Trials of a Champion - Kanto [Pokemon x OC]

65 Setting Sail for the Seafoam Islands

The sun shined brightly overhead. A refreshing sea breeze brushed against my face. I missed it. That feeling. I looked across the arena at my opponent, a girl named Charlotte. We both wore confident grins. Both of us believed that we would be the winner.

She was going to win because Victreebel had a type advantage against Wartortle.

I was going to win because I believed in my Pokémon.

"Rapid Spin!"

"Vine Whip, Victreebel!"

Victreebel deflected the spinning turtle shell.

"Use that to your advantage!"

Like a boomerang, Wartortle circled back around and slammed into Victreebel. With his initial speed, the added momentum from Vine Whip, and the extra time in the air, Wartortle dealt an extra painful blow to his opponent.

"Ice Beam!"

Before Victreebel could counter, we froze it solid. Followed by an Iron Tail to wrap up the match.

"Yes!! That's twenty!" Wartortle ran over so I could grab his hands and spin around in circles.

My opponent commended her Pokémon and apologized for losing their match. She blamed it on her lack of skill.

"Hey, don't say that." I went over to shake her hand. "That was a tough match for both of us. If we had lost our focus even a little bit, you would have beaten us." With its permission, I patted the Flycatcher Pokémon's side. "So, give yourselves some credit."

I turned to the crowd.

"Don't you guys agree?"

Everyone provided a round of applause that boosted our confidence.

While some spectators rushed off to find another Pokémon battle to watch, others remained behind to praise me, my opponent, and our Pokémon. I received lots of congratulatory remarks for maintaining a twenty-win streak since early that morning. My battling capabilities got complimented as well as my hardworking team.

A few girls even fawned over my hair.

"Uh, wait. What does my hair have to do with Pokémon?"

One of them promptly replied, "Well, nothing, really. I just wanted to tell you how pretty it is."

"Oh, well, thank you, I guess."

"Looks like someone's getting pretty popular."

Hearing that voice made me light up like a Christmas tree. "Paul!" I hastily thanked Charlotte for the match, moved past a weird fanboy wanting my autograph, and rushed over to the only person that I wanted to interact with. "Did you finish your match already? Sorry that I missed it."

"Ah, that's alright. I figured you got held up. I figured you'd be thirsty, too, so I brought this."

I gasped when he handed over a giant glass of iced lemonade. "That's so nice of you! Thanks, Paul!"

"So, how was that last battle? Difficult at all?"

While fighting off a case of brain freeze, I made a peace sign. "Piece of cake."

"That's good. Same here. Beedrill won us the match, three to nothing. Course, I wasn't very surprised. So far, all my matches have ended that way."

"Ever so humble," I teased, taking a moment to readjust my hair clip. "I don't mean to be a show-off, but you think anyone has a chance against either of us?"

"Not likely," he replied. Paul tried desperately to ignore his heart fluttering at the sight of me wearing my latest gift. "And as the only two people on this boat who have yet to lose a match, I feel like it's okay to show off a little bit. We did work really hard to get to this level."