Upon hearing Ash's evaluation of her, Giselle's initially gloomy expression quickly softened, and her smile seemed to become even brighter.
"Do you really think so?"
"Of course, I believe with your talent, if you travel the world for a few years, you'll definitely become an extraordinary Trainer!" Ash nodded affirmatively.
Giselle's smile grew even wider, and then she pouted, saying, "You're also a Newbie Trainer, plus you're younger than me, why act like a senior?"
"Well, whoever's more capable should lead or something like that, anyway, since I'm better than you, it's fine for you to consider me as a senior." Ash released Giselle's soft hand, placed his hands behind his head, and said with a grin.
"It's 'capable ones first', I really don't know how you study."
"It's good enough that I know this phrase… Well, see you." Ash saw that Giselle seemed to have come out of her gloom, then he waved goodbye to her and left with Pikachu.
Giselle stood in the center of the field, watching Ash gradually walk away, then turned to head to her podium.
Though she was quite unwilling, her Quartz Conference journey ended here. This time, her performance wasn't even satisfactory, her goal was at least to reach the top eight, especially since she hadn't trained for long.
But the Silver Conference is happening in over half a year, and although it will be even more competitive, she's still going to participate and aim for a good ranking!
…
After the match with Giselle, Ash and his friends planned to first go to a nearby restaurant for a small celebration, as Gary's match wouldn't be starting until the afternoon, giving them plenty of time; it was the same group of four again, Delia and Professor Oak didn't join them.
Originally, they planned to watch Ash and Gary's second preliminary matches, but were persuaded by the two to refrain, citing the hassle of running around.
Qualifying through the preliminaries was basically a done deal, so there was no need to watch onsite and waiting for the main matches was a better idea.
At that time, the main match schedule would be much tighter; as long as they kept winning, there'd be matches every day, so it wouldn't be too late to come cheer after that.
Just as Ash and the others left the field, a figure stood in front of them, and upon seeing who it was blocking their path, Ash's smiling expression instantly turned serious: "Paul."
Blocking their way was indeed Paul, who had abandoned Chimchar.
"That useless... that Chimchar got captured by you, huh." Paul started to say, then changed halfway through, though unsure of the reason.
Because Chimchar now was not a useless thing anymore. Although he was very strict with Pokémon, he wouldn't deny their strength; if they were strong, they were strong; if they were weak, they were weak; if they were useless, they were useless.
The previous Chimchar was just a hopeless Grimer, whereas now Monferno was a genius attracting much attention, vastly different from before, all because he had a change of Trainer.
This comparison led to the notion that perhaps it wasn't Chimchar who was useless, but him who couldn't realize its potential.
"That's right, right after you abandoned Chimchar, I captured him immediately." Ash nodded, directly admitting it. To some, capturing abandoned Pokémon might seem disgraceful, but Ash didn't care at all.
A few of his main Pokémon were all picked up, weren't they?
Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur, all of the Three Starter were picked up, so what did it matter if Chimchar joined them?
Moreover, Chimchar's story closely resembled Charizard's, except the Trainers were somewhat different. Damian and Paul, though they released their Pokémon, were different; the former genuinely deceived and abandoned, while the latter could be described in a more favorable light as a release.
In addition, Damian was truly a lousy Trainer, while Paul at least tried training Chimchar fruitlessly, realizing they weren't compatible, and thus released Chimchar.
And Damian? Well, there's nothing much to say.
In summary, although those two might seem alike—both chasing powerful Pokémon—in truth, they were two distinctly different people.
Therefore, Ash didn't consider Paul like Damian, who was a trashy Trainer. Paul was different; he possessed the quality of a Trainer, just… went down the wrong path.
"When I released that guy, only about three days had passed, right? How did you manage to train him to this level in just those few days? Don't get me wrong; I won't take Monferno back. Released is released, but I just want to know… what did I do wrong."
For strength, Paul was willing to do anything. Ever since his brother was defeated miserably by Brandon and became despondent, Paul resolved to defeat Brandon in his brother's place!
For this reason, he would use the harshest methods to train Pokémon, getting them to the strongest state possible, with his only limit being the Pokémon's talent; as long as their talent was sufficient, he could train them to the pinnacle of the world!
This was Paul's belief, yet today, Ash shattered it.
Ash proved in practice that Chimchar's talent wasn't the problem; rather, it was Paul's training methods.
Under Paul's training, Chimchar's potential was less than 10% realized. If Chimchar had been with Ash from the start, he would probably have already evolved into Infernape, with unknown heights of strength attained.