1. Ash's Story (Part 10: Galar)

Chapter 48: Steel Beneath Pink

Hammerlocke looked colder after Ballonlea's glowing streets. Stone walls rose around us, gray and ancient, and the wind carried dust through the city gates even before the sky darkened. Opal stepped down from the Flying Taxi as if the chill had been waiting for her personally.

"Hammerlocke," Opal said, tapping her umbrella against the stones. "Always such a dusty town. Though I suppose some Pokémon prefer it that way."

Ponyta stood beside Alice, mane glowing softly against the stone. The shift from Glimwood's gentle light to Hammerlocke's heavy streets left it restless. Its hooves tapped the ground, and its eyes kept moving from the walls to the people passing near the Power Plant.

I noticed Bede before he noticed us. He stood near the Power Plant with his coat drawn close, staring toward the city like it owed him an answer. Without his Challenger confidence surrounding him, he looked smaller, but not softer.

"Bede?" I called, stopping near the Power Plant.

He turned sharply. His guarded expression became a familiar glare. "Come to gawk at me now that my Challenge Band has been taken away and my Gym Challenger status revoked? Can you really afford to waste time like this?"

"Not exactly," Alice muttered, keeping her voice low.

Bede lifted his chin. "I commend your humility. It is appropriate for Trainers of your limited talents."

Helen sighed behind us. "He still sounds like that?"

Elena's voice stayed cool. "Some people learn from mistakes only after every easier lesson fails."

Bede's glare flicked toward them before returning to us. "I have not given up. I must become Champion in order to help the chairman. I will ask him to let me rejoin the Gym Challenge."

The words hit the street like stones. Ponyta's mane flickered brighter, and it stepped closer to Alice, sensing the sharp tangle of rejection, pride, and desperate purpose around Bede.

Ponyta pressed its horn near Alice's hand, "He is hurt, but he is biting the wound instead of letting it close."

Alice's expression softened, but Bede did not look ready for pity. The city noise kept moving around him, uncaring and ordinary, which somehow made his anger seem louder. For someone who wanted to stand at the center of everything, being passed by must have felt unbearable.

Opal watched him with narrowed eyes. Then her whole face changed, as if a color had finally appeared under dust. "Hm. That boy."

Everyone turned toward her in startled silence.

"Now that," Opal declared, "is what I would call pink."

Flora blinked hard at Opal. "Him?"

"So sincere and straightforward, and yet so twisted and misguided," Opal said, sounding delighted. "I like it. That is the kind of thing that gives people depth."

Bede stared at her. "What are you talking about?"

Opal threw her umbrella point-first against the ground, making several people jump. "Time for my Gym mission, child!"

"Huh? What?" Bede stepped back, but Opal had already begun circling him with terrifying purpose.

She inspected his coat, his posture, his expression, and the stubborn way he tried to stand taller than his circumstances. Every few seconds, she said "pink" as if measuring something none of us could see. Bede looked less like a proud rival and more like someone caught in a storm wearing formal shoes.

"Congratulations, child," Opal said at last.

Bede's voice cracked slightly. "Ms. Opal, what in the world has gotten into you?"