2 Days Until Competition

Seulgi knew that Irene had access to some pretty nice things as a Champion but she really wasn’t expecting this. The League Headquarters downtown served as one of the main hubs for any and all League business for the region. She’d seen the building before, when Irene found her and Aeolus that rainy afternoon and offered her a ride back to campus. But she’d never been inside.

With Irene leading the way, the five of them entered the lobby and were promptly greeted by a pair of receptionists, who had them sign in and fill out their visitor badges. Since they were technically guests of Irene’s there were certain floors they wouldn’t be allowed on, but since they were only here to practice for the tournament away from prying eyes none of that was an issue.

The lobby itself was sleek and professional, the walls lined with various informational blurbs about the Kalos league’s history. Seulgi scanned the timeline and could spot some familiar faces. There was even a little section about Irene and her incredible fight against Leeteuk. She pointed it out to Wendy, who pulled out her tablet and took a few funny pictures of Seulgi looking adoringly at the black-and-white picture of a determined-looking Irene. Joy and Yeri quickly joined the fun, even dragging Irene into their shenanigans, who sighed heavily but went along with it. Their reservation was only for this afternoon and they needed to get to work on strategizing for Friday.

But all it took was one pout from Seulgi and Irene found herself in front of her own display, posing for picture after picture with the other girls, a warm feeling settling in her chest as they joked around with each other. She wasn’t even bothered by the fact that they were getting distracted, not when Seulgi was laughing so heavily that her eyes teared up and making everyone else dissolve into a fit of giggles.

Eventually though Irene had to break up the moment so they could get down to business. She led them to one of the elevators and took them down to the battle arenas that had been built underneath the building. The league owned several private arenas outside of the city and there was an official tournament stadium where Championship matches would take place but this was where League personnel and their guests could practice in a controlled environment. The arenas were housed underground for several reasons, the technology that allowed users to actually change the terrain of the battlefield needed a lot of space to work properly and it was easier and safer to set everything up underground.

Wendy, being the technology obsessed Trainer that she was, almost immediately broke off from their group to fawn over the arena’s massive control panel. She ran her hands almost reverently over the different displays, much to everyone’s amusement.

Irene cleared to get everyone’s attention. “Okay guys, we have two days until the first round of fights. Now our brackets won’t be revealed until the day of, so we need to decide who’s going to be taking on which bracket.”

“I kind of figured you and Seulgi would be taking on the doubles bracket,” Wendy said. She fiddled with the arena controls to set the configuration to mimic the Academy’s dirt battlefields.

“I mean, do you want to be my partner?” Irene turned to look at Seulgi, who looked almost offended that Irene had to ask her. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Joy and I also want to take on the doubles bracket,” Yeri announced. “We want to work on our synergies together.”

“I guess that leaves me with the singles bracket,” Wendy locked the field and gave a thumbs-up to Irene. “We’re all set over here, who wants to scrimmage?!”

She called out her Sawsbuck, who pawed its front hooves restlessly, seeming to echo his Trainer’s excitement. Seulgi quickly followed suit and called out her Bewear. A second later a Lopunny, Altaria and Blastoise joined them.

“Nice group of Pokémon you have there,” a voice called wryly, causing everyone to turn around. “Mind if we join in for a little fun?”

“Moonbyul!” Seulgi waved the Hoenn Champion and her team over. They all knew that at some point during the competition they would have to face each other, but for now? For now they could just have fun.

Moonbyul tossed out a Pokeball and her Houndoom appeared by her side. “I’ve had plenty of scrimmages with Irene over the years, but I’m dying to see what you bring to the field Seulgi.”

Seulgi shared a glance with her Bewear, who growled under his breath and stepped forward. Moonbyul’s Houndoom yipped in greeting, nipping playfully at the larger bear Pokémon’s heels. This would be her chance to be on the other side and see how Moonbyul battled. They worked together earlier in the semester so she knew a little bit about the other girl’s strategy but not enough to feel confident.

With any luck, before the day was out she’d learn more about all four of the other girls and how they battled. “You’re on!”

Moonbyul grinned, holding her hand out for Seulgi to shake. “No hard feelings when I win then?”

There was a fire in Seulgi’s eyes.

“Who says you’re going to win?”

XXX

“GOOD MORNING KALOS ACADEMY!”

Wow, this feels a lot like déjà vu, Seulgi thought as she stood in a crowd of excited students. It was finally Friday, and once again the whole of the student body had gathered in front of the main arena for the opening ceremony. The semester was due to end in a little over two weeks and this last dorm competition was the biggest event of the year for the school.

Seulgi remembered the previous one, when she had battled with Moonbyul and Wendy, staking the pride of Dorm One on their performance. That day had been wild, but this one was looking to be at least ten times crazier. She looked around her at the throng of her fellow students. Last time everyone had unconsciously separated themselves by dorm, almost as if they were unwilling to socialize with each other in the name of dorm loyalty. No one was separated by dorm this time, and she was surrounded by a sea of red, blue and green ties as the students grouped up with their self-made teams. The energy of it all made her a little anxious.

And yet, since that first competition so many things had changed. She was with Irene now and had gotten to know Wendy, Joy and Yeri on a deeper level. She’d made friends now, real friends. And for some unknown reason she’d managed to fall for one of the world’s strongest Pokémon Trainers.

Speaking of Irene, the older girl had pressed herself against Seulgi’s side, looking warily at all the students. It was funny, for someone whose entire career had her dealing with large crowds Irene certainly didn’t seem to be a fan of large gatherings. Not that Seulgi really minded, she quite liked feeling Irene’s hand in hers as the older girl took comfort in being close to her.

“Now I know everyone knows who I am already, but please let me continue to introduce myself. I’m Professor Kim Dongwan, headmaster here at the Kalos Academy and before we dive right into the first day of battles there are rules we have to go over.”

Professor Kim tapped his tablet and the scoreboard blinked, showing a scrolling list of all the teams that had signed up to compete. Seulgi was in awe, there must have been at least thirty or forty separate groups of people. The competition would be fierce.

“For this dorm competition we’ve decided to break with tradition and allow the students to make up their own teams. No dorm restrictions or floor restrictions, everyone can group up with their friends and attempt to claim victory. This will be a three-day event, with the preliminary rounds taking place all day today. Saturday will see the knockout rounds for the singles bracket and the secondary rounds for the doubles bracket. And then Sunday will see the final battle between the top two teams.”

The crowd went wild, feeding off each other’s energy.

“As these teams are mixed-dorm there will be no traditional scoring by placement. Instead we will simply be following a first, second and third place ranking with medals and prizes given out to the top teams.”

Professor Kim continued to explain the rules but Seulgi found herself zoning out, choosing instead to focus on the crowd around her. Professor Kim must have memorized some sort of script because she swore that he’d said this before…

A soft tap on her shoulder jolted her back to the present. She looked down at Irene, who pointed at an approaching Moonbyul. The Hoenn Champion was carrying half a dozen cups of coffee in a takeaway container.

“Figured you guys could use a pick-me-up before the day got started. Besides, Professor Kim is going to be droning on for at least another ten minutes. I swear, that man needs to update his script.”

She gave a coffee to Seulgi and a tea to Irene, who disentangled herself from Seulgi’s side to take the proffered drink gratefully. Moonbyul passed off the container to Solar, who gave drinks out to Wendy and the others. “So. I enjoyed our scrimmage on Wednesday, Seulgi. You did better than I thought.”

Of course Moonbyul had beaten her into the ground. She was a Champion after all. Her Bewear managed to get a few good hits in though and she learned a lot about how the older girl battled.

Seulgi narrowed her eyes playfully. “Just you wait, Byul. Me and Irene will see you in the finals.”

“Ooh, feisty,” Moonbyul chuckled. “I’m counting on it. So you two better qualify for Day Two.”

The crowd began cheering again, causing them to look back up at the scoreboard. It had changed and was now displaying the match order. Seulgi gazed at the pairings and reminded herself to