"Cheers!"
The clinking of several transparent glasses filled with different-colored drinks echoed crisply through the air.
"Heh, looks like luck's on our side this time," Yezo said with a grin, sipping from his glass of red wine.
"Don't flatter yourself. The three of us got lucky — Silas won purely by crushing his opponent with strength," Haruhira shot back bluntly.
After knowing each other for so long, their true personalities were showing more and more.
Despite his scholarly appearance, Haruhira, a Pokémon researcher was far from gentle. Whether in battle or everyday life, he was actually quite hot-tempered.
Jun, meanwhile, sat quietly off to the side, smiling as he drank his soda.
As for the other four young prodigies who had joined them earlier… unfortunately, they had all been eliminated in the last round of the preliminaries, and obviously weren't in the mood to celebrate with the remaining four.
Although there would be more opportunities in the future, calling them out now to celebrate would be like rubbing salt in their wounds.
"It's fine. He's not that much stronger than us anyway. We'll probably be knocked out in the first round of the main tournament, and he'll go out in the second. Not a big difference," Yezo said, his expression dead serious as he tried to sound indifferent.
"Maybe so," Haruhira nodded, "but still, it's good to have dreams."
There wasn't much else they could say — the power gap was clear.
In the main teams of Haruhira, Jun, and Yezo, each of them only had two Pokémon that had reached the quasi-Elite level.
Among the Top 64 trainers, that put them near the bottom.
In full 6-on-6 battles, the gap in raw strength became far more obvious. Victory often came down to your weakest Pokémon unless your ace could somehow handle two or even three opponents in a row.
But at this stage, even with type advantage, taking on multiple opponents at once was nearly impossible.
And no competent Trainer would deliberately send out Pokémon with type disadvantages anyway. Tactical planning simply didn't allow it.
So, as Yezo had said, it was likely the three of them would end their run at the Top 64.
Silas didn't bother responding to Yezo's jealous remark — it was pure envy, nothing more.
After his Serperior broke through to the quasi-Elite level, Silas now had four Pokémon of that tier on his main team far more than Yezo.
At the very least, unless something went terribly wrong, reaching the Top 32 shouldn't be a problem.
The group continued chatting casually, easing their pre-match tension.
"Well, I'll head back and get ready for tomorrow's drawing," Haruhira said, standing up first.
"What's there to prepare for? You gonna wash your hands and pray for better luck or something?" Silas joked immediately.
"Would washing my hands actually help?" Haruhira's eyes lit up in mock seriousness.
Silas blinked, utterly confused.
"Uh…"
"Well, good luck tomorrow," Jun said with a laugh.
"Good luck." ×3
April 3rd.
The streets were filled with festive drums and firecrackers, red flags fluttered, crowds swelled like waves, and the sky was clear and bright.
In short — a perfect day for the drawing and the first round of the tournament.
Inside the Indigo Plateau Conference's Service Hall, all sixty-four remaining Trainers were gathered together.
A hall that could normally hold over a thousand people now felt surprisingly empty, leaving only the elite few.
Small groups of Trainers stood chatting with their acquaintances, quietly sizing up potential opponents.
Among them, Silas Alaric attracted the most attention — second only to the top-seeded champions.
Low murmurs filled the air, creating a faint but lively buzz across the room.
"Ahem — attention, competitors," came Nurse Joy's sweet voice over the intercom.
"When I call your name and it appears on the screen, please come to the drawing pool to select your number."
"First up — Hayato Nohara from Jubilife City, Sinnoh!"
Without giving anyone time to react, Joy called out the first name. The man's face appeared on the massive central screen.
A burly, heavily built man with thick hair stepped forward.
"Hup!"
He casually lifted a fishing rod and cast it into the large pool in the center of the hall.
Yes — that was the so-called drawing pool.
Originally, the area had just been an open space surrounded by a few service counters. Now, it had been modified with a simple mechanism to form a sunken pool of water.
And as for the "lots" to be drawn? No mystery there — only one Pokémon could serve that purpose.
Within seconds, Hayato reeled in his catch: a red-scaled Magikarp, still thrashing its tail furiously.
On its side was a printed tag — "B3."
A League staff member quickly found Magikarp's Poké Ball and recalled it.
On the main display, the slot beside Hayato's portrait lit up with "B3," before shrinking and moving to the upper-left corner of the bracket.
"Next — Misa Matsuoka from Lavaridge Town, Hoenn!"
Joy continued smoothly.
"Please, not someone too strong… best-case scenario, I draw Yezo," Haruhira muttered nervously beside Silas.
Yezo blinked. "Wait, what's that supposed to mean? You want to fight me?"
"This drawing method really does make cheating impossible," Jun said, nodding approvingly at the League President Goodshow new system.
"Well, a Psychic could probably still cheat — but no way they'd stoop that low," Yezo replied.
"These Magikarp are huge," Silas commented with genuine curiosity.
"The League must've been raising them for a while."
"Now that you mention it, they are big," Jun said, examining them closely. "What've they been feeding them, calcium tablets?"
As a researcher, Haruhira leaned in as well. Sure enough, the Magikarp were all larger than normal.
"Ugh, you guys are so boring. Who cares how big they are?" Yezo sighed.
"Actually," Silas said thoughtfully, "I've always wondered — does the Magikarp's body size before evolution have any effect on how large it becomes after evolving into Gyarados?"
Ignoring Yezo's eye-roll, Haruhira and Yamashiro jumped into the discussion.
"Maybe," Haruhira mused, "but there's not enough data to confirm. The ratio probably varies a lot."
The three continued their academic chatter while the drawing went on.
"Eleventh — Silas Alaric from Viridian City, Kanto!"
Joy's voice came again.
"Hold that thought, I'm up next," Silas said, walking over to the pool.
With a practiced motion, he cast the rod and reeled in a Magikarp marked A1.
A murmur rippled through the hall.
Silas set down the rod and walked back toward the others.
"Ah…"
Jun's grin was somewhere between amusement and sympathy.
Silas rolled his eyes.
"Hahaha!" Haruhira burst out laughing.
"Good luck, man. Opening match, huh? Tsk, tsk," Yezo said, patting Silas on the shoulder with exaggerated pity though it was obvious he was trying not to laugh.
The A1 draw meant one thing:
Day A (today), Match 1 (the very first battle), starting at 10:00 a.m. just two hours from now.
Inside the pool were sixty-four Magikarp paired two by two, forming thirty-two letter–number combinations.
Including the ten that had already been drawn, Silas had managed to pull the very first match ticket—against roughly a 3.7% chance.
He couldn't help but sigh.
"My luck really is… something," he muttered, half helpless, half resigned.
One after another, Yezo, Haruhira, and Jun also finished drawing their lots.
"You rigged this, didn't you!?" Yezo growled, glaring at Haruhira with gritted teeth.
Apparently, those two had "luckily" drawn the same pairing—C3: Day Three, Match Three.
"Hey now, don't say that. Looks like you'll be the one going home after round one," Haruhira smirked.
"Oh yeah? I'd say you're the one getting knocked out first." Yezo narrowed his eyes, refusing to back down.
"Forget those two scrubs fighting each other," Silas said with a faint grin, patting Jun on the back. "You better do your best."
But honestly, the four of them hadn't been too lucky with their draws.
Silas had the very first match, Haruhira and Yezo were set to fight each other…
And poor Jun?
He'd drawn Shizuo Shinagawa—the top candidate for the championship title.
Jun's mouth twitched. Among the four of them, he was convinced someone had seriously offended the goddess of luck—maybe more than one of them.
"Hah…" Jun exhaled deeply, finally accepting his fate.
"At least your opponent isn't too bad—his team's weaker overall, and his Pokémon types aren't ideal against yours."
He looked toward Silas.
Silas nodded in agreement.
His upcoming opponent, Kane Sawyer, specialized in three Pseudo-Elite-class Pokémon and three Advance-level Pokémon. On paper, he was weaker, and his Pokémon's typings were slightly countered by Silas's lineup.
"I'll go get ready then—no time to waste."
Silas waved to his friends and walked toward the nearby Trainer Lounge.
That was the problem with drawing the first match—you barely had time to plan strategy.
"We'll head to the spectator stands. Good luck out there," Jun called out, ignoring the bickering pair beside him.
Silas raised his right hand to show he understood.
Inside the lounge, he scribbled a few notes on paper, going over possible matchups:
Three Pesudo-Elite Pokémon—Donphan, Feraligatr, and Wobbuffet.
"…Does this guy have a thing for blue Pokémon?" Silas muttered.
Looking through Sawyer's team list, he realized nearly all of them were shades of blue. His capture criteria were… interesting, to say the least.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside Indigo Plateau Stadium was electric.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Fireworks exploded high above, their colors shimmering against the bright sky.
The cheers of over one hundred thousand spectators shook the entire arena.
Families watching from home were glued to their televisions, enjoying the annual excitement of the Regional Conference.
The enormous Indigo Stadium—able to seat one hundred thousand—was completely full.
Compared to the earlier preliminary matches across the four elemental fields, the attention on the main stadium had increased four or fivefold.
Even those who hadn't watched the qualifiers were now tuning in, because these sixty-four Trainers represented the absolute peak of normal human capability—some even beyond that.
"Welcome… to the Indigo Plateau Main Stadium!!!"
The announcer's voice, amplified and broadcast through high-tech sound systems, echoed throughout the arena.
Wearing a sleek black suit, the commentator actually flew over the field
Yes, flew!
He was standing on a hover platform, soaring above the battlefield.
This was necessary—Indigo's main arena was massive.
Sitting in a static booth like at the smaller elemental venues wouldn't give a clear enough view of the action.
Because of this, Indigo's commentators weren't just good talkers—they were experts.
They had to deliver top-tier commentary and skillfully operate the hover platform, even reacting to sudden danger if a Pokémon attack went astray.
Otherwise, even if they survived, they'd be bedridden for weeks.
After all, attacks from Adavance or pseudo–Elite-level Pokémon were no joke; even the shockwaves alone were close to what a human body could withstand.
"Today marks the gathering of sixty-four of the strongest Pokémon Trainers!"
"Here, we'll witness the bonds between humans and Pokémon, and the sweat and scars they share in pursuit of victory!"
As the host, the commentator skillfully built up the energy of the crowd.
Then, with a dramatic flourish, he raised his arm:
"Now, let the Indigo Conference Top 64 — Round One, Match One… begin!!"
Inside the tunnel, Silas opened his eyes as the announcement echoed through the air.
It was time.
"On the blue side from Viridian City, representing Kanto Silas Alaric!!
With his swift Pidgeot, his blazing Blaziken, his elegant Serperior, his steadfast Gigalith, his graceful Togekiss, his pink Ampharos, his water-fearing-but-fearless Rhydon, and the newly discovered Grass-type Leafeon he personally helped identify—
these are the partners who stand by his side!"
"In the previous rounds, Silas displayed overwhelming strength:
Across fourteen battles, only Rhydon has ever fainted and that was just once.
Every other Pokémon he's used has never lost a single match!"
"What's even more remarkable—this talented young Trainer is only seventeen years old, and this Indigo Conference marks his debut year as a competitive Trainer!"
"One can only imagine how bright his future will be!"
"But battles aren't about the future—they're about now. Can Silas overcome the opponent before him and continue forward?
That answer will be decided… by his own hands!"
As Silas stepped out from the shadows, the audience erupted in thunderous applause.
...
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