League Year 798, October 18th.
9:00 PM.
Today, Lucas had another day packed with activities from sunrise to sunset.
He prepared some specialty farm products as gifts. After asking the siblings Clemont and Bonnie to pass them on to Mr. Meyer, he watched as they passed through security and into the departure lounge. Only after the international flight took off did Lucas turn and leave the airport.
Without wasting a moment, he rushed to Naranja Academy to give a lecture to Paul and the others, contacting Nemona's group, who were out on a treasure hunt. He learned they had already settled into Montenevera and, once the weather improved, planned to climb and challenge Glaseado Glaseado Gym in one go.
Eri had taken home a bronze medal in the Fighting Tournament, and Arven had successfully caught a Teddiursa in the forest near Casseroya Lake.
Looks like he'd need to hand out his three peat blocks.
After class, Lucas returned to Los Platos. He continued his routine medical studies with Nurse Joy Rin for another two hours, cooked dinner at home, saw to various odds and ends, and suddenly, the night was already upon him.
"Kanto and Paldea have a 12-hour time difference. If I calculate correctly, the first round of the Championship Tournament should already be underway."
Muttering to himself, Lucas handed the Cosmog in his arms back to the Calyrex, then ran barefoot upstairs for his laptop to watch the live broadcast.
As he fiddled with the network connection, the Ceruledge—who was outside practicing swordsmanship after dinner—walked over and asked curiously, "Sssla?"
Moltres cozy in her coop, and Serperior gone to the orchard to sleep with the children, Lucas momentarily found the Ceruledge's intent difficult to decipher.
Thankfully, while Ceruledge was usually a stoic type, whenever it wanted to express something, it found creative ways beyond just standing there and making sounds.
It pointed at the laptop screen with the tip of its sword.
"Ssslo."
Most people might think Ceruledge wanted to show off its sword skills by slicing the laptop, but Lucas's brain worked differently.
He asked, "You want to watch the match too?"
Ceruledge shook its head, then nodded—yes, it wanted to watch the match, but that wasn't quite what it meant.
Lucas frowned, trying to understand. "Are you curious about how Charcadet is doing?"
Ceruledge's ghostly flames in its eyes flared up, brightening as it nodded vigorously.
Though they'd only been together for a week or so, it still cared about the kin who'd shared similar experiences.
Lucas stared at Ceruledge for a while, deliberately teasing it until it shifted uncomfortably, before finally turning away, a subtle smile in his voice.
"If you want to see Charcadet, I'll play you a replay of its match later tonight. But just so you know, tonight, Charcadet probably won't have the chance to battle."
Ceruledge looked puzzled. Without waiting for it to ask, Lucas explained.
"Tonight, it's morning in the Johto region, and for Ash, he'll be battling his most important rival—who's also his childhood friend. This match is very important to him. I'm sure he'll be taking it very seriously."
For Ash, the opponent he most wanted to beat in the Silver Conference was Gary. The previously unknown Harrison didn't even make the list, all because of Lucas's involvement.
Ceruledge listened carefully, its eyes reflecting understanding.
Very true.
From Ceruledge's perspective, the boy who stayed at the farm for a while was, like Lucas's student Nemona, an exceptionally eager and talented trainer. Not sending out Charcadet wasn't ignoring or suppressing it, but about finding the right timing for every Pokémon's debut.
Lucas had explained this principle to that boy many times.
Realizing this, Ceruledge stopped worrying about Charcadet's non-appearance. At Lucas's invitation, it sat down on a chair beside him, back straight, attentively watching the laptop screen. Someone unaware might have thought it was about to enter the match itself.
Atop Ceruledge's helmet, Gimmighoul also clambered up, gazing curiously at the glowing screen.
"We're connected!"
When the network finally connected, the laptop's screen changed.
Lucas motioned to the Eevee sisters and the Larvesta, both cuddling nearby, to come over.
Holding a large, self-heating plush Larvesta and with two pudgy Eevees cuddled on his lap, plus ice-cold cola and popcorn on the table, life was indeed colorful.
On the laptop screen, Ash from Pallet Town was already deep into a fierce hometown battle against Gary, also from Pallet.
Lucas's focus locked onto the screen at once.
By this point, both sides had lost one Pokémon: Ash's Tauros and Gary's Nidoqueen were both out.
It looked like a double KO, or perhaps one took out the other only to be immediately KO'd by the opponent's next Pokémon. The truth would only be clear on the replay.
Now, Ash had sent out Heracross while Gary's Pokémon was Magmar.
Ceruledge voiced an existential question: "Ssslo?"
Why use a Bug-type Pokémon to fight our Fire-type?
Lucas: "…"
Why's this kid fighting with a type disadvantage again? Still, this Heracross was pretty impressive.
In the battle against Magmar, Heracross performed forcefully: its wing flaps snuffed out embers of fire and, aside from Megahorn, it also mastered a new move—High Horsepower, a Ground-type physical attack!
Thinking of how Swampert always wrestled with Heracross before, Lucas guessed who taught it that move.
Unfortunately, after its moment of glory, Heracross was completely overwhelmed by Gary's ace, Blastoise, who blasted away its evasive boulders with a Hydro Cannon and took advantage of residual damage from Magmar—Heracross was knocked out.
Lucas wasn't surprised by this result.
If you counted, Ash had only stayed at the farm about ten days; most of what Lucas taught was about being a trainer, not battling techniques. Most of Ash's team may have gotten stronger, some evolved, but that was that.
Heracross hadn't undergone a qualitative change, so it won one then lost.
Gary, after all, was Professor Oak's grandson; his strength in the tournament arc was nothing to scoff at.
At this moment, the black Poké Ball on the side table activated, going flat and teleporting in a stack of photos.
Prying himself away from Larvesta's fuzzy warmth, Lucas looked through the pics.
A few seconds later, his eyebrows shot up, a little surprised.
"This broadcast is delayed?"
On the laptop, Ash sent out Annihilape, stunning everyone, who then delivered a beating to Gary's Blastoise.
As expected, Delibird was also spectating at the Silver Conference—its photos showed both Annihilape and Blastoise being recalled by Ash and Gary, respectively, not having lost their ability to fight.
Currently on the field were Arcanine and Snorlax.
Another photo captured the friends/coaches' seats at the arena: Misty, Brock, as well as supporting Pokémon like Pikachu, Larvitar, and Charcadet. Looks like they wouldn't battle today.
Lucas handed the photos to Ceruledge with a smile: "See? Charcadet is right here."
The black Poké Ball kept sending back Delibird's photos, but Lucas wanted to avoid spoilers—he set them aside and watched the match intently with his Pokémon.
After eating a Hydro Cannon to KO Heracross, Annihilape almost smashed Blastoise's shell with its Furious Fist. Both sides recalled their Pokémon, and it was Snorlax vs. Arcanine.
This match played out as Lucas expected: Snorlax, tanking with pure bulk, shrugged off Arcanine's hits and won with a Hyper Beam.
Maybe because things were getting lively, Pokémon like Mimikyu, Ogerpon, Victini, Alcremie, Comfey—and more—came to the living room, bringing their own little chairs to watch the match.
Before he knew it, the living room was packed with Pokémon.
Once Arcanine was out, Gary sent in Scizor, probably with the "Light Metal" ability, as it completely outsped Ash's maxed-out-Speed Snorlax. Even after taking a poor-effect Surf, it remained at peak fighting shape.
Luckily, Snorlax had bulked up on berries at the farm—otherwise, it might not have even gotten Surf off.
Ash next sent out Annihilape, who had a x4 resistance to Bug attacks, a clear advantage.
After a fierce fight and a win, Annihilape then faced Gary's fifth Pokémon—Skarmory.
And then things got humorous.
Who knows what Gary was thinking—maybe he thought Pikachu, despite cavorting on the sidelines, could still enter the battle.
So he had Skarmory take a Furious Fist from Annihilape, just to set up Spikes for Ash's Pikachu.
If not for Skarmory's insane defense, it would've been KO'd long ago.
Even after hitting, Annihilape lost—being unable to fly and for other reasons, the result was a mess.
Ash's fifth Pokémon was Noctowl, and after a risky duel, both Skarmory and Noctowl went down.
Gary had only Blastoise left, while it was clear Ash knew this and still didn't pick Pikachu—instead, he picked Charizard.
Ground-type Spikes did absolutely nothing here.
That's why, in Lucas's later analysis, he found the Spikes setup quite comedic: if you predict right, it's epic; if not, it's just funny.
The duel between Blastoise and Charizard replayed Ash's classic animation: Ash endlessly tried to break through Blastoise's firepower net and get up close.
The reason? At that time, Charizard's only ranged attacks were Flamethrower and Dragon Rage; the rest were all physical (Seismic Toss, Fly, Head Smash, and Mega Punch).
Ash's penchant for close combat made his Charizard fit for Mega Evolving into Charizard X.
But against Blastoise's firepower, what could Charizard do?
Yet this time things were different.
Charizard had learned many flying techniques, even picking up new ranged Flying-type moves from Moltres. Thanks to these, Charizard could go toe to toe with Blastoise, holding more advantages.
But until the end, Ash still forced close combat, finishing with Seismic Toss—classic Ash.
After gloriously defeating his rival Gary, Ash advanced to the second round of the Championship Tournament.
But perhaps because of a "Butterfly Effect," Ash's next opponent was not Harrison, but another trainer—the runner-up in the original Silver Conference storyline.
Ash's semifinal opponent wasn't Harrison either.
Checking the bracket after watching the rivals' showdown (and looking for Charcadet's replays for Ceruledge), Lucas realized Ash vs. Harrison had been moved to the final.
…
October 19th
Temperatures dropped sharply; the bitter wind heralded the onset of winter.
"Officer Jenny, I leave Houndoom and the Houndour group in your care."
Facing the green-haired, streaked-with-silver, about-50-something Officer Jenny, Lucas reached out to shake her hand.
"Of course. We won't let them down," Jenny replied with a gentle smile.
In truth, Jenny was surprised when Lucas—a Champion-level trainer—approached her.
Rumor had it in the police station that although Lucas held no official position, the Paldea League Chairman admired him greatly and treated him as a Champion-level trainer in all but name.
Jenny had always been curious about Lucas.
Meeting him now, he truly lived up to his reputation.
A shortage of police-dog partners had long troubled the Jennys. These Houndoom and Houndour were very obedient, and after rigorous training would make excellent partners for the force.
Lucas had broadened their horizons. Previously, they'd only thought of using Arcanine and Boltund, but it turned out even ferocious Houndoom or Houndour could make good prospects with proper training—sometimes even better due to their Dark typing, which could check criminals using rare Psychic and Ghost Pokémon.
After officially handing over the Houndoom group, Lucas and the now-official-farm-member Houndoom leader watched as the Houndour and other Houndoom—Little Seven, the juniors, and their childhood friends—climbed onto the police truck.
He noticed a complicated expression on Houndoom's face. Lucas tried to lighten things up:
"Now, half your clan expands into new territory, while the other half has cushy government jobs. Not bad!"
…