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The endless trudging back and forth was grating on Hikari, and with each shop she entered, the parcels she clutched grew heavier and heavier. But what weighed most on her mind was the incessant calls for battle from a man standing on one of the solar-panel walkways that criss-crossed all around Sunyshore.
First it had been casual enough. A simple request for a test of skill. She ignored it. Her extended stay here was because of someone else who was determined to take advantage of the League prospect every chance she could, and with the last badge she’d need to brave Route 223 tucked away in its case with the rest, Hikari had very little interest in extending her time in the seaside town beyond the bare minimum needed to finish the terribly dull errands Shirona had heaped on her.
But the man was persistent, and his challenges shifted from requests to demands, to sing-song and mocking calls. Cowardice, arrogance, inexperience - he used whatever he could level against her as the reason behind her determination to ignore him. And it was grating on her frayed nerves more and more every time she passed him. Hikari, after all, did not know Sunyshore - nor did she wish to know it. And this meant she had failed to accurately plot out an optimal way to enter into the various shops on her list in a logical order.
She wasted ever more time with pointless errands. The sun beat down on her ever harder. This was the seventh time she had crossed the town, and it brought the seventh mocking call. She grit her teeth and tossed the man a look long enough for her to see the rocky hills behind him and chucked a pokeball as hard as she could past him. He did not flinch, but instead pointed and laughed.
“Were you even aiming?” he shouted in a mocking voice. “That wasn’t even close!”
The flash of light from the pokeball opening was barely visible under the light of the sun. “UNDER! And wait,” shouted Hikari, her tone rough. She turned about again and made her way towards the penultimate stop on her list.
When the time came for her to cross past him once more, she saw the trainer leaning over the railing of the walkway, inspecting the hole that had been dug into the hill with a curious eye. A pokeball sat beside it, opened and shining in the afternoon sun. The white section of the ball bore a yellow star, scribbled in by hand with a single red dot in its center. As she drew closer, however, the trainer turned and gave her another smug smile. “Plan on ignoring me again? Or have you finally decided to take your lumps and get this over with?” he asked, tossing a pokeball into the air and then catching it all the while.
Hikari’s eyes narrowed as she studied the man up and down, then pulled the sleeve on her just enough to glance at the face of her watch. The ghost of a smirk crossed her face, and so she set her purchases down and tossed out her empoleon. The penguin materialized with a loud, happy squawk and clicked his beak as she reached out and scratched the back of his head.
“Stay here and guard her stuff, alright?” she said quietly to the pokemon. “Can’t have anyone taking it.” The empoleon nodded twice and then assumed his role as sentry, his eyes narrowing and darting back and forth, following passersby as they strolled past Hikari and the trainer. “And as for you,” she added, looking at the man that had been bothering her, “We’re not battling for money.” She hopped onto the railing of the walkway and then from the railing to the rocky hill beyond and stomped her way up to the peak.
The trainer followed after her, though without any of the dexterity she’d displayed. As he reached the top of the hill, he saw she was already at the far end of the peak, standing and waiting. “ So what are we battling for?” he shouted at her.
“Relief. You’ll be carrying my bags in silence after this,” called back Hikari.
“And if I win?” he shouted back, smiling. He tossed his pokeball forward, producing a roaring nidoking.
Hikari pulled her coat off and tossed it aside, revealing vibrant purple scars that snaked like lightning from her fingers to almost all the way up her left arm. A mad grin spread across her face as she crossed her arms and stomped her right foot twice. The ground beneath the two trainers rumbled. “UP!” she shouted. The ground shook in earnest, nearly sending Hikari’s opponent to his knees, and in a flurry of dirt and stone that exploded up into the sky, scattering debris all over the hilltop, a garchomp flew from the dirt behind her. He leapt past Hikari and landed between his trainer and her opponent.
The trainer stared dumbfounded at the dragon and then looked past him at Hikari, the same mad grin still plastered across her face.
“You won’t.”