And Yuto still hadn't noticed a thing. You jerk!
"R-right, Dawn."
"What?!"
"No, no, um... I just wanted to say..."
-You've gotten stronger, Dawn.
At those words, everything inside me stopped.
"I've still got a long way to go compared to you, Yuto."
That was right. I hadn't gotten stronger at all yet.
Before the battle began, Mr. Yuto had said, "Every Pokémon I'm sending out here is one I caught after coming to the New King Region, one I only started raising then." In other words, he'd started raising them at the same time I started raising mine. And since Mr. Yuto switched out his Pokémon during our travels even more often than I did, he'd clearly spent far less time raising the six he used today.
More importantly, he hadn't assembled his so-called "Real Party" like he had at Tian Gan Mountain.
"Why did you battle with Pokémon you raised in New King instead of putting together your party like you did at Tian Gan Mountain?"
Curious, I asked him. If he'd brought his real team, he would've cut me down in an instant.
"Hmm, there were a few reasons. One was that I wanted to enjoy battling you, Dawn."
"Battling me?"
"Yeah. To do that, I needed to compete under the same conditions as you. And honestly, it was great. It's been ages since I had a battle that kept me on edge like that, with my heart in my throat."
-Thank you, Dawn.
...Oh, what was this? So I really was that simple.
Those words swept away all my gloom in an instant. Clear skies, not a cloud in sight! But there was also a strange warmth in my chest.
"Besides, you and Baina are the first people I've taught everything I know, Hikari. Of course