"Wow, that was a great contest battle! That Serena girl sure knows how to make her pokemon's moves shine," a spectator to my left commented enthusiastically as I watched Serena and Roisel leave the battle stage to let the next two coordinators battle.

A strange sense of pride filled me as I watched her walk away and I was really happy that I had asked for this as my 'reward'. I had tried to refuse Neptune's offer of taking the jet since I really didn't want her to have a reason to charge me for jet fuel, but when I woke up this morning I found a pilot outside my door waiting for me. Since I knew there was no way I could get to Jubilife by myself before the contest started, I reluctantly followed the pilot and rode to an open field a few miles from the city. The pilot reminded me of Neptune's request for me to figure out who interrupted their kidnapping mission before saying he'd be back here at 8 pm and flying off towards the direction of Oreburgh City.

I already know who tried to rescue the researcher though, I had thought as I watched the jet fly through the sky and seem to disappear from view thanks to its cloaking technology. It only took a day for the IIA to track down the identity of the would-be-hero. It turned out that he was a detective for the Sinnoh Region branch of the International Police Force called Aryan Patel. I had been shocked to hear that he was actually the junior partner of Detective Looker, who had been instrumental in helping take down the old Team Galactic, Team Plasma, and the Aether Foundation threat in Alola several years ago.

Director Falon had told me that he was on a special assignment, but that they couldn't find records of what exactly it was or why he wasn't investigating together with Detective Looker. Even if she had told me though, I wouldn't have told that to Neptune. It tore me up inside that I was going to have to give them his name at all, but Director Falon convinced me that my mission to gain Neptune's trust was my first priority. My only consolation was thinking that if Detective Aryan had been chosen as Detective Looker's partner, then he could probably take care of himself no matter what Team Galactic knew about him.

Putting that out of my mind for now though, I turned my attention back to the contest. It had been forever since I watched a contest and it was bringing back lots of awesome memories of when I traveled with May and Dawn and supported them during their contest debuts. It felt a little weird to be sitting in a contest and not have Brock sitting next to me, commenting on the condition of each trainers pokemon.

I enjoyed the appeal round and I had cheered as loudly as I could for Serena when she and Roisel came out. It could have been my imagination, but for a second I thought she heard me. But she hadn't seemed to notice me in the crowd of cheering people though. I had been impressed with her and Roisel's performance. I was surprised when Roisel used Fairy Wind. I'd been wondering what typing she was, but I had been thinking she would be a normal or a rock type because of the gems on her body.

Their battle round was awesome too! Seeing Roisel practically swim through Butterfree's Whirlwind attack, leaving a trail of sparkly Fairy Wind behind her, had been super cool to see, and I tucked that away to try and incorporate if I ever found my pokemon in a similar situation. I leaped to my feet and cheered excitedly for Serena when she was announced the winner, and Pikachu had given me a light shock because I almost made him fall on his face with my exuberance.

I wasn't surprised when the Keira girl completely dominated her battle round. Surprisingly she didn't use her Infernape from her performance round. Instead, she used an elegant Mienshao, whose grace and power earned her a victory within two minutes. The crowd seemed electrified by her performance and I remembered how Celeste had assumed that I was a fan of Keira's (although she had gotten her name wrong) when I asked to go to the contest.

To be honest, I was impressed with Keira's performance and her straightforward battle style. Seeing her battle made my hands itch because I wanted to challenge her to a battle myself, but I knew I couldn't call attention to myself right now. So I ignored that desire and waited for the battles to be announced for the second round. My stomach grumbled loudly and I wished I had bought a snack to tie me over until the last battle.

Ignoring my empty stomach, for now, I felt my eyes widen as the pairings for the semi-final round were displayed on the jumbo screens and Serena's picture was placed across from Keira's. I frowned, feeling worried and a little sad for Serena. Roisel technically had the type advantage since she was a fairy type... But from how the last battle had gone I didn't think that Roisel had much battle experience, even though she had done tremendously well against the Butterfree. Whereas Keira's Mienshao was obviously a high level and had both experience and strategy to fall back on.

"This may not turn out too well, Pikachu," I muttered softly as the two girls came onto the stage and released their pokemon.

"Pikachu," Pikachu agreed sadly.

Serena was playing with her skirt nervously and I could tell that she was intimidated by Keira and her overpowering confidence. She flinched when Keira suddenly kicked out in synch with her Mienshao and I wondered if Keira might have known the fighting type gym leader here in Sinnoh. My battle against Maylene back in the day was a memorable one, and one of the reasons for that was that Maylene had a habit of shadowing her pokemon's moves during the battle.

My lips tipped down into a deeper frown as Keira mercilessly launched her attack. Even though it was obvious Serena felt intimidated, I was impressed at the commands she was giving. For the first minute, Roisel did a good job of dodging and trying to land a Sweet Kiss. I could tell that Serena knew their pokemon's levels were way different and I thought it was smart that she was trying to give herself the advantage of confusing her opponent. But Keira's Mienshao was too fast and easily dodged all of the little hearts blown her way.

My hands clenched into fists as Mienshao suddenly burst forward, apparently satisfied with teasing Serena's Roisel, and delivered a devastating High Jump Kick. Roisel was sent flying and as she skidded across the ground I could see a tear roll down Serena's cheek as Roisel attempted to get back up on her shaky little legs. I frowned heavily when Keira called for a Poison Jab attack, and Roisel fell to the ground, completely knocked out.

Everyone around me jumped to their feet, cheering wildly for Keira's win. I got to my feet too, but I didn't cheer. Roisel had barely been able to stand and it was completely cruel of Keira to blast her with a super effective attack when she had practically won the match. I began shoving my way through the crowd.

It had been a long time since I was in this contest hall, but this was one of the contests that I had actually entered myself back when I traveled with Dawn. Calling up those old memories, I made my way through the hallways into the waiting room. There were several trainers still packing up their things that hadn't moved on from the appeals stage and as I glanced around I didn't see any sign of Serena. Pikachu jumped down from my shoulder and moved out of the waiting room, running on all fours down the hall.

I followed after him, not sure where he was going but trusting that he knew I was looking for Serena. He led me towards the entrance to the stage portion of the contest hall and I frowned, wondering why we were going this way when a small sob caught my ear. Pikachu turned down a side hall and when I got to the corner I saw Serena slumped against the wall, pressing Roisel's battered little body against her chest gently.

"Pipi chu?" Pikachu went right up to Serena, standing on his hind legs and pressing his paws on Serena's knee to get her attention. She tilted her chin up just enough to look at Pikachu but not far enough to let me see her face.

"Pikachu?" she asked, her voice wobbly from trying to talk through her tears.

"Hey, Serena," I said quietly. Her head jerked up and I felt a weird tug inside me when I saw the tears slowly dripping down her cheeks as her blue eyes met mine.

"Sa... Satoshi?" she squeaked out in obvious shock. I grinned widely, hoping that acting cheerful would help her not feel so sad.

"I told you I'd try to make it to your contests," I pointed out lightly before kneeling down and reaching a hand out to stroke Roisel's unmoving body. "We should probably get to the Pokemon Center," I suggested, trying to sound upbeat instead of worried. Serena blinked mutely before nodding her agreement.

I propelled myself up and then reached a hand out for Serena to take. She blinked at my proffered hand before giving me a shaky smile and slipping her slender hand into mine. I held it firmly and pulled, guiding her back onto her feet, and was surprised when she didn't let go of my hand immediately. Deciding that she probably needed the support after seeing her pokemon lose so awfully for the first time, I didn't say anything and led her down the hall back towards the waiting room.

Once we started moving, her tears began to slow and her steps began to quicken. I matched her quick pace easily and we made it back to the waiting room without any interruptions. As she stepped in to grab her things, I felt her hand slip out of mine and was surprised when my palm tingled slightly as her fingertips brushed it. Flexing my fingers a little to try and get the weird sensation to go away, I waited at the door as Serena stuffed a box into her backpack. She then quickly turned away, ignoring the other people in the room, and rushed back towards Pikachu and me.

Without speaking, we swiftly made our way out of the contest hall, leaving behind the cheering crowd as we made our way to the pokemon center. Since Nurse Joy was one of the judges, one of the nurse's assistants and a smiling Chansey were who greeted us as we walked into the pokemon center together and Serena handed off her Roisel. I saw her press a swift kiss to Roisel's head before returning her to her Pokeball, which I noticed with interest was a white premier ball instead of the normal red Pokeballs that I always used, and handing it to the nurse's assistant.

As Chansey and the nurse went back into the treatment area of the Pokemon Center my stomach suddenly growled so loudly that Serena flinched in surprise. Pikachu shook his head at me, but his own stomach decided to grumble at that precise moment and the two red spots on his cheeks brightened in a blush. Serena chuckled shakily and suggested we go to the food court area while we waited for Roisel to be healed. I never turned down the opportunity to eat, so I immediately agreed. Soon we were all sitting at a table together and tucking into a delicious late lunch.

After I polished off two of the four grilled cheese sandwiches I had grabbed and a bowl of tomato soup I realized that not only had Serena barely touched her bowl of creamy potato soup, but she hadn't said a word. I looked over at Pikachu to see he was happily eating his second of three poffins in addition to the large bowl of pokemon food I had gotten for him and then looked back at Serena as she pushed her spoon through her soup absently.

"You okay?" I asked, tearing off a corner of another sandwich and popping it into my mouth. Serena jerked, looking up at me with a complicated expression and I cocked my head to the side, waiting for her to respond.

"Just... worried about Roisel," Serena admitted quietly.

"She's going to be fine!" I assured her confidently after swallowing my bite of cheesy goodness. "You've really trained her well! I've never seen anyone use Fairy Wind like the way she does. The way she swam through Butterfree's whirlwind was amazing!"

Serena blinked her large blue eyes twice before one corner of her lips tilted up slightly. The half-smile quickly fell through and she sighed, laying down her spoon without touching her soup.

"But there was nothing I could do against Keira's pokemon. I don't think I'm cut out for being a coordinator after all," Serena mumbled her head drooping down and hiding her expression from me.

"Are you kidding?" I asked in disbelief. Her head raised, looking at me with confusion and I grinned widely. "I traveled with a Coordinator once and in her first contest that she entered she was so nervous that she fell on her face before she started her performance round," I recalled with a laugh, remembering May's nervousness of her first contest.

"The poor girl!" Serena gasped, looking incredibly sympathetic and I grinned widely.

"She still managed to make it to the battle rounds, but she got beat in her first battle by a pokemon with a type disadvantage. And another coordinator I traveled with had two or three contests in a row where she didn't even make it past the appeal rounds because she got too invested in showing off the power of her pokemon's move instead of showing off the beauty of her pokemon," I explained, thinking back to Dawn and her journey that was filled with so many ups and downs. Those two girls had helped me so much in developing unique battle strategies and thinking back to those simpler times made me miss my old friends.

"Really?" Serena asked quietly, looking at me with a small spark of hope in her blue eyes. I nodded firmly, smiling widely.

"There are still lots of contests for you to enter! You won't win them all since you'll be up against people with years of experience, but just remember: Don't give up until it's over!" I said firmly, clenching my hand into a fist energetically.

"Pi pikachu!" Pikachu added happily in agreement. Serena looked between both of us and her frown slowly turned up into a small smile. I felt a weird flutter in my stomach as she looked at me and her smile brightened even further.

"You're right. I can't give up yet. Thank you so much for coming, Satoshi. I didn't think I'd ever see you again," Serena said, her smile turning a little shy as she looked at me. I swallowed quickly and rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly.

"Sorry about that, Serena. I wish I could have told you I was coming."

"It's okay. Was... was it you that called out my name before the appeals round?" she asked hesitantly and I grinned widely and held out a peace sign.

"That was me! I'm surprised you could hear me with how noisy it was," I replied with a grin. She blushed slightly and I smiled when she picked up her spoon.

"How has your work been going?" Serena asked before scooping a spoonful of soup and placing it in her mouth. I glanced at Pikachu, who had frozen with his mouth wide, about to take a bite of his last poffin, and flicked his black eyes over to me. Chuckling nervously to try and hide my reaction I shrugged.

"It's been fine. It's a new job and I'm still trying to learn the ropes," I replied, trying to sound natural. Serena tilted her head, causing a strand of her gently curling hair to fall against her cheek.

"What do you do exactly?" she asked curiously. 

I quickly took a huge bite of my sandwich to give myself some time to think up an answer to this. There was nothing in the dossier about how to answer this question since I technically wasn't supposed to ever speak to civilians as Satoshi... Come on, Ash. Think!

"I, uh, work as a kind of security... guard," I eventually answered, hoping that hadn't come out as awkwardly as I thought it had.

Pikachu's ears tipped back to lay against his head as he gave me a look as if to say, "Seriously, dude? That's the best you could come up with?"

"Oh! So you work at a lab as a security guard?" she asked, leaning forward with obvious interest and I was surprised that she didn't seem suspicious at all. She's so trusting, I thought guiltily before laughing awkwardly.

"That's right. The lab I work at has lots of secret experiments they do, so I make sure no one is trespassing and trying to steal their work. They send me out to collect things every once in a while too which is why we met in the forest; I was looking for some poison barbs," I replied while trying to sound natural.

"Hmmm. I'm kind of surprised that you aren't a professional pokemon trainer. Pikachu seemed really strong when he went up against that Ursaring you saved me from," she commented, reaching out and rubbing Pikachu behind his ear affectionately. Pikachu's body tensed for a second before he melted, drooping down and laying his chin on the table while letting out a happy "Chaaaa!" as she rubbed his ear gently.

"I started out as a pokemon trainer. I even made it to quite a few leagues, but I was never good enough to win, so I decided to take a break and earn some money before going back out and trying again," I replied, feeling lame after I had just told Serena to not give up on her dream.

Serena's eyes moved back to mine and a huge desire to tell her the truth suddenly gripped me. I stomped down that urge quickly though. There was no way I could put the mission in jeopardy just because I felt guilty about lying to Serena.

"Well. If I'm still traveling when you decide to go back to being a pokemon trainer... maybe we could travel together..." Serena's cheeks exploded into a bright red color that reminded me of fireworks and she quickly turned away, giggling nervously and taking a lock of her honey blonde hair in her fingers and beginning to play with it. "That's if we actually can communicate with each other anyway," she said with a nervous chuckle.

"Who knows?" I said, laughing along with her. Inside though, I felt sadness making my shoulders slump. As long as I was an IIA agent, I didn't think I would ever get the opportunity to go around traveling as a pokemon trainer again with or without Serena's company.

A/N The chapter was getting a little bit long so I think I'll stop there. I hope you all enjoyed Serena and Ash's little conversation though!