The next morning, after a quick wash, and a hearty breakfast, Natsui and Sabrina followed Clair to the first floor of the gym.
On the way, seeing Natsui still looking a bit sleepy, Sabrina asked in a low voice, "Why do you look so listless? Didn't you sleep well last night?"
"No, I did. Why do you ask?"
"You have dark circles under your eyes."
Dark circles?
Natsui was silent for a long time but didn't explain anything. He subconsciously rubbed his eyes a few times and gave her a wry smile, shaking his head.
He had chatted with Serena for a long time last night, not saying goodnight until after one in the morning. With insufficient sleep, his complexion naturally wouldn't be very good.
But this was something he absolutely couldn't tell Sabrina.
Passing through a long corridor and descending a marble staircase, they finally arrived at a spacious hall, which was the Blackthorn Gym's battlefield.
Looking ahead, what appeared before him was a combined land and water battlefield.
Natsui first looked at the outer ring of the field. It was just ordinary ground, bare and unremarkable. But in the center, there was a square pool, about four or five meters deep, clear to the bottom. It was certainly sufficient to meet the battle needs of most Water-type Pokémon.
He figured this design was probably because most of Clair's Dragon-type Pokémon were also Water-type and specialized in water combat.
Natsui and Clair walked to their respective trainer's boxes on either side. At the same time, Lance also appeared in the spectator stands on the second floor. However, he didn't find a place to sit but casually leaned against a railing.
It seemed he was also very interested in Natsui and Clair's match.
Seeing that Natsui and Clair had noticed him, he nodded to them in greeting. But just as he finished, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him.
He turned to look and saw a middle-aged man climbing the stairs to the second floor, slowly walking towards him.
The man had a composed demeanor, exuding the authority of someone in a high position. He also had the same hair color as Lance, and their features were somewhat similar.
"Uncle?" Lance looked at him in surprise. "I heard Clair say you went to the Pokémon League. How did you come back so quickly?"
The man before Lance was the former Blackthorn Gym Leader, the current head of the Dragon Tamer clan, and also Lance's biological uncle.
"The matters there are resolved, so of course I came back. I just entered and heard someone challenging the gym, so I specifically came to see. I didn't expect to see you."
As he spoke, the middle-aged man walked up to Lance, looking him over. "Speaking of which, I haven't seen you in a long time. You look just the same as before, no change at all."
Lance laughed heartily. "At my age, my appearance is hard to change. I'll only get older."
The man smiled faintly. After a brief exchange between uncle and nephew, he changed the subject and asked, "I heard someone broke into the Holy Land yesterday?"
"It was Team Rocket. I rushed back specifically for this!" Lance nodded. "The leader was a top executive named Vicious. But the matter has been resolved. Besides Vicious escaping, everyone else has been handed over to the police. And the Great Elder has given the order for the other Dragon Tamers still in the Johto region to hunt Vicious down. We will not rest until he is caught!"
"Well done," the man praised. Then his face hardened, and he said seriously, "These audacious Team Rocket members, to dare to break into the Dragon's Holy Land, we must make them pay the price they deserve."
With that, he turned his head to look at the field and asked in surprise, "But… I didn't expect you to be interested in gym battles either. You actually have time to come here to watch a match. Isn't your work as a Pokémon Investigator always very busy?"
"You're right, we are very busy," Lance smiled. "Originally, after dealing with the Holy Land matter, I had to rush back to Kanto immediately. But this challenger is a friend of mine, and thanks to him yesterday, the Holy Land is safe. So I thought I'd watch this match before leaving."
"Oh?" The middle-aged man looked at Natsui. "A friend of yours? And he helped us a lot? So, he's very strong?"
"That's right," Lance said seriously. "He is indeed very strong. Clair is definitely no match for him. This match is a definite loss for her."
Clair is no match?
Hearing this, the middle-aged man was greatly surprised.
He knew Clair's strength better than anyone. Otherwise, he wouldn't have handed over the heavy responsibility of Gym Leader to her.
He never thought this young man would be even stronger than Clair.
"With your personality, I've never seen you praise someone so highly. That's not like you at all."
"Can't be helped," Lance shrugged. "He is indeed very strong, and what's most amazing is his growth rate. To be honest, I already thought he was very powerful when I last saw him. Now, I don't know what level of growth he has reached."
The man looked Natsui up and down. Although it was the first time he had seen this face, he felt it was somewhat familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.
"After all that, then, who is stronger between you and him?"
"We haven't battled yet, so it's hard to say…" Lance shook his head and turned to look at the handsome man on the field, muttering to himself, "But I think we'll know soon after the Silver Conference is over."
Natsui on the field, of course, had no idea that someone was talking about him.
At that moment, his attention was completely focused on Kabu, who was walking over from the side.
Kabu, acting as the referee, held up red and green flags and walked onto the field, loudly announcing the rules of the match.
"The Gym Challenge match will now begin, featuring Mr. Natsui, the Indigo Conference Champion from the green side, against Ms. Clair, the Blackthorn Gym Leader from the red side! The match will use a three-Pokémon elimination format. When all the Pokémon used by one side are unable to battle, the match will end!"
At this point, he paused, then continued to shout, "In this match, only the challenger may switch Pokémon. Now, Ms. Clair, please send out your first Pokémon!"
Unexpectedly, Natsui objected to this rule.
"Please wait a moment."
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Clair and Kabu both looking at him, Natsui smiled. "Ms. Clair, I'd like to make a small change to the rules of the match."
"Oh?" Clair raised her eyebrows in surprise. "How do you want to change it?"
"If possible, I don't want to battle with ordinary gym-defending Pokémon. So, please use your ace Pokémon. And both of us will send out our Pokémon at the same time. That would be fairer."
Clair pondered for a moment. Remembering the strength Natsui's Pokémon had displayed in the Dragon's Holy Land, and that he was the Indigo Conference Champion, it was indeed inappropriate to battle him with ordinary Pokémon.
"Alright, I agree. After all, I also want to confirm who is stronger, your Pokémon or mine!"
And in front of the spectator stands, hearing that Natsui was actually the current Indigo Conference Champion, the man finally realized.
So it was him!
No wonder he looked familiar!
A while ago, this young man had been extremely popular, and his news was often seen on TV. Even though he had retired from his Gym Leader position and rarely paid attention to Pokémon League matches, he still constantly heard Natsui's name.
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