"Sir, hello. Your total comes to 1,224 yuan."
David had just started down the stairs, ready to head out, when a waitress caught up to him with the question.
"Hm? You mean nobody paid yet?"
His face darkened the instant he heard it. Unbelievable — they con him right after he hands them something that valuable?
Then he thought back to the strange little smile Miles had worn on his way out the door, and it all clicked into place. So that's what that look meant. They'd been planning this the whole time, and he'd walked right into it, assuming Luke and the others had already settled up before they left. Little did he know, they'd set the whole thing up from the start, probably deciding the moment David pulled out those potions that he owed them something in return.
David let out a short laugh despite himself. In the end, a bill like this meant nothing to any of them — it was just a prank, and a fairly harmless one at that. He wasn't even annoyed. He pulled out his phone, paid the total, and walked out.
Just wait. Next time I catch you all trying that, you'll get exactly what's coming to you.
Once he got home, David set aside some time to give the Body Tempering Potion to his own Pokémon. Just as he'd expected, though, their current aptitude was already high enough that a single dose of even a high-grade potion wasn't going to move the needle much.
Aside from a slight boost to their physical condition, none of his four Pokémon showed any real increase in aptitude from the potion. If there was any change at all, it was far too small to measure with any confidence.
That didn't bother David in the least. He'd already worked out roughly how the potion would behave before he'd even finished brewing it. The aptitude-boosting effect was strongest on Pokémon sitting at blue-tier aptitude, where it was almost guaranteed to push them up by one small level. Purple-tier Pokémon had a decent chance too, though nothing close to guaranteed. But every one of David's own Pokémon already sat at red-tier or higher, well past the range where the potion could do much of anything. In a way, it was the natural trade-off of raising strong Pokémon from the very start — the further along they already were, the harder it became to find anything that could push them even higher.
Satisfied that his estimate had held up, David treated his Pokémon to a good meal and turned in early. It had been a tiring few days, and with a competition the next morning, an early night only made sense.
The next day, David was up well before seven, just as the sky was starting to lighten. He got ready quickly, ate a fast breakfast, and set off for school on the back of his Salamence.
Ever since he'd caught Salamence, David had rarely bothered with any other way of getting around, unless it was a genuinely long trip. He loved the feeling of cutting through open sky on Salamence's back, and Salamence — always restless for the air — was more than happy to carry him.
[Corviknight: So love just disappears like that, huh?]
Salamence didn't waste any time. In barely half an hour, they had already reached Imperial Capital First High School.
A double-decker charter bus sat waiting at the school gates, with members of the school team gathering around it one by one. Spotting the bus below, David had Salamence drop into a steep dive. When they were only a dozen or so meters above the ground, he leapt off cleanly, landing on his feet without so much as stumbling. In one smooth motion, he pulled Salamence's Poké Ball from his belt and recalled it mid-air.
He couldn't help but feel a flicker of pride watching the stunned faces around him. Not many people could pull off a landing like that — even for David, with all the conditioning he'd built up over the years, it pushed his physical limits close to their edge. Anyone without that kind of training would have ended up in a much worse state on the pavement, probably needing a trip straight to the Pokémon Center's medical wing rather than a bus ride to a match.
Once most of the team had gathered, Dominic waved everyone toward the bus.
That bus was their ride for the day. The points match called for two rounds — one played on each school's home ground — which meant today's round would be played away, on their opponent's turf.
David climbed aboard and took a seat with his friends, and one look at their faces told him everything he needed to know about yesterday's potion. He didn't even need to ask; their expressions said it all. Willow, in particular, looked especially pleased — her Sceptile had actually managed to climb a full small level in aptitude thanks to the potion.
"Oh, right — does anyone actually know who we're up against today?"
The question came to David suddenly, and he tossed it out to the group.
"Are you even the team captain? How do you not know that?"
The group fell silent for a second before Emma shot back the question herself, clearly exasperated.
"Hehe, what's there to worry about? Whoever it is, as long as we beat them, does it really matter who they are?"
"It's Heavenly Dragon Academy. They're our first match of the day."
Hearing the name, David finally placed it — that was the school he'd crushed soundly back during the midterm exam.
Not much of a threat, he decided after a moment's thought. There was still a fair distance left to cover, and it was early enough in the morning that there wasn't much else worth doing on the ride. Outside the window, the city slowly gave way to open road, and with nothing pressing to occupy him, David let his eyes close and drifted back off to sleep.