Slateport City. The last time Luvia saw it was years ago. She couldn’t quite remember how old she’d been – maybe seven or eight, but she remembered the feeling. It had felt like a different planet.

  Seeing the mainland city life on TV and actually being in a mainland city were entirely different things. You could never understand the difference until you were there yourself.

  Buildings were massive, every road was cobbled or tarmacked, and everywhere you turned something was happening. So many people, so many pokémon, so many faces. It made Luvia dizzy, but she loved it.

  It was crazy to her that this was just another day for these city-folk. They got to see this every day.

  “Look over there, girls,” Mrs. Juneworth said, pointing at some man in the distance juggling pokéballs. A small and green bushy ape-like pokémon was next to him juggling mini-pokéballs of its own.

  “What is that pokémon?” said Luvia.

  “It looks like a little elf!” Neela pulled the oval-shaped sunglasses from her eyes to get a better look.

  “That’s a Pansage,” Mr. Juneworth said after a glance. “They tried to introduce them into the wild from abroad, but it didn’t go so well. They weren’t able to compete with the local pokémon for food, and those leaves you see on its head are natural painkillers. Many of them got poached off before they could even settle in.”

  “Oh… That’s sad.” The slight smile on Luvia’s face faded. “Why would people do that?”

  “Cause they’re bastards, that’s why,” Neela said gloomily.

  Her father and Nana chuckled, but Mrs. Juneworth gave a disapproving grunt. “Neela, don’t swear in public.”

  “They are, Mom,” the eldest daughter insisted. “How can you wipe out a species for a stupid headache? Can’t they be like normal people and take a pill?”

  That made Mr. Juneworth chuckle harder. “They don’t normally kill them, Neela, they capture and traffic them. Poachers believe that nothing compares to the medicine freshly plucked directly from the pokémon, that’s why they go through all the trouble.”

  “Ugh.”

  Luvia had a hand in her pocket, lightly clasping Mudkip’s pokéball. The little one had been rescued from an abandoned wild litter according to her father. Why Mudkip’s mother had left them was a mystery, but Mr. Juneworth believed that something had happened to her. Whether it was a human or a pokémon, he could not begin to guess.

  Ziggy, Bincy and Mudkip were all in their balls. They’d been put in before leaving the ship after Mr. Juneworth suggested it. Bincy was used to cities and knew how to behave, but she had fallen asleep at the ship and there had been no reason to wake her.

  Older memories of Slateport began trickling through Luvia’s mind. It was even better than she remembered.

  Some sort of upbeat classical music rang through the cobbled streets along with the frequent squawk of Wingull and whistles of Taillow as they flew and zipped all over the place. Big white trucks were parked along the edges of the streets, set up as temporary shops and food stalls that sold everything from ice cream to barbequed meats and berries that filled the air with tasty scents.

  Mr. Juneworth guided them from the bustling port area deeper into the city at slow and comfortable pace.

  “The show starts at 8 o’clock in the evening,” he said. “We’ll check into the apartment now, then you can go as wild as you want until then.”

  “You bet we will!” said Neela.

  Luvia was too busy drinking everything in with her eyes. She saw them – trainers, walking around with backpacks and pokéballs latched to their waists that seemed to glare back at you. Some of them with pokémon latched on their shoulders or following closely behind that she had never even seen on TV.

  Mudkip would fit right in. She doubted her pokémon would be ogled in the city as it had back at the island.

  Eventually, they arrived at a tram station and boarded one of the big carriages that moved along rail-tracks winding through the city’s widest streets.

  “When are we moving here!” Luvia said after spending the last ten minutes with her eyes glued to the tram’s window.

  Her mother hummed in agreement immediately. “You’re going to show us the best neighborhoods in the city.”

  “The coast-side wasn’t too bad,” noted Nana. “When we move, it should be in direct line of our island.”

  “Guys…” Mr. Juneworth looked about ready to fold.

  “Hey! Is that a Pokémon Center?” Neela said, sitting across from Luvia.

  Everyone’s eyes turned to the window, where a large hexagonal building with a bright red pyramid roof stood several stories tall.

  There were several palm trees lined across the path to its entrance, where groups of people with their pokémon sat at benched tables or gathered around two lengthy noticeboards. The Juneworths watched them as the tram moved along its path from several dozen yards away.

  “Are those job boards?!” Luvia said in shock. There were only a few trainer job boards on Clearcloud Island, but they were tiny, door-sized things. These ones looked twice the length of the longest chalkboards at her school.

  “Yes, and yes,” her father replied. “You’ll be careful if you walk past one from now on, Luvy. If trainers see you with Mudkip, they’ll approach you just like that boy at the ship did.”

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  Neela smiled mischievously for some reason. Luvia felt prickly all over.

  In all her years back home with Ziggy, she had never been challenged to a pokémon battle. Not really. A few playful fights with some kids at school when Ziggy was very young. A few times against a wild, irritated Wurmple, or a territorial Masquerain, but not against an actual trainer.

  “What if I just say no?” she asked her father.

  Nana gave a grunt of approval and nodded. “As you should, girlie. Don’t let anybody push you around.”

  Her father smiled but didn’t share the same opinion. “It’s a different culture out here – you know that. You can decline all you want, but you’ll be teased for it sooner or later, especially by younger kids. At your age, trainers in the mainland have already challenged a gym or two. If you’re okay with that sort of thing, then you’re fine…”

  His smile grew as he studied his daughter’s face. “But I know you, Luvy. You’ll turn from a sweet girl into a spitting viper under that kind of pressure.” He clawed his fingers and bared his teeth like a hissing Skitty.

  As Luvia began to blush, her mother and Nana chuckled – evidently in agreement.

  “That’s why I told her to do something with Mudkipuh!” Neela exclaimed. “She was like, ‘Whadaya mean, sis???’ – Tell her dad.”

  Luvia glared at her sister. “You didn’t make any sense. You still don’t.”

  Neela ignored the comment, turning back to her father.

  “I told her to get into shows, coordination, contests, anything. Something!”

  Luvia’s face dropped into a deadpan expression. “You literally just said ‘something’ – as if that helps.”

  Their mother seemed to like where this was going. “Hmmm! I could see it, Luvy… You would make a good coordinator… Not saying that you are, but you have that bossy look about you.”

  Luvia’s elbows fell to the table as she covered her face with both hands.

  “Leave her be,” said Nana. “You’re going to make the girl cry.”

  Luvia fumed silently, still covering her face. I’m not even close to crying, Nana!

  The tram took them all the way past the city’s main hub where they could truly appreciate the fact that they were in one of the region’s major cities, and not on some rural island.

  There were so many cars weaving through the roads, honking horns, and traffic lights at every junction. Buildings with massive glass windows which you could see people through, sat at desks or milling about on the inside.

  Bird pokémon were doing what they do best – conquering the air and adding their cries to the cacophony of the city noise.

  It seemed like chaos at first glance or if you weren’t paying attention, but Luvia was starting to feel the rhythm of the place. It was like the beat of the drums during a traditional island dance called the Ole’ol. Unpredictable but steady. It was organized chaos.

  By the time they reached their apartment, Luvia’s head was buzzing slightly from the overload of sights and sounds. By the looks of it, she wasn’t the only one that wanted a break.

  Mr. Juneworth had rented an entire apartment suite on the 2nd floor of a residential building normally booked for short stays. It was cramped compared to their house back at Clearcloud, with a small kitchen and tiny shower-only bathrooms in each of its three bedrooms.

  The bedrooms themselves were okay considering they’d only be staying a night. There was a master bedroom for her parents, one with two double-sized beds set two meters apart, and another with a single queen-sized bed.

  Luvia thought she’d have to share the twin bedroom with Nana – which she didn’t mind. Nana could snore at times, but she never bugged Luvia to sleep when she wasn’t tired.

  “You take the queen bed, Luvy,” Neela said, seriously out of character. “I’m going to share with Nanaaa.” She fell on Nana as she said that, mushing her cheek against her grandmother’s in a tight hug.

  “Why?” Luvia was surprised. The Neela she knew would have snatched up the queen room in a heartbeat. She had the most luggage too, after all.

  “I’ll have my own, lonely room when I move in with Dad anyway,” she replied. “I want to chat with Nana all night tonight.”

  “We’ll do no such thing, girl!” Nana said with a laugh. “I’m already feeling brittle as a brick from all that moving. After the show, I’ll sleep like a baby.”

  Hearing Neela’s reason bummed Luvia slightly, but it made sense. They’d be living apart in a couple days’ time. If she could be nice to both her sister and Nana with one gesture, then…

  “Okay,” agreed Luvia, shifting her small backpack in front of herself. She felt for Mudkip’s pokéball on one of its smaller zip pockets. “I’m gonna shower! You want to go out soon, sis?”

  Neela gave Nana a kiss on the cheek and grabbed a hold of her travel suitcase’s handle. “Let’s see who’s ready first!”

  Luvia shot to the queen room and the first thing she did was let Mudkip out.

  “Maahd!”

  She gave it a rub on the back and giggled. “Come Mudkip, let’s get some water on your skin, right?”

  “Meehd?”

  Luvia laughed at how much Mudkip’s tone had sounded like a question. She picked the hefty little one up and headed to the shower.

  She ran the water cold first and began to undress, suddenly feeling slightly awkward and self-aware.

  She won’t care. She won’t even notice. Luvia thought to herself. The last time she had been in the nude with someone had been as a child, with her elementary school friends during mid-summer break where they all dared each other to jump naked into a beachside lagoon.

  Now, she’d even go red if her older sister saw her naked. The shyness seemed to be a one-way thing. A Luvia thing. Neela, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care much if the reverse happened. Never locked the bathroom door while she was in it. She’d just laugh about it while Luvia covered her eyes, and tease her with things like, “You know I used to change your pee-drenched nappies, right? And let’s not talk about the poo -”

  Luvia would always slam the door before she could finish.

  Mudkip wasn’t making it any easier on her. The little one, observant as it was, had her small beady eyes fixed on Luvia as the girl peeled her clothes off.

  “Get in the shower, Mudkip,” Luvia said, beginning to smile shyly when she was down to her underwear and camisole.

  “Maahd…”

  Luvia giggled and lifted the Mudkip, plopping her under the cool water of the running shower, and the little one’s tail fin vibrated happily.

  Luvia took the rest of her clothes off and stepped in quickly, trying not to think too much about it.

  She took a few sharp breaths and put her face under the cold water.

  Starting cold and ending hot was the best way to shower. Only hot made her feel sleepy and lazy. Only cold felt like punishment. Doing both was just right.

  She could feel Mudkip brushing up against her legs. The little one was soft for the most part, but those pokey orange gills on its cheeks had a slight roughness to them – a bit like sandpaper. Its tail fin too, was thin and firm, and it could hit like a slap if anything was close to it when the little one shook its tail.

  As soon as Luvia adjusted and felt her breath slow under the cold shower, she turned the knob to let the hot water through.

  Mudkip looked up at her a couple of times, but if Luvia being naked meant anything to the little one, it didn’t show it.

  “You know what,” said Luvia, sighing as the warming water sent pleasant relaxation through her body, “I’ve been thinking about what name I’ll give you… You want a name, right?”

  Mudkip didn’t reply, instead just sat down by Luvia’s feet as the hot water began to steam inside the tiny bathroom. Its tail fin vibrated slowly, and Luvia leaned down to check.

  “Is it too hot?”

  “Mhhheeeed…”

  Mudkip’s eyes were half closed, corners of its wide little mouth almost upturned in what looked like a smile. It made Luvia chuckle.

  “Hey, don’t fall asleep,” she said, poking at one of its plump paws. “Or you won’t get to see the city.”

  Mudkip was in her own world at the moment. Luvia rose back up and let the heat wash through her as her mind continued to go over possible names for her one and only pokémon.

  Ote'a TIRUVI, if anyone cares.