'Ahhh, that hit the spot!'

  Mary, sitting beside her, looked amused at the antics occurring in front of her. 'Get used to it. Food like this is normal in Centers here.'

  They were both in the room that Kiran and Nysa were sharing. And damn, this room was nice. When you walk in, immediately to your left is the bathroom, all amenities included. Behind that were two beds, more than big enough for both of them. They had both looked nice when she and Bro had gotten here, and while his still did, hers… left a lot to be desired.

  Across from those, there was a large desk that Nysa and Mary were currently sitting at and eating from. They were apparently allowed to bring food back here from the cafeteria, and since they both preferred privacy when possible, the two girls had come here to eat.

  Finally, there was a large window at the back of the room, with a gorgeous view of Lilycove Harbor. All this and more for free once you became a Trainer? Yes, please.

  They had also let their Pokemon out. Mary had with her a Combusken, Houndoom, and Sprigatito. Combusken and Floatzel were sitting at the table and eating, while Zara was eating from a bowl on the ground. Sprigatito was sitting on Mary's lap so he could get comfortable, and so Mary could feed her.

  Nysa thought Mary's other Pokemon were cool, but her attention was captured by Kitty right now. Kitty was Sprigatito's name. 'Mary, she's so cute!' Nysa said, with her chin resting against her palms. 'Did you just catch him?'

  Mary smiled and looked down at Kitty while rubbing his head, which he clearly enjoyed, judging by his purring and the wiggling of his ears. Nysa wanted to squeal, but she managed to barely hold it in.

  Aside from the lasagna she had just devoured, she was fascinated by what Mary was having for dinner. It was something Mary had called 'oden', which looked like a mixture of boiled fish cakes, fish balls, delicious-looking broth, eggs, and more. From the look on Mary's face, it apparently tasted real good.

  'So', Mary said, pointing her fork at the other girl, 'that really was amazing. I almost managed to get four gym badges during the circuit last year, and what your Masquerain just showed was at least that good.'

  Nysa beamed, while Zara trilled with confidence. 'Good to know,' she said as she blew some hair out of her face. 'You think you can get more this year?'

  Mary nodded enthusiastically, swallowing some broth from her meal quickly before responding. 'Yes! I know I'm good enough to make it further. I probably just need to work harder and maybe tweak some things, and I can absolutely make it to the Conference!' Seraphina, her Combusken, hummed in agreement with that, while Doom, her Houndoom, growled. They were both clearing raring to go.

  Nysa could swear there were flames in Mary's eyes now. She grinned as she felt herself catching a bit of that flame. 'I'm gonna make it too. Probably can't hope to do better than group stages in year one, but if I don't at least get there, my brother's gonna make fun of me, so I gotta,' she said with a frown, realizing something unpleasant near the end of that sentence.

  Mary laughed at that. She put down her utensils and pushed her tray away from her, now finished with her meal too. 'Your brother sounds like a dick,' she said.

  Nysa laughed at that, imagining her brother's possible reaction to that. 'I wish he could hear you say that.'

  'But even so, he's really strong, right? If he's good enough to be in the same league as the people entered in the Lilycove Elite Tournament, he must be,' Mary noted.

  Nysa looked up at the ceiling far above her in the Center. 'Well, he has been battling since he was way younger than I am now. He kind of had to become strong to gain enough money and respect to keep us safe. And the coliseums there are brutal like you may not believe. If that doesn't prepare someone to go against the best, I don't know what will.'

  She could feel her mind going back in time, to those days spent watching Trainers damn near murder each others' Pokemon – and even the competing Trainers – with a hunger that you really couldn't – and Nysa sincerely hoped she wouldn't – find anywhere else.

  Mary was watching her with wide eyes, interested in such a story. 'And I'm guessing there was a reason you didn't leave until now.'

  Nysa sighed. 'Yeah, ideally we don't wait so long, but leaving the region is just one part. We also have to be able to stay in the place we move to.'

  They both knew that various regions had immigration programs, but they all involved not having a criminal record, having at least enough money to sustain yourself for a good amount of time, and, of course, being an adult. Add on the discrimination towards Orre migrants' applications – the assumption of crime – and it wasn't exactly easy to move anywhere from Orre.

  Oh sure, there were refugee programs, but the money issue still applied to a large extent in lots of those cases. Lots of countries, especially Unova, those bastards, had been restricting their respective programs for those in need for a while now. So, the only real solution that the two siblings could see was to get their hands on lots of money. That's where Kiran, and to a small extent Nysa came in, through getting strong enough at Pokemon battling to earn enough, whether through battling, or jobs that could use Pokemon to make them a lot easier.

  Mary scratched her cheek. 'Man, my motivations seem a bit less important in comparison to that kind of a backstory,' she said as she chuckled nervously.

  'Don't be stupid,' Nysa said sharply. Mary blinked at that. 'No one from places as shit as Orre are eager to glorify them, you know.

  Seraphina nodded gratefully at that to Nysa, then gave a small glare to Mary. She probably didn't like the journey she'd been through so far be referred to as 'less important'.

  'Oh, uh, sorry?,' Mary managed.

  Nysa took a second to calm down, then smiled at the other girl. 'It's my bad for getting heated, don't worry. But, you said motivations? What are yours?' she asked.

  (don't just info dump the next two paragraphs, explain it through a bit of talking)

  'Well,' Mary started. 'A lot of people don't believe in me, and I'm trying to prove them wrong.'

  Nysa raised an eyebrow at that. 'Like who?' she said.

  Mary sighed and looked to her left, out the window. 'Well, there's my parents. They don't seem to think I can handle anything more than a boring office job working in their tech company. Or they just want me to inherit their money. Either way, they don't like that I'm a Trainer.'

  Nessa tilted her head slightly to the right. 'Wait, Mary, are you rich?' Mary nodded. 'How rich?' Nysa asked.

  Mary cleared her throat. 'Well, you know what cloud computing is, right?'

  Nysa frowned and glanced downwards, trying to think. 'Uh, like digital storage, or something?'

  Mary nodded. 'Basically, yes. My parents own… a lot of that capacity in Hoenn.'

  Nysa drank from the glass of water she had with her. Mary sighed. 'A lot, as in 50% of it.'

  Aaaand Nysa nearly spit her drink out at that. Mary looked concerned, probably out of worry that she might choke on the water or spit it out, but Nysa recovered soon enough. 'Holy shit, rich is an understatement. You could just buy the Champion spot.'

  Mary snorted at that. 'I don't see how we wouldn't have a constantly-rotating Champion position if that were the case,' she pointed out. 'Even if we did, that isn't how I'd want to win.'

  'Good, I'd kick you out of here if it was,' Nysa said bluntly.

  Mary chuckled for a second at that. 'You'd be within your rights. Anyway, it's not just them, it's also lots of fellow Trainers, they want to blame me for their problems. Like I'm the reason they're failing to even get one or two Gym Badges when I don't have to face them until the conference at the minimum!' she said, getting angrier over the course of that explanation.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Nysa didn't really know what to say to that. She'd never really been in Mary's situation. 'Good thing is, we can ignore trash if we're powerful enough, right?' she asked, with a grin now on her face 'The noise will die down the more badges we get, right? Let's just kick ass and take names.'

  Mary slowly smiled at that. Maybe Mary wasn't used to people being that accepting? Well, she wasn't thinking less of Nysa for being from a shithole like Orre, so she may as well return the favor.

  Nysa leaned forward in her chair. 'So, back to getting the Gym badges, how are you traveling this year?'

  Mary looked down at her plate and her body suddenly tensed a bit, like she was steeling herself for something. 'I… was planning on starting by traveling on foot to Fortree, then down to Mauville to get my first two badges.'

  Nysa blinked a few times. She wasn't from here, so she had no idea what the significance was supposed to be there.

  Mary looked up and noticed the confused look on her friend's face. 'Oh, some of the routes along the way are among the most dangerous in the entire region. You can use either flights or recently-made roads to get through if you want, but Trainers have the option to do otherwise, its just heavily recommended to have gotten three Gym Badges at some point before entering, just because of the danger level.

  Shit. That kind of a trek sounded fun as hell, but if she went through alone, and was somehow perfectly fine while having no badges, she'd get lots of attention, and she really didn't like that idea. Good or bad, getting swamped by people like that would be annoying.

  Suddenly Nysa had an idea. A pretty obvious one given the situation, but whatever. 'Hey, why don't we travel together?'

  Mary hesitated for a few seconds after hearing that. '...just so you know, I wouldn't feel comfortable if you were just trying to come with me to be involved with my money,' she explained.

  'What? No, Mary, I couldn't care less about that. We're literally around the same level even though I grew up in a literal dump. I don't need your money,' Nysa laughed. Mary sighed in relief at that.

  'Plus, I can just bum off my brother if I need anything. Nag him enough and he'll probably give me things I need just so I don't annoy him,' Nysa joked. Well, kinda.

  Mary laughed at that. 'Then I'm fine with it. What about you all?' she asked her Pokemon. Seraphina nodded, still appreciating what Nysa said earlier. Doom glanced at Nysa and nodded. Kitty… just kept eating without paying attention. Gah, but he was so cute that he was extra motivation for Nysa to want to travel with Mary.

  Mary beamed at Nysa. 'Let's do it! Let's travel together.'

  They talked for a bit longer about their plans, but an hour later, and Nysa realized that the sun had already more or less set. Mary left right after that, since it was getting late.

  As soon as Nysa could see that Mary had exited the room, she jumped up and grabbed Zara right out of the air, which made her squeak in surprise, and that made Floatzel laugh. Nysa started hopping all around the room. I made a friend! It may have been a small thing for most people, but it something she hadn't been able to do for her entire life! She was so happy!

  'What kind of cursed dance is that, sis?'

  She turned around quickly to see her brother walking in the room, Joan and Athena at his side. She was so absorbed in her happiness that she hadn't even noticed him come in.

  But she didn't really care for being embarrassed right now. She put her hands on her hips triumphantly. 'Well, you see, my foolish sibling-'

  'Your what now?' Kiran said with an eyebrow raised.

  Nysa continued. 'I have accomplished something that even you would struggle with. I made a friend.' She let that hang in the air for dramatic effect for a few seconds, before her brother and his Pokemon started laughing. 'Hey, stop laughing!' Nysa yelled. Zara trilled in annoyance at that.

  But of course, neither her brother nor his Pokemon cared about that. They were way too strong to get even remotely concerned with the strength of Nysa's Pokemon.

  Finally, Kiran stopped cackling and looked at her. 'Wow, sis, congrats, you've finally learned normal human behavior. I'll get you a medal sometime, alright?' he grinned.

  Nysa threw a pillow at him, which he caught. But of course, she started smiling too, since she couldn't stay mad at him. They always liked to joke like this. 'What did you do today?' she asked.

  Before he answered, he threw himself at the nearest empty bed and laid back. Athena climbed on him to rest on his chest, while Joan sat on the foot of the bed quietly. 'I was mostly training for the tournament, but I met two competitors there, and we got to talking,' he said.

  'What. You couldn't have mentioned that before I was talking about making a friend?'

  'You did start talking before I could say anything. Besides, I'm incredibly friendly, don't go assuming I haven't made friends right off the bat.' Kiran said.

  Nysa's jaw dropped in disbelief. 'No way. My brother's an elite battler and a great liar? What don't you have?' she asked. He threw the pillow from earlier back at her.

  'Anyway, we trained together for a while, then had lunch together. They asked me to travel with them too,' he explained.

  That got Nysa to be serious. She sat down on her bed, cross-legged. 'What's your journey gonna look like?' she asked.

  He turned to her and blinked a few times. 'What do you mean?'

  'Like, the physical path. What direction are you going in?' she clarified.

  'Oh, that. Well, Nessa, one of the people I was with, she wanted to go east of here first, since she's a Water-type Gym Leader, and wanted to explore that area of the region as soon as possible. Then, I'm not sure. What about you? What'd you do today, miss Goddess of Friendship?'

  'Funny. Well, I was relaxing at the beach, but then I got in a fight-'

  'You what? Already?' Kiran asked, somewhat in alarm.

  'Don't be stupid, I meant a Pokemon battle. Some jerks were hitting on the girl I made friends with and wouldn't take no for an answer, so I made them cry,' she said proudly, even puffing her chest out a bit. 'Wait, what do you mean, already?'

  Kiran – and his Pokemon, the assholes – glanced away for a second, then back. 'Never mind. So you beat someone up who deserved it, that's good.

  Nysa had her eyes narrowed for a second, then resumed. 'Like I was saying, after the fight, we got some food and came here to chill. She's really cool! We decided to travel together, starting off going west on Route 121 to Fortree City.'

  Kiran hummed at that. 'I heard from some people when I went just outside the city to train, that route you're taking can be dangerous. Picking up someone else's slack might be tough, even for you.' he warned.

  Nysa waved that off with a laugh. 'Mary got close to getting four Gym Badges last year, she's as strong as I am. We'll be fine.' Kiran breathed a small sigh of relief at that.

  That's right, they weren't traveling together. They'd been together for fifteen years, she needed a break! Plus, as much as she liked to tease him, they were of completely different skill levels. Like, she wouldn't even be able to treat his Pokemon as sparring buddies, he was that much stronger. Traveling together would not be good for strengthening their teams.

  They lay on their respective beds in silence for a bit. Then, Nysa spoke up. 'Kiran?'

  'Yeah?' he responded.

  She hesitated for a second before turning to him, with a small smile. 'This is… better, right?'

  He returned the smile, instantly knowing what she was talking about. 'Yeah. And it's just the start, right?'

  She laid back in her bed, her smile still there. It was just starting to sink in. Gone were the days of enjoying themselves in any way having to exist with their constant worry that something would get them killed. Where they had to be as selfish as possible just to survive. Or at least she hoped.

  That wasn't too much to ask for, right?