The voice of the Emergent, the master of the Beasts, was a voice Josh was pleasantly surprised to hear. "Kyle... you must have been one busy Bibarel out there," the injured Gym Leader mused. "Thanks for coming to see me so soon." The offer to personally notify Mauville Gym of the news made a smile come upon his face. "That's so sweet and thoughtful of you. I've already taken care of it, though. I did as soon as I was feeling well enough to handle a phone." He stretched his one good, healed arm outward in an air hug to the Top Champion before relaxing it again.

When asked, Josh gestured toward the cup of Bullet Seeds coated in dried blood. Dried blood that belonged to him. "I'm... holding up okay. They've got me about halfway patched up. The procedures are simple. They just have to cut me open in a lot of different places to get all the Bullet Seeds out of me." The second battle of Dewford was far more intense than the first, the Gym Leader being put not only on the front lines, but on operations he never thought he would be good at. Were the bigwigs testing him? Of course, Kyle would likely never admit one way or another the reason Josh was selected for the role he was and how well he did at that role.

"If you're out and about so soon after this mess, you must not have taken too many spills. With me like this, we might need a rain check for meeting up for a run on Raikou around my birthday like we originally planned. Might have to wait another month or two. Enough, though; I hope they didn't beat you up too much."

While the subtlety went unnoticed at first, after a few seconds of Josh putting the meaning together, he let out a laugh that was worth the pain of one of the Bullet Seeds cutting a little deeper into him. By now, he had become as used to the pain as he ever would be. The Top Champion's reckoning couldn't have been more true; Josh was an active leader in Hoenn.

Even if it wasn't Raikou, he just wanted to saddle up again. On any of his Pokémon.

The remark about Josh pulling his weight brought joy to his eyes. "That means a lot, Kyle. Thank you. I really have come a long way since we met in that field back on 111, haven't I?" he asked, more rhetorically to himself than directly at the visitor. "It feels so long ago that you were my first challenger and our Manectric had such a duel of speed. You know you're still the Twist Road record holder even after all this time, right?" No one had been able to come even close to breaking that record: the only time still under a minute and a half.

"You're... probably right. I could barely handle him the first time when I was at full strength. Would be better to defer that until the spring, when I'm for sure at full strength. Riding a living lightning bolt isn't easy, after all!" Another laugh from the Gym Leader - he was in good spirits at the very least. A little antsy, but he felt like he was going to recover from his injuries in due time.

"Given the shape I'm in, perhaps even a simple dinner would be a better idea, if you have that Tuesday available," Josh suggested, turning the distracting television off. "I'm hosting a party at Mauville Gym that weekend, but I have nothing planned for the actual day of my birthday. Besides, as much as we see each other, I'm sure I'll get another chance when he is truly needed. He's... he's just part of what keeps me going." From his tone, it was clear that the Gym Leader's admiration of Raikou was no longer an addiction or an obsession. It was the voice of someone whose favorite Pokémon just happened to be legendary.

After more talk about the celebration and what they would do in the days afterward, the Gym Leader's tone turned more somber. More serious. "I applied for the open Elite Four seat, and Matias vetoed it. Do you think his veto was without merit?" There was certainly a lot of tension between the two, the Gym Leader outright avoiding him when possible. The next time they would meet would be in battle at Ever Grande, and given their animosity toward one another, he might not hold back.

Josh's social network, from being a Gym Leader, was almost unimaginably large. There was no doubt he could find something fun to do with them. Even something not involving Pokémon. Round One at Mauville was an option. Taking a week off to travel abroad was an option. Even a shopping trip to Slateport or Lilycove. There was more to do than saddle up Raikou, as much as he enjoyed it. Plus, with nearly unfettered access to Ultra Plant, he could ride his Zeraora almost as fast as a Raikou could go, thanks to the lightning storms there.

"So you voted nay, too," Josh exhaled. "It's good to know that it's not just him." He listened on before raising a finger at the mention of a single vote not being enough to deny him the position. "Wait, what are you saying. Back when my sentence was commuted, the League memo said that any applications I made to higher office, whether it be Head Ranger, Elite Four, or anything of the like, had to be unanimously approved by you, Goode, Elite Four and Council. Does that not apply anymore?" he asked, though he wasn't sure if he would be able to get an official answer.

The second point Kyle made was more valid. "The only thing I can think of is performance in my current role. Maybe I'm too valuable in my current position to be moved around. I know when I first applied for the Champion Assessment, Callan Young mentioned that I'm not emotionally sound or something, too. Far as Matias, he might just think I'm too weak. We battled one another and it wasn't even close. I really just think he hates my guts for Eris."

"But it was," Josh insisted, remembering the memorandum sent to every Ranger Captain, Gym Leader, and AQUA member. "I can even show you." He looked up the communication in the same place he had before, and the line about him requiring unanimous consent from existing higher-ups had been silenty removed. "It... it's not there. I wouldn't lie to you, Kyle. I even saved the original." Who on AQUA would vouch for him and get that line removed? Was it ollie morales 's doing? Michael Navidson 's?

Either way, that was one less obstacle in his way to serve Hoenn in the way he desired.

"Too valuable in his current position" was a very HR thing to say. In Josh's eyes, an excuse to keep those hard workers from getting the raises and promotions they deserve while saving the seats for those willing to buy and pay for them. Corruption in its finest and purest form.

"I don't see how she could have a problem with my work ethic. Ever since Elinor Anderson put me through the school of hard knocks, I've been knocking it out of the park at Mauville. I went from being one of the hardest gyms to get into to one of the easiest. I haven't missed any of my metrics in months. If that's not enough of a work ethic to satisfy her, then what is?"

The next point Kyle made his Josh like a striking THUNERBOLT. He was running himself ragged, taking on the role of one of Mauville's most talented Rangers as well as those on the Law Enforcement side by virtue of being a Gym Leader. He remained silent, thinking about the Emergent's wise words. Was it that Josh's work ethic was too strong? Destructively strong?

"I..." The silence in the room drowned out sirens from emergency vehicles leaving the hospital. "Kyle, I don't think you're wrong. Almost like... the difference between giving a hundred percent and a hundred and twenty percent... right?" His case was far more extreme, perhaps approaching two hundred percent.

"If it gets there, of course," Josh answered. "No need to expend resources if you've got the damage to get there without spending them." With how much of a gamer he used to be before being a Ranger and Gym Leader made him so busy, the analogy was one that he understood well. At the time he was newer as a Gym Leader, he was better at the simulators than he was. Elisabeth Fiorelli would know after they squared off on one last year.

In the middle of their conversation, another knock at the door came. A nurse came in and presented Josh with a medium-sized box. "Mail for me? Thank you," he replied, noticing an envelope taped to the box. "Would you help open this for me, Kyle? Please?"

Provided the Emergent would assist as requested, he would open and read the card, its outside a photograph of the Mauville City skyline at night. "Aww..." the Gym Leader cooed, seeing signatures from his Gym employees, including Raju Mystic and Elise Calcifet . "That was very thoughtful of them. I miss them. I can't wait until I'm feeling well enough to take challengers again." He would leave the card on a nearby folding table for Kyle to look at.

Josh would also get a feel for the box's weight. It was far lighter than he expected it to be. "Oh, I bet I know what this is, if it's from the Gym." Some pained-looking facial expressions filled his face as he at first attempted to sit up in his bed. Unable to do so, he simply tilted the box toward him, pulled out the contents, and smiled like a child that received their new favorite toy.

It was the Raikou stuffie Josh kept on his desk.

Looking like an excited child himself, Josh cuddled the Beast close. He rotated it to face away from him, the back of its purple thundercloud just below his chin to give him a perspective of being mounted on it. "I'll have to text our group chat later."

Kyle's last point stood, too. "I... I haven't thought about it. I imagine there would be a lot less downtime in general. A lot more meetings and what not. I'm used to being a celebrity from my racing career before I became a Gym Leader. Do you mean things like answering for people all over Hoenn rather than just Mauville?" If he was already stretching himself thin as a Gym Leader, how much more so were he to be promoted to a broader net of responsibility?

If Kyle were to watch Josh's monitor during the conversation, he would see the injured Gym Leader's blood pressure noticeably rise after that first line. Even as a Gym Leader, he lived his life answering to the Elite Four and to the Council. He was always worried about what his superiors were thinking of him. Was this what Callan Young had been trying to teach him the entire time, particularly during his Champion Assessment?

He really did value what others thought of him more than what he thought of himself, didn't he?

"Wow, really? That's a surprise to me," Josh answered, still holding Swift close. Yes, his favorite stuffie had a name: the same name he would give the majestic, ultrafast creature were they to find him. "Though it makes sense; I'm sure challenger volume is a lot lower than what the circuit gets. I can't imagine how few challengers you get, Kyle." And how few had defeated him. He had the ear of multiple gods, but he did not need them to be strong.

Was it really his work ethic that was the problem?

Most people that suffered from work ethic issues had the opposite problem Josh had: they wanted to do only the minimum needed to get by in their careers. Josh, though, wanted to stand out by giving the best he could at everything he did. The unintended result was setting standards that were above the standards he set his peers to. Standards that were often unrealistic or even outright unattainable.

"The threat of burnout..." Josh exhaled. He was so passionate about his Gym that burnout was never an issue for him. Having to leave his Gym behind to get there, though, was the most painful part of landing the Elite Four position. There was no guarantee he could even get Mauville Racing Grounds back if the bigwigs were not happy with his performance.

"You're right..." he continued, rolling his eyes nor at Kyle, but at himself. A results-based mentality was no way to look at an important leadership position. "That's what Elinor Anderson was trying to teach me when she was Council. That's what Callan Young tried to teach me in his office when I first applied for the Champion Assessment. It's... sad that it took three people to spell it out for me. After all, what good is a title without knowing what your purpose to carry the title is?"

The Top Champion's last line hit Josh hardest. "Wait, hold up. So you're saying that I've only gone backwards since Mauville last year?"