CH86 (316), The Global Competition Begins

I woke up bright and early on Palkiday. It was 7 a.m, so I had 90 minutes to make it to the academy gate for my meeting with Mr. Cameron. The first thing I did after changing out of my PJs was to check up on the progress of everyone, especially the ones that participated in the competition.

I was too busy most of yesterday, and by the time we made it home, I was tired enough to postpone it to today. So, after making sure that the door was locked I went for a trip to Utopia.

Huh, I guess checking everyone's status was technically the fourth thing I did, but who cares about technicalities? Still, I did my thing, and while I was sure that many of my Pokemon were about to take a step forward, 4 of them showed visible progress.

The first, and for me the most important right now, was Stan/Gyarados, whose Endurance rose to SSS. This only left his Energy Capacity before he was done with his limit breaking, which would allow him to break through to the gold stage. I guess the fights during the competition did end up helping him enough for him to progress.

The second one to show visible improvement was Manami/Lapras, whose Vitality rose to SSS, being her first parameter to complete the limit break. She only needed 5 more of those, and she could break through to the gold stage as well.

Anyway, the final two were Mars/Ursaring and Tiamat/Milotic. Both their Vitalities rose to SS taking them a step closer to completion. That was pretty much it, so after being done with the check-up, I handed out the breakfast for everyone before leaving Utopia to eat some breakfast of my own.

When I went downstairs, I saw mom already being busy in the kitchen, so I went up to her.

"Mom, do you need a helping hand," I asked while moving towards the apron rack, but she stopped me from grabbing one for myself.

"No need, honey," she denied. "Today, mom's gonna cook her little champion's breakfast on her own. You go to the living room and watch the news with your dad until breakfast is ready. I should be done in about 10 minutes," she finished before shooing me out of the kitchen.

Well, I did as she said and watched some good old TV with dad until breakfast was ready. There was nothing important on the news, but dad was still seriously listening to the newscaster. Me? Not so much. Mom finally called us over and my first bite confirmed that the breakfast tasted awesome like always.

"Sweety, are you sure you want us to only come over on Kyoday? We could always come over today," mom asked while I was eating, and I shook my head at the question.

"Mom, we talked about this yesterday. There's no need for you and dad to come before Kyoday. We can stay there for another day, but coming to what feels like qualifiers to me is over the top.

Just watch me dominate this thing from home and come over on Kyoday to see me deliver the finishing touch," I reaffirmed and she nodded reluctantly, obviously still wanting to come over early to watch the whole thing live.

I was done with breakfast shortly after that and made my way out after a crushing goodbye hug from mom and an encouraging back pat from dad. I still had around 25 minutes until I had to meet with Mr. Cameron, so I walked to the academy gate at a more sedated pace, while thinking about the global competition.

The global competition was happening in Ransei this year, Fontaine City to be specific, and I would be facing the best graduating secondary students from all 4 continents. I obviously already knew the ones from the northern continent since I was the champion of that one, but the other 3 continents had sent 16 participants for each category as well.

There were a total of 64 of us in each category, so we would start straight with the round of 64. This meant there were fewer rounds to fight/win than in the continental competition, and accordingly, our schedule was slightly different as well.

Let's start with Palkiday/today. First of all, the opening ceremony began at 9:30 a.m, and once that was over, the round of 64 of the Pokemon battle category would begin.

The battles were simultaneously happening across 8 venues, and the competition was set to begin at 10 a.m and went on till 1 p.m. After that, the round of 64 of the personal battle category followed in the same vein, and that part went from 1:30 p.m until 4:30 p.m.

The round of 32 for Pokemon battles came next and went on until 5:30 p.m, after which the personal battles happened. The day finally closed at 6:30 p.m. Seeing how one had to battle only twice during the whole time, most people had more than enough time in between the fights to explore the city for a bit.

Or at least, the ones that were not participating in both categories were only fighting two battles, while I had to take part in 4, so I had less time to scour the city.

On Dialday, we only had the round of 16 and the quarterfinals, which went from 9 a.m to 3:30 p.m, with the rest of the day off. I'd have to see if Mr. Cameron was willing to make a trip back to the academy for an hour or two that day since our graduation party was that day, and since I was going to win the whole thing, there was no reason for me to return to Rota prematurely otherwise.

Hopefully, he would agree. If not? Well, not much I could do about that. Anyway, finally, on Kyoday, the semifinals and finals took place from 10 a.m until 3 p.m. Then came the closing/reward ceremony where I would be crowned global dual champion, leaving me to relax the rest of the day in Fontaine City.

Regardless, I made it to the academy gate, so I stopped my musing and focused on the present. I arrived some minutes short of 8:30 a.m, but Mr. Cameron was already there.

"Good morning, Mr. Cameron," I gave him a simple greeting.

"A good morning to you as well my boy," he returned cheerily before turning a tad serious.

"Now, before we begin our little trip to Ransei, I have to ask you if you have made any decision regarding which regional royal species you want to choose your egg from.

It's not a problem if you did not decide anything yet since you have till Grouday before I need an answer, but I thought that you might have come to a decision by now," he inquired with a soft smile and I gave him a nod before telling him my choice.

"Yeah, I already made my choice. I'd like to choose a Charmander Egg," I told him and he chuckled a bit.

"I had thought that that might be the one you would choose. That one or Treecko," he responded and I had to nod since those were my two top choices with Mudkip being a close number 3.

Still, I choose the Charmander egg, not only because Charizard were awesome, because that was an undisputed fact, but also because it would help me with Osiris/Marowak's evolution.

The egg would help me test whether my idea of raising a Charmander baby besides a Marowak in a familial relationship until it evolves into a Charizard will help the Marowak evolve into Skellibra. I also really wanted a Charmander, so that was what I ended up choosing.

"Now that I know which one you want, I can start making the necessary preparation for you. The two best breeding sites for the Charmander line in our northern continent are the Charicific Valley Natural Reserve in Johto and the breeding site of regional royal Pokemon under the purview of Professor Oak's Lab in Kanto.

I'll have to see which one is available at what time and which one is willing to bring out the better eggs for you to choose from. Anyway, leave the boring details to me, I'll make sure to choose the best one for you so that you can get yourself a good Charmander for your not-so-little group," he assured me before calling out his Alakazam.

I greeted Alakazam as well, and I received a nod in return. After that, he began our journey, but instead of directly arriving at our destination, we arrived on one of the islands of the Orange Archipelago instead.

It turned out that direct teleportation between continents was out of the reach of even Mr. Cameron's Alakazam. Teleporting from Rota City to the Orange Archipelago was Alakazam's limit, at least with baggage. In this case, Mr. Cameron and I were the baggage.

After a curious inquiry on my part, Alakazam informed me that he could make the trip in 3 teleportations on his own, but that it would take him 5 teleportations to reach Fontaine City with us tagging along. Considering that we were talking about more than 60.000 km, that was still extremely impressive, especially considering how low the time Alakazam needed to rest between teleports was.

As Alakazam had said, it took us a total of 5 jumps to arrive at Fontaine City, and only 10 or so minutes had passed since we set off. Alakazam had brought us straight to the entrance of our hotel, and with 45 minutes until the start of the opening ceremony, Mr. Cameron decided to check in first.

Both of us got a room of our own, and before handing me the key Mr. Cameron told me to meet him in the lobby in 30 minutes. I used that time to drink some juice, and check up on all my Pokemon one last time to make sure they were in top shape.

Shortly before the 30 minutes were up, I made my way to the lobby and waited for Mr. Cameron to come down, which did not take long since he was just on time.

I had seen others I recognized from the continental competition leaving the hotel, and we exchanged either nods, hand waves, or verbal greetings before they left the hotel.

Anyway, once Mr. Cameron was there, we made our way to the main venue of the competition as well, the Motochika Grand Stadium. The organizers had set up chairs for the participants and their escort on the field, right in front of the stage they had set up.

Mr. Cameron led us straight to the sixth row since the first five rows were apparently assigned to Ransei and the other regions on the southern continent. I did not care, it was close enough that I could see the stage without any problems, and that was enough for me.

3 minutes later, at 9:30 a.m, the opening ceremony began and I half-heartedly began to listen to the host do his thing. At least that was the case for the first 15 minutes, right until the host said he was leaving the word to Ransei's Champion Hiro Shujinko.

Under everyone's fervent and curious eyes, the relatively young champion of Ransei really did walk onto the stage and in front of the microphone. He got greeted by thunderous applause as well as cheers from those present and he thanked everyone for the warm welcome before he began his speech.

He mentioned being in our shoes not too long ago and encouraged everyone to do their best. He reminded them that it was not the end if they lost since he too had failed to win the global competition, but he had learned from his loss and kept training, eventually getting good enough to become the champion of Ransei after beating those that had beaten him before.

He said more than that, but that was the most impactful part of his speech in my opinion, at least in the mind of my young co-competitors. Mind you, the rest of the speech was not bad as well, and I especially liked that he finished his speech in less than 6 minutes.

Still, somehow I felt as if his gaze had lingered longer on me than it had on the others while he had swept his gaze across the students that were seated on the field. I might have imagined it, but I kinda trusted my senses, and those told me that the champs gaze had lingered longer on me than it did on the others.

Had I aroused the interest of a champion somehow? One from another continent at that. Regardless, of whether that was the case or not, with the end of his speech, the global competition had officially begun.

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