Chapter 359:
But what she never expected was that Brother Kaede's commands in the end would be so simple...
The battle was a one sided crush, a pure and utter crush.
Aside from Blaziken, Dragonite, and Meowscarada, whom she had seen before, she never imagined that the usually sweet and soft Alolan Ninetales, the aloof Serperior, and the gentle Gardevoir could also possess such formidable strength.
Especially Alolan Ninetales; the visual impact it delivered was the greatest.
She couldn't believe that the Alolan Ninetales, usually so hard to even pet, could perform so dazzlingly in a match?
That Blizzard made her eyes widen in astonishment.
The more she thought about it, the more excited she became. She couldn't help but hug the drowsy Noibat beside her, muttering, "Next year, next year... no, this year, this year, we must step onto the Pokémon League Conference stage and take first... well, just achieving a ranking would be fine too..."
She originally wanted to say "take first place," but felt that was too boastful.
So, she changed it to just achieving a ranking.
As for Noibat, it was still young. It had already been pulled by Megumi to watch matches in front of the TV all day, under the pretense of 'learn more now, win more on the battlefield later.'
By now, it was already quite tired, but being pulled like this by Megumi, its sleepiness vanished instantly.
Suddenly feeling a bit angry, it directly flew onto Megumi's head and started tugging at the girl's hair.
There's a particular kind of pain that only girls understand: having your hair pulled. Megumi immediately jumped up, her expression pained.
╰（‵□′）╯ : "Noibat, what are you doing? Pulling my hair again...."
As she spoke, she reached out to grab Noibat.
This exclamation naturally startled the nearby Floragato, which was also lying down. After seeing it was Noibat grabbing Megumi's hair, its gaze turned resigned.
As if this was routine, it yawned and lay back down.
If it guessed correctly, Megumi would call for it in a moment.
Sure enough, the next second.
"Floragato, help me catch Noibat..."
...
January 15th.
Third Day of the Pokémon League Conference.
Perhaps due to the matching mechanism, there were few particularly outstanding matches on the second day.
Although the few remarkable matches were recorded, they ultimately couldn't match the shock value of Hayashi Kaede's battle. As they say, 'the first gem sets the standard,' making the subsequent matches less astonishing.
However, by the third day, the matches reached a different level of excitement.
Not only were the matches on the third day full 6v6 battles, but to enrich the competition, field change rules were also added.
Although this made the matches more complex, the battlefield is, after all, an important factor in Pokémon battles.
There were six fields in total:
Lake Water, Grassy Field, Steep Rocks, Ice Field, Scorched Rocks, and Sky.
They were changed by several Psychic-type Pokémon controlling mechanisms and gears below.
The battlefield was changed for each new match.
That is, before two trainers battled, a draw would be held. Whatever field was drawn would be used for half of that entire battle—meaning for one of the trainers—until they had not yet lost three Pokémon.
This would continue until the next battle began.
Except for the Sky, Lake Water, and Scorched Rocks fields.
These three fields, after being drawn, could be changed based on the opinions of both trainers.
During a match, if a trainer had one Pokémon lose the ability to battle on these two fields, they could request a field change.
The Sky field involved official League Psychic-type Pokémon floating wooden planks in mid-air over the battlefield. Pokémon that couldn't fly could only stay on these planks; falling off meant a loss.
The Lake Water scene was similar, with numerous planks arranged on the water surface.
As for the Scorched Rocks, although it was a plain of rock, Fire-type Pokémon would be heating it from below, making the entire ground as hot as a volcanic crater.
Different from the previous ones, this undoubtedly added more environmental complexity for the trainers.
It also added a layer of complexity to the outcome.
For example, if the Lake Water field was drawn, but the trainer specialized in Fire-type Pokémon, wouldn't they be in trouble?
The same logic applied to the Sky field.
However, the League officials had clearly thought of this.
That's why these two fields were made slightly special.
After the announcer finished explaining the rules, the audience and contestants' seating areas buzzed with discussion.
"This field rule... I've never seen it before?"
"Seems like it has pros and cons. With good luck, for example, if Miss Sally draws the Ice Field, wouldn't she excel??"
"Hehe, interesting, interesting. This is good. Imagine a Fire-type trainer drawing the Lake Water field; they'd be as miserable as if they'd eaten something bad."
Everyone expressed strong interest in this new rule.
Previous Pokémon League Conferences didn't have such interesting rules.
*'It must have been Kazephyr's idea.'*
Hearing this rule, Hayashi Kaede also looked quite interested.
But he felt this rule was probably chosen by Kazephyr.
After announcing the rules and answering questions from the contestants' seating area, it was time for the contestant drawing sequence.
The originally crowded large screen now had much fewer entries after two rounds of matches.
Everyone, both in the contestants' and audience seating areas, stared intently at the central large screen.
For the contestants in the seating area, no one wanted their opponent to be a very strong trainer.
Everyone hoped the opponent they faced would have Pokémon that were weak against their own.
But for the audience in the stands, everyone now wanted to see matches between skilled trainers.
Especially the strong versus the stronger; that would deliver the greatest visual impact.
One portrait after another was fixed.
Pair after pair of battling opponents was confirmed.
"It's over..."
Someone who was matched against Tobias felt their vision go dark.
Others matched against Kensuke were already thinking of ways to figure out how their Pokémon could have a chance of winning.
*'Don't match me with Hayashi Kaede....'*
*'Don't match me with Hayashi Kaede....'*
The portraits spun, and Hayashi Kaede's portrait was slow to appear, making the other contestants whose names hadn't been called yet rather apprehensive.
By now, everyone could realize that being matched with other contestants, while the outcome was uncertain, still meant they had a fighting chance.
But being matched with Hayashi Kaede meant truly having no chance of winning.
As the portraits finally settled, a portion of the audience felt their vision go dark.
"It's over, it's over... Miss Sally is matched against that person...."
"No way, heavens, how could you be so blind? Miss Sally is only in the top 32...."
On the large screen, displayed right next to Hayashi Kaede's name, was the face of that tens-of-millions-follower little lolita internet celebrity—Sally.
Right now, her fans were howling and mourning in the audience seats.