Naoki had thought the rain would stop soon… but it continued all through the night and didn't let up until the next morning.
With nothing else to do, he ended up spending the whole morning in the living room with the Pokémon, all of them doing their own things while listening to the gentle sound of rain outside.
By now, it was already October. Around this ti each year, Gym Badge journeys in many regions were nearing their conclusion, and the major Pokémon Leagues had begun hosting their annual tournants.
Since Naoki didn't have much to do, he figured he might as well watch the League matches.
However, instead of tuning into the tournants in Kanto, Sinnoh, or Hoenn, he found himself focusing on the Kalos League.
To his surprise, the competition had already reached the semifinals, and the final match was scheduled for that very afternoon.
The two finalists? None other than Ash from Pallet Town… and Alain!
"Huh? What a coincidence?"
Naoki raised his eyebrows. It seed Alain wasn't affected at all by Flare's collapse!
With a few hours until the finals, Naoki decided to rewatch the earlier matches to catch up. Clicking through the archive, he watched with curiosity.
There was no denying it, Alain was incredibly strong. His ga Charizard X was practically unstoppable.
In almost every match, Alain only needed two Pokémon, Charizard and tagross, to defeat all his opponents. He steamrolled through powerful Trainers like Louis and easily secured his place in the final.
Ash's team wasn't lacking either. With Pikachu, Greninja, Noivern, Goodra, Talonfla, and Hawlucha, he had advanced through the semifinals and defeated his longti rival, Sawyer.
It was the first ti Ash had made it to the finals of a regional League.
"So things never change…" Naoki smiled as he looked at the team Ash had assembled.
Even after all these years, Ash still liked to start fresh whenever he traveled to a new region.
And Pikachu, after traveling with Ash through so many battles and regions, had clearly grown strong enough to rival even Champion-level Pokémon.
But watching Pikachu battle in the tournant, Naoki noticed sothing funny.
It wasn't using its full power.
It was almost as if Pikachu was deliberately holding back… cooperating with Ash to 'start over' every ti.
"Pikachu's still so good at pretending," Naoki muttered with a smirk.
He had been concerned that Alain would be affected by Flare's downfall, especially since Fladari had already been arrested by Steven and his team. But it looked like events were still unfolding just as the ani had shown.
"If everything's following the sa plot… then will Alain still win the finals?"
At that very mont, in Kalos's Lumiose City, inside the rest area of the Kalos League stadium;
Ash and his friends were enjoying lunch before the big match.
That's when Alain walked in, apparently with the sa idea.
The mont Ash saw him, his eyes lit up, not with surprise, but with determination.
"Alain, promise you'll go all out in our match this afternoon!" Ash said, eyes shining with determination.
"Of course," Alain nodded calmly. "The only reason I entered the Kalos League in the first place… was to have a real battle with you."
In truth, Alain had almost withdrawn from the tournant after the incident with Lysandre.
After learning the truth about Lysandre's twisted ambitions and the sinister mask he wore behind the scenes, Alain was wracked with guilt. He thought back on all the tis he'd unknowingly helped Team Flare, and it nearly crushed him. Regret and sha weighed so heavily on his heart that he nearly gave up on everything.
But in that darkest mont, it was Ash who pulled him out of despair. Ash's unwavering spirit, his words of encouragent, and his belief in redemption gave Alain the strength to move forward again.
And so, to fulfill his promise, to battle Ash with everything he had, Alain chose to stand on the grand stage of the Kalos League.
This would be their true, official Pokémon battle.
The two Trainers stood facing each other beneath the afternoon sky, their eyes locking with mutual respect and fiery anticipation.
At precisely three o'clock in the afternoon, the final match of the Kalos League began.
Though the rain had cleared up, Naoki stayed inside, curled up with a warm drink and his Pokémon, watching the match unfold live from the comfort of his ranch.
At the start of the battle, Ash took the upper hand with aggressive tactics, pushing Alain into a tight corner early on.
But Alain, ever composed, demonstrated the depth of his skill and battle experience. Bit by bit, he turned the situation around, regaining ground with powerful counterattacks.
Eventually, the match reached its climax: both Trainers were down to their final Pokémon.
Just as in the ani, Ash had only Greninja left, while Alain's last Pokémon was his mighty Charizard.
They clashed again and again in a breathtaking display of power and strategy. Even though type matchups were against Charizard, the battle remained incredibly even. Neither Trainer held back, and the tension only grew.
As the fight dragged on, both Pokémon pushed themselves past their limits. Their movents slowed, breaths grew heavy.
And then, both Ash and Alain made their final call.
Ash-Greninja gathered energy and ford an enormous golden Water Shuriken on its back, glowing like a spinning sun. At the sa ti, ga Charizard X launched a full-power Blast Burn, its blue flas roaring skyward.
Two ultimate attacks.
Two hearts, two dreams, colliding in one final mont.
The attacks t in mid-air with an earth-shaking explosion. A shockwave rippled across the battlefield, the stands, and even through the livestream Naoki was watching.
The dust and smoke billowed outward, swallowing both Pokémon from view.
The audience held its breath.
Who would erge victorious?
Naoki already knew how this scene played out in the ani, but even so, seeing it unfold live stirred his heart all over again.
Would the result be the sa as he rembered?
But with his and Steven's intervention in the Kalos storyline, the future had already changed in unpredictable ways. What if that caused a butterfly effect, one strong enough to alter the ending of the Kalos League itself?
Naoki stared at the screen without blinking.
Slowly, the thick smoke on the battlefield began to clear.
The first Pokémon to be revealed, collapsed on the ground, was Alain's ga Charizard X!
Its body shimred with fading light, reverting from its ga form back to normal, its strength completely drained.
Ash's Greninja was still standing, barely, swaying unsteadily. It remained upright just long enough to see its opponent fall… before it, too, collapsed onto the battlefield with a thud.
Naoki's eyes widened. "!!!"
Ash… won?
He won the championship!
The match had ended. The stadium erupted in cheers as the announcer's voice echoed through the air, declaring the final result in an excited, booming tone.
Ash and Alain t in the center of the battlefield. The two Trainers shook hands with mutual respect, marking the end of a long-awaited and hard-fought rivalry.
Naoki was still frozen in place, stunned. Iono noticed the look on his face and tilted her head in confusion.
"You okay?" she asked. "Are you really that surprised Ash won?"
Naoki snapped out of it, blinking and quickly shaking his head. "No, no, I'm not shocked. Just... a little caught off guard."
So the butterfly's wings had truly shifted fate.
Could it be that Alain's path had changed just enough that he missed out on certain key battles, fewer challenges, fewer growth opportunities for his team? Had that caused just enough of a gap for Ash to pull ahead in the Kalos League?
"That's not so strange, though," Iono said, smiling as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "That kid is working really hard. He's traveled all the way from Kanto to Kalos. His Pokémon have trained their hearts out alongside him. With that kind of spirit and determination, it was only a matter of ti before he beca a champion."
Naoki blinked again, then quietly nodded. "Yeah… you're right."
He had been so focused on all the changes he'd caused that he forgot sothing important, Ash was soone who never stopped moving forward. No matter the obstacles, he kept chasing his dreams.
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