Ran and Doro end up meeting up outside of the Cianwood City Gym, walking towards the Pokécenter together so that Doro can hand Strong and Precise’s pokéballs in for treatment. It’ll leave her with as many team members still available as Ran himself has, but that doesn’t change the fact that she beat Chuck three to one, whereas Ran went three to two.

  It’s something the dark-skinned girl delightedly points out whilst she puts her training jacket back on, drawing an amused laugh from Ran. His own counterpoint, that he didn’t exclusively rely on team members that have been with him from the start comes easily, only for Doro to retort that she didn’t have his type advantages. It’s an enjoyable bit of banter to exchange, especially as the mood remains jovial and both Ran’s congratulations to Doro and hers to him are equally genuine.

  Their conversation remains lighthearted and easygoing all the way through Doro handing in her team and the two of them agreeing on a place to have lunch at. It’s only as they are both taking their first bites of their respective sandwiches, that Ran turns the conversation to a more serious topic.

  “So,” He starts after swallowing his second bite of sandwich, “Are you sticking around Cianwood for a while longer, or are you leaving soon as well?”

  “I have some interest in training in Chuck’s Gym for a few days,” Doro responds easily, “But I believe my team would benefit more from such a thing if it was complete, so I was not planning to do so for long. Why do you ask?”

  “Well, I’m planning on heading to Olivine and, if you felt like heading that way, I figured we could take the same ship there.” Ran responds easily, extending an invitation with a soft smile.

  Doro blinks slowly, once, then twice. When she speaks, it is with a question, rather than with a proper answer, “You realize that I have already beaten Jasmine, yes?”

  “I do,” Ran allows without hesitation, “But you’ve also already beaten Whitney, so I figure you’re either headed for Azalea or Mahogany next, and seeing as I don’t know which one you have in mind, there’s no harm in extending the invitation, right?”

  “I suppose not,” Doro agrees after a moment’s thought, “I shall tell you of my plans, then. I was planning on heading to Azalea Town next. Ilex Forest shall provide me with a Heracross and I do not wish to postpone my fated meeting with Falkner’s flying-types any longer than necessary. It is why I was planning to take a boat to Goldenrod, when I leave here.”

  “Alright, fair enough.” Ran agrees lightly, following Doro’s reasoning without trouble and, although it doesn’t align with his own plans as nicely as he might have hoped, finding no fault in her logic.

  Doro doesn’t acknowledge his response, simply continuing to speak placidly, “However, the season isn’t even halfway into its third month and I already have four of the eight badges required. I enjoyed Olivine and I believe I would enjoy traveling with you, for a short while at least. Plus, I am curious to see more of your Croagunk. I believe it would be educational for us both to observe the impact our training has on them. So, when were you planning to set sail?”

  Ran, caught off-guard by Doro’s seeming one-eighty from passing on his offer to actively working to accommodate the offer, struggles for a moment to formulate a response. When he manages to speak, it’s more hesitant than he would have liked, “I was thinking of taking the earliest possible ship, but if you want to spend a few days training at Chuck’s Gym, I’m happy to accommodate. So depending on when the ferries to Olivine go, something in four or five days?”

  Doro chuckles, her surprisingly deep voice making the sound resemble a low bass. Her response is amused, but not mean-spirited, “Cianwood-Olivine is a far busier route than Cianwood-Goldenrod, Ran. There is a ship every day. But four days from today sounds good to me, we can go and book our tickets when we’re done here.”

  “I did not know that,” Ran admits with an apologetic grin, “But that works for me. I don’t know if I’ll join you at Chuck’s Gym yet, but I’ll figure it out by tomorrow morning.”

  “Good.” Doro responds simply, before dedicating her full focus to her sandwich.

  It’s an example Ran enthusiastically mirrors, both young trainers wolfing down their meals in short order, once they don’t have to carry a conversation any more.

  Afterwards, they make their way to the ferry service ticket station, where it’s easy work to book tickets for a similar passage to the one Ran booked for his journey from Goldenrod City to Cianwood City, though the journey is supposed to take a few more hours, on account of the ferry to Olivine being both larger and significantly slower than the one Ran took from Goldenrod.

  Just as they’re finishing up with that, Ran’s pokégear buzzes with an incoming message, a quick glance at the screen showing Grady’s name. He doesn’t immediately open the message to read it, but when they exit the ticket office and Doro admits that she wants to go and get a work-out in, it does give Ran a reason to decline her invitation for him to join her. Tempting as the idea of watching Doro work out might be, the idea of not being able to keep up with her is more than enough for him to pass up on the opportunity.

  He wanders back to the pokécenter, eager to go and check if his recovering team members are ready to be discharged yet, as he opens up Grady’s message. It is, in fact, just a singular message, though it is a long one, as Grady once more sings his praises before requesting a full recap of the battle and reacting enthusiastically to the possibility of encountering Ran in Olivine, as his own battle against Morty is scheduled to take place three days from today, after which he’ll be heading in that direction himself.

  Ran sends back a brief response of his own, wishing Grady the best of luck against Morty and agreeing to let him know just when he’s in Olivine, so that they can coordinate to meet up. He finishes typing the message just as he enters the pokécenter, allowing him to easily move on to the reception desk and inquire about the condition of Skorupi, Caesar and Golbat.

  The news is good, with Ran receiving all three in their balls, though he does also receive a topical salve to apply to Golbat’s wing a few times over the coming days, the membrane apparently healed but still tender and fragile. For Skorupi and Caesar, no such warnings apply, both having healed swiftly and once more ready for action. Not that Ran intends to put them through any work for the rest of the day, of course, but it’s comforting to have the weight of a nearly full belt on his hips once more.

  He accepts the jar of topical salve with a polite smile, storing it away securely before moving away from the pokécenter’s main area and towards his room. Golbat’s lingering injury, compared to his other two team members, is a strong reminder that the team’s most headstrong member came worryingly close to losing them the match, when he had neither right nor reason to.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Of course Ran wants to convene with the whole team and catch them up on their victory over Chuck as soon as possible, but Golbat will need a private word, first. It’s with that thought in mind, that he settles into his room, placing the jar of salve on his nightstand, before deliberately releasing Golbat onto his bed, just a foot away from Ran’s own seated, cross-legged form.

  Golbat glances around sharply for a moment, before noticeably deflating, a pained twitch running through him when he relaxes his wings only for his not yet fully recovered membrane to make its presence felt. Ran doesn’t enjoy seeing his team member in pain and he has to suppress an instinctive urge to reach for the jar of salve, but he wants Golbat to understand what he’s about to do before he does it, at the very least.

  “Easy there, Golbat,” he tells his pokémon, the Bat Pokémon’s large eyes coming to rest balefully on his trainer’s face, “You took a serious hit, the pokécenter couldn’t patch you up fully, so you’ll be feeling that for a few more days. I’ve got a salve to put on it, so carefully extend your wing and I’ll put it on, alright? It should help with the pain.”

  Golbat clearly isn’t happy with the situation, his large feet shuffling awkwardly on the blanket for a moment as he clearly itches to take flight and claim a more solitary perch, but he does begrudgingly extend his wing, the movement clearly physically unpleasant.

  Ran unscrews the cap from the jar of salve, slathering some across his hand, before taking a good look at the membrane of Golbat’s right wing. The dark purple is noticeably lighter where the tear had been, seeming thinner as well. It’s a displeasing sight that goes entirely too well with the many thin and faded scars on Golbat’s body, a carry-over from his time as a Zubat. At least it makes it very easy to identify precisely where the salve needs to be applied, which is why Ran immediately gets to work.

  After a few tense seconds, Golbat seems to relax slightly, stance becoming just a bit more relaxed, a clear sign of the relief brought on by the treatment. Ran allows his pokémon just a few seconds to suffer the treatment in silence, then, he speaks.

  “You almost cost us the match today.” He announces straightforwardly, immediately feeling Golbat stiffen in response.

  Ran waits for a few seconds, continuing to treat Golbat calmly as he lets the message sink in. Finally, just as he spots the telltale tensing of Golbat’s jaw that indicates he’s about to shriek plaintively, Ran speaks once more.

  “Swagger doesn’t make pokémon attack. Swagger confuses pokémon. If you’d failed to carry out my orders because of Swagger, that’d be one thing, but you outright disregarded them. Don’t deny it.” Ran informs his third team member, receiving only an annoyed glare from Golbat, rather than the verbal response that he’d clearly been about to release just before.

  Golbat’s annoyance draws out Ran’s own, though he does continue to dutifully rub salve into the injured wing. Neither one of them makes a sound, with Golbat continuing to glare balefully at Ran, whilst Ran completely ignores his pokémon’s ire in favor of making sure that he properly coats the entirety of the healing membrane with salve. The stand-off continues like that for long seconds, until finally, Golbat huffs out an aggrieved breath.

  Ran takes that as a sign of defeat, finally meeting the Bat Pokémon’s eyes once more, as he continues to speak, “I don’t mind you having a temper, Golbat. I don’t mind you preferring to be on your own either. Those are things that make you who you are and I don’t want your personality to change, because I do care a lot for you. But when you let those things dictate your actions to the point where you don’t listen to me, that’s where we run into a problem.”

  Golbat hunches into himself slightly, which Ran takes as a sign that he’s getting through to the seemingly repentant poison-flying type.

  “This isn’t the first time your temper has caused trouble, Golbat.” Ran reiterates, sighing heavily, before he starts to list off examples.

  “You got badly hurt against Morton’s Ampharos in a fight you caused when I was about to back off. You took another bad electric-type attack when we battled Chuck, because you didn’t wait for my orders.” He lists off, counting along on his fingers, before shifting focus.

  “It isn’t even just during battles. During the race, you didn’t even wait for me to give the okay before taking off. If my grip had been worse, I could’ve gotten seriously hurt there. Plus, at the beach, you were flat out disobedient, before Aria talked to you.” Ran continues his tally, before finally coming to a stop for a moment.

  He looks taxingly at Golbat, who seemingly doesn’t know where to look under the weight of Ran’s disapproval.

  Ran isn’t done yet however, as he finally continues in a softer voice, “I wouldn’t even mind it as much if you didn’t end up paying the price every time. When I give you orders, I do so because that’s the best call at that time. You’ve got instincts, instincts that usually boil down to get close and bite whatever you’re mad at, but that isn’t always the right call. I don’t want to keep patching you up after you get hurt because you get your temper up and don’t listen to me, you understand?” Ran explains genuinely, his words heartfelt and hopefully getting through to Golbat because of that.

  He doesn’t immediately get a response, Golbat simply remaining quiet as Ran continues to slather his wing in salve. Ran finishes after another half minute of work, at which point Golbat slowly tests out his wing, flexing it up and down and bending it this way and that for a few seconds. He doesn’t seem particularly inclined to acknowledge his trainer’s words, gaze already shifting towards the perch he’s spent the past few nights hanging down from.

  Ran isn’t content to leave it at that however, deciding that, for lack of a carrot, he’ll have to opt for the stick, “If you’re not willing to listen to me over your own ego, Golbat, there’ll come a point where we may have to re-evaluate if I’m the right trainer for you.”

  Golbat’s eyes widen in surprise, his eager eyeing of his distant perch entirely forgotten, as he meets Ran’s own stern expression.

  “I don’t want to,” Ran clarifies severely, “But either I’m your trainer all of the time, not just when you feel like listening to me, or I’m better off not being your trainer at all.”

  That, apparently, is the right snare to hit, as Golbat hops forwards on the bed, closing the distance with his trainer, before gently placing the top of his head against Ran’s chest, letting out a soft, keening cry that Ran easily translates as both an apology and an acceptance of his demands. Without hesitation, he runs his hands over the parts of Golbat’s form that aren’t recovering from injury, eager to clarify that a genuine apology is all he needed.

  “Just listen to me and keep your temper, Golbat, that’s all I ask. I don’t expect you to be perfect, alright? We all make mistakes, change is never an instantaneous thing, just show me that you’re trying and try not to get yourself hurt when you don’t need to, alright?” Ran asks, receiving a short and affirmative screech from Golbat.

  “Alright then,” Ran accepts with a smile, before finally speaking the words that he knows Golbat has been eagerly waiting for, “You can get to your perch for now, I’ll let the others out and catch everyone up on the match, alright?”

  Golbat eagerly nods his assent, before doing as instructed and enthusiastically flapping to his perch. Ran observes the movement for a few long seconds, pleased to see that, for all that Golbat’s wing is still tender, it doesn’t actually seem to hinder him to any significant degree for a short flight. With that handled, he taps the rest of his pokéballs in quick succession, letting the rest of the team out.

  Aria immediately heads for the wardrobe, Skorupi and Caesar both start out on the large pokémon bed and Croagunk moves for the nearby desk chair. After a few frantic seconds of movement, with Skorupi now clinging on to Ran’s back, Aria in the wardrobe, Croagunk merrily spinning around on the desk chair and Caesar’s head lounging in his lap even as the majority of his starters’s body remains on the pokémon bed, Ran’s team is ready for him to recount their match against Chuck.

  He does so enthusiastically, smoothly briefing his team on the entirety of the fight, though he does take care to gloss over Golbat’s behavior, not particularly wanting Caesar to get angry on his trainer’s behalf. The team is in an excellent mood by the end of things, though Aria, even as she ‘hums’ a merry tune, does insist on getting a closer look at Golbat’s wing, which he clearly only allows because none of them are capable of refusing Aria.

  As the team listens enthusiastically to Skorupi, who starts with what is clearly his own recounting of his part of the match, Ran’s pokégear buzzes once more. Glancing at it to see Josie’s name, he isn’t particularly proud of just how swiftly he opens the message.

  Josie: Cool, see you there