"Go for it," Ithica said. She grinned. "Bet I can get a bunch of people around to make pokeblocks with me while you're looking into the contests. And if I end up with spare blue pokeblocks, I bet you can give them to Vulpix and sweep a Beauty contest."

Mel snickered. "Sounds fair to me," she agreed. "I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up with volunteers once people realize what you're doing and who you are."

"That's the plan," Ithica said, grinning. "May as well use it to my advantage, right?"

"Might as well," Mel agreed with a grin. "Maybe I'll hand over some supplies for some of my lot, since you'll be there making pokeblocks anyway."

"Sure," Ithica said. "Sounds good to me." She grinned. "Imagine once we get to Sinnoh. They make poffins over there, you'd be good at those, it's like bread made of berries."

"Oh I am so down for that," Mel agreed with a grin. "I am going to have so much fun."

Ithica grinned.

"Oh yes," she said. She sighed. "So tomorrow, we'll head to the contest hall, I'll make pokeblocks and you'all look into contests. In a few days we'll head to Mossdeep, and then on to Sootopolis. Sound like a plan?"

"Sounds good to me," Mel agreed with a little grin. "Should be fun."

"Yup," Ithica said. She flopped back again, this time not on top of Dragonair. The dragon took the opportunity to flop over on top of her trainer instead, and Ithica squeaked and flailed a bit. "Hey!"

Mel snickered at that, grinning, especially when Zorua snorted at them and settled down to watch, clearly amused.

"Get off~" Ithica whined as she tried to push Dragonair off of herself. She didn't try very hard. She gave a dramatic sigh and went limp, pretending to pout.

Mel snickered at her. "Yeah, she's just getting you back now," she said, still snickering. At least none of hers were big enough to do anything like that to her, yet.

"You," Ithica said to Dragonair, "are an overgrown Ekans and I don't know why I tolerate you." She grinned, though, and made no real effort to get the pokemon off of her.

Mel just snickered when Dragonair just settled in there contentedly, looking quite pleased with itself.

Ithica just rolled her eyes.

"Menace," she said affectionately to Dragonair.

The rest of the gyms in the circuit didn't give Ithica too much trouble. Even with only three pokemon, she managed to qualify for the League tournament. Even better, she entered the tournament with a Dragonair, a Zoroark, and a Milotic, which she was proud of. She had managed to acquire a pokemon egg that she was working on hatching, and she had a sneaking suspicion that it was a Togepi egg.

The first few rounds of the tournament weren't difficult, really. A challenge, certainly, but nothing Ithica's team couldn't handle. It was once she reached the final four that things got interesting, because suddenly the battle with the Champion was within reach. Of course, that was also when the media began to converge on the finalists to try to get interviews.

Mel just watched everything and essentially was Ithica's personal cheering squad. She, of course, stood off to the side when the press wanted their interviews, snickering quietly to herself the whole time. Her team stayed much the same, although she did end up entering a few beauty contests and winning those.

Ithica blinked when a camera was shoved in her face just outside of the arena.

"Ithica!" the reporter said. "Do you have a few moments?"

"I... suppose?" Ithica replied.

"Excellent." The reporter nodded to her cameraman, and Ithica heard the tape begin to roll. "You've essentially come out of nowhere to become a fierce League competitor. What can you tell us about your rise toward glory?"

"I--" Ithica genuinely had no idea how to answer that. "I suppose it comes down to the fact that I don't like to lose, and I had some idea of what to expect when it came to the different gyms. It's easier to prepare when you've done your research on the gym leaders."

"Your pokemon must have something to do with it," the reporter pressed. "After all, your team is all rather rare, especially in this region."

"That was more luck than anything," Ithica admitted.

"It takes an extreme amount of effort to train Feebas," the reporter pointed out. "Everyone knows that. So how did you do it?"

"Okay, I can't take all the credit, there," Ithica said. "I already knew that blue pokeblocks helped in raising Feebas into Milotic, and my best friend helped me out with making the pokeblocks and generally raising my pokemon. She's actually really good at it."

"Your best friend?" the reporter pressed, looking at her. "That's nice of her. Is she here today?"

"She is, yeah," Ithica replied. She glanced around. "She's here somewhere, but I haven't had a chance to talk to her since the round started, I've been in the arena all day."

"And you've been doing very well," the reporter agreed. "Do you think you'll make it to the final rounds?"

Ithica grinned.

"I haven't lost yet," she said. "I'm confident I'll make it to the Champion match. My team is good, we can handle a lot."

"We've certainly seen that you can," the reporter agreed. "Did you research the Champion's team as well?"

"Of course," Ithica said, nodding. "I still think I have a decent shot, once I make it that far." She grinned. "Dragonair doesn't like to lose any more than I do."

The reporter grinned a bit at that. "I see," she said. "Thank you very much for your time. We look forward to seeing you again soon!"

Ithica grinned and watched them go. Then she went to find Mel to see what her friend was up to. The next round of the tournament wasn't until the next day, so she had some time to kill.