Lifting his head to stare blankly out at the memorial, Derek's 'sight' only encompassed the thoughts circulating the dark recess of his mind. What it must have been like to go through all that. It made him feel awful. The war-torn region was quick to recover as best it could, but these memorials would always serve as a reminder.

And though it was better that way, they still plagued Derek's mind.

"It's not that you're wrong." He started, looking over to Keenan after he wandered off.

"But being the leader of a gym means being the leader of the city it belongs to, as well as the region." Before the incident, Derek could easily say he saw himself as such. But after all that happened...

"And I couldn't save anything. Even if I have a 'good' excuse. I still did nothing." If the battles had taken place in Petalburg... He probably wouldn't have returned to Hoenn.

"While I appreciate what you said, it doesn't change the fact." Gradually shifting his weight to get back up on his feet, Derek moves over to Keenan so that they can get started with the patrol. "The only thing I can do is try to show people I am here now."

And that frustrated Derek, let alone how much pressure he was putting on himself for the sake of a promise he'd made back home - for the second, and last time.

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Keenan Toral | 2/5

"But that's the point. I chose not to be here." It was evident they didn't, in this instance, see eye to eye. While Derek tended to be more optimistic, this was personal - on both ends. He had to go back to Johto, but he also had a duty to Hoenn and it's people.

Emphasis on had...

"Sorry." It was obvious Keenan didn't seem to do much better being forced to confront such notions. And Derek didn't blame him. He couldn't. "I just felt like I owed you an explanation for leaving the way I did last time."

But maybe he didn't owe him anything. Moving on ahead, Derek tended to one of the sites by wiping away the filth obstructing the epitaph it bared on it's surface. "I don't like talking about all of it. Obviously. But I tried to." Moving to the next one, he peered over at Keenan to see his progress with a few passing words. "Thing is, it's not something I wish to be forgiven for. I just want me and everyone else to forget."

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Keenan Toral | MISSION 3/5

Forfeiting his phone at the request that came off as more of a demand, Derek kept quiet while he mulled it over. But it didn't take root the way Keenan would've hoped. Instead he just went ahead and answered the question. "I train all kinds, but my preference is steel type pokemon."

The other was ground type, but after the funeral in Johto, that changed. "Fairy types too." Although these thoughts detracted from his dour mood, they only invited more depressing notions. It was like he couldn't win.

"But I don't really take the trainer thing as serious anymore. I'm a ranger now." Earning badges was a luxury— something to entertain the wild aspirations he and another had when they were both little. Until it seemed likely for them to come about, they were nothing more than that.

Working faster out of pseudo frustration but also a mind that had been rid of some of it's baggage, Derek made quick work of the column he'd been cleaning up. There were still more that needed tidied up, though, which was why he decided to bring out Jonesy.

"Mind using your water to clean off this headstone?" His Sobble, eager to please, quickly began spraying down the granite with a pressurized jet using it's water gun.

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Keenan Toral | 4/5

"Not a whole lot." It was all Derek could manage to say to the latest question. "Like you said, it's a bit more serious. Even though I wasn't a casual trainer, as a ranger I don't got the freedom of choosing when I do something. Gotta be on-call, wake up early. That sort of thing." Wrapping up the last bit of work with Jonesy helping alongside him, Derek stood up and back to get a good look at the site now that it'd been touched up.

Not bad.

"Good luck getting those badges, by the way. It's hard to get an audience with them in the arena. Not impossible, though." With everything that'd been happening in the region as of late, Derek couldn't blame them.

"I'd suggest John Sullivan. I managed to get his badge during the Hoenn star tournament even though I lost. Kinda made me knuckle down on my training." Their mega-evolved Centiskorch made easy work of his Metagross. But now that he had some mega stones of his own, Derek had begun to consider challenging them to a rematch—to prove he deserved it. "Or maybe you already had a gym in mind?"

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Keenan Toral | 5/5