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A New Battle Begins! (Japanese: 新たな戦いの始まり! A New Battle Begins!) is the twenty-third chapter of the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! manga.

Plot
With the events at Mt. Coronet now in the past, the Sinnoh Region has returned to peace as the Pokémon League Tournament begins. Hareta and Jun cheer from the stands while Mitsumi battles against Cynthia. As the battle rages, Hareta declares that he wants to get a closer look and jumps from the balcony, where he finds a young man with an Absol. Hareta tries to talk to him, however he is ignored until he tries to take a closer look at Absol, prompting the Trainer to punch Hareta in the face, telling him not to touch other people's Pokémon. Jun, who came down after Hareta, gets into an argument with the Trainer. After it dies down, Jun tries to stop Hareta of repeating his mistake of touching the Absol, however as the other Trainer begins to leave, Hareta pipes up again. "Hey! I challenge you to a battle!"

Hareta goes on to say that watching these battles has really pumped him up and that he can tell that the other guy is strong. Suddenly, a from Mitsumi's Infernape goes astray as Cynthia's Garchomp dodges, with it heading straight for Hareta and the others. The Trainer blocks the attack with his Metagross and Hareta sends out Empoleon, declaring it to be a battle. The other Trainer notes that Empoleon appears to be very well trained and that Hareta might not be all talk after all. Mitsumi turns to see and is glad to see that everyone is okay, but after noting the presence of Hareta and the other boy, she suddenly forfeits her match. Cynthia protests and asks why she suddenly quit, to which Mitsumi replies that she thinks that this tournament is looking as though it'll be more interesting as a bystander than a participant.

A battle between Hareta and the other boy quickly breaks out, before Mitsumi halts things by freezing Empoleon's attack with her Glaceon. She scolds the two of them and tells them to hold off until they fight in the actual tournament. Hareta reluctantly accepts and asks the other Trainer what his name is. He introduces himself as Koya and tells Hareta that he'll be awaiting their fight in the main event. Jun complains about him being a stuck up, and tells Hareta not to lose to him. Hareta replies that he thinks Koya seems like a pretty interesting guy, though he agrees that he won't let himself lose, because he's going to be number one.

Major events

 * Hareta, Mitsumi, and Jun enter the Pokémon League Tournament and meet Koya.
 * Mitsumi battles Cynthia and forfeits the match.

Humans

 * Announcer
 * Koya

Pokémon debuts

 * (Koya's)
 * (Koya's)

Humans

 * Hareta
 * Mitsumi
 * Koya
 * Cynthia
 * Announcer
 * Announcer

Pokémon

 * (Mitsumi's)
 * (Mitsumi's)
 * (Koya's)
 * (Koya's)
 * (Cynthia's)
 * (Koya's)
 * (Cynthia's)
 * (Cynthia's)

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