"Sigh..."
"Stop sighing! One more and you'll snap your crutch!"
Kashiwagi shot a glare at the crutch-bound Otsuka.
"But we were right there, man! Aggron really had a shot at winning. You almost made it to the Top 4! To reach the semi-finals of a tournament after training your Pokémon for less than two months—it's insane!"
Otsuka was drowning in regret over Kashiwagi's defeat in the Top 8.
Kashiwagi had seen that exact expression and heard those same words at least a dozen times by now; he was beyond tired of it. It was ironic—he was the one who lost, yet everyone around him seemed more devastated than he was, constantly approaching him with words of comfort.
Even Soshiro hadn't looked for an excuse to beat him. Instead, the Sand Unit leader had dangled a new "carrot" in front of him.
"There's a major operation coming up soon. If you perform well enough and contribute enough, I'll put your name on the Executive Candidate shortlist."
Kashiwagi wasn't sure about the others, but the Sand Unit leader's "carrots" were always the real deal—big, juicy, and worth the effort.
Then there was Otsuka, who had literally hobbled all the way to the Pokémon Center to hunt Kashiwagi down. As Kashiwagi waited for Aggron and the others to finish their treatment, Otsuka sat there with a face that practically screamed, "Go ahead, vent to me."
Unfortunately, Kashiwagi didn't need an emotional trash can. His mental fortitude wasn't that fragile.
Did he feel regret? Of course.
But it was mostly self-reproach—a feeling that he hadn't properly answered the expectations of Aggron and the others, failing to satisfy their burning desire for victory.
However, he knew that wallowing in self-blame was a dead end. He and his Pokémon were a single unit; he couldn't separate his own failings from theirs.
Ding~
A medical staff member rang a bell, followed by a synthesized voice over the intercom: "Client number 118, Mr. Kashiwagi, please come to Counter 5 to collect your Pokémon."
Kashiwagi stood up, retrieved the three Poké Balls, and was handed a thick stack of medical reports.
Even with the incredible natural recovery of Pokémon, some injuries couldn't heal in a single day. It was common for Pokémon to be unable to battle the day after a grueling match. The doctor's current recommendation for Aggron's team was two full days of rest.
He flipped to the next page. He noted that while "fighting from below" was difficult, the rewards were massive—Aggron and the others had all leveled up once across the board.
From that perspective, there was plenty to be happy about.
Turning to Aggron's detailed status page, even though Kashiwagi had prepared himself, seeing the precise data still made him marvel.
The big guy had been working hard in silence all this time. When the moment of evolution finally arrived, all that past accumulation had exploded outward, forging the titan it was today.
First was its height. Aggron's stature far exceeded the species average—standing at a towering 245 cm. Its weight had reached a staggering 430 kg, which was impressive even by Steelix standards.
The durability of its iron armor was equally promising. Its two horns were incredibly thick, resembling massive cones; the only thing stopping them from growing even longer was its age. Aggron was still growing, well on its way to becoming a truly terrifying behemoth.
Kashiwagi let out a long breath. Only a month ago, the two of them had been sleeping huddled together on a bed. Now, the Pokémon was a giant that left a crater in the floor just by sitting down.
In terms of moves, two new ones had manifested: Double-Edge and Flash Cannon. Both were excellent Normal and Steel-type moves. Furthermore, Iron Tail—which had been difficult to use back when it was a Lairon with a short tail—was finally ready to see the light of day.
"Still a long road ahead."
He stuffed the report into his pocket and dragged the limping Otsuka away.
That Evening.
Inside the two-story house.
Kashiwagi, Aggron, Chansey, and Mawile held a post-battle reflection meeting.
Chansey was sobbing uncontrollably. Back when she used to get beaten up in the past, she never felt this sad, but now her tear ducts had failed her. She simply couldn't stop.
She felt like she had held the entire team back.
"Lucky~"
If she only had the ability to fight on her own, the pressure on Aggron and Mawile wouldn't have been so immense.
Aggron and Mawile rushed to comfort her, before chiming in with their own perceived shortcomings—much like how Kashiwagi focused on his own mistakes.
None of them felt they had performed perfectly. Instinctively, everyone tried to shoulder the blame.
"We are a team. If any single member doesn't perform to their potential, it's a failure of the entire team," Kashiwagi said, reinforcing the concept of their small unit as he usually did.
Only by forging this kind of core synergy could they go further. Kashiwagi didn't want his relationship with Aggron and the others to stop at its current level; regardless of his underlying motives, he wanted them to grow closer.
Heart to heart, flesh and blood, a true resonance of souls.
Listening to their Trainer's words, the three Pokémon nodded in unison.
"Alright, that's enough for the reflection meeting. Let's eat!"
With a grand sweep of his hand, he pointed to the incredibly lavish dinner spread across the table. "Eat up! I don't want to see a single scrap left today! Stuff yourselves until you can't move!"
"Agroooar!"
"Lucky~"
"Maw-ile!"
The three Pokémon responded enthusiastically and dove into the food.
This was a reflection meeting, but it was also a celebration and a thank-you party—celebrating Aggron's evolution and thanking everyone for their hard work.
At first, Kashiwagi had considered just ordering catering. But on second thought, he realized that what Aggron and the others probably wanted most was a meal cooked by their Trainer's own hands.
Thus, Kashiwagi had spent the entire afternoon preparing this massive spread.
'Turn that regret into an appetite. Swallow it down bit by bit—let the pain either fade away or stay locked in your heart. Either way, it will become the nutrients for your progress, fueling everyone's growth toward becoming truly strong.'
He thought silently to himself as he watched the three Pokémon eat with wild abandon. He picked up his own spoon and began to eat heartily as well.
Growth! We have to keep growing!
At that moment, the same thought flashed through the minds of all four figures around the table.
The tournament continued.
After defeating Kashiwagi, Yamamino was on a roll, quickly clinching victory in both the semi-finals and the finals.
He became the champion of the latest Pyrite Colosseum event.
However, he didn't look particularly happy about it.
Did he think the level of the trainers in Pyrite Town was too low?
Kashiwagi remembered that this man had returned from other regions and had participated in multiple Regional Leagues. Yamamino hadn't mentioned his past results, so Kashiwagi didn't know if he had been a top contender or a total washout.
But as Kashiwagi had observed before, Meowstic wasn't even Yamamino's main Pokémon, and Slowbro and Claydol weren't his aces either.
His true trump card was an Alakazam, whose mastery of psychic power was nothing short of extraordinary. If that Alakazam had been Lairon's opponent, the battle wouldn't have lasted long enough for the evolution to trigger. In that scenario, Kashiwagi would have lost everything.
Come to think of it... why had Yamamino chosen Meowstic as his lead? It was honestly baffling. Even if he didn't want to use Alakazam, looking at his subsequent matches, he had plenty of other Psychic-types to choose from.
"A Psychic-type specialist, huh..."
Kashiwagi watched the match broadcast on TV. Unlike other types, the Psychic category was full of "specialists," and many of their trainers possessed supernatural powers themselves—meaning they were Psychics in their own right.
He wondered where Yamamino fit into that...
Of course, it wasn't impossible for a non-Psychic trainer to reach the top with Psychic Pokémon. Among the three Psychic Elite Four members Kashiwagi knew of, only Caitlin was explicitly confirmed to have psychic abilities.
Beyond that, there were five Gym Leaders—Kanto's Sabrina, Hoenn's Tate & Liza, Kalos's Olympia, and Galar's Avery—who all possessed supernatural powers.
Thinking about it that way, being a Psychic-type trainer really did seem to favor those with a little "extra" something.