Chapter 4

"So, this is Santalune Forest, is it?" I asked as I looked around. It was...just about what you would expect from a forest, really, lots of trees, lots of tall grass, lots of leaves all over the ground, you know, a standard forest.

"Serena-san~!" Shauna called out to me. I looked over towards her and she waved. "Come on!"

"'Come on'?" I asked, blinking.

"Yeah, everyone else is further ahead. So come on, let's go catch up with them."

I walked over to her. "You didn't go ahead yourself?"

Shauna grabbed my hand and smiled, which made me blush. "I wanted to travel with Serena-san. I feel like something exciting will happen if I travel with you."

God damn it, Shauna! Did you even know what you were doing to me at that time? Were you just teasing me like this on purpose? I turned away from her and cleared my throat, trying to keep myself from blushing any harder. "W-well, thanks. I-I'm glad I have a guide since I don't know Kalos that well."

Shauna giggled. "Well, I don't know much beyond here, so it'll be an adventure for both of us!"

From there, we began to journey on through Santalune Forest. Unfortunately, aside from Serena being extremely cute the whole time, not much really happened. We passed by Calem a few times, who continued along the path through the forest once we caught up to him. At one point, Shauna also rushed ahead and picked up some things someone had dropped on the ground. She said she was good at noticing things because she liked puzzles and was really good at them.

At one point, we came across a Caterpie. Caterpie are small green bug Pokemon. They resemble something similar to a worm, but have small stubby legs. On each section of its body were small yellow circles on its back, and its face was composed of two big black eyes and a green circle that served as its mouth. It also had a sort of red antenna on the top of its head. Now, I'm not much of one for bug-types, but Butterfree are one of the most beautiful Pokemon I've seen, so I had to catch it. Shauna watched the entire time as I weakened it a bit using my Pidgey, which I had nicknamed Robin at this point. Once weakened with a few well-placed Tackles, I threw a pokeball, catching it easily. "I'll name you Aimi."

"Why 'Aimi'?" Shauna asked as she looked at the pokeball.

"'Aimi' is a Nippon name that means 'love and beauty'. When it evolves into Butterfree, it'll be a beautiful Pokemon that I'll love a lot."

Shauna smiled. "That's really cool. I wish I knew some Nipponese words that I could use for names."

I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "Well, you could always look them up, I guess."

Shauna nodded. "Maybe I'll do that once we get to Santalune City." She took my hand again, this time leaning against me. "Serena-san is so warm." I blushed really heavily. She then began to walk forward, pulling on my arm. "Come on, Serena-san!"

"I'm coming!" I spoke up as she pulled me along. We continued on our adventure through the forest. We came upon a few trainers here and there, each of which I beat down without much difficulty. Finally, I could see the end of the forest in sight, along with the rest of the group.

"PIKA!" I heard a voice shout and I whirled around. In front of me was a yellow rat with red spots on its cheeks. It had a tail in the shape of a lightning bolt, and brown stripes on its back. Its ears ended at a point which had black fur on it. The squeal that came out of Shauna's mouth at that moment was ear-shattering.

"IT'S A PIKACHU!" Shauna screeched so loudly I almost wanted to cover my ears. She rushed forward before I could stop her and picked it up off the ground. "Oh my gosh! It's so cute!"

"Pi..." The Pikachu did not seem amused. "Pika...CHU!" Electricity shot from Pikachu's body, zapping Shauna. She dropped to the ground, releasing the Pikachu as she fell.

"Shauna!" I shouted and rushed to her side. "Are you okay?"

"Fine~" Shauna spoke with a groan.

"Nobody hurts my friends." I pulled out a pokeball. "Let's go, Aimi!" I tossed Aimi's pokeball forward, releasing her in a flash of light.

Pikachu dropped to all fours, readying itself for a fight. "Pikachu!" it shouted and rushed forward.

"String shot!" I shouted. A stream of string shot forward from Aimi's mouth. The Pikachu was caught in the string, and as the string slowly enveloped its body, Pikachu found it harder to move. "Now, Tackle!" Aimi rushed forward, slamming head-long into the Pikachu, knocking it back. I repeated to Tackle it a couple more times before I drew out a pokeball. "All right! Go, pokeball!" I tossed the pokeball forward and the Pikachu absorbed into it. It shook for a moment, but finally stopped and clicked, indicating the capture. "Yes! I caught it!"

"You caught it!" Shauna shouted as she quickly jumped to her feet. "Yay!"

I picked the pokeball up, then held it out to Shauna. "Here, you can have it, I know you wanted one." She had actually mentioned several times in our trip through here how much she wanted one.

"R-really? For me?" Shauna's eyes were big and wide. I could tell she was happy.

I nodded. "Yeap, but you'll owe me something later." I winked at her and she snatched the pokeball from my hands.

"I got a Pikachu!" Shauna held the pokeball high above her head proudly.

"Well...you can hold it for now. We'll have to get the signature changed at the Pokemon Center."

"'Signature'?" Shauna blinked, looking down at the pokeball. "What's that?"

"Every Pokemon we catch is labeled with a 'signature' of our own when we catch it. This allows us and only us to use pokeballs on that Pokemon. It's a safety measure to keep other trainers from stealing our Pokemon. As well, it helps us as trainers control our Pokemon better. It's the reason you can catch a Pokemon and use it right away and have it obey you. That's why we have to get the signature changed, because it has my signature and not yours."

Shauna nodded slowly. "I...think I understand that..." She looked up at me. "You know a lot about Pokemon, Serena-san."

I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "Well, I went to the Pokemon Trainer School, that's part of why I know so much."

Shauna gave me a determined look. "Teach me everything you know!"

"Ah...umm..." I looked away nervously. "That...would take a long time...you're probably better learning by yourself since you didn't go to a Trainer School."

Shauna frowned. "Aww, all right." She turned, seeing the others ahead. "Calem! Trevor! Tierno!" She rushed ahead and I followed along slowly behind her. I stopped about halfway, then turned back to the forest. This...had been a pretty enjoyable journey so far. Sure, it wasn't Kanto, but a lot reminded me of it. I had friends again, there were a lot of familiar Pokemon here, and even the beginning of Santalune Forest reminded me of Viridian Forest back home. I turned back to my group of friends. I wondered how open these friends would be with me, what they would be okay with. I knew that before I tried anything, I should get to know them better, but I just wasn't used to going a long time without sex, and it had been a long time since I had done it last.

I quickly swatted the thought away and stepped up towards the group. "Pokemon have fantastic moves!" Tierno spoke with a smile as he jumped around. I can only assume he was trying to dance.

"Really now, is that all you can think of, Tierno? Dancing?" Trevor asked.

"I can't help it, I love to dance."

"We should probably get moving," Calem spoke up. "We've been in this forest much longer then the average beginning trainer spends in here. Santalune Forest usually only takes a couple of hours, and we've been here almost the entire day." I hadn't even noticed! The sun was already starting to set, creating a beautiful orange glow across the sky. It made me think the sky was on fire.

"Yeah, we should get going," I chimed in. "Can we make Santalune City by nightfall?"

Calem nodded. "With ease if we go now."

"Then let's go."

Shauna smiled and grabbed my hand. "I'm going to stay with you." I didn't mind that Shauna seemed to be so attached to me but...it made me wonder why she was. Did she like me? I didn't really understand her. We all made our way out of Santalune Forest and began walking off towards the north. I could see Santalune City from here, and it looked amazing! The path to Santalune was pretty much straight, with only a couple small turns at the end. It didn't take long at all for us to get there, though, and when we arrived I was even more amazed.

The city was about as big as Viridian City, which is to say that it's not very big. However, there was a Pokemon Center, a sort of hospital for Pokemon, as soon as you entered the city. There were also a few shops here and there, but what really caught my eye was the huge fountain in the center. The fountain was shaped like a Roselia, which is a green grass-type Pokemon with flowers for hands. Water flowed out of the flowers and down into the rest of the fountain, which then spilled out into another layer below it. The sidewalk around the fountain was a circular design with little points coming out from the fountain to the ends of the circle.

The entire place was absolutely gorgeous, and for a moment I thought I could just get lost in this place. "Let's go to the Pokemon Center, they'll give us rooms to stay tonight," Calem suggested.

"Pokemon Centers will give you rooms to sleep at?" Shauna gasped.

"Well...yeah..." I spoke out slowly. I was starting to realize why there was a Trainer School now, not that I had questioned it much before anyway. "Sorry...this kind of information is just kind of normal for most people to know..."

Shauna frowned. "Well, I didn't go to a Trainer School, remember? I don't know as much as you and Calem do."

"I know...sorry, I'm used to people going to a Trainer School before they become a trainer."

Shauna smiled and put her hands together behind her back. "No worries."

"Anyway, let's get going." Calem turned and walked off towards the Pokemon Center. Tierno and Trevor followed after, but Shauna stayed near me. I started towards the Pokemon Center, and Shauna followed close behind.

We all entered the Pokemon Center, being greeted by the local Nurse Joy. I wasn't sure if every nurse was named "Joy" or if "Nurse Joy" was a title, because it seemed like every Pokemon Center had a "Nurse Joy" in it, and they always ran the counter. Of course, they also all looked the same. I had a theory that all Nurse Joys were clones of an original Nurse Joy, but I never actually said anything. Mostly because clone technology supposedly wasn't capable of something like that yet. I disagreed with that, though, because after all, it was a clone who had caused so much trouble years back in Kanto. I'm referring to the whole "Mewtwo Incident". If you don't know it, just read Amanda Kujiro's autobiography, she was the one who stopped it.

That thought aside, Nurse Joy was a beautiful young woman. She had pink hair that she had tied up into circular pigtails, and she was pretty tall, about six foot. She's was also very well endowed, which always reminded me of how not-so-well-endowed I was. I mean, I wasn't flat or anything, my chest size was 88 cm, after all, but even so...she was still bigger then me. She wore a pretty simple nurse's outfit, consisting of a dress that was pink on the upper half and white on the lower half. She also had bright and sincere blue eyes.

"Wow!" Shauna looked around the Pokemon Center in bewilderment. "This place is amazing!"

Tierno nodded. "See the PC over there?" He pointed off to a computer standing in front of the counter, which Nurse Joy stood behind. "You know how when you have more then 6 Pokemon, your Pokemon are sent to the PC Box? Well, that's how you can access it. You can withdraw and deposit Pokemon from that PC, as well as storing items you don't need."

Shauna's eyes went big and she ran over to the PC. "Wow!" She pushed a button on the computer, then looked at it in confusion when it didn't do anything. "I don't know how it works..."

I giggled and walked over to her. "First off, you have to log on with your Trainer ID, which none of us have yet, so we can't even use it. But after that, it'll load up a menu that is simple to use by touching the screen." I pointed down at a small black object that stuck out just below the screen. It had a circular indent in it. "You just put a pokeball or item here and you can transfer it to your PC. Likewise, if the slot is empty, you can use the PC to transfer the Pokemon out of the system and it will materialize their pokeball here for you to take. Of course, if you have more then six Pokemon, you can't withdraw anymore."

"How does it know how many you have?"

I shrugged. I honestly didn't know that one. "It just does." I turned and pointed to the back of the Pokemon Center. "And if you look back there, you can see the Poke Mart."

"Oh!" Shauna jumped up and down. "I can buy all kinds of stuff from there, right? Like potions and pokeballs and things?"

I nodded. "Once you have your Trainer ID, yes. They won't let you buy anything otherwise."

"Aww," Shauna frowned. She then got perky again. "Where do we go to get our Trainer IDs?"

"You can do that right here, actually," Nurse Joy chimed in with a smile. She pulled out a large form with about five pages and set it on the counter. "Just fill that out and we'll get you started."

"We'll need five of those," Calem spoke up as he stepped up to the counter. "All five of us are registering today."

Nurse Joy nodded, then pulled out four more forms and handed one to each of us. We spent a good while filling out the forms, and once we were done, Nurse Joy had each of us take turns getting our picture taken for our IDs. "Your IDs should be ready for you tomorrow, as long as there's no complications. Would you all like rooms to stay in tonight?"

"That would be appreciated."

Nurse Joy turned to her own computer and loaded up a list. "Hmm...seems we only have two rooms left."

"Can we fit five people in those two rooms?"

Nurse Joy scratched her head. "Maybe? If people sleep on the floor you might."

Calem nodded. "We'll let the girls take the beds, us guys can sleep on the floor."

"I don't think so!" Shauna shouted, which shocked everyone, even me. "It's not proper for girls and boys to sleep in the same room. Serena-san and I will take get one, you boys can have the other."

"Sh-Shauna...I don't mind-" I didn't get any further then that.

"Boys sleep in their room and girls sleep in another room," Shauna retorted. I just couldn't argue.

"All right, but that means either you and Serena will be on the floor," Calem spoke with a shrug.

"I-it's fine, Calem," I quickly threw out. "We'll worry about that ourselves."

Calem shrugged. "All right." He turned. "Well, see you girls in the morning then." Calem, Tierno, and Trevor all walked off, heading to the upstairs rooms. After a moment, Shauna and I made our way up as well.

Once we were in our rooms, I sat down on the bed and took my hat off. I undid my ponytail, then looked towards Shauna who was looking around the small room we were in. There wasn't much in here, just a small bed and a bathroom. "So, do you want the bed?" I asked.

Shauna walked over to the bed and sat down next to me. She leaned against me, and I was surprised to find that she fell asleep in an instant. I carefully laid her down on the bed, then covered her in a blanket. "Good night, Shauna." I kissed her gently on the cheek. I then grabbed another blanket and lied it out on the floor. I quickly changed out of my clothes and into a pair of pajamas before lying down myself, soon drifting into sleep.