It was finally the 7th day, Brock was worked down to near death then went further than that, and that's not even mentioning what Rhyhorn had to go through.
But he survived and Lara's arm was healed, or at least usable again, Ash specifically warned her to not do anything extreme since the fracture was technically still healing, but it would be fine for the race.
As for the day, there would only be one race that would start around the evening, as for the rest of the day it was going to be a more traditional festival, and as such non-racers were encouraged to wear kimonos or something similar.
Ash, Misty, and Yellow were just wearing the kimonos they got back in Maiden's Peak. Although Yellow just had to have her hair down since no one was around to do her hair.
Brock and Lara weren't around, they were probably getting ready for the great race, but the most important thing was that the Slowbro finished the race in record time, the winner was an up-and-coming rookie who allegedly came from the Galar region.
Don't misunderstand, it wasn't Galarian, it was just from Galar, and its name was… number 6, truly a fearsome name.
Currently, it was about mid-day and the race was about to be announced, Misty and Yellow left him alone to get some snacks before the race and Pikachu decided to go with them, leaving Ash alone sitting at the table.
Speaking of which, Ash has been doing his own training, currently, he is quite confident he should be able to take down Janine. He even got the most important mons ready.
Janine's team has 5 Pokemon as well with only 3 of them being Venomoth, Tentacruel, and a Ariados. Now that is confusing that she convinced the league to let her use an Ariados, but since the merging they have allowed it, but they did ban Crobat.
Not that she needs it, Venomoth has the infamous Tinted Lens sleep powder strat, and guess what there is no sleep clause here, Tentacruel is meant to be a tank that sets up toxic spikes, but Ariados is the worst offender.
Although it is not her main Ariados so it is significantly weaker, it still has Sniper with a Scope Lens, then with moves like Cross Poison and Focus Energy, and you might as well give the thing a sniper rifle with how hard it's going to be hitting.
And once again that's not counting her other 2 Pokemon that aren't set, this will be extremely annoying because obviously Poison types.
But as he was thinking he heard a familiar voice, "Mind if I take a seat?"
Looking up at the source he saw Janine wearing her regular Ninja outfit, "Sure, grab a chair, I was just thinking about you actually."
Janine sat down and looked over at Ash giving a sly smirk, "Fufufufu… don't tell me you have a crush on me~"
Ash rolled his eyes, "Dream on, I was thinking about how I'm going to destroy you when I challenge you tomorrow."
"Oh yeah, kinda forgot you were challenging the gyms, I guess having to wait a full week to challenge me was annoying."
Ash shrugged, "I've had worse, remember the S.S. Anne."
"Yeah, that was suuuper disorienting, especially since you fell overboard right."
"Yeah, but you know I'd like to not talk about it," Ash said looking away, acting like he was embarrassed.
"Alright, alright but I'd be happy to accept your challenge, but I'll show you what it means to be a ninja master!" Janine replied as she pointed to herself with her thumb.
"By the way I wanted to ask, why aren't you wearing something for the festivities?" Ash asked, looking down at her choice of apparel.
Janine froze in place as she gave a pitiful expression, "Well you see… everybody in Fuchsia Gym disguises themselves to look like me for practice and, you know, challengers have good things to say about it, but…nobody realizes it's me if I ever dress up,"
"Whenever I dress up, everybody asks if it's just another disguise. I mean...that's not really my intention, so I just gave up at one point." Janine said sheepishly, each word getting slightly quieter after each one.
"Well I see how that would be annoying," Ash said.
Janine looked over and gave a mocking smile, "Isn't this the part where you say, 'Shame you'd look so pretty in one' and then you ask me out or something."
Ash's eye twitched as he turned to Janine, "You have been reading too many novels."
"Wa-how did you know I've been reading…those stories" Janine quickly responded with a hint of embarrassment.
"You sound like you're quoting a 1930s smut novel on how two pre-teens not wanting to hold hands because it's too lewd," Ash said seeing Janine get significantly redder.
"Okay fine, but in my defense, I spent most of my childhood training, and social situations were not a part of it."
"Yeah well in mine it's a little thing called, I am 10, in case you haven't caught on."
"Oh, yeah that would put a damper on things, though you act and look older, but I guess that's how genetics work sometimes," Janine said, trying to railroad the conversation.
"Never met my father so I don't really know how I'm gonna look when I finally grow up," Ash said looking unbothered with his hand holding up his head.
"Wow really. I can't imagine that, my father is a member of the Elite Four, he's one of the best Pokémon Trainers in the world! inherited my Gym and my techniques from him." Janine said starting a tangent about Koga
Ash just looked at Janine and gave her a dry look. "Wow, way too flex on the fatherless child, the fatherless activity counsel will hear about this."
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Janine turned red in embarrassment, "Wa- no no I didn't mean- did you say fatherless activity counsel, that's not a thing."
Ash snorted and gave a mocking smile of his own, "You'd be surprised."
Janine raised her finger but she couldn't bring herself to say anything, just then Misty and Yellow walked back with Pikachu and Chuchu in tow and noticed Janine.
Yellow walked over to greet Janine and Misty sat down to look over at Ash, "Is it just me or have we been hanging out with Gym leaders more often?"
Ash shrugged, "I dunno, you're asking me like I go out of my way to meet them,"
Misty and Yellow looked at each other and both asked, "Don't you? x 2"
"Wa- *Sigh* (▼ヘ▼#)" Ash responded, "No of course not, everyone I've run into was an accident or caused by someone else, look at Janine here, the only reason I met her was cuz of the S.S. Anne."
"And the only reason we went on the S.S. Anne was because I kicked Surge's teeth in and he broke my arm."
Misty gave a coy smile, "And what about Erika,"
Ash glared back at Misty, "Don't you start this, I will bring Beedrill back out and put you on the wall,"
Misty closed her mouth like she bit into a lemon, and Yellow and Janine saw how quickly that turned.
Janine coughed getting the attention back to her, "Well anyway, I guess other than Ash we haven't formally met each other then, and I guess we have time."
–
It was time, the racers who wanted to participate were on their Pokemon, and in line, Brock was holding onto Rhyhorn as Lara and Ponyta were standing next to him on the starting line.
Brock was visibly sweating causing Lara to look over at him, "How are you holding up? The girl asked in her familiar country accent.
"I'm fine, I guess," Brock sighed as he looked over at the girl, "Can't really say I'm too confident though,"
"C'mon, you'll do fine, but just to warn you If I don't see you in the top 5, I'm putting you under the hard training."
Brock's eye twitched, "That was easy?"
Lara just gave a coy smile which made Brock instinctively gulp.
Just then the announcer spoke up, [Hello Ladies and Gentlemen to the Fuchsia Free-For-All Race!]
[I won't hold you for too long but these racers are some of the best we've seen in some time, I can't wait to see what they have in store for us!]
[I'll lay out the rules now, each contender will go through the race and obstacle course with their chosen Pokemon, if at any point the Rider touches the ground you will be eliminated, you are allowed to use moves to get through and you may attack the Pokemon, but if your move intentionally causes harm to the rider then you are out.]
[This race has been designed especially for any and all contenders, factoring in all their strengths and weaknesses, and finally, this race is sponsored by the Breeding competition, as such the top 3 will be awarded with a victory. Oh and I think this is obvious but no Flying Pokemon.]
[Now it's the moment you've been waiting for, 3…2 ...1…race!!] The announcer Yelled over the intercoms causing all the Pokemon and racers to charge as fast as they could.
As the race was starting Brock was holding on while trying to remember everything Lara taught him about proper positioning to make them more aerodynamic.
Speaking of which Lara sped past Brock and most other Pokemon that weren't built for speed like Rhyhorn, they were all rapidly approaching the obstacle course section.
The obstacle course was as expected an obstacle course where racers like Lara and Ponyta would need to maneuver around and across doing quick maneuvers and sharp jumps.
Meanwhile, Pokemon like Brock's Rhyhorn could just go through with no loss of speed closing the distance, and slowly gathering momentum.
Immediately by this point, Brock noticed about half of the competitors were worn out or just gave up, at the beginning there were around 80 trainers, now there are barely 50. The majority of them were strong Pokemon in the back like Rhyhorn.
Up in the front Lara and Ponyta were getting farther ahead with only a few people behind her trying to catch up but failing as the obstacles continued. Some even tried and failed to use a move causing them to just lose momentum and fall out of the race.
After a few moments, the obstacles stopped coming and the second part was coming up, the mountain climb. Ponyta wasn't an expert in climbing but it was significantly better than most of the Pokemon around her at the moment.
Brock on the other hand was near the back only ahead of other Rhyhorn, but the mountain was where he could thrive since most Rhyhorn live in mountain areas and are good climbers, as he got to the base of the mountain Rhyhorn used a [Rock Polish] and started jumping and continuing his charge.
This was the point where more racers started giving up or just falling off, with the unpredictability of the mountain and how steep it is most Pokemon just can't handle it, even the other Rhyhorn and that one random guy who got a Rhyhorn fell behind.
As the race continued Ponyta and a few other fast Pokemon managed to get over the mountain and got a significant lead over the rest of the Pokemon, and only then did Brock reach the peak of the mountain.
When Brock looked over the scene he saw how far ahead they were so he took a breath and grabbed onto Rhyhorn as hard as he could, suddenly Rhyhorn started running down the mountain.
With how steep the mountain was and how heavily Rhyhorn was he gathered a lot of momentum, so much so that he could barely stop himself from rolling down the hill.
As he reached the base he dashed past anyone nearby as with the added momentum he was actually moving faster than Ponyta, the only downside being that he had almost no way to stop himself or move left or right.
The finish line was in sight, Lara was in first place with about 5 others following behind, and from the back, the dust cloud that was Brock and Rhyhorn were running to catch up and they were gaining ground.
As Brock was quickly gaining ground he released a certain flaw with his plan, he didn't think about how he was going to stop this thing so he commanded Rhyhorn to dig his feet into the ground.
Rhyhorn stabbed his feet into the ground, but that didn't stop his movement; he was still sliding across the dirt path and quickly catching up to Lara and the others.
Lara and Ponyta meanwhile easily crossed first place with no issues, Brock was passing the people in 5th and 4th while still desperately trying to slow down.
2nd place was taken by a random competitor so it was currently a race for 3rd place, that was if Brock could gain control again.
As Brock was catching up Rhyhorn was trying to do his feet deeper in the ground, eventually, Brock was only a few feet away when suddenly Rhyhorn started glowing.
Rhyhorn's body became larger as both his arms and legs became longer, his tail extended and the horn extended into a Drill, evolving into Rhydon.
Immediately Rhydon raised his new arms and dug them into the ground, this time Rhydon started slowing down.
Brock and Rhydon were neck and neck with a trainer with a Tauros, and as the finish line approached the Tauros was giving it his all and Rhydon was sliding through the dirt, and when they got to the end Rhydon just barely won by the horn.
At that point Rhydon dug his hands deeper causing him to come to a stop and making Brock fall off and land in a corner, everyone stayed silent until Brock's shaking arm raised up indicating that he was fine.
After that, the crowd went wild and the Announcer spoke up [What an outstanding race, truly one of the most exciting races I've had the honor to announce, let's congratulate the top 3 of this year's Fuchsia Free-For-All.]
The crowd started cheering as some helpers walked up with 3 medals, each embroidered with a purple and green ribbon with a gold, silver, and bronze tag respectively, each handed out to the three.
Rhydon picked up Brock and put him over his shoulder after he received his medal, getting applause from people.
As the racers got settled back down to get anything they needed the Announcer continued. [Well thank you everybody for joining me today, I hope the festival will be just as enjoyable for everyone else and re- wa!]
Suddenly he stopped because next to him Janine appeared out of seemingly nowhere and asked, "Do you mind if I do something?"
"Oh, of course here," the announcer quickly handed the mic to Janine as she spoke [Hello everyone, it is Gym leader Janine here, I hope you're all enjoying the festival even though the main event is over]
That got some cheers and grunts from the crowd as she continued, [But we don't have to stop now, I hear there's a Gym challenger in the crowd here to face me, and since the Gym has been closed for this entire week I don't think we should let him wait.]
[So as the Fuchsia Gym leader, I issue an official battle request, do you accept Ash Ketchum!]