All the matches of the second round of the Ever Grande Conference Finals Tournament wrapped up in the morning.
Since the matches ended early, the third-round matchups would be announced at two o'clock the next afternoon.
After finishing his own match, Gary went to the Pokémon Center in the Players' Village and handed his Pokémon over to Nurse Joy for treatment. He watched the remaining matches through the live broadcast, then headed to the restaurant for lunch at noon.
In the restaurant, he naturally ran into Ash and the others, and just as naturally ended up sitting with them to eat.
"Ash, you won this time, but next time, I'm definitely not losing to you," Morrison said between mouthfuls.
In today's match, Morrison hadn't been in proper form during the first half—otherwise, the outcome against Ash would've been hard to call.
"No problem. Next time we get the chance to battle again, don't let that happen—you have to give it everything you've got," Ash said.
"You got it."
Morrison nodded and went back to stuffing food into his mouth.
Seeing the two of them take it so well, Brock and the others were relieved. They'd been worried the match result might leave a grudge between them.
"There are only eight players left. In the third round, there's a good chance you, Ash, Gary, and Tyson could end up facing each other," Max suddenly said.
Max was a Pokémon battle fanatic. He didn't just follow the Hoenn League Conference—he watched the League Conferences of other regions too.
Of the eight Trainers remaining, three were people he knew, so the odds of them running into each other in the third round were high.
At those words, Ash and Tyson both turned to look at Gary.
Gary's performance at this Conference had been overwhelming. From the preliminaries up to now, he hadn't lost a single Pokémon and had won every match.
Ash handled it better—he was used to it, after all.
Tyson, meanwhile, felt a weight of pressure. If he ended up facing Gary, he figured his chances of winning weren't good.
Gary looked at Ash and Tyson staring at him and grumbled inwardly: Why are you two looking at me? Next round is going to be between the two of you. And Ash, you'd better show me your real strength this time. If I beat you at this Conference, I get the Mega Stone—so don't you dare get eliminated by Tyson.
"I have a feeling we probably won't meet," Gary said.
"Why's that?" Ash asked, puzzled. He wanted to face Gary in the finals, but the matchups were up to the tournament organizers—there was no way to know in advance.
"I said it's a hunch. Either way, we'll find out soon enough," Gary said.
"Fine. But even if I do meet you, I'm definitely going to beat you," Ash said.
"If you used the Pokémon you raised before, you might actually be able to," Gary said.
"I won't do that. Other than Pikachu, I'm only using Pokémon I caught in the Hoenn Region this time," Ash said firmly.
"What about Latias?" Gary asked.
Gary had watched Ash's matches. Aside from Pikachu, every Pokémon he'd used was caught in Hoenn—but Latias had never once appeared.
"Latias doesn't like battling. I'm not going to make her fight," Ash said.
Gary was a little surprised, but thinking about that Latias's personality, it really had no interest in fighting. If anything, Latias seemed more interested in going on dates.
"In that case, I won't use Latios when I battle you," Gary said.
"Alright, it's a deal." Ash had been racking his brain over how to beat Latios, so if Gary wasn't using it, things just got a lot easier.
"You can just do that?!" Max was stunned. Wasn't the League Conference supposed to be the stage where Trainers proved themselves? Why were Gary and Ash treating it like a playground?
"The League Conference is meant to test the results of a Trainer's training. For Gary and Ash, honing the Pokémon they have on hand matters more—they don't care that much about the results," Brock explained.
The reason Ash stuck to this approach was simple: every time he entered a League Conference, he only used Pokémon caught in that region.
If Ash truly wanted to win a championship, he could just bring out the Pokémon he'd raised before. He did it this way because he wanted to train new Pokémon. In the end, Conference rankings wouldn't mean much in a few years anyway—the World Championship was the real goal.
After eating and drinking their fill, they rested in the restaurant until almost two o'clock, then headed to the Pokémon Center to see the third-round battle list.
The other five advancing players were at the Pokémon Center too. Seeing Gary's group arrive together, they only spared them a glance and thought nothing of it.
After all, every time the list was announced, Ash's group gathered in the same spot—the other players already knew they were all acquainted.
At two o'clock, the big screen in the Pokémon Center began displaying the matchups.
Ash VS Tyson!
…!
Gary VS Sasuke!
Perhaps fate really was predetermined. Ash and Tyson had still ended up meeting in the third round—though even if the matchup was the same, the final result might turn out differently.
"Sasuke…!"
Gary hadn't expected his opponent to be Sasuke. The guy shared a name with a certain avenger—shame he wasn't an Uchiha.
This Sasuke, however, was a Ninja and a Trainer from the Johto Region. At present there were only three Ninja schools in existence: one in Kanto, one in Johto, and one in Kalos.
Ash was speechless. Last round his opponent had been Morrison, and this round it was Tyson's turn. Was he going to run into Gary in the next round? Every single opponent was a friend of his.
"See? Told you that you wouldn't be facing me. Do your best." Gary tossed out the joke and turned to leave.
Watching Gary go, Tyson and Ash made a promise of their own—tomorrow, they would give it everything they had and leave no regrets on the battlefield.
Gary returned to his room and used the computer to look up the Pokémon Sasuke had used so far during the Ever Grande Conference.
Player Name: Sasuke (Male)
Known Pokémon: Crobat, Tentacruel, Scizor, Arbok, Gulpin, Masquerain, Marowak, Zangoose.
"That's a lot of Pokémon."
Gary was surprised by the size of the roster.
For Ninja Trainers, Pokémon were about quality over quantity, since carrying too many Pokémon interfered with a Ninja's movements. A Ninja carrying three Pokémon was already considered a lot.
Yet this Sasuke had raised eight. Whether he had others beyond these was unknown, but either way, it was quite a number.
"Better watch out for that Gulpin," Gary said.
At a previous League Conference, Gary had been burned by a Gulpin before.
Gulpin could learn Destiny Bond. Normally it needed to reach a very high level to awaken the move, but there was no guarantee this one hadn't awakened its high-level species skill early.