Hideo's outfit was monochrome in comparison to his date's: a white shirt with black shorts, black suspenders, a black bowtie, and black shoes. It was the only set of formal clothes he'd brought with him, and they were getting some good mileage.

Hideo took a moment to recognize his current date's voice; it had been a while since they last met up, and his Oranguru had never met him before, so no help there. "Hey, Aaron," was his quick response, his Pokemon guiding him to his seat and helping him get in it.

"Well, I didn't bring any with me here." It'd be kind of weird if she tried to show them off to every date, as proud as he was to have them. "But I am up to 5 now! Just a few more and I can take a shot at beating the Elite Four!"

His dream was getting closer to being reached as the days went by. At this rate, he could do it before his year-long timer was up! Not that he'd be too broken up if he went past it; he didn't have to go home until he wanted to.

"Have you tried taking a shot at any gyms?" he asked back. He knew Aaron's brother was the one doing the gym circuit, but it didn't hurt to try them out.

Aaron Toral

Well, that was impressive. Just over half ways there. "Over half ways there...impressive. I'm starting to think maybe we should have a friendly spar one of these days..." It would be nice to have a friendly battle every so often. So far he had managed to stay out of serious trouble...what little he had gotten into had been nothing to worry about. But who knows how long that kind of luck would last. To have earned five badges...that just proved Hideo was massively capable. Then the question came. "My brother and I had an impromptu double battle with Noah Faber before we set out. While I took the draw, I don't think Trevenant could have withstood another Ice Punch from his Hitmonchan. Still, he awarded me the badge since I was the last man standing and evidently proved enough to him. Kee's Houndour got taken out by Noah's Electrike. Kee is here, too, by the way. Oh, and Doug wants me to challenge him too." Even though he wasn't actually planning on doing the gym circuit, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to challenge Doug anyways.

Hideo Kino

Hideo grinned. “I wouldn’t mind a spar sometime,” he said, fully settled in his seat. “But I won’t go easy on you~” He had a pretty good variety of Pokemon to show off, though he didn’t doubt that Aaron had some strong Pokemon of his own by now.

And he was pretty impressed to hear Aaron’s own successes. “Oh, you got to battle Noah!” His memory of his own gym battle was pretty fresh in his mind. “He's a pretty cool guy! I got to do his gym battle!”

“His challenge was pretty straightforward, but it was tough! I had my Sensu Oricorio and Ribombee face off against his Medicham and Hariyama. And it was a cage match, so our Pokemon didn’t have too much room to move in.”

“I don’t have a perfect recollection of how it went, ‘cause I had my Rotomdex commentating instead of a Telepathic Pokemon, but was a pretty even fight! His Hariyama started off strong drenching my Pokemon with a Surf, but mine were able to regain their footing-” More like winging. “-and get up close to them. You’d be surprised with how well a little Ribombee can do up close.”

And he did mean little: 4 inches tall. Half as tall as the average Ribombee. Yet no less powerful.

“His Pokemon got some good hits on mine with rocks, and my Ribombee was on the ropes. But my Pokemon were able to coordinate and take down the Medicham. His Hariyama tried to go for my Oricorio, but she was a ghost-type, so his attack didn’t work. My Ribombee was able to finish him off with a Draining Kiss…though he fainted right afterwards.”

His Ribombee had done well. It was nice when he’d get off his tiny pink butt.

“You got any idea which of Doug’s challenges you wanna do? I know all gyms got the usual battles, but I got to do his non-battle challenge. I got to sneak around a base and assassinate a guy!”

He deliberately stopped there, taking a sip of his water. The other times he’d told people about it with softer terms, they’d sounded pretty concerned. He intentionally worded it like that this time just to get a reaction out of Aaron.

A tap to the back of the head with his Oranguru’s fan got him to clarify. “Not really assassinate, but I had to tag a guy that was the boss. It was pretty fun!”

Aaron Toral

Aaron thought it cute how Hideo excitedly recounted his own experience with the gym leader. Aaron thought it smart to use a small Pokemon like a Ribombee in a literal Pokemon cage match. He can only thank goodness he didn't have to do a literal cage match. Though from the sounds of it, Trevenant might have been able to fit. "Makes sense to me. Just because a Pokemon is small, doesn't mean they're weak." Hideo continued on with excited fervor. A close fight. "He did the same thing against Trevenant, but only to get close." The blind boy then asked him which of Doug's challenges Aaron wanted to do, describing the one that he did. Assassinate, huh? Aaron wasn't much for sneaking around. He did alright at the Tree exploration, but he had Gengar put anyone he couldn't sneak past to sleep.

Hideo clarified what he meant, event though Aaron already had a pretty good idea. "I'm still deciding whether to actually challenge or not. It was never my intention to go through the gym circuit. Even if I am entertaining the idea of becoming one. So I'm not really sure." He was still monotone. Aaron popped a candy in his mouth, savoring the chocolate.

Hideo Kino

“You got that right~” he agreed, “A good deal of my smaller Pokemon could beat up my bigger ones. Not that I let them.” The last thing he wanted was more infighting among his Pokemon. “No surprise Noah would want his Pokemon getting close, though. That’s where Fighting Pokemon love to be. Heck, it would’ve been a lot hairier of a fight if I didn’t bring a Fairy and a Ghost.”

Though he wouldn’t say that was the main reason he’d won. noah faber ’s Pokemon put up a strong fight despite their disadvantage.

Hideo took a bite of bread, listening to Aaron talk about his reluctance to try a gym.

“There’s no harm in taking a shot at it. ‘Specially if the guy running it wants you to do it. Doug’s was my first gym challenge, and that was before I left to do the rest of them.” It was also his first decisive success: solid proof he could do this. “It can be a little nerve-wracking at first, but once you start doing them, they start feeling like any other battle.”

He chewed away at the bread, trying to hide his small fib; he still got some anxiety with each gym challenge. He was always confident that he’d win them, and that confidence helped get him this far.

But what if he messed up?

“Though Doug won’t hold back. He treated me like I was just any soldier under his command, and he even flicked me in the head when I said the wrong thing.”

Aaron Toral

Aaron nodded, even though Hideo couldn't see it. "There are some that like the range, but with his challenge, I would imagine that he would have little need for it. Still, there's a reason they're gym leaders. They make you earn any kind of victory...Noah's Hitmonchan definitely surprised me with how tough it was. Though I'm more confident now that if Trevenant and his Hitmonchan were to fight again, Trevenant would have a strong possibility of winning." They appeared fairly close in abilities already back then, with Hitmonchan having just enough advantage in training to probably defeat him if they had went on. The blonde wouldn't know which of his Pokemon he would likely use now against Noah.

Hideo went on about his own challenge and opinion. That was true...maybe he should give it a try. It took a lot to get Aaron unnerved. Maybe it would also prove to his parents that he didn't need Kee to supervise him. "I would expect nothing less. But I'm not so sure on being a soldier...perhaps too much rebellion...and, well...you've heard me and Andy spar with words. I'd likely be the same way there." A small bell chimed, signifying to everyone to wrap it up and continue on. Standing up, he gave some final words. "I'll consider it...Kee is evidently on the list now, should be fun to have him watch me after I watch him. Not that you need to hear this, since you pretty much live by it as well, but my motto is that "life isn't a game of luck. If you want to win, work hard." Sounds like your hard work is paying off. And I look forward to seeing it pay off on the big screen when you take on the Elite Four." After Hideo's final remarks and giving each other temporary goodbyes, he moved on to the next speed date.

Hideo Kino

“Good to hear you’re prepped for a rematch.” It wasn’t like they couldn’t try again if an attempt failed, though Hideo had been skilled enough to win each challenge he tried on the first attempt. Not that he hadn’t had some losses on the way there; the Hoenn Star Tournament gave him his fair share of fainted Pokemon. “They gotta be good enough to make their challenges tough! Not everyone can get a badge!”

That was how he’d gotten his badges: through skill and effort.

“It wasn’t all that bad. I just had to salute and say ‘yes sir’ and do the mission however I wanted.” Hideo could never consider himself an actual soldier - too many stuffy rules - but he was willing to play the role for that mission. Even if a soldier wasn’t supposed to hug their commander after the mission was done, or get headpats from their commander.

Unfortunately, their little date was done at the sound of that bell. Hideo listened to Aaron’s parting words, nodding at his motto; he’d gotten this far with hard work, not luck. “I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for you,” he joked, “and I really do encourage you to try the gym challenges! They’re pretty fun!”

He’d make sure Aaron had some good Elite Four matches to watch in the future. And everyone else could watch too! Friends, family, even his Pokemon if he could find out how to stream it back to his camp.

Aaron Toral