Chapter Six: Blackthorn City

…

I shook Mikey Richardson's aunt's hand.

"Thank you so much for letting us stay here this past month."

"My pleasure." the woman smiled.

She didn't do very much for us, all she gave us was a spot in the back of her barn. They had ran a smallerfarm after leaving Mikey's farm on the edges of Kamarino, and had let us stay there for a month as long as we helped with chores and such here and there.

Inoru and I walked back to the train station still wearing monk's robes like always.

"Your hair." Inoru said.

"What?"

"It's grown back." his Bellsprout chirped quietly as he clung onto his leg.

I raised Mikey's old light blue cap and passed a hand along my scalp. I was growing peach fuzz, and soon would be growing my hair back fully.

"Why aren't you letting it grow out too?" I asked.

Inoru sighed. "As your teacher it wouldn't be right."

"As a matter of fact. As long as we keep the Order's principles and everything we learned from the temple, why do we even have to keep wearing monk's clothing?"

Inoru looked away in thought, and then back at me. "I don't know if Elder Toji would approve."

"All he said, is that we'd have to make this journey our own. Look at what we already did, about five weeks and we've already helped a family reconnect with their father. And we started competing in the Pokémon League."

"You can start wearing normal clothing if you want from now on. But I'll be keeping these robes on until the day I die."

I nodded and then looked at him. "I understand."

We both looked as Violet approached.

"Well here you go guys."

She handed us two plastic Pokéballs, I inspected them a little at first glance. They were very simple balls that appeared to have nothing inside of them, they shrank and grew with the touch of a button, and were made of a simple metal mechanism inside.

The Rapidash trainer smirked.

"You don't use these, right. Well look, you need to keep your Pokémon in them when you use the train, they're very strict about that." explained Violet. "They can cause a whole mess and might even get into fights with other Pokémon. It's best if you put them in there."

"It's best to do this now instead of later buddy. You ready?"

Slakoth let go of the pant leg of my Sage's robes.

He gave a quiet and tiny nod.

"Return."

Inoru's Bellsprout almost gasped seeing Slakoth enter the Pokéball for the first time, taking a step back on the train platform.

Inoru chuckled, returning him without warning.

Violet crossed her arms. "Do you two have any money?"

"We're monks." I said respectfully.

"How do you eat or sleep anywhere? Do you two only own some rice, a staff, and the clothes you're wearing?"

Inoru and I looked at each other slowly and then back at Violet.

"I guess I'll be covering all your train tickets then."

"How do they work?" I asked.

Violet seemed to register the fact that Inoru and I were raised on a mountain. I myself never was from this universe until less than a year ago, but was also completely unused to living in the Pokémon world.

I knew Pokédollars were the equivalent of Yen in this universe but still.

"Well when you're given a trainer card, or even if you just use a Pokénav, everything you earn or spend is wired directly to a bank account. And that bank account is connected digitally to your 'nav. Makes buying Pokégear, train tickets, and food much easier."

Violet explained a bit further. "For instance if you place in the top ten at any WCPL tournament, you get a certain amount of money. You need to use that money typically as entry fees for other tournaments, and anything else you might need."

"So you can build a career off training?"

"Sort of," sighed Violet. "I've tried my best in the past. But I've still needed to get into racing with my Rapidash, along with doing other jobs out in the country. Most kids starting out as Youngsters need their parent's support and they tend to get it, others find already established programs and sponsorships if they're lucky or skilled enough."

I looked at my Pokéball carefully.

"Don't worry, until you get registered with the League, I'll cover all your expenses."

"Thank you Violet."

She shrugged. "Eh, it helps me a lot too. I get coaching experience not to mention my own team can grow from all this as well."

A small chime went off, and everyone on the platform began to shift.

It was uncanny how much like the bullet trains in Japan this train was.

"Now boarding for."

A more robotic voice was over the intercom.

"Blackthorn City station."

The more human voice was heard now.

"Please mind the gap, and stay behind the yellow line."

…

We took our seats, showed a staff member our tickets, Violet had brought ours, and secured our Pokéballs within a glass case next to our seat.

If there was one word to describe what it was like to take the high speed rail connecting the entire Pokémon world together, it was surreal.

The countryside reminded me of the empty and vast landscapes I saw as a child watching Spirited Away at times.

With large open pools of water, a few rice paddies, and very tall mountains surrounded by seas of forest. Then, we entered actual Johto.

I looked outside the window in careful thought.

I had visited Japan only once before in my previous life, but the resemblance it shared with the Pokémon world was actually scary. The mannerisms of the people, the trains, the country, the degree of respect and industriousness.

Even everything Violet showed me on her Pokénav was similar to the messaging and social media apps and systems used in Japan and even back home in my previous universe.

"Are you okay?"

"I miss home." I admitted.

Violet shrugged. "Well wait, where are you from? Mount Takujimi like all the other monks right?"

Inoru was snoring with just a hint of noise, he had dozed off while reading a book he had found on the history of the best Grass type Pokémon trainers.

I told Violet the easiest thing I could. "I'm from Takujimi, yeah."

"The temple, is that all you know?"

From this universe? "Yeah."

"Really? Because it seems like you haven't been a monk for very long."

I looked at her. "What makes you say that?"

"You grow your hair out. I could've sworn I heard you telling Inoru earlier you wanted to wear regular clothes. You don't really seem to use that staff as a walking stick or at all." Violet shrugged. "You don't seem like a very materialistic person but I have to ask, have you really been a monk for your entire life?"

"Yes."

"Then why don't you act like your friend at all?"

"It's the duty the monastery gave me ironically. To find out on my own what the world held for me and the future of the Order of the Sprout Sages."

Violet squinted. "Huh. They let you leave? Just to train?"

I nodded.

"I don't know much about the shrines or who's in charge of them. Just that they never let you leave until you've been with them for a very long time. How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

Violet shook her head. "I'm sorry for asking so much."

"I'd be confused too, who are your parents? One of them are the brother of the nice guy who drove me from the bottom of Takujimi right?"

Violet glanced at me up and down. "There's not much to tell. My uncle raised me on a ranch that bred Rapidash, he was a racer his entire life around Kama Valley. One day he said if I wanted to raise a Ponyta, I'd have to do it from very young."

I listened closer.

"At six years old I rode a Ponyta for the first time, and she became the first part of my team. About four years later I got into battling here and there, my uncle started letting me compete seriously when I was about twelve or so. Then I got a Hoothoot, it's a Noctowl now. And I also have a Murkrow."

"Why even try to compete? I get it's the most prestigious thing anyone can do around here. But it seems like you could've helped run your uncle's ranch, or maybe gotten another job with ease."

Violet put her hands in the pockets of her red jacket. "I never really thought about it. But if I had to say, it would most definitely be because I feel like competing is the best way anyone can raise Pokémon. It's what I feel I need to do with my life."

"Where've you competed?"

"Mostly just Johto, I haven't really had the chance to compete in Kanto or anywhere else but I managed to get third place in a tournament hosted in Viridian City last year."

I smiled. "Nice."

I turned, after about almost two hours by high speed rail, I looked past the window of the bullet train and saw Blackthorn City.

It wasn't a metropolis or a huge bustling city by any means, but it was a very well sized city. From the hills high above the town where my train was passing, I could see the entirety of Blackthorn City, and by extension, a whole lot of Johto.

Johto, like Kanto from what I understood, was situated on plains surrounding the mountainside where I was trained by the monks. Again, eerily similar to the towns and cities filling Japan back in my own world.

I could see other towns in the distance, were all of them just like the ones from the video games or anime, or also ones I didn't know of prior like Kamarino?

"Now reaching."

The robotic voice of the woman took over.

"Blackthorn City station."

…

The doors to the train hissed open, and I wasn't too impressed with Blackthorn City.

But it was decently pretty, as well as nothing like I remember from the games. It wasn't just a few houses barely resembling a town, in fact, there was a whole city here.

And then for the first time in my life, I saw a real Pokémon Center.

"Come on, we gotta get you registered and stuff." said Violet.

Inoru had just woken up from his nap and was more than happy to instantly let his Bellsprout out and carry it on his shoulder.

I however, was content with leaving Slakoth in the pockets of my robes still in his Pokéball.

"Look mama, monks!"

The woman shushed her tiny son and holding his hand, held her back to his side.

The Pokémon center was exactly how I was expecting it to look. It basically looked like a hospital, but the waiting area was much bigger, and the only staff was a single pink haired woman.

"Welcome to Blackthorn City."

Violet bowed her head back. "I need to get Nico here registered for the monthly Johto Youngster Open."

"Can I have your full name please?"

"Nico, er." I paused. "Nico of Takujimi?"

The Nurse Joy tapping on her computer seemed to accept that just fine.

"Can I see the Pokémon you're traveling with?"

I handed her the Pokéball in my pocket.

After a quick moment, she had placed it within a three by two box for Pokéballs and handed it back to me. "Your Pokémon has absolutely no health conditions and is ready for competition."

Wow, this town already makes Kama Valley look like some sort of backwater. It took Nurse Joy here a total of four seconds to tell me what Yuu back in Kamarino needed several minutes to do.

"This Pokéball has been assigned an ID number for use in all future WCPL events."

Violet smiled a bit. "Can I get a separate room from these two? Is that available?"

Nurse Joy nodded. "Absolutely, I've let Brody know you're in town in case you wish to train and to give you both access to the Gym. Enjoy your stay!"

Violet led me up through the electric staircase to the second floor of the Pokémon center where there appeared to be a large number of hotel rooms.

"Wait, so who's Brody?" I asked. "He's part of the Blackthorn City gym?"

"Exactly. He's one of Clair's Junior trainers. The more important ones are the guys who find new dragons for her to train and stuff or take their team to compete everywhere. I gotta make a call back home. Here."

Violet opened her Pokénav, seemed to check something, and passed it by the reader next to one of the hotel room doors. "I'll see you two in a bit."

We smiled and waved to her before she went into her own room.

The interior of the Pokémon Center bedrooms were decently neat, nothing too impressive or that stood out. It was just a very standard hotel room from what I was used to.

"I have to get one of those Pokénavs, without it, and Violet." I sighed, sitting on my bed. "I don't think I'd have any chance to compete."

Inoru was feeding his Bellsprout. "I think you need to pay for one."

And I didn't have a single Pokédollar to my name.

"They're just so useful. Pokénavs can process special room keys, money, and messages everywhere you need."

"Who would you even message? Everyone we know except for Violet doesn't even have a phone."

"Still, it could be useful on the road," I said.

I let Slakoth out of his ball.

He looked around for a second and he focused on me.

"Hey, we're in Blackthorn City now to train and compete. The next time I call you out, you have to be ready for battle."

"La!" he said instantly without question.

"Thanks, keep resting though."

I recalled him to his Pokéball within a second.

Someone knocked on the door and I answered it.

Violet had changed into a tank top and sweatpants. "You tired at all?"

"Not particularly."

"Great. Let's get you over to Clair's gym."

I paused for a moment. "Um. Do you think we could find a place to get some clothes first?"

"I thought you didn't wear anything but your monk get up."

"I'm trying to be a Pokémon trainer someday, might as well look the part. Plus this hat of mine honestly does not go with sage's robes."

Violet laughed in agreement. "Sure thing."

…

I found a small shop near Clair's gym and absolutely refused the offer the store owner made to sell me a hat at a better price as part of a combo with my regular cargo shorts, t-shirt, and jacket. I still kept my necklace Elder Toji with the wooden Mew pendant.

"He seemed confused." Violet looked back and I looked at myself in the reflection of the store, just trying to get a feel for how I stood out amongst the small crowds of people passing in Blackthorn City.

"I didn't want to explain what this hat meant to me."

"It does look old though, but yeah, why does it mean so much?"

I looked across the street. "We should probably get to training."

"Right."

From the outside, Clair's Gym wasn't so much a large simple rectangular building like it appeared in the Pokémon games. Instead it looked like a gigantic indoor arena, complete with several floors and see through glass window panes lining the outside.

On the very outside of the longest wall of glass was a large banner showing a picture of a young woman in her twenties. She had blue hair and eyes, almost comically the same shade as some cotton candy I must've seen when I was younger at a carnival or something in my previous life.

Behind her on the banner, were pictured several Dragon Pokémon, all of them staring directly forward.

At the bottom was written in gold lettering with the WCPL logo next to it: 2x Johto Regional Champion, 1x Kanto Regional Champion. CLAIR'S FIGHTING GYM.

So Clair never made it to the Elite Four, but was the closest thing to one in terms of Gym leaders.

"Come on, let's get started." she broke my train of thought started by looking at the Gym from the outside.

…

We walked in and there appeared to be TVs lining the walls of a very large pair of waiting rooms, even a snack bar.

The TVs were all turned off, from what I could tell, regular Gym challenges and any competitions she hosted here were all in the actual arena past the, now closed, sliding electronic doors.

"Hi there, how can I-"

The young man behind the desk stopped typing and stood up, shaking Violet's hand. "Man it's been a minute, how've you been Vi?"

"I'm okay, this is Nico, I was hoping to use some of the rooms."

"Absolutely," said the young man, now offering to shake my hand. "Brody Nicks. I help run Clair's Junior competition team and manage all gym challenges."

I smiled. "Let me guess, you like dragon Pokémon?"

I noticed how Brody was dressed like a Cool Trainer, or an Ace Trainer from the games, specifically from the second Generation of the video games. He had blonde hair, and a red track suit with white lines running it, and a symbol of a Dragonair circling the acronym 'CFG'.

He chuckled, letting go of my hand. "We're allowed to train all types, Dragons and Ghosts are trickier than any other kinds to train. But yes, I do focus on Dragon types. Where are you from?"

"Takujimi Shrine." I said.

Brody was confused for a moment. "Oh, you checked into the Pokémon center just about an hour ago. Nurse Joy told me all about you."

He walked behind his desk starting to click on his desktop PC, Violet appeared to be waiting for something.

"What does CFG stand for? Clair's Fighting Gym?" I asked.

"Absolutely!" Brody said cheerfully. "Classroom's four and six are open, you down for a battle later?" he glanced at Violet.

"Maybe some other time. I'll take room six."

There was a small sound on Violet's Pokénav and I could tell she was probably sent a digital key to use one of the rooms.

I walked with Violet towards one of the rooms. "Why'd you decline the match? I thought you weren't supposed to do that?"

"Because Brody mostly uses it as an excuse to ask me out."

I chuckled. "Ah."

…

I realized that Clair's gym was many things, not just a Pokémon gym where trainers challenged her for the Rising Badge.

It hosted a great deal many class rooms, both regular ones with desks and a white board, as well as classrooms resembling different terrain for Pokémon battles. The gym was also one huge arena for tournaments for Pokémon battle competitions.

I could tell that the arena could easily seat thousands under the right organization. The gym was so large that it took Violet and I almost eight minutes to find Classroom 6.

"Here we are."

A swipe of her Pokénav, and we were ready to train.

The classroom was merely a bit of flat and empty earthy terrain with a few large rocks here and there.

"Okay then, let's see your Slakoth again."

He proudly roared with a quick La, and got into his regular fighting stance.

Violet took a slow look at her belt, as if taking a moment to think which Pokémon would work best for her training.

"Show 'em what you got Murkrow!"

The jet black bird gave a small coo, and then spun around in the air for a moment, fluttering jaggedly about with random rough wing flaps.

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"How'd you catch one?" I asked.

"Long story, I've only been working with him for a few weeks now. But he'll be perfect for this."

"So wait, we just battle now, or what?"

Violet shook her head from across the Classroom's sparring area. "No that'd just be too basic. I want to help teach your Pokémon two moves that he'll really need to focus on for this next tournament."

I listened quietly.

"I'm going to teach him Faint Attack, and then I'll help you work on whatever physical attack it is you want Slakoth to practice."

"How does Faint Attack work?"

"Murkrow, show him."

Slakoth knew Murkrow was going to attack him, so he began to change angles, still facing Murkrow. The bird Pokémon then fluttered suddenly in a very fast zig zag towards him, and then suddenly appeared directly to Slakoth's left when it was just at its right.

Murkrow loudly struck Slakoth with his talons and despite Slakoth being quick enough to cross his arms and block, the blow was strong enough to send him sliding backwards across the ground of the classroom.

He smacked wildly against a small boulder behind him, and Slakoth shook his head, getting right back into his stance.

I squinted for a quick second, thinking.

Then, I told Slakoth what to do calmly. "Go for the same attack, we've worked angle changes before, just try to time it out of Murkrow's field of vision."

It turned out Slakoth was actually fast enough to pull off a quite direct, but decently weak Faint Attack on Murkrow even thought it was fluttering a solid seven feet off the ground or so.

Slakoth's claw glowed a dark red for a moment and then smacked hard into Murkrow's feathery pelt. It squawked in annoyance for a moment, shrugging it off mid air and then continuing to hover in the air with its wings.

I looked in confusion at Violet now. "It's a Dark type move, it's not meant to be too effective against him anyway."

I knew that. But why was it a special attack? I could've sworn this was a physical move.

Either way, I continued drilling Faint Attack with Violet's Murkrow.

From what I gathered it was a very effective move, but it wasn't as simple as it seemed. Slakoth seemed to be activating some sort of energy in him to use the move at a very particular time, possibly as a sneak attack that only worked when an enemy Pokémon couldn't see him for a split second.

It made no sense to me how or why this worked, but I didn't question it. More than anything, I could tell Slakoth was naturally good at this move, possibly as he, like Slakoths I think could in the third Generation of the Pokémon video games, learned Faint Attack naturally as they matured.

Slakoth wasn't tired at all after a solid half hour of timing Faint Attack better and taking tips from Violet and I to make it cleaner and smoother.

"Great job," said Violet. "What else do you want to work on?"

"Can Slakoth learn Counter or Hammer Arm? With Fighting type attacks, I don't think most Pokémon will be able to stop him after a year or so."

Violet shrugged. "Well, you never know. Also, your Slakoth's a little young to start practicing moves that advanced."

"How does Counter work?"

"Counter's tricky. Counter requires your Pokémon to absorb and return the energy an enemy Pokémon gives it during a physical attack."

I was confused. "So he has to get hit to hit back?"

"Not necessarily, but it needs to be timed perfectly, sometimes within a second of the execution of an opponent's technique. Then it becomes a Fighting type move as opposed to a Normal attack. I've never liked Counter, so I never tried it, but I can still help you with it here and there.."

I was still confused. Some attacks were clearly one type or another, or physical or special, but they were so specific as to why, that it made it hard for me to wrap my head around.

I moved on, speaking directly to Slakoth. "Okay buddy, Murkrow's just going to try to Peck you, try to time any of the moves I've taught you right as he begins to land and make him miss."

"La!"

Murkrow was decently fast, much faster than Slakoth I gathered due to his age, size, and Violet's training, but Slakoth was still able to time his attacks well.

He'd slip his head off angle just how I taught him while throwing a Scratch like a reverse punch to Murkrow's body, his peak missing Slakoth's face by inches.

However, there was something missing from the attack, from what I could tell, decisiveness. The blow needed to be critical in order to be effective.

Slakoth seemed to start timing Murkrow's speed and movement better as time went on, and we were an hour and a half well into our training when Slakoth seemed to active Counter for the first time.

I had taught him to use the round kick sometimes as a counter, but never the hook kick, or ura mawashi. It was beautiful.

Murkrow was flying at Slakoth with Pecks, possibly even straying into Drill Peck territory judging from its speed and power, sort of disobeying Violet's orders but still, and again got timed. Slakoth leaned back and his left leg rose up and smacked Murkrow directly on the head with his heel.

It must've been Counter, because Murkrow was actually…knocked out.

Fighting type moves were regularly effective instead of super effective as Murkrow was both a Flying and Dark type Pokémon, but the blow was powerful enough to render Murkrow unconscious. All I knew was that this blow in particular was better and cleaner than all the rest Slakoth landed on Murkrow.

It gave a tired squawk on the ground as it laid next to Slakoth.

Violet and I were too shocked for a second to react as she slowly withdrew Murkrow's Pokéball, and then quickly recalled him.

Judging from the look on her face, she was too impressed to really say much for a moment.

"Should we call it a day?" I asked.

Violet was still silent for a moment.

"That might be best." she managed to say.

…

I looked at the picture of the podiums of the previous two years worth of monthly first, second, and third place medalists in the Pokémon battle tournaments Clair hosted here. "So you've never won here huh? Your cousin told me you have to win two before you're allowed to compete."

"I've only made it as far as the semis one time. But no, my cousin was wrong. You can compete here as long as you have any sort of official WCPL medal." I knew I had one. "But you need two ranked wins of any kind before you can win the Johto Youngster Open and become an official trainer."

I didn't know how to explain how confused I was.

"Look." Violet shook her head. "All you need to know is that you have one medal now. You need to at least make it as far as a quarterfinal in this next tournament to get your second, and qualify for a battle to get a trainer card."

Again, the anime made it seem so easy. You picked a starter and off you went!

"I should get Murkrow healed, let's get back to the Pokémon center."

We did so, and the training for the next tournament began.

…

The next few weeks were extremely similar to the training I had prepared on my own for Slakoth's first ever competition in Kamarino.

Violet told me everything, and made sure I was prepared for everything I could, to do my very best at the upcoming Johto Youngster Open. Like Kamarino's last competition of these kinds, all ranks were allowed to attend, and they were slightly modifying WCPL rules.

Blackthorn City's Gym was going to host over two hundred Youngsters from around the entire Johto region, including myself, all of whom would be aged between the minimum age of eight, to as old as seventeen.

Actual trainers would be allowed to compete, but very few often did unless they found actual competition in the tournament to improve their teams.

All Pokémon had to be Baby Pokémon or first stage evolutions and needed to be registered with a proper ID at a Pokémon Center.

Inoru and I worked on our Sage stuff every day, he didn't seem to mind too much that I wore both my monk's robes as well as my Pokémon trainer's clothing just as regularly. I never took off my Mew's necklace though, Elder Toji himself gave that to me.

Likewise, Slakoth was improving steadily, and was working on the main three attacks that I found would be most effective at this tournament. Scratch was the main tool of his, Faint Attack would be reserved for Special attackers or those weak to Dark type moves, and Counter was a last resort in case all else failed.

Slakoth became so skilled with the karate I gave him that he could use Scratch with his legs as well, as he could kick very easily now.

We also kept working on ways to maximize the speed and striking power Slakoth possessed, as well as any grappling that might come up in the event a Pokémon tried to throw, sweep, or grab Slakoth. The truth was that most Pokémon League judges stopped the match at this level soon after Pokémon began to clinch, if they were even able to clinch, because it just turned into a wild struggle match.

Eventually, the day of the tournament came, and I felt Slakoth, Inoru and I, and our very helpful and kind coach, Violet, were all ready.

Slakoth was in his Pokéball, now a few months old with over two months of formal competition training, and I got in line to check in.

The number of people at Clair's Gym that Saturday was astounding.

…

Inoru was clutching his Bellsprout to his chest, his staff tucked between his sash and sage's robes as he walked in. "This many kids compete in Pokémon battles?"

"There are more every single year." Violet said casually.

I fixed my cap, the top of my head was always a tiny bit itchier than usual every since I actually started growing my hair out more.

We moved forward in line and we were already there to sign in.

A girl a bit younger than me wearing the same CFG uniform all of Clair's staff used smiled as we walked up to her desk. "Hello there. Name and Pokémon please?"

"Nico, I'm with my Slakoth."

She had a small Pokéball reader connected to her computer that I saw Nurse Joy use as well when I signed in at Blackthorn City's Pokémon center last month.

I placed Slakoth in his ball there, and a few second later the girl spoke. "Thank you."

I smiled back and placed the Pokéball back into my pocket.

"Spectator fees are five hundred Pokédollars each. Only one person may be allowed to accompany you inbetween the rings and warm up areas at all times."

Violet paid for her ticket and Inoru's with a quick swipe of her Pokénav, and the girl smiled at us after handing me my competitor's badge on a lanyard.

"Enjoy the tournament!" she said.

Then, I was allowed to walk forward and see the majesty of the arena. And it was eye widening.

There were easily over a thousand people sitting, talking, and about the stands.

The main interior of Clair's gym was simple. The rings were not set up yet, they were made of traditional light blue tatami puzzle mats ironically, although I could tell they were made of special material to withstand the occasional fire and claws of Pokémon battles.

Inbetween the six fully sized rings were decently sized rectangular slits with some sort of mechanism in them, and in the center of the entire Gym, all the judges and officials were listening to a single young woman, also in her official WCPL uniform.

Clair, the Gym Leader herself was hosting the tournament and running it calmly.

She was hosting the regular Judge's Meeting that happened just before every single tournament.

Clair bowed deeply to begin the tournament, everyone applauded, and all the judges, about fifty of them, bowed back.

The judges were an array of multiple different people, but from what I understood, one way or another, they had all competed in WCPL for several years to become an official judge.

The staff members were members of Clair's gym and their friends and family, they were in charge of organizing the entire tournament and helping the judges run actual matches.

"Group A, please report to Warm Up area 1." a man said over the intercom. "Group A, please report to Warm Up area 1." he repeated. "Thank you."

I checked my competitor's badge, I was group C, sitting in a secluded corner of the stands away from several others.

I realized just why this tournament was a spectator event. This was a combat sport, but one more popular than football, baseball, or anything I knew back home, this was where everyone watched their kids compete in what everyone and their brother competed in when they were younger.

I even recognized a few Youngsters from the Kanto region judging from their competition jackets.

From the ceiling dozens of feet high hung a giant white banner titled:

Youth World Competitive League Blackthorn Tournaments - Hosted by CFG

Clair's Gym had a competition team here, not that I think the judges would be biased towards them, Red clearly set this up to be as fair as possible. They wore the same CFG jackets a few others used, but were dark blue instead of red and white, and their team was easily around fifty people, parents and family members included.

Gyms from around the Johto region were here, including other teams that I didn't recognize. Some people like myself appeared to be competing without a Gym leader who taught people how to coach them, and instead banded together privately out of local towns or cities.

Almost everyone was largely using Normal and Flying type Pokémon, along with the occasional ice type or Psychic type. Why just simple Normal types? They could become much more competitive Pokémon at later stages of Evolution, but I understood why they did it for now. These were the best Pokémon for trainers who hadn't been competing for very long to raise.

There were also just regular Blackthorn city citizens in the stands by the hundreds, this was again, a spectator event, people were fans of all this across the planet.

Violet muttered to me. "That's, where you should be focusing on." she looked away from the stands, and towards the actual arena floor.

She pointed over to the warm up area.

Every Youngster had a Pokémon, and a coach, sometimes one of their parents. The Youngsters would warm up with their Pokémon, sometimes personally, sometimes with both.

There were team meetings in the stands, and members of those teams trickled down to one of two warm up areas.

A large number of machines began to rumble, hissing as they whirred to life.

The six rings were given the appearance of small hockey rinks, as thick white walls with Pokémon battle proof plexiglass windows on them rose from beneath the stage, creating corridors between them, the center of all them were Clair and a few members of her staff sitting around a large table.

After a few minutes, staff members began to take pairs of boys and girls from the warm up areas to one of the rings in groups of eight or so. The order was specific, each staff member had a piece of paper with them to keep track of the brackets for each division.

From what I understood, each ring needed an undisputed winner through, and they wouldn't leave that ring to compete elsewhere until that winner was declared.

Violet looked upset for a second, chewing some bubblegum quietly as she sat in the stands next to me.

"What?" I asked her.

She shook her head, her dark hair in a ponytail through her trainer's cap shaking with it. "That kid, you see him?"

"The one with the Buneary? I thought those were only from the Sinnoh region."

"You can find Pokémon of any kind from anywhere if your parents or sponsors are rich enough."

A Youngster of anywhere from about eleven to thirteen was warming up with his coach, and I chuckled, recognizing Brody as his instructor.

"He beat me in the semis the last time I competed here. He might've lost in the finals, but still."

"What was his name?" I looked at Violet.

"Gold."

I needed a second to look closer at him. Wait, as in Gold, the trainer, the protagonist of the second generation of the games?

Sure enough, it was him, same black hair and gold eyes. Was he the same person I knew of canonically? Most definitely not, all they shared was a name and an appearance right?

Why wasn't he training a Cyndaquil here?

"Where is he from?" I asked.

"New Bark Town I've heard, but whatever Pokémon he was raising didn't cut it for Clair's gym. Apparently, Gold's dad was some sort of bigshot in CFG a few years back before Red started competing."

Gold was being walked to a ring with his Buneary and a few other kids.

"So then, what happened to his real starter?"

"Clair, or well, the people Clair puts in charge of training her teams of Trainers, get help from a bunch of nerds. People who run simulations of all their battles with a bunch of computers."

"Seriously?" I was confused.

"It's not how I was taught to train or battle." Violet sighed. "They took footage of as much as they can from Red's days creating and running the League and tried to boil it down into numbers, statistics, and everything that takes away from the dynamic nature of battling."

I glanced at the match in Ring 4, where Gold was taken to.

"So, how do they get a computer simulation from something as unpredictable as a Pokémon battle?" I asked.

Inoru muttered. "And I wondered why the Sages believed society abandoned the true nature of Pokémon in favor of materialism and glory," he said tiredly.

"It's simple, look at that fight." said Violet.

A member of a privately owned team using a Zubat was facing one of Gold's teammates on CFG with a very furious and admittedly strong Rattata larger than the ones I've ever seen.

The Rattata hissed, its tail curling.

Its teeth glowed white, the Youngster in charge egging it on loudly from her Trainer's box.

The Trainer in charge of the Zubat winced, the Rattata leaped off the ground, was able to time the Zubat's flying and movement and pin it to the mat with its teeth.

"Those three judges looking over the match look familiar?"

A loud buzzer went off from a nearby ring as I nodded, one was in charge of stopping the match in case of any injury or penalty or anything else, and two were helping them with…I didn't know what.

"Yeah? It's like Franklin's judging from Kamarino, with help from two others."

Violet nodded. "Exactly. The TV screen above each ring has a timer."

It did, the current match between the Zubat and the Rattata had a minute and a half left, counting down from two minutes according to matches in other rings that hadn't yet begun.

Violet explained. "The clock runs for two to three minutes for each round depending on the level of the match. In several cases, most Pokémon simply in lower levels of the League aren't skilled, fast, or powerful enough to deal enough damage to each other to knock them out or injure or disable them to the point they're out of commission."

I nodded.

"If there's no knockout, all three judges watching the match get a vote depending on the battle. They more or less consider each stage of the match and who was most dominant or landed the most effective hits throughout. Watch this fight, who do you think is winning?"

It was obvious to me. "The Rattata."

It continued to be always several steps ahead of the opposing Zubat, always quicker, always more effective with its attacks. The Rattata just had a much better Bite, and could even use Hyper Fang pretty well. The Rattata was smarter, better, just a much quicker and more effective Pokémon in battle than the opposing Zubat.

The Zubat's bread and butter, Leech Life, and the occasional Wing Attack, never landed remotely close to the Rattata. Meanwhile the Rattata was doing just about whatever it wanted to land hits.

The buzzer in Ring 4 went off when the clock reached zero. The buzzer there then switched to a different sound. A sort of whistle sound was heard, all three judges watching the match stepped forward and stood at attention, arms to their side.

Then, the whistle went off again and all three judges raised their hands in favor of the CFG fighter, towards the red colored right side of the ring to the center judge, opposite directly to the blue colored side on their left. The TV screen changed from the timer showing 0:00, to 3-0, Winner: Landry Coulson, CFG.

I could read another TV in the distance with a name I didn't recognize but something that made sense. It clearly showed what a knockout looked like scoreboard wise.

Stoppage, Winner: Grace Heeley, Unaffiliated

Violet turned to me. "Gyms like Clair's have enough money to hire what're called Simulation Battle specialists. They consider all the factors you just saw, a Pokémon's agility and speed, their timing, moveset, what aspects of physical or special fighting they excel at. They consider the Trainer's personality and skills, and make a simulation of what Pokémon would be best for them to compete with."

"But if computers determine everything, what's even the point of battling?" I asked.

Violet sighed quickly. "I've asked myself that for the past few years. Point is, the wealthier trainers tend to win, always, because of stuff like simulations."

I was actually a bit, mad at Clair, I don't know if it was her fault particularly. But from what I gathered, she had probably ruined Gold's relationship with his Cyndaquil, just because a computer said so.

Technically I had no idea if Gold actually trained a Cyndaquil in this universe, I still didn't understand how Professors gave out Starter Pokémon or how that all worked here.

I wanted to win this tournament for a different reason now. Not just because of a responsibility given to me by the sages.

This was for Cyndaquil, or at least. The fun and joy I had of how regular classic Pokémon battles were supposed to be.

…

I was kneeling near the edge of the ring where Violet was speaking to both of us. "Even in the first rounds these matches can be tough, remember what we worked on."

I shook Violet's hand and we bowed to each other.

"You ready Slakoth?"

The Pokémon didn't even respond.

A staff member let us into the ring.

The ring was about twelve feet by twelve feet, except just a bit bigger, flat and empty, and three judges were standing there.

Behind the glass and white walls of the ring, were a staff member with a computer in charge of controlling the scoreboard, and another judge as well as another staff member in charge of the brackets.

The judge beckoned both Pokémon forward with a nod and pointing towards the mat in front of him.

"Ready?"

My Slakoth took his stance, the Sentret across from the mat from him merely stood there.

"Begin!" the center judge roared.

Slakoth began to bounce around on the balls of his feet, or well, claws. Sentret took a weak stance, starting to circle Slakoth as well.

Slakoth struck first, I heard the crowd roar nearby when the incoming Scratch, or one two punch combination came in hard directly to Sentret's face.

From the first exchange I could tell how easy this fight was going to be.

Sentret weakly tried to parry the first claw, failed, staggering a bit under the jab, and the incoming cross knocked it clean back, putting it on wobbly legs.

"Stop!"

The referee looked to the Trainer's box. "Can you continue?"

"Get up Sentret, hands up! Use quick attack! Come on!"

The referee took that as a Yes from the boy in the other chair and then resumed the match.

"Ready!? Continue!"

Sentret kept its distance for a bit, then quickly got onto all fours, starting to rush towards Slakoth and I realized how well I trained this Pokémon.

Using the Sentret's momentum, he turned, more than strong enough to pick up the Sentret and fling it towards the wall.

The crash that resulted was so strong the center referee didn't even hesitate to check for a knockout.

"Winner!" He raised a hand towards my side of the ring on his right.

I smiled, I had a decent feeling we might be the best today.

Between rounds, I let Slakoth rest, Violet and I went over strategy, and we watched other rings and a few people stood out to me.

Only three other kids at this tournament seemed remotely competitive, the rest were clearly behind.

The first was Gold.

His Buneary was unlike anything I've ever seen. It only really used Quick Attack, Jump Kick, and Pound, but it could even use Endure if it was quick enough, basically blocking the few attacks fast and strong enough to land directly on it.

"Fight!"

The referee removed his hand between Buneary and a Smoochum.

Buneary looked like a real fighter, just bouncing quietly on the balls of her feet, hands up, eyes forward, just like my Slakoth.

The Smoochum's Pound was really a very weak punching attack followed up by a grab, it missed Buneary by so much it was funny to me, it was already dodging the second Smoochum faked and then began to commit to the attack.

Buneary continued to strut around the ring, bouncing casually, it didn't look remotely nervous, despite the roar of the crowd, the Ice type Pokémon, her coach was barely giving advice.

"Quick attack!" Gold said and a split second later he won the match off one simple move.

I saw Gold watch as Buneary struck first, and practically blurred forward from the sheer amount of speed it had. Smoochum began to use Powder Snow, shooting ice and hail from her mouth for a moment before Buneary's foot rocked directly across her jaw in an explosive kick.

Buneary was quickly declared the winner, and then bounced up to high five Gold.

Slakoth's next match was against Gold's teammate with the strong Rattata.

"Fight!"

I thought it would be a harder fight for us but Slakoth wiped the floor with him.

Literally, Slakoth was able to pick up Rattata as it dodged a Bite attempt and drag him across the mat, the rat Pokémon completely unable to escape his grip.

Slakoth stopped sliding its face across the puzzle mat tatami and then flung it straight at the wall. Rattata was fast enough to break its fall and turn around, hissing with widening eyes.

"It's hurt! Let it come to you!" I said. "Stand your ground!"

The Rattata had no choice, it had to do something.

Gold's teammate said something but the Rattata wasn't listening, so enraged it just ran towards Slakoth again, this time with Hyper Fang.

Slakoth merely side stepped again, pinned the rat to the floor with his foot and crushed the Rattata in its exposed ribs with a punch.

The Scratch was devastating, even the Rattata's eyes showed it was clearly knocked out.

I turned, seeing a few CFG nerds in the crowd typing on their laptops, as the parents were muttering nervously amongst each other. A few other people in the stands applauded me happily.

A girl with jet black hair and a Pichu was absolutely kicking ass in the other rings.

Matched up against an Elekid, it was all skill and strength based, no types really involved.

The Pichu's tail was like a whip, and the girl was an amazing Pokémon trainer, every move she ordered to be used, every bit of advice, instantly worked.

Elekid was pinned against the wall, barely landed one hit to be struck with two different ones in return. Its opposing Pichu beat it 2-1, when it should've been 3-0 in my opinion.

Slakoth and I faced a Spearow, and then a very tricky Doduo we managed to beat by decision.

Violet smiled, hugging me when I reached the fourth round. Inoru and a few others were applauding me in the stands.

"Whooo!" I recognized one of the kids CFG had beaten cheering for me in the stands.

"First fans." Violet smirked.

The last of all the Youngsters competing I found competitive at all left in this stage in the tournament was the only Youngster around really smart, or from what I gathered, skillful enough to effectively train Fire type Pokémon.

It was a quiet ten year old with light hair, a green team jacket from Kanto, with a Magby that was tough enough to shrug off basically anything that could land on it, and an Ember so hot it was basically a lower tier Flamethrower.

A Spearow fluttered about, trying weak version of Drill Peck and very quick Pecks, but Magby blocked or directly took all of them.

In the next round, Slakoth annihilated a kid's Pidgey, which was quick, but over used Wing Attack, and was eventually timed. Slakoth was able to use a perfectly placed Faint Attack to the Pidgey's dive and with a furious swipe of its red glowing claws, shot it away.

The crowd roared when Pidgey struck the wall and slid down it with a quiet coo, and it was clear the fight was over.

"Blue side, winner!" I was on the judge's left in the ring, the crowd cheering for me seemed to have grown as each round went by.

…

I sat in the stands as everyone took a short break, and the announcer began to speak into his microphone from the table he sat next to Clair.

"All winners in their final ring report to the judge's table. All winners in their final ring report to the judge's table."

I walked up to the table and was handed a large coin, and then it had even slipped Violet's mind even though she was supposed to keep track of what round I was in.

I had actually placed in one of the four quarter finals. Meaning out of over two hundred competitors, I had placed in the top thirty two.

I had done it. I had gotten the two wins necessary to get to the match to compete for a Trainer Card. Which was several rounds away.

But there was only one place a month where someone could get something like that. And that was in the Grand Finals, not even the finals of Division B where I was placed.

There was no one of note in my Division except for the little boy with the Magby, I had to ignore Violet for a moment. She was actually nervous for me because she knew I'd do well, but had no clue I'd actually make it this far on my first try.

Inoru wasn't allowed to leave the stands, so I was mostly on my own.

Violet had done her best in helping me train Slakoth, the most she could do is give me advice for what to expect from the Youngster I'd face in the next round.

…

Then the real tournament began, and it was odd how much easier the matches were for me than they were in the previous rounds.

I faced a Weedle, Spearow again, and the first strictly Poison type ever, an Ekans.

Only the Ekans proved tough at all, from what I could tell, the Pokémon had plenty of potential, it was the Youngster in charge of training it who lacked any sort of strategy, skill, or resourcefulness. All he did was try to spam Acid and Poison Sting, these attacks were so ineffective and slow, that Slakoth could've dodged them in his sleep. It kept trying Poison type attacks under his Trainer's insistence.

And when that wasn't working, and Ekans had already gotten hit with Scratch and Faint Attack very hard, a few times, it had switched over to Wrap, which was a very bad idea against such a fast, strong, and skilled Normal physical attacker like Slakoth.

Slakoth literally tied Ekans into a knot when it tried to use Wrap on him, and then Slakoth kicked it against the edge of the ring ruthlessly with a roundhouse kick style Scratch I'd helped Slakoth practice a whole lot.

I nodded. "Great job Slakoth! That's what I'm talking about!"

Slakoth nodded back to me.

"Winner!" the judge declared raising a hand to his right as the boy on the left side of the ring sniffled, crossed his arms gruffly, and recalled his snake Pokémon, running off to complain to his very tired coach.

I squinted at him. What a bad attitude, he was literally the only reason his Ekans wasn't that good, a more than fine Pokémon raised by a below average trainer.

When I turned around, I realized something very fast.

Violet was staring at me, so shocked she couldn't speak for a second.

"What's up?"

Then it hit me again.

I was in the semi finals, I was able to get a trainer card if I won just two more rounds.

…

As the entire arena full of rings were cleared, all that remained were the judge's table, where Clair, and several other WCPL officials were sitting.

In front of her, was a massive ring, complete with two chairs behind solid special protective plexiglass made for battling, where two judges were going to be sitting. It was bigger than the average twelve by twelve used for all the Youngster matches, all the lights in the arena were turned off and focused on a huge thirty feet by thirty feet ring.

I was running through the previous rounds as I stood on the stage with Violet. It was hard to believe basically an entire tournament had flown by in just about two hours. I was processing the matches more well after they happened than sooner.

Besides the Ekans, that Spearow and Weedle were so weak, just why were so few trainers that showed up at least above decent? I realized that the Pokémon each Youngster had were all around average or only got better as the rounds continued. But the Trainers for each of them, not every Trainer was the best, making something very clear to me:

It was the Trainer that determined the performance of their Pokémon in sparring and the results the Pokémon trainer received, not typically the other way around.

An announcer, a tall bald gentleman with glasses and a beard, stood on the stage with us. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin our semi final matches. One of the boys or, girl on this stage will be walking away with a forty thousand Pokédollar scholarship prize, and an official WCPL trainer card given to them directly by Clair's Fighting Gym."

Forty thousand didn't seem like a lot, but I estimated each real world Japanese Yen to be the equivalent of a single Pokédollar in this universe.

The crowd hadn't grown that much, even if the total audience size had grown to almost twelve hundred people, because several others left as soon as their kids or team lost. And the reason I gathered was because no one made it as far as I did, not in their first try ever at a Youngster event of this caliber.

"To decide the winners of Division B, we have these two young gentlemen right here. We have Mark Stafield from Viridian City Gym."

He bowed his head to the moderate applause, his Magby standing right in front of him. His coach was a kindly looking old man with a green tracksuit jacket and a cane who I shockingly now recognized was Professor Oak. I contained my degree of surprise by holding my breath to not gasp for a second. This was a member of Blue's competition team. Again, the man next to him was the one and only Professor Oak.

I had too many questions to ask about all this but then I was announced.

"A newcomer to the Youth WCPL scene, Nico Takujimi, er, Nico of Takujimi. He competes out of Takujimi temple in Kama Valley, with his coaches Violet and Inoru."

I bowed my head to a lot of applause, but I could tell a few in the crowd were shocked at what the announcer said. As if the rumors that spread throughout Blackthorn City, during the tournament were true.

"To decide Division A's final. From Olivine City, competing unaffiliated. Grace Heeley, coached by Jennifer Heeley."

The girl with the Pichu bowed, as did her Pichu, almost making me laugh. Her mother was a very beautiful and kind looking woman who gripped her daughter's hand with the tiniest hint of tears in her eyes. I could only imagine how many times they'd attempted to get this far in this tournament.

"And last but certainly not least, we have Gold, fighting from New Bark Town. Clair's Fighting Gym's one and only Youngster prodigy. Two time Blackthorn City silver medalist, three time Goldenrod City bronze medalist."

The roar from the crowd was all but deafening. Hundreds of Blackthorn City residents rose to their feet to applaud for what they considered to be, their next representative in WCPL, moving from what they likely thought was a Youngster yesterday, to a Trainer today.

"The judges have allowed all competitors to use ten minutes to review tactics and warm up. Good luck, to all the young men and women on this stage."

Everyone in the arena applauded and I left the stage as Violet muttered to me.

"You hear that?"

"Hear what?"

The applause continued, again, an entire section of the crowd was cheering for me.

"Get 'im Takujimi!"

"Us small towners can do it!" a man in the stands yelled. "Yeah!"

"You just made Youngster League history in competitive Pokémon Battling, no one's won as quickly as you have today. If you play your cards right in this next match and hopefully the next, you can start challenging the lower tier gyms in just a few months."

I blinked, realizing what I had just accomplished.

I had managed to raise my Slakoth so effectively, so strategically, and so well in terms of its typing, abilities, and competition, that I had won all but a few of my matches by knockout. Made it all the way to the semis in my first tournament.

And I was standing on a stage with the likes of Blue's students, possibly students of his students but still, and about to be handed a medal by Clair herself.

It was a bit overwhelming but I needed to keep my head clear. Regardless of how I placed, I needed to coach Slakoth the best I could.

Elder Toji placed faith in me for one thing, and for another, I absolutely refused to let Gold win this tournament. What his fighting style stood for was the complete opposite of what I did. And why I was here.

For all its flaws, Pokémon was at least supposed to be fun.