Champion-level Gym Leaders almost don't exist. Neither Giovanni nor Raihan were ordinary Gym Champions.
Giovanni held the Viridian Gym post because his role as Team Rocket's boss required a respectable public cover. Raihan was a special case for a different reason. Galar didn't have an Elite Four. In Galar, Champion Leon sat at the top, and the next rung down was Gym Leader, full stop.
That meant Galar's Gym Leaders ran the entire range. You had Champion-level monsters like Raihan, Elite Four caliber Trainers like Marnie and Bea, and on the lower end, Gym Leaders sitting at High level.
The reason was structural: Trainers who would have been Elite Four in any other region had no Elite Four posts to graduate into, so they stayed put. The only way up from Gym Leader in Galar was to beat Leon.
So Galar having a Champion-level Gym Leader was actually reasonable, weird as it sounded on the surface.
But Johto having a Champion-level Gym Leader. That was genuinely bizarre.
"Pryce was a real powerhouse in his day. Then something happened to one of his partners. He still holds the Gym Leader title on paper, but he almost never accepts challenges anymore. He's basically retired, living quietly in Mahogany Town."
"Some Trainers don't know who he is, and when he refuses their challenge, they push anyway. So Pryce battles them at full strength and crushes them. A few have walked away from those matches and never trained again. They quit being Trainers entirely."
"That's where his nickname came from. 'Pryce of the Eternal Ice Wall.' Partly for his Pokémon, which are like permafrost, impossible to break through or melt. Partly for the man himself. Cold as ice with anyone who approaches him."
"If you don't have the strength for it, don't challenge him." Professor Oak's tone made it a real warning, not a throwaway line.
Because Pryce wouldn't go easy on Ash and Gary the way most opponents would. Losing to him wasn't ordinary losing. Defeat itself was nothing new for any Trainer. Apart from Leon, who supposedly hadn't lost since his debut, every Trainer in existence had been beaten at some point.
But losing to Pryce was a category of its own. He dismantled people. Battle, confidence, identity as a Trainer, the whole structure went down at once. That was why those Trainers had walked away from the profession. It wasn't the loss. It was what got stripped out of them on the way to losing.
The Pryce of decades ago hadn't been like this. The Pryce of today was. Without serious preparation, challenging him was just asking to get pummeled. His mental state was its own problem, but his actual strength was top-tier League material, on par with the best Trainers in the world today. If you didn't have the firepower to trade blows with someone like Lance, walking into Pryce's Gym was the same as walking off a cliff.
Even Ash at his current strength, Mewtwo aside, was not Pryce's match.
"So that old guy is that strong! Looking at this photo though, he doesn't seem like the friendliest type." Ash studied Pryce's grim, frostbitten expression in the photograph.
"I'm going. And I'll win." Gary stared at the photo for a long moment, then spoke. Decision made. Pryce was going to be his final benchmark before the Silver Conference.
If he couldn't beat Pryce, then entering the Masters Eight was just walking into a meat grinder with a fork and knife. None of the eight Trainers there were weaker than Pryce. Every one of them was probably stronger. The Masters Eight bracket would be packed with top-tier Trainers who had access to enhancement systems the old guard never had: Gigantamax, Mega Evolution. As a generation, they had already overtaken the older Champions in raw potential.
So if Gary couldn't beat Pryce, then talking about winning the Masters Eight was just noise.
"I'm in too, Gary. Let's see who takes Pryce down first." Ash threw a fist in the air with a half-mocking grin.
"Hmph. Obviously me." Gary smirked.
Professor Oak watched the two of them sizing each other up and shook his head. He wasn't sure whether to call them reckless kids who didn't know what they were walking into, or just genuinely confident. Truthfully, going by the rate Gary and Ash were both growing, setting Pryce's Gym as their final battle wasn't outside the realm of possible.
Old friend, I hope a battle with Ash and Gary can thaw out that frozen heart of yours.
Professor Oak knew Pryce's story too well. If something similar had happened to him, he wouldn't have weathered it much better. But he liked to think he wouldn't have iced over the way Pryce had.
"To enter the Silver Conference, you'll need to register in New Bark Town first. After that, you can start challenging Johto's Gyms in whatever order you want. The book I just handed over lists where every current Gym Leader is stationed. Choose your route from that."
"Grandpa, where's mine? What do you mean only one copy? Am I not good enough to challenge powerful Gym Leaders or something?" Gary's tone had a real bite to it.
The book was obviously meant for Ash. Even Gary, his own grandson, hadn't gotten one. Why was Ash getting preferential treatment?
"Ahem. Honestly, I didn't think you'd need it at first, but it'll probably be useful to you now too. Ash, you keep that one. I'll make a copy for Gary." Professor Oak coughed and admitted the truth plainly.
It wasn't favoritism for the sake of favoritism. Gary was his grandson, yes, but compared to Ash, he was still a real distance behind. Even now.
Watching the battle they'd just had might have suggested otherwise. They'd looked evenly matched. But Ash hadn't played his biggest card: the move that could push a Pokémon's strength up by an entire tier on the spot. If he'd actually used it, Gary wouldn't have been in the same weight class.
Gary's progress wasn't in doubt either. With a Blastoise that was Elite Four level and capable of Mega Evolution, Gary already had the credentials to take on the visiting Gym Leaders from other regions. Give him a little more time and even a top-tier Elite Four level Gym Leader might not be able to hold him off.
"No need, Professor. Give that one to Gary. I've already memorized everything in it." Just as Gary was rolling his eyes at his grandfather, Ash handed the roster off.
He'd taken the few minutes Gary spent arguing to lock the whole thing in. Ever since Aura Power had awoken, his brain had upgraded along with everything else. A whole library of Pokémon knowledge could go in after one read, even if it still took practice to apply it. A few sheets of paper was nothing.
"That fast? That roster has over twenty Trainers on it. Names, profiles, posting locations. You've already memorized all of it?" Professor Oak sounded honestly impressed.
"More than memorized. I can recite it backwards. Don't worry, Professor, my head's fine. And if I forget anything, I'll just call Gary and have him look it up for me, right?"
Gary took the roster, glanced at Ash, and snorted. "You really don't worry about being a pain, do you."
"Heh, we're past standing on ceremony, you and me."
After that, Ash and Pikachu headed home. On the way, Ash walked with his hands behind his head, working out his first move.
He'd already memorized where every Gym Leader on the roster was stationed. The closest stop from New Bark Town was Violet City, which was where Norman had been posted. A Hoenn Gym Leader at Elite Four level, Normal-type specialist. A solid first challenge.
"Decided. First stop is Violet City."
"Pika Pika?" Pikachu tilted his head, lost.
"Mr. Norman is a Trainer from Hoenn. He's stationed in Violet City right now. We'll register in New Bark Town, then head straight there. I think Violet City already had its own Gym Leader though." Ash scratched his head and dug through his memory until he surfaced the name. Falkner.
The local Violet City Gym Leader, Flying-type specialist, technically still running the Gym in his father's stead while his father was out on a journey of his own. A rookie Gym Leader on paper. Still, Falkner wasn't actually weak.
Against Norman though, there was a real gap. So Ash settled on Norman as his first target. Convenient excuse to find out what kind of tricks Hoenn-region Pokémon brought to the table.
"Pika Pika~" Pikachu folded his arms and nodded sagely. In other words, go find someone strong and fight them.
He'd just clawed his way back to Elite Four level. He needed a real opponent to warm up against. Elite Four, Champion, didn't matter who, bring it on!
"Come on, Pikachu. What pose are you striking?" Ash's voice yanked Pikachu out of his fantasy battle. By the time he refocused, Ash was a good ten meters ahead and Pikachu was still standing there picturing how to take down an opponent he hadn't even met yet.
"Pika Pika!" Wait up!
"I'm back!"
"Pikachu~~"
The boy and the mouse pushed the door open. Nobody came to greet them.
Serena and Misty were leaning against Delia on the sofa. All three were looking at something and laughing nonstop. Brock was off to the side, locked in a heated argument with Mr. Mime over whose turn it was to clean up.
"Wh, what's going on? Mom, what are you all looking at?" Ash walked over, curious. The second he saw what Delia was holding, his face went red.
Baby photos. His baby photos.
If they'd been normal pictures, fine. But these were the full archive. Infancy. Toddler years. The bed-wetting documentation. The crying-after-a-scraped-knee documentation. Every milestone Delia had felt the urge to immortalize, all in one album.
These were photos meant for Delia. Maybe for showing one specific person someday, far in the future, under very controlled circumstances. They were not meant to be shared with Misty and Serena.
"Mom! Why are you pulling those out?!"
"What's the harm? Misty's your girlfriend now. She should know what you were like as a kid."
"That's not a childhood, that's blackmail material! My childhood wasn't like that at all!" Ash protested. He thought about going for the album, but Misty and Serena were both clearly trying not to laugh, and clearly enjoying themselves. He gave up. Too late anyway. They'd already seen everything.
Fine. Let them have it.
"Was this one from when Ash went to summer camp? Why does this little girl look so familiar?" Delia had flipped to a new page. The photo showed Ash holding a bug-catching net, posing next to a girl in a straw hat and a small dress.
The girl had a small scrape on her knee, but her smile was wide and bright. Ash was smiling so hard his teeth practically caught the light.
Delia kept staring. She knew that face from somewhere. Not from the album. From real life.
"Which one? Oh, that one. That's Serena." Ash leaned over and identified her immediately. The girl was, in fact, Serena, currently sitting to Delia's right. The summer-camp photo was the only one they'd ever taken together back then. Serena had asked for it on the last day of camp, and Professor Oak had developed two copies. One of them had been mailed off to Serena's family.
Ash had been so young that he'd basically forgotten the whole thing. Now, with Aura Power awake, he could pull up even the small forgotten details of his childhood without effort.
"Serena? Oh! So that's why! I kept thinking she looked familiar!" Delia exclaimed and turned to look at Serena beside her with a glint in her eye.
So this girl and Ash were more than travel partners after all. Her boy had grown up. With any luck, she'd be bringing two daughters-in-law home for the holidays this year.