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Even if he was no longer training under Van's strict guidance, Luke wasn't about to start slacking in his daily training routines. Recently, Emil was joining him as well, and even if his pokemon weren't terribly powerful, it was nice to have the company for once. Luke didn't usually visit the Pokemon Center after his training, preferring to let his pokemon regain their strength through normal rest, but battling them against another's team proved more taxing on everyone involved, and so he was beginning to get into the habit.

"It sure is a pain, though," he wondered aloud, moving at an idle pace in the general direction of the Center. "They don't want you to battle in the middle of the city unless you're at the park or something, but then they put the Pokemon Center right where they tell you not to battle. Stupid." Not that it was nearly as much trouble as he made it out to be, but Luke found it vaguely therapeutic to complain for no reason.

"Uh, well... maybe, I guess..." It made it really difficult to complain idly if his complaints were taken seriously and offered justification, "Well, whatever. Can't be helped anyway," so it was easier to just let it go.

It wouldn't be much longer before the pair arrived at the Pokemon Center, inconveniently placed in the city as it was, though Luke would pausly strangely at the large windows at the front of the building, staring into it with an odd frown.

What was that b*****d doing here anyway? Luke had had enough of him wandering around Camphoreon confusing people. It pissed him off, and as easy as it would have been to wait for him to come out of the Center and challenge him properly, he didn't really want to get the naive Emil involved in the whole mess. Without thinking, Luke raised his arm as a barrier between his company and the PokeCenter's window. "It's sort of..." hard to explain. He trailed off with a short sigh and turned away, starting down the sidewalk in the opposite direction. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. Let's just go." It was frustrating, and his pace was angry, but the idea of Emil getting hurt because of some selfish fight that he wasn't even involved in wasn't the most appealing in the world. Never mind that Luke wasn't sure he was confident enough in his abilities to face Asch directly, especially after how spectacularly he had performed in the Sharpedo incident.

"It's not-- Nngh..." It wasn't as though he could just brush it off after getting so worked up. He slowed to a more normal pace, sparing a glance behind them as if expecting to see that they were being followed - of course they weren't, he hadn't even seen them. And what was he being so paranoid about anyway? It wasn't as though he was afraid of Asch, right? Right.

"You know when I was all pissed off because I thought you were trying to steal Leste?" He probably should have apologized properly for that by now, but then there were a lot of things he probably should have done. "You can thank that guy for that. Well, him and some others, but mostly him. He stole my friend's pokemon." His expression, darkly serious and tinged with a mild shame, was indeed vastly different from what he usually wore. "He's just dangerous, okay? I don't wanna deal with him right now."

"The hell if I know!" Luke replied irritably. "I've been trying to figure that out myself for ages..." It just didn't make sense, especially when the thief in question already had pokemon of their own. He frowned bitterly at the memories the thoughts dredged up: meeting Rosie trying to put on a strong face after having her Togepi taken from her, running into that Rocket girl in the middle of her getaway, hearing of the loss of Vahy'n... None of it was pleasant.

He slowed to a stop at Emil's words, turning to face the boy. "...Then all you can do is fight," he said. "You either fight, or you run away." He looked beyond his companion only briefly and with a fleeting frustration. "My friends and I - we chose to fight. Maybe it's dangerous, but damned if we're gonna let them get their way!"

"How? Well..." That was sort of a tough question, given that they hadn't actually done much fighting yet. Thus far it had all been preparation. The mention of his sword, though, offered a better springboard for a response, and his hand wandered absently to the hilt, "Pretty much. It's not like I've actually used it for that... or not yet, anyway." There was a distinct sense of resolve to his words, though that resolve likely wouldn't last once he thought of his task in terms of using the blade to harm someone rather than just to overpower them. "Friends of mine have been hurt, though - like actually hurt, not just had their pokemon stolen - so it's not like we can just rely on our pokemon's strength here."

Luke mentally backpedaled, realizing that they way he was talking sounded like some kind of recruitment speech, "It's not like we're expecting every trainer in Kodo to take up a banner or something. Part of the reason we're fighting is to protect those that can't." He was silently thoughtful for a moment, then amended his words, "But with things like they are, you've really gotta be ready to stand up for yourself. It's not at the point where people are randomly getting mugged in the street or anything, but those bastards crop up in some seriously unexpected places, you know?" He recognized that Emil was timid and fearful, but that only made it even more important for the boy to be able to afford himself some protection - as things were, Luke feared he would be an easy target if he ever faced one of the Rockets.

Luke considered the response silently. Something about this felt unfair, like he was pressuring Emil into something the boy obviously wasn't perfectly thrilled about. Certainly there were plenty of people that never trained seriously and never got caught up in Team Rocket's deeds, but then those people weren't actively pursuing the goal of overcoming the organization. He folded his arms with a quietly thoughtful hum.

"Well... you can learn, if you want to. Training pokemon isn't hard in concept - it just takes a lot of work and dedication. And you know, if you want," he rested a hand on his hilt to indicate the ever-present blade at his waist, "you could learn to use to use this too."