Yo!

Cinderella finished, so this is back on a weekly schedule now! Not sure how long that will last, but my current classes aren't too bad, so yeah!

Chapter 13

Their landing in Nimbasa was a bit different to how such things usually went.

This was likely due in large part to the fact that out of all the cities they'd been to, Nimbasa was the one that people flew into most often. It was, after all, a tourist destination. Rollercoasters, contest halls, movie studios; the city had it all. On a different day, Bianca would've been thrilled to take in the sites, and perhaps simply have an easy couple of days alongside Cynthia, who was, as it turned out, rapidly becoming a close friend and mentor of hers.

But they'd arrived there with a mission in mind, and so such took precedence.

Not like they could go about doing that before they'd gotten out of the airport, however. Which…

"There are uhm…" Bianca coughed, her social anxiety getting the better of her. "A lot of people here, huh?"

It seemed that in the years since she'd been back to Nimbasa City, it had grown far, far beyond what it had been when she'd first visited. Throngs of people seemed to swarm out of every gate within the airport, and even though they'd docked privately, and had a separate intake section, that didn't mean it was empty, which it had been the last few times they'd landed somewhere.

"Name, please?" The person working the check-in desk asked Cynthia. She handed over a piece of paper, which the woman checked over quietly, before looking up at the both of them, nodding her head, and stamping down on it with a 'cleared' stamp. "Alright. You're good to go. Have a wonderful time here in Nimbasa!"

Cynthia was, again, in disguise, albeit her disguise was a tad different this time. She'd somehow managed to get her incredibly long hair to fit underneath one of Bianca's berets – the logistics of which Bianca wasn't even going to begin to attempt to fathom – and thusly at a glance seemed to have short hair. Added onto that were a pair of black sunglasses, and an outfit unlike what she'd normally wear, and by the end, she didn't really resemble herself.

Bianca was impressed by her ability to blend in every time she saw this, but this time in particular was extraordinarily impressive.

"Are you going a bit above and beyond given how many people are here?" She asked, and Cynthia smiled.

"Got it in one. You may not have guessed this about me, either, but I'm not really one for social situations either."

Bianca felt a heaping helping of doubt. "Really? You?"

"Really." Cynthia spoke, looking over at her as they walked side by side to their destination, the Nimbasa City Pokémon gym. "You don't believe me?"

"I find it a tad difficult to, given that you were the one who taught me how to not react around other people."

"And you don't think that maybe the advice I chose to give you was some that I myself used?"

"I just…" Bianca couldn't really believe that, to be honest. Cynthia just seemed so… well, it felt a bit unfair to say invincible, but that was how she looked at her, just a bit. The same as how she looked at Professor Juniper – someone who had everything figured out. "Well… I…"

Cynthia chuckled. "Honestly, it means a lot to hear you say that. I often think that I'm not doing a terribly good job of pretending, but hearing you think that I was some social Butterfree gives me hope."

Bianca rubbed at the back of her neck a bit helplessly. "Well, I just… I guess I… yeah."

Cynthia laughed more openly this time. "Yeah?"

"Don't poke fun."

"I'm sorry." She said with a smile. "But thank you, truthfully. That has made me feel somewhat more confident in my own ability. In truth, Bianca, if you must know, I have never once felt as if I was some magnet for social situations."

"But you have so many friends, you know so many people!"

"Like…?"

"Well, Barry knew you really well."

"That's fair."

"And you stayed at that woman Pheobe's house."

"Oh, I know her through work."

"Okay, Wallace and Burgh, they both knew you as well."

"That… well, admittedly, I suppose I do know quite a few people… but Bianca, how often did I really speak with any of them, aside from initial introductions?"

It took Bianca a moment to recall their times in both Sootopolis and Burgh's cottage, but when she thought about it, aside from the initial conversations that both pairs – Cynthia and Wallace, and Cynthia and Burgh – had shared… they hadn't actually discussed all that much.

"I… hm." She hummed under her breath. "I… I suppose you're correct."

"Well, perhaps we're both right, in a way." Cynthia said with an almost awkward expression. "Perhaps it's easy to look at one's own efforts, one's own progress, and see nothing but the end goal, and a lack of reaching it. And yet, maybe I have become a more sociable person than I believed."

"Hah… now that I think about it, I guess I am pretty alright at talking with people at this point, aren't I?" Bianca nodded her head at the woman's words, even as Cynthia tilted hers towards her, and then said, "And it's the same for you, you know. You're becoming a rather swell Pokémon trainer."

She couldn't help but feel such praise was… not entirely unearned, but something Cynthia was giving her merely to be nice. She was making progress, but she was nowhere near where she wanted to be.

…But then, that was what Cynthia had just finished saying, wasn't it?

"…Maybe so." She admitted, and Cynthia smiled over at her.

"Oh, I do believe we've arrived."

Bianca peered over at where Cynthia was looking, and saw…

Well, Nimbasa's gym had certainly change since she'd been there.

The last time she'd been here, they'd been rolling out the new gym – that of a fashion show – and slowly phasing out the old rollercoaster theme that they'd had before. This time, it seemed as if the same was happening again. The old building had been entirely repurposed into an indoor amusement park, where the new building was being reworked into something else.

The new theme seemed to be…

Well, construction.

In that the building was still undergoing construction and renovation.

Only…

"It seems almost… abandoned." Bianca spoke a tad worriedly under her breath.

"I hate to say it, Bianca, but you don't seem to have the best luck when choosing gym leaders." Cynthia muttered, and Bianca couldn't really argue with that. "No one's working on this, which means that either everyone has the day off, which makes little sense given it's a Thursday… or…"

Bianca didn't really want to consider the 'or'.

"L-Let's try and find Elesa," she said to Cynthia. "I'm sure we'll be able to get some answers out of her."

Cynthia hummed in the affirmative. "I only hope she's still in town. If her gym is out of commission right now, would it not make sense for her to be abroad?"

Cynthia was probably technically right; Bianca just didn't want to hear that at all.

"F-For now, we should try asking around, seeing if people know what's going on?"

"Why did you word that like a question?"

"Well, I just… I didn't know if you'd agree?"

"It's a good idea. Why wouldn't I?"

"Oh… well, I guess you're right?"

"You did it again."

"I'm sorry!"

They didn't have to go far, or do much, to get an answer for their question. The first people they asked – who had been nearby getting ice cream from a traveling cart – filled them in.

"Elesa's gym has been undergoing constant renovations for the last year or so. She can't seem to decide on a theme, or well, my brother works here in construction, and that's what he says anyways. Apparently, she's had them start work on something, and then cancel on that work, like, five times now."

They asked them a few other questions alongside those ones, like where Elesa currently was, but received no real answers. Bianca frowned, even as Cynthia waved goodbye to the two people they'd spoken to, and turned back towards her.

"What are your thoughts?"

"Well, I… I'd like to speak with Elesa, mostly." She admitted. "What they said didn't really… give us much to go off of?"

Cynthia smiled about something, but Bianca didn't really know what.

"I think that sounds like a good idea. Any idea as to where we should begin?"

"They didn't seem to know, and I got the feeling they were locals, so…" Bianca's frown deepened. "Perhaps we could go looking?"

"No harm in trying, I suppose." Cynthia shrugged. "Might as well."

And that was how they ended up going on a veritable tour of Nimbasa City. Their travels took them all over, from the Pokémon Center to the movie studio, to the fashion agency where Elesa had, last Bianca known, spent a good majority of her time.

She wasn't there, but they figured out a good candidate for where she might be.

"Ms. Elesa?" The man at the desk arched an eyebrow at the two of them, and seemed unimpressed. "May I gather as to who it is that's asking?"

Who are you, and why do you want to know?

"M-My name is Bianca," She introduced herself, although she held off on doing the same for Cynthia. She respected the woman enough to realize that she likely wished to remain anonymous, even if her influence as a businesswoman could likely get them this information if she so desired. "I was a Pokémon trainer who knew Ms. Elesa about a decade ago. She, uhm… she helped me in a rough time, and urged me to make my dreams come true. It meant a lot to me. I was hoping to meet with her and then challenge her for her gym badge, but she wasn't in her gym?"

The man seemed to search her statement for any hint of falsehood, and when he finally concluded she was being honest with him, he gave a gruff sigh, and answered.

"Ms. Elesa is out. She has not done any work with us in some time, and she has not given us a reason for this absence, either. I suspect the issue is motivational in nature."

Bianca nodded her head, eager to obtain as much information as she could.

"She has been spending the majority of her time at the Contest Hall here in the city. I know not what goes on there – other than contests, of course, I mean more in specific – but I do know that Miss Elesa has, reportedly, not actually been in any of these contests. If you are who you say, then perhaps your appearance might go and check up on Ms. Elesa?"

"So… we have your permission?" Bianca asked.

The man scoffed. "She is an adult woman, as are you. You did not need my permission to do a thing." Bianca's shame must've been evident, for the man sighed a second later and added, "My apologies, this situation has me angered, but it certainly does not involve you, Madame. I urge you to go and see Ms. Elesa."

They did just that, making their way out of the modeling studio and heading towards the Contest Hall.

The emotions running through Bianca's chest then were… complicated.

In truth, she very much wanted to see and speak with Elesa again. The last time they'd met had been… had it been in N's castle? Or had they met during Bianca's research at all? Even if they had, it had to have been at least a decade since Bianca had seen the woman, although she knew of the brand change that she'd gone through two or so years after Bianca's first journey.

Regardless… she hoped that when she met with Elesa, things would go similarly to how they had with Burgh. She hoped that she would remember her, and cheer up at the sight of her. that she would remember Bianca, and what she'd done for her, and…

Well, Bianca wasn't really sure. Accept her challenge, for starters. But she hadn't just come here because of that.

She wanted the woman who'd helped her so very long ago to see just who she had become. To see the progress that she'd made.

They entered into the contest hall – a terribly ostentatious building that Bianca wouldn't have dared to enter had the circumstances been different – and sought about searching for Elesa. Bianca didn't immediately spot her, and she expected the same would be true for Cynthia.

And yet, no.

"There she is."

Cynthia pointed her finger to a lone figure sitting at a table in the corner of the room, wearing an outfit that seemed rather similar to Cynthia's own.

In that it seemed to be some kind of disguise.

The longer Bianca looked at it, the more distinguishing features she was able to make out. Elesa's slender frame, her distinctive hair, albeit hidden away, and her sharp facial features.

It was her.

And yet, she had hidden herself away in the corner of the Contest Hall, evidently disguised so as not to attract too much attention. She must've been trying to avoid anyone coming up to her and recognizing her as much as she could.

To Bianca, that meant they shouldn't approach her.

Cynthia, on the other hand, took her by the wrist, and practically dragged her towards the table the woman was sat at. She pulled out two chairs – Elesa looked up at the two of them both tiredly and warily – and sat them both down.

"Hey, Elesa." Cynthia spoke, and the disguised woman before them jumped, and though her panic seemed to calm, she seemed no less surprised when Cynthia reached up, and took the sunglasses off her face. "Long time no see, huh?"

"…It really has."

Bianca couldn't really help the next words that came out of her mouth.

"You know Elesa too!?" She exclaimed just a bit louder than she'd meant to, although luckily the Contest Hall's entry hall was a bit too loud for her voice to carry far. "Do you just know every Pokémon trainer!?"

Cynthia was quite amused. "Well, of course, I'm a well-known businesswoman after all."

Cynthia looked towards Elesa, and seemed to give her some kind of signal. Elesa's brow furrowed, but she nodded her head regardless.

"Indeed. I've worked with Cynthia a number of times in the past." Elesa said. "I even stayed with her in Undella town a while, sometimes for a month or two on end. I would say the two of us have…" Elesa coughed under her breath. "History."

Bianca looked back and forth between Cynthia and Elesa, neither saying a thing, and neither meeting the other's eye.

…She had no idea what to make of that. Probably some other secret signal that she was missing.

"But, regardless, might I ask your name?" Elesa turned to her, and Bianca's heart skipped a beat.

Burgh didn't recognize you either, Bianca's mind tried to reassure her. If you tell her your name, tell her your story… she'll remember you, she has to!

Bianca cleared her throat, and bowed her head somewhat, stunted though the motion was seated in a chair. "U-Uhm, you probably don't remember me, my name is Bianca, around fourteen years ago–"

"Wait…" Elesa paused a moment, her eyes tightening as she leaned forward, and studied Bianca's face. "You… I know you, don't I?"

"I uhm… I hope so? You once encouraged me here in Nimbasa City when my father was trying to drag me back to my hometown. I doubt you'd remember, but–"

"I do!" Elesa suddenly shouted, before wincing as a few people turned to see who it was that had made so much noise. She hid her face away a second, and the crowd lost interest, turning back to their own conversations. "I remember you. You and your father had an argument about you becoming a Pokémon trainer, and I helped to diffuse it, no?"

Bianca lit up. "Yes, yes! You told my dad to let me follow my dreams, and he listened. I… I never forgot about that. It meant the world to me. Plus, you aided my friend Hilda in–"

"Ah, I knew it!" Elesa said excitedly, her own expression growing more animated. "You were Hilda's friend! And Cheren's as well, of course. Hah. Wow. I must've met you just before that entire Team Plasma debacle really set off, hm?"

Bianca nodded her head. "Mm. It was only a few months after that when the castle sprung up at the Pokémon League."

"Hah… those were crazy times." Elesa smiled. "How daunting to think back on such things now. You said you were fourteen at the time, so that makes you… what, twenty-four, twenty-five?"

"Uhm, I'm twenty-eight."

Elesa grimaced. "Ugh… that makes me feel older than I'd like."

Cynthia chuckled throatily. "You certainly don't look it."

Cynthia was completely correct, even if the two of them exchanged an odd glance at that comment. Elesa had that sort of ageless quality to her that a lucky few people possessed. She had no visible wrinkles, despite being at least in her late thirties, and it could have been the make-up she was wearing, but her lashes were beautiful, and the contours of her face were just as sharp as they'd been when Bianca had first been here so long ago.

To call the woman beautiful was an understatement. She was not a supermodel unjustly.

Bianca felt like she would've normally gone on to describe the woman's fashion sense around then, given that when she'd met Elesa a long time ago, she'd already had impeccable an style, and had then gone on to design her entire Pokémon gym around a model runway.

Yet today, she was dressed in a simple black hoodie which, to be fair, did bring out the blue of her eyes, and a pair of jeans.

It was a bit unfair that she looked so gorgeous in something so simple, but then, Bianca supposed that was just how genetics worked sometimes.

"Bianca?"

She was snapped out of studying the woman's figure by Cynthia's voice. She looked up at her mentor and saw that the woman was smiling over at her, clearly amused.

"Huh, what?"

"I was asking what you were doing?"

Admitting that she'd been paying incredibly close attention to the curves of Elesa's body felt like something that Bianca shouldn't admit, and so she instead said, "I was actually just looking at your outfit, Ms. Elesa."

"Ah." Elesa seemed to think that made sense, given that she rubbed at the back of her neck with one hand rather idly. "I suppose that's a fair line of inquiry, given I'm supposed to be a model. Here I am decked in casuals."

"W-Well you still look great." Bianca murmured a tad unconfidently.

Elesa smiled coyly. "Why thank you, Bianca. Though you shouldn't get an old woman's heart beating quite so fast."

Bianca tilted her head to one side. "…What?"

If anything, that only seemed to make both Cynthia and Elesa more amused. Cynthia chuckled under her breath, while Elesa's eyes became lidded as she said, "Oh, nothing, honey. Still, if you were wondering why I'm perhaps not wearing something I'd normally wear… I suppose I've just not felt the motivation to don my company's apparel recently."

That was the same thing that the man back at the modeling agency had been saying. Bianca found her attention being pulled to the way that Elesa's lips curled downwards, and she visibly showed her dissatisfaction with the current scenario.

"Nothing went wrong, really. As in, no event caused this. I just… sort of stopped wanting to model a while ago. I don't know why. If I did, I imagine that would make things easier." She laughed, but it was a forced thing. "Added onto that the fact that progress has stalled on the renovations at Nimbasa Gym. And yet, despite everything, here I am, wasting away the hours just… vegetating."

Bianca didn't quite know what to say to that, which must've been evident yet again, for Elesa took one look at her face, and then forced a smile onto her own.

"But, let's not focus on that. Perhaps the three of us could go and grab a bite to eat?"

And before Bianca knew it, they were off into Nimbasa again.

/

The restaurant they ended up going to had a VIP area that must've seen Elesa fairly consistently, because even in her disguise, they didn't hesitate to let her into the upstairs section.

Bianca had never been in one of these fancy restaurants before, and she found herself slightly disappointed to find out that the VIP section was mostly just the exact same as the rest of the diner, albeit much less crowded.

There was no one else there as they sat down in a corner booth, which must've been Elesa's preferred spot, given she'd walked straight there. It was one of those L-shaped booths that fit into the corner of the building itself, and Elesa sat directly in the hook of the L.

Cynthia sat on Elesa's right. Bianca on her left.

They ordered, got appetizers – which also arrived far faster than any meal that Bianca had had in her lifetime at a restaurant, which told her there were some added benefits to being a VIP other than the seating – and their meals before they discussed anything else.

She filled Elesa in on the reasons she was here in Nimbasa, and also on her goal during her journey, and her intentions to attend the World Championships at the end of the year.

Elesa seemed surprised. That and a tad bit worried.

"You wanted to challenge me?"

Bianca nodded, even as she dabbed at her face to remove some of the grease from her Kalos Dip.

"I… I see." Elesa frowned. "Well, it's not as if I couldn't allow a challenge, it's more…" She sighed. "With things as they are, I'm simply not… I don't–"

"It's fine, really!" Bianca cut her off, not wanting the woman to force herself to accept Bianca's offer out of pity. "You said you weren't feeling good, right?"

"Physically, I'm fine. It's more mental than anything." She said, looking down at her food and playing with an errant fry with her fork. "I just… haven't really been up for it. For anything, really."

"Well, someone we talked to at the modeling agency said you'd been hanging around at the contest hall for quite a while." Bianca commented, and Elesa nodded her head. "Why's that?"

"Probably not all that hard to guess; I was thinking about entering into a Pokémon contest. Just to get a break from my work, and… everything, really. But when I went there to actually do so… I don't know, it didn't feel right. Every few days I'd go back, try again, but… I don't know. I suppose I'm searching for… some kind of spark, I think. Something that will reignite the passion inside of me. And yet so far, I haven't really found it."

Bianca realized she'd had a run-in with someone who'd felt just like Elesa did now not too long ago. It had been Burgh who had also felt stagnant, who had been searching for something he couldn't manage to find on his own.

Bianca had helped him to find it in the end.

Things hadn't ended well, even so. Burgh had… he had made his decision, and Bianca hadn't been able to convince him otherwise. Hadn't been able to talk him out of making a mistake.

But then, she'd have been a hypocrite to get too upset at him about such things.

For now, perhaps…

"Well… if going on your own doesn't sound too fun, then…" Bianca was shaking a tad bit nervously, but ultimately managed to still herself long enough to ask, "Why don't the two of us enter into a contest together in the duo's league?"

Elesa's eyes widened, although Cynthia had a small, pleased smile on her face, like she was proud of Bianca for suggesting such a thing.

"That…" Elesa thought a moment, staring down at the table during that interim period. "…Perhaps that could work. I don't see a reason not to, at the very least, and that's more than can be said about a lot of things in my life right now."

Bianca nodded her head, pleased to hear that.

"Then, perhaps you two should register for the contest happening this week?" Cynthia brought up. "It should still have a few more hours until it begins."

Elesa laughed. "Were I anyone else, we would most assuredly not be allowed to get in on such late notice. Given that I am the town's gym leader however, I think we may be able to squeeze ourselves in at the last moment."

Cynthia chuckles. "It wouldn't be the first time."

Elesa seemed confused, turning towards Bianca for explanation, and she could only really laugh awkwardly.

/

The Contest Hall was bustling.

That made sense, given that by the time they'd registered for it, and officially been added to the roster – as Elesa had said, only her identity had been enough to get them crammed in – of duos competing, the contest had started less than an hour later. It was a week-long event, different than the one that Bianca had participated in during her time in Sootopolis. Technically, this was likely the same organizers, but it didn't behave in a similar way at all.

It was a contest that was based around a specific theme; although what that theme was got left unannounced until the actual beginning of the Contest. During the next week, the contestants would have to scramble to quickly come up with Pokémon, outfits, and routines that fit into that theme.

They were run every day, because, despite taking a week to set up, they didn't actually require their contestants to be present for more than thirty or so minutes the day the theme was announced, and then on the day of the performance itself. Technically, they were walking out after a competition just like this one had finished that very day. It had, apparently, been using a theme of 'Aquatic Life', which probably explained why the winner had walked out wearing what seemed to be some sort of Corsola cosplay.

It sounded like fun, in Bianca's opinion. That and nerve-wracking, given she couldn't quite cease thinking about what could go wrong, but that was neither here nor there. They were eventually filed into the Contest Hall itself, and Bianca was surprised to find herself…

Well, not calm, but not overly nervous, either.

She was steady. It wasn't a perfect thing, and there were cracks forming in her visage, but…

She'd been up here before. She'd faced these crowds, and she'd done just fine. Of course, technically she'd stolen Wallace's routine out from under him before he could so much as perform it, but she'd had very little choice in the matter, in her personal opinion.

"Ladies and Gentleman!" An announcer got on the microphone, and the crowds applauded as he did the introductions to the Contest Hall, the organizers of the event, and a few of the sponsors. Bianca kind of zoned out during this time period, so when the man suddenly proclaimed that they would be announcing the theme for this week's competition, she jumped in place, and tried to ignore the way a few of the others in the group giggled at her.

"Now, this week's contest theme will be…"

There was a literal drumroll at the man's words, even as the screen at the back of the room began to flip through about a hundred different prompts at speeds too quick to actually make out any of them. As it slowed, Bianca began to be able to read a few, but eventually, it stopped on a particular prompt, one that had Bianca's – and Elesa's – eyes widening.

"Shining Fashion!" The announcer shouted.

Bianca couldn't quite help but look over at Elesa, who was still staring up at the screen in shock.

Huh. She thought. Well…

That's certainly convenient…

End Chapter 13

I'm not going to say there's some favoritism involved here, but...

Anyways, the start of the Elesa Arc! This one will actually be pretty short, only lasting the next two chapters. That's to account for the fact that we'll be having an added like... mini bonus arc between this one and the next. Hope you guys enjoy that!

See you next week! Oh, and please review if you enjoyed the story, it means the world to me!