"You little guy sure looks good on camera!"
Baimu patted the Altered-color Gengar on the head. The latter froze for a second, then that brilliant grin returned to its face. "Geng! Keh-hehehe~!"
Xiaoguang muttered, not without a little jealousy, "That's so nice, I wanna take a photo with Piplup too~"
"Piplup piplup~"
Piplup flapped its tiny wings to show its agreement.
That being said, she still wasn't about to trouble the Block Robot to make another one.
The three walked out of the station.
Besides the Block Robots, another feature of Larus City was the automatic walkways that covered most of the city, letting people reach their destinations faster.
As a battle-obsessed idiot, the just-arrived Ash Ketchum had once made a fool of himself here, stubbornly going against the flow and trying to fight the high-speed walkway.
In fact.
Larus City had thoughtfully prepared Block Robots that gave directions for tourists, as well as ones that directly displayed maps, positioned right beside the automatic walkways.
But with Xiaogang around there was no need to bother the robots.
Sure, he'd gotten lost plenty of times, but that was only when the road ahead was unknown.
"Let's go register first, while there's not that many people yet."
"Yeah, true."
They stepped onto the automatic walkway and headed toward the venue of this Grand Festival—the Battle Tower.
As the most famous landmark of Larus City, its exterior looked very much like a cone-shaped tower, and from top to bottom, whether supermarkets, malls, libraries, or all kinds of shops and facilities, it had everything.
Halfway there.
Huge screens on the sides of the buildings lit up with the image of Liuqia, clearly clips of her appearing on shows and doing interviews.
"Liuqia! She looks so pretty on TV! So dazzling!"
Xiaoguang said, face full of admiration.
She did have a bit of name recognition in the Contest scene, but there was still a certain gap between her and Liuqia, who had a company handling her branding.
Baimu was the same.
If it weren't for the behind-the-scenes support from Shanren and the two former Villain Organizations of Hoenn, even if his first Contest video had gone viral, there's no way his fame would've shot up this fast afterward. How many Coordinators out there had five Ribbons already?
And now, thanks to the hype from the Mikoli Club, he was even catching up to Liuqia and being called a rising star of Contests by many.
Organic word-of-mouth only got you so far.
They arrived at the Battle Tower.
The number of passersby and Pokémon around them suddenly increased a lot, making the small square in front of the Battle Tower feel crowded.
"There's so many people!" Xiaoguang exclaimed.
"They're basically all Coordinators."
Xiaogang nodded with absolute certainty, clutching the intel notebook he'd filled with pretty onee-sans.
Baimu scanned the crowd. He didn't see Wula La, but he did spot quite a few opponents he'd battled before, like Mira from the Kaina Contest who'd sent him and Xiaoguang flying, partnered with a Milotic.
And Ge Mann and Ling Juan, whom he'd encountered at the Fallarbor Conference.
The former claimed to be Liuqia's Fierce Rival, partnered with a Machoke that secretly had a crush on Xiao Qingqing's Altaria; the latter was his opponent in the Fallarbor finals, with a Gyarados and Pelipper that fell in love with his Altered-color Milotic at first sight.
Nice, nice.
Fighting a bunch of familiar faces would be much more fun.
Better than Ash Ketchum's situation where out of nowhere there's a Divine Beast Man like Tobias, or some Uncle Hu Che whose team isn't even full, or even a mid-arc surprise like a forced-cheat Ailan.
The three squeezed into the Battle Tower to register, and as soon as Baimu took off his mask to confirm his identity, he was unsurprisingly recognized by the people around him.
Whoosh!
The already noisy hall instantly exploded.
A lot of people crowded around asking for autographs, both men and women. Some even came up to introduce themselves, declaring that they would defeat him in this Grand Festival and take the title.
Baimu hurriedly dealt with them for quite a while before the Battle Tower's security finally arrived—called over by Xiaogang.
After most of the people were reluctantly persuaded to leave, he took the chance to slip away, changed into a completely different outfit, and successfully regrouped with Xiaoguang and Xiaogang outside.
"Baimu, your fame is really insane."
Thinking back to how many beautiful onee-sans had been in that crowd around Baimu, Xiaogang felt both envious and emotional.
Xiaoguang nodded along. "For real, I got pushed out of the crowd in like two seconds."
"Geng!"
The Altered-color Gengar still looked rattled. Too many people had surged over at once, and because of where it was standing, it was one of the ones that got squeezed out.
If it weren't Ghost Attribute, it'd probably have been trampled underfoot long ago.
"For now it's all just empty reputation, it doesn't prove anything."
Baimu soothed the Altered-color Gengar with a pat on the head and glanced at her. One of her fans was literally a princess of an entire country, and the Togekiss in her team was a gift from that princess.
Xiaoguang only took his words as him being dead set on winning the title, and said with full confidence:
"Hmph! This time, whether it's Liuqia or you, I won't lose again! Absolutely no problem!"
She had lost to Liuqia in the Mikoli Club, stopping at the semifinals.
They once again stepped onto the moving walkway.
They specifically picked a hotel near the Natural Park, in a relatively remote spot where you could vaguely see the outer outline of the city across the water.
Even though it's a high‑tech metropolis, a huge area to the north of Larus City has been turned into a lush, green Natural Park.
Lots and lots of Wild Pokémon live there, often running over to inhabited areas to play; in the movie plot, Plusle, Minun, Munchlax and the like had shown up there.
Afternoon.
Baimu was getting ready to go to a Pokémon Beauty Salon.
Although the various care methods at the Glazed Gym are no worse than most salons on the market, Mawile is particularly fond of the vibe in that kind of place—after surfing the web so much, it's started to love taking selfies and posting them.
Since it's its hobby, and it helps it relax before the competition.
How could he say no.
After Xiaoguang found out, she eagerly chimed in and tagged along, ruthlessly ditching Xiaogang, who was in the middle of organizing all sorts of data on gorgeous big sisters among the participants.
The two quietly arrived at a Pokémon Beauty Salon located in the Battle Tower mall—
It was packed to the brim.
Baimu had been mentally prepared for this; Xiaoguang, however, looked utterly deflated.
"At this rate, what time will it be when it's our turn?"
"Relax, I've got other ways."
He smiled, signaling her not to panic.
A short while later.
A man wearing glasses walked over from afar and asked in a low voice, "Excuse me, are you Mr. Baimu and Miss Xiaoguang?"
"That's right."
"Sorry to have kept you waiting. Please, come with me."
The man led Baimu and the bewildered Xiaoguang into an elevator up to the fifteenth floor, where another beauty salon came into view.
Xiaoguang exclaimed, "This place is—"
"A Pokémon Beauty Salon that's more like a private club. They usually don't accept guests who aren't members. We're only up here thanks to Liuqia's connections."
He turned to explain.
The guide turned his head slightly and said, "Please don't say that. It's our honor to serve Mr. Baimu and Miss Xiaoguang. Director Robo has always admired the two of you, and he hopes you'll become our members."
Robo.
If Xiaogang were here, he'd definitely react, because Robo was the Coordinator Trainer who once attended the Hoenn Grand Festival together with Xiaoyao.
He even took the final victory, becoming a top Coordinator Trainer.
After a few years, Robo had already founded his own clothing and cosmetics brand, and this Pokémon Beauty Salon was one of his assets.
The two of them went into the back room and saw Liuqia, whose hair was wrapped up in towels like a rice dumpling.
"You finally made it!"
Liuqia sprang to her feet in excitement and grabbed Xiaoguang's hand, shaking it up and down. "Xiaoguang! Long time no see!"
"Yeah! Long time no see, Liuqia!"
Xiaoguang was just as happy, going along with the rhythm of the shaking as she said, "I watched your interview, you know. You were absolutely dazzling!"
Liuqia laughed. "Thank you~!"
Then.
She quietly scrunched her little nose at Baimu in mock anger; her lips moved ever so slightly, as if silently cursing someone as a "rebel disciple."
He simply pretended not to notice.
Shanren had even called him specifically to tell him to focus on the competition, that he didn't need to deliberately go on shows or accept interviews. How could he let himself be tricked into going to the TV station by you, little Teacher Liuu?
One Aidoru at the Gorgeous Competition is more than enough.
The Hoenn Grand Festival will be the final checkpoint on his road as a Coordinator Trainer, and once he clears it, there basically won't be a second run.
In the end, he still has to rise together with the Ore Region as a Champion.
Baimu let out Mawile and the other Pokémon, found a sofa, sat down, and played on his phone, while Liuqia, face full of joy, chatted away with Xiaoguang.
Compared to a guy like him, Liuqia clearly has far more in common with other girls.
"Mai~na!"
"Puu~la!"
Soft little cries sounded right by his ears.
"Hm?"
Baimu looked left and right, and sure enough, he saw a Plusle and a Minun, one on each of his shoulders, curiously staring at his phone.
Their tiny, plush-doll-like bodies and faces looked unbearably cute.