Not-so-fun fact: My mom was Alyssa’s primary emergency contact. After that? The next person in-line to check up on my best friend was her housekeeper.

  Alyssa’s relationship with her family was… difficult, which sucked, but it did mean that when I called mom and asked what hospital Alyssa was getting treated at, she knew the answer.

  Apparently she was both conscious and the doctors were anticipating a full recovery. Hearing that put a thrill of relief through me, but it also left me with a dilemma.

  On the one hand, it was close to ten at night, when hospital visiting hours ended. We’d parted on difficult terms, and we still hadn’t made up yet. I wasn’t honestly sure we were likely to ever reconcile, at this point. Seeing me might add stress onto an already difficult day, especially while she was still convalescing from whatever had put her in the hospital in the first place.

  On the other hand, my best friend was hurt.

  I only stopped to grab a coat, my Pokégear, and my partners’ balls.

  -

  I tried to explain where we were going and why to my Pokémon while on the way. I couldn’t be sure how much they were understanding through their balls, but it felt important that I try to convey some bit of the relationship Alyssa and I shared.

  “We first met back in primary school, in first grade. We both knew we wanted to be battle trainers. I mean, basically everyone wanted to be battle trainers in primary school, but we knew before everyone else. And we meant it.”

  I couldn’t place an exact moment when we’d first run into each other. It was probably in class, but it was impossible to say for sure. “She was a total teacher’s Norm…” I trailed off, my mind catching up with what I was saying, “I mean, she was super studious, and was always sucking up to our teacher.” I could see it now, in my mind’s eye. Alyssa, at the front of the classroom, answering a question because she'd gotten her hand up first, the vision so familiar because I’d seen it so frequently. Halfway through any given school year, teachers would just stop calling on the brunette girl, until she was the literal last resort.

  “She really rubbed me the wrong way,” a chuckle came to my lips, unbidden. “Mostly because I was always trying to do the same, and she was getting in the way,” I had plenty of memories of us competing for our hapless first-grade teacher’s attention. And the second-grade teacher’s. And the third. We’d both figured out the same general equation for success.

  Be the best student, get into the best dojos, be the best battle trainer.

  “We were competitive. Academics, sports, games, we both wanted to stand out, and we both felt like the other was stealing the spotlight,” I felt my knights’ ball twitch in my hands. That was a feeling they understood, competitiveness. “So for the first three years, we were like Meowths and Herdiers, just constantly fighting.”

  It was easy to be nostalgic about it now, four years later, but at the time, I’d hated Alyssa. Always smug, always self-righteous.

  Always right.

  Maybe that was part of why my rage at her had come up so easily, a couple of months ago. The path was well-trodden, worn down by years of ground teeth and narrowed eyes.

  Remembering our blowup had me wincing in anticipation of our upcoming meeting, if I was even able to get in to see her. My feet didn’t stop, though. She was my best friend.

  Yesterday, I had almost died. Today, Alyssa might have barely avoided the same, considering the way people were talking on the news. A week ago, it felt like I had all the time in the world to apologize. Now, I was acutely aware that ‘the rest of our lives’ didn’t necessarily mean forever.

  So I kept trudging on, walking underneath the dark, autumn sky. Techne wasn’t like Neos, this city did sleep, and even as early as nine PM, the streets were frighteningly bare. A few people walking. A couple of Pokémon darting to and fro. A singular car, easing slowly down the street.

  All indeterminate shapes under the dim streetlights. I’d been out this late before, plenty of times, really, but for some reason, it felt different today. The shadows looked just a little bit longer, the alleys a bit darker. The world a bit less safe.

  Almost unconsciously, my feet picked up their pace, and I restarted my whispered, one-sided conversation with my partners. “We didn’t start getting along until halfway through fourth grade. Alyssa had just been told that— well— she got some bad news from her parents, and she left her house in a hurry. It was raining that day, really bad actually, and I ran into her by chance.”

  I felt the ball twitch in my hands again. Somehow, I got a sense of skepticism. “It wasn’t that unlikely,” I protested, “she actually lived really close to us back then. Like, less than four blocks,” another unbidden memory, of my then-nemesis, soaked to the bone and looking more like a feral Glameow than a girl. Sobbing and morbid curiosity had drawn me off the street and into an alley, where I was confronted with a situation I found myself wholly unequipped for.

  Alyssa was the enemy, but an honorable battler doesn’t kick their foes when they’re down, so I’d tried to be gentle, to softly coax her out of the rain. I’d almost gotten my head chewed off for my trouble.

  My next resort had been shouting. That of course, got her shouting back, which was better than crying, at least. I couldn’t say today exactly what our screaming match had entailed, but it had eventually devolved into violence, the two of us rolling around in the muddy alley, scratching skin and pulling hair.

  Eventually, we were both spent, lying on our backs, staring up at the pouring rain. I do remember what I’d asked then: “Do you want to come take a bath at my place?”

  Her situation wasn’t very clear to me, but I had gotten that she couldn’t go home, and as much as I hated her, as much as she was just the worst, there was no way I could just leave the short brunette out there in that awful downpour.

  So we both trudged back to my family’s apartment, dark and empty that evening, like most evenings. I told Alyssa about how busy my parents were, how they didn’t usually get home until ten, or later, and how I didn’t hold it against them, but some nights I had a hard time falling asleep in the empty apartment. My nemesis talked in turn, about her own family, the stifling expectations they placed on her, and the absurd intentions they had for her future.

  I thought eight-year olds being engaged to people multiple times their age was the sort of thing that only showed up in Galarian period dramas. I was unhappy to discover that I was wrong. I couldn’t let her go back to her family’s mansion after hearing that. Not that she had any intention of returning herself. So we worked something out.

  It was a testament to something, I’m not sure what, that I was able to shelter Alyssa in our family’s apartment for almost a week before my parents figured out anything was amiss.

  My mom was livid when she discovered the brunette girl living out of my room. The words kidnapped and city-security got thrown around a lot.

  She was even more upset when she found out why Alyssa refused to return home.

  I think that was the first time I realized that my mom was more than just my mother. When she spoke with Alyssa, when she heard what was happening at the Madaka mansion, when she called all of her relatives and mobilized them, none of that was Ella Alvida. It was all Nurse Joy.

  I don’t know exactly what deal my mom and Alyssa worked out with the latter’s parents, but she moved out of their mansion, ironically settling in a place further from where my family lived, with only a housekeeper to watch out for her, as a guardian for legal purposes.

  And from that week on, Alyssa and I were best friends. All the things I’d hated about her were equally easy to admire, when viewed from another light, and they always say that hatred was the closest thing to love.

  The ball in my hand twitched, and I realized that I’d lost the thread in my musings. “Sorry, I got distracted,” I told my partners.“ I guess long story short, we spent a week together, found out that we had more in common than things that set us apart. And once we both understood where the other was coming from, I guess it was easier to see each other as rivals, instead of enemies.”

  The ball stilled, and I had to wonder what my knights were thinking about. Maybe the first rough couple of weeks we spent together? When we were still figuring out how to make our partnership work. Or maybe they were reconciling my description of my best friend with the fiery battle trainer who had saved us a couple of months ago.

  Or maybe I was off base entirely. I wished I could have them out with me, but the street was dark, and hard to navigate, and I didn’t want to risk anyone getting lost. Maybe I’d be able to release them at the hospital.

  I hoped so. I needed the moral support.

  -

  I found mom waiting for me in the lobby at the hospital. She was busy, filling out some sort of paperwork covered in swirls of black ink. She dropped it all, however, when she saw me. I only had a moment of warning before sped over and wrapped me up in a hug. Caught off guard, it took me a few moments to return the embrace. “Mom? What’s wrong?”

  She took a breath, and then pulled back, resting her arms atop my shoulders and looking me up and down. “Nothing, just— happy you’re alright.”

  I felt a thrill of guilt run through me. Did she know how much danger I’d been in yesterday? How close to disaster?

  “Of course I’m alright,” I tried weakly to play it off, “what could have happen to me?”

  “I know sweetie, but danger can sneak up on you. Look what happened to Alyssa! A perfectly normal battle turned into an ER visit.”

  I grabbed onto the potential topic change like a lifeline. “Speaking of which, what happened to Alyssa? The article didn’t say anything other than that she’d been in intensive care. And why didn’t you tell me she’d been hurt?”

  “I didn’t want to worry you when things were still uncertain,” she explained, gently. “And it was already pretty late when the surgery was over, so I figured it’d be better to tell you tomorrow.”

  “Surgery!” I was still a bit sore that mom hadn’t told me, and her reasons weren’t doing much to placate me, but that part of me was quiet in the face of that dire news. “Is she okay? You said she’s awake? Can I see her?”

  “Visiting hours aren’t over yet, so you should be able to. She’s in room 109. Make sure you find a nurse and ask them to check with her first though.”

  I nodded, “Okay. I can do that.”

  -

  “Can you at least ask her if she wants to see me? Just until visiting hours are over.”

  The nurse barred my way, her expression no-nonsense. “It’s late, and she needs her rest. You can come back tomorrow.”

  I winced. I was probably going to be busy until late in the evening again tomorrow, training with Drake. He’d understand if we left late in the morning so I could see Alyssa, right?

  I wasn’t too sure.

  “Please, I might not get a chance to come back tomorrow. Are you sure I can’t go see her?”

  The nurse seemed like she was about to say something else, but she was interrupted by a scratchy voice from inside the nearby hospital room. “Fe?”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  We both stilled, and then the nurse levered a dramatic sigh. “Well, I suppose that’s you.”

  I nodded quietly, and she stifled a groan. “Alright then, but just for the next half-hour, okay?”

  I nodded eagerly. “Thirty minutes. Got it.”

  I turned away from the nurse, facing the door to my best friend’s hospital room. Or former-best friend. I had the distinct feeling that whether or not the suffix got added depended purely on my actions here.

  I took a deep breath, and then poked my head around the corner. I tried to smile, to think of something quippy to say, but seeing my best friend laid out in a hospital bed, gaunt and pale like a sheet, knocked any humor out of my head. I stood awkwardly for a moment, before moving to stand in the doorway.

  I tried and failed a couple of times to find my words, caught under Alyssa's questioning eyes and her partners' unamused stare. Eventually, the only thing I was left with was a pathetic, "hey."

  My response was met with stunned silence by trainer and Pikachu alike, for a few moments at least, until my best friend lost all control, spasming in her bed as peals of laughter came out of her like notes from an out-of-tune horn. Not chuckles, not giggles, full-on, belly-laughter. The sort a skilled comedian can command from a crowd.

  I stood there, momentarily stunned. Alyssa hadn’t laughed like this in— ever, actually, as far as I could remember. I felt my face coloring, as Pikachu looked confusedly from me, to her partner, and then back to me again.

  “What?” I asked, indignantly, fighting to keep a pout off of my face. I was thirteen already. Teenagers don’t pout.

  “Nothing, the brunette finally got out after a few more laughs. “It’s just…” she struggled to say between chuckles, “just that, after all this time, the best you could offer was, ‘hey?’”

  My blushing deepened, as embarrassment crystalized into full-on mortification. She was right. I could do better than ‘Hey.’

  “I’m sorry,” my voice was loud, enough to make sure Alyssa could hear me over her fading chuckles. “You were just trying to help me, and I took out my frustration on you.” The words were hard to get out, but weeks of envisioning this moment and practicing these lines helped me muster up the courage to continue. “I shouldn’t have blown up at you like that. I hope you can forgive me.”

  The brunette girl quieted down, her expression morphing from mirthful to considering. She stared for a few seconds, and a few rapidly became five, and then ten. I felt myself start to squirm under the combined gazes of her and her partner, so I distracted myself looking at my best friend’s hospital room.

  The flowery wallpaper and warm lighting belied the antiseptic smell and cold metal edges of Alyssa’s hospital bed. Whirring machines beeped and hummed, tucked against one corner of the room, and a saline drip I hadn’t noticed earlier stood against one wall, currently not in use, but with an empty bag hanging from the metal pole. There was one chair near the hospital bed, and a couple more pressed up against one wall opposite the door. Their backs were to a curtained window, which was in turn next to a suspended tv, the device on but muted, scenes of pastoral beauty flashing by as some sort of tourism program played.

  “Fe,” my best friend’s voice brought my attention back to her recumbent form. Her face looked— guilty, to my utter shock. “I’m sorry too. I was patronizing, and I can see why it set you off.”

  I shook my head. “No, no I had my head up my own ass. I was so caught up with my misery, I wasn’t worrying about my partners, like you said, or my safety. You were just watching out for me.”

  “I was,” Alyssa nodded, “But also… I thought…” she trailed off. Looking down at her partner, who seemed to be struggling to follow our conversation. When she looked up, her expression was past contrite and into the realm of shame. “I was falling into the same trap as other people. I thought, on some level, that just because you have synergy sickness, you’re weak. That it was wrong for you to defend your honor, and your partners’.”

  The admission was like a slap in the face. I felt my temper rising, my gorge returning, but Alyssa’s downcast gaze brought my attention down to her neck, where a flash of silver caught my eye. My best friend was worrying the thunderbolt charm on her necklace, rubbing it habitually with one of her thumbs. There was a slight discoloration on the charm, from tarnishing, showing exactly where my best friend ran her finger down its side.

  I’d gotten her that charm, had picked it out and presented it on her twelfth birthday, after she’d confided in me that she was hoping to partner with an Electric-type. A good luck charm for my best friend.

  A rush of shame filled me to match Alyssa, as I remembered the words I’d spoken to her that day. “I still shouldn’t have acted like that. Have said those things to you.”

  Alyssa looked up, and while her smile was wan, her eyes were hopeful. “I’ll forgive you, if you forgive me,” she said, quietly. “We were both stupid.”

  “Of course I forgive you,” I said, as I went closer to the bed. “Besides, we might have both been stupid, but I was also mean, which is worse.”

  Alyssa snorted. “Yeah? Well I was stupid and haughty, so really, I was the worst.”

  I stopped by her bedside, pulling up the empty chair. “But I was making personal attacks, which makes me the worst.”

  “Maybe, but I was being all pitying, which makes me the worst,” she replied.

  We looked at each other for a moment as we both puffed up, and after a second, the moment popped into gales of uproarious laughter that left a very confused Pikachu looking between us like we were the two strangest people in the world. And I knew, everything was going to be okay.

  -

  Somehow, thirty minutes just isn’t that long when you have so much to catch on.

  “Pikachu here was a real stinker at first.”

  “Pika, Piiiikaaaaa!”

  “Well you were. Master Raul had so much trouble finding a partner for her before I came along.”

  “Did you guys have some sort of instant connection?”

  “Hah! Hardly. It took us weeks to work things out. Of course now, we’re partners, to the end.”

  “Pikachu.”

  “She doesn’t sound so sure.”

  “Like I said, a stinker.”

  “Oh, like my knights.”

  “Falinks!” “Link!” “Fa!” “FalFalinks!” “Links!”

  -

  “A ranger, really?”

  “Yeah. It’s an important job. Is there something wrong with the rangers?”

  “No, of course not. It just… doesn’t really seem very you, that’s all.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing, nothing. It’s just… you don’t really do great with authority, Fe.

  “Hey! I love authority!”

  “You love having authority.”

  “...”

  -

  “Twenty-seven and one? Damn, you were so close to the record. Just four more wins.”

  “I was wondering about that. Thought maybe some betting website or something sicced that guy on me.”

  “Killian right? What a bastard. Washes out trying to make it into the Red league, just to try this sort of shit.”

  “He made it to the top of Blue? He didn’t seem that strong.”

  “Well he did wash out, like I said. Plus, you and Pikachu are just ridiculous.”

  “I guess we’re pretty good.”

  “Sure.”

  “...”

  “ Hey, is there any chance that it wasn’t a betting website or anything. Could it have been— you know.”

  “... I thought about it, but I don’t think so. Not because I don’t think they’re capable of it. It’s just not the way my father would go about it.”

  “Right. Okay. That makes sense.”

  -

  “Drake, the Hoenn champion, is helping you train?”

  “Former now, apparently. Also, how the hell do you know that?”

  “Huh, I hadn’t heard. And of course I know of him. He was a champion, Fe. That’s sort of a big deal?”

  “Yeah, of another region.”

  “I can name a bunch of foreign champions. Cynthia in Sinnoh. Mustard in Galar. Alder in Unova. This is like, common knowledge, Fe.”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s not.”

  “And I bet it is!”

  “No way!”

  “Well let’s ask someone!”

  “Hey, don’t hit the nurse call! It’s getting close to ten, she might kick me out!”

  -

  “You can’t synergize for a whole week? That sucks.”

  “Yeah. At least Pikachu can do some conditioning, but it’ll suck not getting to battle for a whole week.”

  “...”

  “That’s your plotting face. What are you thinking, Fe.”

  “Well, like I said, Drake is training me right now, and I bet if I asked, he’d let Pikachu train with us too, as long as she was willing to listen to directions.”

  “Wait, really? Are you sure?”

  “Pretty sure. Actually, I think it’d probably be a big help.”

  “That’d be great, Fe. Really great. And of course Pikachu would listen to you, right Pikachu?”

  “...Pik.”

  “How sure of that are you again? I don’t want to get shocked.”

  -

  “No way, a second partner!?”

  “Yeah, here, let's see if she wants to introduce herself.”

  *Snap, crackle, hiss.*

  “This is Mana. She’s a bit shy. Mana, you probably heard already, but this is Alyssa, my best friend. Alyssa, this is Mana, my newest partner.”

  “She’s. So. CUTE!”

  “Washi, wash!”

  “Cool it with the grabby hands! You’re freaking her out.”

  “Sorry, but she’s just so adorable! Where’d you find this cutie?”

  “In a kelp field, out in international waters. We just met yesterday, actually. It was sort of a whole thing.”

  -

  The clock said it was past ten, but I hadn’t been kicked out yet. We both felt the press of the clock, but we tried not to let it bother us as we worked to reconnect, using whatever time we had left for all it was worth.

  “I missed your birthday.”

  “It’s not a big deal,” I replied with a straight-face. I was lying. I’d turned thirteen six weeks ago, with only the barest of fanfare. My parents were both busy with work on the day itself. They’d offered to clear some time on the weekend so we could go out to dinner, but I’d told them not to bother. At least my knights had helped me celebrate.

  But they didn’t get what it meant. I was finally a teenager. That meant I was basically an adult, and it felt like no one cared. At least Alyssa remembered.

  “Yours is in a couple of months still, right? We can make up for it then,” I told her with as much cheer as I could.

  My best friend gave me a look that warned me that my wan smile wasn’t fooling her, but I powered on with the expression, masquerading as if it were stuck on my face.

  We were both stubborn, but only one of us was exhausted from a day spent almost dying. I was already well-recovered from my near-death ordeal. Alyssa would still need some time to get better from hers, so she let me off with a sigh.

  “Sounds good. I’m looking forward to it.”

  "And who knows? By then, you might be in the Green League,” I said. "Then we'll really have something to celebrate. Youngest person to make it out of juniors and into the Primary Leagues, ever."

  "Really? I could swear other first years have made Green in the Winter tournament before." Alyssa replied, with a bit of confusion.

  “Yeah, but your birthday is June 29th. It’s just before the age cutoff for school years, so you’re always the youngest person in our grade. No one else is going to still be twelve during the promotion tourney.”

  “Oh. I guess I never really thought about that.”

  “Yeah. Since someone sabotaged your other chance at a record, you’ve gotta w-”

  I was cut off from finishing my sentence by the door to Alyssa’s hospital room clacking open. “Okay, visiting hours are now over,” the nurse informed us primly, from the corridor.

  Apparently our time was up. I turned to Alyssa, who held up her arms expectantly. I obliged her with a quick hug, and returned my partners after they offered their own goodbyes.

  “Like I said, listen to Fe. I know your introduction was rocky, but she’s my best friend, and I’m sure she can help you get stronger while I’m laid up,” Alyssa instructed her partner.

  Pikachu still seemed doubtful, but the spunky yellow mouse accepted being returned to her ball.

  My best friend handed me her partner, and I could see the reluctance on her face at the prospect of parting with her. “We’ll visit you all this week,” I promised her, “as much as we can.”

  “You’d better,” she replied, totally serious. “I mean it, Fe. There’s so much lost time to make up for.”

  I nodded, equally solemn, and then left the room before the nurse removed me bodily. That eventuality seemed alarmingly imminent, so I scurried away down the corridor, meeting back up with mom in the lobby.

  As we walked back home, I offered her a sanitized rendition of my training thus far with Drake, and repeatedly promised her that I would be careful.

  It was an easy promise to make. Hopefully, it would be just as easy to keep.