Josh's smile grew alongside Johanna's as she reported just how happy Hoennians were when they were visiting Funtasia. "What is there to say? That's a legendary Pokémon carousel!" he remarked as an outside-row Latios zoomed past them. "How many of us, when we were young, dreamed of riding on a legendary Pokémon? Some of us still do!"

As the carousel came to a halt, the riders dismounting their legendary mounts, Josh's eyes locked onto the outside-row Raikou. "Sorry if you want the Raikou, but he's mine." Even Raikiri wanted in on the fun, the Mauville Leader handing the attendant a second set of Funtasia tokens to ride alongside the electric mythical Pokémon. Josh sprinted alongside his partner, taking a seat on the outside-row Raikou he had memorized the position of. Raikiri hopped onto an outside-row Zapdos two spots in front of him, the Zeraora's ponytail flapping in the breeze like a flag on a windy day.

Just turned around to see the Ho-oh Johanna was seated on a couple placed back, and whistled at the detail that had been put into it. Other than the reflective rather than feathered body, the details were striking and accurate. While the saddle on the Great One was a bit demeaning from the Gym Leader's perspective, he did have to set his reverence aside and accept the fantastic nature of what he was doing. Perhaps there was another world out there where shard legendary Pokémon were more common?

Even Raikiri had a smile on his face as he leaned low onto the Zapdos, the carousel slowly getting up to half speed. All of these depictions of the Pokémon world's gods looked excellent; he would have to snap pictures of them before the carnival packed up for good at the end of the month.

Photos of the Gym Leader astride the carousel's Raikou would inevitably make their way onto social media, several observers and fans of the Mauville Racer snapping pictures of him as the Beast came into view. Those would stop when the carousel operator turned the ride up to top speed. The younger children on some outside-row Pokémon, particularly a Latios and Chien-Pao, squealed in joy, the high momentum making their small stomachs turn a little. Even Josh became lost in his fantasy. "Whooooo! Swift, let's pick up the pace!" Of course, it didn't beat riding Kyle's Raikou familiar, but he only got to do that once every few months.

After the carousel had slowed to a stop and let its riders disembark, Josh and Raikiri took a lap around the outside of it, having his eyes on some of the other legendary Pokémon he wanted to ride on when he came back later. "This was a really cool idea," Josh said to Johanna as he snapped pictures of the three Beasts, the Latios, the Chien-Pao, and the Ho-oh that the Ever Grande Gym Leader had been on. Even Raikiri had a big smile on his face, dreaming to ride alongside Josh on the real Raikou one day. "The saddle on Ho-oh is really well done, too. I'm definitely coming back here another day. Where to next?" he asked, putting the ball in her court.

There was just something thrilling about being astride a god, even if it was in the realm of fantasy only. The world of NINE: True Goddess Reincarnation was his outlet for riding the god of speed in a form he had complete control over. As fun as it was being on Kyle's Raikou-familiar, they were ultimately his to command. It would be great to have more in the game, but getting a legendary mount was far too big of a grind. They couldn't even be bought or sold on the market, as the items to summon them were bound to the account they dropped for.

Before Josh could make a suggestion, Johanna's phone rang. He patiently waited for several minutes, imagining it was just a service call of some kind. Something quick. That didn't appear to be the case as the conversation dragged on. Taking a seat on his Zeraora's back, Josh waved to Johanna, taking care not to interrupt her before making his way elsewhere. He was sure he'd run into her again if he kept coming to the carnival!