Pokemon Journeys: Masters 8 Tournament

Chapter 2 - Mirror Match! Dragonite vs. Dragonite

To prepare for the Masters 8 Tournament, Ash was doing a lot of training. One would have thought he would only train his 6 pokemon to use more moves, but the reality was that he was also training himself. His training activities were supported and monitored by Mimey, who forced Ash and his team to practice an hour of martial arts every day to improve their stamina, offenses, and defenses in general. The martial arts training also improved Ash's stamina and strength, thereby strengthening his Aura capabilities.

For the rest of the week, Ash was going through the training on himself and on his team non-stop. He recalled his time in XY, where he ran on tree branches with his ninja friend and Greninja, so apart from his martial arts training, Ash would run on the tree branches in Cerise Lab with his pokemon, to strengthen their speed, reflexes, and precision jumping techniques. Sirfetch'd in particular had found a way to glide around the tree branches by spreading its wings wide. This way, it could save strength and could glide to a further and higher position at a high speed.

"Ash, it's dangerous running on the branches like that!" Chloe yelled.

"His pokemon are amazing. They can run and fly around so quickly," Professor Cerise praised, "But more importantly, Ash is amazing! How could he run around tree branches at that speed without falling? Has he trained on that before?"

Goh shrugged, "Haven't heard of it...maybe he is not human? He was fast enough to catch up to Lugia and jumped onto it..."

"Yeah you told us the story a million times," Chloe rolled her eyes, "You are so proud of him as if he is your boyfriend."

"What? No! Ew!" Goh looked away from them and left the greenhouse, "Enough of him. I am going to prepare some food for my pokemon in the lab."

The Cerise laughed and returned to prepare food for the Alolan Champion. The three of them had been very supportive of his rank climbing activity, and of course, they were proud of their friend for having accomplished so much in a short time.

Ash remembered a couple of things. Every time he used Greninja for the Bond Phenomenon, he would get hurt during the match and would be exhausted after the battle. The same had happened to Lucario. When he fought Bea a few months ago, he mega-evolved Lucario and felt the same kind of exhaustion after the match. He was glad that he could see what they see, sense what they sense, and feel what they feel, but his body was not strong enough to match theirs and take hits. He did not want to collapse during his pokemon battles. So while he trained his pokemon, he needed to strengthen his body as well. And thankfully, his physique training had been helpful, and he hoped his body wouldn't be the weakest link in the chain.

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It was the day for his old traveling companion Iris vs. the Kanto and Johto Champion Lance. Ash brought all of his 6 pokemon with him and headed to the Wyndon Stadium with Goh and Chloe.

"Is that you, Ash?"

Ash heard a familiar male voice, one that he missed so much. He turned around and was totally surprised, "Brock! And Misty! It's been a long time!"

The two Kantonians introduced themselves to Goh and Chloe. Ash explained to them that they were his traveling companions in the past. They had grown taller. Brock became a bit bulkier, and Misty looked more mature in both her looks and body.

Misty waved at him, "The top 8 trainer in the world! Congratulations, Ash! Couldn't have guessed that the rookie who traveled with us a long time ago have gone this far!"

"Thanks, Misty," Ash scratched his head. It was weird and uncommon to see Misty being so kind to him, but he was happy to see her like this, "What brings you two here?"