Blindsided to Champion (Aureliashipping)

Magikarp Fate

bloodkill01 was the official winner of the meme contest we had on the discord. Second place will be in next chapter if you care.

Ash's POV

"So all competitors must draw their match by 9:00 this morning," Lillie reads off the newsletter Kukui gave us last night. "Everyone will have a match and the winners of those will draw again after the first wave of battles are over. Not all winners will have a second match though since there are sixteen spots open in the third round and only twenty four make it past the the first matches today."

"That's confusing," I chuckle. "Basically we battle against one trainer, possibly two and sixteen move on tomorrow?"

"Pretty much," Lillie says and puts away the sheer of paper. "It'll probably be busy soon so we should head down now."

"Alright," I agree. "Today's going to be long again then if there's two sets of battles."

"If you pick a good Magikarp after winning your first battle, then you'll only have to battle once," Lillie states. "Or you can lose your first battle and then you'll only have one battle."

"I won't lose," I say confidently. But in the back of his mind he hears someone saying "choke".

We make our way through the maze of a hotel and outside. "Based on the map the fishing pool should be in the shopping part."

Since it's early most people are still asleep or in their rooms. A few shopkeepers are already getting set up for another busy but profitable day. "There's a lot of merchandise that looks like you and your Pokémon," Lillie giggles. "I didn't know you looked like someone famous."

I look at her until she leans into me and I wrap an around her. "Maybe we'll meet him someday," She continues.

"Might be hard," I laugh along with her.

"No he likes to make himself heard," She teases.

"Fair point," I chuckle. "There's the Magikarp guy over there."

"The giant fish bowl looks nice," Lillie comments on the giant glass bowl.

The most common water type Pokémon cloud the water with their red scales and yellow crowns. "Looks like Ash Ketchum is her bright and early," A guy walks over. "Jade are the fishing rods ready?"

"Just a sec," Her voice comes from inside a small shack beside the bowl.

"Anyways I'm Abyss and I'll explain how tho works," He says. "Each Magikarp has a tag with a number. That number will match will someone else's and you two will battle sudden death style. Got it?"

"Yep," I smile excitedly.

"Then here you go," Jade walks out with a fishing rod. "Give it a throw."

I rear the wooden fishing rod back and I swing it forward as hard as I can. Maybe a little too hard...

I stop the line from going out while trying to pull back the hook so it actually lands in the water. Clunk. The metal hook meets the glass rim and falls into the water. "Well that worked," I sweat drop.

Lillie sighs beside me while trying to fight a smile. I wait patiently with my hands gripped firmly around the stick. I feel a few tugs until it lunges forward, almost out of my hands.

I pull the fighting Magikarp out of the water and into a smaller pool that isn't 6ft high in the air. Abyss calms down the Magikarp and removes the hook. "Lucky number thirteen," He announces. "The boars is inside the shack there of you want to look at it."