After an excellent dinner, I continued strolling around town with Vio. The more I explored, the more fascinated I became, especially when we reached the area that allowed a view of eastern Sinnoh. While the plateau wasn’t a real cliff, it was steep enough to allow us to see incredibly far, to the point that I thought we could see the ocean on the horizon.

The town itself was impressive as well, there were countless small details I slowly noticed, decorations that blended into the ambience but when looking closely, I realised just how detailed they were. Small reliefs of different Pokémon had been chiselled into many buildings, often near the doors as if those Pokémon were guarding here, making me wonder if there was a deeper meaning.

As I strolled, I came across a large, wide-open area and had to pause in surprise when I saw a pair of Pokémon battling it out. With my curiosity aroused, I began walking across the area towards the people watching and the two trainers directing their Pokémon. Even if there had been people battling in the Jubilife City Stadium, having people casually battle in a simple, open area was on a different level.

The battle itself was, from what I could tell, without a lot of suspense. One combattant was a Butterfree, the other a Houndour, making their type- and overall match-up incredibly one-sided. If I remembered correctly, not only was Butterfree a Bug-type and thus weak to fire, a lot of their techniques were Bug- or Psychic-type abilities, neither of which would work against a Houndour particularly well. Sure, it could fly and a Houndour wouldn’t be able to bring his jaws into play, but if memory served, Houndour could also use powerful Fire- and Dark-abilities, without ever having to bite things.

But as I approached, I realised that it wasn’t a battle I was watching, but training. The Butterfree wasn’t trying to truly fight, it was avoiding attacks with almost preternatural agility or blocking them outright with shields of light. On the other hand, the Houndour didn’t try to follow up on its attacks, carefully giving the Butterfree time to recover if something went wrong. Even the trainers were clearly focused on advising and observing their Pokémon, not trying to find an opportunity to win.

I stopped some distance from the battling Pokémon, watching with Vio hiding behind my leg. For a moment I wondered if the strange feeling I was having was similar to that of a mother bringing her daughter to the playground for the first time, the child clearly interested in the other children but too shy to walk up and introduce herself.

Granted, in Vio’s case walking up might result in getting blasted with fire, dark energy, irritating spores or some other nastiness, something rather unlikely with most toddlers. Either way, it didn’t take long for the people, most of them about my age to notice us and one of them walked over. It took me a moment to realise that it was Jessica, the same young woman who had talked to Lucas shortly after we entered the town.

“Hey, you’re new in town, aren’t you?” she asked, holding her hand out for me, “I’m Jessica, and you?”

“Hello Jessica,” I shook her hand, “You can call me Dani, and yes, I’m new in town.”

“Hold on, didn’t I run into you earlier today?” she looked at me with an adorable frown on her face.

“You did, I know, a hot shower can do miracles,” I grinned, knowing that the shower and different clothes changed quite a bit about me.

“Mhm,” she mumbled, before focusing on Vio who promptly pulled her head back behind my leg to hide, “Who’s the cutie?”

“Meet Vio, one of my partners,” I twisted a little, so I could pet Vio’s head, “She’s a bit shy, as you can see.”

“Come on, little one, nobody is going to munch on you, I promise,” I gently coaxed Vio and she peeked out from behind my leg again.

“She’s adorable. Are you here to train or are you just looking around?”

“She truly is,” I agreed, a grin on my face, “Honestly, I just happened to come by and notice the commotion,” I admitted with a shrug, “But I wouldn’t say no to a bit of training, though not for too long, it’s been a long day.”

“Let me introduce you,” Jessica offered, nodding towards the other trainers. I agreed and we walked over and introductions were made. I tried to remember all the names but with a crowd of fifteen people, that wouldn’t be too easy.

“Are you working on anything specific, or just trying to get general training in?” one of the local trainers, a guy maybe a year or two older than me asked. If I remembered correctly, his name was Eran.

“Vio,” I gently petted her head once more, trying to encourage her, “is working on her barriers, mostly in the direction of Reflect, but really, we are still feeling out how to best improve her self-defence. So far, it has mostly been dodging and the old maxim that the best defence is a strong offense.”

“Charm, my Charmeleon, has been working on a fighting-type cover move, to easier deal with Rock-types and for general coverage, I think he’ll be favouring Rock Smash,” I shrugged, relatively sure Charm had that move down pretty well by now. Since he had managed his breakthrough against the Nosepass he had steadily improved.

“Those are the big ones, I think I’ll start with little Vio here,” I stepped aside a little, giving her a gentle push forward, “If someone would be so kind to provide a gentle offence? Nothing overly aggressive, we are still feeling our way out,” I asked, looking at the crowd.

“Why don’t you have her join Libby?” one of the other trainers, who had been working with his Butterfree when I was walking on asked. “Grump can provide offence again, he should be more than rested by now.”

“Sure, that works, right, Vio?” I gently prodded her and after a moment, Vio moved forward, quickly joined by the Butterfree that had recovered the last few minutes. On the other side, the same Houndour that had attacked earlier was moving up, the dark canine carefully studying his two opponents.

“Libby, let’s show the Kirlia how it’s done, try switching off between attacks,” the guy suggested, while a woman commanded Grump, the Houndour to carefully attack.

“Vio, just try blocking like we trained,” I commanded. Moments later, the Houndour sent out a small ball of fire, carefully aimed so it would just miss the Butterfree, even if it didn’t move at all. In response, the Butterfree quickly flapped its wings and a shimmering barrier appeared again, quite close to Vio.

The fire splashed against the barrier and fizzled out harmlessly. A few moments later, the Houndour sent out another attack, this one directed towards Vio. In response, Vio’s horns started to glow with Psychic energy and the air started to shimmer as a wave of psychic energy was projected outwards, coalescing into a massive shield between Vio and the incoming flame. The fire splashed against Vio’s barrier and, again, was smothered but I could easily see the difference in execution.

The Butterfree had created a much smaller barrier but done so with casual ease and very little wasted energy. In comparison, Vio had created a massive wave, likely resulting in a weaker barrier for a lot more energy used.

“Not bad, Libby, demonstrate again,” the guy ordered his Pokémon and the earlier performance repeated itself, only this time, the Houndour had sent out a beam of dark energy, splashing against the barrier harmlessly, though I thought the barrier looked a lot weaker afterwards.

Once it was Vio’s turn, she clearly tried to coalesce her energy better, making an effort to imitate the Butterfree’s methods and the wave of psychic energy was much smaller and more directed. Sadly, the attack sent out by the Houndour was also a little stronger, piercing her barrier and zapping past her harmlessly.

“Not bad, you can do it,” I cheered her on, while it was the Butterfree’s turn. Like that, the two Pokémon continued to block attacks until the Houndour started to look a little tired and it was time to take a break. At that point, I realised that it wasn’t just the Houndour that needed a break, but I was getting increasingly tired as well.

After a few more words and a promise to return the next day, I bid my farewell before Vio and I walked off, quite happy with the progress made by my dear partner.