I laid on my bed back home the day after my trip from Jubilife city. The only thing I could think about was pretty much everything, starting from Penny, the thugs, the package, the letter, the violin dream, and...

"Why did he do that..?" I blushed, remembering him holding me close while I shook in place, scared out of my mind "I thought he was serious... he knows a sketchy person, but he ended up hugging me like that" I remembered his hand on the back of my head pulling me into his body. I never thought I'd be held by a guy in my life!

"So embarrassing!!" I covered my face with my pillow "He only did it to make fun of me!" I sat up, trying to convince myself that was the reason "Right..?" I sighed, feeling warm "I guess I never ended up checking myself at the Pokémon center" I got out of bed and walked up to the package my father sent me "I haven't even opened the box. He's expecting my call" I took out the boxes "Johanna is working out of town so I can't ask her to help set this up" I would had asked Les to help me the other day, but was afraid to be called stupid for not being able to figure it out on my own.

"It can't be that hard" I didn't grow up with these sort of things, but I've seen my friends have them often and be so happy that they can finally afford something. I heard a lot about Poketchs and watched my friends use them, so how hard can it be?

I went downstairs to set my things down on the coffee table in front of the tv playing and got to reading the instructions. After awhile, I got everything working "Nice!" I gasped, admiring my new phone "Now I can talk to anyone I want! Luckily my friends gave me their numbers before I had to go back home" I hummed happily and put the Poketch on my wrist "If I'm too busy to answer my phone, I can answer through this! So cool!"

"Ban" Banette nodded, uninterested.

"Bun!" Buneary smiled, happy to see I'm happy. I smiled at both of them and leaned back on the couch.

"As cool as this is, it would be very useful if I got the chance to explore and find Platina" I thought about it for awhile before thinking about the note Rowan gave me "There's no other choice" I stood up "Even if I'm scared of Pokémon, I can go around them. I'm going to travel!"

"Bun?!" Buneary gasped.

"It'll be fine! I don't have to worry about money, and there's a whole region to explore! I will take advantage of my freedom and look around and find my sister! There's no way I can just sit back and wait for something to happen!" I looked at Banette staring at me "I'll have to break it to auntie and talk to Rowan. He'll be able to help me" I took a deep breath, picked up my Pokémon, and hurried out of town to Rowan's lab. Before I got the chance to try to get pass the tall grass, I heard something.

"Be careful out there..." I stared at nothing, confused on who spoke to me, and went off as if I didn't hear a thing. I was finally face to face with Rowan in his lab. It was very early in the morning, so Lucas and Les weren't expected to be here until later today. It's better that way.

"So you decided you want to travel Sinnoh after all" he told me.

"Yes. I know it's a bad idea for someone who hardly knows about the world, but I'm not completely hopeless. I hope one day I can grow from the experiences in exploring"

"And find your sister. Am I right?" I looked down "I understand your frustration in wanting to look for her, and even if I encourage you go out to find yourself and meet new Pokémon, you shouldn't be obsessed with the idea of looking for her. You won't have any leads. Still, it's not my place to judge what you end up doing. You are a young adult and you get to live life the way you want" I smiled a little "Here in the Sinnoh region, you'll end up finding many unique Pokémon. It's best to meet as many as possible and learn about them. Even if you're scared, Pokémon are much like people. There are boundaries we must respect. You will have to avoid as many as possible so they won't randomly attack you, but building a team will make you appreciate every Pokémon out there. Don't judge a book by it's over. You might like cute Pokémon, but all Pokémon are great Pokémon"

"Yes. I understand" I nodded "though I developed my fear in Pokémon when I was young, it will take some time for me to adjust. If I want to explore as much as possible, I'll need to learn how to deal with my fears. Maybe one day, I'll be able to say that I have a team full of Pokémon instead of dolls" I nodded, determined "I don't know how long it'll be, but I'm eager to leave as soon as possible" he nodded and left to grab something to give me. It was a red device that was the size of his hand "What's this?" More technology?

"This is a Pokédex" I lifted it in the air to admire it.

"Amazing! My friend told me about this! It's a high-tech device that records Pokémon data!"

"Your friend is very intelligent. I hope to meet them one day" I chuckled "I want to give that to you to help you get by more smoothly. Pokémon can be confusing. With this, you'll be able to understand what you need to know to make sure you stay safe" I hugged the device.

"Thank you so much!" I gave it to Banette "I'll take very good care of it-" the door opened. We looked over to see Les and Lucas coming in. Lucas yawned and Les made eye contact with me. I flinched and looked away.

"Good morning, Octa" Lucas yawned again. What's with these nicknames? "What brings you here so early?" I didn't want them to know my plan, so lying would be the obvious choice.

"I came to collect his number for my new cell phone" I said. I already received his number from the note he gave me yesterday. I called him earlier to expect me to arrive at this hour.

"Oh! Cool! Take my number too!" Lucas said. I excitedly showed off my phone and took down his number "This is cool! Now you can let me know when you want to start training your Pokémon- I mean your dolls!"

"That's a stupid phrase" Les said.

"Shut up, you party pooper!" Les rolled his eyes and went to the coffee machine "I don't know what's with him lately" Lucas groaned.

"What do you mean?" He shrugged.

"He hardly made comments on anything. He's so serious about everything, but lately has been judging everything I do and say" he didn't do that before? "He's been smoking again, which isn't good. He's been in his own little world instead of reading books like he usually does" he shook his head "Who cares. As long as he doesn't become too annoying or go back to the wrong path, I don't care" I wonder what he means by that... but I have no right to ask.

"I see..." I sighed "I can say he's pretty judgmental, but he cares in his own way"

"Sorry? Cares?" I told him what happened back in Jubilife, not including what I saw while playing the violin "That's... strange" he held his chin "He hugged you-" I cupped his mouth so he couldn't say it too loud.

"Shhh!!" I panicked, feeling hot "I'm just telling you! Please don't say it so loudly!" I peaked over at Les to see if he heard, but he was in his own world while drinking coffee. I wonder what's with the sudden change...

"Oh... okay" he said. I sighed in relief and turned to Rowan. He just nodded at me "Are you heading out?"

"I am! I'm going to deliver lunch to my aunt in Jubilife!" It will be the time when I tell her I'll be leaving right away. If only I could tell her later, but I have to leave as soon as possible.

"That's nice of you" Lucas smiled "Are you okay heading there yourself?"

"Of course!" I smiled and headed to the door "I'll be seeing you!" I was in a bit of a hurry. I'm sure they caught on to my rush. I hurried to get a taxicab and head to Jubilife as soon as possible to talk to my aunt.

I looked around Jubilife city and sighed at how overwhelming the place was. Every street was crowded and I would hate to run into someone when I'm not paying attention. This isn't the kind of place to be doing that, so I better pay attention and head to the building my aunt told me she was working at.

"The trainer school and daycare" I bought some food from a cafe nearby and found the daycare place fairly quickly. I walked into the building, seeing a ton of little kids running around and making a mess. Auntie and staff members looked like she was having a hard time controlling them.

"Octavia?" Auntie came over to me, sweating "What brings you all the way here?"

"You look busy" I chuckled "Everyone is so energetic"

"Kids have the most energy. It's hard to get them to sit down" I nodded and observed the place "as you can see, the classes take place in rooms while the daycare is held in open spaces. We have a lot of kids come in lately for the holidays while their parents are out shopping, so it's been busy"

"I understand" I gave her the lunch I bought and walked over to the tv on the wall, picking up the remote to turn on the kids channel. Many of them stopped what they were doing to watch what was going on on the screen "Look! So fun!" I clapped to the kids. They were very engaged at the screen and started dancing when I started to. Doing this gave the staff and auntie a break before nap time.

"You're really good with kids" Auntie came to me after putting down the last child to bed "How did you engaged with them so quickly?"

"I worked with kids at the resort where I worked at. I worked in a lot of departments, not just at the restaurants. Childcare was part of the resort and I learned a lot from there" she nodded and took me to the lunch room so we could eat together.

"It's nice to see you after awhile. I'm sorry I haven't been home. I was asked to stay for the overnight kids who's parents were out of town for reasons"

"It's okay. It's good that you're with them. We wouldn't want them to be on their own" I said, remembering being left alone often as a kid with Platina "I came here to not only see you, but I would like to talk to you about something" she nodded and listened to what I have to say. In the end, she said nothing, but was worried for my sake.

"On your own..?" She asked.

"Yes" she looked at her food.

"I mean... I thought we at least could had spend the holidays together" I reached out to hold her hand.

"What's great about the holidays when Platina is missing?" Her eyes widened "I had to hear from someone else about her..."

"Octavia... I'm so sorry" she started crying "You were so excited to see her, I didn't want to blow the news to you. How could I..? I... I didn't even know how to start"

"You did it for my sake. I am not upset" I held my chest "I feel her out there. I want to not only explore to find my purpose, but to find her as well"

"How could you possibly do that?" I sighed.

"I don't know, but I can't just stay here and wait. Please understand, auntie. I want us to be happy together. Father told me he's divorcing my mother" she was surprised "So one day we can go visit him all together and be happy" I smiled "I am leaving today, okay?" She stood up to get me to hug her. I frowned at her crying on me.

"I can't force you to stay with me. I've been so worried about Platina that I often couldn't sleep at night. Please promise me you'll call me as much as possible" she let go at the same time I took out my phone to show her what my father got me.

We exchanged numbers and said our goodbyes after finishing our food. She was sad to see me go, but understood that the holidays won't be right if it was only us at the house. I left the school building and proceeded on to maybe look for Oreburge city, where my maid should be. I would like to talk to her face to face about what I'm going to be doing, so my first destination was there.

"We're going to see a lady that took care of me when I was growing" I told Buneary in my arms "The road there will be a long one... should we take the bus?" I don't think it's necessary to go on foot, but I need to head to as many places as possible and speak to many people if I want to get a clue about Platina's whereabouts "On foot it is"

"You're going on foot when you know there's going to be wild Pokémon out there?" I screamed when hearing Les behind me "You're making a scene" he said.

"W-What are you..?! Why are you here?!" I panicked, not expecting him to come out of nowhere and figure out what I was doing. Did Rowan tell him!?

"I overheard this morning what you were doing and spoke to the Professor about it" he looked around "I have access to the security cameras. When I saw that there was movement, I saw that you and him were having a conversation"

"You were eavesdropping!" He snorted.

"I happen to hear it. That's all. The Professor told me after I questioned it. There was no point in hiding it" I bit my lips and glared at him.

"I don't care what you say... I know this decision is stupid and you want to comment on it, but I'm doing this no matter what! You will not use your harsh words to criticize me! I'm doing this out of my own free will! Save your words for another day! I don't wanna hear them!" He walked pass me "Where are you going now?"

"Didn't you say you want to go by foot?" I looked at him confused "Let's go" I blinked a few times.

"You're coming with me?" I followed after him.

"You won't survive out there on your own" I huffed, annoyed.

"Shows what you know!"

"You don't even consider your Pokémon as living creatures. You're completely helpless. With me, you'll at least have a chance"

"If you're following me just to criticize me, I don't want you to come at all" he pushed my head down "Hey!"

"It's better this way" I looked at him looking at me with softer brown eyes "I'm sure you don't know how to camp outside, right?"

"Oh! No... I guess not" he nodded and lead the way. I looked at Buneary confused. I don't understand... He's been judgmental since I met him and he doesn't even like rich folk like me, yet he's helped me all this time and now going to travel with me? I'm a bit confused, but I don't know why my heart is beating so fast... What's even going on?