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Chapter Fourteen
"Would you terribly mind closing the door?"
For a second, Harry could only stare as the words slowly filtered into his brain.
Then he closed the door.
Zygarde smiled, a brief curve of the lips Harry would have considered mocking on anyone else. "Thank you. That's very much appreciated." She studied him with sharp, calculating eyes. "Are you wondering why I chose to drop by?"
Harry nodded. He wasn't sure if he could trust himself to speak in proper words. There was a gentle pressure in the room that made thinking straight alarmingly difficult. Maybe all the Pokémon researchers had been wrong, and Zygarde's Ability was actually Pressure. It would certainly fit in with Kyurem and Giratina (although it wasn't like anyone had ever confirmed their Abilities were Pressure either. It was a bit difficult to see a legendary who didn't want to be seen.)
"Mostly selfish reasons, really," Zygarde admitted, snapping Harry out of his internal tangent. "I mean, if even Xerneas dropped by it would be a shame if I hadn't. And by that I mean it would be a shame if I was the only one to not meet you as you are now, instead of who you were a decade ago."
Harry nodded mutely. Well, it wasn't as if there was actually much he could say to that. What could he say, cool, you met me when I was a baby and probably really embarrassing? This was definitely the reason why his classmates looked so glum after visiting relatives. If all they went through was awkward silences (or one-sided awkward silences, Zygarde seemed to be doing fine) and talk about baby times (Harry had never been more glad to know that his père hadn't had any interest in preserving embarrassing baby-Harry in photos, he would have died of shame), no wonder they were all unhappy.
"You're actually quite interesting," Zygarde continued. "I do think it's your presence that has cooled my brother's temper a little. I mean, he did go and have an argument with Xerneas a while back that kind of destroyed the balcony, but that's minor. Before they used to destroy whole floors." She said it in a way that made Harry decide Legendary arguments were common occurrences. They just occurred somewhere more out of sight, where the news wouldn't report as much.
"It's been quite a blessing to not have to clean up after them every few days," she added.
That seemed pretty fair to Harry. If he was immortal and had to hear about Groudon and Kyogre's arguments (and Arceus but there was a lot of those; once they'd been required to read a Hoenn history book, literally every second page was about those two) he would get pretty tired of Legendary spats too.
"What did you think of Xerneas?" she suddenly asked.
Harry hadn't actually considered his talk with his possible-somewhat-uncle in all that much detail. The fact that it had been conducted in the broken remains of Team Flare's base might have contributed to that. The only things that had really stuck were how to evolve Nincada – who was now evolved, and apparently counted as a single Pokémon under Gym and League rules – and Honedge's new understanding of Night Slash. He desperately tried to think of adjectives. "He seems alright?" Harry ventured. "I mean, he did tell me how to evolve Nincada, and taught Honedge Night Slash and stuff, so, yeah, he seems decent?"
Great work, Harry, he thought to himself. Way to prove you aren't an idiot.
Thankfully, Zygarde decided to ignore how confused he sounded. "Really? Not… ah, let me list some of the words Yveltal routinely describes Xerneas as. Pretentious, aggravating, fancy, contemptuous, disdainful, supercilious, conceited, prideful, irritating – well, you get the idea. Not any of those?"
"Uh, no?"
"Very surprising," she said. "Not something Yveltal would definitely say, at any case. Would the Nincada you mentioned be planning to evolve into both a Ninjask and Shedinja?"
Harry blinked rapidly. That was some change of topic. "He evolved into them just then, back at the Gym battle. And yes, that was the original idea."
"I don't suppose the Shedinja would be destined for Giratina." Talk about hitting the nail on the head. "He's been hunting for one for quite a while now, ever since the last one decided to fully pass on. They're quite hard to find in the wild. Evolution prefers to keep the soul intact, and Shedinja are fractions of one. I assume you gave your Nincada a reason for evolving into both for him to actually do that?"
"Nincada agreed to it. Something about, uh, four winters?" Harry really wished he could have understood Nincada. "He said he wouldn't mind."
"Ghost-types could do worse," Zygarde agreed. "I'll pass a note on to Giratina. Where's your next destination?"
"Coumarine, probably," Harry said. "I'm planning to bike most of the way, so it shouldn't take that long."
"Oh, take your time," Zygarde said. "Giratina will know when you're there – he'll sense it. Ghost, remember? Although you should be warned – Giratina does adore doing the most random of things in the most complex of ways."
That definitely sounded ominous.
~OoOoOoO~
" – so, just fill out this, and this, and this and this and this, then sign here and here and here, and you'll be all done." The Battle Girl patted Harry consolingly. "It's okay, it just looks more terrifying than it is. Well, actually it is very terrifying. But it looks far more terrifying."
The mountain of paper in front of him certainly looked terrifying. "Can I pretend it didn't happen?" he asked desperately.
"Nope," she replied, blowing out a bubble of Iapapa Chewing Gum. "It's all right. Think of it this way: one hour of extreme pain and hand cramps for a tiny footnote in history."
"That sounds like a rip-off," Harry grumbled, picking up the pen. The Battle Girl laughed.
"Yeah, I guess it kind of does," she admitted. "Are you heading straight for –" she glanced at the computer monitor, "– Coumarine?"
"Uh-huh," Harry replied, filling in his date of birth. July 31st, age 10…
"Lucky," the Battle Girl said. "You'll reach it when the Ruby Gala starts. With any luck, Korrina won't mind closing the Gym for a while so we can all go over to Coumarine too." Harry stared at her blankly. The Battle Girl shook her head.
"Honestly, all of you Trainers. Always so concerned with racing to the Conference. Haven't you seen any of the advertisements on the Ruby Gala?"
"Uh, no. I was kind of living in Reflection Cave for a while."
"Well, I suppose you have some excuse," she said. "Basically, the Ruby Gala is this massive inter-regional Contest, you know, like those ones in Sinnoh and Hoenn they have to show off their Pokémon? It's a bit like a Showcase, except no gender restrictions, and they just show off their Pokémon's moves instead of Poffin making and stuff like that. The Gala Ribbon counts in all regions, so a whole host of Coordinators from different regions will be there since, you know, it's the equivalent of winning a Contest in their home region. And there's this rumour going around that maybe one of the Dexholders will actually be here, so I really want to go. So does everyone, actually."
Okay, that was a really big thing, because the Dexholders had kind of saved the world (or at least eliminated the Teams) and then basically vanished. If one of them was actually there… well, even a rumour alone would increase publicity. Arceus, he was now considering going.
"I mean, obviously the Gala is named after Ruby, so we're all hoping he'll be there as special judge or something, but it would be equally cool if it was one of the others. Probably not Red, because, uh, the guy lives on top of a mountain, but yeah. You should enter, you know. There isn't a participation limit, and entrance is basically free anyway even if you have to buy some slightly fancier clothing so they won't decide you're there just to get a better view. You could go with that Ninjask and Shedinja. They're really rare, that's points already. People like rare stuff. And it'll make those forms slightly less boring."
That was actually an idea. If the Gala was in Coumarine, the Gym would probably be closed for the days it was on, so he was going to have to find something to do anyway. And besides, how hard could it be? "When is the Gala on?"
"Oh, are you considering it? The Gala's technically starting tomorrow, it's a week of festivities. The Contest part of it though starts on the Friday, and that's what everybody watches. If you want to enter, you've got plenty of time. Are you?"
"Why not? I mean, the Gym's probably closed for the while, and it sounds like fun."
"That's the spirit. You've got plenty of time, just arrive before Friday and you're good. Now, get back on to those forms. They aren't actually going to magically fill themselves out, you know…"
Harry sighed and returned to the tedious task of filling in his name into tiny boxes.
The chances he would bother with the Ace Trainer forms had just turned less than zero.
~OoOoOoO~
Harry quickly realised that high tide was, in fact, not a great time to travel a seaside route.
Fourrage Road was famous for its view of the ocean – the road twisted and curved, following the shoreline at a safe distance. At low tide, the beach was alive with activity and Pokémon – Binacle and Dwebble in the rock pools, Corsola, Slowpoke and the odd Octillery scattered on the sand. But at high tide…
Harry grimaced as water splashed against his clothes. At high tide, the track was barely out of the water – in fact, quite a bit of it was submerged – and he was getting soaked from the sea spray. Of course, he could just go further in and avoid the sea spray, but on Fourrage Road it really wasn't advisable to go very far off the path.
Mainly because if you went off the path with Fourrage, the chances of getting lost were astronomically high. People had mapped out the area, and it was full of similar looking hills and forests – apparently one of them had to Teleport out because he couldn't find his way back. Even continuing straight ahead, the closest civilisation would end up being Parfum Palace, and that was assuming trekkers wouldn't think they saw paths and get even more lost than before.
The point was, going in the south-east direction on Fourrage, away from the ocean, was a very poor idea. Not like Versant or Rivière or Menhir or Miroir, where even if you went too far into the wild you'd know to turn back when you hit the rock plateaus (there was meant to be an impressive one two days' walk off the track around Miroir, but getting there was hard and only for people who were confident in either their mapreading abilities or their Pokémon's Teleport or Fly). With Fourrage – the hills and forests stretching out in the south-east were so similar that people had gotten lost in there and never reappeared. It was an unexplored zone. End of story.
He grimaced again as another wave came up, soaking his shoes. Sure, it was a nice sunny day, but that didn't mean he wanted to get soaked by the tide.
And of course the path didn't go all the way through – at a particular point, the high tide was so high nobody could even build a bridge over it, which meant that instead travellers had to Surf across. There was a local Lapras renting company, but it meant going over the water where the waves would inevitably soak him again.
Joy.
At least the Baa de Mer Ranch was on high ground. Skiddo were more tolerant of salt water than most other Grass types – the plant-like Grass Pokémon were especially vulnerable – but it didn't mean they liked it. So Baa de Mer, while on the seaside, was high enough that seawater wouldn't get close even at high tide. Which meant it would be dry. And that was Good News.
He nearly walked into the river. The track had simply stopped, water lapping at the edges as river met ocean. A guy in a rowing boat glanced up at him. "You going across?" he asked.
"Yeah," Harry said. "Do you know where the Lapras are?"
In response, the guy produced a Poké Ball from a bag and tossed it to him. "Give the Lapras to the guy on the other side. We're it, if you haven't realised yet. Go up a few metres, the water's narrower there and the track starts over there anyway. The Lapras won't mind, tidal zone and everything makes the water as salty as the sea, the fresh water doesn't start 'til a few kilometres upstream. I suppose you could walk across the place if you wanted, go up until the river's calmer and shallower and swim your way across, then follow the river back down, but that seems kind of stupid." He picked up the oars. "There's a marker over there a few metres away where most people ride across, the track starts directly on the opposite side."
Harry filed away the rapid burst of information. "Thanks," he said. "Any tips for riding Lapras?"
"In high tide?" Lapras Guy said. "Just the one. Don't fall off."
~OoOoOoO~
Thankfully, the other side of Fourrage was indeed dry. It also had a straight road, and since Harry would hopefully never need to use his skates in battle again and therefore be forced to practice on them, he unfolded his Bike. It was about time he used it anyway – and besides, Fourrage past the Baa de Mer Ranch was nearly a perfect slope, just gentle enough for him to be relatively certain he wasn't going to crash.
He called out Fletchling and Ralts to join him for the ride, placing Ralts in the front basket. It would have been nice if Honedge and the others could join too, but, well, Harry didn't really want Honedge to tire himself out and he had no idea where he could put Houndour. As for Ninjask and Shedinja – he really didn't want to scare anybody on the route and generally speaking soul-sucking Ghost types weren't really ideal poster-Pokémon for 'not-scary'. And Ninjask and Fletchling out together –nothing good was going to come out of that.
Not to mention that Ninjask, being just evolved with a completely new pair of appendages, was having trouble flying. According to the internet, the most popular explanation was Professor Juniper of Unova's theory that Pokemon needed time to adjust to their new bodies, especially with large changes like a new pair of wings. They could fight immediately after evolving because evolution happened mostly in battle, and being incapacitated after evolution, while in battle, was practically a guaranteed loss. So Pokémon could fight immediately after evolution, but after a few minutes – well, nope. At least, that was what Harry had understood from the articles. The full essay had been online, but it might as well have been written out of Unown for all he managed to understand.
Despite riding on the Bike, it still took him three days to make it to Coumarine. But at least he'd spent it kind of usefully. Ralts and Fletchling (and his other Pokémon at night, but mostly Ralts and Fletchling) had decided that since Harry seemed to draw Legendary Pokémon to him, now was as good a time as any to teach him Pokémon lore on the Legendaries. Of course, it was made all the more relevant by the fact that he was meant to be meeting Giratina in Coumarine, and Harry really, really, really didn't want to make a bad impression on the Pokémon who ruled the afterlife. That had the potential to be a spectacular disaster, and not just in life.
What he hadn't expected was the sheer number of titles the Legendary Pokémon were associated with. His père alone had four different titles, which could all be switched around at a moment's notice. The proper titles (or what seemed to pass for proper, at any rate) were Angel of Destruction, Avatar of Death, the herald, and Wings of Death, though they could just as easily be changed around to Avatar of Destruction, Herald of Death and so on. It was a nightmare, and not one Cresselia could get rid of either.
And that was just the Pokémon versions. Thankfully, Harry wouldn't be needing the human-bestowed titles – he was pretty sure there'd be another dozen of those, too.
Added on to his misery was the fact that, since there were so many different Legendary Pokémon – somewhere around fifty, by the human count – and each of them had like at least three different names amongst ordinary Pokémon – that was somewhere in the region of one-hundred-and-fifty titles Ralts and Fletchling were drilling into him.
By the end of the first day, Harry's head was swimming in titles. "So what are the titles of Jirachi again? Wishmaker, Wishmaster, and, uh…"
The four titles of Jirachi are Wishmaker, Wishmaster, Watcher of the Stars and the Millennium Comet, Ralts recited. Holy Arceus, but you have a horrible memory.
"Hey! I have a good memory. It just doesn't work that well when you guys bombard me with a few hundred titles at once," Harry defended. Fletchling rolled her eyes.
Maybe we should just do the major ones first, she suggested. They certainly seem to be the most relevant so far. I mean, his father is the Angel of Destruction, he's met the Serpent Queen and the Guardian of Life, and apparently the next one he'll meet is the Monarch of the Dead. The chance that he'll actually meet the Watcher of the Stars is pretty minimal, considering the Wishmaster's sleep schedule.
I suppose you have a point, Ralts conceded. Harry sighed in relief. Less titles to memorise!
Although knowing him he'll need all these titles sooner or later, Ralts added, crushing Harry's hopes. We can probably teach them later, though. I guess the major Legendaries are more relevant for now.
Exactly, Fletchling said. In that case, we'll start with the Creation Trio of Sinnoh. I mean, you are meeting Giratina soon, so please try remember them, I don't want a bad afterlife because my trainer messed up…
The second day went a little better – sure, the major Legendaries all seemed to have a billion titles each, but there were still less titles to memorise. When he sat down for the night with his Pokémon around him, Harry was pretty certain he could get Giratina's titles down.
"Let's see if I can get it right this time. Giratina, the Renegade, Lord of the Reverse, Lord of the Grave, Ruler of the Ghost World, Monarch of the Dead. Did I get it right?"
All hail Arceus. It's a miracle, Ralts declared. Ninjask fired a friendly Leech Life at her, which she stopped with Telekinesis. Harry flopped to the ground.
"All right, that's it, no more discussions on how I can't remember the billion titles of Lugia. Goodnight!"
You'll get it eventually, Houndour said. Besides, Giratina only has five. Hoopa has at least seven that I know of.
"No, Houndour, we're not talking about it," Harry repeated. "Why does Hoopa even need seven titles? I don't want to know, Ralts, no complicated discussions until tomorrow. Goodnight."
Fletchling made a twittering sound of amusement as they drifted off to sleep.
~OoOoOoO~
According to just about every Trainer's brochure out there, Coumarine City was not meant to be this busy. But Harry supposed that with it still being peak Trainer season, and with the Ruby Gala on, the increased crowds were only supposed to be expected.
The increased crowds did mean that he missed out on most of Coumarine's sea-based sights, but the monorail more than made up for it. It was crowded, yes, but at least he had a window seat and could watch the seaside half of Coumarine go by. It was really a spectacular view – and was that the Sea Spirit's Den of Azure Bay in the distance? Because that was meant to be really far away.
Harry dropped by the Pokémon Centre to heal his Pokémon. Unsurprisingly there were no rooms left, but at least the temperatures hadn't dropped low enough that sleeping outside was going to be uncomfortable. Plus, Coumarine had plenty of wide plateaus on the hillside that were easy places to set up camp.
"Here you go, Trainer!" Nurse Joy handed him back his Poké Balls, as well as a sheet for the Ruby Gala. At least there wasn't anything to fill in on it. "That's your information sheet for the Ruby Gala. It's an online signup, so just go over to any of our computers and sign up for the Contest. Although if you're going to take the Contest seriously I'd suggest you buy better clothing, appearances are everything in a Contest. Have a good day!"
Harry blinked. Had Nurse Joy just told him off for his choice of clothing? Then again, showing up for a Contest in his normal outdoors clothing would probably earn him quite a few nasty looks, like the Battle Girl had warned. Hopefully there was a clothing store somewhere in Coumarine; most of his clothes probably didn't fit the requirements for Contests.
He logged on to a computer, filled out the form (at least it was shorter than the one in Shalour, the only saving grace) and headed out to explore the hillside half of Coumarine.
The crowds made it difficult, but eventually he located the Gym as well as the beginnings of the Lumiose Badlands. He hadn't even realised it was the Badlands at first, but when the ground became red and the crowds thinned – well, they weren't in Coumarine anymore.
Like he'd guessed, the Gym was closed – and no, registration for a battle wasn't possible either until the Gym reopened. That was after the Ruby Gala had concluded in its entirety, which wouldn't be for…
Harry dug out his Holo Caster for the calendar function. Today was a Wednesday. It wouldn't be open for another five days, since the Gala ended on Sunday.
Lovely. Now he just had to entertain himself until the Contests started (and finished) since he couldn't even register for a battle with the Gym closed. Although there was that massive pop-up market on the piers that he'd pushed through to get to the monorail – that could be a start. Maybe he could find something to wear for the Contest.
He ended up with a Charmeleon-red blazer, complete with embroidered flames along the sleeves, and a pair of Steelix-grey trousers. Hopefully nobody would look too closely at his shoes – he wasn't planning to buy a pair of shoes as well. At least there was the off chance he'd be able to use the clothes again, maybe at some fancy party he just happened to gatecrash. The shoes, not so much. Somehow Harry doubted those kind of shoes would survive even high tide at Fourrage, never mind regular trekking.
At least he still had a relatively untouched black shirt he could wear underneath. Another thing he wouldn't have to buy.
Harry also picked up a black wide-brimmed hat – after the Gala and the Gym he was going to have to head to Lumiose via the Badlands, after all, and the more protection he could get from the sun the better. The Badlands hadn't become an uninhabitable region because it had plenty of rain.
But at least it wasn't a desert route – the red clay hadn't quite reached the desert stage yet, and hopefully would remain that way for another thousand years. Harry didn't fancy having to go through a few sandstorms just to reach Lumiose.
Harry also bought a few Seals, because if he was going to try out for the Contest, well, why not put in a full effort? And then he just couldn't resist the stuffed Pokémon toy that the vendor was also selling, but in his defence it was a stuffed toy version of his père. It was actually the perfect fake Winter Festival present (of course he wasn't going to actually give his père a stuffed toy of himself), and Harry was so going to have his Holo Caster's camera function ready to capture the moment his père unwrapped it. The vendor gave him a rather bemused smile as Harry paid for it and ran off.
He spent the rest of his day inside the Pokémon Centre, searching up how Contests worked. At least, Harry was pretty sure it was more complicated than a display, then a battle focused on display instead of beating the other Trainer – or Coordinator, in this case. Even if it really couldn't be that much more difficult than a battle.
Traditionally, or as traditional as something about seven years old could be, the first stage of the Ruby Gala involved two Pokémon – a Double Performance Round. It was when the Battle Stage was reached that things got weirder. The Round of 16 featured standard single battles, but the Round of 8, the quarter-finals, were in double battle format. The semi-finals involved triple battles (rarely seen in competitive battling, never mind competitive Coordinating) but the finals were single battles again, only with the time limit raised to ten minutes instead of the standard five.
Compared to the Grand Festivals, or even to other inter-regionals like the Wallace Cup, the Ruby Gala was completely and utterly insane.
Harry used the Thursday to prepare for the Performance Round out on the plateaus, since if he managed to make it through – and with so many Coordinators who were full-time Coordinators instead of partially-bored Trainers in the Contest, that was a big if – he could (probably) go back and rely on just knocking the other Pokémon out. That was still a victory in the Battle Rounds, although it was preferable to just have more points left than the opponent.
He supposedly had an advantage because of the rarity of having both a Ninjask and a Shedinja at the same time, but relying on that alone wasn't going to send him anywhere except out of the Contest. Extra consideration was worth nothing if there was nothing to consider. The problem was that Contests favoured non-physical moves, and both Shedinja and Ninjask were lacking in those. On the bright side, Ninjask had figured out how to use his wings to their full extent, so Harry wouldn't have to worry about him suddenly crashing out of the air.
Well, Harry supposed he could just tell them to both use Bug Buzz and see what could happen with the discordant sounds they could produce, but that probably wouldn't go over too well with the audience. In fact, it would probably send them all running away.
Ninjask performed an almost absent-minded Double Team, copies circling Shedinja. Shedinja flickered out of existence for a moment before appearing on top of the real Ninjask with Shadow Sneak, and Ninjask darted away again.
"This is actually difficult," Harry muttered to himself. "Let's see… what about X-Scissor and Shadow Claw?"
Ninjask's claws glowed Bug-green as he crossed them in an X-Scissor. In response, Shedinja's white halo turned a sickening purple before a shadowy half-crescent flew outwards, the Shadow Claw and X-Scissor dissipating on contact. Ninjask flitted back down onto the grass.
Harry stared at them. Then he grinned.
"I've got this."
~OoOoOoO~
"Welcome, one and all, to the Ruby Gala! I'm your master of ceremonies, Marian, and this year, we are at the beautiful seaside of Coumarine City, Kalos!"
"This year, we have something very special for all of you. But before that, may I remind all our lovely Coordinators this – the Gala Ribbon is valid for all regions!"
If the Gala Ribbon wasn't valid for all regions, Harry doubted the mass of Coordinators standing next to him would have any interest at all. He felt almost underdressed among the suits, ballgowns and costumes (and of course the one guy in armour) the other Coordinators were wearing.
"And now, may I introduce to you our judges! First, we have a familiar face – Mr Contesta!"
The camera switched over to Mr Contesta. "I bid you good morning, Coordinators, and I hope we have a spirited performance throughout the Gala!"
"Next up it's the President of the Pokémon Fan Club, Mr Sukizo!"
"Coumarine City is indeed quite remarkable!" That was apparently his only comment. From the rolled eyes around him, Harry figured that Mr Sukizo probably said the word 'remarkable' pretty often.
"We have with us here the Coumarine City Pokémon Centre's very own Nurse Joy!"
"Thank you, and I hope no Pokémon gets hurt." Harry blinked in surprise. Clearly he hadn't quite done his research properly if he hadn't even realised Nurse Joy would be a judge. No wonder she'd told him to get a new outfit.
"One of our special judges, the Coumarine City Gym Leader, Ramos himself!"
Ramos' face appeared on-screen. "Time to see what these young sprouts have, eh?"
"And now," Marian's voice boomed, "we have a grand surprise in store as our fifth judge! Most of you in this audience will have heard of him. A great Coordinator, Master of Hoenn's Contests, the Charmer himself –"
The rumour was real they had actually managed to get by all the holy legendaries –
"I give you – Ruby!"
Several Coordinators in the room had to sit down. Yes, there had been rumours, but those were rumours, and now, to have them – confirmed – holy Arceus! There was going to be a Dexholder as a special judge for his own Gala.
Harry stifled the very desperate urge to giggle like a madman and refocused on the stage.
A pillar of snow whipped into existence, the skies clouding over as an expertly-wielded Blizzard formed on stage. Psychic sculpted the snowstorm into a perfect sphere, before the snowstorm rushed outwards, blowing out in a single fluid movement. A radial Fire Blast melted the snow half a second later, leaving a ring of water on the edges of the stage.
It wasn't the water Harry was watching, though. In the centre – and Harry had no doubt that it was the exact centre, Coordinators were like that – stood Ruby. There was a collective inhale in the dressing room as he accepted the microphone from Marian.
"Hello, Coumarine!" Somewhere in the back of the room a Coordinator passed out. "This is a beautiful city, and it's a pleasure to be here!"
"This year, I'll be acting as the fifth judge in the Gala, and I hope to see a wonderful display of talent from everyone! Good luck, Coordinators, and may the best Coordinator win!"
Short and effective, it had the side effect of snapping several Coordinators out of the in-awe states they were in, if the reaction in the dressing room was anything to go by. Several Coordinators shook their heads rapidly (to clear it?) but Harry paid them no attention for a very specific reason.
The first Coordinator in the Performance Round had just been called. It wasn't him, thankfully, but it was starting.
Dear Arceus, how was he going to not mess up in this, and in front of a Dexholder no less?
~OoOoOoO~
Ruby had asked for a display of talent. What he got was a display of spectacular beauty – at least from Harry's point of view. Maybe it was different for someone used to Contests. There were Pokémon that were naturally beautiful (like Milotic and Beautifly), Pokémon that were made beautiful (groomed Cinccino and Furfrou) and Pokémon that didn't look beautiful, and didn't show off their non-existent beauty, but instead displayed their deadly power which somehow made them look beautiful (like the Aggron and Tyranitar the armour-clad Coordinator had sent out. Holy Giratina were they terrifying.)
An assistant poked her head into the dressing room. "Harry Void?"
Harry swallowed. On the bright side, he wasn't a proper Coordinator – if he flunked it, it wasn't a big deal. It's not a test, it means nothing, he recited to himself. Nope, no good. Even if it didn't mean anything, there was still a Dexholder watching, and that was automatic pressure.
"Our next contestant, Harry Void!" Marian boomed, her voice echoing around the stadium as it fell silent, awaiting his move.
He could almost imagine his père, sitting on the opposite side of a chess board – a game he'd never learned to play well. Your move, Harry, he'd have said. Play well. Then Harry would usually play the move that cost him the game, but – no time to think of that.
"Ninjask, Shedinja, show time!" he called.
Black and white lines leaped outwards from the Poké Balls, ribbons twining around each other before Ninjask and Shedinja swooped outwards. Or as much swooping as Shedinja did, in any case.
The crowd went absolutely silent, then absolutely wild. Harry tuned them all out. Here, at least, it was the same as a battle. All crowds were useless noise.
"Ninjask, Double Team and Agility! Shedinja, Phantom Force!"
Multiple Ninjask sped along the walls of the stadium, glorious gold-and-green blurs of colour. Shedinja faded from existence as it cloaked itself in the shadows of Phantom Force.
And hold it, Harry thought. "Shadow Claw and spin, Shedinja!"
Harry watched as a circle of Ghost energy appeared in the centre of the ring Ninjask's Double Teams had formed, Shedinja still invisible from the effects of Phantom Force. It couldn't last much longer – Shedinja wasn't strong enough to maintain a Phantom Force and a Shadow Claw at the same time even while stationary, let along spinning, but it would last long enough.
"Ninjask, X-Scissor!" With the Double Teams still in place, Harry could tell that the real Ninjask rushing down from above hadn't been an expected move. "Shedinja, loose!"
The X-Scissor sliced straight through the circle of Shadow Claw that had flown outwards at Harry's call – or at least, that was what it looked like. In reality Shedinja had simply stopped powering it (not that anyone needed to know that except them). Ninjask bounced off the invisible Shedinja as Shedinja's Wonder Guard kicked in, but he was too fast and melded too seamlessly back into his doubles for anyone to pinpoint Shedinja.
Contests were smoke and mirrors, after all. Harry had the mirrors. He had the smoke. Now, he just need to use them on the final move. Harry began closing his eyes.
"Ninjask, Flash!"
The resulting flash of light eliminated the cloak of Phantom Force. For a single instant, imprinted into Harry's eyes there was the silhouette of Shedinja, outlined in purple Ghost energy. Then his eyes fully closed just as the entire brightness of Flash hit.
There was ringing silence once he stopped seeing white behind his eyelids. Harry opened his eyes to see a stunned stadium, all in the process of blinking out the Flash. Hopefully he hadn't blinded anyone – not being an Electric Pokémon meant that Ninjask's Flash was relatively weak, but weak was a rather relative term when it came to Flashes.
"And that's a striking and blinding finish, quite literally, for Harry, Ninjask and Shedinja!" the announcer finally said in a dazed tone. "Judges, what are your comments?"
Harry glanced over as Ninjask and Shedinja both drifted over his shoulders. Mr Contesta was still blinking rapidly as he gave his judgement.
"An unorthodox but striking display of Ninjask and Shedinja's greatest assets!"
"Remarkable!" Mr Sukizo declared.
"The speed of Ninjask and Shedinja's poise and skill both demonstrate how well-trained they are," Nurse Joy declared.
Ramos just chuckled. "This whippersnapper'll be one to watch when he drops by my Gym, just you wait. Excellent finish, if a little dazzling." He chuckled at his own joke.
Then it was Ruby's turn, and Harry swallowed nervously.
"A very unusual style was just presented to us today," Ruby mused. "Ninjask and Shedinja, rarely seen and rarely used. You did not show off their beauty, but instead focused on their strengths. Ninjask's speed for unpredictability. And Shedinja's Phantom Force to render it invisible – that was a beautiful Shadow Claw, by the way. Flash to remove Phantom Force and silhouette Shedinja in the finish was certainly inspiring, although it would have been nice to receive a warning." He smiled, tapping his glasses. "Overall, a delightful and very elegant performance."
Marian gushed on about how meaningful a compliment like that was from a Contest master, but Harry tuned her out. His inner fanboy was screaming that he'd been complimented by a Dexholder, on a Contest performance out of all things, and he vaguely wondered if he should move to Hoenn or Sinnoh to become a Coordinator instead. Maybe he would consider it if he somehow made it into the Round of 16.
The rest of the day was a blur – the Performance Round would take up the entire day, due to the sheer number of Coordinators who flocked to inter-regional Ribbon Contests. The Battle Rounds, where the number of competitors would have been cut drastically, would take up the remaining two days. And the Coordinators entering the Battle Round would be revealed at sundown.
Harry recalled Shedinja and Ninjask and made his way out of the stadium. His role was done for today. And thank Arceus for Coumarine's benches, because they were really handy when a Trainer had to cope with the high of being complimented by a Dexholder on something the Trainer really wasn't good at, and something the Dexholder was really good at. The high would probably last Harry the entire week.
By sundown, he was in the stadium again, this time on stage with all the other Coordinators – even here the Ruby Gala was different, other Contests and inter-regionals like the Wallace Cup allowed their competitors to be in the dressing room when results were announced, but Coordinators in the Gala were on stage when the results were revealed.
Harry knew he'd performed well, if the comments and screams were anything to go by. The question was, how many people performed better? There were hundreds of Coordinators who had dedicated themselves to Contests. He was just a Trainer who'd picked it up on a whim.
Of course, to build up the suspense, they played a three-minute clip of the entire Performance Round, condensed into around two shots for each performance. Seeing himself on stage was slightly disconcerting (was his hair really that awful?) but Harry was rather pleased with the shots they'd chosen. The first was Shedinja's circle of Shadow Claw, surrounded by Ninjask's copies. The second was his finish – the black silhouette of Shedinja, wreathed in Ghost-purple light on a pure white background. They lasted for less than three seconds on the screen, but it was still great to see them.
Then the clip finished and the backs of sixteen cards appeared on screen. They each featured a design of a Contest Ribbon – the Gala Ribbon, to be precise. Harry heard the inhalation of thousands of people as his world narrowed to a screen and sixteen cards.
"Our Coordinators for the Battle Round are!" Marian shouted, and the first card turned over.
The cards turned over one by one, each a slow and painful process. The Coordinator on the first card sank to his knees in relief.
Coordinator Number Two clasped her hands together, breathing ragged.
The cards turned over and over and over until there was only one left. Fifteen faces on the screen. One more to join them.
Harry glanced around. Every Coordinator who hadn't made it through yet was standing perfectly still, eyes fixed on the screen. Marian seemed to delight in the suspense.
"And our last Coordinator, for the Battle Round, is!"
The last card turned over.
Something different for Harry this time, plus I've always wondered how Coordinators would fit physical moves into Appeal since it's so much easier with special moves. Plus, if the Wallace Cup exists, then surely there has to be a festival named after a coordinator who basically saved the world. Surely.
I have the feeling Zygarde would just be very mysterious to anyone she just met and also very good at making them feel uncomfortable. How else would she ever keep Xerneas and Yveltal in line?
I have a good chunk of the next chapter written out already, just undergoing extreme editing (seriously, you never want to see my first drafts. Ever. They make literally no sense.) Hopefully it'll be all done around Christmas, so there'll be a Christmas chapter! After that...um...
AUTHOR ran away!