Chapter 84: A Single Pebble

The morning of the next day had finally come. Geeta had a cup of coffee in one hand, staring up at the morning sky while sitting on a chair that was put on the rooftop of Paldea's Pokémon league stadium. She wouldn't be accepting any challengers for at least a couple more hours, so she had plenty of time to just relax.

"How're you?" Rika's voice made Geeta turn her head back to see the elite four member standing behind her with her hands in her pockets. Geeta smiled at her.

"I'm well. And you?"

"I'm doing fine," Rika said.

The two women stared at the sun that was slowly beginning to rise. A cooling breeze brushed against them both.

"This is nice." Rika said. "Ever since we found out about the Professors being our allies, things feel less tense."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. Minus the whole fate-of-the-world-depending-on-Kai thing going on…it just feels like we have things under control."

Geeta took a sip of coffee from her mug. "It's not how I feel," she said.

"Why's that?" Rika asked.

"It feels like we're still puppets to the professors," Geeta said. "At any moment, for any reason, the professors can say that this timeline is a failure, and end all of us in a blink of an eye. Our relationship with the professors...It's less of a partnership, more of subordinates following a master. You get what I mean, right?"

"Yeah, I get it," Rika said, breathing a sigh. "Shame on me for thinking that we could feel a bit of peace, huh?"

"Oh- I'm sorry," Geeta said. "I didn't mean to burst your bubble. Now is definitely a good time to just relax and forget about things. But… I don't have that luxury. "

Rika said nothing. What could she say? If things failed, Geeta would be the only survivor of the wiped timeline, so she could encourage the next Geeta. For everyone else- they'd just…cease to exist. What would be worse? Dying, or having survivor's guilt before dying? That was a question that Rika didn't even want to think about, so she focused on the clouds.

There weren't many clouds out in the sky. From what it looked like, most of them were floating toward the sun., which bleached the sky with an orange color.. Every so often, she'd see a flying type Pokémon fly by the sun and blot it out for a split second with its shadow before flying away.

Geeta took in a deep breath… and sighed. She was seconds away from standing up- until suddenly her phone began to ring.

Geeta took her phone and saw the ID of the person calling her: Professor Turo. Geeta furrowed her brow in confusion before picking up the phone.

"Hello…?" Geeta asked.

"Hello Geeta," Turo said. "I hope you have rested well."

"I have," Geeta said.

"Good. Now- I have to get to the reason why I called you rather quickly. We have good news, and bad news."

The alarm made Geeta stand up from her seat, and almost immediately, like a disease spreading to its next victim, Rika 'caught' the emotion of Suprise coming from the champion. For a moment, Geeta had no idea what to say. She stood still as several thoughts flooded her mind. What was the bad news, she thought? Whatever it was, it couldn't be so bad that it merited the complete erasure of the timeline, right? Surely, that would only happen when Kai gulped, thinking that she wouldn't be able to even process the good news without hearing the bad news first.

She opened her mouth to speak.

"First, the good news," Turo said. Immediately, Geeta swallowed her words before frowning with frustration. 'Of course they wouldn't give her a choice,' she thought. 'They never have.'

"Kai has become much stronger than we have anticipated," Turo continued. "For some reason, perhaps one as small as a random pebble being moved a single inch, Kai did not surrender to his opponent named Eri, like he always had in every other timeline. He instead stood his ground, and actually managed to defeat her. Out of all of the timelines, Kai is undoubtedly the strongest he has ever been."

A breath of slight relief came and slightly undid the tightness in Geeta's chest. Thank goodness, she thought. She smiled a proud smile at the thought. However- that relief was short lived.

"The bad news," Turo said. The tightness in Geeta's chest came back, worse than ever before. "...is that Kai's victory has made the future unpredictable."

"...What?"

"Because Kai wasn't originally supposed to even fight Eri, let alone win, our plans are in jeopardy. Even we don't know what will happen next."

Geeta cussed under her breath. Rika's eyes widened at Geeta's word choice, even gasping lightly. The phone wasn't on speaker, but Rika had a feeling that things might be going really bad.

"What do we do?" Geeta asked. Desperation hung on every word.

"We must stay true to the plan. Straying away from it will cause further anomalies. The more we have the timeline in our control, the better. We can still predict how things are going with our surveillance cameras. For example, we know that a girl named Penny is en route to Uva Academy. She's planning to have a meeting with the Team Star boss members and is very likely to battle them. However, there is no need to panic. We have things under control for now so long as we all make the correct decisions. For now, what we need you to do… is call Nemona."

"Call…Nemona?" Geeta asked.

"Yes. Because the battle that is about to transpire in Uva Academy is going to be so great, that we predict that Nemona will not be able to contain herself and join the fight. We cannot let her interfere with Kai's momentum in terms of growth."

"I understand," Geeta said. "What can I do to distract he-"

Geeta bit her tongue. She knew exactly what she had to do. It was an easy solution, but one she wasn't mentally prepared for.

"I will now end our call so that you may call Nemona." Turo said.

The call went off, and Geeta lowered the hand that held her phone.

"What's wrong?" Rika asked.

Geeta breathed a sigh. "You know that story about the time traveler who went back in time, moved a pebble and changed the entire course of the timeline?" Geeta turned to face Rika. "Something similar is happening here- and the Professors can't predict what's going to happen next because of it."

"You're kidding."

"I wish I was. They said that things are still under control."

"Sure didn't seem like it was…" Rika said.

"...Anyway- I need you to decline any challengers that are coming. I have a very, very important guest coming."

"Really? Who?"

Geeta said nothing. She couldn't shake off the feeling of anxiety as she walked off. Not only was she thinking about the way the timeline was going- but she was also thinking about what she was about to do. She was going to challenge Nemona to a battle. It was the only way to distract her. But Geeta was planning to have that match after everything had calmed down.

She was also afraid of losing to Nemona…due to her pride. She clenched her fists, wondering if she was even ready for the battle to come.

"Geeta, wait-" Rika said. Geeta was moments away from going into the automatic doors that would lead her to the other side of the Pokémon league. The champion turned her head back. "Who or what moved the pebble? I mean, what do you think changed the timeline's course?"

"...I don't know." Geeta said. She turned her head and walked through the automatic doors.

Kai opened his eyes. The first thing he heard was a heart monitor, and the first thing he saw was the whiteness of the ceiling above him. He raised his upper body up and saw that there were curtains around him. He turned to his left and saw a shadow of someone laying on a hospital bed behind his curtain. He turned to his right and was barely able to see the hospital room's exit.

Kai sighed.

He had won the battle… but he couldn't stop thinking about how he was temporarily unable to access the second level of Flow.

What was wrong with him? Ever since he saw Geeta's transformation- when she transformed into the third level of Flow...He had temporarily stopped believing in himself. The moment Geeta showed that third form of Flow was when his confidence had begun crashing down. He saw the gap of strength between himself and Geeta and was completely crushed.

Everything was fine until Eri showed the same power…and his confidence faded along with that, too. That level of power scared him, and that fear was what made him feel frustrated at himself. He had come so far, fought so many strong opponents…Eri was strong, but wasn't as strong as Nemona, even when she had the third level of flow.

Yet again, the problem didn't lie in Kai's skill, it lied in his mindset. He had to overcome this hurdle just like the last ones, but somewhere inside of him, he was sick of having to do that. He was sick of having to deal with so many problems that just keep popping up.

Why couldn't he just be confident and get it out of the way? Why couldn't he stop being a wimp...? As much as he wanted to be mean to himself- something had to be done, or else he could risk relapsing.

Kai slammed his fists onto his lap. He then groaned to himself and stood up, deciding that he needed help thinking about how to get himself out of this funk rather than try to figure things out on his own. He felt as though he was going to just sit down and ruminate if nothing changed. When he pulled himself out of his bed covers and sat at the side of his bed, he felt a pain in his stomach. He groaned a bit and fought through the pain as he stood up and inched toward the door.

Eventually, Kai reached the door and opened it, and immediately he saw Nemona, Arven and Aeon all sitting on chairs beside the door, and they all turned to him.

"Guys..?" Kai asked. Everyone turned to him. Immediately, Aeon ran over to Kai and hugged him, much to his surprise.

"You're okay…!" Aeon said. "I'm glad…!"

Kai didn't move his arms to hug him back as Nemona and Arven came in.

"How're you feeling?" Nemona asked.

"What's the long face for?" Arven said, "You won the battle! You should be happy!"

"...I…" Kai muttered.

Aeon pulled himself away from Kai with a concerned look.

"If It wasn't for Pawmo…" Kai continued, "I-... I would have surrendered against Eri. My confidence…was shot the moment Eri transformed."

"But you won anyway," Arven said. "Shouldn't that make you proud?"

"It does. But- at the same time…the fact that my confidence was shot like that…scares me. What if it happens again? What if Pawmo wasn't there- what if I had just surrendered? I can't stop thinking about that."

"I see…" Aeon said.

Kai lowered his head. "...How do you guys get out of a funk?" Kai asked. "Like the one I'm having?"

"By having a battle," Nemona said.

Kai raised his head up to Nemona quickly and narrowed his head in annoyance.

"I'm asking the normal people, Nemona." Kai said.

"Hey! I'll have you know; battling is a great way to relieve stress!" Nemona shouted.

"I can't believe I'm saying it, but I have to agree with her," Arven said. "My Mabostiff relieves stress by battling all the time."

"Battles aren't going to help me here," Kai said. "I need something to help me with what's going on up here." Kai pointed at his forehead.

"Oh. Well, why don't you try talking to yourself in the mirror and say nice things about yourself?" Nemona asked. "Something like, 'I'm super duper strong' or something?"

"What…? That's stupid." Kai said.

"It's stupid and it works," Nemona said with a wink.

"Ughh… I hate agreeing with you," Arven said. "Stop making good points." Nemona giggled and grinned wide.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Nemona said.

"Oh, look, they're getting along." Aeon said. "Next thing you know it; tonight's moon is going to be blue."

"...Why would I do something like saying something nice to myself in the mirror?" Kai said. "That sounds beyond dumb."

"When has something being dumb ever stopped you?" Aeon asked. Kai raised his eyebrows. "You're acting different from the Kai I know. I remember that day when you forgave me for saying mean things to said, 'only a true idiot would believe you right now Luckily for you, i am that idiot.'"

"Yeah, but-"

"...'But' nothing. You, Kai, and I say this with the highest level of love and affection I can give you-...are the stupidest person I've ever met."

"HEY!"

"No-no-no, let me finish!" Aeon said, raising his hands in a surrender motion. "You're stupid in a good way."

"Still not helping your case," Kai chimed while glaring.

"I'm doing a lot of agreeing right now and I'm not sure how I feel about it," Arven said. "Buuut- you did call him stupid, Aeon. Nooooot sure how you're gonna save this and make your speech all inspiring-"

"Shut up and let me finish!" Aeon shouted. "Listen, Kai. Despite all of the odds being against you, you always decided to ignore them and try your best anyway. And you win."

"Kind of like how a Clodsire has an advantage with the Unaware ability up against a Gyrados with Intimidate, right?" Nemona added.

Everyone stared at Nemona.

"What?" She said. "I'm right!"

Aeon raised a finger and opened his mouth as though he were about to say an objection, but then lowered his finger and closed his mouth.

"See- he's speechless because I'm right," Nemona said, smiling and putting her hands on her hips. "I'm on a roll today."

Aeon breathed a defeated sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"See, Kai," Arven said, "You may be stupid, but Nemona's a whole different level of stupid."

"Hey!" Nemona shouted. "You're just mad because my analogy was right!"

"Great job. You want a cookie?" Arven snapped.

"Yes! And I know you can cook a really good one."

"...REALLY don't like how much I'm agreeing with you today." Arven said with a groan. "Maybe tonight's moon is going to be blue."

"Anyway-... as I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted!" Aeon shouted loud so both Arven and Nemona could hear- and both of them stiffened up. Aeon turned to Kai and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Remember those times when I would warn you multiple times about the odds stacked against you? Like that time when you fought Mela and she was about to use that Star Cannon on you? Or remember that time when I tried telling you to not go after the Titan Klawf- or Bombirdier? Whatever absurd belief that made you think you could do it, is what you have to channel right now. Being acting that stupid- well, it's your speciality-"

"HEY!" Kai cried.

Arven started chuckling loudly.

"Okay, okay. Let me reword this…. Ignoring the odds is your specialty. How's that?"

Kai pouted. "Better." He mumbled.

"I'm sorry for calling you stupid so many times. But you get what I mean, right?" Aeon asked.

Kai stopped pouting and then sighed. "Yeah, I get it," Kai said.

"Thinking back to when Nemona mentioned that you should be looking at the mirror and saying nice things about yourself… the Kai I know would say, 'that's stupid, luckily, I'm stupid, so I'm gonna do it anyway."

Kai began pouting.

"You can pout, but is that not what you'd say? Tell me I'm wrong," Aeon said.

Kai sighed. "You're not wrong.." He said in defeat.

" I love you," Aeon said with a smile.

Kai smiled back. "I love you too."

The boys pecked each other on the lips. The kiss brought a smile to Kai's face, but only for a moment.

"So," Nemona said. "Are you gonna compliment yourself in the mirror?"

"...Sure, why not?" Kai said. "Sorry for dismissing what you said earlier."

"Apology accepted! You can pay me back with a battle. Anyway- I know you'll get out of this funk like you always do. This is nothing for El Temerario Blanco!"

"...What?"

"It's the nickname I'm giving you! El Temerario Blanco. The White Daredevil! That's you! You got this!" Nemona grinned, and Kai couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Never change," Kai said."I think there's a bathroom in the hospital room behind me," Kai said. "Let me go over there and start doing that whole talking-to-myself-in-the-mirror thing."

"Okay," Nemona said, "We'll be here."

Kai spun around, went into the hospital room that he was in and closed the door behind him. He breathed a sigh once his back touched the door.

"So, let me get this whole confidence thing straight... when I'm faced with something like a test that's super difficult, and I have a thought where I say 'I don't think I can pass this test', I can swat it away by saying 'nah, I can totally pass this test,' and ignore the previous thought?"

"Yup," Nemona said.

"But aren't you just like, tricking yourself?" Arven said.

"Yup," Nemona said.

"That sounds kinda weird."

"Yup."

"...Are you only going to say 'yup?"

"Yup."

"You're impossible."

Kai sighed to himself. It did feel like he would be tricking himself. But…honestly, that would be nothing new.

He had been tricking himself ever since he started becoming more confident. All he was doing was pretending- all of this time, he was just pretending to be the person he thought he would be if he wasn't tied down by his emotions and thoughts. Every time Aeon told him the odds…may have well been his own thoughts on the matter.

Logically, fighting despite such huge odds was stupid. If something was impossible, then it was impossible. Period. But…when it came to boosting his own self-confidence…which he previously thought was impossible….he ignored that, and managed to boost his own confidence.

Kai thought about the analogy that Nemona had, about the Clodsire having the ability 'Unaware' against a Gyrados with the ability 'intimidate'. Anyone with a brain would know that a Gyrados is intimidating, and so should steer clear from ever fighting it- but the Clodsire with the ability 'unaware' would be dead set on winning, completely ignoring the fact that it was fighting an intimidating opponent, and not lose any momentum, or in the case he was thinking of, it's attack stat.

The only thing that had happened was that Kai himself had gained that ability, 'unaware', the one that made him completely ignore all of the doubts he had, and all of a sudden, he felt like he had forgotten how to use it. He knew In order to become a champion, he had to ignore the doubts in his head that told him that he never had a chance to begin with.

It's hard to deal with problems that you know how to solve, but don't have the energy or strength to solve it.

Maybe, just maybe, this whole 'talking to himself in the mirror' thing may work. Kai went straight to the bathroom in the hospital bedroom and looked in the mirror.

Kai looked at himself- saw his sullen and tired eyes. Only then had he realized that he hadn't slept that much. Maybe he should take a nap after this.

He breathed a sigh. "I'm amazing. I'm incredible," He said. "I'm the strongest trainer in the world."

This sounded so…what was the word? Narcissistic- that's it. It felt like he was just making up stuff. He felt like a clown. What kind of person would go to the mirror and do something this stupid?

Kai decided to keep going anyway.

"I'm…the strongest trainer in the world," Kai said. "I'm…the strongest trainer in the world." He didn't feel a meaningful change from saying this. Maybe he felt a bit of a tingle in his stomach like he always had when he received a compliment, but that feeling was offset from how awkward the whole thing felt.

Kai groaned and moved away from the mirror, deciding to stop for now. He inched toward his bed, deciding then and there that he was going to take a nap. A nagging thought told him that he should talk to his friends about taking a nap, but his tiredness was beginning to overtake him. Maybe that's why he was snappy with Nemona- he was still tired.

Kai began to yawn before closing his eyes. He hoped that he would dream himself beating Geeta and becoming the champion despite all of the odds.

He smiled at the thought.

Turo and Sada watched Kai sleeping in the hospital room through a monitor. For the first time in a long time, neither of them knew what was going to happen next.

"Did Geeta call yet?" Turo asked.

"No," Sada said.

"She hasn't called Nemona yet… why?"

"Hesitation may be clouding her mind. Should we call her?"

Turo said nothing. He only sighed.

"...Let's check on Penny." Sada said.

"Where art the foe we agreed to dance with?" Atticus, the hazy venomous star asked. He, along with the rest of the team star member bosses, save for Eri, were standing in the middle of a Pokémon battlefield behind the Uva Academy.

"Whoever this person is, they must really want to be beaten to a pulp," The wings of Team Star, Ortega, said.

"I feel like we should blast our theme while we're doing it, so that everyone knows not to mess with us," The Axe of Team Star, Giacomo said.

"Let's just beat them and get it out of the way, I'm worried about Eri," The inferno of Team Star, Mela said.

Clavell smiled. "There they are," He said, pointing ahead. Immediately, everyone looked in the direction the director was pointing, and saw Penny, the hood of her hoodie was pulled over her face.

"Hello, bosses of Team Star," Penny said. "Mark this day in the calendar and remember it as the day Team Star falls for good."

Author's note: Hey guys- I've got a question. What do you think 'moved the pebble'? Go on and guess, I'm curious to what you guys think changed the course of the entire timeline.