Trick! The Jubilee Cup

Jubilee City sparkled out the hospital windows. It was more spectacular once we were outside. The buildings that looked grand from human eyes appeared a dozen times taller in mine. The impressive became the divine since I’d last seen it. Breath stained the nipping air in front of me. The wind passing me caught little, flashing sparks of electricity.

The city was made up of thin, winding roads with old, cracked pavement. The brick buildings had faded from the misty, saltwater breeze licking at them for half a century or longer. There were no sidewalks in most places, and we walked hastily through the streets. Along the cliffs that overlooked the ocean was Charlie Circle Stadium, the next stop in the gym circuit. Our natural destination.

The roads were more crowded around here than I remembered. Much more. Some of the streets were closed to cars for the crowds walking through them. They wore shirts with images of trainers on them. Pink banners hung down from the gas lamps on Main Street. They were covered in glitter like an art project I would have made in the first grade. “Join the Annual Jubilee Cup! A challenge for beginning trainers!” Zane’s eyes gaped wider than his mouth.

Major tournaments were almost never open to just anybody. In fact, the prize for the Jubilee Cup was so meager that almost no high-ranking competitor would even be interested. They would look out of place there, and there would be no challenge in it for them. I would have needed some incredible incentive to even show my face at such a competition. I wasn’t one of the beginners this circus was aimed at. Yet, beginners often brought young, unevolved Capmon with them that wouldn’t be seen in large championships. So, the Jubilee Cup always sold out the Charlie Circle Stadium, and it was broadcast on live television.

Zane pushed through the crowd as quickly as he could, “C-come on! We can’t miss registration!” I snorted. For a tournament the size of this one, a trainer would likely need to register weeks or months in advance. Even if it was open to the worst of the worst, Zane wouldn’t just be allowed in at the last second.

His shoulders shook through waves of people. I tried climbing up further toward his neck, hanging on more tightly. A larger man stumbled into Zane from the side, a tall woman stopped just in front of him, and he slammed into her. He was in such a hurry for the Charlie Circle that he didn’t notice when I fell onto the ground in the middle of the crowd. My legs zipped under me as I darted between a tide of stamping shoes, dashing rocks of ankles, and shoving bodies. A large Capmon barked, snapping at me from its chain leash. Hissing fire formed in the back of its throat as I backed away, then burst out over my head, singeing the socks of the people behind me.

“Keep your beast under control!” One man yelled.

“He never does this!” One person shoved another. The large Capmon barked louder and louder. The crowd shoved against itself, imploding into yells and pushes. Once I finally forced myself out of the mess, slipping between legs until I got to the end, I stopped where I was. My breath turned into desperate pants as I keeled over, trying to get my breath back. Fights with some Capmon had been easier than simply avoiding being trampled.

The air caught in my heart, refusing to refresh me. Burning. I sparkled with electricity, the flickering static snipping away from me and hissing away into the ground. I slipped through the creaky door of a restaurant as I started shivering, my tail shaking wildly behind me. The boxes in the corner kept shadows behind them, hiding me as I screamed out.

I took a deep breath, my legs stretched out far behind the boxes. My dress was sticky with sweat. A woman behind me screamed, “Wh-when did you get here?!” She was wearing a waitress’ uniform. “C-champion!”

Quickly, I pushed myself off the ground and stood up. My dress was still pristine from when I got it, the last time I changed back, “W-well… I nearly got trampled in the crowd. The people were yelling about an autograph or something, and then someone’s Dyrhound started spewing fire everywhere. Lousy trainers.” My fingertips twitched as a little jolt of electricity spread underneath my fingernails. If last time was anything to go by, I’d only be a human temporarily. I didn’t want to think about that.

With a deep breath, I handed a few coins to the waitress. She didn’t need to tell anyone she found me collapsed behind a pile of boxes where a rodent would want to hide. My hat shook on my head as sparks whistled between the ends of my hair. The crowd was still focused on what had turned into a battle between the Dyrhound’s owner and some passerby who’d rightfully become angry at him. That Dyrhound could have really hurt me since it was being so poorly controlled. It could have bitten me or burned me or eaten me. I rushed forward to the Charlie Circle where I found Zane looking around the lobby in a panic. “Bianca!” He yelled out. His eyes caught mine, “Uh… Uh…”

“You’re looking for the same Kichi again?” I walked past him.

“How do you know?”

“You just said her name, Dummy,” I flicked his forehead like an annoyed parent, “she’s fine. I found her in the crowd, and I left her to train with my Tormedro- she rather wanted to.”

“Really? She’s okay?” Zane breathed a sigh of relief. I was a champion. Any newer trainer would be willing to take what I said at face value. They’d be expected to. Not only would I have no reason to- of course, I had one good reason- it was inconceivable that I would bother lying about some basic Capmon anyway. He looked down at the ground, “W-well… It doesn’t really matter, they won’t let me enter the tournament anyway.”

I adjusted my hat and marched up to the tournament organizer behind the counter in the lobby. He blinked, “C-Cyan! I haven’t seen you since the Needleton Conference Semifinals! I heard you missed the Bedwinn Memorial Tournament a couple of weeks ago. What happened?”

“Old friend,” I held my hand out to shake his. He didn’t see me wince as his wrinkled, sweaty fingers wrapped around mine. His long white hair only extended down the back of his head, leaving a wide bald spot in the center of his head. Yellow, uneven teeth gnashed up and down with every word he spoke, exhaling breath worse than most Capmon had. I continued, “I’ve been engaging in a sort of esoteric, high-immersion training regimen that will win me back the championship once I’m done with it.”

He grinned wildly, rapidly shaking my hand up and down, “You know I’ll root for you, Cyan! Little Cyan!”

“One more thing…” I nodded my head back to Zane, “This is my apprentice. It would be quite a shame if you didn’t permit him to compete in your event.”

“The deadline was a week ago,” he cleared his throat, “I’m sorry, but I can’t make such an exception.”

“Not even for me?”

“Well… Under one condition, I suppose…” He licked his lips, “You would also have to register.”

I groaned, “Deal…” I knew he was unaware that I’d likely turn back into a Kichi before the matches even began.

Zane ran up to me, “Y-you’re competing too… Apprentice?”

I pressed my hand against his shoulder and gently shoved him back, “Each trainer is only allowed three Capmon, anyway. Let’s think of a strategy you can use with Prince, Tenor, and Squirm… How to get Squirm evolved fully…”

“Bianca is my ace,” he mumbled.

“Too bad,” I smirked, “I’m forcing you to challenge yourself properly. That’s what a good teacher does, right, apprentice?”

“Last time we met…” He whispered to me.

“If I didn’t say that, they wouldn’t have let you compete,” I shot back, “so, just play along.” He was already my apprentice far more than he realized. A spark hopped between my hands. It was almost ticklish.

He tracked it with his eyes, “I wish you got to meet Bianca, she was missing last time I saw you, also.”

“I just told you I found her in the crowd, Dummy.”

“R-right!” He straightened out his back like a soldier caught sleeping during an inspection, “So. I use Tenor, but I swap him out if I ever see a Twigbo or a Twiglo.”

“Chii is here also,” I scanned over a list of entries, “there’s a chance you’ll face her in the third round, actually. If I were her… Pachu would be a wildcard, and would swap in for Birtsie depending on the specific match. Nyaro is almost too good a sweeper, and Twiglo can completely shut down most beginner teams. I wouldn’t be surprised if she won it all!”

“W-well… Won’t you win?” Zane giggled, “I mean, she can’t just beat a champion on demand.”

“No, she’d stand no chance against me. She isn’t even aware that I know about which Capmon she has with her.”

“How do you?”

“Champions just know stuff,” I glanced away, “but I’m not going to win… probably not. I have a bit of a fever, so I’ll probably have to drop out partway through. It’s only like forty-two degrees or something, so I might be fine anyway. Who knows.”

“Forty-two!” He put his hand against my forehead, “Uh… You don’t feel that hot at all. I mean, that hot and you’d be dying!”

I pushed his hand away, “Well, of course you can’t feel it…” He jumped back as a spark surged out of my hand and through his arm.

“You shocked me!” He yelped. “That’s right, you were doing that funny thing before. The lightning or whatever.”

“It’s a long story, I’ll tell you another time.”

“Oh, really? Alright!” He beamed.

A crackling loudspeaker echoed throughout the stadium, “In fifteen minutes, the first match of the Jubilee Cup: Trainer Flynn of Frerose City- no badges. Versus Champion Cyan of Green Town- eight badges, six tournament titles, one championship title. Surely an exciting match that will keep you all on your seats! As a side-note, our last-minute tickets are going at a… premium. You wouldn’t want to miss out!”