While awaiting the return of the Canalave Gym Leader, Ash decides to train. Dawn also decides to begin training her newly evolved Piloswine for its contest debut. However, Piloswine begins to ignore Dawn. Trying to reconnect with it, Dawn enrolls in a "Pokémon Friendship School".

Ash finally gets to battle the Canalave City Gym Leader, Byron. In the first round Byron chooses his Bronzor, while Ash uses Chimchar. Ash tries to use Chimchar's type-advantage to score an early victory, but this begins to prove ineffective when he learns that Byron has a defensive style of battling.