Pokémon BW2 - Saving Unova, Again? ✔

Ch.5 | You Look Like Her

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'Alder was supposed to teach here?' Rosa's eyes moved over everything inside the school. The woman had just told her that Alder was supposed to teach at the school, but he declined – something about it being the age of young people. The brunette stepped through a door leading to the back of the school and found two battle fields. A boy, who looked a bit older than her, was speaking to two students. Rosa had expected something... more to a gym. 'Well, it is new after all.' She approached them. "Um, hello?"

The boy turned around in surprise before smiling. "Hello, you must be a challenger! Welcome to Aspertia City's Pokémon Gym. I'm Cheren, the gym leader!" He cleared his throat. "Err, well, maybe I'd better say that I just became the gym leader." Rosa found that he appeared a tad nervous. "More importantly, we need to prepare before welcoming you to the gym." He turned to the children with him. "You two, take your places." They nodded and did what he told them, the boy moving to the nearest battlefield and the girl took her place on the other one.

Rosa curiously eyed them. "What's going on?"

"It's simple, really." Cheren flashed a smile. "If you can defeat them, then I'll be your opponent!" With that, he made his way toward the very back.

First up was the boy. He waved her over and she took one side of the field. As it turned out, these two students were the best in their class so Cheren allowed them to assist him with challengers. Although the boy was easy to beat, the other student's Lillipup upset Rina and caused her to act out, becoming distracted. It led to the Riolu fainting. Surprisingly, Yomo handled both the opponent's pokémon. 'Still, I need to train more with Rina.' Rosa lightly sighed and walked to where Cheren was, finding him on an elevated platform.

"Come on up." He smiled, stepping back till she couldn't see him anymore. It took the brunette longer than it should to locate the stairs.

"You know," she spoke up once he was in earshot, "those two were amazing." Cheren followed her gaze toward the students, who had let their pokémon out to heal them and praise them for fighting their best, before nodding.

"I couldn't agree more. They'll be wonderful trainers once they graduate." A smile graced his features, then he turned to Rosa. "Just as this is your first gym challenge, this is my first pokémon battle as a gym leader. Let's both do our best and have a battle we can be proud of!"

With sparkling eyes of admiration, Rosa gave a nod before they both took their respective spots on the platform. "You're up, Jano." She sent out the Snivy. He straightened himself up and politely bowed to his opponent, a Patrat. After his short rest in his poké ball, he was ready to go.

The light from the sun caught the Basic Badge, showing everyone around it that it was polished and clean. It lay on Rosa's palm as she smiled at it. "Thank you, Cheren." She looked up at him.

He adjusted his tie before meeting her eyes. "No need to thank me." He chuckled. "After this, you'll likely be going for the other gyms, huh?"

"Definitely!" She quickly placed the badge in her case, allowing herself to take in the empty slots. "Why stop now?"

Cheren's smile fell only a little as he observed her. "A couple years ago, poké dex in hand, I left on a journey with my friends." This caught Rosa's attention, looking up at him again while returning the badge case to her bag. "You... look a lot like one of them – brown hair and blue eyes." Clearing his throat, he turned to face the school. Rosa frowned at how sad he looked and gently patted his back.