"And… three!" Ash said, slashing his hand down, and Dartrix sent a shower of half-a-dozen leafy feather-blades whipping out from his wings towards Litten.

The Fire-type dodged to the side, two of them hitting her anyway and prompting her to set herself on fire, and she skidded to a halt.

"How did you do that, exactly?" she asked. "That was weird."

"It's about firing a spread!" Dartrix explained. "I send some of them towards where you're going now, and some of them towards where you might end up if you change your mind."

He shrugged his wings. "I don't always guess right, but when I do it's a real hoot!"

"I'm now even more sure you do that on purpose," Litten grumbled. "Is that it for those tests?"

"That's right," Ash agreed. "Is there something you wanted to work on yourself, by the way?"

"Hmm," Litten said, considering. "I'd really like a chance to see where I'm aiming. I want to evolve, all the way, and it's been a while since I had a really good look at an Incineroar – or even a Torracat."

"Well, there is that Masked Royal guy who sometimes turns up on TV," Pikachu said. "He's got an Incineroar."

"Yeah, that would be good," Ash decided. "Maybe we can challenge him or something. You could take part or watch, up to-"

"Take part," Litten interrupted. "That sounds just like what I'm after!"

"Checking availability," Arc stated. "The Masked Royal is available at the Battle Royal dome tomorrow."

"Oh, yeah, that's that thing where…" Ash frowned, trying to remember. "Four Pokémon in one arena, and the last one standing is the winner?"

He crouched down. "Litten?"

Litten looked up attentively. "Yeah?"

"Don't take this as an insult, or anything," he said. "But I want to make sure you're okay with the idea that you might end up beaten. Maybe not even by Incineroar, depending on what the arena is like."

Litten nodded. "I get the idea, Ash," she said firmly. "This is so I can tell what I need to learn. If I win, great, but if I don't… I'll just have an idea of how much more chance there is for me to get stronger."

She shrugged. "That or we get contacted before the battle to learn what the kayfabe is. Either or."

"What's kayfabe?" Lycanroc asked.

"Oh, um… how to explain it," Litten began. "You know what Contests are, right?"

"Nope!" Lycanroc replied. "Not in any great detail!"

"Then… imagine if there was a battle, right?" Litten began.

"On it!" Lycanroc replied.

"But the people who were in the battle already knew roughly what was going to happen, who was gong to win, and what they were going to do," Litten went on. "It was scripted ahead of time."

"...no, I think you've lost me…"

Regardless of whether or not Lycanroc grasped the basic concept, they still wanted to come and watch what might or might not be a battle with kayfabe, and the next day Litten challenged the Masked Royal's Incineroar.

Then Ash did it on her behalf because that way it was easier to tell what was being said.

"Huh, it's funny to see a Litten again," the Incineroar mused, looking down at her. "Mostly just hard to believe I ever used to be that tiny."

"All right, we accept!" the Masked Royal declared. "But a Battle Royal has to have four competitors, not two! Who else will step into the ring?"

Fortunately, Kukui's class was there – it wasn't a school day – and Kiawe asked Turtonator and Marowak, before deciding that Marowak seemed more interested and entering her. For his part, Sophocles considered his own team and then said that he was much more sure that Charjabug could evolve than Togedemaru, so Charjabug should get some experience.

"It's sort of funny how many of our Pokémon are weak to an Incineroar," Lillie noticed.

Then the Battle Royal began, and Litten paced forwards.

"Shadow Bone!" Kiawe called.

"Charjabug, Discharge!" Sophocles commanded.

"Suplex!" Ash decided.

"What kind of move is suplex?" Sophocles asked, then watched as Litten did her level best to suplex Incineroar despite the drastic difference in size and leverage. "Wow, that's not a move I've seen before but it's pretty cool."

"A four way battle is hard to keep track of," Lycanroc decided, as they watched. "Even though all three of the others are focusing on Incineroar, it's not really a three on one battle. They all have to watch out for everyone else, and if one Pokémon has a big lead then they're more likely to focus on that one just to stop them being in a dominant position."

"Yeah, that's about what I think too – look out behind you!" Ash interrupted himself, and Litten dodged to the side while setting herself on fire. It sort of worked to give her a boost, but then Incineroar kicked her up into the air.

"String Shot Litten!" Sophocles said. "Reel yourselves together – now, let go and Discharge!"

Charjabug went off like an electrical bomb next to Incineroar, who grunted before shaking off the impact, and the Masked Royal pointed flamboyantly.

"Now, Darkest Lariat!" he said.

Darkest Lariat was aimed not at Litten or Charjabug, but at the easiest of the three Pokémon Incineroar was battling to actually Lariat in the first place. Marowak was by far the best choice for the move to target, being tall enough for Incineroar to hit with his arm, and the Dark-type slammed them both into the ground before twisting over to hold Marowak in a pin on top of him.

Litten cleared her throat, then jumped into the air.

"Corkscrew shooting star press!" she announced, and phased straight through Marowak to hit Incineroar underneath in what was presumably some kind of Flying Press equivalent.

"Ooh, nice," the Masked Royal declared. "Just what I was expecting from you! Incineroar, Bulk Up!"

"So, was that like you thought?" Ash asked, after the battle.

"Yeah," Litten agreed, nodding. "I think I need a better mobility move when I'm not battling alongside Lycanroc or someone like that, though."

She shook herself out, took a few steps, and fell over.

"It would be very helpful if I had a way to not be thrown through the roof," she added, a bit more indistinctly.

"Pay attention," Shaymintwo advised, and began trotting along.

"Right, so, move along the sand," Litten replied, with a nod. "Following you so far."

Shaymintwo's paws caught fire.

"Okay-" Litten went on, turning to keep Shamyintwo in view, then quickly found herself turning around as fast as she could just to keep the Grass-type in view. His flame-skating turned a wider and wider circle, and Litten wobbled a bit before sitting down firmly.

"Were you paying attention?" Shaymintwo asked, skidding to a halt. "I hope you were."

"I saw your paws catch fire, then after that it got a bit confusing," Litten admitted. "And now the world's spinning a bit."

"I guess learning it all in one go isn't working so well, so let's try something else," Ash suggested. "Dartrix, this is going to be a good test of your accuracy, too, actually."

"Is he going to his me with quills again?" Litten asked, as Dartrix perked up.

"Not really, but almost," Ash said. "What's actually going to happen is that you'll be hitting the quills, or going just past them. And Dartrix is going to be flying overhead, putting down markers for where you should be. If we get this right, it's going to be a new quill each time you pass the previous one, but if you're not going fast enough there's going to be several quills stuck in the sand."

"I think I get it!" Dartrix said.

"Then what about if we make it a race?" Shaymintwo asked. "That way Litten has extra encouragement."

About an hour later, Shaymintwo had S-ranked the course and begun doing it backwards, while Litten's time was steadily improving and Ash had moved her on to the next step – which was her setting herself on fire and running through each of the quills.

"Dartrix is doing great at getting the time right!" Ash said. "And you're getting faster every time, so let's see it again!"

Dartrix flapped his wing, sending a pair of quills out, and Litten started running.

She aimed right at her quill, set herself on fire, and ran through it just as Dartrix sent two more down. Another pair, and another, and Litten was actually managing to keep up with Shaymintwo.

Admittedly he was still going backwards, but still.

Then she lit herself up again to go through the next quill, and hit two at once.

"All right!" Ash said. "Great work, Litten, that's Flame Charge!"

"Phew!" the Fire-type said, skidding to a halt with relief. "That was not easy."

"Now let's try doing it in the air!" Ash added. "How do you want to get up there?"

Litten's ears flicked. "Well… I suppose I did ask for more aerial mobility, so I should have known this would happen…"

"Aha!"

The Masked Royal came over one of the nearby sand dunes. "I heard the sound of Pokémon Training, and I wondered if it was you!"

"Hi, Professor!" Ash replied.

The Masked Royal froze for a moment, then laughed. "What do you mean, Professor?"

"I didn't tell anyone back at the Battle Royal dome, don't worry," Ash said. "I didn't know you were a wrestler, but it made a lot of sense once I saw you doing it – it's like how Hawlucha wears a mask to separate the different parts of his identity, and it also makes sense of how we never really see your Pokémon team around the house because you don't want to associate the Masked Royal with yourself, right?"

He waved his hand. "Plus your aura's kind of familiar. And of course your Pokémon form when you took the potion was a Hawlucha, which was just confirmation. Anyway, it's great to see you!"

"...well," the Masked Kukui said. "I suppose I should have expected that from you, Ash… but I came to see how Litten was getting on, actually."

"We've got Flame Charge down, now we just need to test flying Flame Charge to give Litten aerial mobility!" Ash replied. "It's a lot like normal Flame Charge but you just do the boosting effect without being able to rely on paw movement… actually, Litten, if Incineroar's your rival, what about if he throws you into the air and your motivation is to get revenge?"

Litten's tail began lashing. "That would be good… though I think I'm about to test if cats really do land on their feet."

"I did have an idea about that," Ash replied, reaching for his belt. "Salazzle, can you make clouds of Lansat smoke? That way if Litten falls too fast she can ignite one and bounce herself off it…"

Incineroar sent himself out.

"Is this a bad sign for masked heroism?" he asked.

"I don't think it's a bad sign for masked heroism," Ash frowned. "People keep saying I notice things that they don't. But Litten also told us about something called kayfabe where people know the truth but don't talk about it, so that could work too…"

As it happened, at no point that evening did Litten get her Flame Charge rocket-boost right.

Torracat did, though, because apparently bouncing around between three different Lansat clouds in succession was good for her aerial ability or something.

AN:

Ash is observant, if the thing which is to be observed matters.