If there was something Hitori appreciated about when her battle had happened, it was that it was in the perfect spot of not right away, but still early enough that she could calm down while watching the remaining battles for the round. It also gave her time to attempt to claim her free drink.
The first step was quieting the voice in her head telling her that she was too late. By asking now they'd kick her out and disqualify her for not being sociable enough to accept a free drink when it's offered. The second step was peeking over towards the counter, quickly snapping back to focusing on the table in front of her as people were already lined up getting their orders. People who doubtlessly were more deserving of it than she was.
Hitori waited a few minutes before looking back at the counter, no one was there. Better yet everyone was watching the current battle and not approaching it. Hitori got out of her seat and walked over, as she reached halfway she suddenly diverted and moved over towards the wall next to the counter. What was she going to say? 'Give me my free drink now?' How rude could she get?
'May you please bestow onto this unworthy Wimpod a drink following the free service you said for trainers participating?' Too long! 'Can I still get that free drink?' Better, let's go with that Hitori thought to herself. Her eyes glanced back at the counter, it was still free, and the clerk wasn't even looking at her and noticing how weird she was being leaning near it like she was.
However as Hitori began to stand back up to finish her approach, mentally repeating her words over in her head another person had come up to order something. Hitori leaned right back against the wall not wanting to deal with the possibility of talking about who got there first. Instead, Hitori turned her attention back towards the arena to watch the current match.
A Dottler was sitting in the middle with a shell of bluish squares made from some kind of energy around it, all the while its opponent, a Skwovet was being hit by some kind of force. She was running out of time, it didn't look like the normal type was going to last much longer. Hitori glanced again at the counter and the person had gone, now was her chance!
Hitori did her best to walk up to the counter without looking like she was in too much of a hurry or doing anything weird. The Clerk smiled at her and Hitori opened her mouth to say her line but nothing came out. A few more attempts and all she could manage were some strained noises.
"Are you okay miss?" The clerk asked her with a most forgiving and kind expression on her face.
Taking a deep breath, all the while the announcer and judge were announcing the winner, Hitori gave her order. "Can I still get that free Wimpod?" She said in a quiet voice.
"I- I I Mean Drink! Can I get that free drink now? I'm sor-" Hitori stammered and began to babble out quickly after realizing her mistake.
Hirori was somewhat cut off by the clerk who again was being far too kind to a sub-Wimpod like herself. "Of course, What drink would you like?" The Clerk Asked.
The battle was over and Hitori could hear some people starting to get out of their seats, either for the next battle or to get another drink in the time between matches. Flavor, she needed to pick one. "M-Melon soda?" She asked, still so quietly of course.
"Coming right up," The clerk said and tapped something on the register before stepping away from the counter into the back where the kitchen presumably was.
Hitori fidgeted as she stood there, unsure if she should get out of the way or wait for her drink. At least she had done it. A minute later the clerk had returned holding a glass showing off the green soda topped with a generous amount of whipped cream. It even had little sprinkles and a disk ornament on it. "Here you go. Even the free drinks come with a chance to win the prize. Here's hoping you're lucky," The clerk said as she set the drink down.
"Prize?" Hitori asked, her mind already starting to spiral in one way or another but before she could get too far the clerk smiled and tapped on a poster that was on the counter. Hitori looked down and saw that they were running a promotional event, each of their specialty drinks came with a chance to win a prize. From free drinks or meals to trainer items, the top prize however was a Milcery. "Oh, thank you," Hitori whispered out before finally making her hurried escape back to her seat.
Back in the safety of her seat, Hitori took a sip of the drink and her eyes widened. It was good! She wasn't putting any thought into the drink itself, rather having gotten stuck on the idea of doing what she thought she should have. With a smile, she took another sip, then used the straw to scoop a bit of the whipped cream into her mouth.
"Whismur, come out," Hitori quietly said as she released her partner onto the table itself. Whismur looked around for a bit before letting out a whisper of a cry. "Want a sip of this soda? It's really good," She asked.
Whismur tilted her head as she looked between the green drink and Hitori before nervously taking a step toward the glass. Hitori bent the straw to be level for Whismur and it took a big sip all at once. Hitori panicked for just a moment as what if Whismur didn't like it or maybe it fell over, what if she drowned? But those worries were all pushed away in a moment when Whismur made a joyful cry that was even a touch louder than a whisper.
Remembering the disk on top, Hitori pulled it off while Whismur took a few more sips. The front side of it was of a Milcery, swallowing some spit that had built up she flipped it over. 'Better luck next time' Was written on the back with a smaller, apologetic-looking Milcery on it. Hitori let out a relieved sigh. She didn't know how she'd be able to handle it if she actually won something, she'd have to go up again and probably make a scene, embarrassing herself as she tried to redeem it.
"Whismur you drank that much already?" Hitori asked in a mixture of worry and panic as she turned her attention away from the disk. Half of it was already gone and there was even a large bite taken out of the whipped cream. Whismur let the straw out of her mouth at Hitori's words, frozen in some kind of emotion. Glancing between Hitori and the drink the Whismur whimpered and cried as it was clearly starting to panic and worry in a way that resembled her trainer.
"No no it's fine please don't cry! It's your reward for working so hard!" Hitori hurriedly told her partner, hoping to calm her down before she started crying. She'd definitely get disqualified and probably charged for the drink if that happened. Unfortunately, it seemed that Hitori's own panic would feed into Whismur's. Hitori could see how Whismur's eyes and mouth quivered. "Sorry in advance Whismur!" Hitori half whispered as she returned her partner to her Pokeball.
Letting out the breath she was holding in, Hitori took a sip of what was left of her soda. Win or lose, she'll buy Whismur a poffin, a sandwich, or something as both an apology and thanks for putting up with a trainer like herself.
Distracting herself from that, Hitori watched the remaining battles and finished her soda. Unfortunately, as the second round began, the Clobbopus won over the Rockruff meaning she'd be sending Whismur out against a fighting type if she somehow managed to win her battle. It also meant her battle was now minutes away. Hitori quickly finished what was left of the melon soda.
Hitori quietly approached the arena for her second round. Her hopes of Rockruff winning over the Clobbopus dashed, she wasn't exactly feeling confident. Not that she ever really felt that confident. Regardless she did her best to lob her Pokeball into the arena letting her Whismur out, who announced its appearance with a quiet whimper.
On the opposing side was someone who was dressed in a rather rock outfit if Hitori was being honest. Ripped jeans, black and pink t-shirt with a sleeveless leather vest. Most notable was a pile of keychains of a guitarist that of course Hitori recognized. Both a gym leader and guitarist, from Spikemuth, Marnie. "Come on out Nickit!" The man said as he tossed it ball out confidently, releasing his Pokemon.
"We will begin the second match of our second round, Whismur vs Nickit. Begin!" The judge announced loudly.
"Best use Beat up before that Whismur can start to bellow out that smokescreen!" Hitori's opponent yelled out.
"W-whismur, smokescreen," Hitori did her best to speak up but it only barely came out instead.
At least her partner could still hear her and that was the most important thing. With a short cry to psych herself up, Whismur began to bellow out the thick smoke once again. Though it needed time to spread out enough, all the while Hitori was ducking low to hopefully cover herself sooner so she could at least let her voice out. She certainly didn't feel good about it, but it worked last time and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to do anything without it.
While Whismur let out the smokescreen, Nickit approached and began to ram against Whismur. Paws slamming down, tail slapping across Whismur, and even a headbutt, whatever the small Pokemon could do to hit the Whismur. Whismur cried out from the repeated attack and seemed to be getting agitated more and more with each hit. Hitori felt bad for her partner getting hit just because she couldn't raise her voice like she should. But at least she knew how to take advantage of her weakness.
Whismur took a few more hits from beat up until it seemed rattled enough that Hitori, now safely hidden within the smokescreen could speak up at least enough to sound to others like a regular indoor speaking voice. "Whismur, now run away and start letting out Echoed voice," Hitori commanded.
"Don't let 'em get away, quick attack Nickit!" Hitori's opponent cut in with his own command. Nickit had backed off while his trainer was giving him his command. With a cry of his own, the Nickit rushed forward leaving behind a line of white light from the attack.
But to the surprise of Nickit, his Trainer, and even the audience Whismur blurred out of the way. Visible because the speed of was enough to push the smokescreen around. Then came the volume, Whismur began to cry, loudly. Immediately Nickit's trainer put a hand to his ears, shouting out. "Quick Attack again! Quiet that crybaby up!".
Though as Nickit chased after Whismur, it moved just as fast even without using an attack like quick attack. All the while its crying only got louder and louder, until everyone had to hold their ears to try and deafen it even a little bit.
Hitori meanwhile under the cover of the smokescreen which by now only really covered her rather than the battlefield had taken her headphones and put them on to protect against the sound. She mumbled apologies to all the good patrons who came to watch and enjoy some nice food and drink, and she was ruining it with her cowardly strategy. But the volume was Whismur's strongest point.
Luckily for everyone's eardrums, Nickit was the target of the brunt of most of it, and so soon fell over and fainted. "Whismur you can stop now," Hitori said, which despite the sheer volume going on, her Whismur heard her and nearly immediately stopped her crying and looked towards Hitori with a smile on her face.
Hitori returned the smile with a faint one of her own. If nothing else she was proud of Whismur who was being braver than she was. With that Hitori took her headphones off, setting them back down over her neck. Once the noise was gone, it only took a second for the judge to recover and call the match, "Nickit is unable to battle! The second-round winner is Whismur!".
Despite how much trouble Hitori had made for everyone, she flinched both at the announcement, almost expecting her racket to have disqualified her, and at the fact that there was some clapping going on. Which Hitori could scarcely believe, no way they could be clapping for her right?
"Oi Girlie, How's your Whismur so fast?" Her opponent asked, having returned his Nickit, and walked over while she was in her head.
"I-I-I Um. I, W- Whismur," Hitori started stammering and stuttering. "Whismur's ability… isn't soundproof. It's um, rattled," She eventually said barely above a whisper.
"That so? Ha! I must have been playing into your hands the whole time! Well, done girlie!" He yelled out far too loudly for Hitori's liking. She didn't know how to react or answer back and so she just retreated, fleeing to her seat where she could await her next round.
As she fled, she heard the man whistle out loudly "Let's give it up for the gi- Hitori! Yeah!" He yelled. Making matters more awkward for her was some people did give at least something of a cheer for her. As she sat back down, she buried her head to hide herself away from the attention. Though she couldn't say it wasn't totally bad. It was part of what she wanted, wasn't it?
While Hitori kept her head down hoping to let the rather riled-up audience die down and hope she could blend into the background, suddenly there was something said. Then things exploded in noise, people cheered, and a jingle even started playing. Hitori spent a few seconds pushing herself deeper mortified that it could somehow possibly be something more done for her.
After a few more seconds she peeked up from her table to see everyone was looking at a red-headed girl who was a classmate of hers from school! Hitori buried her head once again, she never talked with anyone back at school, not for a lack of trying. But the idea of being recognized and suddenly approached would be too much for her right now.
Another few seconds of noise passed by and Hitori braved another peek at what was going on, the cheers were dying down a bit and her classmate, Kita she believed was at the counter with a wide energetic smile that was far too much for her to look directly at. But she got around that by looking slightly to the side.
Kita was energetically taking pictures of a Milcery that was looking up at her. It took Hitori longer than she would admit to put the noise, her classmate, and the Milcery together. The noise died down as people had their attention once again taken by another battle ongoing. If nothing else it meant that no more attention was on her. Something Hitori kind of felt, a smidge sad about. She lifted her head up now feeling comfortable enough to sit normally, looking out over the café. Her eyes for a moment locked onto her classmate.
Hitori felt a sense of dread and panic, which wasn't actually all that new now that she thought about it. They saw each other, well no one talked to her at school so maybe- No she's approaching! She's looking right at me while walking towards me! Already Hitori was glancing around looking for somewhere to hide and avoid the upcoming social interaction.