another small bag of food for him, tossing in a couple of pieces of cheese. Rattata happily eats his food as Mankey finishes his banana.

"Well, we can do some training in the woods tomorrow since the rain should let up by then. Those two may get bored though." He tilts his head towards Seiji and Daisuke as they head over towards them.

They both sit down next to them and Seiji asks, "So, what are you guys talking about?"

"I'm going to do some training tomorrow," Rina responds.

"That sounds cool. I would practice for the contest coming up, but I don't really know how. I mean, I've done some research but not enough to really understand what I'm doing." He takes a bite of an apple.

Michio stares at him and ponders. He pulls out his Pokégear and starts sending a text message to someone. He waits a couple of minutes for a response and his Pokégear vibrates. He stares down at it as a smile appears on his face.

"I have a friend who I met months ago during my journey. She's an amazing coordinator and loves training other people. She said she would meet us in the next town since she isn't far away, and she actually has an apprentice spot open. She said she would gladly train you if you wanted her to. This is an amazing opportunity."

"What's her name?" Seiji and Daisuke ask at the same time followed by Daisuke also asking, "Is she cute?"

Michio blatantly ignores Daisuke's question but responds to Seiji's, "Her name is Yukimura Katsumi. You should know her name is you've ever watched a contest battle."

Seiji's eye grow wide with disbelief, "Really? No way! She's like an idol in the contest world! She is the regional champion in 4 out of 5 contest types. She was in the semi finals for the Tough Contest."

"Really. She said she's taking a much needed break and wants to relax for a while. She said she would love training someone. It would be great publicity for her." Michio looks over at him with a serious look on his face, "So, what do you say?"

"Oh my Arceus...that would be amazing!" Seiji looks over at Rina and looks down at his shoes thinking, 'Team Rocket is still after Rina. I don't know if I can leave her behind like this. Then again, I'm not much help to her right now. Michio will watch after her. I can't let this opportunity slip past me.'

Right as Seiji opens his mouth to speak, Rina cuts him off, "Go on and do it! It's a very rare chance for something like this to happen. Besides, I know about your poster of her in your room. The one from her bikini shoot."

Rina giggles as Seiji blushes. "Be quiet about that! People will hear you," he says in a hushed tone.

"Well...?" Michio looks at him awaiting a response.

"Well, if Rina-chan is okay with me leaving…" He looks over at her, and she smiles, nodding in agreeance. "I will do it."

"Great!" Michio looks back down at his Pokégear and sends a new message. Within a minute he has a response. "Okay, she said she'll meet us tomorrow at noon. We'll use Abra and teleport there since we've been there before. Let me see. The next town should be Suisen Machi."

"Thank you so much!" Seiji gives Michio an awkward hug.

Daisuke pets his Eevee on the head and asks, "I want to be a breeder. Would you happen to know of anyone that could teach me?"

"So...you want to watch Pokémon have sex for a living? To each their own, I guess." Michio sends out another text message waiting for a reply.

"I want to study evolutions and breeding. I want to understand more about the nature of Pokémon," he retorts.

"Meaning you want to watch Pokémon have sex. Bow chicka bow wow." His Pokégear vibrates in his hand as a message pops up on his screen.

"What did she say?" He asks excitedly.

"Well, he said that he would be glad to teach you." He puts an emphasis on the 'he' portion.

"Aww, really? How come I can't get a girl?"

"Would you want the long list or the short list?" Michio responds with a straight face.

Daisuke glares at him. "You know what I meant."

"Yes. I do know what you mean, and he will teach you. So, what do you say? I can always drop you off at his Daycare Center between Himawari Machi and Kiko Machi."

"I don't know. I was hoping it would be a girl." He slumps down in his seat and sighs.

"Oh, stop being a pervert." Rina tosses a Pokémon treat at him. Trixie jumps up and catches it with her mouth, happily munching on it. "You should do it. It would be awesome. You would learn a lot. You two don't want to be trainers so going further with me would be pointless. Thank you for accompanying me to the first town, but I don't want to hold you back from your dreams."

He sits and contemplates it. "I suppose you're right." He looks over at Michio and nods his head.

"Awesome. I'll let Hayashi-san know." He sends another message and receives a response almost instantly. "He said that he'll be back at his center tomorrow. His wife and assistant have been watching the place for him while he ran some errands in Himawari Machi."

"I can't wait." He looks down at his Eevee curled up in his lap and continues to pet her fur as she snuggles up to him. 'I'll finally get to truly understand you, Trixie-chan.'

Michio yawns and stretches as he stands up. "Well, guys, I'm going to bed. We'll leave first thing in the morning so we can do a little traveling before I actually teleport us to the next town. Who knows? You may see a new Pokémon."

Rina finishes off her dinner and wraps up her Pokémon's leftover food, placing it back in her bag. She stands up and looks down at the floor. She picks up Rattata and Vixy and lethargically takes them into the room Nurse Joy assigned her for the night. Mankey follows closely behind her making sure to stick his tongue out at Michio before leaving his sight. She closes the door behind them, leaving her male companions in the main lobby by themselves.

"Is Rina-chan going to be okay?" Daisuke asks.

"She will be fine. We've all known each other since we were kids. She's probably trying to be happy for everyone but doesn't want to feel lonely." Michio puts his Pokégear back in his pocket. "We'll all spend a great last day together. She'll realize that this isn't a forever goodbye. She'll see you guys the further along her journey she goes. It'll become a nice treat for her to be able to reunite with her friends and be able to brag about how much stronger she's gotten."

"Maybe. I hope she feels better about it in the morning. Our mother told us to watch after her, but I think you can do a much better job of that than we can." Seiji looks over at his brother for confirmation.

"Yeah. you're more equipped for handling large Pokémon and Team Rocket than we are." Daisuke picks up on his brother's hints.

"Uh huh." He responds skeptically as he looks back and forth between the brothers. "In any case, lets discuss this in the morning. I'm ready to take a shower and go to bed. I suggest you do the same. Night guys."

He waves to them as he walks off and enters the same room Rina did. He passes Rina, who has already curled up in her bed. Her Pokémon are already curled up at her feet attempting to sleep. Mankey looks up at Michio and watches him grab clothes and walk out of the room. He latches onto Rina and closes his eyes drifting off into a peaceful sleep.

~The Next Morning~

Michio wakes up from his deep slumber and looks over to see Rina's empty bed next to his. He sits up and pushes the sheets off of his body. He stretches and hops out of bed making it squeak it response. He slips on a pair of socks and shoes and places his finger in front of his lips as a couple of his Pokémon look up at him curiously. They see the signal and close their eyes, going back to sleep. Seiji and Daisuke lie sprawled out on their beds, snoring loudly.

He wraps his hair back in a ponytail as he heads out the cracked open door. The lobby is completely empty and creepily quiet. He walks up to the counter and asks Nurse Joy where his female companion went off to. She replies that she left about half an hour ago and went outside saying she needed fresh air to think properly. Michio thanks her and heads outside the Pokémon Center. He looks around the small clearing in the middle of town and catches the silhouette of a person underneath a tree. He walks over to the person and soon notices that it is indeed Rina sitting under the tree.

"Hey." He calls out to her as he approaches her.

"Hey…" she says in a quiet tone.

He sits down next to her lying his back up against the tree. He looks over at her noticing the wet lines connecting her eyes to her cheeks. He reaches his hand over and wipes the tears from her flushed cheeks. She looks over at him through her long, blue hair, hiding most of her face. He pulls her hair back uncovering her face and noticing her red eyes.

"It'll be okay. They won't be gone forever. Besides, I'll stay with you as long as I can," he reassures her.

"I know...but...I can't help but be sad. They are my friends. I don't want them to leave. What if I never see them again?" She asks as her voice starts to break up as she holds back more tears.

"You will. Look, where they're going, you'll see them as you go further in your journey. Besides, you'll make new friends. It seems like you already have one." He looks up in the tree as Mankey sits there watching them from a high branch.

"I guess so. It's just so hard for me to digest. It happened so quickly. We've only been on this journey a few days now."

"I know, but I didn't have any companions to join me when I started my journey. I had people I occasionally travelled with if we were going to the same place, but when they got where they needed to go, we said our goodbyes and left. I will stay with you as long as I can. I promise. I want to watch you grow into a great trainer."

She wraps her arms around his waist and starts crying into his chest. A shocked look forms on his face as he feels his shirt grow damp from her tears. He rubs her back and wraps his other arm around her as he comforts her. Mankey glares at him from the top of the branch but stays on his perch. After minutes of loud sobbing and crying, she finally stops. She lets go of him and breaks free of his grasp. She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand and looks down at the mess on his shirt.

"I'm so sorry!" she apologizes profusely.

"It's fine." He takes his shirt off and hands it to her. "Just use this since I don't have a tissue on me at the moment."

She hesitates but takes the shirt when he tells her that she already has her tears and snot all over the front of it anyway. She blows her nose into his shirt as he tries not to laugh at her. 'She sounds like a baby elephant. That's so cute.'

She finishes wiping her nose and holds on to his shirt. "I'll wash it for you."

"That's good. Now, please don't cry anymore. Lets go have a fun day together. I know an amazing place to eat in Suisen Machi. It's called Kinglers. They have great food. I can spring for us to eat a nice lunch there." He stands up and brushes off his shorts.

"That sounds great!" She smiles and lifts herself up from the ground. "Lets go get the others!"

They both start walking back to the Pokémon Center when Mankey jumps off of his perch in the tree and lands gracefully on the ground. He runs over catching up to Rina and grabs her hand, stopping her. She looks down at the monkey Pokémon and leans down to his level.

"Do you need something?" she asks him.

He points to one of her Pokéballs and then points to himself as he starts chattering excitedly.

"I think he wants you to catch him," Michio tells her as he looks down at the Mankey.

"You think so?"

A confused look forms on her face as she pulls one of her empty Pokéballs off of her belt and tosses it at Mankey. The ball opens up causing a red beam of light to connect Mankey with the ball. Mankey gets sucked into the ball as it closes and falls to the ground. It teeters back and forth on the ground as the button in the middle flashes red. It stops moving, and she bends down to pick it up off the ground.

"I have a Mankey!" she says excitedly as she places the ball back on her belt. "Maybe today won't be so bad after all."

Author's Notes: Thank you all for your patience with my new chapter. ^_^ I hope you enjoyed it! I had mixed feelings on how I was going to do this chapter, but I think it came out well. Please let me know what you think! See you next time!