Kabu: The Hoenn Veteran Who Stops Gym Challengers Cold

He lost a final, then he lost a great deal more. Kabu runs the Gym in Motostoke and champions the Fire type, but his record looks like no other Galar Gym Leader's. Having come from Hoenn to take on the Gym Challenge, he made it all the way to the last match, let it slip away, and tumbled all the way down to the minor league. The Gym Leader challengers face today is the one who climbed back up.

Contents

• A Missed Final, Then the Fall
• A Battle, a Mine, and a Rule He Never Lets Go Of
• Centiskorch in the Lead, and a Wall for Challengers
• In the Anime, Examiner to Two Beginners
• The Dragon, the Mine and the League Cameras
• Kabu at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

A Missed Final, Then the Fall

Kabu isn't a local. He left Hoenn to try his hand at the Gym Challenge in Galar, exactly like the Trainers who line up in front of him today. His talent carried him much further than the average candidate.

He made it all the way to the final match, and the Champion title slipped through his fingers at the last moment. The franchise is rarely this precise about a failure: this isn't an anonymous early-round elimination, it's a victory missed by a hair, which makes what follows easy to read.

The defeat changed him, and not for the better. Kabu concluded that fair play was costing him matches and geared his game toward results alone. The calculation backfired: his performance got worse, and the League demoted him to the minor league.

A Battle, a Mine, and a Rule He Never Lets Go Of

It was an encounter with Leon that set him back on course. The Galar League Champion served as a mirror: Kabu came away convinced it wasn't too late to take his training seriously again.

From that soul-searching, he drew a code of conduct he follows to the letter: as long as you're breathing, there's still time to improve. It's not a poster slogan; it's the direct answer to what brought him down.

He applies it in an uninviting setting. Galar Mine No. 2 serves as his training hall for honing his Fire-type Pokémon. The post of Motostoke Gym Leader came afterward, as the result of that work and not as a consolation prize.

Centiskorch in the Lead, and a Wall for Challengers

The result is harsh on visitors: many Trainers abandon their Gym Challenge because they can't beat him. The Gym Leader who had once been demoted has become the point where Galar's circuit grinds to a halt.

His signature Pokémon is Centiskorch, and that choice says a lot: not a showy mascot, but a battle machine that the anime would later show chaining Flame Wheel, Bug Bite and Flamethrower, backed by its Flash Fire Ability.

The franchise's mobile game, which added him on June 16, 2024, follows the same line: Centiskorch as his default partner, then Torkoal and Ninetales depending on the pairs the player unlocks, one at maximum friendship level, the other in exchange for scout tickets.

The same game gives him a second career. In his Pasio Academy uniform, Kabu is a teacher and battles alongside a Camerupt; his classes are popular there because he pushes his students not to give up on their dreams. He tailored the outfit himself so that it would be his alone.

🔥 Fire-type Pokémon have their own section: browse the Pokémon figures.

In the Anime, Examiner to Two Beginners

His entrance in Horizons is low-key: he's seated on the terrace of the Battle Café, busy thanking Mitchell and Murdock for the snack and the show. It's Mitchell who recognizes him, to the delight of Roy, who had been hoping to run into him.

What Roy and Liko want is information: they're on the trail of a Black Rayquaza, and the Gym Leader's Hoenn roots make him the best informant in town. He first asks why, then, once convinced, decides to train them — a clash seems inevitable to him if Roy wants to recapture the dragon.

His test comes down to a reversed instruction. Liko's Sprigatito has to put out Litwick flames with Leafage, while Roy's Fuecoco has to light them with Ember, and the first to deal with all the Pokémon wins. Kabu watches the score less than Liko's hesitation, which hands the win to her friend.

Next comes a Multi Battle: the two youngsters against the Gym Leader and Wakaba, a Gym Trainer in training who is taking her exam. Centiskorch brushes Fuecoco aside effortlessly, then Kabu lets Wakaba lead her own battle. Liko forfeits so that Wakaba can pass, and the Gym Leader refuses the gift: giving up on purpose, he explains, shows a lack of respect for your opponent and for your own Pokémon alike.

The Dragon, the Mine and the League Cameras

In the end, he still shares what he knew: he spotted Rayquaza one morning in the sky, heading west of Motostoke. Then he takes Liko aside for a line worth more than any clue — winning isn't the only path open to a Trainer, and it's up to her to find the one she can believe in completely.

He turns up again shortly afterward in the Galar Mine, investigating a series of cave-ins. Liko, Roy and Friede had already rescued a Galarian Moltres there, the cause of the incidents. Kabu realizes Friede isn't telling the whole story, smiles, and lets them go without pressing.

The short series devoted to the region shows him in a different light: jogging around the field at Wyndon Stadium, then in a TV interview from a gym, chest-press machine included, where he comments on Leon's reign. The card game, for its part, welcomed him in August 2020 with the Sword & Shield—Darkness Ablaze expansion.

Kabu at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Where is Kabu's Gym?
  In Motostoke, in the Galar region. Kabu specializes in the Fire type there, and his reputation is such that many Trainers abandon their Gym Challenge after hitting a wall against him.
• Why was Kabu relegated to the minor league?
  After narrowly losing the Gym Challenge final, he gave up on fair play to focus solely on winning. The change backfired and the League demoted him. A battle against Leon later put him back on track.
• Which Pokémon does Kabu use?
  In Sword and Shield, his Gym team fields Ninetales, Arcanine and a Gigantamax Centiskorch, his favorite Pokémon; at Wyndon Stadium, Torkoal and Salazzle join them. The mobile game pairs him with Centiskorch, Torkoal and Ninetales, and with a Camerupt when he wears his Pasio Academy uniform.
• Does Kabu appear in the anime?
  Yes. In Pokémon Horizons, he trains Liko and Roy, tests them on their Pokémon's basic moves and tells them about the Black Rayquaza they're chasing. He also appears in the short series devoted to Galar.

In short

Kabu is the Galar Gym Leader whose story the game starts telling with his fall. A final lost by a hair, a turn away from fair play, a relegation, then a comeback built on training at the bottom of a mine. That's what makes his Gym so hard to get past, and what gives weight to the lesson he slips to Liko in the anime: victory isn't the only path, but it never comes by chance.