As the referee officially announced the result, the guest platform fell into a state of bewilderment.
Lu Hai, in particular, wore a very strange expression. But after a moment, the guests collectively shook their heads with wry smiles. They stood up, joined the thunderous cheers of the crowd, and began to applaud.
The Young Ho-Oh Cup had just witnessed a massive upset. For a non-local rookie trainer to seize the championship in Metropolis was a rare occurrence that caught everyone off guard.
The "Power of Friendship"
On the field below, Aria stared at the standing Eevee in silence.
She had lost.
She let out a long sigh and looked at Owen. "What did you say to Eevee at the very end? Something about a machine?"
The moment both Pokémon collapsed, the referee started the count. The stadium was roaring with cheers and shouts, making it quite noisy. Aria, standing directly across from Owen, was the only one who had caught his final words.
It wasn't a standard "Get up!" It was something else, but the specific content had been muffled by the crowd. What was certain, however, was that those words were the reason Eevee had managed to stand.
Owen looked at Aria, his expression solemn.
"At the end, I told Eevee: 'Don't give up. With our bond, we can surely create a miracle.'"
"A bond... and a miracle?" Aria was moved. "I see. I lost. I have much to learn from you."
"You're too kind," Owen replied. "You weren't bad yourselves."
Once the match was over, Owen immediately rushed Eevee to the medical room.
The Pokémon doctor there watched Eevee—who couldn't stop smiling—with a deep frown of concern. He had never seen these symptoms before. This Pokémon has sustained such heavy injuries, yet it keeps grinning. Did it suffer nerve damage to the face? That was beyond his expertise.
Fortunately, Owen knew exactly what this "illness" was. He patted Eevee's head, "curing" the symptom instantly and saving the doctor from further confusion.
A moment later, tournament staff arrived to discuss the upcoming awards ceremony and interview schedule. Owen nodded in agreement. At this point, none of that was a problem. His and Eevee's two months of "hellish" special training had finally reached a perfect conclusion. As long as the prizes were all there, he was happy to follow any arrangement!
Outside the medical room, Lynnea was pacing back and forth with her phone buzzing incessantly. The moment the final result was out, her phone had exploded. Calls from classmates were non-stop; everyone in Class 12 knew she was right there with Owen.
"Lynnea?" Owen walked out of the room.
"Is Eevee okay?" she asked immediately.
"No major issues. Her injuries are treated, but she's exhausted. The doctor said she needs a good sleep to recover her spirit," Owen explained.
"That's good." Lynnea let out a sigh of relief. "I still can't believe you actually won. Your opponent literally had psychic powers! I feel like I'm dreaming... the champion is actually my classmate. But have you thought about how to handle the 'information bombardment'?" She shook her phone, hinting at the social media storm.
"The final battle was indeed terrifying," Owen said, still feeling the lingering tension. "Luckily, Aria's psychic powers aren't that strong yet."
Controlling evolution, telepathy, raw telekinesis—Aria hadn't shown high-level mastery of any of these, proving she was still a beginner. If she had been like Sabrina or Catlin from the anime, Owen wouldn't have even bothered fighting.
Against that level of psychic power, it wasn't certain his "Money Power" (for the prize phones) would have won. As for the messages, Owen just smiled; he'd deal with them as they came.
Meanwhile, back in Fairview.
Inside the Trainer Association, in a quiet, elegant room, a middle-aged man in his fifties was leisurely watering flowers and sipping tea.
This was Chairman Sol, the head of the Fairview Trainer Association. Following the recent gains from the Nanwu Town Rift, the Fairview branch had been commended by the provincial association, bringing Chairman Sol many perks. He had been in an excellent mood all month, entering a sort of "pre-retirement" bliss. In a small place like Fairview, life was quite peaceful if one lacked grand ambitions.
"Getting old... this is the comfortable life."
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Chairman Sol sighed. He recognized his secretary's knock. Most likely, a new headache. "Come in."
A young secretary entered and reported immediately, "Chairman, we just received a call from the Metropolis Trainer Association headquarters..."
"What?!" Sol stood up instantly. The Metropolis Association? That was an even bigger deal than their own provincial branch. He had no connections there—why were they calling?
"Are you familiar with the Young Ho-Oh Cup?" the secretary asked.
"I have some impression of it. A rookie tournament in Metropolis, right? Quite famous."
"That's the thing," the secretary said. "A student from our Fairview High School participated and achieved an incredible result. The representative from the Metropolis Association called to offer their congratulations."
"Oh?" Sol's eyes lit up. "One of Fairview's rookies? What, did he make the Top 16? No... the Top 8?"
The secretary gave a wry smile. "Chairman... if it were just the Top 8, they wouldn't have called. A student named Owen defeated apprentices from the Winter Dojo and the Heaven's Heart Dojo to take the Championship."
Pfft—! Sol, who had just taken a sip of tea, nearly sprayed it across the room.
Right then, his private phone rang. The caller: Ethan.
As one of the few professional trainers in Fairview, Ethan was a core member of the association's upper echelon. In terms of status, only the Chairman was above him.
Sol waved his hand to silence the secretary and answered. "Hello, Ethan..."
On the other end, Ethan reported the exact same news. Sol grew quieter as he listened; it was all true. And this Owen was the same student who had accidentally stumbled into the Rift in Nanwu Town. What a coincidence.
"So, what you're saying is... he beat the dojo apprentices and has immense potential. And such a rookie will definitely be scouted by other high schools, right?" Sol asked.
"Exactly," Ethan replied. "You know how it is—every school fights for top talent; it affects future resource allocation. Plus, regarding that notice from the Provincial Association... if it's confirmed, we need as many elite Fairview rookies as possible."
Chairman Sol nodded. "I understand. I'll personally contact the Principal of Fairview High. Fairview hasn't produced a decent trainer in years; we can't let this one get snatched away."
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