After Wisteria, the next nearest Contest was a few islands away on Chrysanthemum.
The friends were in no hurry, so moved on from Potpourri Island to the nearby Camomile Island, and spent the time training.
Which meant different things for different members of the group.
"Ready?" May asked Manaphy. "Marill's going to show you something now, all right?"
Manaphy smiled, waving his arms, and May took that as a yes.
"Bubble," she said, and Marill blew out a stream of bubbles.
"It's like that!" she told Manaphy, as the bubble stream floated through the air – not fired out with the same force it would have in a Battle Round – and Manaphy's eyes went wide as some of them landed around him.
He caught one, which popped, then the second one rippled slightly as the bubble wall got thicker. It filled in, becoming a complete ball of water, and Manaphy cheered.
That made it burst, splashing him, and he looked quite cross.
"No!" he said, then turned his gaze to Marill. "More?"
Marill obliged, and this time when Manaphy caught one he was able to fill it with water without losing concentration.
"You're getting good at that," May praised him. "Well done!"
A little way away, Ash was following his own approach to training.
"It's meant to be a mix between attack and defence," he told Quilava. "So just wrapping it around yourself is a good start, but it needs to be a bit flexible as well or it can't react to an enemy getting close."
"I think I get it," Quilava said, but he was still frowning.
"Hold on, maybe this will help," Ash said, and used Razor Wind.
"It's still weird when you do that!" Pikachu called. "I know you've known that move longer than I've known Surf or Electro Ball, but still!"
"Look at how I'm shaping this," Ash told Quilava, as the windstorm rippled around him. "It's protecting me, sure, just because the only way to get to me is to go through it, but I can do this-"
He flicked some of the wind at a tree.
"That doesn't make the Razor Wind go away," he said. "There's still enough of it to defend with, but it's been used as an attack as well."
He stopped, as a Caterpie let itself down on a String Shot.
"Rude!" the Caterpie huffed.
"Sorry," Ash winced. "I should have checked the tree was empty… we'll go over here?"
He, Quilava and Pikachu shuffled awkwardly over to a different part of the forested area, and this time Ash checked with Aura Sight to make sure it was empty.
"So, anyway!" he said. "Think you can give that a go?"
"Yeah," Quilava agreed. "It's like how… when you punch someone, you're attacking them, but it doesn't mean you can't block with your other arm."
"Right!" Ash confirmed.
"How does that analogy work for you?" Pikachu said. "You've got forelegs, not arms."
"You know Pikachu are technically quadrupeds?" Quilava shot back.
Pikachu blinked. "We are?"
He looked back at his tail. "Huh. Maybe I should find Kangaskhan and thank her for not letting me fall into bad habits."
"Or onto your front," Quilava said. "Okay, so… start with Flame Wheel…"
"Finally!"
Ritchie looked up. "Huh?"
"You're the Hoenn Champion, right?" the trainer asked. "I challenge you to a battle!"
Ritchie shook his head. "Not me," he replied. "I'm not the Hoenn Champion."
"But you've got the Pikachu," his prospective opponent said. "I'm pretty sure it is you."
Sparky muttered something. "Pikapi…"
"Yeah, you're thinking of Ash Ketchum," Ritchie agreed. "I'm Ritchie Getem. I didn't actually do the Hoenn Gym Challenge recently."
The challenger looked slightly downcast, then blinked. "Oh, wait, I get it!"
He pointed. "You're a known illusion using Pokémon trainer! This is just part of the challenge!"
"It's really not," Ritchie said. "I can give you a battle if you want, but I'm still not Ash Ketchum."
"Like Getem for Ketchum isn't an obvious cover identity?" the trainer asked, sounding amused. "Come on, let's have this battle!"
"No, sorry, still not getting it," Mightyena sighed. "Can we try again?"
"Of course," Arcanine agreed. "So, what you have to do is to run forwards."
Max's Dark-type nodded. "I've got that bit."
"And you do it… fast."
"Right," Mightyena said. "But that's Quick Attack."
"No, faster than that," Arcanine corrected him. "You do something that's like Quick Attack, only… faster."
Mightyena listened carefully, then shook his head.
"You've lost me."
As they talked, meanwhile, Forretress slowed down from her spin.
"There we go!" she said. "I think that's everything!"
Brock looked at the clearing she'd been practising on.
It was covered with Spikes, both normal ones and Toxic Spikes. There were Stealth Rocks floating around, and the whole thing was covered in Sticky Web, and on top of all of that there were also little nodules of steel.
"That's quite a dangerous place," he said. "I'm impressed that you got that steel one going, especially."
"Mew showed it and it looked easy enough," Forretress told him. "I mean, that wasn't remotely the case, but it's working now so job well done I think!"
"I agree," Brock said. "I think it's a good idea to clean up now, though."
Before Forretress could get started on that, though, Keldeo appeared in a flash of light.
"Oh, hi!" he said, then got hit by everything Forretress had set up at once.
"Oops," Forretress winced.
To his credit, Keldeo was chipper enough once he'd had the web washed off and a Persim berry, and explained that he'd actually just finished rescuing some Pokémon from a landslide and found himself unfortunately in the path of the landslide.
"So I just teleported at random!" he said, brightly. "Really, being hit on the head with a Stealth Rock is better than it would have been if I hadn't teleported out, and I get to say hi to some friends, so it's a win-win all around!"
"Keldeo," Ibid announced, turning into Keldeo. "The Colt Pokémon. You know the rest."
"I guess we do," Ash agreed. "Oh, hey, Keldeo – here's something cool!"
He used Secret Sword.
"We met a Lucario from a thousand years ago, and it turns out I can use Aura!" Ash explained. "So I can use Pokémon attacks without having to actually be an Absol at the time. Neat, huh?"
"That is cool!" Keldeo agreed. "Hey, what about some Secret Sword practice? I could do with that before I try and head home… I'm thinking I keep Teleporting, then going around until I find a map, and if I'm not in Unova I teleport again."
"Sounds like it could work," Ash judged. "And yeah, having some practice sounds fun!"
Brock quietly rescheduled dinner.
The Chrysanthemum Contest came around a few days later, and May had given some careful thought to who to use.
In the end, although she was still young, Eevee asked to be given a go.
"I know you've got other Pokémon who've got more experience," Eevee explained. "But I think I'm ready, though… I might not be the best Pokémon to tell."
She flicked her tail. "It's funny how that works. You need experience to know."
"And you need to try to get experience," May agreed. "I think we've got a good Appeal now, Eevee… what about if we do that, and then if we reach the Battle round it's up to you whether you want to keep going? If not then Squirtle or one of the others can take over."
"That sounds good," Eevee agreed, perking up.
"You know…" Brock said, thinking. "May's picked up a lot from you, Ash, but I think that's one of the most admirable things… it's something I hope I've learned as well. Remembering to let your Pokémon decide things like that, because they can."
"Why wouldn't you?" Ash asked. "I guess sometimes a Pokémon might be over-confident, but unless they'd be hurting themselves it's up to them. They're the ones who are going out and battling."
"Exactly," Brock nodded.
"Oh, goodness me," Raoul Contesta said, not sure whether to lean forwards or back in his seat. "She's got an Eevee now? I wonder what that one's going to be like…"
"I've heard about May Maple, but she's not that unusual, is she?" the local Joy asked. "An Eevee is a cute Pokémon, but…"
"She's travelling around with Ash Ketchum," Contesta said. "So is Brock… whose Eevee, and I did look this one up in the past, was seen in a Johto Contest conjuring spiritual duplicates of all her possible Eeveelutions."
"Don't prejudice the judges," Mr. Sukizo warned. "This Eevee of May's, ah, may be different to Brock's one, but I'm sure they'll be remarkable nonetheless."
Mr. Contesta glanced at him. "Do you get paid for saying that word?"
"Let's begin, Eevee!" May said. "Show them what you can do!"
Eevee lit up in rainbow colours with Flash.
"No, no, I mean it's time to begin our presentation!" May corrected.
Eevee brightened, both visibly perking up and visibly getting brighter, then there was a puff of smoke that cleared to reveal a large, wrapped, box.
The box popped open, and Eevee poked her head out. "Vee?"
"No, no," May said, as the crowd started laughing. "I mean doing our Appeal!"
"Ee-vee!" Eevee said, nodding, and crouched down into the box. She sprang out, did a somersault in the air, and her tail flashed gold as she used Pay Day – flicking more than a hundred coins into the air.
They rose halfway to the ceiling, and Eevee summoned a Razor Wind around herself as she landed. Her tail flicked again, directing the swirling currents skywards, and it caught the coins just as they started to fall.
Her ears sent multicoloured beams of light into the air, flashing around like searchlights which caught the coins and directed little glints across the crowd.
"Stockpile!" May called, and the Razor Wind changed. It switched to a Whirlwind, spread out, then focused back in again and flung all the coins together into the same place.
Eevee used Extremespeed, paws blurring, and stacked them into a pile as they landed. They made a little spiral staircase, and Eevee darted up to the top before planting her paws and inhaling.
Fur flashing a bright orange, she used Noble Roar, and sent a shower of Swift out in all directions as a starburst before having them drop back to the ground.
"I feel like there should have been singing in that one," Brock's Eevee said. "Something about being prepared."
She flicked her tail. "Still! That was fun!"
"What I want to know is what moves she knows," Purrloin mused, scratching her chin with her blade. "She's a versatile, umm…"
The Ghost-type glanced sideways. "What's the word for an Eevee without saying they're an Eevee? You know, like how Nickit and Vulpix are both Foxes?"
"Ibid?" Ash asked.
"Evolution," Ibid stated. "Nickit is the Fox Pokémon. Vulpix is the Fox Pokémon. Eevee is the Evolution Pokémon."
"Versatile fluffball," Purrloin decided.
"Back, Eevee!" May called, and Eevee did a backflip.
That took her out of the way of Brianna's Vibrava, who swept through without landing her Dragon Breath attack, and Brianna shook her head.
"Screech!" she ordered, as Vibrava pulled up and did a flip-and-roll.
"Growth!" May said, glancing at the scoreboard – Brianna's Vibrava had scored a few good hits, so it was a pretty fair Battle Round so far.
Vibrava's wings resonated in a terrible screeching sound, one which made Eevee stagger slightly, but the Normal-type shook it off and used Growth – visibly getting bigger as she used it over and over in quick succession, until she was taller than May was.
"Sand Tomb!" Brianna said. "She can't dodge this time!"
"Whirlwind!" May countered.
Eevee blew out a gust of wind that deflected the sand away, and whirled Vibrava into the air as well – trapping the Dragon-type in the vortex, at least for a moment until Brianna's Pokémon got a hold of herself and broke out of the swirling wind vortex.
"Eevee, Lock on!" May said.
Eevee's ears swivelled, and beams of light came out of them. They twitched back and forth, then illuminated Vibrava as the Dragon-type tried to dodge.
"Now, Horn Drill!" May finished.
Eevee's giant poofy tail flicked up, and a spiral pattern of light began to spin faster and faster on it. The Evolution Pokémon aimed her tail towards Vibrava, and the spiral pattern reached the point it was just a blur – then flashed out at Vibrava and knocked the Dragon-type out of the air.
"Wow!" Brianna gasped, after the Ribbon had been awarded. "That's pretty amazing! I can see why Drew thinks so highly of you."
"He does?" May asked, slightly surprised by that… as much by the idea that Drew would tell someone that, as the idea that it was true at all.
"Yes!" Brianna agreed. "Though… I have to ask what you think of him?"
Before May could respond, Zacian came loping over with Vulpix trotting alongside.
"Eevee?" the Fairy-type said. "I just want you to know… I'm watching you. Growth is fine, but if you end up Dynamaxing or Gigantamaxing…"
AN:
Pikachu are, indeed, quadrupeds according to their Body Type.
You'd never know looking at Ash's Pikachu, unless he's using Agility I suppose.