Academy Battle Tournament

The first day back from break, after the homeroom teacher said a few familiar words from the podium, he handed the class over to the subject teachers. After two periods, it was time for the long break.

"Bro, my dear bro, tell me already! What was the reason? You two know something I don't!"

As they headed downstairs, Sui Yan pestered Lu Ze with questions while Tang Yunqin laughed beside them like a fool.

"Her dream. An Ice-type Champion. Ice and water have always gone hand in hand, so since there wasn't an Ice type, she picked a Water type."

Tang Yunqin patted Sui Yan on the back and added with a solemn expression,

"Wrong. More accurately, I want to become the world's only female Ice-type Champion. I want to surpass my idol, Shen Anduo, and earn the title of Ice Queen."

"You? An Ice Queen? Being nice, people would call you an idiot. Being mean... figure it out yourself."

Sui Yan looked at Tang Yunqin with disdain.

"Damn it, don't run!"

Tang Yunqin landed two bang, bang punches on Sui Yan's back. Before she could throw a third, Sui Yan had already run off.

"Hey, wait for me, you two!"

Lu Ze laughed and hurried after them.

Tang Yunqin had three older brothers. She was also the only girl, and the youngest, in both her grandfather's and maternal grandfather's families. She had been spoiled rotten since childhood.

But one day, she saw Shen Anduo's dashing battle on television, and then her third brother said, "Your voice sounds a lot like Shen Anduo's. Cool and clear."

Tang Yunqin, whose eyes had already been sparkling, became completely unstoppable. She was determined to develop herself like Shen Anduo and become an aloof goddess who would captivate countless young men and women.

The result was that a sweet, silly girl who had been endlessly spoiled by her family and fiercely protected by her brothers had set herself up as an aloof goddess. She could still keep up the act in front of strangers, but in front of Lu Ze and Sui Yan, there was not the slightest trace of that persona.

"Get in line, quickly. The principal's coming."

After the three of them ran to the field while fooling around, their homeroom teacher came over and spoke to them in a low voice.

"Um, break just ended today, so I'll say a few words."

The principal stepped onto the stage and spoke into the microphone.

"Want to bet he won't say just a few words before getting off?"

"No bet. Get lost."

Sui Yan tilted his head slightly and invited Lu Ze into a wager. But Lu Ze obviously would not agree to a bet he was guaranteed to lose.

Sure enough, the principal onstage droned on for more than twenty minutes. Only when class was about to begin did he finally get to the point.

"Students, after discussion, we have decided that this year's Academy Battle Tournament will be held next Friday. All third-year students should prepare yourselves, because the first- and second-year students will be watching your matches. That's all. Dismissed."

After the principal finished, he waved his hand grandly. The students below scattered in relief.

"Lu Ze, what do I do? I completely forgot about the Academy Battle Tournament! My starter Pokémon is a Feebas. How am I supposed to battle with it?"

As soon as the assembly ended, Tang Yunqin hurried over to ask Lu Ze anxiously.

"It's fine. After school this afternoon, come with Sui Yan and me to a training room at the Pokémon Battle Center. I'll teach you how to battle. By the way, do you know what moves your Pokémon knows?"

After comforting Tang Yunqin, Lu Ze asked. Although he already knew Feebas's moves through the abilities granted by the system, he asked anyway for appearances' sake.

"I don't know. Beauty was only born the day before yesterday. After I registered her, I just spent all my time playing with her. My third brother said newborn Pokémon weren't suitable for training, so I never looked into it."

"All right, your brother wasn't wrong. But it should still get some proper training. We'll take a look when we get to the training room after school."

"Mm, okay."

Tang Yunqin agreed happily. For the past two days, she had been immersed in the joy of getting a Pokémon of her own. Every day, she hugged Feebas as they watched TV, ate, and went shopping together. She had had no time to think about anything else.

Back in the classroom, before class began, the homeroom teacher stood at the podium and said,

"I won't say much more about the Academy Battle Tournament. You were spectators for the past two years, but this year, you're the contestants. One-on-one battles, all rookie Pokémon. The school is simply using this battle as preparation for the National College Entrance Examination, so you won't be left helpless when you enter the exam room."

"The difference is that the National College Entrance Examination has you battle examiners, while this has you battle your classmates. Finally, I'll say one thing: show them the spirit of Class One. Understood?"

"Understood!"

The students below answered smoothly.

"Good. Get ready for class."

After saying that, the homeroom teacher left.

Time crawled slowly through the lessons, until school was finally over.

"Come on, I can't wait to see what moves my Beauty knows!"

Tang Yunqin ran excitedly over to Lu Ze and Sui Yan.

"Right away, right away."

On the way there, Lu Ze asked Tang Yunqin,

"What kind of Energy Cubes does Feebas eat?"

"Mostly nutritional ones, mixed with some that strengthen the body and purify energy. Beauty has quite an appetite."

"It's good that she can eat. I'll give you a recipe later for Energy Cubes that are very beneficial to Feebas. By the way, can you make Energy Cubes?"

Lu Ze intended to give Tang Yunqin the recipe for Energy Cubes that increased Beauty, doing his best to help her Feebas evolve into a Milotic. That way, Lu Ba would have a new research topic—though with Lu Ze around, there was no need to research it at all.

Other than a Prism Scale, evolving Feebas into Milotic in the games required a Beauty stat of 170. In reality, however, besides reaching 170 Beauty, Feebas also needed confidence in itself before it could evolve into a Milotic.

With Tang Yunqin's encouragement and praise, Feebas had a very good chance of evolving into a Milotic. As for Lu Ma and Lu Ba's Feebas, confidence was not the problem. It was Swagger...

"Of course I can! Did you forget? I got first place in Energy Cube production class."

"All right, all right, lower that nose of yours. It's pointing at the sky already."

"Hehe."

Tang Yunqin touched her delicate little nose and smiled.

Sui Yan: I feel a little unnecessary here.

The three of them bickered all the way to the front desk of the Pokémon Battle Center. As usual, they booked a private training room, though this time it had a pool.

Although Water-type Pokémon could move around on land for short periods, they were still more at ease in the water.

"Let Feebas out and have her show us her moves."

"Okay, come out, Beauty."

Tang Yunqin released Feebas into the pool and commanded,

"Beauty, use the moves you know. Let me see them."

Feebas leaped from the water and spat out an arm-thick stream of water that struck the target on the shore.

"Water Gun! Beauty, you're amazing!"

Tang Yunqin was so happy at the water stream Feebas had spat out that she nearly started jumping.

"Water Gun... Is that really worth getting so excited about?"

Lu Ze and Sui Yan looked at each other, then both spread their hands in confusion.

"Keep going, Beauty. Show them what else you can do."

Tang Yunqin wrinkled her nose in defiance and had Feebas demonstrate more.

Upon hearing that, Feebas proudly straightened her fins. She Stockpiled energy in the water for a while, then surfaced and spat out a green beam that struck the center of the target.

"Holy shit, Lu Ze, Dragon Breath! Lu Ze, look! Is that Dragon Breath?"

Sui Yan shook Lu Ze in shock. Feebas knew Dragon Breath?

Lu Ze was uncomfortable from being shaken. He rolled his eyes and said weakly,

"Yeah, yeah. Stop shaking me. I can see it. It's Dragon Breath."

"That's amazing, Beauty! You actually know Dragon Breath! I love you so much!"

Tang Yunqin was not doing much better. If Feebas had not been in the water, she would definitely have grabbed her and shaken her for a while too.

"All right, you two, calm down. If Feebas's parents were Dragon types, it's easy for her to inherit Dragon Breath. Hurry up and see whether she knows any other moves."

"Mm! Feebas, use every move you know once."

Tang Yunqin suppressed her excitement and spoke to Feebas in the water.

Confidence shone in Feebas's eyes. She spat out rings of dark-purple energy from her mouth—Hypnosis. Before the two on shore could cry out in surprise, she fired another purplish-red energy ray: Confuse Ray!

Finally, after swimming around in the water for quite a while, she struggled to spit out an Ice Beam no thicker than a chopstick. Then, exhausted, she floated on the surface.

"Water Gun, Dragon Breath, Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, and Ice Beam. At this rate, Feebas alone can get you through the Academy Battle Tournament."

Tang Yunqin jumped and cheered excitedly on the shore.

"Just as expected from the Feebas I had my eye on. She's incredible!"

"But don't get happy too soon. Feebas's moves are good, but she still needs to Stockpile energy before attacking, and her stamina is poor too. She still needs a lot of training."

Lu Ze pointed out the issues with Tang Yunqin's Feebas. If they did not solve those problems, she would not get far in the Academy Battle Tournament.

"Then... can I follow you? Can you teach me how to train Pokémon?"

Tang Yunqin pressed her hands together before her chest and pleaded sweetly with Lu Ze.

"I can, but don't do that. It's weird. Your voice really doesn't match you at all."

Lu Ze leaned closer to Sui Yan with a disgusted expression.

"Tch."

"From now on, you can come here with Sui Yan and me after school every day. If I come over on weekends, I'll contact you too."

"Okay."

"Then let's start training. Have your Feebas practice using her moves. Then call your family and have them buy all the Berries in the recipe. Try to get her eating those Energy Cubes as soon as you get home today."

"Understood, my Brain Lord."

After hearing him out, Tang Yunqin gave him a playful salute.

Lu Ze rolled his eyes and continued speaking to Sui Yan.

"As for you, keep doing what you did the past two days. There's nothing much to change, but today's training volume will be higher. Got it?"

"Understood, my Brain Lord."

"乀(ˉεˉ乀) Get lost."

Sui Yan copied Tang Yunqin's act, only to receive Lu Ze's deep contempt.