The contests continue! What performances will we see? Giselle and Olivia will take the stage in this one, and there should be some surprises in store, that's for sure!

Rosealine gold: Now I wonder what she'll dress up as if she did. Full punk wardrobe I would guess.

KedharS: Just wait, you haven't even seen her next level contest strats.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 445

In the end, Olivia got a score of 26 for her performance with Twilight. At first, Cynthia was disappointed thinking that wasn't a very impressive score out of 30 compared to the performance she'd put on. But then Lila explained to her that anything scoring a 25 or higher would be at the level of Master Rank already, so a 26 in a Hyper Rank contest was a phenomenal score. And indeed, none of the other three contestants even got to 25, all their scores being in the low 20s. Olivia quite handedly achieved victory in her first contest of the day, accepting the ribbons for both herself and Twilight with a flourish, the crowd cheering her wildly.

Maddi had watched Olivia's performance very closely herself. She was hoping that seeing the Empress in a contest would give her a little more insight into her abilities, and she wasn't disappointed. She had heard that the Empress, while an excellent coordinator, was completely incompetent at pokemon battles. Maddi wasn't convinced. The Empress quite clearly knew her pokemon's talents and how to use their moves in coordination with each other.

Is she really bad at battling? Or is she just faking? Maddi asked herself. Sango said that she was "bad at battling" but she just lacked experience. Maddi wasn't sure if she really believed that anyone could be inherently bad at battling…

"Maddi?"

Maddi was snapped out of her thoughts by Cynthia, who was staring at her. While she had been thinking, the lights in the stadium had turned on, and everyone was getting up to leave, including Sango, Lila, and Darla, who were all staring expectantly at her.

"S-Sorry," Maddi said, her cheeks turning a little bit pink. "I was just… lost in thought, is all."

"Makes sense, an excellent contest performance like that is certainly to leave one awed!" Lila gushed. "Did you see how wonderful that Rapidash was?!"

Lila held her hand over her forehead and swooned. "Ah, I wish I could catch one for myself…"

"Cynthia, you're staying here, right?" Sango asked, glancing over at Cynthia.

"Yup," Cynthia said, nodding. Aud yipped in agreement. "Giselle's going to be coming up next, and I'm gonna cheer as loud as I can for her."

"Maddi, you staying too?" Sango asked.

"…No, I'll go check out the Empress's next performance, too," Maddi said, getting up out of her chair, Grim floating after her.

Cynthia leaned back in her chair and sighed, picturing what she had seen. A dopey smile passed her face. She had dismissed pokemon contests as not being that interesting, but what she had just seen, well, that was something alright. She wasn't so intrigued enough to consider switching from battles to contests (battles were clearly loads better in her mind) but she acknowledged that she was wrong to judge it without even trying it.

Maybe when all this was over, Giselle could show her the ropes.

She watched the same performance as before as the next contest began, squirming eagerly in her seat as she waited for Giselle to come out.

"…And Number Four, Giselle and Beauty!"

Giselle walked out onto the stage in a silver-blue cherry-blossom cheongsam with her hair tied up in a bun, with a hairpin holding it in place. She was made up in a beautiful traditional style, and she walked out onto the stage alone. She held up a pokeball, and flung it into the air. From the pokeball, a long pokemon emerged, a Milotic. Her scales were shining beautifully, and long antenna trailed down elegantly, shimmering in the light. As she fanned her tail, the spread fin fluttered brightly, the crowd "ooh"ing and "aw"ing at the sight of the pokemon.

Cynthia stared in awe at the beautiful Milotic. Giselle had named her aptly. She knew all about them, of course. One of the rarest pokemon in the world, on account of Feebas' scarcity, and the difficulty of raising them up into evolution. She had seen pictures and videos, of course, but they were nothing like looking at the real thing before her eyes.

Needless to say, Giselle placed in first with her Milotic, meaning she would be the first to make an appeal.

The appeal started with something a little more exciting than Olivia's. The stage began to shift. A two cracks appeared in the center, and the stage parted down the middle, leaving a single walkway out to a small platform right in the center of the stage. Flooded with light, Giselle strutted down the catwalk, which hung over a pool of swishing water. Cynthia squinted. She could see something dark moving around in the water beneath Giselle's feet. When Giselle reached the platform in the center, Beauty burst from the water, throwing her head back and letting her wet scales glisten. The audience let out another chorus of murmurs.

Giselle raised her hand, and lowered it, Beauty diving into the water again. She then moved her hand to the side, and Beauty leapt from the water, soaring over the walkway in front of Giselle, diving into the other side of the pool. Giselle moved her other hand, Beauty leaping back.

Cynthia's eyes widened in excitement. She couldn't see clearly enough, but it was obvious that Giselle was guiding Beauty with her hand motions. When she moved her hand in a sweeping motion on the left, Beauty moved along the left. A sweep over, and she jumped. Raising her hand, she emerged from the water. But Beauty couldn't see her movements from below, which meant that this was a performance that they had clearly been practicing for so long both coordinator and pokemon could move in perfect synchronicity. It was so elegant it was breathtaking, even though the Milotic was only using the move dive, and nothing else.

Then, Giselle brought her hands together in a fierce clap, startling the audience. Beauty leapt from the water, soaring much higher than on her past jumps.

"Milotic!" Beauty called, water swirling around her in a series of rings as she used aqua ring, flinging droplets all around her as she coasted over Giselle's head. As she did, clouds gathered above the stage, out of sight of the audience, and a light rain began to fall. So controlled was the rain dance that not a single drop landed on Giselle, the platform surrounded by a perfect ring of water.

Beauty landed in the water with a splash, and then slithered up onto the platform, circling around Giselle like the most beautiful snake Cynthia had ever seen, her wet scales shimmering like a rainbow as she drew closer to her partner. The clouds began to gather in around her, but before the rain could hit Giselle and ruin her outfit, it was stopped by a barrier of light. Beauty had created a safeguard to protect herself and her trainer from the effects of the rain, the growing intensity of the downpour resulting in countless shimmers and ripples of color across the forcefield, bathing them both in a rainbow curtain, which only grew larger and larger as the safeguard expanded.

Cynthia squinted her eyes, trying to see closer. She was only a few rows from the stage, but between the heavy rainfall and the safeguard, she couldn't make out anything going on behind the curtain of light.

Then, a shockwave of ice erupted from the center of the storm, shattering the safeguard and freezing the rain solid, dispersing the rainclouds. The stage was flooded with light again, the frozen droplets of rain glistening in the spotlights as they snowed down on Giselle and Beauty, an aurora hovering above the stage as they cast rainbows over the competitors.

Cynthia gasped in awe, and shouted wildly, applauding the spectacle along with countless others. Giselle bowed to the audience and then turned to the judges and bowed to them, as well, waiting for her score to be calculated.

After a few minutes of deliberation, she was assigned the score "23". It was a very high score, though not as high as Olivia's. Cynthia gulped, hoping it would be enough for Giselle to seize the win. She applauded even louder, calling out Giselle's name. Aud's yips of approval were drowned out, but she was still as excited as her trainer.

Meanwhile, across the contest hall, Olivia was performing in the Toughness Contest alongside her Grapploct, Benny. She had traded in her princess dress for a cool and sexy kunoichi outfit, her blonde hair tied back in a long ponytail.

"What's she going to do?" Maddi asked, interested in what Olivia had planned for this performance. The theme was "Toughness" so she expected something amazing to come from the octopus pokemon, but even if he was a fighting type he just didn't seem all that tough. She couldn't see any muscle at all. "That Grapploct… is it that strong?"

"There are other ways to show toughness," Darla replied. "Didn't you see the other competing pokemon?"

She had, and that's what had made her interested. She'd seen a Machamp, a Hariyama, a Primeape, all pokemon that screamed toughness, all bulging with muscle and bulk.

"Alright, Benny, let's start with a work-up!" Olivia cheered, pumping her fist in the air. Now that was something Sango found amusing. Before, in the Beauty Contest, Olivia had carried herself much like she always did, as an elegant and classy figure. Now, though, Olivia was acting more like Cynthia, or Marion, or even Sango herself. Pumped up and excited, overflowing with exuberance.

"Grap!" Benny's tentacles began flexing and writhing, and he clenched them, demonstrating various poses as he pumped himself up, inflating his body to seem even bigger. In this contest, Olivia was coming from a losing position. Whereas in the Beauty Contest she had won handily with a large lead early on, Benny's lack of obvious muscle made him place fourth in the Introduction Round. He would have to come up with something really good to show off.

"That should be enough! Let's go!" Olivia cheered, she reached her hand into the plunging cleavage of her "way too skimpy to be practical" cosplay, and withdrew some balls, apparently made out of solid steel, each about the size of a compressed pokeball. "The first!"

Olivia threw one of the balls up into the air. Benny's head shot up and his cheeks inflated, and he fired a compressed shot of black ink from his mouth. It was octazooka attack! But unlike a normal octazooka, which resembled a blast of ink, this one moved so fast it was almost impossible to be seen. It was faster than a bullet, hitting the iron ball, knocking it out of the air, piercing straight through it like a needle through a ball of dough.

"Whoa! Shit!" Sango gasped, surprised. It might not have been caught by most of the audience, but she could definitely see the near-perfect hole shot through the center of the ball. The precision and strength needed to make a shot like that was unbelievable, and it brought out a cheer from her, along with Lila and Darla.

Olivia grinned, and flung three balls into the air this time. Benny fired three more octazookas, three more pinpoint bullseyes. The crowd was still silent at large, but not the same way they were before. The tension in the room was palpable now, people were on the edge of their seats. Benny was showing them all a different kind of Toughness, the Toughness that came from intense control and focus, rather than brute strength, and that was a fascinating sight that Toughness fans usually didn't see.

Olivia reached into her outfit again, and this time, pulled out a thin, shining coin. She stepped to the edge of the stage and held it up, showing it off to the audience so they understood what they were seeing. It was a 5 yen coin.

Olivia turned, and flipped the coin up into the air, the coin spinning quickly. Benny spit out another octazooka, but this time, when it hit the coin it didn't move it at all. The coin fell back down, and Olivia snatched it out of the air. She turned and held it up again, the spotlight shining down on it. Sango could see some ink slashed around the inner ring of the coin. Benny had fired his octazooka with such pinpoint accuracy that he had shot right through the hole in the coin without altering its trajectory at all. Sango's jaw dropped.

Maddi was stunned. That much control and power she'd seen, and Olivia still expected her to believe that her pokemon couldn't fight?

Olivia tucked the coin away and leaned forward, showing off her figure to the audience with a flirty wink. She held her hands up together and made a hand sign straight out of Naruto, and disappeared in a cloud of smoke, replaced with a massive log as tall as she was, much to the audience's surprise.

"Substitution Jutsu? Seriously?" Sango groaned, rolling her eyes.

"Just watch, this is great!" Darla shushed her, smiling eagerly.

"Grapploct!" Benny lumbered towards the lumber, raising his tentacles. He reached out and engulfed the log in a tight squeeze. His tentacles moved and surged as he covered it, and Sango realized… he was molding the log! That's what those movements were!

Benny moved back and presented his work. A life-size statue of Olivia, holding her hand up in a victory sign.

"…Tentacle rape," Maddi whispered, Darla bursting out laughing.

To everyone's surprise, Olivia stepped out from behind the statue and made an identical pose to the statue, equal reflections of their appearance, but one made of wood.

The crowd broke out into applause, celebrating Olivia's performance, Sango and even Maddi among them. Her Grapploct may not have had brute muscle, but his demonstration of controlled strength showed just how tough he really was.

After the performances, Cynthia met up with the others outside. And she was joined by Giselle.

"You were amazing!" Cynthia gushed. "If you ask me, those judges were dumb! Your performance was even better than Olivia's!"

"N-No, I'm not that good!" Giselle stuttered, her face flushed. But she still wore the victory ribbon pinned to her chest (she had changed out of her outfit) as a badge of pride for her success.

"How did the Empress do?!" Giselle asked, eagerly changing the subject as she turned back to the girls. "Did she-"

"She won, of course," Lukas interrupted, walking up to them with a grin on his face. "Quite a performance, if I do say so myself. But her next contest, though… that's going to be one to see, I promise."

"The Cuteness Contest is next, right?" Sango remembered. "That should be an interesting one."

Lukas smirked.

"Oh, you have no idea," Olivia called out. She strolled towards them in her casual white dress, paparazzi flooding after her. She flashed a wink to the cameras, and then turned to Giselle. She noted the girl's ribbon.

"Congratulations, Giselle," Olivia said, holding out her hand to her compatriot. "I'm sorry I missed it, but your and Beauty's performance must have been amazing."

Giselle, blown away, took Olivia's hand, her face lighting up with joy at being noticed by her senpai. She shook it eagerly.

"Be sure to watch my Cuteness Contest," Olivia said, both to her friends and to the cameras. "I'll be employing one of my all-time favorite performances, The North Wind and Sun. Be sure to catch it, it's going to be my third victory of the day!"

Olivia walked towards the Cuteness Contest Hall and the changing rooms, the reporters and cameramen following after her.

"Come on guys, let's find some good seats before it fills up," Lukas said. The seven of them headed towards the audience entrance, when they finally ran into Violet, who had been missing all day. She was chatting up the attendant, but she didn't seem to be gaining much traction.

"Red!" Cynthia called from the doorway. "You coming?"

Violet glanced up and saw Darla and Lila heading into the hall, her face lighting up. She turned back to the attendant and said "let's finish this later," running after her sister.

This time, Lila and Darla sat next to each other, so that Lila could serve as a barrier between Violet and Darla. She didn't mind Violet's attention, it was actually quite flattering, and the girl was a delight to talk to, even if there wasn't an attraction there. Cynthia didn't want to sit next to her sister so Sango took that bullet, but Maddi claimed the other seat beside her before Cynthia could sit there. Cynthia ended up sitting between Giselle and Lukas, which wasn't so bad, even if Lukas was a bit of an annoyance with how flirty he was. Hopefully he'd keep quiet for the performance.

"Hiya, everyone!" The lights dimmed and a spotlight shown on the stage, a woman dressed in a pink outfit identical to Hotaru's standing in the center. "I'm your MC, Mami, host of the Stage 2 Cuteness Contests!"

Her spiel was identical to Hotaru's, so Cynthia began to tune it out, having already heard it twice. Apparently, contests had a lot of redundancy, which she found to be a little bit boring.

"Now, here are our four competitors! Number One! Milly and Bun-Bun!" Mami announced. A young girl, maybe even a middle schooler, flounced out onstage. She had brown hair in pigtails and wore a frilly white dress, and a Buneary plodded after her, smiling with big eyes at the audience, who let out a chorus of "aww"s. Even Maddi grinned. Her cotton was so soft and fluffy it looked like she was covered in clouds.

"Next! Number Two! Lucille and Mara!"

A blonde woman in a fancy gothic dress that would make Sylvia envious walked out onto the stage, twirling a parasol over her shoulder. An adorable Skitty pranced out after her, her fur fluffy and shining. She let out an adorable "Skitty" purr, more coos and grins and murmurs ringing out among the crowd. Then she yawned. Even more cheers.

"Number Three, Lola and Zuzu!"

A woman in a skimpy bikini walked out onto the stage, a beauty that made Cynthia and Violet both let out a whistle at her curvy figure and tan skin, her curly black locks fell down her back, dark and wet like she'd just come out of the water, and beside her bounced an adorable Azurill, who wobbled after her trainer on her small tail float, struggling to catch up. She slipped and rolled, letting out a yelp, picking herself back up. Lola stopped and knelt down next to her, comforting the small pokemon as she cried. The show of affection won over the crowd, even more cheers of appreciation and support for the baby pokemon and her swimmer trainer.

"And finally, Number Four! Olivia and Ren!"

This was what Cynthia was looking forward to. Olivia had said that her Slowbro was the pokemon she used for Cuteness Contests. But Cynthia didn't understand how. She believed that her Pikachu would be the better choice. But no, Olivia walked out onstage, all eyes on her and the cute and flouncy pink dress she wore, all frills and lace like it came straight out of Lila's closet. But the real sight was the pokemon waddling beside her, her dopey-looking Galarian Slowbro, Ren.

Even Mami was stunned, her professional guise slipping for a moment as she looked at the pokemon. Clearly, this was a first for her, she'd never seen a pokemon like that before participating in a Cuteness Contest.

Clearly, the audience hadn't, either. They were dead silent. Cynthia could feel the confusion and discomfort emanating out. The judges weren't that receptive, either.

And indeed, when the introductions ended, Olivia trailed far, far behind the others. Sango, Maddi, and Cynthia all had absolutely no idea what her game was, using a pokemon like that in a contest like this. Was she mental?

And yet, even as the audience and the judges let their silence do the talking, Olivia wore a cute smile on her face, like she didn't have a care in the world.

What is she thinking? Was the collective thought going through all three girls' heads.

What could Olivia have planned? More contest performances to come, don't worry!