Ash and his party finally arrived at the place where the Whirl Cup competition is held at, Scarlet City on Red Rock Isle!
The place is bustling with Trainers like Ash and Misty who came here to participate in the competition.
"I will definitely win the championship in this tournament!" In this kind of tournament where you use Water-type Pokémon, Misty will never give in to Ash!
"This Whirl Cup is just right for me to become a Water Pokémon Master, this will be a stepping stone for my journey to greatness!"
Because there are so many participants, the Whirl Cup competition will conduct preliminaries in advance to eliminate most of the weaker participating trainers, as there is many trainers participating every time.
So the first thing Ash and his team have to do is go to the Pokémon Center in Scarlet City and sign up for the actual tournament!
They signed up before but that was only for the tournament hosts to get the approximate numbers of people.
Sure enough, when they got to the Pokémon Center, there was a long queue of people ready to sign up.
"There are so many people coming to sign up!" Misty and Ash decided to line up in that long line, while Brock took Molly and Pikachu to rest nearby in a restaurant.
Meganium was teleported back to the lab when they go to the Whirl Islands, thus making Molly walk on her own during the whole trip to the Whirl Islands. However, she had a great time and never complained once of being tired. The other three members of the group were used to their long journeys but they were still a little surprised that a little girl like Molly could keep up with them.
Fortunately, the registration procedure was very simple, and soon it was their turn for signing up.
"I'm Ash from Pallet Town!"
"I'm Misty from Cerulean City!"
After reporting the place of birth and name, the registration process was completed. Very simple. Nurse Joy looked at the two of them and said, "The preliminaries will be held in sixteen venues. This is a map of the venues!"
Ash had to go to Venue A for his match while Misty had her match at Venue B.
Nurse Joy introduced that the preliminaries are in the form of a knockout round, as there are only 64 places for participants to enter the main tournament.
Judging from the number of people who signed up this year, Ash only needs to defeat two opponents to qualify for the tournament.
"All in all, as long as we win two battles it will be enough for us to qualify!" Both Misty and Ash looked very relaxed at this.
After completing the registration process, Ash took their group to eat and rest up.
After all, many businesses have taken a fancy to business opportunities in such a large-scale competition. On this triennial day, whether it was snacks or specialty products, they will all be concentrated here from different places.
"Big Brother, I want to eat that takoyaki!" Molly pointed at the fragrant octopus balls opposite and drooled.
Misty also stared at it, "Yeah, it looks really delicious!"
Ash bought five portions, one for each of the human and one for Pikachu, and while walking and eating, the group met a little boy.
"Are you one of the trainer who wants to participate in the Whirl Cup?"
After receiving the affirmative answer, the little boy immediately showed a pleading expression, "Please, would you battle with my Remoraid just once?"
They could, but the preliminaries will be held tomorrow, so it would be better to let the Pokémon take a rest.
"Why are you looking for someone to battle you right now?" Misty asked with concern.
"I want my Remoraid to evolve into an Octillery!" So it turned out that this boy wants to evolve his Pokémon so that he can participate in the next competition with a stronger and more complete attitude.
After hearing this, Misty agreed, "Okay, let me be your opponent!"
This young guy seemed to know the details of this Whirl Cup tournament very well, and took the group to the coast. There were several stone pillars standing on the sea here, which were probably the battleground used during the competition.
In order to get familiar with the venue, and the newly caught Corsola also needed to get used to it, Misty agreed to this battle with him.
However, she did not use all her strength, and almost immediately the boy and Remoraid turned defeat into victory.
His Remoraid also evolved into an Octillery smoothly.
After evolution, Octillery can adapt to both water and land battles, and has more means to deal with situations in different battlefields.
When Ash catches a Water-type Pokémon, he usually chooses this type of them, the ones that can fight both in water and on land.
The moon was dark, Molly had already gone to bed, Ash and the other three were in the square outside of the Pokémon Center, watching the moon together.
"Tomorrow is the preliminaries of the Whirl Cup! Pikachu, just stay by Molly's side and watch the battle and please make sure that she's safe!"
"Togepi, you stay with Pikachu and Brock too, okay?!" Togepi, in Misty's arms, said something happily several times.
"Ash, I'm ready for this, you have to work hard too so we could battle in the finals!"
When Misty said this, Ash nodded and thought of something else, "By the way, Misty, your Staryu has evolved into Starmie. I know that in this competition, it will definitely become your Ace Pokémon!"
"Do you want your Poliwhirl to evolve too?"
Misty's Starmie was evolved by the Water Stone that Ash's exchanged from the System he has. In fact, she had a Starmie before, but she didn't use it much and he was not feeling well. So Misty left it at the Cerulean Gym when she came to Johto Region for helping out the Gym there.
As for Poliwhirl, Ash remembers that he won a Kings Rock when he won the Pokémon Sumo Contest Soem time ago with his Snorlax!
"Let my Poliwhirl evolve?"
Ash nodded, "There are two Evolutions of Poliwhirl that you could chose from. The Poliwrath we saw many times is evolved with the help of the Water Stone and has two types: Water-type and Fighting-type, so it is more powerful in the Physical Attacking department." Ash said to Misty with a very serious voice.
"But if you use this here!"
Ash took out the Kings Rock he had and said, "Using this Kings Rock to evolve into Politoed. It will stay a the Water-type. He will be a very powerful Pokémon in the Special Attacking department after his evolution into a Politoed. I, personally, believe that it would be better if your Poliwhirl evolved into a Politoed because he is more suitable for you than Poliwrath!"
With Politoed and the evolved Starmie, Misty's strength will increase a lot from before. Just like the little boy from before, she can be more confident about the next battle and strive for better results with a new more powerful member on her team.
But in the end, whether to let Poliwhirl evolve into a Politoed or a Poliwrath still depends on Misty's decision as his trainer and Poliwhirl himself.
Ash said this, handed the Kings Rock to Misty, and turned to leave.
The Whirl Cup will start tomorrow, he needs his rest to be ready for his battle.