Fire field.
Silence! Dead silence!
All eyes were fixed on Arcanine. No one could quite process what they'd just seen. That Arcanine, who had been so dominant just a moment ago, had gotten instantly KO'd by Charizard in a single move? Arcanine was a Wind/Fire-type Pokémon—its Fire-type resistance, while not as insane as a pure Fire-type, was still far better than most Pokémon out there. So for it to get one-shotted by Charizard using a Fire move—that just didn't add up!
No one looked more dumbstruck than Sasaki Ono himself.
He knew exactly how strong his Arcanine was—Champion-tier, and it had mastered the Fire element. For Arcanine to be instantly KO'd by a Fire-type move… that was practically impossible, unless there was an elemental gap of a whole qualitative level. And if that was the case, just how insanely strong was Charizard?
His mind raced. All the intel said Silas's strongest Pokémon was at the very peak of Champion power. But if that was the case, there was no way Charizard could've dominated elementally like that. Which meant Charizard must be even stronger!
The thought made Sasaki Ono's face go pale.
If Charizard was just top Champion tier, with Tyranitar he might still have ways to cope. It wouldn't be a guaranteed win, but at least there'd be maybe a 20-30% chance. But if Charizard was above the pinnacle of Champion power… then all his strategies were basically worthless.
Still, even now, he wasn't willing to give up!
The Sasaki family had already paid a heavy price to get this far in the tournament. If he failed now, the cost could cripple them for decades, even if it didn't totally wipe them out.
So he decided to at least test the waters—see if Charizard really had broken through the Champion ceiling.
If yes, he'd admit defeat gladly.
If not, he'd still have one last shot.
Resolute, he retrieved Arcanine, then addressed Silas: "You're ridiculously strong. But I'm not backing down just yet! Go! Lucario!"
'Lucario~'
A humanoid Pokémon appeared on the field. Silas instantly understood why Sasaki still had the nerve to keep fighting—Lucario had just broken into top Champion-tier!
"Lucario!" Sasaki Ono attacked instantly. "Extreme Speed, then Close Combat!"
'Lucario!'
Lucario vanished from sight—reappearing at Charizard's flank in a blur!
But against Lucario's lunge, Charizard didn't even wait for Silas's command—he grabbed Lucario's attacking arm mid-strike. Silas called out in sync, "Seismic Toss!"
'Charizard!'
Charizard immediately wrapped Lucario up, then flapped his wings hard, carrying Lucario high into the sky—like he was about to break through the clouds!
Sasaki Ono stared, momentarily stunned.
Charizard's reaction speed was off the charts—it was more like a Fighting-type than a Fire-type Pokémon!
Little did he know, Charizard had been grinding hard on his Fighting-type stats lately. And on the fire field, this was his home turf—full of fiery elemental energy. With Legendary-level power, Charizard couldn't fully communicate with fire like a god, but sensing elemental changes here was second nature.
In this field, Charizard practically had eyes everywhere—Lucario couldn't touch him from any angle.
Still, battle-hardened as he was, Sasaki Ono snapped back to command: "Lucario, use Aura Sphere!"
"Sacred Fire!"
As soon as Sasaki shouted, Silas's counter-order came right on its heels.
Both Pokémon sprang instantly into action.
Lucario raised both hands, trying to charge up an Aura Sphere—but before he got it off, Charizard erupted with pure white fire. That Sacred Fire spread in a flash, engulfing both Pokémon in a blazing curtain. Lucario screamed out in agony.
'Lucario!!!'
His cries echoed across the whole stadium.
Sacred Fire—even Legendary Pokémon feared those flames. Lucario was just top Champion-tier; there was no way he could endure that. If he hadn't been a Fighting-type with a tough enough body, he'd have been roasted to ashes on the spot.
As Lucario screamed, Charizard was already spiraling him through the air!
From the ground, the pair looked like a massive white fireball spinning overhead—then, like a falling meteor, it plummeted straight for the field. The audience couldn't help but gasp.
"Wow… that's beautiful, but honestly kind of terrifying!"
"No kidding. At that heat level, I bet that fireball is insanely powerful!"
"Beautiful or not, is anybody sure that thing won't crash into the stands? If it touches you, you're toast!"
"Run for it!"
Someone in the crowd shouted to run, and the stands broke into chaos!
Right then, the great white fireball smashed down onto the fire field!
'BOOM!'
A huge explosion shook the arena, flinging dust everywhere.
When the smoke cleared, Charizard had already returned to Silas's side, a fresh crater in front of them. The pit must have been nearly two meters wide, with Lucario sprawled unconscious at the bottom—definitely out of commission.
Seeing his Lucario defeated, Sasaki Ono could only laugh bitterly as he called him back. Now he really understood how strong Charizard was. After returning Lucario, he turned to the referees and said, "Referee, I forfeit!"
...
Indigo Plateau.
10 a.m.
After wrapping up his match with Sasaki Ono, Silas rushed over to the Pokémon Center where Suzie was waiting.
When Silas arrived, Pikachu's treatment was finished. The little guy was wrapped head to toe in bandages, only his black glossy eyes exposed, darting around restlessly. As soon as he saw Silas at the door, Pikachu tried to speak—but his mouth was covered with bandages and couldn't open at all, so all he could do was give Silas the most pitiful look you ever saw. The cuteness was enough to break anyone's heart.
Silas wanted to go right over—but something held him back!
Because in addition to Pikachu and Suzie, there was another woman sitting inside—the one and only Cynthia!
Any normal day, Silas wouldn't care about running into Cynthia. But after what went down yesterday, things were, well, a little awkward between them. No matter how little he cared for her opinion, yesterday's incident was on him—he couldn't just barge in and play dumb.
So his first thought was to quietly slip away. But before he could, Suzie spotted him and said, "Silas, where are you going? Come on in—Miss Cynthia's here, too!"
Suzie's words froze Silas in his tracks. He turned back with a wry smile, bracing himself against Cynthia's unreadable smile, and tried to find an excuse: "I, uh, was gonna check with Nurse Joy—see if there's any better treatment for Pikachu."
"Oh~" Before Suzie could answer, Cynthia's eyes widened knowingly, and she smiled sweetly: "You're such a good Trainer, Silas, always thinking of your Pokémon's wellbeing."
Cynthia's reaction totally caught Silas off guard. He thought she'd blow up at him on the spot; instead, she was all smiles, acting like yesterday never even happened.
But Silas wasn't naive enough to think Cynthia really didn't care. If anything, her presence here proved she cared a lot—she was probably here to get some payback. So when Cynthia praised him, Silas just raised an eyebrow and volleyed the question back: "Wouldn't you say that's just basic decency? Catching a Pokémon also means taking responsibility for it."
"Of course," Cynthia nodded with a pleasant smile. "The world's full of folks who run the moment things get tough—no sense of responsibility at all. People like that don't deserve to be called Trainers!"
If the topic was different, Silas would've missed the shade Cynthia was throwing about him bailing yesterday. He was just gearing up to retort, but Suzie jumped in out of nowhere, righteously indignant: "Absolutely! Trainers like that—the irresponsible ones—are why so many Pokémon get abandoned every year! They shouldn't be allowed to call themselves Trainers at all!"
"..." Silas.
Seeing Suzie's fiery indignation, Cynthia's eyes narrowed with delight. "I'm thinking once Silas becomes Kanto Champion, the two of us Champions should propose to the League: any Trainer who abandons their Pokémon and shirks their responsibility should have their Trainer license revoked—permanently banned from all League events!"
Cynthia's proposal made Suzie's eyes practically sparkle—she totally supported it. But the final decision rested with Silas, so she just looked at him hopefully, waiting for him to say yes.
Suzie's hopeful, pleading eyes made Silas want to break out in cold sweat. There was no way he could just agree to this—besides, Cynthia probably wasn't even serious, she was just fishing for a reaction. He laughed it off, "Let's talk about that another time. Anyway, Suzie, could you use my Pokédex to check tomorrow's opponent and field for me?"
"Okay." Suzie didn't suspect a thing; she took the Pokédex and left.
Once Suzie was out, Silas went up to Cynthia, forcing a smile, "Alright, what are you really here for?"
"Whatever do you mean?" Cynthia replied, all innocent confusion. "I just happened to run into Miss Suzie rushing to the Pokémon Center and figured I'd come along. Is there a problem?"
"You…" Silas was speechless at Cynthia's evasive answer.
But he really had no way to deal with her—she was playing innocent, and he wasn't about to stick his neck out and bring up yesterday's drama himself.
So he just ignored Cynthia and turned to the still-bundled Pikachu, poking at its cheek with a smile: "Does it hurt?"
Pikachu immediately nodded—too hard, and tears rolled right out of his eyes.
That made Silas chuckle softly. Pikachu was so cute he couldn't help teasing, even as he scolded gently: "Hurts, huh? Remember what happened this time—once you recover, you're back to training! No more getting reckless, you hear me?"
Pikachu nodded through his tears, then shot Silas a long-suffering glare—like, what kind of Trainer bullies his Pokémon when they're already hurt? Monster! Of course, Silas actually did care a lot, which is exactly why he wanted Pikachu to remember this lesson—so next time, he wouldn't go overboard.
While Silas was goofing off with Pikachu, Suzie came back—and brought a huge surprise with her!
"Silas!" Suzie rushed in, a weird look on her face as she handed over the Pokédex: "You're up first tomorrow morning. Field is the Rock field—and your opponent is… Ash!"
Ash?!
Silas froze for a second, then a strange expression took over his face—he never expected that he'd be facing Ash in the Top 32 to Top 16 match!
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