5 The Showcase Unfolds

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"Speech"

'Thoughts'

『Songs』

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"Monsieur Cayde, are you ready?"

"Yep. You can start when you're ready." Cayde nodded in response to the blonde-haired man's question as he adjusted his headphones on his head. The person he had spoken to was the host of the Pokemon Showcases, the name of the man being Pierre.

He had noticed how the man had a very strong French accent. He knew for a fact that France didn't exist in the pokemon world, so it was interesting to hear such an accent. Though, they were in Kalos and he was pretty sure the region was based off of France, so that was probably why.

He had met the man not too long ago after which Pierre had informed him that Palermo had called him to inform him of the turn of events. Pierre would normally be worried about a sudden event, but if Palermo had recommended Cayde, then he had nothing to worry about.

Pierre nodded his head with a big smile as he was soon raised up onto the stage by a rising platform, the platform soon coming back down after a few seconds as Cayde walked his way onto the platform, stretching his arms a bit as he prepared himself to get raised.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I apologise for the delay! However, before the showcase officially comes underway, we have a special pre-showcase performance for all of you!" Pierre shouted as the crowd seemed both intrigued and also confused. "This will be a special one, the person performing is indeed a male!"

This seemed to cause a massive uproar, though not a negative one. The audience all seemed to erupt into whispers of confusion, along with fascination as they heard the news. It was common knowledge that Pokemon Showcases were for females, so seeing a male do some kind of performance was a rare treat to see.

"I assure all of you out there, this performance will certainly be something to behold!" Pierre smiled as he began stepping off to the side before pointing his staff, which had his partner Klefki seated on top of it, towards the centre stage. "So, allow me to introduce to you Monsieur Cayde Asahito! Welcome him to the stage, s'il vous plaît!"

The crowd immediately began clapping as Pierre stated this, though the clapping soon died down so they could all listen and watch with full attention. The lights all turned dim as golden lights shined towards where the platform that Cayde was on began to rise.

Cayde had his eyes closed as his hands were on his headphones, a small smile present on his face as he could feel the platform moving him. When the platform fully rose, the audience could all get a full view of Cayde's appearance, also thanks to the large holographic screen that had a close view of him.

The audience all soon heard music beginning to play as Cayde was tapping his foot calmly against the ground as the music began to pick up in volume. When he opened his eyes, his smile grew wider as he looked directly towards the audience.

『High Hopes - by Panic At The Disco』

As soon as Cayde began singing, he immediately stepped into dance as he utilised as much of the stage as he needed. In an instant, similar to how the events of the plaza had occurred, the entire audience were immediately entranced by him as they watched without even blinking.

While they knew there weren't any special effects aside from the lights that were being shone down onto him, they couldn't help but feel like they were seeing sparkles shining all around the stage constantly as he performed. He didn't even have a pokemon performing with him, yet the performance just seemed so magical.

It was as if his very performance was causing miracles to happen, they just couldn't take their eyes off of him for even a second as he performed. It was the same for Palermo as she continued to watch with a smile on her face from the private room, and she even began recording on her phone.

The audience seemed to have similar ideas as a good number of them quickly took out their devices and began recording him as well. Some were even live-streaming it to their friends, who probably also felt entranced as they watched from the other end.

Palermo could see it again, the genuine bright smile that was present on Cayde's face. The smile he wore wasn't at all forceful, it was a genuine smile. That smile seemed to bring joy to everyone as they were all completely engrossed in the song.

It wasn't just the audience. The performers that had finally gotten themselves ready were watching from the waiting room as they were shocked by the incredible performance, there was simply no word to explain the emotions they were feeling from seeing and hearing it.

Cayde was satisfied as he could tell that the crowd was definitely getting into a much better mood, probably more so than he had expected initially. The performance was soon coming to an end as the climax to the song he was singing was underway.

The staff members tried to make the performance look even better by suddenly adding a few flashes of light as well as special effects with holograms and such, though all of that seemed to be outshined by Cayde's overall performance. His performance was shining more than the actual stage lights.

The song came to an end as Cayde lightly stomped his left foot against the ground, the music stopping as he closed his eyes and the lights began to slowly turn off before the stage was completely dark. As the performance ended, the entire crowd erupted into the applause and cheer that was held in as they had been watching.

The audience were already posting their recordings onto the social media platforms of this world, along with trying to look up any information regarding Cayde from the web. Unsurprisingly, they didn't seem to find anything about him.

It wasn't until this point today that they had even heard of him, yet his performance was probably the best they had ever seen. They were honestly all shocked to find nothing on him, with such incredible talent, they had expected him to be somewhat famous. Was he just a superstar in the dark or something?

As Cayde was being lowered back down, he gave a nod to Pierre as the man did the same in return as he gave Cayde a grateful bow. As the platform finished lowering, Cayde stepped off and began walking off calmly as if nothing had happened.

"Good luck to you three, have fun out there." Cayde gave a quick nod as he saw the first three performers that were about to go up as he walked past them. They all appeared to be around two or three years younger than himself, and they all gave him a quick bow as he gave a small wave.

They were still shocked by the performance he had just done, yet the guy was acting as if he had just done something normal. Back on the stage, the lights came back on in an instant as Pierre continued to speak out to the audience.

"Hm?" Cayde stopped walking for a second as he caught something in his peripheral vision. He could have sworn he saw two small shadows in the corner of his eyes, though he soon shrugged before continuing forth. Maybe he was imagining it, but he could have sworn he saw something.

"Truly a treat Cayde had just gifted us a magnifique performance, don't you agree? However, we shall now move onto the actual showcase!"

The audience all refocused as they all began to focus on the actual competition, though they were still definitely thinking about that performance they had just witnessed. It was something that would probably never leave their minds, it was just too great to forget.

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Cayde had calmly made his way back to the private booth area, for which he had been given many compliments by the staff members for his performance. He just gave them a simple and polite thank you as he continued on his way.

Upon arriving back at the booth, he entered to see that Palermo was on her phone and was seemingly texting someone, not like it was any of his business. Seeing him enter the room, Palermo put her phone down as she gave him a smile.

"I must say, that was a truly magnificent performance. It seems that the crowd certainly all agree." Palermo gave a small laugh in amusement as she had witnessed the incredible bright looks on the audience's faces. Cayde smiled and nodded as he came over and sat back down on the seat. "You've definitely made quite the impression."

"I hope to please." Cayde shrugged as he then looked down towards the stage. Which he saw the first three performers from before seemingly walking down the runway with their pokemon dressed up rather fashionably. "So, this is the Theme Performance part of the showcase you told me about?"

"Indeed. In this part, there are a number of different kinds of theme performances, it's pokemon styling this time." Palermo responded as Cayde nodded his head. He noticed that the outfits were a bit extravagant, but not bad. He was more of the simple yet flashy kind of guy when it came to stage outfits, nothing too crazy.

Speaking of which, he would definitely need to go and buy some clothes to wear. He couldn't just wear his current stage attire for the performance he had going on back in his own world, it wasn't hygienic. He needed to get some more clothes to wear. Along with a place to stay.

As the competition progressed, Cayde saw things that he had already expected. Such as a few tears from those that didn't manage to get past, along with the happy expressions of those that did. The theme performance was interesting to say the least, though he was impressed by how each trainer seemed to use a style that showed the best qualities of their pokemon through fashion.

It didn't take long before the Freestyle Performance part of the showcase was beginning, which Palermo had explained to him was where each of the performers would come up on stage and do a performance alongside their pokemon. Trying their best to appeal to the crowd.

"So, what do you think of the performances so far?" Palermo asked as she turned her attention away from the stage. From her expression and tone, she wasn't exactly impressed with the performances. From Cayde's neutral expression, it was obvious he was the same.

"They're not bad..." Cayde muttered in response as he continued to watch as the current performer, a girl with long black hair and a furfrou were doing their performance. "However, every single one of them are lacking many many things, it's blatantly obvious to me..."

In Cayde's eyes, the performances and the performers, in general, were missing many things that would truly make it a great performance. It may sound a bit strange, but he could tell that the performers were not in the correct mindset to truly bring forth the full potential of a performance.

He could see that every single one of them were performing with the goal of winning the showcase, and that wasn't a bad thing, not at all. But, Cayde always had four total goals in his mind when he performed, one was just truly enjoying himself. Whether or not he wins if he's in a competition doesn't matter to him, as long as he had fun performing.

After all, if you perform without even truly enjoying yourself, what's the point?

Maybe it was easier for him to have this kind of mindset due to his past, which he wouldn't be surprised about. Music was always something that he enjoyed doing so he could forget all of his concerns, and he doubted that the performers here had experienced what he had. They didn't have a life that would forge such a mindset into them.

They would just have to find it themselves throughout their career.

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