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Darkrai struggled to stand up, wanting to continue the battle.
However, the moment Garchomp appeared in his line of sight, he conceded. He had his pride; losing meant losing. Forcing himself to continue wouldn't bridge the gap between them.
Luther ran into the field, checked Darkrai's condition, and sighed with relief.
Although Garchomp had shown no intention of holding back, Darkrai was strong. Even after taking attacks of that magnitude, he was only a bit dizzy and it wasn't serious.
When Mai held out the Sitrus Berry, Darkrai mechanically accepted it, chewed it twice, and swallowed it.
"He's taking this pretty hard." Cynthia glanced at Garchomp's condition, then walked over.
Luther looked at the dazed Darkrai. He was still trying to figure out how he lost. Darkrai had strength, but he lacked battle experience.
Knowing when to do what, which move to use, how to react, and how to predict and counter-predict were all things he needed to learn.
"Battle experience" was actually a very broad concept. If broken down in detail, it was extremely complicated. There was only one way to gain it: Pokémon and their Trainers accumulating it through battle after battle.
It was similar to martial arts techniques in wuxia novels. Knowing how to throw a punch isn't enough; you also have to learn how to adjust based on your opponent's moves to ensure your strike lands.
Throughout the entire battle, Darkrai was strong but couldn't effectively use his strength. Luther could see that clearly, but didn't know how to explain it to Darkrai.
A starry-eyed Pachirisu walked up and offered her own Sitrus Berry. Faced with her enthusiasm, Garchomp didn't have the heart to reject it. She took it and gulped it down.
After finishing it, she walked over to Darkrai and roared at the still-dazed Pokémon.
Luther and Mai hurriedly covered their ears. Cynthia, however, remained completely calm, as if she was long used to this. Darkrai's eyes finally regained focus. Seeing Garchomp, the now-recovered Darkrai floated into the air.
"What you want to know, Garchomp will tell you. Your answers are right beside you. No need to torment yourself."
Cynthia's words made Darkrai fall silent for a moment. Then, without hesitation, he slipped into Garchomp's shadow.
"Go on. Tell Darkrai whatever he wants to know."
Cynthia waved her hand, and Garchomp led Darkrai to a corner of the battlefield. The two Pokémon began communicating. Since she had gone through the trouble of booking a large battle arena, using it for only a short while would be too wasteful.
With that in mind, Cynthia quickly had Luther's Pokémon and her own begin sparring and practicing. Without trainer commands, observing Pokémon based solely on their own judgment and reactions made it much easier to spot problems.
Watching Chansey battling Gastrodon, Luther laughed and said, "I'm suddenly wondering… can you actually understand Pokémon conversations?"
Mai nodded in agreement. Cynthia indeed seemed to have that ability.
"I can't understand them. I've heard that some people really can, but that's only a rumor; I've never seen it myself." Cynthia took a sip of her drink and continued, "But I can sometimes vaguely perceive what they're thinking."
"It's a faint kind of feeling. Even if Garchomp has her back to me and I can't see her expression, I can still sense what she wants to do."
"Just now, it was the same with Darkrai. I could vaguely tell he was frustrated and troubled, which is why he wanted to challenge Garchomp. After the battle, I could also tell he was trying to find an answer to something. I couldn't clearly feel it, but I knew his frustration was connected to you."
"Me?" Luther pointed at himself.
Cynthia leaned back in the chair by the battle arena, glanced at Garchomp and Darkrai who were having an intense discussion in the distance, and nodded.
"A mythical Pokémon… but in the end, still a wild Pokémon. Their understanding of humans comes only from vague bits of experience, some from what other Pokémon have told them, some from their own guesses based on encounters."
"Once they actually enter human society, what they perceive becomes completely different. Especially their original concepts, they get heavily shaken. Their original behavior patterns also seem strange because the environment has changed."
"Traveling with you made him waver. He can't understand you as a person, and he can't understand anything around you."
Cynthia's words made Luther widen his eyes. His thoughts seemed to touch on something important.
"He became confused while trying to understand. Because none of it fits into the common sense he knows, he ended up stuck in a dead end."
"Then what should we do to help him get out of that state?" Mai was a little anxious. Darkrai wasn't Luther's Pokémon yet, but she believed he would be sooner or later. She didn't want Darkrai to lose his strength because of this.
Cynthia didn't answer. Instead, she pointed at Luther. "Luther, do you have an answer?"
Luther took a deep breath and shared his thoughts.
"This actually isn't a bad thing. The fact that this happened means Darkrai is trying to understand us. I read in a book that the first generation of wild Pokémon who started living with humans did so under these exact circumstances."
'Yes, because they wanted to understand, Pokémon chose to approach humans.'
Both sides wanted to understand each other's thoughts; that was the very first bridge ever built between humans and Pokémon.
And now, for various reasons, Darkrai had reached this same point.
This loss was actually good for Darkrai. Compared to the battle techniques humans and Pokémon developed together over generations, wild Pokémon techniques were far behind.
Garchomp relied purely on experience to beat Darkrai until he was dizzy. That was also why the somewhat prideful Darkrai was willing to listen to her.
This entire battle had really helped him a lot!
Luther suddenly felt refreshed, and even commanding his Pokémon during training became filled with energy.
At this moment, outside the battle arena's entrance, everyone was excited yet nervous as they stared at the door.
Cynthia had gone in with a Pokémon Trainer, without a doubt, someone was challenging Cynthia.
Although Cynthia said it was a private battle and couldn't be watched, nobody wanted to leave. They were all planning to snatch up their cameras the moment the door opened to get first-hand breaking news.
The news had already spread across every forum and community. With no battle report available, everyone's curiosity exploded, and discussions ran wild.
Some people even started a poll, guessing how long the challenger could last against Cynthia.
Because there was no battle report, the usual poll of "how many of Cynthia's Pokémon will the challenger defeat" wasn't opened this time.
"Update: It's been ten minutes since they entered the arena. The door still hasn't opened."
Seeing that message on the thread that was supposed to provide real-time updates, everyone replied playfully in the comments.
"Check again and report."
"Reporting: thirty minutes have passed, and the door still hasn't opened."
At this point, no one was joking anymore. Everyone was trying to guess what on earth was happening inside.
"Has there ever been a battle lasting thirty minutes?"
"A six-on-six taking over thirty minutes is perfectly normal. Don't overthink it."
Another thirty minutes passed quickly.
"Then let me ask, six-on-six, has Cynthia ever had a match go over an hour?"
"I helped you check the data. There was one, back when she was Champion. Now she's one of the Elite Four. Bertha."
That one sentence blew the discussion wide open. Countless people rushed to the official Pokémon League forums to join the debate.
The situation even alarmed staff members from the Pokémon League. While scrolling through the explosive number of posts, they tried to contact Cynthia.
But considering Cynthia was supposedly in the middle of an intense battle, they suddenly didn't know if they should call…
In the end, the League member responsible for communicating with Cynthia couldn't hold back anymore and dialed her number.
"Huh? Battle?" Cynthia said blankly, feeding chips to her just-finished-training Gastrodon. "Who said that?"
"Lots of people saw me enter a battle arena with a Pokémon Trainer? I just wanted a wide, easy-to-maintain space to exchange techniques with him. How did it turn into a 'battle' rumor?"
Cynthia hung up. League officials hurried to the forum to clarify the misunderstanding.
Cynthia glanced at the time; her reserved session was about to end anyway. She told the Pokémon sparring inside to stop and rest, preparing to leave. Outside the door, Trainers refreshing their phones for updates were still tapping frantically at their screens.
Without any warning, the large locked gate of the battle arena slowly lifted open.
In an instant, all eyes slid past Cynthia… straight onto the Pokémon behind her.
The League said on the forum that this was just a training session, yeah, right.
Every Pokémon had minor injuries, and all looked completely exhausted.
It was definitely a fierce battle!
"Sinnoh has this kind of tradition too?" Luther felt like he'd been transported back to Kalos.
"I should buy another villa, demolish part of it, and turn it into my own private battle arena. Then I wouldn't have to run around. Such a hassle."
Cynthia's answer made Luther feel powerless. Her solution was way too straightforward and forceful.
Cynthia waved gracefully to the crowd around her. Sinnoh's Trainers understood her personality well enough, so none of them chased after her with questions.
But Luther's side was chaos, someone practically shoved a microphone into his mouth.
"Are you the challenger who battled Cynthia? How many of Cynthia's Pokémon did you defeat?"
"This is a misunderstanding. I only asked Cynthia to exchange battle techniques with me. As Champion, she was willing to offer guidance, that alone is a great honor."
He had no choice but to follow the Pokémon League's explanation; otherwise things would get impossible to clarify.
When they couldn't get what they wanted from Luther, the onlooking Trainers didn't give up. Instead, they shifted their attention to… the Pokémon.
Someone pushed a recorder right up to Marill's face.
"Excuse me, how many of Cynthia's Pokémon did your Trainer defeat? Please wag your tail once for each one. If he didn't defeat any, don't move."
Marill looked at Mai and Luther walking farther and farther away, then glared unhappily at the recorder in front of it.
The next second, Marill's spring-like tail whipped back and forth more than ten times.
"That's right! I solo-swept all of Cynthia's Pokémon! Goodbye!"
Anyway, they couldn't understand what Marill was saying. With that attitude, Marill shouted boldly into the recorder.
(End of chapter)