Covered in wounds, Jason withstood the focused fire of three Tera-boosted aces and still forced open an Outrage. With a sickening crack, Poppy's proud Tinkaton—hammer, Tera Steel armor and all—was utterly blown apart.
"Tinkaton is unable to battle."
Larry's voice was as listless as ever, but it hit like a funeral bell.
"Poppy!" Geeta turned. The girl who was usually afraid of nothing was just standing there, eyes red, silently recalling the partner who was both her bodyguard and her ace.
"Nice one, Jason!"
A weak but excited roar came from behind. Miraidon, barely standing, still found the strength to cheer for its partner.
Right now, Jason was pulling up from the wreckage of Tinkaton. His black dragon wings were still beating—but the savage aura rolling off him felt wrong.
"Rrgh?"
He jerked his head around; the last sliver of reason in his gaze drowned in blood-red madness. One vicious Dragon Claw tore through the air—hitting nothing.
In the commentary booth, Larry sighed. "Here we go… the recoil from Outrage. Jason's confused."
Before he'd even finished, Roaring Moon had gone completely berserk. It could no longer tell friend from foe—or even distinguish pain. It suddenly curled its neck and bit down hard on its own wing.
Blood sprayed.
"Now!"
A cold glint flashed through Geeta's eyes.
For a Champion, mercy is meaningless. Victory is the only respect.
"Rika! Hassel! Full focus fire!"
The tide flipped in an instant.
The three Tera-aces that had been pushed back a moment ago all swung their guns around, locking onto the self-harming maniac in the sky.
"Glimmora, Energy Ball!"
"Baxcalibur, Ice Shard!"
"Clodsire, Poison Jab!"
Three killing blows converged in the air and slammed into Jason.
Boom!
Smoke shot skyward. The four-times effective Ice Shard alone looked like it would shear his wings off. Roaring Moon's huge body flipped end over end, howling in agony.
But he didn't fall.
That monstrous base HP of 195 became pure, terrifying tenacity.
He was mauling himself in confusion, being shredded by their focus fire, screaming in pain—and still hung in the air like an unkillable berserk beast, eating everything they threw at him.
"He's still not down?!" Rika stared at the staggering silhouette, scalp numb. "What is this thing…"
"Just a spent arrow," Geeta said calmly. "Hassel, finish it. Ice Shard—send him off."
Hassel nodded. Baxcalibur gathered cold once more. Priority, never misses the mark.
The ice blade whistled through the air, aimed right at Jason's throat. He was still thrashing in confusion; there was no way he could dodge—
"Jason—!"
At the last instant, a blinding streak of purple electricity cut across the field, intercepting and shattering the fatal Ice Shard after it had already been thrown.
Bang!
Ice fragments scattered. In their wake, clarity returned to Jason's eyes. He blinked, stunned.
Down on the field, the Miraidon that should've been on its last legs was somehow standing again. Lightning crawled over its battered frame; it looked beaten to hell—but it was holding its head high.
"Stop embarrassing yourself…"
"You look awful!"
"ROAR!!"
Miraidon threw its head back and bellowed.
This wasn't just a move. This was a legendary Pokémon's pride.
Lightning burst out of it bright enough to drown the Hall's lights. The devastating wounds from Glaive Rush knit in an instant under the blaze of willpower.
Geeta's pupils shrank.
"Miraidon, engine full throttle!"
KRA-KOOM!!
Electric Terrain surged out in an instant, painting the entire Champion Hall in violet lightning.
"Too late."
Miraidon locked onto the Tera Dragon Baxcalibur. Its body vanished, turning into a purple bolt too fast for the eye.
Electro Drift.
The first hit was so fast Baxcalibur didn't even get to raise a claw.
The second hit crashed in with overwhelming force, tearing right through Tera-boosted defenses.
"Raaagh—!"
The mighty Baxcalibur didn't even finish a scream. Its Tera shell shattered, its huge body convulsed and crashed to the ground.
"Baxcalibur is unable to battle." For once, Larry's voice held an actual tremor.
The raging current arced over and struck Jason as well.
Zzzt—!
The shock, instead of hurting him further, acted like the world's harshest smelling salts.
Jason shuddered from head to toe; the red in his eyes vanished completely.
"Thanks, big guy."
"Hmph," Miraidon panted. That one burst had wrung the last drop of strength from it.
Now the field was down to a brutal 2v2.
A nearly dead Jason and Miraidon versus Rika's Clodsire and Geeta's Glimmora.
"I can't believe… we've been pushed this far," Rika muttered, sweat running down her temple. "Four versus two, and now it's two versus two…"
"The final round," Jason said quietly. He looked at Miraidon. "Can you still move?"
The dragon raised its head with whatever dignity it had left.
"Good. Then I'll go first."
Up in the air, Jason's form shifted.
Black scales and wings sloughed away, then recomposed in an instant—but not for speed, or raw power.
By the time he hit the floor, he'd become a wiry white ape with ragged fur and shackles around its wrists.
Annihilape.
He landed, swaying.
He carried over every point of damage Roaring Moon had taken—
Energy Ball burns, Ice Shard cuts, Poison Jab's sting—
All the pain contained in that 195 base HP—raw and undiluted—condensed into the ghostly white blaze in Annihilape's eyes.
Rage is the best fuel for a Ghost.
"My turn now."
His voice was hoarse, like some revenant that had crawled back from hell.
He raised a fist that wasn't even thick—but was wrapped in pure, seething hatred.
Rage Fist.
This punch carried every slight, every wound, every ounce of fury from the entire battle.
Geeta's face changed. "Rika! Get out of there!"
Too late.
Jason's body vanished from his spot. When he reappeared, the shockwave of his fist was already compressing the air in front of Clodsire's dopey face.
BOOM!!!
No fancy technique. Just pure, violent release.
Clodsire's blank stare went rigid.
Whether it was Oblivious or Water Absorb, under a maxed-out Rage Fist they were nothing but paper.
The Tera crown exploded. Clodsire's body launched like a shell and slammed into the wall.
One punch. Clean OHKO.
"Clodsire is unable to battle."
The Hall went dead quiet.
Miraidon gave one last overloaded hum, forcing out a small bolt that cracked into Glimmora before finally collapsing at Jason's side in a heap.
And so the field came down to just two staggering figures:
Jason in Annihilape form, and a cracked-but-still-terastallized Rock Glimmora.
Geeta watched the challenger who'd driven her into this corner and, unexpectedly, smiled.
"Jason, you are the strongest challenger I've ever seen."
She lifted her hand, letting her last surge of aura explode.
"But I'm the one who wins. Glimmora—Tera Blast!"
The power of the earth gathered. Glimmora burned its remaining life, birthing a cataclysmic wave of Rock energy that swallowed every angle Jason might use to dodge.
No way out.
He didn't try.
"Now."
He stepped into the oncoming flood, stamping hard enough to crack the marble beneath his feet.
He looked like a tiny boat charging straight into a tsunami.
KRA-BOOM!!
Tera Blast hit him full-on. It felt like an entire mountain had run him over. Bone screamed, muscle tore, his body shoved backwards metres at a time, carving two deep tracks through the floor.
Did it hurt? It hurt like hell.
But the more it hurt, the higher Rage Fist's power climbed.
"Break…!"
He roared and threw his right fist.
It punched through the storm of energy, small and simple, yet hitting like a falling mountain, and drove straight into Glimmora's core.
Crack.
A brittle, crystalline sound.
Tera light flickered twice, then went out.
Stone shattered. Petals fell.
Glimmora dropped out of the air.
When the dust finally settled—
Jason was still frozen mid-punch.
Only when he was certain his opponent was done did the will holding him up finally collapse.
Plop.
The white-furred demon vanished, replaced by a flat, wobbling blob of pink jelly star-fished on the floor.
"I'm dead tired."
His beady Ditto eyes were full of "I've had enough of life."
Geeta was silent for a long moment, then descended from the platform.
Her heels clicked sharply in the quiet hall.
She stopped in front of the pink puddle and looked down.
Jason cracked one eyelid open. "Sooo… are you gonna announce it, or what?"
She studied him for a long, long moment, then the rigid lines of her face softened into a relieved smile.
"You've won."
"Jason, you're the new Champion."
He flopped over onto his back. "Perfect… can I nap now? I seriously can't move."
Geeta: "…"
This should have been a historic moment.
Instead, the atmosphere was a mess.
Rika picked at her nails and refused to talk, Hassel was bawling, Poppy was cheering, and Larry was already packing his bag to go home.
…
Just as Geeta finished steadying her breathing and opened her mouth to make the official declaration—
BANG!
The heavy alloy doors of the Champion Hall—very expensive—were kicked open from the outside.
Literally kicked.
"Did I miss it!?"
The loud, hyper-energetic yell practically shook the hall.
A figure, covered in dust, skidded in.
Nemona.
Her hair was a wreck, eyes blazing like she'd just sprinted a marathon.
She scanned the room once and immediately locked onto the pink blob.
"Jason! I heard you were challenging the League! I—huh?"
She had to dig her heels in to avoid face-planting.
She stared at the wreckage.
At the field full of fainted aces.
At Hassel wiping his eyes and Larry with his bag on his shoulder.
Then finally, at Geeta standing politely in front of Jason.
"…Did I—miss something?" Nemona pointed weakly toward the battlefield. "Did you just finish? Did you beat Poppy?"
Jason sighed.
"Nemona, you're too slow."
"I beat you to Champion, y'know~"
Nemona's jaw dropped slowly, to the size of a whole Sitrus berry.
Geeta smiled and added the finishing blow. "He did."
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
Nemona's scream nearly took the roof off.
"How can you do this to me!!" She lunged to grab him and shake him—only to grab empty air. "How could you challenge for Champion without me! I want to be Champion too! Right now! Fight me! Winner takes the title!"
She already had a Poké Ball in her hand, eyes blazing.
"No."
Jason refused without a shred of hesitation.
"Why not!?"
"I'm hungry. I'm going to eat."
He drifted lazily around the exploding Nemona and headed for the door, where the office worker had been checking his watch.
"Mr. Larry!"
Larry paused, looked back, and pushed his glasses up.
"How about tonkatsu after work?"
"Sure," he said, surprisingly generous. "My treat."
"Woo! Larry-senpai's the best!"
"Let's go."
One tall, one small—two silhouettes walked out through the doors.
Nemona stood rooted in the champion's arena, turning to stone in the figurative wind.
…
High above, on an open terrace, a Rotom Phone floated in midair.
The Paldean sun was bright and warm.
Jason was sprawled in a lounge chair, a faint lilac puddle of goo. As a Ditto, this was his most relaxed state.
He extended a bit of himself; that bit thickened into a blunt "finger."
He tapped the screen.
A video call request shot off.
A few seconds later, the screen lit up.
Cynthia appeared.
She seemed to be indoors, a wall of books towering behind her. Golden hair fell over one shoulder; she held a black fountain pen between her fingers.
"A rare caller," she said first, setting the pen down. "You don't usually ring me."
Jason straightened a little, his slumped body stretching a few inches taller.
"Got a good news report."
He sounded very casual.
Cynthia watched the purple blob on the screen. "What news?"
"I've finished stomping all the Gyms in Paldea."
He wobbled his body as a kind of hand gesture.
"And just now, I fought their Champion and the Elite Four. You can guess how it ended. I won."
Cynthia didn't look particularly surprised.
She leaned back against her chair. "You were quick."
"I'm talented," he said, zero humility.
"Plus Gast and the others pulled their weight. The Champion battle here didn't put much pressure on me."
At the mention of Gast, a purple shape drifted closer.
Gengar Gast was gnawing on a berry. Seeing Cynthia, she immediately stuck her face into the camera, round purple mug filling the screen.
"Geh!"
She yelled at the screen with berry pulp still in her mouth.
Jason sighed and elongated himself into a long strip, stretching around the chubby Gengar and shoving her gently aside.
"Don't mess around. I'm talking."
Gast didn't mind; she just floated off and kept chewing.
Cynthia watched the whole bit of chaos. "Now that you're Champion…" She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "What will you do next?"
"That's why I called."
Jason slid back into the center of frame.
"There's no one left in Paldea that really helps me get stronger. Time to travel, make a change of scenery, maybe have some fun."
Cynthia tapped her fingers twice on the desk. "If you're traveling…"
She paused, eyes locked on the screen.
"Is your next stop Sinnoh?"
Her voice was steady, emotion carefully hidden—but the tapping stilled.
Jason looked at her.
"No."
His answer was crisp.
Cynthia's hand curled slightly. "Why?"
"Sinnoh's the final destination," he said, flopping back and spreading out like a pancake again.
"You're the strongest Champion. I may have beaten Paldea, but I don't want to just casually show up and challenge you. Where's the fun in that?"
He looked at the screen, tone a little more serious. "I'm going to other regions first, rack up more experience, and then come to Sinnoh for you."
Cynthia was silent for a moment.
She picked up the black pen again, spinning it once between her fingers.
"Sounds like a good plan."
"Of course it is."
Jason chuckled. Even without a mouth, his voice carried the smile. "Gotta save the toughest boss for last. Makes it more exciting."
"I'm the toughest?" Cynthia raised an eyebrow.
"Obviously."
"…All right."
She nodded. "If you're making Sinnoh the grand finale, I'll be waiting at the top of the Lily of the Valley Conference. Just don't get knocked out by someone else on the way."
"Relax. I'm Jason," he said, molding a hand-shape out of his body and waving it at the screen.
"Anyway, that's it. I'm hanging up."
"Stay safe on your way."
The call ended; the screen went black.
Jason turned toward Gast.
She'd already finished the berry and was patting her round belly.
"Let's go."
He dropped off the chair with a soft thump. "We should figure out where to buy plane tickets."
Gast grinned, floating after him, little legs paddling the air.
Blob and ghost drifted off the terrace together, unhurried, toward their next adventure.