Pokemon Center rooms are the same everywhere. I don’t know why, but they always are.
A bedroom slightly smaller than the one on my old apartment and a tiny bathroom. It was fine when we stayed in Goldenrod, but now we’ve added another pokemon to the team, a giant ice disk that was currently hovering in the middle of the room, just above the bed.
I peeked over my shoulder to look at my team. Valley and Jungle were chatting to each other while lying in the double sized bed below the Cryogonal. Cape was sitting on the brown rug, back against the bed, smiling as he flicked through the pictures he took on his portable camera. Mesa, meanwhile, was looking over my shoulder at the journal I was writing on.
A big sixth pokemon and we’d need to do like the trainers with big teams did and rent a large room in trainer hotels. I really didn’t expect we’d have to do it so soon in our journey.
I turned back to the journal, finished the last paragraph on the page, and pushed away from the desk. Mesa floated back so I could rotate my chair to look at them all.
“Okay team,” I said, and the pokemon who were distracted turned to look. “The beginner’s tournament of Violet City starts tomorrow, and I have a few important things for us to address as a team.”
Everyone nodded or made a small grunt of agreement.
“First, as I said, this is a beginner’s tournament. They’re for beginners, so I will use mostly the newest ones on the team. This tournament is a good way for them to get fighting experience quickly. Mountain and Valley will be the ones fighting the most in the first day—”
The Minccino began to jump up and down in the bed while happily squeaking.
“And towards the end of the tournament, as the weaker trainers and pokemon are weeded out, I’ll bring out the strong veterans, Jungle, Mesa and Cape, in that order.”
Valley froze in the air and deflated after she landed in the bed. Cape and Jungle laughed at her.
“There’s a lot of rules in the tournament,” I continued with a smile. The only ones who didn’t groan at the word ‘rules’ were Mesa and Mountain. “I will not bother trying to explain all of them to you guys, but just know that I’ve read them. The only thing you guys need to remember is that if I say something, you must do it. That means stopping when I say stop, Okay? Cape? Valley?”
The two offenders grunted and nodded. It’s not like that happens often but sometimes those two are so lost in a battle that I have to repeat two or three times for them to stop, especially when they’re sparing against each other.
“The next thing is…” I checked the notebook. “Avoid injuring yourselves. Two days after the tournament ends we’ll be going against Falkner. That means no pulling off crazy stunts like what Cape did against Whitney, or even what Mesa did with Rock Tomb. Remember, no tournament prize is enough compared to winning a badge.”
After all, winning a badge gets us one step closer to the greatest tournament of them all, the Silver Conference. Their dry nods didn’t appease me, but if things get back I can still recall them. I glanced at the notebook again.
“Now for our strategy, I still don’t know if our group will fight right after noon or more to late afternoon. If closer to noon Valley will go first, if closer to evening, Mountain will go first. Of course, temperature will also be taken into consideration, a hot day doesn't help a Cryogonal after all.”
The team’s two newest pokemon nodded.
"Well, let’s start with Mountain…”
-
I was looking at my laptop. Specifically, at the site where the tournament groups would be announced in just a few minutes. Around the table were the other members of Project. Sitting to my side were Robert and Emilia who were watching a live stream at Robert’s laptop where the tournament organisers were assigning the groups in a randomised format.
At the other side of the table were Jess, Dendra and Katy, who were comparing the trainings the two groups did in the last two days.
Jess, competitive as always, didn’t want to train with the others before the tournament. The reason being to not give away her moves and strategies. Since I already knew what she was working on,—I suggested at least half of those after all—she asked me to train with her. Katy, Robert and Emilia agreed with her that it was a good idea and did their own training.
We thought that Dendra would be training with them, since they travelled together, but she annoyed Jess so much that she was allowed to train with us. Thus, she was the only one who knew how all five of us fought.
I briefly suspected that Dendra didn’t get along well with the trio while journeying together, but at breakfast and dinner, where we all ate together, they talked and joked like good friends, so that was probably wrong.
Between catching up with Project and our training, Jess and I didn’t see the others on our travelling group.
The twins told us they’d be exploring the city like tourists and we hadn’t seen them since. It was really disappointing that after our match with Falkner we would be splitting up. They didn’t have a sponsor and would need to wait almost three whole weeks for their match with Falkner. They also didn’t want to follow Dendra’s steps.
Aiden would continue with us since he was sponsored by his clan and would be fighting Falkner even earlier than us, but he was busy training for the tournament with a friend from Blackthorn who happened to be on the city. We hadn’t seen too much of him the last two days and he always looked too tired from training to hang out with us.
“Shut up, you dork!” Jess said, making me look over the screen to see her clamping Dendra’s mouth shut. “Be generic, ge-ne-ric! Do you want to tell her everything, your little spy?! And you! Stop trying to goad this dumbass into revealing all my secrets.”
“I wasn’t going to speak anything Jess, trust me!“ Came the muffled protest from behind the hand.
“Jess, let her go,” I said.
“Thank you Scott,” Dendra sighed in relief as Jess retreated, and then turned to her. “I wasn’t going to say anything important... again.”
Jess glared.
“And I’ll repeat myself, I don’t need any ‘secret’ information to beat you.” Katy calmly said, one hand supporting her head and the other holding her phone. “I’d even forget whatever secrets Dendra was going to say.”
“I wouldn’t,” Ronald piped with a smirk, eyes not leaving the screen.
“I wasn’t going to say anything!” Dendra whined.
“Well, aren’t you a spirited bunch,” Someone commented from beside our table.
A tall teenager was lingering near our table with a joking smile. He was clearly a Blackthorn judging by the famous hairstyle and the clothes similar to the ones that Aiden wore. The only difference was in the colour of the lines, instead of blue, his was red. The belt that he wore had eight great balls in a black and red pattern.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
From beside him came out the thinner form of Aiden, clothes scuffed and dirt. He looked almost dead on his feet.
“Hey”—he yawned—“guys.”
“Hey, aren’t you too young to be out of bed at this time?” Jess responded while grinning.
It was a testament to his level of tiredness that he didn’t react at all.
“Go to bed Aiden,” the Blackthorn trainer said. “And do something to relax tomorrow, before the tournament.”
“Okay, thanks Akashi,” he began to walk, but then stopped. “It wasn’t their fault.”
“Yeah yeah,” the teenager rolled his eyes.
The people at the table exchanged confused glances. Did we do something to Aiden that was wrong?
When Aiden turned around the corner out from the canteen and towards the elevator, I turned to the Blackthorn.
“Is there something wrong?”
“Not anymore, no,” he said with a small laugh. “… Well, Aiden just let it escape that you were the ones who made me fly over to the mountains to ask a family of Charizard why one of their Charmander was outside their cavern.”
I pieced together the clues, “You’re an Moeru.”
“That’s right,” his smile changed into a proud grin. “Akashi Moeru, if you’re wondering.”
The Moeru clan was one of the four clans of Blackthorn. The clan that specialises in the Charmander line. Not just that… I remember seeing a Charizard at the Plateau Conference.
“Did you participate in the last Plateau Conference?”
“Yep, top eight, soon to be first place in the Silver one.” He coughed. “That doesn’t matter right now, what matters to me is that your little group gave me work right in the middle of my leisure time.” He raised his voice a little. “I came to this city just to be a commentator on a little tournament or something like that, kick up my feet, and binge-watch a show that a friend recommended, and suddenly I’m receiving a call from rangers to fly south to handle a situation with a family of Charizard.” He raised his voice again. “Do you know how difficulty is to communicate with a group of angry Charizard? Do you even understand just how confusing that can be?”
I stared at him, we all stare at him, even some tables around were watching his rant.
I see... He’s likely one of those trainers who like to do comedy bits. Huh, there should be a study about why trainers are more… quirky than normal people. I took a swing of my coffee and glanced to see if the site had updated the groups yet. They didn’t.
“Mister Akashi, please behave yourself.”
“Yes, miss joy.”
“You’re setting a poor example for the children by behaving this way.”
“Yes, miss Joy. I understand. My apologies.” He briefly bowed.
The exasperated Nurse who seemingly just teleported to our table walked away towards the counter.
He turned to us, “So, what do you have to say for yourselves?”
Jess coughed, and the Blackthorn trainer glanced at her, “… Sorry about that?”
“I’m not interested in getting any apologies,” he said, confusing us and sounding pleased with that. “Actually, I just wanted to inform you guys that we caught some illegal hunters in the possession of the siblings of that Charmander. Apparently, they didn’t have enough pokeball to capture all four siblings, so they just left him there.”
"Fucking smugglers." Jess cursed.
"Language," Dendra hissed.
"Yes, but we already reunited the Charmander with their family," he said, and I frowned.
“Oh that’s good then.” Jess said.
“Good? It's great!” Dendra said.
I looked at him again, this time more carefully, and noticed a small black badge camouflaged against his clothes. He was a Ranger Trainee, more specifically, a Frontier Ranger Trainee by the sigil of a barrier on the badge.
“It is, isn’t it?” Akashi said. “The job may have been untimely, but it was satisfying at least. And also got me in the good standing with my superior, so I should thank you guys actually.”
“Okay…” Jess said, and we waited.
“Well, that’s all now,” he nodded, apparently satisfied. “Good luck at the tournament.”
Akashi Moeru then turned on his heels and walked towards the door. He was a long distance from us when someone spoke again.
“Wait… He’s going to be the commentator tomorrow at out tournament?” Ronald asked.
“Yes, that’s what he said.” Katy said, already back on her phone.
"He didn't thank us." Emilia whispered.
“I’ll be right back," I said as I got up and ran until I caught up with Akashi, who was just outside the Pokemon Center.
“Strange,” he said before I could call him. He turned, hands in his pockets, and a raised eyebrow, “Not many people run after me, and those that do are usually the ladies.”
“I have something to ask you.” I said, and he waited for me to catch my breath. “Those hunters... they’re not with the group that was in the Grey Lake, are they?”
Arashi paused for a few seconds and stared at my eyes, searching for something, “These smugglers? No. They’re not close to the level of the ones that the Poltergeist captured there, or the ones he’s after.” A tight smile appeared on his face. “Sometimes I hate my ability to say so much in so few words… Whatever, try to get some sleep tonight, you’re going to need it for tomorrow.”
Akashi turned and left.
The only thing I remembered after that was the information that nobody that I knew was on my tournament group. I don’t remember anything else until my head hit the pillow. Once there, I think about the fight between Brian and the Rocket.
In my dreams, the thing I saw most was a Mach Punch from a Hitmonchan coming at me. The second thing was a giant Nidoqueen glaring down at me.
When I woke up in the middle of the night, I wondered how he knew I would have a nightmare.
-
I was having breakfast with Aiden when Dendra entered the canteen, saw us, looked around for anyone else, and then crept towards our table.
“Good morning,” she whispered as she sat down at the table.
“Good morning,” I greeted back while Aiden just nodded, still looking a little tired from his training yesterday.
“It’s a good thing I found you guys alone,” she said. “Scott, I need your help.”
“What do you need?” I asked, suddenly alert.
“You know how in the last two days we have been occupied with training?”
“… Yes” I slowly said, not knowing where she was going.
“Hum, how would you feel if I told you I still don’t know how the tournament actually works.”
Aiden stopped eating his sandwich to glance at her with a raised an eyebrow while I just scratched my chin in thought.
“Please say something,” she begged when I didn't respond.
“You’re telling that you don’t know how the tournament that’s going to be starting,”—I glanced at the canteen clock—“in four hours from now, and that which you’re participating in, works, are you?”
“Ugh,” she almost shouted. “That’s why I don’t want to tell the others. They will just make fun of me. Scott please help.”
I agreed, kids do have a tendency to be mean.
“Okay, what do you actually know about the tournament?”
“Well, I know that all the matches are three on three, there’s one switch, no items allowed. And there’s a group stage… I heard you guys talking about that yesterday.”
That’s it?
“That’s it?”
“Yes! That’s it!” she whispered.
I sighed. “Do you at least know that it will be happening at the Battle Hall down the street?”
“I also knew that,” she nodded proudly while Aiden’s gaze was fixed on her with a blank expression.
“Okay, listen. The tournament will begin with sixty four trainers. The first part, which will happen today, is the group stage. Last night, the sixty four trainers were separated in sixteen groups of four, and today each of the participants will fight three times against the people from his own group, the one who gets more points wins the first place on his group and move on to the elimination stage.
“The elimination stage will be just that, elimination. Sixteen people will turn into eight, that will turn into four, into two, and then the final happens, and we get a Champion.
“There’s a lot of little rules but I don’t think you would break any of them on accident, but just in case listen to the judge if anything happens.”
“I see... But just sixty four, I though more people would apply?”
Aiden and I exchanged a quick glance. He rolled his eyes.
“A lot more people signed, but the tournament cut it at sixty four,” he explained.
I nodded. “The registration process is actually a sign in for an invitation to enter the tournament. The tournament judges had to look at each of our pages in the Pokemon League and dismiss about two hundred trainers who were not considered fit to give good fights.”
“This tournament may have only beginners,” Aiden said, complementing, “but it’s one of the biggest this season.”
“What!? So how did we all entered?” Dendra asked.
“Most of our group would get in on just the fact that we have sponsors, but for you, my guess would be that they saw your fighting history. You did spend a lot of time in Battle Halls and the Pokédex does register matches.”
From the stories that Ronald and the others told us of their travels, he makes it seem like Dendra was challenging everyone she came across.
“He’s right, you’re probably one of the few trainers invited to this tournament with just one badge,” Aiden said.
“Hah! That’s not news to me!” she said, “My team and I are awesome… Wait, does that mean that everyone on the tournament is really good.”
“Yes, among the trainers who have between one and three badges, yes they are,” I said.
“Yes!” She jumped from her seat. “I can’t wait to tell Chopper and Ress that! They will love this.”
Then she left, running to the entrance of the Pokemon Center.
Aiden turned around. “She knows when the tournament starts?”
“If she doesn’t even know what group she is,” I responded, and then sighed while taking out a pokeball from my belt. “I will send Cape to get her.”