"And next up, we have Dawn!" the Lilypad Contest announcer announced, which was sort of the point of having her really.
"It's a little odd that she does so well in afternoon Contests, given her name is Dawn," Mr. Contesta said.
"It is her name," Mr. Sukizo countered. "It's not like she could have a different one, now, is it?"
"I'm joking," Contesta told him. "The time of day doesn't really matter for a Contest, usually. Now, let's see… oh, my word!"
Dawn had chosen Riolu for this Appeal, and the young Fighting-type landed with a roll before thrusting both palms up into the air and sending out a spike of Aura – one which burst into a shower of sparks.
"Quite an appearance," Contesta observed. "Now, let's see how her Appeal goes."
"Okay, Riolu, you know what to do!" Dawn said. "Open with Flash!"
Dawn's Riolu gathered blue light between his paws and flicked them upwards, producing a pulse of sparks like a firework, then did a twirl and sent the same cascade of sparks flying out in all directions. That was followed up with a forwards flip, and this time the sparks were green, not blue – and when Riolu completed his roll, he sent up a tower of light that trailed sparks like a rocket.
It burst overhead, and Riolu sent palm strikes out to both sides, then halfway between left/right and overhead. Each one was accompanied by a yellow light display, and Mr. Contesta leaned forwards.
"I think I see," he said. "Riolu is being a fireworks display. Don't you think?"
"I agree," Nurse Joy nodded, as Riolu imitated a Catherine Wheel. "It's not what I would have expected, but it certainly looks good."
"Time for a change, Riolu!" Dawn ordered. "Now let's see a real magic trick!"
Riolu raised both paws, now, each one glittering with Aura and showers of rainbow light, and slapped them together to produce a loud bang and a flare that dazzled the audience for a moment.
When it faded, instead of Riolu there was a small star-patterned pointy hat on the ground.
"...I imagine you must get this question a lot," Nurse Joy said. "But how do we score an Appeal when we have no idea what just happened?"
"Usually, we judge it on appearance," Mr. Sukizo answered. "If that helps."
"It does, thank you," Joy said.
Dawn was walking over to the hat, and after a moment she picked it up.
Underneath was a very small Riolu, who did a very small bow.
"Ah, I see," Mr. Sukizo said, knowingly. "Or, I think I do. Riolu Minimized himself, and was carrying the hat somehow… perhaps folded up somewhere? Wrapped around his arm inside out, so the pattern didn't show?"
He raised his hands. "Either way, quite a display of control and skill!"
"Pichu, use Thunderbolt!" Dawn called, during the Battle Round.
"Protect!" her opponent said, and his Tyrogue raised both fists in a protective stance. A three-ringed barrier appeared around the Fighting-type as his Protect manifested, with a certain spin to it, and the crowd went oooh appreciatively at the decorative defensive move.
Pichu's ear sparked, and she threw out a Thunderbolt – but it only got halfway to Tyrogue. Before hitting his Protect shield, it stopped in mid-air, completely still, with the sparks and light pattern that made it up absolutely frozen in place without any movement whatsoever.
"What?" Tyrogue's trainer asked, baffled. "What just happened?"
The Protect fizzled out, timing out after being held for too long, and Pichu flicked her tail. The Thunderbolt continued on the path it had been following, and hit Tyrogue with a whang.
"How does that even work?" the trainer demanded. "You can't just stop an attack like that!"
"He says that like there isn't a statue of Dialga outside," Pichu observed, then jumped into the air.
Tyrogue wound up a Vacuum Wave to hit her as she was about to land, making a big production of the wind-up, but Pichu froze in place for a second and that attack missed as well.
"Oh, come on!" Dawn's opponent said. "How is that Pichu doing that?"
"I could do that, if I wanted," Shaymintwo said. "I just don't see the need to do that with Roar of Time."
"I can see why she does it, though," Aten replied. "She can't take a hit very well, and her individual attacks aren't strong… but moving them around in time can be a big help."
He shook his head. "And now I'm commenting on performance art. What have I become?"
Shaymintwo looked at him.
"I suspect the most obvious answer here is 'a Zorua'," he said. "But what do I know?"
Dawn came away from the Contest with her fifth Ribbon, which had her ready to take part in the Grand Festival, though she said she was very glad that you could still perform in Contests even once that happened.
"I wouldn't want to lose my touch," she said, giving Cyndaquil a scratch which had the little Pokémon chirring in delight. "Plus, I'd want to make sure that Cyndaquil has a chance to do some Appeals or Battling on stage before the Grand Festival – going straight to something like that might be a bit much for a young Pokémon."
"That's a good point," Whitney agreed, as Dawn kept scratching Cyndaquil in the same place – prompting him to start giggling, then outright laughing out loud.
Lyra frowned. "So what happens if you win, again?"
"The highest placed person who doesn't already have enough Ribbons to get into the Grand Festival earns one," Dawn answered. "So, to Sunyshore – and wherever is on the way?"
"Not really," Ash replied. "Not yet, anyway. We went straight to the Contest Hall once we reached town, but there was something else I heard about here which was interesting… is that okay?"
"It's fine!" Dawn agreed. "So, what is this interesting thing?"
"Oh, I think I know," Khoury realized. "I saw it in the guide book. It's that shrine, right?"
Ash nodded. "Yeah, there's a shrine to the Dragons of Creation, and this one's still being used. It's really nice, because we've seen all those old temples but it's nice for them to know their work's still being appreciated today."
When they actually got there, though, Ash started frowning.
"Is something wrong?" one of the other visitors asked.
"Oh, just… it's good that they've got Dialga and Palkia here," Ash replied. "But what about Giratina? I feel like he deserves it too, right?"
The visitor looked entirely out of his depth. "Uh… I suppose so? I never really thought about it before?"
"That's no good," Whitney said. "I bet it matters to Giratina."
"We could ask him?" Ash suggested, getting his bag down off his back.
"I'm, uh… this is not what I was expecting," the visitor admitted, as Ash tilted his mirror and Giratina's reflection appeared on it.
"I'm getting the feeling that being around Ash isn't what most people expect," Khoury said. "Except maybe Dawn, Whitney, and their Pokémon, because they mostly just seem to enjoy it."
"It's a lot of fun, you have to admit," Rapidash said.
It turned out that there was a Giratina statue in the basement, which was thematically appropriate even if it did mean that most people never actually noticed that part of the shrine, and after a battle in the old arena – Dawn and Ash against Khoury and Lyra – the two young Johtonians said goodbye and Ash, Dawn and Whitney returned to their journey.
"Did I ever tell you about the time I taught a Riolu?" Zacian asked, looking at Dawn's Fighting-type. "It is a most peculiar story."
"It is?" Riolu replied. "Well, you're one of Ash's Pokémon, so… did they evolve into a Lucario straight away?"
"No, and part of the peculiar thing about it is that it never happened," Zacian told him. "But it happened, and then it never had… I said it was peculiar."
"You did warn me that, yes," Riolu agreed.
The two of them walked alongside one another for several more seconds.
"What was the rest of the peculiar bit?" Riolu asked.
"Well, I was teaching him martial arts, but he didn't use a sword and I don't know any two-legged martial arts," Zacian replied. "I'm a little unsure on the details of how we were doing that, Dialga was involved."
Then, quite suddenly, Giratina was looming overhead with a foot raised.
"Hi, Giratina!" Ash called. "Is something wrong?"
"Maybe there's something wrong with his foot?" Whitney suggested. "He might have hurt himself."
"No, I know what's going on," Dawn said. "Didn't you mention once that the Griseous Orb lets Giratina go into Origin Form while he's outside the Reverse World? Well, that one doesn't have feet, and the Altered Form has feet, so if he's showing off his foot then that might mean he's missing the Orb."
"Is that it?" Ash asked Giratina.
Giratina seemed completely unready for this situation, and sort of wiggled his foot instead of answering.
"Hmm," Ash mused. "What do you think, Zacian? Any ideas?"
"I think I have an idea," Zacian said, and used Sacred Sword.
The glowing golden sword she'd conjured flew through the air flat-first, and went whack on a suddenly quite dazed Murkrow as Giratina vanished.
"Oh, yeah, that would do it," Ash said. "I thought it might be an illusion, but it's sometimes a bit tricky asking about those."
Once he'd recovered, the Murkrow took Ash and the others to see his trainer.
It was a bit of a long story, and Rapidash had to do plenty of translating, but Murkrow's trainer Mitchell wanted to defeat his sister Rhyanna and had been training in the mountains to get to the point where he could defeat her.
Rhyanna, meanwhile, wanted to use a Dusk Stone to evolve her Misdreavus into a Mismagius, but Mitchell just took that as Rhyanna wanting to ensure that Mitchell couldn't beat her no matter what he tried. And it had all turned into a family argument, until Murkrow had got so worked up that he'd gone off to play pranks on random travellers to let off steam.
"Oh, I get it," Zorua said. "So what's going on is that you need to make better pranks! The trick is to make your illusions less believable."
"...sorry?" Murkrow asked. "I'm not sure I follow."
"You need to know your audience!" Zorua explained. "To us, having Giratina show up is so believable it's not scary. That's the kind of thing I mean."
"How could I possibly know that?" Murkrow said. "I thought if anything Giratina showing up out of nowhere would be completely impossible to prepare for!"
"Why would that be?" Zorua blinked, then flicked his tail. "Anyway! The first thing you're going to want to do is…"
"Should we be concerned?" Zacian asked, glancing up at her trainer with amusement.
"I don't think so, not really," Ash replied. "Besides, if I think it's happening again, I'll just sort it out so I'm Mega Ashbsol… I think I have Magic Bounce like that."
"Found two!" Phanpy said, waving something in her trunk.
"Found two?" Mitchell repeated. "Two of what?"
"Oh, I heard you were arguing about a Dusk Stone!" Phanpy explained. "So I found two of them! Now you can have one and your sister can have one! Or if you'd rather then if one of you doesn't want to evolve your Pokémon, you can have a spare!"
She tilted her head. "Murkrow evolve with Dusk Stones, right?"
"Yeah, they do," Mitchell admitted. "I, uh… I don't really know what to say. Thanks, I guess?"
"That's a good start!" Phanpy nodded. "But really, you should take the other one to your sister! Then maybe you can talk about whether you'd want to both evolve your Pokémon or neither of you evolve them, and maybe take the chance to talk to your Pokémon to see what they think."
She scratched her head. "Or I could go looking for some Mismagiusite. Or Honchkrowite. Do you think either of those exists?"
By the end of the day, Mitchell and his sister had reconciled out of sheer bafflement.
AN:
Is it called sleight of paw, if you're a Riolu?