Chapter 14

Long ago before the outbreak of the first two Great Pokémon wars, there was no "Kanto" or "Johto" at all. No, before all of that was the age of the Kantonian Civil War. A lawless and brutal period in Kanto history where only the strong thrived and the weak perished. There was no League System or government to keep anything in check, and so only individuals with powerful pokémon, a strong backing of soldiers, and massive gains through spoils of war dictated the law of their conquered corners of the region.

Things were simple back then, you conquer a tribe/settlement, then it's all yours to do with as you see fit. You get overwhelmed by an enemy force, then you either submit or die and lose all of your pokémon, riches, and lands. History in particular about this portion in our land's history was greatly censored compared to the others beyond the crucial bits: the horrifying formation of the Red and Green Factions AND the war's end due to the hands of Ancient Rotan knight, Ser Aaron.

Two significant warlords in Kanto had managed to conquer both parts of the region as their own and had claimed them under the Red and Green banners, respectively. The two sides tried to find peace but with Greed ever being the sole motivator for most common men, war was the eventual outcome. The region was torn apart for countless years until it's conclusion came about when the Legendary Birds of Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno rained down their fury and wiped out all of the major forces in the war. Each day during the war, one of these Legendary pokémon would destroy any and everyone who engaged in conflict, effectively breaking the spirits of every willing soldier during the war.

The Red and Green factions were finally forced to consider peace after their leaders and most of their armies were expunged from the world. There was no negotiation, no last-minute betrayal or anything. The threat of everyone being erased left a horrid taste in the mouths of those in the past. Numbers and wealth will always pale in comparison to the Legendaries.

The fact that none of the trio of legendary birds razed the entire region to the ground after said peace was established just furthered the utter helplessness that our ancestors felt at being left in the tender mercies of beings stronger than them. Ser Aaron always seemed like a random figure to include in the Civil War's history since it's noted that he contributed greatly but ominously disappeared just before the arrival of the Legendary birds.

Lucario and the Mystery of Mew was my favorite Pokémon Movie, but I just couldn't understand how two and two fit together here. I could think about looking into it, but I already have enough on my plate as it is. Such as my surprise engagement with Lara Laramie.

"Okay, I j-just wanna say…that I could have been clearer with my choice of wordin'." Mr. Laramie coughed and winced through the multiple lumpy bruises that popped out of his head.

"Ya think, Pa?" Lara growled with an intimidating paper fan in her hands, slowly tapping it against her free hand. Seeing Lara beat the crap out of her larger old man every step of the way to the Laramie family's home and kitchen did alleviate some of the initial shock of her dad's request.

"That's why I'll go straight from the top and reveal the importance of our family's heritage and position here in the outer plains of Fuchsia." Mr. Laramie crossed his arms and nodded.

"Thank you, I would very much appreciate that…" I groaned beside Brock at the large dining room table. My friend awkwardly laughed as he realized that he was unintentionally roped into an unbelievable mess. Then I blinked as I noticed something or someone missing, "Hey where did Sylvie go?"

"Huh…" Brock looked just as confused as me. "I noticed her come in with us but once we sat down, I sort of lost track…"

"Weird, she usually doesn't like to stray too far from me." I began to call out to her before pausing to shoot an apologetic look toward Mr. Laramie. "Sorry. Do you mind if I yell for her?"

"Lad, we're on a ranch. Your screaming will barely be a deafening din in comparison to the bustling work that happens." Welp, with that permission given I happily called out to my pokémon.

"Sylvie!? Sylvie!" I called out once and received no answer. Huh, she usually comes after the first call. I then proceeded to loudly clap my hands against my lap. "Sylvie! Are you here!? I want to keep rewarding you for all the hard work you just did!" I cringed at the sudden clattering of something metallic hitting the ground in the kitchen, then lo and behold, my wonderful Sylveon happily bounded from the kitchen to land in my lap with serene grace.

"There you are…" I chuckled and began threading my fingers through her fur. "Now what were you up to in there?"

"Veeon~…" I chose to let her enjoy my tender ministrations to shoot another apology to the Laramie Patriarch. "Sorry again if she-." He held his hand up to stop me.

"Don't, lad. Messes around the household are all a natural part of our livelihoods." Mr. Laramie proudly grinned.

"I'll be sure to tell Ma you said that." Lara muttered just loud enough for her dad to hear and suddenly grow pale.

"Ahem! Well then missy why don't you clean the kitchen so I can finally get to explainin', sweetheart?" Real smooth, Mr. Laramie.

Lara groaned and rolled her eyes. "Fine just give me a moment." She disappeared into the kitchen.

After all, how much of a mess can a single little thing like her can d-?"

…

…

…

"Pa?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Did someone accidentally leave all the knives out in one place?"

And so, after a brutally long and awkward silence of waiting for Lara to clean up the ranch's odd assortment of knives from the floor, Mr. Laramie finally gave us the full picture.

Even after the end of the Kantonian War, the remnants of the Green Faction that once controlled the Southern half of Kanto had broken up into tribes and clashed over the lands to control as settlements. Thus, the birth of these new settlements became Cerulean, Celadon, Saffron, and Vermillion. Fuchsia on the other hand took a long time to even be established.

The southeastern vast plains and lands of Fuchsia were bountiful and teeming with strong pokémon. The remaining tribes that wished to settle here were overcome with the selfsame greed that their original faction possessed and fought amongst themselves for sole ownership of the land. Shed blood was repaid with more blood and in the end, there would be no tribes that would survive to partake in the land's splendor.

Until the day that an unknown stranger from the North came with a pokémon of valiant steel stumbled upon the conflict and subdued every tribe of the plains that sought to continue fighting. For the first time in years, order had been brought to the plains once the stranger took the reigns of leadership and guided a proper path for the tribes to take.

They treated the very lands with the respect that they deserved, constantly mediated between tribal disputes, and shared their foreign knowledge on their handling of pokémon and how it could be applied to the native pokémon on their lands. For once, peace was all but assured until the stranger announced his much-needed departure. Before the tribes would devolve back into disarray, the stranger had proposed a competition.

A race to determine who would gain which section of land in the plains and the species of pokémon in said land that they must protect. Each tribe was to breed and train the best pokémon for the purpose of riding them to Mt. Spirit and determining the victor. The victor was given the hefty responsibility of raising and tending to the vast majority of the plains and the pokémon that resided there.

The defense of said lands was relegated to the Kawakami Clan, who were ran out from their old home in the region that would later be called "Johto" and were welcomed with open arms by the unknown stranger and by extension the other tribes. The Laramie Clan were the victors and given the largest piece of land along with the sole responsibility of caring for and tending to the pokémon that inhabited it. Then the unknown stranger and their pokémon vanished without a trace, and thus the Nomad's Independence Day Race became an official part of the newly forming Fuchsia Town's culture.

The rules that the mysterious stranger laid out for every resulting race resulting after it was that said land would indefinitely be the property of the victors until the victorious clan lost thrice in a row with each yearly race. Only members of the tribe were allowed to take part in these races with their bred and raised pokémon. This was to ensure fairness and avoid conflict amongst the violent tribes back in the day.

Not meeting this requirement would result in the tribe's immediate disqualification from the race, but also deny them the right to partake in the race in the next year. Thus, they'd be left with one last chance to earn victory or lose out on their land.

"Oh…" After hearing all of that, I couldn't help but feel bad. "Dang…I'm sorry Lara and Mr. Laramie for-."

"Luke, don't." Lara good-naturedly smile at me, not a hint of bitterness in her voice. "Not for that, okay?"

"She's right, lad. You didn't know and time just wasn't on our side…" Mr. Laramie grunted. "I was a fool to consider thinking that Ponyta, um…er…your Rapidash would be ready to ride despite their aggressive denial in accepting a new rider."

"Y-Yeah, Epona was kind of…moody back then." I nervously chuckled.

"And it was because of my recklessness that she knocked me off her back and I broke my arm." The man rubbed his now functioning appendage. "To be fair, I deserved it…" I wouldn't go that far, but whatever he did certainly made earning Epona's trust a trial before the race.

Frowning, Brock spoke for the first time since the explanation ended. "I'm sorry for cutting in, but if the rules state that a member of the Clan has to be the one to race, then are you exploiting that loophole by marrying Luke into your family?"

"Right in one, lad." Mr. Laramie nodded, and Lara blushed as the real topic of our gathering was finally reaching the surface. "The risk of losing our home and land is far too great. Sure, we can buckle down and take the loss for this year and be barred from racing the in the next in stride, but the chance that we could lose our home. One that's been in our family for countless years is…hard to stomach."

"Would you guys be forced to leave your home?" I gaped and gestured to the ranch as a whole.

"No, things wouldn't be that extreme, but we'd essentially lose our right to freely tend to the pokémon and lose ownership of the lands around the ranch. Depending on how poorly we perform in the race, we'd essentially be given the new winner's lot or the better performing racer's lot instead if we can't even manage second place." Lara sighed.

"Geez, this is serious…" I rubbed my chin and re-evaluated my once laid-back approach to this. "So, I guess that my disguise did bupkis in helping out, huh?"

"Not quite, lad." Mr. Laramie shook his head. "Folk were left questioning who the mysterious Crimson Desperado was and though we couldn't frame their identity to be me on account to my injury and being physically there for the race, we were given a chance to at least hide who took part in the race."

"Until the race's strict observers from the Kawakami Clan figured things out and demanded answers. And then that's when Pa decided to come up with the clever plan to say that the Crimson Desperado was a new future addition to the family and decided to marry me off to them…" Lara facepalmed.

"Aw, come on, sugar, it was the only way to get those shadowy sticklers off our backs…" Mr. Laramie gently shot his daughter an apologetic look.

"Yeah, and also force Luke and I into this messy situation, Pa!" Lara growled. "It feels awful being so dishonest with everyone whose heard rumors about this."

"Aw, don't act like you hate it, Lara! I've seen how red you get whenever we bring it up."

"That's because it's embarrassing and besides I can't even like Luke that way beyond just a friend. You know this, Pa." Lara screeched then flinched upon realizing what she had just said. "Uh, no offense there Luke."

"None taken." I shrugged. Hey, at least she was being straight up with me, and it was good to know that she wasn't hiding her personal preference.

"Besides, Dario is the only one with a close enough body type to Luke to be able to pull off the disguise, and you already spoke of how you'd rather die than follow through with that plan." Mr. Laramie added.

"That's because I have standards, Pa!"

"Think of the family, Lara!"

"I AM. The moment that Dario of all people officially joins us is the moment we realize that we've hit rock-bottom!"

As Brock and I watched the ensuing familial spat, my friend leaned over to whisper. "Huh, what does she mean that she can't like you that way?"

Uh, I don't think that I should be the one to tell poor innocent Brock this since we're both technically still 12. "Ask Flint to look up the Johtonian term "Yuri" and I'm sure he'll manage to shed some light for you." So that is why I threw Flint under the bus with no remorse.

"Um…okay?" Brock weirdly looked at me before focusing back on the father-daughter pair that was arguing with each other. After watching Lara step her game and give father another few whacks over the head with a wooden mallet from the kitchen, it was finally time for him to properly propose the offer to me.

"So, lad, are you willing to help us out and take my lovely daughter's hand in marriage?" Mr. Laramie seriously looked me in the eye while holding up the mallet in one arm and warding off his red-faced daughter reaching for said mallet with the other arm.

Crossing my arms, I deeply thought of my decision before steadfastly answering with a smile, "Sure, I'm willing to help you guys out, but I'm going to have to say no to being Lara's fiancé."

"O-Oh…" Mr. Laramie slightly deflated while Lara sighed in relief.

"I'm just not up for lying like this, sir." Plus, it's always been a dream of mine to get married in my past life and since I never got to accomplish that I feel like I would cry if I had to go through with a fake one in this life. "Plus, Lara doesn't really seem to be to into the idea to even try."

Lara groaned. "Now I didn't say that…" Lara shook her head earning a confused hum from me. "Just because I don't want to do it doesn't mean that I won't if it's necessary. This is our home Luke, and I would do anything just to protect it."

I nodded in understanding. "Even getting engaged to someone you can't love?"

Lara winced. "Just because I can't doesn't mean that I would hate it. You're a good friend Luke and though I hate that I have to drop this on your lap after you helped us, I wouldn't mind you being the one that Pa tries marry me off to."

Aw that's sweet, but just as bad. "Well after hearing that then I really can't accept this arrangement, Mr. Laramie." I shook my head. "And I wouldn't recommend switching to Dario as my replacement either. There has to be an alternative to this, maybe we should negotiate with the observers of the race and work out a solution?"

Mr. Laramie scratched his chin as his face scrunched up. "Good luck with that, Lad. The slippery folk in that clan is as rigid as they are strong. They take their duty seriously that their clan head is even stricter as an observer than they are as the city's Gym Leader."

Brock blinked in surprise. "Wait, Gym Leader? So that means-?"

"Yup, Koga's family are the observers." I nodded. "It wasn't hard to piece together after they mentioned stuff about the shadows. Also, he doesn't really like to display his last name like a couple of other Gym Leaders, so you'd have to really dig deep to even find it. Once "Kawakami" was brought up, I immediately knew it was going to involve him."

"Whoa, what kind of lengths did you have to go to just to learn his last name?" Brock was in awe.

"I beat his gym challenge then I asked." Brock deadpanned at my simple answer. "Hey, it's the truth…" He seemed really cool to share it with me though, so it wasn't too big of a deal.

I turned to Mr. Laramie. "And even if things don't immediately go as planned, it's better to be up front about the dilemma then to hold it off until it's too late. Who knows we may even come upon a compromise that is sure to work."

Mr. Laramie gave me a long hard look. "And are you sure I can't change your mind about taking my pumpkin's hand in marriage?"

"Nope." I swiftly refused. Another couple seconds of being heavily stared by the older man and he conceded with a deep sigh. He scratched the back of his head and made his way to the kitchen.

"…Shoulda known it would have been a long shot." He grunted. "Fine, let's do things your way, Lad."

"Pa?" Lara worriedly watched her father grab the kitchen's wall phone.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, I'm just calling your Ma to make one last stop before coming home. If things don't go right, then I'll hafta add more riding lessons to your workload." Dialing the numbers in, he held the phone to his ear and pointed at Brock and I. "Go show them around and have some fun. I'll call you all back once its time."

Shooting the man one last thumbs up that he happily returned, we left him to his business. Getting shooed out of the ranch's main house had left us with nothing to do except accompany Lara around the reserve. She still had work to do and since we didn't want to be a bother, we helped her out with refilling the feeding troughs for the Tauros, sharpening the Sandslashs' claws, and polishing the rough hides of the Rhyhorns.

"There we go and…" Brock grunted and rapidly buffered out the last bits of dirt on the last Rhyhorn that we were cleaning. "You are done big gal." With a light tap to their side, the Rhyhorn roared and charged off to join their pack. "Good and that takes care of-!"

"Perior! Rhy! Rhy!" Popping out of their pokeball, Brock's starter, Rocco excitedly pointed at himself.

"Rocco, I already polished you this morning. Besides, you're not dirty." His Rhyperior slumped in disappointment before a mischievous gleam formed in their eye. Brock certainly didn't miss that. "Don't even think about it."

"RHHHHY!" It was too late, Rocco was already trudging off to find the nearest mud puddle he could and considering the amount of Ground types in the area, it would not be a challenge.

All Brock could do was groan and call out Corsola. "Get ready…"

"Cor…?" The cute pink coral pokémon looked to be as dead as Brock with that warning.

"He's looking for a mud puddle as we speak…"

"Corsola…"

Huh, it was depressing to see them like this, but also adorable with how in sync they were when they released that happiness draining sigh together.

The Nidorino that Brock calmed down from earlier was still around and regarded the two of them with a confused tilt of the head. He's been following Brock the entire two hours that we've been out here helping Lara out. Brock didn't seem to mind them and Lara oddly didn't say much about it as she simply chose to observe the Nidorino's behavior when around him.

"Sorry about roping you two into helping me out." Sat beside me on the hilltop, well, she sat beside Sylvie who had wedged herself between us. "First Pa tries to talk you into marrying me and now I'm getting free labor out of you two because I can't find it in myself to skip work. Shucks are we terrible hosts…"

"Ah, voluntary free labor." I reminded. "I don't mind helping out a friend and getting to work with pokémon is just as fun. Its not every day that you get to work at one of Kanto's prestigious breeding ranches." She shoved me at my teasing.

"Oh, knock it off with that. Yeah, what we do here is important, but it doesn't make us THAT big of a deal." Lara giggled.

"Must be easy for you to say that considering you're basically a princess here." I snickered.

"Pfft! Then I must be the crummiest princess in the world since the thought of wearing a dress just scares me." Lara shuddered.

"Really, a dress?" I chuckled.

"Yeah! It's just too impractical. Some of the pokémon around these parts are bitey and the millions of ways that you can get snagged to the bushes, fences, and other things around here is a nightmare." Lara vented. "My Ma's a brave lady for moving about the place as she does while dressing like that."

"You haven't learned the ropes from her?" I asked and Lara loudly laughed at the suggestion.

"Oh, she tried, but after five straight years of trying to ambush me, dress me up in my sleep, and removing every piece of clothing that wasn't a dress in my closet, she eventually gave up."

"Respect." I held out my fist to her and she returned my fist bump.

"Thank you."

We settled into peaceful silence as Rocco did return a complete mess of mud and grass. The Rhyperior groaned in dissatisfaction when instead of a hard and dedicated polishing, he received a full Hydro Pump blast to the face courtesy of Corsola.

Massing my Sylveon's ears as she napped in my lap, I broke the silence with a light hum. "So does your dad know about your-?"

"It'd be hard to hide it from a nosey guy like Pa, so yes, he does know." Lara nodded.

"And he still considered this fiancé thing?"

"…He's understanding Luke, but the ranch and the land are important to us. Pa still loves it, Granny loved it, our great-great-great-great ancestors loved it, and I love it. If only to keep the land and maintain our tradition, I would frankly do everything I can to protect what we've been guarding for years. Even sacrificing my own wants."

"I get that but isn't it selfish to…" I began but I couldn't quite find the words to say it without coming off as a dick.

"No, it's fine go on and say what you want. I'mma big girl, Luke." Lara urged me on.

I groaned. "I like you guys and I don't want you to lose your place here, but isn't it kind of selfish to be this adamant about wanting to keep the land? The other ranches that belonged to their own clans work just as hard to earn 1[sup]st[/sup] place just for the chance to safeguard this place. Don't you think it's unfair to them to go to such lengths." Again, I wanted these people to keep what they have but the context of the race did give me more clarity to empathize with the other clans working tirelessly to earn this place.

Guess you could say that a part of me just wanted to play Devil's Advocate just to be fair.

"It does look that way, doesn't it?" Lara sighed. "The responsibility that comes with watching the lands that touch the Safari Zone has grown far beyond simply owning the most land, at least nowadays like Pa believes. The benefits that we have here are only equally weighed by their consequences."

Lara took a deep breath. "For years we've been undefeated in the races and the image of the undefeatable Laramie family has urged the other families in the plains to improve their craft as racers and breeders. It's a win-win in the long term and should a family defeat us in the race three times in a row, then they rightfully should claim these lands for their own. If not, then they've still proven their stock of pokémon and breeding methods as very viable to the people of Kanto."

"Logically it does make sense, but…I guess all of this just to keep the land is just super personal for your family, yeah?" I said.

"Yep…It is…" Lara sadly smiled. "Y-Ya think it's bad that we're not being honest about it? To the city and Aya and the rest of her clan?" I did wonder why she brought up Aya instead of the rest of the Kawakami clan, but I chose to focus on the heart of the question.

"Personally, I understand you guy's reasoning for doing this and admire how you found a loophole to the race's rule with marrying an outsider to your family. The lying isn't good, but…its very human." I nodded and looked at the grassy landscape around us. "You guys are good people and I like you all so I don't want you to lose this place. So, I'll give you all the help I can so that we're both guilty of being selfish when the time comes for shit to hit the wall."

Lara sniffled and chuckled. "Heh." She also slugged my shoulder. Hard.

"Ouch!" I winced and rubbed my shoulder in pain. This woke Sylvie who immediately began growling at the girl.

"Aw don't be such a baby, Luke." She patted herself off and got back to her feet and held her hand out to me.

"Next time give a guy some warning before you decide to punch his arm off, deal?" I grunted with discomfort as she easily pulled me up. Huh, why was she leaning i-?

*Chu~!*

"Syyyyyyl"

I blinked and held my cheek. Sylvie seemed to growl for some reason while Lara cheekily laughed, walking backwards down the hill.

"There does that make it feel better ya big baby?" Lara snickered, tying her hands behind her back.

I deadpanned. "Of course not. You hit my arm, not my cheek. Also, I thought you don't swing that way..." I groaned, picked up Sylvie, who kept glaring at the bluenette.

"I don't, but like I said if its you then I'm fine with acting it out. So how did it feel? Making you reconsider Pa's offer?" Hahahaha, no.

"Nice try and besides the abuse you inflicted onto me feels like a preview for what could happen if we decided to shack up together." I harumphed past her with Sylvie darkly snickering at the gaping bluenette.

"Oh, come on, your heart had to have skipped a beat just a little!"

"Not even close."

"Don't be a liar, Luke!"

"I'm not, I just can tell when someone's being genuine with me or not. Something to which you clearly weren't." I stuck my tongue out at her. Hehehe, Sylvie copied me. She got more head rubs just for being a good girl in backing me up.

"Or maybe you're just dense!" Lara blew a raspberry back at me.

"Hah! Lara, I would like to give myself some credit. If there's someone who legitimately likes me that badly, I'd know it…" Huh, how come Sylvie's groaning with a shake of her head. That's odd behavior for her…

XXX

"Daisy, where are you going!?" Wailed Erika.

"I-I'm sorry but I have to go." For Daisy, this entire day had been nothing but mysterious euphoric flashes of vindication and unbridled bursts of anger. Already she had broken five tea cups and ruined three attempts at Ikebana. She off her game and these disturbances could only possibly mean one thing.

"Don't give in Daisy, its barely been that long since we started!"

"Playing hard to get clearly isn't working!"

"How would you know that has he texted anything that says otherwise?"

"…N-No, but I have this awful feeling that something happened! I-I'm just going to go out and see what's happening. Y-Yeah, it wouldn't hurt to do at least that much." Daisy gave an unsettling laugh as she made her way to the Gym's exit.

"Daisy, just have faith. Everything is fine. You're fine. Okay?" Erika slowly beckoned her Vileplume to her side once she noticed her friend's shoulder begin to lower.

"We're fine?" Daisy repeated, looking acting very lost with herself.

"We're fine." Erika nodded.

"We're fine…" Daisy exhaled.

"We're fine." Erika joined her friend and released calming breath with her.

"Phew… Y-You're right, Erika. Sorry about that…" Daisy sighed. Erika beautifully smiled and nodded.

"It's fine now…" Now came the next challenge that she needed to face. "Now lets put your phone away."

"…!" Daisy's eyes shot wide open as she pulled the device away from Erika's reach. Erika didn't miss Daisy's free hand that snatched one of the pokéballs from her belt.

"Daisy…?" Erika and her Vileplume slowly inched closer to the Oak girl.

"…Maybe it wouldn't hurt just to respond a little. I'm not annoyed with him anymore and-!" Ah, Erika should have known that this was going to be the hill that her friend would die on.

"Vileplume use Sleep Powder!" So, she didn't hesitate to give her starter a command.

"Traitor!" Daisy's screeching was followed by the release of her growling Arcanine.

XXX

After taking a break to race with Lara and Brock around an old track on the Ranch's lands, Mr. Laramie called us back upon the arrival of Mrs. Laramie, who just would not stop trying to offer to feed us food due to thinking we're nothing but "skin and bones", the family's Hypno, and two representatives of the Kawakami clan.

They didn't teleport in with Mrs. Laramie's Hypno, but they materialized out of nowhere without any fanfare or sign of the pokémon in question that pulled off the teleport. Also, neither of them was Koga, but they were definitely related to him.

"Good afternoon, everyone." Deeply bowed a green haired girl garbed in shinobi gear, who was a bit older than us.

"G-Greetings-degozaru!" Beside her clumsily bowed an even younger purple haired girl who also was garbed in ninja garments.

"Hello, lasses." Mr. Laramie stiffly greeted the two females as we stood in the family room of the ranch's main house.

"Hello Janine!" Lara wiggled a finger toward the little purple haired girl, who cutely paused mid-wave to hastily give back a stoic nod. Awww. So, Koga's daughter was the same around Ash's age group that's nice.

"A-And hi, Aya. Nice to see that you're back." Lara timidly waved at the green haired shinobi; her cheeks dusted with a light red hue. Hoh, now that reaction explains that past slip of the tongue from earlier.

"Yes, Lara, it is magnanimous to make your acquaintance once more. I would like to thank you for your assistance last month for your helpful advice in studying the grazing habits of Nidorina, but that can come after our business is concluded." Aya, the younger sister of Koga, cordially greeted the girl.

"N-No, it's cool! I was happy to help. I know everything there is ta know about the critters. Just ask and I'll gladly tell you anything you wanna know. I'm your girl! Well not really but I could-no! I meant that as friends and…I'mma just stop talking now…" Lara stuttered and slunk back to hide behind Brock and I.

"Real smooth…" I whispered. "Ow!" I met her glare back with my own while rubbing the shoulder she just punched. No need to get violent just because you were verbally kicking your own ass just now.

"Hm? You have guests that will be joining us?" Looks like Aya has finally taken notice of our presence, and some form of recognition did etch itself upon her delicate mien. "Huh, it's you two."

"Wait, you know us?" Brock rubbed his chin in thought.

"Of course, you were challengers that overcame my brother's Gym Challenge." She looked at Brock. "If I recall, I was the third Gym trainer that battled you before you continued on to battle my brother for your fourth badge." She turned to me. "And I faced you as the first Gym trainer before you defeated the others and challenged my brother for your fifth badge."

"Wow, you have a really good memory." She really does. I remember facing her, but the Gym Challenge to face Koga flew by so fast that certain parts like the order of the trainers I faced escaped my notice.

"A shinobi must ever remain vigilant of their opponents, their surroundings and more importantly themselves." Aya spoke the words as if they were rehearsed. "Right, Janine?"

"Correct-degozaru!"

Aya rubbed her chin. "But our last meeting was during business so now that we have the pleasure to meet personally, then allow me the honor of introducing myself. My name is Kawakami, Aya and the young perspective ninja beside is Kawakami, Janine, my elder brother's daughter, and my niece."

"It is an honor to make the acquaintance of skilled trainers who have been able to earn my father's respect and badge-degozaru!" It was so adorable how the little girl was trying to deepen her high squeaky voice.

"Its nice to meet you Aya and Janine, I'm Luke Ketchum. Hi." I waved.

"And my name is Brock Harrison. A pleasure you two." Brock politely introduced himself.

Aya nodded, her smile falling to adopt a more stone-cold expression. "Now with regard to the sudden summons that Lady Laramie had made just now. I take it that you are finally ready to discuss the true identity to Aya's suitor-."

"And the identity of the Crimson Desperado-degozaru!" All eyes in the room fell on the bouncy form of the youngest child in the room. Janine shrunk and loudly coughed to compose herself. "Pardon me for that-degozaru."

Aya huffed but maintained her stoicism. "Yes, and that too. Is everything in order to share with us, Mr. Larry Laramie?"

The older man nodded and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, but I was expecting your brother to be the one who will be joining us. Is there somethin' at home holding him up?"

Aya coughed and folded her arms behind her back. "Indeed, we were in the middle of attending to an important guest at home. Do not worry, he's left the matter of your involvement in the race in my hands. I will remain impartial and mete out fair judgement." Wow, they must be hosting some super important guest if Koga's not here to join us.

Aya gestured her hand to everyone in the room. "Now…may we begin or are we waiting for anyone else?"

With our denials, we soon began talks about the truth of the events that transpired during the last Nomad's Independence Day. Mr. Laramie offered them a seat, but they chose to stand, which left us either sitting (Mr. Laramie and Lara) or awkwardly still standing (Me and Brock). Aya's expression was stolid leaving us with no real tell of her true thoughts yet Janine's was blatantly obvious since the revelation that I was the Crimson Desperado had left her gawking at me with wide eyes.

With nothing further to add to our account, Aya pinched the bridge of her nose and sharply inhaled. "This is truly unfortunate." She regarded us all but focused her attention on me. "If I could voice my personal thoughts, I would have recommended that you attempted to pull the wool over my eyes by agreeing to the terms of engagement between you and Lara." In essence, you could have saved me so much trouble by agreeing with this farce.

"I know but agreeing to a lie wouldn't sit well with me." I rubbed my neck as Aya's lips formed a small smile.

"Well, your honesty is at least admirable and as a student in the art of deception, I have to respect the lengths that you went to conceal your identity…though outrageous it seemed at first." That's fair, I mostly made the Crimson Desperado persona as an excuse to growl out Batman quotes. It wasn't meant to be serious.

"Auntie…Father…doesn't understand…" Though Janine quietly grumbling and looking away from her aunt did reveal that some took the persona quite seriously. Aya happily rolled her eyes at her niece before all the levity in the room fell with her smile.

"Still, this is troubling news." Aya sighed and rubbed her chin. "As decreed by our ancestors that claimed these lands, only those officially dubbed a member of each tribe could participate. This measure was to ensure that no outside help with experience beyond the faculties of the tribe could unjustly claim them victory."

"I-If it's any consolation, Luke wasn't much of a rider before he offered to help. No offense Luke…again." Lara pointed out.

"None taken, I pretty much sucked." I shrugged then faced Aya. "So does that help ease some-?"

"No." Damn. "An outsider is still an outsider by the rules of the race. Though some were amused by the mysterious Crimson Desperado representing the Laramies, that amusement died the moment he won. Now the other clans demanded answers that we've been delaying just to hear you out." Aya sharply looked at Mr. Laramie. "Any act of violence committed won't happen. My brother and I will see to it, but this will cause a ripple effect amongst the other families who wish to get a leg up on the others."

The older man's expression turned grim as he nodded. Yeah, I can see how us trying to employ this loophole can be exploited by the others once word got around to reaching them.

"Revisions to the rules will have to be made and condoning of any exceptions would leave us hard-pressed since everyone would seek to the same if they were in your shoes." Aya crossed her arms. "And this is why under my judgement as the representative of the Kawakami clan that the Laramie Family will hereby have their victory from last year's race be revoked." I deeply frowned as I saw the literal life drain out of Lara and her dad. Taking a deep breath, I decided that now was the perfect chance to cut in.

Aya continued. "And their participation in this year's oncoming race will thus be deni-."

"Aya Kawakami, I challenge you."

The room fell silent as the green haired shinobi looked utterly baffled at me. "E-Excuse me?"

"I challenge you to a battle, Aya Kawakami." I walked just a bit closer to be able to stand across from her. The tension in the room doubled as I locked eyes with the beautiful shinobi.

"Lad?" Mr. Laramie's eyes widened.

"L-Luke, what are you do-?" Lara hissed but was stopped by Brock, who firmly shook his head. I brought him up to speed on my "sort-of on-the-fly plan" just before we reconvened in the ranch to meet these two shinobi.

Aya groaned as she narrowed her eyes at me. "Luke Ketchum, it is admirable that you wish to stand up for the plight of your friends, I am not so easily moved to just cast aside my duty and battle you to relieve them of their action's consequences. The rules were broken, and they must be punished for it."

"True, but…" I trailed off, mentally confirming counterpoints and ensuring that they weren't stupid before finally pushing the words past my lips as confidently as I can. "Not only did this rule break slip by you guys, but the loophole to cover it up was also brought to light as well. They didn't have to be up front about it, but they did and now you're nonetheless wiser to any tricks that the other families can pull for the future."

Aya was unimpressed with my reasoning. "So, you would have me reward the Laramie Family for showing common decency?"

I wagged my finger. "No, I would ask that you lighten their punishment." I saw the denial coming as soon as her lips parted. "Don't negate their chance to participate this year, but dash out last year's win. A painful slap to the wrist, but nothing too severe."

"As the unbeaten victors for every race since its inception, they should lead by example and meet out their punishment as seen fit."

"They swallowed their pride and actually brought it up to you rather than keep you stalling for days on end until you had to scrounge for the information yourselves. Saving you lot the effort." I crossed my arms.

"Again, should common decency be rewarded?" Aya sharply shot back.

"For the basis of this first occurrence? Yes."

With a deep sigh, Aya's stubborn glare morphed into an inquisitive stare. "Luke Ketchum, why are you so insistent on helping them? You're literally asking me to "ease up" on our home's ancestral traditions. You had your chance to clear up this entire matter by agreeing to the arrangement to join their family, yet you denied it and still defend them so earnestly. So why? Why are you so insistent on pursuing this nonsense?"

…She's not wrong and she's logically right. I could have solved this by conceding to the fiancé matter, but I personally didn't want that. No, I was selfish that way but there's nothing wrong with being truthful and selfish.

Still, even if logic wasn't my friend right now, my true personal answer will always remain the same.

XXX

"Huh? You wanna know why you're Old Man does so much hard work for less around town? Well, that's because-"

XXX

"It's kind." I liked the Laramies. They were friends who helped me out in the past when I was so laser-focused on doing well in the Gym Circuit just to support my family. They didn't have to give me a bed to rest in for those few days, but they did, and I repaid them back by offering to take part in the race.

My selfless deed ended up costing them the potential loss of their land and yet they still welcomed me with friendly faces and open arms. They were good people, and I didn't want good people to pay so dearly.

Call it selfishness or selflessness, but I wanted to at least give them something.

"…" Aya's eyes widened before hardening her gaze to meet my own. A challenge to see if I would back down. Too bad for her…we Ketchums are hard-headed to a fault, she may as well have more luck staring down a Primeape than me. "…Tch! As the representative, I do hold the judgement of the Laramie's fate in my hands and my word does hold power unless my brother were to come and overrule me."

Aya thought it over and clicked her tongue once more. "Unfortunately, more important matters hold his attention. So, the decision will fall solely onto me, and…I will withhold said judgment until I've bested or have been bested in battle."

Yes!

"For real?" Lara gasped as her father looked just about ready to fall over in his seat.

"Yes. If Luke Ketchum can best my 3 of pokémon, then I will…partially concede on your punishment." Aya sounded pained for even considering this. "However, this matter wasn't meant to take the whole day." She turned to face me with a chilling glare. "I will grant you 15 minutes to prepare and meet me on the battlefield. If you keep me waiting for long then I will leave and report to my brother to dole out the original punishment, are we clear?"

I met her glare with my own. "Crystal."

"Good. Then shall we, Janine?" Aya left but was not followed closely by her niece. Instead, little Janine still kept her eyes on me while holding onto a picture.

"B-But couldn't I-?" The little girl squeaked.

"Later, Janine." Aya exclaimed. Janine slumped down and dutifully tailed her aunt.

"Okay…degozaru…"

Huh, that worked out we-! My arm once more screamed in pain as I turned to a furious Lara tightly clenching her fist.

"Freaking ow! Haven't I been abused enough today!?" I hissed in pain.

"That was for freakin' me the hell out. And this-" Lara huffed then pulled me into a crushing hug. "Is for sticking your neck out for us…thank you."

"Ergh…" I rolled my bruised arm and patted her back. "Don't mention it."

"Lad, I…I don't know what to say?" Mr. Laramie stalked closer to us; his gratitude shone in his eyes. If Lara wasn't in the middle of Ursaring hugging me to death, I was sure he'd be doing the same about now.

"No need to say anything else sir, I'm just glad to help you." I chuckled and he loudly laughed back.

"Heh! Then I guess the only thing I can do is cheer you on and hope that you beat Koga's little sister!"

"Thanks." I smiled at him as Lara, and I parted. I turned to Brock who was already scouring Battlenet on his pokégear for data on Aya. I didn't need to even ask for his help, he was already deadest on helping me out from the get-go, which made me glad to have him as a friend.

Though something he did find on her did have him a little concerned. "Um…Luke. You might want to see this…" I walked to his side to view the screen of his pokégear and what exactly he pulled up. No matter how much information and meta-knowledge I brought over from my past life, this new life sure loved to throw a couple of curve balls to show me how utterly different things were from the games and anime.

This surprise was unexpected yet totally expected when you looked at the grand scheme of things.

"So, Aya is ranked #35 on the ACE trainer Leaderboards, huh." For a 15-year-old that's impressively high, and since she's the little sister of Koga that meant that she's going be just much of a pain to battle like him.

"Welp, at least this battle will be a fun one." I chuckled. "But just to be safe…" I stepped out the front door and shouted out. "Ay, Asch! Get your butt over here, we're fighting!"

*ROOOOOOOOAR!*

Good, he was now sufficiently riled up to battle. Now who else should I use against an Expert leveled poison-typed trainer?