"I've been wondering," Ash admitted, looking to his left. "How have you found travelling with us so far? You seem to do a lot of watching things unfold."

Whitney's Stantler shimmered into visibility. "I have," he confirmed. "It's because… there's a lot to know about how the world now is and how Pokémon trainers now work, and I don't want to miss potentially important details."

"Are you sure that it is an optimal course of action to observe Ash and his group?" Zygarde queried. "Ash Ketchum is many things, but normal is not one of them."

"It's not?" Ash asked.

"That's exactly why this is the right group for me," Stantler said. "I know a lot about what Pokémon and Pokémon trainers used to be like. I want to get some idea of the changes, and the bits that are at the extreme end of what is possible."

"In that case, you are likely in the right place," Zygarde concluded. "Thank you for explaining. I aim to keep track of the preferences of all group members."

"You do?" Ash asked. "Like what?"

"Whether you like cookies," Zygarde said, as an example.

They were entering a town as they went, and Dawn pointed ahead. "Hey, look – is that Zoey?"

"It looks like her to me," Pikachu said, watching as Zoey's Glameow dodged back and forth before darting in and swiping at a Mismagius. "I wonder why they're battling?"

"Does there have to be a reason for a Pokémon battle beyond wanting a Pokémon battle?" Ash asked.

"True," Pikachu conceded immediately.

"Hey, wait a moment…" Dawn frowned. "I recognize that woman Zoey is battling. I think that's Fantina."

"Fantina?" Whitney repeated. "You mean the Gym Leader?"

"I mean the Top Coordinator, Fantina," Dawn said. "She won the Grand Festival a few years ago, I think."

"It's kind of funny that you have two good trainers in Sinnoh with the same name," Buneary said.

As it turned out, there weren't two good trainers in Sinnoh with the same name. There was one good trainer in Sinnoh with the same name, that name being Fantina, and she'd gone from Top Coordinator to becoming a Gym Leader.

"In that case," Whitney said, then put her hands on her hips and did her best attempt at a cross look. "What do you think you were doing, abandoning your gym like that? Gym Leaders have a job to do!"

"Ah, well, you see…" Fantina began, looking faintly embarrassed. "I started out as a Coordinator, and I became Top Coordinator, but running a gym… it is different, you see? And trainers began defeating me in rematches, and I felt that I had to make my own style or I could not be a good Gym Leader in the first place."

Whitney considered that, nodding to herself, then took her hands off her hips. "Okay, that's understandable, but you still should have sorted out someone to handle the Gym Challenge while you weren't there."

Fantina frowned. "But, the gym is not very old, so surely it is as it was before Hearthome Gym was set up? Would that not mean there was not a problem, unless there was a problem before?"

Clefairy came out of her Pokéball with a flash of white light. "Le problème est que votre défi existe et qu'il crée des attentes, et lorsque les gens ne peuvent pas relever le défi, cela cause des problèmes."

"Ah, I see!" Fantina said, her expression clearing. "Yes, I imagine that makes sense… it does not resolve my problem, of course, but it explains why you are upset. I had not thought of that… merci!"

Clefairy bowed. "Pas de problème."

"If you have trouble getting someone to take over your gym while you're not there, why not just ask Agatha from the Kanto and Johto Elite Four?" Ash asked. "I can't remember if she's semi-retired now or not, but she's probably got enough free time to take it over if the Elite Four here in Sinnoh are all busy, and she's even got the right Type."

"There you go!" Whitney beamed. "And that way Ash could have had his Gym Challenge in Hearthome!"

She put her finger on her lips. "Though I guess Ash did beat Agatha already… hmm, how does that work? Do you get the badge automatically?"

In Celestic Town, Dawn had the welcome news that there was a Contest there in a couple of days.

There was also a fashion store, which they went into to see if there was anything there that any of the friends wanted, and to Dawn's surprise the shop owner – a woman called Lila – came out and had a look at her.

"I thought so!" Lila said. "You must be Johanna's daughter, right?"

"That's me," Dawn agreed. "How did you know?"

"Oh, I used to be her Contest rival, you see!" Lila explained. "I was the first person to ever defeat her in a Contest battle! But… well, once I did, she was still so happy about it even after losing, and I realized I'd never quite had the same passion for Contests."

Lila shook her head. "That made me wonder if doing Contests was really where I wanted to take my career, and I had a bit of a re-think… it's why I became a Pokémon Stylist. I actually talked to Johanna about the offer I got, and she said that it was exactly what I'd be good at. It's been twenty years since I last did one."

"I think I remember something about that," Dawn admitted, frowning as she thought back. "Wait, are you the one who designed outfits for Wallace?"

"Aha!" Lila said, with a smile. "Yes, that's me. And it's gone quite well, don't you think?"

"It's always great to do what you're good at," Whitney agreed. "Especially if you enjoy it. If you're good at it, and you enjoy it, then the only thing you still need to worry about is making sure that you're not overloading yourself… and I guess that's not what's going on with you, right?"

"No, not at all," Lila agreed. "But I suppose you're here for the Contest?"

Dawn appeared to think about that question for a lot longer than Lila would have expected.

"Well," she began. "I was wondering about getting a new outfit, so I think that… yes, I am here for the Contest."

"I meant Celestic Town," Lila corrected her. "But, well, I can certainly help you with a new outfit! More than one of my designs was made to suit Johanna, you see, and I think that with just a little adjustment one might work well for you. How does that sound?"

Dawn liked the sound of it a lot, and was then floored when Lila said that the outfit would be free of charge.

Lila said to think of it as her favour to Johanna, then winked, and said that on top of that seeing Dawn doing her Contests on television had made her remember the times she had enjoyed doing Contests… so Dawn would be competing against Lila in the Celestic Contest, as well.

"So is that a favour to Dawn's mom as well?" Ash asked.

"I think it's more like her chance to get revenge on behalf of her mother," Lila replied, with a wink. "Seriously, though, I hope I do end up facing you, Dawn – I'd love to get a feel for how your style works."

"Ah, this should be interesting!" Mr. Sukizo said, as the Celestic Contest kicked off. "It seems that Dawn has a new Pokémon. Let's see what she does with it."

"Is it with it, or with them, for a Pokémon you don't know the gender of?" Joy asked. "Is there a way we're meant to talk about it?"

"I… don't actually know," Mr. Sukizo admitted. "I tend to go with what makes sense… ah, here we go!"

Dawn opened up by ordering her Swinub to use Dig, and the Ice-type vanished underground.

"That's a risky move, you know," Contesta said. "Even if her Pokémon has moves planned that will show off, the point is to show off the Pokémon as much as the moves. If not more so."

He leaned forward. "Still, let's see what she does with it."

"Scald!" Dawn called, and a puff of steaming water burst out of the ground – rising up like a geyser, spraying hot droplets and steam. "Freeze-Dry!"

The second move made the water instantly try to freeze and vanish at the same time, and punched up through the core of the hot-water plume. It turned the column of rising air and water into a column of ice shards and snowflakes, hanging there for a moment like mist, then faded away into the air.

"Quite an impressive combination," Mr. Sukizo noted. "But we're still going to wait and see if-"

Before he finished his caution, Dawn was already giving orders again. "Water Spout!"

"Are we even commenting on how few of those moves Swinub is supposed to get?" Joy checked.

"Only in terms of style points," Contesta replied.

"Now, Scald and Freeze-Dry!" Dawn said, and this time the result was entirely different.

The plume of water and steam and snow that rose up was coming all at once, rather than discrete. There was a lot of water from the Water Spout buffering it, and the combination of moves meant that there was a massive cloud of almost invisibly tiny glittery diamond-dust rising up, but most critically of all Dawn's Swinub was riding the stream – using the upwards current it represented to ascend into the air in the middle of the arena, with ice-refracted sunlight all around him, and he hovered there for four or five seconds before the geyser he'd set up underground had fully discharged and he dropped back to the ground.

"Well," Joy said, after a moment. "I think that means her Pokémon has shown off properly!"

"So, does Nickit count as your protege, at this point?" Silver asked. "Or, trainee? Student? Apprentice? There's all these words and they seem to have a slightly different definition."

"Well, I did consider making her an apprentice who has to steal something from me before she graduates," Marshadow replied. "The problem is that the only thing I could think of that would be appropriately thematic to steal is my skill with Spectral Thief."

He took a long drink of his soda. "And you can see why that would be a bad idea."

"Yep!" Silver agreed.

He focused, and took some popcorn out of the popcorn bucket with Extrasensory.

"What about if instead you ask her to steal something minor from you, and the fact she can do it is what means she's graduated? Like, um, a pebble?"

"That would be too easy," Marshadow denied, as Silver crunched down on the popcorn. "That would just require normal Thief. If I was doing that, I'd be having her steal something either more abstract or much more difficult to steal under normal circumstances, but which I could still take back."

He considered. "My Fighting type, perhaps?"

Out on the Contest floor, Lila's Delcatty used Shock Wave and sent out a wave of electrical energy. It pulsed out along the floor rather than just going straight towards Nickit, and the Dark-type jumped up only for the ring to spike upwards and catch her.

"Ouch!" she yipped.

"Go for it, Nickit!" Dawn called, and Nickit paced around in a circle for a bit before breaking into a loping run and swiping out with her tail. A splash of water came off it, slapping into Lila's Delcatty, and he yowled before stopping and looking confused.

"Why did she do that?" Silver checked.

"Soak," Marshadow replied. "Spectral Thief is a Ghost type move, so she needs a way to force a Normal type to not be one any more."

"Ooh," Silver said, interested. "I hadn't thought of that! Do you know Soak too, then?"

"I stole it a while ago," Marshadow confirmed. "Tapu Fini kindly donated it."

"Now, Spectral Thief!" Dawn ordered.

Nickit rubbed her paws together for a moment, then advanced.

"So, what actually happened there?" Lila asked. "I take it something went a bit wrong."

"Nickit used Spectral Thief, and stole Delcatty's Ability," Dawn replied. "Problem is, she's still… a bit new with it."

She looked down at the Pokéball that held her Dark-type. "So she's kind of infatuated with her own tail at the moment… it'll wear off, apparently."

Lila chuckled. "I'm not sure if that counts as my defeating you or you defeating yourself," she admitted. "When you get the chance, say hello to your mother for me, please?"

AN:

It's technically borrowing, because the other Pokémon gets it back.