"Everyone here was a Trainer with eight badges, so our strength was pretty close. I was just lucky, that's all."
In the Top 64 match, Xia Yan had swept his opponent with Sliggoo, then used those words to soothe the other Trainer's wounded heart.
Who knew whether the other person had been healed—or had simply given up on treatment altogether.
At the same time,
some people who had never known Xia Yan before gradually came to know him through his performance in the qualifiers.
Some were even curious about Xia Yan's identity and did some searching online.
The results were naturally shocking.
The details of the Hoenn Disaster had gradually surfaced, and more and more people were learning about it.
Xia Yan, who had turned the tide during the Hoenn Disaster, also slowly climbed onto the trending lists.
<The Man Who Commanded Rayquaza Has Entered the Lily of the Valley Tournament!>
Recently, a news article with that title had remained near the top of the Pokémon League's official website.
Among it,
a high-definition photo of Xia Yan standing atop Mega Rayquaza's head, one hand holding his hat down as he faced Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, had been placed prominently at the very top of the article.
Then,
beneath that was another high-definition photo of Xia Yan commanding Shelgon to massacre its opponents during the Lily of the Valley Tournament qualifiers.
Finally,
the article's author concluded with a single sentence.
"Teacher Xia Yan, Rayquaza's 'Successor,' has come to the Lily of the Valley Tournament to crush rookies. Take my advice, everyone: run!"
Bang—
Sylveon, who had been standing on the table and reading the entire article with Xia Yan, puffed out her cheeks and unhappily slammed Xia Yan's laptop shut.
"Vee~~"
Sylveon was furious.
How could they call it crushing