Aww, poor Ryan. He wants to help because he feels responsible, but all Michael does is push him away. Michael hasn't grown that much after all, has she?

Well, his intent is all well and good, but you'll see in a few pages why it is that she does keep pushing him away. I really wanted to make sure their dynamic was very different and unintentionally size plays a factor in showing this. The Vulpix and Maria are in a very cooperative relationship, where they treat each other as effectively equals and just happen to be the same size.

Ryan and Michael's relationship is far more confrontational and their sizes and how they treat each other is nowhere close to being equal. Ryan blames himself and has tasked himself to protecting her from everything, to the extent of being somewhat overbearing. Though it's a thing of note is that what is Michael's response to dealing with her problems? To run away. Became a werepokemon for being a trainer? is seriously considering abandoning it rather than deal with fighting other pokemon. Runs away from society to the middle of nowhere to transform. And though she actually could beat Ryan in a fight, what did she do when she ran into him? Run away. But this aspect of how she's dealing with the traumatic event is why she would have been useless in the fight in BDH. Effectively the Vulpix and Maria are people who run towards their troubles to face it head-on. Michael and Ryan are both running from their problems in their own way. But it provides a way for them to grow that isn't there for the Vulpix and Maria