“Zee!” Kevin shouted, throwing his arm forwards. “Use Air Cutter!”

  I raised an eyebrow, that was a good move.

  “Zetian!” Having both of our Pokémon start with ‘Z’ is going to get complicated. “Dodge and respond!”

  Thanks to all of the training Zetian and I had done when she was still a Combee, Zetian’s bulk belied her true agility, and at the very last moment she was able to dodge out of the way of the blast of pressurized air.

  In response to the missed blow she darted forwards and used the hidden stinger on her abdomen, stabbing the Crobat with its venom.

  Which did… little to nothing.

  I grimaced. “It’s part Flying-type! Use your own Flying-type moves otherwise you’ll not do as much damage!”

  Kevin smirked, and I wanted to wipe the smug grin off of his face. Zetian had never been up against a Zubat, let alone a Crobat before, and I’d forgotten to warn her of its typing.

  I had known what Crobat’s typing was, but Zetian wasn’t a Psychic-type.

  Plans swirled in my mind as Zetian and Zee traded another pair of blows, this time the Crobat managed to get in an Air Cutter attack, while Zetian used Gust.

  That might work.

  “Zetian! Sweet Scent!”

  Kevin’s eyes widened. “Zee! Cover-”

  It was too late, and the Crobat’s eyes widened as the sweet-smelling pheromones sunk in. Sweet Scent was one of Zetian’s most practiced moves, ever since we’d used it so long ago in the fight against the Steelix.

  Almost immediately the Crobat’s movements became more sluggish as the drug-like pheromones dulled its reflexes.

  “Gust, again!”

  The smirk on Kevin’s face was now replaced by a frown. “Zee, Poison Fan- no, wait, Toxic!”

  I frowned as the Crobat went in for a biting attack, then changed last second to use Toxic.

  That… didn’t feel right. Feinting out moves was something that a lot of Trainers did, for better or for worse, but Kevin’s actions sounded less like a calculated move and more like a genuine slip-up.

  Still, the ball of poisonous Type Energy flew towards Zetian and sunk into her carapace, causing her to dip in mid-flight as the toxins attacked her body.

  Damage was repaid in full with the Gust, but Kevin had just put a timer on the battle.

  I licked my lips nervously as I considered using another move. I’d been wanting to keep it a secret, something to have in our back pocket in case something came up in a Gym Battle, but having some practical experience might be even more effective.

  Why not?

  “Zetian! Round and round!”

  My Vespiquen’s eyes glowed bright red for a second, and Zee’s eyes briefly flashed the same color.

  The Crobat staggered in the air, and began to woozily fly in wide arcs.

  Confuse Ray was something that a Vespiquen could naturally learn early on, and Zetian took to it a lot better than she did trying to learn Roost.

  It wasn’t perfect, not all the time, but I was getting comfortable enough to let her use it in an actual battle.

  I could barely hear the soft murmuring from Ted and Lucas as they realized what move Zetian had used, but I was focused entirely on the battle before me.

  Which, of course, was when Kevin did something I hadn’t expected him to consider doing.

  He surrendered.

  I stood in shocked silence as he recalled his Crobat, softly talking to it through the Poké Ball as he approached my side of the field.

  “Good job.” He said, a bit sullenly. “You win.”

  “I… what?”

  “Don’t make me repeat it!”

  “Kevin!” Lucas said as he ran up to us. “Why did you quit? You’ve never quit!”

  “Maybe you don’t know me as much as you think!” Keven snapped at the other boy. “Zee was hurt! He was Confused and he wouldn’t be able to dodge well thanks to that Sweet Scent. It was a losing scenario, so I figured it was just better to quit while I was ahead.”

  “But… you still could have won.” Lucas muttered, confused. “Why wouldn’t you keep fighting if there’s a chance of winning?”

  Kevin stared at Lucas for a long second, then scoffed. “Maybe you’re not as smart as everybody thinks. If you can’t win, what’s the point of fighting at all? It’s better to just give up than it is to lose.”

  I frowned at him as he talked. That wasn’t exactly a healthy attitude, but at the same time I couldn’t completely dispute it either. There were times when it was better to cut your losses- sunk-cost fallacy was definitely a thing, but to have it be so black-and-white…

  Something nagged at me about the whole situation, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  Kevin scoffed again, then turned away.

  “You won.” He said, his back facing me. “I won’t bother you anymore. Figures that even my rival doesn’t want anything to do with me…”

  The last sentence was said in a low voice, one that I wasn’t supposed to hear.

  I sighed as he stomped away, and felt my headache come back in full force.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  /^\

  “I don’t understand what’s bothering you so much.” Lucas said after slurping down some noodles from one of the local ramen shops. “Kevin’s a jerk. He’s always been a jerk, always will be a jerk.”

  Ted sighed as he took a drink of his water, and I rolled my eyes.

  “It’s not that easy, Lucas.” I said, putting my chopsticks down for a second, but the young man shrugged.

  “If you say so.”

  I exchanged a look with Ted. Even though the both of us weren’t old by any measure of the word, we’d still both seen more of the world than Lucas had, and had grown from when we were teenagers.

  “He may be a jerk at times, that’s true, but everybody has their reasons. I was a jerk when I was younger.”

  Lucas blinked, and looked up at me with some noodles still hanging out of his mouth.

  “Really?”

  “Chew and swallow before you talk.”

  It was his turn to roll his eyes, but he finished off his mouthful. “Okay, mom.”

  “But yes, I was a bit of a di- a jerk when I was about Kevin’s age.” It wasn’t a pleasant time to think about, and my stomach squirmed as I remembered all of the unpleasant and awkward things I had said and done.

  “I was an angry kid after all, and it took me a while to mellow out. A lot of it had to do with-” I gestured at my body. “But there was a bit of it that was family stuff too. I’d bet dollars to donuts that Kevin has had a tough home life.”

  Lucas frowned as he slurped down another mouthful of noodles.

  “I don’t think he had a bad life growing up.” He said after a moment. “I mean, his dad was a pretty famous battler. Not like, Champion-famous, or even Leader-famous, but he was still kinda impressive.”

  A few things clicked together in my mind.

  “Did his dad lose his first run of the Gym Circuit?”

  He thought for a long moment. “No, I don’t think so. He got all eight Gym Badges, but never went to the Conference. Something about being sick? Every couple of years afterwards he would try to reach it, but he never got there.”

  “Ahh.” Ted said as he made the connection.

  “What? What’s going on?”

  “Do you want to say it Alina, or should I?”

  I gestured and picked up my chopsticks. “Be my guest.”

  Ted leaned forwards slightly as I grabbed some more noodles.

  “Did Kevin lose his first Gym Circuit?”

  “Yeah, last year.”

  “It’s like this, Lucas. Kevin’s dad put a lot of pressure on Kevin to be a good Battler. Whether it was intentional or not, Kevin had a ton of expectations on his shoulders. Either Kevin got very lucky when he caught his Azumarill for it to have Belly Drum, or it was purpose-bred for Pokémon Battling. I’m betting on the latter.

  “Then he lost on his Gym Circuit, and all of those expectations came crashing down, and he’s probably trying to figure out what to do with himself now. I knew a girl just like him back home…”

  Ted trailed off, a brief flash of pain passing through his eyes, but he shook his head.

  “Give him time.” He continued. “And like our good friend Alina here, he’ll mellow out.”

  “Or he’ll double down.” I offered after swallowing my ramen. “I won’t lie, it’s a possibility. But he probably just needs to like, pick up the guitar or learn to draw or something. Hobbies help.”

  “Is that what you did?” Ted asked dryly, and I chuckled self-consciously.

  “Yeah, guitar helped a lot.” Transitioning also did wonders for me, but I don’t think it’s quite the same deal for Kevin.

  I could be entirely wrong, but he didn’t quite seem like the type. Most likely he was just an angry young man who didn’t know who or what he wanted to be, and was suffering from a parent’s disappointment on top of that.

  Sighing, I continued eating as the topic pivoted onto something else.

  Despite everything, Lucas did have a point. Ultimately it was up to Kevin to realize he was poisoning himself with his anger and to change, and there was little I could do about it.

  It still didn’t feel good, however.

  Maybe the others were right, it really wasn’t my place to butt in and see if I could do anything.

  I sighed again, and took another bite of my ramen.

  /^\

  “You!”

  I sighed and let my head drop against the wall.

  “Hi Kevin.”

  “Will you not even look at me now!?”

  I see he’s recovered.

  Venus looked up at me and chirped in confusion. We were strolling through Snowpoint City in-between Ted and Lucas’ seemingly endless training sessions, and I had been trying to get an Umbreon figure.

  There were these little vending machines that cost a hundred dollar coin, less than a cup of coffee, and dispensed little plastic balls with a Pokémon figurine inside of them. With over a thousand Pokémon Species - and more than double that number if you counted the shiny and regional forms - the chances of getting the specific Pokémon you wanted was very low.

  Especially because the rarer Pokémon had correspondingly low chances of pulling one from the vending machine.

  There was something addicting about pulling the lever and seeing what I got, even if it was another Geodude.

  I was doing my very best not to try and spend too much money on them, but I really wanted a little miniature version of Venus.

  There were also vending machines for the stickers that you could put on a Poké Ball, but I wasn’t a fan of those, mostly because I preferred the sleek, simple look of the standard Poké Ball.

  I turned, and waved weakly at Kevin, before realizing that I still had a figurine of a Zigzagoon in my hand and hurriedly tucked it into a pocket.

  “Ugh.” Kevin said as he stepped forwards. “I didn’t know you were into those. Why do you waste your money on them?”

  “Hey!” I wasn’t sure why I was feeling defensive, but I was. “They’re cute, okay?”

  “Those gashamon companies only exist to suck money out of your wallet. You know you’ll never get what you’re looking for, right?”

  “Gashamon?”

  “Yeah, that’s what they’re called.” He rolled his eyes. “Who spends so much money on them without knowing what the name is”

  Gashamon… gasha… gacha??

  I slowly turned to stare in horror at the vending machine behind me, which had taken on a threatening aura.

  I knew of gacha games, of course. Anybody who had been on the internet for any length of time knew of them, games where scantily clad anime girls posed for people to spend hundreds of dollars for a chance to get a .png of their “waifu” or “husbando”.

  There had even been a time where I had nearly been suckered into one of the games, and it was only because I was a poor college student that I had avoided that fate.

  Although, hadn’t I read that gacha games were based on actual vending machines like these ones?

  I stepped back in horror.

  The innocent looking machines were evil. Pure evil. They had already begun to sink their teeth into me and I hadn’t even noticed. All I had wanted was an Umbreon miniature to match Venus, and how much money had I already spent on them?

  There was a weight in my coat pocket, and I slowly moved my hand down to it. The pocket was almost bulging with plastic miniatures, and my knees felt weak for a second.

  “Kevin.” I said, voice thick. “I owe you a great debt.”

  “Huh?”

  “I very nearly made a terrible mistake.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You still like cinnamon rolls, right? I’ll treat you to one, let’s just get away from this… menace.”

  I led the confused teenager away, walking fast to avoid the siren call of the machines.

  We ended up at another local cafe, sitting at an outside table with a heat lamp built in to keep the cold away. Kevin looked thoroughly lost as he found a cinnamon roll and a coffee shoved into his hands, while I sat down and began nursing my own latte.

  “So.” I said after taking a sip of the delicious brew. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

  “I… huh? Oh, right.”

  Kevin took a deep breath, set his coffee and pastry down, then did something I honestly wasn’t sure he had been capable of.

  “I’m very sorry for my behavior!”

  He apologized.

  Kōjin - Male Hisuian Growlithe. Joined Alina on the outskirts of Eterna City.

  Kyūdō - Male Dartrix. Joined Lucas in the Grand Underground.