Obviously straight indeed - even if Isaac was the only one to work that much out, Kimblee would be reasonably content with the knowledge that at least someone had, were he aware.

"We arrived in Johto within a very short time of one another; rather than attempt to take on the routes individually, we decided that it would be mutually beneficial to help each other train our Pokémon. It would make the process far easier to battle against another trainer, as opposed to trying to raise the creatures in battle against wild Pokémon alone; both the difficulty and the experience gained would increase along with our levels, and it would encourage strategizing and the like. Over time, I suppose you could say we formed a rather strong partnership of sorts."

He paused for a moment, bunching the fabric of his sleeve in his fingers as his grip tightened a bit. "He has his share of annoying tendencies, as people do. But he doesn't usually act like this towards me; his behavior has been increasingly bizarre over the last two weeks or so."