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Carmine and Kieran were back at Blueberry Academy. The students were surprised by their early return, which sparked whispers and gossip throughout the school. Carmine was quick to shut down any comments, but her brother didn’t seem to care. Ever since they returned, all he did was wait until there was no one on the training grounds at the entrance to train with his Pokémon. The girl couldn’t help but be concerned upon realizing Kieran was starting to be harsh to his Pokémon, especially Dipplin. Was he doing all this over that one foreigner befriending Ogerpon?
That wasn’t the only change Kieran had undergone, however. Another notorious one was his appearance: he went from letting his hair cover his face to pulling it all back, even going as far as dying it maroon—Kieran intended for his hair to become red, but its natural dark color made that impossible. When Carmine saw the mess her little brother had made in the bathroom that night, he refused to answer any questions.
Those changes in attitude and appearance unavoidably piqued the interest of a small group of ill-intentioned classmates. Three boys who attended the same class as Kieran caught him training with his Pokémon a couple of times and, after watching him from afar, they agreed to catch him by surprise the next time and hopefully get a laugh out of him.
A couple of days later, the older boy in the group caught wind of some juicy information: apparently during that trip, Kieran had told the inhabitants of Kitakami the true story behind Ogerpon and The Loyal Three. The three guys knew how important that myth was to Kieran and they liked to use it to get under his skin from time to time. Luckily for those bullies, that same day the older boy and leader of the bunch spotted Kieran on the training grounds. He called his friends and as soon as they were there, the three of them stalked towards Kieran, who at the time was berating his Dipplin.
“What’s wrong with you?” he barked, glaring down at his Pokémon. “If you don’t get with it, I’ll have to discard you, too.”
Dipplin backed up at those words and avoided eye contact with its Trainer. Just before Kieran could say anything else, the three boys who were observing them made their presence known.
“Hey, Kiki!” the older one called. “What got you so angry?”
Kieran didn’t want anything to do with that group, so he motioned for Dipplin to follow him and walked away.
“Aww, come on. We just want to have a little chat with you,” a boy with an undercut said.
Aydan—the older boy—frowned. “He’s just going to ignore us, huh?” He then elbowed the most athletic guy in the group. “Go get him.”
The teenager sprinted towards Kieran and stood before him with arms crossed and feet apart, barring the way. “Where do you think you’re going? We’re talking to you.”
“I have no time for this,” Kieran said through gritted teeth.
The boy with the undercut spoke next, “Didn’t your sister tell you it’s rude not to answer when you’re being talked to?”
Kieran inhaled a long breath “What do you all want from me?”
“I already told you,” Aydan answered. “We want to know why you’re so angry.”
“And why you’re acting so weird lately,” Dylan—the boy with the undercut—said, walking towards Kieran.
“That’s none of your business,” Kieran retorted and turned around, but Mike—the athletic boy—grabbed him by the wrist. “What are you doing? Leave me be!”
“We won’t let you go until we find out what’s up,” Mike said with an insolent look in his eyes. “You left for Kitakami as a weakling and a coward, but you came back looking and acting all edgy.”
“Yeah,” Dylan chimed in, “Something must have happened for you to change like this. What’s wrong, did someone break your heart?”
Kieran froze in place and glared at the guy. He was right. Someone did break his heart, but not in the way he was probably thinking about. However, Kieran knew all those guys wanted was to be a bother and make fun of him. He wasn’t going to tell them anything.
“As I already said, it’s none of your business.”
“You heard him, guys. It’s none of our business.” Aydan gestured with his head towards Mike. “Let him go, let’s go to the cafeteria or something.”
“Are you sure?” Mike questioned.
“Yes, entirely.”
Obeying what his leader said, Mike let go of Kieran. Him and Dylan followed Aydan as Kieran watched them walk away. Dipplin looked alternatively at his Trainer and the three boys, blinking rapidly in confusion. However, just as Kieran was about to release a sigh of relief, the trio turned around and strode towards him.
“Look at you, how stupid! Did you really think we were going to leave just like that?” Aydan scoffed before a malicious grin crossed his face.
Dylan chuckled, “Maybe you haven’t changed that much, after all.”
Kieran clenched his shaking fists, hoping those pests wouldn’t notice them. He looked down at Dipplin, narrowing his eyes. “If you took our training seriously, you’d be defending me.”
“Now he’s being bossy towards his Pokémon.” Mike shook his head. “Seriously, Kiki. What happened at Kitakami?”
"Is it a secret? A secret no one is allowed to know?" Dylan leaned towards Kieran.
"It's not a secret if the whole town knows," Aydan said.
Kieran went pale as his heartbeat became heavy. "W-what are you talking about?"
"What a cute reaction," Aydan teased. “I’m talking about what you did during the trip. You went around town telling everyone how the ogre thing is actually the good guy, right?”
“Such a good boy, defending his imaginary little friend.” Mike laid his hand over his heart with a dramatic gesture.
“...Ogerpon isn’t imaginary,” Kieran said, his voice barely audible.
“What? What did you say? Speak louder.” Dylan poked Kieran on the ribs.
In response, Kieran slapped Dylan’s hand away and glared at the trio. “I said that Ogerpon isn’t imaginary.”
“Another move like that and I’ll beat you up so badly you’ll be truly unrecognizable,” Aydan growled at the boy.
“Leave him be,” Mike said, “It’s obvious we struck a nerve there.”
“Alright, then. How do you know Ogerpon is real? Did you see it with your own eyes?” Dylan questioned.
Kieran said nothing. He just held Dylan’s gaze and pressed his lips together.
“It’s none of your business!” Mike mocked him. “That’s what you’re going to say, right?”
“Pff, who cares if the ogre is real or not,” Aydan said with a shrug, “It’s not like you’re ever going to catch it.”
That last sentence flipped a switch inside Kieran. Before anyone could react, the boy grabbed Aydan by the collar and slapped him with such violence the red imprint of his hand appeared right away. Aydan’s head was turned to the side. He opened his mouth in an attempt to say something, but nothing came out.
Dylan grabbed Kieran by the wrist, but his grip wasn’t tight enough and Kieran freed himself easily. He then slapped Aydan on the other side of his face and just as he moved his head, Kieran took the opportunity to punch him right on the nose. A bit of blood came out of it the moment Kieran pulled his fist away.
Enraged by the boy’s audacity, Aydan gripped Kieran’s collar with both hands and yelled on his face. “Who do you think you are?!”·
Taking advantage of their proximity, Kieran delivered Aydan a headbutt. A headbutt that made Aydan flinch back while taking a hand to his reddened forehead. Kieran’s forehead was red too, but he couldn’t care less. He positioned himself behind Aydan and pushed him to the floor. Grabbing at the boy’s hair with a white-knuckled grip and ignoring his pleas to be let go of, Kieran raised Aydan’s head with the intention to bash it into the ground. However, Mike grabbed Kieran’s wrist and squeezed it hard enough for the boy to release Aydan’s hair.
“You will pay for this,” Mike threatened without letting him go.
“Mike, leave him alone. I mean it this time,” Aydan said, his voice trembling and his forehead growing redder by the second. “He must have lost his marbles somewhere in Kitakami.”
Dylan was already stepping backwards. “You’re right. We better not bother him for a good while.”
“I never thought I’d say this, but you should go to the infirmary and get that looked at,” Mike suggested as he placed his hand on Aydan’s back, prompting him to get up and begin walking.
Escorted by Mike and Dylan, Aydan growled and looked back at Kieran to dedicate to him a glare full of despisal with some humiliation sprinkled on top. Kieran glared back at the boy while trying to catch his breath.
Dipplin looked up at Kieran with concern written all over his face. While he was glad that his Trainer gained in confidence, the Pokémon didn’t want the violent outburst he just witnessed to be the first of many. Dipplin and his teammates had enough with Kieran’s increasingly severe training routines. He didn’t want to see his Trainer change for the worse because the consequences had the potential to affect not just Kieran himself, but also his Pokémon.