Authors note: Hey, guys!
Here's another chapter for you lovely peeps! Hope you enjoy it!
Arc VII: The Gift
Chapter Thirty-one: Displays
A little under a week later - after much training with Dawn's new pokémon - they were here. They were finally at Valor Lakefront!
The food was grand and the suite even grander! Pikachu had never lived in such luxury! It was a pity they'd only be here for the five days of the Grand Festival, but hey. He'd just have to enjoy it while it lasted.
"Alright, guys," Dawn said, heading over to a video phone. "I'm just gonna call someone real quick."
"Huh?" Ash asked. "Who? Your mom?"
Dawn giggled. "Nope~!"
Ash and Brock exchanged curious glances, then followed after her. Atop Ash's shoulder, Pikachu was also curious about who she was calling.
Sitting on the stool in front of the video phone, Dawn seemed to be mumbling in thought. Was she trying to remember the number?
Eventually, she smiled to herself and dialled.
The phone rang once. Twice. Three times. Then a voice answered.
"Hello?" the man on the other end asked.
"Hi! It's me, Dawn!"
The visuals kicked in, finally catching up to the audio, and a familiar face appeared on-screen. One with short blue hair that was darker than Dawn's.
"Oh, hello, Dawn," the man replied with a smile.
Pikachu blinked in surprise. It was O. The guy that Ambipom had left with, to become a ping pong champion.
... Heh. Pikachu had always thought he had a rather odd name. Was 'O' short for something? Like Oliver? Oscar? Owen? Or had his parents actually named him 'O'?
If it was the latter, he had to wonder what would cause them to make such a decision.
Still, though, if Dawn was calling him, then there could only be one reason.
"Hey there, O! How's Ambipom doing?"
"She's doing just fine, actually." He glanced behind him. "We're training really hard for the next ping pong tournament... and, with Shiftry helping her and cheering her on, there's no way we'll lose."
"That's what I like to hear!" Dawn beamed. After a moment, she leaned forwards excitedly. "So, anyway, the reason I called... Can I talk to Ambipom?"
"Sure thing." He looked elsewhere. "Hey, Ambipom! Dawn wants to say hi!"
"(Dawn?!)" an excited voice replied. There was a thundering of footsteps, until a familiar purple monkey appeared on-screen, shoving O to the side. She beamed. "(Dawn! And everyone else, too! Whazzup, dudes?)"
"Hey, Ambipom!" Ash replied happily.
"Good to see you again," Brock said.
"(Hey!)" Pikachu replied with a smile and a short wave.
Wow, it had been a while seen he'd last seen her. Not since she'd left in a coach to go to Vermillion City, way over in Kanto. Not long after that, the group had dressed in warmer clothing and gone to Snowpoint City for Ash's icicle badge. Gosh, that had been weeks ago now.
"Hey, Ambipom!" Dawn said, beaming. "You doing okay?"
"(Heck yeah!)" Ambipom replied with a huge grin. She hopped up and down, making punching motions with her paws. "(We're gonna beat down the competition in that tournament! You'll see!)"
Dawn chuckled. "Looks like you're doing just fine... and O's taking care of you?"
Ambipom nodded. "(Yup!)"
"That's great." Dawn beamed again. "Hey! You'll never guess where we are!"
Ambipom blinked. "(Huh?)"
"We're at the Grand Festival!"
Ambipom beamed back at Dawn. "(Wow, no way! That's awesome!)"
"We'll be competing for the next five days! Promise you'll cheer us on?"
"(Oh, heck yeah!)" She hopped up and down again. "(O's cruisin' for a brusin' if he doesn't lemmie watch it!)"
Dawn chuckled. "I can see you're excited!" She beamed wider. "You'll get to see my new pokémon! And all the amazing combinations we came up with!"
Ambipom linked her tail hands together excitedly. "(Awesome!)"
"I'll be sure to watch your tournament, too! Just have O call me when you're about to do it, okay?"
Ambipom nodded enthusiastically. "(Yeah, yeah!)"
Dawn smiled. After a moment, she gasped. "Oh yeah! I'd better give you an update on things!" She looked over in Pikachu's direction. "Pikachu and Buneary are dating now!"
Pikachu blushed slightly at the declaration.
Ambipom gasped, now looking at him. "(Really?!)" She howled in laughter. "(It certainly took you long enough! Man, I can't believe you did it while I was gone, though!)"
"(Heh, yeah...)" Pikachu replied, a bit embarrassed. "(Sorry...)"
"(So who asked who out?!)" She leaned her face into the screen, looking a little too eager to hear his answer.
Oh boy... he was going to be here a while, wasn't he?
The next day, it was finally time for the Grand Festival for start. The stage was set, and the coordinators were ready to show off their best moves.
Pikachu watched the announcer from where he was sitting, hearing her loud, echoing voice through the microphone. Wow, this was so exciting! Especially since his own girlfriend was going to be in the appeal round! He couldn't wait to watch her performance!
One after another, the coordinators took to the stage, giving it all they had.
Ursula, Nando, Jessilina and Zoey all performed admirably, impressing the judges with their vastly different styles. Kenny's appeal seemed to be going amazingly, too, until a slight screw up was made with his 'fusion move', as the boy had called it. Oh dear. That was going to lose him points. He probably should have stopped while the going had been good.
Then Dawn appeared on-stage.
Even from his seat in the audience, Pikachu could see the hints of dark pink in her hair, and on the front of her dress, from the ribbons she'd bought. They added a nice contrast to all the orange and white.
Everything about her outfit made her stand out.
... Well, it was hard to see her new dark orange earrings through her bangs, but that was a minor detail.
Then her appeal began.
Pikachu stared in awe, a wide grin spreading on his face. Wow! Buneary had used Ice Beam to create a massive rollercoaster made of ice! It was gorgeous!
He watched as Cyndaquil turned it into a slide with Flame Wheel, while Buneary slid down it behind him.
Gosh, Pikachu could hardly contain his excitement! Apparently, the same was true for Piplup, as the penguin was cheering very loudly beside him.
Now it was time for the finale! If they pulled this off, it would look so incredible that the judges would have to send them through to the battle rounds!
He watched with bated breath as Cyndaquil formed a cloud around them both with Smokescreen. The last time Dawn had covered up her pokémon, it had been with Ambipom's Swift. It had lost many points for 'obscuring the star of the show' or something.
Would they pull it off this time?
He continued to watch as the smoke cloud fizzled away. His grin only grew at what he saw. Buneary had formed a large ice ball around herself, right at the top of the structure, and Cyndaquil was sitting on top of it, two flames erupting from his back and slowly flapping like wings. Sparkles rained down onto the stage below.
Holy freaking miltank, they'd done it! It was beautiful!
He swelled with pride at his girlfriend's accomplishment.
The first day of the Grand Festival had ended. Every familiar face had made it through to the battle rounds, except for Kenny. It was a pity that Dawn's childhood friend hadn't gotten through, but he hadn't looked overly upset about it.
Instead, the two had parted ways for the time being, with Kenny promising to train more for the next Grand Festival.
As for Dawn, she and her team had an exciting day ahead of them tomorrow!
The next few days passed by in a blur of action and excitement.
Mamoswine and Pachirisu narrowly defeated Ursula in the first round. Pachirisu and Piplup defeated some guy Pikachu didn't know in the second round. Buneary and Cyndaquil easily defeated Jessilina in the third round.
Piplup and Togekiss, however, barely lost to Zoey in the fourth round.
Later that night, after another grand meal, Pikachu was sitting on the railing of their suite's balcony, overlooking the darkened scenery of Valor Lakefront. Sitting beside him, her paw resting on top of his, was Buneary.
"(Man,)" the rabbit said with a slight sigh, "(I can't believe we didn't win the Grand Festival...)" She pouted. "(We were so close, too...)"
Pikachu beamed at her. "(Yeah, you got all the way to the finals!)" he replied. "(That's really impressive! Especially for a first try!)"
She smiled back at him. "(I guess so.)"
"(I know so! On her first try, May's team... Uh, you remember May, right?)"
She giggled. "(Yeah, I do. Dawn called her the 'princess of Hoenn', right?)"
He chuckled. "(Yeah. Anyway, her team got to the top eight on their first try. Then, on their second, they got to the top four. Plus, Dawn beat May in the Wallace Cup, remember? So I'd say you guys did great!)"
Her eyes sparkled. "(Really?)"
He nodded. "(Yeah, really!)" He paused a moment. "(Well... I guess May's mom wasn't a top coordinator... so she had no footsteps to follow... and she did it all pretty much by herself... but yeah!)"
She gave him a light pout. "(You just had to ruin it, didn't you?)"
He chuckled awkwardly. "(Sorry...)"
She giggled again. "(It's okay. You really think we did great?)"
He smiled. "(Oh, heck yeah! All the combinations were amazing! My favourite, though, was your ice slide.)"
She blushed slightly. "(Oh, you flatterer~)"
"(No, it's true! It was really beautiful! Elegant... beautiful... and-)" He blinked as she pulled her fluff up to her face with her free paw. "(Um... great?)"
"(... Thank you...)"
Recovering, he chuckled. "(No problem.)"
She paused, apparently contemplating something. After a moment, she used both paws to push herself along the railing, until she was pressed against him.
The contact surprised him slightly. It felt really lovely, though, so he didn't complain. Smiling warmly, he leaned into the touch. He heard her sigh in relief as she did the same.
They stayed like that for a while, under the starry night sky.
The next day, it was time to vacate the Valor Lakefront resort. Now that the Grand Festival was over, they had to continue their journey. Especially now that Volkner of the Sunyshore City gym had called Ash to say that he was ready for a rematch.
They were going to try a second time to get their eighth gym badge!
Firstly, though, Brock had said that he needed to stock up on food from the local store.
"Are you nearly done, Brock?" Ash whined impatiently. "I kinda wanna get moving!"
"In a minute, Ash," Brock replied. "I still have a long list of ingredients to buy."
Ash groaned in response.
Brock sighed. Smiling tiredly at Ash, he continued. "Why not go browse the store 'til I'm done? Maybe you'll find something you like in the meantime."
Ash heaved a sigh of his own. "I guess..."
Trudging off, with Pikachu on his shoulder, Ash began to browse the store.
After searching a few aisles and apparently finding nothing of interest, he turned down another aisle. Pikachu's ears sprang up in surprise at what he saw.
The yokai toys. They were here, too!
Ash looked around briefly. "Huh, cool, it's these things again."
"(Yeah...)" Pikachu replied, looking all around him as Ash walked.
Apparently, the merchandise of these things was spreading. Maybe the movies had been really popular, then.
... Well, he could certainly see why Determination had been popular. It was a fun, family-friendly movie that aired in the daytime, so young trainers would be able to watch it.
He wasn't sure what the audience for But Nobody Came was. The adults who'd watched Determination and wanted something a bit grittier? Something to watch once the kids were asleep?
His eyes suddenly landed on another Jibanyan doll.
... He contemplated ignoring it. Just staying on Ash's shoulder and waiting until it was time to leave.
Strangely, though, the doll's existence didn't disturb him anymore.
Maybe he was still in too great a mood after watching the Grand Festival. Or maybe he'd simply gotten used to the idea of it now. Either way, he wanted a closer look.
Jumping off Ash's shoulder, he landed on the shelf, inspecting the toy.
"Huh? What's up, buddy?"
He smiled up at his trainer, waving a paw in dismissal. "(Nah, nothing,)" he replied. "(Just checking out the shelves.)"
Ash blinked, then smiled. "Oh, I get it. You wanna check out the toys, right, buddy?"
Pikachu nodded. "(Yep!)"
"Alright, then." Ash pointed elsewhere with his thumb. "If you need me, I'll be elsewhere. Kay?"
He nodded again. "(Kay!)"
As Ash wandered away, Pikachu looked back down at the toy, which was looking forwards with a bright smile on its face. Curious, he picked up the cardboard box it was sitting in. He felt the fabric of the toy with his other paw.
... Huh. It was actually pretty soft. He felt around at all the different parts on it. Hmm, it was very accurate to the movie, too. Very well-made. He could certainly appreciate good craftsmanship when he saw it!
Suddenly, he noticed something on its paw. A sticker? It said something in English, but he'd never been very good at reading. Curious, he squeezed it.
"Jibanyaaaan!" the toy screamed.
Yelping in shock, Pikachu stumbled backwards, almost dropping it.
Jeez Louise... this toy could talk?! And really loudly, at that!
Catching his breath, he eyed up the doll again. Even more curious, he squeezed its paw a second time.
"Paws of fury!" it yelled.
... Heh. This thing was pretty amusing. Not to mention cute. Even if it could blast the ears off a pokémon with sensitive hearing. It was almost like the toy knew Hyper Voice.
He chuckled at his own joke, squeezing its paw again.
"I'm pretty busy right nyoooow!" the toy said, sounding like it was yawning. He squeezed it again. "Nyeh heh heh!" He squeezed it again. "I, the Great Jibanyan, will solve this conyundrum!"
He smiled at the toy. Yeah, this thing was really cute. It was especially charming how it kept spouting quotes from the movie.
Heh. He couldn't help wonder if Buneary would like this doll.
... He pondered on that for a moment. Well, she had done really well in the Grand Festival. Not to mention, Jibanyan was her favourite character, and she'd loved him before the sister movie had killed him off.
... Perhaps this should be a celebration of the first movie. The one she'd really enjoyed. As well as a promise between them to move past the fear and sadness they'd felt watching the second movie.
Besides, this doll didn't seem to have any quotes from the second movie, so it had clearly been made for fans of the first movie.
Nodding to himself, he held tighter onto the toy and jumped off the shelf with it.
After convincing Brock to buy the doll, Pikachu asked Ash to place it in his backpack for safekeeping. He was so excited! He couldn't wait to show it off to Buneary later!
"Kay, can we get going now?" Ash asked as they left the store.
"So impatient, Ash!" Dawn said teasingly. "Your gym badge will wait for you, you know."
Ash clenched a fist energetically. "I know, but I wanna get it now!"
"We still have to travel to Sunyshore City first..." Brock said with an exasperated smile.
Ash heaved a sigh, slumping his shoulders. "Yeah, I guess so..." Perking up, he marched ahead of the others. "Well, then, what are we waiting for?! Let's get moving, guys!"
Behind him, Dawn sighed. "So impatient..." she said.
Pikachu smiled awkwardly on Ash's shoulder, silently agreeing with her comment.