Day 56 of the Kanto journey. Clear.
Today was the first day of the Indigo Plateau Conference elimination rounds. From here on, only the top sixteen remained, and the format had changed to full six-on-six battles.
The margin for error had doubled, but the difficulty had more than doubled with it. Any Trainer who reached this point was at least Advanced tier.
Ash, of course, did not count. That idiot had somehow lucked his way into the top sixteen, and now that the elimination rounds were starting, he was about to run straight into a real rival.
Inside the drawing hall, the remaining sixteen competitors were split into Group A and Group B. Each group had eight people, matched off two by two.
The battles would continue until only one Trainer remained in Group A and one remained in Group B. Those two would fight for the championship.
A large screen stood in the hall. Reiji saw that many people had already drawn their lots. Ash was in Group A. Ash's rival Ritchie was also in Group A. Reggie had made it into the elimination rounds too, and he was also in Group A.
Shun, after beating Paul yesterday, had drawn into Group B. Tania, whom Reiji also knew, was in Group B as well.
If Reiji drew Group A, he would have to face Reggie. If he drew Group B, he would have to face Shun and the others. Either way, it would not be easy.
As the bracket narrowed, familiar faces were bound to show up sooner or later. There was nothing he could do about that, so he closed his eyes and drew.
This draw was done by fishing. Magikarp swam in a pool, each one marked with a number, like A-1 or A-2, all the way through A-4 and B-4. The two Trainers who caught the same number would become opponents.
Fishing? That was his territory. He was a fisherman through and through. The moment he dropped the bait, some dumb fish bit the hook. He pulled it up and saw the tag on Magikarp's body.
B-1.
And his opponent for Group B's first match was…
"Heh. So we meet after all, Shun."
Reiji looked at the screen. His portrait and Shun's faced each other from opposite sides. He had not expected his first elimination match to be against that kid.
He did not suspect any rigging. He had caught the Magikarp himself, and the bait was still wet, which meant someone else had used it before. There was no room for tricks.
There were eight Magikarp in the pool between Groups A and B, and somehow he had pulled out the B-1 Magikarp. That was just a fisherman's luck.
The elimination round, huh?
Then he would have to eliminate Shun.
He knew that kid too well. Holding back was not an option. They would settle it on the battlefield.
On the other side, Shun had also been told by Bruno, his teacher, that his opponent had been decided.
The moment Shun saw Reiji's portrait, he froze. Then he murmured, "Reiji-nii… so we really did meet."
Shun stared at Reiji's face on the screen, his eyes burning with fighting spirit. His powerful Poliwrath had given him the confidence to challenge Reiji. He believed in it.
...
By the time Reiji arrived at the main stadium, the stands were already packed. The crowd was fired up, because the screen now showed the portraits of two competitors, with six Pokémon icons beneath each of them.
A Pokémon's icon would light up only after the Trainer sent it out. Once that Pokémon lost, the icon would turn gray.
Reiji had come to watch his opponent's battle. Today's first match was Reggie's.
"Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!"
"Fergus! Fergus! Fergus!"
As the two competitors entered the field, the crowd shouted their names until the entire stadium was buzzing.
Reiji did not get swept up in the excitement. He sat beside Ash and his friends, though the three of them were clearly thrilled.
"What a coincidence. You're here too?" Reiji greeted Ash's group with a smile.
It was not just Ash, Brock, and Misty. Professor Oak, Delia, Daisy, and Gary were there as well.
"Oh, Gary's here too. And Delia. This must be the famous Professor Oak, right? I've watched your lectures plenty of times. I've wanted to meet you for ages."
Reiji had never watched one of Professor Oak's lectures in his life, but he knew how to play along.
"Ah? You must be the one Ash mentioned…" Professor Oak put on a thoughtful look. In truth, he just did not want to admit he had already dug through Reiji's background from top to bottom.
"I'm Rai. This is my first time in Kanto, and Delia let me stay at her home for a while. I've always been grateful for that."
Reiji smiled shyly and scratched his head. Making a man in his thirties act like an innocent kid was asking too much. He really could not sell it.
"You're too polite, Rai," Delia said with a soft laugh. "I heard Ash ran into you and that you looked after him quite a bit."
She tugged her foolish son, telling him to say hello.
"Rai-nii, you came to watch the match too?" Ash asked with an awkward laugh, blurting out a painfully obvious question.
"Idiot, why else would he be here?" Misty said, giving Ash a disgusted look. How had someone this dense made it into the elimination rounds?
"Damn it, Misty…" Ash clenched his fist, but with his mother holding him, he did not dare act up.
"Ash, you shouldn't bully girls," Delia scolded. "Don't argue with Misty. You should be nicer to her."
"I know, Mom," Ash muttered, wondering whose side she was even on.
"That's so you, Ash," Gary said with a sideways glance. Only Ash could ask something that stupid.
"Gary, Ash made it into the elimination rounds. You really still have the nerve to make fun of him?" Daisy could not stand Gary's arrogance and immediately spoke up for Ash.
"Yeah, Gary," Ash said proudly. He had never beaten Gary growing up, so this finally felt like payback.
"Hmph." Gary knew he had no argument, and his strength was not enough to back him up either, so he shut his mouth.
"Hmph?" Daisy raised her hand and knocked Gary on the head, leaving a red bump.
Then she noticed Ash snickering and gave him one too. This time, Brock and Misty were the ones trying not to laugh.
Behind the audience seats, the Team Rocket trio saw the lump on Ash's head and covered their mouths as they laughed. At long last, the twerp had taken a hit.
Seeing the whole group acting like a pack of walking punchlines, Reiji forced himself not to laugh and turned his eyes back to the field.
"The match is starting."
"The long-awaited elimination rounds are about to begin! In the red corner, we have Reggie from Sinnoh! In the green corner, Fergus from Kanto!"
"Both competitors are among the hottest candidates for the championship. They are also veterans from the previous and the one-before-previous Indigo Plateau Conferences. Which veteran will come out on top? Let's find out!"
"This will be the first elimination match of Group A. The battlefield is a standard field, and each Trainer will use six Pokémon. Competitors, take your positions and send out your first Pokémon!"
Two Poké Balls opened at once.
Reggie and Fergus threw their Poké Balls at the same time.
"Go, Gyarados!"
"Go, Electivire!"
"It's Electivire! An evolved form discovered in the Sinnoh region! I've heard it has incredibly powerful Electric-type attacks, enough electricity to power an entire city!"
"Electivire?" Fergus clenched his teeth when he saw it. Most of his Pokémon were Water types, and only Nidoqueen could handle Electivire safely. He made his decision at once. "Come back, Gyarados! Go, Nidoqueen!"
"It's Nidoqueen! Contestant Fergus has chosen to switch his opening Pokémon to deal with the bad type matchup! Contestant Reggie, however, shows no sign of recalling Electivire. Does he intend to have Electivire fight the Ground-type Nidoqueen?"
As the announcer finished, the battle began.
"Nidoqueen, Earthquake!"
"Electivire, use Earthquake too!"
The ground shook hard enough for the tremors to reach the stands.
"It's Earthquake! Contestant Reggie is using a non-STAB Earthquake against Nidoqueen's STAB Earthquake, and the two are evenly matched!"
"Electivire, use Thunder on the ground!"
"Vire!"
Electivire dropped low, drove the two cable-like tails on its back into the ground, and fired Thunder straight into the field. Stone fragments burst up and shot toward Nidoqueen.
"Nidoqueen, Protect!"
"Heh." Reggie gave a cold smile. Fergus had used Protect too early. "Electivire, Ice Punch!"
"Vire!"
Electivire pulled its tails back, snapped them behind itself, and launched forward like a spring. It reached Nidoqueen in an instant, raised a fist high, and hammered Nidoqueen with a heavy punch that sent it flying.
"Nidoqueen!"
Fergus watched Nidoqueen crash into the spectator wall and rushed over to check its injuries. Before he could touch it, ice sealed Nidoqueen solid.
Crack. Crack.
A few breaths later, Nidoqueen struggled and shattered the ice. It broke free, but only managed to brace itself on one knee. It could barely hold itself up and had no strength to stand.
"Nidoqueen…"
Seeing that, Fergus had no choice but to recall it. Then he turned and threw Gyarados's Poké Ball again.
With Nidoqueen badly injured, he was left with five Water-type Pokémon against Reggie's Electivire.
"Tch. He's done."
The moment Reiji saw Fergus recall Nidoqueen, he knew there was no need to keep watching. Reggie had used Electivire's tails to increase its burst speed, and one x2 effective Ice Punch had left Nidoqueen badly hurt.
From here, Fergus's five Water types—Gyarados, Golduck, Tentacruel, Vaporeon, and Seadra—would be picked off by Electivire one by one.
The six-Pokémon sweep was already set.
An Electivire that did not run into a stubborn brick wall was terrifying.
Reggie had probably learned from Gabite's loss and built this tactic afterward. So he had noticed that Poliwhirl's burst power was strange too. He was not that slow after all.
"Rai-nii, how do you know he's going to lose?" Ash asked, curious. He wanted to know how Reiji could judge Umio's defeat after just one exchange.
"Because Electivire is strong, and because of the type matchup."
Reiji did not really know how to explain it to Ash. Ash was the master of winning bad matchups, so he had never truly understood how much type advantage mattered.
Electivire's non-STAB Earthquake had gone even with Nidoqueen's STAB Earthquake. That alone proved how strong Electivire was.
If it could pressure Nidoqueen in a bad matchup, then once the matchup turned in its favor, it would be like bullying children.
"Strong?" Ash had only seen Electivire force Fergus to recall Nidoqueen. It had not actually knocked Nidoqueen out. Was that enough to prove it was strong?
"Idiot Ash," Gary said. "If a Pokémon can force the opponent to switch even with a bad type matchup, that proves how strong it is. How did you even make it into the elimination rounds without knowing that?"
"Fergus still has five Pokémon left, right?" Ash said. "Are you saying five Pokémon can't beat one Electivire?"
He did not get it. He had traded three Pokémon for Travis's Gyarados before. How could five Pokémon fail to take down one Electivire?
Gary covered his face. How did he even know someone this stupid? Then he remembered that Ash never gathered information on his opponents, which meant Ash did not know the rest of Umio's team was walking straight into a bad matchup.
"Ash," Professor Oak said, stepping in when he saw Ash was still confused, "that Electivire used Thunder to blast rocks out of the ground. That shows how strong its electrical output is. If Fergus only has Water-type Pokémon left, he has almost no chance of turning this around."
Professor Oak did not bother telling Ash to do his research before battles. That was supposed to be a basic skill for Trainers, but Ash had charged through the tournament by pure momentum.
"Ash, aside from that Nidoqueen, all of Fergus's remaining Pokémon are Water types," Brock said.
He was sitting beside Ash and even shifted away slightly, afraid the stupidity might be contagious. But Ash grabbed him, so Brock had no choice but to explain.
"Oh, I get it!" Ash smacked one fist into his palm, his face lighting up. "Then he just has to beat Electivire with a bad matchup!"
Reiji saw everyone around him get knocked flat by Ash's strange logic. He nearly lost it too and had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from doing anything rude and hurting Ash's poor little heart.
The funny thing was, Ash was not exactly wrong.
If Ash were the one on the field, and both sides were at the same level, Ash would probably win. His bad-matchup plot armor accepted no arguments.
But Fergus was not Ash.
Against Reggie's Electivire, his run was about to end.
Gyarados fell first. Then Golduck. Tentacruel. Vaporeon. Seadra.
At last, Fergus sent Nidoqueen back out.
"A five-Pokémon sweep! Contestant Reggie's Electivire has completed a stunning five-Pokémon sweep! Only Nidoqueen remains! Can Reggie create a miracle in the very first elimination match and pull off a full six-Pokémon sweep?"
"Electivire!"
"Vire!"
The bell rang.
With that, the first elimination match ended.
Fergus dropped to his knees in despair, drenched in sweat. His vision blurred, and he could no longer make out the fallen Nidoqueen.
It was a crushing loss like nothing he had ever experienced. His confidence had been smashed to pieces. As a veteran of the previous Indigo Plateau Conference, he had been brutally swept by a veteran from the one before that.
Reggie had used only one Electivire and left him with no way to fight back. One by one, Fergus had watched his Pokémon fall in a globally broadcast match. The fact that he had not collapsed earlier already showed a strong heart.
But when Nidoqueen finally went down, he could not hold himself up anymore. He fell to the ground, saw Nurse Joy rushing over from the corner of his eye, and heard only the roar of the crowd and the sound of stretcher wheels.
Then he was lifted away and blacked out.
[End of chapter]
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