A gigantic cloud of dust from a recent explosion rocked the stadium in Olivine City. There was a rumbling of great magnitude that was heard and felt for miles around. A fast wind rocketed from the source of the explosion in the center of a battlefield. Two trainers felt the wind blow across their faces with the gritty sand threatening to scratch their faces and they had no choice but to shield their eyes as the sound and wind roared past them, lifting their respective clothes, jackets, suits, dresses, and hats with it. And veils too.

One specific veil covered the top of the head of a young girl. It was ancient looking and was a light, faded purple color that flowed all the way down the length of her back. A yellow ring held it together with a real emerald in the front of the ring that wrapped itself around the girl's forehead, and was clasped shut in the back. It still left the girl's long locks and bangs reach out and her glowing sapphire eyes were clearly visible. Her skin was a faint tan that looked as smooth and beautiful as a supermodel's. She had a small ruby necklace that matched her clasp ring that surrounded her neck. She had on a separate top that was colored salmon with a yellow border just hugging around her chest such that it revealed as much skin as possible without being suggestive and keeping her appearance humble. She had a long flowing skirt that started the same salmon color at the top, but turned into a translucent white after about two inches and reached all the way down to her sandals that were styled much the same way as the rest of her outfit. She looked like an ancient Egyptian pharaoh's wife as they called it on some distant, similar planet.

When the wind cleared the two stared hopefully with their mouths slightly open at the scoreboard. On it were two faces in circles. Underneath in circles there are four faces of Pokemon, two for each trainer. However two of the faces were dimmed and grayed out. The two circles with the trainers' faces on them had a yellow bar circumscribing the faces. The yellow bar was almost completely depleted on both sides, and each trainer stared nervously at their respective bar for a brief second.

Then they looked down at their Pokemon that were facing off against each other. It was a standoff to the finish. First Pokemon down is a rotten Exeggcute.

And so a heaving Skitty with its four short legs shaking uncontrollably and a panting Roserade only standing on one knee stared off at each other with a determined look in their eyes. They glared at each other for the longest time. Both had sustained major injuries in their fight and had major scratches and bruises all over their bodies.

When it was clear that nothing was happening anytime soon, they felt an inner surge and began to move forward, almost daring the other not to fall.

Time was ticking down. It was clear both Pokemon were exhausted beyond the capacity to use a move. They should both be down and in a double knockout, but they have been bred to have a special grit. One was a rosey Pokemon trained by brute stubbornness, the other a cute kitten trained by excessive caring.

All five judges stared at the Pokemon intently, waiting to see when a Pokemon was truly down for the count.

So the Pokemon started to walk to each other. One step at a time.

One.

Two.

Three. –breathe-

Four.

Five.

Six. –breathe-

Such was the cycle. Then the pink Skitty pulled out an unexpected move. It breathed in a great big gulp of air and let out a burst of pure snow and cold air for a brief second. The short wind buffeted the Roserade, stunning it into standing up straight and its eyes were wide open in shock at the Blizzard that Skitty shouldn't have been able to use. So Roserade just stood there.

After a while Skitty looked hopelessly at what appeared to have been a waste of energy, so it started to collapse. It fell down, no longer standing on any foot and started to give up hope. The kitten just wanted to get to the Pokemon Center as soon as possible.

Then when it was about to let itself go unconscious, the judges rang their buzzers that caused red Xs to flash on their podiums. Skitty couldn't help but think that they had simply buzzed Skitty as downed, so it let itself fall unconscious with a feeling of regret and pain, thinking it had failed its trainer in this tough moment.

Unbeknownst to her, the Xs were saying Roserade had already fainted in its standing position.

And so a girl with chestnut-brown hair sporting beautiful yet sporty locks and sapphire eyes as blue as the sea just stood there, gawking at the scene.

Then she started to smile.

Then she started to laugh.

Then she exclaimed with great joy. "ALRIGHT!"

She ran forward and gave her Skitty a Beartic hug even though it was out cold and wouldn't be able to know anything she did right now or return the love she wanted to show for it. She kissed her Pokemon on the head and recalled into its Pokeball, praising it for its true grit and gorgeous appeal. She looked up at all the people giving her a standing ovation and cheering for her like they knew her since Hoenn.

Like they knew her…as well as Ash.

And remembering that name wiped the smile clean off of the girl's face.

She stared across at her old-time rival with green hair that was somehow slicked yet messy at the same time. He was wearing a formal tuxedo with purple lacing and a red rose in his ear. He looked across the way, shook his head in defeat and contempt, and recalled his Roserade. He flicked his hair upwards in mock disapproval. She once saw this as cool and charming, but she has grown to despise that hair flick; it put rather derogatory thoughts through her brain she never thought she would think.

Then, through and after it all, she couldn't help but snicker. Then the snicker turned into a giggle. Then the giggle turned into a laugh. Then the laugh turned into doubling over like she had a bad case of indigestion. All this pressure had become too much for the young girl, and having finally beat Drew here in Johto was a huge wave of pressure that finally receded.

And he wasn't the only one she beat on the big stage here on the Grand Festival. She also had successfully triumphed over two other rivals she had had yet to beat in the Johto region—Solidad and Harley.

The fact the girl with the veil struggled against Solidad was understandable. She had only faced her once before the Johto region and suffered a harsh and rather difficult defeat. She had then, in Johto, failed time after time after time again to beat Solidad. But when she found out what she was doing wrong, she instantly changed her ways and once again became the dominant coordinator she knew she could be. She learned that she had been misleading herself all throughout Johto. She thought she had lost the Kanto Grand Festival because her style was too much like…someone else. She somehow let herself be convinced she needed to change her style. However, when she was visiting in Sinnoh for the Wallace Cup, she remembered how her old style actually was a great style. She did this because she had one more special training session with someone she really cared about. There she found out why her old style was perfectly fine and that separating from her best friend was rather stupid. Because her heart was so close to his, that her style was actually perfect being so close to his.

Thinking about that boy made her freeze and forget about what was going on around her. But she forced it out of her mind and forced a smile.

I can't think about him and ruin my day. I just made it to the finals of a Grand Festival for the first time in my life.

However…losing to Harley was inexplicable. Before her adventure in Johto he had only beaten her once while she had beaten him four times. Then she came to Johto and went oh-and-three against him. She was the better coordinator and she knew it. But she kept losing to him. Why? She only could come up with one reason. Her close friend wasn't with her to snap her out of Harley's shenanigans. She saw red every time she faced him, but the boy was always there to calm her down. But until their recent battle at the Grand Festival, she let him make her red with fury when she faced him, and her rage caused her to forgot about how to win a contest. However after the Wallace Cup the girl's had a rejuvenated sense of battle style, and once again faced him with a cool and carefree head like she used to. She wiped the floor with him like he was second rate.

And with that thought of the boy she became upset again, and this time she couldn't force a smile. She had to fight the tears threatening to come out.

I can't look like a fool now.

Mr. Contesta walked up to her, smiled, and gave her hand a firm shake. He told her how proud he was of her and how much she's grown since he first saw her in Hoenn. He also told her about how much she has accomplished, and what a great fan base she bestowed for the Contest Committee, and blah blah blah…

This all went over the girl's head. She just wanted to get home and see if she could call and actually reach Ash this time. She hadn't heard from him in over 5 months and was starting to grow depressed. She was starting to lose the thrill of contests and the will to train. She just wanted to see him again.

The girl went into the changing rooms after her short interview (she purposely answered questions vaguely so she could escape the grasp of the media quicker) and changed back into her street clothes. She walked home from the stadium, parting the crowd as she exited and almost instantly pesky reporters with microphones started to bug her about her battle. She simply ignored them and pushed on through the mob.

However one reporter had known her since Hoenn, and asked her a question that made her stop in her tracks.

The reporter had asked her, "How does it feel to win against your top rival without the support of your close friend, Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town?"

When she stopped in her tracks, everyone went quiet, not knowing how the last question had 'crossed the line' for this girl. After she heard the question, the girl was onto the verge of breaking down and letting loose tears. However she had been toughened by her training with Ash, and wouldn't let her character go right then and there. So she shrugged it off and held her gaze to the ground while she walked the rest of the way to the hotel. The crowd was absolutely stunned She had simply walked without so much as batting an eye in their direction for the last 30 minutes. And for what appeared to be a solid, innocent question, no one could fathom what produced such a reaction from the girl.

The paparazzi stopped and stared at her. They couldn't tell what, but something was compelling them not to chase her.

The girl went into the comfy hotel room once again. She remembered the days of sleeping in giant 8-bed rooms with all her friends. She would giggle at the thought that she could say she technically slept with Ash, but that giggle would quickly transform into a frown, and then eventually into tears. She hated the thought of being alone now, and she couldn't stand not having him there at night to tell her what she had done right and what she had done wrong in her most recent battle.

She pulled out her most important part of her coordinating journey—her special ribbon with Ash. It had the volume and size of a normal ribbon considering it was just half of one. It sported half of a beautiful, peculiar design. She had made sure it was well kept and in such pristine condition that it could be in a museum. She cherished the memento and never let it out of her sight. She carried it everywhere, and every time she experienced trouble, she would grasp onto it and not let it go. She didn't risk losing it. She would rather lose her real Johto ribbons.

Looking at it reminded her of Ash. And she had another thought of how stupid she was for leaving him. She wanted his smile. She wanted his touch. She wanted his comfort. She wanted his humor. She wanted his clumsiness. She wanted his energetic, rash behavior. She wanted his praise. Because to the girl, all that was worth more than a million Grand Festival Cups combined and then some.

And so this is why May Maple from Petalburg City once again cried for over three hours the night after her tremendous victory.

When May stopped her crying she noticed she had sub-consciously knocked over a few vases, as there were some shattered decorations on the floor. She also had picked up a few bruises along the way. Mostly on her knuckles, suggesting she had pounded a few things when she wasn't thinking. She looked at how the back of her hands were bleeding ever so slightly and were shouting in pain. She sighed and shook her head. This wasn't the first time she had gone crazy.

She picked up a broom and swept it up, knowing she would have to pay for the nice décor.

She noticed her eyes were throbbing with pain from the crying. She walked up to the mirror and saw that her eyes' refreshing blue aura was overwhelmed by her eyes' red veins wanting to burst out of their canals. Her eyes had bags, and her bags had bags. She was tired, wet, cold, dirty, and sad. She needed a shower.

So she turned the light on and looked at the clock. It read 01:32. This made her sigh as she stepped gingerly into the shower, testing the warmth. It was more or less how she liked it, as she wasn't too picky about her shower experience itself. As long as she was clean and fresh by the time she walked out.

May cleaned off her body and made sure to rub extra carefully around her new cuts to ensure infection never played a role in her near future. She then turned to the shampoo and hesitated, knowing she had two choices. She had her large bottle of lemon citrus scented shampoo, which she used on normal occasions. It more than sufficed, as she smelled exceptionally good with it. However she had a small vial of a cinnamon-vanilla scented shampoo, which she saved for fancy dinners and formal occasions. This was a special shampoo that had barely been used in the Johto region. She normally ran through bottles of it like it was nobody's business, but ever since she separated from the gang she lost her passion for it. The reason was because she only had worn it for someone special.

She wore it back then because Ash had once complimented her about how nice her hair smelled when she wore it one day when they were in town. She had a big crush on him back then, and made sure he noticed her as much as possible.

So she stared at the vial as water ran down her hair and her face. It dripped over her body, and she just stood suspended in time staring at the bottle. She had no more tears left in her eyes to give to the floor, so she just choked up upon the sight of it.

Eventually she shook her head and smiled as she put a small glob of it in her palm as she scrubbed her hair in it extra thoroughly to make sure the scent would linger around for at least a couple days. She then stepped confidently out of the shower and dried herself off. She took an extra 20 minutes to make sure her hair was absolute perfection.

She walked into her room and looked at the time.

02:45

She just sighed and shook her head. She crawled into her bed with renewed power and confidence and instantly fell into a blissful sleep.

Why?

Because while staring at that bottle, she had come up with a special plan for tomorrow that would finally take care of her loneliness.

And it didn't involve contests.