1. Ash's Story (Part 10: Galar)

Chapter 2: Champion's Call

Gloria's POV

Chairman Rose's voice filled the stadium through my phone before the picture had even finished sharpening.

The screen showed lights, banners, packed seats, and a pitch so bright it looked unreal from our living room. I sat on the floor near the sofa, knees tucked under me, phone balanced in both hands while Victor leaned over the back of the couch.

Postwick was quiet outside the window, with Wooloo drifting across the fields and the morning wind pressing softly against the glass. Inside, the living room felt smaller than usual because the stadium on my screen seemed large enough to swallow it whole.

Rose stood at the center of it all as if the crowd's roar belonged in his pocket. His suit was perfect, his smile calm, and his voice carried through the speakers with that polished warmth everyone in Galar recognized.

"Welcome, one and all, to the wonderful world of Pokémon!" he declared.

Even through a phone screen, the stadium answered him like thunder.

I grinned despite myself. I had heard speeches about Pokémon before, but Galar had a way of making even an introduction feel like the opening of a battle. Rose gestured across the pitch, and a Cufant trotted into view beside him, swinging its trunk with cheerful weight.

"Our region thrives beside Pokémon," Rose continued. "They live with us in the sea, in the sky, in our towns, and in our homes. Some people befriend them as partners. Some raise them for battle. Those people, as every child here already knows, are Pokémon Trainers."

Victor rested his chin on his folded arms. "He always makes it sound like he is announcing the first sunrise."

"He is good at it," I said.

The Cufant stamped once, and the audience cheered again. I could not understand what it meant. I only saw the way it lifted its head, pleased by all that attention, and the way Rose let the moment belong to the Pokémon instead of taking it back too quickly.

That was something I liked about Galar's biggest stadiums. They were loud, proud, and almost too grand, but the Pokémon still stood at the center of everything.

Rose turned toward the far entrance of the stadium. "But I have spoken long enough. Please turn your eyes toward Galar's greatest Trainer, our undefeated Champion. It is time for Champion Leon's exhibition match!"

The stadium erupted around him.

Leon appeared through the smoke and lights with his cape sweeping behind him. He struck his famous pose, one arm raised, the other angled with impossible confidence, and the entire crowd copied him in pieces. Some did it perfectly. Some nearly hit the people sitting beside them.

I tried not to laugh, then failed.

Victor gave me a sideways look. "You are going to do the pose, aren't you?"

"Only if Hop comes through the door and forces us."

On the screen, Raihan waited across the pitch, grinning like he had been born under stadium lights and storms. His Rotom phone floated nearby, probably recording everything for half the region before the match even began.

Raihan pointed toward Leon with dramatic ease. "Exhibition or not, your perfect record has to break sometime. Might as well be today."

Leon laughed, and the sound carried even over the crowd. "You know me, Raihan. I do not lose."

I felt the room narrow to the screen.

Leon was not my idol the way Ash Ketchum was, but he was Galar's Champion. Every child in Postwick, Wedgehurst, and farther than I could name knew his cape, his Charizard, and his smile. He made victory look like it had chosen him years ago and never changed its mind.