บท 611: CH84 (606), Rangers (6)
Freyja/Lopunny's breakthrough was definitely a great way to start the week, and usually, I would have spent the rest of the week inside Utopia with my Pokemon, but not this time. No, this week, I had to be in Johto since the preliminaries of the Johto Junior League tournament began on Mewday at 10 a.m., which was today.
Obviously, the reason I was going there to watch that tournament was because Weiss would be participating in it. It had been nearly two years since she started her journey, and she would finally be able to complete her Junior Circuit. Typically, Weiss would have been able to skip the preliminaries thanks to the S-rank Badges she earned, but she actually opted/volunteered to go through them to train her weaker/newer Pokemon.
Naturally, Weiss' goal was to win the trophy, and considering the strength of her Pokemon I was confident that she would succeed, though I had to admit that using her weaker Pokemon during the prelims was a bit risky since the preliminary rounds were 1-on-1 battles, so if she lost just one, she actually got disqualified.
When some of us brought that up, she confidently said that she would make sure to research each opponent before deciding which Pokemon to use. Considering the overall picture and the fact that this was just a junior class tournament I felt that should be enough, so I let her go with it if that was what she wanted. Not that I could truly do anything if she insisted. The others similarly chose to keep quiet after her assurance as well.
Anyway, since Johto and Kanto shared the Indigo Plateau, the main event of the Johto Junior League tournament would happen there, but just like the preliminaries of the Kantonian tournaments happened in Indigo City, Johto had its own city below the Indigo Plateau called Rosewood City where the Johtonian preliminaries would take place. Weiss as well as Rose were already there, and I too made my way to Rosewood City after an early breakfast.
Despite being in another region, Rosewood City was not all that far away from Indigo City for obvious reasons, so getting from Rose City at the eastern end of Kanto to Rosewood City in Johto took us less than 20 minutes of teleportation, which included the breaks between the jumps. The fact that we by now already had teleportation points/coordinates to most of Kanto played a vital role in that.
I simply switched/alternated between our long-distance teleporters, before asking Hera/Pidgeot to fly us the last bit between Indigo City and Rosewood City, which made the 6500+ km journey a rather short one. I had made sure to pick up Jessie on the way, and we met up with Kinji in front of the local Teleportation Hub.
Jessie, Kinji, and I were the only ones among our friends aside from Rose, who had announced that they would come to cheer Weiss on during the prelims. The others would directly head for the Indigo Plateau on Kyoday and Grouday to cheer for her during the main event. I could understand why they would do that, as did Weiss, so none of us said anything about their choices.
Anyway, Jessie, Kinji, and I met up with Weiss as well as Rose in front of the Rosewood City Stadium. Weiss' family was there as well, though aside from her mom the others could only be present for a few hours today. They too would rejoin us on Kyoday at the Indigo Plateau, but I thought it was nice of them to show up on the first/opening day despite being busy.
Regardless, after the greetings and good luck wishes were out of the way, Weiss headed for the participant's section while we headed for our seats. At point 10 a.m. the opening ceremony started, and at 10:30 a.m. the first battles began. Since thousands of juniors qualified for the tournament, multiple battles had to obviously take place at the same time to ensure that the prelims could end on time. That the battles were only 1-on-1 was an important part of why this was possible.
Weiss had her first battle 3 hours after the opening ceremony, and she used her Bounsweet, who by now had reached the (mid) bronze stage, to beat her opponent's (low) bronze stage Murkrow. She joined us after that since she had no further battles that day, and while we watched some of the battles that were taking place, we mostly strolled around the city for the rest of the day.
While it was to be expected since this was only a junior tournament, seeing the various trainers/participants pulling out either (low) or (mid) bronze stage Pokemon at best during the 1-on-1 battles, fully knowing that they could not afford to lose, showed once more just how vast the difference between us was. I mean, even Rose, Weiss, and Co were vastly stronger than these guys and gals.
Heck, by the end of the day, I only saw/heard about a handful of trainers that used a (high) bronze-stage Pokemon, while some even used (high) iron-stage Pokemon. Still, considering that this was a bunch of junior-class trainers that was probably to be expected.
It was just my worldview that was skewed due to my own strength and that of my friends who were geniuses in their own right. Not to mention that even the younger ones among them got influenced by me which caused them to get stronger than they would have probably been without me in the picture.
Don't get me wrong, they would have still been strong compared to their peers, but the difference would not have been this big. Weiss for all intents and purposes was already a senior class trainer in disguise, and as soon as this tournament was over her trainer rank would be bumped up to that exact rank.
Honestly, Weiss was approaching the point where she could qualify for the expert class, though the strength of her Pokemon still fell a bit short for that one. Nonetheless, I did not doubt that she would reach that point within the next year or two. Thankfully, that would not affect her since the senior league circuit was open to both senior and expert class trainers.
Still, considering all that, it was no surprise that Weiss managed to go through all 8 of her preliminary battles using only her 3 "newbies". Using just her (mid) bronze stage Bounsweet, (high) bronze Sneasel, and (high) bronze Piloswine allowed her to comfortably advance to the main stage along with the other 108 contestants.
Together with the "seeded" trainers, there were 128 trainers who would battle it out for the Junior Silver Conference Cup, and I honestly hoped for Weiss' adversaries that there were some exceptional ones among them who at least had some (mid) silver stage Pokemon to field, or Weiss was going to win this whole thing without breaking a sweat.
Anyway, after dinner on Dialday, our group made its way to the Indigo Plateau, which was once more open for visitors, and the next morning, just like previously promised, all our friends showed up for the main event of Weiss' tournament. Some of the parents, including mine, had come along as well, and they all wished Weiss all the best once the greetings were out of the way.
Since the "opening" was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. at the main stadium, we made our way there. There would be no battles taking place at the main stadium until tomorrow, and the only reason we were going there was for the assignment of the battle slots. It was in some manner a second opening ceremony, and following it, the round of 128 would start at 10 a.m., which would give those that would battle first time to get to their assigned battlefields and look up their opponents.
As luck would have it, Weiss was among the ones who got to fight first, so we collectively headed to Stadium 3 for her battle. The rounds of 128, 64, as well as 32 that would be held today were all 3-on-3 battles, and due to the number of battles slated to happen during each round, multiple battles were happening all around the sub-stadiums on the Indigo Plateau at all times, so that we could go through all three rounds by the end of the day.
Weiss' first battle ended up being rather anticlimactic since the strongest of the three Pokemon her opponent used was at the (high) bronze stage. She finished that battle 3-0 using her Bounsweet, Sneasel, and (mid) silver stage Mandibuzz.
The next battle was even "worse" since the guy she had to face did not even have a silver-stage Pokemon. The battle ended 3-0 in Weiss' favor as well, and this time she used her Bounsweet, Piloswine, and (high) silver stage Lopunny to win the battle. I was honestly happy to see that she used at least one of the silver-stage Pokemon during each battle as a precaution and everyone around me was of the same opinion.
Weiss' third and final battle for the day ended up being a bit more interesting because her opponent actually had two (low) silver-stage Pokemon, which took her by surprise and resulted in her winning that battle 3-1 instead of 3-0.
Weiss used her Sneasel as her second Pokemon, but it ended up losing against the (low) silver stage Magmar her opponent called out. One still had to say that Sneasel did put up a good fight. Weiss then used her (high) silver stage Walrein to beat Magmar and the (low) silver stage Heracross her foe called out as his last Pokemon.
That victory made Weiss one of the 16 competitors who advanced to the final day of the tournament. We left the stadium after her victory and met up with her. After we congratulated her on making it to the next phase/day, her fight came up and Weiss admitted that her opponent had caught her off guard with that Magmar since it was not listed on the tournament file.
She also said that she would have used her (low) gold stage Dewgong instead of Walrein just to be on the safe side if her Sneasel had not put up such a good fight against the Magmar, exhausting it as much as he did. Still, she professed that this battle made her look forward to the ones tomorrow since she felt like there might be some decently strong adversaries after all.
Unfortunately, her first battle on Grouday ended up disappointing her. The battles today were all being held in the main stadium, and all of them, from the round of 16 to the finals would happen individually. Moreover, both the round of 16 and the quarterfinals would be 4-on-4, while the semifinals and the finals were 5-on-5.
Sadly for Weiss, her opponent in the round of 16 only had a single (low) silver-stage Houndoom, who while decently strong was not enough to pose a challenge for any of Weiss' silver-stage Pokemon. That she ended up beating Houndoom with her (high) silver stage Jinx instead of one of the other silver stage Pokemon was probably her way of venting her disappointment/frustration.
The quarterfinal battle was quite a bit better and went different from what we had expected not only because the girl Weiss was facing actually ended up having two silver-stage Pokemon, with one of them even at the (mid) silver stage, but also because of her strategy.
Interestingly enough, Anna chose to start with her (low) silver stage Azumarill, which took down Weiss' Bounsweet after she struggled until the end. Weiss refrained from recalling Bounsweet even after it became obvious that Azumarill had Sap Sipper and the little one fought to the bitter end, though she did not cause much damage to her foe she at least exhausted it a bit.
Weiss then used Lopunny to quite literally beat Azumarill up before recalling Lopunny to give the others a chance to fight as well. Unluckily, her Sneasel got to face a (mid) silver stage Forretress, who predictably took down Sneasel without much of a problem, though Sneasel did drag it out for as long as possible by relying on his speed.
Honestly, that was quite a poor matchup for poor Sneasel so no one could blame him for losing, and I was sure many were surprised that Weiss did not recall him either but let him fight to the bitter end as well. I was pretty sure she did that for the experience.
Anyway, Weiss actually sent out her (low) gold-stage Dewgong after that, who cleaned up Forretress rather quickly. Frankly, it was surprising that Anna did not give up after that, and I was sure no one would have blamed her if she did, but she didn't. No, she still sent out her final two Pokemon, who both happened to be at the (high) bronze stage. Weiss switched out her Dewgong and let her Manibuzz take them both down, earning Weiss her place in the semifinals.
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