"Alright, everyone, thank you for waiting!"
"The fifth match of the Indigo Plateau Conference Top 32 is about to begin! Please remain seated and refrain from moving around so as not to block the view of other spectators. Thank you for your cooperation!"
"For today's fifth match, one of the competitors is Ash, a Trainer everyone here knows well and has been eagerly anticipating! His opponent is Ritchie, also a well-known Trainer from Kanto!"
"Ritchie has been a Trainer for only a year and a half, yet he's already reached High level. Even more impressively, his most famous Pokémon is, yes, a Pikachu! That's right, the very same signature Pokémon as Ash's!"
"There are very few Trainers who choose Pikachu. And even fewer who can truly raise one properly. Yet today, on the stage of the Indigo Plateau Conference, two such Trainers have appeared, by sheer coincidence, and they're facing each other!"
"Is this incredible coincidence a sign of fate?!"
"Ash's strength needs no introduction, while Ritchie has yet to fully reveal his true capabilities. Will Ash advance smoothly into the Top 16, or will Ritchie rise as a dark horse and overturn expectations?!"
The announcer's voice surged with excitement, deliberately stoking the crowd's emotions.
Between the lines, however, his stance was clear, he didn't truly believe Ritchie would win.
And neither did most of the audience.
The gap between the two Trainers was simply too large.
Both used Pikachu, but the difference in mastery was obvious. Ash's Pikachu was a Super Pikachu, a Pokémon that had once defeated an Elite-level opponent.
Ritchie's Pikachu… being High level was already remarkable, but still not enough.
If Ritchie wanted to win, there was only one word that could describe it.
Miracle.
Miracles usually belonged to protagonists.
Unfortunately for Ritchie, he wasn't the protagonist of this world.
The real protagonist… was standing on the opposite side of the battlefield.
Ash and Ritchie stepped onto the arena.
The Indigo Stadium's battlefield resembled a standard Gym layout, a massive field with a Poké Ball insignia painted at its center, but its scale was entirely different.
It was more than twice the size of a normal Gym field.
The Qualifiers' arenas couldn't even compare.
"I'm really glad I get to battle you," Ritchie said, clenching his fists, his eyes blazing with fighting spirit. "I'll give this match everything I've got!"
As Ash's friend, and a longtime admire, Ritchie didn't want to leave any regrets behind.
And as a fellow Pikachu Trainer, he especially didn't want to lose.
Even if the odds were stacked against him.
Ash smiled and nodded, excitement clear on his face.
"Of course. I'll go all out too. Let's have a battle with no regrets!"
Those words made Ritchie's expression turn solemn.
When people spoke of Ash's "full power," one couldn't help but recall the recordings, his battle against Elite Koga months ago, and his match with Lorelei two months earlier.
Ash, fighting at full strength, possessed Elite Four–level combat power.
Even if he didn't field a full Elite-level team, it was an established fact that at least two of his Pokémon had reached that realm.
In earlier matches, the strongest Pokémon Ash had revealed was a Gengar whose true strength was impossible to judge,, and even then, it had been clearly holding back.
There was also that Aerodactyl that had never appeared in prior records, a Pokémon that likewise possessed Elite-level strength.
But neither of those Pokémon represented Ash's "true image" in the public eye.
When people thought of Ash at full power, two names always came to mind:
Pikachu, Charizard.
So would Ash bring out Charizard this time?
As the referee raised the flags and swung them downward, both Trainers moved.
"Then my first Pokémon is, go, Sparky!"
Ritchie hurled his Poké Ball forward, and with a flash of light, a Pikachu with slightly scruffy fur appeared on the battlefield!
At the same moment, Ash glanced down at the Pikachu by his feet.
Pikachu grinned, and leapt straight onto the field.
Pikachu versus Pikachu.
"Unbelievable! The opening matchup is Pikachu versus Pikachu!"
"Ritchie is famous for his Pikachu, but when it comes to Ash, the first thing everyone thinks of is his unconventional Pikachu as well!"
"Ash's Pikachu breaks all conventions, possessing power far beyond its level! Most notably, it even has a unique battle stance, during critical matches, Ash sometimes has Pikachu wear his hat, though it seems he hasn't chosen to do so this time!"
"But even without that, Ash's Pikachu is undeniably terrifying!"
"Ritchie's Pikachu also has a distinctive look, let's see what kind of sparks will fly when these two collide!"
The announcer's voice echoed through the stadium, his excitement surpassing even that of the roaring crowd.
In all his years of commentary, scenes like this were exceedingly rare.
After all, simply standing on the Top 32 stage with a Pikachu was already an achievement.
Let alone having two Pikachu face off directly.
"It's an honor to battle your Pikachu, Ash," Ritchie said earnestly."Sparky, let's give it everything we've got. We can't let Ash and Pikachu look down on us!"
"Pika-pika!!"
Sparky crouched low on all fours. The red electric sacs on his cheeks crackled with sparks, his eyes burning with fighting spirit.
From the Pikachu standing opposite him, he could clearly feel it.
This was no ordinary Pikachu.
His Trainer had warned him, and now Sparky understood why. The aura coming from that opponent was heavy, sharp, and dangerous.
Good.
He hadn't faced a strong opponent of his own kind in a long time.
What didn't kill him would only make him stronger!
"Sparky, Quick Attack!"
"Pika!!"
At Ritchie's command, Sparky burst into motion. His limbs blurred as his body flashed across the field, darting back and forth so fast that several afterimages were left behind.
Yellow figures flickered everywhere, making it nearly impossible to track his true position.
To most spectators, it was dazzling.
To Ash and Pikachu, It was merely average.
Ash's Eye of Insight had already analyzed everything:
High-Low level. Base stats mostly above B. Speed at A.
For a Pikachu, these were excellent stats. Even impressive.
But compared to his Pikachu?
Still not enough.
Even so, many experts in the stands nodded approvingly. Sparky's speed was exceptional for his level, fast enough to contend with speed-focused Pokémon at High level rank.
Yet despite the incoming assault, Ash made no move to defend.
Seeing this, Ritchie's eyes sharpened.
"Sparky, use that speed and go straight into Take Down!"
At once, Sparky's speed surged again, at least thirty percent faster.
Power condensed within his small body, and the air around him screamed as he accelerated!
With Quick Attack and Take Down stacked, Sparky became so fast that even his shadow vanished.
In the next instant, he appeared behind Pikachu.
Sparky slammed forward, his body exploding with all the force he could muster!
Thud!
A dull, heavy impact echoed across the battlefield.
But, Ash's Pikachu didn't move.
He stood firmly in place, his tail having turned a gleaming metallic silver, braced behind him.
Iron Tail.
All of Sparky's accumulated power smashed directly into it.
And failed to move Pikachu even a single inch.
Instead, Sparky was blasted backward by his own momentum, sent skidding more than ten meters across the ground.
Ritchie's eyes went wide.
That attack, his fastest, strongest burst, not only failed to injure the opponent…
It injured his own Pikachu instead?!
How was that even possible?!
And how did Ash's Pikachu know Sparky would appear behind him, without even turning around?!
Did he have eyes in the back of his head?!
And that tail, was that Iron Tail? He didn't even see it activate!
Though only a single exchange had occurred, the shock Ash's Pikachu delivered was overwhelming.
"Pikachu," Ash said calmly, "Quick Attack."
The moment the words left his mouth, Pikachu vanished.
Completely.
Before Sparky could even register danger, a terrifying impact slammed into his body.
He was launched like a meteor.
Ritchie felt a violent gust of wind rush past him, followed by a thunderous crash behind his back.
When he spun around, his heart dropped.
Sparky was embedded in the outer wall like a nail driven in by a hammer.
Completely pinned.
In the blink of an eye, the flow of battle had reversed.
The attacker had become the defeated.
According to Indigo Plateau rules, leaving the battlefield counts as a loss, unless the Pokémon is forced out. If knocked away, as long as the Pokémon returns within ten seconds, it isn't considered defeated.
But looking at Sparky now, whether he could wake up at all was already questionable.
"H–Ritchie's Pikachu is unable to continue battling!" the referee shouted after a brief, stunned pause.
"Ash's Pikachu wins!"
Only then did the referee snap fully back to reality, waving the flag decisively.
He was a seasoned professional. For him to freeze like that meant only one thing, that exchange had been far too outrageous.
He had originally thought this battle would at least be competitive.
Instead, it ended in a matter of seconds.
Was this really a Top 32 match of the Indigo Plateau Conference?
It felt more like an Elite Four member casually crushing an ordinary Trainer. Ritchie had been beaten so thoroughly that he never even had a chance to fight back.
As the referee's voice echoed across the field, Ritchie, and the entire stadium, finally snapped out of their collective shock.
"H–Holy crap! What was that just now?!"
"Did anyone see that Pikachu move?!"
"I didn't see a thing, nothing at all!"
"That was Quick Attack?! That was basically Extreme Speed!"
"Whose Quick Attack is that fast?!"
"So this is what Ash's Pikachu looks like when he stops holding back?!"
"Holding back? That wasn't holding back, that was hiding an entire ocean!"
"This is Ash's real strength… Pikachu's power was never a rumor!"
"No, seriously, how do you train a Pikachu to this level?! Is this even legal?!"
"Was that Ash's true power?!"
"Did anyone see what level that Pikachu is?!"
"I couldn't tell, it was too fast! Could it be Elite Four level?! And he didn't even use any boosts!"
"A Pikachu at Elite Four level in a normal state?! You've got to be kidding me!"
"…!"
The stadium erupted.
Cheers, shouts, gasps, and stunned laughter overlapped into a deafening wave. Some fans screamed Ash's name, others argued heatedly about Pikachu's level, and many were still trying to process what they had just witnessed.
Ritchie quietly recalled Sparky.
The gap between them was far greater than he had imagined.
He had believed Sparky could at least trade blows for a while. Instead, he had been instantly defeated in their very first exchange, without even glimpsing the opponent's shadow.
If their Quick Attacks were compared…
Sparky's was like a snail crawling forward.
Ash's Pikachu was lightning tearing through the sky.
So this was Ash's true strength.
Everything before this had been nothing more than child's play.
Ash hadn't been polite when he said he would go all out, he had been honest.
Ritchie knew it now.
Winning was probably harder than climbing to heaven itself.
But even so, he had already come this far.
How could he give up?
The discouragement in Ritchie's eyes burned away the moment he met Ash's unwavering gaze.
He clenched his fists.
He couldn't let Ash down.
"You're incredible, Ash," Ritchie said seriously. "Maybe the gap between us is already so large I can't even see it anymore… but I still won't give up."
"No matter how big that gap is, I'll keep believing in my Pokémon!"
Ash's eyes lit up.
"That's the spirit, Ritchie!" he said with a wide grin.
"Let's enjoy this battle together!"
"Yeah!" Ritchie shouted back. "Next up, I'm counting on you!"
"Go, Zippo!"
A flash of light burst from the Poké Ball, and a powerfully built Charizard landed on the field with a heavy thud, wings spreading wide.
This was Ritchie's starter.
And one of his two aces, alongside Sparky.