When they first met, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was different, but to be fair the whole flaring aura when they touched thing was kind of a clue.

Cynthia knew from her lessons with her grandmother on Sinnoh history and folklore, that this wasn't exactly normal. It meant that they were connected, bonded somehow, but exactly how, Cynthia couldn't say.

She introduced herself and braced herself for the inevitible, "Oh my Arceus! The Cynthia Shirona is speaking to me! Can I have your autograph?", that she usually heard, but was pleasantly surprised when Ash simply told her to keep the Championship warm for him, not with arrogance, but with pure confidence, as his eyes briefly flickered to the ice-cream cone in her hand, than back to her face.

The ice-cream did look really good, she thought, and tasted even better, as she ran her tongue up the cone to catch a drop that began to melt. She was glad to meet someone who acted as if she was just another trainer, a feeling she felt in almost five years, it was refreshing, so she did the only thing she could do, she laughed.

She stopped, realising that he may have thought that she was mocking him, she hoped that he didn't. In the back of Cynthia's mind though, she felt slightly pissed off, she was Cynthia Goddamn Shirona, the Champion of Champions, dammit! Suddenly feeling the urge to show Ash... and his friends, too, just how strong she was, she accepted the challenge of the weird, angry, purple-haired kid.

As Garchomp destroyed her opponent's team, she subtly glanced toward Ash's group, enjoying the look of awe on hi... their faces. After healing Angry Purple Boy's pokemon, he left and Cynthia got talking to the group, until she realised she had to leave, before she left she told Ash something that she read on the wall of the ruins she was studying earlier, that seemed to resonate with her.

She told him that when two lives met, something is born. Neither of them realised at the time just how true her words were. And with that she left, her mind still on the young man with the pikachu on his shoulder.

Ash Ketchum hmm, she mused, she would definitlely have to keep an eye on him... er, that is to say, he looked like a good trainer and she wanted to see how far he went in the League. That's it, honest.

When they first met, Ash was fascinated by the blonde woman, although that may have been due to the way she was running her tongue over her ice-cream, which...inrigued him, for some reason

When he first heard of Sinnoh's female Champion, he pictured a battle-hhardened, old woman, around Agatha or Glacia's age, not a young woman who couldn't have been more than a few years older than him and so...well...beautiful.

Fighting down a small blush, he introduced himself in typical Ash Ketchum style, by stating his name, place of birth and desire to take her job, which got got a laugh from the blonde, that he noticed sounded like music. Ash cursed himself, he must have sounded an arrogant jack-ass, iike Gary.

Of course, Brock acted as Brock usually did in the presence of almost every human female, in other words, like a horny growlithe. Seriously Brock? Now, after many years of travelling with his friend, Ash had gotten used to this. Sure, it irriated him at times, but right now, it downright pissed him off and he had no idea why.

Pushing his sudden annoyance down, he watched with interest as Paul challenged Cynthia to a battle. Ash chuckled to himself. Didn't Paul know that they didn't just give the title of Champion away?

Sure, Ash might have battled quite a few people that he knew were out of his league, but to openly challenge a woman whose skill was on par with Lance or Steven, and according to most people actually surpassed them, having beating both of them when she was a mere sixteen.

He watched awe-struck, as Cynthia's garchomp effortlessly took down Paul's team, one after the other. During the battle, he noticed that every few seconds Cynthia would look over towards them, but would quickly advert her gaze when he tried to catch her eye. Weird, right?

After Cynthia healed Paul's pokemon, Ash and her chatted for a while, until she had to leave. That was a shame, he thought, he wanted to hear her talk more.

As he watched her leave, Ash thought to himself that he couldn't wait to see her... to challenge her himself... yeah, that's it. Honest.