Kalos Journey

Chapter 5 - Hopes Flared Up

Once back in Lumiose City after walking back through Route 4, there was a bit of time to go and explore the city. Willow had bolted off the second she had a chance to look at the boutiques, leaving Nate and Kyra to their own thing. Kyra was beginning to feel the pressure of the crowd a little bit, so she and Nate found a quite park to sit in.

They both sent out their pokémon, Lucario keeping a close eye on Chespin and Fennekin to make sure they didn't argue, whilst Ralts sat and snuggled up in Kyra's lap. A fairly tall willow tree gave the group some shelter, very few people were around since it was quite cold, so it made for an even nicer place to relax.

"How you feeling now? After the Gym Battle I mean?" Nate asked.

"It was nice getting back into it all, and to be honest, I'm glad this Region's Bug Type specialist is out of the way early. I'm much better now though, thanks for asking," Kyra replied, pleased that Nate was at least showing some sympathy.

The two chatted for a while whilst Willow was clothes shopping. It was nice hanging out alone in each other's company, it had been a long time since it was just them without Willow. Although Kyra liked trying out new styles, she wasn't as obsessed as Willow was, and Nate, he couldn't care less about his fashion sense. As long as he was comfortable, he was happy.

Willow rejoined Kyra and Nate a couple of hours after she had left. It wasn't a surprise to see she had a couple of bags filled with new outfits.

"Kalos fashion is amazing. Kyra, when we come here for our Gym Battle, you are coming shopping with me. I would say Nate you're coming too, but I know you'd say no," Willow explained, clearly thrilled with what she had brought.

Nate laughed, "And how much did that lot cost you?"

"I'll have you know I got it all in a sale. Besides, I knew I wanted to go clothes shopping pretty early on in this trip since Kalos is known for its boutiques, so this'll now do me for the rest of this trip," Willow replied.

Kyra smiled, of course Willow was the one to have got amazing fashion even in a sale. "Looks like you made a pretty good haul. Shall we head to the pokémon centre then? We can drop your stuff in our room then we can either have dinner there," she suggested.

Nate and Willow agreed to the idea and they headed to the pokémon centre on North Boulevard since it was closest. Kyra and Lucario were on the lookout for somewhere nice to walk later on, perhaps the streets would be quieter then and it would be easier to find somewhere.

Whilst eating from Kyra's hand, Ralts decided he wanted to eat a little bit from his bowl so he could get used to it. Kyra poured a few pellets into a bowl and she reminded Ralts that all he had to do if he was struggling was say and she'd go back to hand feeding him. Ralts thanked her and he managed to eat half of what was in his bowl before asking to go back to hand feeding. Kyra praised him nonetheless, it was a big first step for him to make.

The rooms in the Kalos pokémon centres were much more advanced than the trio were used to. These all had TVs in, and since Nate and Willow fancied watching a movie, it gave Kyra the excuse she and Lucario needed to go on their walk since she wasn't a big fan of horror movies and that was what Nate and Willow intended on watching.

Lumiose City was indeed quieter now it was dark. The Tower, Prism Tower, in the centre of the City gave off enough light to see, even without the help of the dimly lit streetlamps. There was no one else about, Kyra felt much safer talking to Lucario now. She hated fearing that someone might want to use her ability to talk to pokémon or her aura for evil, but she couldn't be too careful after what had happened in her past two journeys.

The two soon found somewhere nice to sit and chat, there was a cafe just around the corner from them, but it seemed closed for the night. Kyra had brought her bag with her since she wanted to try and use Bone Rush without being in a battle again. She had wanted to do it at night since Lucario wouldn't have the pressure of anyone else watching her, tonight was the perfect night to try.