In the Morning

The night went off without any incidents. You woke up to sunlight through the window. You find that Kate is still asleep next to you. You gently nudge her. "Come on sis, time to get up." You tell her. She groans from you interrupting her sleep, "Five more minutes?" She gets out. You nudge her again, a little firmer this time. "Sorry, we need to take advantage of this moment." She groans again, but starts to move until she's in a sitting position. "Good job." You tell her while getting rid of sleep in her eyes. "Come on, let's go check on the others."

Walking to the living room, you note that the room Rachael stayed in is closed. "Rachael, you up in there?" you ask as you began to open the door. You were suddenly pushed back. "Don't come in here Rai! I'm a mess!" Rachael cries out. You then realize what is going on. "Rachael, this isn't a good time to worry about that." You try reasoning with her, but your friend responds back by saying, "Maybe you can go around looking like that, but I take pride in my look." You sigh when you realize that this is a fight you can't win. 'The infected Pokémon aren't going to mind when you're sliding down their throats... Or other places.' "Is she going to be ok?" Your sister ask in confusion. You reassure her that she's fine and she'll meet up later.

Upon entering, you see Neku leaning with his back on the wall. "Morning." The Zoroarks head snaps up from hearing your voice. Apparently, he was deep in thought. "Oh hey," he replies back. "Is something wrong?" You ask him. "Huh? Oh it's nothing. Don't worry about it." You're unconvinced, but you let it go. Noticing there's only two of you the dark fox ask, "Where's the Buneary?" Not wanting to mention her "predicament", you just said. "She'll be here in a moment." Right after you finish, a voice adds, "And it's Rachael, by the way." You turn to see your friend walking towards you, tying her second ribbon in her left ear.

Seeing that everyone's present, Neku starts to speak. "You two clearly haven't been out on the road for lone. It's nearly the afternoon." Neku pointed out.

"This is only our third day during this time. It was just the two of us taking watch and switching back and forth." You stated, attempting to defend yourself. "True, well hopefully you all had enough cause we're leaving. We can talk while we move." Before he can do anything, you say, "Hold on, do you know a place we can refill our bottles with water? We're running out." The fox takes a look at you for a moment before replying, "I saw a small stream close outside of town, but you'll need to be quick." You nod and then he opened the door a bit to peek out to check if the coast is clear before opening it completely.

((Neku as joined you as a guest 'for now'))

The four of you walk onwards, you three trailing close behind Neku. You notice that he's slowing his movement so that you three can catch up. He turns his head so that he's looking at you and Rachael. "You two fought very well yesterday. Who taught you how to fight?" You thought about it and believed it won't hurt answering. "My dad was captain of the guards at our home. He was pretty strict with my training." Rachael then speaks, "Like his dad, my father taught me as well. Figured I might need to protect myself. While he wasn't a member or anything, he taught me a lot about fighting." "I see." Neku says while listening. "What happened to them?" You were silent for a moment before answering, "We'll talk about it later."

Eventually, your group reach the stream he talked about. Flowing water fills your ears as you reach down for a paw full, but as soon as the fluids hit your tongue, you immediately spat out the foul-tasting liquid. You quickly warn the others not to drink it. "What's wrong?" Rachael ask about your concern. "This water doesn't taste right." "How so?" Neku ask next. "I can't describe it, but it has a revolting taste to it. It's not normal." You get a small paw full and took a cautious sniff of it, and found it as an foul odor to it as well before letting it out of your hand. There was a moment of silence before Neku said, "I guess that means we shouldn't drink this." "Yeah, we'll find something else." You answer as you take an apple from your pack and eat it.

Neku smirks while watching you eat. "You know, considering your look, I'm surprise you were able to move that fast to stop that Poochyena from yesterday." You pause and scowl at him. "Are you saying l I'm fat?!" You ask him. "Rai, you're not exactly the slimmest person I know." Rachael answers with a giggle and confirms this by poking at your stomach. "Hey, I'm not fat! This is the normal standard for a Raichu. You know this." You say. “There are only two Raichus in our town. You and your dad." Rachael explains. Your face is red as a tomato berry as you try to prevent yourself from yelling at her. "Let's just go!" You say as you start to move on the path. The Buneary was shocked from your reaction. Maybe I went to far…