"So… Ash, I have a question," Goh said.
"Oh?" Ash replied, looking up from where he'd been walking Farfetch'd through the idea of using the leek's recoil as a way to move himself around. "What's that?"
"Well…" Goh began, waving his hand. "I suppose what I'm wondering is… why you've never been into Contests? If you have never been into Contests, that is."
"Fetch'd?" Farfetch'd asked. "Fa-aar?"
"Just a moment, okay?" Ash replied, glancing at Goh. "Farfetch'd, if you want a great way to experiment with this, try with Lucario, okay? Get him to use Vacuum Wave and you can practice dodging out of the way by swinging your leek."
"Feetch'd!" Farfetch'd saluted, raising his leek, and flapped off.
"Sorry about that, Goh," Ash said, embarrassed. "I didn't want to lose my train of thought!"
He scratched the back of his neck. "And I guess, uh… a lot of it is that I really really enjoy an intense battle, against someone else who's really specialized in battle. Being able to work together with my Pokémon to overcome a challenge like that is – it's something that I've always loved, ever since the first time I did it. And that's what I find in battles."
"Pika-pika, Pikapi!" Pikachu provided, ears twitching.
"And it's what Pikachu finds, too!" Ash agreed, patting his starter Pokémon on the head. "So that works out great, and… it's what I like doing, so it's what I do?"
"Right, I get that," Goh said. "But you have loads of friends who do Contests, right… is there a reason why Contests aren't the same?"
Ash frowned, sitting down cross-legged and resting a hand on his palm.
"Chuu…" Pikachu said, thinking hard as well.
"I guess…" Ash began, then stopped, and nodded. "Yeah, I guess it's that… in a Contest, there's other people involved, as well. I don't just mean people watching, I mean people who are watching and involved. The judges, and I guess the audience as well but you have to think about the judges, not just the Pokémon and the other trainer… and, I don't know, but it feels like that makes it different. As far as the way I think of it, anyway!"
"I guess that makes some kind of sense," Goh allowed. "There is a difference. I'm just surprised you haven't tried it?"
"Oh, I've tried it!" Ash said. "It's fun for a change! But battling is what I keep coming back to."
"Pika-ka!" Pikachu agreed, happily.
"And if I see something that works in a Contest, nothing says I can't use it in a battle," Ash went on. "Or get inspired by it to do something else, myself – actually, hey, Pikachu, let's show that trick we worked out!"
"Chuu!" Pikachu confirmed, and Ash sent out Dragonite.
This may have been a bad idea, as he got emphatically Hugged.
"It's nice to see you, too," he coughed, hugging Dragonite back, then patted her on the arm to get her to let go. "Hey, Dragonite, we'd like to show Goh a cool new trick we came up with, okay? Can you use Hurricane on Pikachu?"
"Nii-ite!" Dragonite said, giving a thumb-claw-up, then shot into the air and flapped her wings.
"Pikachu, Iron Tail and Quick Attack!" Ash ordered, and Pikachu slammed his tail into the floor with a whaaang. A swirl of ultrasonic noise made Goh's teeth grate, and the Hurricane attack clashed into the sonic shield before bouncing off and dividing in all directions.
"There we go!" Ash said, as Pikachu did a flip and landed on all fours. "That's an idea that's based off the Counter Shield, which came out of some brainstorming I did with my Coordinator friend Dawn-"
"What the heck was that?" Goh asked, feeling his jaw. "My bones ached!"
"I guess that must be the resonance," Ash frowned. "Think we can tune it a bit differently, Pikachu?"
"Chaa!" Pikachu agreed, nodding.
Then Dragonite Hugged Goh, just to make sure he wasn't left out.
AN:
A little one about why Ash might not do Contests.