Late at night, with the island of Liberty Garden quiet and still, the sea breeze blew straight in from the shore.
Grey stood on the beach, letting the gusts wash over him.
Riolu walked over with a yawn, confusion in its eyes. "What are you doing out here on the beach in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"
Normally, people should have been asleep by this hour. Other than novelists and people working the night shift, not many were still awake at one in the morning.
"It's fine, I can handle it."
Grey waved a hand. His body was still in perfectly good shape.
"That may be true, but you should still sleep earlier. Your health matters."
Riolu was already getting sleepy. It usually went to bed a little after eleven and lived an extremely healthy life.
Staying up past one like this was a rare sight.
"Yeah, I'll stay out and enjoy the wind a little longer."
Grey sent Riolu back first, then sat down on the sand and let all his partners out.
Blaziken planted itself steadily at Grey's side and looked out over the sea with him. "Boss, what's going on tonight? Is there some Pokémon out there we need to fight?"
After all, it had been a long time since the entire main team had been gathered together like this.
"Nothing like that. I just wanted to enjoy the sea breeze and chat for a bit."
Grey closed his eyes, finally letting the tension that had built up over the past several days loosen a little.
Back when he was living his everyday life in Kanto, all he really liked doing was bullying Team Rocket.
Now that he was in Unova, that had turned into bullying Team Plasma instead.
Still, Team Plasma was a far more urgent problem.
Grey had been thinking about how exactly he was supposed to deal with them.
Reshiram and Zekrom were almost useless at this point.
Kyurem completely countered both of them at a mechanical level, and sending those two unlucky brothers back out under circumstances like this would just be asking for trouble.
So at the moment, the only Pokémon who could probably stand against Kyurem were Riolu and Mewtwo.
Sure enough, when a Kanto man was away from home, the only things he could really rely on were Kanto's own Legendary and Mythical Pokémon.
Everything else was hopelessly unreliable.
"..."
Reshiram flew out from its Cherish Ball. It badly wanted to argue with that, but Grey was only telling the truth.
Even with the power of Truth backing it, it could currently fight about one-point-four Kyurems.
But Kyurem countered it completely.
If Kyurem ever got its hands on it, well, it would get turned into that thing, the kind of thing where those who knew, knew.
Blaziken turned its head and greeted it. "That fire energy is ridiculously dense. I didn't even need to look to know it was you."
Breloom scratched its head, sounding a little regretful. "What a shame. I wasn't there when the boss caught Reshiram. Feels like something important was missing."
Back when they had caught the three legendary birds, it had been Breloom doing the Spore work.
But this time, when Grey went to catch Reshiram, he hadn't sent Breloom out at all.
Of course, even if he had, Breloom might not have been able to beat Reshiram anyway.
Even though this sounded like he was slandering birds yet again, Grey still had to say it, compared to Reshiram, the three legendary birds were still a tier lower.
That was why he had been so confident about sending Breloom out to scatter Spore.
But Reshiram was different.
Reshiram was Unova's local major legendary, immensely powerful and absolutely not something to underestimate.
"..."
Reshiram had the strange feeling that none of Grey's Pokémon were afraid of it.
Back when it had still been in Dragonspiral Tower, every Pokémon in the tower except Zekrom had feared its pressure.
Even if Grey's team didn't have many Dragon-types, they should still have been intimidated by it, right?
And yet, instead of fearing it, they either wanted to sleep with it or charge straight at it.
This was nothing like the scene it had once imagined.
Truly, it was all very real.
Annihilape walked over to Reshiram's side. It wasn't as tall as Reshiram, but somehow it carried itself like a veteran. "You'll get used to it after you've been here a while. This is normal."
Reshiram didn't really understand, but it nodded anyway.
Then Lucario suddenly let out a sharp shout.
Boom!
A violent shockwave of wind blasted outward.
All the Pokémon turned toward the sound and saw Lucario thrusting forward the Aura Sphere it had gathered in its hands, carving a vacuum path straight across the surface of the sea.
"Not bad power."
That was Grey's evaluation.
Lucario's current strength was actually pretty solid. The only reason it kept looking like it was struggling was because every opponent it faced was roughly on its level.
Lucario shook its head. "I still don't think it's enough. I need to get even stronger."
It pushed its Aura to the limit again and formed an Aura Sphere five meters across.
Riolu walked over and commented, "That's too big. It looks impressive, but the energy is too spread out. A lot of moves could block something like that."
Then it lifted both hands and effortlessly formed an Aura Sphere the same size as Lucario's.
But it didn't stop there.
Riolu began compressing it, from three meters, to one meter, and finally down to just ten centimeters.
It looked small and ordinary, but anyone who really understood Aura could tell how much terrifying power was packed inside.
Lucario stared at it. "That looks hard to learn..."
"I see. Got it."
Lucario shook its head.
Grey nodded.
Riolu and Lucario both froze.
I was teaching Lucario, how did you learn it first?
I'm the one learning from Riolu, how did the boss get it before me?
Both of them were stunned.
Grey, on the other hand, looked completely unconcerned.
"Wasn't that simple? I got it right away."
As he spoke, Grey copied what Riolu had done, gathering an Aura Sphere of the same size and compressing it down to a sphere only ten centimeters wide.
Lucario fell silent.
Reshiram fell silent.
Riolu fell silent.
The three of them had all been completely shut down by Grey's absurd talent. The two Aura users were utterly convinced by how monstrous he was.
As for Reshiram, it simply could not understand how a human could use Aura at such an outrageously refined level.
Maybe it had slept for too long and no longer understood what humans of this era were like.
"Nothing special, really. Easy stuff."
Grey waved it off like it was no big deal.
Riolu grabbed Lucario and started walking away. "We're not talking to a cheat. Come on, I'll teach you properly how to compress your Aura."
Lucario nodded hard. "Agreed."
Gallade could only squeeze out one sentence. "Boss, you're amazing."
Then it turned toward a nearby coconut tree and unleashed Sacred Sword.
The trunk was cleanly cut in half.
The coconuts above came rolling down.
Gallade casually picked one up, split it open with its elbow blade, and started drinking.
"This kind of coconut is way better. Here, Annihilape, have one too."
As it spoke, Gallade opened one for Annihilape as well.
Annihilape drank the coconut water in one gulp and nodded. "Not bad."
At the same time, back at the Fighting Dojo, there were now so many new arrivals that Poliwrath had taken on the role of instructor, guiding the newly caught Scraggy, Larvesta, and Keldeo.
"So you three are the Pokémon Grey caught in Unova, right?"
Poliwrath paced back and forth, roughly sizing them up.
Scraggy was a total beginner whose strength had only just started to develop, and it still looked thoroughly lost.
That made sense. It had just been caught and sent straight to the dojo.
There hadn't even been any time to build rapport first. Their bond would probably have to be developed slowly later.
Scraggy nodded repeatedly. "That's right. I don't really know what's going on, but I definitely got hit by a Poké Ball and caught."
"It's fine, not a big problem. Train with me, and you'll get stronger too."
Poliwrath was actually quite skilled at raising Pokémon. It hadn't really had a place to show that talent at the dojo, but when it had gone out to participate in tournaments before, it had taken the chance to coach a few others.
And honestly, it really did have some talent for teaching.
Out of the three newcomers at the Fighting Dojo, aside from Larvesta, the other two were both manageable.
Scraggy snapped to attention. "Yes, Instructor Poliwrath! But I'm probably really slow at learning moves, so please bear with me!"
Back when it was living in the desert, the other Pokémon in its group had called it the hopeless Scraggy because it learned moves so slowly.
"That's your problem? That's not a problem at all."
Poliwrath didn't think much of it.
It had seen Pokémon with worse issues than that. Compared to those, this was nothing.
"All right! Instructor Poliwrath, when do we start?"
Scraggy was already itching for a grand and dramatic special training session.
If it ever got the chance to return to Unova later, it was definitely going to show those guys that it was no hopeless Pokémon.
"Good! Nice spirit! What about you two?"
Poliwrath shifted its attention to Larvesta and Keldeo.
Larvesta hesitated. "I think... I should probably be okay... maybe?"
Keldeo remained as proud and unruly as ever. "You have to beat me before you can be my teacher!"
The wind was calm, the rain was gone, and Keldeo felt like it was back on top of the world.
"In that case, let's fight!"
"Let's fight!"
Keldeo charged in.
Keldeo went down.
Keldeo lay on the ground. "I can't do it anymore..."
Poliwrath fell silent.
Then it glanced at Larvesta. "And you?"
Larvesta immediately nodded hard. "I suddenly feel like I'm totally fine with this now."
It had made the smart choice.
"Very good."
Meanwhile, it was still Saffron City, at the Saffron Gym.
No, more accurately, the ruins of the Saffron Gym.
Machamp and Conkeldurr had come here together.
Conkeldurr looked confused. "Machamp, why did you bring me here?"
Machamp casually picked up a brick, examined it, and started laying a wall. "Just come along with it. While the boss still isn't back, let's clean this place up."
Seeing that, Conkeldurr joined in and started laying bricks too.
From a distance, the two of them looked exactly like construction workers.
Nearby, Zapdos scratched its head. "Articuno, are we really okay just slacking off here?"
It felt like so many of the Pokémon in the Fighting Dojo had important things to do, while the two of them were basically doing nothing. Was that really okay?
Articuno didn't think it was an issue at all. "What do you mean slacking off? This is called patrolling. Saffron City doesn't currently have any powerful Pokémon around, and the two of us are both Champion-level. We're more than enough to guard a place like this."
How could that possibly count as slacking off?
If Zapdos didn't know how to talk, maybe it should just not talk.
Zapdos nodded immediately. "True. We're on patrol. Articuno, you really do get it."
It had a point.
They were on patrol.
High-end security.
Protecting the peace of one whole area.
Articuno raised its head proudly and continued flapping around on its leisurely patrol. "Naturally. Legendary Pokémon like us ought to have our own unique understanding of things."
Not far away, Dragonite and Metagross, two members of the pseudo-legendary group, were staying together. They had overheard the conversation between Articuno and Zapdos.
Both of them started wondering whether they should go become security guards too and slack off a little.
Metagross made the first suggestion. "Then let's be ground security."
Dragonite nodded lightly. "Makes sense."
Out in the wilderness on the outskirts of Saffron City, the dojo's three aces had brought Heracross and Sirfetch'd out for training.
Heracross was completely captivated by a cluster of trees. Every few steps, it had to lower its mouth to drink tree sap. And every time it finished, it would ask the others if they wanted any too.
Sirfetch'd shook its head. "No thanks. I'm not really into tree sap."
The three dojo aces exchanged glances and all shook their heads too.
Back on Liberty Garden in Unova, the next day had arrived, the day of the semifinals.
"Ladies and gentlemen, friends from every corner of the world, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening! I'm Commentator Slowking, and I'm delighted to be bringing you today's battle as well."
Even though Grey was the only one streaming the event to the whole world, Commentator Slowking was still giving the broadcast his all, diligent and professional as ever.
[Whoa, Commentator Slowking is still here?!]
[Seriously, why is Grey's channel the only place on the entire internet streaming this tournament? And what even is this so-called Strongest Trainer Tournament?]
[Exactly. It's called the Strongest Trainer Tournament, but most of the trainers are from Unova. Didn't Unova just put this thing together itself?]
[Today's match is Grey versus Champion Alder. Who do you think wins?]
The chat was full of questions, most of them asking about the Strongest Trainer Tournament itself.
Quite a few people were openly doubting how prestigious it really was.
On the surface, there were only two Champion-level trainers. Could that really be called the Strongest Trainer Tournament?
Red and Blue weren't even here, so how could this possibly count as the strongest?
Still, being able to watch a Champion-level battle was already good enough.
The viewers quieted down and focused on the match, eager to see who would come out on top between Grey and Alder.
"And now, let me formally introduce today's two competitors!"
Commentator Slowking's voice rang with excitement. "On the red side, the Champion of Unova, Alder! On the blue side, the master of the Fighting Dojo in Saffron City, Kanto, Grey!"
"Now don't let the title of Gym master fool you. According to the latest reports, Grey's Annihilape recently defeated Elite Four Bruno's Poliwrath and ace Machamp at a martial arts tournament without any commands from its trainer, achieving an incredible one-against-two feat!"
The entire crowd erupted.
To defeat two opponents in a row without the trainer even directing it, and those opponents belonged to Kanto Elite Four member Bruno at that.
That meant Grey's Annihilape had also reached Champion-level strength!
With that in mind, this battle really did have plenty of appeal.
"Master Grey, I want you to fight me with everything you've got."
Before the match began, Alder said that to Grey.
"Everything I've got?"
Grey's expression turned a little strange.
His full strength was no joke.
That meant a major legendary.
"Yes, exactly. Everything. I want to see just how wide the gap is now between me and that being."
Alder laughed openly and freely.
Grey fell silent for a moment.
But very quickly, the hand that had been moving toward a Poké Ball changed direction.
A Cherish Ball.
[Why is Master Grey reaching for a Cherish Ball? If I remember right, that's Metagross's Ball. Does he know he can't win, so he's just showing off a shiny Pokémon for us?]
[Lucky jerks don't deserve houses!]
[No, Metagross's Cherish Ball doesn't look like that. They're both Cherish Balls, but this one has a brighter sheen than Metagross's. It's obviously one he only got recently.]
[Steven, catch this Ultra Ball!]
Steven stepped in to explain, and that only made everyone even more curious about what kind of Pokémon Grey was about to send out.
"Reshiram, I choose you!"
Grey hurled the Cherish Ball with force.
Blue-white flames swept across the field, and from within them, a giant dragon with pure white wings slowly emerged.
The Dragon of Truth, Reshiram!
"So it really was true, Master Grey, you were acknowledged by Reshiram."
Alder clicked his tongue in amazement, but the fighting spirit in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest.
It was almost as if he had returned to his youth as a trainer.
"Volcarona, I'm counting on you!"
Next up, Reshiram vs. Volcarona!
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