By tomorrow, late in the morning at around 11 AM, Bianca, her dad, Elesa and Ash met at the city limits to route 4, where Ash's girlfriend was saying goodbye to her dad for now.
"Wow, to think that I never have to worry about you-uh...at least to the extent I was going, it feels liberating. I could actually enjoy things to the extent I'm supposed to now. Thank you Bianca, for giving me another chance. Elesa here really helped open my eyes."
"I just told you what you needed to hear. Bianca's the one who showed you proof." Elesa corrected while shifting her eyes to the fellow blonde girl, slightly smiling.
"Well, you're very welcome dad." Bianca said. "And thank you Elesa. I'm so grateful to you."
"I guess it's time for me to go. I hope the rest of your journey is fun." Turning to Ash, he held out a hand going from a joyful to serious face. "You better take care of my little girl, alright?"
"Daddyyy!" Bianca complained, feeling embarrassed as she grabbed her hat and lowered her head, shaking it. Ash took his hand and gave a strong grip back.
"Will do sir." Ash accepted. Darius's face softened back into a smile.
"Good." Turning back to his daughter, he gave her another hug, which she embraced.
"I love you Bianca. I really do." He whispered, saying it as gently as he could.
"Yeah." Bianca returned, still not sure she could say it yet. Letting go of her, he went on his way.
"Well, Bon Voyage!" And so he left the city, leaving the couple and Elesa there. But Bianca gave out one final shout to him,
"Dad, I'll come home after I find out what I really wanted to do!"
"Has your father ever been a trainer? I'd like to think so but I'm not certain." The gym leader inquired.
"I'm not sure. He never says. But I once did find an old pokeball in his belongings once, though he took it away and hid it better.
"Than I'm sure of it than. Being a parent must be hard. Maybe we'll adopt a baby. Once we're ready." Elesa mused, thinking about her future.
"Elesa, thank you so much. My dad finally understands me. I want to be a totally cool woman like you!" Bianca complimented, bringing a small smile to her face.
"Thank you. My advice for that? Follow your heart, and trust in your friends, Pokémon..." Her head turned towards Ash. "...or friends." He smiled at that.
"Okay." The young teen agreed. Elesa nodded before remembering something.
"Oh yeah. Excuse me, there's something I need to do on Route 5." She walked past the couple, tending to some business. Now facing each other, Bianca screamed with joy and hugged her boyfriend very hastily, jumping up and down.
"Yay, Dad understands me! Dad understands me! Now I don't have to worry about going home after all this is over!"
"Hehe, that's great to hear." Ash chuckled, though he couldn't celebrate with her when she shook him with her hug like a salt shaker. Letting him go, she kissed him, wanting to convey how jolly she was feeling. Ash then hugged her back while they made out, everything feeling great. Once the kiss and hug was broke off, she then suggested,
"Let's go sign up to that battle arena tournament now!"
"But, what about Cheren?"
"Consider this extra training! That way you'll be much more able to beat him if we come across him! Plus, I'm on a really big confidence boost and I just wanna battle some people right now so come on pleeeeeease?" She begged, her puppy eyes back. Ash groaned.
"Alright, alright, you have a point." Ash conceded, making Bianca giddy with excitement.
"Yay! Let's go now!" Grabbing his wrist, she dragged him to the sign up table. After filling out the registration forms for the middle-weight class tournament, Ash and Bianca were signed up in a roster of 16 trainers. Ash gets to go first in the forth round at #8 while Bianca is #12. "Oh no. That means we'll be battling soon." The blonde girl whimpered as she shook her head and twirled her hands. He placed a hand on her shoulder, bringing her out of her current state.
"Doesn't matter where we fight. As long as one of us reaches to the top, right?" Ash inquired with a smile so confident even she couldn't resist doing so.
"Yeah."
"And now we're at battle number four! Burgundy Myers vs. Ash Ketchum!" Walking onto the field, he gazed upon a girl similar to his age with shoulder length curly purple hair, and what he assumed was a... waiter outfit. Odd, but he shrugged.
"Hello Burgundy, let's give everyone a good show, alright?" He asked her showing good sportsmanship, but she scoffed at him.
"Please, I'll beat you in 5 seconds flat! Come on out, Herdier!" Upon seeing the dog, Ash smirked.
"Too easy. Sigilyph, I choose you!" Replacing his Tranquill was one of his newest catches, the Avionoid Pokémon that he swapped yesterday night. Herdier growled at it to intimidate it, but any fear was not recognized.
"Oh my, what an unusual creature! Certainly nothing ordinary about it at all!" Burgundy remarked.
"That's the best part. Fury Cutter!" Crossing its stringy wings, it unfolded them to unleash a bright blue X heading straight for the surprised Herdier, exploding upon contact.
"Hey, how rude to attack my Pokémon's well groomed fur before I was ready! Use Take Down!" Charging as fast as it could, the Loyal Dog Pokémon slammed into the flying/psychic type, knocking it back but not out. But she wasn't done yet. "Now use Thunder Fang!" His teeth crackling with sparks, he bit down on its tail, dealing massive damage. Ash growled, not expecting his Pokémon to take such serious damage so soon.
("Another TM user?! This tournament might be harder than I thought.") "Get it off with Psybeam!" Aiming down at the normal type, it shot a rainbow colored beam of energy that blasted the canine off, yelping in pain.
"Quick, use Ice Fang!" Burgundy ordered.
"Evade with Tailwind!" The girl's Herdier tried attack with neon blue energy bolts at the flying type, but it was able to dodge by flapping its wings and creating a cyclone with each flap, rustling up some mighty winds.
"Hey, my hair! Do you know how long it took to get it this exquisitely tasteful for today?" Burgundy complained.
"Should I care? Not only that, but my Pokémon's way faster now!" Looking around herself, he was right. The flying/psychic type was zipping around Herdier at speeds it was unused to fighting, futilely trying to keep visual eye contact. "Time to finish this. Psywave!" Its wings glowing like a rainbow, it flapped them hard to send waves of psychic energy that bombarded Herdier from all sides, overwhelming it until it fainted.
"Herdier is unable to battle! Sigilyph wins, and that means Ash wins the match!" The announcer declared.
"You did great Sigilyph." Ash complimented his companion, who hummed in appreciation.
"Yay, he did it! You did it Ash!" Bianca celebrated with her arms up.
"Ladies and gentleman, hang onto your seats, for the sixth round! Trip Dunstan vs. Bianca Schroeder!" As she went onto the field and nearly tripped on a rock, she greeted her challenger.
"Hello! It's so nice to battle with you today! How are you doing?"
"Okay. I've come a long way. I'm sure our match will be interesting." He replied stoically to her cheerfulness.
"What will you do, Bianca? I can't wait to see." Ash whispered to himself, excited for what was to come.
"Come on out, Archie!" Like Ash, she's also using one of her newest Pokémon, one of the fossils that Professor Juniper helped revive for her. She nicknamed him Archie. He squawked while spreading his wings.
"Gurdurr, you're up!" Going up against her revived fossil is an evolved for of Timburr, more muscular than before and holding a red I-beam than a piece of wood. It slammed the I-beam into the ground, looking confident.
"Uh, alright Archie...um...even though I haven't thought about looking up your moves yet, just do what feels natural, alright?" She politely requested her Pokémon, whom looked at her confused. Ash slapped his forehead.
("She hasn't looked up what he does?")
"This is your first time using that thing? What a newb." Trip quipped, resulting in her feeling insulted.
"Excuse me?! I just earned my forth badge from Elesa herself! You better watch it! Archie, attack!" Even though he didn't know what to attack with, the First Bird Pokémon went on the offensive.
"Gurdurr, dodge it!" Trip ordered. Slamming its I-beam down on the ground, it pushed itself upwards out of the reckless attack from Archie. It chuckled like its foe stood no chance. Turning around, he tried again. "Counter with Rock Throw!" Grabbing into the arena with his free hand, he removed a piece of earth out of the ground and lobbed it at Archie, but the rock/flying type easily leapt over it. "Rock Smash!" Clenching his fist and making it glow bright orange, he punched Archie just as he got close, injuring the living fossil.
"No, Archie!" Bianca cried out.
"Come on Bianca, you can do this!" Ash shouted in confidence. Struggling to get up, it stared at the fighting type. "Use Stone Edge!" Creating stone out of middair, he launched them at Archie, intending to end this.
"Archie, try to defend!" The blonde trainer pleaded. His wings glowing red, he thrust them forward to create a red barrier, blocking all the rocks from reaching him.
"Quick Guard." Ash recognized.
"So your bird knows a defensive move. But it can't hold up forever. Dynamic Punch!" Its fist glowing like it just caught on fire, Gurdurr was going to give Archie one hell of a haymaker when Bianca yelled out,
"Dodge it, quickly!" And so he did, but not at just regular speed, but he even left an afterimage that the Muscular Pokémon passed through, overextending himself as it tried to recover, but felt he gave a loud roar as a sharp pain in its back as Archie pecked at his back. "Agility and Pluck!" Bianca laughed, her eyes wide open.
"Gurdurr, get it off of you!" The fighting type swung his I-beam around to try and hit the fossil bird, but he was already gone. Turning around, he only had enough time to see an orb of black and white energy heading right for him before it exploded on contact, creating a dust cloud.
"And Ancient Power to top things off! You're quite versatile, Archie!" The blonde girl praised.
"It's not over yet! Stone Edge!" Trip commanded. Swiping its I-beam to get rid of the dust, it once again formed stones that it fired at the First Bird Pokémon, but Bianca wasn't worried.
"Ancient Power!" Forming another orb of energy, Archie fired it from his mouth, and it seemed to deflect the stones away as it headed to the horrified Gurdurr before the attack exploded against it again. This time, when the smoke cleared, the fighting type was unconscious.
"Gurdurr is unable to battle! Archie wins, so that means Bianca wins the match!"
"Thank you so much Archie! I get to go to round two!" She rand and hugged her living fossil, whom chirped with glee. A flash disrupted her while she was hugging Archie, and looked up to see Trip has taken a photo of her. "What's that for?"
"I'm chronicling my journey. So that I never forget this defeat." He then walked away.
"Okay, bye! Thanks for the battle!" She yelled to him, unaware of the real reason he did so.
"And with Bianca as our winner, here's our round two contestants!" 8 people were shown, including Bianca and Ash, that are going to participate in the quarter finals. "After a one hour recess, we'll begin round 2!" Once the hour was up, and their respective Pokémon were healed, the show is about to begin again. "Round two is here! Watch as we shuffle the contestants around to see who's up next!"
"Wait, we're not fixed into positions?!" Bianca gasped.
"It's random. So there's...I think, a 25% chance that we'll face each other? I'm not sure about the math but at least we can last a little bit longer if we're lucky." Ash mentioned, shrugging.
"Oh yay! Then let's do our best as always!" She cheered as she hugged her boyfriend. Once the photo shuffling finished, the newly placed roster appeared. Ash's #2 while Bianca's #8. "Yes! We can fight longer!" The blonde cheered.
"Break a leg." Ash said, but she gasped in disbelief.
"Why would I ever break my own leg?!"
"It's just a metaphor, Bianca! In show business saying good luck will in actuality bring bad luck. For some strange reason."
"I don't get it." Bianca was confused on why it means that.
"I don't either. Well, I'm going to prepare."
"Okay! Break both of your legs and sprain your ankles!" The girl tried to put extra effort into the metaphor, making the boy sweat a bit.
"Thanks." He replied nervously.
"Ladies and gentleman, the first match of round 2! Georgia Hamilton vs. Ash Ketchum!"
"Two girls in a row. Ain't I special?" Ash joked to himself, not actually caring who he faced before Bianca. Georgia had short razzberry colored hair under a yellow cap, along with wearing a primarily dark blue and cyan outfit. A blue shirt, skirt and mid-thigh leggings along with cyan boots and a vest. She also wore yellow gloves.
"Pawniard, battle time!" She declared, revealing her Pokémon. It's a small bipedal creature that vaguely resembles a beetle with a rounded red ang grey head with an extending axe blade coming from its forehead. Four steel spikes poked from its grey body inward towards its ribs. Each arm ended with a knife point instead of hands.
"Pignite, I choose you!" Ash let loose his fire starter, whom puffed fire from his nose. "Pignite, Flame Charge!" Surrounding himself with fire, the Fire Pig Pokémon sprinted towards the Sharp Blade Pokémon.
"Pawniard, dodge and use Metal Claw!" Georgina ordered. Its tips gaining a metal like sheen, it jumped over the incoming fire type and slashed against his back. He hissed from the two stinging lines across his back.
"Come on Ash, you can do it!" Bianca cheered from the audience.
"Flame Charge, once more!" Producing even more flames, he went even faster.
"Again!" Even though Pignite's moving faster than Pawniards are known for, it still evaded the super effective attack and made two more slashes into his left side and leg, dealing a critical hit and rendering him unable to run. He puffed fire in frustration. "Alright, now that he's weakened, use Guillotine!" The knife points at its arms glowed white while also extending them to be as tall as it. Leaping up into the air, it almost seemed like it was curtains for Pignite.
"Get out of there with Rollout!" Ash instructed. Even though most of the speed was gone, the fire starter was able to roll out of the way just before Pawniad ploughed into the ground, smashing a big crater.
"If we can't outspeed it, then we'll overpower! Arm Thrust!" Gritting his teeth, Pignite pounced into the dust, laying a covered up beatdown based from the sounds of pain, though some squealing occurred in that he didn't do it unscathed. Pawniard cried its name out as it flew out of the crater and crashed into the dirt, defeated. Pignite crawled out of the hole, covered in multiple cuts, but he won.
"Pawniard is unable to battle! The winner is Pignite, so that means Ash wins the match!"
"Yeah, we did it Pignite! You did great!" Ash cheered. Pignite tiredly smiled, giving a good thump to his chest.
"Ash is going to the semi-finals! Hooray!" Bianca celebrated. Once Ash was in the contestant lounge, he was spraying disinfectant over Pignite's cuts, a smile on the trainer's face.
"I know they sting, but think about it. You got your first battle scars. Won't the other fire types be jealous that you got them?" He hummed while thinking of the potential glory.
"Pignite!" He declared excitedly.
"That's the spirit."
"AAAASH!" Bianca yelled in joy and she went and hugged him from behind. The boy blushed as he, while no longer distracted by the tournament, felt two soft orbs press into his back by his girlfriend.
"Hehe, hey Bianca." He chuckled somewhat awkwardly. "How did I do?"
"Amazing, fantastic, magnificent! You were great my big strong Ash!" She listed off words of compliment before she started kissing his cheek repeatedly. "You know, we have about 10 minutes before I'm up. Maybe we could find someplace where no one can find us?"
"Uh...what do you have in mind exactly? I want to be sure I don't get caught in something I'll regret."
"Oh don't be silly Ash! It's not like we're going to do anything considered adult rated! Come on, it'll be fun!" Bianca then took hold of her boyfriend's arm, dragging him away to somewhere secret.
"Ah, wait! Pignite, return!"
A/N: Could this be? Finally a chance in which I could(possibly)write in a much wanted T rated love break in the plot? I think it is! Though tell me, what do you think? Should I skip it and just continue on with the tournament, or would you like me to write a short break chapter where it's nothing but Bianca and Ash making some love(T rated of course, no lemons!)?
