AN: We're now reaching the chapters which were written more recently and they will possibly contain more errors. I do double check them before posting but somehow there are always things I tend to miss... English isn't my first language so that's probably why. If you notice any mistakes I will be gratefull if you'd let me know!

Now onto the story!

Turning around so fast Reign nearly lost his balance on her shoulder, she stared right into familiar blue eyes. Xavier Ikeda.

"Ikeda-kun." She mumbled, surprised.

He smiled but he wasn't looking at her. Following his gaze she turned back to the three trainers who were now looking weary if not a bit annoyed.

"Come on it will be fun. I don't have any badges yet and I've been hoping to gain some experience in battling." The tone in his voice was light and innocent. It caused a shift in the trio's attitude as the boy up front, clearly their leader, crossed his arms.

"Alright then newbie, you pick the rules."

It was decided they would have two Pokémon each, no substitutions, no items.

The girl joined their leader and the third kid stepped back, no doubt still planning to finish them off in case they managed to win.

Goofy smile in place, Xavier made a show of hovering his hand over each of his Pokéballs before settling on his single ultra ball. With only Tenno in battle shape, she didn't have the luxury to choose. But when she made a grab for the little bird's ball, Reign jumped of off her shoulder into the space they had cleared between them.

"Oh no, Reign." She sighed miserably. Since no substitutions were allowed, she couldn't switch him out.

Their opponents released their first Pokémon and Yun instantly paled. A Wartortle and Staravia, these were evolved Pokémon. The Staravia especially incurred a familiar type of fear in her and even Reign scuttled around nervously. Ready to forfeit for the second time, she started to apologize to Xavier but stopped dead in her tracks when she caught the look on his face.

The plastered smile had been replaced by a frigid sneer as he looked at their adversaries with unveiled disgust.

"I bet you're hanging around the first gym to pick on new trainers, aren't you."

The other boy laughed in a matter that was neither friendly nor real. "Getting cold feet? Well it's too late now, you can't back out when you're the one who challenged us." Then he cocked his head. "I suppose you can spare yourself the embarrassment and just hand over your money."

Not bothering with a response her classmate simply pressed the activation button of his ultra ball.

"Mop the floor with these thugs, Guillaume."

The pokémon that appeared wasted no time. It plucked the Staravia out of the air with the red glow of release still clinging to it and violently smashed the bird into the Wartortle, sending both of them flying. They came to a halt several feet further, knocked out.

Their opponent gaped at them, opening and closing his mouth several times in disbelief. Yun felt a similar way, her mind only catching up and recognizing the Pokémon released after the fight. A Gallade, a third stage evolution.

Theoretically, she rationalized that with a dawn stone a Gallade could be acquired pretty early on but she knew from just looking at the psychic that that wasn't the case. He radiated an aura similar if not more impressive than that of the dark monster she had encountered off route. He had to be high level, very high level.

Now she was glad that she hadn't released Tenno, he would probably be tempted to challenge the creature. Reign at least, looked properly impressed and stayed well clear of his path.

"What is it, cat got you're tongue?" Xavier drawled. "We're waiting."

The girl recovered first as she recalled her fallen Pokémon. "You- I've got just the thing for your type." She released a Gengar and it matched her vengeful grin.

The other trainer was more subdued as he released a Graveler with a frown. Both were horrible match ups for Reign but Yun didn't feel worried about that in the moment. Sure enough not a second later the Gallade sprung into action, disposing of the Graveler with a low kick strong enough to create cracks in its body. It was returned not half a minute after it had been released.

The Gengar proved more of a challenge as it kept phasing in and out of existence to counter the attacks of his opponent. But despite the angry commands of its owner, the Gengar didn't manage to land any attacks either. Attacking required it to materialize and that was too dangerous to do for long, his opponent always hot on his trail.

Reign bounced on his legs, watching the standstill with interest and Yun felt a bit silly just standing around. Feeling only slightly better because Xavier was doing the same. He hadn't said anything to his Gallade, preferring to let him do his thing. They could be communicating telepathically of course but Yun had read that to gain the fighting type, Gallade lost a lot of its potential psychic prowess especially if evolved early. Some even lost the ability to teleport... and Xavier's Gallade hadn't teleported yet.

Her musings were interrupted when Reign released a poison sting right into the trajectory of the reappearing Gengar.

"Watch out!" The girl shouted just in time.

It narrowly dodged, unfortunately for the ghost pokémon, right into the Gallade's range. With a brutal slash Yun recognized as psycho cut, the Gengar went down. Yun's cheeks colored with pride for her starter. The poison sting would have done close to nothing to the Gengar and she had no doubt he knew full well what he was doing when he made an opening for his stronger ally.

"Well done, Reign." She didn't shout, feeling it slightly inappropriate when the other Pokémon had done the heavy lifting, but her voice carried just within hearing range and her scorpion shrugged shyly.

"Yo, that thing can't be legal." The third member of the gang had gathered his bearings and pointed accusingly at the Gallade. The Pokémon in question rounded on the boy with glowing red eyes.

"I uh- I mean." He scrambled backwards. "H-hey, call it off!"

Their leader stepped up with his hands in the air and a sour look on his face. "Okay, you won, no need to keep fighting."

"Guillaume." Xavier simply said. An unspoken command hanging in the air. The Gallade obliged and teleported to his trainer's side sending her a sideways glance. It could teleport, and probably read minds as well, she mentally apologized for her assumptions.

The duo they fought handed over their victory money to Xavier with murderous faces and Yun was inwardly grateful that the boy hadn't recalled his psychic yet.

Once they were well out of sight Xavier turned to her, with a reserved but real smile.

"They were right of course," He lowered his voice to a whisper, "fighting with Guillaume isn't legal."

"What?" Puzzled she looked at the Gallade find out what was wrong with him. "Why he- oh you didn't train him."

Realization dawned on her. He probably wasn't lying when he said he had no badges yet and though anybody could keep Pokémon of any level. You were only allowed to use higher leveled Pokémon in competition if you were the original trainer. Otherwise anybody with the money could buy well trained Pokémon and earn badges that way. The badges served as a kind of proof that you could train up Pokémon yourself and so from the first badge you were allowed to trade or buy Pokémon up to level 20 and use them competitively. Every badge earned raised the level cap.

The guilty wince she received proved her thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm not his trainer. He's one of my mom's league Pokémon."

"League!?"

Before she could question him further a terse voice entered her mind.

"You are my trainer now."

Xavier waved him off. "Well yeah, but I need at least six badges before-" The psychic cut him off.

"You people and your silly rules. If I consider you worthy enough to follow then anyone else should."

This was not a new discussion, Yun could tell by the unaffected way Xavier shrugged it off as he returned his focus on her.

"Well, anyway you get the gist of it. My mother gave me Guillaume in case I run into danger, she wouldn't let me leave otherwise. But I could get in serious trouble if this got out."

The police could confiscate him, she knew. Despite that she couldn't help but laugh, not long and not loud but still in good spirit. "Well, you saved me there, Ikeda-kun. It would be pretty lousy of me to tattle." With a wink she added. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

He seemed relieved when he smiled. "Thanks. Oh, you can have this." Then he grabbed her hand and pushed the victory money in it.

She started to protest but he swiftly interrupted her. "You were the only one fighting fair." Yun thought she heard Guillaume huff indignantly but couldn't be sure. Then she realized she really didn't have the luxury to turn the money down. Despite or maybe because of that, it felt wrong.

"At least let me treat you for coming to my rescue. Have you had breakfast yet?"

To her surprise he agreed. It suited her just fine as she had bought some onigiri to have on the bus but could do with some real breakfast.

As she led them to a cozy kissaten she saw earlier, he addressed her once again. "Yun, I'd prefer it if you called me Xavier."

A flush of embarrassment rose to her cheeks but she nodded anyway. She could try. Trailing behind them, the Gallade chose to intervene./

"La fille ne peut pas le prononce."

While she was baffled by the sudden language change, Xaviers eye's lit up with understanding.

"Or you know Ikeda is fine but at least drop the honorifics. They always feel a bit strange to me."

They took a seat on the small but well kept terrace, recalling their Pokémon as was polite. Simultaneously she raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" After all it was arguably more strange not to use them.

Her baffled expression made him smile. "Probably because I was raised in Kalos."

Having never traveled further than Jotho she asked with interest. "Was it really that different over there?"

It was almost like he had been waiting for that question as he launched into detailed comparison of the two regions. Interrupted only briefly by the waiter taking and bringing their orders he told her about the beautiful architecture, the delicious food and unique Pokémon. Though the biggest difference had to be the population. People kissed each other in greeting, it was called 'la bise', which Yun found awfully weird and it made Xavier laugh as she told him so. They also almost never addressed people by their last name even if they had only just met and honorifics were long gone. It was quite the change for Xavier, who had to move to Sinnoh three years ago for his father's work.

"Do you miss it?" She inquired while finishing off her rolled omelet.

"He shrugged. "I did before when all I ever did was go from home to school and from school to home. But now I get to explore this land and Sinnoh certainly has it's own charms."

A thought nagged at the back of her mind loud enough for her to voice it. "You're not really interested in the badges." Their classmates certainly would have their first one by now. And despite the fight from before, she knew he was capable enough. If not then his Piplup would make short work of the rock gym.

He shrugged in reply and took a sip of his tea. "I'll get to them eventually, most trainers take years to get them all."

Yeah, she thought, but most of the time was spend on the later badges. The first was usually earned within weeks. Even then most trainers didn't get them all.

He interrupted her thoughts with his own question. "And you? Are you planning to take on Roark any time soon?"

With just a little reluctance she explained her plan to find a water type back were they started, the offer he had made back then still fresh in her mind. While it had been at least a little tempting back then, she now felt sickened by the thought of trading away her starter.

To her relief he didn't mention it again and even seemed to agree. "Lake Verity was my first stop. It was-"

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a nearby shout.

"There you are!"

A young woman plopped down in the seat next to Xavier making him lean away with wide eyes.

Yun's mind took a few second's to catch up.

"Chihiro-san!" She exclaimed happily as Xavier relaxed at Yun's recognition.

The older girl had forgone her uniform now that she wasn't on duty and was comfortably wearing a pair of cargo pants in hunter green with a plain black t-shirt and Pokébelt slung across her shoulder.

Yun ducked her head as she tried to suppress a blush of shame rising to her cheeks. Truth to be told, she had completely forgotten about the ranger that rescued her but now Yun recalled that the girl had promised to help her train and she suddenly felt extremely grateful for being delayed.

The ranger raised her brow and took it as a different type of cue.

"Am I interrupting something?" Her tone was humorously suggestive and the innuendo, while harmless, only made Yun's blush deepen.

Seemingly clueless, Xavier rushed to reassure the newcomer. "Oh no, not at all, we were just catching up."

He introduced himself as her classmate as they exchanged greetings. Chihiro called his name 'curious' but was not afraid to make an attempt at pronouncing it. It sounded more like 'xha-vi' but Yun still admired her for her easy confidence when faced with something new. Then again her psychic was named Desmond.

The conversation quickly flowed into how Yun and Chihiro met and she showed Xavier the tiny white scars under her glove to prove they weren't making it up.

"Unbelievable," He stated. "To think I've been exploring off-route all this-" Suddenly realizing who he was sitting next to, the boy stopped mid sentence. "Oh, I mean uh..."

"I'm not on duty today. I know how you kids are, why do you think we patrol the areas." Then her expression turned somber. "But you should think twice about doing that now."

Suddenly Yun had a sinking feeling in her stomach. "You mean..."

"It struck again." The ranger nodded. "This time it was a more experienced trainer."

Sensing there was more to the story, she waited with bated breath as Chihiro seemed to struggle finding the words.

"They managed to fight it off then?" Xavier inquired.

The older girl then decided to put things simply as they were. "Not exactly, by the time help arrived... All but one of their Pokémon had died."

AN: On Gallade: my very first game was Pearl in which Gallade had a much smaller pool of powerful psychic moves to choose from (especially when evolved early) and those moves were almost all Satk meaning Gardevoir would do almost double the damage with the same moves. And to make it weirder, it only learns one fighting type move naturally and pretty late in the game. Nothing a few TM's couldn't fix but as an eight year old kid who didn't even know what the difference between atk and satk meant... Gardevoir was the easier and more immediately powerful form. I've always preferred Gallade though and made it work regardless xD

Also the French usually don't pronounce the last letter in a word, so Xavier wouldn't have an 'r' sound like it would in English.