"Hm?"
Hearing someone call his name, Gary turned around and saw a blond-haired boy.
"Barry!"
Gary was a little surprised. Of all people, he hadn't run into Ash here—he'd run into Barry instead.
Barry looked especially surprised to see him too.
Gary had never actually said for certain that he'd be entering the Lily of the ValleyConference, which had left Barry pretty disappointed at the time.
"Gary, are you planning to compete in the Lily of the Valley Conference?" Barry asked.
"Yeah."
"That's great! Now we've got a chance to battle at the Conference. But you should've told me sooner—I'm fining you for that!" Barry said excitedly.
Gary sighed inwardly.
This guy… still obsessed with fines.
Knowing it was just Barry's catchphrase, Gary didn't pay it much mind.
"Have you finished registering?" Gary asked.
"Of course I have. I'm one step ahead of you," Barry said.
"Alright, then I'll go get in line."
"Go on. I'm off to get my Pokémon into peak condition. See you tonight!"
Barry never was one to linger. He turned and left the Pokémon Center.
Gary found a line with few people and queued up.
The Pokémon Center on Lily of the Valley Island had been built large, but the number of Trainers entering the Conference was enormous. The overall standard of Sinnoh's Trainers ran higher than in other regions from the very start, so naturally more of them made it to the League Conference.
Still, there were plenty of counters, and by the time Gary lined up there was hardly anyone ahead of him.
"Hello, I'd like to register for the League Conference. Here's my identification." Gary handed over his Pokédex.
"Alright, one moment please."
Nurse Joy took the Pokédex and inserted it into the slot of a machine connected to the computer.
After a short wait, the Pokédex slid back out automatically. Joy returned it to Gary and told him, "You've been successfully registered. Please be on time for the qualifiers in three days."
[Ding! Mission issued: Win the Lily of the Valley Conference Championship / Rewards: Intermediate Rare Candy ×10, Advanced Rare Candy ×10, Master Rare Candy ×5, Bronze Bottle Cap ×1, Silver Bottle Cap ×1, Gold Bottle Cap ×1, Ability Enhancement Stone ×3, Ability Expansion Stone ×1! (Use only Sinnoh Region Pokémon in all matches to double the rewards.)]
Gary set the mission aside for the moment, took back his Pokédex, and picked up the competition guidebook, which laid out the entire Lily of the Valley Conference schedule.
Leaving the Pokémon Center, Gary looked over the newly issued system mission. It was much like the one for the Ever Grande Conference. The only difference was that this time the Rare Candy rewards included Master-grade Rare Candy—only five, but that was nothing to complain about. And using Sinnoh Region Pokémon would double everything.
After all, this Lily of the Valley Conference wasn't like the ones before. This time, there was that guy with the Legendary Pokémon.
Gary opened the guidebook and read through the Conference rules.
The Lily of the Valley Conference was divided into three rounds. The first round was the qualifiers, to be held in three days. It was closed to the public, fought in a 1v1 format, with each Trainer playing three matches in total. Sixty-four Trainers would advance to the second round.
The second round was the preliminaries, held after the opening ceremony and considered the formal competition. Each Trainer would play three matches in a 3v3 format, with the battlefield randomly selected from grass, rock, ice, or water. In the end, eight Trainers would advance to the third round.
The third round was the finals—Full Battles—where the League Conference Champion would be decided.
"Time to give my Pokémon a boost."
Gary was prepared to burn through a wave of resources to raise the levels of his Sinnoh Region Pokémon.
He obviously couldn't max everything out at once, so the plan was to bring all of his Sinnoh Pokémon up to level 60 first, then make adjustments based on Tobias's strength.
Pushing them to Elite level didn't actually require that many Advanced Rare Candies, since Electivire, Rhyperior, Magnezone, and Togetic were all already above level 60.
Of the rest, only Garchomp, Weavile, and Glaceon hadn't reached level 60—and Weavile and Glaceon were both sitting at level 59, so two Advanced Rare Candies covered them. Garchomp at level 51 was the only real expense.
Gary consumed eleven Advanced Rare Candies in one go and raised all of his Sinnoh Region Pokémon to level 60.
"System, exchange the Electric-type move tutor for Wild Charge."
The move reward from defeating Sunyshore Gym was useless to Gary as it was, so he exchanged it for Wild Charge.
Wild Charge was a physical Electric-type move with power reaching 100—but the user took damage in return, making it something of a gamble.
The main point was his Sinnoh Region Pokémon: three of them could learn the move, broadening the attack coverage of all three. Electric-type moves with triple-digit power were rare enough, let alone physical Electric-type moves.
"And it's time for Togetic to evolve."
Gary had originally hoped he might get lucky and pull a Shiny Stone from the random gym challenge rewards, but no such luck. That left evolving Togetic the ordinary way—only by evolving into Togekiss would it truly count as a Sinnoh Region Pokémon.
As for the Shiny Stone itself, Gary had prepared one long ago. He just hadn't taken it out for Togetic until now.
"Togetic, it's time for you to evolve." Gary brought out the Shiny Stone.
"Toge!"
Togetic nodded without the slightest hesitation, used Psychic to pluck the Shiny Stone right out of Gary's hand, and floated it over to itself.
Then it opened its mouth and bit down on the stone.
The Shiny Stone flared with white light, the evolutionary energy within it reacting with Togetic's body until the glow enveloped it completely.
Togetic's small, rounded form began shifting toward something more like an aircraft. When the light faded, a white, downy Togekiss hovered there.
Togekiss was normally a very cute Pokémon—but Gary's was not the adorable type. It wore a fierce expression, radiating an air that said it was not to be trifled with.
Gary checked Togekiss's data.
[Pokémon: Togekiss]
[Type: Fairy / Flying]
[Level: 70]
[Potential: Quasi-Legendary]
[Ability: EX Serene Grace (When using a move with an additional effect, the chance of the effect triggering is ×4. If the probability exceeds 100%, the effect is guaranteed to activate.)]
[Moves: Growl, Pound, Sweet Kiss, Life Dew, Metronome, After You, Double-Edge, Safeguard, Baton Pass, Wish, Fairy Wind, Air Slash]
[Tutored Moves: Attract, Psychic, Flamethrower, Mega Kick, Reflect, Rest, Signal Beam, Rain Dance, Fire Blast, Protect, Body Slam, Shadow Ball, Dazzling Gleam, Defog, Drain Punch, Hidden Power]
[Friendship: 255 (Max: 255)]