Josh had just finished his meal and asked for the check when Elinor brought up her own bid for Champion Rank. "Yep! I've already got an appointment with MATIAS SILPH lined up next month. We're gonna have a talk to see if I'm up to snuff. That's the easy part, though. The battles are gonna be tough."

A thought crossed Josh's mind as the server returned with the duo's checks. "You haven't forgotten about our battle, right, Elinor? Aslan's prognosis is looking a lot better, but they don't think he'll be battle-ready until February or March. Plus, I need to find a new Absolite for Twilight. Once I have those two things taken care of, we need to have our battle. A battle to determine who will be the better candidate for Champion. And with nothing off the table." His smile turned to a smirk. "A battle of destruction so great that even a legendary Pokémon would be impressed."

As Josh was counting out paper money to pay his share of the dinner, another loud roar came from the bar as a Mistralton pass was tipped, floating into the hands of a Goldenrod defensive lineman. "Go, go, go!!" Josh shouted with other fans of the Johto football team as the burly athlete dashed down the sideline, taking the ball all the way across the field for a game-deciding touchdown. "TOUCHDOWN!" Josh screamed all the louder, standing up and nearly tripping over his chair. "BALL GAME! WE'RE GOING TO THE CONFERENCE CHAMPS!"