Chapter Sixty-Five - Contests?

Choco watched the yellow-haired human move over towards their group, but he was more interested in her pokemon. He wasn't familiar with two of them, the orangey fox-like pokemon was strange, and the turtle with the Water-type moves wasn't a pokemon he'd ever seen before.

He'd seen some pikachus around, though they weren't entirely common out in the fields. There had been a small family of them living next to the ruins where his family lived. They liked playing with the big noisy generators there. They had been nice enough when they weren't throwing sparks all over.

"Hello!" the girl trainer said. She came to a stop ahead of them, dress swirling around her before she placed her hands on her hips. She had a stick which she'd been using to direct her pokemon earlier. "Can I help you?"

"Hi!" Broccoli said. "Is it okay if we set up for lunch here? We can go elsewhere if you're using the entire hill."

Choco blinked. He wanted to relax under the only tree in the area. What if he had to take his post-lunch nap under the sun directly, with no shade? His nap would be interrupted by the heat!

The ideal nap was on a nice, warm day, with a bit of a breeze and a few clouds, which this was. But for it to be perfect he needed some shade and someone to sleep on. Oran, as fishy as she was, was a fantastic nap partner because she had a tail which was surprisingly cool which he could use as a pillow. In exchange, he allowed her to snooze with her head on his tummy.

It was a good compromise, but if they couldn't get to that tree they'd be ruining a good thing.

The trainer stared at Broccoli for a moment, then the others. "Do you know who I am?" she asked.

"Um, no, sorry, I'm new here," Broccoli said. Her ears twitched and she turned to gesture in the direction they'd come from. "We just left the forest."

"Prove it," the blonde human said.

"Uh," Broccoli said.

Jazz snorted. "What crawled up your skirt? We don't have to prove anything. But if you must know, we did cross the Ilex forest. The rangers keep tabs on it, it wouldn't be hard to prove, it's just not worth doing for your sake."

The girl glared, then relented. "Sorry," she said. "I thought you might be spies. Are any of you in the competition scene?"

"Jazz just told me that it exists," Broccoli said. "I'd never heard of it before just now!"

"Tch, typical battle-brains then," the girl said as she crossed her arms. "Well, whatever, you can use the hillside. It's not like it's mine. I just came down here for some privacy."

"Is what you're doing private?" Broccoli asked. "We can find another hill!"

Another hill? With a large, leafy tree right on the top of it, with a perfect breeze from the ocean? Choco doubted it! And if they did, it would be well past the time when the sun was directly overhead, and he was hungry now. "Bun!" Hey! The training girl blinked and looked at him, and that's when he struck.

Choco's eyes went wide and watery, and he even made his lower lip tremble a little. "Bun... buneary bun bun, bunny bun?" Can we... use the hill for lunchtime, pretty please?

The girl flinched back at his attack. "Urgh, fine," she said. "Come on. I think it's time for us to head out."

"Aww," Broccoli said. She bounced forwards. "Don't go just yet! We only just met, and we have a bit of extra for lunch. Besides, I'm curious about these contest things. Are they like pokemon olympics?"

"Olympics?" Tabitha asked.

"Oh, that's a place back home where people would compete over things like who ran the fastest, who could jump the farthest, and there were a bunch of other sports too! I think it would be cool to see pokemon compete to see which one was the strongest across a few different things like that. I bet Choco could win the biggest bouncer competition and Oran would do great in a Water Gun accuracy competition."

"What?" the girl asked. "No, contests are nothing like that. You really don't know?"

"There's a lot more that I don't know than what I do," Broccoli said. "Which is why you should always be eager to learn more, right?"

The blonde shook her head. "Contests are the purest forms of competition in the pokemon world. They're where a coordinator pits themselves against others to see which one has the most skill."

Stolen story; please report.

"What kind of skill?" Broccoli asked.

"With training their pokemon. But not for battling. It's all about move control and grace and timing. Nothing a meathead battler would understand."

Jazz snorted. "Yeah, because battles are all about smashing heads together, huh? Are contests just beauty pageants with extra steps?"

The blonde flushed, a dark look crossing her face.

Broccoli stepped in front of Jazz. She put her hand up to her chin and tilted her head to the side, eyes narrowing in thought. Choco was rather proud of the fact that his partner had taken to using his favourite pose as well.

But then, his thinking pose was so good, who could resist adopting it? "Can you show me?" Broccoli asked. "I think I'd like to see."

"No," the girl said. "I think we'll be heading out now, actually. It was nice meeting you, you seem nice enough for a country bumpkin." The blonde eyed Tabitha for a moment, then nodded before turning towards Jazz with aglare. "You, on the other hand, I think I could stand to see less of. Come on Vulps, Squirts, Pika, we're heading back home!"

Choco watched them go, even giving the pokemon a bye-bye wave as they headed out. Then he looked up and saw that Broccoli wasn't smiling as much as usual. "Bun?" You okay?

She looked down, then scooped him up for a hug. "I'm fine! Sometimes I get a little sad when I try to make a new friend and it doesn't work out, but I think that's just me being a little silly."

Choco nodded. That was possible. Broccoli had told him that he was silly plenty of times before so he supposed that it was only fair that she also be a bit silly.

He reached a paw out and touched her over the heart. "Bun." Silly.

Broccoli laughed and squeezed him extra hard.

The lot of them made it to the shadow of the tree and started to set things out for lunchtime. Since the grass was pretty short here but also very sharp, they set out a blanket which Choco and Oran laid out and flattened under the shade of that big old tree.

Lunch was sandwiches! Oran complained a bit about eating those again, but she was a dumb fish that hadn't internalised the greatness of bread and she didn't know any better. His was bread, with pokekibble sprinkled over peanut butter and then a little bit of wet pokefood on the other slice to help keep it all together.

Choco chewed with big bites because the peanut butter kept sticking to his pallet.

"So, what's the big deal with contests?" Broccoli asked as she settled down with her own sandwich.

Jazz scoffed. "They're televised, for one. So it's some people's only chance to ever be on TV, even if they make a fool of themselves. Though now that they're getting a little more popular, the bar's raised a lot and you don't see as many of the lower-tier competitions."

"Winners," Tabitha began with her 'I'm going to talk a lot now' tone, "are given ribbons instead of badges. These are awarded to individuals and their pokemon. Meaning that a pokemon might accrue a large number of ribbons over time and be considered far more valuable and talented than otherwise. In some respects, for smarter, more competitive pokemon who value that kind of attention, it's a better avenue for fame than pokemon battles which generally have the trainer take centre stage. And, depending on the contest and the category, pokemon may or may not be able to fight in it. For example, the appeal round of contests doesn't allow fighting, only performances. It could be dancing or posing or something else, but it is judged entirely based on its own merits. Some people consider that to be the main part of the contest, where they showcase the beauty of their pokemon. Others like the battle rounds and the contest appeals where both trainer and pokemon work together."

"Whoa," Broccoli said. "I think I want to see one. Do you think there are any in Goldenrod?"

"Probably," Jazz said. "They're good money if you win... actually, I don't think it would be too hard to turn battle training into contest training. How hard can it be to just show off a few strong moves? Easy cash and we'd get to rub that blonde's face in it."

Choco considered as he monched on his sandwich. He wouldn't mind being on a stage and showing the world how cool he was!

***