Chapter 9

The morning of the fishing tournament has arrived and Sota takes a shower and puts on a t-shirt and his swim trunks that are still sort of damp and cold from not fully drying off. He checks over his "new" rod and makes sure the line is ready and the lure is tightly secure. Haku comes out of his room in different swim trunks and a one of those skin tight shirts made out of the stuff people wear to scuba dive, the ones that help prevent hypothermia.

"Good morning." Haku greets Sota.

"G'Mornin'" Sota replies. "Tournament starts in an hour and a half, so we should get going to be able to sign up." He tells Haku.

"Okay, is Ge—Dantès-san awake yet?" Haku asks.

"I don't know, figured you would." Sota says.

"I'll check then." Haku takes his rods and leaves the suite. Kota looks up at Sota and tilts his head with a small whine. He gives a large sigh and gets his things to follow after Haku. When he exits the suite into the hall he sees Genevieve in a yellow sundress with red bikini straps around her neck, hugging Haku causing Sota to stop in his tracks.

"Thank you so much Haku! That's so nice of you!" She tells him and sees Sota, "Look Sota, Haku got me a rod for the tournament! Now we can go straight over without having to find one last minute." She explains.

"That is awesome." Sota tries his best not to sound too down in the dumps.

"Are you okay? Do you not feel well?" She asks Sota as he did not succeed in hiding his mood.

"Yeah I'm fine, just…I think something from last night didn't sit well is all, but I'll be okay." Sota lies.

"Okay well if you start feeling worse, make sure to say something so we can get you some medicine okay?" she tells him.

"Yeah I will." Sota replies. "Let's get going before we miss the whole thing." He adds and the three of them get going.

They take a taxi east to the mouth of the river where the fishing tournament begins, they stop by a convenience store on the way to grab some snacks for the tournament. When they get there a large crowd of spectators and participants have already gathered. A number of boats and water type pokémon are standing by in the water by the shore. The three trainers find the sign up table and register themselves as participants in the competition. They are informed that they must provide their own watercraft or pokémon mount in order to fish on open water otherwise they must fish from land. They can catch as many water pokémon as they like, but only one may be submitted for judging. Any other pokémon you caught you can keep with you or release back into the water. The pokémon submitted for judging will be returned to you after results are announced. The pokémon will be judged on size, weight and rarity. The pokémon with the most impressive combination of those three qualities will be the winner and the participant who caught it will be given the top prize.

"What's the top prize?" Sota asks.

"The participant who comes in first place will receive two complementary tickets for a cruise of their choice aboard the S.S. Anne." The attendant answers. With no more questions the trio head over to where the rest of the contestants are. The host of the contest gets everyone's attention and repeats the rules that were just explained at registration, let's everyone know that they have five hours to fish and any fish caught after that time will not count. They verify that everyone is ready to go, give 3 counts and announces the official start of the competition. Haku heads to the water's edge and releases his Dratini and straddles its back, gives a wave and rides it off into the ocean.

"Hey!..." Genevieve shouts.

"See you in a few hours!" Haku exclaims.

"He just left us here!" She says.

"There's gotta be a way we can get on a boat…" Sota replies as they look around frantically.

"Oh! This way." Genevieve says and she runs over to a small motor boat that has two little old men loading into it.

"Excuse me! Do you happen to have room for any more people please?" She asks the men who hesitate. "Pleeeeeaaaaase?" She pleads with them giving her biggest doe eyes.

"Alright…but we can only fit one more!" One of the old men says. Genevieve looks at Sota apologetically as she gets in and mouths to him a silent "I'm sorry."

"But…" is all Sota could muster as the other man cranks the loud motor up and heads off into the ocean with the other boats.

"And then there was one…." Sota says to himself. He looks around to see all of the other fishermen casting lines from the shore into the water. There are too many people here; I have to find a spot more secluded. He looks across the river and notices that the tall cliffs start to decline further away from the mouth of the river. It's a bit of a trek, but he's gotta hope it'll mean that he'll have a better chance to get something good. He heads across Nugget Bridge and starts walking further out following the cliff's edge, until it gets down closer to sea level. The walk takes nearly an hour in itself before he can finally get to where the cliffs are only about five feet above the water. He gets his hook, puts a fish bait pellet on it, and then he rears his rod back and casts it out into the water.

"So little lady, what's your name?" one of the old men asks her.

"My name is Genevieve! And you?" she replies.

"Well Jenny, my name is Hidenon and this here is my buddy Suzumura." He answers.

"Actually, my name is Genevieve!" She tries to correct over the noise of the motor.

"Right that's what I said, Jenny." Hidenon replies.

"Have you done much fishin' before Jenny?" Suzumura asks and Genevieve sighs.

"No not really." She answers.

"Well don't worry, we'll teach ya how to catch the biggest darn pokémon you've ever laid eyes on!" Suzumura tells her. Genevieve nods politely waiting for them to pick a spot to stop. The boat motors along zigzagging around other boaters until they finally putter to a stop. Hidenon slowly and gingerly pushes the small anchor over board with a splash. Meanwhile Suzumura flips open the lid of a bucket and pulls outs some bits of green meat of some kind.

"Ya wanna know how to bait a hook, Jeannie?" Suzumura asks, Genevieve sighs again.

"You just stick the hook in it?" She asks.

"That's pretty much it, she learns quick this one!" Suzumura exclaims to Hidenon.

"Smart as a whip." Hidenon agrees.

"Here…go ahead and stick one of these babies on your hook…fish pokémon love 'em." Suzumura hands Genevieve one of the green chunks and she takes it daintily with her index finger and her thumb. It's a little slimy and squishy as she turns it about to inspect it then carefully presses it onto her hook until the point pokes out the other side.

"What is this bait Mr. Suzumura?" she asks when she finishes.

"That there is some chopped up Caterpie. The fish pokémon can't get enough of it!" Suzumura explains. Genevieve's face goes white and she starts cleaning her hands in the ocean water as quickly as she can with a small drawn out squeal.

"Now don't go scarin' 'em all away doin' that!" Hidenon warns.

Sota sits on the edge of a short cliff with his line in the water, his elbow on his knee and his chin in his hand. It's been almost an hour and he hasn't felt a thing. Then again he's been distracted with his thoughts constantly going back to what's been happening and how he's feeling. What it means and what, if anything, he should do about it.

"We've only really known each other for like…a month? It's kinda dumb to be thinkin' about this right?" He asks and looks down at Kota sitting by his side. The Eevee looks back up at him blankly.

"It's probably nothing and I'm making a big deal out of it for no good reason…right?" He looks back to Kota whose expression hasn't changed. Sota stares out into the horizon and gives a long sigh. He decides to reel in his line to find the lure still there, but the bait completely gone.

"Of course…" He says to himself in frustration. He pulls out another pellet and re-baits the hook before casting it out again.

"And it was at that time that I realized that my hat was on my head the entire time! Ha heh heh ha ha! Can you believe it?! The entire time on my head! Ha heh heh heh." Hidenon laughs. Genevieve sits there staring out into the water trying to think of anything else other than the ridiculously boring story. She politely nods and smiles when she's acknowledged, but otherwise she's been trying to focus on actually catching a large or rare water pokémon, so far it's only been Magikarp that she's had to release back into the water. She really doesn't want to touch any more bug parts for this competition, so she's praying to Arceus for good catch this time so she can stop.

She sits there for a few more moments when finally she feels a strong tug on her line, she pulls the rod back to set the hook and starts reeling as quickly as she can.

"Oh she's got another one!" Hidenon exclaims.

"Here we go again, let's see that monster Jessie!" Suzumura cheers. Genevieve keeps reeling and tugging, fighting this catch feels tougher than all the other ones so far. She's starting to get excited that this might be the one she needs to get back to shore and hopefully win so it wasn't all for nothing.

"C'mon Gina, reel her in!" Hidenon shouts encouragingly. After about two minutes of fighting, Genevieve's arms start to get tired, but she can see the shine of the pokémon's scales through the water. She digs deep and finally is able to pull up into the boat…a huge fish pokémon!

"Holy Moly!" Suzumura exclaims. Genevieve releases Claude from his ball.

"Claude use your vines to hold it down!" She commands and the Bulbasaur obeys wrapping its green vines around the giant fish pokémon so that she can scan it with her pokédex app. The app relays the information that she has reeled in a large Seaking! While Claude keeps the Seaking restrained, Genevieve pulls out a luxuryball and taps it on the pokémon. The ball clicks after a few wiggles and the Seaking is caught.

"She did it! Way to go!" Hidenon cheers.

"I told ya that we'd show ya how to fish the big one, didn't I say it?!" Suzumura exclaims.

"Thank you so much for your help." Genevieve just resigns herself and shakes her head with a smile. She's just happy that she caught a large pokémon and that she can finally stop fishing.

"Would it be too much trouble if you could drop me off on the shore please?" Genevieve asks the two men.

"Yeah sure, we'll get you there lickity split." Suzumura assures her; he gets up gingerly and grabs the motor chord and starts pulling attempting to start it up. Meanwhile Hidenon starts pulling the anchor up back into the boat. This all takes entirely longer than it should, but they're old so Genevieve doesn't mind. She looks around at what's nearby and notices that on some cliffs not too far is someone fishing alone. It's hard to tell, but she thinks she recognizes the shirt they're wearing.

"Whatcha lookin' at over there Jamie?" Hidenon asks.

"There's someone alone on the cliff and I was wondering if it is my friend." Genevieve answers.

"Well let's see here." Hidenon opens his bag and pulls out a pair of binoculars and hands them to her. "You know how to use one of these?" he asks.

"I think I can figure it out." She says as nicely as she can. She looks through the binoculars and sure enough she sees Sota and Kota clearly on the cliffs.

"It's Sota! Please take me over to that small beach near him if it's alright?" she requests. The motor finally pops to life and the boat heads that way.

Should I tell her how I'm feeling? Is it too fast for me to feel this way? Would she think I'm weird or a creep if I bring it up? God I feel like I'm driving myself crazy with this. They say fishing helps you relax and let go of your cares, but that's a load of shit. If only I could get a bite! It's been like 2 and half hours and every time I pull my line out, the bait is gone. I never did get the hang of fishing when I was a kid. Of course it didn't help that there was no one around to teach me. As he's thinking all this he notices a small boat getting closer and closer to his location. This is confusing since no one knew he was going to be here, both of his traveling companions ditched him. Once the boat got close enough he was able to recognize Genevieve waving at him while the two old men sit in the boat with her. The boat motor turns off and he watches as the old men struggle to start paddling with some small oars to get to the beach. Luckily for them the waves do most of the work for them as the boat comes ashore. Genevieve hops out and makes her way up the path that leads to where Sota is situated. Sota sets his rod down and gets up to meet her.

"Hey Sota! How's everything going?" She says as she gives him a hug which kind of surprises him and he feels his face get hot real fast.

"H-Hey how'd you know I was over here?" he asks.

"I saw you with Hidenon's binoculars, so I asked them to bring me here." She answered. "How's the fishing going for you?" she asks as they sit down where Sota had been fishing.

"Terribly…the only way it could be worse is if something yanked my rod out of my hands and escaped with it." Sota answers in an ironically chipper tone which garners a sympathetic giggle from Genevieve.

"Aww I'm sorry it's not going well." She says.

"How'd you do?" Sota asks her.

"It took a while, but with patience and self control I was able to catch a large Seaking!" she explains, she continues to tell Sota about her time on the boat with the two chatty old men. He laughs at her frustrations with the fact that they never got her name right.

"I guess I should start calling you Jeannine or something now." He teases and she slaps his arm.

"No! If you do that I will hate you forever!" she jokes. After some more chuckles they calm down watching the boats still out trying to fish. The thoughts and feelings begin to come to the forefront of Sota's mind again. He looks over at her while she watches the two old men putter back out to sea. It's almost unfair how beautiful she is…I didn't stand a chance. His hands get clammy and his mouth dries up just at the thought of telling her about how he feels. He feels a nudge at his side and sees Kota poking him with his nose and then looking at him expectantly. It's almost like he's telling me to 'say something idiot.' Sota takes a deep breath and gives a hard exhale. This is stupid, but here it goes.

"Hey Genevieve…." He starts and she looks over at him ready to listen.

"Yes?" She says waiting. Immediately he starts second guessing himself, but ever since he was small he's had to face difficult decisions head on. He learned that if he wanted to accomplish something, he would have to fight for it. He also knew that she was way out of his league.

"So...are you and Ryuzaki…like together?" He asked, if she says yes then he definitely shouldn't say anything about how he feels. So this would tell him how he should proceed and from the way they were interacting with each other last night at dinner, it probably means that she's going to say yes to this.

"Together? Not right now, he's out fishing still clearly." She answers.

"No…I mean…are you two together like….dating." Sota tries to clear up.

"Ooh, No. I'm sorry sometimes I still have difficulty with certain phrases. No, Haku and I are not dating…we are just friends." She clarifies. Although now this means Sota has no excuse not to tell her.

"I see." Sota says while trying to figure out how to say this.

"I think you're really nice…" He starts and hesitates as she looks at him and smiles. "…and cool…" he continues.

"I think you're really nice and cool too." She replies, "Is everything okay?" she asks.

"Yeah, I just…you know…" He takes a breath, "Okay…I like you." He finally just said it. Her curious smile disappears slowly as she realizes just what is happening. Sota's throat starts to close a little bit and he swallows to try and keep it open.

"Oh…Sota…" She starts looking awkwardly around and then back to him. He can't speak anymore; he looks off to the horizon once more and waits for her to say what she needs to.

"I like you too…as a friend. Like Haku…" She says softly and kindly, she's always kind. "I'm sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear…I'm not interested in dating anyone at the moment and I don't want to ruin our friendship." She explains, "I hope that is okay and we are still friends?" she asks.

"Y-Yeah of course! We're totally still friends." Sota says trying to be what he's always had to be.

"I'm glad to hear that." She says. The two of them sit there for a few moments not able to look at each other quite yet.

"I think I am going to go and turn in my Seaking for the judges."She announces.

"Oh okay." He replies.

"I will see you there when you catch your pokémon yes?" she asks.

"Y-Yeah, I'll be there soon." He answers. She gives a sympathetic smile and leaves up the path toward Nugget Bridge. He's not surprised, he had a feeling it would turn out this way if he said something. It's just as he thought, she's out of his league. No reason for her to want to date a no body like him. So the question now is, since he knew all of this and predicted the outcome…why does it hurt so much? He sits there and just watches the waves crash and the clouds drift by. He loses track of time and the next time he looks at his phone he sees that there's only thirty minutes left in the competition. It took him almost an hour just to walk here from the where the judges are. There's no way he was going to get there in time to place much less win. He picks up his rod and rubs his thumb over the blue star shaped lure. I'm not going back empty handed…he decides to himself. He puts his phone back in his bag; he impales his last pellet of fish bait on to his hook and casts it out into the water once more. After 5 minutes he sees a tiny wiggle at the tip of his rod and he snaps the rod back, but he felt nothing. He reels in the line and when the hook emerges, the bait is gone again.

"Goddammit!" He grunts loudly with his teeth clenched in frustration.

Sota takes a deep breath. He looks through his things and grabs the pickled plum that he hadn't eaten from his convenience store bento. He stabs the hook attached to his lure through it and casts it into the sea with determination. He focuses hard on the rod and his bobber floating on the water. They won't get away with a free meal this time, so help him. He waits for what seems like an eternity, trying his best not to blink too often. He finally sees the bobber twitch ever so slightly. His eyes widen…then it happens again…he holds his breath. The bobber bloops under water for a split second and that's when he yanks the rod back as hard as he can. This time he feels resistance and he knows the hook is set!

"Ha Ha!" Sota cries out maniacally, "GOTCHA THIS TIME!" He yells at his catch, reeling it in with all his might. It puts up a fight and Sota does his best to keep it moving closer. After a long few minutes of battling this catch he pulls it out onto the shore. He was flabbergasted. Standing there staring at what he pulled out of the sea, he thought it was a joke. It was the biggest Magikarp he'd ever seen. It had to be almost five feet long and probably weighed around eighty pounds he guessed. But the biggest thing about it….it was golden. It was a shiny Pokémon. Sota quickly snapped out of his stunned state and pulled out a pokéball. He clicked the button and tapped it on the Magikarp zapping it in the ball. The button flashed red and white for a few seconds…then a few more seconds. Sota started feeling his stomach turn and placed the ball down on the ground and took a step back. After a couple more seconds the ball exploded and the Magikarp flopped back out onto the ground franticly. It started flopping toward the edge of the cliff.

"Oh no you don't!" Sota exclaims at the escaping Pokémon.

He jumps on the large golden Magikarp and grabs on to it, trying to keep it from escaping back into the ocean. The Magikarp is so big that Sota's body weight still isn't enough to keep it from flopping around some which causes his foot to hit his rod, kicking it off the cliff into the sea.

"Kota! Help-!" Sota begins to give the Eevee a command when he notices something happening. Something unexpected and terrifying. The Magikarp that he is currently on top of and holding on to…is glowing, growing…and evolving! The Magikarp grows into an enormous, towering, very angry red Gyarados!

"Oh Shiiiit!" Sota screams as he is sent up into the sky on top of the Gyarados' head. The raging pokémon lets out a loud roar and dives into the ocean with Sota hanging on! Kota left on the cliff, barking angrily at the monster that had the audacity to take his partner. The giant red Gyarados surfaces out of the water; Sota still hanging to the horns of its head coughing trying to call out to Kota.

"Kota! Get ready!" he shouts.

"Wo-Woaah!" Sota yells as the Gyarados dives under water once again. It only takes about ten more seconds, when the huge Pokémon bursts out again closer than before. It's heading back toward the cliff about to crash into it, just as the Gyarados gets close to land it disappears in a red flash! Sota falls and lands on the ground near the Eevee with a thud and grunt. He gets up quickly and backs away from the pokéball the Gyarados is temporarily trapped in.

"Kota get ready to Quick Attack when it bursts out!" He commands his Eevee who yips in the affirmative and gets set. The ball explodes releasing the roaring Red Gyarados!

"Now Kota! Quick Attack!" Sota yells. The Eevee doesn't hesitate to sprint off as fast as his legs can propel him! Sota clicks the button of another ball and rears it back ready to throw.

The Gyarados leans down toward the boy and his pokémon, ready to bite at them, when Kota jumps into the air landing his strike on the Gyarados' eye. The Gyarados roars in pain and flings its head back from the unexpectedly forceful impact from the tiny Eevee! Sota throws the ball at the Pokémon with a direct hit, once again zapping it inside. It wiggles back and forth flashing red and white and red again. Sota dreads it coming back out, but pulls another ball out in preparation. Then it clicks green and the fanfare plays! Sota runs over and grabs his ball with his new, shiny Gyarados and collapses onto the ground exhausted trying to catch his breath. After a few seconds he looks at his phone and sees he has ten minutes left to get to the judges! There's only one way to get there fast enough and it would be for Gyarados to swim them there, but with what just happened, he would need some time to get Gyarados to trust him. Still he gets up, collects his belongings and he and Kota walk run back to the judges.

He runs as fast as he could up the Cliffside path, then when he gets to Nugget Bridge he stops as he sees his path blocked by Kojiro and his buddies in their more normal black suits. Just what I needed right now! Sota thinks to himself as he tries to catch his breath.

"Well it seems we meet again. Where are you goin' so fast my NOT friend?" Kojiro asks.

"I don't want any trouble, just let me by." Sota says and he tries to walk past them, but big Kosaburo shoves him back.

"Tsk tsk. I'm afraid we can't do that. You see, I would like to…but I'd only make that exception for a friend. And you made it very clear that we ain't friends, so I can't help you out here." Kojiro explains with a sinister grin.

"I don't want any trouble…" Sota states.

"Oh you don't? Well that's unfortunate for you since you found trouble." Kojiro chuckles as he pulls out a black pokéball with a red insignia on it. "But shooting you would be so boring…I'm a competitive guy at my core and there's nothing I like more than a game. So I'm gonna give you a shot to get yourself outta this." Kojiro states.

"What is it?" Sota asks.

"A simple pokémon battle; you beat me and you're free to go on your merry way, but if I win I get every pokémon you own or I keep my promise of sending you home in a box." Kojiro explains.

"And if I say no?" Sota asks.

"We skip straight to putting you in that box." He answers.

"Fine then, let's do this." Sota answers. Kota steps in front of his friend and prepares to fight whatever is released from that black ball. Kojiro sends out a Raticate, but this one looks odd. Its eyes are a bright almost glowing red and it has some kind of purple smoke coming out of its nose and mouth when it breathes. Kota takes a step back when he sees this as well, confused by the state of the Raticate before him.

"Raticate use Hyper Fang on that little Eevee!" Kojiro commands. The strange Raticate hisses and runs at Kota to attack, but Kota dodges out of the way of its first attempt. The Raticate isn't stopping though and continues to chase Kota around the bridge chomping at the air as it misses.

"Kota Quick Attack!" Sota commands when he his pokémon has an opening after another dodge. The Eevee jumps at the Raticate and hits it in the body with his paws. However the Raticate didn't seem fazed and chomped at Kota too quickly for him to get away this time. The fangs of the strange pokémon clamp down on the Eevee's back causing Kota to screech a way that Sota hasn't heard before.

"Kota break away and get back!" Sota yells out, but the Raticate's grip is too strong and Kota cries more as the teeth bite down harder.

"Let him go!" Sota yells at Kojiro.

"Do you forfeit the match?" Kojiro smugly asks. The cries of Kota in pain are gut wrenching for Sota, but if he forfeits he'll lose Kota all together…he has to do something fast.

"Bite harder Raticate!" Kojiro orders and Kota lets out a high pitched scream as the Raticate obeys.

"NOOOO!" Sota yells. He's out numbered and needs to get away; he does the only thing he can think of to help. He releases his newly caught and royally pissed off Red Gyarados onto the bridge! The Gargantuan monster roars loudly on the wooden walkway for all to hear. Anyone who was close by watching the fight immediately screams and runs away before the Gyarados goes on a rampage. Kojiro freezes in fear and his friends yell a chorus of expletives and take off as fast as they can. The Raticate let's go of his hold on Kota at the sight of the crimson terror before it. Kojiro returns the Raticate to his ball and runs away as the Gyarados shoots a stream of water from its mouth and washes Kojiro off the bridge into the Canal below! Sota picks up his injured Eevee and looks up to see the angry Gyarados set its sights on him. As it rears back to unleash another attack Sota quickly returns it to the pokéball. Sota immediately runs off the bridge and turns the opposite way of the contest judges and instead heads to the pokècenter to get Kota some treatment. The nurse in the pokècenter assures Sota that his pokémon will be just fine after about an hour, so he waits in the lobby.

About forty-five minutes into the wait, a news report comes on the TV screen. A report of someone unleashing a giant red Gyarados in the middle of Cerulean City. The news report goes on to show video footage taken by a bystander with their phone. "The shaky footage shows the giant pokémon roaring and spraying a large amount of water onto the bridge and causing someone to fall into the canal. Eye witnesses say that the individual was successfully rescued and they declined any medical attention before leaving the scene. When bystanders were asked what prompted this incident, most people said that it was caused by a battle between unidentified trainers. As no one was injured and no damage to property was caused, police are not actively looking for anyone to arrest. They do ask that trainers who want to battle, to please be mindful of your surroundings in the future." The news cuts to other stories after that, luckily no one is upset and the footage couldn't really see Sota all that well.

A few more minutes after that, the nurse returns with Sota's pokéball and hands it over to him.

"Your pokémon is good as new. We hope that the rest of your day goes well." She says and returns to her desk. Sota releases Kota from the ball, the Eevee does a twirly hop and a happy yip when he sees Sota.

"That's a good boy! I'm so happy you're okay! Yeah!" Sota says as he pets him. They exit the center and get to the sidewalk and Sota remembers he left his phone inside his bag so he pulls it out. He sees that he has quite a few missed calls and text messages from Haku and Genevieve wondering where he is and if he's alright. He texts them both that he's fine, he's just going to call it a night early and go back to the hotel. The sun's setting anyways and he feels like the day has beaten him up enough. When he gets to Haku's suite just after nightfall, he tosses his bag into the corner of the sitting room, grabs a water bottle from the mini fridge, takes a few gulps of it and then falls down onto the pullout bed the cleaning staff was nice enough to leave out.

Sota just wants to sleep and forget this day even happened. Kota curls up into him again and purrs loudly. He can't stop his thoughts from dwelling on Genevieve and the conversation they had on the cliffs. He should've just kept his mouth shut. He hugs Kota a little closer and rubs his face into the Eevee's soft fur. That feeling comes back and grips his chest tightly. He tries to fight it off, but a sniff escapes him along with a tear. He rubs his eyes harder into Kota.

Genevieve pokes her sushi around on her plate with her cheek in her other hand. She's hungry, but at the same time the thought of food seems…off in some way. She picks up one of the rolls and feeds it to Clair who gobbles it up quickly. She had been worried about Sota earlier when he wasn't answering his phone, people were saying that Gyarados was loose near the bridge and she feared he might be in danger. Haku had told her not to worry and that he was probably fine, which Sota's text later said he was, but she's not too sure.

"Genevieve?" Haku calls out breaking her line of thought.

"I'm sorry, what? She asks.

"I was asking if you didn't like the sushi. You've barely taken a bite…" He explains.

"Oh yes, it's good…I'm just not as hungry as I thought I suppose." She replies.

"Okay. Well I was thinking that tomorrow sometime, we can possibly do some training toge…" Haku begins saying but his voice seems to trail off into nothingness. He told me that he likes me…but what does that actually mean? We've known each other for very little time when you think about it. It has only been a month or so since that day in Pallet Town outside of the Professor's laboratory. He looked at me with intense eyes; they looked focused, but also pained. He seemed cold, hostile to the world around him. Almost like he was dangerous, though not frightening. She thought to herself remembering that day she first saw him. It's not that she didn't find him attractive…she just wouldn't exactly call him "cute". Haku she would categorize as cute, but Sota was different. Could he really have developed those kinds of feelings that quickly? She always believed love at first sight was charming, but ultimately a fairy tale.

"Are you alright?" Haku asked waving his hand in front of her eyes to get her attention.

"I'm sorry…I guess I'm more tired than I thought." She said with a polite forced smile. "You think we can go back to the hotel?" She asks.

"Y-Yeah…sure." Haku replies as he gets the attention of a waiter and asks for the check and after he pays they head out to catch a cab.

"Did something happen…between you and Nakamura?" Haku asks once they're in the taxi.

"What? No…nothing happened between Sota and I. Nothing at all. Why do you ask?" Genevieve stammers.

"Well when you got back to judges you looked upset even though you tried not to. You said that you came from seeing Nakamura over by the cliffs…so I figured something must've happened there." Haku explained his reasoning. She thought she hid herself better than that, but apparently not.

"I promise, everything is fine and nothing happened between Sota and I. I'm just very tired from the day's events and would like to clean up and go to sleep. But thank you for your concern." She explained with another forced smile. Haku only nods and leaves it at that. Genevieve hopes that everything just goes back to normal tomorrow.