This time around I did not bother trying to hurry out of the contest hall since I knew that the reporters would be waiting for me at the door. At least I got to enjoy their frustration at once more being denied an interview using the same but still valid excuse as the last two times.
After telling them I had to head to Hall 6 for the next contest I signed up for, I ignored them and leisurely made my way there. Upon entering the backstage/waiting room, I gave the other participants a nod in greeting before taking a seat. While I waited for our turn, clone-me and Freyja/Lopunny were going over her choreographies.
The best way to describe the choreographies I/we had come up with for the toughness-themed dance appeal was with the words martial dance. We took the words martial arts literally and chained martial arts katas together in a fashion that let them flow smoothly. All we had to do was choose katas that did not cause an awkward feeling in the spectator, and honestly finding katas that could be used for this was not as hard as one would expect.
None of the katas were the most beautiful for obvious reasons but they did not have to be since the theme was toughness. That was also why we stayed away from tai chi katas or other similar "soft" martial arts and focused on "hard" martial arts instead. There were already some martial arts that involved some dance moves. Heck, some revolved around the concept of dancing, and we made sure to include the most famous one in our choreography.
When it was finally our turn, I went up the stage with Freyja's ball in hand and let her out upon receiving the signal. There was some excitement at her appearance, which only grew larger when Freya began her Wai Kru Ram Muay-inspired dance. Unlike the original one, ours left out the spiritually-focused parts where one showed respect to their family as well as teachers, and focused more on the active parts. However, since this was dance choreography the pace of the dance was faster than the source material and more vigorous as well.
The result was a dance in which people knowing Muay Thai would be able to point out the similarities to the martial art, but none would call it a Wai Kru Ram Muay since it lacked the spiritual aspect due to the parts we skipped. Either way, the audience seemed to love it since they cheered quite enthusiastically after Frejya finished her performance with a half-bow.
The judges found her dance impressive as well, and once the first round was over that showed in the results she got. She got pretty great points, though it "only" let her rank second for the first round, with first place going to a Miltank. Freyja took it in strides, but she was definitely more attentive while rehearsing her second choreography, which was based on Capoeira, though most people here would probably link it to the fighting style of Hitmontop instead.
This dance ended up getting Freyja first place in the second round, and just as I expected, the judges did mention the resemblance to Hitmontop's fighting style, though they also mentioned that Freyja's dance was much more pleasing to watch, which frankly was entirely related to Freyja's looks.
Anyway, we once again ended up being the last one to go up during the third/final round. Freyja's final performance was basically her chaining her close combat moves while using the fluidity of Capoeira to tune them into one flowing dance. Naturally, she did not commit to the moves and only performed an unpowered version to ensure that she could swap between the moves without any delays that could cause the dance to look "jerky".
I knew for a fact that any delays, even if they were only a second or two long, would have caused the dance to look slightly "jerky" because we did have her try it out a few times like that, and while something like that was unimportant during a fight, it was not something one would want to happen in an appeal.
Nonetheless, Freyja's performance did earn her a yellow one-star ribbon, just like Tyson/Machamp did, though there was a difference between the two yellow ribbons. The thing that distinguished the two was the little plate in the middle of the ribbon. Freyja's had a D imprinted on it while Tyson's ribbon had a little plate with a M on it to signify which category the ribbon belonged to.
Taking a look at the clock, I saw that it was already 6:27 p.m. This meant that I had spent close to 9 hours here at the Lilycove Contest Hall, which all things considered was not bad at all considering that we had participated in 6 Appeals within that timeframe. Still, I certainly had enough excitement for the day. I was looking forward to leaving the contest hall so that I could return to Utopia and have dinner with my Pokemon. Not to mention that we also had to celebrate our very successful contest hall visit.
Unfortunately, I still had to deal with the reporters before I could leave. I had thought about various ways I could avoid them but all of them were too laborious, so I decided to just deal with the reporters as quickly as possible. Besides, I would feel a bit bad for them if I just left them out in the cold like that after they respected my request to delay the interview so many times.
Hence, I valiantly met them in front of the entrance of hall 6 and allowed them to ask away after I clarified that I would only be answering questions for 10 minutes. They asked me why I chose to participate in so many appeals and if this meant that I was planning to become a Coordinator or at least do the coordinator gig concurrently with the regular trainer circuit.
I frankly told them that I was not planning to become a coordinator and that my focus was on the senior circuit. If I had been interested in focusing on the contest circuit, I would have participated in the Coordinator Contest instead of signing up for the appeal contests. I only chose to participate in the appeals because some of my Pokemon showed an interest in participating in one and I decided to fulfill their desire.
I did add that I might do so again since some of my Pokemon were still waiting for their turn, but once everyone had their turn I would most likely stop signing up for any further contests. There was a chance that I would take part in an appeal once every blue moon, but doing so would be pretty far down my priority list.
Another question was regarding my plans aside from my participation in the senior circuit, specifically if I had any research projects in the works. I admitted to them that I was working on some stuff on the side, but that I was not planning to divulge anything on the nature of my project for now. They followed up by asking if I had already decided what to do after the Hoenn circuit, and I told them I was planning to return to Kanto.
The questions after that were more regarding my plans for my journey through Hoenn, and I only vaguely answered those. Before long 10 minutes were up and I left after wishing all reporters a good evening. I knew that they still had a lot they wanted to ask, but that was not my problem, so too bad for them.
Anyway, once I had left the contest hall, I first teleported somewhere close to the Cove Lily Hotel to throw off any would-be stalkers, before entering Utopia. I got greeted by my Pokemon and after some excited chatter on the various appeals, I began to take out everyone's dinner. We continued our talk throughout dinner, and a few more of my Pokemon admitted that they were interested in trying their hands at an appeal after having watched the contests. I had expected as much so my answer to all of them was sure.
It was as we were cleaning up after dinner that Hashirama/Venusaur approached me. I assumed he was going to ask me to take a look at his progress with his Frenzy Plant training, but I ended up being wrong. He actually asked me to check his status since he felt he might have managed to complete his limit-breaking training while he was working on Frenzy Plant. The Frenzy Plant training was also why he was not sure if he had done so or if what he momentarily felt was just some reaction he had while working on the move.
I naturally did as asked and took a look at his status sheet. As luck would have it, Hashirama did not misinterpret anything. His parameter section showed SSS values across the board, signifying that he had completed his limit-breaking phase. I shared the good news with him, and the others, who were still present as well, began to congratulate him. I directly shared the news over UtopiaFM, so that the Utopians and the reservists who were hanging out with their families/tribes knew to head towards Hashirama's place for his upcoming breakthrough.
Once I was done with my announcement, we finished tidying up everything before we made our way to Hashirama's place as well. There we waited for another 15 minutes for everyone to come over before I had everyone form a circle around Hashirama. While they were forming the circle, I went up to Hashirama and hugged him while wishing him good luck. Fortuna/Togekiss followed suit and wished him good luck as well, and once the two of us had joined the rest, I gave Hashirama the go-ahead signal.
Hashirama initiated his breakthrough, and the whole process went by smoothly. Once (mid) dark gold undulations began to spread, indicating that the breakthrough was over, I moved over to Hashirama's side and hugged him once more while congratulating him on his successful breakthrough. The rest of my Pokemon followed suit, and while they were pestering, sorry congratulating Hashirama, I proceeded to check out his new/updated status sheet.
'Name: Hashirama
Species: Venusaur
Gender: Male
Age: 10+ years
-
Type: Grass, Poison
Potential: Light Aurora (53.21%)*
{Light Aurora (13.13%) -> (13.21%) -> (53.21%)}'
Well, all I could say here was that the reductions in the bonus due to him already having light aurora potential and him having broken through to the dark gold stage were being felt quite badly by Hashirama. He had now covered slightly more than half the way to the aurora grade, but to actually elevate his potential to aurora, Hashirama would need to break through to the palladium stage, while completing his limit breaking obviously. Even that could be delayed by a stage or two if he ended up unlocking something that cost him some of his potential (points).
Honestly, if not for the great advantages modifiers usually brought, I would have preferred him to not unlock anything, but as things stood I just hoped for him to unlock it as early as possible if it was bound to happen. The earlier he underwent the potential loss, the less painful it would be. It would have been great if he had unlocked it during this breakthrough, but sadly that did not happen.
The subsequent few sections all remained unaffected by Hashirama's breakthrough. It was in the bond section that the next change came up, with our bond being displayed as deep. I had felt it happen as I made my way over to his side, so that was no surprise. Just two lines below that was the next expected change.
Bond: Mikail (deep)*
Quirks: None
----
Parameters:
Stage: Dark Gold Stage (mid)*
Vitality: D
Strength: D
Endurance: D
Agility: D
Energy Capacity: D
Energy Density: D
We had already felt his (mid) dark gold undulations, and looking at his parameters had me face-to-face with Ds across the board. Seeing the board like this had me think that Hashirama would really benefit from any modifier that was at the level of a royal or ancient gene since it would allow him to start at the (high) subgrade instead of the (mid) one.
Anyway, there were no further changes after that, and the only interesting bits were that he still had to finish his flying energy resistance training and that he was still missing out on a single mastered grass move to elevate his grass energy manipulation to the master grade.
'Techniques:
-
(Unofficial) Initial:
Frenzy Plant
-
Beginner:
Poison Jab (new)
-
Proficient:
Body Slam (+), Grassy Terrain (new)
-
Mastered:
Vine Whip (+), Power Whip (+), Leech Seed (+), Growth (+)'
Nonetheless, that would have to wait until he had actually learned Frenzy Plant and raised it to proficiency. Only then would Hashirama have the time to focus on elevating one of his other moves.
---------------------
---------------------
This part is purely to display Hashirama's status screen in one piece and does not count toward the word count.
Name: Hashirama
Species: Venusaur
Gender: Male
Age: 10+ years
-
Type: Grass, Poison
Potential: Light Aurora (53.21%)
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Overgrow, Chlorophyll, Thick Fat
Talents: Solar Overgrowth
Affinities: Grass, Poison
-
Bond: Mikail (deep)
Quirks: None
----
Parameters:
Stage: Dark Gold Stage (mid)
Vitality: D
Strength: D
Endurance: D
Agility: D
Energy Capacity: D
Energy Density: D
----
Resistance:
Grass (Major), Water (Minor), Electric (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Flying (Minor)
-
Standardized:
Psychic, Flying (in progress)
----
Condition: Healthy, Happy, Pleased
----
Masteries:
Grass Energy Manipulation (Advanced)
Poison Energy Manipulation (Proficient)
----
Techniques:
-
(Unofficial) Initial:
Frenzy Plant
-
Novice:
N/A
-
Beginner:
Tackle, Double-Edge, Growl, Take Down, Worry Seed, Bullet Seed, Poison Jab
-
Proficient:
Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, Mega Drain, Sweet Scent, Petal Blizzard, Giga Drain, Sleep Vine (C), Poison Vine (C), Sweet Vine (C), Sleep Bomb (C), Poison Bomb (C) Petal Dance, Hyper Beam, Safeguard, Protect, Sludge Bomb, Earthquake, Toxic, SS Vine (C), SP Vine (C), SSW Vine (C), Body Slam, Grassy Terrain
-
Advanced:
Razor Leaf, Synthesis, Seed Bomb, Energy Ball, Solar Beam, Venoshock, Earth Power
-
Mastered:
Sunny Day, Vine Whip, Power Whip, Leech Seed, Growth
-
Combo moves/Custom moves:
Sleep Vine (Proficient), Poison Vine (Proficient), Sweet Vine (Proficient), Sleep Bomb (Proficient), Poison Bomb (Proficient), SS Vine (Proficient), SP Vine (Proficient), SSW Vine (Proficient)'
-----------------------------
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