"This place is a great spot for training, but it's really not somewhere a person can move around easily."
"Without a ride Pokémon, getting anywhere in here is practically impossible!"
Sheltered behind a barrier made of two angled blue energy walls, David shook his head as he peered out at the wind-battered path ahead.
"Zoro~"
The Zorua on his shoulder nodded vigorously in agreement.
That sudden gust — coming from seemingly out of nowhere — had nearly knocked it clean off. It had reacted just in time to dig its claws in, but the wind had still managed to ruffle the fur David had carefully groomed for it that very morning.
David had entered the Secret Realm from the eastern edge. To reach Thousand Winds Mountain at the center, he had to pass through the Headwind Corridor — and that had been intentional. Compared to any other route, the Headwind Corridor was considered the safest and most manageable approach.
Even so, the opposing air currents along the way had been a constant headache. Despite following the pre-planned route on his map to avoid the worst of the strong wind zones, the journey was still significantly slower than he had hoped.
Like right now — a sudden opposing air current had forced him to call on his Aura to hold his ground. That was also the reason David had come without a ride Pokémon in the first place. His Aura gave him an edge most Trainers simply didn't have.
Before winter break, even with his Aura, fighting winds like these would have required a full-body burst — a technique that was difficult to maintain for any length of time and would never have lasted the entire distance from the outer edge to the mountain's center.
But during the winter break, his grandfather had passed down an ancestral inheritance to him, and David's understanding of Aura had taken a real step forward. He moved past the old brute-force approach and finally had a structured method to draw on. It was only then that David truly felt he could call himself an Aura User.
The barrier he was projecting now, for instance, was one of the techniques described in that inheritance. Maintaining a focused energy barrier consumed far less Aura than a full-body burst. At his current level, as long as the barrier wasn't hit by any external attack and was only being used to block wind, his Aura recovered almost as fast as he spent it.
In other words, if he wanted to, David could keep this barrier up indefinitely.
"It would be really convenient if there were a teleporter near Thousand Winds Mountain," David muttered as he pushed steadily through the wind. "Would save a lot of trouble."
He knew perfectly well why that wasn't possible, though. The entire value of the Thousand Winds Secret Realm came from its special environment and what it offered Pokémon training. Most Trainers came here for exactly that reason. Visitors like David — who had no Pokémon currently in active training and had come with a different goal in mind — were the exception, not the rule. There was no practical reason for the Alliance to install a shortcut for such a small group.
Beyond that, Thousand Winds Mountain itself was the energy core of the entire Secret Realm. The dense, chaotic Flying-type energy swirling around the summit would badly disrupt any teleportation point placed nearby. For basic safety reasons, arrival points had to be set far from that area.
David had been planning to push on through the wind regardless, but this particular gust showed no sign of letting up. Unlike the ones he had dealt with before, it kept building — stronger and stronger by the minute.
"Of all the timing..." he muttered, glancing sideways at Zorua.
After a few more grumbles, he gave up trying to wait it out and found a sheltered rock cave nearby, ducking inside to wait.
From inside the cave, he watched the wind tear through the open path outside. Some of the trees that had clearly weathered years of abuse in this corridor were being uprooted now, roots and all.
"Lucky I didn't try to push through that."
He let out a quiet breath. If he had kept going, things could have gotten genuinely bad. Zorua, perched beside him, nodded with wide eyes. Even it had never seen wind like this — and given that it had barely managed to hold on during the far milder gusts earlier, that was saying something.
Despite being stuck waiting, David found himself in good spirits once he thought it through.
All the air currents in the Thousand Winds Secret Realm originated from Thousand Winds Mountain. If today's wind was this powerful, it meant the Flying-type energy at the mountain's summit would be especially active. For Shelgon's evolution, that was excellent news.
After nearly half an hour sheltering in the cave, the wind finally began to ease. David and Zorua set off again.
As for why he hadn't simply ridden Shelgon — the terrain here wasn't suitable for large, ground-based Pokémon. An ordinary Shelgon might have managed, but David's was far larger and heavier than average. The Headwind Corridor's rocky, uneven ground, with gusts hitting from every direction, was not the kind of terrain it could navigate safely.
Stopping and starting, waiting out the worst of the wind along the way, David spent most of the morning crossing the Headwind Corridor — and even then, he only made it in that time because the Thousand Winds Secret Realm was relatively compact in size.
Unranked it might be, but the Realm matched some high-ranking Secret Realms in terms of rarity and value. In terms of sheer area, though, it was roughly on par with the F-rank beginner Secret Realms David had first explored when he started out.
Standing at the foot of Thousand Winds Mountain, David looked up at the towering peak disappearing into the clouds above and shook his head.
Without a Flying-type ride, very few Trainers would bother attempting the summit.
And his Flying-type ride was exactly what was waiting for him up there, on the other side of Shelgon's evolution.
He stood there for a moment, then something clicked.
Instead of heading toward the mountain path maintained by the Alliance, David walked around the main ridge of Thousand Winds Mountain until he reached a sheer cliff face.
The rock wall was almost completely smooth — polished by years of relentless wind — with only a few protruding ledges breaking the otherwise bare surface.
"Your turn, Kirlia!"
David unclipped a Poké Ball from his belt and released his Kirlia.
"Kirlia~ (Is something the matter?)"
Kirlia appeared, took a quick look around at its surroundings, and turned to David with a curious tilt of its head.
David brought it to the base of the cliff and began explaining what he had in mind, pointing at the mountain wall as he spoke. Kirlia listened with full attention, its small head nodding along as it followed his reasoning.
It understood quickly.
David recalled Zorua back into its Poké Ball.
A moment later, once it had grasped what David was asking, Kirlia clapped its hands together with a confident little nod, as if to say: Leave it to me.
David stepped back and said nothing, content to wait and watch.
Above him, the peak of Thousand Winds Mountain vanished somewhere high above into the clouds.