Day 55 of the Kanto journey. Light rain.
The weather was awful today. A thin rain covered the whole Indigo Plateau in fog, cutting visibility down and leaving everything damp. It was not a great day to watch battles.
The contestants still had to go to the draw venue as usual. Since today was Reiji's final group-stage match and he had already been assigned to the Water Field, he was only drawing his match slot and opponent this time, not the field.
Once he got the result, he headed for the Water Field. After today's match, he would be through to the knockout rounds. That was when the Indigo Plateau Conference would finally start getting serious.
The knockout stage lasted four days too. One match per person per day. Win and move on, lose and go home. The intensity was nothing like the group stage, since every match was a full six-on-six battle and could easily run for over an hour.
Luckily, only sixteen contestants would make it that far. The deeper the tournament went, the fewer matches there would be, until the final.
When Reiji entered the Water Field waiting room, almost everyone looked over at him. He had been getting a lot of attention lately, enough to count as a small celebrity.
The Trainers inside tensed the moment he walked in. One after another, they turned to the big screen to see who his opponent was. Who was the unlucky guy?
When they saw Yoshiki's name, several of them relaxed. Thank goodness it wasn't them. Facing Reiji sounded like a nightmare.
Reiji already had a reputation. Most of his matches ended with one Pokémon beating three, or at least two. He was clearly one of the stronger Advanced-tier Trainers here. Elite-tier Trainers had no business trying their luck against him.
Yoshiki was the one in trouble. The others knew a bit about his team, and most of his Pokémon were Rock- or Ground-types. Somehow, he had ended up facing Reiji, who loved using Water-types, on the Water Field. That was not a good matchup for him.
Reiji did not sit for long. The other contestants watched him leave for the battlefield. Yoshiki wasn't in this waiting room; he was on the other side of the venue. Each side venue had two contestant tunnels, so naturally it had two waiting rooms as well.
A lot of them were already thinking about the main stadium waiting room. Once they won this last match, they could finally use it. They had heard it was huge, had good service, and even offered fruit and drinks for free. That sounded pretty nice.
...
Reiji ignored the looks around him and stepped onto the Water Field platform. He told Eevee to quiet down, since the match was about to start.
A lot of familiar people were watching this match too: Shun, Ash's group, the Team Rocket trio, Reggie and his brother, and Gary.
Gary cared the most. The opponent standing across from Reiji today was the same Trainer who had beaten him yesterday: Yoshiki.
As he ate breakfast in the cafeteria, Gary tightened his grip on his chopsticks. He wanted to know how Reiji would handle the guy who had knocked him out.
If Professor Oak hadn't said he was coming today to watch Ash's match, Gary would have gone home already. There was no way he would still be hanging around here.
He had lost. He hadn't even made the knockout rounds. Worse, he had fallen short of Ash. He didn't know how he was supposed to face his grandfather. Daisy was definitely going to laugh at him and take a few shots at his pride.
Gary sighed. Lecture him, laugh at him, whatever. He had lost. There was nothing else to say.
...
"On the red side for this Water Field match, we have Yoshiki from Pewter City. On the green side, we have Reiji from the Orange Archipelago…"
"Both contestants have made it through three rounds of the group stage. Looking at their battle records, Reiji uses several Water-type Pokémon, while Yoshiki's team leans heavily toward Rock-types…"
"With the Water Field as today's stage, and a spot in the knockout rounds on the line, how will Yoshiki handle this matchup?"
"Each Trainer may use three Pokémon in this Water Field match. Match 3 of the Water Field venue now begins. Trainers, send out your first Pokémon!"
"Go, Magnezone!"
"Rhy!"
If that sounded like Gyarados, no, it wasn't. Reiji's first Pokémon was Rhydon.
"Rhy!" Rhydon stood on one of the floating platforms and roared at Magnezone. It didn't have Intimidate, but the roar still made Magnezone freeze for a second.
"It's Rhydon! Reiji has not sent out Gyarados. He has chosen Rhydon instead!"
"Rhydon?" Yoshiki's mouth curled up. Had Reiji forgotten this was the Water Field? "Magnezone, Gyro Ball!"
"Rhydon, Fire Punch!"
Magnezone spun in, and flames burst around Rhydon's fists. It was actually trying to catch Magnezone's Gyro Ball, just like in the Stone Town Gym battle.
Magnezone slammed into Rhydon. The impact drove Rhydon's feet across the floating round platform, carving two deep grooves into it.
Because of the Float Stone, Hanhan was much lighter when it wasn't wearing its rock armor. Add the unstable floating platform under its feet, and catching Magnezone was harder than usual.
But Rhydon caught it anyway. Its burning hands clamped tight around Magnezone, and the two of them tipped backward together.
"Rhy!" Before Rhydon fell, it opened its mouth and fired Fire Blast at point-blank range. The 110-power Fire-type move smashed into Magnezone and burst into roaring flames.
Splash!
The instant Fire Blast landed, Rhydon let go and dropped into the water, cooling itself down before the flames could catch it.
Magnezone had it much worse. Fire Blast sent it flying, and by the time it crashed back onto a floating platform, it had already fainted. A x2 weakness to Fire was bad enough. Taking Fire Blast from that close was even worse.
"Magnezone!" Yoshiki hadn't expected Magnezone to go down from a single Fire Blast. That was terrifying.
And that Rhydon had actually caught Magnezone's Gyro Ball. What kind of monster was it? Yoshiki had not seen that coming at all.
The match wasn't over. He recalled Magnezone, pulled out another Poké Ball, and sent out his second Pokémon.
"Tentacruel, use Water Gun!"
Reiji hadn't expected Yoshiki's second Pokémon to be a Water-type too. The guy had hidden his team pretty well.
The moment Yoshiki called Water Gun, Reiji recalled Rhydon and threw out Gyarados instead.
"Thunder!"
"Gyara!" Gyarados saw Tentacruel in the water and roared into the sky. Lightning gathered around the blue crest on its head, then came crashing down toward Tentacruel.
"Crap! Tentacruel, get onto a platform!" Yoshiki shouted in panic. If Thunder landed, Tentacruel was finished.
[End of chapter]
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