Like No One Ever Was

When I woke up, I could see through the dim light that my room was something of a disaster zone. There was the damage Dun had caused, but also the fact that I hadn't focused on keeping it tidy before the tournament. But that wasn't the first thing that caught my attention.

"Billy? O'Nare?" I asked as I saw them both on the bed, lying on either side of me and Dun.

"Dear?" O'Nare asked me blearily, looking tired and a little confused.

"Uh, Mom, Dad, what's going on?" I asked, sitting up. Dun made a sleepy croak and I moved him to my side. My parents, rumpled and wrinkled from sleeping here, were dressed in their usual work clothes. My clothes were pretty much the same, but at least mine wouldn't need ironing.

Billy answered me, shaking off his own sleepiness. "Ah, Nemona, dear, after we got back, we heard from the staff that you might be a little upset, so we came over here." So they decided to sleep here to cheer me up in the morning. Despite everything else, it brought a small smile to my face.

"What happened to you guys? You got back later than us." Considering that they had to leave in the early morning, this must have been a pretty big deal.

"O'Nare was in the midst of a delicate dispute with some Pokemon that were being displaced by a construction crew at one of her projects. It was quite a tense situation!" Billy announced, waving his arms to emphasize the supposed severity of the situation.

My Mother shook her head vehemently. "No, it was your father who showed true Glitterati skill in stopping the poachers' attack on the Rotom phone company!"

"What- I thought it was a recall? And what was the situation with the Pokemon living where the construction team was? Wouldn’t the rangers have cleared any wilderness construction ahead of time?”

“They had checked but hadn’t seen anyone living there, but who could have suspected that there was a small clan of Zoroark living there!” O’Nare still had bags under her eyes but animatedly threw herself into recounting the story about the mistake, how she’d had to fly out to deal with the situation personally.

The Zoroark clan had apparently demanded to speak to the ‘leader’ of the construction team… which the people there had decided was the President of the Reality conglomerate. Did they really feel that the Zoroark needed to talk to Mom, or did they just kick the problem up the chain?

O’Nare didn’t seem to hold any such doubts, acting as peppy as ever. “The Zoroark matriarch calmed down after I explained it was all a big misunderstanding. They even agreed to leave the area and move to another site so the team could continue their work.”

“Really? Just like that?”

“I had another development that got canceled part way through and was sitting without any buyers, quite a secluded location, perfect for the Dark Types. I offered it to them and they agreed!”

She was simplifying a fair bit, I imagined. There was probably much discussion over the matter, having to calm the riled Pokemon down, show them the site, and convince them to pack up and move all over there. “We’re now in the process of converting that location to a

Reserve, to ensure that no one else moves in on the pack. We also get to make use of a place we couldn’t and turn it into a tax write-off,” she finished

How charitable and pragmatic all at once. My father was just in awe of her, stars in his eyes as he gazed lovingly at his wife. “What wondrous business acumen! Turning what would be a terrible trial into an opportunity! You’re a shining star of the Glitterati family.” He leaned over me to give his wife a quick kiss.

“Oh, no more than you! How daring to face off against insidious thieves? How dashing to fight them off?!” She leaned over and returned the favor with a quick peck of her own. I don’t need to see this.

“Ahem, what happened at the Rotom Factory?” I pressed, hoping to get them back on track.

Billy cleared his throat, and I saw his eyes flit upwards as he began mentally putting it all together. “Well, we were told that there was an issue with one of our new mid-range phone models and needed an emergency recall. I came down to check on the matter when I noticed one of the boxes wasn’t in the right area. I tried to move it back only to hear someone call out ‘Ouch!’

Naturally, I apologized to the person inside for the rough handling. But then I realized that someone was inside there! People aren't supposed to be inside boxes! I asked them who they were and they said ‘I’m just a Rotom.’ But there was no ‘bzzt’!”

At that point, I couldn’t resist face-palming. Dun copied me, coiling around and slapping his face

with his tail. My father continued unabated.

“I tossed open the lid to reveal not a Rotom, but a man crouched inside! He stepped out, announcing himself as a poacher, describing his vile scheme of how they had faked the recall, using it to slip inside the factory. He capped it off by proclaiming that he and his compatriots were going to steal the Rotoms! I declared that I would stop him!”

“Wait, but you don’t have any Pokemon,” I pointed out.

“Yes!” He announced proudly, puffing his chest out. “This was a fact that the poacher noticed as well. He released his Krokorok and threatened me, and I boasted that I was so dangerous that I didn’t need any Pokemon to defeat him, quelling him into submission… until one of the other thieves came in to check in on what was taking him so long. She told him to get on with it and called my bluff.” After a moment of incredulous silence he added: “So I ran!”

He described how he ran in and around the facility, bumping into and evading a total of five would-be thieves. My mind started playing the Scooby Doo music as I imagined Billy running about.

I can’t believe how ridiculous my parents are. Holding back laughter I ended up still snorting at his antics, catching a quick glance shared between them out of the corners of my eyes. Their faces softened and I saw their over the top ‘shock’ and ‘awe’ at the events being recounted shift for a moment to smiles full of love and tenderness as they looked down at me. I guess they heard at least some of what happened to me.

“... eventually, they had me cornered, right outside the Rotom farm itself. All the poachers had powerful Ground Types chasing me, but I had a secret weapon.” O’Nare squealed in delight, clapping her hands together as the story reached the ‘dramatic’ finale. “I had grabbed some of the discontinued Wash Appliances and put them in my Sliph Co. bag. As they moved in on me, I-”

“Wait! Why are the Wash Appliances discontinued!?” I interrupted. Billy blinked, caught a bit off guard by that.

“Oh, well they tend to get water all over the place. Trainers just didn’t like that one as much I guess?” He offered. I refused to have any of it.

“It’s one of the best Rotom Forms! With Water/Electric Typing and Levitate Rotom only has one Weakness, four Resistances, and an Immunity! It’s only rivaled by Heat Rotom which has 2 weaknesses but a bevy of resistances…” I realized I had stood up on the bed at some point and was just ranting. “Sorry about that.” Sheepishly I moved back to let him speak. It must have shown, for he smiled at me in the way dad’s do.

“Not a problem, it’s wonderful to see you so enthusiastic. And I agree, it’s a remarkable form - when I opened the doors to the farm, I also tossed in the washing machines, which a few brave Rotoms possessed, and then washed the poachers clean out!”

“Good to hear. Did you find out why there were so few employees there to handle the recall?”

“Ah yes,” He held up a finger dramatically as he remembered that important detail of the story. “When the police came and apprehended them it was revealed that the ringleader of their group was an employee we were in the process of letting go. Adrion Blanchard, he hacked into our system before we were done, arranging the whole thing. He set it up so the recall notice would come through at the same time that he arranged for almost everyone else working there to be given forced time off. The police even found Sharpedo Jet Boats stashed nearby for a quick getaway so they could flee the country!”

“That’s… incredible.” Perhaps a bit silly in how it all turned out, but I mean it. They both did good things yesterday while I… Both of them hugging me pulled me out of my thoughts.

“We’re so sorry we couldn’t make it to your tournament, dear. We know how hard you’ve been training for it-” I cut my mother off.

“It’s fine.”

They shared a disbelieving glance before moving on, clearly opting to discuss ‘it’ (i.e. me) privately. “You must tell us all about it now, though. We want to hear how it all went, and umm…” He trailed off, obviously searching for the words to ask about why it ended so badly, but in a way that wouldn’t upset me.

“It went well-”

“Dun dun!” My starter countered angrily.

“You didn’t let me finish! It did go well, at first. All the way up until the end. We got disqualified because the referees-” I grumbled barely coherently about my disdain for them before regaining my composure. “They made a decision on Terastalization and said that I was disqualified for using it in the semi-finals, even though it hadn’t been outright stated in the rules.”

“What?”

“No!”

“This is terrible!”

“We should call these officials and explain that they need to undo this immediately.”

“I-” A part of me was tempted, a large part that wanted to burn Freddrick and everything he owned to the ground. But that’s not right, it won’t help anything. “No, don’t try to undo it or anything.”

“Are you sure honey?” O’Nare asked. “This sounds wrong. It-” Her voice broke for a moment. “It sounds like it hurt you.”

I gave her a small nod. “It sucked, yeah, but we can’t fix this. Please don’t try to ‘undo’ the ruling.” Even if they could get it reversed, no one is going to appreciate me getting the win like that, and the moment has already passed. Worryingly, they might well be able to force the officials to undo that; they had a lot of economic power in Paldea and together they might be able to cause the officials to undo this, or try some other forced rematch type situation.

I already got a firsthand account of how having friends in the right places can alter outcomes that should be set in stone. It wouldn’t make me a better trainer though, wouldn’t help me learn Aura, or even earn me any respect, ‘winning’ like that. Dun hit the bed a few times, lightly enough to not cause an Earthquake, but I could tell he wasn’t happy with this. Me neither, buddy.

Scratching his head to soothe him a little, I said “I thought I heard the head judge and my last opponent conspiring after the match. Freddrick called him ‘uncle’, but there’s no way his uncle could have been allowed to rule for him, right?”

“Freddrick…” My mother mused. “The Van Grough boy?”

“Yeah, I fought him. I told one of the other judges, maybe she’ll be able to find something out about that.” They shared a look, some unspoken communication passing between them and Billy said:

“We’ll look into it. That cannot stand.” There was a steel to his voice, matched in my mother’s gaze that reminded me that they led massive international companies, and what it might take to lead them, silly stories aside. “Our connections can find any sign of foul play and expose them.”

“Th-thank you,” I stammered out, wiping at my watery eyes. It might not fix everything, but getting Freddrick and the head judge to see justice would be nice, at least. “I might want to hear about those connections later, but for now,” I moved on, wanting to focus on brighter things.

“The battles were really good though. I think Leah has some videos of them if you want to see them.”

“Actually, she’s already transferred the files to me, bzzt,” Rotom announced, making their presence known as they floated over in front of us. Stretching out to tablet size, they loaded up the first video. “Bzzt, would you like to watch?”

“Oh yes! This will be fantastic, to see our daughter in her first official tournament battle.” O’Nare said, Billy heartily agreeing.

“It will be a spectacle for the ages!”

“My first match isn’t super impressive. Wait till we get to the later rounds.” With my implicit permission, Rotom began playing them and we settled in to watch. From the first Earthquake to Dun’s last ditch attack against Corviknight they were gasping and ‘oohing’ in awe.

I didn’t think I needed them. ‘Parents’. Not in this lifetime. I already had a perfectly good set, once upon a time. Why would I try to replace that? So I told myself it didn’t matter if these people were busy or weird. But sitting here with them, watching them cheer on past me… it’s nice.

***

By the next day, pretty much everyone in the house had seen my battles, my parents showing them off to all the staff.

Everyone seemed pretty impressed with my performance. It made me feel a little better about how things had gone. Hamber even raised an eyebrow! Maybe both eyebrows, hard to tell with his weird hair. Still, as much as I appreciate their support, I want to see how the world at large took it, too.

"Spar!"

"Later, you know what Nurse Joy said," I told Dunsparce, much to his frustration. We'd taken him to a Pokemon Center, and she'd healed him a bit and said he'd be fine, but that it would be best to rest for a few days before training.

Instead of training, I uploaded a video of our semi-final again. This time, it wasn't one that Leah had made, but one that a viewer had made and uploaded to a forum. The video was shakier and more blurry, probably shot with a less expensive camera, maybe just from a regular cell phone, not a Rotom one. There was no better footage, as the tournament officials didn't see fit to release the official footage of the game that disqualified me, which only seemed to attract more attention and speculation online.

Let's see what others have to say about me. This wasn't just me being vain; my family thought my fighting was amazing, but random people online might be more critical of my fighting. And boy, are they more critical. Of... everything.

First of all, instead of the battle forums, my search brought up the latest news article.

"Controversial end to the Junior Tournament!" was the headline of one of the larger Mesagozan newspapers. Reading through the article, the wording was careful not to be overtly offensive to the League staff, but it was quite critical of how the judges had handled the "Tera Orb" situation.

This was followed by a Poke (this world’s version of a Tweet) by the Official Paldean League account stating that International Tournaments would use Tera Orbs as Enhancement Items with all the rules and regulations those had and that all future internal tournaments would post any changes from those within those rulings well in advance going forwards.

From there it was onto the forums, and the results were mixed. The first and largest forum by far was Pokemon Trainers Online, and PTO had a lot to say about this decision. I skimmed over some of the more heated parts of the discussion in the early segments that were more reactionary.

@adriontompkins: ‘Why is this such a big deal? It was a good match, but the little girl clearly wouldn’t have won without the Tera Orb. And really? Bringing a Tera Orb to a Junior Tournament? Isn’t that like bringing a Mega Evolution out?’

@IceShredder: ‘Yeah, and so is bringing a freaking Corviknight to such a torney. Besides, that’s not the real problem, the problem is when the ruling happened. Maybe if they had called it right after the match, people would be less upset.’

@adriontompkins: #IceShredder ‘Point. That does feel pretty unfair too, but how are you supposed to judge a trainer for the Pokemon they bring in? I’ve got my Growlithe from my Ma, and yeah he battled a bit before but nothing serious. I’d hate to have been not allowed to battle with him just cause the League felt it was unfair’

@Fishergal233: ‘Does it make a difference? Like, the other semi-final match wouldn’t impact the result of the first so…? Sorry, I’m kinda new here, just saw this thread blowing up’

@FasterthanU: ‘Understatement of the century, I’ve never seen people get so riled up about a Junior level Tournament before. Making that ruling at all was wild. The sorta thing that would only happen if someone was cheating - and before any brings up that derail again, Nemona Glitterati was not cheating. She had every reason to believe that what she was doing was allowed.’

@DragoniteDeservesAMega: #FasterthanU ‘She had every right to believe it because she was correct. The head judge made a terrible call and backed it up with phony logic when called out on it.’

@kickman34: ‘Enhancements being allowed at all feels like an oversight. I’ve double checked, and nobody brought in Megas in the Junior Tourney history, and once the Alolan adjustments were made, they didn’t have to worry about Z-Moves anymore.’

@Havin’aKarablast: ‘To play Giratina’s advocate here, it is probably true that Teraztalization shouldn’t have been allowed. On the other ghostly hand, did the little girl deserve to be punished for the fact that the League didn’t get their shit together in time?’

@Fishergal233: ‘Ok, this is a lot. What are the issues here?’

@Wilkins19: ‘The issues are the corrupt league that let them get away with this blatant cheating!

*User has been warned, keep the discussion civil and productive*

@DripWithStyle: ‘Tone it down, buddy. EDIT: See the mods already got to that. While we all agree that this shouldn’t have happened, we can be clearer than that. I don’t think the entire League is evil, but I don’t know what the head judge was smoking to make that call. And after the second semi-final round too? That was egregious.’

@IceShredder: ‘Does it matter when the ruling was called? It was a bad call, but it wouldn’t have mattered before or after the other round in affecting the finals.’

@TaxiMan09: ‘I’ve been scratching my head trying to make sense of the ruling there. It just don’t seem to fit with what should be going on. Perhaps the head judge was just confused in regard to the latest change made for the international rules?’

@KrossKueen: ‘Nah, just the League acting up again. Read betwen the lines they dont like his ruling, but don’t want to come out against him so they just ‘clarify’ how things work now.’

@Historybuff48: #Fishergal233 ‘Anything and everything. To wit:

Should people be allowed inherited Pokemon in tournaments? (Van Grough’s Corviknight belonged to his father originally. Lot of heated debate there)

Should Enhancement Effects be allowed in low-level tournaments? (Honestly not sure how that one was ever allowed in the rules in the first place. There’s some off topic debate a few pages back about where the cut-off badge-wise should be)

And the big one: The ruling on Nemona’s ‘loss’. Should the head judge have called a rematch? Should the call have been made sooner? Should they have not made the ruling at all? I.e. was it an illegal ruling?

Finally, if there was something wrong, could it be changed now? (answer if not likely. People are upset enough about the change happening when it did)

@WaterK1ng: ‘Glitterati, they make the Rotom Phones. Do you think this loss will hurt their stock?’

@CuteHat3nnA: ‘Wut? Why would their daughter ‘losing’ hurt their stocks? If anything it should boost them - no such thing as bad publicity, right? Plus, she did really well for a little kid, the final ruling notwithstanding.’

@Hater4Lyfe: ‘I can’t believe the people weren’t rioting. Is there something in the water in Paldea?’

@PoisonFan7008: ‘I’ll say. If something like this happened in Kanto we’d spontaneously learn to copy Weezing and literally Explode on the spot.’

@GurdurrMyLoins: ‘I was there, and it wasn’t mind control. Paldeans are a bit more laid back than Kantoans anyways, lol. We were just a little shocked and tired. That tournament had been going on for over 8 hours. In summer. Paldean summers get freaking hot, let me tell ya.

But that doesn’t mean everyone was happy about it. Her Dunsparce looked a little derpy at the start but he grew on me. Like a Foongus. Watching that little guy push so hard to win and then get it taken away, man that sucked.

@Havin'aKarablast: 'Yeah, I think the crowd got yelled at by the professor guy for booing earlier? I wonder why he didn't say anything about it?

@DragoniteDeservesAMega: 'Oh yeah, we didn't riot, but there were a lot of angry fans left after we realized this wasn't a joke. Some people stormed out after Nimona left'.

@Paydayz: 'People were yelling at the table too! I got ripped off by them on my Corvi winnings'

@GurdurrMyLoins: 'Come off it, they transferred the bet on Freddrick's semi-final to the final, making it a null round bet. You probably got back what you 'lost' by betting on Freddrick in the final! This was a tough fight. Clodsire fought hard, but Steel/Flying is a tough match for a Ground/Poison. That Sky Attack of Corviknight sure is scary.’

@WaterK1ng: 'What happened to the people who bet on Nemona?

@Havin'aKarablast: 'I'm not sure, I think the betting table tried to get the winners to return the money they had won? Which didn't go over too well, but a lot of those bettors had already placed bets for the next round, which the table would keep if they didn't... There was a lot of arguing from that section of the court.

@IceShredder: 'This whole thing was a scam, Nemona got ROBbed'

@Wilkins19: 'This wasn’t just a scam, it was an injustice. We should storm the League and make them pay in blood for this travesty of justice!

*User has been banned. Do not support political violence over a kid's tournament*.

@CuteHat3nnA: 'I see what you mean about people going crazy...'

Quite a few comments supported Dun and I. Saying it was unfair, that we should have won, that we had a better shot, that the judges were to blame, etc. Even memes.

A picture of Dun curled up with the caption "Don't tread on me. Had me totally freaking out. Guess some things will cross the universes even without my influence. There were other funny pictures, some with captions and some not, like Dun with his back turned to Corviknight, blocking her attacks. ‘Parry Thi- oh. You did.

’

It was nice to read those things, but there were other comments too…

‘What was she doing?’

‘I didn’t expect the Junior Tournament to be so violent… glad I wasn’t there in person.’

‘Someone should take her license away.’

‘The only reason why she ‘won’ was because her opponent must have been feeling sorry for her and didn’t want to kill her snake. Glad the judges fixed that and the best trainer became the true winner. #Freddrick van Gogogo!’

‘Dunsparce are dumb. Glitterati’s are loaded and there’s like thousands of Pokemon to choose from, why did she pick a Pokemon like that? Wtf lol.’

‘Wow, a Corviknight lost to a freaking Dunsparce? That’s sad.’

‘She must have been cheating. I see why she was kicked out now, no way she could beat a majestic Corviknight.’

Ok, I can probably discount the last comment from MurderOfChivalry73, but still. Those were the minority of the comments, I knew. Dozens of more supportive comments for any of those (and hundreds more just confused or undecided). Any anonymous asshole online could post whatever they wanted, and I was scanning thoroughly through multiple forums. Why can’t I help but fixate on these types of comments? They shouldn’t get to live in my head, plague my every waking moment.

At least people are ragging on Freddrick here too. Stupid, nepotistic, asshole, gonna beat your fucking face in- I cut off that line of thought. Deep breaths, in and out.

“Arce?” Dun tilted his head to the side, wondering what I was doing.

“Ah, sorry, just trying to calm down,” I said, forcing a smile out. Can’t make him upset just because of what I’m dealing with. “Some of these comments rile me up. But! There’s some good stuff here. Like, that Move you did at the end? It’s called Last Resort, that’s one of the strongest Moves anyone can learn!”

“Dun dun! Unarce!”

“Yeah,- oh.” I stopped for a moment as I read another comment. I sighed and read it aloud to Dunsparce (he could read too, but not as fast as I could).

"It looks like the Dunsparce used Yawn here. Interestingly, Nemona seems to have taught him an invisible variation without the usual visible cloud enveloping the opponent. This clever move caught her opponent off guard and allowed Dunsparce to capitalize on the fact that the Corviknight was falling asleep'".

“That’s why Yawn wasn’t working properly! We only succeeded about half the time because we were missing part of the Move.” I groaned. “At least now we can fix that.”

“Isn’t it useful to have an invisible version to catch an opponent off guard, bzzt?” Rotom asked.

“I mean, yeah, it is. But in battles where the opponent can’t switch, more accuracy is useful. Plus, it can be useful on its own to try and ‘force’ a switch from your opponent when you have a bad matchup.” Some trainers would use their switch-up way too early to prevent their Pokemon from falling asleep. As Corviknight proved, sometimes a Pokemon can just outlast it.

After a minute I added “You are right though, it’s not bad to have more options. We were in a rough spot against Corviknight there because we hadn’t trained enough Moves to cover a Steel-Flying Type.”

“Dun. Spar!” Dun pouted.

“Hey, hey, it’s not your fault, it’s mine. I should have realized how useful things like Ancient Power would be and had you do some training in that.”

Dun shook his head, wiggling up and awkwardly trying to type on it till he found what he wanted. Turning around he pointed at it with his tail (more of a jab that Rotom thankfully backed out of the way of).

“Last Resort? I- no, we can’t practice that Move. It’s great that you know it, but that Move…”

Everything I’d read online about it was that trying to train it was practically torture. Maybe minus the practically. It wasn’t like a game where you could order your Pokemon to only remember Fake-Out and Last Resort, in this world Last Resort was a true last resort. You didn’t need to cycle through every Move your Pokemon knew, but they needed to be feeling desperate and have used a good deal of your energy before it was even possible. People are already telling me that was too much. If we’re forced into it, sure, I’ll use it. I don’t need to try and push Dun that hard on the regular, however.

My starter didn’t seem to feel the same way, though, pouting. “C’mon buddy, let’s go outside. Some fresh air will do us some good.” I scooped him up, but he wiggled out of my arms.

“Du.”

“Hey stop that. Look, I know you’re upset about what happened. Frederick is a dirty cheater, but we shouldn’t let that ruin-” I covered my ears as Dunsparce let out a sudden, shrill sound that had me clutching my ears. “Ahhh! Dun, stop!”

"I get it, you're upset," I said after he calmed down. "But there's nothing we can do, so there's no point moping here."

"Dun dun!" My Dunsparce countered.

“Bzzt, unfortunately, Nemona was the only one to hear their collusion, so we can’t report him to the authorities,” Rotom pointed out. Dun had a different idea, wiggling into the space behind my bed, jabbing his tail into thin air, then wiggling out and making odd chirping sounds.

“What are you- no. No! We are not finding Freddrick in a dark alley and attacking him! Why would he even be in a dark alley?!”

“Arce dun!”

“You’re right, that’s not the point, the point is we aren’t going to go after him.” No matter how tempting that sounds. “He’d beat us anyways. We got lucky last time and this time he’ll be ready for our tricks-”

“DUUUN!” My Pokemon shouted, slamming the ground and causing my room to shake.

“Dunsparce! What-?!” I fell to the ground, surprised by his sudden aggression. Awkwardly, I reached for his Pokeball and recalled him. “What was that?” I asked the empty air (technically Rotom was here too, but I didn’t expect them to have a better answer than I did).

Holding up the ball I said to the Pokemon inside “Just… cool off a bit, ok?” There was no response, but the fact that he wasn’t bursting out made me think he got the message.

***

The next few days didn’t go any better with Dun. He was feeling strong enough for light training, but that wasn’t what he was interested in.

“Dun, use Screech.” I pointed at a small pile of old glass I’d placed around the beach as practice targets. The winged land snake made no sound with his mouth, instead propelling himself at the glass. Since this was the third time he had attempted this and once again failed to manifest the star-shaped energy from a successful Last Resort that would push him ahead faster, I had plenty of time to recall him to his Pokeball before he would have smashed headfirst into them.

Releasing him a second later left neither of us impressed. “Dun, why are you so obsessed with that Move?”

“Dunsparce!” He was angry, tail thrashing into the ground and kicking up sand, but I couldn’t tell why exactly. This is an element from the show and games I didn’t see as much. That language barrier. I can tell he’s frustrated, but I’m missing the little details.

Switching tracks I turned to Rotom. “Hey Rotom, how about we start on your training.” I gave them a big thumbs up, as if that would somehow make the fake smile on my face more real. They hovered about, plasmic eyes shifting on their body as if looking for a way out (despite us being in the open).

“Oh boy, bzzt.” They said, unenthusiastically. No, not unenthusiastic, just nervous. They still want to train, it’s just a big step.

“Don’t worry, we’ll start easy. Just some basic Thundershocks on the sand, to get a feel for your Electric energy. That’s the Type that will remain the same no matter which Form you are in, so it’s good to have a solid handle on that Type.”

“Bzzt, I’m not sure I can do that in my phone case.”

Nodding, I agreed with them, much to their disappointment. “Yeah, you will need to leave your case for this. Don’t worry I’ll hold on to it while you’re training and take good care of it.”

"Dun, un un. Arce." Dunsparce muttered dismissively at the scene. Then he slithered to the bottom of the stairs, jumped up, and headed back up the path to the house.

I waited until he was out of sight and punched a nearby tree in frustration. "Gahhh!"

"Young Miss, bzzt?" Rotom asked worriedly as he hovered close to me.

"Oww. I'm sorry, I'm just so angry. Freddrick is a dirty cheater and - I don't understand why he has to act like this." I shook my hand, throbbing with pain at my ill-advised moment of frustration. "Could you talk to him? Find out?"

"Bzzt, excuse me, but I find I understand him only as well as you do. Maybe less well. I didn't realize you were so upset about Freddrick," they commented.

"Well, of course I am. I hate Freddrick for what he did." For the past few days, I had been distracted by imagining increasingly unlikely situations in which I would find Freddrick. Sometimes I'd beat him in a Pokemon battle, other times I'd trick him into confessing something. Mostly, my fantasies were just about beating him up.

I sighed. “But lashing out doesn’t help anyone, least of all yourself.” I glanced at the cracks I’d left in the tree. Impressive, for a girl a few days off seven years old. But still pointless; my hand hurts, and hitting the tree didn’t help anything either.

“Bzzt, you might be looking at this too logically, Young Miss.” I gave them a look, which they accepted with a small bob of their body. “I know, I can fall victim to that way of thinking too, bzzt. Dun’s not thinking of the consequences of that, just being frustrated at not being strong enough.”

I shook my head, blinking. “What do you mean, not strong enough? Dun is incredibly strong.”

“Oh, he is, bzzt. For any other… quirks he may have, he’s quite strong. Bzzt right now, I think he doesn’t feel very strong. If he had been able to win without Terastalization, then Freddrick couldn’t have used that excuse to get you kicked out, right?”

“Oh.” The epiphany hit me so hard that I looked up to make sure an apple hadn’t fallen on my head to grant me this insight (it didn’t, not the least of which was because this wasn’t an apple tree). That was just some offhand comment I made because I was trying to deflect from my anger.

“He doesn’t realize I’m just as angry about it too because I’m trying to hide it. My reasoning for training him on different paths than Last Resort and what I said about him losing if we fought Corviknight again, and then abandoning training with him… argh.” I moaned as I put the pieces together. “He thinks I’m giving up. On fighting, on the promise I made to him! He thinks I think he’s weak and he wants to prove he’s strong!”

All because I suck at communicating. God, I’m so stupid. No! Enough self-recrimination, focus on the situation and how to actually fix it! I doubt that what I’ve thought of is the only reason why he’s acting this way, there’s probably something else here. Still, that’s the main thrust of his issues with me, and that’s what I need to address right now.

Dun not being strong was the furthest thing from my mind - Dun had been incredible in that tournament. Facing off a fully evolved Pokemon and winning despite having only resisted Moves? Insanely strong. His determination was amazing, and I wanted to see him shine to his fullest.

“Maybe not that much, but you should tell him that, bzzt,” Rotom advised.

“Yeah. Wait no, I should show him that.” A plan started forming in my head. Only a few days left, but I think I can do it.

***

Dun remained in his ball most of the time or moping around the house in the follow-up from our spat on the beach. I let him avoid me for that time as it let me work on my surprise. Which hit a few snags, admittedly. I hope he likes it.

With everything ready, I woke Dunsparce on the big day. Before he could slither out of my room I barred his path. “Hey Dun, we need to talk.”

“Un.” He turned his head slightly away from me, reluctant. Does he feel guilty about how he’s been behaving? Well, that is a good sign, he was being a bit rowdy. Still, I gotta acknowledge my part in missing his feelings in this mess too.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding on my part, about why you’ve been so upset recently. I’ve been trying to keep down my rage at Freddrick and the tournament as much as possible, because…A lot of reasons. I get too angry, and let little annoyances take over my life, and he was more than just a little annoyance. Or, was he?”

“Uuuuun?” He said, confused.

“Freddrick Van Grough cheated and cost us our victory in the tournament. That, while frustrating, should not be a big thing. He’s a small, pathetic little pissant, and while I hope he gets his due... He’s so small that we shouldn’t be focusing on him, though I know that’s easier to say than do. What’s big, what truly matters, is you.”

“Dun?” He said hopefully, and more than a little confused. Then he added “Ar, arce, un.”

“You’re asking if this means just letting him go?” He wobbled his head before shaking it.

“Hmm… oh! You want to make sure this never happens again?” I hazarded, to which he eagerly nodded. Nice, I think I’m getting a better grasp on what he’s ‘saying’.

“Well, we’re not going to be running blindly into a mess like that again, especially with such a new ruling. I’ll be looking into anything like that much more carefully, checking ahead of time with the officials to ensure that no one can pull the rug out from under us again.”

“That’s an interesting saying, bzzt,” Rotom commented.

“Huh, is that not a thing here? Weird. Wonder what took its place culturally.” Dun shifted on the ground, the sound reminding me of what I was doing. “Right! So I’ll also be using the contacts my parents gave me. A full-on legal team, on video call whenever we need them, in case some argument like this gets brought up again. I won’t run away, I’ll fight it properly.” That pressure of feeling like the crowd was staring me down was a lot. Hopefully, in the future, my preparations will ensure I won't ever be in this situation again. Honestly, I hope that nothing like this does ever crop up again, and my preparations aren't necessary.

I had some doubts I could avoid anything like this, given my meta-knowledge. I hadn’t been thinking about Penny or Team Star, but I would have probably just tried to be their friend but not realized what kind of pressure they faced from the authority of the old staff. They pointed out that she did nothing wrong, but Penny was still forced to leave. I’ve got options that could help her this time.

Options that I would be reluctant to use otherwise. My parents had somehow gotten me the personal number of the current Chairman of the Pokemon League. A nuclear option to be sure, if I used it in a match I’m certain there would be public outcry against me, no matter how reasonable or necessary the situation. But if I do need it, I have it.

“D-Dun. Dunspar?”

“Ah, that," I said feeling a bit awkward as he asked about a more recent issue, in what I had said about how he would lose against Corviknight if they fought again. "I was getting fixated on the wrong things there. Kinda like the referee who found me.” At least I hope so. She meant well and was willing to listen to me and investigate the matter. According to my parents, a League official is looking into it, so hopefully we’ll see results from their investigation.

“People can be bad at communicating, and I’m no exception there. I shouldn’t have been making the point of how technically without Terastalization you might be weaker than that one Corviknight. I should be talking about just how strong and incredible you are.”

“You want to show that you’re strong, and I know that. We went into that tournament, not to win, but to get stronger. Being Champion would be nice, but I just want the strength to go anywhere in this wonderful world, and by that metric? This tournament was a great success. None of that invalidates the promise I made you, though. I’ll aim for Champion, because I want to, and also to show the world the truth: One day, you will be the very, very strongest.” Walking over to my gigantic closet I opened it up, pulling out what I’d hidden there last night.

It was a large trophy in the shape of a tall bowl-like cup. The top of it reached up to my neck and there were two loopy handles on the sides. At the base, I had metal plates with the words carved in ‘The strongest Dunsparce in the world’. Hefting it up, I presented it to him. “As proof of what I said, and to celebrate everything we’ve done so far. I may not have been able to get you a trophy for the tournament, but you’ve more than earned this.”

Quickly, I placed the trophy down before Dunsparce rushed towards me doing a passable impression of a Tackle. Or a Dragon Rush, oof, I thought as he bowled me giving sharp, happy cries as he nuzzled into my arms.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t realize how you were feeling before.” My eyes were still a little watery, but I was so happy to have Dunsparce back in my arms, acting like his usual self. After a minute of hugging him, he squirmed to indicate he wanted to be let out, and when I did he wiggled right over to the trophy inspecting it from all around, getting a good look at it.

Gah, it feels so embarrassing. I know it’s my first work but it doesn’t look anywhere near as good as the trophy they handed out at the end of the tournament. Dun didn’t seem to agree with my evaluation, cooing over it all, eyes wide open as he took it all in. He could just be appreciative of the gesture, or maybe because I made it clear I recognized him. But, I guess in the end it doesn’t matter. So long as he’s happy, I’m happy.

As I wiped away my tears, I heard Rotom’s camera shutter go off in the background, taking pictures of this moment. “Thank you too, Rotom, for helping me realize what I needed to do.”

“Dun, un, sparce sparce.” Dunsparce said to Rotom as well, and the phone blushed for a moment, seeming both affronted yet proud. I question Rotom only understanding Dun as well as I do because they definitely got more of that exchange than I did.

“We’ll probably need a whole room for all the trophies you guys will win in the future, but for now I was thinking of putting this one in my bedroom, so you can see it often. Sound good?”

Dunsparce nodded eagerly and I carefully picked it up, placing it on the desk in my room. “Now, I’ve got another gift, and this one is for both of you. Let’s go down to the beach for me to unveil this though.”

“Un.”

“Bzzt, let’s go!”

“Just wait a moment you two!” I said, laughing at their impatience. All three of us likely would have zipped out of the room, however last time we did that I accidentally bowled over a butler, and Dunsparce knocked over a vase (not sure if that one was accidental or not because the thing was a pretty hideous shade of orange), and we all (even Rotom) got chewed out for it by Leah.

Once outside, however, there were no such limits and we raced down to the beach. “First!” I called out, as I reached an arbitrary rock in the sand. Dunsparce skidded past me a second later, but turned pretty sharply, using his tail to counterbalance and spin 180 degrees. His maneuverability is improving and in a straight line, he’s faster than me. The curved path down is probably the only reason I was able to beat him.

“Alright, so the other present.” Fishing them out from my bag I pulled out a dozen Technical Machines. “Ta-da!”

Dunsparce looked eager, while Rotom was kind of confused. “Bzzt, didn’t you want to focus on fundamentals, and not use the machines?”

“That was the reason I gave, and it was true, but I’ve been thinking about it more.” All the strongest competitors, Atticus, and even Freddrick, used plenty of Technical Machine Moves. And I was using them too, with the ones left over after the Haxorus incident.

I scratched my chin, trying to think of how to explain this right. “I think I was shying away from using my family’s money to advance as a trainer, only using the TMs I already had. I wanted to make it more ‘on my own’. Which is honestly kind of silly - everyone has advantages they use to be a better trainer. I can’t hold back because I have some advantages other people don’t, even if I could wish that the world was a more even playing field. All I can do is my best by you two, so you rise up and become the best you can be.”

It might be selfish of me to think like this, but it’s true. I’m not holding back my knowledge or intellect from being reborn in this world, so I’m not going to hold back on using the money I’ve been given either. It’s not like other people beat themselves up over way bigger isekai cheats than I have. “That’s not to say it wasn’t right to focus on what Dun knew at the time. Your Moves were incredibly strong because we honed those few to perfection, which got us that win, no matter what anyone else says.”

“Dun!” He agreed with a determined look in his eyes.

“But there are also gaps in your training. I focused too much on just maneuverability and strong Physical Moves. Luckily, we don’t have the time crunch we had for the tournament. Now we can spend a good long time practicing these Moves and making all of them just as strong as the ones you had in the tournament. And the good news is, a lot of these Moves can be learned by both of you!” I flashed out two copies of Thunder, Hyper Voice, and Protect each. They probably don’t actually consider it ‘good news’, but I do; I can use their rivalry to help spur each other on.

They were already exchanging competitive glares with each other, so I considered that scheme a success. Just as Rivals help improve Trainers, a bit of that often helps Pokemon improve too.

“Of course, there’s also the Moves you can learn naturally, which we’ll keep on practicing.” Catching Dun’s gaze I scratched the back of my head. “I guess I didn’t explain my resistance to Last Resort all that well either. Let me try and sum it up.”

“Last Resort is a really powerful Move, and it gets that power from being a Move of desperation. Being frightened, exhausted, feeling doom crushing in around you, combined with a drive to fight through. You’ve got plenty of the latter, but it’s the former that worries me. To really train the Move, would mean getting better at using it, reaching the mental state to call upon it more often and faster. And feeling that bad constantly… It can twist your mind and I don’t want that for you, ever. So while I’d be open to trying to use it at the end of a tough training session once or twice and there might come another day when we need it, but I hope you can see why I don’t want your training to focus on that.”

Dun let out a large sigh but nodded his large head. “Don’t fret, proper tactics and using your Moves well can make up for sheer power. And well, I did say it was only ‘one of’ the strongest Moves, right?” I pulled out a final TM from my pocket.

“This right here is the strongest Move. Bar none.” Ok, technically, bar Z-Moves or V-Create or Prismatic Laser, but I’m not counting those. “It has its drawbacks, of being draining to use, but I think that will be a lot healthier of a drawback to tackle and try and train with. And it is even stronger than Last Resort.”

“I thought Hyper Beam was the strongest Move, bzzt,” Rotom commented, hovering over to look at the Giga Impact disc.

“Pshaw, Hyper Beam this and that, everyone’s always going on about that Move. Yes, it’s really strong too and has a similar drawback to its use, but Giga Impact is just as strong as it.

Dunsparce as a species tend to lean more towards Physical attacks anyways, so this will be the best for him.” Turning to him I added “You won’t need Hyper Beam anyways. After you evolve, you’ll be able to learn a really powerful special Move called Boomburst that only a few other Pokemon can learn. Boomburst is as strong as Last Resort, but none of the drawbacks of it, or even the other really strong Moves like Giga Impact or Hyper Beam.” Okay, blowing out all the windows in a large radius around you might be a ‘drawback’ in some situations, but it’s true that once he learns that Move it’ll be a lot easier to spam than the others.

“Dun?” He asked, wonder shining in his eyes. Ah well, that’s a fair ways off- oh, no, he’s not focused on Boomburst. The other thing I said.

“I don’t think your evolution is that far off. By my next birthday, I’m pretty sure you’ll be a Dundunsparce.” His eyes widened further, making me wonder if he was actually straining them. “If you want, there’s no rush to evolving, don’t even have to if you don’t want-”

“Du, dun, sparce!” I laughed at his enthusiastic response while idly wondering about Pokemon speech patterns. Do Pokemon often evolve with similar names because it’s easier for the vocal cords to adjust? Why do Pokemon only speak like that?

Over the horizon, I could see a flying taxi headed towards my house, and knew that meant Arven would be here soon. “All that is for tomorrow though. Today it’s time to celebrate. My birthday, and the day I met you. Thank you, Dun.”

***

We went up to meet Arven to play some card and tabletop games, Cyan joining us soon after. We didn’t have any of the more niche board games I liked to play in my old life, but it was still plenty of fun to play Pokeopoly and Trainer Journey (like Life™).

“How’s it going our wonderful birthday girl?” O’Nare said, sweeping through the doorway, Billy following swiftly behind her.

“Mom, Dad!” I ran up to give them a big hug each. “You’re home early.” It was barely into the afternoon. I’d noticed they’d been working at getting back to a more regular (for them) schedule ever since they missed the tournament, but this was still pretty early. “It’s going great, I’m whooping Arven at Trainer Journey.”

“It’s not fair, she’s just too lucky!” Arven pouted, crossing his arms, his long hair obscuring most of his face as he slumped over.

“All skill,” I countered, showing my incredible maturity by resisting the urge to stick my tongue out at him. Though honestly, luck has played a decent role in it. I might have picked optimal paths when given the choice of where to go or how to hedge my bets, but I got pretty lucky spins on the wheel too. Rotom is probably planning this the best out of all of us but has abysmal luck.

“Why is Maschiff in the corner?” Billy reasonably asked.

“Cheating,” Arven, Cyan, and I deadpanned simultaneously. Cyan gave the hound the stink-eye, having been the one to catch him stealing notes out of the ‘bank’, a look the dog returned with a pained yowl at the injustice of it all. I see the evil smirk in your eyes though, I know what you’re up to!

Nonetheless, the Dark Type was let back into our next game which my parents joined in as well. Unsurprisingly since it was a variation of Cheat, Maschiff swept the floor with us all (though I at least got second place). It was a rather small ‘party’, but I honestly liked it that way; too many people would make me feel crowded and awkward like I’d say the wrong thing and someone I didn’t know as well would judge me. This is nice.

After the games was dinner where we had steaks and steamed vegetables with pan-fried potatoes. It’s not quite like how I made it in my old life, but this is definitely delicious. Our guest agreed too, though he was more focused on another aspect.

“I still can’t believe you guys get meat every night for dinner.” Arven said when my father had pointed out that this was ‘delicious even for standard fare’.

“Yeah, I guess we’re pretty lucky.” Another thing to be grateful for. Regular animals are a lot rarer here, so only the rich can afford to have meat in their meals often.

Noticing O’Nare opening her mouth I quickly continued, before her line of questioning might determine that a Professor’s son might count as a 'commoner.' “It looks like we’re almost done, so let’s get dessert, and then, the presents!”

I had presented a small but appropriate list this time well in advance to my family so that there would be no repeats of a surprise Haxorus this year.

I’d asked for Pan au Chocolates for my birthday rather than cake, and the chef had done a masterful job of them (my dislike of cake had carried over from my past life, but having a live-in kitchen staff meant they could easily accommodate my weird tastes). They were fluffy, and warm, with a delicious chocolate center.

After dinner, they brought out their gifts. “Here you go!” Arven said, rushing up eagerly, the first one to give me a gift. The gift looked lumpy, made of something soft. The paper that wrapped it was messily applied, and I felt a bit of saliva on the outside. Maschiff must have helped him, and I think his work is a little neater than Arven’s.

Opening it up I saw it was a holster, one that looked designed for a singular Pokeball. It could be worn around the waist and connected to a larger belt, or adjusted to be strapped to the thigh or arm. But why would I need a single extra Pokeball holder- oh!

“This is for my Tera Orb!” My face lit up as I realized the purpose of his gift.

“Yeah! I saw at the tournament you just had it in your pocket and thought you might need a better place to put it. Also, my dad included something as well.” He pointed in the pouch and I flipped it up to see a thin red rectangular device within.

“Is this… a Pokedex?!?”

“Yeah, he said it might be handy. You aren’t an official lab-sponsored trainer or anything like that, but he said you can put in any notes or obsavations you want. It has a buncha fun facts on it too!” I was wondering why he was being so nice here, given his aloofness at the tournament.

Arven motioned for me to pass it to him to demonstrate, which I did with a slight roll of my eyes he missed. Kids. Always wanting to try out someone else’s gifts. As he did so, I strapped the Pouch around my arm, placing the Tera Orb securely within.

“It says here that Alakazam have an IQ of over 5,000, wow! Did you know that?”

Stifling a giggle as he passed it back I said “I’d heard the rumor.”

“Aw man, you know everything Nemona. Looks like you won’t need that much.” I shook my head vigorously at his words.

“No way, this will still be incredibly handy.” The anecdotes in the Pokemon’s entries may be less verified, but there’s a bunch of information in here that will be super useful. Much more reliable than trying to sift through the forums and people making random claims online. “Your gift is great too, I really like it.”

He blushed, mumbling how it was ‘nothing’. While he was doing that, my sister pushed ahead with her gift. “Open it!” She demanded eagerly.

From the outside look of the package I could guess what it was, but I was still very pleased to open the wrapping paper and see it confirmed. “A guitar! I didn’t think you remembered.” I had mentioned wanting to get into music a few months ago but had been too busy to look into it afterward.

The guitar was wooden with a sleek body. There were six strings across the neck and a slot at the bottom to connect it to an amp if I wanted. With this, I might be able to bring back some of the songs I knew in my old world. I only half-remember a lot of them, but I’ll do my best.

Then came my parents' gifts. Neither of them had wrapped their gifts, making me wonder if they had tried to do so on their own but been unable to perform this mystic ‘commoner art.’ Given that Billy’s gift was in a bag and O’Nare’s was in a small case, I couldn’t tell what they were exactly. I didn’t tease them about it of course, because I knew they were trying very hard… and to save as blackmail for later. Not just parents that get to save up embarrassing stories from childhood!

Mom went first presenting the case to me, which I opened up to see a bunch of small bottles inside. “No way, is this…?” I asked for this only a couple of days ago, I'm so glad she got them!

“A year’s supply of nutrient supplements for Dunsparce! Iron, Carbos, Protein, and the like to make sure he grows big and strong.” Oh, they’ll do that and then some. These things can help bolster a training regime, and fetch a high price for it. She went on to explain that the rest of the year’s supply was being stored in the kitchen and would be mixed into Dun’s meals in the future.

Billy passed me the small black one strap backpack he had been holding, which upon closer inspection I saw was a Sliph Co. bag. “Oh this is great, it can hold so much stuff in it.”

“Indeed, and you might just find something already in there,” he said, practically vibrating in anticipation. And I thought I was supposed to be the excited one. And the kid. I still opened it eagerly, stretching the opening quite wide.

Within the extradimensional depths, the dark-purple swirl of the pocket dimension, I saw a familiar-looking machine. Pulling it out made for an odd sensation as I could easily heft it out of the bag, but when it started exiting, gravity began exerting itself on the small-ish red washing machine I pulled out. “A Rotom appliance!”

Rotom flew around it, still inside their phone. “This is quite something, bzzt! I can sense the potential of this device from here, the energy it holds. It looks so durable too, bzzt!”

“I- oh. That’s not the only one,” I said as I caught sight of something else in the bag. Pulling them out one after another I placed the different Rotom Appliances in front of me. Oven, Refrigerator, Fan, and Lawn Mower all joined the Washing Machine. “All the Rotom forms…”

“You mentioned how good Heat and Wash were, but I figured all of them would be good just to be safe-” He began before I cut him off by hugging him tightly. “Oof. Not just smart, our baby girl has gotten- so strong!” He wheezed before I let him go and hugged my mom too.

“Thank you guys so much! Dun and Rotom are going to be so strong with this! We’re going to win every battle and become the best champion there ever was!”