As expected, Feebas lost its battle against Corphish.
But despite winning, Ash showed no joy. Instead, he felt as though he had been tricked.
During the battle, Feebas had used the natural agility of a fish Pokémon to dodge numerous attacks underwater and landed several Tackles on Corphish, but it had still quickly gone down under the counterattacks from Corphish's two large pincers.
Because the battle had gone without any major twists, Ash felt little joy even though he had won. Instead, he felt a faint sense of disappointment!
This was nothing like the battle he had imagined!!!
"Xia You, your Feebas is so weak. That wasn't any challenge at all. This really isn't your style!?"
Ash grumbled in dissatisfaction, and he wasn't wrong. In his experience, every one of Xia You's Pokémon was incredibly strong. He had to give everything he had just to scrape a lucky win against one, and compared to those Pokémon, the Feebas before him hardly amounted to anything.
"My style?" In contrast to him, Xia You remained quite calm and said with a smile, "What's so strange about that? Every Pokémon grows up from a time when it was weak, after all. It might look like this now, but perhaps the next time you see it, it'll make you see it in a whole new light."
Hearing that, Ash thought Xia You had a point. He knew that all Pokémon went through this stage of growth, so he stopped dwelling on it so much, and his mood brightened considerably.
Besides, no matter what, he had defeated one of Xia You's Pokémon. That was an accomplishment most people couldn't manage!
Only...
Despite comforting himself that way, he couldn't shake that sense of disappointment.
Seeing him like that, Xia You smiled faintly. "Since you didn't get