"Due to a partial lapse in the frontier's safety protocols, some customers experienced damage to personal property. We've marked down select items as compensation."
The attendant delivered this with a completely straight face, pretending with everything he had that he had never seen Akiyama before in his life.
"Huh. Okay."
Akiyama didn't dig into it. He dumped every point in his account into top-grade Energy Cubes.
It never occurred to him to doubt the man's story. Who would run a con over pocket change?
The moment he walked out with his bag bulging, the attendant tore the price sheet down. His eyes were slightly bloodshot.
"Son of a—blood loss. Actual blood loss."
The League subsidy wasn't going to cover this. He was going to be eating the difference himself.
Pocket change.
If he'd known what was going through Akiyama's head, he would have reached for a Poké Ball on the spot.
Akiyama did the math on the walk out. Three months' worth, give or take.
Ever since Ralts had become Kirlia, she'd been eating a lot more, and the cubes did noticeably less for her than they used to. By the time she was a Gardevoir, they'd probably be nothing but a snack.
The Pokémon equivalent of those squeeze-tube treats people bought their cats.
Which was fine. If she liked them, he'd buy them for the rest of his life.
He hauled her up onto his shoulders and carried her back toward the Pokémon Center, wrung out from head to toe.
By the time they got there, Kirlia was yawning wide enough to crack her jaw, swaying on the edge of sleep.
A quick wash later she was in bed with both arms around his and gone before he'd finished pulling the blanket up.
"Night, Kirlia."
"Zzz..."
Steady breathing and some unintelligible mumbling. Good enough.
.....
The next morning, in front of the Rock Gym:
"Closed?" Akiyama frowned.
"That's correct. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience. If you're able, please come back tomorrow."
The same assistant as before. He bowed slightly, and he did look genuinely apologetic about it.
"Yeah. All right."
Akiyama turned around and headed back down the steps with Kirlia.
"One more day of training, then," he said, tipping his head back to look up at her. "We challenge tomorrow."
"Kirl!"
She was more than ready.
Two days of punching Caterpie and kicking Oddish had made her scarily smooth with all of it.
"We're not going to the frontier today, though. Change of scenery."
He had his Energy Cubes. There was no reason to go back—and there was nothing out there that could challenge her anymore.
"Kirl?"
She tilted her head. The park? Somewhere else? She couldn't guess.
Akiyama just smiled and kept it to himself.
At the corner he flagged down one of the Pokémon-drawn carriages and paid the fare with two Berries. The pair of Arcanine in harness accepted them, then eased down onto their bellies, tipping the cart back at an angle so he could climb in.
Their fur stirred in the wind, and it looked unbelievably soft.
He knew what he was looking at, too. Those two had been raised beautifully.
"Of course they have. Jenny family operation."
The whole enterprise had started fifteen or so years ago. The Jenny family had more retired Arcanine than they knew what to do with, so they'd put them to work—cut the cost of feeding and exercising them, gave the city cheap transportation, and made the streets a little safer while they were at it.
Two Berries a ride. You couldn't beat it.
Arcanine were fast. It took no time at all to go from the northeast corner of Bedrock City to the water in the southwest.
The stone architecture thinned out as they went. The ground flattened. The wind picked up an edge.
Akiyama climbed down off the tilted cart and pulled his jacket closed without thinking about it.
March still had teeth.
Behind him the two Arcanine got up and started wandering the block at an easy pace, warming the air a few degrees just by existing. That was what they did between fares. Sure enough, someone waved them down within minutes, and off they went.
He stepped over the guardrail and onto the sand.
The beach was nearly empty. A handful of Slowpoke lay in the fine sand, staring out at nothing.
Duuuh...
Those clear, guileless eyes really did look like they were considering something profound. They weren't. Akiyama had seen the exact same expression on every college student he'd ever met.
"Guess I picked the wrong time," he said, squinting at the water.
This was the channel that ran to Frostvale. In the photos online, the surface was packed shoulder to shoulder with sailboats, and the beach was wall-to-wall bikinis.
He pulled out his phone and checked.
The post was from May. Possibly June.
He'd shown up two months early. No Trainers. Not even any Pokémon.
"Kirl?"
Kirlia scanned the water from her perch on his shoulders and blinked.
There was nothing to fight out here.
Unless she was supposed to battle one of those big dopey things? She knew Slowpoke—Psychic-type, like her. One of the Gardevoir who'd tutored her as a child had covered the whole line.
"Yeah. Wrong time of year," Akiyama admitted.
"No, you're right on time, actually."
He turned. A boy about his own age stood behind him on the sand.
"How's that?"
The kid gave him a look like he was slow. "You're taking the ship to Frostvale, right? There's one leaving day after tomorrow. You can buy tickets at the cabin up the beach."
"Ah." Akiyama nodded slowly. "Good to know."
The boy grabbed his arm like they'd known each other for years and started towing him up the sand. "Come on, I'll show you where it is. I can even get you a discount."
Akiyama let himself be towed. Beat the Gym tomorrow, sail for Frostvale the day after—honestly, that wasn't a bad plan at all.
While he walked, he pulled up everything he knew about the place.
Frostvale City sat on an island in the inland sea, ringed year-round by drifting ice. Somehow, inside that ring, it stayed summer. Professors and research institutes had been arguing about why for decades without producing an answer anybody liked.
Frostvale's Gym was one of the eight major Gyms in the region: Ice-type.
It was also one of the Gyms that fought at full strength. Six on six, and the Leader's team was made up of her genuine aces—nothing like the Rock Gym, where the roster was practically a nursery.
The Rock Gym was one of the eight, too. It was just the one everybody told rookies to start with.
Kirlia had no business stepping into a full-strength Gym, obviously.
But the new Leader in Frostvale—"Minori"—was a special case.
The cabin turned out to be a small wooden building right where the sand met the grass. The boy shoved the door open and yelled inside.
"Dad! Come sell a ticket! This guy's got a Kirlia with him, he's definitely buying!"
Frostvale was a long way off. The tickets were expensive, and the ship that made the run was seriously high-end.
By all rights, at this time of year, that ship shouldn't have been stopping at Bedrock City at all.
Which was when Akiyama finally understood why the kid was being so friendly. He was working on commission.
A moment later, the boy's father came in from the yard behind the cabin.