Peter's excitement swelled. After a quick wave to everyone, he jogged off back toward the dormitories, planning to go through the online match videos and scout out any particularly strong opponents.
Auron parted ways with the group in good spirits as well, heading back to his little apartment to start preparing dinner.
He'd promised Charizard and Clawitzer—tonight's menu was entirely up to them.
After Charizard and Clawitzer put their heads together for a brief discussion, Charizard pointed at the meal chart Auron had prepared for the Pokémon and declared: tonight, it was curry rice.
Watching Clawitzer's curious and excited expression, Auron cast him a sympathetic glance. He had no idea whether Clawitzer could handle the spicy meat curry that Charizard had chosen.
"Well... I suppose that's what it means to be a considerate trainer."
Auron tilted his head and smiled, watching Clawitzer still buzzing with anticipation. He decided to make an extra batch of sweet roasted tail meat curry on the side.
Once inside the kitchen, Auron first pulled up his phone and placed an order through the food delivery app for a few portions of Slowpoke tail.
Of course—these were the modern-technology imitation variety, engineered to match the taste and texture of actual Slowpoke tail as closely as possible.
With the order placed, Auron set to work in the kitchen. The Pokémon, meanwhile, were out in the living room playing and roughhousing among themselves.
.........
Far away, on an unnamed stretch of island somewhere out at sea, three small Pokémon had surrounded a larger one—a Pokémon covered entirely in black.
(How did you eat ALL of them?!)
The black Pokémon scratched its head, looking flustered and unsure of itself.
(Mm... my small round cookies.)
(You greedy thing—take this! One, two, three—)
The black Pokémon panicked. "Wait, wait—don't rush! Let's go find him and have him make some more, alright?"
(If we could find him, do you think we'd still be making a fuss over these cookies?!)
(How about this—I'll take you to see a friend of mine. I'll have that friend bring the person here. Then we can have as many made as we want. Would that work?)
The three small Pokémon studied the sincerity in the black Pokémon's eyes. They exchanged glances with one another, then—after a moment's hesitation—nodded.
(Okay... then lead the way. And no tricking us!)
(Of course not, of course not.)
The black Pokémon waved a hand with an awkward laugh. How could it possibly trick them? It wanted to eat too.
.........
"Alright, everyone! Dinner's ready!"
Auron hummed a little tune as he came out carrying plates.
Snorlax followed right behind him, one paw cradling an enormous pot, smiling warmly.
After setting a plate down in front of each Pokémon's spot, Auron began serving rice with Snorlax's help.
"Clawitzer—you go first. Give it a taste."
The plate was set before Clawitzer. Buzzing with excitement, he grabbed the spoon in his claw, scooped up a little curry along with some rice, and brought it all to his mouth.
"Chpa! Hah—hah—phew—hah—"
Clawitzer's mouth was practically on fire. He was so scorched he was nearly breathing actual flames. At that, Charizard's eyes lit up from beside him.
He swiftly scooped himself a big bowl of curry rice straight from Snorlax's pot before anyone else could react, then settled in and began eating with obvious satisfaction.
Auron laughed, took back Clawitzer's plate, and swapped it out for a serving of sweet roasted tail meat curry instead.
"Here—try this one. Don't worry. It's sweet. Just the flavor you like."
Watching Clawitzer's cautious little expression, Auron smiled as he explained.
Only then did Clawitzer relax. He carefully pinched the spoon and took a tentative bite—and his eyes brightened at once. After that, he dug in without restraint.
In the short time it had taken for all of that to play out, Snorlax had already finished distributing curry rice to everyone else.
He set aside a portion for Auron as well, and after reserving some of both curries, claimed the rest for himself.
Snorlax ate a bit more than most due to his appetite, which was why before every meal, he would first fill up on the specially formulated nutritional energy blocks Auron had made for him.
Once he was about nine-tenths full, he'd eat two more pots of rice—bringing him to roughly nine and a half tenths.
At that point, he'd stop. Eating any more and he'd get drowsy. He was, after all, a very disciplined Snorlax.
Of course, before going to sleep at night, that last half-tenth absolutely had to be filled. Otherwise he simply couldn't fall asleep.
"Myu myu myu"
Dratini munched happily on her sweet roasted tail meat, bobbing her little head back and forth as she ate.
Every now and then, she'd sneak a spoonful from the big sister's spicy meat curry right beside her—only to get scorched—and then quickly stuff two more bites of the sweet curry into her mouth to wash the heat away, before resuming her cheerful head-bobbing.
Dinner wrapped up quickly. Auron handled the cleanup, with Snorlax pitching in to help.
Charizard headed outside with Crobat for an evening stroll.
Dratini settled into Auron's usual spot on the sofa and turned on the TV.
Elekid found a corner of the living room where he wouldn't disturb Dratini, and threw himself into practicing Million Ton Punch with fierce dedication.
Clawitzer, on the other hand, had embarked upon what could only be described as the life of a lazy salted fish. Full and content, he sprawled flat on the carpet in the living room, gazing up at the ceiling in total, blissful peace.
One night passed without incident.
The following morning, Auron was up early once again.
After all, ever since the family had moved up to the capital, Mom had put in the effort to finally help Auron conquer his lifelong battle against early mornings.
Through the disciplinary power of the feather duster, she had successfully forged a perfect biological clock in him.
The end result was that no matter how desperately Auron wanted to stay in bed and sleep in, the moment that time of day came around, he would simply wake up on his own. And then he couldn't fall back asleep no matter what. Truly infuriating.
"You know... why did the chancellor decide to change the format? Switching from a hundred matches per round down to fifty?"
Tim spread his hands. "How would anyone know that? Maybe they just ran out of referees."
Jace looked baffled. "Huh? I never heard about any referees getting killed during those matches."
"Did you not notice? Some of the referees in the earlier rounds were actually teachers filling in."
Jace stared at Lena with a confused expression. "Really? How did I not pick up on that?"
Lena let out a sigh and, just like everyone else, decided it was best not to engage with Jace on this particular point.
"Ding-ling~"
Before long, amid Jace's constant chatter, everyone received a notification from the school on their phones.
They all took a quick look, then collectively let out a breath of relief. "Thank goodness—no internal battles."
Internal matchups were what they feared most right now. After all, once this round concluded, it would be the main tournament.
If they ended up fighting each other at this stage and one of their own got knocked out, that would feel genuinely unfair. The best-case scenario everyone was hoping for was for all of them to advance into the main tournament together—even if it was just enough to scrape together a few points.
It was a shame that Peter had been eliminated early because Vibrava hadn't evolved yet. A single Pokémon simply couldn't carry a 2v2 format on its own.
"What round are you guys in? I'm round 1." Jace started asking everyone again.
Tim rolled his eyes. "Big bro, there are only three rounds total this time. The timing can't be that spread out."
Auron nodded. "True. Me—I'm round 4."
Everyone: ????
Watching the confused looks on their faces, Auron spread his hands. "Why are you all staring at me like that? The last round ended with over three hundred people advancing. Being among the extra few isn't that strange, is it?"
Only then did the realization dawn on everyone. Shortly after, Lena seemed to think of something and suddenly asked:
"Serena... you didn't get another bye, did you?"