In the arena, Marian, the host of the Pokémon Contest, introduced the contest rules to everyone and the audience:
"Hello, everyone! I'm your host, Marian, and I'll be hosting today's Jubilife Contest. Oh, it looks like our audience is really fired up today!"
"Now, let me introduce the three judges for today's contest: Director Contesta, Mr. Sukizo, and Nurse Joy from Jubilife City! Let's give them a warm welcome!"
Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap!
At Marian's words, the audience's cheers surged like a tide. The entire venue seemed ablaze with enthusiasm, filled with an exhilarating atmosphere.
"Now, let's welcome our first contestant today, Selene from Jubilife City."
A girl with an Eevee gave her performance onstage.
Xiaoyun was still searching for his seat in the stands when he saw Teruhiko waving at him.
"Big brother, over here!"
Xiaoyun walked over to Teruhiko and asked, "So, your big sister Dawn hasn't come out yet, right?"
"Nope, this is still only the first contestant," Teruhiko answered obediently, holding Shinx.
"That's good. This arena's pretty big. I spent ages looking," Xiaoyun said ruefully, catching his breath. When he had left backstage just now, the sea of people in the stands had left him unable to find his seat for a while. Luckily, he had spotted Teruhiko.
"By the way, big brother, there are only two of us. Why do you have four tickets?"
Teruhiko had thought Xiaoyun would bring several friends, but he had come alone. Looking at the four seats, he asked in confusion.
"Hehe, that's for our cheer squad, of course." With a mysterious smile, Xiaoyun opened his Poké Balls and let out Ursaring and Turtwig.
"Big Bear, Turtwig, come out and cheer!"
"Roar~" "Turt."
"Come on, put these on, all of you. When Dawn comes out, I want everyone cheering. Got it?"
Before Ursaring and Turtwig could react, Xiaoyun pulled a pile of cheering supplies out of his backpack. Turtwig wore a hanging light around his neck and a wreath on his head, while Ursaring held a support sign that read: Dawn, you're the best!
Even Shinx and Teruhiko had two glow sticks in their hands.
What about Sceptile? When Xiaoyun had told him about the idea last night, he had flatly refused. Xiaoyun figured that this aloof fellow was shy and embarrassed, so he had simply agreed to his request.
Sceptile: Like hell! Don't I have any dignity? I'm Sceptile! This guy actually wanted me to hang a wreath around my neck, hold up a sign, and cheer. How's that any different from making me take a dump in the street?
"Big brother, what are you..." ⊙﹏⊙
Somewhat bewildered, Teruhiko looked at the excited Xiaoyun beside him, who had pulled out a whole set of equipment, then at Ursaring, whose expression suggested he had lost the will to live, and the helpless Turtwig. Then he looked at the glow sticks that had somehow been shoved into his hands.
"Well? Doesn't this look impressive?" (｢･ω･)｢ Heh.
Xiaoyun also held up two glow sticks. Hearing Teruhiko's question, he cheerfully asked whether his gear was awesome.
"Y-yeah..."
At that moment, Teruhiko was starting to regret it-regret watching the contest with this big brother. He had thought he would get to hear some different insights, only to suffer social death right there.
Just then, the host, Marian, announced a familiar name.
"Please welcome our fifth contestant, Zoey from Snowpoint City."
Dressed in an evening gown, Zoey sent out a Misdreavus and used a combination of three moves in succession: Double Team, Confuse Ray, and Thunder Wave. Combined with Misdreavus's eerie Ghost-type characteristics, this brought out the strengths of a Ghost-type Pokémon very well. It was clear that she was indeed a seasoned Coordinator.
"So cool."
"That Misdreavus's performance just now was amazing!"
The audience's response also showed that this performance had successfully captured their attention.
In the end, the performance received unanimous praise from all three judges and earned a high score of 29.3, putting her temporarily in first place.
"Wow, all three judges awarded scores above 29! It looks like our contestant Zoey's performance was highly professional. Thank you, Zoey, for that wonderful performance. Now, let's welcome our next contestant."
Even Xiaoyun marveled inwardly. She really did have some skill when it came to performing. No wonder she had been so confident earlier. He just didn't know how strong her Pokémon themselves were.
Actually, Xiaoyun still felt that, apart from Wallace and a few others, most Coordinators were weaker than battle Trainers. If many Trainers were willing to switch to being Coordinators, he reckoned most of the current Coordinators would be knocked out of contention.
The next five or six contestants all gave average performances. Perhaps Zoey's performance had raised the audience's standards, leaving the acts that followed with rather lukewarm responses.
"Next, please welcome our twelfth contestant, Miss Jessilina the Sweet."
Next to take the stage was Jessilina the Sweet, dressed in an extremely exaggerated yellow babydoll outfit, wearing colorful oversized glasses and sporting twin ponytails. Beside her was Carnivine, who resembled an enormous Venus flytrap with a mouth full of sharp fangs.
Her performance really did give the audience something fresh. First came a series of performance-art antics, and then she jumped straight into Carnivine's mouth, working with his huge mouth to greet everyone together. Unexpectedly, this earned quite favorable reviews.
All three judges agreed that this Jessie Lina's performance art had reached great heights.
At least three or four stories high!!
"That's definitely Jessie, right? Seriously, is this performance actually good?"
The corner of Xiaoyun's mouth twitched. Looking at the praise throughout the venue, he didn't know what to think. Maybe he just couldn't keep up with the times anymore.
"What are you talking about, big brother? I think this performance is super cool!"
Teruhiko applauded enthusiastically beside him. He thought the performance was incredible. A person actually dared to jump into a Pokémon's mouth! Could he try jumping into Shinx's mouth sometime, too?
Shinx: "???"
"Next, please welcome our seventeenth contestant, Ash from the Kanto Region."
"Oh, it's Ash's turn. Let's see what he's got." Hearing Ash's name perked Xiaoyun up. He was also rather curious about what Ash's performance would be like.
Ash came onto the stage with Pikachu and released Aipom from his Poké Ball. He directed Aipom to create five doubles with Double Team, and the five doubles used Swift simultaneously to form a giant five-pointed star.
Finally, he finished by using Focus Punch to shatter the five-pointed star. The struck star turned into specks of light that scattered across the stage. Having finished his moves, Aipom jumped onto Ash's shoulder, and they bowed to the audience together in thanks.
The audience and judges gave them enthusiastic applause. In the end, the three judges awarded a score of 29.1, a very good result.
"Ash's pretty capable. That performance looked quite convincing."
Xiaoyun also applauded Ash's performance from the stands. For a Trainer, it was a respectable performance.
"Isn't that friend of Xiaoyun's a Trainer? He's pretty good at performing, too."
Watching Ash's performance on the screen in the preparation room, Dawn was also somewhat surprised.
"Not bad. At least he took this contest seriously."
With her arms folded, Zoey nodded at Ash's performance. Although she disapproved of Trainers entering Coordinators' contests, that didn't stop her from acknowledging this performance of Ash's.