The screen showed the pairings for the eight finalists.
Natsui looked at the screen and saw May's position in the bracket.
The pairings were random. The new arrangement put May in the first match. She had to go onto the stage first. Her opponent was Harley!
It was a strange coincidence.
In the first round of appeals, Harley was in second place. May was second to last. Looking at the rankings, this match seemed better for Harley.
However, only outsiders thought that. Natsui, Ash, and the others did not think May was weaker than Harley.
Instead, they all believed in May. They were sure she would win!
Also, this was a good thing. Facing Harley early meant they could remove that annoying person quickly. Once he was gone, they would not have to see him anymore.
Of course, Harley also thought this was a great chance for revenge.
He disliked both Natsui and May very much. He wanted to get rid of them. He was a bit surprised to meet May in the first match of the second round. He wanted to save this big match for the end, but beating her now would still make him happy for many days!
Both of them were very excited after seeing the pairings. They were determined to teach each other a lesson.
Natsui did not pay much attention to the other pairings, including Jessie's. He understood that there were no other strong Trainers among these contestants. If May could beat Harley, she would probably win the Saffron Contest!
The result depended on this one match!
After a short break, the second round of judging started immediately.
Many people were watching as Harley and May walked onto the stage again.
Lilian talked about the rules for this round. She said brightly, "You have five minutes. The way to win is to show your Pokémon's moves beautifully while lowering your opponent's points! Now, both Trainers are ready. Let's see how they do in this first battle!"
As soon as she finished speaking, the five-minute clock started.
At the same time, May and Harley both released their Pokémon.
May sent out Squirtle. She had just caught it recently, so this was a surprise. It was a very risky choice. However, this part of the Contest did not require the same careful moves as the first round. As long as the Pokémon showed its own power, it was okay. So, using Squirtle was possible.
May had kept Squirtle with her earlier. It was clear she had planned to use it.
This showed that May did not choose it suddenly. She had thought about it carefully!
On the other side, Harley did not use Cacturne. Instead, he used an Ariados!
In Kanto, the rules allow Trainers to change Pokémon between the two rounds. This makes the teams more flexible. They were no longer limited to one Pokémon. This made the Kanto Contests more exciting than the ones in Hoenn.
The two Pokémon had just appeared on the stage when Harley told Ariados to attack first.
Ariados shot a long silk thread at the ceiling and swung forward. In a moment, it was right in front of Squirtle. It used Scary Face. Squirtle was very surprised!
Squirtle was scared of Ariados. Because of Scary Face, it rolled back twice. It rolled all the way to May's feet.
Squirtle was a new Pokémon, so it was not very brave yet. This was normal.
May did not panic. She was its Trainer, so she encouraged Squirtle immediately. She helped it stand up. Then, they used Ice Beam.
Natsui was surprised that a new Squirtle could use that move.
May had worked very hard to train it. However, Squirtle could not control that energy perfectly yet. When it fired the Ice Beam, the power pushed Squirtle back. Its body was sent flying backward!
Squirtle lost its balance, so the Ice Beam did not hit Ariados. It flew past the target.
Harley laughed at them.
Harley did not stop. While Squirtle was still unsteady, he told Ariados to use Spider Web. It pulled Squirtle up toward the ceiling!
Squirtle was tied up tightly. It looked like prey. It tried to move its body inside the silk. It watched as it got closer to Ariados.
Squirtle felt Ariados was dangerous, so it became even more scared.
This silk did not hurt Squirtle, but May's points on the large screen suddenly went down!
This was the difference between Contests and regular battles. Even though it was not hurt, it was losing points.
After catching Squirtle, Harley did not hurry to attack. He wanted to humiliate May or show off. He had Ariados spray silk everywhere to build a huge spider web across the stage!
Once the web was finished, Ariados threw Squirtle onto the silk like a ball of yarn. It pulled it up and threw it onto the web again. After doing this several times, Squirtle was like a toy. It could not escape.
On the screen, May's points dropped again.
Natsui understood what Harley was doing.
It seemed Harley wanted to humiliate May by playing with her.
However, Harley was being too arrogant. He would have to pay a price for that.
May had grown. She was not a beginner anymore. Harley was making a mistake if he thought he could still treat her like that.
Harley finished playing and told Ariados to move in for the final hit. At that moment, May gave an order. Squirtle used Ice Beam again. Suddenly, a lot of energy exploded. The spider web held Squirtle in place, so the move hit Ariados accurately! Then, the power pushed Squirtle back. It broke the silk and returned to the stage!
Ariados was hit by the Ice Beam and was frozen in ice. It could not move. The energy also moved through the silk threads. It froze the whole spider web into ice!
The situation had changed!
Harley's face changed a lot.
He was too confident and did not expect this at all!
On the screen, Harley's points dropped a lot. The Ice Beam hurt Ariados. Also, the three judges thought the ice looked very beautiful!
May had succeeded with one hit, so she did not stop. She did not give Ariados a chance to escape. She quickly told Squirtle to use Bubble.
Many bubbles came from Squirtle's mouth and hit Ariados. They broke the ice on its body and did damage.
Ariados was no longer frozen. But Harley could not relax. The silk under Ariados's feet was frozen solid, so it could not move normally.
At that moment, Squirtle jumped onto the web. It ran and used Tackle. It hit Ariados very hard.
That hit and the fall from a high place knocked Ariados unconscious immediately.
"What!?"
Harley did not expect his Ariados to lose so quickly. It had been winning just a moment ago!
He did not expect to lose to May in the first match of the second round!
It was very humiliating!!
But the result of the match did not change.
A large Red X appeared on the screens for the three judges. Lilian announced the result loudly: "Ariados cannot battle! May won the match after a difficult start!!"
The audience cheered loudly. Ash and the others shouted just as loudly. They were very happy. It was completely different from Harley's dark and miserable face!
After Harley tricked them yesterday, May's victory today put him in his place perfectly. It felt very good!
On the stage, May was very happy she beat Harley with Squirtle. She jumped and hugged Squirtle. She did not look at Harley's angry face. She turned and left.
May was the winner, and she ignored him. This made Harley's face turn blue with rage!
He wanted to say something mean, but May did not look back. He could only stay angry!
When May returned to the waiting room, Natsui clapped for her.
"You did a great job in this match!" Natsui smiled. "I didn't know your Squirtle knew Ice Beam. You even beat Harley. This is a moment to celebrate!"
"Hehe..."
May smiled too. She was very happy to beat Harley and move on!
On the other side, Harley left the stage. He was going to leave the Saffron Contest because he was upset. Then he saw Jessiebella and her friends walking toward the stage.
He had an idea. He realized he could still get revenge. He could use Jessiebella.
"Miss Jessiebella!" Harley smiled at Jessie and said, "Did you see that? May is my enemy!"
Jessie just looked at him.
"What?" Jessie asked. "I was getting my wounds fixed, so I didn't see your match. Why? Did you lose?"
Cacnea had poked Jessie with needles during the first round. She was carried away on a stretcher. She had just finished being treated by the doctors. So, she did not see the battle between Harley and May.
Harley was surprised, but he waved his hand and said, "It is okay if you didn't see it. I almost won. But May used a dirty trick to beat me. Now I cannot win, so you must help me get revenge!"
Because they had talked before, Jessie believed him. She promised to help.
"Don't worry!" she laughed loudly. "No one can beat the Great Jessiebella! She is just a little girl. I will take care of your revenge!"
Harley was very happy. He said many nice things to Jessie. He kept praising Jessie until she felt very proud. Then he said goodbye and left.
After he left, James and Meowth were worried. They said, "Why do we feel that guy has bad intentions?"
"It doesn't matter!" Jessie was thinking clearly now. She said, "Our goal is to win this Saffron Contest anyway. We have to beat anyone in our way. Helping him with his revenge is just an extra task!"
James and Meowth also began to dream about winning.
Jessie had taken first place in the first round with a very high score. This was better than they expected!
If they kept doing well, they might win fairly!
They were very excited as they sent Jessie onto the stage.
With Harley gone, no one else could stop May or Jessie.
Jessie used her strength and some luck to win. She beat two opponents in a row. Now, she was going to fight May in the final round!
This was an amazing performance!
Natsui looked at Jessie's talent for the stage with respect.
He thought that if Jessie stopped being a villain and tried to be a Pokémon Coordinator, she might be very successful!