There is 2 separate chapters in here.
Over 5,200 words.
Enjoy.
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During the first actual round of the real official competition, the Top 64 Pokémon Coordinators from the preliminarily round will perform in reverse order what their rankings initially were.
This of course means that Ash and Robert, who ranked first and second, respectively, in the preliminarily round, will be the finale two to do their show. This will obviously continue to ignite the atmosphere of the scene until it completely bursts.
And since this starts from the bottom to the top, it also does obviously mean that it will soon be Harley's turn to show off.
Additionally, according to the rules of the Hoenn Region Grand Festival, any Pokémon's that are used during the preliminarily stage cannot be used during this main official one, so the one he sent out was a Ghost-type Pokémon that he had never shown before — Banette!
This Pokémon was the evolved form of the little Shuppet. Although it is decent in size compared to many of the other Ghost-type final stage Pokémon's, it's wide-open eerie smile, and constant hand movements, like most Ghost-type Pokémon's, are more than enough to make feel people fell chills running down their spines just by looking at it.
Banette most definitely heavily looked like a stuffed animal with a large gold colored zipper running across its mouth.
Not to mention that it's Pokédex information does nothing to help it's reputation as it mentions about how its insides were filled with nothing but grudge. And that zipper is all that keeps this Pokémon at bay, and once the zipper in unzipped, all the grudge inside of it will also be released.
Some other things about this Pokémon was that apparently its body can be pricked with needles and that will generate strong curse energy and the pain will then also be felt by those this Pokémon has a hatred against.
Just like how Ash believes that Ghost-type Pokémon's are the epitome of terror and how they should show their terror to their maximum extent to show their abilities, he can also very clearly see how Harley's gloomy personality was also so very compatible with that Banette of his.
Its performance was nothing short of a great showing of its massive mix of gloomy and terrifying potential.
The best part of the show was actually it hitting itself with lightning. In the dazzling lightning, this Banette was still laughing maniacally, grinning ferociously to the crowd, receiving a mixed reception.
"This is such a sinister and extreme performance, and with some amazing explosive power behind it too! Could this mean that it doesn't care about its own well being despite the pain it feels? And it performs so calmly because of some secret power?" Vivian's evaluation was also pretty much on the dot.
Since Harley's performance was so impressive to most people's eyes, he got a very good score of 89 points, just shy by 1 to getting that 90 point mark.
To get the same good scores in this round were indeed much harder to get than any previous rounds, which makes more than enough sense as this is further into the Grand Festival.
After Harley, the Pokémon Coordinators that had greater points than him in the previous round, only had points hovering around the 80 point mark, which after Harley, the highest was only 85.
"The atmosphere of the first round of the official rounds is getting more and more electric! The next contestant to appear on stage is none other than beautiful contestant May from Petalburg City!"
Vivian said with more enthusiasm than she did any previous times when saying someone's name, other than her beloved Ash, of course. She really couldn't help herself when talking about her fellow harem member of Ash.
Finally it was May's turn to get on stage and show her abilities off. She ran onto the stage with a bright smile from Vivian's enthusiastic words, jumped up and did a simple but elegant flip, and threw one of her Poké Balls into the air.
"Skitty, shine onto the stage!"
Since May decided to use her little kitty, the audience members who were quite familiar with her knew she was getting ready to go and use her famous Assist combo
"Skitty, you know what to do! Use Assist!"
The kitten appeared from the sky with a bright white burst from its Poké Ball, tugged its small, pink, round body into a ball, and did an awesome 720 degrees spin in the air. Before it even landed on the stage ground, it used its signature Assist move and its massive luck to release some very well coordinated Ember attacks from its friend, Combusken, making them rise into the sky and tiring the blue sky orange.
"What can go well with those Ember attacks?" May thought for a moment and gave the next order decisively, "Skitty, now use a Blizzard!"
The blending of ice and fire produced large amounts of water vapor, forming white mist all around the air and on the stage edge, and she herself fell from the sky again to the mist, dispersing it with its landing.
This was her real debut.
"Meow!"
The whole audience went into an uproar, and Vivian couldn't help but praise her friend repeatedly, which no one could even complain due to the impact of the performance, "Beautiful! Skitty showed off her energetic charm and appeared from the clouds it created from a mix of hot and cold!"
"Alright, Skitty, use Assist!" May actually had the gall to use Assist again. This move, which was always known to use an unexpected move, gave the judges and the audience new expectations and worries.
'May, I hope you know what you're doing.' Caroline couldn't help but send prayers for her dear little daughter.
Ash and the others were less worried about it, they all knew of May and her Skitty's insane luck when it comes down to using Assist.
However, what they were even more looking forward to was what kind of skill May would get to encompass her show. In another way, how to use the moves given by Assist to take the show to the next stage.
At the middle of their inner musings, petals begin to fall and the fragrance begins to overflow (a hit family style anime you should definitely watch) throughout the entire stadium.
The entire open stage was now full of the floral fragrance of the beautiful pink petals, and the pink petals outside were being enthusiastically collected by her fans in the audience section.
That's right, May had her own dedicated fan base. And most of them were young boys and some young girls.
But one thing was very common amongst all the males in her fanbase, and it was that they didn't like Ash at all, but the girls section did as 102%, with a 2% margin of error, of them were all part of Ash's fanbase.
"Bulbasaur's Petal Dance!" May murmured, "Skitty, use another Blizzard!"
The cold wind began to blow, petals were covered with bright ice crystals and were falling down, a triple enjoyment of sight, smell, and the cold touch. This was the current performance level of May when using her Skitty, with luck involved, but a peak performance nonetheless.
The score May got was very good, 92 points, which meant that the average deduction from the examiner was no more than 2 points.
Up until now, this was the highest score anybody had gotten this year.
Although Ash could have used his power over the three Nurse Joy judges and made sure that May received a perfect score from them and got a higher average score at the end, he didn't do it for a few reasons.
First, with a personality like the one May had, she would quickly become overconfident in herself, which will lead to her making much worse decisions and lead to something that she really didn't deserve.
And second, it just didn't feel right at all using his powers like this at all, he wanted to use his abilities to showcase his and his Pokémon's charms to the whole wide world. He didn't want to rely on his powers too much, well until it became a crutch to him and his development. He knew he could make it and became the greatest even without this power over them.
So ultimately he made sure that they all were honest with every contestant they faced and gave their opinions on the points.
He didn't need to cheat to win, after all, he was Ash Ketchum, the future Pokémon Master.
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"Good job, May!" After coming back, Ash immediately gave his little girlfriend a kiss on her thin pink lips to calm down her excitement. She needed to start adjusting her condition for the next official rounds where it will only get harder.
Delia and Caroline looked at each other and smiled after seeing their children kissing, already planning everything they needed to become the perfect grandmothers. This was their life now, waiting to spoil their grandchildren, a perfect wish for them.
This is a high score that has never been seen before.
Even in the following performances, it was rare to see someone exceed the 90 points.
But the most anticipated and the finals for this round were finally here, everyone was waiting for the final 3 Pokémon Coordinators to show their abilities.
"Ladies and gentlemen, now is the time for our third-ranked Pokémon Coordinator to stand up on the stage and showcase their skills. Now is finally the time for him to appear! Everyone, please welcome contestant Drew, the boy who is third-ranked overall, now is his time to be the center and showcase what he's capable of!"
And Drew didn't want to disappoint in front of everyone, so his performance was nothing short of amazing.
His Masquerain has become more and more proficient in its ability to mix its move, even better than the last time it battled against May, which was not that long ago at all.
At the end of the beautiful performance, he chose to decisively end it by letting his Masquerain fill the entire stage with bubbles of all sizes, and just then when everyone was getting a little confused by what was happening, he used a phosphorescent Silver Wind to blow away all the bubbles into the center and pop it, making it rain mist.
It was truly a performance to be remembered.
This performance was so good in fact that even the 5 judges had nothing to say about it other than good things. The only reason it wasn't a perfect 100 points show was because of the mid section, where Masquerain accidentally did a little too much, and finally gave him a good score of 97 points, which is the highest score so far.
Mr. Raoul Contesta and Mr. Sukizo later admitted that if they were not heavily looking forward to the first and second place performances later, they would not have deducted any of Drew's points, even with that minor mistake he made.
And the performances from the first and second place holders did not disappoint them at all.
The handsome feminine Prince Charming boy Robert's partner this time was a Claydol. The performance by them was both amazing and fascinating.
No one saw anything in his performance that showed any flaws, so no chance to deduct points anymore from its perfection, and it all showed when he received the points from the 5 judges.
This should have made Ash, who was ranked first in the previous round, feel under great pressure, right?
No, it only made him even more excited to go on stage and do his best.
There was no way in hell he would feel scared for something like pressure when that's one of the main reasons he even ventured out into something like Pokémon Contests in the first place.
"Everyone, now we all know what time it is! It's time for contestant Ash Ketchum, the number one Pokémon Coordinators on the preliminary round, to finally appear and show his true powers!"
She seemed very eager to say even more, talk about all of his accomplishments like the good lover she was to him, but her boss wanted her to stop and let the show begin.
The ratings for this round were already almost that of last year's final.
There was no way he would want to stop this right now, he wanted more of this.
Vivian's words only made the audience boil up even more.
There wasn't a single person in this giant stadium that doesn't know what he is capable of. Most of these people in fact are a fan of Ash at some level, whether it be casual or hardcore.
But one thing common amidst everything was that every one of his performances always managed to shock the audience members.
"Ralts, let the show begin!"
Ash didn't throw out a Poké Ball like any of the previous contestants, all he needed was to say a command and his Ralts appeared in the center of the field through a simple Teleport.
And the moment it appeared, she used her Psychic powers to lift herself into the air, now directly a straight line from where Ash was, allowing anyone and everyone in the audience section to watch everything carefully on this wide open stage.
"First thing first, Shadow Ball straight into the air!"
Although he and his Ralts practiced this many times, to the point of not needing to even say it, he needed to. This wasn't like a Pokémon battle where there was no need to explain anything, there were points on the line, points he needed.
This time, he did not use a Disarming Voice to start the show like he used many previous times. Instead, Ralts shot a pitch black and purple Shadow Ball towards the open sky. Under the sunlight, the dark Shadow Ball quickly exploded and turned into little starlights falling down.
This was nothing like what Shadow Ball should have looked like, after all, it was a ball of pure, raw Ghost-type energy condensed into a ball.
However, with the central part of the ball now being a mostly Psychic-type thing, the mix of the two directly opposing types made something possible that otherwise should not have been possible at all.
Instead of the gloomy and eerie atmosphere a Ghost-type would have created, or a more fantasy atmosphere the Psychic-type alone would have created, because of the mix between them, something more akin to real magic began to emerge from this otherwise chaotic mix.
Now, under the bright light, it was as if the little Ralts was covered with bright starlight, and then the main show finally began.
"Disarming Voice, special note!"
The young charming singing voice rippled across the stage, and there was nobody in the audience that wasn't mesmerized by this beautiful sound.
Finally, everything was in the perfect place for the next thing to happen.
"Now a Draining Kiss, my dear!"
Most of the girls were already smitten by just how cute Ralts was, almost to the point of not even thinking about anything else other than that little one and its face, not even Ash was not in their mind.
Finally, when they got out of their trance and heard Ash's Aura projected voice, all they saw was blowing kisses floated to every seat where there was someone sitting on it, and landing where their heart was.
Then within a few seconds, the red hearts flew out from the audience's chests and back into the stage where Ash and his Ralts were waiting for their arrival.
The audience all had literal hearts in their eyes and were now pretty much his fans for life.
It was the greatest thing they've ever seen.
"Oh my God, Ralts is just so cute and innocent! I want to hug it so badly!" Vivian, also a massive fan of Ash's Ralts, couldn't help herself and scream this.
Tho, many others, in the big millions, also wanted this very thing, they couldn't.
However, she could. Maybe this was one of the many privileges that came with being one of his women.
And after this year's Grand Festival was over, she would truly only belong to him.
She would give him her body, and soul.
Ralts had always been one of the cutest Pokémon's to ever exist, but one as cute as Ash had never been seen before. And recently, the little guy was becoming more and more powerful, not to mention cute.
There was no need to even guess about what their scores were, none of the 5 judges could control their hands and gave a full perfect score directly. There was nothing to say, no one could even objectively say anything wrong about it.
After that, all 5 of them alter even said in an interview that if they were given the chance, they would 100% give Ash more than the 100 points the max limit was.
"Well, everyone, as you can see, this round is now officially over! The results will be announced next! If you successfully break through this round of Grand Festival, you will be able to partake in the second round of the Grand Festival. The Contest match is..."
She said slowly in order to make it more exciting, even though pretty much everyone knew who would go the next rounds.
There was no doubt when they saw that Ash, Drew, Robert, May, and Harley were all on the list to
The Grand Festival results of the second round and the first battle will be announced soon after, and the final champion will still be determined through a battle, like any official Pokémon Contests.
Ash glanced at Robert who was not that far away from him.
He didn't want meet him so quickly, otherwise the rest of the tournament will be pretty boring, even if that sounded very arrogant of him to think.
In the end, Ash and Drew both faced some unknown Pokémon Coordinators, and only the battle between May and Harley seemed to be of any noteworthy importance.
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——————The 2nd chapter—————
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In the second match of the second round of this year's Grand Festival, to go from the Top 32 to the Top 16, May unexpectedly met Harley, someone that she, or even likely anyone, didn't have a good relationship with because of his toxic personality.
This guy not only has an extremely toxic personality, he also makes sure everyone knows about it by his love of playing tricks on his opponents, whether they be physical or mental, and he was also very prejudiced against May for absolutely no good reason at all.
During every single of the previous Pokémon Contest he was part of and against Ash or May, he always did seem to try something that was too excessive and over the top.
Even this time, he seemed to have some evil plans for May, to make sure she doesn't perform to her best abilities. Ash, Brock, Max, and Drew had to make sure he was away from May. So even if he tried to do something openly or hidden behind someone's back, he couldn't do anything about it. Ash had secretly made sure to prevent Harley from getting close to May in any shape or form, even if was was by relying on his powers and his Pokémon's.
The last time he tried to release May's deepest secrets to the public, so Ash made sure that Harley never got the chance to do anything like that ever again, so he made sure Max stayed away from Harley.
This time, May will defeat Harley with a perfect mentality, no cheap tricks Harley can pull off, right?
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"Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen! This is the second official round of this year's Grand Festival, to go even further and become the Champion and earn the title of a Top Coordinator!"
Vivian said out very excitedly, which was followed by the fans cheering for it to continue.
"The battles in this round will all be double battles with a time limit of five minutes!"
This time in this round of the Grand Festival, all tbe battles will be a doubles battle, which was pretty much the same ones used in official Pokémon battles under the Hoenn League, the only difference was the added time limit.
In addition to the assessment points in one-on-one battles, this also includes the tacit cooperation between the two Pokémon, showing off their hard training in cooperation with one another.
Moreover, unlike the official battles where combination moves are only used to power up each other's attacks and do more damage to the opponent, the two Pokémon in Pokémon Contest can also form more combos, but they do less damage but look much better to their offensive counterparts, making these kinds of battles even more enjoyable to watch.
The bad thing was that May doesn't have much experience in doubles battles, but she was still very confident in herself and her dislike for Harley continued on, "Go, Bulbasaur, Beautifly!"
Her combination configuration was quite good, taking into account both the air and the ground, meaning there were more possibilities for battle combinations for her.
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"Go, my dear perfect little Cacturne and Banette! Shine through everything!" Since Harley always had a gloomy expression, and especially a shitty personality, it would be an understatement to say that he was very compatible with Dark-types and Ghost-type Pokémon's.
Facing Ghost-type and Dark-type Pokémon's, May's experience was not enough to warrant her a big leap of confidence.
Based on this analysis, May was at a disadvantage in terms of both experience and level, but this battle can be said to be one of the things May has to do to truly elevate her level, so she must not run away from it, but instead embrace this chance she now has.
"Let the battle begin!"
Since Harley was more experienced, he immediately launched the first attack to intimidate May and her two Pokémon, "Banette, let's start this with your Screech attack!"
The harsh sound made not only made May's two Pokémon's minds freeze, but this also froze her brain because of the unbearable sound that she felt was targeting her more than her Pokémon's, which really was the case. Harley was going after her, knowing the easiest way he could win this was by targeting May directly, even more than the two Pokémon he was supposed to fight.
This was Harley's opportunity to continue on with his high momentum, "My beloved Cacturne, please use Bullet Seed!"
Harley's tactics were always of the dirty kind, and this showed again for the second time in such a short period.
What he did was actually use the Bullet Seeds to hit Bulbasaur at his feet, not to hurt it but to scare him so much that he jumped on the ground, then ordering his two Pokémon's to make all kinds of faces at the poor little thing.
May quickly reacted and realized all Harley was doing was to try to get into her head again, not even thinking of losing to a rookie like her, "Beautifly, use a powerful Gust attack!"
The sudden gust of wind from Beautifly immediately put a stop to the incoming Bullet Seeds and quickly suppressed Harley's next tricks. Additionally, his two Pokémon were also affected by this so much that they could not even open their eyes.
"Now, Bulbasaur, use an even more Razor Leaf!" May launched her next combo attacks decisively. She was no longer like before, losing control of her emotions when being provoked by Harley and his out of pocket, unnecessary works — she was no longer the same when it came down to Pokémon!
This Razor Leaf, being booted in speed and power by the powerful Gust was now something even more deadly, knocking Banette away in one fell swoop.
Although May had little to no experience in real doubles battles, how can she of all propel not be able to do something about it?
Just how many times has she watched her lover practice some doubles battles with his own Pokémon's or against some random Pokémon Trainers they meet in the will, and just how many times had he given her top on how to improve her battle skills?
Well, the answer to those questions was that they helped her immensely, and from time to time, it was always an eye-opener for her to what she can accomplish with a little more of this and that.
Now, she just needs to turn her talents into strength and give right to them to go all out and pummel this useless human being back into the trash can he came from.
"Contestant May's counterattack was so spot on! It was through tye combined skills of Bulbasaur and Beautifly that their Razor Leaf and Gust was able to enhance each other's power by so much! Harley's score is now in grave danger, he should watch out!" Vivian couldn't help but put some salt in Harley's wounded pride.
She also never liked him, he always appeared to be narcissistic and was downright hating on his opponents every chance he got.
Now, even if she said anything like this and continued on, it wouldn't really matter as this move was indeed very effective in neutralizing Harley's attacks, and this was also in a very Pokémon Contest like manner.
Her performance was actually very excellent, especially as this was all on a moment's notice and not that well thought out. Not only did she precisely defuse her opponent's attack, she also made the timely counterattack very view worthy.
"Now, Bulbasaur, use your Vine Whip!" May launched a quick attack to force Harley back again, and Bulbasaur's Vine Whip was used to perfection this time. Like a long green serpent, the vines burst out from Bulbasaurs back and came right in front of Banette and Cacturne in an instant.
"Get out of the way, now!" Harley exclaimed in distress, but it was already too late by the time his Pokémon were able to react to the incoming attack. The already injured Banette and the still mostly fine Cacturne subconsciously began to retreat, but were ultimately too slow and were caught up in Vine Whip grasp, and now both of them had one of their feet tied up.
"Damn it, they were too slow!" Harley seemed to be in denial, now blaming his two Pokémon instead of himself.
But May's attack was still not over yet, "Now, Beautifly, yes Silver Wind! Bulbasaur, close range Petal Dance!"
Now all there was a phosphorescent storm that was carrying pink petals with sharp scale powders mixed in here and there. These were the two Pokémon's best individual skills, but now they were further strengthened by this new combo.
All there was now was a bunch of flash, natural floral fragrance; this combination now gave double enjoyment to the senses of sight and smell, an absolutely high-scoring performance and battle.
Now all Harley was left with was two Pokémon's that were both being suppressed by May before they could even properly use any skills to go on their full offensive capabilities, and now all of Harley's points were deducted. It was a zero, and even before the timer was halfway over.
May's fateful battle that will change the trajectory of her whole career ended with her sweet, perfect victory!.
Under that series of quick successful attacks, Harley, who always likes to play tricks on his opponents, had no power or even a chance to fight back.
Her progress was obvious to anyone, most importantly her close friends and family, who saw where she came from and where she now was.
May, who was pretty much all helpless against even a wild weak Pokémon back then, was now shining brightly on the high stage that is the Hoenn Region Pokémon Grand Festival.
After she defeated Harley, May advanced all the way and also defeated a less than impressive opponent in the round for the Top 16, successfully joining Ash, Robert, and Drew in the Top 8.
"Babe, I won again!" After leaving the stage, May immediately found her lover Ash to celebrate with a very excited kiss.
Her battle style was all taught by Ash, and so her style was very similar to Ash, even though she was now trying to branch out into a style that fit her more, which he was also helping her with.
As usual, Ash gave her a kiss on her soft thin pink (:)) lips as a sign of his encouragement.
"May, the opponent for the next round has all been decided!" Caroline had to remind them after seeing that the couple looked like they didn't want to stop their impromptu make-out session.
"I know, I know, mom!" May turned around with confidence, not even flustered by her mom stopping her from continuing on with her kiss, only to be surprised when she found out that the person she was going to face in the next round was none other than Drew, her long time rival.
This was a real battle between old rivals, something that was truly destined from the very beginning, unlike her against Harley.
This was a true fateful battle!
The opponents of Ash and Robert this round were still some less than notable Pokémon Coordinators. According to this trend, the winner between May and Drew will most likely encounter Ash, their goal for this year's Grand Festival.
"The next match of the third round will be between contestant Drew and contestant May!"
Since Ash's battle was first and his opponent was much weaker than him, he easily and quickly finished his battle and then joined everyone else in cheering for May.
"Combusken, Skitty, come on stage!" May sent out a combination of her two non-fully evolved Pokémon's. Since this year's Grand Festival unfortunately did not have a water venue, there was no possible way for her Gorebyss to compete and actually achieve something.
Additionally, her Munchlax has not yet produced the needed results from training to be able to participate in this battle, so he was being looked after by her mother, Caroline, so she was only able to choose from the four Pokémon that was with her first.
But the Pokémon that Drew sent out had shocked her.
It was a Flygon.
Although it was much smaller than the one Ash had, it was still a fully evolved Dragon-type Pokémon!
"Flygon is a Pokémon that I have been secretly training up to this day. A battle with you will be its debut battle!" This was Drew's secret weapon and now his strongest Trump Card today against May.
Being sent out when facing May shows how much he values May!
"In that case, since you're going all out, and I don't want to be rude enough to disappoint you, I will fight against you with all my strength!" May's fighting spirit was already burning high.
Facing the same dual Dragon-type and Ground-type Pokémon she remembered Ash training it with his Blaziken, and telling her somethings about them.
'May, remember this. Although Dragon-types are inherently different and stronger than any other types, Fighting-types are born to fight, so make sure you know the difference between them.'
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This was a very two chapters to write.
Hope you enjoyed it.
Drop some Power Stones and enjoy your day.