Pokémon Gyms: Established by local trainers and certified by the regional Pokémon League, these locations assess, prepare, and aid Pokémon trainers who visit them. The heads are known as "Gym Leaders", and they often double as the local government of their gym's surrounding area.

Their assessments are known as "gym battles", and frankly, the name is self-explanatory.

Here in this particular gym, one such gym battle has begun... in a sense.

"Why aren't you telling him what to do, Hogoki?"

"I never learned underwater battling, so he's got a better idea..."

"I... see."

It's not my place to say whether this counts as a gym battle.

Foccai does seem to be performing well against Misty's Goldeen, however. The Popplio is mostly dodging its attacks, but still able to strike with a Bubble or the occasional fleeting Pound as both trainers observe. Even when he's actually hit, the blow isn't strong enough to stun the seal into a combo.

Both decided that they could talk while they waited for this to reach an outcome.

Misty lifted her head to look at Hogoki. "Do you remember why I let Foccai be with you back then?"

"He wanted to come along, right?"

"The other reason."

"...You and Mom wanted to train me?"

Misty sighed. "That's... not what I meant. You know, when he got restless and started attacking things? You had to see it once, right?"

"Ah, yeah! We just train hard enough every week so he won't get like that."

"That answers that... Did you ever learn why that happened?"

"Nope. Guess he's just like that."

"You normally don't see that. It could mean he wasn't raised well early o-"

"Hey, Foccai! I think we can take a little more risk here! Let's take 'em head on!" The seal barked in agreement from under the pool's surface as his trainer finally looked up to meet Misty's gaze. "Sorry, what was that? Didn't wanna tire him out."

The tomboyish mermaid's bewildered look had to be forced down in favor of a polite smile. "It's... nothing. You're doing well with him."

The boy himself had a confused look at that. "...Right... He's doing pretty well down there."

"...Where'd he go? They've both disappeared. They couldn't go that far while still figh-" Her commentary was interrupted by water suddenly flying up and into her face. Once that cleared, a friendly Popplio was in view, holding up an unconscious Goldeen. She took the fish from Foccai and recalled it. "...Thanks, I think. If you want, you can get on the platforms now. You've proven yourself in water." The seal barked happily before swimming over to said platforms and climbing onto them. Misty began to laugh softly as she took out the second ball. "So... Goldeen was the easy one. Normally, I'd use my Staryu now, but since you did so well against Goldeen..." The ball opened to release a purple star thing with a red gem center. "Have Starmie. You can handle this, right? I heard that Brock's Onix wasn't too hard..."

The devilish grin on Misty's face made Hogoki sweat a little, but his expression was determined nonetheless. "'Course we can handle it! You wouldn't use it otherwise, right?"

"Try hitting it, then!" Then it started spinning in place ridiculously quickly. Foccai tried to hit it by slapping it with a flipper, but the thing went underwater and in a seemingly random direction. Same thing happened with Bubble when it shot stars out to pop them. "You need to hit faster than that if you're trying to win. Maybe put more force into your attacks..."

Both trainer and Pokémon seemed taken aback, and maybe a little frustrated. "If ya want force... We'll do what we did last time! Bubble and Pound!"

Here we go again. The seal did as told, creating a fairly large bubble or three before using Pound on it to shoot itself into the air, letting out a comically long chain of bubbles and then preparing to springboard onto one of them before-

"Ice Beam!"

...It crashed into and through a block of ice instead of a bouncy bubble after that was frozen. Foccai landed onto the water with a loud crash, bouncing off the water even before sinking a little while stunned.

Once the Popplio swam back up and returned to the platform visibly annoyed, Misty simply stated the obvious with a smirk. "Still haven't hit it yet. Got anything left to try?"

The nervousness on Hogoki's face showed clearly after that. He didn't want to lose the fight, for obvious reasons, but he also didn't want to repeat tactics that kept failing — especially since Foccai had been considerably hurt by that fall, and the Starmie hadn't even actually targeted him yet.

...Wait. Hadn't he bounced off the water there? The angle seemed to have done something there with how fast Foccai had gone.

"One more idea left... Do what you did just now, but aim for the water! Hit it with your flipper like you did when you fell!"

Confused Misty and seal alike, but both let it happen. Foccai did everything before the fall, but then began to spin in such a way that the charged Pound hit the water like a springboard. We now have a bouncing seal.

"Again!"

More bouncing. It kept repeating until the Popplio understood what was happening and was near the ceiling.

Finally, he stopped spinning and directly struck the water at an angle such that he wouldn't bounce.

So, first of all, that was an absurdly powerful splash that came from hitting water with that much force. It caused Foccai to be thrown about, even. The good part about it was that it caused the Starmie to just shoot up into the air, helpless to literally everything.

Eventually, once the star crashed down as well and the water settled, the match ended with a dizzy Popplio and a clearly unconscious starfish.

Foccai slowly returned to his visibly excited trainer while Misty eventually recalled her Pokémon.

"That was... an interesting way to win. You catch on fast, don't you?"

He blinked. "Catch on fast? We just do what we need to win. You learn fast when you have to."

"I guess you're right there." She had an odd look on her face while saying that. "...You only have Foccai, right? Most trainers would switch in that battle if they had two Pokémon. Since you've done so well with Foccai, I'd like to see how you do with this one... Here's your badge, by the way."

He noticeably relaxed as he took the badge. "I'll take a second Pokémon. Keep having trouble catching anything, anywa-"

A ball opened, and then a blue duck was in front of him, staring at him blankly as if it didn't know how to respond. It did quack, at least.

"Another gym leader found this Pokémon and gave him to me... His last trainer called him Kwaru. He's a handful, and you'll need to remember that."

Confused look as he kneeled down to the duck's eye level. "He seems just fine. He's just looking at me, so he can't be that ba-" The duck quacked sharply and clamped his beak down on Hogoki's nose, causing frantic yelling and a duck that seemed glued to him while Misty had a weary look.

"Told you. That's not even the worst..."

Eventually Kwaru let go after a while, leaving Hogoki rubbing a very sore nose. "He'll warm up, I hope..."

"For your sake, he'll have to. Now..."

...

...

Awkward silence.

"I think you're challenging gyms for reasons other than the league. Am I right?"

"...'Course you're right! I'm here to get stronger, and the gyms are how I'm doing it." The tone of his voice seemed to betray something more.

"Right, right... But most trainers get stronger for the league. Why are you doing it? I know you've got a reason."

Why does he look extremely... tense? "I'm doing it like everyone else does. Get eight badges, do well in the league tournament, go home... then try to challenge a gym leader for their title. Don't you get a lot of those people every year? That's what you're supposed to do."

"...Supposed to do? Hogoki... You don't have to do it for any reason at all." A sigh in response to his confused look. "Many trainers do it just for fun, or to meet people, or to become a Champion... or a Pokémon Master." She muttered the last part in an almost mocking, yet fond way. "I know you're here to challenge me later on, but is that what you actually want? You're ten. You can choose now..."

This kid is unreasonably confused. "...I've been training half my life to be the one to replace ya. If I just did something else, where would all that time go? And what's all this about meeting people? You don't train Pokémon to make friends with other trainers... Ya train to get stronger and win against 'em. You just leave yourself open by showing your hand if you don't..."

"Are you talking about Pokémon battling or something else?"

"I'm talking about everything! If people aren't helping ya, they're gonna turn on you. And even if they are helping... they won't help forever." His expression turned rather downcast as he finished saying that.

Misty took a moment to find the right words. This was too delicate a matter to be hasty about replying. Eventually, she did find a good reply. She crouched down a little to meet his eyes.

"Hogoki. As a gym leader, I've been around too many trainers to count. I know there's a lot of people who don't go out of their way to help others, or don't even want to help in the first place. But, from experience, well... most people who help you won't just stop. And most people who don't help you don't hurt you, either. They just... don't really care either way. I know, you might not believe me, but I want you to give it a chance. At least think about it. You can trust people. You hear me? Most people won't hurt you. You can see for yourself if you want, even if it's just once..."

We have an extremely tense Hogoki whose face clearly shows he's just... frozen. She didn't say a word after that, waiting for him to process it all and reply, and eventually, he did reply. "...I don't think I'll do that anytime soon. Not yet. Maybe when I'm stronger, maybe never, I dunno. But... I think I've gotta get going. I'll see you sometime."

He seemed less coordinated than usual as he nearly tripped over his own feet, dropped the ball he used to recall a Kwaru perching near the ceiling, and basically stumbled his way out of the gym.

Misty hoped that she'd caused him to rethink things, and that at least sometime in the future he'd agree.

...Oh. Her phone was ringing.

"Hello?"

Shouting guy. "Supreme Commander! It is our collective exhortation that we of our respective jurisdictions hereby assemble with yourself in this periodical grouped negotia-"

"Get your mouth off that balloon you're trying to inflate, it's giving me a headache... I already made time for the meeting tomorrow, Quonk. You know this. Are you calling about anything else?"

"It is perhaps notable that I deliver this inquisitive proposition regarding my promotion to your status of rank in command of this grand organization's hierarchy."

"Like every other time you ask that, I'm refusing. Is there anything else you wanna say with twelve times the words?"

"No."

"Good, see you tomorrow then." She hung up before letting out an exasperated sigh. "They couldn't find a better leader for Sinnoh than him...?"

Well... Now that Hogoki had gotten two badges, he'd be heading straight for the third one. According to the map, Saffron City was next. He'd let Foccai rest unless they needed to battle, and Kwaru... uh... he'd wait until they were closer to Saffron.

The map didn't show anything about an underground path, but he'd take it anyway. Surely the fact that it said Vermilion City was that way was just a mistake on the signage.

...He wondered where Tenshou was. She seemed at least less untrustworthy than other ordinary people. He doubted it would be that dangerous to test what Misty said if he did so with her.