"Oh, that's interesting," Dawn said, as they passed through a village. "Look at that!"
The others followed her gaze, and Ash tilted his head slightly.
"Unsanctioned Pokémon Contest?" he said. "What's an unsanctioned?"
"Unsanctioned means that it's not regulated by the Pokémon Activities Committee," Cynthia said. "That's perfectly all right, of course, so long as they actually say they're unsanctioned and don't award Ribbons."
"Why's that?" Koraidon asked.
Dawn didn't need a translation to understand how to answer that. "Formal Pokémon Contests are the ones which the Pokémon Activities Committee regulate," she said. "Which means that you can earn a Ribbon there, and those Ribbons let you get into the Grand Festival."
Koraidon nodded along, familiar after all the ones she'd seen May do, and Dawn kept going. "The ones that aren't formally regulated aren't allowed to award any official ribbons, but sometimes they give out… officially unofficial ones? That sounds weird to say, but it's the best way to put it."
"Oh, I get it," Koraidon nodded. "I think?"
She glanced at Ash. "So, it's sort of doing something like an official Contest but isn't one. Like how you could have something that's like an official gym, but isn't really one, and you need to make sure that… people know about it, or they'd get upset when they won a thing that wasn't a proper badge."
"That sounds about right," Ash said. "They have to say they're not an official Contest or someone might compete without realizing the Ribbon wouldn't count?"
"Quite right," Cynthia confirmed. "A few years ago I think there was a big scandal when it turned out that an unofficial Contest hadn't been doing that, so there were some disappointed people at the Grand Festival. It was a big shame."
Ash winced, imagining showing up at the Pokémon League with the badge he'd been given for helping out Diglett Village instead.
"Still, since this one's said they're not an official one, it's just for fun, right?" he checked.
"Contests are mostly for fun anyway, but yeah," Dawn agreed.
"Dad?" Mew said, as they left the village again. "Can I ask something?"
They took their tail in their paws. "I'm… I'd like to give a Contest a go. If that's okay?"
"If that's what you want to do, then sure," Ash agreed, stopping in place.
He paused. "Though, uh… actually, I don't know the answer to this. Cynthia, I guess you'd know, do you think it'd be okay for Mew to enter? Or would it not be safe?"
"Hmm," Cynthia said, frowning. "You mean whether there would be some risk from people knowing you have them?"
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I was thinking about it because of what happened with Hunter J, and… I don't know."
Mew looked disappointed.
"That is a good point, Dad," they admitted. "The museum was okay, though, right?"
"Yeah, the museum did go fine," Ash agreed. "I'm just… worried about making a mistake, or if I'd made one in the past, I guess."
He paused, then sighed. "I guess… the weird thing is, once Latias joined Team Rocket started causing way less trouble, so maybe I'm being silly."
"I don't think you're being silly!" Koraidon told him. "I think you're being careful. And you're not just deciding you're right, either, which matters."
"If you're worried about having Mew performing as themselves," Cynthia began. "I think I had an idea. You should practice first to make sure you've got an Appeal routine, but then…"
"This is because of that trainer from a few years ago, isn't it?" Lucario asked.
"Well, he might have given me the idea," Cynthia said. "But you've got to admit, it's a useful solution."
"It would be a bit hard for them to use any move that was out of character," Lucario had to admit.
"Oh! Here they come," Koraidon pointed, and Pachirisu clambered up on Dawn's head for a better vantage – then got back down again, a bit embarrassed, when someone behind them coughed meaningfully.
Out on the stage, Ash had thought about how to dress up, but had eventually opted for the Rising Badge. He wasn't sure if the Dragon type was more showy than the others or not, but the purple and green it gave him contrasted strikingly against his white coat, and that was really what the point was here.
"Come on out!" he said, and sent out Mew.
Or, as far as everyone else was concerned, Smeargle.
The transformed Pokémon bowed, sweeping their tail around in a performance to help with their nerves, then Ash called for the first move. "Pyro Ball!"
Another tail flick, this time turning into a twirl, and Mew-as-Smeargle produced a ball of flame. They bounced it on their head twice, then kicked it into the air, and followed that up with a knee strike and a back-of-the-footpaw hit, then a tail thwap – each time knocking the ball into the air, not letting it reach the ground.
"Let's charge it up!" Ash called. "Electro Ball!"
Mew-as-Smeargle swapped out one attack for another with a fwoosh, the change naturally making fragments of fire spatter everywhere, and sped up a little – bouncing the ball around from paw to paw, using their handpaws as well this time.
"So Ash had to tell the organizers their true identity, right?" Dawn checked. "I don't think I ever ran into that bit of the rules."
"That's right," Cynthia said. "Or, that's how it worked out here."
Mew-as-Smeargle juggled the ball a few more times, producing a shower of sparks with each bounce, then it slipped and went flying towards the other end of the stage.
"Catch it!" Ash prompted. "And – Energy Ball!"
The faux-Normal-type hurried over, doing a diving catch, and used Energy Ball at the same time. The switch over between moves wasn't quite as smooth that time, but it looked all right, and only Dawn and Cynthia noticed Ash breathe a sigh of relief.
That hadn't been in the routine, but it hadn't looked that bad.
In the Battle Round, acting as a Coordinator involved new challenges for both Ash and Mew, and Ash did his best to think through what would be the right move for Mew to use to deal with the other Pokémon – or, more specifically, the other Pokémon's move, since Mew was a bit reluctant to attack their opponent directly and Ash was willing to respect that.
There was a Hitmontop, spinning around rapidly to use Triple Kick as he whirled across the floor, and Ash had Mew evade at first by using Energy Ball and bouncing on top of it – which was an evasive move that didn't do damage or even strike Hitmontop at all, but it showed precision and control with the move and so the crowd liked the visual spectacle.
"That's interesting, but I don't think the crowd or judges are going to like it much if they just avoid one another," Dawn said, thinking. "If Ash's Pokémon was a flying one, a sure fire way to lose would be to just fly around in mid-air."
"Does that mean that Smeargle has to attack, then?" Cynthia asked, curious. "I don't know much about the specifics of how Contest scoring works."
"Not really attack, just… be active," Dawn mused.
"Pyro Ball!" Ash called, pointing a hoof.
Mew-as-Smeargle was still in the air after their latest spring off an Energy Ball, and they looked uncertain for a moment before forming a ball of flame in both paws. They gathered themselves, then lobbed it gently, and Ash immediately gave a new instruction.
"Hit it with an Electro Ball!" he said.
"Oh, I see!" Dawn realized. "Now this is a good example."
While she'd been talking, the transformed Pokémon had formed their Electro Ball and thrown it. The faster attack collided with the slower moving Pyro Ball, blowing them both to pieces, and flaming sparks rained down over Hitmontop.
It wasn't an actual damaging attack, not really, but it was something that Hitmontop's spin didn't protect him from and the judges applauded a little.
"Thanks, dad," Mew said, later, after the Contest was over. "For… you know. For remembering. And thinking of me."
Ash smiled.
"I'm glad it worked out okay," he said. "What did you think of it?"
"I think… maybe I'd be okay with doing a Contest in future," Mew decided. "But not really the Battle rounds, not right now. Maybe I'd do better with Contest Spectaculars."
They shrugged. "Or maybe I'll get used to being in battles? I know that you don't think I have to, and I know that I don't have to, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't. I don't know if I will, so it could be that I will or it could be that I won't."
Ash nodded along with that.
"I get what you mean," he said. "It's like… that thing that Professor Oak was talking about? How there's somewhere between forcing something and… denying it, I guess. Just letting it happen."
He nudged Mew. "And I'm glad you were okay with where you finished, too."
"I'd rather have come first, but… not by much?" Mew replied, a bit awkwardly. "I mean, um, it would have been cool to come first, but how it worked out was okay too. If that makes sense."
"It seems fine to me," Ash agreed. "Now, uh… actually, do you want to help with training Buneary? Zorua has Shadow Ball too, but he's working on something else, and Buneary needs to get good at parrying attacks rather than just dodging them. Otherwise something like Swift could put him in a bad state."
Mew beamed. "That would be great, dad!"
That evening, Zorua approached Mew.
"What was it like?" he asked, curious.
"Oh, um, you mean being Smeargle?" Mew guessed, and got a nod. "It was…"
They stopped, thinking carefully about what to say.
"It was sort of… liberating?" they said. "A bit, anyway. Because… it shouldn't really work like that, but it felt like, if I got something wrong then it would be because Smeargle had done it, not me."
They bounced up and down. "Which… sounds a bit odd now I say it? And I wouldn't try and do something wrong, anyway. But it made it… easier to try, I think."
Zorua nodded, then tilted his head.
"What other Pokémon could you pretend to be?" he asked.
"That's… actually sort of tricky, because I know so many moves," Mew said. "So I could pretend to be just about any Pokémon and pull it off, but I wouldn't… really want to. Mostly."
They scratched their head.
"Porygon?" they said. "Or their evolutions? Hardly anyone knows what Porygon can do."
Zorua considered that, then his eyes crossed as he concentrated.
A moment later he looked like a Dark-type Zorua.
"Best disguise," he said, sitting down on his haunches, then wiggled his tail a bit and lay down.
AN:
A good disguise is nice and convincing.