As Lucas's figure receded into the distance, Eri's eyes flashed with confusion. "Why did Teacher say he'll only teach it once?"
Penny nodded in agreement. "It's an 8v8 event. If things go smoothly, he'll have to battle up to four times."
Remembering something, Paul wore a thoughtful expression. Nemona, on the other hand, didn't care about details—if it was Lucas, then that meant "strong," and that was that.
Only Arven, who knew Lucas best and kept the clearest head among them, showed a complicated look.
"Saying he'll 'only teach it once'… he's probably just afraid that if he keeps going one match after another, he'll get mobbed afterwards."
"Ruining our lives wasn't enough—now he's got his eyes on the Gym Leaders and his fellow teachers."
…
In the prep area—
Lucas met his opponents for the day. They all knew each other fairly well by this point, so no one bothered with formalities. They gathered around and chatted casually.
There wasn't much to say about the eight Gym Leaders. The faculty lineup was also about what Lucas expected—since no one could use their own main teams, everyone's true strength was hazy and impossible to rank cleanly.
Naranja Academy's side: Math teacher Tyme, History teacher Raifort, Home Ec teacher Saguaro, Biology teacher Jacq, Language Arts teacher Salvatore, Battle Studies teacher Dendra, Art teacher Hassel, and Lucas.
Gym Leader side: Bug-type Leader Katy, Grass-type Leader Brassius, Electric-type Leader Iono, Water-type Leader Kofu, Normal-type Leader Larry, Ghost-type Leader Ryme, Psychic-type Leader Tulip, and Ice-type Leader Grusha.
Soon enough, Clavell began announcing the matchups.
Compared to Hassel—who finally had a chance to get revenge for that Elite Four match and maybe go head-to-head with Lucas again—most of the Gym Leaders were also casting eager looks toward Lucas.
Including Larry, who'd been dragged in as free entertainment.
He quietly reeled his wandering soul back into his body and thought, deadpan: if he happened to run into Lucas in the first round… then he could go home early, right?
Middle-aged salaryman praying.
"First, Block A!"
To the students' cheers, Clavell held eight freshly drawn slips of paper and read each name off in turn.
"Professor Hassel vs. Leader Brassius; Professor Saguaro vs. Leader Kofu; Professor Jacq vs. Gym Leader Larry; Professor Salvatore vs. Gym Leader Tulip."
With every name announced, the students grew louder and more excited.
Even Lucas was a little impressed by how the random draw had turned out.
Not only did they get an artist's showdown between Hassel and Brassius, but if things played out a certain way, there might be a Four Elite confrontation between Larry and Hassel later on, too.
"Hoo~ nice!"
Suddenly, Lucas heard a low, excited cheer not far away.
Glancing over at Iono, who barely scraped 150–160 cm tall—making her the shortest among all competitors aside from the elderly Tyme—he didn't need to guess why she was so hyped.
She was definitely thinking about settling the score from last time.
With a strange expression, Lucas met her challengingly bright gaze and said nothing.
Iono thought he was scared and became so excited she was practically snorting electricity.
Hmph! Even if it meant fighting a few more rounds, Iono was going to have her perfect revenge battle today~!
Making sure not to bother her colleagues, she gleefully bragged to her growing stream audience:
"Today, Iono's gonna crush the New Champ into powder! Not a shard left~!"
One viewer's scrolling comment caught her eye: ["What if you lose again?"]
"What do you mean 'lose again'!?"
"Today's Iono is super lucky, there's no way I'm losing!"
"If I lose, I'll eat my keyboard live on stream!"
Viewers immediately flooded the chat with ["Screenshotted."]
Iono didn't panic. She knew just how insane her luck had been today.
Unlike everyone else—who still had no idea whether they'd drawn a dud or a monster—she had pulled, if not her ace, then at least a very familiar Paldean Electric-type: Kilowattrel.
On top of that, her held item perfectly matched it: a Magnet that boosted Electric-type moves.
Compared to the Metapod that Katy had drawn—a fact Iono had painstakingly pried out of her—that was beyond a god-tier opening.
She couldn't imagine how she could possibly lose.
Maybe she'd even stomp straight through the bracket and step on both the Elite Four and her fellow Gym Leaders along the way!
Her fantasies were cut short by Clavell's announcement of Block B.
"Professor Raifort vs. Gym Leader Katy; Professor Tyme vs. Gym Leader Ryme; Professor Dendra vs. Gym Leader Grusha; Director Lucas vs. Gym Leader Iono!"
As his words fell, the students exploded with cheers even louder than before.
Clavell winced and glanced at the slips in his hand.
He was certain there hadn't been any rigging—everything was fully random. So why were these pairings so perfectly dramatic?
Whether it was the sister showdown between Tyme and Ryme, or the heavily discussed Lucas vs. Iono rematch that had been trending online lately, the matchups were undeniably hype. No wonder the students were going wild.
Clavell even remembered that Koga, the Poison-type Elite Four from Kanto, had praised Lucas's Toxic + Substitute + Protect combo to the skies.
He'd called the strategy far from flawless—no battle plan ever goes off perfectly and there were plenty of ways to break it—but even with its flaws, Toxic–Sub–Protect made an excellent rotating tactic that could be used by anyone from new Trainers all the way up to Champions.
Word was, many Poison specialists, in addition to studying how to make their toxins stronger and harder to cure, had quietly started training with Substitute and Protect, weaving them into their strategies and searching for the perfect moment to rotate them in.
No one knew what kind of flashy new tricks Lucas would pull today with a random Pokémon.
Right now, Iono wasn't even reading her barrage. She glanced once at Lucas's totally guilty-looking face and a thought came to mind again.
Today, Iono really was… blessed by the algorithm!
Amid the roaring cheers, Hassel and Brassius took the field for Match One, a clash between two very powerful Trainers.
Hassel had drawn Azumarill, a Water/Fairy type with the Huge Power ability. Its held item was a simple Sitrus Berry.
Even though he specialized in Dragons, Hassel looked very confident.
As the young heir of a Dragon Tamer family, he'd been force-fed Dragon-type knowledge since he was little.
Especially knowledge about Dragon-types' natural enemy: Fairy-types.
Hassel could confidently say that he knew more about Fairy-types than some Fairy specialists.
Brassius had drawn a Poison/Fire type, Salazzle, whose ability Corrosion could even inflict Poison status on Steel-types—deadly for his usual Grass-type partners.
Its held item was a basically useless Hard Stone.
Poison beat Fairy, Water beat Fire, and both sides were among the region's strongest Trainers. The match was guaranteed to be great.
And it was. In their fierce back-and-forth, Brassius's Salazzle moved in perfect sync with its Trainer's thorned whip, its toxic flames cracking like a whip and forcing Azumarill back again and again.
But Hassel wasn't easy prey. He directed Azumarill's dodges and counterattacks in orderly fashion, and thanks to the healing from the Sitrus Berry, he managed to grasp a narrow victory.
Match Two was Raifort vs. Katy.
To be honest, Raifort wasn't terribly interested in battling. She would rather spend the time in Naranja's library, searching the dusty corners for ancient texts that could let her witness the stories of the past with her own eyes.
Her Pokémon was a Psychic-type Wobbuffet with the Shadow Tag ability.
Paldea normally didn't have any wild Wobbuffet, but Naranja admitted students from all regions, including Kanto. This Wobbuffet was the descendant of one such student's Pokémon, left in the Academy's care.
Katy's Pokémon was also a Kantonian descendent: a nearly one-meter-tall cocoon Pokémon—Metapod.
The battle was less a contest and more… absolute stagnation.
Katy happily yelled nothing but "Harden!" while Raifort's Wobbuffet refused to move a single step before being struck, just standing there with dead-fish eyes.
The match quickly collapsed into a stalemate.
As luck would have it, the Metapod she'd drawn didn't know its one possible attack move, Electroweb, and Wobbuffet didn't know any attacks either.
At this rate, they might not have found a winner even by midnight. Watching the students around them start to nod off, Clavell had no choice but to make Raifort and Katy settle it with rock–paper–scissors.
They picked a winner that way.
Lucas personally felt that the only thing that could outdo that match in sheer absurdity would be a Metronome-only tournament.
Match Three, Jacq vs. Larry, came next. Larry had planned to phone it in and quietly throw the match, but when Geeta suddenly showed up in person, he felt her presence like a dagger in his spine.
Forced to endure in the metaphorical sense, Larry managed to scrape out a win.
…
Time flew.
Match Four, Five, Six, and Seven all concluded one after another, winners decided, and finally they came to the match everyone had been waiting for.
Lucas vs. Iono: Round Two.
As Lucas and Iono stepped onto the courtyard battlefield from opposite sides, Penny and the others all straightened up, full of focus.
Nemona shouted herself hoarse cheering for Lucas.
Silent Paul stared unblinking at his Teacher, wondering what Pokémon he'd send out and what one-time-only, must-watch strategy he'd unveil.
"Revenge time—soar for me, my shining wings! Kilowattrel, go!"
After striking a few poses for the stream, Iono tossed her Poké Ball with a high shout.
Nemona's eyes lingered for a moment on Iono herself, particularly the smartphone held aloft by her poor assistant. She seemed… to be thinking.
A red beam solidified in midair into a frigatebird-like Pokémon with black, yellow, and light gray plumage and a massive throat sac.
Electric/Flying-type Kilowattrel, a common sight along Paldea's coasts. But since its feathers held very little oil, it actually wasn't that good at swimming.
Already locked into battle mode, its arrowhead-like throat sac was puffed up, and bright sparks crackled fiercely around its body. It looked fully charged.
As Lucas was about to throw his own ball, he raised an eyebrow.
No wonder Iono was so cocky today.
So she'd drawn a Pokémon of a type she specialized in and knew best.
He couldn't yet see what item it was holding. If it was Leftovers, he could try to have Chansey steal it later with Covet.
With that thought, Lucas decisively threw his Poké Ball.
"I'm counting on you, Chansey."
Red light coalesced, and Chansey's harmless, cuddly form appeared before everyone.
Paul's serious expression shattered into shock. Geeta looked intrigued. Iono was about ready to pop champagne.
A wave of murmurs rippled through the students.
The stream chat in Iono's live feed froze briefly, then exploded into flashing messages that filled the screen.
["Isn't Chansey usually a Nurse Joy assistant?"]
["Can a Chansey even fight?"]
["We're screwed, Iono-chan might actually win this one!"]
Everyone knew that in this world, Chanseys were almost universally monopolized by the Joy clan, just like Growlithe and Arcanine were by the Officer Jennys.
Of course, there were exceptions—Trainers who owned Chanseys, or Joys partnered with Comfey, Jennys using Gumshoos, and so on.
But those cases were rare.
For most people, Happiny, Chansey, and Blissey were synonymous with "support staff and medics."
"No one sends nurses and doctors to the front lines" neatly summarized Chansey's perceived role in everyone's minds.
On one side: a Kilowattrel shrouded in harsh electric light, aura blazing.
On the other: a nurse Pokémon that no one even knew how many moves it had.
The gap seemed massive.
Geeta glanced at the woman next to her—disguised with sunglasses and a cap that hid all her signature pink hair. "You didn't expect Chansey to be drawn either, did you, Nurse Joy?"
This Joy happened to be the least experienced of the multiple Joys working at Los Platos's Pokémon Center.
At the Academy's request, the Center had also loaned several Pokémon it was boarding, with their Trainers' permission.
Including Joy's own partner: Chansey.
Joy stared worriedly at Chansey on the field and murmured, "Outside of its nursing work, it does like to learn moves from Pokémon that come in for treatment. But I don't know if it can handle an actual battle…"
She suddenly regretted agreeing to leave Chansey's Poké Ball with the Academy.
…
Lucas never considered himself a strategy genius. If he had to define his battling style, it was probably closest to Ash Ketchum's—but his encyclopedic knowledge and calm nature let him weave decent tactics without losing sight of his bond with Pokémon.
Chansey, however, wasn't used to fighting. This was probably its first real battle.
Lucas had already figured that out during their earlier practice.
So for a complete beginner, what does the most to boost morale?
"Hahaha! Iono already knows Chansey can learn Toxic. You won't make me look like a fool again!" Iono gave a three-part villain laugh and waved toward the sky. "Kilowattrel, Thunderbolt!"
Yes—her plan to counter Toxic was simple: just keep Kilowattrel far away from the slow Chansey and bombard from a distance.
Maybe it was a bit cheesy and not exactly noble, but it was still better than Toxic + Sub + Protect, right?
"SKREE!"
Lightning flared around Kilowattrel, and a writhing golden bolt shot straight down at Chansey.
Thunderbolt was incredibly fast. It was about to hit before Chansey even registered it.
Before Chansey could panic, Lucas's voice—carrying a strangely calming influence over its egg-shaped heart—rang in its ears.
"Minimize!"
Recalling Lucas's earlier words—"You don't need to overthink during a battle. Just follow my calls."—Chansey steadied itself. It channeled Normal-type energy and, while seeming to hunch down… actually shrank until its body was only about the size of a basketball.
Because Kilowattrel had been aiming for the center of Chansey's large, round bullseye torso, the sudden change in size caused Thunderbolt to blitz past Chansey's side, instead blasting the ground and charring it black.
Total miss.
Iono: ????
You can do that?
"Kilowattrel, use Discharge this time!"
She refused to accept that. If Thunderbolt could miss, she'd just use a bigger AoE—Discharge would fill the area with electricity, hitting everything, ally or not. Let's see you dodge this.
Kilowattrel shrieked again. With a new burst of light, even more electric serpents than before erupted outward, racing toward Chansey.
Even with Minimize, there was no way to fully avoid Discharge.
But—
"Trust yourself. Next."
Obeying Lucas's voice, Chansey forced down its instinct to run and simply stood there, watching Discharge slam into it, the electric current bursting everywhere across its body.
Several nervous students had already shut their eyes, unable to keep watching.
Joy nearly rushed the field to yank Chansey out herself.
Standing off to the side awaiting their own later match, Hassel folded his arms, curious what Lucas was planning. Larry, a sometime Normal specialist, looked thoughtful.
If he remembered correctly, Chansey's Special Defense was… rather exceptional.
The terrifying Discharge storm raged for more than ten seconds. Nemona clenched her fists, eyes locked on the Chansey wreathed in electricity. Since her starter was a Pawmot, she had an especially vivid sense of how terrifying a prolonged, full-power Discharge was.
When the lightning finally faded, the uproarious courtyard fell silent. Even Iono's stream chat paused for a heartbeat.
Chansey stood there, with just a bit of charring on its body—almost completely unharmed.
Even Iono looked stunned. That was a no-holds-barred Discharge buffed by Magnet. How was this Chansey so ridiculously tanky?
Lucas, on the other hand, was perfectly clear.
With Eviolite boosting its already insane Special Defense, Kilowattrel's Discharge hadn't exactly tickled, but it was nowhere near lethal.
And yet, all Iono had needed to do was obediently let Kilowattrel take a Toxic and then play it smart. Instead, now Lucas had to start thinking about how to weave Minimize, Soft-Boiled, and Rock Slide together…
It was a headache.
And work.
Sighing softly, Lucas called his second command to the Chansey that had been fully braced in the storm of electricity.
"Rock Slide!"
Realizing the Discharge wasn't that painful after all, Chansey opened its eyes. A spark flashed in the small dots of its pupils.
"Chansey~!"
It raised a hand, and the Rock-type energy it had quietly gathered during Discharge surged into existence over Kilowattrel's head, forming a few basketball-sized boulders that came crashing down at the bird, who'd just stopped Discharge and had no time to flap away.
Rrrumble—!
Chansey's Attack stat was garbage, with basically no physical training. Its Rock Slide didn't even measure up to what most Rock-types could do with Rock Throw. The damage was laughable.
Even with Rock being "super effective," it barely hurt. But the insult factor was off the charts.
The crowd erupted.
In their minds: if someone caused trouble at a Pokémon Center, and the Chansey behind the counter just lifted a paw and dropped a Rock Slide on their head… it was like their whole worldview had been rearranged.
As the furious Kilowattrel puffed up its throat sack again on Iono's command, ready to launch another Discharge, its eyes suddenly went wide. Its body went limp, dropping like a cut kite straight down.
The abrupt motion shocked everyone further.
But among the audience were plenty of accomplished Trainers, and they figured it out instantly.
This Chansey's luck was excellent—it had triggered Rock Slide's added effect: making Kilowattrel flinch.
Some savvy viewers explained it in Iono's stream chat for everyone else.
Unable to move and wracked with a weird weakness, Kilowattrel hit the ground with a thud, face twisted in pain.
Honestly, that crash probably hurt more than Chansey's Rock Slide.
"Careful, Kilowattrel!"
Iono's anxious cry snapped Kilowattrel to attention. A danger sense surged through its mind.
Chansey had somehow waddled right up to it on Lucas's orders.
Just as everyone assumed Lucas would revert to type and order a Toxic, his next command took them by surprise.
"Covet!"
"Chansey~!"
The frozen Kilowattrel stared as Chansey came close, gave it a sweet smile… and slapped it across the face. At the same time, its stubby hands rifled through Kilowattrel's feathers and snatched away the Magnet it had carefully hidden.
The moment the viewers on the stream realized what Chansey had done, the barrage exploded.
["Bro. Chansey's hands are NOT clean!"]
Fiddling with the Magnet and feeling the buzzing tingle in its palm, Chansey's expression immediately turned to disgust. Right in front of Kilowattrel, it tossed the item out of the ring.
Kilowattrel & Iono: ????
Behind her mask, Joy's pale skin flushed red.
The Chansey on the field—her lifelong partner—suddenly felt like a stranger.
Once Chansey had backed up a few steps, the mortified Kilowattrel finally regained the use of its body.
The first thing it did was rocket back into the sky. It beat its wings violently, whipping up gale-force winds laced with electricity and blasting them toward Chansey.
Whoooosh—!
Seeing Chansey getting buffeted badly by the wind, Lucas thought for a moment and decided it was about time. Minimize wouldn't dodge such wide-area moves forever.
"Soft-Boiled."
Stabilize first.