At the Battle Castle, Gallade adeptly scissors its arms backwards to deliver a slash onto Empoleon, and knocks the king penguin off its feet. Platinum gasps that her strategy to strike from behind has failed to work, and Looker is astonished that the blade Pokemon is capable of freely extending and bending its sword-like elbows in any direction.

Platinum makes a quick decision to switch in Rapidash, but Darach laughs that ordinary tricks will not work on him. He tells Gallade not to go easy on its opponents, and Platinum immediately gets Rapidash to use Protect in anticipation of her opponent's powerful physical attacks. However, Gallade throws its arm forward to unleash a Feint, which manages to break through Protect, striking the fire horse square-chest and fainting it in one single hit.

Platinum and Looker both bolt with shock, and Mecha-Starly declares that Rapidash is no longer able to fight. Darach grins that Protect is indeed a wise move to use in negating incoming attacks, but unfortunately neither Protect nor Detect works when Feint comes into play. With one of Platinum's Pokemon down, he believes that the battle is already more than half way through, and it is only a matter of time before he claims victory.

Looker is genuinely astonished at how strong the Frontier Brain is, but still finds himself baffled as to why the castle owner, Caitlin, doesn't play the role of the Brain, but relegates the task to her butler who handles her chores around the facility instead. Darach puts on a grin as he decides to answer Looker's query, and states that although his Lady is an extremely skilled and powerful trainer, there are reasons that prohibits her from engaging in a battle, which is why he has taken up the title of the Frontier's highest-tier opponent in place of her.

The Castle Valet then reveals his second and third party members to be a Staraptor and a Houndoom, and giggles that perhaps he should use something new as well to complement his opponent. After a bit of pondering, he picks Houndoom, and calls forward the devil hound as he retrieves Gallade.

Platinum sends out Lopunny to fight, whose agility manages to keep up with that of Houndoom. The young girl decides to play the card of type-advantaged attacks, and orders Lopunny to fire off a Focus Blast, hitting Houndoom square-chest. Darach watches as his Pokemon tumble backwards, and compliments that the fighting type move is super effective on a dark type. However, he grins that the story isn't quite over yet, and Platinum gasps in surprise as she sees Houndoom get back on its feet, seeing for the first time the Focus Sash that is tied to its trunk.

Darach laughs that the strap of cloth allows the users to survive an otherwise fatal attack by ensuring the maintenance of one health point, and states that it is time for Houndoom to retaliate. Charging forward, the devil hound gaps its mouth wide open as it prepares to hit with a Fire Fang. Yet, right before its attack lands, Platinum switches out Lopunny, and Empoleon returns to the battlefield to take the hit instead, which drowns out the grin on Darach's face.

Empoleon winces from the pain on its right wing, but conjures up enough strength to unleash a Hydro Pump, which blasts at Houndoom and faints it on the ground. Lookers immediately cheers for the knock out as Mecha-Starly declares Houndoom unable to fight, and Darach proceeds to send out Staraptor. Lookers sees hope as the flying Pokemon has a type disadvantage towards Empoleon's ice attacks, and Platinum is clearly aware of this as well. Wasting no time, the girl commands a Blizzard, and the king penguin instantly blows out a storm of snow from its beak. Unfortunately, Staraptor uses Double Team, and manages to evade the attack. Darach giggles that raising one's evasiveness makes even the strongest move difficult to aim, and states that even if it hits, Staraptor can easily recover with its health by Roost.

Platinum feels a sense of frustration upon hearing the words, but knows that it is only a matter of perseverance, and orders Empoleon to fire waves after wave of Blizzard. Finally, one of the Blizzards hits the giant hawk critically, and freezes it into a block of ice, rendering it unable to fight further. Looker roars in excitement for another knock out, and hollers that Darach has only one Pokemon left.

The Castle Valet muses that Gallade somehow always finds a way back on the battlefield, and releases it from its Pokeball to take the stage, which Platinum responds by switching in Lopunny once again. Looker urges Platinum to stay strong for just a little longer as her opponent is on his last Pokemon while she still has two, giving her a lead in terms of numbers. However, Darach laughs that both of Platinum's remaining two are close to fainting, while his Gallade is virtually unharmed so far, making the number lead essentially meaningless.

With that, he has Gallade swipe forward with a powerful Night Slash, which hits hard on Lopunny and makes it crumble onto its knees. Platinum grunts at the strength of her opponent, and Looker wills her not to give up. The moment that Platinum loses, they will be kicked out of the facility just like the other defeated trainers, and they would lose the chance to acquire any information from Darach and Caitlin. Should they manage to win, they will able to talk to the Frontier Brain directly. If they win, the moment when Platinum receives her reward of victory will be their one chance to obtain any information.

Sitting high up on her throne, Lady Caitlin watches silently as Lopunny struggles to stand up and weakly hops towards Gallade. Barely able to keep its eyes open, the long-eared rabbit raises its left arm, and in a feeble attempt reaches out to deliver a punch. The impact of the punch is so soft and trivial that Gallade could barely feel it, and in the next moment, Lopunny collapses to the ground unconsciously.

Darach laughs hard as he mocks at the power of Lopunny's so-called punch, and Platinum quickly retrieves her fallen Pokemon before sending out Empoleon. Darach remarks that Empoleon is clearly in no good shape either, and believes that the outcome is already clear. He motions Gallade to deliver the final blow with an elegant slash, and the blade Pokemon slowly raises both of its sword-like arms.

However, just when it seems like everything is over, to everyone's surprise, Gallade stabs its arms into its own chest, and Darach notices in bewilderment from its face that it has been afflicted with both the attract and confuse conditions.

Platinum puts on a small grin and she beckons to Empoleon, and the king penguin spins its body into a driller as it dives towards Gallade to unleash the super-effective Drill Pecker, knocking out its opponent in one hit and causing Darach to cry out in horror and disbelief, almost as if he has been struck by lightning.

Mecha-Starly declares victory to the challenger, and Platinum lets out a sigh of relief as she slumps to her knees, grateful that she has finally won. Looker runs down to congratulate her, but appears to be still in shock as to what has just happened in the last few moments. Behind him, Lady Caitlin walks down from her throne as well, and grins that if her guess is correct, Lopunny possesses the Cute Charm ability.

Looker puts on a look of confusion, and Caitlin states that when Gallade hit Lopunny with Night Slash, the physical attack made direct contact with Lopunny's body and activated its Cute Charm ability. As Lopunny is a female Pokemon and Gallade is a male exclusive species, Gallade was inflicted with the attract status and therefore did not make any attempts to retaliate or defend itself when Lopunny hopped towards it to deliver what was really a Dizzy Punch, something which Darach clearly missed.

Looker gasps in realization that although Dizzy Punch did no land too much damage on Gallade, it inflicted the confuse status nevertheless, which was why Gallade ended up turning its blades against itself.

Platinum grins that it was all thanks to Looker's words that helped her win, and reveals that she has actually used her Castle Points to look up on the team lineup of Darach before their match. Looker seems startled at how quickly Platinum learns, and quotes the saying that 'if you know both yourself and the enemy, you will emerge from one hundred battles with one hundred victories', which the girl has clearly managed to achieve.

Platinum giggles that she has in fact exchanged her CP for items as well, and points to the Focus Sash on Empoleon's shoulder, which cost her 270 CPs in total. Looker is bewildered by how expensive it was, but Platinum laughs that once she knows what to do with her CP, she can easily store and manage them as she wishes, a joy of 'management' which she never realized.

Darach puts on a dejected look as he feels ashamed to have lost in front of Lady Caitlin, and Caitlin shoots him a look of contempt as she tells him to reflect on his ineptness in managing his CP and the reason of his defeat, which Darach humbly acknowledges with a bow. The Castle Valet then opens up a finely carved wooden case to present Platinum the recognition of her marvelous skills as a trainer, the Commemorative Print which bears the image of Platinum, Darach and Caitlin in front of the Battle Castle.

Platinum wonders what the Commemorative Print does, and Caitlin explains that it is a proof of conquer at the Battle Frontier's various facilities, something that trainers keep record of to commemorate the feat of beating a Frontier Brain. Platinum thanks Caitlin for it, and wonders what she should use to store these records. Looker immediately perks up to say that he has exactly the right tool, and holds out a blue mechanical device which he calls gadget number 6 of the International Police Arms, the Vs. Recorder. Darach sweatdrops that the item is possessed by everyone challenging the Battle Frontier, and Looker blushes that it has simply become his catch phrase every time he takes something out from his pocket.

Platinum thanks Looker for the device as she places the Print in place, and Looker states that their wait is finally over, since Platinum has emerged victorious and can now ask for information from the Frontier Brains. Both Darach and Caitlin seem baffled to the term information, and Looker explains that he is actually an officer of the international police force, and that there are two things that they are currently investigating, the first being a place known as the Distortion World, and the second being Team Galactic, an organization with weird fashion sense who are said to be having secret activities at the Battle Zone.

With that, Looker flips out a picture depicting the Team Galactic grunts, and shows it to Darach and Caitlin. The Castle Valet frowns that while he hasn't really heard of the Distortion World, he has in fact learnt of rumours that the organization Looker is tracking has been lurking around the Stark Mountain area.

Suddenly, the voice of a boy interrupts them, and everyone turns around to see a red-headed boy appearing in front of Caitlin's throne next to a Claydol. The boy places a foot on the golden fence in front of him, and winks with an arrogant tone that if anyone knows anything about the Stark Mountain, it would be him...

(Original Japanese Jokes)
There are no jokes or Manzai in this chapter.