On Friday afternoon, the battling team at Tobari Central Junior High was practicing in the school's indoor arena as usual. They were a subset of the battling club in the school handpicked by the captain, Chad Shosha. The blond teenager was wearing a uniform with SHOSHA 36 on the back. He sat next to a female with auburn hair. She never wore her PIKARU 25 jersey unless it was necessary.

Chad came from a prominent family of Pokemon Trainers. The coach of the team actually deferred to him on most things because of it. Their family name was written with the same kanji used in the Japanese term for League Champion; in fact, his great-grandmother was Sinnoh League Champion from 1925 to 1929. They expected the best from him in all things battling. It was true here as well. The middle schools in Sinnoh would be competing in a tournament at the beginning of February, and the qualifiers were coming up at the end of December. They needed to get their act together.

"So I spent this past week gathering information on our rival teams," he mused to his closest confidant.

"Taking your mind off the Krookodile Tracker?" Emi droned without looking at him.

"I would've anyway," Chad said. It did not shake him as much as it did others. "I shouldn't have to mention Gama Memorial and its captain, Edward Hankstein." A former Sunyshore Gym Trainer who trained with Nori Carino and Kallisto Keravnos, among others. "Same for South Kotobuki and Kei Kaneko. We should keep an eye on Hatōji Academy in Sandgem and their captain, Chris Foster. It's private, but–"

"RICHARD!" came a screech from a girl with flowing cobalt hair. Kiara's Clefable hobbled to his feet after a particularly hard blow, scowling just like her trainer. "We're sparring, not fighting!"

"This is sparring!" Richard countered, crossing his arms in sync with his Lucario. He twirled the cross he wore around his neck. "If you can't take the heat, get off the battlefield!"

Before he could rise to his feet to play peacekeeper, another dispute broke out.

"Oh, what's the use!" Aki cried out, dropping to their hands and knees. Their light pink hair rustled. "Forget it. I'll never be good enough!"

"Not with that attitude!" Angel urged, flicking his white dreads. He beamed while his green eyes nearly lit up. "I've been working hard since Anthony left! What about you?"

"Don't you DARE bring Tony into this!" Kiara fired off, narrowing her pink retinas.

Chad climbed atop the bench to stand a little higher. "CALM DOWN, EVERYONE!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "We can't be fighting each other like this. We are a team! Some of you should know better! There will be battles where we will have to work as one in the future, and we cannot act like this when that happens!"

He received a mixture of frowns and glares. Those who didn't outright apologize got back to training begrudgingly. With a grumble, he plopped down and leaned against the wall. This was not what they needed. There had been far too much negativity as of late.

Ever since Anthony Morris had taken an indefinite leave of absence from the club in the wake of his Quagsire's career-ending (barely not life-threatening) injury at the claws of a murderous Pawniard, the atmosphere had changed. Maybe it was the cloud of the incident still hanging over them. Or it could have been how they had lost one of their best teammates. Or perhaps it was how Anthony was the ray of sunshine that brightened up the club with his upbeat and silly persona. Which Chad could empathize with, admittedly. He only outright said as such to Emi, but seeing the facade of his friend and other close confidant so thoroughly shattered had made his stomach twist into knots.

"Uh, Chad?" Two girls with black hair approached, Mia and Kate. Both in the same year as him. The latter bowed and asked, "This is taking forever. Do you mind if we practice outside?"

"Please don't," he urged. There was a reason they kept it indoors whenever possible. "We have had trouble with people watching our training." He turned to the others. "There is a difference between research and spying, by the way."

Emi crossed her arms. "You're worried about our little stalker?"

He snorted, but shook his head. "We can't take any chances." There was always the odd chance that Nishigawa Middle School was going to catch someone who couldn't adjust during the qualifiers. They could not risk that. Not at this point.

"Why can't we return the favor?" Mia asked, her lips curling into a hook shape.

"We are above that!" he snapped with more force than he intended.

"Screw this," Emi suddenly blurted out. She grabbed her bag and stormed towards the door.

"Emi?!" He was right behind her, but she did not stop until she was out in the hallway. "Emi, where are you going?!"

She stopped in place and whirled around. "Home," she declared. "This is getting stupid."

He grabbed at her shoulder firmly yet softly. "Emi, don't do anything rash."

"I won't," she said, pulling his arm away. "Talk to you next week. Maybe sooner."

Chad knew what this was about. Emi was trying to be strong for everyone in the club. It helped a little. But it was all a front; in fact, her reaction after Anthony had quit may have been the strongest of all. Now the passing of the Krookodile Tracker had shaken her badly. It shook everyone badly. At least they would get some closure with that on the weekend. No doubt, news of what the Officials were planning to do was on its way.


Nori silently gazed down at the parking lot below, baffled by the presence of the tomboyish teenager who had evidently been waiting for him. He had never interacted with Emi Pikaru personally, and even though he had a tumultuous history with his school's battling club, that was weeks ago. Why was she here? No, there was something more pressing than that.

"Hi? What are you doing here?" he asked her directly, grasping the top of the railing.

Emi smirked, like a Mightyena that had just caught prey. "Is that how you greet your visitors?" she asked in a provocative tone. She flashed a toothless grin.

"How did you even know I was here?!" he snapped, getting to what he was really wondering about. "Were you, like, stalking me?"

"Oh, don't flatter yourself," she dismissed with a wave and disgusted snort. "I came by your house, but your mom wouldn't tell me where you went. See where you get it from, at least."

"Don't talk that way about my mom!"

Ignoring his remark, she continued, "So I asked your neighbor, and he pointed me over this way. Nice guy. Didn't even ask me why." She flipped her short hair and laughed triumphantly. Then she pointed at her chest. "Staring at these the whole time."

Nori groaned. He would need to have a stern chat with Rashid about this later. "Well, I appreciate you coming to see me," he said slowly, loosening his grip on the railing. He took a deep breath and analyzed the situation. How best to approach it? "Is this something important?"

She arched an eyebrow and cracked a smile. "Well, I suppose it isn't that much, but–"

"Then sorry, I'm kind of busy. I'm sure you know why." He started heading for the stairs. "Bring it up at school on Monday."

He found himself blocked by Emi standing in the way. She crossed her arms and smiled arrogantly. With a glare, he vaulted over the side and stomped off. Pachi just squeezed by, of course. It caught her off-guard, as she took two seconds to follow.

"Hey!" she growled, catching up and walking beside him. "I'm not done."

"Well, I am," he smoothly replied.

"You think you're doing the right thing?" she kept going. "I'm talking about the new Pokemon you were given."

Why did he not see that coming? Okay, he did, just not from her. "What about her?" Before she could open her mouth again, he snapped. "If you have a point, get to it!"

Emi smirked. "Fine, I'll get to it. I think you should leave her to whatever she gets."

He stopped in place and slowly turned to face her with a furrowed brow. Was she that full of herself?! "I'm not gonna give her up just because some jerk I barely know says so," he said firmly, placing his hands on his hips. Pachi mimed his action. "It sounds like you're just biased because you loved Pete Stephens."

Emi scoffed. "Oh, that's brilliant," she said, the sarcasm dialed all the way up. "You think it's just me who has something against that killer Pokemon."

"I do know it's not just you, and screw everyone else too!" He punctuated it with a stomp and started off again, faster. Pachi kept up.

Emi hustled to get in front of him. "Sure, like your clubmates?" She wore the face of a predator, narrowed eyes and a toothy grin.

"I know that! I knew that from the start, stupid!" What did she take him for?! Before she could open her mouth again, he said, "If you want something from me, say it already!"

"I thought it was obvious. I guess not for you." She shrugged her shoulders and threw up her arms. She shook her head, eyes closed momentarily before glaring. "I want a piece of the person covering for the Qwilfish that murdered the Krookodile Tracker."

Oh. "If it's just that, then not now." He went through the exact same thing before with her clubmate. Maybe this was just something trainers liked doing. "I have to start on Qwilfish's training, so I don't have time."

"Why don't you do the smart thing and train with me?" she offered, chuckling lowly under her breath. "Battle me with her. A Rock Slide to bring down two Starlys. I'll even sign that little waiver you got."

Nori stopped to consider her offer. A battle might help, and it would get them what they both wanted. He looked down at Pachi, who did a little flex. The squirrel's tail squished vigorously. He was ready for a fight.

"Happy to. Or at least, I would be," he admitted. His sudden calmness managed to have an unexpected disarming effect on her. "But I tried having her out before, and Qwilfish hasn't been trained out of water yet. She like, started choking and flopping and panicking." She sort of needed to be healed too. And he needed to sort out the situation with Pachi attacking her. Really, when he thought about it more, there was a lot he needed to do before him and Qwilfish had their first battle.

Emi did not miss a beat. "Then let's go to a place where there is water. Mynwest Court has some battlefields like that."

"Hell no!" Never! Never ever!

Emi slapped her forehead. Her eyes widened and she made a comical expression. "Oops. Riiiiight, I nearly forgot. You're afraid of a little water."

"And you're afraid of…this…Pokemon…" That's right, why wouldn't she be here complaining? "Yeah, you're afraid she'll not be punished!"

The teenager rolled her eyes. "Good comeback. I'm so offended."

"That's it!" He didn't even care at this point. He stepped up and got in her face. "You want a battle? Fine! It won't be with Qwilfish, but I'm gonna shut you up!" Pachi jumped in front, sparks flying from his cheeks.

"I thought you said you didn't have time for me?" she smugly prodded, standing tall.

"I was just saying that to get you to take a hint and go away," he said. "Guess you didn't get that!"

She smirked. "Of course I did. But I knew you'd come to see things my way eventually." She reached out to mockingly pat him on the back, but he pulled away.

Was there any winning with this jerk? Yes, yes there would be. How full of herself would she be when he kicked her ass? Not very! He'd beaten trainers way better than her! Pachi snorted and squeaked at him while gesturing at the auburn-haired teenager. He wanted in.

They stopped before a traffic light. Emi looked up at the block numbers. "Well, if we're not using your new little murderer, there's a Fightopia about five blocks west from here."

Nori also looked up at where they were. He countered, "There's a battling cage way closer, I think like one block north and another east? It'll save us some money and time."

Emi's eyebrows shot up for just a moment. "Oh, don't be so cheap," she brushed off, glancing aside. She smiled again, but there was something different about it from before – it was just in her lips. "Fightopia would be more private anyway," she quickly said and began to walk off.

Her suppressed panic and uneasiness did not escape Nori's notice. The light changed to blue. He glanced down at Pachi. It took no time to decide, and he started to cross. "Well, I want to go there!" he shouted so that she could hear. "What's wrong with battling in public?"

There had to be a problem with the battling cages specifically, right? He glanced over his shoulder. Emi was frozen in indecision. Nori couldn't even begin to guess why she wouldn't be fine with this. It wasn't enough to dissuade her as he was hoping, as she bolted from her reverie to catch up.

"Fine," she grumbled. She lifted her chin and marched on ahead of him. It was apparent from taking the lead that she knew where it was. So she was avoiding it. Nori had many questions, and he was sure he'd get the answers shortly.


Nori went over what he knew about Emi Pikaru in his mind along the way. As Volkner had taught him, knowing your opponent was important. She was the second-best trainer on their middle school's battling team. A sarcastic tomboy, and evidently, a callous jerk. He expected some strategies to rile a person or Pokemon up. Which probably meant exploiting his phobia. He didn't know much about her roster, just that she didn't seem to have any specialties (otherwise he would've heard about it) and that her best was her Flareon. But he could make some educated guesses about what she might try to use against him.

He was uncertain if the place they were headed for had a formal name. There were many of them around, but these weren't in a park or anything. If this was a park, it didn't have a sign with its name or anything of the sort. In fact, it was just two battlefields and a tennis court, each surrounded by a tall chain-link fence. A 'No Pokemon' sign was in front of the latter. There was a lone garbage bin in the partition between them, and the only place to sit inside or outside was a children's picnic table that someone had left there.

As they arrived, his gaze – and Emi's – was immediately drawn to the teenager observing a match, with his Noctowl perched above him. He had platinum blond hair styled into two flat layers and stood at about 170cm in height. Thin-framed glasses rested over his catlike yellow retinas.

He wasn't sure why, but he waved an arm and called to him. "Chad!"

Emi's face fell into her hands as she whirled away, muffling a frustrated wail. The captain of the battling team which she was on turned his head to look at them. "Nori?" he questioned, and it did not take long for him to notice his friend. He gasped and recoiled. "Emi?!"

As they walked over, Emi grumbling all the while, Chad snapped from his position. He almost crashed into his friend in his haste, managing to stop by grabbing hold of her jacket.

"Emi, you said you were just on a walk! Emi, what did you doooo?!" he cried, shaking her while gritting his teeth. His Noctowl swooped down, landing beside him. The bird craned its neck forty-five degrees.

"Calm down, it's nothing," she half assured and half dismissed, swatting his arm aside. She turned to him and gestured with a palm while smirking. "He was the one challenged me."

Chad sputtered for a second. "Nori, is that true?" he questioned, shooting Emi a sideways glance. "If so, what is the context behind it?"

Nori glanced over at Pachi while considering his words, who had gone to say hello to Chad's Pokemon. The Noctowl waved a wing and cooed, otherwise not really interested in speaking with the excitable squirrel.

He answered Chad. "Sort of. She stalked me outside my friend's place and waited until I got out. She's mad about the Krookodile Tracker and was talking crap." He shrugged as the captain of the battling team frowned. "She wanted to fight Qwilfish, but she's not trained out of water, and you know how I am with it, but she annoyed me into challenging her anyway."

Chad dropped to his knees, placed his palms together, and bowed his head. "Nori, I cannot apologize enough for her behavior."

Nori crinkled his nose and raised an eyebrow. "What are you apologizing about her for?" he asked with confusion and just a little irritation.

Chad, maybe realizing how ridiculous he looked, scrambled to his feet. He gave Nori a firm look. "I just want to let you know that the opinions of Emi Pikaru do not represent those of the battling team as a whole."

Emi slapped her forehead, leaving her hand on it after. "This is why I didn't want to come here." She grumbled and shook her head. However, her eyes fell upon her teammate in an empty sneer. "And Chad? A lot of people think the same as me. But I'll make it clear. This one's all me."

"I told you before, just don't!" he cried.

Nori watched their argument. Pachi was just as curious, but the Noctowl didn't answer when the squirrel queried him about it. "Am I…missing something?" he said, rubbing the nape of his neck.

"Oh, he's worried I'll ruin your little advice on the side thing." His opponent exaggerated a shrug, shut her eyes, shook her head, and threw her outstretched arms and shoulders way up.

"Emi!" the blond wheezed.

Nori could only blink. "Well, if it's just that, you don't have to worry. I said I would, and I'll do that no matter what." He promised! Nori still felt a little guilty about what happened with their now former teammate, Anthony. So he wasn't going back on that unless it turned out to be unwanted.

As Chad stuttered in disbelief, Emi clapped him on the shoulder; Nori was uncertain if it was in genuine comfort or if she was being sardonic. "See?" she said, tracing a finger along the shoulder blade. "You were worrying over nothing."

"I…you're right." The captain of the battling team took a deep breath and bowed, managing to find his composure. "I appear to have underestimated your integrity, Carino. Greatly underestimated. Accept my apologies."

"No problem." A lot of people had misconceptions about him.

"I'm glad we got this sorted out. Now, let's get this done." Emi said this with toughness, doing a fantastic job of hiding her relief behind her attitude. Nori could tell from her initial reaction and behavior that it was a load off her mind. She powerwalked to the free cage.

"Looks like we got a crowd," Chad remarked, and sure enough, their argument had attracted a lot of attention. Small wonder. He was Nori Carino, the Demon Tamer of Veilstone, and now the rehabilitator of the Qwilfish that killed Pete Stephens. And the junior battling teams had to be pretty popular, too.

"That's fine," he said as he headed into their cage. He was used to it after Sunyshore. It was a generic battlefield with no features. A little cramped, maybe like sixty square meters at most, but that was what you got with the cages.

"Should I be the judge?" Chad asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Judging is for self-important people and making jobs." Volkner taught him that. Not like a battle needed someone to say a Pokemon couldn't continue. Any proper trainer could do that themselves. And premature judgments were a problem, as they should know. "Stand with your friend."

He raised his palms. "I do not want to influence this battle."

"Then go wherever."

Emi had already taken her spot, so Nori took his with Pachi by his side. Chad, with a sigh and eyeing some people who seemed to want to come in to get a better view, stood by the door in the middle. His Noctowl flew and perched above.

"All right, so have you decided on what sort of battle this will be?" he asked them.

Emi put a hand on her belt and twirled a finger with the other. "Standard fine? And yeah, I'll sign your little agreement for your other murderer if you need me to. I'm sure you have him under control now." She said this with a smirk, but otherwise with a modicum of respect.

"I said I didn't really have time today, and I meant that, I wasn't lying. So one-on-one for now," Nori said. If she wanted standard, they could do so later. "Double-blind Pokemon choice. That is, we send them out at the same time."

"Fair enough. Not that it'll matter." She had her chosen Pokemon in hand by the time he declared the kind of battle. His opponent grinned maliciously as she squeezed the capsule.

Pachi tugged at his legs and pointed at her. He wanted in. Without answering, Nori reached into his pocket. He made his selection in his mind and said, "Ready."

"Set!" Emi said, lowering her head and smirking.

"Go!"

With Chad's word, Emi threw her Pokemon out. Pachi preemptively dashed forth, only to nearly crash into the teal beast that materialized. The Demon was ready for battle! He'd chosen power over a possible type advantage.

It was the right call anyway. Nori was expecting a Water-type, so he was surprised to see her choose a gray dinosaur-like Pokemon instead. It had a rocky body with spikes on its back, a beige belly, three sharp nails on each hand. When the Demon roared in delighted challenge, it roared right back with even more fury, spinning its horn and whipping its thick tail.

"Your Rhydon, huh?" Chad asked. Neither of them noticed the Demon's eyes light up as she turned back to him with a nostalgic grin. "I expected that you'd go with Anchorage, because of…" The blond shifted as he eyed Nori. His heart beat a little faster. Yeah, something part Water-type would be a smart choice against him. He hated to admit.

"Thought about it, but this was an obvious pick," she replied, flicking her auburn bangs. "This stupid moron's," she mocked one of his favorite phrases, making a hand talking motion. "His team has a massive Ground weakness."

"So what!?" he countered. "I can't help that!" It never actually occurred until she mentioned it, but still. So what?

She scoffed. "Did you never?" she slowly began, her posture stiffening. "Ever? Think about catching something to fix that?"

"Well, for one, no. I don't really care." He never wanted to be a trainer. Any battling he did was for his Pokemon, not himself. Well, excepting times like this. "Secondly, any Pokemon I catch on my own is one I won't be able to give full attention to because of my job."

Chad did a double take and tilted his head slightly away. "I never thought about that. About the fact that you don't get to pick your team," he remarked. He tried to smile, but it was halfhearted with a twitched nose. "I see your point, though."

Emi not only rolled her eyes, she rolled her entire head. "Yes, that's really smart. You–"

"And third!" he shouted over her sarcasm, stomping a foot to punctuate. "We can show you how it doesn't matter." The Demon cackled and stood ready. Nori was trained by a type expert after all! Covering your Pokemon's weaknesses was something Volkner taught him, and Gym Leaders were some of the best at it!

"Well, at least you're both confident." Emi gave a vulturous smirk, lowering her gaze. "Wonder how long that'll last?"

"Guess we'll see!" he answered with cheer, which only made her roll her eyes.

At least there was one good thing he could say about her: Emi was mostly accepting of the way he obtained Pokemon. When he first got the Demon, there were some jealous idiots saying it should have been them. There probably still were some actually, just not any saying it to his face.

Not that it mattered. He wasn't going to say, but there was a reason they were so confident. That was because they'd beaten a Rhydon before. A really angry wild one was their first real battle as a proper Trainer-Pokemon team. Nori thought he saw a genuine smile on the Demon's face for a moment. Sure, a trained one would be stronger, but they'd gotten stronger since then. It was time to show their stuff.