As Alex and Kirlia were celebrating their victory, Misty slowly walked towards Alex with a bitter expression.

When Misty put out her hand, Alex accepted the handshake. When Alex said, "Good fight," Misty simply gave a hollow smile. ​​

She said with a cold expression, "You are really shameless." Alex didn't answer her. Although she was right, Alex thought of her as a loser who can't accept the fact that she lost.

When Alex saw two staff members putting a podium with three seats in the middle of the arena, he smiled. Junichi followed the staff with a neutral expression.

Erika came into the arena with a microphone and a small closed wooden box. After a short speech to calm down the spectators, she asked all three participants Junichi, Misty, and Alex; to go on the podium.

She took out a bronze medal from the wooden box and hung it around on Junichi's neck. Together with the friendly words from Erika and the applause from the audience, a good atmosphere was created.

Then she took a silver medal out of the wooden box for Misty. She also kindly comforted Misty, who had just lost. The audience also applauded loudly for Misty. In fact, it was a good deal louder than Junichi's applause.

When Erika put the gold medal around Alex's neck, the whole stage was full of loud applause. All stood up in the spectator seats and cheered loudly for Alex. The achievements that Alex showed in this tournament were unprecedented. Most people don't even imagine to be able to do what Alex has accomplished. Alex, who was weaker than 5 other participants, managed to win this tournament, which impressed all spectators. You could hear the shouts for Alex's name in the arena.

"ALEX! ALEX! ALEX!"

The fireworks filled the sky, celebrating the winner of the tournament.

This tournament will go down in history and will be remembered for a very long time. And the person responsible for that was none other than Alex.

...

"...And with these words, I officially conclude the Kanto Rookie tournament. Thank you, everyone, for all the support you have shown to all of us."

After Erika's long farewell speech, the camera team stopped filming Erika. Most of the spectators also slowly began to leave the stage.

When Erika noticed that most of the audience had left, she said with a smile to the three, "Haha, that was tough, wasn't it? Ah, I have to give you the reward. I almost forgot about it."

Alex just smiled at her statement. He could now understand a little better why Erika is so popular with the audience. The kind aura she was emanating was indeed soothing.

Erika led Alex, Misty, and Junichi to a large room where Professor Wälhder and 3 PokéEggs are in the incubator.

Professor Wälhder looked at the 3 participants and smiled. "Congratulations on reaching the top three in all of Kanto. These achievements are greater than you might think because the Alliance is very important for talented trainers like you all. Hmm, but let's talk about your reward right now. We got three Royal Pokémon Eggs from strong Pokémon from the 3 different famous professors."

"The three Pokémon are Torchic, Totodile, and Bulbasaur. You will get to choose the Pokémon in the order of your rank. First, Alex. Then Misty. And lastly, Junichi. And if you don't want the Pokémon, you can instead choose another reward. Alex, if you please."

Alex, who heard the three options, began to think intensively about which of these Pokémon he would like to train most. Each of these Pokémon has pros and cons, so there is no obvious choice.

After several minutes of intense thought, Alex picked up the Torchic's Pokémon Egg.

Alex thinks that Torchic is probably the best option for him. As he doesn't have a Fighting or Fire-type Pokémon yet, and he just likes Blaziken as a Pokémon.

Blaziken is just a monster in Damage-dealing. It also has a very high Atk and Sp. Atk, which makes it very difficult to defend against his attacks well.

When Alex chose his Pokémon, Professor Wälhder brought out a small box with a red fire symbol. Although only the first place gets this extra item, the professor had prepared three different items for each Pokémon just in case Alex chose a another Pokémon.

Alex took the small box with a curious look. He wondered what kind of reward the first place in this tournament would get.

When Misty's chance came, she immediately chose Totodile as her Pokémon without any surprise. And Junichi, who knows that he can't train Grass-type Pokémon, chose another reward.

He got the very rare and expensive Expert Belt from Professor Wälhder. This reward is not necessarily worse than a normal Royal Pokémon, but Alex, who saw it, couldn't help but shake his head. The Royal Pokémon of this tournament are definitely the Elite of the Royal Pokémons. So Alex found it stupid not to pick a Pokémon.

Before Alex could go, Professor Wälhder invited him to talk about Pokémon. Of course, Alex didn't miss the chance to make friends with an influential person from the Alliance. Alex chatted with Professor Wälhder about various things related to Pokémon.

Both realized very late that they had been talking to each other for several hours. Both exchanged their contact details before parting.

...

Alex, who came out of his shower, looked happily at his Pokémon. They were curiously looking at the Pokémon Egg in the incubator on the table.

Although Alex already knows which Pokémon is in this Egg, he didn't want to take away the surprise from his Pokémon.

As he sat down on his chair, Alex got the small box he received today and opened it.

In the small box, there were three large red scales that radiated warm energy. There was also a message.

"3 scales from a famous professor's Charizard. Each of the 3 scales was inflicted with the fire energy of the Charizard for a week."

"Famous professor's Charizard? Professor Oak maybe? doesn't matter anyway."

At dinner, Alex and his Pokémon sit in their respective seats with happy expressions. Even proud Pokémon like Scizor and Crobat had a little grin on their face. Everyone was very joyful that they managed to win this tournament, and there was a festive mood around the table.

Alex believed that it was probably most important to Crobat even if he didn't show it. He knows that the defeat in the Team Rocket rookie tournament had hurt Crobat deeply. Alex was happier for Crobat than he was for his own victory.

While eating, Alex also looked at all the messages he had received from other people. He received congratulations from Lisa, Brand, Steven, and Maria.

He smiled a bit when he saw the message from Maria. "So, are you famous now?"

Alex dialed Maria's number and hit the call button.

After hearing that Maria took the call, he said with a smile, "Hey, are you free tomorrow?" (EN: Finally! The Date :D)

------------------------------------

Ok how do I best say that?

Many people have very different opinions of romance in this story. (I did a poll before about 50 chapters and your opinions were very different. If I remember correctly 33% don't like the romance, 33% don't care and 33% like the romance. not exactly but very close to these numbers)

I'll do another poll after the 2 chapters to see what people think. I am a little interested in what people think

btw i want to throw my editor in front of the bus.

he was one of the 33% who doesn't like Romace and look what kind of comment he wrote. (EN: Finally! The Date: D)

So after I've successfully backstabbed my editor I'll just say "see you later."

If you want to see the next chapters (25+ chapters) earlier or just want to support me

https://www.--patreon.com/alex02373