EDITOR'S NOTE: "I had no idea Kofu would be this fun to write."

Juliana spent two whole days training her Pokémon for her match with the Water-type Gym Leader. By Wednesday, she'd gotten Hoppip to evolve all the way to Jumpluff, and Webby's final evolution was quickly approaching.

She chose the two of them, Daschbun, Tinkatuff, Fomantis and Pawmo to take with her to the Gym. She was expecting to get lost. She did not expect to follow her Rotom to the Gym and end up walking into a tall man with a beard and a unibrow, shouting something about Veluza and being late.

"Story of my life, sir," Juliana said as the man disappeared into the distance, barely recognizing her existence with an apology tossed over his shoulder.

The Gym door opened again, and a woman stepped out. She looked around, then sighed in disappointment.

"He's going to get so upset once he realizes he forgot his wallet," she said, before she noticed Juliana. "Oh! Are you here for the Gym Test?"

"Yes, I am," Juliana answered immediately. "Was that guy the Gym Leader?"

"He was." The woman handed Juliana a Venonat wallet. "Take this to Porto Marinada and give it to him, will you? Let's call it your Gym Test."

And she went back inside. Juliana looked over the wallet. Webby released herself from her ball to look at it herself.

"I wonder what his credit limit is," said the very impressed Quaxwell.

Juliana nodded, just as impressed. "You're right, Webby," she said, putting the wallet in her bag. "We should definitely look up where Porto Marinada is."

Webby gave her an irritated quack in response. Juliana called her back to her ball.

Florian was floating in his family pool, staring up at the bright blue sky. Cyclizar was splashing around beside him, having the time of her life, while his other Pokémon stood well out of the way of the splash zones, Kirlia dipping her feet in the water like a proper lady. Lloyd might have been asleep, laying on his back in the grass and sunbathing.

He knew he should be training. But he was an archaeologist, darn it, not a Champion. Juliana was a Champion in the making, and she had Koraidon. She should be the one helping Arven and Mabosstiff.

But then, how much archaeology had he done since the Treasure Hunt began?

Maybe he should become a Champion.

"What do you guys say to taking on the Gyms someday?"

Lloyd jumped up, making a noise that was halfway between a purr and a cheer. Edelgard and Mudbray mutually decided that they had nothing better to do with their lives. Cyclizar continued to splash, this time pretending that the water was an opponent.

"It's decided, then," said Florian, before he swam to the end of the pool and climbed out to dry off. "This year, we make friends. But next year?" He grinned. "We kick their butts!"

His Pokémon let out a collective cheer, ready to take on anything.

Juliana had wandered out into the desert and returned to Cascaraffa three times. She got turned around by a big rock, and had found plenty of items in the sand.

Now she was frustrated, and the sandstorm wasn't helping.

"I need some goggles," she said, and Koraidon, who likewise couldn't see the bright yellow Rotom phone in front of them, huffed in agreement. "It would be so much easier to steer."

"Maybe we should stick to the cliffs?" Rotom suggested, her quiet voice almost drowned out by the roaring winds. "I mean, you and Koraidon do enjoy cliff-jumping...for some reason..."

Koraidon turned his head to look at his rider, a plea in his eye. Juliana pretended to consider.

"Ok," she said, and Koraidon chirped happily. "Rotom, back in my pocket. Koraidon, go straight, take a right at the giant rock this time, and if there's a cliff, we jump off it."

Koraidon patiently waited until Rotom was back in Juliana's pocket, and took off, dashing at speeds he didn't usually dare. Juliana objected to the amount of sand blown into her mouth, but she laughed as Koraidon took a long jump off the cliff.

He landed on all fours, as he always did, and Juliana wiped sand out of her eyes and grinned.

"Let's do that again!"

Unfortunately, they'd landed right in the middle of a crowd of wild Girafarig, and they were not happy to see them.

After catching one Girafarig and defeating the rest (and running away from a herd of Tauros) Juliana finally found herself in Porto Marinada. Being new to the town and not good with directions anyway, she resorted to asking people if they'd seen a tall, slightly chubby man with a beard.

"You mean Gym Leader Kofu?" a man finally answered. "Yeah, he's in the market."

"So this is really important," Juliana tried to say, but the man shook his head.

"This isn't his Gym Test. Go back and wait for him, he'll get around to challenging you."

"I think it'll be easier if I just -"

She moved to go into the market. The man stopped her.

"Kofu is busy," he insisted. "And until he gets that seaweed, he's not taking challenges."

Juliana stared at him, frustrated and unable to communicate exactly how frustrated she was. But she knew what Nemona would do if she was this annoyed. "We're gonna have to battle this out, aren't we?"

"If you insist."

Juliana didn't wait for him to send out his Pokémon. "Jumpluff, kick butt!"

"What do you mean, the Gym Leader's not here?"

Nemona had done a different Gym Test last year, and she was currently bruised and confused. The Gym associate just shrugged.

"Kofu went to the Porto Marinada market," she repeated. "He's not here to take challengers, but you're free to wait for your turn. There was another girl here before you, I gave her a different test."

"But she's not back yet!" Nemona leaned on the counter. "I did the hopscotch! I solved the riddles! I baited the Arrokuda! I drank the black licorice smoothie!"

"That last one wasn't part of the test," the associate admitted. "I just wanted to see how many challengers actually did it."

"But that was part of last year's test too!"

The associate shook her head. Nemona banged her head on the counter.

"I'm going to go challenge Florian," she decided. "Won't be as fun, but at least it'll get my frustrations out."

"Have fun!"

Nemona called her a very specific word on her way out.

"Can I go in now?" Juliana asked, trying very hard not to come off as a whining child but sounding like one anyway.

After having his butt handed to him by a single Jumpluff, of all things, the man could only nod.

Juliana found Kofu easily enough - he was the only one there, it seemed, to have a beard. He wasn't paying attention, which she could relate to, and was instead drooling over seaweed, which she could not relate to.

"Mr. Kofu?" She tapped his arm. He jumped a little.

"Hey, kid! Don't scare me like that!" He laughed it off, though. "I didn't see you there, too focused on the seaweed all the way from Hoenn..."

"I get distracted, too," Juliana admitted. "But that usually means my meds wore off or I heard something that reminded me of something else." She looked over at the seaweed. "Why do you want this so much?"

"Just look at it!" Kofu gestured proudly, like it was already his. "Chock full o' nutrients...ready to make into delicious dishes..."

"I'll take your word on that," Juliana decided. "Looks gross."

"Looks can be deceiving."

Juliana nodded once in acknowledgement. Kofu laughed and stepped up to the seaweed, ready for the auction. Then he reached into his pocket and realized that something important was missing.

"Where's my wallet?" He patted himself down, oblivious to Juliana's flinch as she remembered why she'd crossed a desert in the first place. "Vaultin' Veluza, I can't get the seaweed if I can't pay!"

Juliana held out the wallet. "You left this behind," she explained. "I just forgot why I was here."

Kofu looked at the wallet, but didn't take it. "You a Gym challenger?" Juliana nodded. "Then you go buy me the seaweed. Use my money in there, just go and bid."

"Why?"

"Consider it your Gym Test."

"But the lady said that this was..." Juliana groaned. Kofu seemed to have lost his own attention span. "Fine."

She'd heard of auctions before. How hard could being in one be?

She'd missed the first round of the auction due to observing and spacing out a little, but by the second round, she was raising her hand and calling out bids. She even won the seaweed in the third round.

"You have an eye for ingredients, little lady," the auctioneer chuckled as he wrapped up the seaweed and she paid from the Venonat wallet.

"It's for the Gym Leader, actually." She tilted her head toward Kofu and put the wallet on top of the wrapped seaweed. "It's all his."

She handed Kofu the package, though.

"You did good, kid," he said, and she couldn't stop the smile. "Go on, keep the leftover cash as a tip."

"But I thought this was my test."

"And you passed. Come to my Gym tomorrow and we'll have ourselves a good match." He laughed again. "Today, I'll handle the challengers that took my usual test...and use this delicious seaweed!"

"Great!" Juliana turned to Webby. "He said we can keep the cash, but we'll have to give him back his credit card."

Webby hung her head and handed it over. Kofu, more surprised than angry, swiped it back quickly.

"And maybe you want to keep a closer eye on that Quaxwell."