Having seen the situation, the flareon wasn't sure what to do. He covered me with his immense tail, giving me a sense of security, and the houndour I was fighting crept closer, trying to sniff at me. Pico didn't let her approach, but there was no anger in his movements. He was simply trying to protect the tiny shivering vulpix hiding in his tail.

Agnes quickly came to me and picked me up, hugging me tightly and patting my back, whispering comforting words. After a few minutes, she managed to calm me down, and I looked around as if I was just waking up. Seeing the houndour, then the circle on the floor, I realized what the situation was and I sighed. I forced myself to stop shaking and requested to be put on the floor.

Agnes, noticing I seemed to be calmed down, accepted and put me on the floor right next to her leg. The houndour was staying at a safe distance, scared of the flareon guarding me and not sure what she should do. As worried and kind as she looked, she still felt menacing to me, but I slowly took steps forward, trying to sniff at her to reassure myself. Her scent had no traces of anger or threat. When I was close enough to touch her, I hesitated. She looked reluctant to touch me, probably fearing retalation. Both our trainers were staying close, ready to intervene. After a few seconds, I gathered my spirits and stepped forward, still staring at the floor, before taking a deep breath and briefly licking her nose.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I... I don't know what happened."

"Are you alright?" the houndour asked, sniffing the top of my head now that she was confident I wouldn't attack her.

I passed a paw above my head like a cat cleaning their ears to push her muzzle away.

"I'll be fine. I... I got scared, that's all."

She stared at me for a moment, dubious.

"Do you want to redo the match? That... wasn't a deserved victory."

I shook my head.

"I lost. I shouldn't have panicked. Even if you feel like you don't deserve your victory, I definitely deserve my loss."

I bowed shortly before returning to Agnes.

"You going to be fine?" she asked.

I nodded. My heart was still racing, but I wasn't scared anymore.

She looked at her opponent, who shook her head and went on to report the result. Annoyed at myself, I sat down next to Pico, deeply ashamed.

"Are you alright?" he asked, still worried.

"Yeah," I replied, trying to hide my irritation. "I just... panicked."

Pico emitted a grunting sound I was unable to decipher and just rolled his fluffy tail over me, saying that I needed to calm down and focus on my next matches. I appreciated his pragmatism and his focus on the ongoing tournament, which helped me focus myself. I was just hoping Ilma wouldn't hear of this incident.

I took some time to assess the situation. My standing was, at the time, two wins and one loss. Although winning the pool seemed pretty much impossible, it was still very feasible to be in the top half as I promised myself. Trainers around the pool agreed to give me a longer break than usual to give me time to get myself together, and I didn't waste the opportunity. Comfortably set in Pico's fluffy tail, I breathed slowly, focusing on the tournament, and doing my best to calm down. Agnes regularly petted me on the head, and this elongated rest proved very effective at calming me down. When I was called to resume fighting, I was very calm, and fully concentrated.

My next opponent was a growlithe. I had no idea how he was doing in the standings, but he was standing in a very forward stance, full of confidence. Assuming he was going to try to attack first, I decided to go for a very aggressive strategy myself, expecting his defence to be weak.

When our trainers gave us the go, he hopped forward as if to jump on me, but actually stopped before, probably expecting a defensive movement from me which he would then easily counter. Unfortunately for him, I was preparing a full-on charge, and hit the centre of his belly with my head, making him fall on his side with a whine. Relentless, I took a step back and charged again right into him. He managed to stop my charge with all four of his legs, but that made it very easy for me to simply push him out of the ring. Standing up from his position, he congratulated me and insisted that my headbutt hadn't hurt him.

The next match, a few minutes after, was against the second growlithe in the pool - a female. She looked bulkier than the other growlithe I fought before, so a straight fight would probably be disadvantageous to me. However, she would likely expect me to think that way, and I thought I could try being sneaky and fight her directly.

As soon as the start signal was given, we both jumped forward and crashed into each other in a very comical way. We both staggered back, effectively resetting the match, and when we recovered from the stuns, she attempted to jump at me again. Surprised, I reflexively crouched to dodge, letting her land behind me, before turning around quickly, still laying on my belly. Seeing an opportunity, she jumped again, but I was expecting it. Stretching myself backwards, she landed right before me, stepping on my front paws, and I unleashed the full spring power of my spine, hitting her shoulder with my head. She tripped on my paw, falling to her side, and I climbed on top of her, putting weight on her paws and hindquarters to stop her from standing up. After ten seconds, I released her, and was congratulated for my victory.

I was now proudly standing at four victories and one defeat, with only two matches left. Even if I lost the next two matches, I would be in the top half of my pool, fulfilling the promise I made myself. Looking at Pico, not expecting him to say anything, I saw in his eyes that he was surprised by my results. I myself was just as surprised, if not more, but I needed to focus and try to get third or even second place.

My next opponent was a frail-looking zigzagoon. When the start signal was given, she charged at me, and I simply tanked the hit, thinking I would be able to trip her. However, her charge barely moved me at all, and I realized that I was a lot stronger than she was. I pushed my head up against her, forcing her to push hers downwards, before swiftly moving my head out of the way. She tumbled forward as a result, and I grabbed her by the excess skin of her neck and pushed her outside of the ring as she was struggling to get out of my grasp.

For the last match, I was facing the currently undefeated leader of the pool, a large female poochyena. Trainers agreed to have our match be the last in the pool and give me a bit more rest than others, and I was secretly thankful for it. I just waited, laying by Pico, looking nervously at the standings screen. After a few minutes, I realized that the houndour I was scared of had lost all three of her recent matches, which meant that I would be guaranteed second place if I lost the match, and tied for first place if I won.

I didn't have much time to reflect on that, as I was called to our arena to start the final fight of our pool. All other pokemon and trainers had gathered around, which made me nervous. They all knew what the current standings were, and this was a match between the two highest placed pokemon in the pool. They were all probably expecting something amazing, and I was afraid I would disappoint them. Pico not saying anything didn't help, as I would have hoped he'd at least try to calm me down, and when I stepped into the ring, my heart was already racing more than it had been the whole day.

I was completely out of focus when the start signal was given, and the poochyena charged me. I came back to reality barely in time to clumsily crouch the attack, being forced back a bit. My opponent pushed my head down and grabbed the fur on my neck, the same way I had just done to the zigzagoon. I threw myself to the side, freeing my neck of her grasp and rolling back on my feet. I could feel my skin burn as her teeth left a dent inside of it, and simply grimaced to try to absorb the pain and keep focusing.

It was obvious that I would not win in a direct fight. She was, again, significantly stronger than me, and I needed to find a way to trick her into coming close to the edge, then charge at her, or I would certainly be losing. If she successfully climbed on top of me, I knew I would be unable to fight her off.

She charged at me again, confident in her strength. I jumped in place as high as I could, successfully dodging her attack and landing on her hindquarters, forcing them down. Before she could get up, I climbed on top of her and attempted to keep her on the ground, but she threw me off with ease. Before I could stand up, she ran into me and pushed me out of the circle.

I sighed, slightly upset. The poochyena, panting, came to me to help me up, and I accepted. Although I had lost, I was still feeling satisfied with the fight, and gave her genuine congratulations for her win and undefeated record.

"Thank you," she replied with an equally genuine smile.

She peeked at my back, noticing a slight dent in the fur and some blood.

"Are you hurt?"

"Nothing serious," I replied. "Your fangs grazed my back when I rolled to get free."

My side was still painful from her final charge, but I did my best to hide it. Although she didn't look convinced, she didn't insist and simply congratulated me for my performance, before going back to her trainer gleaming with pride.

Pico joined me from behind and licked my cheek by surprise. I jolted, jumping forward like a scared cat, which was apparently very amusing to him, as he started laughing.

"That's not funny," I pouted, unhappy to have been sneaked up on.

"I find it funny," he replied, still laughing. "So, how are you?"

"I'm tired. I'm not hurt though?" I replied, unsure what the point of his question was.

"That wasn't what I was asking."

He jumped around me, visibly excited, which annoyed me slightly. He was waiting for something but I had no idea what.

"What?" I barked, pissed.

He stopped jumping, surprised by my grim attitude.

"Aren't you proud?"

"Of what?"

"Your results!"

I stood puzzled for a second before realizing what he was so excited about.

I had done well.

I didn't just get lucky with a bye following my aggression. I had competed in the tournament and won a round. Even after losing, I had been among the best of my pool, scoring second. My global rank was 26.

I hesitated. I wasn't quite sure how to react. Pico seemed to be unable to contain his excitement, but I didn't feel all that enthusiastic. I remembered Topa's calm mathematical analysis of it, and I felt like my final result, albeit surprising, wasn't something to be proud of.

Pico sat down.

"You don't seem very proud of yourself," he noticed.

"Should I be? I'm... not sure."

I looked around. While a few pokemon were still fighting, the top half of the class was already done and the only ones remaining were the larger pools, who would get a break soon. A lot of the pokemon felt like they were dragging their body behind their trainer's. Some were proud of themselves and showing it, but some were more reserved. Some trainers were talking to one another, their pokemon playing or resting, and I could notice Agnes, Derek, my pool's winner and her trainer all talking with the director while he occasionally registered the result of a match a trainer came to give. The whole place, despite the agitation, was very silent, and I felt like I was in a different world. Overall, the entire building was coated in a strangely gloomy mood.

"I mean, I'm pretty happy with my results, all things considered," I conceded. "But..."

I shook my head, unable to put my thoughts into words. Pico looked at me expectantly, but didn't seem to know what to say either. Before I could sort it out, the poochyena I had fought last came back to me with our human. She was still looking very happy, and she came to me with joy:

"Hi again! It turns out that we'll be a pair this year!"

"A pair?"

"For lessons. Remember that the director said we'd get paired with someone else?"

I reached back into my mind, vaguely remembering something about it, but I couldn't find any precise information. I hadn't been paying much attention.

"Well, the pairs go like this. First and second pair together..."

She peeked at Pico, who was still staring at me and didn't seem to notice her at all.

"Third and fourth together, and so on. Now... I'm ranked 25, and you 26, so that means we'll be with each other!"

She looked very enthusiastic and I had no idea why. I clumsily replied, feeling a little overwhelmed by the outgoing pokemon.

"That's pretty cool, heh..."

She nodded, completely oblivious as to what my actual mood was.

"My name is Flick!"

"I'm Ruby," I replied, reluctant.

"I know," she said. "You're pretty famous in here."

I froze.

"What? Why?"

She looked at me as if I had just fallen from the moon.

"How can you not be? You're the only vulpix here, and you've made quite the impression when that houndour attacked you."

"An impression how?"

I was getting nervous. What kind of reputation did I have?

"You're so young and yet so strong! You've impressed more than your flareon friend, I'm telling you."

I wasn't sure how to react. If she was not lying, then I had a good reputation, despite what happened to me. If I read through her words right, few pokemon were actually aware of my belly wound, and I was only famous because of my age. I felt like it would be too risky to ask her directly and decided to simply keep that assumption. It would probably make interacting with others a lot easier.

"If it makes you feel better," she added, thinking I was unsatisfied with her answer, "you've definitely surprised me. I didn't expect you to be this strong and this quick. You're faster than me! I look forward to learning more with you."

I stared at her. Her eyes were still shining from her victory, and she looked genuinely happy to have been paired with me.

My eyes got lost upon Agnes and I suddenly felt unbearably sad, although I wasn't able to explain why. I just turned my head away from her, silently shaking the feeling away.

"Me too," I replied with no enthusiasm whatsoever.

Pico was still sitting behind me, keeping an eye on us. Seeing him reminded me of Pride, who said he wanted to teach me to use my psychic powers, but we still had not done any of that. When were we supposed to start?

What about Topa? Would it be a good time to start trying to get her to talk? She was probably going to question me about my final result and discuss it, so I would probably not have the chance to talk to her about her depression at all. Maybe it would actually be best to wait until after we returned from the mountain trip.

Agnes came to pick me up shortly after, saying we were going back the mansion. The day after would be a day off, and I would have plenty of time to plan how to talk to the ninetales.

As expected, when we went back, I immediately went to the river to find Topa laying there. She looked drowsy and took time to notice me, but smiled as soon as she did. I gave her my result, and she looked surprised.

"26? That is quite amazing. Congratulations."

"Thanks," I replied, laying next to her.

"How are you feeling about it?"

I thought back about the answer I gave Pico, and how sad other pokemon looked to have lost. Despite their loss, a lot of them were still talking with one another and were doing well. I seemed to be the only one who had taken their losses so harshly.

"I feel kind of bad," I admitted after a few minutes.

"Oh? Why?"

"I was..."

I hesitated.

"All other pokemon all looked so sad, but... well, not sad. Just disappointed. It was just me who was sad. No one seemed to care about losing. They were just having fun. When I won against someone, they genuinely congratulated me, but I had a hard time doing that myself."

"Are you feeling like you do not deserve your rank because of that?"

I pondered.

"No," I eventually answered with conviction. "When the pool started, I did think I didn't deserve to be where I was. I promised myself to be in the top half of it, and I ended up second. No, I did way better than I imagined I would do. I don't think my rank is undeserved."

I marked a pause again. Pico's cold attitude during the tournament was coming back to me, and I remembered how much his behaviour changed after the pool was finished.

"I'm... ashamed," I ended up conceding, lowering my ears.

Topa waited a moment for me to continue, but I wasn't quite sure what to say again.

"How come?" she asked. "There is no shame in winning or losing."

"No, not that," I hastily replied. "It's... my attitude. I'm..."

I chuckled nervously. I could feel the corner of my eyes become wet and the tip of my muzzle shake.

"I'm such a kid. Everyone there was having fun. It didn't matter who won or who lost, they were just happy to participate. But I was just... so focused on my results. I didn't even take the time to enjoy the tournament."

I repressed a tear. I didn't need Topa to be more worried about me.

"I didn't have fun," I whispered.

Topa stared at me for a few seconds, lost for words. She eventually stood up, laid right next to me, and wrapped her magnificent tails around me.

"I will be honest," she whispered after a long wait. "I do not know what to say."

My ears jolted back up in surprise. It was the first time Topa was unable to find the right words to cheer me up.

"I will just give you one piece of advice, if I may," she continued.

"Sure."

She licked the top of my head.

"Just have fun in the future."

I sighed, putting my head on her laid paws. We stood there in silence, enjoying the whispers of water running and wind going through winds. I apparently was dozing off, as when Topa started talking again, I jolted right awake:

"When you were human, were you a student?"

I blinked a few times, confused by the question.

"Yes."

"Can you describe how it was to me?"

I took some time to mull it over. My human memories were still vivid, but I had never taken time to properly think about how college was.

"Stressful. Everyone was so preoccupied by exams. Everything was about exams. And they were really hard. People went as far as to cheat so they'd get better grades."

Topa shook her head in disapproval.

"You should not blame yourself for the attitude you had, then," she said. "Blame the system you were in. They only ever taught you about results. That is why, when you were set in a similar context, you only ever cared about results."

She looked at me and smiled.

"Results are not as important as you think. You are not at school to be judged. You are at school to better yourself. I doubt anyone genuinely cares about how good you are, either. It is all about how much of yourself you are willing to give."

"Why were they ranking us, then?"

"Formalities, I would assume. I do not think that the actual point of the tournament was to see who is number what. I would rather think that they were looking at how everyone was affected by their performance, and how much effort they poured into it."

She poked me with her muzzle.

"How much effort do you think you made?"

"I did my best," I replied with confidence.

That wasn't even a lie - I did actually do my best, apart from the incident with the houndour.

"That is good," she approved. "However... I will bet that you only did your best so that you would have a rank that you were not disappointed in."

I looked away, embarrassed to have been read so easily.

"Correct," I conceded.

To my surprise, she was still smiling. I expected her to be angry at me.

"Keep doing your best, then. But do your best for another reason. Enjoy the time you will be spending there learning. Worry not about your performance, or about what you think others expect of you. And worry not about what you expect of yourself."

"What if I don't do well? What if I'm disappointment?"

"Ruby," she said, removing her tails from my body. "You would only be a disappointment if you stopped trying. Just do your best, that is all that matters."