"According to the registrations, the one on the left, is Kimberly Tyler, a…'Battle Girl', from Saffron City. The other one is Leanne Waterflower, a coordinator from Cerulean."

Leanne said, "I'll go first, if you don't mind?"

"By all means!" Kimberly said, surprised that a trainer would willingly put themselves forward to go first.

"Alright than," Leanne said, drawing a pokéball from its slot on her belt. "I choose you, Incineroar!"

Lana thought, 'Incineroar?! Then it is Leanne after all. It's been a long time since I last saw her. I wonder how she's doing on The Circuit? In any case, if she's going with Incineroar right off the bat, then she must be pretty eager to get through to the next rounds. Kimberly is going to have her work cut out for her. I wonder what she's going to…!' Lana's eyes widened momentarily before narrowing at the sight of Kimberly's Blaziken letting out a challenging call. Incineroar let out a few disparaging sounds, questioning whether Blaziken's strength was enough to get worked up over.

When Lana heard its remarks, she sighed and shook her head, covering her eyes as she thought, 'That's not good. How could she have spared working on that for all this time?! Well, I suppose that as a fully evolved starting fire type, it would have it relatively easy in battle. Even so, Kimberly looks like a Battle Girl, and her having a fighting type like Blaziken, only lends credence to the theory. Incineroar's dark typing puts at a distinct disadvantage to begin with, if I'm right, and Kimberly is a Battle Girl, then her experience with fighting types puts her far in the lead. Well, on paper anyway. The sheer fact that Leanne is related to Misty, should give her the confidence that will be needed to fight a losing battle like this one is probably going to turn into.'

Kimberly said, "Before we start, I need to ask you something, Leanne."

"What is it?" Leanne asked.

"Well, two actually. The first, is your last name, it's the same as the Leader of Cerulean Gym, right?"

"That's right," Leanne grouchily said. "What of it?"

"Don't trainers from there usually use water types?"

"We do, and I do, but, when I came here, I left all but Swanna at home, which I need to get back. Given that there's no pokécentre here, well…you understand."

"Yeah."

"Hey!" Lana called out. "I'll have you know that there is a pokécentre here!" stepping through the crowd.

"Eh? Don't be absurd!" Leanne said. "I didn't see one when I flew in this morning, and it's not like they're something that you can really miss."

You saw the tents set up outside those stores, right?"

"Yeah. What about them?"

"What do you think that is, huh?"

"Wait…seriously? You think that that is a pokécentre? Wow, I didn't know that there were any nutjobs like you here. Mum always said that the people from this place are sincere and smarter than most others."

"I'm not from here! Didn't you hear them say that I'm from Sinnoh!?"

"Where you're from doesn't matter! A tent is a tent and a pokécentre can't be in a tent!"

From his spot in the judge's chair, Gary shook his head with a strange smile on his face. Paul looked at him and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Ash and Leanne's mother used to travel together, regularly getting into fights over supposedly ridiculous ideas that he came up with, but generally ended up being right, though even now, I still say that that was mostly by accident."

"Heh, seems that he hadn't changed all that much until I ran up against him in Sinnoh."

"No. By that point he'd beaten both the Orange League and the Kanto Battle Frontier. Trust me, he'd changed plenty by that stage."

"Is that so?" Paul asked as the argument between Lana and Leanne petered out.

The referee said, "Now, can you begin?"

"Sure," Leanne said, "Incineroar, use Brutal Swing!" Incineroar's fist was covered in black and green surging energy as it ran at Blaziken.

Kimberly said, "Blaziken, use Fire Punch!" Blaziken's fist ignited as Incineroar charged at it.

As Blaziken waited, Leanne thought, 'Is it not going to move? What the hell?! I thought Kimberly was supposed to be a, quote unquote, battle girl. So why is Blaziken just waiting? It's not like it'll be able to generate enough power to counter Incineroar's force like tha-!' leanne's eyes widened as Blaziken twisted its chest as it countered Incineroar's attack. She demanded, "How?!"

Kimberly asked, "What do you mean 'how'?"

"How did Blaziken generate enough force to do that? I didn't see it move an inch!"

Kimberly shrugged a shoulder and said, "Beat me, and I might tell you."

Leanne growled and said, "Fine, Incineroar, Darkest Lariat!" Incineroar extended its arm, which glowed a very dark purple and swung at Blaziken.

Kimberly said, "Sky Uppercut." Blaziken ducked under the lariat and swung up with a glowing light blue fist. When it connected, it lifted Incineroar up into the air. Before it began to descend, Kimberly said, "Now, use Blaze Kick." Blaziken's right foot immediately ignited and it brought it into Incineroar's stomach, sending it rolling back. When it reached the halfway mark, Incineroar extended its arm, grabbing a hold of the ground, bringing its roll up short and used it to get to its feet. When it was, it slid back a few more metres before stopping, back where it had been at the beginning.

Leanne thought, 'Hnh, Battle Girl indeed. It's been a while since I last met someone that could hold their own against Incineroar in battle. Still, I suppose that I should probably treat this as a contest battle, rather than as a trainer battle if I want to win. Blaziken is clearly used to fighting straight up, so I'll need to tire it out before I get a chance to land a decisive blow.' Incineroar, use Double Kick!" Incineroar charged at Blaziken again and kicked at Blaziken's side.

When it began the initial kick, Kimberly said, "Blaziken, use Low Sweep." Blaziken ducked under the kick, and swept Incineroar's last foot off of the ground, causing it to fall to the ground. But, it had been told to use double kick, so it continued to try to at least land with the second kick. Kimberly though, said, "Now, use Low Kick!" Blaziken kicked the leg that Incineroar was attacking with, knocking it spinning around.

Leanne called out, "Throat Chop!" and Incineroar's lower hand glowed purple and tried to slam the side of it into Blaziken's throat. It failed as Blaziken pushed itself up, spinning over Incineroar's prone form and pushed itself up with it's arms.

Kimberly said, "Use Low Sweep Blaziken!" Blaziken swung its foot around and kicked Incineroar from the field.

The referee said, "Incineroar has left the field of battle, and is disqualified. Kimberly wins."

Leanne dropped to her knees in shock. She thought, 'How?! It was supposed to be me that was using tricks like that! How could I…I…' she glared angrily at the ground.

That was when Leanne heard Lana say, "Well, that was…interesting…at least."

Leanne sighed and said, "So, how have you been?" as she took the hand that Lana had offered to help her up.

"I've been good. How's the circuit been without me?"

"Heh, boring as hell. Speaking of which, where have you been all this time?"

"I told you, didn't I? I started my training as a Nurse Joy after we were done in Unova."

"Then that thing about the tent is true then?"

"Yep," Lana said, smiling. "I set it up to take care of the pokémon around here until Professor Oak gets a new machine."

"Maybe you should think about making it a permanent fixture. From what Mum was telling me, there are a few rumours about the latest Professor being easily able to be consumed by his research, leaving less time to take care of sick and injured pokémon of visiting trainers."

"I see. I'll…think on it."

"So, are you healing everything yourself, or…"

"Nah. I got Aunt Selene to send me some apprentices, so I leave most of the healing work to them."

"Then…what exactly do you do?"

"I make the potions and elixirs that they need to do their jobs, though they were rough around the edges at the beginning, they've pretty much settled in over this last week that we've spent together. Heh, even the battle training that Delia's been giving them has been paying off."

"Delia? As in Delia Ketchum?"

"That's right. Why?"

"Isn't she the mother of…you know who?"

"That's right. Is there a question there?"

"No no, just curious if you'd gotten over…you know…'that'."

"It's been six years now, Leanne!" Lana exclaimed. "Besides, if I'm not, then I'm going to have one hell of a time challenging the Hoenn Battle Frontier."

"The Battle Frontier? Then you've abandoned the circuit?"

"Abandoned…no. But my return is going to have to be put on the backburner for a while."

"So, revenge is it?"

"Hmm…it is…but, for some reason, I can't help but feel like there's more to it than that. Though I really couldn't tell you why that is. It's just a feeling that I have."

"What kind of feeling?"

"I don't know. Almost like…I'm moving towards an answer to a question that I've not realized that I've asked yet."

"That…well…quite frankly, makes just about as much sense as anything else you've ever said."

"Geez, thanks Leanne," Lana said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "In any case, you interested in going to Hoenn?"

"Not right now. I was just on my way home from Johto when I saw the poster for this tournament yesterday."

"I see. That's too bad."

"Who knows though. I might head on over there when I'm done checking in."

"In that case, I'll stop in at some of the contest towns. It'll be interesting seeing them from the other side for a change."

"Then you've actually kept on competing then, have you?"

"Only some smaller contests and tournaments like this one. As you can probably imagine, I've not really been able to travel around too much recently."

"I see. That's too bad. Like I said, the circuit has really missed you."

"But, more importantly, you'd better watch out for Kimberly when you fight her."

"Yeah. I know." Lana frowned as she said, "Even if she called herself a 'Battle Girl', she fought more like a coordinator than a trainer just now."

"Well, either way, knowing you you'll probably just find some way to turn it into a battle of pure force rather than keep it as a coordinator style battle."

Lana lost the frown, grinning as she said, "Well, what can I say, I do my best," as she shrugged, spreading her arms, acting as if she was boasting, despite both girls being both well aware that she was anything but. They burst into laughter, shocking all of the people around them, having witnessed their argument before Leanne's match began. They then focused back on the next match.