A family visits a new city in advance of a planned move — one of them will be studying there within the year, and they want to find the right place to live. While they settle in, two brothers take on a side challenge: collect nine competition passes from tournament winners across the cities in order to earn entry to a major festival where the region's best competitors await. The protagonist begins the journey with a Shinx gifted for his twelfth birthday. A sinister presence enters the picture before long, and both familiar and unfamiliar faces appear along the way.