April sixth.
The auction grounds.
A huge purple tent stood in front of them.
Its entrance was a glowing cylindrical archway that gave away nothing about what was inside.
Akiyama wore black tails traced with dark green. One hand rested below his chest; the other held Gardevoir's.
Nikozo walked beside him in a black suit that did his frame favors.
"Bigger crowd than I expected." He scanned the plaza.
Akiyama nodded. "Come on. Let's get in line."
They'd cut it close enough that the line was long.
Standing in it, the Comfey around Gardevoir's neck cracked her eyes open, drowsy, and the fragrance spread out and pulled every head nearby around.
Comfey yawned, blinked blearily at the crowd, and lifted off Gardevoir's neck.
The scent was how she said hello.
Then she settled onto the top of Gardevoir's head, closed her eyes, and went back to being a flower crown.
The perfume dialed itself down. She was asleep again.
Akiyama answered the stares with a polite smile and a nod.
Their turn came fast.
They flashed their tickets at the entrance, and a corridor opened up in the middle of that milk-white light, like it was waiting on them.
Akiyama gestured Gardevoir along and stepped through, coattails swinging once before the corridor swallowed them.
Nikozo waved his ticket next, and the door opened again.
White light flared across Akiyama's vision, and when it cleared he was standing in a small room walled entirely in glass—though only one wall was transparent.
Gardevoir, fascinated, tugged him toward it. Beyond it, huge cubes were stacked at careless angles all across the space.
They were inside one of them.
The cubes formed a rough half circle, all of them facing a display stage.
"Some kind of spatial tech?" Akiyama poked at the glass in front of him.
It rippled under his finger, like water.
Then someone knocked on the glass next door, and a purple panel materialized in front of him.
A traveler wishes to speak with you. Accept?
Yes / No.
Akiyama stared at it.
Was this the standard now, out in the world?
He tapped Yes.
The glass that had been knocked on went instantly clear, and Nikozo was on the other side, smiling and waving. A corridor stitched itself between the two rooms.
Nikozo walked through it into Akiyama's room.
"So? Pretty impressive, right?"
Akiyama didn't argue. "Genuinely. I've never seen anything like this."
His mental image of an auction had been a basement full of chairs, maybe a couple of private boxes. This felt like it belonged in the next century.
Nikozo explained patiently. "The tech's been around a few years. Supernatural Group spearheaded it. Nick and your family both have a stake in it, actually—you probably just weren't paying attention."
"My family? Then I've got a pretty good idea how it works." Akiyama nodded and let Kadabra out of his ball.
"Here. Feel out the area with your psychic power."
Kadabra took a moment to survey the room, nodded, and shut his eyes. His power spread outward.
What he saw was a dense lattice of purple threads, like an enormous spiderweb.
Every thread was a Psychic-type Pokémon.
Kadabra opened his eyes and considered his words. I see it. Echoes of psychic power.
There were too many to describe. Echo was the closest he could come.
Like an echo—everywhere at once.
Akiyama clicked his tongue and walked back to the window to look out at the cubes.
All of it built from psychic power.
And behind every wall, a Pokémon pouring that power out.
So this is the auction? Kadabra asked.
"Yeah. Word is two Psychic-type Mega Stones are going up today. One of them might be yours."
That one sentence was enough to unsettle a Kadabra who was normally unshakable.
"Mega Evolution's been spreading through Seichu the last couple years. Probably because we're so close to Prisma." Nikozo dropped onto the couch off to one side.
"It's powerful and it looks incredible. What's not to like?" Akiyama sat down next to him.
"They found another central island in Prisma where you can actually mine Mega Stones. Extraction's rough, but Prisma has enough now that they're putting them on the market."
"The Well League's going to be in meetings for months. Mega Evolution means the tournament rules have to change."
Nikozo knew things Akiyama didn't.
A mechanic like that could wreck a competitive format overnight. There was no way it went unregulated.
And leaving it alone wasn't fair to Trainers who hadn't found a stone.
Of course, actual rules could still be a long way off. The tournaments were the Well League's foundation, and nobody touched the foundation lightly.
Not long after, the auction opened.
A large purple screen bloomed across the transparent glass, showing the stage below.
From the stage looking out, all those purple screens ran together into a violet sea.
An elegantly dressed host carried out the first lot, and the screen zoomed in with perfect timing the moment she pulled off the red cloth.
Underneath was a weathered fossil, the shape pressed into it something like a sea turtle.
"Our first item today is a fossil—and we've detected viable genetic material inside it!"
"Opening bid: fifty thousand League coins."
Not a steep price. Somebody multiplied it several times over almost immediately.
250,000.
The number filled the screen.
The auction was strangely quiet. Everyone kept their distance from everyone else.
Shouting matches and dirty tricks got strangled here before they could draw breath.
The fossil went for 1.05 million.
The instant the price locked, the fossil vanished off the display tray, and the second lot came up before anyone could blink.
A silver wind chime.
"An ordinary piece of craftsmanship with a lovely, clear tone. Excellent for strengthening the bond between Trainer and Pokémon."
"Opening bid: four thousand League coins."
The numbers on the big screen changed again.
"They really do cater to every bracket," Akiyama said. The price genuinely surprised him.
"Obviously. For Frostvale, the auctions aren't just business, they're closer to a holiday. Four a year—that's how the city tells its seasons apart."
Nikozo talked and bid at the same time. All it took was saying a number out loud, and a small window popped up in front of him.
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