welcome to chapter twenty-three of my Contestshipping fanfiction about May's journey throughout the Hoenn region and the Kanto Battle Frontier Saga which I have chosen to title 'A Tale of Two Rivals' as a reference to my own ancestor, Charles Dickens', famous book titled 'A Tale of Two Cities'. I'm sorry for those who probably expect this fanfiction to be just like that novel, but the title, and the title alone, is the only reference to that book that this fanfiction has. the storyline of the fanfiction, itself, is really just a minor retelling of IWriteFandomStuff's own fanfiction told from Drew's point of view during May's journey in the far more family-oriented manner that I firmly believe that the anime, itself, had long ago set for its fans to center around their fanfiction. I'm not saying that IWriteFandomStuff doesn't have the creative freedom to write May's story in the series from Drew's point of view, I'm only writing 'A Tale of Two Rivals' because I firmly believe that IWriteFandomStuff could've stood to ease up on the swears in his/her fanfiction that is still 'The Girl With The Red Bandana'. this chapter is a good one-thousand-nine-hundred-eighty-five words worth of total and complete storyline, save for this headnote right here, the disclaimer directly following it, and the confession from yours truly which directly follows the disclaimer. the 'yours truly' in this headnote is me, myself, while the 'yours truly' is the narrator from who's point of view I actually wrote this fanfiction, the man of the contest coordinator's hour, himself, Drew. now, on with the disclaimer...

disclamation: I do not own the Pokémon anime in any way, shape, or form. I do not have any copies of the manga's books. I also don't make a habit out of playing the games, at all. truthfully, I don't even own most of my own fanfiction's storyline right here or in any other one of the chapters present. all rights for the Pokemon games, manga, and anime are reserved for Satoshi Tajiri and the folks of Nintendo, while the ownership rights of this very fanfiction's own storyline are originally reserved for the other blogger on this same website who writes under the penname of IWriteFandomStuff.

just like with all the other chapters of 'A Tale of Two Rivals', I only own the fanfiction in and of itself, and at least, I admit to the sin of copying off of another blogger's writing material. I hope and pray to God on high that admitting to the sin counts for something.

Soledad just continued to watch me as I spoke to her, asking what she thought I was missing in both my life and in my contest routine. As I had said before, my view was painfully focused the entire time she had talked on the mug in my hand. Honestly speaking, I was really just trying to distract myself from exactly what I had continued to hear from Soledad about the girl in the red bandana. I never liked admitting to having been wrong, and I suppose that she was trying to get me to understand the situation this time around. She probably thought it would wind up benefitting me in the end.

Soledad: I think that you're not admitting to having found a rival in May to yourself.

Soledad actually beamed an extremely winning smile at me like I had made some kind of gigantic stride forward in my life and in my coordinating career. She even had the nerve to look at me like she was proud of me for it. I admit that I could only scoff at what Soledad had said about the girl in the red bandana that time. I just felt very somber about it.

Yours Truly: A rival is only the same as an equal.

Just when I thought I had finally won an argument against her, Soledad had actually managed a counterargument against me this time, too.

Soledad: That's not necessarily true. A rival is also someone who inspires you to do better than you'd always felt like you could. They're good at surprising you with new ideas and out of nowhere victories, and they're always pushing you to do better and try to remain one step ahead of they, themselves. They'll also help you out surprisingly by your own actions in giving them some advice from time to time. May has done all these things for you already, and I doubt I'd be surprised to discover that you just might have done a lot of the same things for her in return along the way.

I had furrowed my eyebrows within a highly concentrated expression on my face. I had decided to think a little about it for a second or two with my pursed lips. I started to recite what Soledad had told me about it in my head.

Soledad's voice (from inside my head): A rival is also someone who inspires you to do better than you'd always felt like you could.

I finally realized that that much was certainly true, especially in regards to my own Masquerain which I had caught not long after the Slateport Contest purely for the sake of outdoing the girl in the red bandana and her Beautifly merely by creating a better and brighter Silver Wind than they had ever done.

Soledad's voice (from inside my head, continued): They're good at surprising you with new ideas and out of nowhere victories, and they're always pushing you to do better and try to remain one step ahead of they, themselves.

I suppose that that much was just as true as the other bit of trivia that Soledad had given me about her. The girl in the red bandana had come out and surprised me with her victory that day. She'd been the complete opposite of the girl I had seen in the Slateport City pokémon contest. She'd managed to demonstrate concentration and calmness, she had been such a fierce yet tactical battler. Definitely different from what she had displayed herself as in the Slateport contest.

Then there was the part about the girl in the red bandana having pushed me to do better than normal. Yes, that third sentiment was just as true as the other two. I did show off my prior ribbons to the girl in the red bandana. I had deliberately wanted that May girl to ask me how many ribbons I had obtained prior to the Fallarbor contest. I did it all solely for the sake of drinking in her reaction of shock and just revel in it like she was my favorite coffee drink. Yes, her reaction to my contest ribbons had been that addictive and tempting towards my senses, even before then. I guess I simply did not realize how much I had longed for her reaction to my ribbons.

Soledad's voice (from inside my head, continued): They'll also help you out surprisingly by your own actions in giving them some advice from time to time.

Once again, Soledad's response to my stubbornness was clearly very true. I had explained to her that the true key to winning any, and even every contest, was having a strong connection with one's pokémon partner and being on the exact same wavelength with said pokémon. Of course, I had to use her friend, Ash, for my demonstration, and I had deliberately made it possible for May to have been listening at the time, because although I was talking to everyone who was present on the battlefield of my battle against May's friend at the time, I wanted the girl in the red bandana specifically to have been there to hear it.

Soledad's voice (from within my head, continued): May has done all these things for you already, and I doubt I'd be surprised to discover that you just might have done a lot of the same things for her in return along the way.

I realized just how true that part of Soledad's point about the girl in the red bandana's win against the very same coordinator who had beaten me really was. It was at that very moment that I had suddenly recalled the words that came out of her mouth not long after the Slateport contest.

May's voice (flashback): Next time I won't be the loser.

At the time, of course, I had initially assumed that it was merely an empty, idle trifle of a threat. It was not all that long after the Fallarbor contest, however, that I had finally realized that it was nothing short of a promise and all too real; the girl in the red bandana, herself, was all too real. And I had only responded to her that I would be stronger by then, too. It may have taken me all this time to realize it, but now I know for sure that a part of me had wanted to battle her again… a really, really small part of me. And now, the desire I have to battle her again was stronger than ever before especially considering how well May had handled herself against Grace, who had very easily beaten even me in my match against her.

Every last bit of it made sense above and beyond the highest order; as much as I hated to admit it even to myself, every single word Soledad had said to me about the girl in the red bandana had made the most sense I had ever had in my life. It certainly explained why I had liked so much to rile her up; just seeing that fire in her eyes that I had found myself always wanting to extinguish.

I actually craved a challenge in my pokémon contests since Soledad had chosen not to enter any of the Hoenn contests and before I had ever even seen it happening, the girl in the red bandana had actually managed to come into the picture that was my life. It had not long afterwards seemed to me that she easily became the trigger I needed to kick start the discoveries of any real challenges in my contest career. I still had yet to lose to her directly, but I still did not want, under any possible circumstances, to lose to May at all, in any branch of the contest circuit. Neither on the battle stage nor even in the scoring of the appeal rounds did I want to lose to the girl in the red bandana.

I was slowly beginning to see that May, the girl in the red bandana, had been the curveball I had waited my whole contest year this time around that I had been missing since Soledad had told me the awful news that she was not going to enter the Hoenn contest circuit like she had the prior year. May had become both an inspiration for me to try harder and keep pushing myself forwards even more and my own recovery from Soledad backing out of the Hoenn contest circuit this year.

I could barely believe it. Was the girl in the red bandana really my new Soledad?

I really did need to finish my chamomile tea at the time and get to bed, though. Even while I thought long and hard about the possibility of May being my newest rival, I had never actually managed to remove my eyes from the mug of tea which still remained unfinished within my hands. I had stared at my tea mug for even longer than I had realized. I probably even burnt a hole into the mug in my hands solely with just how I was concentrated on it. Soledad had been watching me for several minutes, most likely wondering just what I was thinking of while I had stared at my drink and sat in complete and total stillness as a war of my thoughts stirred and raged from within my brain.

Of course, I knew that Soledad had little to no idea just what I was thinking exactly at the time, but she looked as though she knew that I had probably been slowly yet surely coming to terms with the possibility of the girl in the red bandana being my newest rival. She was probably even judging the possibility of such thoughts running around my head solely by the occasional twitch in my right eye that I was not even aware of at the time. That is to say that I was not aware of it at all until when next Soledad began speaking to me about it.

It was a few moments afterwards before Soledad had begun speaking to me about it, however. I supposed that it was just her following the rule of not speaking until you're spoken to, though. Then again, she also waited for me to turn to face her direction or even acknowledge the screen so as not to let the video phone's feed stall out. I bet that she found all of this from all too amusing; to see me, the Great Drew Hayden, at such a loss for words.

It was not until the ten-minute mark that I had finally at least blinked a few times and I had snapped back into action after a whole ten minutes. I instantly downed my chamomile tea drink from my mug only to discover that it had gone from my ideal hot to a less than pleasant Luke-warm and finally to a perfectly horrid icicle cold. My face had twisted with regret and disgust as a result of what I had downed past my throat.

Soledad noticed this.

Soledad: You keep making weird faces, Drew. Exactly what are you even drinking?

I was a little hesitant to admit what I had been drinking even since the beginning of that very video phone call.

Yours Truly: Chamomile tea.

Soledad suddenly quirked her eyebrow upwards.

Soledad: Do you like it, Drew?

Yours Truly: It's… it's alright for a non-caffeinated drink.

It was then that Soledad smirked at me about it.

Soledad: See, didn't I tell you it was good to try new things?

I no longer needed to hear this from her.

Yours Truly: Please. Do just shut it, Soledad, will ya?