"Well, here we are," Cynthia's Lucario said. "Hearthome City."

"That's right," Cynthia agreed. "Which is going to mean the Ghost Type for Ash, from the gym here, and there's a Contest for Dawn… and there's a Tag Battle Tournament they sometimes run here as well, which is always interesting to watch."

"You haven't taken part?" Ash said.

"I did once," Cynthia replied. "Thing is, the Tag Battle Tournament pairs up the participants into teams randomly, and after I took part once they banned me."

"That doesn't seem very fair," Latias said.

"Honestly, it was hilarious and very gratifying," Lucario answered. "I think it took longer for Cynthia to choose who to use in each round than for all of our battles put together."

"So… how soon is the Contest, actually?" Dawn asked. "I do know who I'm using for that, but those are scheduled and Gyms aren't."

She fiddled with her phone. "I never realized quite how convenient it was to have Iron Leaves texting me reminders for everything until I got back here… ah, here we go, it's tomorrow morning, and registry has to be by six PM today."

Latias looked up at the sky, then shook herself.

"Sorry, I forgot, you've got a watch," she said.

Dawn hadn't understood, but got the gist, and chuckled. "Yeah, we've got hours until I need to be there… so let's start with the Gym."

"Sounds great!" Ash agreed. "Which way's Hearthome Gym?"

Hearthome Gym wasn't far, but when they got there there was an unexpected but familiar face outside.

"Ah, good day to you!" Nando said, with a little bow. "I take it you're here to take the Gym Challenge?"

"That's right!" Ash agreed. "Or, well… I am, Cynthia's already got the badge here, and I don't think Dawn is."

"It depends how antsy Samurott is," Dawn replied.

"A Samurott?" Nando asked. "Interesting. And you seem to have changed the most out of all of us, since last we met. But, alas, there will be no Gym Battles here today."

He stepped aside, revealing a poster on the door, and Ash trotted forwards to read it.

"I am on a journey to refine my style," he read. "Please, do not look for me, I will return in my own good time."

He frowned, then looked thoughtful.

"Huh," he summarized.

"She didn't tell me about that," Cynthia said. "Though it could be that the message is somewhere in my office, I haven't been back there in ages because of my own journey so I can't really complain."

"I was thinking about what happened with Brock and Misty," Ash volunteered. "They both travelled with me for a while, but they made sure that there was someone else to take care of their gym while they were gone. So it's not the same, but… I can get wanting to refine your style."

"It normally is bad manners to just leave your gym without having someone else to take care of it, but it's only bad manners not anything else," Cynthia said. "Since there's more than eight gyms for exactly this reason."

She looked at Ash, curious. "You look like you're still thinking."

"This is going to be about what Cerulean Gym was like before, isn't it?" Pikachu asked.

"Kind of?" Ash replied. "I was thinking about the Kanto gyms, because when I was on my journey several of them had problems… the Cerulean Gym Leaders, not Misty but the other ones, were giving away badges, and Sabrina was… turning people into dolls, I guess?"

Nando looked worried. "I hope that none of the gyms in Sinnoh are like that."

"I hope Sabrina isn't like that any more," Cynthia added. "Otherwise I might need to go down there with Spiritomb and have a word with her."

"No, she's fine now," Ash said. "I got help from a Haunter who made her laugh."

Nando took that in, then shrugged.

"Well," he said. "I'm sure it won't pose an insurmountable problem! There are other gyms."

"Yeah, but it really would be good to get this badge because I don't have the Ghost type yet," Ash said. "Oh well, I guess if the Gym Leader here isn't here then she isn't here… we can go and get Dawn's Contest entry sorted out, right?"

Dawn and Nando went together to register for the Contest, and met both Zoey and Kenny there.

Zoey seemed a bit offended by the idea that someone would do Contests and the Gym Challenge, rather than just one or the other, but eventually shrugged it off and everything got sorted out – then, overnight, Dawn made sure that the Pokémon that were going to be taking part were ready.

One of those Pokémon in particular felt nervous, and Dawn patted him on the head.

"Don't worry, Chimchar," she said. "However it works out, I won't mind."

"But what if I go to pieces?" Chimchar fretted. "I could mess up and you'd be really upset!"

"Don't worry," Dawn repeated. "However it works out, I won't mind."

"But…" Chimchar began, not sure what he was going to say, and Dawn smiled.

"I'm just going to say the same thing, okay?" she asked. "Chimchar, I know this is your first time. And that's fine. Most people who take part in a Contest don't win – I hope we do, but if it doesn't happen then I'll understand."

Chimchar nodded.

"I just don't want to let you down," he said.

"Don't worry, Chimchar," Dawn said. "However it works out-"

Then she had to stop, because Chimchar was having a sudden fit of the giggles.

The next day, in the Appeal round, Chimchar was too busy to worry.

He was working with Sneasel, and she'd focused on getting Shadow Claw worked out instead of Shadow Ball precisely so they could work together – just as his focus had been on refining his Fire Spin, turning it from a tornado into something that was a little weaker and a lot better controlled.

To his own amazement, he'd done it. It had been hard to learn, but – he'd done it, producing just what Dawn had wanted.

Dawn had been much easier to learn from than Paul. Chimchar still wasn't sure if that was something to do with Chimchar, or Paul, or Dawn, but out on the Contest stage he was mostly just happy with the result.

His Fire Spin wasn't a tornado to use to attack someone. It was a flaming ribbon, one he could use to make patterns and weave around and dance, and Sneasel could dance along with him as she used Shadow Claw to slice and trim away parts of it and make it shorter.

By the end, Chimchar was panting with effort. But the crowd was applauding, and he heaved out a happy sigh.

Maybe this was working.

"I think Chimchar was happier doing that than you were, sib," Miraidon said.

They tilted their head. "Was that all right? I was inspired by our younger brother and sister to try attempting it. I hope that sib is a good shortened form of sibling."

"I enjoyed it," Mew assured them, currently sitting neatly on Miraidon's head as a Dark-type Zorua.

Zorua was sitting next to them, as a Ghost-type Zorua. The whole thing had been Zorua's idea, because he thought it would make a good disguise.

"And… I think I know what you mean," Mew went on, watching as the Battle Rounds began. "For me it was… for me it was being able to use my skills to do something new, and to do it with dad, but for Chimchar… it was both of those things, plus being able to know he was good at something."

Mew flicked their tail, twining a paw into it. "I think that's what Chimchar has been missing. And – and I think I'd already been able to understand that I was good at something."

"Yeah," Ash agreed, softly. "I think you're right."

He didn't say anything else, because talking about Mew's programmer would just have soured the mood, but… Doctor Yung had probably been even worse for Mew's self-confidence than Paul had been for Chimchar's.

But Mewtwo – and Ash, he thought – had helped heal that side of Mew. And just being able to do that… Ash felt like that was one of the most important things he'd done.

Out on the stage for the Battle Round, Nando sent out both his Pokémon – his Roselia, and a Kricketune he'd also used for the Appeals – then bowed.

Roselia did the same, and so did Kricketune, then they straightened up to face Dawn's two much smaller Pokémon – Piplup and Turtwig.

"I hope that this is a fine experience," Nando said.

"I agree," Dawn replied.

They both looked over at the master of ceremonies, and she gave a one-two-three count before calling for the Battle Round to start.

"Sunny Day," Nando said. "Swords Dance!"

Roselia did a twirl, and Kricketune combined a twirl and a dance, moving quickly around his teammate as they both powered up. While that was still going on, though, Dawn pointed forwards.

"Razor Leaf," she said. "Piplup, Whirlpool and Bide!"

Turtwig fired out a stream of Razor Leaf attacks, and Nando called for Swords Dance again. His Kricketune stopped in place, forearms blurring, and deflected away the Razor Leaf attacks with a shwing-shwiiing that sent them flying off in fragments.

The audience went ooh, appreciatively, and Dawn frowned slightly.

"Combine Solar Beam and X-Scissor!" Nando said, as soon as Turtwig's barrage faded.

Roselia raised both flowers, and fired beams of light at Kricketune. The Bug-type held his arms out behind him, glowing as they charged up X-Scissor, then the glow got brighter as red and blue Solarbeams poured into the blades.

"Get out of the way of that attack, Turtwig!" Dawn said. "Piplup, unleash energy and block with Peck!"

The Whirlpool detonated, sending water splattering around the arena, and Piplup lit his beak. He blocked two blows from Kricktune, then three, and Nando strummed his harp slightly.

"Poison Sting!" he said. "Kricketune, boost Roselia!"

Kricketune stepped back, one arm out behind him, and offered it as a springboard. Roselia jumped onto the arm and Kricketune flung the Grass-type high into the air, giving more than enough height to let them target Turtwig over Piplup, and Dawn called for Synthesis as the Poison Sting hit home.

"Razor Leaf and Bubblebeam, split up to the side," she ordered, once the attack had finished landing, and waited until Kricketune was deflecting away the stream of attacks from both of her Pokémon – kept under pressure so much that the Bug-type couldn't retaliate.

Then she waited a bit longer, until Nando called for a Solar Beam.

"Earth Power!" Dawn said, gesturing, and Turtwig hurried to join Piplup before launching his attack. It went past Piplup and Kricketune to hit Roselia, knocking the Poison-type about, but the Solarbeam had hit Piplup as well and sent him wobbling a bit.

"Turtwig, keep it up!" Dawn called. "Piplup, Whirlpool for defence and close in to use Peck!"

"Is Dawn okay?" Latias asked, as the battle continued. "Something about how this is going feels weird."

"Yeah, you're right," Ash said, looking at the score. "She's losing, but it doesn't feel like she's losing."

Cynthia made a hmmm noise, then snapped her fingers.

"I think I know what it is," she replied.

"Bullet Seed!" Nando said.

"Tough it out, Piplup!" Dawn replied. "Just get close enough, and then – Peck!"

Piplup grimaced, doing his best to endure the barrage of Bullet Seed attacks, and as he slid forwards Turtwig hit him with an Earth Power to boost him forwards.

That got him close enough to Roselia, and he flipped upright in the same motion as he used Peck. The whole momentum of his charge came with the attack, and he knocked Roselia flipping head-over-heels to crash to the floor.

"Great!" Dawn said. "Now, both of you focus on-"

The bell went, and Dawn blinked for a moment.

Then looked up at the scoreboard, which showed that Nando had won on points.

"...oh," she said. "Right..."

"...it's weird," Dawn admitted, over lunch. "Because I grew up with Contests everywhere, but – well, I guess that all that time in Hisui made it so I'm not used to them any more."

"I did wonder about that," Cynthia replied. "Ash noticed something was wrong, but I don't think he noticed what before I did."

She pointed at Ash, then herself. "Both of us, at least, were seeing you battling well but losing on points. But that's what the problem was – you were battling well, but Nando was scoring points well."

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I didn't realize what I was missing because I don't think Contest… it just seemed normal to me.

Dawn groaned, putting her head in her hands.

"Thinking back over the battle round, I kept making that kind of mistake, huh?" she mumbled through her palms. "Piplup and Turtwig were able to handle the actual battling, which is really great of them, but I let them down…"

There was a flash of white, as Chimchar came out of his Pokéball.

"Huh?" Dawn asked.

"Don't worry, Dawn," Chimchar said. "However it worked out, we won't mind."

Dawn frowned, thinking, then smiled.

"Were you saying what I think you were?" she asked.

"How could Chimchar know what-" Miraidon began, puzzled, then Chimchar nodded and Dawn gave him a hug.

"I guess we all need a reminder of that sometimes, huh?" she asked. "Thanks, Chimchar."

AN:

Appeals are learned, but Battle Rounds require improv, and Dawn's a bit too practiced at the wrong kind of improv at the moment.