Chương 100: Chapter 98

The first thing I did when I got back to Jubilife was exchange some of my Pokémon. Whimsicott and Carbink were sent back alongside a list of goals to work on in their freetime. The biggest goal was Toxic, but they both knew that was something to develop in the long term. The pair of them would be back once the Pokémon Contest I planned to enter in Canalave was over. Returning to the team in their place were Florges and Azumarill.

I needed to work with Florges on her upcoming performance, and I wanted to know if Azumarill would be a good training partner for Ralts. I had a ticket already purchased for a ferry across the river to the west, which would be leaving tomorrow afternoon. With that scheduled, I had this afternoon to train and the entirety of tomorrow to travel, so I sent Azumarill and Ralts out as soon as I could.

The pair emerged on the training field outside of the Pokémon Center and immediately faced each other without any prodding from me. Azumarill very obviously looked Ralts up and down while Ralts just stared at her in the eye. I would say there was a dramatic pause or a tense moment of silence, but all Azumarill did was take in Ralts and immediately let loose a "tch." At that, Ralts looked furious.

He didn't attack, thankfully, but he did use Calm Mind a few times to both get a hold on his emotions and use that power to rip a chunk of dirt out of the ground. More specifically, the dirt Azumarill was on. She lost her balance but managed to bounce off her tail right back to her feet with Splash. The dirt she was just standing on hovered in the air, and Ralts started to shake from strain. The entire mound was several feet across, so for an unevolved Pokémon, his showing was suitably impressive.

He managed to grit out a smirk towards Azumarill through his efforts. In response, Azumarill huffed and spat on her hands. Punching them together and breathing out for a single use of Work Up, she dug her arms into the ground next to Ralts and heaved. This time, Azumarill was the one lifting up dirt, and her raw strength let her tear an even wider area of earth right out of the ground. Of course, that dirt was the dirt where Ralts was just standing, so he was forced to Teleport away to avoid falling down.

That caused him to lose focus and drop the mound he had been levitating. Azumarill dropped hers as well.

"Ra ra Ralts Ralts. Ralts ra Ralts," he accused.

"Zu," she responded haughtily. The pair crossed their arms, huffed, and turned away. I was starting to understand the problem. Ralts thought Azumarill was a brute that relied too much on physical strength, and Azumarill thought Ralts was an egghead who put too much value on telekinesis. Somehow, they were both very much alike. Ralts sent another short phrase Azumarill's way, and she responded tersely. Spurred on by that short argument, the pair repeated their destruction of a perfectly good dirt floor.

I just stood there and watched their pissing contest. I was unsure if I should stop it or let it happen. At least, it was giving them good motivation to train. Warily, I let them continue. The rest of the night was spent with Florges and Ninetales, helping Florges practice and plan out her performance, while also trying to find ways to give them non verbal commands in battle.

Non verbal commands would technically be suitable for quick orders in non-Contest battles, but for now, it would stay in its testing phase and only serve to make Robin more mysterious. It was difficult coming up with multiple different non verbal commands. They needed to be audible rather than visual since it was too much of a risk to have my Pokémon split their attention in battle.

However, I couldn't have too many different audible cues since that would just make me look like a one member band, which was counter to who Robin was meant to be. For now, the only signal we settled on was a snap to tell my team to unleash their most powerful attacks when called for. Its purpose would be for finishing moves only, which was great for drama. Getting that reaction nailed down would take time, and I worried they wouldn't catch the sound in the heat of battle.

When it was time to retire, I returned the exhausted Azumarill and Ralts (Azumarill had won all of their contests, but neither of them acted like it was settled in the slightest), as well as the rest of my team. Afterwards, I went out to make a quick purchase before retiring for the night as well. The next day, we traveled west to the river-bound ferry, waited on board, and within a few hours, we were in the port city of Canalave.

Canalave City reminded me of Slateport if Slateport wasn't such a tourist destination. A large harbor took up most of the city, and it was almost completely paved over with only a few trees sticking up through. There weren't any major hotels or beaches, but rather smaller hotels and a large number of seafood restaurants. The Pokémon Center was still my first choice to spend the night at, however, and I welcomed its presence as an escape from the smell of fish and rotting seaweed that lingered throughout the city.

In the Pokémon Center, I submitted a form to request permission to train in the off limits areas of Iron Island, which I was only able to do thanks to the extra level of trust I had from the Key to Kalos. If I was in Kalos, I could have just gone, but I wasn't and needed to get permission first. The next day, I registered for the contest and spent the remaining few days before the Contest just training.

Time passed, the performance developed, and soon, it was Saturday: the set date for the Contest, as well as "Robin's" second Contest appearance. Once more, I found myself in the waiting room of the Contest Hall, this time in Canalave City. I was in the same theater-and-jester inspired Robin outfit, complete with a wig, staring at the monitor while the announcer spoke. A few people around me sent nervous glances my way, clearly intimidated by the strange person in their midst.

This time, I wasn't sitting on a bench, mimicking Steven's sitting posture, but instead, I was standing in the middle of the crowd to watch the livestream on the provided hanging monitor. My costume was extra imposing since my raised and heeled shoes increased my height by several inches. Being taller than everyone in the room certainly helped the mystique. When it came to the other people in the room, I couldn't help but be surprised that there were absolutely no familiar characters from the anime.

Obviously, Dawn and Ash were heading to Floaroma town, but Zoey wasn't here, nor were the other minor Coordinator rivals like Kenny and Nando. I had been so used to being harried by at least one of their presences during a major event that it felt strange to be completely on my own again. I suppose it makes sense I won't be surprised by someone from the anime every time. The region only has so many relevant anime characters, after all. Argh! Not characters, people. I really need to get better at that.

I wasn't the first to go up since I only registered in the middle of the week. Instead, I was near last which gave me plenty of performances to watch before my turn. A Gastrodon turned the stage into a swamp using Muddy Water and Mud Bomb, an Aron created a chunk of rock and broke it apart into a likeness of itself, and a Lumineon, a literal fish, had a wonderful performance where it sent numerous water droplets into the air with its mastery over Flying Type moves.

There were a few other basic performances not worth mentioning, but I did notice there were less people present than there were in the first Jubilife Contest. Becoming a Coordinator was far less popular than becoming a trainer, so sometimes, Contests just didn't have a large number of people participating. It seemed that this Contest was one of those days. Due to that, there would only be four people moving to the next round instead of the usual eight.

That meant whatever Pokémon that would be battling would be kept in better shape, but at the same time, it would be harder to actually be chosen to make it to the next round. I believed in my Pokémon and that Florges's performance would be more than good enough. The audience cheered as I walked on stage, doing large, exaggerated claps to go along with their noise. Once I reached the designated central spot, my claps ceased alongside the audience's cheers as I began the performance.

To begin, I flicked up my hand to my side, using the pocket in my glove to make Florges's Heal Ball seem like it just magically appeared in my grasp. With no extra movement, I tossed it forward, and a cloud of pink petals burst out around her thanks to the stickers placed on her ball for this contest. Now present, Florges sent out a pulse of green, causing grass to grow out of the stage's floor with Grassy Terrain.

The stickers' petals were still drifting down, so to make use of them, she followed up her terrain move with Magical Leaf, slicing every single petal in half. This was the tricky part, since Magical Leaf didn't home in on targets that weren't alive. The petals were fake conjurations from the sticker, which meant Florges actually had to properly aim her attack. This definitely got us points with the judges.

She spun in place, looking as if she was dancing, but in reality, she was doing her best to hide her strain from focus as she controlled her Magical Leaves to move in a specific pattern after cutting the petals. To start, the leaves that were left, roughly eight of them, all moved out away from Florges like spokes on a wheel. The cut through the field's grass and caused it to disappear, leaving a dirt trail in their wake.

Once they were a good distance away, Florges twisted her arms, still disguising that as part of her dance, and the leaves curved to move back towards her. That turned their trail from straight lines into a cane-like pattern that extended back towards Florges. It seemed as if her own attack would hit her, but at the last second, she dropped to the ground and smashed her hands into it, forcing her leaves to tilt downwards and slice into the dirt around her. They got dangerously close, but just barely didn't hit.

This was the second most risky part of our performance, but Florges had been training with Grass Type moves for far too long to fail here. We paused to let the audience cheer, and those cheers increased as they realized that the path her Magical Leaves had taken had carved a flower pattern into the grass. While we waited, Florges used Calm Mind twice to ready herself for the final part of her performance.

She needed the enhanced focus to properly pull it off as it required three moves to be used back to back as fast as possible. To start the finale, I brought up my hand and dramatically snapped my fingers, signaling Florges to use Misty Terrain. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. A pink pulse replaced the grass with faint, pink mist, and then, Florges began to spin.

Petals drifted out of her flower mane and into the air around her, swaying with her every movement and spiraling around her as she moved. They built up more and more as a tornado of petals obscured her—and me—from view. I started to walk backwards, quickly. I needed to be a distance away for the next part. Normally, obscuring a Pokémon wouldn't be a good idea in a performance that was meant to show them off, but this would serve to properly demonstrate Florges's abilities a bit better.

The petals began to slow as her multi-use move finished, leaving the stage awash in hues of pinks and reds. The Misty Terrain meant Florges wasn't confused, which was its main point, and I felt a tug on my entire body from my position a distance away. In an instant, I suddenly found myself in an obscured cylinder of pink: the center of the Petal Dance Florges was just in.

The petals drifted down around me, revealing me instead of Florges in the center, which showed off her knowledge of the relatively uncommon and difficult move, Ally Switch, to the judges. The pseudo-teleportation made me sick to my stomach, but my mask let me hide my grimace as Florges rushed to my side. The timer had unfortunately run out as Florges was moving back, but for the few moments she was moving, she was at least demonstrating her extremely precise aerial movement she had developed alongside Altaria.

Florges and I bowed. The audience applauded. I walked off the stage and didn't grab my stomach until I was out of sight. Florges was quickly at my side, making sure I was okay, but I waved her off, knowing I would be okay.

"Thanks," I whispered.

"It's just an after-effect of Ally Switch." She gave me a guilty smile and put her hand on my shoulder. She couldn't see my expression, so I just nodded back to reassure her. With our performance over, I returned her to her Heal Ball, made my way back to the waiting room, and found myself a spot to relax and recover until the results came in. Florges and I made it to the next round. When it came to my team's performances in this contest and the last, my Pokémon's showings had been more complicated than others.

Ninetales and Florges had skills from over a year of training they wanted to show off, which meant we had gone a bit overboard. We managed to be judged well enough to move on, but complicated performances like ours meant more risks and more chances to fail. In the future, we would need to tone it down to better match others, but I think both Ninetales and Florges appreciated being able to have such showy performances to start their careers (no matter how anxious Florges had been leading up to it).

With us in the second round were three other Coordinators: the one partnered with Gastrodon, the one partnered with Lumineon, and one partnered with a Golbat. I was surprised to see the Golbat trainer make their way to the next round as I had thought their performance was rather generic.

However, as I looked back on it, I realized the performance had shown off the Golbat's skill to fly by following quite a complicated flight pattern, and also demonstrated its biting and leeching moves by miming attacks while it flew. Not very flashy, but effective at showing off. I would keep that in mind for the future. With four people in this round, there would be three battles. Since I was in the second set, I was able to watch the first battle as I rested.

It was between the Gastrodon trainer and the Lumineon trainer, except the Lumineon trainer hadn't swapped out who they were competing with. In the battle between the rocky cocoon Pokémon, Sand Cloak Wormadam, and the butterfly fish Pokémon, Lumineon, the fish won. It was a bit absurd to see something that belonged in the water fight outside on land, but Lumineon was able to move around and keep itself wet with Surf, completely outmaneuvering the Wormadam while looking graceful at the same time.

Ninetales and I were up next. Without being able to predict what Pokémon my opponent would send out, Ninetales had two different strategies prepared. If we battled a physical attacker, she'd focus on narrowly dodging to wear down their points, and if we battled a special attacker, or an attacker that focused on utility moves, she'd attack from range. Her strategy was dependent on her opponent's strategy.

Coming out from the ball our opponent tossed forward was a pink creature with a large, bulbous tail and an even larger tongue. The Normal Type, Lickitung, flailed its namesake at Ninetales while making a rather annoying "nwaa" sound. Ninetales was used to both Whimsicott and Dedenne. Her eye twitched but she was rather unphased by it The start of the Contest battle didn't see Ninetales using her ability, Snow Warning, to create her weather effect.

Staying out of sight was fine, but we wanted to have her dodges be properly seen to have her opponent lose even more points on successful evades. We also wanted to use this as a test run for battling without beneficial weather, which we had been practicing for quite some time. At the start of the battle, the Lickitung ran forward with heavy, tottering steps to make its way towards Ninetales. She didn't take any major actions to create distance but just stayed back to use Calm Mind instead.

Lickitung quickly lashed out with its tongue to use Lick, following a command from its trainer. Catching me off guard, Ninetales didn't follow our planned strategy, and let Lickitung easily hit her. However, I saw that we didn't lose points, but Lickitung and its trainer did instead. Lickitung suddenly sucked in its tongue and leaped back. It gave Ninetales a rather humorous stink eye, trying its best to lean into its goofy appearance. It didn't help it recover, though.

Ninetales had used Icy Wind when Lickitung approached, which had chilled and frozen part of Lickitung's wet tongue. The initial impact had hurt Ninetales, but Lickitung was now wary of using its main form of attack against Ninetales, since it knew she could seriously hurt it in exchange. Ninetales had basically just set the pace for this battle. Following that, I sat back and watched as Ninetales proceeded to actually follow our strategy.

She purposefully dodged and taunted the much shorter ranged physical attacks that Lickitung sent her way. Notably, it wasn't willing to use its tongue. The Lickitung's points slowly drained as Ninetales stayed extremely close to her foe, jumping around it and even brushing her tails against it just to insult it at points. One Mega Punch aimed to clip back legs, but Ninetales had already moved right behind it to dodge.

The way she moved made it seem she was almost floating in the air at times, and her large mane and tails billowed out almost as if there was a faint wind. Lickitung was trying its best to stay calm and focused, but it was clearly getting annoyed by its lack of success. Seeing that, Ninetales took a page out of Dedenne's book and purposely laughed haughtily right behind Lickitung's ear, causing Lickitung to get mad and the Coordinator to scowl.

To be fair, both of them quickly schooled their expressions, but that laugh had still cost them points. A laugh cost them points. Ninetales was completely outmatching her opponent. With us significantly up in points, I decided it was time for the match to end. So just like we had practiced, I snapped my fingers. Ninetales was heavily focusing on the battle, but nothing major had happened to create too much noise. She heard the order, and immediately started to use her most powerful move: Blizzard.

Lickitung's trainer saw this coming and commanded his Pokémon to use Protect to shield itself from the damage. It worked, but, while in a normal battle that would have been the correct move, here it just looked desperate and didn't appeal to their image at all. The miniature snow storm passed over Lickitung as it crossed its arms and braced itself for the attack. While it hadn't fainted, its points were lowered enough that the pair completely ran out. The match was called in our favor.

Since there weren't as many trainers in the second round, Ninetales and I were given plenty of time to rest and plan properly for our upcoming match against Lumineon in the finals. Just like us, the trainer had easily beat their opponent, and Zoey's warning rang in my head. Ninetales and I had it easy at first, but this would be much more difficult. Both Ninetales and the Lumineon very obviously hid their full skillsets, so we needed to be wary of what tricks it may pull.

One thing I noted while we waited was how little there was to do as a Coordinator between rounds. The audience was in a constant state of entertainment, watching the performances and battles while listening to the announcers. Ninetales and I were just sitting here waiting for the announcer to call us up. The excitement of the performances more than made up for that, however. Once it was time, I returned Ninetales and returned to the field to face our opponent.

He gave me Wallace vibes, although he didn't quite match up to Wallace's natural elegance. He had long, blonde hair as well as what seemed to almost be a white matador's outfit, but with an exposed stomach and lower back instead of a full shirt. He pointed forward dramatically as we took positions on opposite sides of the field, then called out to taunt me as part of his show.

"Fair Robin, thy act is impressive, but it shall hold no candle to Lumineon and I! Prepare to be blown away by the ocean's breeze!" I swear about a quarter of the audience swooned. I didn't want to act as cocky as him, nor did I want to be that obviously dramatic. However, I wanted Robin to act like winning was an assurance, so perhaps that was unavoidable. The voice changer I bought at the end of my stay in Jubilife got its first use here as I spoke loudly in response.

"Alas, you're comparing a mere breeze to a winter's storm. You'll find that your words hold no meaning once we win." Really?

"Alas?" I sound like some kind of Shakespearean actor. Despite my misgivings about my lackluster word choice, the audience ate it up. My voice didn't sound the same as my poor attempts to disguise it in the last Contest, but sounded like a smooth and silky, mildly baritone voice. The cheers increased at our banter, and my opponent smirked.

"We shall see," he muttered. The battle soon began. Ninetales and I had a rough start as we immediately lost points from Lumineon's Rain Dance replacing the hail from her Snow Warning. We had decided that Lumineon posed enough of a threat to go all out, but they seemed to have seen it coming. Lumineon's Surf came to it far more quickly as the rain let it move and act at a much faster rate due to its Swift Swim ability.

The water somehow practically removed any air resistance it encountered in its movements to rush towards Ninetales. She narrowly moved out of the way of a Water Pulse, only for a surprise Gust to knock her off balance. The fish's fins waved in the wind as it proceeded to then set up a Tailwind to cause it to move even faster. Ninetales barely regained balance in time for another Gust to be sent our way. Our points were draining quickly. Thankfully, I had that voice changer to mask the sounds of my voice.

It would be needed as it was quickly becoming clear this was not a battle Ninetales could win on her own.

"Freeze the ground," I ordered. Ninetales shot her Ice Beam over the floor of the arena, freezing the building puddles of water and wet dirt into a solid, ice-covered floor. Lumineon's Surf let it ignore that due to the layer of water between it and the ground, but the next time it slowed to unleash an attack, it didn't stop fast enough. The attack's aim was thrown completely off as a result. Lumineon lost points, but not as much as Ninetales had lost so far. It was at least a start.

"Build speed and throw it off with a flash," I then followed up. Ninetales ran forward on the frozen ground, not struggling to move over the slippery terrain in the slightest. Despite the wet weather, this was the ideal ground for an Ice Type like herself as her Agility built momentum as she circled around the field. Unfortunately, Lumineon could still catch up.

"Water Pulse!" Several rings of water were shot at Ninetales as she desperately leapt over two, but was caught in the air by a third. She still managed to land on the ice floor just fine, but once again, a Gust caused her to lose both her balance and more points. The Lumineon tried to capitalize on that with an Air Slash.

"Icy Wind!" I shouted. Ninetales, while still in the process of moving faster, unleashed her own wind-based attack that intercepted the blade of air. The temperature difference slowed it down just enough to crash into the ground behind her instead, and then, Ninetales was suddenly positioned right next to Lumineon. That was when she unleashed a Dazzling Gleam. The blinding, piercing light stunned Lumineon from where it was riding its wave and caused it to veer off to the side.

Ninetales stopped running on the ice and purposely used her momentum to do a sliding one-eighty, firing an Ice Beam at the stunned Lumineon while maintaining some of its speed. The attack struck it in the side, as it lost a significant number of points. Our trio of successful moves in a row just barely let us regain momentum and pull the match into our favor, but only just so. Despite our new lead, our opponent seemed unbothered by the new difference in points.

His face was schooled into an expression of calm, and I felt a brief pang of jealousy at how well he was controlling his visible emotions. He gave Lumineon a simple command.

"Surf." Lumineon was already using Surf to get around, but now, the fish began to collect all the water on the field. The drizzling rain, the lingering puddles, even its own protective film of water began to coalesce into one large wave. Towering over the field, the Surf attack threatened to crash into Ninetales, and I took a quick glance at the time. There's not much left. No wonder he wants to finish this right now.

I could snap here to command her to freeze part of it with Blizzard, or I could have Ninetales use Ice Beam to "dig" her way through the wave. However, I decided that digging is what I wanted her to do. Normally, Dig would mean Ninetales would become dirty, which would most likely mean points lost on her appearance. However, if the timer was about to run out? We wouldn't even need to worry about it if she didn't come up in time. So that's what we did.

"Dig," I commanded. Ninetales leaped in the air like a fox jumping after its prey, and she dug into the ground below her right as the water began crashing down. The wave flooded the arena but a quick psychic barrier held it in. Bubbles left the hole Ninetales had dug, causing me to briefly become worried that the aftermath wouldn't be what I wanted. However, a cracking sound rang out, and just before the time ended, Ninetales burst out of the ground to reveal that she was just fine, albeit a bit wet.

The buzzer went off. I glanced over to the points to see what the result was. Both the Lumineon trainer and I had lost a bit of points, but the Dig had reduced how many points the Surf had cost us, which sealed the match in our favor. Somehow, we had pulled off a victory. The audience burst into an uproarious applause as Ninetales returned to my side, and Lumineon to its trainer's side. Ninetales pretended to be completely satisfied as she did so, but I could tell she was upset about her hair being a complete mess.

Oh, she was a little injured too, but her focus was definitely on her appearance. Knowing she was going to want extra grooming later, and knowing that she didn't want people to look at her mass of tangled knots, I quickly returned her to her Premier Ball and sent a nod of respect my opponent's way. He also gave a nod back, returning Lumineon at the same time.

The victory ceremony was short and quick, giving little fanfare outside of one last introduction-slash-description of me (aka Robin) and moving onto the stage to present me with the prize: the Canalave Ribbon. It looked just like the other achievable ribbons in that it had a central golden pin with two strips of cloth hanging off both of its sides. The ribbon cloth had a light gray edge with a darker gray center, and the pin itself was shaped like a diamond with a small crown on it.

I took it carefully and bowed to the audience, whereupon they burst out in cheers again at the great showing today. Leaving to the backstage hallways, my heart beat with pride at how well my Pokémon had done. Sure, I didn't recognize anyone from the anime who would all become masterful Coordinators, but at the same time, we had just won our first Contest! Both Ninetales and Florges were absolutely incredible, just like always, and this ribbon symbolized that people had recognized just how wonderful they both were.

Honestly, earning this one made me want to earn even more. Once we had a private space, I planned to hand it off to Florges and Ninetales to let them decide what we'd do with it. Before then, though, they needed to be healed at a Pokémon Center, and then it would be time to celebrate our victory. I hummed as I walked down the hallway. I just couldn't stop smiling. Later that night, I received a message from the local Pokémon Center.

My application to train in Iron Island had been denied, but at the same time, I had been told to visit the Canalave Gym at my earliest convenience. I had new plans for tomorrow.