Chapter Forty: Flower-Smelling Champion
Serena was far more tense than usual when she was eating breakfast before the Exposition. On a purely technical level, this performance would probably be the biggest challenge for her Pokémon to pull off, given all the fine-grained control they'd need for the visuals.
Beyond that, though, it wasn't so much about reaching the audience, this time. It was about reaching out to Misdreavus, and Serena was fairly certain she'd be watching from somewhere in the shadows. Her Pokémon were, of course, well aware of this and they'd been working harder than ever to make sure the intent would come across. Hopefully, the performance would also resonate with the rest of the people there. It probably would, but as long as Misdreavus got it, everything else didn't matter as much.
Ash knew how focused Serena was, and aside from a thumbs-up and a quick 'good luck' once they reached the stadium, he left her alone, for which she was very grateful, and she'd be sure to thank him for his thoughtfulness later.
("It's so…empty in here,") Sylveon said when they entered the waiting room.
Serena nodded slowly. "Yeah. I guess people were put off by Hadrian's stunt after all…or they were just angry it got canceled last time. Still, we can't let our guard down…"
("We won't,") Pancham said, in a tone far less cocky and far more serious than usual for him.
("We've got this, Serena,") Delphox said with a smile.
Serena nodded and returned the smile. "Yeah… Come on, let's go and get ready."
This time, Serena would be going with an outfit quite similar to what she'd worn at the Showcase Master Class, except the dress was all red and lacked sleeves and gloves, and around her neck she had a pendant of a colorful flower. Pancham would be wearing his regular red sunglasses, and all four of them wore bows, Serena in her hair, the Pokémon around their neck.
The turn order was published much quicker than usual, because there were so few participants this time, and Serena would be up third. She only kept a half eye on the first two Artisans to perform, being far too focused on her own appeal to really care. So much more than a medal was depending on this…
Her heart was hammering in her chest like never before when she and her Pokémon made their way to the arena itself to give their appeal. "Alright, you three…this one's for Misdreavus. Let's go," she said, and her Pokémon gave her determined nods.
The lights went out, and Serena and her Pokémon walked onto the field to take their places. The music began, a fairly upbeat track, and Serena and Delphox portrayed Trainers, while Pancham and Sylveon 'battled', all synchronized to the music, until Serena deliberately went out of time, distracting Pancham from his 'attack' and leading him to get hit by Sylveon's Swift, sending him flying backwards with an impressive backflip.
The music changed, becoming darker and slower, and Pancham rounded on Serena, clearly frustrated by her distracting him in the battle, while Serena tried to apologize for it.
Pancham wouldn't have it and backed away, and Serena reached out to Delphox and Sylveon, who joined in the dance next to her as the music changed again, becoming softer and fading almost into the background, even though the tone remained dark.
Delphox drew stems of Mystical Fire, crowned with Hidden Power buds which she touched with her Psyshock to give them petals, while Sylveon used her Fairy Wind to create small, sparkling vortices in which she trapped Swift stars, slowly building up a field of sparkling, flickering flowers as Serena gracefully moved through them, flanked by Sylveon and Delphox, while Pancham's movement backwards slowed, until eventually he and Serena met in the center of the battlefield, now entirely surrounded by the flowers.
Serena took off her pendant and gave it to Pancham, and the music rose in pitch and volume as Pancham looked at it.
Serena took a step back, and in time with the music, Pancham stomped the ground, creating a massive Stone Edge pillar that launched him into the air. His fist glowed green and he struck the top of the pillar, causing the green glow to refract through it.
At the same time, Sylveon and Delphox leapt onto the pillar as well aided by Sylveon's Fairy Wind. Sylveon cast Protect around herself, Delphox, and Pancham, and Delphox created a massive Fire Blast, which she lowered down onto the glowing Protect. Pancham spread his arms and fired his Dark Pulse, which surrounded the arms of the Fire Blast, creating a massive, shimmering flower in the center of the field as the music crescendoed, which Serena looked up to in awe which wasn't acted in the slightest. Pancham, Delphox, and Sylveon were all using their moves to the absolute limit of their abilities, and none of their practices had been this impressive, aided by the fact that lights in the stadium had been turned off entirely for this last part of the appeal.
The three Pokémon dissipated their moves in perfect sync with each other, leaving only Sylveon's Fairy Wind to gently put them back down on the floor, now lit by one single dim light again, where Pancham held out Serena's pendant to her just as the music stopped, and the light went dark for the last time.
The silence in the audience was momentarily deafening — but nowhere near as much as the explosion of noise a moment later as the people began to cheer.
I hope you saw that, Misdreavus… Serena thought to herself.
"What an incredible performance!" Nikolaos said. "And listen to the audience react! I feel I hardly need to ask, but may we please have the audience votes now?"
Almost immediately, the stands lit up green. Serena smiled faintly. She was happy that their performance had been so well-received, of course, but her mind was somewhere else entirely.
"Well, the audience has made its decision clear, I believe," Nikolaos said. "Then now, the judges! Nurse– oh, I see she has already cast her vote!"
Nurse Joy's table had indeed already lit up green, and Serena saw she looked a bit embarrassed at having jumped the gun.
"Gym Leader Erika, then?" Erika's table lit up green immediately, and she smiled warmly at Serena, who gratefully inclined her head.
"And as for myself…" Nikolaos said, and his table turned green as well. "And with that, it's clear that Artisan Serena moves on to the next round! Congratulations, Serena!"
Under a torrent of applause, Serena and her Pokémon made their way back to the waiting room, where Serena immediately pulled all three of them into a crushing hug.
"You did so well!" she said, barely able to contain her pride. "You were even better than in practice!"
("I hope she saw us,") Pancham said quietly, echoing Serena's thoughts from moments earlier.
("I'm sure she did,") Delphox said. ("She wouldn't miss this.")
"I'm so proud of all of you," Serena said. "Now let's stay focused and take the gold. There aren't many people and we'll be ranked high, so there's a good chance there will only be three rounds. Let's keep our theme going and go all out from the start. Pancham, you can have the final this time."
Pancham nodded once. ("You can count on me,") he promised.
"Sylveon, can you do the first match? Then Delphox can take the semifinal," Serena said, and Sylveon and Delphox nodded in agreement.
Perhaps it was a bit arrogant of her to assume that they'd make it to the final, but after seeing how sharp everyone had been in the appeal just now, there was just no way they were going to lose.
Looking at the appeals that followed only strengthened Serena's confidence in being able to win this Exposition. The other Artisans were by no means bad, but their Pokémon just didn't have the same level of control Serena's team had shown.
When the Location Round ended, Serena wasn't all that surprised to find she was ranked first, and since only twelve Artisans had made it through this time, her prediction of needing to win three matches came true, which was excellent for Serena's plan. She'd prepared something for the final three rounds, and since there only were three rounds now, she wouldn't have to hold back at all. Her Pokémon would be performing in the style that was closest to their nature, with minimal input from Serena.
Sylveon's usual performances were already like that, so having her go first was the natural choice. She would be facing off against a Summer Form Sawsbuck, owned by an Artisan called Amy.
"And…begin!"
"Sawsbuck, Bullet Seed!"
"Let's go, Sylveon, Swift to interrupt the Bullet Seed, and then it's all yours!"
Sawsbuck fired off glowing golden seeds, but Sylveon effortlessly sniped them out of the air while dancing around, using her Double Team to show off various feats of acrobatics at once. While she moved across the battlefield, she used her Fairy Wind and Swift in the same manner she'd done in the Location Round to leave behind sparkling flowers everywhere her paws touched the ground.
"Horn Leech on the flowers, Sawsbuck!"
"Protect!"
Sawsbuck leapt up into air and his horns glowed green, firing tendrils of energy at Sylveon's flowers. Sylveon, however, combined her Protect with her Double Team and deflected each of the energy tendrils enough that the flowers remained unharmed.
"Energy Ball and then Horn Leech!" Amy sounded a bit desperate now.
"Protect around the Energy Ball!"
Serena wasn't completely sure Amy would be targeting her own Energy Ball, but it seemed like the most obvious thing, and indeed, Sawsbuck fired his Horn Leech at the glowing green ball of energy he'd sent into the air, only to find his attack blocked once again by Sylveon's Protect, which she'd placed by lightly jumping up, carried by her Fairy Wind.
When she landed, she once again created a small patch of flowers around herself, and that was the moment Nikolaos shouted, "Time!"
Sylveon happily returned to Serena, who petted her and said, "Really well done, Sylveon! That was perfect!"
She and Sylveon joined Amy, who looked resigned, in the middle of the arena, and it didn't take long for all three judges to vote in Serena's favor, moving her into the semifinal.
Her opponent there was an Artisan named Geoff, and his Pokémon was a Tropius.
"Magical Leaf and Air Slash, Tropius!"
"Mystical Fire, Delphox!"
Tropius scattered a cloud of shimmering leaves around himself, through which he began to fire whirling blades of air.
Delphox, meanwhile, had started a slow and deliberate dance, tracing fire in the air as she moved, which lingered behind her branch. She fired off bursts of flame between each set of dance moves, which burned Tropius's leaves to a crisp and pierced through the slicing air blades.
Just like Sylveon had done in her own performance, Delphox also used her Mystical Fire, Hidden Power, and Psyshock to create a trail of flowers, and just like Serena had hoped, Geoff tried to target them.
"Air Slash those flowers, Tropius!"
"Fire Flower, Delphox!"
Tropius fired off a series of sawblade-like Air Slashes, which cut down Delphox's field — but Serena doubted anyone in the audience or any of the judges were actually watching it.
Delphox summoned a massive pillar of Mystical Fire, onto which she put several Hidden Power orbs forced together, crowning the whole thing, just like before, with a Fire Blast, and then surrounded the entire construct with Psyshock.
Geoff and Tropius were momentarily stunned, and then…
"Time!"
Delphox dissipated her flower, and Serena joined her in the middle of the arena, pulling her into a hug.
"You did it! Fantastic work, Delphox, thank you!" she said.
Delphox smiled at her. ("It went well,") she said.
"What a performance," Geoff said with a shake of his head. "I don't think I'll be winning this one. Congratulations."
Serena shook his hand, and indeed, the judges were once again unanimously on her side.
All that was left now was the final, and Pancham was more than ready for it. His opponent would be a Cacturne, belonging to an Artisan named Linda.
"Alright, Pancham. This is it," Serena said. "Give everything you have, and remember, this one is all yours, the way you want it."
Pancham nodded. ("We've got this,") he said.
"Begin!"
"Cotton Spore, Cacturne!"
"Let's go, Pancham, Aerial Ace!"
Cacturne began to float cotton balls around the arena, and Pancham flipped and twirled across the field, easily slicing through the balls as if they weren't even there.
"Pin Missile!" Cacturne fired off many white, glowing pins with a dramatic flourish, but Pancham wasn't impressed and used his Dark Pulse to capture and trap all the needles in a glowing ball, which he then punched through with Drain Punch to disintegrate it into glowing green sparks.
Serena didn't even need to yell any commands, so she simply observed what Linda would tell Cacturne to do instead.
"Energy Ball and Cotton Spore again!"
Cacturne began to create a ball of glowing green energy, with the cotton balls orbiting around them to create a beautiful effect.
"Go for broke then, Pancham! Tower of Flower!" Serena yelled.
Pancham jumped up and slammed the ground, sending up glowing Stone Edge pillar with several smaller ones jutting out from the base, one of which popped Cacturne's Energy Ball like a bubble.
He wasn't done yet, however, and just like he'd done in the Location Round, he slammed his Drain Punch into the top of the pillar. This time, he controlled the dissipation of the energy to create flower petals out of the very stone of the pillar itself, keeping them from falling by using his Dark Pulse at the same time as his Drain Punch.
Even from down on the ground, Serena could see it took every last bit of focus he had to keep the entire structure from disintegrating now that he had to manage it all by himself, especially since he, unlike Sylveon and Delphox, wasn't even fully evolved yet. And yet, somehow, he managed it, completing the Showoff Round in nearly the same way as they'd closed off the Location Round.
Pancham dissipated the massive flower and lowered himself back down to the ground before finally allowing the last Stone Edge pillars to shatter as well.
He stared down Cacturne, clearly exhausted, but still determined to keep going…but fortunately that was the moment Nikolaos called time.
Pancham fell to his knees, panting heavily, and Serena ran over to hug him.
"We did it, Pancham," she said quietly. "You did it," she amended.
Pancham shook his head. ("You were right the first time,") he said, still out of breath. ("We did it.")
"That was a wipe," Linda said with a sigh. "I had a feeling you'd be doing something like this after seeing your semifinal, but it still impressed me too much to respond. Your Pokémon are insane."
"Thank you," Serena said quietly. "We…wanted to show something to a friend of ours."
"Well, for their sake I hope your friend was watching, because they missed something amazing if they weren't," Linda said with a smile.
"And so, one last time, we go to the judges!" Nikolaos said, drawing everyone's attention to himself. "Nurse Joy?"
"I don't think it will surprise anyone that there was a clear winner for me," Nurse Joy said. "The control Pancham showed over his moves was beyond anything I've ever seen from a Pokémon not even fully evolved, and I have no doubt he and Serena will only get better as time goes on. And while the thematic revisit of the Location Round's performance would normally work against an Artisan for lack of originality, here it made the appeal even stronger by surpassing that first round. My vote, therefore, goes to the green side, Serena!"
The audience roared its approval, and Nikolaos moved on to Erika's judgement.
"A mere couple of days ago, I ran into Artisan Serena in town," Erika said. "She seemed a bit out of sorts…but clearly, seeing her performance here today, I needn't have worried. To so clearly represent the beautiful, colorful flora of Celadon City without possessing a single Grass-type or even Grass-type move…I am suitably impressed, and I can say without any doubts that my victor today is Artisan Serena!"
She smiled warmly, and Serena returned the smile, touched by Erika's support and immensely grateful she'd been willing to point her in the right direction.
"That leaves only myself," Nikolaos said. "And, well, I feel I don't need to say much, because my fellow judges have already said it. Phenomenal control from beginning to end, visually stunning despite everyone being aware of what was likely to come, thematically on point in every single appearance today, which goes beyond even the intention of the Expositions…Artisan Serena is the deserving winner of the gold medal, further solidifying her lead in the competition. And hopefully, with this stunning series of performances, the passions of Artisans all over Kanto will be reignited in time for the Fuchsia City Exposition, so that we may witness more works of art like these! The award ceremony will take place in a couple of minutes, so please remain seated for now!"
Delphox and Sylveon joined Serena and Pancham in the tunnel leading to the pitch, where they stood waiting for the medal ceremony to begin.
Serena took a deep breath and proudly looked at her team. "You've really earned it today, everyone," she said. "You've all shown everything you had, and you heard what the judges said: we're all going to get better still. I know she was talking about Pancham here, but I think all of us can become even stronger."
At that moment, Serena was called back onto the pitch for the medal ceremony, but while she smiled for the photographs and was genuinely proud of her victory, she couldn't help but scan around, hoping to see any indication that Misdreavus had seen them, but of course, there was nothing to see and she had a hollow feeling in her stomach when she walked back into the tunnel, slightly behind her Pokémon.
She stepped from the light into the shadow, lost in thought, but not so lost in thought that she missed the whisper in her ear.
("Thank you.")
Yep, that's where I'm ending the chapter, because I'm a dick like that. Sorry about the late upload; I just had to write a Liko/Dot oneshot after catching up to Horizons, so that's what I was doing yesterday.
Anyway, I kept the pace fairly high in this chapter on purpose, to sort of show that Serena had her mind on other things than competition. I also, as usual, couldn't resist the shoutouts in the title, which is of course a meme, and 'Tower of Flower' or 'Flower Tower', whichever translation for 'Hana no Tou' you prefer, anyway, is the ending theme of Lycoris Recoil. I went with the former because I like wonky anime translations.
Next chapter should be Wednesday. See you then!