Venusaur's appearance had not been a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Early that morning, Xia You had specifically contacted Chloe and asked her to send Venusaur over using the transporter at the research lab.
Naturally, he would not be like Ash, leaving Pokémon he had caught in the past to one side and simply neglecting them. Although Venusaur had not battled for so long that its strength was uncertain, its old foundation was still there, so handling Preliminaries like these would be no problem.
When the contestant facing Xia You saw that it was actually Venusaur, his expression was both pleased and conflicted.
He was pleased because, in the Indigo Conference matches he had watched before, Venusaur could be described as the most unremarkable performer among Xia You's Pokémon. It had no particular weaknesses, but it had not made any especially dazzling plays either.
Compared with Charizard, Gyarados, or Gardevoir, battling a Pokémon like this was naturally somewhat easier.
But what left him conflicted was that Venusaur was also very strong and no easy opponent.
Seeing that he had not moved for some time, the referee glanced at the contestant and prompted him, "Contestant Kimura, please send out your Pokémon."
Only upon hearing the referee's voice did Xia You learn his opponent's name.
Although it had been listed on the earlier matchup sheet, he had not bothered to remember it, since this was neither a particularly formidable contestant nor anyone who had appeared in the anime.
Hearing the referee's reminder, Kimura finally came back to his senses and quickly considered which Pokémon he should use against this Venusaur.
Several seconds later, he finally took out a Poké Ball with a cautious expression.
Only when he opened the Poké Ball and released his Pokémon did the spectators see that, after careful consideration, Kimura had