Chapter 269: The Sensation of Kanto
"Don't just copy other people's battle strategies. Develop your own style."
Will looked at the wide-eyed Cynthia and offered a piece of advice.
Her Sceptile was one thing. But that Garchomp fought exactly like Louis's Garchomp back in the day.
To put it bluntly, right now, Cynthia's two main powerhouses had almost nothing of her own in their battle style.
Forget facing Will. Even facing an opponent who had studied Cynthia's mother, they would easily see through her tactics.
Lorelei translated Will's words for Cynthia.
Hearing Will's advice, Lorelei finally realized it too. Cynthia was completely copying her mother Carmela's style. Lorelei had been so immersed in the audience's shock at her Piplup that she hadn't noticed.
"I understand. I hope we can battle again next time!"
Cynthia bowed slightly.
The rest was Lorelei's moment of glory.
The President of the Indigo League personally presented a large golden trophy to Lorelei, amidst flashing cameras.
For moments like this, of course, all the Pokémon had to come out for a group photo.
So, Lorelei released all her Pokémon and called Lucario over from the audience seats.
This was Will's first group photo with them in this life.
After the awards ceremony, Lorelei was mobbed by reporters.
Will watched the girl pretend to be serious for the interviews and shook his head with a smile. He told her he was leaving and took Lucario back to their room first.
He didn't like giving interviews. Especially since he had just shown off big time in the arena.
And how would he give an interview? Using Aura Power to talk?
He was afraid Giovanni would target him or Lorelei. Not to capture them for research, but to recruit them personally. At this point in time, Team Rocket didn't dare do anything too brazen.
Just the current level of fame worried Will that Giovanni might come knocking. And even if Giovanni told Lorelei he was starting an evil organization, it wouldn't matter. If the League investigated, he could just say he was joking. The League had no evidence that Giovanni was forming an evil organization, nor any proof of his crimes. The current Team Rocket should be in its infancy, still raising funds, essentially just a business organization.
That night, Lorelei returned, exhausted but still smug.
"Goal achieved? What's next? Gonna be a Gym Leader?"
"No way." Lorelei shook her head decisively. "I don't want to stay in one place forever. That's too boring."
"Then, travel somewhere else?" Lucario looked at Lorelei.
He had initially followed Will because he was lost and didn't know what to do. Now, he simply wanted to be with Will and Lorelei. Where they went or what they did didn't matter anymore.
"Of course! Next stop: challenging the Johto League! I'm going to complete the Indigo League achievement!" Lorelei grinned and clenched her fist.
"Hey, with our current level, participating in the conference again is just bullying rookies. Why not participate in the Gym Leader Selection Tournament? If you win, you can just decline the position." Will yawned.
Participating in the Johto Conference? By then, he'd probably be Elite Four level. An Elite Four-level Pokémon playing in the baby cup... he felt it was a bit shameful.
And honestly, the intensity of the Gym Leader Selection Tournament was just right for the current Lorelei. Once Dewgong and Slowbro both reached Gym Leader level, she could basically try for the top spot in the selection tournament.
"No! Just this once! We can just handicap ourselves by not using Piplup if we have to." Lorelei shook her head. She had a strange obsession with becoming the dual champion of the Indigo League.
"Fine." Will shrugged.
Actually, it made almost no difference to him. It had been like this before anyway. Whether challenging Gyms, qualifiers, or group stages, Will didn't participate. He only fought in one or two rounds of the final elimination tournament. And if he hadn't actively asked to fight this time, he probably wouldn't have fought at all.
The next day.
Will thought Lorelei would take them straight home.
Who would have guessed... Lorelei accepted advertisement deals!
That's right. When she woke up, Lorelei told them that many people had approached her yesterday, wanting her to endorse their products.
Lorelei wanted to earn her own money to buy gifts and specialties to take home, and she also wanted to appear on TV and in magazines wearing beautiful clothes. So she privately accepted some ads.
When Will asked what ads, he almost blacked out.
Coats, t-shirts, princess dresses... those were fine. But Lorelei had accepted an ad for high heels.
Will didn't think there was anything wrong with high heels per se, but Lorelei's mom hated Lorelei wearing them. Not ever, but not at 16.
"Crap, crap. I should have watched you yesterday. We're gonna get scolded when we get home." Will facepalmed. If he didn't watch Lorelei, he'd get scolded by her mom too.
"It's fine! I'm big now! And we're not going back right away. In a couple of days, we'll go to my uncle's house in Johto and stay for a while, then participate in the Johto Conference. By the time we go back after the conference, Mom will have definitely forgotten about this!" Lorelei grinned, having planned it all out.
"Oh, alright then."
The next day, Will and Lucario accompanied Lorelei to the ad shoots, just to make sure no weirdos tried anything.
Thankfully, nothing happened. There were very few people in the Pokémon world who did creepy things like that. Probably because humans spent a large portion of their energy on Pokémon; people who did weird things to Pokémon were far more common than those who did weird things to people.
Some time later.
When Lorelei appeared at the Saffron City Magnet Train station, she had to wear a trench coat and big sunglasses to cover herself up completely. Even Will and Lucario had to wear disguises.
No choice. They were too famous.
The trio of Lorelei, Will, and Lucario was a sensation in Kanto.
Whenever Lorelei appeared in public, a huge crowd of fans would appear, mostly female. After all, Water-type trainers tended to be girls, and the products Lorelei endorsed were mostly for women.
If this were the internet age, Lorelei would be the biggest influencer in Kanto and Johto for the last two years.
Once Lorelei was spotted, photos and autographs were inevitable, wasting a ton of time.
What left Will most speechless was that he would be wildly petted, rubbed, and squeezed by those female fans. Recently, he felt like he was going bald. Some fans with no boundaries would even touch inappropriate places.
One night, when Lorelei was giving him a bath, she found a lipstick mark on his butt. Both of them were stunned.
Will felt violated. Lorelei felt indignant that some hussy had kissed him before she even got the chance. Even Lucario, a supporting character on this journey, didn't escape being petted.
So now, they covered up when they went out, terrified of being seen.
When Will and Lorelei appeared again publicly, it was at the Goldenrod City Gym the following year.
After that, every one of Lorelei's Gym battles was basically a public performance, with some people even livestreaming it.
And the Gym Leaders, seeing this, got unexpectedly excited, going all out in 3v3 battles against Lorelei. After all, this was free publicity. Whether Lorelei challenged Kanto or Johto Gyms, the Indigo League benefited. So the League didn't stop it; they promoted it heavily.
This caused a huge buzz with every challenge. Lorelei and Will's fame grew even more, rivaling the future Indigo League Champion.
Lorelei hadn't expected things to turn out like this. To get the badges, she had to go all out.
Her lineup was either: Will, Lapras, Cloyster.
Or: Lapras, Cloyster, Froslass.
Either way, she sent out three Gym Leader-level Pokémon.
With the first lineup, she never lost. Even if Lapras and Cloyster could only take down one and a half opponents, the rest were easy for Will.
But the second lineup had mixed results. Although Froslass had a type advantage, the level gap was there.
Will was certain that Lorelei's Gym challenge journey in Johto was at least ten times harder than the Johto Conference itself would be.
To ensure she got every badge smoothly, Lorelei, who had planned a relaxing trip, had to train doubly hard.
Twelve months after the Kanto Conference ended, the Johto Conference kicked off in full swing.
Many people had heard that the previous Kanto champion, Lorelei, would be participating. As a result, the number of participants and spectators for this Johto Conference was enormous.
That's right. Trainers yearn to challenge the strong. They didn't back down because of Lorelei's participation. Instead, they rose to the challenge, seizing the opportunity to face a strong opponent, hoping to knock Lorelei off her pedestal and take her place.
The Indigo League, especially the Johto branch, was overjoyed. They had no doubt that tourism in the Johto region would peak in the coming year. Maybe not surpassing the Kanto region, which had produced the "Leaf God," or the Hoenn region, which gathered Coordinators and artists, but surpassing the other regions shouldn't be a problem.
In November of League Year 184.
At the age of 17, Lorelei successfully won the second championship of her life, the Johto Conference Champion.
At the same time, Lorelei achieved the feat of becoming the dual champion of the Indigo League regions.
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