December 7.
The Lily of the Valley Conference came to a successful close. This year's tournament was hailed as the strongest in a decade.
In terms of the competition, it was even fiercer than the tournament Cynthia had won fifteen years ago.
Of course, it could also have been that Cynthia was simply too overpowered.
But few people supported that view.
After all, Ash's strength was beyond question.
Whether it was his Lucario, who had battled Li Wei's Lucario for over ten minutes,
or his Monferno, who had unleashed Special Blaze, or his Pikachu, who had fiercely clashed with Sky Shaymin,
Ash was more than strong enough to compete in the Master League.
Tobias's strength needed no elaboration.
Had Li Wei not taken him out early, Tobias would undoubtedly have been the favorite to win this year's Lily of the Valley Conference.
Tobias's team could practically have replaced that of any member of Sinnoh's Elite Four.
In the original timeline, perhaps Tobias, like Li Wei, had never challenged any of the Elite Four.
Of course, it was also possible that his fondness for playing cards meant his command skills fell short of theirs.
Since Tobias had lost to Li Wei, that question had all but become an unsolved mystery.
Blue believed that losing to Li Wei this time was by no means a bad thing for Ash.
Pikachu had lost to Shaymin's Substitute.
Charizard had lost to Milotic's Mirror Coat.
Infernape had lost to Zeraora's tail.
These were all valuable experiences that would be of tremendous help in Ash's future battles.
It was through battles like these that Ash accumulated experience bit by bit, eventually making it his own.
When Ash had made all that precious experience his own, his Champion Time would come.
But there was no denying