"Oh, I know that one—that's the Supernatural Group's auto-deploy premium model, right?" Reika's eyes lit up.
Akiyama nodded.
"I almost bought one. They say the inside is basically a little apartment. Then I saw the price and walked away."
While she talked she let Pikachu out, hauled her own backpack up off the ground, and pulled a blue tent from it.
Pikachu clearly knew the drill. The two of them had it staked and standing in under a minute, and only when it was fully open did Akiyama see the print on the fabric—a field of stars, with a handful of butterflies in colors that had no business being on a butterfly.
"Same company," Reika said. "This one's the Starfield Duskmoth."
Then out came the pots and pans, and she had a fire going before the last of the light was gone.
She was so efficient about it that Akiyama made the shameless executive decision to mooch. His entire contribution was a stack of disposable bowls and chopsticks.
And then he watched her produce several packs of instant noodles.
"Huh. There's a Miki logo on this bag too. That's why the name sounded familiar." She got the water going and handed him the wrapper.
Akiyama took it and laughed, a little weakly. "Total coincidence."
"Yeah?"
Reika went back to stirring the pot and thought nothing more of it.
The noodles were, of course, his. Something he'd cooked up years ago that had grown into a modest, unremarkable slice of the Miki Group's business portfolio.
Small world.
"Mostly it's that I still can't cook," Reika said. "So we make do tonight. Next time I see you, I'll feed you something real, promise."
She accepted the disposable bowl and chopsticks he offered.
"This is fine. Better than fine." Akiyama didn't have a complaint in him.
He could cook, actually—very well. Tonight he just wanted something easy.
Then he tossed a Poké Ball and let Kadabra out.
"Whoa, a Kadabra. You don't see those a lot." Reika's attention snapped right to him. Then she handed Akiyama a steaming bowl.
He passed it straight to Gardevoir.
Reika caught on and ladled another. That one ended up in Kadabra's hands.
"It's food. You can eat it." Akiyama paused. "Do you know how chopsticks work?"
Kadabra considered the question. I can learn. Thank you.
"Don't thank me. We're family now." Akiyama took his own bowl from Reika and gave a slow demonstration.
Kadabra watched for maybe four seconds and had it. His spoon floated off to hover beside him, unneeded.
"Figures. High-intelligence Pokémon." Reika filled a bowl for Pikachu, then finally one for herself, and dropped onto the dirt without a second thought about her clothes.
Dinner.
Akiyama sat down beside her.
The smell of it spread out into the trees.
When they were done, nobody had to wash anything. The bowls and chopsticks went into a special bag and the bag went into a shallow hole, where it would break down on its own inside of a week.
The Supernatural Group really did think of everything.
While Reika scrubbed out the pot, Akiyama crouched down and held a bottle of milk out to Pikachu.
"Pika?" Pikachu blinked at him.
"For you. You fought great today."
"Pika!"
The corner of Pikachu's mouth curled up. He took the bottle in both little hands, hugged it to his chest, and got to work.
"Yours." Akiyama passed one to Kadabra.
Kadabra took it with a nod. Thank you.
Akiyama heard it echo somewhere behind his ribs and shook his head, smiling.
"And obviously I didn't forget you." He walked over to Gardevoir, reached way up to pat her head, and put a bottle in her hands.
By the time everyone was full, night had come all the way down. The sun was gone and the sky had filled in with stars.
Perfect weather for it.
They lay back in the grass and looked up. The breeze slid in under their collars, and the temperature was exactly right.
Kadabra made an honest effort to belong to the moment, lying down with the rest of them, his heavy tail folded at an awkward angle underneath him.
Is this how bonds form? he wondered, and had no idea.
"Tomorrow's going to be a nice day." Reika stretched.
"Good traveling weather," Akiyama agreed.
Something occurred to him. He dug the half-empty box of Energy Cubes out of his backpack.
The instant he opened it, Gardevoir's attention locked on. She helped herself to a few without being asked.
Kadabra drifted closer, drawn in the same direction.
Akiyama tilted the box his way.
Several cubes lifted out of it and floated over.
Better than the ones off the ground, Kadabra thought.
Thank you.
"You've got to stop that," Akiyama said, and patted his enormous tail while Kadabra sat there looking mildly scandalized.
"Those are the ones I knocked out of your hands, huh." Reika glanced over. "I've heard of those."
Akiyama nodded.
"They're crazy expensive. You must be loaded, Akiyama." She sounded a little envious.
"Family's got a little money."
"A little?"
"A little. I'm honestly careful about what I spend." He said it without so much as a change in his heart rate.
He closed the box, put it away, and lay back to do arithmetic.
A Kirlia could stretch that box three months. A Gardevoir, maybe six weeks. Add Kadabra to the equation and he was looking at two weeks, tops.
So: back to Bedrock City inside two weeks.
Greenlight City was closest, but Greenlight was Greenlight—they didn't usually stock Energy Cubes for those types. Ironfist City was a better bet. Greenlight was a nightmare to travel out of, though. Ironfist sat west of it, and further west from there was Bedrock.
Reika was doing math of her own, quietly pricing out both the Energy Cubes and that Max Potion.
That's so much money. How am I supposed to pay him back?
She hadn't seriously believed one battle would settle it. Losing a wild battle usually cost you a hundred bucks, if that.
And she genuinely didn't have much. If she did, she wouldn't be eating discount instant noodles. Put her on the market and she'd fetch less than a single Larvesta.
Wow. I've made myself laugh.
That was when the sky in the distance turned green.
Reika propped herself up on an elbow, staring.
"Look at that. That's the Mother Tree—in Greenlight City." She pointed.
"I'd heard about it. Didn't think you could see it from all the way out here." Akiyama sat up too.
That was the thing about Greenlight City.
It had been built out in the wild with no real transportation to speak of, and yet tourism there thrived, entirely because of the tree at its center. A single colossal trunk rose out of the middle of the city, its canopy shading more than half of it, and at night the whole thing glowed green.
That's where the name came from.
And along with the light, it released nutrients—feeding the land and every Bug-type in it.
Bug-type paradise.
"That's where I came from," Reika said, remembering. "Seeing it up close at night is unreal."
"So you've already got the Bug Gym badge?"
"Yep!"
She pulled out her badge case. Three badges sat inside: the Rock Badge from Bedrock City, the Twin Fist Badge from the Fighting Gym in Ironfist City, and the Butterfly Badge from Greenlight.
"I started my challenge in Bedrock, went out to Ironfist, then heard there was a Larvesta sighting back in Bedrock, so I doubled back—which is when I ran into you. Literally."
The Butterfly Badge had been her last one, and honestly the easiest.
"Bedrock was my first Gym too," Akiyama said. "I got on a boat headed for Frostvale City, ran into some trouble, and ended up here. Now I'm going to Greenlight, then Ironfist."
"Trouble?"
She pushed, and Akiyama told her about Reiji.