Chapter 157

Author Note:

I'm getting this chapter out a bit early today so I can focus on the poll soon to go up! Once the poll is out on Royal Road, I’ll be making a post that includes its link.

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The preliminaries were scheduled to take place over the weekend, lasting two days and culminating with the Conference’s opening ceremony on the night of the second. The actual tournament for the Conference itself would take place over the coming week, serving as a series of battles that would push each proceeding competitor daily.

At least that was what Sam assumed it would be.

There was a bit of a mystery about how the Conference would be set up this year, as its exact schedule was yet to be announced. The only thing that had been hinted at was the number of competitors moving on, a massive two hundred fifty-six, a sum significantly greater than the Silver Conference’s usual forty-eight.

Given that there were “only” four hundred trainers registered for the Conference itself, a trainer had roughly even odds to make it in—and that was ignoring everything else. Since Sam had won, he felt good about his chances, and since Redi won her match as well, both were confident they would be in the first round.

Both of their battles had been one-sided enough to be impressive, though Redi’s victory was slightly less “clean” than Sam’s. Just like how Gengar had swept through his opponents, Redi’s Porygon had done the same. It turned out that people had few ways to deal with a Porygon sitting in the air with Magnet Rise. The strategies they did have tended to fail to get past Porygon’s Charge Beam, and then, scarily enough, Porygon had used a boosted Hyper Beam to outright eliminate its final opponent in one move at the very end.

Yet there was more to this tournament than just their battles, and as much as Sam celebrated with Redi after their victories, there was still the rest of the tournament, too. His mom sat with him for a little while, and then she headed out to see what else Silver Town had to offer. She made a promise she would support him in his upcoming matches, but she had only just arrived here yesterday.

So Sam sat, watched, and wrote down his observations in a newly purchased journal that had the logo of the Silver Conference on its front cover. He took in every match that occurred during the preliminaries, and most importantly, he learned.

Familiar trainers were here. Sam caught sight of Xavier. Eliza. That one Gible trainer from Blackthorn, Terry. The Dark Type trainer from both the Beginners’ Tournament and the Violet City Tournament, Victor. And, to Sam’s surprise, Preston made it. Though Preston’s plans to catch a Dragon Type had fallen through, he had pushed past his loss of Dreepy to earn himself his final two Gym badges.

Good for him.

Despite this only being the preliminaries, already, the quality demonstrated by the trainers here was intense. The Silver Conference wanted over two hundred powerful trainers, and it was clear that it would get over two hundred powerful trainers.

Just with the people he recognized, Sam watched Xavier’s Donphan use its armored, wheel-like body to crush every opponent sent its way, and a purposeful switch into Xavier’s Poliwrath saw their final opponent fall in seconds. Meanwhile, Eliza took a different approach, using her Steelix and Lapras’s wide-ranging moves to effectively take control of the entire field at once. Even trainers who had to struggle to get through their matches did so with their all. Terry’s team might not have dominated, but the ferocity of his Gabite saw it never give up, and it proved to be a powerful companion to the fierce physical attackers of his Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan.

And then there were the outliers. The people who... probably shouldn’t have been here.

Sam could immediately identify those trainers every time they walked up to the field. They were either far too nervous or far too cocky in the wrong way, and each and every one of them tended to wear a Trainer School’s uniform.

People who graduated from a Trainer School and passed an elite-level test were given the right to compete in that year’s Conference. They didn’t need the experience of earning all eight badges, but they needed an intense amount of knowledge. Sometimes, those graduates were truly dominant in their field, with Hoenn’s Roxanne being a prime example of that. But even though graduating from trainer school and passing that test was only done by the very best of the best, the vast, vast majority of graduates just didn’t have the battle experience.

These were trainers who could state just about everything known about Pokémon, but their studies often saw them fail to put in the appropriate amount of needed time to train their teams.

Though all of them were essentially summarily crushed, it wasn’t like those trainers walked away from the field disappointed. They lost in the preliminaries and were unlikely to move on, but they had still made it to the preliminaries. They had their knowledge and skills, and these were the people who served as the backbone of society. They would go on to serve as major League analysts, Gym staff, and other Pokémon workers.

Still, that group was only a small subset of the total potential competitors here, and the day went on, the matches progressed, and Sam recorded notes on everything he could. He supposed he could have joined his mother and Redi as they explored the Conference’s festivities, or he could have returned to his Pokémon Center room. Every room in the Pokémon Center had its own computer to view videos uploaded to the League’s archives. Every preliminary match was put online within minutes, giving trainers a chance to see the battles over and over again.

Sam purposefully stayed since he preferred to watch these matches in person. He sat high up enough in the stands so that shadows from the wall surrounded him, and his Pokémon would phase in behind him to whisper their observations and point at challengers that stood out.

Hours passed. His mother came and went, and so did Redi. Eventually, the first day of the preliminaries ended, and Sam went for a late-night walk on his own. His friends and family had already retired for the night.

With so many people attempting to compete, it was late, and the streets were lit up by streetlights. Most of the vendors’ stalls had closed up, and the Conference’s upbeat music was absent. A few people milled about, a handful of trainers explored, and a constant presence of Ace Trainers patrolled the place, making sure no one would get up to trouble.

This late-night walk was a curious thing to experience, because even with such a boisterous festival going on, Sam still caught sight of Pokémon out and about. Rattata and Raticate would stalk the streets, ever present, and the occasional Meowth watched Sam with eyes shining in the darkness, keeping an eye on him before moving on to whatever mischievousness they had planned.

Genuinely, after so long in the Ilex Forest, it was nice to be back in civilization. It was also nice to spend a bit of downtime with his team, as short as this walk would be.

...But for all of his time watching others compete, Sam wasn’t the only trainer here. He also wasn’t the only trainer out this late, as a voice suddenly called out behind him.

“Sammy!”

Only one person has called me Sammy, and that’s not my mom.

Trying to keep his expression level, he turned to see a pink, frilly dress run up to him, and eyes made smooth via blue contact lenses looked at him while attempting to bashfully flutter their lashes.

But that gaze could not hide the amused smile that appeared at his tense reaction, and Cassandra laughed. The last time Sam had seen her had been all the way back in Blackthorn.

“Oh, Sammy!” she said. “You’ve made it! But of course, you would make it. I mean, was there any other outcome after our experience together in Blackthorn?”

Cassandra went on to giggle, and Sam stopped himself from groaning. It wasn’t that he had anything against her, but when it came to the Fairy Type—

“No, no. Don’t give me that look. I’m a Normal Type specialist. I told you that! I’m just like your friend!”

“...Right. You made that deal with the Blackthorn Clan,” Sam grumbled.

“What deal?” she said innocently enough.

Cassandra tilted her head to the side, but Sam felt as though her gaze was appraising. They hadn’t really talked since the Blackthorn Clan’s Dragon Type Trials, but he had a feeling her presence here wasn’t an accident.

“I had a feeling I’d find you out and about so late at night,” she said carefully. “A strong, powerful Ghost Type specialist like yourself? Of course, you’d enjoy the darkness.”

“Of course,” Sam repeated.

She opened her mouth as if wanting to continue, but she went still when her eyes flicked down. The contact lenses she wore made it hard to see where she was looking, but Sam could tell she had noticed the dozens of red eyes that had opened up under his feet. They all glared at the partial stranger who had interrupted their quiet time under the moon.

“Oh, um... Hmph. Well!” Cassandra cleared her throat. “I wanted to get to you first, because I’ve seen a lot of other trainers doing things like this. Basically, I have a little get-together planned two nights from now, and I’m trying to invite as many people as I can!”

“Two nights from now? The full moon?” Sam asked, remembering what Redi had said.

Cassandra nodded.

“Yup! I hope you can make it. Like I said, I’m trying to invite everyone I can!”

“As many people as you can,” Sam said slowly, “or just the trainers you think are threats?”

For a moment, her pleasant grin grew sharp, and somehow, her eyes almost seemed to glimmer.

“Clever. You’ll appreciate that get-together. Take this—show it at the door, and you’ll be able to join us in the back room I reserved.”

Sam wanted to say he might be busy that night—Redi likely had plans—but he was left bewildered and speechless when the card she presented had nothing more than an address and a cartoon version of her face printed on it.

When he looked up, she was already absent, skipping away in the distance.

He breathed out, pocketing the note and continuing down the streets. Off to the sides, he could see the occasional group of trainers talking, likely making plans like Cassandra had done just now.

Seems like strategies involve more than just what’s on the battlefield.

He’d known there’d be a meta-level to a week-long tournament, but he hadn’t expected people to take moves like this.

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On the second day of the preliminaries, Sam was never called up for a second match, and neither was Redi. Given that they had both won with only one Pokémon on the first day, they took that as a positive sign that their placement didn’t need any more judging.

Everyone who had registered for the Conference had already taken part in at least one battle on Saturday, so Sunday’s battles primarily took place just for confirmation. The judges and referees presiding over the tournament had to decide which trainers would be involved. Due to the smaller number of battles, the schedule was more lax, but people were still being called up for battles every so often.

The end result saw the final preliminary match take place mid-afternoon. The next step, the opening ceremony of the Conference itself, was scheduled to take place that night.

But the moment the preliminary matches ended, trainers were summoned by an announcement that had echoed throughout the entirety of the Conference’s grounds. Hundreds of people filed into the main lobby of the Conference’s primary Pokémon Center. The room was large enough to fit a standard battlefield two times over, but it now felt like that wasn’t possible given how it was filled to the brim with tournament hopefuls.

Half a dozen nurses worked at the center of the room, managing Pokéballs and paperwork and other tasks behind a large, circular counter. Massive screens hung above their heads and faced out in every cardinal direction. No matter where someone stood, they could see the display. Normally, those screens just stated the names and numbers of people awaiting healed teams or chats with the nurses, but right now, they displayed the logo of the Pokémon League.

This was probably the most important moment to take place throughout the entire Conference. Soon, those screens would show the names of everyone approved to move on to the Conference’s core tournament.

“Nervous?”

Redi pushed through the crowd to walk up to Sam, having temporarily split just so they could explore and privately train with their teams. Sam wasn’t against a wall like usual, but was leaning against a table. Nearby, a group of trainers animatedly spoke on a set of couches, and other groups throughout the room spoke about their hopes and dreams and worries, giving the lobby an air of desperate excitement and tension.

Everyone wanted to see if they had truly made it in.

“I guess I am a bit nervous, but not really,” Sam said, crossing his arms as he stared at the logo of the Conference being displayed on the screens. “We’re here. My team is here. We actually made it to the Conference. We have eight badges, and we’re so close! Even with so many fights left until the finals, we’re practically at the top, which means we finally hit the culmination of everything we’ve—”

“So you are nervous.” Redi smiled as she leaned against the table next to Sam. “I get it. And part of the reason you’re tapping your feet is because you didn’t get yourself a nice, shadowy corner to brood in, right?”

I’m not tapping my feet, am I?

Sam looked down.

He was.

He went on to shoot Redi a glare, but she just snickered in reply.

Sure, Sam liked being in the shadows, but that was just so he could better speak to his team. Unfortunately, with the several hundred trainers here, basically anywhere with even a hint of darkness to it had already been claimed before he arrived.

“I just want to see my placement,” Sam huffed, brushing past Redi’s comments, much to her amusement. “My team and I listened in on a few conversations here and there. People think names are going to be listed in order of strength. So if you're first, that means the judges thought you were the strongest, and all of the people favored to win the Conference will probably be higher up than others.”

“Scouting the competition?” Redi asked.

“Kind of. I also want to see—”

“Exactly where you stand?” she finished for him.

Sam nodded silently. He would have been lying if he said he wasn’t interested. If trainers were going to be ranked, then of course he wanted to know where he would place.

...Of course, being at the top wouldn’t be the best for his team strategy-wise, as all that would do was put a target on their back. Still, he wanted his Pokémon’s efforts to be recognized. Just like every trainer here, deep in his heart, he wanted to see his name show up first.

“As much as I want to be first, the best placement is probably somewhere in the middle,” he said. “I don’t want to look weak ‘cause that might put off sponsors, but I don’t want everyone breathing down my neck to figure out my strategy either, y’know?”

Redi hummed in agreement.

“But also, I’ve been watching the fights,” Sam continued. “I don’t even know if my team can be that high up. There are some really strong trainers participating this year—and some of them are probably even holding back. Then there are others, too, who are... Well...”

He trailed off. He didn’t want to be rude.

“Hah!” Redi threw back her head for a single laugh. “I heard about that. You saw the guy who used a Bellsprout against Rhydon, didn’t you?”

Sam snorted.

“Yeah. I see what he was trying to do by using Vine Whip to trip it, but a Bellsprout? Against a Rhydon? Really? Sure, it has the advantage as a Grass Type, but only technically. The difference in strength is just too much. There was no way a Bellsprout could get past a Rhydon’s defense.”

“And they were wearing a uniform, weren’t they?” Redi asked.

“Yup. They were,” Sam said casually.

Sam leaned back to sit on the table instead of just standing against it, and Redi joined him in watching those hanging screens. However, it didn’t seem like she was truly watching them. Her gaze went a bit unfocused as if she was merely staring off into the distance.

“It’s funny,” she said, her voice just barely audible above the general noise of the room. “Back home, everyone would praise Trainer School graduates, but none of them ever really got past the preliminaries. One of the biggest Trainer School academies was pretty close to my home, and there were these girls who—”

She stopped herself, going quiet with a small shake of her head.

“I think what they said bothered me for a while, but I’ve come to the conclusion that what they think doesn’t matter. Nothing they did mattered,” she said, gaining a small smile. “I’m here now despite what they said. I even bet the one that I’m thinking of is still so proud of that Cubone of hers. Even though a year has passed, it probably hasn’t improved at all!”

Redi’s smile turned into a sharp grin, and Sam recognized that as her reaction to a defeated look on someone’s face. Right now, there was a true confidence to her, not one that was feigned. Though no placements had been confirmed, it was like she somehow knew that her name would show up toward the top.

Then, the sound of a soft chime pierced through the air.

Above, the screens shifted so that the League logo faded into the background, and a nurse grabbed a microphone to send her voice echoing throughout the room.

“Hello! Thank you so much for your patience. Our judges have finished making their decisions. Please remember that even if you don’t proceed, it does not diminish your accomplishment in the slightest. Just getting here is a victory in itself.”

The room was dead silent. Every trainer listened to the nurse’s words.

“Soon, the names of every trainer moving on to the first round of the Conference will be displayed on the screens above my head. Out of the roughly four hundred of you competing this year, two hundred fifty-six will be participating in the first round,” she said. “Upon seeing your name, please make your way out of the Pokémon Center and to the arena itself. You will have forty-five minutes to arrive in the same room you were told to wait in for your preliminary battles, and the opening ceremony of the Conference will take place an hour after that.”

When she finished her explanation, a second chime rang out, and the screens started to change once again. The click of her microphone turning off echoed throughout the room, and everyone held their breath as columns of names slowly appeared.

Sixty-four names to a page. Only a fourth of the proceeding trainers would be displayed at once. As the text became legible, Sam searched, but he didn’t see himself in first.

As silly as that was, he was disappointed that he wasn’t at the very top, even as unlikely as he knew that’d be.

Still, he scanned through all of the listed names, searching for where he would be placed. He saw Xavier in the low twenties, and off to the side, someone cheered—they had found themselves in fourteenth place.

So it really is a ranking. These aren’t alphabetical; Xavier would have been further in.

As he read through, he heard Redi speak up next to him.

“There,” she breathed. “I’m forty-first!”

This was the first set of four out of two-and-a-half hundred, which meant Redi was rated to be solidly in the upper twenty-five percent.

Except, though she was there, someone else was missing.

“I don’t see me.”

No matter how hard he searched, Sam did not see his name.

“Wait, that can’t be right,” Redi said. “I hate to say it, but Gengar was more impressive than Porygon. If I’m up there, you should be at least around where I was placed!”

Sam narrowed his eyes, and Redi did too as she searched by his side.

There was nothing.

“But I’m not,” Sam said.

The screen changed. His name was absent from the second page as well.

When the third page hit, Sam’s heart started to thunder in his chest. His name wasn’t showing up. So many other people he recognized were all up there. Xavier was in the early twenties, as Sam had already noticed. Victor, surprisingly, was in the high thirties. Meanwhile, Eliza was in the nineties, and other familiar names like Terry and Cassandra were toward the middle of the third page.

But Sam’s name?

Absent.

It didn’t make sense. He should have been there.

A little voice in the back of his head started to whisper to him that he didn’t make it, that Gengar won far too easily to demonstrate anything impressive, and that the judges had been disappointed.

Finally, the last page showed up, and the remaining sixty-four names appeared. Right away, Sam found he wasn’t at the top here; he wasn’t one ninety-third, nor was he one ninety-fourth.

...Or one ninety-fifth. Sixth. Seventh. I’m not anywhere near the top rows.

His heart sank. He felt nauseous.

But Redi suddenly shouted out next to him, excitedly giving his arm a shake.

“There. There! You made it! See, I told you that you would! Your name is right there!”

“Where?”

Sam couldn’t see himself.

Redi tugged at his arm.

“It’s right there. At the very end!”

And he finally saw the words he was looking for.

“...Samuel Greyson,” Sam said as he read it out loud. That was proof of his team’s achievements, yet...

“You weren’t kidding,” he said. “I’m at the very end. With my placement, I'm number... two hundred fifty-six.”

In other words, dead last.

He had shown up in the absolute final slot.

“Huh,” Redi mumbled. “That doesn’t make sense.”

No kidding.

His placement was off—suspiciously so. Sam even knew something wasn’t right because Edgar, the trainer he had defeated, had placed a single rank above him in two hundred fifty-fifths.

He heard the Poison Type specialist’s voice echo out as his cheers muffled the lamentations from everyone who didn’t place. A sharp, mocking look was then sent to Sam from across the Pokémon Center’s floor, but Sam didn’t care in the slightest. He didn’t pay it any mind.

“There’s no way your team was that weak,” Redi said, whispering to him.

“No,” Sam agreed quietly. “It's wrong. There’s definitely something off about this.”

Something had to have happened for him to be dead last. Trainers that he knew struggled in their battles had been placed above him, which flat out didn’t line up with reality. Either the rating system was completely off—which he doubted given Redi and Xavier were so high up—or something else had gone on.

His theory? Someone had done this. Someone important.

Someone had made sure his name appeared last.

...But he had no idea who, and he had no idea why.

However, despite the mystery going on with his placement, now wasn’t exactly the time to dwell on that thought. Already, people were rushing out of the Pokémon Center to reach the arena, trying to get to the opening ceremony on time.

Redi was already picking up speed.

“Come on. Let’s go!” she yelled.

The flow of trainers from the Pokémon Center to the arena itself was like a procession or even a parade. The crowds parted before them. People watched and clapped. The path opened up for every trainer making their way toward the arena where they’d compete.

Upon arrival, frazzled-looking League staff gestured to the room for all of the competitors to wait, and the many trainers squeezed into a room that probably shouldn’t have fit that many of them.

They were given an overview of how this was all going to work, and by the time they were sent out, it was night. An absolutely packed crowd roared to greet their entrance, and the true start of the Conference, the opening ceremony itself, took place under a bright, starry sky.

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Author Note:

I wanted to include the full opening ceremony in this chapter, but I struggled to include it in a way that didn’t cause the chapter to drag on. I don’t want to slow down the story by giving the opening ceremony its own chapter, so I’ll be including it at the start of the next one. Thankfully, it won’t affect my plans since it’s not that long of a scene.

Next chapter, the first proper battle of the Conference will take place.

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