Taken a Liking to Haunter?

"Bellossom, Leaf Blade!"

"Haunter, detonate it!"

Bellossom spread its hands, holding a gleaming green blade in each. The blades crossed before it slashed fiercely at Haunter! The Shadow Ball Shield had three layers. The first showed no resistance at all before being cut apart by Leaf Blade. The second layer immediately followed. Leaf Blade slowed ever so slightly, but it was still quickly sliced through.

When Leaf Blade struck the third layer of the Shadow Ball Shield, the entire purple barrier exploded instantly, blasting Bellossom away! "Bellossom, use Quiver Dance to steady yourself!"

"Haunter, Lick! Interrupt it!"

Quiver Dance was a mysterious, beautiful dance that raised Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. It was an extremely terrifying boosting move. If Bellossom truly managed to use it, Haunter would no longer have any means of fighting back! Smack!

Its scarlet tongue lashed out recklessly, striking Bellossom hard in the back. Unable to find any support in midair, Bellossom rapidly fell to the ground. More importantly, its Quiver Dance was interrupted!

"Bellossom, don't be afraid. Counterattack with Magical Leaf!"

"Bana!"

The repeated injuries did not make Bellossom timid. Instead, they seemed to awaken its ferocity, making it even more violent."

Purple and green leaves surged forth in rapid succession, desperately trying to wrap around Haunter. More importantly, Magical Leaf was a tracking move that never missed; even invisibility was useless against it.

"Haunter, Sludge Bomb!"

"Jiejiejie!"

Haunter grinned broadly. Sato's surprise training last night had taught it several moves, one of which was the powerful Poison-type move, Sludge Bomb!

Haunter had never used this move in its previous matches. Since it had always relied on Toxic, everyone believed Haunter only knew one Poison-type move! The dark-purple Sludge Bomb smashed through Magical Leaf with irresistible force and struck Bellossom without losing any momentum.

"Bana!"

Bellossom was struck hard by the super-effective Poison-type move. This blow nearly emptied all of its stamina.

"Bellossom, Mega Drain!"

Hetian might have seemed soft and delicate, but her command ability was not weak at all. Seeing that Haunter was not far away, she immediately chose the most suitable counterattack move.

"Dodge, then Shadow Punch!"

Sato gave his final command. Yet the outcome had already become clear the instant Sludge Bomb hit. Accompanied by the hit from Shadow Punch, Bellossom's last sliver of stamina was completely drained away.

Looking at the blazing sun in the sky, Sato felt that the lingering summer heat of the past two days had truly been fierce. If Bellossom had focused solely on using Synthesis, Haunter might have needed quite some effort to win.

Unfortunately, there were no ifs.

After Nurse Joy, Sato had once again defeated a Female Trainer—and the only one remaining at that—so the applause was not as enthusiastic as he had imagined.

In the next match, the wealthy young master sent out a massive Skarmory, while his opponent was the Rhyhorn that had previously started the "large body size" trend!

Under the circumstances where Skarmory alternated between Flash Cannon, Dark Pulse, and Air Slash for Ranged Attacks while absolutely refusing to engage at close range, Rhyhorn Frustratedly failed to touch its opponent even once and lost its Combat Capability.

After watching the match, Sato could only think that having money was great! The TMs for Dark Pulse and Flash Cannon were among the best-selling moves of their respective types. Teaching them to a Skarmory mainly suited for close combat was not exactly wasteful, but it truly showed how rich someone was.

Perhaps the organizers felt that Two Matches A Day were too few, so they scheduled the finals directly for that afternoon. This Period of Time was also enough for both sides' Pokémon to recover.

Of course, Only Such time was needed by Sato.

To treat Haunter, Sato chose to grab a quick bite at the Pokemon Center. Halfway through his meal, he noticed someone taking the seat on the Opposite Side.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm West!"

Sato looked up and gave the newcomer a slight nod before continuing to eat. By the Way, he replaced the four words "wealthy young master" in his mind with "wealthy West."

Only after finishing the last bite of the meal—which was not particularly tasty but sufficiently nutritious—did Sato properly look at him.

"Sato."

"You're strong, and your Haunter is quite good too!" West did not get angry at Sato's cold treatment. Though he exuded wealth from head to toe, he was surprisingly amiable.

Thinking Of This, Sato's expression softened. He quietly said Thank You, but inwardly, he did not relax in the slightest.

"Though this may be presumptuous, have you considered exchanging Pokémon for training?" As soon as West finished speaking, he saw Sato frown and immediately added, "I'm not trying to use improper means to sabotage this afternoon's match. I just think your Haunter is very good."

That explanation was not much better. Seeing Sato's brows still tightly furrowed, West Sighed slightly and directly took out four Poké Balls, placing them on the table.

"They contain Houndoom, Xatu, Skarmory, and Breloom. You can pick any one of them to exchange for Haunter, and I'll add another five million League Coins!"

West's nouveau riche aura was on full display, and the Pokémon team he revealed also shocked Sato.

Just like Houndoom's Dark Type and Xatu's Psychic-type, Breloom's Fighting-type talent was also at the Pseudo-Elite Four Level! Given this, Skarmory surely had at least one talent at the Pseudo-Elite Four Level as well! Countless thoughts raced through Sato's mind. Haunter's Ghost-type talent was also at the Pseudo-Elite Four Level, so it did not seem to differ much from West's Pokémon.

Then why was West so desperate to obtain Haunter? Sato did not believe for a second that there was no other reason.

"Why?"

"Because I like Gastly..." Seeing the disdain in Sato's eyes, West awkwardly stopped repeating that clumsy excuse.

"Ahem, to tell you the truth, your Haunter..."

"The match is about to begin. If there's anything, let's talk about it After It Ended." Sato suddenly stood up, Pointed At the clock in the lobby with his Right Hand, then quickly left.

West stood frozen in place. His gaze followed Sato as he departed, his expression complicated.

Because he possessed Dark Power, Sato was extremely sensitive to the overt and hidden hostility released by others.

On the surface, West had not shown even a trace of hostility toward Sato. Unable to determine the exact reason, Sato chose to abruptly leave and investigate.

However, until the gaze behind him was blocked by the surrounding walls, Sato did not sense any hostility from the other party. That meant West most likely would not resort to dirty tricks.

It was not that Sato deliberately viewed others with malice. He had no one to rely on, and before he possessed sufficient strength, he needed to Be Careful when dealing with medium- and large-sized organizations.

There was still Half an Hour before the match. It would only take five minutes to walk there from the Pokemon Center, so Sato found an empty corner nearby and quickly searched for West's personal information and background on his computer.

Only when five minutes remained before the match did Sato close his computer, retrieve Haunter's Poké Ball, and arrive at the arena expressionlessly.

There was a question that could only be answered through the match!

Thank You to reader Shenqi Mengmengda for the 100 Book Coin reward, and thank you all for your Recommendation Tickets!

Also, an explanation: Spinarak was part of the original plan to catch. The twists and turns in between were all for a better future. This Pokémon is ugly-cool in its own way, and I Think it is worth writing about.

It was also mentioned earlier that two of Sato's companions from his previous life had yet to rejoin him. There is no rush for that, so please look forward to it. I'm just letting everyone know—I haven't forgotten!