Walking back to the clothing shop, Koga, the shinobi that he is, was able to pretend to have a casual talk with Hana and Ben, who were also impressed by this ability of their friend. Walking around and picking up clothes for themselves, the Dover couple went with the flow of Koga's walking, and as the two had expected, the moment his daughter became a little bit tired, causing her to lag compared to their pace, Koga suddenly stopped in a clothes rack for casual clothes and muttered.
"Are your dreams of becoming a champion really that shallow?"
This made Hana and Ben, who were looking for clothes, look at each other before Ben ultimately decided to reply.
"What makes you say it's 'shallow'?"
In his tone, no anger can be heard, as if he had accepted his dream's shallowness or worse, knew how shallow it was from the start, and he was just too good at training Pokemons that he had garnered enough money to not care about its shallowness.
Koga knew that such was not the case, thus he continued.
"You two at least could have become members of the Elite 4... especially you, Hana, you were so strong that no Elite 4 has ever defeated you since the 3rd season of your Pokémon journey until you retired, I know you two wanted to have a Daycare center and I know why Ben retired in such a grand manner, but still... You could have reached higher than being the biggest what-ifs of the training profession."
At this moment, Janine, Koga's daughter, finally caught up, making Koga, Ben, and Hana go straight to the counter to pay for their purchase, after which, the 3 adults once again made Janine lag without her noticing, which made Hana finally reply to her old friend's inquiry.
"Being part of the Elite 4 and being a champion is different, Koga. For you, who wants to become one of the elite 4, it may be a position that lets you nurture the next flagship trainer that will fight against poachers or whatnot, but for me... for us that wanted to become champions, it's our peak."
Hana paused for a moment and sighed.
"A peak that I'm supposed to be free in chasing. For me, that is my only peak, being part of the elite 4, hell even being a Pokemon Master are nothing but fillers in my eyes..."
As if remembering something, Hana started to tremble, her teeth clenched, while her forehead started bulging with veins.
"If only those fuckers didn't- mrghh...!"
Ben was alarmed, as someone who spent the most time with Hana when she was still a hot-tempered teenager, he knew just how much 'hot' his wife's temper is if push really comes to shove. Thus, he immediately put his right palm into the mouth of Hana and instead continued to answer the question of Koga.
"Me too, I once wanted to become a champion. But that was only when I was a child, being an adult trainer that goes around and killing the dreams of teenagers made me realize that I don't want an old fart doing things like that to my son, so I decided to retire and nurture my son and my family so that no one will be able to do such things to him."
As Koga sighed, he shook his head, which made Ben add.
"Our goals change as we age, Koga."
At that moment, Janine went back to their side once again, and the 3 adults decided not to make the kid fall back by misdirecting her, thus they silently went out of the mall and went their separate ways.
Hana slapped the hand of Ben away and strode angrily towards the bus station, which made Ben sigh in resignation.
___________
"Dad, you look upset."
Janine, still holding her bag of clothes for her birthday said, even though his dad is not much of a talker in a sense that he will try to have casual talk with people (though he will still be a good talker if someone else initiated), as Koga's daughter, Janine can tell whenever her dad doesn't really want to say anything, and those moments often means he's upset. And just as Janine guessed, her father, Koga, just looked at her and shook his head. Janine didn't say anything anymore and walked with his dad slowly towards the bus station to their gym/house.
_Gone are the days where their passion burns everything in their path..._
Koga clearly remembers it, when his old friends, Hana and Ben, dominated all tournaments, or when they became the only couple to be successful league challenge finalists for 3 consecutive seasons... Those were the times when Ben and Hana's eyes burned with passion, with greed for more achievements... with denial of the league's decisions...
But now, they have truly retired and are just using the feeling of the league wanting a continued connection with them, seemingly to gloat.
_Who am I to judge, however?_
Koga didn't think of such matters further; after all, he's not the one in their shoes and can only feel upset that two of his most unreachable rivals just gave up on their dreams so easily while he's continuing to reach his despite already having a family.
_____________
Anthony and Glen's talk immediately swerved and leapt into different topics, away from the battle between Ben and Hana. Right now, Anthony and Ben are taking turns playing the Coordinator Pokémon game that's in the console Zubat and Treecko were previously using when they're still too busy talking. The story is not really that bad, but Anthony always equates Pokémon Contests as a side game, so he's having a hard time enjoying the game.
Maybe if he had a chance to watch a live Pokémon Contest, he would be able to enjoy the story more.
_I don't know how the season mechanics of Pokémon Coordinators work... All I know is that the broadcast for the main Festival starts at the end of the Pokémon League challenge, while the ribbon collecting starts at the start of the broadcast of the League conference..._
Glen seemed to be enjoying the game, which made him unable to keep track of the time, resulting in Glen being fetched by his mother and accepting an earful as they walked towards their house. Anthony and Zubat silently watched such a scene before looking at the console again.
"I'm tired of being a coordinator. I should look at the other cartridges."
His console is just a new purchase from his father, while the cartridges were purchased online; they include the newest versions of Region-exclusive storylines of trainers, coordinators, and breeders in the two Indigo regions, as well as the non-mainline games set in other regions.
All of them are 3d and open world due to the fact that Technology is much more advanced here in average than on Earth (Just look at how Rotom is basically a plasma AI), just as Anthony was about to go to his room, he and Zubat saw the door for the entrance and exit of the facade of the house where his mom and dad, with bags full of clothes, open.
"You wash the clothes."
Hana didn't even greet Anthony or Zubat, nor did she even consider if her husband needed help; she immediately stormed out of the living room towards the room of her and Ben. This scene just made the latter sigh while he looked at Anthony. Anthony, even though he had his curiosity piqued by how the usually not moody mother of his seemed to explode at any moment, used his adult-like tact to not ask any questions and just helped his dad put the clothes in the washing machine, and also helped him put them in the dryer and then hung them to dry.
_I wonder what happened..._
Anthony said while silently holding the clothes hanger for his dad's easy access, and after they were done, Anthony suppressed his curiosity and instead asked a different question.
"Dad, how did your processing of documents go?"
Anthony remembered that his parents wanted a bidding to happen in terms of the renovation rights and seemed not to worry about money, which made him wonder if that was the true reason for their relatively frugal life. Hearing the question of his son, Ben, who has also taken it upon himself to cook dinner, smiled and said.
"The process is going smoothly and with our... especially my reputation as I'm the recent projected champion, I expect a smooth transaction, they would come scrambling to us for the rights to build our day car."
This part confused Anthony, which he openly revealed through a frown.
"Normally, wouldn't the business owners should be the ones to talk to construction companies?"
The reason why the Dover, or any other Day Cares in general needed a construction company, specially at this time where they're allowed to sell Pokemon eggs is that Day cares are Pokemon League-monitored businesses, if the Day Care ever went into trouble in terms of sanitation or infrastructural defect, the owner can blame the contractor and can have a pretty good shield against a negligence case, they're not the one who built the center, after all.`
While it's not illegal to build the Daycare with your own patched-up team of construction workers and Pokemons, if ever the Daycare has structural problems, you will have to answer all of the sanctions on your own.
Them being the meat shield of day care centers is also the reason why Day Care owners tend to be the ones to ask for the services of the construction firm instead of bidding. Seeing the confusion of his son, Ben smiled at this.
"Don't worry, our application is signed by Professor Oak, Birch, and Elm, and is even recommended by the Pokémon Research Center of the Professors. And like I said, this, together with your parents' reputation, gives us the advantage that instead of us chasing firms, they will be the ones that would scurry for our attention."
Anthony nodded at this, again reiterating the importance of connections even in a world that is not heavily riddled with corruption (at least as far as he knew), it's as indispensable as Pokemons themselves.
_The construction firms can also, if enough trust is built, add a clause in the contract where my mom and dad will appear in their advertisement... using their faces even just once will boost their deals._
Anthony didn't ask for more and just continued the dinner preparation, and after a while, when Anthony and co. Started dinner, Anthony noticed that his mom's eyes were red, but her mood had lifted considerably now. Again making use of his tact, Anthony didn't ask for the reason for his mother's crying but just tapped her shoulder.
This is also accompanied by Zubat giving her small head pats, which made Hana smile fully.
During dinner, Anthony also recounted the request for an exhibition match between Hana and Ben, courtesy of Glen, while also saying his interest in the matter, which was backed by the Pokemons that are allowed inside the house. Hana and Ben immediately agreed and then announced it to their partners, Charizard and Blastoise, respectively.
Before continuing his game, Anthony announced the good news to Glen, who immediately went to have a talk with his mom. In this regard, because Hana has a reputation riddled with words like 'recklessness', Glen's mom is skeptical; he ultimately agreed, however, when she seemed to remember that Ben is much more responsible than Hana.
_Hearing other people shit on the head of my mom makes me want to punch the PC... and I can't even complain because I got hospitalized recently because of her recklessness..._
Anthony invited his parents into the conversation in the living room, where the venue of the exhibition match was decided.
_The match will happen in the afternoon tomorrow, in the training field number 5 of the Fuchsia city, which was already booked in advance through an online app..._
After the talk, Anthony was finally able to continue on his game, which made him reminisce about the schedule tomorrow, the fight between two Pokemons of Hana and Ben would be watched by Zubat and Pidgey too, meaning the battle training on Sunday will be postponed, a first time in the tight schedule of the training of Zubat.
_The fights between my mom and dad are always intense and always destroy the field every time... I wonder how it feels watching it live... I can't wait for tomorrow._
As Anthony gamed, taking a break on his reviews or training on his cheat day, he couldn't help but smirk.
Being the son of two strong trainers is really amazing.