Goldfish Scooping Contest

At that moment, nearly everyone watching turned toward the girl who had scooped up a Magikarp. Disbelief spread across their faces.

"It's not that hard..."

The girl said this as she watched the Magikarp thrash in her bowl.

"Zorua~"

Zorua didn't care about any of that. All she wanted to know was whether she could eat the fish they caught. The girl gently patted her head. "You can't eat these. We'll go buy dessert later."

"Zorua~"

"That's impressive..."

Mingyou watched her. Even with the mask, there was no hiding who she was. He just hadn't expected Akari to be so good at scooping goldfish, too.

He looked away. Rather than greet Akari now, he held Ogerpon's hand and said softly, "Don't worry about them. Let's enjoy ourselves."

"Pon~"

Ogerpon nodded. With Mingyou guiding her hand, she slowly lowered the paper scoop into the water. The instant a goldfish swam past, she flicked the scoop and caught a black one.

"Pon~"

"Great job! Let's try again!"

Seeing how happy Ogerpon was, Mingyou guided her through the same motion. These were just beginner's tricks, but they made slow-swimming goldfish easy to catch.

Ten seconds later, Ogerpon swung the scoop again and caught another goldfish. Gible and the others beside her were amazed. Latias, meanwhile, could barely stay seated.

They kept going until the fifth goldfish. Ogerpon's hand wobbled, letting it slip past the edge of the scoop and tear the paper.

"Pon..."

"It's okay. You did great."

As Mingyou comforted her, another cry of surprise rose nearby. Akari and Zorua had scooped up a second Magikarp—and their paper scoop still hadn't torn once!

That caught Ogerpon's attention. She stared at Zorua. Zorua was so small that she needed a string to fasten the scoop to her front leg, yet she was incredibly