Shiro picked up Neon, giving him head-scratchies as he dug into his cheesecake. "Nightmares? What type of nightmares? You look like you saw a ghost or something." Shiro asked, worried for his friend.
"Um..." Hunter's nervousness died down a bit. Shiro was actually concerned for him? He started to rub the back of his head slightly, replying, "Its... it's too complicated to understand... it's not anything bad, I promise..." Why did he feel like lying to Shiro already? He trusted him well enough, but... "I don't think I'm too comfortable to say it just yet..." He thought to himself. Instead of saying anything else about the subject, he just coughed and picked at his finger nails quietly.
"Oh, OK." Shiro nodded. He pushed Hunter's slice of cheesecake back towards him. "Even if you're not hungry, you should still eat. Can't train on an empty stomach!" Shiro smiled.
"Well... you do have a point," Hunter smiled a bit as he began to dig into his lemon cheesecake. It tasted just as good as he remembered. His smiled widened some more, the stress and nervousness dying away as he ate more and more. When he was done he said, "Thanks bud." He stood up, pushing in his chair, and said, "Whelp, I'm done. That was definitely worth it. So... uh, where do you feel like planning to train? I know that there's several different places we could go, but I'd like to at least go to Santalune Forest and see what's there."
Shiro had already finished his two slices of cheesecake. He did not joke around when it came to cheesecake. "Sounds good. I'd like to train up Leona for the Gym, and forests usually have lots of Pokémon weak to fire in them." Shiro nodded.
"Oh, okay," Hunter replied, walking out of the cafe slowly. "I'm sure Riolu and Chespin would want to train some, and who knows, maybe we'll find something!" He took back Neon from Shiro's arms and started walking out of the cafe. "Besides," Hunter smiled. "You might be able to see that girl again." He gave the other boy a quick wink, and rushed out of the cafe, halfway hoping Shiro wouldn't clobber him with a newspaper or something.
"H-Hey! Get back here, you pest!" Shiro called, running after his friend. Eventually, the two made it to Santalune Forest. It was lush and green, with Bug Pokémon crawling around everywhere. "Welp, this certainly looks like a forest. Shall we get started, then? It looks like there's a large swarm of weak Bug Pokémon over there..."
"Hmm..." Hunter thought to himself for a moment while he gazed into the forest. Yep, there was definitely a calm and relaxing feeling emanating from the place. He sighed, and said, "Definitely much more homely feeling than most places, huh?" He began walking into the forest, taking note of some of the species that lived in the area. There were a couple of Scatterbug and Spewpa loafing around in a patch of grass, and Hunter pointed to them and said, "Let's start with these guys, shall we?" He sent out Riolu, and awaited for Shiro to release his own.
"Alrighty!" Shiro smiled, lobbing the Premier Ball that contained Leona. She popped out, ready and raring to go. "OK, OK, moves..." Shiro mumbled aas he pulled out his Pokédex, scanning Leona. "Ember, Headbutt, and Leer, that's pretty good. Alright, Leona, spray them with an Ember!" Leona complied, launching a spray of red-hot embers at the Bug Pokémon, most of them feeling at the sight of the super-effective move. "Alright, good job!" Shiro cheered.
"Hmm... Quick Attack, Counter, and Agility... that's pretty interesting." Hunter closed his own Pokédex, placing it back into his shoulder bag. He was a bit curious as to why his Riolu had a move that wasn't in the normal moveset though... He disregarded the thought, and pointed towards the remaining few Bug types that were lying about. "Riolu, let's go with a Quick Attack!" The little Emanation Pokémon responded quickly, attacking the few Bugs with surprising speed. The boy had noticed that... some form of energy had surrounded it. He immediately identified the force as the move Agility. "Uh..." Hunter called back his Pokémon, bending down a bit to see Riolu better. "I didn't tell you to use Agility..." He sighed, patting the top of Riolu's head. "We'll have to work on that."
"I'm sure he was just excited." Shiro smiled, as Leona continued to slaughter a countless amount of bugs with her Ember. "Well, at least I know that her Ember works. Alright, Leona, let's switch to Headbutt!" Shiro commanded. Leona nodded, running towards her foes and butting her head into them, sending them flying. It wasn't as effective as the Ember attacks, but it was still doing the job.
"Hmm, I guess that's true," Hunter shrugged, pointing to another crowd of Bug Pokémon. He patted Riolu's head once more, and said, "Alright, let's try this again. Let's go with another Quick Attack." Riolu nodded slowly, and rushed toward the few Spewpa quite quickly. With a quick strike, most of the bugs were taken care of easily. But... one of the Spewpa had survived the hit, and attacked the little Fighting type with a Tackle. Riolu retaliated with a Counter, slamming the Bug Type across the path in the forest. "Well... that happened again," Hunter sighed, watching Riolu trot back to the two trainers with a confident grin. Hunter crouched down, putting Riolu's head once again. "I get the sense that you don't exactly listen to what you're told." He was quickly answered with a little bark.
Shiro looked over at Hunter, a little concerned. "I don't think he doesn't listen to you; he still uses Quick Attack when you tell him. Maybe he's just got a knack for battles, and knows when it's a good time to use certain moves." Shiro explained. "He is a Fighting-type, after all. Makes sense that he'd be good at fighting."
"Huh...," Hunter thought about what Shiro said for a moment. "Well, that might be true." He leaned in a little into the other boy's ear and added, "Maybe Riolu has had a little more experience than I do. I mean, we're still just beginning trainers!" He chuckled, watching as Riolu took out another couple of bugs. It was clear that the little Emanation Pokémon knew what he was doing, and Hunter decided not to say much. He gave off the occasional command, when Riolu seemed like he needed it most. Other than that, he just watched to see what the Fighting type did the most...
"Beginning... trainers." Shiro muttered to himself. A memory flashed through his head, but it was gone too quickly for him to fully visualise it. He raised his hand to his temple, wincing a bit. Why was the memory painful? "What was that?" Shiro thought aloud, but shook it off. Leona had defeated all the Pokémon nearby, and was awaiting further order. "You can take a rest now, Leona." Shiro smiled.
"Yeah, that might be a good idea..." Hunter said, noticing that Riolu had slowly started to get more and more tired from training. He called the little Pokémon over to him, and added, "Might be best to take a break for now, little buddy." He patted Riolu's head a bit, and decided to take a seat in a clearing nearby. Neon mewled softly, wanting for his friend to pick him up. Hunter chuckled slightly, and raised the little Espurr into the air. He chuckled a little, and turned to Shiro, and asked, "Anything you feel like doing for the time being? I mean... there's plenty more we can do, though I was kinda thinking of just taking a break for now."
Shiro agreed with a silent nod, still feeling uneasy from whatever had just happened to him. He returned Leona into her Premier Ball, but sent out Caitlyn in her place, the Ice-type Pokémon sensing his emotion and jumping into his arms. As the two trainers made their way towards the exit, Shiro stroked Caitlyn's fur, the coolness of her body calming him down a little.
Hunter smiled a bit as the two began walking out of the forest. He noticed that Shiro was a little more quiet than usual, which made him feel a bit concerned. He tapped the boy's shoulder and said, "Hey, uh... are you doing okay? I mean, you've been a little quiet lately." Neon decided to try and climb on top of Hunter's head, making a small mewling sound as he sat on the boy's head. Hunter chuckled slightly, patting the little Constraint Pokémon without making him fall over either.
"Oh, uh, it's nothing. I guess I just kinda had a scary zone-out earlier, I dunno..." Shiro shrugged. "There was this image - I think it was a memory? - that came up when you said 'beginning trainers'. It kinda looked like it was me battling, but I was somewhere I didn't recognise. It was... painful to think about." Shiro tried to bring up the memory again, but it didn't seem to want to surface. "I also can't seem to remember it right now..." Shiro admitted.