"On Valencia Island in the Orange Islands, there's a researcher named Professor Ivy. I'd like you to pick up a Poké Ball from her, no rush, though. Finish your vacation first and stop by on your way back," Professor Oak said.
The request was so straightforward that Ash, who had mentally braced himself for something far more demanding, just stared.
"You could have Dragonite fly over, that's less than an hour round trip. And Poké Balls can be sent through the transfer system. Why send anyone at all?"
Oak gave a wry smile. "That particular ball is special. Spatial transmitters can't handle it, so someone needs to collect it in person. I was going to send Dragonite, but since you're free anyway, you might as well go."
Ash said nothing for a moment.
'Even if Oak sent Dragonite right now, the round trip would take two hours. Waiting for me means at least a month, after the Indigo Plateau Conference, travel to find the God of the Sea, and then a vacation on top of that.'
'So this is just busywork.'
One moment Oak was telling him to relax, and the next he was tacking on errands. Ash couldn't quite figure out what the old professor was thinking. Still, picking up a Poké Ball was hardly an inconvenience, he'd swing by on the way. He agreed without much fuss.
After ironing out the details, Oak left Ash and went back to check on Gary.
Since both Ash and Gary had upcoming matches, neither Oak nor Delia returned to Pallet Town — they stayed at the stadium instead. Oak had arranged for a colleague to look after the lab's Pokémon in his absence, though the fact that the place was left unattended every time he traveled was becoming a real problem. He'd been thinking about hiring an assistant. Managing everything on his own was simply too much.
Given his reputation, a single job posting would flood the lab with applicants from across Kanto — countryside location or not. Sorting through all of them sounded like its own headache. He'd deal with it after the tournament.
The following day, the quarterfinals began.
Ash's match was second. First up was Paul.
He swept his opponent with Torterra alone, no substitutions, and walked straight into the semifinals. Under normal circumstances, a performance like that would have made him the heavy favourite for the title.
Unfortunately for Paul, this year's Indigo Plateau Conference had Ash in it. Even dominant strength couldn't guarantee victory against someone like him, though a berth to Dragon Island was practically already secured. Even if Paul faced Ash in the semis and lost, he wouldn't concede the third-place match. The top three all earned passage to Dragon Island, just with different privileges attached.
In his own quarterfinal, Ash treated the battle as a training session. Kingler, Tauros, Muk, and Monferno all saw field time. He kept Butterfree and Pidgeot in reserve as insurance, not that he expected to need them.
The victory wasn't as swift or clinical as Paul's, but it came with ease, far more so than the grinding match against Conway.
Kingler and the others all made measurable gains. Most notably, Pidgeot broke through to High-Level mid-battle.
Monferno had also climbed to Mid-High rank.
The pace of improvement genuinely caught Ash off guard. His Pokémon had always grown quickly, but never like this.
Ten days ago, Monferno had been sitting at Low level. Jumping a full stage and a rank in ten days was almost alarming. All that accumulated potential from its past training had clearly been sitting there, compressed and waiting.
Ash's first reaction wasn't pride, it was a quiet ache.
The faster Monferno surged now, the more it said about how hard things had been before. Experience had stacked up inside it over years of grueling training, but its body hadn't been able to convert it until evolution finally unlocked the floodgates. Ash had assumed one evolution would burn through the backlog and leave it capped. But the reservoir still wasn't dry.
Beyond Monferno, every Pokémon who fought had come out stronger. It was a clean reminder, nothing accelerates growth quite like a real battle.
But rapid growth demands solid foundations; without Ash's daily training regimen, his Pokémon couldn't have spiked so sharply. Even so, the pace was frightening.
The third quarterfinal belonged to Gary. Compared to the first two matches, this one was a nail-biter that came down to the very last Pokémon. Gary's opponent finally revealed a hidden ace, a Slowbro.
Gary's own trump card was Blastoise. After Mega Evolution, it wielded comparable power, yet the slippery Psychic-type kept pushing him onto the back foot. His opponent had clearly studied Mega Blastoise in detail, while Gary knew nothing about the Slowbro, and it was a full grade higher.
In the end, Blastoise broke through mid-battle, and landed a decisive Water Pulse on the Slowbro right as it emerged from Teleport, knocking it out. Blastoise had burned through every last reserve and reverted from Mega Evolution, but it was still standing.
Gary won.
After the fourth match wrapped up, it was only three in the afternoon. The Top 4 draw was held immediately, and Ash's semifinal opponent turned out to be Gary.
The two trainers from Pallet Town would finally face each other in the semifinals. When Gary saw who he'd drawn, his expression barely flickered. There were only three realistic opponents anyway, Ash, Paul, or with extremely good luck, that fourth contestant named Noah. With two-thirds odds against him, drawing a tough matchup was always likely. At least Ash was better than Paul.
Even if he lost, Gary would rather lose to Ash than to Paul. After that he could focus on third place. Unless Paul did something reckless, like deliberately dropping a match to set up an ambush in the third-place playoff, Gary was confident he could handle that other trainer.
As for Ash, he'd just have to leave it to fate. Confident as Gary was, he knew his chances were slim. He might talk big, claiming he wasn't afraid and had always wanted this fight, but he knew exactly where they both stood.
Unless Ash fielded his second-string Pokémon, Gary had no realistic path to victory.
Even so, he had no intention of giving up.
"Perfect timing, Ash. Let me see how much you've grown since our last battle." Gary lifted his chin and smirked.
"Ha, it's been ages. A full six-on-six in the semifinals sounds perfect, just don't lose too quickly!"
"So sure you'll win? The fight hasn't even started yet."
"Then let's settle it tomorrow. I'll show you what I've got."
A new power? Another Mega Evolution? Gary watched Ash walk off the field, turning the words over in his mind.
He would face Gary tomorrow. Truthfully, drawing him in the semifinals wasn't a surprise, yet the prospect of battling his old rival again stirred something complicated. No matter how wide the gap between them had grown, they'd been rivals since childhood. Without the Chat Group, Ash might not even be ahead of Gary right now.
Back then he'd lost more than he won. The reason he'd outpaced Gary on their journeys came down to the guidance, and the skills, he'd gained from the group. Its veterans had taken a complete rookie and turned him into a trainer who could recite every Pokémon's name and type from memory. The Breeder knowledge he'd picked up had also done wonders for raising his Pokémon.
Tokiwa Power and Aura Power were critical. Without them he wouldn't be where he was today. The Chat Group's support couldn't be overstated, without it he might have fallen in the Top 32, maybe even the Top 64.
Ash believed in his own talent. Even before joining the group he'd been certain he'd become a Pokémon Master, he'd just needed time. The group solved that problem, letting him accomplish in six months what normally took one, two, even three years. Now, with that foundation behind him, he'd cleared the hardest stretch. Even without the group's help going forward, he was a fully capable trainer in his own right.
Gary, by contrast, had done it all without any outside help. That was an undeniable testament to his talent.
Too bad his opponent was, quite literally, cheating.
The next day brought the opening semifinal: Ash versus Gary. Indigo Stadium was packed to the rafters.
The excitement even eclipsed Ash's Top 16 bout against Conway. These two were the only contestants capable of Mega Evolution, and they were hometown rivals on top of it.
Unless the final pitted Ash against Paul, this match might outshine everything else. And yet if it were Ash versus Paul in the final, that buzz could surpass even this one, not just because Paul was stronger, but because he was from Sinnoh.
If someone from Sinnoh walked away with the Kanto Indigo Plateau Conference title, Kanto would lose serious face. A region hosting its own tournament only to see an outsider crowned, what would that say about Kanto?
Truthfully, without an anomaly like Ash this year, Kanto had no real standout contenders at all.
"And both competitors today hail from Pallet Town! Professor Oak's grandson, Gary, and Kanto's rising supernova, Ash, traveling the very same path! Childhood friends, now meeting in the semifinals at Indigo Stadium, both wielding the newly famous Mega Evolution. Who will triumph? Let's find out!"
Fueled by the announcer's energy, Ash and Gary walked out from the dugout and onto the field. Ash looked eager and ready to go. Gary's expression was more measured.
This wasn't the most important match of the tournament, but it was the one he wanted to win most, and the one where his odds were lowest.
When they reached their platforms the referee signaled the start, and both threw their Poké Balls at the same moment.
"Come on out!" The ball burst open to reveal a sleek golden figure, a Psychic-type Alakazam.
"Let's go, Primeape!" Ash's choice: Primeape.
Gary went still. He knew Ash's roster well enough, Primeape barely ranked third on Ash's second string. And Ash was sending it out in the semifinals? Was he treating this match as another training session?