Pokemon: Future

Dawn looks at the large building that Hermione’s directions guided her to. Apparently the publishers of PokeChic are none other than the Jubilife TV station itself. The large screen atop the entrance broadcasts a contest appeal before cutting to an interview with a coordinator with her Medicham. The interviewer compliments their previous appeal before proposing the question ‘How it feels knowing you’re one of the favorites to win Hoenn’s current contest circuit?’ which causes the coordinator in the screen to flush a bright red before she starts laughing and even hits the reporter hard enough to make the woman almost drop her microphone.

“Hoenn uh?” Dawn comment as she continues to watch the interview. The region that pretty much made contests as big as they are now.

“Bun?” The Pokemon on her arms wonder what her trainer is thinking. With Hermione requesting Buneary for her photoshoots, it made sense that she got the walking Pokemon rights this time around. Piplup wasn’t too thrilled about the idea, but he understood that both for Buneary and Dawn’s sake, it would be better if he didn’t try to steal the spotlight for once.

“It would be nice to go to Hoenn someday, wouldn’t it?” Dawn wonders to the rabbit before looking back at the screen that now showcased some of the coordinator’s battles. “I wonder how different contests are in there.”

“Bun Bun-ear!” Buneary agrees. Doing contests in a new region, against pokemon they haven’t met before, battling different types of people. It would be an amazing experience.

“Right?” Dawn replies to her excited pokemon’s reply before deciding that they wasted enough time reminiscing about contests and finally enters the building where they’re supposed to meet Hermione.

Dawn goes to the reception desk that stands right after the door and speak to the attendant there. The woman runs her trainer card in a machine that looks like the ones used in Pokemon Centers when she signs up for contests and other sorts of tournaments; before handing it out back to her.

“2^nd floor, first room right after the staircase.”

Dawn takes her card, thanking the woman and moves her way to the staircase she was appointed to. She follows the instructions and knocks on a door conveniently labeled “Gallery” before an employee answers her.

“You must be Dawn!” they say and the girl nods before they guide her to enter the room, take a seat in one of the comfortable looking couches around and wait until Hermione calls her for their appointment.

She does so, but not before taking some time to look at the frames and posters that adorn all the walls around her. Pictures of famous stylists and of Pokemon in fancy clothing and beautiful compositions. It must be Hermione’s work.

“Argenta! You made it!” the employee says when an older woman enters the room unceremoniously, no knocking or even an introduction. It seems she is regular here.

“Hermione waited for the last minute to reach me, but she sounded so excited that I had to come and see.” Argenta laughs a coarse laugh, raising the shades that covered her eyes to the top of her head and Dawn notices a familiarity to the woman. She looks between the photos around her and then to the woman at the entrance. Her eyes enlarge when Argenta’s gaze meet hers.

“It’s you!” Dawn points at the photos around her that feature Argenta with a Skarmory dressed in matching outfits and doing similar poses.

“It’s me indeed.” Is the woman’s reply.

---

The three rabbit pokemon stand side by side in front of a flowery backdrop as Hermione sets up a camera tripod. Buneary stands in the middle of two fully evolved Loppunnies wearing a smaller version of the outfits the other two wore. A simple yet effective composition that showcases the beauty and cuteness of the species.

“Buneary, can you take a step ahead?” Hermione asks the smaller one, who squeaks and nervously jumps ahead. She loses her footing in the final jump, slipping and falling face down on the floor. Tears start forming on her eyes as she realizes how much she messed up when Hermione sighs.

Dawn waves at her pokemon, shifting Buneary’s attention from Hermione to her. ‘It’ll be fine! No need to worry.’ Dawn mouths the words silently and cheers for her pokemon with her bawled fists and bright smile. Buneary stares at her trainer before cleaning her tears and nodding at Dawn. That’s right! They parted ways with Pikachu —and the others— for this chance. She can’t give up yet.

So Buneary takes a deep breath and jumps ahead again, finally getting in the spot Hermione had pointed and giving her best smile. Paris’ Lopunny laughs at her sudden eagerness.

“That’s better.” Hermione smiles at the rabbit before vanishing behind the camera once again, ready to shoot this time.

As the photos taken pop up in the monitors nearby, Argenta moves closer to take a look at the results.

“She is still too nervous…” She says as she swipes the photos in the touch sensitive display. While the two Lopunnies’ poses are elegant and natural, Buneary’s are stiff and her smile forced. “Why would you bring such camera shy pokemon to this?” the Frontier Brain wonders after getting closer to the photographer, unaware of the effect her words made on the small rabbit, whose enhanced hearing allows her to catch on Argenta’s whispers.

“You know how hard it can be to bring out a pokemon’s brilliance sometimes.” Hermione messes around with the camera’s settings and Argenta can’t help but smile at her long-time friend.

“What was it that you did in Hearthome Collection Dawn?” Hermione asks to the girl despite the fact her memory still worked perfectly fine —unlike her back that now hurt from leaning on her camera.

“What we did?” Dawn looks away from the photos once her name is called, placing a finger on her chin as she remembers the event. “We used a combination of Ice Beam and Bounce.” She answers but Hermione shakes her head.

“Other than that?” She asks again and Dawn thinks a little more before she smiles.

“We had fun.” She says simply. More than anything, her focus in the Hearthome Collection was for Buneary to have fun. And for everyone to see it.

And everyone should see Buneary having fun in these pictures too!

“Should we do that now?” She wonders once she realizes what Hermione was aiming for.

“Be my guest.” Is Hermione’s reply as she finishes fixing her camera, taking it off the tripod this time.

Dawn looks excited at the approval and walks towards her pokemon.

“What do you think? Would you like trying some combinations with Paris’ Lopunny?” Dawn asks Buneary who looks back at said pokemon, who looks at her with a soft smile, and then turns back to Dawn, with large expectant eyes.

“Uh, me?” Paris wonder as Buneary nods to Dawn. Why not Argenta’s Lopunny?

“You know how to do contest appeals, don’t you?” she asks even though she knows she does. That’s one of the things that made Dawn a fan of hers after all.

“Well yeah but-“

“Then it’s fine!” Dawn is optimistic. “Cmon, it would mean a lot for us to be able to train with you!” Dawn begs as Buneary pleads along her. Both of them see Paris and her Lopunny as mentors and Paris realizes with a swell in her heart just how much Dawn looks up to her.

“Alright then.” She laughs at the younger girl’s enthusiasm. “It has been a while since we did something like that, so I guess it would be fun, right Lopunny?” she wonders to her pokemon who agrees with a clap of her hands. Is not like they don’t want to do it, but is hard finding free time when they’re always busy participating in interviews or photoshoots.

“Awesome!” Dawn turns back to her pokemon who has been jumping in place ever since the proposition was made. “Let’s go Buneary!” She says as she raises a hand without a command, instead leaving Buneary to choose the starting move. Since it is not a serious training or presentation, it makes sense to let Buneary do whatever her heart desires.

So the rabbit does a twirl, firing a feeble ice beam that mostly causes a cold mist to form around the area. Argenta watches as Dawn calls for a Dizzy Punch, which dissipates most of the mist into sparkling particles.

“Hidden power!” Calls Paris this time. Her Lopunny extends her hands and shoots the attack around Buneary. The spheres of light pop when in contact with the mist created by Buneary, freezing them and creating abstract sculptures out of thin air.

“Ice?” Dawn wonders. She didn’t expect that from hidden power.

“Lopunny’s Hidden Power is an ice type.” Paris explains the coincidence while Buneary looks around the formed sculptures. “Now” Paris turns to her pokemon once again. “Bounce over it!” she elegantly orders her pokemon, who doesn’t do a jump but instead lifts a leg and then rotates herself until she is standing on her hands. Then she propels herself up and hits the ice with her feet. The shattered ice sparkles around Lopunny’s frame.

Buneary’s eyes shine at the view and she turns to Dawn expectantly and her trainer nods at her, understanding her intentions.

“Alright! Bounce Buneary!” And the rabbit does so. Doing some poses mid-air before she hits the sculptures with her feet.

As the broken ice becomes nothing but glittery specs, the two rabbits keep jumping and dancing over the remaining figures while Hermione shoots some photos of the view. Argenta watches as the resulting pictures pops in the screens again. Buneary now shines even more than Paris’ Lopunny with the large smile she sports. The ice dust floating around them makes the white coats they wear reflect with all colors of the rainbow. The simplistic composition from the start had become a work of art due to the pokemon’s playing.

Argenta exhales, taking her eyes away from the photos and looking back at the real thing. Hermione indeed has a talent for finding people who understand pokemon’s beauty like that.

When Buneary bunces over the last remaining ice sculpture, she and Paris’ Lopunny look around realizing that their fun came to an end. Tucking her glasses on a pocket of her jacket, Argenta makes sure their game can go on a little longer.

“Why don’t you join them Lopunny?” She turns to her own pokemon, who had only been watching the others so far. “Protect. In that fun way of yours.” She calls the attack and her Lopunny skips around, aiming the move towards the other two rabbits, who look at the action of the larger pokemon with doubt.

Dawn wonders mentally how protect can be used for fun since it’s a defensive move, but her question is answered when Argenta’s Lopunny jumps on top of the dome of energy that it had created, using the Protect as a trampoline.

The other two rabbits follow suit once they notice that the protect is not coming apart that easily, jumping after Argenta’s Lopunny, who keeps creating more bouncers until there is a circular route for them to take.

The pokemon keep jumping and twirling one after another over the protecting domes. The order in which Argenta’s Lopunny laid its attacks ended up resembling a flower and matching the spring themed clothes that were part of the photoshoot. Buneary with her small size jumped higher than the other rabbits, and with her worries now out of the window her cheerful smile showed the cuteness of the species, while the two Lopunnies could show how elegant the evolution could become. Truly one of the best of Hermione’s works so far.

---

“I take you that you’re Hermione’s apprentice as well?” Argenta asks to Dawn as they both leave the gallery room together. She has places to go while Hermione and Paris must figure out where to place the pictures in relation to the article it will be accompanying.

“Ah. Not really.” Dawn replies, finally taking her eyes off the picture they got as a gift to look at the older woman, instead leaving it in Buneary’s hand, who still can’t believe she ended up looking that good.

“Really?” With how Dawn had worked so well with Paris, Argenta assumed the girl was Hermione’s new student.

“Well, she did ask me to but,” Dawn explains. “I like contests. And my dream is to become a Top Coordinator someday!” she raises one of her hands up to the sky to emphasize her words. She can’t stay still when talking about her dream.

“It’s a shame.” Argenta confesses after a small laugh towards Dawn’s antics. “Not everyone is capable of bringing out a pokemon’s brilliance like you did there.”

“Pokemon’s … brilliance?”

“A pokemon’s natural beauty. Without the need to change who they are.” Argenta explains. “Many people think pokemon fashion is just about dressing pokemon in pretty clothes, but it demands more. It needs the stylist to be able to recognize a pokemon’s inherent charm and enhance it with the right accessories.” Argenta’s passion can be felt in her worlds. “I would like to see what you could’ve created.”

She looks at Dawn and the girl feels anxious about the expectation weighted on her. Argenta senses her discomfort and places a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s alright! You have a dream to fulfill.” She assures the girl. “But after that, once you become a Top Coordinator, what are your plans?”

“I..” Dawn staggers “I never thought about it..” she admits. All her life she had only thought about how much she wanted to be a Top Coordinator. After that? She honestly doesn’t know.

“Really?” Argenta looks at her surprised before she realizes Dawn is a child after all. “That’s no good.” She pats Dawn’s shoulder once more before taking her shades from her jacket and putting them on. “If you treat your dream as an end goal, you may find yourself at loss once you achieve it.” The woman advises, acting her Frontier Brain title for the first time in the day.

“You’re not going to be a challenger forever, right?”