After seeing Hayata's remarks, Luther admitted that he felt a bit pressured.
After all, it was impossible to compete without wanting others to acknowledge one's skill or praise one's strength. At the end of the day, Pokémon Trainers were human. After years of grueling training and nurturing their Pokémon, they stepped onto the tournament stage to finally bask in the spotlight.
Throughout the competition, psychological warfare had been employed, such as belittling opponents to boost one's own image and create pressure, but only after the initial draw had been made.
Hayata's relentless attacks on Luther since his first match seemed odd to Luther. He was certain that he didn't know Hayata personally and had never wronged him.
"No one would go to such lengths to smear someone's reputation simply because they didn't like them, would they?"
Moreover, Luther noticed the intriguing phrasing in Hayata's comments:
"If I faced Luther..."
"If I had to deal with Marill..."
"Suppose I were to..."
All of his remarks seemed to praise himself while belittling Luther's strength. However, there was an underlying suspicion that Hayata was building hype for a future direct confrontation between the two.
Whether or not Luther was overthinking things, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to it than met the eye.
After major tournaments, it was common for competitors to critique each other. It wasn't unheard of for some to boost their own reputation by stepping on others.
However, all such strategies hinged on one fundamental premise: one must be confident that they can defeat their opponent.
Could Hayata have discovered Luther's greatest weakness at the Lily of the Valley Conference?
Seeing Luther deep in thought and frowning as he thought of this, Etorre assumed that he was taking these comments to heart and quickly offered a few words of reassurance.
In Etorre's view, Luther's strength was unquestionable. With another year or two to hone his skills, he would undoubtedly become every competitor's nightmare in the upcoming tournament.
After their discussion at Kihara Restaurant, the group played a small game during their downtime.
The premise was this: If they were to face each other in the tournament and could ban one of the opponent's Pokémon, how would each person choose?
When facing Ash, the three initially hesitated but ultimately agreed to ban Pikachu.
As the Pokémon with the deepest bond with Ash, Pikachu's combat prowess was undeniable. Its ability to turn the impossible into reality was practically a routine occurrence. Combined with Ash's relentless offense-as-defense approach, Pikachu had an extremely high chance of breaking through their defensive lines.
Against Dakota, the consensus was equally clear: banning Darkrai was an obvious choice.
Had Luther not interfered, causing Dakota to fail to capture Latios, they might still be agonizing over whether to ban Latios or Darkrai. But now, the decision was far simpler.
Professor Dakota's strategy focused on minimizing weaknesses and maximizing speed. His Darkrai was the engine of his team and posed a significant threat, but banning it would drastically reduce its power.
However, Etorre's team composition presented a far more difficult challenge for the ban phase.
Etorre's Pokémon training was remarkably balanced. His star player, Infernape, was ultimately banned due to its Bond; all three strategists agreed on this choice.
Yet, they all acknowledged that Etorre's team was so well-rounded that they couldn't identify a single Pokémon to ban that would disrupt his overall battle rhythm.
As for Luther...
The three strategists had sharply different opinions about Luther's team.
Ash would ban his Chansey if facing Luther, citing its sheer obnoxiousness. In their previous battle, Chansey's ability to disrupt his rhythm had completely stifled him.
Dakota banned Mismagius on a hunch from Darkrai, whose instincts he trusted implicitly.
Etorre chose to ban Marill, the most terrifying "dice roll" player in the Luther Team Lineup. Marill could only perform in one of two ways: normally or extraordinarily, never falling short.
After all three players announced their bans, they realized the most absurd aspect of the Luther Team Lineup.
Luther's team was composed of Pokémon with varying talents and strengths. Logically, such a lineup should suffer from the "barrel effect," where the weakest link becomes the most glaring weakness.
Yet, under Luther's meticulous nurturing and training, no matter which Pokémon the trio attempted to ban, the remaining team retained its formidable synergy and combat power.
By banning Chansey, whose offensive power was lacking but whose defensive capabilities were astonishing, Ash would diminish Luther's team's versatility.
However, Jumpluff remained on the team. Jumpluff could sacrifice itself to mimic Chansey's defensive capabilities, albeit with slightly reduced effectiveness. Thus, it could still mitigate the impact of the ban.
Luther's strategy revolved around creating a "battle chariot" with interchangeable components, allowing him to swap Pokémon in and out at will. In this arrangement, talent and individual strength wouldn't be diminished by the barrel effect while simultaneously mitigating each Pokémon's weaknesses.
Yet, Luther's own weakness was equally glaring. Ash had a genius-level intuition for battle.
"But do you have enough Pokémon to rotate them out like that?" Ash pressed.
This question forced Luther to offer a bitter smile.
Rotating his Pokémon was Luther's greatest vulnerability and an insurmountable challenge for this tournament.
Luther had only one and a half team lineups, which he had refined through countless trials and errors.
This excluded Milcery and Larvitar, two immature Pokémon yet to reach their full potential.
Kirlia, Marill, Jumpluff, Mismagius, Chansey, Houndoom, Espurr, and Darkrai formed his core team of six Pokémon. However, he could only rotate in two additional members.
In this grueling season-long points race featuring the top 64 competitors, the relentless schedule meant fatigue and battle damage accumulated faster than Pokémon could recover.
After advancing to the top 64, the intensity of the battles escalated, and the Pokémon's recovery periods often exceeded the competition intervals.
Luther's experience as a Pokémon trainer was relatively short. Unlike other trainers who had already experimented with multiple approaches, he had less than a year to refine his first set of training and development methods.
This weakness proved fatal, which is why Luther held back during the competition.
Before the competition began, he had spoken with Marill. If there were no unexpected developments, or if she was targeted particularly heavily, she might need to participate in every match of the preliminary rounds.
Usually playful, Marill looked at Luther with an uncharacteristically serious gaze and nodded firmly.
Mismagius had wanted to take on this responsibility. She could often sense Luther's thoughts and desperately wanted to relieve Marill of this burden.
Yet, Luther ultimately chose Marill.
Maintaining a state of extreme mental tension in order to help Luther achieve his goal would have caused Mismagius extreme mental distress. Moreover, she would have plunged into prolonged self-blame over any minor setback, which was a scenario Luther wanted to avoid.
The seemingly carefree Marill, who could be happy for half a day with just a bite to eat, was much better suited to handle this kind of situation.
Ash, Etorre, and Dakota knew Luther's greatest weakness.
"Could Hayata's confidence in defeating me stem from knowing this as well?"
Was his bold challenge a calculated move, knowing that the longer we waited to face each other, the better his chances of winning would be?
"Hayata?" Hearing the name, Mai's hand holding the showerhead froze in midair.
She had been scrubbing Corsola's body. The playful Pokémon had spent hours frolicking in the artificial lake with Kingdra and returned drenched and entangled in seaweed.
"You know this name?"
After returning to his room, Luther had pored over Hayata's records and was surprised by Mai's reaction.
"Uematsu Hayata?" Mai asked again.
Luther scratched his head. "I'm not sure if that's his full name. He only mentioned being called Hayata on the forum."
Mai dried her hands, took Luther's phone, and accessed Hayata's profile page.
After just a few glances, her brow furrowed.
"What's wrong?" Luther sensed the shift in atmosphere.
"I might need to make a call before I can answer you."
Mai grabbed her phone, pushed open the door, and strode out. Eevee, ever alert, darted after her.
At the same time, in the tournament operations office on Lily of the Valley Island, Cynthia reviewed the data extracted by the Forum administrators and sighed.
"Sometimes I really don't understand what Kukui Tetsu is trying to accomplish."
"Now that he's married and planning to groom his successor, what's the point of all this extra maneuvering?"
"Besides Uematsu Hayata, Hirakawa Kazuto has also made similar statements," the forum administrator quickly added, noticing Cynthia and Bertha deep in thought.
"The Hayata family has close ties to the Kukui family, so I can understand them indulging Kukui Tetsu's antics. But what's Hirakawa Kazuto from Canalave City up to?" Bertha asked.
"Kazuto raises and breeds many Pokémon, but he's short on cash. According to Pokémon League data, he suddenly went on a massive shopping spree after arriving on Lily of the Valley Island, purchasing large quantities of Pokémon-related supplies."
The staff member displayed Kazuto's transaction records for Bertha to review.
"Cynthia, where are you going?" Bertha glanced at Cynthia, who was pulling out a Poké Ball and striding toward the exit.
"To confront Kukui Tetsu. He's overstepped his bounds. This is a major tournament. What does he think he's doing?" Cynthia retorted, her voice tight with anger.
Bertha patted her on the shoulder and gestured for her to sit back down.
"You're usually so composed. Why are you acting so impulsively now?" Bertha shook her head with a sigh. "Kukui Tetsu hasn't interfered with the tournament. He hasn't broken any rules. What could you possibly say to him?"
He probably gave Kazuto a lot of money to target Luther, but that doesn't violate any tournament rules. Don't famous companies already sponsor promising athletes in the hope that they'll display their logos during performances?"
The Pokémon League collaborates with these companies. These regulations are designed to ensure the tournament runs smoothly. He's exercising his rights within reasonable limits, and there's nothing to criticize."
"Your anger stems solely from Luther and Mai."
Cynthia sighed indignantly. "I just can't stand it."
Bertha smiled. "Luther and Mai aren't children anymore. Some things can be tolerated once or twice, but not a third time. They know what they want. Let them make their own choices."
(End of Chapter)
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