Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Pokémon: Sinnoh no Isekai
Chapter forty: Lily of the Valley Conference, round one
It was just after dawn started to break over Sunyshore City when Ash and Brock walked out of the Pokémon Center, with Ash having heard Dawn and Kenny coming in. Sure enough, the boys saw the reborn trainers fly in on Palkia and Giratina, getting off of their respective legendary dragons before recalling them. "So, how is Maylene's Lucario doing?" Ash asked, looking concerned, "I trust that he is going to be making a full recovery?"
Dawn and Kenny looked to one another, then to Ash and Brock as Dawn, wearing relieved expressions on their faces before they both nodded their heads in the affirmative. Both Ash and Brock let out relieved sighs, but Ash was especially relieved. "...Paul really got lucky here given he's still trying to clean his act up," Ash began, "If the worst should of happened..."
"Oh totally," Kenny agreed, "It would of set him back major time on his redemption arc if Maylene's Lucario ended up having to go six feet under."
Brock turned to look at Dawn. "How's Maylene doing?"
"After..." Dawn began, "...After the Nurse Joy in Veilstone City had given her the good news, Maylene cried out of sheer relief that her Lucario had made it. Of course, Maylene's still upset that her Lucario has to be permanently retired from battling, but she's still overall happy that she still has her Lucario at all. I saw Maylene home, and ended up having to watch movies with her until she tired herself out. As it turns out she likes these old sword and sorcery movies from a few decades ago, and actually I'm rather partial to those as well."
Kenny nodded once in understanding. "Sounds legit."
"After Maylene fell asleep on the sofa, I left her gym's referee to look after her," Dawn said, "He's got the full idea. Anyway, I returned to the Veilstone City Pokémon Center, collected Kenny, then we flew Tsukune and Black here to Sunyshore City to meet up with you guys."
Ash and Brock both looked emotionally drained, but in a good way, by the news concerning Maylene's Lucario. "...What do we do now?" Brock asked, sounding mildly relieved that things had turned out okay after all.
Dawn gave a mildly tired sigh. "...The best thing that we can do, at least for the time being, is to continue with our journey."
Ash looked mildly confused. "I'm not objecting to continuing with our journey, I mean you, me, and Kenny have all qualified for the Lily of the Valley Conference, so we ought to head straight to Lily of the Valley Island so we can get a feel for the place before we set to training for the Conference." Giving Dawn and Kenny a curious look, Ash went on, "But wouldn't you two like to get some rest before we head out?"
"I checked the sailing schedule for the boats here before Kenny and I came back here," Dawn said, "At this point, we'll only have a few hours before the only boat today sets sail for Lily of the Valley Island. At an absolute minimum, we ought to at least reserve some seats on the boat before Kenny and I can even consider getting some rest."
"And depending on how long the boat ride is, Dawn and I can simply clock out on the trip to Lily of the Valley Island," Kenny added.
Brock checked the time on a nearby street clock. "...They're actually right, Ash," Brock said, "We ought to get those seats on the boat reserved." Ash nodded along as he proceeded to follow the others to the port to get seats on the only boat that day heading out for Lily of the Valley Island. Luckily for them, they were the first persons that day looking to set out for Lily of the Valley, so after they got their tickets, they got on board and found their seats.
Dawn and Kenny were both surprised to see the passenger chairs looked rather plush and, sitting down, both reborn trainers immediately felt that they would fall asleep in the chairs. True enough, they did end up falling asleep, with Brock saying to Ash that they ought to let Dawn and Kenny sleep until they reached Lily of the Valley Island. Dawn and Kenny were even out of it when the boat took off from Sunyshore Port, sailing off for the destiny that Dawn, Kenny, and Ash all shared.
"Hey Dawn, wake up."
Dawn was stirred from her slumber by Ash, who looked sympathetic. "...Sorry, Dawn, but we just reached Lily of the Valley Island."
Waking up a bit more upon hearing that news from Ash, Dawn got up out of her seat, saw that Kenny who was already awake was being gently told by Brock to settle down, given that Kenny was acting like a Pachirisu hopped up on a gallon of espresso. Dawn couldn't blame her friend, though, given that they had reached Lily of the Valley Island.
Dawn stretched her arms into the air, even popped her back a bit, to try to wake herself up. "...The conference is still about a month away, so I wonder if we'll even be allowed to register yet," Dawn remarked as she cracked her neck a little.
"We'll probably just be the first to register," Ash said, "Then after that we can all focus on training until the Conference starts."
Nodding in agreement, Dawn proceeded to follow Ash, Brock, and Kenny off of the boat and onto Lily of the Valley Island. They walked through a village on the way to the local Pokémon Center, and saw that, even with the Conference about a month away, people were already setting up vendor stalls to sell goods, food, and other such things. A few other people were also setting up various decorations for the Conference.
The heroes stopped by two older people setting up a banner, both men with one having wavy reddish hair and the other having very long dark greenish hair in a braid. "Excuse me, but can you give us directions to the local Pokémon Center here?" Ash asked.
"Oh my! Trainers here to enter the Lily of the Valley Conference!" the older man with the braid said in a tone of clear delight, "I guess you're eager to get registered as soon as possible?"
Smiling confidently, Ash said, "You bet! And we're going to use the extra time between now and when the Conference starts to train and get ready!"
"The conference is sure to be exciting with such go-getter types like you showing up," said the older man with the wavy hair, sounding moderately excited. The older man with the wavy hair proceeded to give the heroes directions to the local Pokémon Center on Lily of the Valley Island, after which the heroes said thanks and took off.
Upon entering the local Pokémon Center, the heroes went up to the counter to get the attention of the local Nurse Joy. After Ash, Dawn, and Kenny explained themselves, the Nurse Joy expressed a bit of surprise. "Although registration has opened," Nurse Joy began, "Earlier today no less, I'm actually a little bit surprised that anyone was able to qualify early enough to register on day one of registration." Regardless, Nurse Joy did her job and got Ash, Dawn, and Kenny all registered.
After that, the heroes were shown to the trainer accommodations. Dawn and Kenny relaxed on their respective beds, threatening to fall asleep again. Given that the group had just arrived at Lily of the Valley Island, and the Conference was still a month off, the heroes decided to spend the day to just catch their breaths. With that news, Dawn and Kenny promptly fell asleep, sleeping well until they were woken up by Brock for dinner.
The heroes then had dinner at a nearby restaurant, and after that they returned to their rooms at the accommodations before going to bed. Despite all of the resting they had done, Dawn and Kenny still fell asleep relatively quick. They both thought about how the Lily of the Valley Conference was going to be like, and who all they would end up battling when the Conference went down in roughly one month from now.
Dawn especially thought about how the tournament would go, given that a key participant from the anime in her and Kenny's previous life wasn't going to be in it here. Furthermore, there was also him, a trainer who Dawn knew full well was going to be in it, and was virtually guaranteed to be collecting all of the chips in the end. Regardless, Dawn was still planning to be giving the Lily of the Valley conference her all, and nothing less would do.
That was her last thought before she fell asleep.
The following morning during breakfast, the heroes were surprised when Nurse Joy came over to them. "Excuse me, but I have a message for Dawn Berlitz from her mother," Nurse Joy said, "She had mentioned something about your orders having come in?"
"Ah, and before the Conference," Dawn said, sounding delighted.
The boys all looked curious. "What orders, Dawn?" Brock asked.
...
The boys were all surprised when Dawn had received a large box full of various items. "Remember back when we were in Twinleaf Town for the festival," Dawn began, "And I was circling items in that catalog I was browsing through which my mom was going to order for me while I was out? Yeah, these here are the items."
As Dawn pulled some of the items out, Kenny took note of them. "...So this is your first big buy with your share of the reward money," Kenny remarked, "Quality items that Pokémon can make use of during battle."
"I already checked the rules and there's nothing barring me from having my Pokémon use held items," Dawn pointed out, "So I'm going to be working that to its fullest extent." As she sorted through her new items, Dawn said, "I'm going to have to work in how my Pokémon can use these during our training between now and when the Lily of the Valley Conference actually starts."
"That reminds me," Ash said, "I plan to use all of my Pokémon over the course of the Conference, so I'm going to be working with all of them over the course of the time we have before then."
Dawn gave Ash a mildly amused smile. "...I was going to do the same with my Pokémon."
"And I with mine," Kenny said, "I can already tell that we'll be cringing up a storm over the course of the Conference!"
"...Of course you are," Dawn said dryly.
Over the course of the month that the heroes had, Ash and the reborn trainers spent as much time as they could training all of their Pokémon. Ash, in addition to the Pokémon that he's caught over the course of his time in Sinnoh, was also working with his other Pokémon that he's acquired over the course of his past journeys. Dawn and Kenny got to see a lot more of Ash's past Pokémon, such as Muk, Donphan, and Noctowl.
In an amusing turn of events, Ash's Noctowl, along with Ash's Dusclops when they were both in the same training rotation, formed a close knit friendship, and even had Cell and Elay join them when they were available. Brock pointed out that it's not every day that one gets to see four different shiny Pokémon, all in one location, and even asked Ash and Kenny for the okay for him to take a picture of Noctowl, Dusclops, Cell, and Elay all together.
While Ash trained his Pokémon, Dawn and Kenny had theirs train as well. The two reborn trainers soon realized that the most effective way for Tsukune and Black to train was to spar with each other regularly. Luckily for the heroes, they found a secluded location on Lily of the Valley Island to do their training at, so over the course of the month between the heroes' arrival on Lily of the Valley Island and the start of the Conference, none of the arriving trainers ever caught wind of two major legendary Pokémon sparring against one another.
The month of training also saw Ash make some progress in getting his Gardevoir to slim down. By the time that the Conference was ready to be kicked off, Gardevoir, while still not yet back down to the weight healthy for her species, was close to it, now only being slightly overweight. Ash had expressed some pride in Gardevoir getting her weight down so much, and she blushed a little bit in embarrassment when, while Dawn was training her fighting type Pokémon, Jack gave Gardevoir a thumbs up, or the equivalent of one that Gallades like Jack could give.
The heroes also had Pokémon between them of the same species spar during their training time. This saw Ash's Pikachu spar against Kenny's Pikachu Juan, Ash's Snorlax spar against Kenny's Snorlax Slick ("You can tell them apart because Slick always wears his MLG shades," Kenny said), Ash's Torterra and Infernape sparring with Kenny's Torterra Roshi and Dawn's Infernape Chi-Chi respectively, and so on. Ash even asked Dawn to have her Garchomp show his Gible the ropes as they trained for the conference.
"Oh, you got a Gible?" Dawn asked; she knew that Ash would eventually catch a Gible, but she didn't see it occur; it must of happened while she and Kenny weren't around.
Ash nodded in the affirmative. "Yeah, and since Gible's final evolved form is Garchomp, I had hoped your Garchomp would work with my Gible." The two trainers looked over where Gible was looking up right at Germany, who was looking right down at Gible. The Gible was obviously trying to impress Germany by acting boastful, and Germany, not wanting to be rude, humored the Gible, having once been where he was right now.
The time that the heroes had between when they first arrived on Lily of the Valley Island and when the Lily of the Valley Conference started was well spent, as they got all of their respective Pokémon ready for the fight of their lives. Soon enough, the day of destiny had come for the heroes; the Lily of the Valley Conference was ready to be kicked off at last. With enough trainers who had gotten all of the badges they needed to qualify having arrived, registration was cut off and those who made it on time were able to relax a bit before the Conference; there was a week left between the time that the last contestant entered and when the Conference was kicked off.
...
The night of the opening ceremony for the Lily of the Valley Conference, all sixty-four competing trainers had gathered in the main stadium, to watch as the torch was lit as fireworks went off. Dawn, with Chi-Chi at her side, watched this display. Looking around, Dawn saw the other trainers watching this, and most of them had a Pokémon each out to watch the display with them; Ash of course had Pikachu on his shoulder, and Kenny had Roshi out on his left.
"I remember that Team Rocket tried pulling something prior to Ash entering the conference in the anime in me and Kenny's previous life," Dawn thought, "But none of that happened here. Is it due to how we got here well ahead of schedule?" As Dawn looked around, the large monitor showed the match ups for the first round of the Conference. Dawn saw that Ash was battling Nando (to a lack of surprise on Dawn's part, as that's how it happened in the anime in her and Kenny's previous life), and Kenny himself was battling some random trainer.
As for Dawn, she recognized her first round opponent as Jeffery, who in the anime in Dawn's previous life won against Jessie in the fake gym she had set up. "He made it here?" Dawn thought in a surprised tone, "Huh. He must have either realized that the badge from Jessie's gym was a fake, or he never competed against her in the first place. Either way, he'll be an interesting opponent." With the opening ceremony completed, everyone moved out to head to the various hotels for the night.
Everyone, competitors and spectators alike, wanted to be well rested, whether to fight in or watch battles tomorrow.
The following day saw Dawn's battle against Jeffery as the first battle of the day. "Each trainer may use three Pokémon each!" the referee said, "The battle is over when all of one trainer's Pokémon have been defeated! Additionally, trainers may substitute Pokémon at any time! Now then..." Quickly throwing a hand up, the referee yelled, "BEGIN!"
"Luxray, I choose you!" Jeffery said, sending in his Luxray first thing.
Tossing up a pokéball, Dawn said, "Alright, Shadow! Let's get goin'!" Coming out to battle was Dawn's named west sea Gastrodon. Pointing forward, Dawn said, "Shadow, use Earth Power!"
"Luxray, use Bite!" Jeffery commanded.
Luxray ran forward, its teeth bared, in preparation to bite down on Shadow. However, Shadow made bursts of power erupt from the ground underneath Luxray, blasting into it and sending it falling back. As Luxury was getting up, Dawn said, "Shadow, use Ice Beam!" Shadow opened his mouth and fired from it a beam of icy cold energy, striking Luxray and sending it skidding back on the ground of the battlefield. When Luxray had come to a stop, it was clear it had been defeated.
Holding up a hand, the referee announced, "Luxray is unable to battle! The winner is Gastrodon!"
Jeffery recalled his fainted Luxray, before tossing up another pokéball while saying, "Nuzleaf, I choose you!"
"A Nuzleaf?" Dawn thought as she moved to swap her Pokémon out. "Shadow that's enough, fall back! Alright, Minato! Let's get goin'!" After making the switch, Dawn took back her Gastrodon to send in her Yanmega. Pointing forward, Dawn said, "Minato, use Bug Buzz!"
"Nuzleaf, use Razor Leaf!" Jeffery called out. Dawn's named Yanmega was faster by far, and she knocked Nuzleaf out while it was part way through conjuring its attack, hitting it with a violently slamming buzzing sound.
Holding up a hand again, the referee announced, "Nuzleaf is unable to battle! The winner is Yanmega!"
Jeffery, once again, recalled a defeated Pokémon. He took up the pokéball that held his last Pokémon. "This one's all on you," Jeffery muttered to the pokéball. Tossing it up, Jeffery called out, "Marowak, I choose you!"
"Minato that's enough, fall back!" Dawn said as she swapped her Pokémon in and out again, "Alright, Lynn! Let's get goin'!" Taking the place of Dawn's named Yanmega was her named Floatzel. Pointing forward, Dawn said, "Lynn, use Waterfall!"
"Marowak, use Bonemerang!" Jeffery called out.
Lynn, cloaking herself in water, rushed at Marowak as it threw its bone club like a boomerang. Lynn reached Marowak, slammed into it, then stuck it a few times as they went straight up into the air. When the two Pokémon landed, Lynn got out of the way as Marowak's bone club flew back to it. "Lynn, use Ice Punch!" Dawn called out.
"Marowak, try using Bonemerang again!" Jeffery commanded.
Marowak tried to use its attack, but Lynn quickly slugged it in the side with an icy cold punch, making Marowak cry out in pain as it was thrown back a bit before landing on the ground of the battlefield, clearly knocked out. Holding up a hand, the referee announced, "Marowak is unable to battle! The winner is Floatzel!" Gesturing to Dawn, the referee declared, "Dawn Berlitz moves on to the second round!"
The audience cheered for Dawn's first round win, excited to see the first trainer to make it past round one. As for Dawn herself, she gave a calm and relieved sigh as she recalled her Floatzel to her pokéball. Although she had won, Dawn was by no means planning to let it go to her head; even in the video games in her previous life, Dawn never rested on laurels. Now that it was real life for her, Dawn knew that she had to treat everything seriously.
To Dawn's relief, both Ash and Kenny made it past round one as well, with Ash's battle against Nando more or less having played out the same as it did in the anime in the previous life of the two reborn trainers. As such, they all would be moving on to the second round of the Lily of the Valley Conference, which would be happening the next day. As Dawn and the boys relaxed at the trainer accommodations, they were approached by a staff member.
"Excuse me, but you're Ash Ketchum's group, right?" the staff member asked.
Looking surprised that he was apparently being asked for, Ash said, "Yeah, and I'm Ash Ketchum. Is there something that I can help you with?"
"She's just trying to find you for me, Ash!" a familiar male voice called out, making Ash and the other heroes turn to see Gary Oak come walking over.
"Gary!" Ash practically exclaimed out of surprise, "What are you doing here?"
Smiling in mild amusement, Gary gave Ash a firm pat on the back as he said, "I'm here to see how you're doing in the conference! Also, gramps is rather keen on getting more details about the shiny Dusclops that you caught, especially since your friend Brock sent him a copy of a photo of four shiny Pokémon together."
Ash smiled a bit in return. "Well Dawn, Kenny, and I all made it past round one. And as for Dusclops, he's doing fine."
"Hey Ash," Gary began, "Gramps also sent me here because he wants notes on what happens when a shiny Dusclops evolves into Dusknoir, provided you're willing to evolve your Dusclops."
Looking surprised by the notion, Ash replied, "Evolve my Dusclops into Dusknoir? How do I do that?"
Dawn knew the answer, but given that Gary had brought the subject up, she assumed he knew thus was going to let him explain. As such, Gary pulled out a Reaper Cloth and said, "Give Dusclops this Reaper Cloth to hold, then trade it. That's how Dusclops evolves into Dusknoir. If you want, you and I can trade to evolve your Dusclops, and we can simply trade back afterwards."
Ash turned to look at his friends. "...What do you guys think?"
"Personally, I think that your Dusclops is ready to evolve," Dawn replied, "His moveset is perfect as is, so there's no need to worry about that. Also, evolving Dusclops into Dusknoir will give your line up in the Conference an extra boost of power."
After giving the notion a bit of thought, Ash agreed, thus went about with Gary to evolve Dusclops into Dusknoir. About half an hour after they left, Ash and Gary came back, with Ash having evolved his Dusclops into Dusknoir. "...There's... something else that Gramps is rather keen on getting some info on," Gary said, his tone taking on a serious hint. Turning to regard Dawn and Kenny, Gary said, "Gramps had got it from Professor Rowan about how Dawn had caught Palkia, and later about how Kenny had caught Giratina. He's wondering if you'd be willing to let him study them."
"...Well Kenny and I are already writing down everything we do with them," Dawn said, "Although Professor Rowan has told us that the ranch his lab has for Pokémon to live in is getting a little bit on the crowded side of things. Your grandfather doesn't have the same space issues, does he?"
"No way," Gary said with some mild amusement, "You ought to see how much land Gramps has for his Pokémon research lab!"
"You think that Professor Oak will be willing to house Dawn's rotation and my cringe posse at his lab ranch?" Kenny asked, "Because Rowan did advise us to try looking into finding somewhere to house our other Pokémon."
"Oh he'll still have plenty of room to spare," Gary replied, "I'm guessing you'll agree to let him study Palkia and Giratina in return for moving your Pokémon to his lab ranch?" Dawn and Kenny both nodded in confirmation. "Well you'll have to talk to him about it, but I'm sure he'll agree," Gary went on as he addressed Dawn and Kenny, "Especially since I believe he'll also get the chance to study Kenny's Scizor and Sandslash."
Smirking a bit in amusement, Kenny said, "I bet the first thing that Elay will try to do is ask your grandpa if he knows da wae."
END, CHAPTER FORTY
Author's notes;
Here we see Dawn and Kenny return to Sunyshore City after spending the night with Maylene in Veilstone City to celebrate how someone special had made it. After that, the only thing that the heroes could do was make their way to Lily of the Valley Island for the Conference. They get there, spend the month before the Conference training, then enter the Conference at last where they all make it past round one.
Gary even shows up to congratulate Ash on his first round win, then helps him evolve Dusclops into Dusknoir, then begins the process of making arrangements for Dawn and Kenny's respective rotations to be housed over at Oak's laboratory ranch over in Pallet Town, Kanto. Anyway, the next round (or two) of the Conference will go down in the next chapter; probably two rounds, because the anime showed the second round as more or less filler before Ash faced Conway in round three. See you all later.
Dawn's Pokémon: (on hand) Chi-Chi (female Infernape), Tsukune (Palkia), Minato (female Yanmega), Shadow (male west sea Gastrodon), Lynn (female Floatzel), Leni (female Lucario)
Kenny's Pokémon: (on hand) Roshi (male Torterra), Slick (male Snorlax), Cell (male Scizor; shiny), Shallot (male Glaceon), Elay (male Sandslash; shiny), Black (Giratina)
Ash's Pokémon: Pikachu (male), Swampert (female), Infernape (male), Torterra (male), Gliscor (male), Dusclops (male; shiny)