Once the dust had cleared from the Battle Royale, sixteen trainers had gone through to the knockout rounds.
A random generator assigned everyone to their brackets, and then the matches began.
"This is one advantage of the Manalo Conference, actually," Kukui said, watching as Mysterious Hero J and his Wobbuffet battled Mysterious Heroine J and her Muk in between complaints about the random brackets. "You see, many League Conferences have dozens – even hundreds – of battles. The Indigo Conference had two hundred and fifty-six in the most recent one, and that's… well, impossible to fit in one day, or even two or three. But because of the way that the Battle Royale reduces it down to just sixteen trainers, there's only seventeen matches counting the third-fourth playoff. And that can fit in a day."
"Isn't that also possibly a disadvantage, though?" Lusamine asked. "I suppose it does stop the tournament arc from being bogged down and taking up too many episodes, but don't you think it means there's not enough chances for people to shine?"
"It is tricky, yes," Kukui agreed. "Depending how people think of how the first Manalo Conference goes, we might change that or leave it the same… this is the first time, and the priority is really making it an Alolan Experience."
"I can understand that," Lusamine agreed. "It's about making sure that it offers proper development for everyone's character, because building character is what the Island Challenge is about."
Incineroar pointed at another colour.
"Purple," Kukui reported. "Really, Incineroar, you don't need to be insulting, I thought Lusamine had a good point made quite concisely."
The Fire-type folded his arms and huffed.
"And… it looks like Muk has tried hugging Wobbuffet!" Lusamine pointed out.
Wobbuffet used Counter, which hit Muk and bounced off him to hit Wobbuffet again.
Kukui put his hands over his ears, then there was a loud explosion and Muk went everywhere.
Incineroar pointed at his chart again.
"Purple," Kukui said. "Oh, I see. Well, good point then!"
"Let's do this!" Ash declared, facing up against his Round of 16 opponent – Hau. "I hope one of us wins!"
"...what?" Hau asked. "Isn't that… guaranteed to happen?"
"Well, it could be a draw, and that would be okay too," Ash said. "But I mean more that, if I win, that's nice, but if you win it's nice too. So I'll be happy either way, and I'm trying to reflect that."
"I can never tell if you're really deep or really shallow, or both," Hau admitted.
"Both trainers, send out your Pokémon, or whatever," Nanu invited.
Hau sent out his Decidueye, and Ash sent out Dartrix.
"Oh, this battle should be fun," Dartrix said, fluttering forwards, and he and Decidueye did a wing-bump. "No hard feelings, right?"
"Not at all," Decidueye confirmed.
"Okay, begin," Nanu told them.
"Sunny Day!" Dartrix promptly announced, flicking his wing and shooting a pair of blade quills into the sky, and they lit up with a brilliant light that amplified the sunlight nearby.
Also, Nebby came out of his Dream Ball.
"Don't mind me," he requested. "I'm just being the Sunny Day."
"Spirit Shackle!" Hau ordered.
"Block with Leafage!" Ash replied, prompting Dartrix to shoot down the arrow Decidueye launched with his own blade quill.
Then Dartrix fired a Wing Attack blade quill at Decidueye, who shot it down with a Spirit Shackle, and after that there were a lot of feathers flying in both directions – which quickly became all directions, as the two Pokémon took off and started trying to flank one another.
"That's quite a battle," Lusamine said. "I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything else from a battle between two Rowlet-line Pokémon, but… at the same time, I'm honestly impressed that Ash's Dartrix is able to keep up without running out of feathers."
"I'm not an expert," Kukui began, then stopped himself. "Actually, no, sorry. I am an expert. Anyway, as an expert, I think what's going on is that both Pokémon are being recharged by the Sunny Day. However, since Dartrix would normally be at a disadvantage, by cancelling that out it's giving him an advantage. If you… see what I mean."
Incineroar pushed a new colour sheet over, pointing at one of them, and Kukui leaned over.
"No, but I think someone is about to use a Z-move," he read, then blinked. "That's a colour?"
Incineroar responded by pointing to another one.
"Apparently," Kukui said. "Well, they must be running out of names…"
"Let's do this, Decidueye!" Hau called, striking the poses for the Ghost-type. "Sinister Arrow Raid!"
Decidueye sprang into the air, spreading his wings, and two dozen spectral arrows appeared around him.
"Counterattack them, Dartrix!" Ash called. "Aerial Ace!"
Dartrix bathed himself in sunlight, then flicked his wing, and fired out a single blade quill.
Just one… but one which went zipping up and hit one of the spectral arrows around Decidueye.
Then it turned around and came back, hitting another one.
Decidueye launched all the other arrows forwards, hoping to hit Dartrix before the Aerial Ace blade quill destroyed all his ammunition, and in response Dartrix flicked both wings at once – prompting the blade quill to accelerate to a blur that wrote a whirling calligraphy pattern around Decidueye's attack.
Not a single arrow made it through.
"Now, Brave Bird!" Ash added.
Dartrix flung forwards another blade quill, and this time it hit the panting Decidueye hard enough to knock him backwards into the shield protecting the crowd.
Like most modern Leagues, the Manalo Conference was ready for that kind of thing.
"...shouldn't that have hurt Dartrix as well?" Hau asked, as he waited to see if Decidueye was going to be able to keep up the fight.
"Why?" Dartrix asked, curious. "It's not like I collided with anything."
Once the rest of the round-of-16 matches were over, it was straight into the quarter finals, and Kukui leaned over his microphone.
"So, first we have… Ash Ketchum!" he said. "I'm sure plenty of you know who Ash Ketchum is, but to summarize, no, we don't know what's up with him either but he's certainly enthusiastic!"
"Absolutely," Lusamine agreed. "I've never met anyone with quite such a mixed team of rare Pokémon, each individually having rare attacks… and yet, it's his not-rare Pokémon which sometimes seem to be the most startling."
Kukui considered that, then nodded. "I'd say that's fair!"
He looked over at Incineroar, who was holding up some paint cans. "Thistle… bee… bisque," he read off. "Oh, no, there's a sign saying use the second b as an R… this'll be risky. I agree, thank you Incineroar!"
"Is that sign language?" Lusamine checked.
"I think it's a rebus," Kukui replied. "And, facing him, one of the most puzzling challengers of this year's competition, who just beat his (presumably) partner (presumably) just the round before! Mysterious Hero… eh?"
They looked at the other side of the stadium, where there was no sign of any mysterious hero.
Then there was a crack of smoke bombs, a whistle of wind, and spotlights focused into the smoke from an invisible source about ten feet off the ground as rose petals rained down all over the arena.
"Was that my announcement?" Mysterious Hero J asked, long red hair fluttering in the smoke and breeze. "What a lovely sound~!"
"He's here to win!" added Mysterious Heroine J, arms crossed next to Mysterious Hero J. "And he's not joking around!"
"With power, style and grace, no mere copy could compare!" the Mysterious Hero added. "Victory for justice, earned and fair! Mysterious Hero: J!"
Mysterious Heroine J flourished not one but two roses, one in each hand. "Cheering from the sidelines, here as a moral support! No need to rub it in, I'm trying to be a good sport! Mysterious heroine: J!"
"It's all for one, and this time, only one!" a Meowth added, swinging on a trapeze that didn't seem to have any actual support. "But no hard feelings when you're out of the run! Mascot Meowth™!"
He lowered his voice slightly. "Totally unrelated to any other talking Meowths you might know."
Mysterious Hero J sent out a Pokémon. "I can't lose with a Pikachu by my side!"
The other two struck poses. "That's ri- HEY! And what about us!"
"I'm not a-" Mimikyu began, then groaned. "Ahh, forget it…"
Ash sent out Lycanroc, and the Rock-type waved. "Afternoon!"
They tilted their head. "So… can I just check something before we get started?"
"I have so many possible answers to that question," Mimikyu replied. "But… go ahead, I suppose."
"What Pokémon do you identify as?" Lycanrock asked. "Also, while I'm at it, what gender tags do you use, and same question about your trainer."
"I'm a Mimikyu," Mimikyu said. "Despite what my trainer insists. She's… possibly crazy."
"Oh, I know the feeling," Lycanroc replied. "And what about-"
"Begin!" Hala instructed, and Lycanroc used Stealth Rock to take off.
"Thunderbolt!" Mysterious Hero J ordered.
Mimikyu muttered something unprintable, and threw a Thunderbolt from under their disguise at Lyranroc. The Rock-type shielded themselves with a pair of Stealth Rocks, then retaliated with a definitionally quick Accelerock, and Mimikyu threw Shadow Balls in Lycanroc's direction.
"Now, Thunder That Breaks The Earth!" Mysterious Hero J commanded.
Mimikyu used Wood Hammer.
"Wow!" Mascot Meowth gasped. "Look at dat!"
"Yeah!" Mysterious Heroine J agreed, unfolding a fan. "It really does Break The Earth!"
"I literally could not do anything that would make you people think I wasn't a Pikachu, right?" Mimikyu asked, as Lycanroc levered themselves out of the ground and shook their fur out – still immaculate thanks to some Rock Polishing. "You thought I was his Pikachu for weeks, I'm not even binary let alone male!"
"Oh!" Lycanroc said, interested. "Enby against enby battle, neat. Also, Stealth Rock!"
Their fur glowed.
Mimikyu frowned. "So… where's the rock?"
They looked around, then back at Lycanroc.
Who was, now they thought about it, a lot less… animate then they'd been a moment ago.
"Oh, fascinating!" Kukui said, leaning forwards. "That's a novel use of Stealth Rock, which is – yes, unless I'm mistaken Lycanroc has replaced themselves with a decoy statue and used that to take up a new position!"
"Don't you think that saying it out loud like that is going to give away the plan?" Lusamine asked. "Isn't that interfering with the outcome of the battle?"
"It could be," Kukui replied. "But, then again, I think the assumption is that anyone doing commenting is going to be vaguely capable of following what's going on. And it reduces the chance that someone will win by doing something someone else didn't even realize was possible – though, with Ash in the tournament, it does not entirely eliminate it."
Down on the arena, Mimikyu picked up the statue and got ready to hit Lycanroc very hard with it as soon as the Rock-type surfaced from wherever they were hiding.
Which was when Lycanroc revealed that actually they'd covered themselves with a coating of desert varnish and they'd been inside the statue all along, using Bite to snag one of Mimikyu's arms and whip them into the air.
Mimikyu then responded by using Play Rough with Lycanroc, so it was quite an even exchange all things considered.
"That was great, Lycanroc!" Ash said, fifteen minutes later. "How are you feeling?"
"Ouch," Lycanroc summarized, lying on their back three inches off the ground. "I am feeling ouch."
That was fair enough, because most of the arena was covered in Lycanroc-shaped and -sized craters, where Mimikyu had worked off what looked like about six months' worth of accumulated frustration using the Rock-type as a big canine punching bag.
It had definitely been a demonstration of Playing Rough, Wood Hammering, Flinging and on one occasion Lets Snuggle Forevering, which didn't verb well, while Lycanroc had fought back by throwing most of the broken-off bits of the arena at their opponent.
"So…" Hala began. "I can tell Lycanroc is still able to do something because they're still floating. What about your, uh. Mimikyu?"
"Pikachu," Mysterious Hero J corrected.
Lycanroc tensed, because this exact same scenario had led to a revival from Mimikyu three times already, but after a long pause Hala shook his head.
"Mysterious Hero J's Pokémon is unable to battle," he said. "Ash Ketchum is the winner!"
AN:
Motto help from a friend of mine.