Lumiose University - A Degree In Pokemon

Chapter 41: The Coumarine Dance

Author's Note:

Testing 1 2 3. Testing! Is this thing on?

It's me! Everyone's favourite fanfic author! Ha...ha...ha. I've missed you all so much, and I'm glad to be back with the next chapter or Lumiose University, which will hopefully give you some nice happy feelings. There is something I'll need to...um...discuss, but we'll get to that down below. For now, though, have some fun reading the chapter if you can, and let's see how this dance goes after our heroes pulled off the sweep of Coumarine in the IPL over the last two chapters.

Chapter 41: The Coumarine Dance

Ash had missed this feeling. He'd missed it a lot. There were few things as sweet as training hard with your Pokemon, working through your hardships and using the support of your friends to achieve a hard earned victory. Sure, he'd managed to battle his way to victory in Professor Sycamore's tournament, and it had been fun battling with and watching his friends there, but this felt different. This was something they'd been working towards since nearly the beginning of their time at Lumiose University, and after their initial setbacks, they'd finally earned a much needed set of victories. It was a true team effort. And doing it as a team made it even more special.

"Wooohooo!" he heard Tierno yelling from the front of the monorail their team was now riding on, much to the delight of Bonnie. "I think I could dance for the rest of the weekend! We had some sweet rhythm today!"

"It was all so totally awesome!" Bonnie shouted in agreement, turning away from the window that she was excitedly staring out of a moment earlier. "Ash and Greninja were so strong, and they beat that really cute Charizard! And then Dawn's Vivillon was so cool!" She continued on like that for a few minutes, the rest of the group laughing in amusement as she described all their battles, or performances in Serena's and Shauna's cases. There were a few details that seemed a little exaggerated, such as how she described Ash and his movements with Greninja, but he had to admit that she certainly was perceptive when it came to describing most of it.

"You're gonna be an awesome trainer one day, Bonnie," he told her once she'd finished her excited reenactment of Dawn's final battle. "You definitely seem to notice a lot."

Clemont chuckled nervously at that, casting an uneasy look in Bonnie's direction as she stood up proudly at that, Dedenne chirping excitedly from her head. "Don't let her head get too big, Ash," he said quietly so she couldn't hear. "She'll be trying to battle Clembot when I'm not there, and who knows what'll happen then."

Ash shook his head, smirking as Bonnie and Dedenne twirled around excitedly before returning to stare out the window and look at the city down below. "Bonnie's smart," he said. "She won't go too crazy."

"Of course you'd say that," Clemont muttered, although he couldn't help but laugh. "She told me she wants to battle you one day," he added quietly, the two of them returning to their seats and looking out the window as well. "Seems like you've really got your..." He smiled, looking at Pikachu on Ash's shoulder. "Like you've got your spark back."

"I hope so," Ash told him seriously, taking a deep breath. He did feel like he was back to his usual self, though, he had to admit it. Winning that tournament was one thing, but that battle with Night and his Charizard was an entirely different obstacle, and it allowed them to really shake off some of their troubles.

"Do you guys think we have a good chance of catching up in the standings next semester?" The two of them looked up as Dawn approached them, sitting down next to them while Pikachu and Piplup joined up and left to explore the monorail. "We're only one point back of Shalour for the Performance Team, and if you guys can beat them in the next match, you'll be within a point for the Battle Team."