Kanto : Going My Way

Clash Of St. Anne Part 5 : Cargo Showdown

#Some readers told me that they would appreciate some warnings where there are 'Gore' parts. Okay. Wherever you see '#G#' this sign, brace yourself for a dark part of the story. But please, don't skip it. They are important part of the storyline you see.

It has been 3 days since the tournament of St. Anne had begun.

There had been many battles, fierce and unforgiving. Only the few trainers cut above the rest, the cream of the crop were selected into the quarterfinals. Even among those trainers a few prominent names rose above the rest.

Paul Shinji, Cynthia Shirona, Adam Milkovich, Corey Romelo, Madeleine Morgana and Ash Ketchum.

Each one of them was terrifying in their own rights. Paul Shinji with his Nidoking, Grotle, Gligar and Electabuzz had grown a reputation to be a cunning and ruthless adversary. Cynthia wasn't far behind with her Roselia, Gastrodon, Gabite and Spiritomb either. Adam Milkovich and Madeleine Morgana had developed a particularly notorious reputation for annoying their opponents to their defeats with tricky strategies. Corey Romelo meanwhile was a fiery opponent in every sense of the word. He had an all out offense team with his Magmar, Growlithe, Vulpix and Rapidash. And lastly was the most mysterious and heartless of them all, Ash Ketchum with his team of Luxray, Charmeleon and Kirlia.

Ash had fought two more people since his fight with Cole. He was forced to reveal Kirlia and Charmeleon. As much as he would not like to admit, the fights were tough. Tougher than he'd ever seen generic trainers on Routes.

He had come quite close to losing in his previous battle with a trainer with a Machoke. Machoke's Throat Chop attack had hit Charmeleon on his neck and the fire pokemon was not able to use Flamethrower because of that. Ash had switched Charmeleon to Kirlia and sent Machoke to la-la land with a single Psybeam.

Today was the day of the quarter finals. Ash was heading to the battle bay to see the battle placements. The silver haired trainer found it quite amusing that so many merchants were allowed aboard their ship. Merchants, selling exotic goods aboard St. Anne had actually prepared stalls of goods on the hall...

"YES! Yes! This is a magical miracle Karp! It lays 1000 eggs each season! Then those eggs hatch! And then those new fishes lay more eggs! You'll be millionaire before you know it!"

...And unfortunately those merchants included some uh...mentally challenged people who thought that it would be a good idea to make money by scamming through selling Magikarp.

(A/N : Remember? That man who sold James a Magikarp?)

Snorting in amusement Ash paid the harping merchant no attention and moved on. Although he was quite surprised to find a few people actually listening to the merchant selling Magikarp.

Oh well...There are smart phones, smart watches, smart TVs...Wonder when they'll start making smart people...

The silver haired trainer continued to walk, ignoring the buzzing stalls around him. When he reached the battle bay he was greeted by the sight of the massive spectator stands where many people were clapping at his arrival.

Ash's ruthless battling methods may not be everyone's cup of tea but they certainly respected the sheer power at his disposal.

When he reached the competitors box he was met by the sight of many other trains sitting in the room. Some of them spared him a glance of either wariness or competiveness while others continued to chat without paying him any attention –

"Morning asshole! How was your sleep? I hope Darkrai was roasting your ass with nightmares all night."

"Oh don't you worry Shirona. We are really good friends. Hell, we cracked a few beers on Newmoon Island just this weekend."