"Attention all Vital City Tournament participants. Pairings are up for round twenty-one. Pairings are up for round twenty-one."

Josh was so tired. Tired enough that he was letting Raikiri battle for himself during most of his matches. Though he had been driven out of contention of the top cut by now, he had to make every win count. Every win would come with a pay jump, and he planned to use his winnings to fund a vacation with Andrea Vaneau . A vacation to Sinnoh where they would go dragon diving off Mount Coronet, one of the tallest and steepest mountains in the world.

His opponent wasn't a Gym Leader. Their face looked familiar, but he couldn't put a name to the face. "Do you know me from somewhere?" the Gym Leader asked. "Your face looks familiar... but I can't quite put a name on it. Either way, good luck to you! If we have similar records, I'm sure there's some serious money on the line for you, too." The ferocious-looking Zeraora on all fours would be a great match for the small Pokémon Josh didn't recognize, whether he knew it or not.

Josh wracked his brain from hearing Ashley's name as the start-of-round timer counted down. "...Oh!" he exclaimed. "From the campsite, right?" he asked. "With Isaac Merlo and Julia Davis , right? Have you seen either one of them recently? I haven't heard a peep out of them in ages!"

There would be little time to answer that question, though: the horn sounded, signaling the start of the match. Both Pokémon came out with incredibly fast attacks from the word go. Law's AERIAL ACE met Raikiri's QUICK ATTACK in an exchange nearly impossible for human eyes to track. With how fast both of them moved, he wondered if the mysterious opponent perceived the world in slow motion much like the quadrupedal Zeraora could at times.

"Not a word from either of them." It was clear that something was bothering Ashley. Something perhaps even keeping him from focusing. "We can reconnect more after the match if you want."

His focus now fully on the match, Raikiri's full speed just barely outmatched the Kubfu's swiftest strike. That woke Josh up to the type of opponent Ashley had become. Formidable was the best word to describe it. With skills and a Pokémon like that, he could become a Gym Leader himself if he wanted.

That IRON HEAD would result in a concussion at the speed the electric feline moved at. Josh could not allow that to happen. "Jump, Raikiri!" With sparks flying from his paws, the Gym Leader's most prized partner tried to leap and BOUNCE out of the way of the ramming attack. When he finally returned to the ground after such a high leap, whatever it hit was going to be hurting. Badly.

The Kubfu's timing was superb, as though time had slowed around the rare fighting-type. The vicious counter-hit sent Raikiri rocketing upward, slamming into the rafters with a loud and painful-sounding impact. If his foe was capable of that, then what else could it do?

The weakened Zeraora discharged a burst of electricity from his PLASMA PAWS, not to use as an offensive weapon, but to change his falling trajectory. He wanted to land on his feet and far away from Law. Even the well-trained thundercat could not handle another huge blow like that!

Hurling Raikiri back into the air was indeed not the smartest idea. He was used to vaulting and Bouncing high into the air to dodge ground-type attacks. And now, with a glowing QUICKINIUM-Z and a grinning Gym Leader, it may have been the last move Law would make in the match.

As Josh posed awkwardly in a motion looking like he had just sharply spurred a Pokémon he was riding, both of them glowed yellow. The speed demon's fastest Pokémon dove toward the Kubfu in a HYPERSONIC PLASMA CHARGE augmented by the pull of gravity. Even if the Zeraora's supersonic paws were off course, he still had the surrounding matrix of lightning bolts and the shockwave of a sonic boom backing him up!

With the battle over, the intensity from the Gym Leader's face became one of relief to see a long-lost friend. Once the referee waved the red flag in Ash's direction, Josh withdrew Raikiri, jogged toward the young man, and embraced him if he allowed it.

"I'm just so happy to see you again. You, Isaac, and Julia have me worried; I haven't seen either of them in months." It might have been for the better, too; were he to find out that Isaac had befriended Suicune, jealousy might set in. "Once this tournament's done running me ragged, we should do something together. Anything. So much has happened in the last year."