Oak stepped into the middle of the field.
He'd done this before — refereed battles between young trainers, watched rivals find the shape of their competition for the first time. He had the bearing of someone who knew how to hold the centre of something.
"I'll referee," he said. He looked at both of them. "One-on-one. First Pokémon to faint loses. No substitutions." A pause. "Any questions?"
Gary shook his head. Eyes on Y across the field.
Ash shook his head. Eyes on Squirtle.
"Then — begin."
"Squirtle, Water Pulse!"
Gary's command came fast — the reflex of someone who'd been waiting for this. Squirtle's expression shifted immediately into focus, a swirling orb of shimmering water forming in front of it, gathering and tightening.
'TM move,' Ash clocked it in the same breath. 'Strong. Aimed centre mass. Gary opens with power because that's what he knows.'
"Y — left. Fire Fang on the follow."
Y was already moving.
It stepped left as the Water Pulse shot past — close enough that the spray caught its tail — and closed the distance in the same motion, jaws igniting with concentrated heat before Squirtle had fully processed that its attack had missed.
Fire Fang connected on Squirtle's arm.
Not super-effective. Water-types ran hot enough inside that fire damage landed differently. But the contact was clean and the sound of it carried — a sharp hiss of superheated air — and Squirtle yelped and pulled back, the Water Pulse dissipating in a harmless spray.
"No—!" Gary started forward half a step, stopped himself. "Shell, Squirtle. Get in your shell."
Squirtle understood immediately. It tucked in — head, limbs, tail — and became a small blue dome on the grass. Still. Armoured. The practiced retreat of something that had drilled this.
Ash watched it.
'Good instinct,' he thought. 'Wrong call.'
"Y," he said. "Take the shell. Ember through the gaps."
Y crossed to Squirtle without hesitation. Got its claws around the edge of the shell — not trying to crack it, not pulling, just anchoring — and pushed the ember straight into the gap where Squirtle's head had been a moment before.
The sound from inside was immediate.
Muffled. Surprised. Distinctly unhappy.
The shell rocked.
On the fence, May covered her mouth. Daisy looked away briefly. Green tilted her head with the expression of someone watching something more interesting than they expected.
"Squirtle!" Gary's voice cracked slightly. He was watching his Pokémon rock back and forth with the helpless look of someone who hadn't trained for this scenario because this scenario was something they would never have thought to train for. "Roll away — use Ice Beam!"
'Ice Beam,' Ash thought. 'Another TM. Smart pivot — if Squirtle can get clear and line it up, Ice Beam into Y at this range is significant.'
'If.'
"Y. Move in closer."
The command confused everyone. Gary blinked. Squirtle, halfway out of its shell and already gathering the cold energy for Ice Beam, hesitated — the faint blue glow wavering at the back of its throat.
'That's the window.'
"Ember. Straight in."
Y was already there.
The embers went into Squirtle's open mouth.
The Ice Beam died instantly. Squirtle made a sound that was equal parts shock and agony and rolled sideways onto the grass, coughing smoke, tears streaming freely down its face.
The field went very quiet.
Oak's expression had shifted from referee-neutral to something that was trying very hard to stay referee-neutral.
'I know,' Ash thought, watching Squirtle struggle upright. 'It's not pretty. But Gary set the stakes. And pulling punches now doesn't help either of them.'
"Y. Scratch. End it."
Y closed the distance.
What happened next was fast.
When it was over, Squirtle lay still on the grass, face marked with clean parallel lines, eyes closed, chest rising and falling in the small steady rhythm of a faint.
"Squirtle is unable to battle," Oak said. His voice was steady. "The winner is Ash."
Gary didn't move for a moment.
He was looking at his Pokémon on the grass with the expression of someone whose understanding of how something was going to go has just been replaced, abruptly and completely, by how it actually went.
Then he crossed the field and sat down next to Squirtle. Just sat. On the grass. In the middle of the field.
Ash walked over. Crouched down beside him.
He looked at Squirtle — still breathing steadily, not seriously hurt, the kind of faint that a Pokémon Centre would sort out in twenty minutes. Then at Gary, who was staring at nothing with the hollow look of someone processing a first loss.
"Lina will heal Squirtle perfectly," Ash said, quietly. "It's not as bad as it looks."
Gary's jaw tightened.
"Like hell I'll acknowledge you," he said. His voice was low. Rough in a way he was clearly trying to control. "You cheated. There's no way a newbie beats my Squirtle."
"It's called tactics," Ash said. "You have to account for every option, not just the ones you planned for."
"You were ruthless," Gary said. Not an accusation. Just a statement, flat and honest.
"Yes," Ash said. "I was."
Gary looked at him.
There was something in Gary's eyes that Ash recognised — had recognised across a decade of rivalry. Not hatred. Never quite hatred. Something more complicated. The look of someone measuring themselves against another person and not liking the result and not knowing yet what to do with that.
"You need to train Squirtle properly," Ash said. "Not just TMs. Actual drills. Battle awareness. Reaction time." He paused. "It's a good Pokémon. Don't waste that."
Gary's expression flickered.
He looked down at Squirtle.
Then back at Ash.
"...I'll never accept you," he said, very quietly. More to himself than anything. His voice had gone thick at the edges.
He stood up. Picked up Squirtle carefully. And walked over the small hill at the edge of the ranch without looking back.
The dust settled behind him.
The field was quiet.
"You scared little Gary," May said, appearing at Ash's shoulder with a grin that couldn't entirely decide whether it was impressed or reproachful. She punched him lightly on the arm. "That was brutal."
"That was efficient," Ash said.
"Brutally efficient," Green said, from his other side. She'd moved from the fence without him noticing. "Though I'll admit the ember-into-the-mouth was inspired."
"It was a bit much," Ash said.
"It was extremely much," Green said. "And it worked perfectly."
Daisy walked over more slowly. Her expression was a mixture of things — concern for Gary, something warmer underneath that.
"Sorry about him," she said.
"Don't be," Ash said. "He'll be fine. He just needs to sit with it for a while." He looked in the direction Gary had gone. "First losses are like that."
Daisy looked at him.
"You sound like you know," she said.
"I know a lot of people who've lost for the first time," Ash said, which was true, and mostly a deflection, and seemed to satisfy her.
She smiled. Small and genuine.
"Thank you," she said, which was a different thing than sorry and meant something different, and Ash didn't entirely know how to respond to it so he nodded and looked at the sky instead.
"Ohhh, quit it with the romantic moment," Green said. "Some of us are standing right here."
"Extremely right here," May agreed.
"I wasn't—" Daisy started.
"You were absolutely," May said.
X, who had been watching the entire battle from Ash's arms with the furious, focused attention of a Pokémon deeply displeased at being benched, chose this moment to climb up Ash's front and sit on his head.
"Char," it said, with great authority.
"That's fair," Ash said.
Y appeared at his ankle, looked up at X on his head, and made a sound that, if Charmander could convey smugness, conveyed it thoroughly.
Ash looked at the sky.
The afternoon was still warm. The grass was still long. Somewhere over the hill, Gary was walking back toward Pallet Town with his Squirtle and his first loss and a lot to think about.
'Things are going to get interesting,' he thought.
'They really are.'