Chapter 59: Mount Moon (I)

"Hah...Hah...", A tired voice resounded on the hiking trail of route 3. Most of it was either trees on the left or trees on the right while walking on an upward slope.. The slope wasn't steep, but all of it was uphill.

Along the way it opened up to a small grassy plain where more Pokemon roamed free. In some games it was rumored that Charmander could be caught here. Unfortunately that did not seem to be the case. Most Pokemon found here were Spearow, Sandshrew, and Mankey. One of the more rare Pokemon was Jigglypuff, but I'd rather not come across one of those now. Especially since parts of the anime belong in this world, there is a certain Jigglypuff who loves to annoy Ash during his journey, and every time this Jigglypuff does so, they end up falling asleep.

Moreover, in regards to Charmander, I wasn't going to catch that one that got abandoned by that selfish trainer. That Charmander was destined to be with Ash. I did have interest in catching a Charmander, and I knew of the Charicific Valley. The one thing about this area was that it was located in Johto, so until we arrive in that area after Kanto, I likely won't catch any Charmander.

So instead we just blitzed right past that area, and made it to the base of Mount Moon in one day. Lillie and I seemed fine as we had plenty of energy to spare. However, as for Serena, lots of sweat could be seen dripping from her face.

"Geez, you two sure are relentless. Aren't you feeling even a tiny bit tired?", Serena pouted, wiping away more of her sweat from her face. Parts of her clothes stuck to her figure making her curves more prominent and that that caused me to look at her.

She took notice of my stare but we acted as if we had spent little energy during that hike.

"Guess we know who needs to exercise a bit more.", Lillie responded with a giggle. Though if one looked closely she too had a bit of sweat on her.

"You guys ain't lying, that's for sure.", Serena said, catching her breath.

She then looked down, and grabbed a bit of her belly with her hand. There was a bit of flab, signaling that she had some belly fat.

"I know going on a journey involves many means of travel which includes walking, but I didn't think you'd power through Route 3 in one go!"

Serena then looked back up and walked to Lillie. Serena did the same thing to Lillie's stomach, except this time, she found no traces of fat. In fact Lillie's stomach felt a bit hard to the touch, signaling that Lillie had some inner muscles developing. This alone caused Serena to be shocked.

"You really do have some muscles developing, Lillie. I don't feel an ounce of fat. How come I never took note of this when we would sleep beside you each night, Itsuki?"

"Haha, maybe cause you didn't need to? Do you really need to be concerned with a bit of belly fat? I like you no matter your appearance, Serena.", I answered her.

"Aww, thank you, Itsuki. Maybe I have gotten out of shape over the years. I wasn't like this before.", She said as she took a few steps back.

"Your mom was training you to be a Pokemon Rider, right? I'm sure that in itself had a lot of endurance training. Where'd all that go?"

"Well I still feel a lot of that energy even now, but I guess I don't know how to exert it as much as I did beck when I was still a kid. Feels like a lot of it goes to waste now. Me and my big fat mouth saying I didn't want to become a Pokemon Rider anymore."

"You didn't want to follow in your mother's footsteps, Serena?", Lillie asked.

"Back when I was little I did, to make mom happy. But then she forced all that training on me, and it really tired me out. I didn't hate her for it, because I was able to realize my dream in becoming a Pokemon Performer. Until I met you guys that is. Now we're three trainers on a journey together, hehe."

"A Pokemon Performer? You want to go on stage to be an actress with your Pokemon?"

"I do. I do think being a Trainer will help me develop closer bonds with my Pokemon for that."

"I definitely agree with you on that. Just like Lillie is aspiring for her own dream.", I answered with a nod of my head.

"Mmm. Moreover, I'm not the same little frail girl you met back at Summer Camp all those years back. Otherwise, mother definitely would have not allow me to leave Alola so easily with Itsuki. Every so often, I would join him in his physical training Hobbes would give him."

"So that's how it went. Alright, I need to kick it into high gear then.", Serena responded, letting flames burn into her eyes.

"Haha, looks like someone is back to normal. Have you rested enough?", I asked.

"Yeah! I see there is the Pokemon Center within sight. Is that the entrance to Mount Moon too?"

Reaching the end of the trail, we definitely saw the Pokemon Center. Beyond that though was all stone and rock. A giant mountain to be specific. And it had one entrance.

In that entrance stood a vast darkness, waiting for those to enter it.

"Yup, there it is. And from the looks of it I see no lights anywhere. Going inside, it might be a tad dark."

"We've got plenty if flashlights don't we?", Lillie asked.

"Sure do. Reaching the other end shouldn't pose a problem. We might get lost trying to find where Clefairy is at though. Rumors state inside Mount Moon there is a giant crash site formed from a falling meteor. Our best bet is to find that."

"Got it. But first I need to wash off this sweat. Thankfully there's one more Pokemon Center before we go cave diving."

"Yes. Let us go."

And just like that we arrived at the base of Mount Moon. It definitely wasn't the tallest mountain but this would be our first ti.me exploring a cave system. Lillie and I avoided those during our excursions together back in Alola.

We had a good night's sleep at the Pokemon Center after rinsing ourselves off. Jan 22nd came and we were ready to head on inside Mount Moon.

*

What if Itsuki and the gang manage to get on Team Rocket's good side should they share the same destination?

Don't forget to keep dropping those power stones.

Let's try to get back over 500!