Compared to Riolu, Primeape's level advantage was overwhelming.
When Riolu fought Hitmonchan back then, he had only been at Peak Novice-Level.
And Primeape now? Elite-Level.
And that was without any Aura amplification. Once Ash performed Aura Fusion, Primeape's strength rose another tier. Combined with Aura's sensory precision, allowing him to fight even with his eyes closed, it meant that if Hitmonchan had managed to so much as touch Primeape, the monkey would've already lost.
But Hitmonchan never even came close.
When the exhausted Hitmonchan finally collapsed, both Ash and Primeape slowly opened their eyes. Ash turned to the stunned Shindo standing across the ring.
"Anthony," he said evenly, "are we still fighting?"
Anthony froze for a moment, then lowered his head. "No. I surrender."
At that instant, a crushing sense of helplessness flooded him. He finally understood there was no path to victory. Primeape hadn't even thrown a serious punch, yet Hitmonchan was already at his limit. If the fight had continued, it would've only made him a laughingstock.
As Anthony conceded, the announcer stepped forward, declaring the result. Though the final match hadn't been a fierce exchange of blows, the sheer control and style Ash displayed drew thunderous applause from the crowd.
In every other match that day, Trainers had clashed fist to fist. But this battle, where one Pokémon had dodged every attack with its eyes closed, was unlike anything anyone had ever seen.
For the spectators, it was less a fight and more a one-sided demonstration of mastery.
Many people even recorded it, planning to upload it later to discuss the mystery behind Primeape's uncanny ability to evade everything blindfolded.
The awards ceremony afterward was brief: the golden champion's belt was presented, a few photos were taken, and the host gave a short speech about next year's tournament. In total, the whole thing took barely five minutes.
Ash casually buckled the golden belt around Primeape's waist. He smiled, this time, not out of pride, but pure satisfaction. With the perfume sales about to bring in a fortune in a few days, he didn't need to sell the belt for cash. Primeape could keep it as a symbol of honor.
After the ceremony, Ash and his friends slipped out early to avoid being mobbed by excited fans. They had already promised to visit Rebecca's house afterward.
Ten minutes later, Rebecca arrived home with a dejected Anthony in tow. Ash and the others were already waiting outside her door.
When Ash saw Anthony's empty, hollow expression, he felt a flicker of concern. He hadn't meant to crush the man completely. If Anthony gave up not just on battling but on life itself, that would be a tragedy.
So Ash forced a gentle smile and stepped forward.
"Uncle Anthony, don't look so down. One loss doesn't mean the end of everything."
Anthony shook his head slowly. "Don't comfort me, Ash. I understand now… I truly have no talent for Pokémon battles. This tournament, calling it a fight to determine Kanto's strongest fighter, was nothing but self-indulgence. A Trainer who's only been traveling for two months managed to sweep the entire event. What kind of champion does that make me?"
It was clear, Ash had completely shattered the man's illusion.
No matter how talented Ash was, his youth alone should have been a disadvantage. Yet he had won effortlessly. If a boy barely past his Gym challenges could crush him this completely… what about those truly gifted Trainers who had been training for years?
Kanto's "best fighter"? More like the best brawler on one street corner.
Anthony's obsession with fighting tournaments died that day.
"Uncle Anthony, you don't have to look down on yourself," Ash said softly. "Your Hitmonchan is really well-trained. It's just that… I'm a little special. If I hadn't entered, you probably would've been this year's champion."
He paused, then continued seriously, "But if you had won, maybe you'd go home for a while, but once the next competition came around… you'd go right back. You'd start chasing the title again, leaving Rebecca and your wife behind."
"There's nothing wrong with chasing a dream," Ash went on, his tone deepening. "But when you chase it without caring about the people beside you… you'll end up hurting them."
He spoke from experience. Brock's father had done that, and so had his own.
Even Ash himself had once been like that. Before his journey began, he'd been obsessed with becoming a Pokémon Master, to the point where he didn't even want to call his mother.
But his conversations with other versions of himself from parallel worlds had taught him something invaluable:
Dreams can be pursued, but never at the expense of those who love you.
His mother saw his father only once every few years. Ash couldn't become that kind of man.
Helping Rebecca hadn't been about curiosity or pride, it was because he saw a reflection of himself in her.
And if he could save Rebecca's family from repeating his father's mistakes, he would.
Under Ash's gentle but firm persuasion, Anthony finally exhaled, as though a great weight had lifted from his chest.
"You're right," he said quietly. "Even if I train again in the future… I'll never ignore Rebecca or my wife again."
Grateful beyond words, Anthony removed something from his bag and handed it to Ash, a narrow, black strap.
"Don't underestimate this little thing," Anthony said with a faint smile. "I got it from a reclusive martial artist years ago. It's a weighted training band. When worn, it makes even simple movements several times harder, but it increases physical training efficiency by at least fifty percent."
"A fifty percent increase?!" Ash's eyes widened as he stared at the small device in his hand.
The perfume he'd gotten from Rich Ash could only enhance physical training efficiency by about twenty-five percent, yet this unassuming little gadget supposedly doubled that?
Could such a heaven-defying item really exist in the world?
Anthony smiled faintly. "That's right. Even my Hitmonchan couldn't make full use of it. Keeping it would just waste its potential, so take it, Ash."
Ash shook his head quickly. "No… I can't. Something this valuable..."
"Don't refuse." Anthony gently pushed it back into Ash's hands. "You helped me wake up from my obsession and reunite with my family. I have nothing better to repay you with. Just accept it."
Under Anthony's insistence, Ash finally nodded and accepted the strange device. It felt almost symbolic, a good deed rewarded.
Later that night, Ash entered the group chat and described the training device Anthony had given him. Within moments, replies flooded in from the veterans.
It was identified as a Forced Training Device.
And its true effect wasn't a fifty percent increase at all, but a one hundred percent boost.
However, as the experts clarified, this hundred-percent bonus applied primarily to Ability Value growth, not levels. Levels would rise a little faster as a side effect, but the real miracle lay in maximizing a Pokémon's stats.
For Pokémon with high Ability Value caps, this item was practically divine. Normally, as Ability Values climbed, progress slowed drastically:
Advancing from B-rank to A-rank might take four or five days,
but from A-rank to S-rank, it could take ten or more.
That's why most Trainers' Pokémon level up before their stats ever hit their natural limits. The stronger the Pokémon becomes, the harder it is to polish those Ability Values, and once you out-level the range for efficient training, it becomes a vicious cycle.
Ash had his Insight Eye, which let him gauge a Pokémon's growth precisely and control when to allow level-ups. Even so, he couldn't always prevent premature evolution or breakthrough, Bulbasaur, Wartortle, and Pidgeot had all leveled up before reaching their peak stats.
Compared to most Trainers, Ash already had a huge advantage. But with this Forced Training Device, he could now guarantee that his Pokémon would always reach their maximum potential before the next level jump.
Unfortunately, there was only one device, so he would have to rotate its use among his team.
Time flew by, and two more days passed. Ash and his companions finally arrived at a place called Black Cloud City, the last major stop before reaching Fuchsia City.
However, calling it a "city" was generous.
The place was almost ghostly in its desolation. Even after night fell, not a single streetlight illuminated the dark roads. The air was heavy with smog and a sickly chemical odor that stung the nose.
Misty quickly pulled out her guidebook and explained, "It used to be a really prosperous industrial city. But after years of overdevelopment, the factories here polluted everything, the air, the water, even the soil. People couldn't live here anymore, so most of them evacuated."
Only a handful of workers remained to guard the abandoned factories.
For Ash and the others, however, that wasn't their concern. They were just passing through, one night's rest, then onward.
But the atmosphere here was oppressive, the air foul. It made them all uncomfortable. They hurried to the Pokémon Center and were lucky enough to find rooms still available, even this late at night.
After washing up, the trio decided to skip training for once. Even Ash, who normally trained obsessively, had no desire to do so here.
Stepping outside meant being assaulted by that nauseating stench, who could train in that?
However, just as they lay down, the Pokémon Center's alarm went off. Ash, still in his pajamas, rushed out in a hurry, only to learn that the Pokémon Center had lost power.
As for the cause of the outage… even Nurse Joy didn't know. All she could tell Ash was that there seemed to be a problem at the power plant, though the specifics were unclear.
In any case, if the Pokémon Center stayed without power for too long, it would be disastrous for the Pokémon currently under treatment. That was why Joy had sounded the emergency alarm, calling on the Trainers resting inside to help investigate.
Several Trainers responded alongside Ash and his friends, but when they heard that they'd have to go all the way to the power plant in the middle of the night, most of them hesitated.
It was already past one in the morning. Not only would they have to give up their sleep, they'd also have to trudge through the thick, foul-smelling air outside just to reach the plant. To many, that sounded like pure torture.
"Wait, a facility this big doesn't even have a backup generator?" one Trainer complained loudly.
He wasn't wrong, this was a medical facility for Pokémon. A long-term power outage here could put countless lives at risk. How could a place like that not have a backup system? Was this Pokémon Center really that poorly equipped?
Ash shared their confusion, but now wasn't the time to debate logistics. "Joy, do you have any auxiliary generators that Electric-type Pokémon can charge?" he asked.
Joy nodded reluctantly. "We do, but to power the entire Center, it needs a massive amount of electricity. One or two Electric-types wouldn't be enough, and even if we had a dozen of them, they'd burn out from overexertion before morning."
Ash smiled. "It's fine, my Pikachu can handle it."
He lifted Pikachu down from his shoulder and crouched to meet his partner's eyes. "Pikachu, I'm counting on you. Keep the power running while I go fix the problem. I'll be back soon."
"Pika!" Pikachu nodded firmly, patting his little chest with a confident grin.
The other Trainers didn't seem convinced.
"Pikachu? That tiny thing? How much electricity could it even produce?"
"Yeah, it probably couldn't power this place for more than ten seconds."
"Forget it, rather than pretending to be helpful, why not just go fix the power plant already?"
The mocking voices around them made Misty flare up immediately. She stepped forward, glaring at the group.
"Would you shut it already?! Ash is at least doing something! He's letting his Pokémon keep the Center's systems running while he goes to fix the source. What are you all doing, standing here complaining?"
Her voice rose with each sentence, sharp enough to make a few people flinch.
"Don't you have any Pokémon in treatment here? Even if you don't, can't you see that others' Pokémon are in danger? Instead of worrying about them, you're making sarcastic comments? How heartless can you be?"
"If you're so capable," she snapped, "then you go to the power plant instead of letting a Trainer who's only been traveling for two months handle it!"
Misty's anger was righteous, but Ash gently placed a hand on her shoulder. When she turned toward him, his expression was calm, his tone steady.
"Let it go, Misty. It's not worth it," he said softly.
She exhaled, biting her lip, and stepped back. Ash was right, now wasn't the time to argue.
If this had been the Ash from a couple of months ago, he might have shouted right back at them, furious that they dared to look down on Pikachu. But now, after everything he'd experienced, he'd grown, not just in strength, but in patience.
No matter how angry he felt inside, the most important thing now was restoring power.
Ash crouched once more beside Pikachu. "I'm counting on you, buddy. Keep things running until I get back."
"Pikachu!"
Then, turning toward Gardevoir's Poké Ball, Ash called her out. The elegant Pokémon materialized in a flash of green light.
"Gardevoir, we're heading to the power plant."
Gardevoir nodded.
Ash closed his eyes, focusing his Aura. A faint blue glow shimmered around him as his Aura spread outward, locking onto the location of the power plant several kilometers away.
"Let's go."
With a soft hum of psychic energy, both Trainer and Pokémon vanished from the Pokémon Center.