Day 3

2 days later, the qualification rounds of the 1056th Kanto Junior League Championship officially began. 

For the duration of the quali rounds, the 12 stadiums of Indigo City have been divided into 8 battlefields. Of course, since the stadiums were built with Master-Ranked battles in mind, dividing the field like that did not matter for the Junior League. 

Lukas battlefield for his first match was a standard tournament field, just a sand field with a small creek running through the middle. 

His first opponent was only a Senior-rank trainer who despite having a (low)Silver-Ranked Pokemon barely managed to put up a fight against Milotic. In the end, Milotic just ignored whatever her opponent threw at her and ended the battle in less than 2 minutes. 

His next three rounds went similarly, except that Gabite and Milotic took turns fighting. 

Since round 5 of the quali rounds was scheduled for the next day, Lukas left after his 4th win and made his way back to the nearest Poke center to let his two Pokemon rest. 

… 

Like he said, the quali rounds were completed by Milotic and Gabite alone. Not a single opponent of theirs managed to give them any trouble, though that will change during the official K.O. phase. 

After some tiebreaker matches that had nothing to do with Lukas went by only 256 of 5.127 participating trainers made it to day 3 of the Championship and into the elimination rounds. 

Knowing his opponent for the next match is a newly advanced Expert-Rank trainer, Lukas left the Poke center morning the 3rd day without any worries. 

Yet, as he was making his way towards the stadium whose fields had been reduced to 4 for today, something happened. 

"Ugh..." 

"Hey, look what I caught here, everyone." 

Hearing this voice, Lukas didn't even have to look who it was that caught him by the neck. Forcing a smile on his face, he said, "Wow, aunt Catrina, who would've thought you'd show u here so soon." 

"Aww, don't worry, despite your unenthused tone, I know well how happy you are to have your favorite aunt spectating your matches." 

While Lukas was busy rolling his eyes, another two women approached them. 

"Alright, Catrina, leave the poor boy alone already." 

"Mom? Didn't I say you could come once I made it to the 6th day?" 

After his mother spoke, Catrina loosened her grip on Lukas while clicking her tongue, allowing him to finally take a breather. 

"What are you taking about brat, this is your first Championship, of course I'm not gonna miss anything." 

'How come I turned from a poor boy into a brat so fast? Also, didn't you already miss all 7 quali rounds?' 

Of course, he dared not ask these questions out loud. He just escaped the grip of an Elite-Rank trainer, he has no desire to know the physical difference between an Elite and ACE-Rank trainer. 

'Speaking of, she must've gone easy on me when I was still a kid.' 

"Ahem, you know, I'm also here." 

Lukas was pulled out of his thoughts by the last person, who hasn't said anything until now. 

"Of course, how have you been Cindy?" 

"Same old, nothing special happened." 

"How's Chikorita's training coming along?" 

Although she kept her new Pokemon a secret to him, it didn't take long for him to learn that the Pokemon she caught at the NNPR was the Grass-type Johto royal starter. 

"She's doing fine, just that she hasn't been a Chikorita for months now." 

Since her rank when she was caught was already Bronze, it is only logical to assume she evolved by now. 

In fact, Chikorita or rather Bayleef's growth managed to keep up with Gabite and Milotic even without their special training potions. The reason for that is solely because Cindy was already bonded to some Gold-rank Pokemon increasing the speed of her lower ranked Pokemon. 

Lukas also benefited from this already and will continue to do so now that his Pokemon reached Gold-Rank. 

On the other hand, Lucario and co.'s progression will now slow to a crawl since by reaching the Gold-Rank they advanced for the third time, causing the time and effort it will take to raise their stats from now on to increase by a lot. 

That is also one of the reasons why Lukas had them prioritize training their moves over the last few months, since he knew whether they advanced sooner or later made little to no difference on the stats they will have while competing. 

"Lukas, don't you have somewhere to go right now?" 

His mother asked this question, fully knowing the answer already. 

"Of course, I was on my way to the arena, since my fight will start soon." 

Saying that, he glanced at his aunt with some resentment. 

"Don't worry, I won't stop you any longer." 

"Yes, you better get going, well be watching from the stands." 

"Call us if you want to meet up in between rounds." 

Bidding his family goodbye, Lukas finally made his way into the stadium. He asked around some staff members, who directed him to the area reserved for participants. 

... 

After relaxing in the resting area of the stadium for half an hour, it was finally Lukas turn to fight. Yet, as his opponent only became an Expert-Rank trainer last month, their match wasn't really exciting. 

He started the fight off with Pidgeotto while his opponent's first Pokemon was a (mid)Silver-Rank Nidorina. Despite not having any super effective moves to use against her, Pidgeotto still won the battle with ease. 

Since the rules of day 3 stated that a trainer is only allowed to switch his Pokemon once per battle, he kept Pidgeotto on the field. 

His opponent's next Pokemon was a (low)Silver-Rank Graveler. 

Pidgeotto also managed to win this match using one of her new moves, Steel Wing, was enough to make her opponent faint after a short back and forth. 

Although she received little damage over the course of the two battles since she was almost always able to dodge her opponent's attacks, Lukas still decided to recall Pidgeotto and send in Pupitar to face the last Pokemon of his opponent. 

His opponent's last Pokemon was a (mid)Silver-Rank Charmeleon and seemed to be his starter Pokemon as well. 

Unfortunately they had themselves a bad matchup in Pupitar who only needed a few Stomping Tantrums and Rock Throws to end the battle in his favor. 

After he was declared the winner, Lukas exchanged some small talk with his opponent before he left to meet up with his family. While his mom and Cindy congratulated him on his victory, his aunt actually scolded him for not giving her an entertaining match to watch. 

They went eating lunch together next. Two hours after his match ended, he got a notification on his PokeNav. His next fight had been scheduled and his opponent for the round of 128 had also been determined. 

Lukas was a bit disappointed that his opponent in the round of 128 was going to be another Expert-Rank trainer, but after his mother gave him an explanation, he understood. 

Apparently the match ups are not random, instead the trainer with the least casualties and fastest winning time will be put up against the trainer that lost the most Pokemon during the fight and took the longest to win. 

Lukas, who ended his match in under 15 min without losing a single Pokemon in the process, was thereby placed in the upper half of competitors, so it made sense that his opponents are much weaker than him, at least for now. 

Knowing this, Lukas resolved himself to finish the next battle as fast as possible. Not that he had anything against fighting other Junior Elites, but since any one of them could spell his end in the tournament, he would rather lose while facing them in a 5v5 rather than a 3v3 or 4v4. 

When his next battle came up, his opponent could only watch as Gabite began steamrolling one Pokemon after the other while continually getting stronger and stronger. 

Although he wanted to keep as many cards as he could have hidden for as long as possible, he decided to reveal one of them in advance to land a quick 3-0 in the round of 128.