A/N: I hope you guys understand that not all Pokemon battles are going to be written out. I will skirt through some of unimportant ones like you'll see here. Also, some battles will be short. The reason for this is because they are just not important enough and I don't want you guys to read too much crap about the battles. This is a long story. There will be plenty of Pokemon battles to come. It would get monotonous real fast so I do have to make a compromise. So you'll have battles that make up 5% of the chapter, but later on their may be one that takes up more space in a chapter. I just wrote a later chapter where 1/3 of it was all about a Pokemon battle.

I hope I thread that needle of not detracting from the battles while also making the important battles standout. I've already received great criticism on how I've handled the battling and plan to make needed changes for future chapters that I've already written but haven't published yet.

I spent most of today celebrating my victory against Hala by going for a long walk and capturing Pokemon. I captured a Cutiefly, Rattata, Pikipek, Meowth and a Rockruff.

On my way to Ten Carat Hill I saw a Happiny. I wanted to capture it but it got away.

Caleb was busy helping his older sister out with the garden. Apparently, a Pokemon got into it and rummaged the plants destroying most of what was planted. Not gonna lie but Caleb was as mad as I ever seen him. He looked so distressed as we video chatted.

When I hung up wit him I immediately had this idea to create a fertilizer that my dad used to makes back in Hoenn. So I went to the mall to get a few ingredients.

The fertilizer takes about an hour to make. When it finished I quickly left my home to go to his. when I reached Iki Town, however, I was met by a foe.

Castor.

"How are you doing, Splits?" he asked with an evil grin on his face.

"I don't have time for you, Castor."

Once those words came out of my mouth his friends surrounded me. Guess I had all of the time in the world since I have nowhere to escape.

Crud.

"Hehe. You think just because you beat the Kahuna that you are better than me. You are still Splits."

"And you're still a jackass."

His face went from a teasing grin to a vicious glare. Of course, I was quivering in my shoes because I hate being confrontational. I'm not good doing it but I know I need to do it.

"Yo, boss. Want me to rough him up?" the older boy said next to me. I swallowed hard.

Castor shook his head. He reached to his belt and sent out his Pikipek. He wanted a Pokemon battle.

His friends stepped back giving us space. That is when I saw that people were starting to have a wary eye on us. I recognized some of these faces from last night.

Someone coulda stepped in you know. Damn people.

I reached back to send out my Oricorio but then I decided I wanted a rematch of Castor and I's first battle. So I sent out Rowlet instead.

Castor laughed.

"You want your pathetic little Rowlet to lose again? Ha!"

Rowlet did that 180 head twist he likes to do and looked at me. I nodded.

Rowlet took off and slammed his body into Pikipek.

"Sorry, my Rowlet has a mind of it's own. Sometimes it doesn't need me to tell him what to do," I said to Castor with a smirk.

"Peck attack!" Castor bellowed at his recovering Pokemon. Pikipek flew at Rowlet who stood there waiting for it.

"Dodge and use razor leaf." Rowlet hops out of the way of Pikipek and quickly sends a barrage of leaves at Pikipek. "Peck!" I yell. After Pikipek is hit by razor leaf Rowlet quickly charges it and grabs on. Rowlet mischievously smiles at Pikipek.

Pikipek is done, almost too easily.

Castor stands in disbelief. "B-but I had the advantage. I should've won, but I lost in a matter of seconds!"

"Pokemon battles aren't just about advantages and disadvantages. It's about utilizing them to the best of your ability," a familiar voice nearby says.

Hala.

He smiles briefly until he looks at Castor. He is not pleased. "A good trainer knows how to use his Pokemon's advantages to overcome it's disadvantages. An excellent trainer knows how use his opponent's tactics against them." He looked at me again and then back at Castor. "That's how Cameron and his Rowlet embarrassed you and your Pikipek."

Hala's tone was jarring. Never have I seen him so serious and annoyed as he is right now. He is usually a typical jolly old man. Nope, not right now.

"I'm disappointed with how you've taken on the responsibility of being a Pokemon trainer from my island. You better change your ways before you come to face me." Hala grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him and told me to move along. He flashed a smile at me briefly before going back to being serious.

Castor and Iwika haven't completed Illima's trial yet. Somehow I don't think they plan on doing so now.

I composed myself a little bit before I made it to Caleb's house. He and his sister are on their knees digging into the ground and throwing stuff into black bags. Caleb's white tank top is covered in dirt.

The garden looks like it was ravaged by a group of gust-using Pidgeots.

"Hey," I say almost whispering. Caleb turns around and wipes away the sweat and dirt on his forehead. His sister, Vanessa, also looks up and smiles.

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh um I brought something," I said deciding not to mention what just occurred between Castor and I. I reach into my bag and pull out one of the jars of fertilizer. "I made fertilizer. It's something my dad used back in Hoenn. Best fertilizer you'll find."

Sinnoh perfected what is known as fertilizer. However, for some reason it doesn't fit with the Hoenn grounds. So Hoenn had to create their own. However, they were never as good as Sinnoh's. My father did something about that. He shared the fertilizer with our neighbors and his farmer friends, but that's it. He never shared the ingredients with anybody but my mom, Aaron, and me.

His sister gets up and reaches out for the jar. After I hand it to her she opens the lid and smells it. Then she picks some up and rubs it through her hand.

"She loves gardening," Caleb said as if he was apologizing for Vanessa.

She looks at me with a little side eye and a look of confusion. "What berry did you use?"

"Salac. It's a Hoenn specific Berry. My mom grew a few."

Her eyes widened. "You have Salac Berries!?" I nodded my head. "Do you know how much they cost here?" I shook my head. "5,000 PokeDollars. 4,000 if two vendors have it." I mouthed "whoa!"

"Yeah, they are pretty rare in Hoenn too, hard to grow as well. But vendors sell them for 800-1000 a pop."

Vanessa shook her head incredulously. "How did you make this?"

"Oh. Um. This is my dad's recipe. He didn't want us to tell anybody the recipe cause he didn't want it commercialized."

"So what!? I need-"

"Vanessa!" Caleb yelled interrupting his sister.

Vanessa looked down and tugged at her hair. "Shit. Sorry. Um, I shouldn't have said that."

I smiled at her. "It's okay. My mom could make you the fertilizer after I leave." She smiles back and nods.

They finish cleaning up the garden and prepare it for planting. They use the fertilizer I gave them and plant seeds.

I describe the benefits of the fertilizer by saying, "It won't speed up the process. It makes the berries and the plants bigger. So you will likely harvest more berries than normal. Sweet and sour berries will be stronger in taste."

Vanessa seems pretty stoked where Caleb doesn't seem to have a care in the world. We all head into the house where I see my Skitty sleeping on the couch. I didn't even realize he left my side outside. Oops.

Caleb heads off to shower as Vanessa pours herself a drink. Their dad doesn't seem to be home. He travels a lot for work and so I'm guessing that's what he is doing. Their mom is watching tv alongside my Skitty.

Vanessa hands me a cup of Lemonade and sits at the kitchen table where I join her.

"Listen, um I want to apologize again for what I said out there."

I shook my head. "It's okay. I understand. You were blinded by your passion."

There was a brief silence between us. "Caleb told me about your dad. Sounds like he was a good man."

I looked at her with the realization that Caleb has spoken to her about my personal life. I wasn't bothered, just shocked.

"He was."

She smiled briefly and sipped on her lemonade.

I focused on the background noise hearing the show her mom was watching. I also heard the shower still running.

"Uh, so Caleb talks about me?" I ask curiously.

Vanessa looks over to her mother who catches her glance and nodded at me.

"He talks about you a lot, actually," his mom says out of nowhere, surprising me. "It's good to see he has a good friend. Makes me feel better about him going off on this Island Challenge." Her face dropped off slightly but she recovered.

Speaking about friends and Caleb. I never realized how he never seemed to talk about other friends. It's actually like he doesn't have any. I don't understand how he couldn't though. He's such a good person.

"I see," was all I could say.

I sorta felt bad for only saying that but I really wasn't sure what else to say. Ugh.

When Caleb comes out of the shower in just his boxers he peeks into the kitchen, which isn't separated from the family room, he motions me to follow. His mom and sister share another glance at each other, but I think nothing of it as I follow Caleb to his room.

"So you want to get some Malasada in the city?" he asks as he places deodorant under his arms.

I shake my head after I realize I'm staring too much at his abs in the mirror he is standing in front of. "Um yeah sure," I say nervously.

I realize my hands are sweating as I rub the palm of one with the thumb of the other. I take a deep breath, which got Caleb's attention.

"You okay?"

I nod.

"You mom said you talk about me a lot."

His face reddened.

"Um yeah, sorry."

"It's fine. I'm just sorta shocked why anybody would talk about me to anyone really."

He chuckled. "You're a friend and seem like a good guy. It's always good to talk about your friends."

His smile masked something. I couldn't tell what exactly but I knew he was masking something. How would I know, you may ask? Simple; I have unbelievable experience in masking my true feelings behind a simple smile.

It's kind of amazing how you can go about your day doing your thing and you see these strangers. Sometimes you walk by a stranger, smile and say "hello." Then they do the same. Is their smile indicative of anything? Is yours? Probably not. You can meet dozens of people but you don't know if the face they are wearing in that moment is a direct reflection of how they really feel in that moment.

At the Malasada Restaurant, Caleb and I are enjoying our sour malasada's. I have an affinity for sour foods. I know a lot of people can be iffy on it but I've never had something that I found to be too sour. Skitty hate sour foods so I got him his own dry malasada.

Suddenly, Lana appeared in the booth next to us. She was sitting by herself. She tapped me on my shoulder and congratulated me on beating Hala.

"Listen, I'm going to Ula' Ula Island in a couple days to continue my Island Challenge. I can give you two a ride to Akala Island if you'd like."

I looked over at Caleb who shrugged as he downed a forkful of malasada.

"That'd be great, but why would you do that?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm willing to do you a favor and you think their is some ulterior motive behind it?"

"Uh, no. I, just, uh don't know why you would do us a favor. We hardly know each other."

She sighed heavily. "Listen kid."

Kid?! She is literally my age and she is calling me kid?

Kids these days.

"If someone is offering you a favor, just accept it. Not everybody are jackasses like those Team Skull grunts."

I never said that.

I didn't bother to argue. I just apologized.

"Wednesday. 8 AM sharp. Be there or be square."

"Aye aye captain," Caleb responded with a chuckle as she left.

I looked over at Caleb and rolled my eyes. "She called me kid?! The hell she thinks she is?" He chuckled again.

"Cam, the real question is, why did she just come in here to offer us a ride to Akala Island? She didn't order food or anything."

That was a good question. Why would she just come in here to offer a ride? That is so random. Too random.

Outside the Malasada shop a Grimer is causing a commotion. Apparently it ate food from a food vendor. This wasn't a janitor's Grimer. It was wild.

It was mine.

I send out Yungoos and battled the Grimer.

Last night I decided that I wanted to catch all of the Alolan variant Kanto Pokemon. I think it would be cool to be able to have them all. Then maybe one day I'll be able to go to Kanto and capture them. I wonder how they would react to the Alolan varaints of themselves.

Wait. How do they react to the unique shiny versions of themselves then? Has a professor ever studied that interaction?

After capturing Rattata and Meowth earlier I now have a Grimer.

I wonder what other Alolan variants await me on Akala Island.