"How are you getting on, Ash?" May asked, during a visit that evening – after the double battles were over, but before the full battles had begun.
"The Double Battles were fun," Ash replied, thinking about it.
They hadn't done anything like that in the Indigo or Silver Conferences, but there had been a lot at the Grand Festival, so Ash had been sort of thinking in that way before the actual League itself began.
"That last one was scary, but… Koraidon really pulled it out," he added. "She's asleep now, and I'm taking her to the Pokémon Centre, but… she's probably getting a break for the first full battle."
"Who are you using, then?" Max checked.
"I'm… still not quite sure, but I'm going to rotate everyone around a bit," Ash replied. "Unown, definitely, but apart from that I mean – five Full Battles in a row is going to be a lot of work, and by switching Pokémon around a bit I can give them more of a break. And everyone new to my Hoenn team has had a battle, now."
"That might actually be an advantage," Brock pointed out. "You do need to lock in your choices before the battle, don't forget that, but simply having that many Pokémon who can take part in the Pokémon League is something you've worked for – and it's something that many trainers can't do."
Ash nodded, then frowned slightly. "Actually… I should probably let Lisa know I could need Charizard. I'll make that phone call in a minute."
"So, since everyone did have a battle, you're not doing that thing where you hide someone, right?" Latias checked.
"That's right, I'm not hiding anyone," Ash agreed. "Maybe I should have, but I think it's more important to give my Pokémon a good experience rather than hide someone for late in the battles – and having so many Pokémon does let me do the same sort of thing, at least."
The next morning, Ash's first Full Battle opponent was against a trainer called Katie.
She opened with a Venomoth, which went out against Ash's own first choice – Cyndaquil – and dodged to the side immediately.
"Yah!" Cyndaquil said, firing out a Flamethrower, then drooped slightly. "Aww… missed."
Katie recalled Venomoth a moment later, switching them out for a Golduck instead, and Cyndaquil glanced back at his trainer. "What should I do?"
"Stay on the move!" Ash called. "Agility!"
"Got it!" Cyndaquil replied, flames igniting with a flickering whoosh, and sped off to the side. That evaded the first blast of Golduck's Hydro Pump, and Ash glanced between the two Pokémon…
"Swift!" he said.
Cyndaquil uncurled, then used Swift, and fired out a shower of stars that curved through the air towards Golduck.
"Block them!" Katie ordered.
Golduck began using Fury Swipes, knocking Swift stars out of the air and sending them flying in all directions, but not quite all of them got deflected.
"Confusion!" she said, and Cyndaquil scrambled back into motion – a moment too late, as the Confusion knocked him sprawling, but he didn't actually get confused.
"Smokescreen!" Ash decided, and Cyndaquil punched out a puff of smoke that disguised his position. "Keep using that, and mix it with Swift!"
Swift stars flashed out of the cloud again, and Golduck knocked most of them aside before returning fire with a Hydro Pump.
"Dodge left!" Ash called, which gave Cyndaquil enough warning to get out of the way, and the Fire-type continued his barrage.
Katie looked worried. At Ash's guess, this was her main counter to Fire type Pokémon, and if Cyndaquil could win without getting too beaten up himself…
"Close in!" Katie called. "Then sweep the whole area with Hydro Pump when you're close enough!"
Ash watched as Golduck moved forwards, approaching Cyndaquil's smokescreen, and waited.
Not for long, just for a moment.
Cyndaquil couldn't tell what was going on outside his smokescreen, not as deep into it as he was. But Ash could see him, and Ash could see Golduck as well… and he could tell when Golduck was close enough.
"Swift – and Wild Charge!" he ordered, and Cyndaquil exploded out of the smokescreen with electrical energy crackling off his fur as he followed his Swift stars in.
"What – Confusion!" Katie ordered.
The Confusion attack did hit Cyndaquil, but only after Cyndaquil had hit Golduck. There was a burst of electrical energy that fizzed out in all directions, and when it faded Golduck looked much the worse for wear – not out of it just yet, but not great either.
Cyndaquil had used Smokescreen as soon as he landed, and Ash judged how close he was to Golduck for a moment – then decided it was close enough.
"Agility!" he said. "Wild Charge!"
Three Pokémon later for Ash, and four for Katie, and Ash sent out Unown against the very same Venomoth from before.
"Alphabetize! Hidden Power Rock!" he ordered, and Unown fired out a pulse of energy which contained the very essence of rock.
The pulse hit Venomoth hard, but didn't knock her out in one blow, and Katie pointed.
"Disable!"
Venomoth sent out a wave of disabling energy that washed over Unown, and the Psychic-type collective flashed. "There is a problem. Hidden Power has been disabled."
"Uh-" Ash began, and Katie punched the air.
"Knew it!" she said. "Unown only learns one attack!"
"That information is not strictly accurate," Unown noted.
"Yeah, it's a good trick, but not good enough!" Ash replied. "Unown, Gravity!"
"Gravity manipulation active," Unown confirmed, letters moving faster, and Venomoth's attempt at a Bug Buzz attack was thrown off by the Pokémon suddenly weighing three times as much as she'd expected to.
No sooner had she adjusted for that, meanwhile, than gravity suddenly changed again to be normal strength – but upside down.
Then a bit sideways.
"Quiver Dance!" Katie decided. "Get fast enough you can power through those changes, then hit them with Stun Spore!"
"How long is that Disable going to last, Unown?" Ash called.
"Information unclear. It is being worked on."
"Keep it up!" Ash decided.
As soon as Unown was able to, he was going to have them use Hidden Power Fire to burn away any Stun Spore… then Unown would probably get hit by a Disable again, though.
It was important to make good use of every attack chance in a situation like this.
"Steel Wing!"
Part way through Ash's round-of-sixteen match, Morrison's Gligar went slicing towards Noctowl – only to shimmer through an illusion, as the real Noctowl rolled smoothly out of the way of the danger zone from the attack.
"Confusion, Noctowl!" Ash called.
"Ash, is it okay that you're keeping track of where Noctowl really is?" Latias asked. "It is using a move, and…"
"I checked that," Ash replied, as Gligar fired up a Sand-Attack that drifted in the air. "It was somewhere in the rules, it said that a move wasn't allowed if it affected the participants in the battle. So… Noctowl, left!"
Noctowl darted to the side, as Gligar exploited the way Noctowl's flight disturbed the sand to swerve abruptly after her.
His Guillotine attack didn't hit her, but it was a near thing, and he did throw a Hidden Power attack after her which crackled with electrical energy as it hit her on the wing.
"Confusion!" Ash ordered. "Tackle!"
Noctowl and her illusion swept back and forth, trying to catch Gligar, but the Ground-type could still tell which one was the illusion and slipped lower to avoid her.
"If Gligar was a Ghost type and I made them solid," Ash said quickly. "That wouldn't be allowed. Noctowl, Whirlwind!"
Noctowl used Whirlwind, hitting Gligar with a storm of wind that slapped them towards the ground. The Ground-Flying Pokémon crashed, then took off again, but with a bit less energy than before.
"But because I'm just using it to see where my Pokémon are, that's fine," Ash resumed. "It'd even be okay if I was using it to see where an invisible opponent was, but I haven't done that yet and I think I'd try not to? And, I could use telepathy to tell you what to do, if I knew telepathy."
"I think I get it," Latias said. "Why do you think it's like that?"
"I think because otherwise-" Ash began, then had to divert his attention to the battle again as Gligar hit Noctowl with an Iron Tail. "Twister!"
Noctowl whirled up a Twister, doing a rapid roll to build up the miniature tornado, and Morrison gasped.
"Get out of there!" he called, but Gligar didn't have a chance to respond in time. This time they hit the ground with a much harder crash, one accompanied by a surge of Dragon-typed energy, and the Ground-type struggled for a moment before falling back in defeat.
"Your Pokémon are impressive!" Morrison said. "But I bet this next one will give you trouble! Girafarig!"
The two-headed Pokémon materialized, and Morrison pointed up. "Twin Beam!"
Noctowl was already hiding under an illusion again, but Twin Beam flashed up from both heads – and gave Girafarig twice the shots, letting her connect with one of them and knock Noctowl about hard.
"Twister!" Ash called – then Girafarig began to glow.
The Normal-type lit up for several seconds, holding off the Twister with a glowing psychic shield, and when it faded she'd evolved into a Farigiraf.
Who promptly grabbed Noctowl with Psychic and yanked her out of the air, giving her the same treatment she'd given Gligar.
"Have a rest, Noctowl," Ash said, recalling her, then tried to decide who to use next.
"Keep it up, Phanpy!" Ash called, later in the battle. "Use those slopes!"
While the Noctowl-Gligar battle had almost made the battlefield irrelevant, and there were spots here and there where the ground was rough and level enough for a Pokémon to stand, Phanpy was all about Rollout and momentum and he was using the smooth slopes of the arena to pick up speed – which was just as well, because one of the smaller of Ash's small Pokémon was battling against a large, powerful Steelix.
Then again, Ash knew how to battle Steelix.
"Turn right!" he said, and Steelix's Dragon Breath attack blasted the ground where Phanpy had been heading.
"...oh, right," Ash added, more quietly. "I forgot to say before – I think it's because otherwise it'd be punishing people for what they are and it'd be way too hard to catch everything. You don't want to ban someone for really good eyesight, or something."
"Right," Latias agreed. "I wonder how it would count it if Latios was here and he was passing messages to me…"
"I wouldn't tell if you wouldn't," Pikachu said.
"Whee!" Phanpy cheered, flicking up and spinning around before coming back down again, and Ash's hoof pressed against the ground as he tried to gauge whether to do it yet.
"Flame Wheel!" he said.
"Flame-" Morrison repeated. "Iron Tail, Steelix!"
Steelix whacked an Iron Tail into Phanpy, but the Ground-type was cloaked in flame from his Flame Wheel, and the impact hit both Pokémon equally hard.
In Phanpy's case, though, the Iron Tail mostly knocked him along the ground, and that just gave him more momentum. He zipped around a turn, adjusting his course so he was heading right back towards Steelix, and Morrison pointed.
"Dig!"
Phanpy missed Steelix, rolling over where the Steel-type had been, and Ash reacted quickly. "Turn left – up that ramp! Get airborne so he can't get you!"
"Wait, Steelix!" Morrison said. "Wait until Phanpy lands!"
Sometimes, during a battle, there were moments when it felt like everything slotted together neatly. When Ash knew he'd managed to bait his opponent into the wrong reaction, or when exactly the right move seemed to be inherently obvious.
This was one of those times.
"Phanpy!" he called, as the Ground-type reached the apex of his jump. "Earthquake!"
"No!" Morrison gasped, then Phanpy landed again.
The ground shook, hammering Morrison's underground Pokémon, and Ash tried not to heave a sigh of relief.
Morrison still had some Pokémon, even if that attack was enough to knock Steelix out of the running.
When the quarter-finals began, Ash was surprised to see a vaguely familiar face on the other end of the field.
"Hey!" Brendan waved. "Did you ever make it into the Battle Tower? I was hoping for a double battle with you."
"No, sorry," Ash apologized. "I got… really lost, and then sidetracked, and then loads more stuff happened."
"I know the feeling," Brendan sighed, then took a Repeat Ball from his belt. "Okay, you're ready, right?"
Ash nodded, selecting a Lure Ball and floating it up for ready use.
"Go!" Brendan called, sending out a Shiftry, and Ash sent out his Totodile.
"Bullet Seed!" the other trainer added.
"Dance, Totodile!" Ash called out, and the Water-type did a graceful pirouette – evading the attacks aimed at him.
Totodile was… an odd little Pokémon, and in the past he'd frustrated Ash a bit with his habit of dancing around in the middle of battles. But he was tough, and energetic, and during the lead-up to the Conference Ash had taken the time to sit down and talk with him.
He understood his Pokémon better, now. And… it wouldn't have been right to change Totodile, because that would mean asking Totodile to be something he wasn't.
"Sunny Day!" Brendan decided, prompting Shiftry to light up the arena. "Now, close in so Totodile can't dodge – and use Leaf Tornado!"
Shiftry darted forwards, glowing with health under the sunlight, and Ash struck the ground. "Scary Face!"
Totodile skidded to a halt with his tail scraping a complete circle in the ground.
"Agabaga!" he said, roaring and waving his arms, and the sudden switch from carefree dancing to an intimidating pose made Shiftry flinch in surprise as he got closer.
"Just kidding!" Totodile added, diving forwards with a Headbutt, and latched on to Shiftry's leg.
"Ice Fang!" Ash told him.
"Shiftry, get him off!" Brendan called. "Hurricane to blow him away! Bullet Seed? Sucker Punch?"
Totodile just kept using Ice Fang. His weight was throwing off Shiftry's movements, as well, and one of the spins Shiftry tried to do to work up a Hurricane resulted in first Totodile and then Shiftry bashing into the floor with a thud.
"Just keep holding on!" Ash called.
"Glad he's not holding on to my tail," Pikachu admitted.
Brendan's team included a Swampert, a Magcargo, and an Exploud, then for his fifth Pokémon he sent out an Aggron.
The Pokémon Ash already had out was Bayleef, and he raised his voice to get her attention. "Are you okay to keep going?"
"Sure am!" Bayleef replied.
The referee waved for them to resume, and Brendan pointed. "Aggron, Ice Beam!"
"Look out!" Ash called.
Bayleef ran to the side, quickly building up momentum, and the Ice Beam splashed over her flank for a moment instead of hitting her square-on.
"Okay, you want to do that?" she asked, skidding a little, then charged towards Aggron.
Ash watched the Steel-type carefully… "Vine Whip down!"
"Down?" Brendan repeated, surprised, then gasped as Bayleef slammed her vines down and launched herself into the air. "Whoa!"
The Ice Beam passed underneath her, and Bayleef retracted one vine for long enough to snag onto Aggron's horns. She yanked herself forwards, then wrapped one of the vines around underneath Aggron's jaw to tie it shut, and landed behind the Steel-type before digging her hooves into the ground and pulling as hard as she could.
Aggron rumbled, reaching up to try and untangle the vines holding his jaw closed, then overbalanced with a wham.
"Watch out, Bayleef," Ash reminded her.
"Autotomize!" Brendan ordered. "Now, Iron Tail!"
Aggron went clunk, then spun around, and his Iron Tail caught onto Bayleef's vines. They were tough and wiry, and they didn't snap, but the sudden tug yanked the Grass-type towards him.
"Push off!" Ash called.
"Fire Punch!" Brendan replied.
Bayleef managed to pull back the vine that wasn't under as much tension in time to thump it against Aggron, slowing her down, but Aggron still connected squarely with a Fire Punch that knocked her halfway across the arena.
"Bayleef, are you okay?" Ash called.
"Yeah," Bayleef replied, picking herself up, then looked Aggron square in the eyes.
Inhaled, and exhaled.
A green glow flashed over her skin as she Synthesized, scorched skin healing, and she smirked slightly.
"Good move," she said. "Let's see if you can keep that up longer than I can."
Tossing her head, she used Razor Leaf – then charged right back in after them.
For the semi-final, Ash battled against a trainer called Johnny.
Johnny had an Aggron, like Brendan, but unlike Brendan his Steel-type didn't end up going against Bayleef. Instead Aggron faced off against Ash's Heracross, and though Johnny's Pokémon put up a hard fight Ash's tough Bug-type emerged victorious.
Then Johnny had unveiled a second Steel-type, a Skarmory, and Skarmory had beaten not just Heracross but Noctowl as well. It was Tauros who dealt with that Pokémon, through a devastating combination of Double Team and Wild Charge, then a Shedinja had given Tauros enough of a problem that Ash had recalled him and switched out for Charizard.
And Charizard would not quit.
Ash had kept the Fire-type out on his own insistence when Johnny's next choice was a Golem, Charizard powering through Rock Blasts and weaving in and out of Stealth Rock attacks to douse Golem in flames over and over again. Then Ash had seen a vulnerability and ordered Charizard in cloaked in a Fire Spin – to disguise which way he was going, letting Charizard grab Golem with all four paws and hoist her into the air to slam back to earth in a massive Seismic Toss.
"That was great!" Ash told his Fire-type. "Do you want to come back, now?"
"I answered you last time, Ash," Charizard replied. "When you asked the same question. I wasn't done then, and I'm not done now."
"Got it," Ash decided. "It's your choice, Charizard."
"I seriously hope that Pokémon is getting tired, because, damn!" Johnny said. "But, we're not out yet!"
He held out a Pokéball, then threw it, and a Blastoise emerged onto the field.
"Careful, Charizard," Ash warned. "They could have different moves to Gary's Blastoise."
"Got it," Charizard said, giving a curt nod, then took off as the referee ordered them to resume.
"Iron Defence!" Johnny ordered immediately. "Shell Smash!"
"Dragon Rage!" Ash replied.
Charizard exhaled a swirling cyclone of purple fire, slamming it into Blastoise, and the Water-type slid back a little as her cannons locked onto Charizard. White light spread in cracks all over her shell, focusing towards her cannons, and they lit up with an eerie glow.
Johnny clapped one fist into the other palm. "Now, Hydro Cannon!"
"Charizard, dive!" Ash called.
Charizard folded in one wing and dropped out of the sky, but Blastoise had just enough opportunity to track him. The Water-type fired out a single torrential blast of water, both cannon salvos combining into one wave, that crashed into Charizard and hammered him across the entire arena.
Halfway there he hit the ground, and tumbled over-and-over in a splashing chaos of mud and water before finally sliding to a halt.
Ash stared, as Charizard lay there unmoving for a long moment.
Then his head rose.
"If you think that was enough to beat me," he began. "Then you haven't met any of my teammates!"
Ash glanced back at Blastoise, and saw… she was tired. Panting for breath.
It was one of those moves which made it so the user had to recover afterwards-
"Take Down!" Ash ordered, and Charizard surged to his feet. He half-ran half-flew forwards, sending up gouts of mud as he advanced, and bore down on Blastoise with the inevitability of an avalanche.
"Hydro Pump!" Johnny said. "Quickly!"
"Not quickly enough!" Charizard roared, and body-checked Blastoise into the wall.
The impact was enough that it did send Charizard out for the count, but Blastoise went wham into the wall as well, and she was still in the fight but she was a lot worse off than if Charizard hadn't managed that.
"Get some rest," Ash advised Charizard, recalling him, then switched Pokéballs. "Miraidon, you're up!"
"I'm… still having trouble believing it," Ash admitted quietly, that afternoon. "The next battle… it's the finals."
"I know what you mean," Pikachu agreed.
Ash looked at the Pokédex screen, showing all the Pokémon he had available, then at the notes Max had given him about Tyson's team.
He'd only used six Pokémon, so far. Meowth, Metagross, Sceptile, Donphan, Shiftry, Hariyama. But that didn't mean those were his only six Pokémon.
"I want to ask," Latias said, as Ash tried to make his decision. "I… know we've been through a lot together, but why is this specifically something that's hard to believe?"
Ash didn't answer for a long time.
"I… guess it's for the same reason as finding out who my dad is?" he said, eventually. "Not the whole… creator of the universe thing… but finding out at all. Because it's something I was thinking about for years, and suddenly it arrived. I've been seeing people doing Pokémon battles at the Pokémon League for years, and… now I'm going to be up there at the finals. And if I win, I'll be facing the Elite Four."
He shook his head. "So it's… like that, I guess. The Orange League was a big deal, and I'm proud of how I did, but… especially now, it's different."
Latias nodded. "I get it," she said. "I don't have something similar, but… I get it."
Ash's hoof moved over the screen. "I guess… Pikachu, I'd never think of not including you… and, Koraidon, maybe… there's a lot of Pokémon who Swellow could help against…"
From the moment that Ash's battle with Tyson began, it was immediately obvious why the other trainer was in the final of the Pokémon League.
Absol had gone up against Tyson's Metagross, and scored a few hard hits before getting on the wrong end of a Hammer Arm which had given him just enough time to say he predicted a painful situation. Then Ash had sent out Charizard, that being his best choice against the tough-as-nails Pokémon, and Charizard and Metagross had gone through a battle of endurance for almost five full minutes before Charizard had finally come out on top.
The tired Fire-type had kept up the fight against Tyson's Donphan, as well, but the combination of a Sandstorm to disguise her position and a Head Smash that echoed off the walls had put paid to Charizard for the second time in the League.
Next up had been Koraidon, who stayed in her four-legged form for better speed and because it was less tiring, and her ability to overwhelm Donphan's Sandstorm with her own sunlight had given her the advantage – an advantage that let her outlast Donphan's high-speed Rollouts and finally catch her opponent with a Solar Blade.
By then Ash was already prancing around nervously, trying to shed the adrenaline from a battle he wasn't going to be able to participate in personally, and the next Pokémon Tyson sent out was his Hariyama.
Koraidon had shifted to her bipedal form for that one, slamming the Fighting-type with a Rock Smash that knocked him back into the arena wall, but Tyson's reaction was so quick that it proved he'd been planning for exactly that kind of response.
Hariyama had used Reversal.
The explosion from the counter-blow had knocked both Fighting-type Pokémon out at once, and left Ash and Tyson picking their next Pokémon with no idea what they were countering. That at least gave Ash a leg up, because he'd picked Swellow and Tyson had picked Shiftry, and the tough Flying-type had flown circles around Shiftry before smacking his opponent with a Brave Bird and taking them out of the fight.
Then Tyson had sent in his Meowth, and Meowth was… amazing to watch.
After so long dealing with Jessie, James and Meowth, Ash would have expected that he'd be entirely familiar with what a Meowth could do. Tyson's Meowth disproved that in moments, hitting Swellow with a laser-accurate Electric move that was either Thunderbolt or a more-powerful-than-expected Shock Wave, enduring a Boomburst, then actually managing to interrupt one of Swellow's Extremespeed dodges and knocking the Flying-type out of the battle.
Ash responded with Pikachu, and Pikachu did his friend and trainer proud. Tyson's Meowth may not have been like the other Meowth they knew, but he moved enough like one that Pikachu could put his experience into practice, and Tyson's Pokémon got a nasty surprise when Pikachu's volley of multiple Thunderbolts overcame Meowth's ability to use his own Electric move as a shield.
It hadn't finished him off in one go, and the two Pokémon had battled for several minutes, but eventually Pikachu was the one who was still on the field.
"Your Pokémon are amazing, Ash," Tyson said, raising his voice so Ash could hear. "I've seen that so far in this tournament, and every one of them is showing that now… which is why you deserve nothing less than every trick I have left. Nothing in reserve for the Elite Four."
He held up a Pokéball, then sent out a Sceptile.
And, with a flash of golden light, Sceptile became Mega Sceptile.
"A Mega Evolution?" Ash asked, astonished. "I've – the only one of those I've ever seen was that one Maxie had, I think?"
He frowned. "Okay, uh… watch out, Pikachu, they might have a trick to pull, and they'll definitely be tougher than before!"
"Solarbeam!" Tyson ordered.
"Iron Tail and block!" Ash retorted, and Pikachu spun around with a flick of his tail.
The silvery shield deflected away the intense light from Mega Sceptile's attack, and Ash glanced up ruefully at the sky.
"Koraidon's sunlight, right?" Latias asked.
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Pikachu, Grass types might be resistant to electricity but they're not immune!"
"Thunder!" Pikachu announced, hitting Mega Sceptile with a blast of lightning, then Ash took a step back as the electricity flowed into Mega Sceptile's tail.
"Uh oh," he said. "Pikachu, Agility and dodge!"
Pikachu got moving just before an even stronger Solarbeam blew a crater in the ground.
Ash might have beaten himself up over not knowing that Mega Sceptile had Lightning Rod as an ability, but within seconds he didn't have the time to focus on something like that.
Mega Sceptile wasn't as fast as Pikachu, not quite, but they were blazing fast none the less – and they knew Detect, as well, which meant that half the time when Pikachu turned to attack Mega Sceptile was able to flawlessly dodge and Pikachu's effort was wasted.
Both Pokémon were giving as good as they got, with Pikachu hammering Mega Sceptile with Extremespeed and momentum-boosted Iron Tail attacks and Mega Sceptile's intense Solarbeams occasionally connecting with Pikachu – not to mention the times when the Grass-type doused the area with Dragon Breath, or darted in with Pursuit whenever it looked like Pikachu might be going back to Ash.
It was an intense, tiring battle, with neither Pokémon giving an inch, and the arena suffered for it.
Ash had never felt closer to his starter Pokémon.
Then, with a swiftness that was startling, Pikachu made a mistake. Mega Sceptile's tail caught him, knocking him across the arena with a trio of painful bounces, and when he landed he struggled to rise.
Ash swallowed, his gaze locked to Pikachu.
"You can do it," he whispered. "Come on, Pikachu…"
For a moment, there was a flicker of golden light around Pikachu.
Then he used Extremespeed, slamming across the arena into a completely startled Mega Sceptile, and knocked himself and the Grass-type out in a single blow.
It took Ash almost a minute to remember that he'd only sent out five Pokémon, so it wasn't a draw.
AN:
The possible rules query will be addressed in the next update.