I clung onto Flaaffy for a long time after the battle ended. Even while my friends were patting me on the back, congratulating me on my win, I just made some incoherent noises with my face smushed into the wool around my Pokémon’s neck. My legs, arms, every part of my body was trembling, the adrenaline and a cocktail of mixed emotions coursing through my veins. The battle had been Flaaffy’s win. She had excelled, earned her evolution and the victory. I couldn’t express how proud I was of her.
As her trainer, I had been embarrassing. I had utterly failed her against the Wattrel. The fear still surged through me, fighting with the rest of the electrochemical impulses ravaging my body. The frustration with myself was fading, at least, the fiery ire that had let me think near the end of the battle was. All in all, I was a nervous wreck.
A strong blast of lavender washed over me as Comfey finished healing Flaaffy and turned her attention to me. It was soothing, and I felt able to stand straight without immediately toppling again. Regaining some awareness of my surroundings, I remembered I forgot something.
“I never shook hands with Brunette,” I said with no small amount of guilt. It wasn’t nice to ignore your opponent after a battle.
“If you mean Clair, she left as soon as the result was called,” said Sunny. “It didn’t look like she had any intention to shake hands.”
That made me feel better about myself and worse about Brunette.
“She really is a Morgrem,” I said. “No sense of honour.”
“Speaking of,” said Darren turning to Sunny. “Did you know each other? You were talking a bit before the battle.”
“We went to school together but weren’t particularly close,” she replied, not meeting his eyes. If Darren could tell something was off, he didn’t show it. By the way he was fidgeting with Auri’s pokeball, his mind was probably occupied with his own upcoming battle anyway.
My phone rang while we were ambling along to the pitch he was going to be fighting at. There was still some time before he had to be there, so we were taking it easy, stopping to look at the battles we passed along the way. Glancing at the screen, I saw it was a call from Mum. It wasn’t unusual for her to call me, but only in the evenings. Slightly worried, I answered the phone.
“Congratulations on Flaaffy’s evolution!” chorused my entire family from the other end. It was on loudspeaker. Of course.
“I’m so proud of you, honey,” said Mum. “And tell Flaaffy we’re proud of her too.”
“Thank you, I will,” I said, a little taken aback. “How did you know she evolved already?”
“It was on TV,” said Richard.
“Flaaffy was so cool,” added Lilly.
“It was on TV?” I echoed. “Why was it on TV?”
My jitters were coming back full force. I’d seen the cameraman there, but surely there were more interesting battles to broadcast.
“You know how it is,” said Daddy. “They’ve been cutting from one match to another, but as soon as Flaaffy started evolving, they switched to you for the rest of the battle. People love an evolution.”
“And it helps you took down two Pokémon with one,” said Mum.
“That’s not that rare, though,” I said. “The first few rounds of the tournament people’s strength can vary a lot.”
“Doesn’t matter,” said Richard. “It’s cool.”
We talked a little more. Mum told me to tell Godfrey to ring more often, and that she hoped he was taking care of me. I said he was, he had taken us out to dinner last night. She asked how my companions were doing and if I was getting along a bit better with Joey and if I’d gotten to spend more time with Elaine. I told her they were fine, I wasn’t, and a bit. By the time the conversation was over, we were at our destination and Darren had left to prepare.
The battlefield was cordoned off by red and white tape allowing a generous margin between the pitch proper and the barrier for a couple of league security guards to keep anyone from crossing into the potential danger-zone. For higher-level matches, they’d typically have teams of psychic Pokémon to create barriers to prevent accidents, but it was unnecessary for beginner trainers. There was a larger crowd than usual waiting to watch this fight. When I saw the name of Darren’s opponent, I understood why. The person he was up against was called Kurt and he was one of the favourites to win the tournament.
While it was mainly new trainers participating in it, it didn’t mean they were all unknown. There were two types of trainers who were famous before ever having their first battle. The first were, naturally, celebrities, particularly young celebrities, with preexisting fanbases often did a league circuit to boost their popularity. Obviously, they had access to whatever Pokémon they wanted giving them an advantage, especially early on. The second type were the ones with strong backers, whether they had family who were active trainers, a company who decided to sponsor a newbie for some reason – which was rare but not unheard of, or some other well-known figure such as a Professor supporting them, it all created strong expectations that the media ran with. These were usually taken more seriously long-term too, as the judgement of the backer was usually considered sound.
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I wasn’t, I’ll admit, the most informed in this aspect of things, which had prompted Elaine to give me a crash course on it as part of my training. She had also gone through the names of the ones likely to show up, and how to deal with them if I met them in an early round. If I encountered them in a later round, she’d said, I might as well forget it. They would all have a minimum of four Pokémon, all with a decent level of competence.
Kurt was the second type. His grandfather was a man named Iwan, a veteran fire-type specialist that regularly made it to the last eight of the Nocturne Conference, once even making it to the finals. While Kurt’s parents never showed an interest in training, their son took after his grandfather, and they were often seen together in Sandfire.
“Hey there, I found you.”
I spun, a smile rapidly forming on my lips upon hearing the familiar voice.
“Ducky!”
“Calla, congrats on the evolution.”
“You saw it too?”
“Sure did. At least, partly. Internet reception isn’t the greatest a thousand metres in the sky. Is this the girl of the hour?”
She patted Flaaffy and giggled at the static rushing through her.
“Quite the shock, eh? And Sunny, how’s it been going with you?”
“So-so,” said Sunny. “I was up against some guy from Unova with a Serperior first round.”
“Ouch, you were the unlucky person?” said Ducky. “I did hear something about him. Did you know he withdrew this morning?”
“He withdrew?” asked Sunny.
“Yeah, seems like it was an honest case of not being familiar with the culture. It happens every year, someone signs up before knowing what they're getting into. It’s never fair on their first opponent, though.”
“If it happens so often, can’t something be done?” I asked. Ducky shrugged.
“It’s talked about a lot, but like a lot of things around here, nothing gets actually done.”
Godfrey cleared his throat behind me, and I realized I’d forgotten to introduce them. After I did, very much flustered, the match was about to start, and Darren and Kurt walked out to their respective ends of the pitch.
“So he’s up against Kurt. This could be good,” said Sunny.
“Have you heard of him?” I asked.
“I know his grandpa,” she said. “And I’ve met him a couple of times, though I can’t say we’ve talked much.”
“Do you think Darren can win?” I asked, making her laugh more.
“The question is if Kurt can win,” she said.
“Isn’t Kurt one of the favourites?” asked Sunny.
“Sort of. Don’t get me wrong, from what Iwan says, he’s a phenomenal trainer, but like his grandpa, he specialises in fire-types, and while they’re not bad, exactly, in a region as full of water-types as Silín is, it’s tricky to make it work. Iwan is a beast because he can take on a water-type specialist and it’s still a coin toss on who’d win. I don’t know if his grandson has the same talent, and while Darren might not have any water-types yet, rock and ground is still a good counter for Kurt.”
“Well, he does have a water-type now,” said Sunny. “But I don’t know if he’s battle ready yet.”
A whistle blew, and the arbiter started the match. Auri landed heavily in front of Darren, while on the opposite end, a Vulpix almost floated down before Kurt. Vulpix let out a shrill cry and a host of ghostly lights blinked into existence and advanced on Auri. Some were bluish flames which I recognised as Will-O-Wisp, while others were quicker, flashing points I knew to be Confuse Ray. Auri made no move to dodge, instead sending out a barrage of pointed stones with Rock Slide. It was incredible watching her execute the move. She levitated the sand around her, compressing it into sandstone through sheer force of will, and launching it at Vulpix. Her opponent, however, was nimble, and used Dig to dodge underground before any of it came close to reaching him. Auri, in contrast, was burnt and confused after the exchange.
“This is going to be tough,” commented Ducky.
“Is Auri going to be okay?” I asked. She didn’t look okay. Darren was trying to get her to listen to him, but she was rampaging around the battlefield, despite there being no sign of Vulpix.
“She’ll be fine,” said Ducky. “I’m worried about Vulpix. Kurt obviously isn’t familiar with Larvitars, or he wouldn’t have risked Will-O-Wisp.”
“Why- oh, because of Guts,” I said.
Ducky hummed in affirmation and said that she didn’t see Vulpix lasting much longer, which I thought was weird. Even if Auri was more dangerous now, she still needed to hit Vulpix, and he’d already proved he was quick.
The battlefield was being made a mess of. Auri stomping all over the place had raise a cloud of sand making it difficult to see what was happening. Auri cried out in pain. Vulpix had hit her with Dig. It meant he had to come out from underground, and faintly, it was possible to see him struggling to gain a footing in the sand cloud. A fact Auri took advantage of. Showing no sign of the randomness from earlier, she rushed Vulpix, rock firing around her and knocking him out cold. She stopped with a roar, and as the sand settled, the arbiter declared the result.
“That was a nice play,” said Ducky. “Auri only pretended to be confused so she could unleash Stomping Tantrum at full power. Darren’s improved a lot since we fought.”
Kurt’s second team member took us by surprise. A short, green, armless Pokémon with a single sharp tooth and a bulbous, egg-shell-like cap. The Capsakid was commonly found in the edges of the Stormwind Desert and was notably not a fire-type. At least, not until it evolved.
As soon as he came out, Capsakid used Sunny Day, and the sun beat down even hotter than it was before. Darren told Auri to use Rock Slide. Capsakid dodged some, but not all of the rocks. He started using Growth, dodged more of the projectiles fired at him, and retaliated with Razor Leaf. From here, Darren’s skill as a trainer became clear. Auri switched to a defensive mode, lifting rocks and clumps of sand to intercept and still managed to find gaps to attack with Rock Slide. She didn’t let a single leaf through. Capsakid wasn’t getting hit much either, but every rock that did connect, connected hard. Auri’s attack, boosted by Guts, was devastating. It wasn’t hopeless for him, though. Growth only meant his attacks were getting stronger and were closer and closer to breaking through Auri’s defences. The two Pokémon continued exchanging long range attacks. As time drew on, Auri’s burn was noticeably sapping her vitality. She hit as strong as ever, but was less precise with manipulating the sand, missing more often and letting more leaves through. Kurt yelled to hype up Capsakid, and the next barrage of Razor Leaf cut right through Auri’s shields. Before it reached her, however, it slammed into a translucent barrier. The effort left Capsakid with an opening, and a final struggle from Auri let her slam him with a pile of rocks. Once again, Auri was left standing, and her opponent was unconscious.
