The stairs down the tower were worse than the stairs up.
Going up, Kai had been running on nerves, climbing toward something. Going down, all that adrenaline had nowhere left to go, and his knees had started filing complaints with every step. Sandshrew rode his shoulder in silence, claws hooked into the jacket, occasionally bumping its head against his jaw as if to remind him it was still there.
The tower swayed beneath them the whole way, that slow, queasy roll he'd never quite gotten used to. Now, though, it almost felt friendly. Like the building was as tired as he was.
He pushed through the doors at the bottom into a wash of late afternoon light, and the smell of incense and warm stone — and a small, ragged cheer went up.
Kai stopped dead.
They were waiting for him. Marcus was leaning against the gatepost with his arms folded and a grin already breaking across his face. And the three from the academy — the coin-trick boy halfway through a clap, the tall one with his badge still crooked, and the girl, who had her arms crossed but was very clearly trying not to look pleased.
"Well?" Marcus said.
Kai didn't trust his voice for a second. He held up one fist, slowly, and let a grin do the talking.
"NO WAY—" the coin-trick boy shouted, and the cheer got louder.
"He beat the elder," the tall boy said, to no one in particular, like he needed to say it out loud to believe it.
"How?" the girl demanded, stepping forward.
"Sandshrew stole the win for us," Kai said.
She blinked. "Against a Flying type?"
"It's not about type," Kai said, being a little surprised to hear how steady he sounded. "It's about the bond between you and your Pokémon," Kai said, stroking Sandshrew on its head.
Sandshrew puffed up on his shoulder, very smug.
The girl stared at it. Then at Kai. Kai could practically see her mentally crossing out something she'd written in a notebook somewhere and scribbling a correction.
"That's not standard," she said, finally.
"You keep saying that about me," Kai said as he laughed.
"Because you keep doing it."
Marcus laughed and pushed off the gatepost, clapping Kai on the back hard enough to nearly dislodge Sandshrew. "Knew it. Knew it. I told them. Didn't I tell you lot?"
"You said 'wicked strong' about four hundred times," the coin-trick boy said.
"And I was right—"
It went on like that for a minute, the four of them talking over each other, and Kai just let it wash over him. He was too tired out to keep up. But it landed somewhere good, under all the tiredness — the simple fact of people being glad for him. He hadn't had a lot of that since this whole thing started.
The bells rang out somewhere across the city, low and rolling over the rooftops, and the light was starting to go amber on the old stone walls.
"Right," Kai said eventually. "I've got to get this lot healed up. Sandshrew especially. It took a beating up there."
The girl's expression sharpened back into business. "You're challenging Falkner next, right?"
"Tomorrow," Kai said with a confident nod.
She nodded, like this was the correct answer. "Good luck... He's stronger than the elder, from what I hear."
"I'll try my best," Kai said, and meant it as a joke, but it came out almost serious.
"Alright, class, gather up its time to go back to the academy." The teacher said, giving the signal for Marcus and the others to head off.
"You can do it, Kai. I know you can." He then said with a nod.
"Yeah, no way you are gonna lose." The coin-trick boy added.
The girl crossed her arms and turned her back, a slight blush across her face.
"Make sure you don't leave before you tell us what happened." She said, walking off, getting a surprise from the others.
"Yeah, don't leave before you let us know how it went!" Marcus said, waving goodbye to Kai and Sandshrew as he and the others ran back to their school group, leaving Kai and Sandshrew alone.
---
The Pokémon Centre glowed at the end of the street, that warm, familiar light spilling out through the glass doors. Kai had stopped finding the sight of it strange a long time ago. Now it just meant safe. It meant a roof and a meal and somebody who knew how to fix what he couldn't.
The automatic doors hissed open, and the warmth hit him — clean, slightly antiseptic, with that faint hum of machines working in the back.
Nurse Joy looked up from the counter, and her smile was the same one he remembered from the day he'd first walked into the city. "Welcome back. Long day?"
"You have no idea," Kai said, unclipping his belt and laying the Poké Balls out on the counter one by one. Sandshrew climbed down off his shoulder and onto the desk itself, swaying slightly, suddenly looking every bit as exhausted as it had to be.
Nurse Joy's eyes softened. "Sprout Tower?" She asked, seeming to read his mind.
"Yeah, I beat the elder."
"Did you really? Very impressive, young man." She came around the counter and crouched, holding out a hand to Sandshrew. It leaned into her palm without hesitation, which it would never have done a few weeks ago, and Kai felt something pull tight in his chest at that. "You're a brave little thing, aren't you. Don't worry. We'll have you sorted in no time."
"My Pokémon are pretty banged up," Kai admitted. "Confusion threw them around pretty hard."
"I'll keep them in overnight to be safe," she said, scooping Sandshrew up gently and settling it into a padded tray. "Nothing serious — just rest and proper care. You can collect them in the morning, good as new." She glanced at him. "And you look like you could do with a bed yourself."
"I was going to ask about a room, actually."
"Already done." She tapped at the screen, having taken his trainer card. "Registered trainer, — you've earned it. Room's on the second floor. Food's through there whenever you're ready, for you and the team both, once they're cleared."
Kai looked at Sandshrew in its tray. It looked back at him, blinked slowly, and let its eyes drift shut.
"Get some sleep, buddy," he said quietly. "You earned it more than I did."
---
The room was small and clean and almost unbearably comfortable after the floor of a swaying wooden tower. Kai sat on the edge of the bed for a while, just being still, the window cracked open so the night air and the last of the bells could get in.
His mind wouldn't switch off, though.
It kept circling back to Silver.
Silver had defeated the elder and then thrown a rope over the balcony and dropped down the side of the tower like the front door wasn't good enough for him, after looking at Kai with that flat, cold contempt and promising he'd deal with Kai another time.
So Silver was here. In Violet City. Right now, probably. Somewhere out there in the same dark streets.
What was he doing? Was he challenging Falkner, too? He had to be — that's what the badge was for, why else climb the Tower? But there'd been something else in his face up there, something past ambition. Something hungrier and meaner than just wanting to win. Kai had grown up knowing Silver as a sprite, a rival you bumped into at scripted intervals, who said his lines and walked away. This Silver wasn't following a script. This Silver wanted things and didn't care who he hurt to get them.
Kai pushed the thought away. Couldn't do anything about Silver tonight. Couldn't do anything about him until he showed up — and he would, eventually. He always did somehow.
Falkner... Focus on Falkner.
Kai lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, running it through.
Flying types. Pidgey, almost certainly, maybe a Hoothoot? And a Pidgeotto last — that was the roster he remembered. In the game, it had been simple. But fighting him for real would not be the case.
There were no levels here. No grinding. Just his team, exactly as good as he'd made them, and a Gym Leader who, by all accounts, knew exactly how to keep his birds out of reach.
Kai had to wonder if a Pokémon's stats were a thing. Or did they simply just grow stronger from training like he would? Something he was still figuring out.
Sandshrew was a Ground type. Against something in the air — Rollout would come in handy just as it had with the elders Noctowl. Rattata was fast, but fast along the ground. Snubbull hit hard, but wasn't going anywhere near a flying target. Zubat could actually fly, could meet a bird in its own sky— if it were strong enough to tangle with bigger birds...
He sat up a little.
Zubat. Supersonic. Confuse the thing in mid-air, where confusion meant losing track of its senses. That could work. That could actually—
Kai grabbed the notepad off the bedside table and a stub of pencil and started writing. Matchups. Angles. Who to lead with, who to hold back. Ways to bring a bird down, because if he could just get them to ground level for a second, everything changed...
Soon enough,h the bells had stopped, and the city had gone quiet outside the cracked window. Somewhere down the corrido,r a machine hummed softly, mending his Pokémon while they slept.
Kai wrote until his eyes wouldn't stay open. Then he put the pencil down, switched off the lamp, and lay in the dark with his mind finally at rest after a busy day of battling.
---
That's the end of the chapter. First gym next — let's get that Zephyr Badge! Drop a like and a review if you're enjoying the journey so far.