A/N: Thank you all for your support! Here's a new chapter :D

Days

The day Iris wants an afternoon off

Iris

Saturday, February 8th

"Stantler is unable to battle, Gym Leader Iris is the winner!" the referee announced, pointing a hand towards Iris.

As not to hurt her challenger's feelings, Iris only allowed herself a small smile at her victory. She gave a nod to Hugo, her referee, and then looked back to the field. The challenger, a girl no older than twelve, had run onto the field to hug her Stantler, while Iris's newest Pokémon was still victoriously roaring.

In the future, she would have to teach Salamence that it was unbecoming for a Gym Leader's Pokémon to gloat after an easy win such as this, but for now she let her be.

"Thank you, Salamence," Iris said, smiling at her and gestured for the Pokémon to come over. She didn't listen, though, and stayed on the field to now look smugly at her opponent. Iris had to suppress a sigh.

"Yes, Salamence, you did great," she said, trying to sound as encouraging as possible. "Come on over, please."

Salamence seemed either not to have heard her or she was ignoring her. Behind Iris, Haxorus let out a short huff, and that was enough to make Salamence sharply turn back to her. She flew the short distance over the field towards Iris and minimally bowed her head in greeting towards her.

Iris gave Salamence her biggest smile, trying to ignore Haxorus behind her, who was certainly smiling smugly. "You did great, Salamence. Before long, you will have more and more victories, I'm sure."

Salamence gave a quiet grunt in response. Iris held up her Poké Ball and she went in without further problems. For the challenger's sake, Iris schooled her expression into something more neutral, but on the inside she was grinning. Progress!

Cilan had brought her Salamence a few days ago and Iris had gladly accepted her in the team. Salamance had not been as happy about it, though, and she had been arrogant and overly confident in her power. Haxorus and Dragonite had soon put her in her place, though. Since that battle, she'd had a begrudging respect for Iris and her Pokémon, and Iris had the hope of developing a friendship with her. And with that, her battle skills and her potential.

Since today, she was using her in 'easy' Gym Battles, and so far, it was going well. Salamence mostly obeyed her and had not acted out, at least not terribly.

Iris had good hopes for her.

She turned her attention to the girl on the field, who had now recalled her fallen Stantler and seemed to have recollected herself. Iris offered her a friendly smile.

"Thank you for your challenge, and don't let this get you down! Every loss is a learning experience," Iris said.

"Thanks," the girl said. "I'm going to train more and then I'll be back!"

Iris nodded and smiled at the familiar words, spoken so often by the challengers who lost to her.

When the challenger had left, Iris walked over to Hugo, Haxorus following behind her.

"That was the last one, right?" she asked the older man, one of the only employees that had been with the Gym as long as she could remember.

"Yes, that's right," he said. "I'll close up the Gym for today and then I'll be going home."

"Thanks, Hugo, and I'll see you Monday," Iris said. "Have a nice weekend."

"You, too," he responded.

Leaving Hugo to his tasks, Iris left the battle area. The morning was almost over and she should be doing some administration, but she would much rather spend time with Salamence to get to know her better, perhaps even some training...

She'd better find a replacement Gym Leader soon, so that all the administration work would be behind her as well. It was a shame Hugo was not interested.

Besides work, things finally seemed to be flowing rather smoothly. She and Cilan had fallen into a rhythm and their relationship was growing more and more relaxed, and the warmer weather did wonders for her mood as well.

"Iris?" Hugo's voice sounded behind her and surprised, Iris turned to look at him. "There's someone here to see you."

She frowned. The Gym was closed for challengers on Saturday afternoons, and Hugo had never had problems with turning away challengers before.

"He looks official," Hugo said, shrugging slightly. "But I can tell him to come back another time, if you want."

Iris looked at the pile of papers on the desk and decided that anything was better than administration, so she said, "Alright, let him through."

She settled behind the desk, with Haxorus standing behind her. Sitting like this certainly did have an official feel to it.

A short, well-dressed man with sharp brown eyes entered the room, a Yamask floating behind him.

"Good afternoon," he greeted her, giving her a small bow. The Yamask made a small movement, seemingly in greeting, and Haxorus gave a quiet grunt in response.

"Good afternoon," Iris responded, rising from her chair and extending her hand.

His handshake was firm. "My name is Ken Parrish, and I know who you are, of course."

"It's nice to meet you," Iris said, trying to recall where she had heard that name before. "What can I help you with?"

She sat down, gesturing for him to do the same. He did so, straightening out his jacket. Yamask floated behind him, settling in the space just above his right shoulder.

"Yes. Well," the man started, pulling at his jacket again. "I have something I wish to discuss. Considering my Connoisseur speaks highly of you, I decided that you would be the best person."

At that, a metaphorical light bulb went up above Iris' head. Haxorus, too, let out a grunt of recognition.

"You are one of Cilan's clients," Iris said, nodding. "Salamence's previous owner."

His eyes lit up in surprise. "Are you the- Why, of course, Cilan did say he had found the perfect new owner. How is Salamence?"

"She is doing well," Iris answered. "I think she is warming up to me, and she has won some battles already."

"I am happy to hear that," mister Parrish said, nodding and smiling a bit, seemingly lost in his thoughts.

"Is that what you wanted to discuss with me?" Iris asked, when the silence stretched on.

Mister Parrish shook his head. "My apologies, no, that was not the reason. No, I wanted to talk with you about ghost Pokémon."

Iris sat up straighter.

"Undoubtedly you have heard about ghost Pokémon and their trainers being shunned and ridiculed by the ignorant masses," mister Parrish said.

Iris remembered that Cilan had told her the man was a bit pompous. She nodded and he continued, "I wanted to talk to someone of the League about this, and considering Cilan's words, I decided you would be the best person."

"Why not Cilan himself?" Iris asked.

"You are an Elite Four member," he answered simply.

"Ah," Iris responded.

Mister Parrish nodded again. "Yes, and I wanted to speak with someone important from the League about this. You see, the organization itself is mixed about this, but I do not view the League as our enemy, but rather as an important ally."

He really was building up to something, and Iris found herself leaning in.

"I wish to tell you about the Ghost Pokémon Association," mister Parrish finally made his point. He paused significantly, as if to give Iris the time to react, but she only raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"It is an organization for ghost Pokémon owners, trainers and all those people who care or are interested in ghost Pokémon," mister Parrish explained. "The organization has existed for many years already, but as most ghost Pokémon trainers tend to keep to themselves, it has never been a large organization."

Well, yes, Iris could admit that many of the trainers who specialized in ghost Pokémon had been odd. Shauntal came to mind and she swallowed heavily.

"I have recently joined," the man continued, gesturing at the Yamask at his side, "and in agreement with the rest of the organization, I want let others know about this organization. Especially with the recent events, we felt it was a good moment to step out of the shadows and let ourselves be known to the public. To give those who care about ghost Pokémon a chance to unite, to share in the knowledge we have gathered and to bond with each other."

"A noble idea," Iris said after a short pause, wondering if that was a diplomatic enough answer.

Mister Parrish seemed to take it that way, because his posture relaxed. "I am glad to hear you think so. I have been assigned the job to get the organization more well known, but the press I have talked to have not been... very supportive."

Iris felt some sympathy for the man now. With what she had heard from her challengers, she knew that the public opinion of ghost Pokémon was not very good right now, and she could well imagine the kind of reactions he had gotten.

"Thank you for contacting me about this," she said. "I will talk to my colleagues and see what we can do for you."

That was a vague enough answer, right? She had no idea how receptive the other Elite Four members and Alder would be to this, and she didn't want to make him any promises she couldn't keep.

Mister Parrish's smile widened. "I am very happy to hear that. That was all I wanted to discuss, and then I will no longer take up your time."

He rose from the chair and gave her a formal bow, before extending his hand to offer her something. "Here is my card, if you need any more information, please give me a call. I will be more than happy to help you."

Iris got up as well, feeling a bit uncomfortable with his show of respect, and accepted his card. He gave her a strong handshake again.

"Thank you, miss Iris Bright. Cilan's words were true. I am sure that this matter is very capable hands right now."

"Uh, yes, thank you," Iris said, slightly overwhelmed. What had she gotten herself into? "I will do my best for you."

He smiled again and gave her a short bow, Yamask seeming to follow his example.

"Thank you, and a good day to you," he said in goodbye.

"You, too," Iris said, watching as the man left her office, Yamask floating behind him.

When the door was closed behind him, she turned to Haxorus. "Well, that was… unexpected," she concluded drily, feeling like it was an understatement.

"Rrrr," Haxorus said in response.

"I suppose it's another thing we can add to our to-do-list, hm?" Iris said, sitting back in her chair and looking at the pile of papers again.

Haxorus let out a sound that was probably a laugh and Iris gave him a playful glare. "Oh, shut up, you. Go outside and enjoy the warmer weather before it turns cold again, I'll finish up the papers here and think about what I'm going to say to Alder about… all this." She gestured vaguely to the door to indicate she meant mister Parrish's words.

"Rus," her Pokémon said, snuggling against her and wrapping his arms around her, careful not to cut her with his tusks.

Iris smiled and patted his arm.

"Thanks, I'll be fine. Go enjoy your weekend, I'll be with you soon."

"Haxorrrrrr," he rumbled, before letting her go.

"Go on, go on," Iris said, smiling. When Haxorus closed the door behind him, Iris looked at the papers and the smile slipped off her face. She sighed. Then, she cracked her knuckles and got to work.

She was an Elite Four member, after all.

A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it's setting things up… ;) Please let me know what you thought about it!

Thank you!