"Please welcome our first contestant from Group A — Aresdra Cortana!"
Aresdra rose to her feet, her expression calm and unreadable. The knot of nerves that had twisted in her stomach only moments ago seemed to loosen the instant the host called her name.
This was something she had to do.
Because he was watching her through the live broadcast right now.
The stage lights cut out all at once, plunging the venue into a brief, breathless darkness.
Then her voice came — a cappella, clear and unaccompanied — drifting like a melody carried on the wind to every pair of ears in the audience.
"Gazing at him then,""Was like seeing the height of summer,""Seeing the brilliant scars amidst the sea of stars..."
A pillar of fire erupted from the center of the stage, blazing upward and lighting both the stunned faces of the crowd and the open night sky above the arena.
Luanna, who had been leaning back comfortably in her chair, sat bolt upright. Lennon couldn't help but widen her eyes.
"That move..." Luanna said slowly. "Is that Ember?"
"That's what she registered with the production team," Lennon replied.
Luanna frowned. "With that scale and heat, are you sure it isn't Blast Burn?"
Though both women worked as performance artists, their experience as Elite-level and Master-level Trainers gave them a sharp eye. Just from the way the surrounding air rippled and distorted, they could tell the temperature of that Fire-type move was far from ordinary.
Torchic's Ability, Blaze, supercharged by the rare secondary Ability Rivalry, had pushed the power of its moves to a level that would turn heads even among Elite Four members.
As Torchic's explosive opening set the crowd alight with excitement, the stage elevator slowly rose. Standing on it was a girl in white — like a Pokémon princess stepping out of a world of snow and ice, her beauty untouched and radiant. Across the country, viewers watching from their screens fell silent, struck by something they couldn't quite name.
"Hearing him then,""Was like hearing fireworks,""Blooming in the night sky with a brilliant clamor."
Lost in the feeling of the song, Aresdra stood still, her voice soft and gentle, slowly drawing the fire's energy inward — and then, on the very next line, releasing it all at once.
Like a fireworks launcher, Torchic fired seventeen massive, blazing fireballs into the air. From the far corner of the stage, Riolu had been waiting silently. It activated Detect, and the chaotic, spiraling paths of each Ember suddenly became perfectly clear to its eyes.
Bullet Punch.
The Steel-type strike moved with blinding speed, cutting through the air and intercepting each fireball with the precision of a guided missile.
When ten-thousand-degree flames met the force of speeding steel, the collision of Fire-type and Steel-type energy let out a boom — like a series of fireworks going off all at once.
As the two forces met and scattered, droplets of molten iron rained gently down onto the stage, each one catching the light, glittering like falling stars.
Watching from behind a screen in his tent, Nova's jaw dropped.
He knew exactly where the inspiration for this performance had come from.
It was a warm summer night. The two of them had been lying on the rooftop of their rented apartment, waiting for a meteor shower that was supposed to be visible that evening.
The meteors never came. They waited all night and saw nothing. But neither of them felt let down. The boy and the girl had talked and talked, about everything and nothing, as if there were no end to the things they wanted to say to each other.
That night, Nova had told Aresdra about a performance he had once seen — folk artists striking molten iron with hammers, sending showers of sparks arcing through the darkness like falling stars.
Aresdra had asked where she could see something like that, because she wanted to go with him.
But those memories belonged to another life. In this world, there was no way for Nova to take her there.
He had said, quietly and a little sadly, that it couldn't be seen anymore.
What he hadn't known — what he never could have guessed — was that Aresdra had held onto those words. A small, half-forgotten regret shared between the two of them on a rooftop under an empty sky. And now, on the biggest stage of her life, she was giving it back to him.
The iron flower performance from his past memories had already been breathtaking on its own. But Aresdra had used Torchic and Riolu to multiply the scale and quantity of those sparks by an order of magnitude. She had truly done it. She had let Nova see the sky full of falling stars.
The judges sat speechless. Not one of them had ever witnessed a stage performance like this. This fifteen-year-old girl, making her very first public appearance, had already reached a level of artistry and creativity that left seasoned professionals at a loss for words.
With only a little polish and training, this performance could stand on the stage of the World Tournament and silence an entire arena.
A true prodigy.
A fifteen-year-old prodigy was already something rare and worth admiring. But when that same girl also carried a beauty that seemed almost unfair to the rest of the world, admiration quietly became something closer to awe.
Nova watched the live audience rise to their feet, heard the shouts echoing from other campers outside his tent, and stared at the screen full of comments from viewers who couldn't find the right words either. He didn't say anything. His eyes were wet.
This was the performance she had prepared for him.
The chorus ended. The background music swelled. Aresdra stepped away from the microphone stand and moved across the stage with easy grace, dancing through the soft rain of glittering iron droplets and scattered light.
The performance showed not just the strength of her Pokémon, but her own range as a performer. Her voice, her movement, her creativity, her sense of beauty — Aresdra was exceptional in every single one.
She was born for the stage.
Luanna stared, completely at a loss. She almost suspected that Lennon had put this entire event together just to show Aresdra off.
Lennon, for her part, felt a little unfairly accused. She had hoped to bring fresh energy into the Norlandia Alliance's entertainment scene through this group selection, but she never imagined the very first performance of the night would shake her this deeply.
The live audience was already roaring.
"Champion! Champion! Champion!"
Barring anything unforeseen, Aresdra Cortana was going to become a name written into the history of artistic performance across the Norlandia Alliance.
But even as everyone in the arena was swept up in the moment, something had already gone quietly wrong.
Psyduck.
It was still inside its Poké Ball.
Small, round eyes. A large, foggy head. A single curly hair sticking up from the top of its forehead.
It had no idea what was happening outside. It couldn't quite understand what its Trainer, Aresdra, and its two little teammates were up to.
Its thoughts bumped around inside its aching head. The little tuft of hair on top seemed to be doing most of the thinking.
What's going on?
You're all out there having a great time... and nobody invited me?
I may not be the smartest Pokémon around, but that doesn't mean you can just leave me out!
And so, with one small yellow hand, it pressed the release button on the inside of its Poké Ball.
A burst of red light flashed across the center of the stage.
Psyduck appeared, dazed and swaying, both hands clutching its head — right in the middle of everything.
Psyyy...