“Spiiiike!”

On his way to school the next day, Spike heard a young female voice calling out to him. Turning toward the voice, he saw a familiar redhead charging toward him with an ecstatic smile on her face.

“Oh? Who is this girl, Dilon?” Mara asked him since she had been walking him to school for months now but had never seen this girl before.

Before Spike could answer, the girl stopped in front of them and almost tripped because of her momentum. Shooting him a toothy grin, she asked, “Guess what, Spike?!”

“Your egg hatched?”

“My egg ha- EH?! How’d you know?!”

“...Lucky guess.”

Flannery pouted at his reply and grumbled, “You’re no fun. It was supposed to surprise you.”

“Are you Dilon’s friend, young lady? What’s your name?” Mara asked.

“Oh, hi! I’m Flannery,” The redhead answered almost on instinct. Then, she smiled widely again and asked, “Are you Spike’s mom?”

“I am,” Mara replied while looking back and forth between the two kids.

At that moment, Flannery finally noticed Aria poking her head out over Spike’s shoulder from his backpack, and her jaw dropped. Pointing at the Ralts, she stuttered, “Y- you already have another Pokemon!”

Ares snorted at the girl’s reaction. On the other hand, Spike simply nodded before looking up to see a lady around Mara’s age in a black summer dress trotting over while lifting her skirt off the ground. Based on her red ponytail, he assumed she was related to Flannery in some way. Mara also noticed the woman and came to a similar conclusion.

“Huff… huff… Flannery, why did you run off like that?” The woman asked, startling the little redhead into turning around.

“Sorry, mom. I wanted to surprise Spike with my Pokemon… though he wasn’t surprised at all. Hmph.”

“Hm? You’re the classmate my daughter keeps talking about?”

Mara raised a brow out of pure amusement. Meanwhile, Spike shrugged and answered, “I’m the only one who goes by Spike at school, so probably. Nice to meet you, Flannery’s mom.”

“Mhm. Nice to meet you too,” The woman replied with a polite smile before looking at Mara and asking, “And you are his mother, I assume?

“Yes. My name is Mara. Nice to meet you.”

“My name is Carrie. Nice to meet you as well.”

While the two ladies introduced themselves to each other, Flannery stared Spike in the eyes and said, “Hey, Spike. Let’s battle.”

“Not now. We’ll be late for school,” Spike replied as he started walking again.

Lips pressing together into a pout, Flannery started following him and said, “Then let’s battle at recess or after school.”

“Remember I said to train first?”

“Please?”

“...Maybe.”

Meanwhile, the two mothers followed from a short distance behind their kids. Despite just meeting for the first time, they found a few topics of common ground to talk about. Spike raised a brow when the two decided to go grab breakfast at a cafe after dropping him and Flannery off at school.

Watching Mara's back as she left with Flannery’s mother, Spike thought, ‘This is good. Hopefully they can become friends. She seemed a bit lonely recently.’

* * *

The second recess began, Flannery jumped up from her chair and ran over to Spike’s desk, causing him to sigh. She slapped her hands down on his desk and said, “Let’s battle now.”

“You’re way too eager,” Spike grumbled. Honestly, he didn’t mind spending time with her, but he found her current stubbornness in asking for a battle somewhat overbearing. Hoping a loss could calm her down, he suggested, “Fine, but ask Miss Johanna if it’s okay, first.”

“Yes! I’ll be right back!”

When the girl darted off to talk to the teacher, Spike couldn’t help chuckling to himself. Then, he thoughtfully rubbed his chin and looked at Aria who was sitting on his desk and doodling with his pencil.

“Aria, do you want to try battling?”

The Ralts stopped her doodling and looked up at him without saying anything. She turned her head, stared at Flannery who was excitedly talking to Miss Johanna, and then looked back at Spike again.

“Ri, Riolu?”

“You can battle if Aria doesn’t want to. To be honest, I’m afraid you’ll knock out her Pokemon right away without any effort since it probably just hatched yesterday.”

Ares’ ears drooped in disappointment before looking out the window with a forlorn expression.

Chuckling at his partner’s reaction, Spike said, “I’ll be depending on you if Aria doesn’t want to battle, though.”

“Ri,” Ares grumbled with a small nod.

“So, what do you think, Aria? Do you want to try battling? It’s fine if you don’t want to. Not everyone is a battle junkie like Ares here.”

“Riolu,” Ares complained in response to his comment.

Ignoring the Riolu’s complaint since he could tell his buddy wasn’t serious, Spike focused on the silent Aria. Although not quite to the extent of what a Ralts could do, his training over the last couple months was starting to show results, and he could gauge emotions or intentions on a superficial level now. At this moment in particular, he could almost see gears turning in Aria’s head. She seemed to be on the fence about it. More than anything, he was just happy to confirm that she didn’t act scared at the thought of battling, something he wouldn’t have been surprised by after seeing what happened between her and that Poochyena. To give his new team member time to think, he remained quiet and even waved for Flannery to wait for him when she started running over.

Eventually, Aria opened her mouth, and in a voice that he could barely hear, she said, “R- Ralts…”

Caught off guard by her small voice, Spike focused on Aria for a moment with wide eyes. A moment later, his lips stretched into a wide smile, and he said, “Heh. That’s the first time I’ve heard you speak. Alright, then. Sounds like you’re up for it. Have you battled other Pokemon in the wild before?”

Aria nodded.

“Good,” Spike said. He picked her up, and while walking toward the classroom door, he added, “Let’s find out what moves you already know while we’re heading outside. Oh, Flannery, I’m ready now. Seems like Miss Johanna is okay with us having a battle?”

“Mhm. Let’s go! I can’t wait!” Flannery excitedly exclaimed while following him outside.

Miss Johanna walked out behind them with a happy grin on her face and said, “I’ll take you to the student battle arena.”

From there, the teacher led them to an outside arena reminiscent of an outdoor basketball court surrounded by a metal fence and some small pine trees. Half of the court was painted blue, and the other half was painted green. The two sides were separated by a simple white pokeball design. Miss Johanna sent Flannery to the blue side and Spike to the green side before settling the rest of the students in some raised bleachers that overlooked the small arena. While she was busy with that, Spike knelt and placed Aria on the ground. At the same time, he rubbed his fingertips on the arena floor.

‘It feels like concrete, but I doubt it’s normal concrete since there are scratches in the paint but no actual damage to the surface.’

Once everything was in place, Miss Johanna walked back to the center of the arena and said, “This will be a one-versus-one battle. The battle ends when one of you gives up or when your Pokemon is no longer able to battle. I will be the referee. Any questions?”

“Are there any Potions or anything on hand for when the battle is over?” Spike asked.

“Of course. Every teacher carries potions on them everywhere we go,” Miss Johanna answered, pulling out a small purple spray canister from a satchel around her waist. “Any other questions?”

“Um… do I let out my Pokemon now?”

“Yes. Go ahead, Flannery.”

“Okay,” Flannery mumbled and nodded. She fumbled around with her belt for a few seconds before pulling out a small pokeball. She turned it over a few times before finding the button she was looking for. When she pressed the button, the ball expanded to several-fold its previous shrunken size. Then, she tossed it up and nervously stuttered, “Uh, um. G-go, Mag!”

The ball popped open in midair, and a white beam poured out of it. At the end of the beam, a red slug that looked like hot lava appeared. The temperature in the arena heated up a few degrees.

“Slug. Slugma,” The Pokemon mumbled as it turned around to look at Flannery as though it didn’t understand what was happening.

“Um. We’re going to battle, Mag. You can do it.”

Displaying a small amount of understanding with a blink, the Slugma turned back around and mumbled, “...Slug.”

Raising a brow at the fiery slug, Spike raised a brow. Similarly, Ares, who was sitting nonchalantly behind him, stared at the Slugma with curiosity since he had never seen one before. After feeling the heat, he glanced at Aria with brows furrowed out of concern for her well being. However, he was surprised to see that she didn’t seem surprised or scared by the opponent, and he wondered if he had underestimated her.

“Are you still up for battling, Aria?” Spike asked her.

In response, the Ralts looked up at him and nodded.

“Alright, let’s do this then,” Spike said. Raising his hand and giving a thumbs-up, he added, “I won’t say some cringy line to send you out there, but no matter what, I’m here for you, okay?”

Aria nodded and smiled a little before shuffling further onto the arena.

Meanwhile, Miss Johanna raised her brows at both of her students’ Pokemon. Originally, she had anticipated and expected to see Ares battle, but she could only be disappointed on that front. Even then, Slugma and Ralts were both unusual Pokemon for a battle between students, especially for students in their first year of school.

“I have some good students this year,” She quietly said to herself. A moment later, she shrugged it off, glanced at the Slugma, and pulled a Pokeball out of her satchel. She tossed it up and said, “Come on out, Lombre.”

A toad-like creature with blue and green skin and a lilypad covering its skull popped out in a flash of light.

“Lombre, I might need you to put out some fires here if the battle gets too heated.”

“Lombre,” The Pokemon responded with a calm nod before sitting down to watch the battle. All of the students in the bleachers stared at the Lombre with wide eyes aside from Spike. None of them had seen their teacher take out her own Pokemon before, so seeing her use a relatively unusual one surprised them. In contrast, Spike thought it was only natural for a teacher to at least have some decent Pokemon with them, not to mention Lombre wasn’t all that special in his eyes even though he had yet to see one up close after arriving in this world.

Unbothered by the students talking in the bleachers, Miss Johanna looked back and forth between Flannery and Spike and asked, “Are you two ready?”

““Ready.””

“Alright. In that case, battle... start!”