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

Chapter 68: Opposite Sides

The morning after Marnie's battle came too quickly. Wyndon Stadium looked brighter than it had the night before, and somehow colder too. Yesterday, Alice and I had stood beside each other while the bracket appeared. Today, the same screen carried both our names on opposite sides.

Alice met me in the challenger corridor before the match. Her badge case was closed, her uniform neat, and Eevee stood beside her feet with a determined look that matched hers. She was not surprised to be here. She had earned every step.

"I knew this could happen," Alice said, looking toward the tunnel. "I still wanted us both to reach the end."

"So did I," I said.

She smiled, but it was steady instead of soft. "Then we battle like both roads matter."

"That is the only way this means anything."

Pikachu watched from my shoulder, tail brushing my back. Eevee stepped closer to Alice's leg, ears lifting toward him. They had traveled too far together to misunderstand this moment as anger.

Pikachu pressed one paw against my cheek, eyes bright with trust, "A friend across the field is not farther away."

I nodded. "Right. We battle honestly, then we keep walking."

The stadium announcer called our names, and the tunnel opened into a roar. Wyndon's lights flashed over us as Alice and I walked to opposite trainer boxes. For a moment, the field looked too wide for two people who had shared so much of Galar.

The roar was not cruel. It held both of us. Some people cheered my name, some cheered Alice's, and plenty cheered for both because they had watched us climb together. That made the field stranger. It was not enemy territory for either of us.

I looked at the screens where our trainer portraits faced each other. Mine looked like it belonged beside every old road I had walked. Alice's looked like someone who had found her place step by step and refused to give it back. The bracket had not made a mistake.

The referee reviewed the rules, five Pokémon each with Dynamax allowed. Alice did not blink when that last part was spoken. Eevee's tail flicked once, as if it already knew exactly when its moment would come.

Then Alice lifted her first Poké Ball, and the space became exactly what it needed to be.

"Begin!" the referee called, flags raised.

"Dracozolt, let's go!" I shouted.

"Arctovish, take the field!" Alice answered.

The two fossil Pokémon appeared under the stadium lights, mismatched bodies facing each other like pieces of Galar's ancient past arguing over who had adapted better. Dracozolt hopped with crackling energy, while Arctovish stared from beneath its awkward frozen head.

Alice's eyes sharpened. "Arctovish, Ice Beam!"

"Dracozolt, move first! Thunderbolt!" I called.

Electricity burst from Dracozolt and struck before Arctovish finished aiming. The Ice Beam still fired, scraping across the field and forcing Dracozolt to stumble sideways. Alice had not expected the first hit to end anything, and neither had I.

"Again, Arctovish!" Alice called. "Use Waterfall to close in!"

Arctovish lunged with water surging around its body. Dracozolt lowered its head, sparks gathering around the strange beak that always made it look like a storm had been assembled in a hurry.

"Dracozolt, Bolt Beak!" I shouted forward.

Dracozolt charged first. The electrified beak slammed into Arctovish before the Waterfall reached full force. The impact cracked through the water aura and sent Arctovish sliding back across the field, unable to continue.