Perhaps this kind of unease that May often felt came from Steven? Just knowing that he was on the same island as her was enough to make her feel uncomfortable. However, when she went out to have fun with Brendan, Wally, and Lisia, she could clear her mind for a few hours. She forgot about the pressure of the PML and her complicated feelings towards Steven.

Today, they were heading to the beach with Serena, Calem, and Korrina to all swim together. Some trainers from different ages were already settled with their towels and umbrellas, but there was still plenty of free space to sit. Lisia chose to be as close to the water as possible and dropped her belongings on the sand. May sat next to her and their other friends followed suit, laying out their towels and taking off their shoes.

"The view is magnificent, don't you think? Water as far as the eye can see... My uncle would be thrilled," Lisia mused.

"Yes, it's beautiful," Wally agreed.

"Come on Lucario, you can join in the fun with us," Korrina said, throwing her Poke Ball into the air.

"You're right Korrina, our Pokemons deserve to have some fun too," Brendan thought as he called out his Sceptile. "I know water isn't your thing, buddy, but you can still play in the sand."

May freed her Blaziken, knowing he enjoyed rolling in the warmth of Hoenn's beaches, even if she would have to spend at least an hour afterward to clean his feathers full of sand.

"Alright, are you all planning to sunbathe?" Calem asked. "Because I came here specifically to enjoy the water."

The young man was already taking off his shirt.

"Same here," Brendan said. "I want to go swimming... and what about you, girls? What do you want to do?"

Even though he was supposed to be addressing Korrina, Serena, and May as well, he was only looking at Lisia.

"I'm coming," she replied. "I just need to apply some sunscreen."

"Have you already put on your swimsuit?"

"Yeah, I'm ready. Sorry to disappoint you, Brendan, but you won't get to catch a girl changing today."

The young man smiled nervously.

"Come on, Lis, I'm not that kind of guy..."

"I know. It's called a joke, you silly."

May could see that Brendan and Lisia had become closer recently; her best friend even came up with a nickname, "Lis"(which was completely lame) for the coordinator. Coming from Brendan, this kind of attention was a sign that you had won his special affection.

"But why do you say I'm silly? That's mean."

"Well, you call May captain all the time, so I found you a nickname too."

"Yes, but my nicknames are nicer than yours."

"Oh my, are they always like that?" Korrina chuckled, looking at May.

"Lisia, no... Brendan, quite often."

"You mean all the times?" Wally asked, laughing.

"May! Wally!" the young man reacted, pretending to be hurt. "I thought we were friends..."

Lisia burst into laughter. May loved seeing both of them in such high spirits. A few months ago, she couldn't have imagined that her best friend would get along so well with the Pokemon contest star. Those two seemed too different for that. But in reality, both of her friends radiated the same joy and shared an enthusiasm that motivated their entire team. The tournament wouldn't have been the same without them.

"Okay guys, the last one in the water is a soaked Torchic!" Brendan shouted, jumping into the ocean, followed by Calem and Wally.

"Tsss, he's so immature," Lisia sighed, while continuing to apply sunscreen on her arms.

May waited until the three young women began to change before taking off her own top and shorts. Even though she was among friends, she felt a little embarrassed about showing herself in a swimsuit in front of everyone. Fortunately, she quickly realized that nobody was judging her. Serena, Korrina, and Lisia were too eager to enjoy the ocean to pay attention to her appearance.

"Enjoy the warmth, Delphox," Serena said to her partner, who had comfortably settled on the sand. "We'll be back soon."

Since none of them had a water type Pokemon, all their partners preferred to have fun on the beach rather than join them in the water. May waved quickly to her Blaziken before running to the ocean, thinking that she would feel more at ease once immersed in the water.

"Ah, May, the soaked Torchic is you," Brendan teased as she cautiously entered the water. "Well, I guess it makes sense..."

"Is it your mission to be the most annoying person in the world today?" Lisia scolded him.

"Sorry... I need to relax a bit after all these battles... I'm not a machine."

"Me neither, and this nice swim was everything I needed," Korrina said. "Our next battle will be against my friends, some other Kalos gym leaders, and it's putting a slight pressure on me. I don't know if we'll be able to win."

"May also say that every time, and look, we always win," Brendan reassured her. "By the way, Calem and Serena, haven't you already defeated all the gym leaders from Kalos?"

"Yes, but it wasn't under the same conditions..." Serena replied. "You see, in Kalos, the gym leaders adapt themselves to our training level. The first gym leader I defeated, Viola, used beginner level Pokemons to battle me; otherwise, I wouldn't have stood a chance against her."

"Oh, I see... In Hoenn, we have to face the gyms in a certain order because the gym leaders don't all use Pokemons with the same experience. We have to go to Rustboro first to defeat Roxanne, and only if we win there, we can go challenge Brawly, and so on until we get all the badges."

"Oh no, that doesn't sound fun," Calem complained. "You can't really travel wherever you want, then?"

"Not really," Wally confirmed, "all trainers follow the same roads. But it also allows trainers to meet up at different stages of our journey. May and I often ran into each other because of that."

"Yeah," May remembered with a smile. "And there was Brendan, who always wanted to do everything before me: be the first to visit the cities, evolve his Pokemons or get all his badges.."

"So you've always been that immature," Lisia chuckled, splashing water at the young man.

"Yeah, I could see that you were doing better than me in all of our battles," Brendan admitted, wiping his face with his arm. "So I tried to boost my self-esteem whenever I could... yet that didn't stop you from surpassing me..."

May looked for something to say, like that he had become very strong too, but before she could say it out loud, Wally changed the subject:

"Anyway, if I ever have to go through a Pokemon journey again, I think I'll try the Kalos gyms. The league there seem really powerful."

"Thanks, Wally," Korrina answered. "We do our best."

"I'd like to go back to Kalos too," Calem said. "To have a coffee in Lumiose City. The atmosphere there is so cool, with all those people on rollers and those super stylish Furfrou."

"Rollers are the best, and it's still us who make the best coffees," Korrina laughed.

"Hahaha... let's stop talking about Lumiose City like that or I'm going to get homesick," Serena sighed.

May loved these light-hearted conversations with her friends. It ignited a little something within her, the taste of adventure, of discovery, that she had forgotten since becoming so deeply connected to the Hoenn league. Like Wally, she wished she could start a journey through a new region, have new experiences and learn new things about Pokemons.

Perhaps she became successful too quickly. Maybe she should have taken more time to grow with her team before challenging the elite four and the Hoenn champion. She only thought about being the strongest back then. But if she had had years of training experience like Cynthia or Lance before becoming a champion, she would probably be much more confident in her abilities than she was now.

"Kalos is also where a major discovery for Pokemon battles comes from..." Korrina went on. "Mega evolution."

"Yeah! Did you guys knew that we owe these new insights thanks to the researches of Korrina's grandfather?" Calem asked them, excited.

"What? Your grandfather?" Brendan repeated, looking at Korrina with wide eyes.

"Yes, he's even called the Mega Evolution guru in Kalos. That's thanks to him that I am one of the few gym leaders who can mega evolve my Lucario... Without my grandfather, I would have never mastered this."

"He also provided us with our Mega Bracelets," Calem added.

"Yes, and then we had an amazing battle of Lucarios! Do your guys remember?"

"Of course, it was so awesome!"

"Wow, Korrina, you're so lucky... Your grandfather must have taught you so many things," Wally mused.

"Yes, and still, no one has managed to fully understand all the mechanisms behind Mega Evolution: how does it happen, and why some Pokemon are capable of it while others don't have this ability...? But wait, you have bracelets too!" Korrina noticed by looking at Brendan, Wally and May. "Who gave them to you?"

Since May had no intention of answering that question, Brendan volunteered to respond on her behalf:

"Steven Stone. He's very interested in mega evolution as well."

"Yeah, anything related to stones..." Lisia joked.

"Oh of course! It comes back to me now: he came to Kalos to study with my grandfather a few years ago," the gym leader remembered.

"Yeah, he's always traveling… May knows that very well."

"Shut up Brendan," Lisia whispered to him.

"What?! It's true!"

May shook her head, tired.

"It's fine, Lisia. It doesn't matter."

She didn't want to hear them talking about him any longer, so she pretended to swim a bit and distanced herself from the group.

"Steven left Hoenn right after May became the champion," she overheard Brendan explaining to Korrina. "I mean, he's usually a nice guy and all but he really acted like a selfish jerk this time."

She couldn't help but make a little smile. That's why she loved her best friend so much, he was one of the few people who dared to criticize the great Steven Stone in public. Brendan wasn't afraid to shock others with his own thoughts, and always ready to defend May above all.


Once out of the water, dried and dressed, May and her friends decided to walk back to the Pokemon center through the village. Korrina was on her rollers, zigzagging between them while the others dragged their feet, tired and suffering under the heat.

"I hope you still have yours?" she asked Serena and Calem.

"Yeah but I'm still more comfortable on a bike," Serena admitted.

"Mine must be somewhere in the garage at my parents' house. I used them so much during my journey."

"It must have been cool to get around on rollers like that," Wally thought.

"It could have helped Brendan with his sense of balance..." Lisia added.

"What are you talking about? My sense of balance is just fine..."

"I could teach you if you want to try one day," Korrina offered.

On the walls of some houses, small posters had been pasted, all identical and brightly colored. A group of young teenagers gathered around, reading one with excitement.

"Oh, a new special event must be in preparation," Serena deduced.

Korrina stopped to read one poster stuck on the window of a music store.

"Hey, it looks pretty cool!"

"What is it?"

"The Sync Pair Music Festival, a celebration for the beginning of summer. There will be food booths on the beach, some promotions on trainer equipment, and even a music competition... The Pasio Superstar Competition." Korrina read.

"Oh, that's totally for me!" Lisia said, rushing to read the poster herself. "Musical performances in groups of three, and the winners of the contest will become the superstars of Pasio... Wow, I absolutely have to participate! It's a golden opportunity to show an audience from every Pokemon regions what I'm capable of!"

Lisia did an elegant spin before striking a pose with a radiant smile.

"That's a great idea Lisia," Serena encouraged her. "I would love to see you perform there!"

"Me too," Calem said. "And I'm sure you will win."

"Registrations are still open... but I need to find two people to participate with me. Hmmm... which one of you want to participate?"

Oh no… May thought. She had already tried Pokemon contests once and quickly realized that dancing or singing in public wasn't really for her.

"Um, not me... I'm bad at music," Wally hurriedly answered, but May easily guessed that the real reason was that, like her, he was not comfortable performing on a stage.

"Me neither," Korrina said, "I'm more into sport."

"Come on, my friends, I just need two people! You can sing, right? Serena, May?"

"I sing like a bucket," Serena said, "but you should ask Dawn, she's so talented."

"Me neither, music is really not my thing," May defended herself.

"What about you, boys...?"

"Same," Calem smiled.

"Brendy...?" Lisia said, turning to her last possible target. "If Dawn agrees to participate with me, then we would just need one more musician... Come on, I heard you loved to play the guitar when you were little!"

"W-what?" The trainer stammered. "Where did you get that from?"

"Your adorable dad told me about it once."

"Wait, you talked about me with my dad when I wasn't around?"

Brendan seemed particularly annoyed by this information.

"Yep, many times actually," the coordinator insisted. "And now I know lots of compromising things about you, so you better cooperate!"

Although Brendan made a face, May was relieved that Lisia had designated her victim and that it wasn't her.

"Great, then," Korrina laughed. "Brendan, Dawn and you will participate in this contest, and we'll all come to support you on the big day. Right guys?"

She turned to Serena, Calem, May, and Wally.

"Yes... I can't wait to see Brendan play the guitar," this one commented with a teasing smile.

"Oh no, you can't do that to me…"

"Yay! I'm sure Dawn will agree to participate with us, Brendan!" Lisia concluded, not giving him a chance to back out. "And don't worry, the three of us will do A-MA-ZING!"