"Older brother Xiao Ze, something's wrong!"
After agreeing with Cynthia that he would challenge her once he successfully entered the Ultra Ball rankings, Lu Ze left Sinnoh.
He continued climbing upward, constantly improving his ranking.
Unfortunately, there had been no Battle Festivals recently.
Although Lu Ze was very strong, his ranking did not rise particularly quickly.
The main reason was that too much time was wasted traveling.
That morning, as Lu Ze was preparing to leave for the Galar region, he suddenly received a call from Ash.
What surprised Lu Ze, however, was that the voice on the other end was not Ash's.
It was...
Goh?
Lu Ze glanced at the caller ID on his Rotom phone in confusion. After confirming that it really was Ash, he finally spoke.
"Goh?"
"What happened to Ash?"
"Ash seems to have shut down."
Goh spoke anxiously from the other end of the call, and Lu Ze had no choice but to calm him down first.
"What happened? Tell me everything."
After Lu Ze spoke, Goh began explaining what had happened to Ash recently.
Recently, Ash had been intensely training Riolu and Farfetch'd.
A few days ago, when they went to Saffron City, they ran into a karate girl from the Galar region.
The girl had a Hawlucha and a Grapploct.
Ash was defeated by Grapploct without being able to fight back at all.
Although he had been defeated by Grapploct, Ash had not reacted too badly. He had simply gone back to training.
But in the following Pokémon World Championships challenge matches, Ash suffered two more losses.
Both battles had been Riolu facing tentacled Pokémon.
One was an Octillery, and the other was a Tentacruel.
They were both the same kind of loss. Riolu was caught by tentacles in close combat, then defeated.