Chapter 11

Cynthia woke up early in the morning, awoken by an alert from an alarm clock. It also woke Tobias, who was on a sofa sleeping. He checked his phone, and received an alert for registering for the Eterna City Tournament. He asked Cynthia this,

"Did you participate in any tournaments prior to challenging the Sinnoh League?

"I did participate in the Lily of the Valley Conference. The tournament scene of my teenage years was not the thriving industry it is today. There were very few tournaments in that time. The Lily of the Valley Conference was scarcely a year old. Its first winner was Flint. I participated in its sophomore year. The tournament was a joke; Garchomp defeated everyone I faced, and it had no losses until the semi-finals. I remember the crowds cheering my victories, and it was then that I thought that I had a real chance at becoming the Sinnoh Champion. My friends Volkner and Candice were at the stands supporting me, and I had remarked on my friendships with them too. I helped them grow to become who they are today. Our shared experiences training together, shaped our teams and made all of us grow."

"It must have been nice to travel with friends. I didn't have any until you came around… okay, Darkrai had Alicia, but I do not remember her very well. How did the semi-finals go? I think it was more of a challenge."

"The other semi-finalist was a woman named Grace."

Cynthia started out, "Battle Dance: Garchomp.".

Grace responded, "Go, Wailord"

"She started off with a Wailord, which fired a Water Spout. Garchomp dodged the Water Spout with ease, and then used Outrage, fainting Wailord in one strike. Grace responded by sending out an Ursaring. Garchomp used Outrage again, dealing 90% of Ursaring's health as the latter collapsed to the arena floor. Ursaring got back up, and then its Toxic Orb activated, and triggered its Guts ability. The idea was to use Façade at higher power due to that move using a status ailment. Here is the problem: Ursaring didn't hit Garchomp at all, and then the toxic damage ended up fainting it.

While the Toxic Orb strategy was creative, it doesn't matter if you can't hit Garchomp.

Grace replied, "Go, Torterra."

"Torterra struck Garchomp with a Wood Hammer after Garchomp rammed into it using Outrage. That Wood Hammer did about 40% damage to Garchomp. An admirable hit, but more concerning was the risk of Outrage: confusion damage. That thankfully didn't happen, as Garchomp used Outrage again without succumbing to the risk. This move is fantastic. It goes off Garchomp's higher physical attack stat, and Dragon is a great move type with only one resistance (Steel) and one immunity (Fairy). Down went Torterra."

Cynthia stated, "All that for just a little damage. Let's take this battle up a notch."

"Grace sent out Magnezone. While it survived the Outrage with ease—any who uses Outrage cannot select another move the next turn—and used Flash Cannon, taking down 40% of Garchomp's health, a single Earthquake destroyed it, to no big surprise. Next came a Snorlax. The original idea was to use Earthquake to chip away at it from a distance, while dodging any of its attacks. I had underestimated that Garchomp had grown more tired, slowing her down. The Snorlax used Body Slam, and after an initial miss, fainted Garchomp."

Cynthia claimed, "Impressive. You trained Snorlax and your other team members well."

"Cynthia sent out Lucario, who destroyed Snorlax with one use of Aura Sphere. Grace unleashed a Gyarados. I had Lucario use Dark Pulse on Gyarados. The first attempt missed; Gyarados used Waterfall and struck Lucario. Thankfully Lucario only took 30% damage. Lucario struck Gyarados with a Dark Pulse at point blank. Gyarados took just under half from that. Gyarados cried out, then used Surf. Lucario just jumped the Surf wave, then fired Dark Pulse, hitting Gyarados again, leaving it with barely any health left. Before Gyarados could land an attack, Lucario used Extreme Speed—this had higher priority, and struck before Gyarados could react, fainting it. Her last team member: Staraptor. Staraptor was unleashed from its ball, and it flew out."

"Lucario used Aura Sphere on Staraptor, which did almost half its health. Grace had Staraptor use Close Combat on Lucario; this move left Lucario with almost no health left, but Lucario hung on through force of will. The next Aura Sphere fainted Staraptor.

An announcer, after seeing the results, announced, "Cynthia had just defeated Grace in the semi-finals. She will be moving on to the final round of the Conference.

The finalist just seemed to fall before Garchomp, who had fainted every single opposing team member with little sign of exhaustion and having taken very little damage. The

This experience sounds very familiar to me. I, too, swept the entirety of the Lily of the Valley Conference with one team member except for the semi-finalist. He taught me that even Legendaries could be beaten, and that I had a long way to go for fully realizing the vast potential of my team. After defeating him, the finals became a walk in the park.

Maybe that's why I showed an interest in you when we first met. You had just won the Lily of the Valley Conference. The Festival Battle Challenge had not yet begun. I helped set it up, along with Mr. Goodshow and Palmer. The Sinnoh Battle Frontier was rather new, and I did not participate in it. To see it thrive now after slightly less than a decade—I am amazed at how popular it has become. Palmer and the other Frontier Brains did their job diligently, and they serve with distinction.

Tobias remarked at his laundry list of tournament victories. "Lily of the Valley Conference Tournament Winner (Twice). Ever Grande Conference Winner. Vertress Conference Winner. Lumiose Conference Winner. Sinnoh Battle Frontier Hall of Fame. Sinnoh League Hall of Fame. Dark Division Winner. Even a World Tournament win once, although Cynthia had not participated in that one (and everyone thought less of the title as a result). Tournaments came and went since this was basically his job: a wandering Trainer in search of tournaments to win and the associated paydays that came along with victories. Even still, these accomplishments seemed low in comparison to what Cynthia had done: keeping the Sinnoh Champion title for over a decade, two World Tournament wins, a World Coronation win three years ago, and many other wins, especially against Champions or Champion-strength opponents. Truly impressive indeed!

The day's Sinnoh league challenges went by easily. Of the seven challenges that day, five of them lost to the Elite Four members. Of the two remaining, neither could offer Cynthia much of a battle. She noticed that the quality of challengers seemed to decrease for that day. A one-off, or part of a worsening trend? She could have Tobias make a better curriculum to educate young Trainers in becoming more effective—he would run almost any errand for her—but he probably was not the best choice for it. On the other hand, Cynthia was just at another level; very few Trainers were at her level of strength—Leon, Tobias, Lance, Steven, and that was about it. She would do more research and sourcing on her computer, but she had some time before that.

Sheets of rain fell outside that day. It ruined her plans to tend the Gracidea flowers which were planted just outside the Sinnoh League, but she would do that tomorrow if the rain stopped. She walked back to a piano in the Hall of Fame room, which held the names and teams of worthy opponents and distinguished trainers who completed a League challenge. She started warming up for a few minutes. Afterwards, she started playing a familiar piano piece. The exquisite tones flowed through the Hall of Fame room and the Champion chamber.

Little by little the rain slowed down and ceased. Cynthia reflected on her past some more.