The Journey Begins

District Tournament - Day 1

"So captain, what do you think our chances are?" I asked Shelly, the captain of the senior team, who was seated at the front seat near the gate.

We were on a bus headed towards the tournament venue. Almost every school has separate management departments that are separate from the other ones, which specifically handle stuff for tournaments such as this. Some schools even have different departments for different types of tournaments, like Card Games/Board Games (Duel Masters, Bakugan, Chess, Shogi, etc.), Sports (Tennis, Hockey, Soccer etc.), Combat (Mixed Martial Arts, Pokémon, Beyblade, Judo, Boxing etc.), E-sports. (A/N: I have the whole system worked out. But since it will be too long and tedious to explain, I'll skip it here. If you want I can write it separately, so let me know.)

"Well captain," She looked up to me smiling and said, "Our chances are just as good as any other team."

"Heh, well said." I said smiling back. We looked back at our team members, who were right now smiling and playing Antakshari. (A/N: It's a popular Indian game. One team starts singing a song after which, the other team has to sing another song that starts with the syllable with which the last song ended. The team which is unable to sing a song for its turn after 10 seconds, loses.)

"Hard to believe that fifteen minutes ago this bus was as quiet as a graveyard." I said.

"Heh heh, yeah." Shelly said chuckling. Then she added, "Hey, you worried?"

"Of course I am." I said.

"You're a terrible liar, just like my brother." She shook her head smiling and reached up to ruffle my hair.

"Believe me, I'm not lying." I said shaking myself free of her grasp.

"Get ready kids, five more minutes." Our driver shouted to be heard over the ruckus in the back.

"Thank you Mr. Burton." We shouted back at him. I could see him smiling in the rearview mirror.

The plump, thick mustached man has been a bus driver for our school for as long as I can remember. Kindergarteners, middle schoolers, and high schoolers everybody loved him alike.

"I still can't believe you kids are competing in the District Tournament. Still feels like yesterday when you guys were crying when Ms. Bean caught you playing cards (duel masters/monsters, I can't remember which) during class and threatened to call your parents." he said to Shelly reminiscing.

"Yeah.... I remember that." Shelly said chuckling.

"Alright kids, we're here." He said as we approached the Battle Block. Once inside the gates, he headed straight for the parking lot.

Since I was already standing and our bags were in the driver's compartment at the front, I was the first one to get off the bus. As I was taking the first step down, I took in the view.

The venue of the Jarion district tournament is shaped like a spider's web. The paths form the strings of the web and the spaces in between are occupied by the buildings. The buildings form rings and there are three such layers.

The outermost layer consists of shops selling memorabilia and stuff, the second ring has the living quarters for the participants for the duration of the tournament. The third and the innermost ring is occupied by medical facilities for both humans and Pokémon. At the center lies the actual Battle Block. A massive stadium with a capacity of about twenty thousand in addition to four jumbo screens, it is one of the biggest stadiums for any sport in our country. The battle area itself, is of the same size as a football (A/N: For all terms and purposes, in my stories, football will always mean soccer and not American football) stadium. The referee stands on a platform outside the arena which has a screen showing him the HP and other stats of the competing Pokémon.