Thanks to AusHunIsForever777, Sideshow Cellophane 26 and SansTheLanguage218 for reviewing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

EstSey: Luck and Skill

"Hey, Michelle," Eduard said, a smirk on his face. "Want a battle?"

Michelle briefly looked up from her 3DS to see Eduard standing there with his own.

"Do you really want to?" she asked.

"Of course!" he said. "I took the time to breed these Pokémon to perfection! What would be the point if I can't test it out on someone?"

Michelle rolled her eyes.

"You know I'm not a competitive player," she said. "I'm a shiny hunter. That's all I care about."

"Come on," Eduard said. "Please."

She sighed.

"Fine," she said. "Just wait for me to finish this hunt. Though, it could take a while. The chain's only at twenty encounters."

Eduard sighed, knowing that she would be busy for a while. At least she had agreed to a battle. He started going through his own Pokémon, trying to see who would be best suited for a battle with her.

"Found it!" she exclaimed happily, surprising Eduard.

"W-what?" he asked. "How many encounters was that?"

"Twenty-five. Not bad, considering the odds only start to increase at around seventy."

He stared at her blankly for a moment, before going to check over her shoulder. Indeed, a shiny Furfrou was on the screen. He watched in amazement as she captured the shiny.

"I still can't believe how fast that was," Eduard said.

"Yeah, it happens sometimes," Michelle said nonchalantly. "Sometimes I spend a really long time hunting a shiny. Other times, it's there before I know it. Now, let me just get a party ready to battle."

Eduard waited patiently as she made the final preparations, making his own final preparations. When they were ready, they began.

He wasn't too surprised to see that all of the Pokémon she was using was shiny, but it still annoyed him. He was up against her Gyarados with his Toucannon. He didn't really have something that could take on her Gyarados, so he would have to attack with Toucannon.

His eyes widened when Gyarados used Ice Fang, a super effective move. He sighed in relief when it failed to knock out his Toucannon, only making the HP bar go yellow. Only for his Toucannon to be afflicted by the frozen status condition. Out of all the status conditions, this was the one that was the least likely to appear. Michelle realised this too, and giggled.

He would have to hope for Toucannon to thaw out the next turn, or…

Ice Fang. Super effective. Critical hit. Toucannon fainted.

Eduard sighed, before sending in his next Pokémon. Once again, Gyarados used Ice Fang, and once again, his Pokémon froze.

"Are you kidding me?!" he exclaimed, prompting Michelle to giggle.

They had a tournament with their league. This was the moment of truth. Eduard would see if his hard work paid off. He had all the perfect strategies…

"Are you kidding me?!" one of the others exclaimed.

Eduard looked over to see that it was Michelle's opponent, and she giggled. Eduard smiled. He knew first-hand that his girlfriend had incredible luck.

I've been wanting to do something like this for a while now. I used to be part of a Pokémon league while at university (the founder was actually a friend of mine, and he asked me if I wanted to join before he registered the league, about a month or so after discovering that I liked the Pokémon games). Most of the others in the league were competitive players, both in terms of the TCG and the VG. They had a lot of strong Pokémon (we actually had to create a rule that limited the amount of EX cards that someone could use), and as for me… I relied on my luck. And sometimes, my luck managed to beat the ones relying on skill. Even when I lost, due to luck I lasted a lot longer than I usually would. I was also the only shiny hunter in the league, or should I say, the only successful shiny hunter. I managed to catch more shinies without the shiny charm than everyone else combined, even with the shiny charm. I even had to give a lesson on the Masuda method over our WhatsApp group. Our ace player once introduced me as the 'poster child for shiny Pokémon'. And when we had a tournament and had members of another league act as judges, they were impressed by the number of shinies I had. I actually managed to catch one or two shinies at the league (and everyone paused to watch me catch it). I even managed to get a shiny with the TCG (and had to deny everyone who wanted to trade me for it). We checked the value of the card, and it was around $50. I still have it, though. As for my luck in battles… The Gyarados with Ice Fang is something that happened at one of our tournaments, when all three of my opponents would succumb to the frozen status condition whenever my Gyarados used Ice Fang (and as I mentioned in the chapter, that rarely happens). One opponent was affected twice.

Gyarados is one of my favourite water types to use, and I have one in each game where you can catch Magikarp. Starting from Gen 6, I made sure to have a shiny Gyarados (kind of as homage). Furfrou is a Pokémon that I wanted shiny for a long time, and was probably my most recent shiny at the time of writing this chapter. And in my Ultra Moon game, my Toucannon is probably my strongest attacker. Currently hunting Nihilego (Day 9, still no shiny). Wish me luck!