Getting out of the crater was a pain and a half. There was only so much energy we could have left over after a fight against Kyurem. Truly, our escape would not have been as successful if it weren’t for those berries turned down by the Tangrowth. An Aspear berry contained in the sack helped Metang break free from his freeze.

  Unfortunately, that same healing property did not carry over to everyone’s freeze.

  A day later, and Rotom flitted around me as I sat hunched on Dianne’s couch. He flickered from position to position, his movements turning him into blurred lightning bolts that stretched through the air. At my side, Liepard lifted his head to watch Rotom for a short while, but being the big cat he was, he soon let himself fall back down to drift off into slumber, his fur pressed against my side.

  For what I was doing, I didn’t quite have the proper tools, but at least the tools in this world tended to be more sturdy. When a Pokémon could take a ten-thousand-pound punch and walk away just fine, the materials scientists here were able to make some crazy things, but a single screwdriver was still not enough to break through the ice.

  “Sorry, buddy. Your microwave might have met its end,” I said with a sigh, sitting back to let my hand run through Liepard’s fur. “Whatever Kyurem did to freeze it means the ice isn’t melting. I could salvage some parts, but using it in battle...”

  I could only shake my head at the thought.

  Rotom’s microwave lay in pieces on a short coffee table in front of me. Several of its orange chunks were mostly fine, but ice had crept into it in a way neither Rotom nor I had expected. Key parts of its functionality were completely frozen over, and the ice that remained didn’t seem like it was going to melt soon, if ever.

  “But at least,” I said, picking up one frozen piece and looking it over. “This might be an opportunity.”

  The ice on this chunk was completely dry; it didn’t even drip to hint at melting. Rotom flashed over to move around and inspect the frozen metal. Even when he poked at it with his crackling arms, nothing changed, but that just proved my theory to be even more true.

  “Never-Melt Ice,” I said, naming what I was growing more and more sure of what this ice actually was. “It’s a held item that increases the power of Ice-type moves. Not sure if that’s really what this is, but fighting Kyurem might have just earned us a bunch of money.”

  Held items were rare—with battle-rated held items being even rarer—and if we could sell this ice to the right person, we would likely be able to earn a decent sum.

  So, despite the loss of his microwave oven, a grin almost immediately stretched across Rotom’s face at my mention of money. The specifics of cash and its uses tended to be lost on him, but at least when it came to profit, earning money usually meant more things for him to possess as well as more items for me to tinker with.

  The sound of metallic clangs came from outside while I inspected the frozen remains of Rotom’s microwave. Even with the ongoing tiredness from our last major battle, Metang had not wanted to sit and let his weakness last. He was already out back, using his claws to spar against Valiant—who had recovered from fainting to Kyurem far faster than I had expected. Given just what they were and the things they had fought against before I had ever even met them, taking a point-blank Hyper Beam, even one from a Legendary Pokémon, was never going to put down Valiant for long.

  Honestly, that battle against Kyurem had been good for us, as terrifying as it was. It was necessary, in my opinion. We needed to not just know but experience the strength of those who sat at the top of this world. The battle had ended up being less about us proving our strength and more about us gaining the knowledge to set the right expectations.

  The experience would stick with us going forward.

  At least, that was how I justified it.

  But for now, my team deserved to rest. The sun might have been setting, but there was no reason to keep climbing through the ranks tonight. Valiant needed more time to recover, Rotom wanted me to keep working on his microwave, Liepard was enjoying his nap, and Metang was focused on his spar outside.

  All the while, a television played the nightly news in front of us.

  “...and workers in that Castelia lab have stated that their data was left untouched,” a newscaster's voice announced. “However, several have expressed concern that their evolution-based data was copied. As proprietary work, that research is the cornerstone of their business, but the real loss has been the theft of their rare stones and metal, which—”

  The television suddenly turned off.

  I looked up.

  Frowning at the person stepping into the room, I let out a purposeful whine.

  “I was watching that!”

  Dianne just threw her head back and laughed, placing the television’s remote back on the table next to the couch. She was still dressed in that bright red vest that marked her as a Pokémon Ranger. Outside, the sounds of sparring began to quiet down as Farigiraf stepped into Dianne’s backyard, weary from running and wanting to rest.

  “So, you’re still here?” Dianne asked, looking over me with a teasing grin. “I would have expected you to be out by now. What, no more battles?”

  “Not tonight,” I answered, adjusting how I sat on the couch when Liepard jumped up to press himself against Dianne’s legs. “With how hard I’ve been pushing everyone, I think we’re at the point where my team deserves to take a break.”

  “Huh.” Dianne started to walk away with Liepard still at her side, putting her stuff down after a long day. “So, no point-gathering tonight? No trying to climb the ranks?”

  She took off her vest and let it hang on a rack, and her voice became slightly more muffled as she moved to her kitchen to start fixing herself dinner.

  “I guess I could, but I think I have a better option when it comes to making some money,” I said, eyeing the frozen chunks of metal on the table. “And the points I’ve been getting per win haven’t been... that much, honestly.”

  After a few weeks of nightly battles, I was sitting at just under three hundred points, which was hardly anything for all of the constant fighting that my team and I had been doing. With how most of the trainers in Lacunosa were people placed toward the bottom of the Normal Rank, the matches we’d been having hadn’t been a challenge—and they hadn’t earned us that many points on a win, as a result.

  “So you’ve been struggling to earn enough points to climb higher,” Dianne mused as her own, still-intact microwave began to hum. “I guess Lacunosa Town just doesn’t have that much to offer.”

  “No, no. It does,” I said quickly. “It’s more that most of the trainers here just aren’t very...”

  “Aren’t very strong?” she finished for me.

  She walked out carrying a steaming bowl of some kind of leftover soup, letting herself plop down into her big, cushioned chair. Liepard immediately jumped into her lap, and that impact took all her effort to not have her food spill over both of them.

  “The problem is, I think most of the tougher trainers have moved on to big cities,” I said as I watched Rotom slip forward to possess the disconnected keypad of the frozen microwave oven. All he managed to do was have it light up and hop around. “It’s either that, or the tough trainers are out training on Routes. Everyone still here is someone who isn’t necessarily trying to make it as a professional trainer. Or, they’re like you and Daryl—”

  “Please don’t compare me to Daryl.”

  “Or, they’re like you,” I quickly corrected, “where they could technically compete but are too attached to their ongoing jobs to bother.”

  Dianne hummed as she brought a spoon of her soup into her mouth. From even where I sat, I could hear Liepard purring in her lap.

  That little traitor.

  Dianne ate a few more bites while petting Liepard, but she soon nodded once as if coming to a decision.

  “Alright. I get it. With how you’ve been relaxing all day, I take it that you plan to move on pretty soon, right?”

  “Probably,” I answered truthfully. “I figured I could head to Opelucid. The Dragon-type trainers there should be higher-ranked and pretty strong.”

  “Sure... But!” With that interjection, Dianne sat up, and Liepard was forced to jump out of her lap. She looked me straight in the eye while Liepard glared at her from the floor. “Nick, let me ask you this: If the Opelucid trainers are so strong, why would they ever be willing to fight a Normal Rank trainer like you?”

  I blinked at her, trying to process the question.

  “For the experience?” I offered. “To... make money when they defeat me?”

  “But...” Dianne said again, this time letting the word drag out, “Would they defeat you, or would they just recognize that inevitable loss?”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  I opened my mouth to try to say she was wrong, but I knew that I couldn’t.

  Her words had rung true—I was in an incredibly awkward position. The reality of my situation felt like it was settling in all at once.

  “Oh no,” I groaned, letting my head fall into my hands. “They would recognize that. They totally would. They’d... see that they have nothing to gain from accepting a battle, and since they’d be at a higher rank, they would be allowed to turn down my challenge.”

  I was totally screwed.

  I needed more points to be assigned a promotion battle and rank up, but we weren’t earning enough in our battles against Normal Rank trainers. We would be able to rank up eventually, but only eventually. The matches we’d been having were only really earning us money, but not much experience. Being forced to keep this up for even longer could make us unlikely to reach Master Rank in time through sheer point requirements alone.

  “This system sucks,” I grumbled. “It’s super flawed. So just because my team is strong, we’re going to be trapped at the bottom?”

  I brought my head up, already feeling defeated, but despite my morose tone, Dianne was smiling.

  Keeping an eye on her, I watched her put down her bowl. She took a moment just to waggle her finger at me, apparently already having a solution in mind.

  “Ah, but my dear friend, you’re forgetting something: I live in Unova, and I know some tricks,” Dianne said, a cheeky smile slipping onto her face. “There’s a reason the World Coronation Series is being held here instead of Galar.”

  “So tell me, Nick,” she continued, “have you ever heard of a little place called the Battle Club?”

  The next day, Dianne brought me to the main street of town. Embarrassingly, this was basically the first time I’d been around here. Most of the battles I had participated in happened in the side streets, and the only time I’d gotten close to Lacunosa’s main street was to go to the Pokémon Center, but that usually just saw me arriving immediately after turning a single corner.

  Here, Dianne walked on the sidewalk alongside me, forgoing the option of riding on Farigiraf’s back. While she could get away with that as a Pokémon Ranger, it was a bit of a faux pas to send out a Pokémon as big as a giraffe in the middle of a populated town.

  No, the only Pokémon out with us was Liepard—ignoring Rotom in my watch—who happily followed along at our backs. If someone was a trainer, it wasn’t uncommon to have at least one Pokémon out walking with them. However, even with Liepard’s personal strength, his species was commonly kept as a household pet, so no one blinked an eye at the Pokémon that possessed the skill to sweep through almost any team here.

  “Battle Clubs are unique to Unova,” Dianne said as we walked through town, and I could hear the excitement in her voice. She had been so willing to bring me here that she had actually taken the day off from work. “I used to go to this Battle Club all the time—they’re places made to give trainers a chance to connect and set up big battles. Some of the Clubs run regular tournaments, but usually only in the bigger cities. Otherwise, they’re buildings attached to this huge communication network, with every location containing at least one dedicated battlefield.”

  “Huh,” I said. “So I didn’t need to go around and ambush people at night?”

  To that, Dianne laughed. She wore a full-blown smile on her face.

  “No, no! Don’t get me wrong, after seeing what you did to Daryl? Ambushing people like that was completely necessary,” she said, her smile more akin to a predator’s grin. “But Battle Clubs are more for... scheduled matches. They’ll connect you to the right kind of opponent, but they also tend to take longer. During any other year, relying on them might have resulted in your team getting in more battles overall, but right now, most people are out. Going to one won’t get you anywhere near as many fights as the amount you tend to get at night.”

  Lacunosa’s Battle Club was only a block away from the city’s Pokémon Center, and now that I knew to look for it, I could already see at least one trainer moving between the two buildings. Dianne said that Battle Clubs did have their own treatment centers, but they were never as advanced or in-depth as a Pokémon Center, so many trainers preferred that other building.

  Here, the Lacunosa Battle Club blended in with the other structures of worn, tan stone. It looked like any other place in this ancient town, but there was the barest hint of a more modern structure peeking up in the back.

  The roof of its battlefield, most likely, I realized.

  Dianne brought me to the building’s entrance.

  There was no automatic glass door to slide open when we approached, but stepping inside, I did find us entering a more modern style of lobby, complete with a tiled floor, various seating areas, and an electronic screen displaying dozens of names and images of trainers looking to battle. A long counter sat at the very back.

  “Dianne!” came a deep yet merry shout from an older, heavyset man standing behind that counter. I couldn’t tell if he was muscular or just overweight. “It’s been a while since you’ve shown up here. It’s good to see you after so long!”

  Smiling brightly, Dianne approached the man and met him at the side of the counter. Pulling her into a hug, his arms practically dwarfed hers.

  “It’s good to see you again, Don George,” Dianne said. “I would come more often, but my work as a Pokémon Ranger tends to see me pretty busy during the day.”

  The man laughed proudly, and his smile was almost completely covered by a thick, bushy mustache that hid his lips. However, with the way his eyes curved up, I could tell his hidden expression was genuine.

  “Well, you’re welcome here anytime,” he said with a baritone voice. “And who’s this?”

  Dianne waved me over as the man moved back to his position behind the counter.

  “Don George, this is Nick, Liepard’s current trainer and a competitor in the World Coronation Series,” Dianne said. “Nick, this is Don George. His family runs Unova’s Battle Clubs.”

  When we shook hands in greeting, Don George’s hand was large enough that it felt like it was going to swallow mine, but there was not a single ounce of hostility on his face. He just grinned at me from under his mustache, and he looked me over with sharp, discerning eyes.

  “You carry yourself like a powerful trainer,” the heavy man said. “Hm. If Dianne brought you here... You’ve trapped yourself, haven’t you?”

  “You already know?” I asked, blinking.

  He walked over to deposit himself on a stool that he pulled to position behind a computer. The device almost looked comically small when compared to him, but he was able to type on it just fine.

  “As the owner of a Battle Club, I’ve been assisting with some of the Series’s set-up. Ranks and points are earned based on an algorithm devised by some very skilled thinkers assisted by smart Pokémon like Gothitelle and Alakazam. However...”

  His mustache twitched. He looked slightly uncomfortable.

  “Nobody’s perfect,” Don George admitted. “They wanted to encourage quality over quantity, but they went about it the wrong way. Since the points you earn are determined by performance rather than outright victory, strong trainers incapable of participating in challenging battles tend to earn fewer points than they should.”

  “So...” I began slowly, “if I didn’t come here, I would have never gotten enough points to rank up.”

  “My understanding is that they’re devising a new algorithm to determine the points earned,” Don George said, “but it’s still in development, and they’re struggling to find a way to implement it without harming the integrity of an ongoing tournament.”

  He started to type on his keyboard, but then he looked up, flicking his gaze over to me from underneath his thick, bushy eyebrows.

  “Can I see your trainer ID?” he asked.

  I passed over the card containing my unique identifying number as a trainer, and Don George looked over it before beginning to fill the information in.

  “Thankfully, you should be able to qualify for a promotion battle now instead of later,” he said. “There’s a bit of leniency given to me for that because of the mistakes, so I have the authority to approve promotion battles on a case-by-case basis.”

  As he started to maneuver through whatever was being displayed on his computer screen, Dianne quietly nudged me on the arm.

  “See? I told you this was a good idea,” she whispered.

  “Thanks,” I said genuinely. “Would have sucked to be stuck in the Normal Rank, but now we should be able to keep climbing properly.”

  With Don George helping me, Dianne walked off to look at the wall-sized screen that displayed a bunch of trainers’ names. Several of them had changed; a few trainers had walked in and out of the room, and it seemed they had managed to organize and secure themselves a fight.

  “Let’s see here,” Don George mumbled. “Nicholas. No badges. A trainer from Paldea. Three— No, four Pokémon on your team. You’ve been traveling for just over a year, and... There’s a note from the Pokémon League itself? Your sponsor—”

  Don George froze. I felt the need to cover my face.

  “Just... ignore that, please,” I mumbled.

  “Will do,” he said quickly. “I just didn’t expect to encounter someone sponsored by such a big shot here today.”

  Humming to himself, he went on to look through his system. It was taking him a while, and for some reason, it almost carried the same vibes of being in the middle of a medical appointment.

  “Hm. It’s clear that you should be eligible for a promotion match to reach the Great Rank, but it’s one that I’ll need to approve rather than one that happens automatically,” he said. “As a result, it won’t technically be official, so your potential opponent will have the choice whether or not to accept. But once a battle is scheduled, all you need to do to rank up is defeat your opponent in a battle.”

  “Got it,” I said.

  “The problem is...” Although I couldn’t see the man’s mouth, I could tell he was frowning. “There’s no one in town to accept your challenge.”

  “Seriously? Not even a single Great Rank trainer?”

  He shrugged slightly in reply.

  “There are a few of them,” he said, “but I know them all personally, and they aren’t the kind of people to accept an optional challenge like this.”

  The man hummed, rubbing a stubble-covered chin as he looked at the screen, but I could at least think of an easy solution.

  “Well, the Battle Club here is connected to all other Battle Clubs, right?” I asked, trying but failing to look at his screen. “I don’t care about fighting in town. If you can reach out to other places, I’m fine with needing to travel as long as I get the chance to be promoted.”

  After all, even if I traveled, being promoted elsewhere would still be faster than needing to wait in the Normal Rank until the algorithm was changed.

  Don George nodded and went back to typing. Dianne returned from where she had been looking over the board.

  “So you’ll probably be heading out tomorrow,” she said.

  “Honestly, maybe even later today,” I replied.

  “Man. I knew you were planning on leaving, I just thought... I don’t know. It was nice to see Liepard again.”

  The big cat had been sitting behind me, but hearing Dianne’s words, he didn’t hesitate to stand up again. He walked over just to press himself against Dianne’s legs, and even though he didn’t speak, his message was clear.

  He also loved seeing her again so soon, but he couldn’t stay. He needed to head out with me to continue chasing after his dream of becoming stronger. But that distance didn’t mean they wouldn’t still be friends.

  “We only have so much time,” I said quietly. “Can’t afford to fall behind when we have to reach Master Rank by the end of the year.”

  I must not have been speaking that quietly, because as soon as I said that, Don George looked up to meet me in the eye.

  “Master Rank in just six months,” he mused, essentially repeating my words. “That’d be an impressive feat.”

  “Maybe for someone else who doesn’t already have a strong team,” I said, puffing up my chest. “It might look like we’re coming out of nowhere, but we’re starting with a huge amount of strength! I’m willing to take on anyone if it means we get promoted. And I already know that we’ll win.”

  “That’s the spirit!” The large man dramatically hit the enter button on his keyboard, and a short ding rang out from his computer. “And there we go! The message has been posted! All nearby Battle Clubs in other cities will be notified of your request, but just be aware that it might take a while for someone to see your situation and—”

  A second ding almost immediately rang out, interrupting his speech.

  Don George flicked his eyes down to check on the source of that notification. Sweat began to form on his brow.

  “Wait, was that it?” Dianne asked, speaking up.

  “Do I already have an opponent already?” I asked, leaning forward.

  Eyes wide, Don George stared at his computer, and he took out a white cloth to wipe his forehead.

  “You... do,” he said slowly, eyes not leaving the screen. “Which is a surprise, to be honest. And it’s more of a surprise that... Hmph. I just assumed a trainer like him would be in the Ultra Rank, at least.”

  Dianne’s eyebrows shot up. I was unable to look away from where Don George sat.

  “So, Nick got some kind of super-impressive opponent?” Dianne asked.

  “Indeed,” Don George replied. “One I didn’t quite expect.”

  Annoyed at how long this was taking, I leaned in even further forward, pressing my arms against the top of the counter.

  “Please get on with it. I don’t want to wait.”

  Amused, Don George exchanged a look with Dianne, and the heavyset man let out a chuckling laugh.

  “Well, he’s a Humilau trainer. A Water-type specialist,” he said. “A trainer that probably shouldn’t be at the Great Rank.”

  Already, Dianne breathed out, her mouth opening slightly.

  “No way,” she whispered, making the connection before me.

  “At this point, you’re dragging it out on purpose,” I grumbled.

  I could tell that Don George had gained a slight smile, but he was also looking at me, his gaze appraising. It was as if he wanted to see for himself if I was someone who could actually live up to my stated goal, or if I was just another trainer with a bark worse than their bite.

  But he did eventually speak, and when he did so, Dianne looked genuinely surprised.

  “Your opponent for your promotion battle will be Marlon,” Don George finally said. “As in the Marlon, the man who serves as the Gym Leader of Humilau City’s Gym.”

  is a canon character from the anime. are also canon to the anime.

  Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:

  Nick’s Team:

  Iron Valiant

  enormous thank you to everyone reading! Your support keeps this story going.