Chapter 252: The Master's

Colorful ribbons fluttered above the venue.

The audience and judges rose from their seats one after another, offering thunderous applause to the two Coordinator trainers present in gratitude for their spectacular performance.

"Nicely done."

Baimu patted Aggron's powerful arm.

"Roar!"

Aggron let out a jubilant low growl, delighted that its Trainer had entrusted it with this decisive, final move.

However, after this battle, it had thoroughly come to recognize that Contests were not its forte.

It couldn't roar to its heart's content, couldn't unleash its moves to the limit—instead it had to consider all sorts of flourishes, all sorts of techniques that looked sufficiently beautiful…

Take, for instance, that Metal Explosion just now.

It had tanked a combination of two Fire-type moves, yet to create the silver firework it had endured the pain and guided the flames into the ball of light, ultimately succeeding with only a third of its full power.

In a real battle, a straightforward Metal Explosion followed by five Rock Blasts would have taken out Fire Yin Bu three times over—where would there have been any need to rack its brain over move combinations to trade for points?

Baimu also knew Aggron hadn't fought to its satisfaction, so he rubbed its horn to soothe it before recalling it into its Poké Ball.

However, before he could go looking for Ula'ula, Ula'ula came over to him on her own accord.

"Congratulations."

"Thank you. Your Fire Yin Bu was amazing in the performance—it left me in awe." Baimu shook her hand.

His assessment of Fire Yin Bu was completely sincere. In terms of combat power it might have been a touch lacking, but in performance technique it absolutely surpassed Aggron by a wide margin.

Moreover, as far as he knew, Fire Yin Bu and the Water Yin Bu that had performed the Carp Leaping Over the Longmen earlier were a doubles pair; beyond that, Ula'ula also had a Plusle and Minun combo.

*The Indestructible Great Village Lord*

In other words, doubles battles were likely her true strength.

"Thank you for the praise, but next time we meet, I definitely won't lose to you again!" Ula'ula said with absolute seriousness.

"I'll be looking forward to it."

Baimu accepted the challenge.

But when exactly they'd meet next was hard to say. Compared to the past, Contest venues were now far more numerous; if their travel routes didn't align, it was entirely possible they'd even miss the same Grand Festival.

Meanwhile.

The three judges took the stage to present the award.

"Congratulations!" The grey-haired Patrick Stern smiled as he handed the red ribbon to Baimu.

"Thank you." Baimu accepted it respectfully.

Yanase laughed and said: "Excellent Coordinators like you are rare these days—I hope you'll keep up the good work!"

Huh? So she can actually talk like a normal person?

Baimu was startled for a moment, then immediately realized he'd been being silly—of course she could speak normally.

"Thank you for the praise, and thank you as well, Miss Joy." He thanked the remaining two, then raised the ribbon high toward the audience, which immediately drew another wave of cheers.

With that, his debut battle had come to an end.

——

The contest was over.

The judges and audience filed out one after another. Some audience members interested in Baimu blocked the entrance hoping to get close to him. But he had anticipated such a scene might occur and deliberately stayed in the rest room without leaving.

He sent out Mawile and handed the ribbon over.

"Look! We won!"

"Kyudoh!"

Mawile cradled the ribbon, its dewy eyes brimming with excitement and joy.

Although the final round hadn't been its doing, overall this ribbon undeniably belonged to it—a symbol of its hard training over these past days.

"Kyudoh~"

It ran to Baimu's side, hoping to have this ribbon made into a band and placed alongside the Soothe Bell.

"That won't do—how would you enter the Grand Festival if we altered it?" Baimu laughed, took the ribbon back, and used the clip on the reverse side to fasten it to the fur on Mawile's chest. "Normally you wear it like this—you know what a brooch is?"

Mawile looked down, wobbled twice.

It fell off.

After all, most of its body was covered in short fur; only the surface of its large jaw—converted from its horn—was smooth.

"Kyudoh!"

It was a little displeased.

"Of course, you could just tie it directly into your headband." Baimu picked it up and tied it straight into its red headband. "See? This looks really nice."

"Kyudoh~"

Mawile hopped in front of the full-length mirror, swaying back and forth—raising its hands, spinning, leaping—like a nimble little deer.

The period right after getting something it really wanted was certainly when it treasured it most; Pokémon strictly obeyed this law too. Once the excitement cooled, out of care for the ribbon, Mawile would ask Baimu to keep it safe for it.

And while it was busy admiring itself—

Ula'ula, who had already left long ago, walked in.

Baimu thought she had left something behind, but she suddenly spoke up:

"I just went outside and looked—at least thirty or forty people are staking out for you."

"…Staking out for me? Reporters?"

His eyes went wide.

"Some are reporters, some are probably talent agencies. Anyway, the number will only grow, not shrink." Ula'ula took out her phone and showed Baimu the footage she had filmed.

A quick glance at the heads of people in all sorts of uniforms confirmed there were indeed as many as she had said.

"Be careful, don't get tricked by talent agencies, and don't say anything careless in front of reporters."

Ulala, who looked quite young, seemed very experienced in this regard.

"Thank you… you're really a good person, coming all the way back just to warn me."

All Baimu looked at her with newfound respect — not only did she not hold a grudge or talk tough after losing the contest, she sincerely praised her opponent, and even provided him with such important intelligence.

Ulala's face flushed red at his words. "I-I just don't want you to go astray in this area, that's all!"

She turned and ran off.

But just when All Baimu thought she had really left, she suddenly poked her head out from behind the door again and solemnly admonished: "Whatever you do, don't agree to any talent agency's conditions!"

"Okay."

Seeing All Baimu nod, Ulala pulled her head back.

This time she really was gone.

"Unexpectedly cute, this little Miss." All Baimu couldn't help but smile at Cacnea. "Don't you think so?"

"Cacne~"

Cacnea thought he was talking about Ulala's strength, recalled that leap over the dragon's gate, and nodded with an air of precocious wisdom.

Having just achieved results, Cacnea's confidence was inevitably a bit inflated.

With nothing to do.

All Baimu opened his phone and looked at the PokéBlog. Having followed numerous Contest bloggers and the official Contest account, he was unsurprisingly pushed his match recording by the algorithm.

The number of likes surprised him greatly.

"Two hundred thousand likes?" All Baimu tapped in to look at the comments, and the top one was actually a comment from Mi Ke Li, pinned to the top.

Mi Ke Li: A very interesting dance. Despite being weak in fire yourself, you used rotation techniques to mitigate the flame issue, and your control of electromagnetic levitation can be called divine — the transitions between moves are very smooth, quite impressive. And this Cacnea has been raised excellently, with a kind of girlish dreamy quality! Looking forward to this Coordinator coming to participate in the Mi Ke Li Cup!

Mi Ke Li Cup.

It is a special Pokémon Contest hosted by him, held in various locations around the world, and the winners receive a Water Ribbon that can be used at any region's Grand Contest, so Coordinators from all over the world gather there.

This is where Dawn, with "home advantage," defeated May and obtained the Ribbon.

No wonder so many people were blocking the entrance.

Opening PokéNav, Miss Liuqi had already sent nearly fifty-plus messages. Even though All Baimu hadn't replied to a single one, her enthusiasm remained undimmed.

All Baimu: Sorry, I just opened the messages.

Miss Liuqi: No worries no worries, if anything I should be thanking you for not finding me annoying, and congratulations~!

Miss Liuqi: Getting a Ribbon in your debut match, you're really amazing!

She sent five or six GIFs of Altaria blowing out fireworks in rapid succession.

All Baimu: Thanks for the praise, it's all because you taught me well before — a master leads you through the door~

Miss Liuqi: Huh? Do I count as your teacher? Hahaha! I see!

All Baimu smiled wordlessly. Although he said it in a joking tone, strictly speaking Miss Liuqi really did count as his teacher.