CHAPTER 133

Arceus, I was tired. My entire body felt sluggish as I trudged toward Fantina to receive my money and my TM. I felt cold, and my sweaty clothes clung to my body. I knew this was a weakness of mine, but if I was this tired after one tough battle, things didn't bode well for the Solaceon tournament.

Or maybe it wouldn't matter. The part that tired me out the most was making sure things went according to plan, so maybe improvising would help? Either way, I'd have to fight some battles back to back there, and I'd need to figure out a way to improve my stamina. Maybe Denzel could help. I didn't know how he did it, but that boy could work for an entire day straight.

I stared up at Fantina, making sure not to make a weird face due to her strange haircut. She extended her hand, and I gave her my Pokedex and trainer ID.

"Congratulations, challenger. You are now the owner of the Relic badge and the Shadow Ball TM. I've also transferred twenty-thousand Pokedollars to your account."

"Thanks," I exhaled. Togetic could learn that move, and it'd be good for coverage. "And thank you for the fun battle."

My friends were no doubt waiting for me in the lobby, so I turned away to leave, but Fantina called out to me again.

"Your Electabuzz. It can sense ghosts, can't it?" She asked.

"Yes, he can," I nodded. Of course, she'd figure it out. "Is that important? I mean, I know it was crucial to my win, but I don't even know why he has that ability."

The gym leader's eyes widened slightly. "You… do not know?"

"What?" I said, feeling dread fill my heart. "Is it bad? Is it like a disease or something?!"

"No, no," she immediately said, alleviating my worries. "Look, why don't you come see me tomorrow night, and I will tell you about it, my dear," she smiled.

My dear? Now that the battle was over, Fantina appeared to be a far warmer individual than I would have thought, especially for a ghost type specialist. The image of her cold, expressionless face had been ingrained in my mind from all the footage of her I'd watched, so seeing her smile genuinely took me by surprise.

"T—tomorrow night? Uh, yeah, I'll be there. What time?"

"Right after closing time, so seven in the evening."

"Got it," I nodded. "Thank you!"

It wasn't every day that a trainer of my caliber got to speak to a gym leader. Roark and Candice were already more than I thought I would have ever gotten, but now Fantina too? And she was helping me with Electabuzz? Until this point, I had almost given up on figuring out what made him special. I thought that maybe it could have been a random gene, or that he was just more sensitive to minute changes in temperature, but apparently, there was more to it than met the eye.

Either way, I'd find out about it tomorrow.

"Grace! Your battle was amazing!" Cecilia called out.

My friends swarmed me, complimenting me about the battle.

"That Sandstorm from Palossand was crazy powerful," Denzel said. "I kind of wish I saw what went on during that fight."

"Well, it did end in a draw," Justin said. "But that might as well be a win against such an opponent."

"Excuse me, Justin," Pauline shook her head. "It was a win. Grace just chose to recall her Jellicent."

"That's literally what I just said…"

"To be honest, I would have rather fought Pallosand than that Dhelmise…" I started.

We kept talking as we slowly made our way out of the lobby. I caught a glimpse of a raven-haired girl that quickly walked out of the gym. That must have been Lauren. I had messaged her about the time our battles would take place, but she hadn't answered me and left me on read, so I thought that she might have changed her mind. Dad had been waiting for me outside of the gym and embarrassed me by celebrating way too loudly, and he kept bragging to passersby that I was his daughter. We quickly left so I could hand my Pokemon to a Center, and dad somehow managed to pack all of us in his rental SUV. Electabuzz and Tangrowth had gone through the wringer, and it'd probably take multiple days for them to recover. Togetic and Jellicent could stick around, since the former had only gotten hit once, and a potion would be enough, and the latter would heal on his own.

I gave my Pokemon to Nurse Joy, and we were all about to head to Pauline's room to have one of Emilia's spontaneous parties when my phone rang. I frowned until I noticed that Melody— my sponsorship liaison— was calling me. Right, in the heat of the moment, I had forgotten that they were supposed to push this whole thing out today. I told the group I'd join them later and quickly entered my room.

"Ms. Pastel," Melody said on the phone. "I want to congratulate you on your decisive victory against Fantina. The company is very pleased with your performance."

"Thanks," I said with a tired sigh. Maybe I'd sleep instead of going to that party. "Feel free to call me Grace. I mean, I'm the kid here, it feels weird if you call me by my last name and I still call you Melody."

"Very well, Grace," she said. "Now, as you know, we're going to start heavily promoting you today. Do you have your company-issued laptop with you?"

"Yep, yep," I exhaled. "Uh, what do you want me to check?"

"Your emails. Your pictures from the photoshoot came out wonderfully."

I turned on my computer and opened up my email messages. The Poketch Company had sent me the pictures as soon as my battle with Fantina concluded. I wondered what would have happened if I had lost. Maybe they would have waited a few weeks, or for my next gym battle instead. I opened up the pictures, and my eyes widened in surprise at how good I looked. I was literally model-worthy, even with the damn burns.

"Did you alter these?" I asked.

"A bit," Melody said. "But don't sell yourself short. Good lighting will go a long way to bring out a person's best qualities, and you do look great without it already. Are you alright with us putting these on our website? We have a 'Trainers We Work With' page that we want to put you on today."

"Yeah, just a sec," I said before looking up the Poketch Company's website. In retrospect, I probably should have checked this out before signing, but what was done was done.

On top of the page, there was a picture of Craig, and then a long list of trainers they were currently sponsoring— although their pictures were smaller than his— along with their ages. I recognized a few names on there. They were almost all famous trainers that had made it to the Conference multiple times.

"Eighteen, twenty, twenty-two, nineteen…" I muttered. "So I'm really going to be the only first year on there? Did any of these people start late?"

"No. And we did tell you that," she said.

"Yeah, I know, it just feels strange," I continued, clicking on one of the trainer's image. His name was Ramon Casaus. He'd made it to the Conference for the first time last year.

The picture aggrandized, and there were multiple short videos of a few of his battles that automatically played, along with a short summary of his life. How he'd been raised in Sunyshore, started his journey with a street Rattata that everyone looked down on, but kept persevering. Today, he arguably had the most powerful Raticate in Sinnoh.

"What're you gonna write for me? I don't exactly make for a good rags-to-riches story," I chuckled.

"No, but there is the story of how you went through Mount Coronet and lived, which we really want to sell. Other than that, we want to accentuate your middle-class, girl-next-door vibe. People go crazy for that."

On one hand, having Melody talk about me like I was a product was a little annoying. On the other, I was kind of happy she was just being honest with me. It was weirdly respectable.

"I'm guessing that you're hoping that I'll eventually grow out of my shell," I said as I kept browsing through the website.

"I mean, yes, but we certainly won't force you to do so."

"Eh, I guess I'll just try my best. You can post the pictures."

"I will relay the message to the company immediately," Melody said. "One thing I forgot to mention was that we'll be mentioning your father in your blurb."

I frowned. "Did he consent to that?"

"He did. Arthur's been with us for decades, he understands."

"Won't people say it's… like, nepotism? I mean, I know that my dad had nothing to do with you working with me, but if I'm the first first-year you've sponsored, and my dad's working for the Poketch Company… people will talk, won't they?"

"They will, but we opted to be honest instead of hiding. The information's already out there, and it'd be very easy to figure out. Honesty goes a long way. By showing that we have nothing to hide, people will speculate less. Just don't engage with any kind of arguments, either online or in person."

"Yeah, I wasn't about to," I said. "I did have a few questions, though."

"Is it urgent? We're just about to launch your marketing campaign."

"Oh, it doesn't have anything to do with that. I was wondering… there's a tournament I was going to sign up for when I got to Solaceon."

"Okay, your campaign's live. Refresh the page, and you'll see yourself," Melody said. "And I did hear about that tournament, just a second…"

I heard Melody start to type, and I refreshed their website. Sure enough, there I was. I did notice that they placed me right under Craig instead of on the bottom like they would have if they weren't giving me special treatment. A lot of trainers on this list would probably be pissed off the next time they looked. Under my picture, there was my story. They talked about how I was raised by a single father in Jubilife, and that he struggled to care for both of us.

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They had embellished this a whole lot. Dad worked good hours unless there was a new product coming out soon, and we never struggled with money.

Although struggle could mean working hard, which in this case was true. I skipped ahead until Mount Coronet, and I was surprised to see how accurate they were about the whole experience.

"How'd you get everything down to the last detail?" I asked.

"We spent days watching Mr. Williams' interviews and corroborated the data," she said nonchalantly. "Regarding your tournament, I found it. It seems relatively high profile… a minimum of three badges and a maximum of five badges for entry, so it's self-contained rather well. There won't be a skill disparity too large, which means more viewers from the get-go, since the matches will be more entertaining. What'd you want to know about it?"

"You told me about a cash bonus," I started. "Could you replace that with an item? Like, TMs or something."

"You want something specific," she guessed.

"A Shiny Stone—"

"No, too expensive. We can negotiate on less expensive items, but a Shiny Stone is a no-go for now."

I internally cursed. I thought that maybe with my battle against Fantina, and if I proved myself again by doing well in the Solaceon tournament, then they'd be willing to give me the stone. I was asking for a lot here, but I figured, why not.

"If I can't get a stone, I'll stick to money," I said. "Can I get a range of how much it is I'll get, by the way? It'll help me a ton with budgeting."

"Sure," Melody said. "Let me shoot a message to the higher-ups. They should answer shortly."

I heard her type again.

"You're a fast typer," I noticed.

"Hm? Oh, I mean, it's basically what I do all day," she chuckled. "I'm always answering or sending emails to different branches so that we can coordinate with our trainer outreach and sponsorship programs. It's actually my first time being a liaison, though, so this is rather new for me too."

"Looking forward to working with you then, Melody," I smiled.

"Likewise."

In the end, the specific bonus I'd get for the Solaceon tournament was 105,000 Pokedollars for first place, and it slowly descended from there until I was out of the top ten. Obviously, I'd aim for first, but I knew that it'd be hard since trainers with five badges would be there.

Hard, but not impossible. I had just come out of a battle, and I was excited for more. After a quick shower that I hoped would have woken me up, I tiredly stood up and made my way to Pauline's room.

"I told you she'd come," Emilia said. "Your money. Hand it over."

"And don't forget me," Justin said.

Pauline groaned as she digitally handed both five thousand Pokedollars.

"Hiya," I waved. "Wait, were you betting on if I was going to come?"

"Showering," Cecilia said. "And yes, they were. Pauline was convinced that you'd fall asleep on your bed after your call."

Well, it wasn't like the thought hadn't crossed my mind. Sleeping after a warm shower…

"Yeah, that does sound like me," I chuckled. "So now that we've all got our badge, we should probably think about leaving soon, huh?"

Emilia's expression soured.

"Yeah," she just said. "We should probably wait for Denzel to talk about that."

"I'd like to meet with Louis first. Maybe we can travel together again…" Cecilia trailed off, creating a few seconds of silence.

"Oh!" I sprung up, trying to change the subject. "On another note, Fantina asked me to meet her tomorrow night—"

"What?" Denzel said as he burst into the room.

"How'd you even get in here?" Cecilia asked.

"Duplicate key," he grinned, showing us his keycard. "What's this meeting about?"

"Remember how Electabuzz can sense ghosts? She apparently has the answer to that."

"A ghost type specialist would know more about that than anyone else," Justin nodded.

"Anyway, we were talking about making plans to leave?" I said again. "We've got to be sort of quick if we want to make it to Solaceon before the tournament starts."

"I mean, there isn't much to say," Denzel shrugged. "Route 209's relatively long, but it's super easy. The only dangerous thing there's the Lost Tower. If any of you want to catch any water types, you can also fish in the river."

"A Gyarados would be cool," Pauline hummed. "But it's so much effort. You've been carrying that Feebas of yours for months, and Magikarp takes longer. I wouldn't even have one by the Conference, I bet."

"Well, if you want it, you've got to work for it," he said. "But it is true that it's unlikely you'd have one by the Conference if you caught one now."

"I'll figure something out," she grumbled. "Maybe wait until I've got eight badges to get it as a seventh Pokemon."

"You only have three, isn't it too early to worry about seven?" I teased.

"Ugh, shut up. I'll catch another soon."

"I do want to stop by the Lost Tower…" Cecilia hesitantly said.

Denzel stared at her like she was spouting nonsense. "Okay, you know what, scrap everything I said about there not being anything to say. You are insane."

"I want to catch something there, and it's easily found on the bottom floor," she quickly added. "We can handle those."

"Don't do anything crazy, guys…" Emilia sighed.

"The bottom floors… yeah, that should be fine, I guess," Denzel said. "Why is it that only Grace and Cece want the crazy ass Pokemon that require risking their lives. Ugh, I don't want to fight wild ghosts again."

"Don't be a wimp," I teased.

Cecilia face grew serious. "I'm serious. I want a Golett, but if we don't find it on the first floor, then we can leave. I've read up on the tower, and the first floor is only slightly more dangerous than the route as a whole, and it's the main way trainers can catch ghost types in the region. There are even people that walk there from Solaceon to maintain it every day, and most of them don't have Pokemon."

"I remember hearing about that," Denzel nodded. "Most people don't bother with true ghosts though, because they're impossibly hard to raise."

"I mean, I'd be willing to help you if you really want Golett," I said. "We can at least go to the second floor—"

"Grace, no," she denied, shaking her head. "Let's all stay safe, okay?"

"Arceus, alright."

I had told dad I'd stay safe anyway, so it was probably better that way. I'd feel terrible if Cecilia didn't find her Golett, though. I found how lifeless it had been against Pauline to be creepy, but the Pokemon certainly fit her. Plus, maybe she'd be able to breathe life into it. They couldn't all be like robots.

"Okay, the Lost Tower's at the halfway point of the route, and other than that, it should be smooth sailing. The whole route as a whole is flat and easy to traverse too. You could even ride a bike or a car across it."

"How many days?" Justin asked.

"Four to five days. Like I said, quick."

"That was anticlimactic," I joked.

"I mean, there's a reason trainers from western Sinnoh sometimes complain about people from the east having it easy," Denzel shrugged. "If you're from the east, all the routes other than that swampy hellhole on route 212 and the foggy, mountainous route 210— of which 212 is optional— are easy, and you've got access to four gym badges."

"Meanwhile, if you're from the west, you only have access to three, and then you'll have to go through Eterna Forest if you want to get all of them," Justin nodded.

"And the travel time is insanely long," I added. "Well, they can always take a plane to Sunyshore before the Circuit starts or something. I heard that Volkner was the second gym leader who was challenged first the most behind Roark."

"I'd like to see a list of those statistics," Justin mused. "It seems like it'd be interesting."

"They release 'em after each year," Denzel said. "I used to look at them a bunch."

"Wait, they do?" I asked, grabbing my phone. "Where?"

"Official League website, where else?" he laughed.

Well, there were a few cool nuggets of information on there. Candice and Byron were most often challenged seventh or last. Candice, I had expected, but Byron was a surprise. And thinking about it, with the route we were currently taking, he'd be the one Denzel, Cece and I would challenge last too. Meanwhile, Roark and Volkner were almost always early, and they were generally considered the most beginner-friendly gyms. The rest of them were usually in the middle. If we kept progressing as quickly as we were, though, the order wouldn't exactly matter, since we'd be fighting against gym leaders' personal teams or close to it for the eighth badge and the entirety of the next Circuit— even though they'd probably still have to hold back to some extent.

Unless I became the Champion this year, of course!

I was getting a lot more confident lately. I'd have to watch out, or I'd get a big head. Sort of like Chase.

Speaking of Chase.

"Should we call Chase?" I asked, looking at my friends. "You guys haven't even met properly yet—"

"I tried, dude," Denzel said. "He said no."

"Aw. Doesn't he feel lonely?" I pouted. "One way or another, I'm getting you guys in the same room before we all leave!"

"You don't have to do that…" Emilia said, hiding a grimace.

I ended up spending another three hours at the party before I left. Well, at this point, these were less like parties and more like normal gatherings, but Emilia liked calling them parties anyway. I released Jellicent, who was still in his withered, wrinkled form, and I had princess use Wish on him so that he'd recover quicker. Then, I also sprayed her back with a potion. After that, I decided, against my own judgment, to look at the forums to see what people were saying about me.

Needless to say, I was blowing up.

No, really blowing up. I thought I had been famous before, but this was on another level, and my megathread had far surpassed all of my friends. Not only had I handily won against Fantina, but I was getting sponsored by the Poketch Company, who had leaked that I owned Turtonator, which up until now had just been a rumor. There was also our double battle that had made the rounds a few days earlier.

The forums were in an uproar. Most of the reactions were supportive, but as always, there was the occasional hater.

So her dad works at the Poketch Company, and all of the sudden, she gets a sponsor? People always say that being a trainer is about skill, but this seems like some coordinator bullshit to me.

She knows Craig Goodwill, doesn't she? He flew her back to Eterna on his Salamence, so maybe there's something there.

They only hired her because she's gay, not because she deserves it. Companies these days are woke as hell. I'm boycotting the Poketch Company and moving to Retani Industries!

"Well have fun with your shitty Retani phone, asshole," I angrily said. "Damn it, now my evening's ruined."

It was funny, how the internet could turn on you—

No, I couldn't think like that. The internet hadn't turned on me, my brain was just focusing on the negative. To see these comments, I had to scroll through hundreds of supportive comments that I just glazed over and ignored.

Why did my mind work like that?

I ended up blocking the last user. At least the first two weren't obnoxiously bigoted, and it was partly because of Craig that I'd gotten the sponsorship, so their comment hadn't been unfounded.

I wondered when Melody would message me again to guide me through my first online promotion.

Probably before I left.

—

It was the evening of the next day, and I had patiently waited until seven to show up at the gym. Denzel had been acting weird today, and he vanished during the afternoon, which probably meant he'd been doing something related to Louis again. I walked into the lobby and raised an eyebrow when I saw a pink-haired girl waiting on one of the chairs. What was she doing here after closing time? Did she have something to talk to Fantina about too? Had the gym leader double-booked? There was no gym trainer to be seen at the reception, so I simply sat away from her and fiddled with Togetic's Pokeball in the meantime.

"Hi. This seat taken?" The girl said.

I almost jumped. She had gotten here so quietly. Upon closer inspection, she looked extremely young. Too young to be a trainer, but there were almost never exceptions, so she must have been fifteen either way.

"I'll sit anyway," she said, plopping herself down next to me. "Watcha doin'? I didn't expect another trainer to be here after closing."

"I had to talk to Fantina about something regarding one of my Pokemon," I explained.

"Oh, word?" She said. "Me too! I guess she double-booked."

I let out a slight chuckle. "Well, I don't think it'll last too much time, so it should be fine. What's your name?"

"Mira Compton! Just Mira's fine, though."

"Nice to meet you. My name's—"

"Grace, I already know. You've been all over the news today, and it's not your first time."

"Right, that makes sense," I nodded.

"I was there to see your battle against Fantina with my two friends. You were really good! I had my own battle today, actually, and there was a bit of an accident. I wanted to impress Fantina, but I ended up making her angry. I guess I got what I wanted though, which was her attention."

"An accident?" I asked.

"Yeah, my Haunter killed hers," she said nonchalantly. "Now she won't be able to use it for weeks, and she'll have to have a gym trainer posted up there in case it comes back early. Ghosts tend to be angry after they die."

My mind swam. First of all, this girl fought Haunter, which meant that she probably had four badges just like I did. Second of all, she owned one.

They were so rare outside of the top floors of the Lost Tower and so difficult to train that most trainers didn't bother. But she just dropped that like it was nothing.

"Scared ya?" Mira asked with a childlike smile.

"No, just surprised, that's all," I said. "My reason for being here's a lot more mundane than yours. You're lucky that this happened against a ghost type specialist and not anyone else, though, or you potentially could have been disqualified and have your Haunter taken away."

"I know, right?" She said playfully. "I mean, Haunter's been so out of control lately that I don't think I'll even be able to use him against other gym leaders at this rate. That's why I need Fantina's help. She's the best at raising ghosts in the region. If she can't help me, nobody can."

I narrowed my eyes at her and held back a hum. She was similar to Candice in a lot of ways, but also fundamentally different. When Candice was happy, you could feel it radiate through the room, and the feeling would spread to you in turn. I couldn't feel any of that from Mira. She was hiding behind a fake veneer of cheerfulness, but we all had our skeletons in our closets. I wasn't about to ask personal questions to a girl I barely met.

"Mira Compton and Grace Pastel?" A gym trainer asked.

We nodded, but he asked to see our trainer IDs just to be sure. He then led us to Fantina's office. It felt odd, to see her with her hair down and wearing normal clothes instead of that extravagant, sparkly dress.

"Ah, you are both here. Take a seat, my dears," Fantina said with a warm smile.