Pokémon battles have gotten a little… Boring? No- I shook my head slightly as I stared down at the Veilstone City Gym arena. They’ve gotten rote.

  I was starting to pick up a definite flow to these battles, especially among my companions. How Ted and Lucas commanded their Pokémon, how they could tell the state of said Pokémon with a single look, it was all starting to make more sense.

  Even Kevin’s patterns were starting to become more predictable as he traveled and trained with us.

  My friends had picked up on my habits and flow within a couple battles, of course. They had been practicing for this kind of thing their entire lives whereas I was a complete novice. The others lived for the thrill of Pokémon Battling whereas I muddled my way along.

  “Zee!” Kevin shouted. “Air Cutter!”

  The Crobat let out a painfully high-pitched scream, and batted all four wings forwards. Waves of air shaped themselves into flying scythes of force, slashing down at Maylene’s Machoke.

  The man-like Pokémon threw its arms in front of it to block the wind, grunting as it was pushed back several steps by the force of the blow.

  Rocks materialized out of air, the Machoke’s Rock Tomb making them materialize through sheer Type Energy, and slammed together in a massive cloud of dust.

  The cloud remained over the field for another few seconds, until it slowly cleared away, leaving a badly damaged Crobat in its wake.

  Both Kevin and Maylene stared intently at the field as their two Pokémon faced off against each other, waiting for a Trainer to make the first call.

  Kevin made the call a split second before Maylene could.

  “Ref!” He shouted. “I’m using a swap!”

  Maylene’s mouth twitched in irritation, but stood down as Kevin recalled his Pokémon. His Azumarill had already been taken down earlier in the fight, a result of a lucky blow from Maylene’s Meditite.

  “Go! Yata!”

  With a metallic peal that resonated through the arena, Kevin’s Bronzong appeared in a flash of light.

  The twitch that Maylene had tried to hide turned into a full scowl at the new Pokémon, and if I was in her place, I would have done the same.

  She only had a wounded Machoke and her Lucario left, which were not good odds against a Bronzong. The battle itself was basically decided, which was how Kevin had planned it all along.

  “Only losers don’t do their research.” He had said bluntly, then wilted. “That’s how I lost last time. It’s not going to happen again this year!”

  And sure enough, he had prepared. Every day my traveling companions stopped by the Gym, hoping to see the schedule for when they could watch one of Maylene’s matches. They each had a notebook, and would constantly take down notes on the Battles they saw, including her tells, call-outs, and more.

  Then they would go back to the Pokémon Center or the library and do even more research online, watching old matches and lurking on the various forums.

  In general most of the serious Trainers kept their notes to themselves, saving the information for when they would go up against a Gym Leader, but some were more open with the information.

  To me, personally, it all felt like far, far too much work.

  “Extrasensory!”

  A deep bell rang in the Gym and the Machamp staggered, one massive hand coming up to cradle its head, while the other flailed around for any kind of support.

  It found none, and Kevin repeated his command.

  In an impressive display of willpower, the Machamp fell to both knees, clutching its head in its hands, but didn’t fall down.

  After a second, it even tried to stand back up again, but Kevin wasn’t going to be quite so accommodating.

  “Finish it! Extrasensory!”

  I could almost see the shockwave of Psychic power that emanated from Kevin’s Bronzong as it tolled its bell one last time.

  Even Machamp's famous resilience couldn’t help it out any more, and it collapsed to the ground.

  The referee started telling Maylene to recover her Pokémon, but I tuned him out.

  I guessed a large part of the disconnect between myself and the others was that to me, Pokémon had been a game, first and foremost. It had been something that I had played to escape the grind of my everyday life, and disappear into another world. I’d never gotten into the competitive scene because I didn’t care about having to learn all the strategies, IVs, EVs, and the like.

  To my companions? Competitive Pokémon Battling was more than just a hobby. It was a way of life. It was their way of achieving fame, fortune, and to have their name put down in history.

  It was a lot like being a streamer, or a professional athlete back home. A lot of people tried it, hoping to make it big and rake in the cash, but only a very few actually got anywhere.

  And I’m not one of those people. I realized, a weight settling into my stomach. I don’t want this to be my life.

  “Hyponosis!”

  Maylene’s Lucario staggered as the Bronzong swung its body back and forth, causing deep chimes to echo. It tried to resist valiantly, but its shoulders slumped, knees buckled, and it fell to the ground, dead asleep.

  Kevin had a self satisfied smirk as Maylene reluctantly dropped her head.

  “I forfeit.” She said, then looked up with a smile. “Good match! I almost had you there for a second!”

  Kevin wavered, his competitive nature obviously at war with himself. Then he shot a quick look over to Lucas, who gave him a thumbs up.

  “Thanks.” He said, then continued a bit sheepishly. “Yeah, that was a close one. Your Meditite is really strong.”

  The mics hanging above the Gym floor cut out, and the two competitors started talking a bit more freely as they recovered their Pokémon.

  Both Lucas and Ted were furiously scribbling in their notebooks.

  “Did you see-”

  “Yup, and when-”

  They were talking over each other, trying to formulate the best strategy for fighting Maylene. And as for myself?

  I sat back, feeling the enthusiasm that I had gotten at the beginning of my Journey flowing out of me.

  I was tired.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Moving from city to city was exhausting. Sleeping in different hotel rooms, or in a tent, or worse - in a cave, was wearing on me. I didn’t have a home. No place that I could call mine.

  Constantly Battling, and training for the Battles, and planning to train for the Battles, that wasn’t what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Constantly chasing the Championship position, then having to keep it afterwards.

  Was this the kind of life I wanted?

  I thought about what I wanted my life to look like in the future. A home of my own. Jira, fully evolved, taking care of a small mountain, with tiny Larvitar running around her feet. Zetian leading a full colony of Combee, producing the best honey in Sinnoh. Kōjin, getting to run around as much as he wanted, shooting flames with every step out of sheer joy.

  And Venus, curled up on the window sill, asleep as the sun warmed her fur.

  We could still Battle, but it would be among each other or our friends and their Pokémon. There was no need to continue going on a Journey.

  None of that required being the Champion. None of that required even getting a full eight badges.

  I had a Gym Battle with Maylene in a couple days, and I felt increasingly sure that it was going to be my last one.

  /^\

  Lucas’ and Ted’s Gym Battles both went well for them, which was good. Ted brought out Silver for his first real Pokémon Battle, and the little Cleffa took to it like a Duckling took to water. During this entire time period of training Ted had been working more on control and making sure Silver would follow orders, rather than working on his strength.

  Silver had already proved willing to fight, he just needed the willpower and the discipline to hold back during a Pokémon Battle that wasn’t to the death like in the caves.

  Lucas’ Battle was a bit closer in terms of the actual odds of the fight. Kyūdō, his Dartrix, helped even the field in terms of strength, mainly due to its secondary Flying-typing, but most of the more damaging moves it knew were Grass-type, rather than Flying.

  Still, with his usual gumption Lucas was able to overcome Maylene’s Pokémon, and soon enough it was my turn.

  “This will be a three on three match!” The announcer called, but I wasn’t really listening.

  He droned on about the rules of the Battle, and they all seemed to be the standard ones of all my previous Battles.

  “-ger ready?”

  I blinked. “Hm?”

  “Is the challenger ready?” He repeated.

  “Oh, yes, sorry. I’m ready.”

  He nodded.

  “Leader ready?”

  Maylene smiled and pumped her fist. “Ready!”

  “Release your Pokémon!”

  Zetian appeared on the field in the standard flash of light. She was going to be the front runner for this match, considering that Jira was far too young to Battle, and Venus was far too vulnerable with her Dark-type.

  So it would be mostly up to Zetian and Kōjin to carry this Battle.

  Maylene’s Pokémon appeared opposite of Zetian, and I found myself idly nodding. Even though I hadn’t gone full-in on the research like my companions had, just through passive observation I found that she liked to start off with her Meditite.

  For most people, it would have been a good counter - the Psychic-typing helped balance out the Meditite’s Fighting-type. Unfortunately for Maylene, it was a poor matchup for the Bug/Flying-types of Zetian.

  “Begin!”

  “Zetian! Sweet Scent!”

  A cloud began filling the air, but Maylene had a surprisingly smug grin on her face.

  “Don’t worry about it Titus! Air bubble!”

  I frowned. That didn’t sound like any move that I was aware of.

  And much to my displeasure, it wasn’t. Instead, the Meditite’s eyes glowed blue, and an almost-invisible ball of pure force appeared around its head.

  The faintly tinted air of the Sweet Scent blew forwards and… stopped.

  All around the bubble of air the Sweet Scent swirled and eddied, and didn't affect the Meditite at all. Its eyes were still bright and focused, with none of the usual evidence that Zetian’s move normally had.

  I gawked, feeling my mind practically disintegrating with the new reality I was facing. Even if I wasn’t a comptetitive player, I was sure I would have heard of a move like that.

  Did Maylene… make up a new move?

  No. Surely not.

  If she had, I definitely would have heard about it, right?

  Maylene laughed, startling me out of my reverie.

  “You should see the look on your face!” She crowed. “Don't worry - this isn’t a new move, rather it’s just a creative interpretation of an existing one. You’re not the first Trainer to try and use airborne status effects on me, and we’ve come up with a solution to it! Now, Titus, go! Rock ‘em, Sock ‘em!”

  My plan was in tatters. I’d initially bet on Zetian being able to slow and distract the Meditite, allowing me to fight Maylene’s Pokémon a lot more easily. But now that that option was out of the way…

  “Zetian!” I shouted. “Evade!”

  My Vespiquen was already on the move, sending out clumps of regular bees in order to distract the Meditite. Unfortunately for us, the Meditite didn’t exactly need eyes to see with its Psychic powers, and wasn’t distracted by the insectoid chaff.

  Titus jumped up in the air and somehow managed to twist its body around, bringing his foot around in an impressive roundhouse. There was even a faint glow of energy to it, leaving behind a brief afterimage in its wake.

  I flinched as the blow landed and…

  Zetian looked rather fine.

  Sure she had been pushed back through the air several feet from the sheer force of the blow, and a part of her carapace was looking a little scuffed, but all-in-all, she was looking rather healthy.

  I wanted to smack myself on the head. Of course she would be alright from just that blow. Not only was she resistant to Fighting-type damage thanks to her typing, but she was also a Pokémon that relied heavily on physical defense.

  It was my turn to smirk as the Meditite landed back on the ground.

  “Zetian! It’s our turn now!”

  Her red eyes glinted with the light, and if I was in a less charitable mood I would have called them devilish.

  /^\

  What followed was nothing more than a knock-down, drag-out fight. Maylene and her Pokémon pulled out all of their tricks to avoid getting caught by Zetian and her attacks, and while we technically had the Type advantage, Zetian also wasn’t particularly the strongest Pokémon.

  Her strengths after evolving lay more in the ability to resist damage and heal, rather than dish it out. While that meant Maylene’s Pokémon couldn’t damage her very much, it also meant that she didn’t do all that much damage.

  So the fight was… long.

  Zetian didn’t last the entire time, unfortunately. She had taken an unfortunate Rock Throw that put her out of action, what I would have called a critical hit in another life.

  Kōjin managed to carry the team to victory, and by the end of the day, I was looking at the Cobble Badge gleaming in my little Badge Tin.

  “We did it!” I could hear Lucas shouting through the window as he raised a bottle of soda to the sky. “Woo! Five Badges down!”

  We were all celebrating in a local noodle shop, which had a surprisingly spicy sauce that I was finding hard to deal with.

  Rather, my three companions were celebrating in the local noodle shop, while I had stepped outside to make a phone call.

  The evening was getting chilly, and although it wasn’t as bad as it had been up in Snowpoint City I could feel winter steadily moving southwards.

  “Alina?” Professor Rowan said, and I started.

  “Right, yes, sorry Professor.”

  I could hear the smile in his voice. “No problem. I’m glad to hear you all are doing well. It’s impressive that you’ve made it this far in your Journey so quickly.”

  “Not quick enough for some.” I muttered.

  “What was that?”

  I grimaced, and wished I hadn’t said anything.

  “No, it’s nothing.”

  “It’s not nothing. I’m your sponsor, and I’d like to think a friend of sorts. You trusted me with your secrets, and I want to honor that. What’s bothering you?”

  I took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.

  “I don’t think I’m going to keep on doing the Gym Challenge.”

  There was a long moment of silence.

  “I see.

  “And I’m assuming you don’t mean the Challenges like the alternate ways to get a Badge.” Rowan said softly. “You mean that you’re not going to continue on your Journey. Is that right?”

  I nodded, then flushed as I realized he couldn’t actually see that.

  “Yes, you’re right. I just don’t think that I really want to keep going. I got my four Badges, I can use it as a passport now if I need to.”

  “Are you not feeling well? I remember Lucas mentioned that you got sick at Iron Island a little while ago, if you’re still ill there’s nothing wrong with taking a break to recover.”

  “I’m fine, and it's not just a week or two that I need.” I met Lucas’ eyes through the window of the restaurant, and he lifted his soda again and cheered.

  “I mean it. I’m not going to be continuing with my Journey. I think I’m done.”