Venusaur's appearance wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Earlier that morning, Natsui had specifically contacted Koharu and asked her to send it over using the transporter at the institute.
He would never abandon the Pokémon he had caught, leaving them neglected like Ash sometimes did. Although Venusaur hadn't battled in a long time and its current strength wasn't guaranteed, its foundation was still solid. Fighting in these preliminary rounds wouldn't be a problem.
Seeing that it was Venusaur, the competitor facing Natsui had a mixed expression of relief and complexity.
He was relieved because, in the Indigo Conference matches he had watched, Venusaur had been one of Natsui's more conventional Pokémon. It had no major weaknesses but also didn't display overly flashy maneuvers.
Battling such a Pokémon would naturally be relatively easier compared to facing Charizard, Gyarados, or Gardevoir.
But he also felt conflicted because Venusaur was still very strong and wouldn't be easy to defeat.
Seeing him hesitate for a long time, the referee glanced at the competitor and prompted, "Competitor Kimura, please send out your Pokémon."
Hearing the referee, Natsui finally learned his opponent's name.
Although it was listed on the match schedule, since he wasn't a particularly famous competitor or someone from the anime, Natsui hadn't bothered to remember it.
Reminded by the referee, Kimura snapped back to reality and quickly thought about which Pokémon to use against Venusaur.
After a few seconds, he took out a Poké Ball with a cautious expression.
When he opened the Poké Ball and released his Pokémon, the audience saw that, after careful consideration, Kimura had indeed not wasted his counter-pick advantage. He sent out a Flying-type Pokémon effective against Venusaur—Ledian!
"That's certainly a good choice. Flying beats Grass. It looks like competitor Natsui is facing a tough challenge!" The announcer's booming voice echoed through Stadium A. "Now, both sides are ready. Let's see who will emerge victorious in this first battle!"
...
The preliminary rounds used a 3-on-3 format, with each competitor sending out three Pokémon. For his first match in the preliminaries, Natsui played it safe. He used Venusaur, Scizor, and Tyranitar to defeat Kimura's Ledian, Magmar, and Jumpluff, securing a clean 3-0 victory.
Throughout the three battles, although Kimura's Pokémon fought hard, they didn't cause much trouble for Natsui.
Anyone could see there was a clear difference in the power levels between the Pokémon on both sides.
"The Boss is as strong as ever!" Masa said excitedly after watching, though such one-sided matches felt somewhat anticlimactic and not thrilling enough. "Even type disadvantage didn't bother him much. Seriously, no one can stop him from winning the championship!"
"You can't say that for sure..." Compared to her brother, Misa was more conservative. "This is just the preliminary round. The skill levels of the competitors are still uneven. The truly strong ones will only emerge once we reach the top eight."
Natsui shook hands with the dejected Kimura, nodded to the cheering crowd, and left the Stadium A field through the competitor's passage.
Winning the first preliminary match meant he had already secured 3 points. As long as nothing went wrong and he defeated the other opponent in his group, he would successfully advance to the Top 16.
For Kimura, advancing was now only a theoretical possibility. It would require Natsui to lose to the other group member in the next match, Kimura himself to defeat that same opponent, and finally, for Kimura to face Natsui again in a revenge match and win.
But the chances of that happening were extremely slim. Setting aside whether Natsui would lose to the other group member, Kimura simply didn't have the confidence to defeat Natsui again, given his own strength.
The audience cheered wildly for Natsui's victory. In fact, this result was widely expected and matched pre-tournament predictions. It would be truly surprising if Natsui actually lost a match.
After meeting up with Erika outside the stadium, the two walked shoulder-to-shoulder back to the lobby of the Athlete's Village to watch Ash's match on the big screen.
By now, Ash's match had reached its most critical point.
His opponent was a little girl about his age named Macey, with two pigtails and rosy cheeks. She looked rather plain and not particularly bright.
Looking at the match status, Natsui was surprised to see that Ash had been pushed into a corner!
The score was currently 1-2. Macey had lost her Magcargo, while Ash's Phanpy and Totodile had both been defeated.
Erika looked at the screen in surprise. Having battled Ash before and known him for so long, she knew his capabilities. This situation was something she had never expected.
"This..." she hesitated, searching for the right words. "This is quite unexpected. I thought he might be at a disadvantage, but I didn't expect such a difficult battle."
Natsui looked closely at the battle situation and sighed. "Look, this girl Macey has already shown all three of her Pokémon: Magcargo, Quilava, and Electabuzz. And Ash sent out Totodile and Phanpy. From this, you can see Ash adjusted his lineup based on his opponent, using Totodile against Macey's two Fire-types and the Ground-type Phanpy to counter potential counters."
"Indeed," Erika nodded. "Thinking that far ahead... that's not usually his style."
Natsui shook his head. "That's probably thanks to Brock and Misty advising him from the sidelines. But even with all that planning, this girl Macey is not easy to beat. Now, let's see how Ash gets out of this predicament."
As they watched, Ash sent out his final Pokémon on the screen.
However, it wasn't his long-trusted partner Pikachu, but surprisingly, the Squirtle he had left with Officer Jenny to become the leader of a firefighting squad!
That was truly unexpected.
But facing Macey's Electabuzz with his last Pokémon wasn't a good choice.
Fortunately, as a master of overcoming type disadvantages, Ash showed his tenacious side.
Squirtle performed brilliantly, first defeating Electabuzz against the type matchup, and then beating Quilava with the type advantage, helping Ash secure a hard-fought victory.
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