Virah looked up at the massive stadium that held the events of the Pokeathlon.

Despite most trainers calling it as a way to "prepare for a gym battle" the structure was more akin to a dome than an actual building which she guessed made sense.

The Pokeathlon was designed to be gym adjacent yes, but also as a way to go beyond just Pokemon Battles.

Virah stepped into the stoney pathway and immediately felt embarrassed at her odd looking get up.

She looked down on the interconnected lines between the flat tiles underneath her bright red shoes, if she didn't wear a mask, people would have noticed that her cheeks were dusted with the same shade of crimson.

Virah honestly didn't plan to wear a ninja outfit for the event but Whitney had argued both her and Grene into wearing costumes because hiding their identities was an actually good idea.

And it was- they had just gone on to talk to a bunch of slum dwellers a few days back.

And sure, the gangs didn't know what kind of Pokemon they had but if they were going to go around and looking for fights, it wouldn't take long for the gangs to memorize their team composition.

And since they also had public identities as trainers, it became obvious that if they wanted to go further with their little charade, they needed to have more than just their trainer and vigilante identities.

Virah clutched Nitro's Pokeball, in a sea of trainers, a ninja having a Beedrill wouldn't be that strange, really- and- and the archetype that she picked were also commonly seen with said Pokemon so no one should connect the dots.

'Everything is going to be fine,' she said to herself calmly, reassuring her panicked mind.

No one would know that she was Virah, a young trainer- well, no one also knew Virah-

- but with her going on to do a gym battle two days from now, it wouldn't be paranoia to think that the gangs would be watching that and so, they would know who she is from her Pokemon alone.

'But what if-' the poison specialist's thoughts were cut off when someone bumped against her from behind, she looked and then stopped.

"Hi?" She waved awkwardly to the red head wearing casual wear.

The girl that bumped onto her was wearing a white T-shirt, sweatpants, and a beanie to cover her short hair, though flecks of red could still be seen escaping from the sides, she was also muscular.

Just like her, Grene was hiding her identity and the martial artist agreed to do a casual get up so she can hide amongst the crowd.

"Sorry," Grene pulled on her beanie and bowed, then she left for the stadium with hasty steps.

Virah lightly slapped her cheeks, "okay, stop over thinking things." Virah lightly slapped her cheeks again, "you'll be fine."

She looked around in search for Grene, wondering where the martial artist had went. Unsurprisingly, Grene had gone on to continue with their original plan; which was to avoid each other.

Whitney was most likely already inside one of the waiting rooms for the Skill Pokeathlon and Grene was on her way to a waiting room for the Power Pokeathlon.

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'With that being said…' Virah closed her eyes and made her way to a waiting room for the Speed Pokeathlon.

With how crowded the large stadium was though, Virah couldn't help but feel as though she's lost in a maze; all around her were stalls of different kinds, people buying from them, and what's worse is that they were staring at her.

Was it because she was stupidly dressed? Probably.

Were they thinking she was a ninja wannabe? Definitely.

Virah stiffly walked until she got to the stadium and once there, she surprisingly found respite; almost everyone here was dressed just as, if not more crazier than her.

Jesters of all kinds had varying make ups, but were uniform in their costumes, Youngsters mostly had T-shirts and shorts that had different colors, Bug Catchers had eye catching nets, and Campers were unified because they were wearing the same dark green uniform.

Virah though was the only one that looked like a ninja.

And awkwardly, she passed by the various cliques and made her way into the corner of the room, where she gloomily waited for the announcer to call her name.

She grabbed Nitro's Pokeball for comfort after a while, and then she closed her eyes and called on her Aura.

It has been two days since she realized that she was healing faster than normal, and since then, she's read various books about Aura but none of them gave her the answer that she wanted.

Aura can heal people however, but her type, which is Poison, couldn't.

By now she's temporarily given up on knowing why she healed quickly but her search would continue on after she's done with the Pokeathlon.

Virah opened her eyes and saw that most of the room was staring at her, she felt her cheeks heat up and she coughed to indicate that she was uncomfortable.

"Dude she also coughed-" the speaker, a Youngster which was hanging out with a female Channeler and a Beauty, was stopped when one of the older women shook her head at him.

"Excuse me?" Virah cleared her throat when she noticed the pitch of her voice, "excuse me?" She repeated, "what do you mean?"

"Well uh, one of us tried talking to you earlier and he started coughing a lot so…" Virah turned to a Bird Catcher with widened eyes.

"Sorry, that was-"

"Just so you know, I actually stayed around you for over a minute!" The youngster prior pointed at her while wearing a smug grin.

"… Why?" Virah asked.

"Well… you know," the youngster scratched the back of his head, "we thought it would be fun to do it?" The little boy's face paled, "why were coughing anyway?"

"That… is something I can't tell you," Virah said with a sigh, "just… you'll be fine, especially if you have an Oddish or something but don't do that next time,"

"I have an Oddish," the Beauty next to the youngster raised her hand, "I didn't last long around you,"

"Just use Sweet Scent or something," Virah shrugged, Sweet Scent should be able to counteract the effects of Poison Type Energy for a good while, "and don't do something so stupid next time,"

The poison specialist shook her head before closing her eyes again, she called on her Aura and lightly practiced by letting bits of her trauma influence her.

The bugged out eyes of everyone around her has long since lost its creepy effect and by now, it only served as a reminder that she was in a dream and that nothing here is real.

Well, as real as memory could get that is, everything still happened, just that she had moved on from it.

Virah pulled herself out of the vision and immediately sniffed something sweet…

She opened her eyes and saw a Jester holding her mouth standing in front of her, "you…"

The young woman's eyes widened in shock and she giggled, she waved, saying, "sorry!" In a strained voice before running away and coughing.

Virah sighed before grabbing her starter's Pokeball, she released the gigantic Beedrill amongst the crowd and ordered him to protect her, Nitro nodded and quickly flew protectively in front of her.

After that, she managed to practice her Aura in relative peace and soon, they were all called for the Pokeathlon proper.

"Uh, goodluck,"

Virah turned to the youngster, she nodded, "you too."

Out of all the events in the stadium, it was the Speed Pokeathlon that required the biggest space, and all she could see beyond the walls of the waiting room were massive swathes of ground that had been turned into race tracks and obstacle courses.

Virah took in the sight while searching for her friends, and from the distance, she managed to spot Whitney heading towards an elevator.

Up above, an elevated platform blocked the skies, and Virah wasn't able to spot it but she knew that snow covered the group up there.

The poison specialist turned away from Whitney and refocused on the race tracks around her, the course for the start of the event was pretty big, though the tracks beyond the Hurdle Dash were small.

Just like everyone else, she went on to release Nitro at the start of the tracks, she gave her starter tips, told him to do his best, and then proceeded to leave with the rest of the trainers.

She already knew that most of the people around her would be eliminated after this, though that didn't stop her from telling them goodluck-

"Goodluck to all of you," she nodded at the trainers around her.

"You too," one of the Jesters said.

"I wish you all luck as well," a Channeler said with a bow.

"By the way," Virah turned to a Bird Catcher, "I'm curious, do you also specialize in training one Pokemon?"

Virah nodded, "mhmm." She said, "I have a Brood back at home that I get my Beedrills from,"

"That's… common, oddly enough," the guy shrugged, "you know, I need to feed my Fearow a lot of food," he explained, "does your brood produce a lot of Weedles?"

"I'm not giving them away," Virah shook her head, she needed to propagate her lie and to do that, she needed to make sure that these guys don't actually realize she didn't have a brood. At home.

"Oh." The Bird Catcher said to the snicker and pat on the back of his friends, "well I mean, I'd like it if you show me places where Weedles commonly group-"

"Dude, give it up, she's clearly not interested," another Bird Catcher said.

"What he said," Virah shook her head, thankful that the guy helped out her lie, why is he even interested in asking her for Weedles anyway?

"And besides, I also turn my Weedles into Pokefeed, so I can't give you any," the poison specialist elaborated.

"Ah." The Bird Catcher nodded before turning away.