blogombal Chapter 314 How to Defeat the Champion
Chapter 314 How to Defeat the Champion
Chapter 316 How to Defeat the Champion
For Blackie, the news of the championship changing hands was like a proctor in school suddenly announcing a change in the exam scope before the exam started.
Moreover, if we accept the statement in the newspaper that Mary just bought at the airport, the current champion of Unova is not just ordinary in strength.
Adding to the fact that his opponent's identity was mysterious, making it impossible to prepare in advance, the black-haired youth's practical assessment was practically a hellish challenge, like drawing the worst possible outcome.
"Even if a new champion takes over, they might not immediately take over the Elite Four's job of evaluating Gym Leaders, right?"
Mary comforted her, saying—
"You see, when the champion first took office, didn't he usually have to deal with a lot of trivial administrative procedures? That person might not be able to find the time."
"I inquired with the relevant personnel at the league headquarters, but they didn't know the specifics of the new champion either. However, it's certain that none of the four Heavenly Kings have any plans to conduct practical tests recently," Black Lian said, shaking his head.
"That's really bad news," Mary admitted. "Combined with the newspaper article that says 'the four Unified Earth champions have unanimously acknowledged the new champion's strength,' this matter is most likely not a misunderstanding caused by poor communication. So—"
"It's almost a certainty that the newly appointed champion will serve as an examiner."
The photographer, speaking for his partner, looked at the young trainer, who dreamed of becoming a gym leader, with sympathy.
However...
Mary, taking advantage of her companion's digression, changed her tone to liven up the conversation: "If it's just about passing the practical test, shouldn't it just be enough to demonstrate strength commensurate with the gym leader? There's no need to actually defeat the champion who's acting as the examiner, otherwise the test would just become a championship challenge, wouldn't it?"
"Even so, the pressure of facing a king is different from the pressure of facing a real champion," Hei Lian said seriously.
"It sounds like you've had something like this before?"
"I once went through a low period in life where I couldn't find my direction after losing to my childhood friend in a tournament. It was during that time that I met Mr. Alder, who was then the reigning champion and traveling all over the Unova region."
"I see, so this former champion's name is among your recommenders...wait, childhood friend?"
Mary turned her head to the other side in surprise.
"Is this Miss Shiratsuyu such a powerful trainer? She defeated the top four in the Higanbana Tournament, so she must be in the top two."
"No, no, no, you misunderstand. I'm just a research assistant who helps Professor Julius collect Pokémon data. I'm accompanying Blackbeard to assist with his assessment this time in order to complete the research project related to the breeding of battle Pokémon."
The girl, who looked careless and had just missed her flight because she was late, quickly waved her hand.
"The childhood friend that Blackie mentioned refers to another one of our childhood playmates. She also qualified for the Hinoki Tournament by challenging the gym, and in that tournament, she defeated Blackie and Miss Alice from Odd Dragon City, ultimately winning the championship trophy."
"He's a really amazing trainer," Dai exclaimed.
"However, she also got a taste of success from that competition, and after that, her life went completely off track, speeding down a strange path. It's really hard to explain."
Hei Lian shook his head repeatedly in regret, showing his unwillingness to continue discussing that topic.
"I understand. Let's get back to the topic of Black Lian meeting the champion, Alder. By that logic, have you ever fought a former champion?" Mary, with her professionalism, decisively steered the conversation back to the previous topic.
The black-haired boy waved his hand and explained, "That's not the case. If I had really been fortunate enough to fight, I wouldn't be so confused now. In fact, Mr. Adek that day was just having me train with him."
"Special training?"
"Yes, according to that former champion, it was special training to cultivate what he called 'resolve.' It sounds very strange, doesn't it? It wasn't before the competition, but after I was eliminated. I found it very inexplicable at the time. Now it seems like just ordinary activities like training my body with Pokémon, weight training, and honing my moves—but at the time, after sweating it out with Mr. Alder and his Pokémon, I don't know why, but suddenly I felt a lot of the knot in my heart disappear."
"I see." Mary casually turned to a new page in her full notebook. "Exercise can indeed relieve stress sometimes."
"It's not just that. More importantly, I saw in Mr. Ardeck back then the person I aspire to be—not the one with the title, but the inner strength he showed by proactively helping and guiding others in their time of need. I want to be that kind of person too."
"I think that's a remarkable ideal. Being a Gym Leader is indeed a very suitable job for realizing your dream. From your description, Blackie, I can also feel the kind of strength that Alderman possesses, unlike Steven, the Champion of Hoenn."
If Mr. Daigo saw a talented trainer feeling down on the street, he would probably offer a few words of comfort and then give them a few oddly shaped but useful stones as a consolation gift. It's hard to say which approach is better or worse—
"But, although Blackie trained with Mr. Adek's Pokémon, he knew nothing about their strength."
?
Bai Lu interjected, "If Hei Lian is swept out of the competition by the new champion 0-6 before they can even demonstrate their strength and qualifications after the actual combat assessment begins, then all our previous efforts will have been in vain."
"Listen, even though the opponent is the champion, since he is serving as the examiner, he should slow down the pace a bit—just like how a gym leader sends out a less powerful Pokémon when facing a beginner."
Mary speculated hesitantly.
"Marie, don't forget, the Unova Champion has only just taken office. His personality and character are still unknown. Black Len and the others certainly wouldn't want to entrust their chance to realize their dreams to an unknown fate."
Photographer Dai stood on the side of the newly acquainted teenagers and spoke up to refute his companion's naive idea.
"Hmm, about the champion's strength—" Miss Mary pondered deeply, "We're not professional Pokémon trainers, so we can't offer any particularly specific opinions. But speaking of which, wasn't there a Gym Leader before? That Gym Leader mentioned in an interview on our TV station that when he first moved to the Hoenn region,..."
His experience participating in the Gym Leader Ability Test is quite similar to yours, Blackie. The interview seems to have included his description of his battle against Champion Steven, where he supposedly almost won, though I wonder how much of that was embellished.
"Which trainer was it? What type did they specialize in? Do you have any battle videos or original interview transcripts from that time?"
Before Heilian could answer, Bailu excitedly grabbed the reporter's hand holding the pencil and bombarded her with questions, even more excited than Heilian who was about to take the assessment.
"There's definitely no video recording of the matches, just like the practical assessments you participated in. This kind of information usually doesn't circulate outside of the Alliance headquarters," Mary replied. "However, the unedited interview transcript should be available in the TV station's work cloud storage. We should have access to it, right?"
"Actually, I've already found it. This is inside information, please don't spread it."
Dai placed the lemonade, which had appeared out of nowhere, back on the table and held up her phone to the three of them. A read-only document was already open on the screen.
Then, as if recalling a funny story, the photographer couldn't help but smile and asked the two young people, "Let's solve an interesting riddle: Who is the Gym Leader with the longest name in the Hoenn region?"