From The Ground Up (A Heart Of A Champion Prequel)

Chapter 10- Breaking Free

Sun POV

Holidays are over now, time to get back to work. While the first match there was a massive success, and I myself am in pretty good shape financially, that doesn't mean the stadium is completely paid off yet. I'll have to have a few more matches there before that gets done. I decided to check the Alolan Rankings online.

C. Sun
#1 Gladion
#2 Kahuna Hala
#3 Hau
#4 Lana
#5 Kukui
#6 Olivia
#7 Hapu
#8 Mallow
#9 Kahili
#10 Ilima

Well that doesn't necessarily help. I haven't beaten Gladion, Ilima, Mallow, or Olivia officially yet, of course I've beaten them all during the course of my Island Challenge though. I suppose those will be the matches to make. I'm 16 right now and we've got 2 years to go until the next World Championship year. So my plan is to knock out Ilima and Olivia this year if I can, then next year get Mallow and Gladion. I'm hoping Gladion will continue to win and provide a big drawing, really competitive match when the time rolls around. As I thought, no response from the Champions. I was hoping that might but... I can't say I had real hope. I'm hoping I've annoyed them to the point that they'll at least consider hearing my proposal at the next meeting.

Months rolled by, but they weren't the only thing on a roll, my team was absolutely killing it! From practice to match time, they delivered anytime. We were working hard and I think I'm confused enough to say we're in the best shape we've ever been in. We held some smaller scale, I guess you could call them tune-up matches with challengers not ranked in the Stadium. Those matches actually didn't sell bad at all either, about 7,000 at each. That spring I showed my skill against Ilima, cruising to a 6-4 victory. I was taking every moment I got with a microphone to promote the next match or remind the Champions I'm here. More defenses...More events out in public, I'm loving many things in my life right now. I'm busy sure, but the work is paying off. Seeing Kukui so happy and Burnet so happy to see him happy, it really keeps me going. I've been meaning to send something else to Lillie, but I'm not a great writer as I've said before and time is hard to come by.

The second half of the year rolled on, I had my 17th birthday and defended my title as often as I could. I was careful Everytime I went out. Each challenger was hungry to take my title, but I know full well that I can't slip up even once if I'm going to make this work. My match against Olivia happened that October and I took another convincing victory. I'm on fire right now, my confidence is through the roof, and my motivation to get to Kanto is at an all time high. It seems like Lillie won't be able to get back anytime soon... hopefully she will but as it looks now, Kanto's my only shot. I took the liberty of beating Mallow 6-4 at the end of December because I saw that the Champions meeting would actually be about a week after my birthday on June 20th, (It's on the Summer Solstice, which is why Mom and Dad decided on the rather uncommon name, Sun).

I sent out the contract to Gladion. He had looked unstoppable during these last few years as I had hoped. We were set to go just after my 18th birthday, so for now it's time to buckle down and keep making successful matches. The Stadium got payed off finally, so we are on to bigger and better things! Which as of now is looking like starting to pay for and fix up that Aether House near Mount Lanakila...

Author's Note

And the rest, as they say... Is History. Time to go straight to the aftermath of Heart of a Champion! Thanks for reading!