"Jirachi — Phantom Ray!"
The moment the battle started, Wang Quan opened with an aggressive move.
And before Lu Ze could even give a command, Huhu had already reacted — she pulled back into her shell at lightning speed.
Lu Ze stared at the shell sitting there on the court, now completely retracted, and sighed. He couldn't deny it — her reflexes were fast.
The black crescent blade of light struck Huhu's shell.
It didn't seem to do much.
"Huhu…"
Lu Ze called her name in resignation. Come on — this is a battle.
"Qu chii?"
Huhu poked her head out cautiously and looked around.
"Huhu — you have to beat her to get the Berry!"
"Qu chii!"
Huhu jolted into motion, and just like that, snapped back to full energy.
Lu Ze gave a satisfied nod.
"Huhu — Toxic!"
"Qu chii!"
A surge of thick poison erupted from within Jirachi's body. Jirachi's face went a shade of purple as it sank into badly poisoned status.
What Jirachi *had* been doing, however, while Lu Ze was coaxing Huhu, was acting on Wang Quan's quiet command — it had slipped Psychic Terrain into place without announcement.
"Jirachi — Tri Attack!"
"Huhu — Power Split!"
Both sides moved at the same time. Psychic-type energy enveloped the two Pokémon, then split into two beams of white light that streaked back into each of them in exchange.
Simultaneously, Tri Attack struck Huhu — who had already ducked back into her shell after using the move.
Tri Attack's secondary effect triggered. Huhu was inflicted with Paralysis.
"Tch…"
Lu Ze clicked his tongue in mild irritation. A bit unlucky.
"Whatever. We play it as it lies — Huhu, Bug Buzz!"
Lu Ze shook his head. This was already over, really. With Power Split landed, Jirachi could barely leave a mark on Huhu now.
The result was decided.
Huhu surfaced from her shell. She raised her head and sang out a clear, high note — and rings of vivid green expanded outward from her body in all directions.
It was a wide-area move. Jirachi had nowhere to dodge.
Jirachi, who had just Teleported right up to Huhu's face and was in the middle of gathering Psycho Cut, took Bug Buzz at point-blank range.
"Jirachi…"
Wang Quan watched Jirachi gasping for breath, and his heart softened. The gap was clearly too wide.
His attacks were tickling her. Hers were flooring his Pokémon. How was that a fair fight?
And that wasn't even the worst of it — Master had just casually read his entire plan and countered it before he could execute. You can't go up against your master like that.
In his mind, Wang Quan had hatched what he thought was a clever play: bait Lu Ze into distraction while setting up Psychic Terrain on the sly, then Teleport right into Huhu's face for a Psycho Cut combo, followed up with Phantom Ray. He'd figured a quick, decisive engagement might actually work.
He hadn't expected Master to see through it instantly. Losing like this felt fair, honestly.
Wang Quan shook his head with a rueful smile. But the truth was plain — Jirachi just had no tools against Huhu. No super-effective moves, and after Power Split, not enough firepower to make a dent.
Huhu's defensive stats were sky-high to begin with. After Power Split, Jirachi's attacks landed like a massage.
Inversely, once Huhu had borrowed some of Jirachi's offensive power through Power Split, her hits had become genuinely punishing.
On top of that, Huhu was Bug-type — while Bug didn't resist Psychic, Bug-type moves dealt double damage to Psychic-type Pokémon.
The saving grace was that Huhu didn't have a heavy-hitting Bug-type move to throw, something like Bug Buzz —
*[The author would like to clarify that Huhu does, in fact, have Bug Buzz. Huhu just used it. The point is, without Jirachi's elevated Special Attack to borrow via Power Split, even Bug Buzz wouldn't have been quite so decisive at that moment. Probably.]*
Either way: between Jirachi's Special Attack baseline and Huhu's Special Attack baseline after Power Split equalized them — that much Special Attack was already enough for one Bug Buzz to finish the job.
"Forget it — I concede."
Wang Quan watched Jirachi still burning under Toxic's damage, shook his head helplessly, and raised his right hand in surrender.
"Wang Quan concedes — Huhu wins!"
Su Tingxi, acting referee, made the call. Wang Quan shot him a dark look.
This referee had absolutely no professionalism. A proper referee announced by full name.
But Wang Quan's concern was Jirachi more than Su Tingxi's officiating.
"Here — catch."
Lu Ze's voice came a half-second before a bottle spun through the air toward him.
Wang Quan caught it on reflex. He looked down. Antidote spray.
"Thanks, Master!"
"Don't mention it — use it now and get Jirachi to the treatment room after."
"On it."
Wang Quan popped the cap, gave Jirachi two quick sprays, then scooped Jirachi up and jogged toward the treatment room.
As a side note: antidote spray was a curious thing. Just two quick sprays aimed at a poisoned or badly poisoned Pokémon and the status cleared entirely. Cleared didn't mean healed — a follow-up check at the treatment room was still standard, to rule out any residual toxin — but in practice, the spray neutralized everything in the Pokémon's system with near-complete reliability.
"Oh — heading to the treatment room too, are we?"
"Yep. You're just coming back from there, aren't you."
Sui Yan's attempt at teasing Wang Quan was turned right back around on him. Sui Yan's expression went flat.
"Go, will you? You talk too much."
He tossed the words back and pushed through the door into the training room, done engaging.
"Heh."
Wang Quan let out a quiet laugh. The sting of losing had faded considerably.
"What just happened?"
Inside the training room now, Sui Yan received Yuyou's recap.
"Wang Quan just went up against Lu Ze's Huhu and lost."
"No way." Sui Yan turned to Yuyou in disbelief. "Wang Quan's Jirachi couldn't beat Lu Ze's *team mascot*?"
Yuyou paused. "Wait — isn't Mini Dragon the team mascot?"
"Who says you can only have one?"
"...Fair. But yeah — you didn't see it. Lu Ze's Huhu is genuinely something else."
"Something else? She's a Huhu. How impressive can a Huhu really be?"
Yuyou gave Sui Yan a sideways look and said nothing. He'd figure it out when it was his turn to find out the hard way.
"Speaking of which," Sui Yan said, glancing at the court where Farfetch'd was now cheerfully chasing Mareep around, "Lu Ze's Farfetch'd really is something, isn't it? You actually believe it hatched today?"
"I know it sounds impossible, but yes — it really did hatch today."
Sui Yan made a skeptical sound. Then, abruptly, he squinted at Yuyou. "Actually — why do you sound so... normal today? You're way more articulate than usual."
Yuyou turned to look at him. And then something seemed to click — his shoulders sagged, the light went out of him, and the air of coherent energy that had been there a moment ago just... deflated.
"Haah…"
Sui Yan's interest sharpened immediately. He threw an arm around Yuyou's shoulder.
"Okay, what happened — talk to me. Let me enjoy it a little."
*(End of chapter)*