"Yes! Thank you very much for your training, Sensei!"
"I've made tremendous progress. I won't let you down in the Champion Cup!"
Bea took a deep breath. During these two days of training, she had consciously tried imitating Kubfu's breathing methods, and in doing so, she had discovered something new.
A breathing technique.
Pokémon like Kubfu possessed a unique style of breathing that let them focus and sharpen their spirit, boosting certain abilities in preparation for battle. It was a kind of training technique that "activated" the body itself.
And the Terastal system from the far-off Paldea region had also left Bea deeply shaken.
Especially...
"Terastalization really is an astonishing battle system," Bea said in a serious tone, summing up what she had learned. "By changing a Pokémon's type, it can become something completely different. And once its type changes, even the way that Pokémon is supposed to be used in battle changes with it!"
"And after Terastallizing, its original type can still receive same-type move bonuses too. That's just incredible."
"And then there's that Tera barrier that reduces damage... My Machamp couldn't break through it at all. It was like a wall of iron. To think there's a whole battle style and combat field I've never seen before... Different regions really do have different climates, and they even affect battling."
Hikaru gave a light cough. "I should clarify that. A Tera barrier isn't something a Terastallized Pokémon can normally use in a standard battle."
"In Paldea, only powerful wild Tera Pokémon that have absorbed massive amounts of Tera energy can deploy a barrier like that, one that reduces damage and nullifies the opponent's Ability."
"My Tera Orb isn't a normal one. It's a 'high-output Tera Orb,' something that hasn't been commercialized and probably never could be. There are only two in all of Paldea right now. With the help of a certain Pokémon, it can do things like that."
"Of course, there's no need to be too shocked by the power of Terastalization itself. It's strong, yes, but it can only normally be used in Paldea. Only people with a high-output Tera Orb can Terastallize in other regions."
"So in terms of restrictions, unlike battle systems such as Mega Evolution or Z-Moves, which you may not have heard of, those systems work in every region. Terastalization doesn't."
"Of course, I know Galar's Dynamax has even stricter limitations. After all, both of those systems need to be charged. They're not like Mega Stones or Z-Crystals, which are energy sources in themselves."
Bea had no idea what a Z-Crystal was, but she understood that it was yet another battle term she'd never heard before. Still, that confusion didn't bother her. On the contrary, it filled her with a lively curiosity she had never felt before.
It even made her happy.
Because for the first time, the room she still had to grow felt real. It was something she could see and touch.
"So the world is really this big..."
Bea let that thought slip out almost like a sigh of wonder. Her expression softened, and there was even joy in it.
"Yes. This is what it feels like."
"When I was little, when I first started learning Galar karate, it wasn't just talent. I was interested in it too. Every day I'd learn a different move. What would I learn today? How would I reach the goal I'd set for myself? Every day gave me a new source of motivation. I could meet new people, see new parts of the world..."
"I remember it all now!"
"My techniques can keep growing, and I can keep growing too. What Mr. Zaymon and Mr. Marshal meant... this is what they meant!"
Bea looked at Hikaru with complete seriousness. Her sky-blue eyes had never looked so bright or so beautiful. Confidence, pride, joy, openness... she was utterly different from before.
The time she had spent sinking into defeat was over.
Since childhood, people had often said that because she devoted herself too fully to martial arts, she had ended up shutting herself inside it. And all this time, she had only ever carried one thought in her mind.
But now she understood. This was what the world of martial arts she had felt all along was supposed to look like.
"Growing together. Improving together."
"At my level, saying something like, 'I want to improve together with you,' probably sounds shameless."
"But I've done everything I can. I want to be worthy of the title of 'training partner.'"
Her gaze burned as she bowed to Hikaru and spoke in a firm voice.
"For a very long time, my father has told me that I have great talent for karate, and he's always warned me that I have to carry the future of Galar karate on my shoulders."
"In the dojo, I trained desperately. I constantly sparred with other martial artists and with my father's students, and I defeated every one of them."
"I never thought anyone other than my father could ever be my partner in training. So whenever I trained, I was always alone."
"But this time was different from all the training I've done in the past."
"What I want to say is... I've grown. I've never understood my own weakness this clearly before, and I've never shared my Pokémon's feelings this deeply before either. I grew together with them."
"I can't describe this feeling. This must be what you meant by Synchronization."
"Thank you very much for your guidance! Please do your best on Victory Road! I'll be waiting to see you win!"
Bea rarely spoke so honestly to strangers. But as a "training partner," and after she had already exposed her vulnerable side in front of Hikaru, it had loosened something inside her.
That special title carried enormous meaning for her now.
"Yeah," Hikaru said. "You do your best too. Even the mountain you climb will crumble one day."
"If you manage to knock Leon off his throne, you'll become the youngest Champion after him. Still, there are a lot of challengers this year, so don't let your guard down."
There was one strange thing about one-hit KO moves. In Generation I, they failed if the user was slower than the opponent, but later that was changed so they failed if the user was a lower level. In the games, though, if they failed, the message still read, "It doesn't affect the foe."
But in an actual battle, how could a move like that truly have no effect?
That was also why player-versus-player battles in the games usually set every Pokémon's level to 50. It let one-hit KO moves function normally, and at the same time sped the pace of battle up a little.
Some techniques that could score a knockout at level 50 couldn't do so anymore at level 100.
"And besides, Leon himself isn't that strong yet... Your Machamp has already undergone rebuilding-level training here in Challenger's Cave. In terms of sheer growth, I don't think it's necessarily weaker than Leon's Pokémon."
"As long as it isn't up against Charizard or Aegislash, it should be fine against the rest!"
Flying-types and King's Shield were just too authoritative. Fissure either couldn't hit them or would be blocked.
And in the Sword and Shield era, Leon's whole team was only around the level 60 to 80 range. Even in the postgame, it still strictly stayed within that band. It wasn't like Scarlet and Violet, where power levels had gone completely insane and everyone jumped above level 81.
Leon's current team was probably just barely in the low 60s. Without all-party Exp. Share, leveling was an extremely painful grind. And Leon also had to attend events constantly, so the time he could devote to training wasn't all that free.
After all, he was "the ad guy."
Hikaru nodded to Bea, then looked over at his other Pokémon.
After two days and two nights of training in Challenger's Cave, followed by that final meditation, all his preparations were complete.
He had trained many Pokémon, but only six would actually enter battle in the end.
Light filled the cave. Even the glow of the luminous moss had been completely suppressed. That was because Volcarona was floating nearby.
Rock-types might hit Little Bug for quadruple damage, but Little Bug had its own way of turning the tables, one nearly everyone on the team could use: the counter-kill move Solar Beam.
Under sunlight and harsh sunlight, Solar Beam required no charge time and could be fired instantly.
So before those Graveler could even throw the rocks in their hands, Little Bug might already have hit them with Solar Beam first.
And during the course of training, the other partners had also made ample progress.
"Yes! I wish you victory in battle!"
Bea clenched her fists as she watched Hikaru's Pokémon, especially the six partners preparing to challenge Victory Road.
Aegislash in particular stood out. It was several sizes larger than Leon's Aegislash. She had never seen an Aegislash that huge before, and the power it displayed in training had changed into a shining gold, which was the wrong color entirely.
Hikaru had explained that it was a kingly stance, but Bea still didn't really understand what that meant. All she knew was that it was some kind of incredibly powerful transformation.
She watched as Hikaru and his Pokémon left.
Then she looked around at the wild Pokémon nearby, all of whom had grown stronger through those fierce battles.
On the surface, it seemed as though nothing had changed.
But the sunlight was fading. The warm wind passing through the cave had quieted. The rich color in the world around her was dimming bit by bit.
"So this is what it feels like to lose a partner. It feels empty, like I've lost something important..."
"But I know. We'll see each other again soon!"
"If a person and a Pokémon can become one in heart and achieve Synchronization, then people should be able to do that with each other too, right?"
"No matter how sad I become or how far I fall, my Pokémon stay with me... Right. Even though I've lost my training partner, the partners who've been traveling with me all along are still with me!"
Who had I come here with in the first place?
My Pokémon.
Mr. Marshal was right. Coming to Challenger's Cave really did let me break through the obstacle in my heart. And... I met the most important person of my life here.
I have to become someone who can stand proudly at his side as his partner!
Unova Region, Route 10.
Beyond the mountains of Opelucid City, to the north, lay the final road before Victory Road. The badge check gates stood there.
Each zone between the gates represented the type used by one of the Gyms.
A river ran down the middle of the route, while steep cliffs rose on both sides.
But in Black 2 and White 2, a landslide wiped this route off the map, causing Victory Road to be relocated near Kyurem's doorstep instead. And because of that, the distinctive, solemn music of Route 10 became an echo from the past, something you could only hear again through a special music-loving NPC.
As for the real reason Route 10 collapsed...
Hikaru had a feeling that "landslide" might have had something to do with Team Plasma's shoddily built castle.
Because two years later, not only had Route 10 been buried, but Team Plasma's castle had also sunk into the plateau, and even N had jokingly complained that without maintenance, the whole thing was doomed.
"When that castle rose up, it sure looked impressive. But the foundation was a disaster, and after two years without maintenance, it collapsed. That's what bad construction does. And the thing was an illegal building, too."
"If someone had actually been crowned king in that castle and then one day it collapsed because the quality was garbage, wouldn't that have turned into the biggest joke in all of Unova?"
The thought only passed through his mind for a moment. Right now, the Unova League was probably still inspecting the underground area, so that castle might never rise again. Later on, maybe they would decide to recycle it into some kind of underground challenge facility or something.
Still, illegal construction with no safety guarantees was absolutely terrifying.
Hikaru strapped on the control device to his left arm. It carried a total of six Poké Balls.
When he had returned to Unova for training, he had already sent Shauntal a message. And from Bea, he had also learned that among the Elite Four, everyone except Caitlin was currently at the League.
Of course, Grimsley had said that because of their bet, Hikaru wouldn't need to challenge his room. He'd simply leave the lights on.
Shauntal was speechless at that, but Marshal didn't care one way or the other.
Which meant that before facing the Champion, he only needed to battle two members of the Elite Four. That was quite a bit of effort saved.
Hikaru arrived before the main gate. The first one was the barren gate, an area full of sand that felt bleak and desolate, with the first checkpoint standing ahead.
"Halt! No one passes without qualifying!"
"To open this gate, you need the Trio Badge!"
A veteran Trainer of the League stood before the badge check gate. He was also a League employee. He stopped Hikaru, then began checking his badges. The moment he saw all eight, his expression shifted slightly.
"Hm. Someone with eight badges? I did hear there was someone who'd beaten every Gym Leader lately, but we'd been waiting and waiting without seeing him arrive."
"So it was you."
The veteran Trainer looked very serious. "Earning eight badges already proves your strength. Impressive. Beyond this point lies Victory Road, and since you've made it here, I assume I don't need to explain the route to you in detail."
"But do be a little careful. Victory Road is the nest of a Pokémon called Durant, so you may end up facing large-scale attacks from wild Pokémon. If you run into danger you can't handle, just get out of the cave and slide down from the great cliff. It looks frightening, but if you slide down normally, you won't get hurt."
"I see. So Victory Road is actually a nest."
Hikaru found that oddly fascinating. So that explained it. No wonder Durant were crawling all over Victory Road in the games, and no wonder the place was shaped like a giant trapezoid. They had literally built the road right through someone else's nest.
"Isn't that basically trespassing in someone's house?"
"Ahem. There aren't inspectors stationed at the later gates..." The veteran Trainer dodged the question, then abruptly changed the subject to the later checkpoints. "Because there are very few Trainers who go on to Victory Road instead of entering the tournament, there aren't always staff stationed at all eight gates."
"At the badge check gates, we give Trainers heading to Victory Road a few words of encouragement. It's meant to inspire them. Sometimes former Champions even come here as well. And yes, when I say former Champions, I mean people who once entered the Hall of Fame."
That immediately reminded Hikaru of the Ace Trainer who appeared in the games near the Volt Gate and the Tremor Gate. Professor Juniper had mentioned him too.
He talked a lot about doors and gates, so maybe you could call him... Mr. Gate?
There were people who surpassed the Champion and then simply chose not to become the next one. In almost every generation, that was basically the protagonist template.
The Regional Champion carried an enormous burden. Some, like Steven, clearly wanted to quit every other day.
"I won't say too much," the veteran Trainer continued. "Pass through Victory Road, surpass yourself here, and advance to the Pokémon League!"
"Prove that you, too, are a legend!"
After passing through the eight gates, Hikaru entered the layered, terraced stretches of Victory Road.
He took out the rewards he had obtained after finishing his training with Bea.
The first was the lost ancient move, Shelter.
That really was an ideal reward for a period of secluded training like this. It was Hisuian Goodra's signature move, and before it was nerfed in Generation IX, its effect had been remarkably strong.
It hardened the skin like an iron shield, sharply raising the user's Defense while also making it harder for the opponent's moves to hit.
In other words, it was like using Iron Defense once while also entering a special Smokescreen-like state that raised evasion.
Its move animation showed Goodra retreating into its shell while its defense rose, though the written description only mentioned hardening the skin.
At the moment, though, the move had been weakened to the point where it was basically the same as Iron Defense, which made it hard to care whether it was distributed more widely or not. But if he could teach it to Steel-type Pokémon...
"That would be an absurdly strong battle technique. I should test it later. From the fundamentals of the move's release, it isn't really different from Iron Defense, so the technique itself shouldn't be that different either."
The Pokémon best suited to learning it was obviously Archaludon. Iron Defense plus a smokescreen-like evasion effect, combined with Stamina and Body Press, would make it terrifying.
That young and talented Pokémon was outrageous no matter whether it used physical or special attacks.
And this training session had also given Hikaru an idea. If he trained in different places, maybe he would have chances to obtain even more lost moves. Of course, the real shortcut was still archaeological work in Sinnoh. That might be faster.
The second reward was the Warlord Power from Ransei.
The one he had received, Courageous Heart, was basically the protagonist's own warlord ability from Ransei. Its effect of granting two actions in one sequence felt a lot like the Agile Style combat flow from the Hisui era: keep taking your own turns and beat the enemy down without giving them a chance to respond.
"So does that mean I've reached the average level of a Ransei warlord?"
And right then, Hikaru suddenly realized something.
The battle style of Agile Style, and the warlord power Courageous Heart, were actually a lot like Parental Bond.
A bootleg Parental Bond, sure, but getting two consecutive actions was not all that different from attacking twice in one turn. After all, the opponent still couldn't move.
"So in theory, if I stack Agile Style with Warlord Power, I can attack four times in a single turn?"
Agile Style traded away power in exchange for acting sooner, but that was fine. It was just like Power-Up Punch. No one expected a move with only 40 base power to deal meaningful damage in one shot. What made it dangerous was the added effect that made it stronger the more it hit. Add Mega Kangaskhan's Parental Bond on top of that, and that was the real reason it became absurd.
The thought made Hikaru quietly excited for the synergy between those two combat abilities.
"If I don't have the matching Ability, then I'll just patch it together with human power and ancient combat techniques. A bootleg Dragon Dance is still Dragon Dance. So why can't a bootleg Parental Bond count as Parental Bond too? It's even stronger, if anything."
"Power-Up Punch is going to go wild."
Victory Road was dim, but human activity could still be sensed in the darkness. No matter when you came, there were always strong Trainers training here, and today was no exception.
As he climbed the stairs and stepped outside the cave, Riolu leaped onto the tallest rock and looked out into the distance.
Then they heard another Trainer's voice.
"So you're here to challenge the Pokémon League too? Another Trainer with eight badges?"
"I'm not letting you through that easily. Battle me!"
"My partner Pokémon and I fought countless fierce battles to make it this far! We won't lose so easily!"
An Ace Trainer emerged from the darkness, his expression deadly serious, staking his pride and resolve on this fight.
Ace Trainer John challenges you!
"Perfect. Let's test it out."
Hikaru opened an Ultra Ball. Riolu burst out in a crackle of lightning, while the opposing Trainer sent out a Fraxure.
John's eyes were steady. "Use Dragon Claw!"
Hikaru gave his command as well. "Agile Style: Power-Up Punch!"
Using Agile Style made the next action come sooner, but reduced the move's power and the strength of any secondary effects, including status chances and duration. Accuracy, however, remained unchanged.
Fraxure's Dragon Claw came slashing in. Riolu twisted aside in a flash. By now, using Mind Reader to evade attacks was a technique it had mastered perfectly.
"Ruff!"
The first strike, and every strike after it, I've already seen through all of your movements!
Riolu swung a steel-hard fist wrapped in blue light.
At the same time, Hikaru experimentally activated the unique warlord power possessed by the Ransei protagonist.
Raise Attack, and act twice.
The shockwave slammed into Fraxure's abdomen.
First hit. Second hit. Third hit...
Fourth hit!
"So this is what chained Power-Up Punch looks like! With Agile Style's chained actions and Warlord Power layered together, the first turn raises Attack by four stages, plus one more... a total of five!"
Hikaru thought this combination of techniques and abilities was downright ridiculous. It could absolutely be one of his hidden trump cards, something even more outrageous than the Scroll of Waters.
Martial Breakthrough: Barrage Secret Art, Battle Style - Rapid Strike!
Description: One of the legendary martial arts. This is the martial technique that made Mustard famous on the Isle of Armor, a martial art from a faraway land that strikes the enemy from unpredictable angles. It is a flexible and razor-sharp fighting style. Like an acrobat, it adapts freely and attacks with complete fluidity.
Additional martial effect: Fixated, for 3 turns.
Description: The user becomes fixated on the last move it used. Damage dealt by that move increases by 1.5 times. At the same time, damage received also increases by 1.5 times.
Fixated.
One of the self-applied special statuses from Legends: Arceus.
In the Hisui era, using Outrage, Rollout, Petal Dance, Ice Ball, or Rage could make the user enter a Fixated state.
Or, by giving a Pokémon the special food item Choice Dumpling, you could make it become fixated on the last move it used and enter the same state.
From the way that status was triggered, it was easy to understand that it belonged to the category of "quasi-consecutive-attack" moves. And because it raised your own power while also doubling the punishment you took in return, it was a true double-edged sword in battle.
Acquired move: Comet Punch!
Description: The user unleashes a furious barrage of punches against the opponent. Hits 2 to 5 times. It is a Normal-type punching move that Pokémon cannot usually learn under normal circumstances, but it can be taught through martial transmission.
Comet Punch itself wasn't the important part. The important part was the Barrage Secret Art.
White vapor rose from Riolu's fists. The speed of its punches seemed to outstrip sound itself, setting off a violently shrill boom.
One punch = four punches, and each one made the next stronger.
Fraxure's body swayed. In the blink of an eye, four fist marks appeared across its abdomen and chest. It threw back its head, its entire body rigid, and then, with one final roar, it crashed to the ground.
(End of Chapter)
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