Sunlight seemed to pour itself entirely onto the white stone-paved battle arena, pooling there like something alive.
The air was thick with tension and anticipation. Mayor Gregory brought his staff down against the ground with a resonant crack and declared in a booming voice:
"The first match!"
"Defending side: Raizou and his Jolteon!"
"Challenger: Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu!"
"Battle — begin!"
The words had barely left his mouth before Raizou thrust his hand forward impatiently, brimming with swagger:
"Jolteon, show them the power that evolution brings!"
"Use Thunder Shock!"
"Jolt — eon!!"
Jolteon's entire body erupted in a blinding corona of golden electricity. Its temperament was ferocious by nature, and it received its Trainer's battle-hunger perfectly — surging forward like a serpent of living lightning, thick arcing currents lashing across the arena toward Pikachu on the other side.
The electricity carved through the air with a hair-raising crack.
The different Eevee evolutions each carry their own distinct personalities.
Jolteon, as a species, runs notoriously hot-headed and emotionally volatile... well... though compared to Gyarados, it's still a considerable step down on the rage scale.
The point is — choosing which form to evolve an Eevee into is a decision that demands careful, careful thought.
Rush into an evolution on a whim, and then discover the resulting Pokémon's personality simply doesn't gel with yours... that's a serious problem.
It's a bit like how some people in the real world get pets on a whim. They want one, they get one, and then somewhere along the way they lose interest, or get lazy.
And then they abandon it.
The most common examples are stray cats and foxes.
Most individuals of both species tend to be a little neurotic as a result.
Yet faced with this fierce offensive, Ash and Pikachu remained unnervingly calm.
"Partner, dodge it, then counter with Thunder Shock," Ash said, his voice carrying not a single ripple of emotion.
Truthfully, Ash and Pikachu had long since reached a level where Ash didn't really need to issue commands at all.
But — he had to consider appearances.
He couldn't afford to make it look too effortless.
So Ash went through the motions of giving orders, if only to feel like he was participating somehow.
Besides, if he just let Pikachu act on its own, it would one-shot the opponent without breaking a sweat.
So in truth... this was "holding-Pikachu-back time."
Ash's commands were actually slowing Pikachu's reaction speed down.
Pikachu bore this with mild resignation. But it didn't really matter.
"Pika!"
Pikachu flexed its legs slightly and sprang sideways and back with casual, effortless grace. The golden lightning serpent missed by a hair's breadth, scorching the ground where it had been standing a moment before.
At the same moment, the electric pouches on Pikachu's cheeks flickered to life — with an electricity far more refined and compact than anything Jolteon had produced.
Ten percent output! Thunder Shock!
A thin but blindingly fast bolt of electricity launched, arriving before Jolteon could even recover from its missed strike — connecting precisely as the opponent stood momentarily rigid.
Exactly as Ash had predicted.
This Jolteon was the type that had evolved too early — its foundation hadn't been properly built.
...Though "foundation not built properly" isn't quite the most vivid way to put it.
The more accurate term would be: underdeveloped before evolution.
It's like how humans grow. If a child doesn't eat well during their formative years, once the body finishes developing, it becomes very difficult to make up for later.
"Jolt — eon!" Jolteon shuddered from the hit.
But then the stray electricity dancing across its body seemed to grow more active, more alive.
Jolteon shook its head, its eyes sharpening with renewed ferocity.
Its Ability was Volt Absorb.
The attack hadn't dealt heavy damage at all — if anything, it had partially restored Jolteon's stamina.
Volt Absorb doesn't have the conductivity ceiling of Lightning Rod, but it can absorb the opponent's electrical attacks.
Think of it as the difference between a lifesteal blade and a blade of judgment, perhaps? Though that analogy isn't quite right either.
Of course, Volt Absorb isn't infinite — like any battery, it has limits. Rapid charging and discharging over a short period degrades its capacity and strains the battery.
"You see that?!" Raizou's confidence soared at the sight.
He shouted, voice ringing out: "That is the power of the Ability gained through evolution!"
"Your Thunder Shock is just feeding Jolteon! Keep using Thunder Shock, over and over!"
[Volt Absorb gives Jolteon tremendous sustained combat capability when facing an opponent weaker than itself. But as an Ability, it generally cannot be used to overcome a stronger opponent. It's far more convenient in everyday life — but it doesn't get stronger the longer the fight goes on.
The Starter Pokémon of each region typically carry Torrent, Blaze, and Overgrow as their Abilities — and that's not without reason.]
The townspeople watching erupted in cheers and admiration.
In the worldview they had held since childhood, this was the absolute advantage evolution brought — an unbridgeable gulf in stats and Ability!
— That's not entirely wrong. Evolved Pokémon are genuinely stronger than their pre-evolved forms.
— But what Ash wanted to argue with them about wasn't whether to evolve.
— What Ash wanted to argue was that the timing of evolution matters enormously — it isn't simply "the earlier, the better."
— When evolution is needed, Ash believed a Pokémon should be given sufficient time to grow and develop its full potential before it takes that step.
Facing the renewed barrage of electrical strikes, Ash remained composed:
"Pikachu, keep moving. Keep countering with Thunder Shock — gradually increase the output a little."
Both Ash and Pikachu were already well aware they'd been operating at ten percent. Now it was time to start climbing.
...Ten percent output.
...Fifteen percent.
...Twenty percent.
...Twenty-two percent.
It couldn't be helped. Partner Pikachu carrying the Light Ball made its combat power a genuinely obscene thing.
If Ash didn't regulate the intensity of every strike, there was a real chance of leaving the opponent with lasting damage.
And that was the last thing Ash wanted to see.
The opponent simply had a different philosophy — they weren't evil people. They didn't deserve a brutal outcome.
It might seem a little soft-hearted, admittedly.
But it was the right thing to do, wasn't it?
Pikachu wove swiftly across the arena like a golden streak of lightning made flesh — always slipping clear of attacks at the last possible instant, always retaliating with a Thunder Shock that was a little faster, a little denser, a little more powerful than the last.
It moved with the serene ease of a martial arts grandmaster toying with a first-day novice. Pure mastery on display.
— Pikachu: Tsk, tsk, tsk. Try a little harder, why don't you?
— Jolteon: You absolute—!!
But no matter how hard Jolteon tried, it made no difference.
The gap in strength between them was simply too vast.
Every time a bolt connected, Jolteon's body shuddered with the damage. Volt Absorb doesn't negate damage — it absorbs electrical energy after taking the hit.
The underlying principle involves Jolteon's specialized cells — put simply, it functions like a biological battery.
Jolteon kept absorbing the dissipating electrical energy, struggling to maintain its condition.
On the surface, the fight looked like it was going back and forth — Jolteon hanging in through sheer tenacity, its Ability doing its work.
But Pikachu's offense was like the tide: each wave stronger than the last.
Output had climbed from ten percent to thirty.
The crowd's cheering swelled again, roaring for Jolteon's stubborn resilience.
And yet, as time passed, a few sharp-eyed observers — Mayor Gregory and Captain Yanzhi among them — had quietly begun to frown.
Anyone with real discernment could see the truth of what was happening on that field.
— What separates the strong from the weak?
— It's who has more room to spare.
— The difference between false strength and true strength comes down to who has the deeper reserves of confidence.
What everyone gradually noticed was that this Pikachu was moving far too leisurely.
Its dodges were precise to a degree that bordered on the uncanny — as though it had already mapped out every possible attack path Jolteon could take. Not a millimeter too far, not a millimeter too close. Complete and total control over the entire battle.
And each of Pikachu's Thunder Shocks was more concentrated than the last — faster, carrying more energy.
This wasn't an even exchange of blows. It was a calibration. A test.
From increments of five percent at the start, the adjustments had narrowed to one percent at a time. Pikachu had already taken precise measure of exactly how much Jolteon could handle.
The moment output crossed forty percent — this Jolteon would no longer be able to withstand a Thunder Shock.
This was the peculiar headache of being too strong.
— I can regulate precisely how much force I'm using.
— But I don't know how much you can take.
— So to make sure I don't kill you in a single hit, I have to escalate gradually.
— The burden of being the stronger party, perhaps?
— This kind of situation only ever arises when a stronger fighter is teaching a lesson to a weaker one.
— If the two sides are evenly matched, there's no room to hold back — you commit fully, or not at all.
"Partner, that's about right," Ash's voice carried clearly across the arena. "Next hit — finish it."
"Pika — chu!!"
Pikachu understood. It stopped circling. It stood still.
The electricity at its cheeks detonated with a brilliance unlike anything before — a searing golden radiance so intense that several townspeople reflexively squinted their eyes.
A current incomparably more powerful than anything it had released before gathered around its body, and the scent of scorched air began to spread across the arena.
— Pikachu: Right then. Time to stop playing.
— Pikachu: Did you really think this tiger was a house cat?
Raizou's face went pale in an instant. He shouted desperately: "Jolteon, take it head-on! Use Volt Absorb to—"
His words never finished.
The terrifying electrical power Pikachu had gathered transformed into a colossal pillar of thunder — wide as a great serpent — tearing through the air and slamming forward with annihilating force!
[The Thunder Shock move, in this moment, had been pushed by Pikachu to a power nearly equal to Thunderbolt.
Forty percent output was enough to defeat the opponent — but Pikachu chose fifty.
Because Ash needed to win in a way that was genuinely staggering, not just a narrow victory.
The goal was to demonstrate Pikachu's strength in every dimension — not just to Trainers with the eye to appreciate it, but to the watching crowd who might lack the expertise to tell.
When a master shows off, if the performance is too sophisticated and the audience can't follow it, what was the point?
Sometimes you have to deliberately dial down the technical complexity so your sheer power still reads clearly.
Otherwise, you pull off something brilliant, no one understands what they just saw, and you're left impressing yourself.]
"Jolt — eon!!!"
Jolteon screamed in terror.
On instinct, it drove Volt Absorb to its absolute limit — its body seemed to form a vortex of electrical energy, trying desperately to swallow the incoming devastation.
As for using Protect?
Protect cannot allow the weak to defeat the strong.
Protect is, more often than not, a tool used between roughly equal opponents — buying a split-second of defense before creating space to dodge and counter.
Given the gulf in power between Jolteon and Pikachu, Protect was simply useless.
Its duration is too brief, and it cannot stall for long.
All Pikachu had to do was sustain the discharge a moment longer — that was all it took.
Of course, that's the more tactically reasoned explanation. Jolteon's choice to take it head-on also had something to do with its own competitive pride and the blind panic of the moment.
— Jolteon: Absorb as much of the electricity in the air as I can—
— Jolteon: —and fire it right back!
But the electrical energy Pikachu had unleashed was simply too vast, too savage — far beyond the absorption limit of its Ability.
It was like trying to pour an entire river into a small cup. The cup doesn't fill up — it explodes.
...This idea of borrowing Pikachu's own power to launch a counterattack...
...All one could say was: a touch overconfident.
...Only someone who could lift a thousand kilos could redirect a thousand kilos with ten kilos of force.
...If you can only lift ten kilos yourself, there is no redirecting a thousand.
"BOOM!!"
In a deafening thunderclap, the golden light swallowed Jolteon whole.
The electrical vortex around its body held for only a single instant before collapsing completely. The overwhelming current ripped through Jolteon's body, bringing with it searing pain and total paralysis.
When the light faded, Jolteon lay on the arena floor, body charred black, eyes spinning in spirals — completely unable to battle.
Ash and Pikachu had calibrated it exactly right.
Forty percent output would have just barely been enough to defeat it.
Fifty percent output achieved the most decisive possible victory, without inflicting the kind of lasting physical damage that would leave the opponent with lasting aftereffects.
Win.
And if you're going to win, make it count.
The entire plaza fell into dead silence.
The cheers that had filled the air moments before were cut off as if seized by an invisible hand, stopping cold.
The excitement and anticipation on the townspeople's faces had frozen solid, replaced by shock, bewilderment, and a faint, barely perceptible tremor of doubt.
Their Jolteon — their pride and joy, evolved and possessing the Volt Absorb Ability — had been completely overwhelmed head-on by the raw, crushing electrical force of a Pikachu that had never evolved at all.
And what's more, the opponent had used nothing but the most basic Electric-type move from start to finish.
That was what broke everyone.
Pikachu and Jolteon had clashed in a pure contest of electrical power — the most fundamental measure of raw stats imaginable.
And Pikachu had won?
Good grief.
Pikachu, as a species, is extraordinarily common. They're everywhere.
None of these people had ever seen a Pikachu this powerful. Or rather — the famous Pikachu you heard about... were usually Raichu.
If anything should be on Jolteon's level, it should be Raichu.
Mayor Gregory and Captain Yanzhi exchanged another glance. This time, both of their eyes were filled with something heavy.
Yanzhi tilted his head slightly and spoke to Gregory in a very low voice, his gaze drifting almost imperceptibly toward Brock, who stood nearby with his arms crossed, watching the battle with a calm expression:
"Gregory... that guy who looks like a rock... I feel like I've seen him somewhere. Think I spotted his face in one of the League's internal bulletins... I believe he's from Pewter City.."
Stonetown was fairly remote, and hadn't integrated closely with the League. That didn't mean they were completely cut off from League information — they simply didn't pay close attention to it.
Yanzhi had felt a nagging sense of recognition looking at Brock, and after thinking hard, had finally placed it.
Mayor Gregory's brow furrowed deeply. He followed Yanzhi's gaze toward Brock. His confusion had only deepened — but he also understood this wasn't the moment to dig into it.
He turned his attention back to the arena. The absolute certainty he had felt in the idea of "evolution above all" had developed a crack.
— Facts speak louder than arguments.
— Pure, unadorned strength — there's simply nothing left to say in the face of it.
— That battle had no tricks, no clever tactics. It was a completely naked contest of numbers.
Raizou staggered as he recalled his unconscious Jolteon. He stared at the Poké Ball in his hand. His lips moved once, twice — and in the end, nothing came out.
A loss was a loss.
In the face of absolute disparity in strength, every excuse was colorless and empty.
The people of Stonetown, at least, could take a defeat with dignity.
They weren't the sort to sink to the level of petty villains.
The second brother, Mizuki, stepped forward and gently placed a hand on Raizou's shoulder, giving him an understanding look.
The third brother, Achi, glanced over as well. The three brothers' eyes met, and years of unspoken familiarity allowed them to communicate everything in an instant:
— That Pikachu's strength is absurdly off the charts. Mizuki's Vaporeon has a type disadvantage — sending it up would probably end worse. Only Achi's Flareon has any hope, perhaps buying some time with a type advantage.
— The three brothers had one single thought between them right now.
— No matter what, they couldn't just get steamrolled without taking anything down, could they?
— They had to at least take one out.
Achi took a deep breath and walked with firm strides to face Ash.
His eyes held no fear from his older brother's loss — if anything, they burned with even fiercer resolve.
Beside him, his Flareon felt the determination radiating from its Trainer; the flame-like mane around its neck blazed fully to life, and it let out a low, rumbling growl of challenge.
"Ash, your Pikachu is powerful — stronger than anything I imagined," Achi said earnestly, his voice ringing out.
"But Flareon and I will not back down!"
"Even knowing we can't win, we will fight with everything we have, and defend the path we've chosen!"
"This is the spirit of Stonetown!"
"As a member of the Iron Rock Knights —"
"If we lose —"
"We lose on our feet!"
Achi's fighting spirit was burning at full intensity.
It was a pity, however, that what Ash was really debating with them went far beyond just the question of evolving or not evolving.
— What Ash wanted wasn't a debate between evolution and non-evolution.
— What Ash wanted was for both to be acceptable — evolving and not evolving alike.
— In the debate between evolution and non-evolution, he had chosen the third option.
— And that was: the freedom to choose.
A textbook example of this is the Scyther, Scizor, and Kleavor lineage.
Could you honestly argue that Scizor and Kleavor are simply stronger than Scyther across the board?
That's not really realistic.
— Scyther: Bug / Flying type. Base stat total: 500.
— Scizor: Bug / Steel type. Base stat total: 500.
— Kleavor: Bug / Rock type. Base stat total: 500.
And a Scyther that evolves into Scizor or Kleavor has a very real chance of finding itself completely unable to adapt to the dramatic physical changes — resulting in a massive drop in actual combat performance.
Going straight from a high-speed aerial combatant to a heavily armored tank overnight... expecting anyone to adapt to that quickly would be the real miracle.
Ash looked in silence at Achi across the arena — at those resolute eyes, at the Flareon burning with fighting spirit.
He could feel the sincerity and determination radiating from the other side. That commitment to their own chosen path was, in itself, something worthy of respect.
But respect was one thing. A mistaken philosophy was another matter entirely, and the two could not be blurred together.
The times had changed.
This was the era of the League.
And in the era of the League, there was no urgent need for people to chase raw combat power at any cost.
The League had brought order to the chaos, and the world was a far safer place than it had once been.
Pokémon evolution is, of course, a wonderful thing — a leap to a higher level of existence, a genuine surge in strength.
But it is absolutely not something that should be forced, rushed, or artificially accelerated.
Evolution should unfold as naturally as a fruit ripening and falling, as effortlessly as water finding its course — built on the foundation of a Pokémon's full development of its own potential, with roots deep enough to support what comes next.
The approach Raizou, Mizuki, and Achi had taken — trying to compel Taiichi's Eevee to choose between Water, Fire, and Lightning evolution forms before it was ready — was unquestionably wrong.
It ignored the Pokémon's own will and its natural rhythm of growth. At its core, it was treating a Pokémon as nothing more than a tool for their brothers' rivalry.
With that thought settled in his mind, Ash met Achi's gaze head-on — clear-eyed and unwavering.
His voice rang out across the silent plaza:
"I can feel the fighting spirit in you and your Flareon, Achi."
"The best way to respect an opponent is to battle them seriously."
"Your spirit — I acknowledge it."
"But your philosophy — that, I cannot accept."
"Evolution should not be a forced choice. It should be a fruit — grown naturally from the bond between a life and the connection it shares with its Trainer."
At least in this era of the League, that was what a true Trainer should believe. Under the League's protection, a Trainer and their Pokémon should face the world together, in full partnership.
"Since words alone cannot convince you —"
Ash raised his hand, pointing toward the arena, his voice resolute and unhesitating:
"Then let our Pokémon decide it, just as you said!"
His words fell like a stone into still water, sending ripples spreading through the hearts of the watching townspeople one after another.
And so the second match was about to begin — the showdown between the type-advantaged Flareon and the unfathomably powerful Pikachu.
Indeed.
Fire-type does carry a certain advantage against Electric-type.
On one hand, extreme heat can demagnetize — though that's not especially relevant to Pikachu.
On the other hand, flames can redirect and weaken electrical discharges, because fire and lightning are both forms of plasma.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan ;)🔥👻
🔥 New history: COTE: Confessing to Sakayanagi From the Start
Help smash these goals:
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