Five days had passed after that, and every single day had been the same as the previous one. After an early morning breakfast prepared jointly by Austin and Cynthia, mostly Cynthia since Austin had the cooking skills of an shounen anime character..... absolute shit.

The two would then start with their training regimen. Until noon, it would be Austin's pokémon clashing against Cynthia's, and at times, with each other as well. Then they would all get freshened up and get a hefty lunch, and with all their excitement gone out, the next portion of the training would begin—the one in which Austin's pokémon would learn a new move or practice a previous one. Of course, the trainers weren't out of the rigorous training. On the very first day, Austin had had to cover five miles on the island, jogging with Cynthia, resulting in Austin laying on the floor sweaty and a complete wreck at the end of it. The next day, it had been a little better, and then on the third day, Cynthia had increased the distance to seven, much to the younger trainer's horror. Whenever she battled with Austin, she didn't stop until he was down with a humiliating defeat, after which, she would recite all the mistakes he had made, which he would diligently note down and thought about later after dinner.

The week was almost over, and Austin could already see the changes in his pokémon. Charmeleon for one had become extremely fast, able to switch from dragon-type attacks and fire-type attacks and back in the blink of an eye. His dragon-breath and dragon-claw attacks were now honed to maximum finesse, though that was no cause for any kind of relaxation. Under Garchomp's tutoring, he had been able to grasp the concept of Draco meteor and was able to use it, though he was still unable to use it to the efficiency that Garchomp had. Earlier in the morning, he had subconsciously activated Drought and used Flame Charge, instead of the Dragon-rush, and came slamming into Garchomp, charring the elder dragon in places. Of course, Garchomp had stomped her dragon rush into his abdomen with a powerful punch, an event after which the two dragons had decided to call for stalemate and set out the rest of the session.

Pidgeot, and Fearow after two consecutive defeats, the two avians had to bow down and begin learning from Braviary, something that had busied them for the next couple of days. Pidgeot had also progressed with Hurricane, though the move wasn't perfected yet. Meanwhile, Fearow worked on Hyperbeam.

The two had learned other moves like Roost, Giga Impact e.t.c.

Squirtle and Krabby had made some positive improvements as well. The two water types had mastered their hold on aqua jet to a superlative degree. Usually, the two would be put against Spiritomb to increase their ability as physical battlers.

Scizor had made great progress under medicham as his speed and reflexes had improved to an amazing degree since he was a Scyther along with getting used to his new body.

He had also learned moves like Nightslash, Quick Guard, Roost e.t.c.

Milotic had Krabby and Squirtle learn moves like Scald, Aqua ring, and Waterfall while improving their mastery over their existing moves.

Butterfree was the unlikely one of the group as Cynthia had advised Austin on teaching it, Quiver Dance and without an instructor, it was struggling but making progress on other parts by learning from Roserade about Energy Ball and other moves and how to effectively use them alongside an agile body.

Bulbasaur had made incredible progress under Roserade's teachings by learning to be swift and agile at a moment's notice. Rather than working on Bulbasaur's speed, Roserade worked with Bulbasaur on improving its reflexes and reaction time.

The maximum amount of progress, surprisingly, had been for Pikachu. After absorbing the Light orb, he gained the Lightning Rod ability. Due to the Light orb, Pikachu had a hard time controlling its power, and the best mentor to have at this time was Rhypherior who was immune to electric attacks and could help Pikachu with a hands-on approach.

The occasional sounds of thunder that echoed throughout the day was a great indicator that Pikachu was progressing in control the extreme power provided by the Light Orb which had impressed both Cynthia and Austin.

The lightning pattern engraved onto the rocky terrain of Sulphur Island was proof of Pikachu's new power.

Nincada and Munna also progressed greatly but they didn't have the will and drive that the others had to push themselves to their limit.

However, despite the grueling training (and the benefits), a single thing had not escaped Austin. Ever since their quarrel on that day, he had only seen Cynthia being the superior battler, the Champion that she was. Of course, that had been extremely beneficial to him, but he hadn't been so oblivious as to miss the subtle changes in her. For one, she never smiled. Not like Shirona did. For another, she avoided any form of physical gestures or touches, something that Shirona had a habit of. Even when she was with him for the entire day, teaching and training side by side, he got the feeling that something was missing.

It had taken him five days to realize what it was.

He glanced back at her. Sitting on the grass, Cynthia was silently brewing concoctions for the pokémon, leaving Austin " to cook " lunch which mostly consisted of boiling a few eggs and heating a pre-made brew.

Even from a distance, Austin could see the solemn expression on her radiant face… a radiance that had been missing ever since he had asked her for training. It was almost like his friend Shirona had been completely replaced by Cynthia, the veteran battler, and Champion.

Is that not what I wanted?

Austin asked himself say.

But was it?

"Um… Cynthia?"

"Yeah?" The girl replied from her position, not looking up from her concoctions.

"I was… thinking of doing something different tomorrow, for a change. Go visit the town and everything."

Cynthia looked up, something that made Austin almost stop his breath. This was his friend, the person he had befriended on the ship, the one who was stupidly obsessed with ice cream, the one… who had surprised him at the party. This was the person who had gone out of their way to help him with his mental problems, the one who was there to comfort him when he was scared, scared of losing someone else. The one person he revealed his true name to which she had stopped using...

"Sure," she replied in a monotone. "I suppose you should talk to your friends so that they don't get worried. Your Pokémon should get them trained as much as possible before I have to leave anyway."

"This… time, that I am spending with you now… is possibly my last vacation before a busy year of work." Cynthia replied causing Austin's stomach to sink.

"Well, then shouldn't you be at home or with family right now?"

She gave Austin a blank stare. "Why would you say that?"

"Well, you just said that this is your last vacation. Shouldn't you spend it with… you know, people close to you?"

Cynthia stared at him as if trying to memorize his facial features to the Tee. "Sometimes I wish to have you dissected and examined."

' Why does she always say that ?'

Austin thought while sweating a little.

Why was she spending her last vacation with him of all people, choosing him over her family, and everyone else.

Then a realization hit Austin.

Cynthia chose to spend this time because she was worried for me. Worried how Raticate's passing would affect me, worried that I'll lose myself in my grief.

A sudden guilt washed over Austin.

What was I doing ? Throughout this whole week, I have been so indifferent to her because of what happened with Charmeleon. Even if the results justified Cynthia's actions, why did my anger persist throughout the entire time spent together.

It is my fault that Cynthia is spending her vacation time with an asshole like me who is treating her like a stranger.

How can I make this upto her ?

"Umm… Cynthia?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I… get the afternoon free? I need to do some stuff. Need to… plan up something for tomorrow's training." He replied awkwardly.

Cynthia looked up at him. "I thought I agreed to go with you tomorrow. Couldn't it wait?"

"No, uh, this is something I need to do alone," Austin stressed.

Come now, agree to it, damn it.

"Okay." The Sinnoh girl replied hollowly, before returning to the concoction.

Austin just stood there, stunned.

"Don't you need to go?" Cynthia replied after a while, absently noticing that he was still there.

"Yeah… I'll—I'll just see you tomorrow then."