Kobayakawa Sena (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
swiftasacoursingkawa) wrote2022-02-16 11:49 am
swiftasacoursingkawa) wrote2022-02-16 11:49 am
[azume] post-game unovadventures part 6
nimbasa time
Hilbert was reaching a point where he was starting to feel comfortable in his journey. He’d gotten three badges, and he’d managed to make his way over to Nimbasa City, a loud, bombastic place that was considered to be a major landmark in any sort of journey, no matter how trivial. The lights and sounds certainly were dazzling, and his Dewott looked almost overwhelmed, glancing about with sparkling eyes. There were many places to explore, but Hilbert, naturally, had his eye on the Gym and its famous leader.
Still, the fun was in the journey, and there certainly was no problem with spending some time taking in the sights. Hilbert had gotten a taste for exploring the nooks and crannies of a town back in Castelia City, where every winding alley and side street had been an adventure. Running into Bianca, who was equally excited to explore the city thoroughly, only made him more excited to look around. She had her eyes set on the Pokemon Musical, which was one of the more popular attractions. Dewott was clearly fascinated by the accessories set on display, tugging on Bianca’s Pignite to join them in looking. Said Pignite was trying hard to mask their own interest, but Hilbert could see the wagging tail and glittering eyes.
Today was their lucky day, it seemed, as the owner himself was at the reception desk, presumably doing some sort of inspection. He was immediately enamored with their Pokemon partners, and the two of them were presented with a prop case. The owner was even kind enough to watch them as they and their Pokemon went through the cases to dress them up, complimenting their amateurish attempts at dolling up their partners and encouraging them to try entering a Musical. Bianca was a little too distracted by the other possible sights she could see in Nimbasa to stay still, and decided to immediately leave the building to explore the city further. Hilbert instead opted to look around the building a little more, asking more about how musicals worked. They were interesting enough that he considered entering one or two - after finishing up at the gym first, of course!
Exiting the theatre dashed all his plans to nothing, however, on spotting Bianca in a heated argument with her father. Seeing the balding, middle-aged man standing in the middle of the street briefly rendered him stuck in shock: he’d seriously come all the way here, just to harangue his daughter into coming home? They were making a scene, yelling at each other in the middle of the street like that. And Bianca…her expression spoke of volumes of hurt, hearing her father dismiss her accomplishments like they were nothing. Like she was still weak, needing to be protected. That, at least, didn’t seem to have changed from the other times he’d seen her dad unintentionally talk down to her in his overprotectiveness.
What was different, however, was how Bianca stood. Instead of shying away, expressing her numerous doubts, she was standing upright, staring her father straight in the eye as she countered her father, furiously shouting to let her do things her own way.
Hilbert came up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. A silent show of support, but also a question: did she need him to-? She shook her head no.
“It’s fine, Hilbert! No matter what my dad says, I’m not going back yet! I still haven’t figured out what I want to do! And I’ve got Pokemon by my side, so I’ll be fine!” She pumped both her fists determinedly, her Pignite behind her doing the same. Seeing that she wouldn’t be cowed, Hilbert huffed a sigh of relief.
“Well said!” a bright, yet somehow graceful voice interrupted them, cutting through the tension before anyone could say anything more. In unison, everyone turned to face the direction it came from, only to be blinded by how dazzling this person seemed to be.
The first word that came to mind was tall. Hilbert was no stranger to tall people (N came to mind), but this person seemed to carry their figure with such grace and poise that she towered over them, like Castelia’s tallest skyscraper. From the high, high heels, to the lob, slim legs, to the strange antennae-like hair ornaments they wore, everything they wore seemed to emphasize the slim figure.
“And who are you to butt into our business?!” Bianca’s dad growled out, trying hard to avoid looking awed by this sudden interruption. From what Hilbert could see, he wasn’t very successful. “This is a family matter!”
“It kinda stops being a family matter when you’re yelling in the middle of the street for everyone to see, though…” a soft voice muttered quietly, caught between a mix of exasperation and embarrassment. Hilbert whipped his head around at the familiar sound, surprised to see Sena standing a few paces away from Elesa, apparently having been walking with her at the time. At a second glance, it seemed obvious that Hilbert hadn’t noticed him before - he was practically dwarfed by the woman, his presence perfectly masked by her dramatic interruption and her alluring aura. He only stepped back further as Elesa instead came forward, glancing between Bianca and her father.
“My name is Elesa. I’m the Gym Leader of this city,” Hilbert found himself unconsciously sucking in a breath, “and I’m also a model.”
The reveal got Bianca’s father to pucker his own lips in silence, at least, which gave Elesa the chance to approach Bianca uninterrupted, the younger girl flushing at the close contact.
“You know…there are many people in this world, all with their own point of view. Some will inevitably differ from yours, and you could get hurt.”
“That’s exactly it!” Bianca’s father suddenly interrupted, clearly not knowing (or caring) that he wasn’t being addressed. Both Hilbert and Sena sent identical exasperated glances his way, only to be ignored as he focused entirely on his daughter with pleading eyes. “It’s not safe for her, this journey! Hasn’t she gone far enough?”
“No way!” Bianca snapped out, frowning. “I’m going to keep travelling - with Hilbert, Cheren, and my Pokemon! There’s still so much I haven’t seen yet! Even if I get hurt, even if I’m scared, I…I want to keep going!”
How far had she come, Hilbert found himself thinking, from that girl who nearly scared herself out of her Pokemon journey from the mere thought of bad weather. From jumping at imagined omens, to curiously exploring, heedless of fears. Maybe this was the kind of growth a Pokemon Journey was supposed to inspire. This confidence.
It was so easy to see in Bianca now, but what about him? What had he gained from this journey so far? It felt like Hilbert was only acquiring more and more questions, with answers that seemed almost impossible to find.
“Bianca…” Her father looked just as surprised by this sudden outburst as Hilbert himself did, clearly not expecting his beloved daughter to completely reject going home. “But, it’s dangerous…”
“And like the young lady said before,” Elesa responded, “She’ll be fine. She has Pokemon with her. The fact that they’ve already gotten this far together…shouldn’t you be supporting that? Be proud of that?”
“I promise I’ll come back some day, Dad,” Bianca added on, starting to fidget. “But not until I figure out what I want to do. There’s so many possibilities that I’ve seen when traveling with Pignite, and there’s so much more I want to see! I’m not scared anymore, Dad! You don’t have to worry!”
Her father looked conflicted, but slowly, his expression grew more gentle.
“I’m going to worry, regardless…” He let out a rueful chuckle. “But trying to force my opinion on you is its own selfishness, isn’t it. If I’m so worried about other people’s thoughts hurting you…I shouldn’t do so myself, I suppose.”
“Dad!” Bianca looked ready to cry out of relief.
“Your words and that Gym Leader woke me up, it seems. I won’t bother you about this anymore, Bianca. But you will come back safe, won’t you?”
“Of course!” She launched herself at her dad, hugging him tightly before he realized what was happening. “I love you lots, Dad!” Her dad seemed taken aback by the sudden display of affection, stiffening in surprise before relaxing and hugging his daughter back.
“I love you too, Bianca. As much as I worry, please know that I really will be proud of you no matter what you decide to do. Okay?”
“Of course!” Bianca sniffled, squeezing harder for a brief moment before finally letting go. “Just wait, dad! You’ll be amazed when you see what I can do!”
“I already am,” the man murmured ruefully, softly enough that only Bianca could hear clearly. She flushed red in delight, her Pignite next to her huffing smoke from its nostrils in pride. They continued to talk for a few moments longer, before bidding their farewells.
“If that’s settled, I can walk you to the station,” Elesa volunteered, garnering an embarrassed reaction from Bianca’s father.
“I couldn’t ask that of you, I couldn’t take up yours or that young man’s time…”
“It’s fine!” Sena shrugged, looking awkward at having been brought up. “We’d just finished up with a gym challenge and both happened to be heading in the same direction, is all! Besides, I wouldn’t mind catching up with old friends.” He jerked his head in Bianca and Hilbert’s direction, his smile growing a little sheepish. Bianca’s father and Elesa seemed to accept this reasoning, as they nodded back at him and departed, both waving as they headed down the street. The three remaining trainers waved back until they were out of sight, at which Sena let out a sigh of relief.
“Ahaha…so we meet again, huh? I would have liked it to be less awkward, but ah…”
Hilbert nodded, while Bianca laughed in delight.
“It’s fine!” she chirped. “It all ended well, didn’t it? I can keep journeying, and daddy understands me now!”
“That’s a relief, isn’t it?” Sena smiled warmly, shifting his weight onto one foot. “I’m happy for you. You’re luckier than you know.”
He sounded a little wistful, and both Bianca and Hilbert picked up on the tone. Was he…sad?
“Did you…do you not talk with your parents, or something?” The question from Bianca seemed to alarm him, as he yelped and began waving his hands in front of his face frantically.
“It’s nothing like that! I totally still talk with them and everything!” He giggled nervously, sweat beading on his forehead. “Although I guess it didn’t used to be like that. When I first started playing on a team, I’d actually kept it a secret from almost everyone.”
“Why?” Bianca glanced at him curiously. “Were you not allowed to play sports, or something?”
“Not exactly.” Sena shrugged. “Part of it was because the team captain wanted to keep my identity secret, but…it’s more like people thought that I couldn’t play sports. I used to be pretty timid, you know?”
“Timid? You?!” Bianca gasped, exaggeratingly putting both hands on her cheeks. She hadn’t seen Sena stand up to N before, but even the first meeting with him back in Nuvema Town had given her the impression that he was a competent trainer, at the very least. Experienced and brave enough to go on his own Pokemon Journey, something that had seemed so daunting to her at the time. Even if she was a more confident trainer now, the first impression was something very hard to shake.
Hilbert, however, remembered.
“I mean, I used to be the kind of person that would run away from even the slightest chance of getting hurt.”
Still, just because he remembered didn’t mean Hilbert wasn’t curious. He stared up at Sena, who was laughing awkwardly at Bianca’s enthused babbling, wondering just how Sena used to be.
“It wasn’t that big of a deal. I just didn’t stand up for myself, is all. I just accepted whatever was thrown at me, and ran away from what scared me. It got to the point that my parents didn’t expect much of me, and my childhood friend would mother me. Excessively.”
“E…excessively…?” Bianca glanced down in the direction that her dad had gone, which garnered a knowing smile from Sena.
“‘Sports are too dangerous for you, Sena! You just let me take care of things, okay?’” he quipped, voice turning high-pitched and warm. Bianca winced, the unintentionally condescending words clearly opening up old wounds. Sena looked apologetic as he continued.
“Mamo-nee would say that a lot, see. She was used to having to defend me from bullies when we were little. It got to the point that even when other members of the team found out who I was, she didn’t see the obvious. She hadn’t realized she was missing how much I had changed. The things I had to do to keep her from finding out and taking me off the team…” Another bout of sheepish laughter punctuated that statement. “My parents weren’t as bad, they were actually pretty supportive of whatever I tried to do. But I was keeping things a secret from them as well, and that strained things a little…” He shrugged, before loosening up, looking visibly more comfortable.
“Being able to talk honestly with them, share my dreams with them…it was a relief. It lifted the burden of doubt off my shoulders.” Sena grinned at Bianca, a wide, beatific smile that Hilbert hadn’t seen on his face outside of battle. “It’s great, knowing that the people you love are in your corner, right?”
Bianca giggled, matching his grin with one of her own. “Uh-huh!” She fidgeted in place, seemingly chewing on a question. “Is that why you were so confident, coming all the way here?”
“...Now that you mention it, that’s probably at least part of the reason, huh?” Hilbert found himself sweating as Sena tapped at his chin, oblivious to the dumbfounded expression on Hilbert’s face, or the wondering expression on Bianca’s. “I mean, since I didn’t have to worry about what my friends and family thought of me, I could go all out, you know? Since I knew that they would always support me, I didn’t have to worry about winning or losing. I could freely enjoy the thrill of the game.”
“And now it’s the same for me! I don’t have to worry about daddy being upset with me anymore! I can properly journey now and see everything without being scared!”
“That’s the spirit!” Sena cheered her on, pumping a fist. Hilbert couldn’t help but smile at the sight. The bustling streets of Nimbasa City were a far cry from the quaint roads of Nuvema Town where the three of them had taken their first steps, but maybe here was where Bianca’s journey truly could begin. He wondered just how far she would go, what she would see.
“Speaking of you coming here…” Bianca glanced at Sena, who blinked back in confusion. “You did say you were trying to get into Nimba-U, so…didja make it, huh?”
“Well, I passed the enrollment exams, anyway…” Sena waved a hand. “The tryouts for the team are tomorrow, in the Big Stadium. Apparently, they make a big show out of it and everything, so the public’s allowed to come in and watch! So if you wanna come root for me, I ‘d appreciate it!”
He laughed, as if he had just made a joke. Hilbert had taken him seriously, though, so the sudden bout of laughter had surprised him.
“But, um…” Bianca started, putting a finger to her mouth in a thoughtful gesture. “If tryouts are tomorrow, what were you doing at the gym? I thought you’d be practicing on the field!”
“Hah, I thought so too…” Sena slumped forward slightly, putting a hand on his forehead in an exasperated gesture. “Turns out there’s some kind of hazing ritual in some of the Nimba-U teams - you’re supposed to try and take on Elesa’s gym and see if you can reach her for a battle. Apparently she’s an especially popular gym leader, so even though it started out as small dares, it’s become a whole tradition now. She’s even got special-made badges for Nimba-U team members to use for bragging rights.” He tiredly held up a badge between two fingers, a small yellow-and-orange lightning bolt. “Except…”
He laughed weakly, letting his sentence trail away into awkward silence. Bianca and Hilbert glanced at him worriedly as he collected himself, straightening back up.
“You’re both challenging the gyms, yeah?” Both teens nodded in response, growing tense. “They say Elesa’s an eccentric person, both in her career and her daily life. It’s how she’s grown to be so famous as a model, how she’s managed to draw everyone’s attention. That stretches to how she battles, too.”
“The way she acts as a person affects how she battles?” Bianca tilted her head in confusion, glancing over at Hilbert. “I’m not sure if I get how that works…”
Hilbert could. He remembered Sena, with his straightforward words, directly confronting N’s ideals head on with his own. How his Pokemon moved the same way, light on their feet, always moving forward, never stopping.
“Mmm, I guess it would be hard to get if you didn’t see her personally,” Sena mused, crossing his arms and scrunching his face in thought. “Just know that she’s a master of the stage. Both the catwalk and the battlefield. If you’re not careful, you’ll get caught up in her pace and be dazzled by the show.”
Much like Sena himself, Hilbert found himself thinking. He was as different from the model as they come - small and diminutive versus her absurd height; quiet and modest versus her loud, bombastic shows. But he could easily envision Elesa standing straight on the battlefield, shouting out dizzying, confusing commands and running circles around their opponents, like Sena and Shell back in Nuvema. So different, yet so similar.
He wondered what a battle between two such trainers would have looked like.
Bianca had been ignoring Hilbert’s quiet contemplation, instead looking at the badge that Sena held between his fingers, squinting hard. “Um…is there supposed to be something different about it? It looks just like a regular badge to me.”
“That’s because it is a regular badge,” Sena murmured, face flushing red in embarrassment. His face only turned redder when Hilbert and Bianca looked up at him incredulously, and he stammered when giving them his explanation. “Th…the unofficial Bolt Badge for Nimba-U students apparently has their school logo stamped on it, or something? That’s what Elesa said, anyway.”
“Did she run out of those or something?” That seemed like an unlikely explanation, Hilbert thought. After all, if it was the beginning of the school year, and in the middle of all the team tryouts, there was no way Elesa wouldn’t have a surplus of custom-made Nimba-U badges. Even Bianca seemed to notice the discrepancy as the question left her mouth, and her mouth twisted in an awkward frown.
“No, um.” Sena placed one hand on his face and began to mumble into his palm, his body sagging more and more as he spoke. “Elesa, kinda, um…demanded that the challenge count as an official match. Before I knew it, I was sending out all my Pokemon for a six-on-six match…”
“A full match?!”
It was common knowledge that gym leaders had different teams that they saved for trainers of different skill levels. But even officially sanctioned gym matches never went longer than a five-versus-five bout. Six-on-six was something saved for league-level matches, or some special exhibition. As league officials whose purpose was to test and evaluate trainers, gym leaders didn’t often pull out all the stops. Most trainers didn’t even have a full team of six, even when they were seriously competing; so even in the rare situation where a gym leader engaged in a six on six match, it was often against another League official, as opposed to a challenging trainer.
Was Sena aware of how ridiculous his story sounded? How rare of an occasion he’d stumbled into? He must have, as his hand had yet to leave his face, and he was hastily stuffing his gym badge out of sight.
“Like I said, she’s really good at getting you caught up into her pace,” he conceded once the embarrassment had settled. “You should watch out, if you don’t want to be star-struck.”
Hilbert felt it was a little too late for that. He was already looking ahead, dreaming of a time where he too, could push a gym leader to their very limits. A time where he had a full team of six Pokemon, all of them in sync, all of them striving for victory together as they snatched victory from the most grueling trials a gym leader had to offer.
It was a dazzling vision.
—-------
finally, nimbasa! hello nimbasa
i tried to keep bianca's argument with her father as close to canon as possible, but the script for it felt a little clunky if I just directly transcribed it. i wanted to give bianca a little more agency when convincing her dad, instead of elesa doing all the legwork.
sena 🤝 bianca : confronting overprotective parental figures with the truth that they're not timid and don't need protection anymore and they've found out what they've wanted to do
👏college👏hazing👏rituals👏
listen if you had a highly competitive sports team and the local gym leader was a hot model who can and would kick your ass (both irl and in pokemon battles) there absolutely would be dares involving sneaking into her gym and/or catwalk, you cannot convince me otherwise. elesa's just smart like that and made it a publicity stunt thing. she gets sponsored by the university and everything.
i like to think sena accidentally goes back to the original breaking and entering dares because he comes in the gym and challenges it and doesn't realize that she's out, so when he finishes the gym rollercoaster gauntlet and doesn't find her there he leaves and then accidentally breaks into the fashion show she's hosting next door. because he got roped into doing a favor for one of the employees, as he does. and through a series of events he accidentally ends up facing down elesa on the catwalk while apologizing for ruining her show; and elesa being elesa thinks it's hilarious and also a peak way to show off her fashion line, she can and will battle sena while also walking the catwalk and you cant stop her, her outfits look the best when she's showing off her pokemon anyway and the crowd loves it. this is probably what starts her gym format change in b2w2.
sena is so fucking sorry anyways and oh god, how did this happen. he is so tired.
anyways after this he totally goes to a cafe to soothe his nerves and he treats hilbert and bianca to a meal too. and also some honey, because that's tradition at this point.
Hilbert was reaching a point where he was starting to feel comfortable in his journey. He’d gotten three badges, and he’d managed to make his way over to Nimbasa City, a loud, bombastic place that was considered to be a major landmark in any sort of journey, no matter how trivial. The lights and sounds certainly were dazzling, and his Dewott looked almost overwhelmed, glancing about with sparkling eyes. There were many places to explore, but Hilbert, naturally, had his eye on the Gym and its famous leader.
Still, the fun was in the journey, and there certainly was no problem with spending some time taking in the sights. Hilbert had gotten a taste for exploring the nooks and crannies of a town back in Castelia City, where every winding alley and side street had been an adventure. Running into Bianca, who was equally excited to explore the city thoroughly, only made him more excited to look around. She had her eyes set on the Pokemon Musical, which was one of the more popular attractions. Dewott was clearly fascinated by the accessories set on display, tugging on Bianca’s Pignite to join them in looking. Said Pignite was trying hard to mask their own interest, but Hilbert could see the wagging tail and glittering eyes.
Today was their lucky day, it seemed, as the owner himself was at the reception desk, presumably doing some sort of inspection. He was immediately enamored with their Pokemon partners, and the two of them were presented with a prop case. The owner was even kind enough to watch them as they and their Pokemon went through the cases to dress them up, complimenting their amateurish attempts at dolling up their partners and encouraging them to try entering a Musical. Bianca was a little too distracted by the other possible sights she could see in Nimbasa to stay still, and decided to immediately leave the building to explore the city further. Hilbert instead opted to look around the building a little more, asking more about how musicals worked. They were interesting enough that he considered entering one or two - after finishing up at the gym first, of course!
Exiting the theatre dashed all his plans to nothing, however, on spotting Bianca in a heated argument with her father. Seeing the balding, middle-aged man standing in the middle of the street briefly rendered him stuck in shock: he’d seriously come all the way here, just to harangue his daughter into coming home? They were making a scene, yelling at each other in the middle of the street like that. And Bianca…her expression spoke of volumes of hurt, hearing her father dismiss her accomplishments like they were nothing. Like she was still weak, needing to be protected. That, at least, didn’t seem to have changed from the other times he’d seen her dad unintentionally talk down to her in his overprotectiveness.
What was different, however, was how Bianca stood. Instead of shying away, expressing her numerous doubts, she was standing upright, staring her father straight in the eye as she countered her father, furiously shouting to let her do things her own way.
Hilbert came up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. A silent show of support, but also a question: did she need him to-? She shook her head no.
“It’s fine, Hilbert! No matter what my dad says, I’m not going back yet! I still haven’t figured out what I want to do! And I’ve got Pokemon by my side, so I’ll be fine!” She pumped both her fists determinedly, her Pignite behind her doing the same. Seeing that she wouldn’t be cowed, Hilbert huffed a sigh of relief.
“Well said!” a bright, yet somehow graceful voice interrupted them, cutting through the tension before anyone could say anything more. In unison, everyone turned to face the direction it came from, only to be blinded by how dazzling this person seemed to be.
The first word that came to mind was tall. Hilbert was no stranger to tall people (N came to mind), but this person seemed to carry their figure with such grace and poise that she towered over them, like Castelia’s tallest skyscraper. From the high, high heels, to the lob, slim legs, to the strange antennae-like hair ornaments they wore, everything they wore seemed to emphasize the slim figure.
“And who are you to butt into our business?!” Bianca’s dad growled out, trying hard to avoid looking awed by this sudden interruption. From what Hilbert could see, he wasn’t very successful. “This is a family matter!”
“It kinda stops being a family matter when you’re yelling in the middle of the street for everyone to see, though…” a soft voice muttered quietly, caught between a mix of exasperation and embarrassment. Hilbert whipped his head around at the familiar sound, surprised to see Sena standing a few paces away from Elesa, apparently having been walking with her at the time. At a second glance, it seemed obvious that Hilbert hadn’t noticed him before - he was practically dwarfed by the woman, his presence perfectly masked by her dramatic interruption and her alluring aura. He only stepped back further as Elesa instead came forward, glancing between Bianca and her father.
“My name is Elesa. I’m the Gym Leader of this city,” Hilbert found himself unconsciously sucking in a breath, “and I’m also a model.”
The reveal got Bianca’s father to pucker his own lips in silence, at least, which gave Elesa the chance to approach Bianca uninterrupted, the younger girl flushing at the close contact.
“You know…there are many people in this world, all with their own point of view. Some will inevitably differ from yours, and you could get hurt.”
“That’s exactly it!” Bianca’s father suddenly interrupted, clearly not knowing (or caring) that he wasn’t being addressed. Both Hilbert and Sena sent identical exasperated glances his way, only to be ignored as he focused entirely on his daughter with pleading eyes. “It’s not safe for her, this journey! Hasn’t she gone far enough?”
“No way!” Bianca snapped out, frowning. “I’m going to keep travelling - with Hilbert, Cheren, and my Pokemon! There’s still so much I haven’t seen yet! Even if I get hurt, even if I’m scared, I…I want to keep going!”
How far had she come, Hilbert found himself thinking, from that girl who nearly scared herself out of her Pokemon journey from the mere thought of bad weather. From jumping at imagined omens, to curiously exploring, heedless of fears. Maybe this was the kind of growth a Pokemon Journey was supposed to inspire. This confidence.
It was so easy to see in Bianca now, but what about him? What had he gained from this journey so far? It felt like Hilbert was only acquiring more and more questions, with answers that seemed almost impossible to find.
“Bianca…” Her father looked just as surprised by this sudden outburst as Hilbert himself did, clearly not expecting his beloved daughter to completely reject going home. “But, it’s dangerous…”
“And like the young lady said before,” Elesa responded, “She’ll be fine. She has Pokemon with her. The fact that they’ve already gotten this far together…shouldn’t you be supporting that? Be proud of that?”
“I promise I’ll come back some day, Dad,” Bianca added on, starting to fidget. “But not until I figure out what I want to do. There’s so many possibilities that I’ve seen when traveling with Pignite, and there’s so much more I want to see! I’m not scared anymore, Dad! You don’t have to worry!”
Her father looked conflicted, but slowly, his expression grew more gentle.
“I’m going to worry, regardless…” He let out a rueful chuckle. “But trying to force my opinion on you is its own selfishness, isn’t it. If I’m so worried about other people’s thoughts hurting you…I shouldn’t do so myself, I suppose.”
“Dad!” Bianca looked ready to cry out of relief.
“Your words and that Gym Leader woke me up, it seems. I won’t bother you about this anymore, Bianca. But you will come back safe, won’t you?”
“Of course!” She launched herself at her dad, hugging him tightly before he realized what was happening. “I love you lots, Dad!” Her dad seemed taken aback by the sudden display of affection, stiffening in surprise before relaxing and hugging his daughter back.
“I love you too, Bianca. As much as I worry, please know that I really will be proud of you no matter what you decide to do. Okay?”
“Of course!” Bianca sniffled, squeezing harder for a brief moment before finally letting go. “Just wait, dad! You’ll be amazed when you see what I can do!”
“I already am,” the man murmured ruefully, softly enough that only Bianca could hear clearly. She flushed red in delight, her Pignite next to her huffing smoke from its nostrils in pride. They continued to talk for a few moments longer, before bidding their farewells.
“If that’s settled, I can walk you to the station,” Elesa volunteered, garnering an embarrassed reaction from Bianca’s father.
“I couldn’t ask that of you, I couldn’t take up yours or that young man’s time…”
“It’s fine!” Sena shrugged, looking awkward at having been brought up. “We’d just finished up with a gym challenge and both happened to be heading in the same direction, is all! Besides, I wouldn’t mind catching up with old friends.” He jerked his head in Bianca and Hilbert’s direction, his smile growing a little sheepish. Bianca’s father and Elesa seemed to accept this reasoning, as they nodded back at him and departed, both waving as they headed down the street. The three remaining trainers waved back until they were out of sight, at which Sena let out a sigh of relief.
“Ahaha…so we meet again, huh? I would have liked it to be less awkward, but ah…”
Hilbert nodded, while Bianca laughed in delight.
“It’s fine!” she chirped. “It all ended well, didn’t it? I can keep journeying, and daddy understands me now!”
“That’s a relief, isn’t it?” Sena smiled warmly, shifting his weight onto one foot. “I’m happy for you. You’re luckier than you know.”
He sounded a little wistful, and both Bianca and Hilbert picked up on the tone. Was he…sad?
“Did you…do you not talk with your parents, or something?” The question from Bianca seemed to alarm him, as he yelped and began waving his hands in front of his face frantically.
“It’s nothing like that! I totally still talk with them and everything!” He giggled nervously, sweat beading on his forehead. “Although I guess it didn’t used to be like that. When I first started playing on a team, I’d actually kept it a secret from almost everyone.”
“Why?” Bianca glanced at him curiously. “Were you not allowed to play sports, or something?”
“Not exactly.” Sena shrugged. “Part of it was because the team captain wanted to keep my identity secret, but…it’s more like people thought that I couldn’t play sports. I used to be pretty timid, you know?”
“Timid? You?!” Bianca gasped, exaggeratingly putting both hands on her cheeks. She hadn’t seen Sena stand up to N before, but even the first meeting with him back in Nuvema Town had given her the impression that he was a competent trainer, at the very least. Experienced and brave enough to go on his own Pokemon Journey, something that had seemed so daunting to her at the time. Even if she was a more confident trainer now, the first impression was something very hard to shake.
Hilbert, however, remembered.
“I mean, I used to be the kind of person that would run away from even the slightest chance of getting hurt.”
Still, just because he remembered didn’t mean Hilbert wasn’t curious. He stared up at Sena, who was laughing awkwardly at Bianca’s enthused babbling, wondering just how Sena used to be.
“It wasn’t that big of a deal. I just didn’t stand up for myself, is all. I just accepted whatever was thrown at me, and ran away from what scared me. It got to the point that my parents didn’t expect much of me, and my childhood friend would mother me. Excessively.”
“E…excessively…?” Bianca glanced down in the direction that her dad had gone, which garnered a knowing smile from Sena.
“‘Sports are too dangerous for you, Sena! You just let me take care of things, okay?’” he quipped, voice turning high-pitched and warm. Bianca winced, the unintentionally condescending words clearly opening up old wounds. Sena looked apologetic as he continued.
“Mamo-nee would say that a lot, see. She was used to having to defend me from bullies when we were little. It got to the point that even when other members of the team found out who I was, she didn’t see the obvious. She hadn’t realized she was missing how much I had changed. The things I had to do to keep her from finding out and taking me off the team…” Another bout of sheepish laughter punctuated that statement. “My parents weren’t as bad, they were actually pretty supportive of whatever I tried to do. But I was keeping things a secret from them as well, and that strained things a little…” He shrugged, before loosening up, looking visibly more comfortable.
“Being able to talk honestly with them, share my dreams with them…it was a relief. It lifted the burden of doubt off my shoulders.” Sena grinned at Bianca, a wide, beatific smile that Hilbert hadn’t seen on his face outside of battle. “It’s great, knowing that the people you love are in your corner, right?”
Bianca giggled, matching his grin with one of her own. “Uh-huh!” She fidgeted in place, seemingly chewing on a question. “Is that why you were so confident, coming all the way here?”
“...Now that you mention it, that’s probably at least part of the reason, huh?” Hilbert found himself sweating as Sena tapped at his chin, oblivious to the dumbfounded expression on Hilbert’s face, or the wondering expression on Bianca’s. “I mean, since I didn’t have to worry about what my friends and family thought of me, I could go all out, you know? Since I knew that they would always support me, I didn’t have to worry about winning or losing. I could freely enjoy the thrill of the game.”
“And now it’s the same for me! I don’t have to worry about daddy being upset with me anymore! I can properly journey now and see everything without being scared!”
“That’s the spirit!” Sena cheered her on, pumping a fist. Hilbert couldn’t help but smile at the sight. The bustling streets of Nimbasa City were a far cry from the quaint roads of Nuvema Town where the three of them had taken their first steps, but maybe here was where Bianca’s journey truly could begin. He wondered just how far she would go, what she would see.
“Speaking of you coming here…” Bianca glanced at Sena, who blinked back in confusion. “You did say you were trying to get into Nimba-U, so…didja make it, huh?”
“Well, I passed the enrollment exams, anyway…” Sena waved a hand. “The tryouts for the team are tomorrow, in the Big Stadium. Apparently, they make a big show out of it and everything, so the public’s allowed to come in and watch! So if you wanna come root for me, I ‘d appreciate it!”
He laughed, as if he had just made a joke. Hilbert had taken him seriously, though, so the sudden bout of laughter had surprised him.
“But, um…” Bianca started, putting a finger to her mouth in a thoughtful gesture. “If tryouts are tomorrow, what were you doing at the gym? I thought you’d be practicing on the field!”
“Hah, I thought so too…” Sena slumped forward slightly, putting a hand on his forehead in an exasperated gesture. “Turns out there’s some kind of hazing ritual in some of the Nimba-U teams - you’re supposed to try and take on Elesa’s gym and see if you can reach her for a battle. Apparently she’s an especially popular gym leader, so even though it started out as small dares, it’s become a whole tradition now. She’s even got special-made badges for Nimba-U team members to use for bragging rights.” He tiredly held up a badge between two fingers, a small yellow-and-orange lightning bolt. “Except…”
He laughed weakly, letting his sentence trail away into awkward silence. Bianca and Hilbert glanced at him worriedly as he collected himself, straightening back up.
“You’re both challenging the gyms, yeah?” Both teens nodded in response, growing tense. “They say Elesa’s an eccentric person, both in her career and her daily life. It’s how she’s grown to be so famous as a model, how she’s managed to draw everyone’s attention. That stretches to how she battles, too.”
“The way she acts as a person affects how she battles?” Bianca tilted her head in confusion, glancing over at Hilbert. “I’m not sure if I get how that works…”
Hilbert could. He remembered Sena, with his straightforward words, directly confronting N’s ideals head on with his own. How his Pokemon moved the same way, light on their feet, always moving forward, never stopping.
“Mmm, I guess it would be hard to get if you didn’t see her personally,” Sena mused, crossing his arms and scrunching his face in thought. “Just know that she’s a master of the stage. Both the catwalk and the battlefield. If you’re not careful, you’ll get caught up in her pace and be dazzled by the show.”
Much like Sena himself, Hilbert found himself thinking. He was as different from the model as they come - small and diminutive versus her absurd height; quiet and modest versus her loud, bombastic shows. But he could easily envision Elesa standing straight on the battlefield, shouting out dizzying, confusing commands and running circles around their opponents, like Sena and Shell back in Nuvema. So different, yet so similar.
He wondered what a battle between two such trainers would have looked like.
Bianca had been ignoring Hilbert’s quiet contemplation, instead looking at the badge that Sena held between his fingers, squinting hard. “Um…is there supposed to be something different about it? It looks just like a regular badge to me.”
“That’s because it is a regular badge,” Sena murmured, face flushing red in embarrassment. His face only turned redder when Hilbert and Bianca looked up at him incredulously, and he stammered when giving them his explanation. “Th…the unofficial Bolt Badge for Nimba-U students apparently has their school logo stamped on it, or something? That’s what Elesa said, anyway.”
“Did she run out of those or something?” That seemed like an unlikely explanation, Hilbert thought. After all, if it was the beginning of the school year, and in the middle of all the team tryouts, there was no way Elesa wouldn’t have a surplus of custom-made Nimba-U badges. Even Bianca seemed to notice the discrepancy as the question left her mouth, and her mouth twisted in an awkward frown.
“No, um.” Sena placed one hand on his face and began to mumble into his palm, his body sagging more and more as he spoke. “Elesa, kinda, um…demanded that the challenge count as an official match. Before I knew it, I was sending out all my Pokemon for a six-on-six match…”
“A full match?!”
It was common knowledge that gym leaders had different teams that they saved for trainers of different skill levels. But even officially sanctioned gym matches never went longer than a five-versus-five bout. Six-on-six was something saved for league-level matches, or some special exhibition. As league officials whose purpose was to test and evaluate trainers, gym leaders didn’t often pull out all the stops. Most trainers didn’t even have a full team of six, even when they were seriously competing; so even in the rare situation where a gym leader engaged in a six on six match, it was often against another League official, as opposed to a challenging trainer.
Was Sena aware of how ridiculous his story sounded? How rare of an occasion he’d stumbled into? He must have, as his hand had yet to leave his face, and he was hastily stuffing his gym badge out of sight.
“Like I said, she’s really good at getting you caught up into her pace,” he conceded once the embarrassment had settled. “You should watch out, if you don’t want to be star-struck.”
Hilbert felt it was a little too late for that. He was already looking ahead, dreaming of a time where he too, could push a gym leader to their very limits. A time where he had a full team of six Pokemon, all of them in sync, all of them striving for victory together as they snatched victory from the most grueling trials a gym leader had to offer.
It was a dazzling vision.
—-------
finally, nimbasa! hello nimbasa
i tried to keep bianca's argument with her father as close to canon as possible, but the script for it felt a little clunky if I just directly transcribed it. i wanted to give bianca a little more agency when convincing her dad, instead of elesa doing all the legwork.
sena 🤝 bianca : confronting overprotective parental figures with the truth that they're not timid and don't need protection anymore and they've found out what they've wanted to do
👏college👏hazing👏rituals👏
listen if you had a highly competitive sports team and the local gym leader was a hot model who can and would kick your ass (both irl and in pokemon battles) there absolutely would be dares involving sneaking into her gym and/or catwalk, you cannot convince me otherwise. elesa's just smart like that and made it a publicity stunt thing. she gets sponsored by the university and everything.
i like to think sena accidentally goes back to the original breaking and entering dares because he comes in the gym and challenges it and doesn't realize that she's out, so when he finishes the gym rollercoaster gauntlet and doesn't find her there he leaves and then accidentally breaks into the fashion show she's hosting next door. because he got roped into doing a favor for one of the employees, as he does. and through a series of events he accidentally ends up facing down elesa on the catwalk while apologizing for ruining her show; and elesa being elesa thinks it's hilarious and also a peak way to show off her fashion line, she can and will battle sena while also walking the catwalk and you cant stop her, her outfits look the best when she's showing off her pokemon anyway and the crowd loves it. this is probably what starts her gym format change in b2w2.
sena is so fucking sorry anyways and oh god, how did this happen. he is so tired.
anyways after this he totally goes to a cafe to soothe his nerves and he treats hilbert and bianca to a meal too. and also some honey, because that's tradition at this point.