As for Diancie's and Absol's Mega Stones, they simply set them aside. They would not be able to use those anytime soon. Both Absol and Diancie had only recently been born; making them undergo Mega Evolution now would be sending them to their deaths.
Xiao Ran did not concern himself with what would happen to the other Mega Stones, either. That was for the higher-ups to figure out. He was just a student, and studying was his top priority.
And so he settled fully into a daily routine that revolved around three places: class, the training room, and the dorm...
On top of that, with so many Pokémon, they applied to move into a different dorm. They had previously lived in a dormitory building, and although their quarters were spacious, they were still inconvenient. Students generally moved into detached villas after their second year began to accommodate the needs of so many Pokémon, so they were simply doing it ahead of schedule.
School life was monotonous. Even practical combat classes were not just about battling; they involved repeatedly practicing specific patterns or fighting styles. It might have felt fresh at first, but after hundreds or thousands of repetitions, few people could keep at it.
After about a month of this routine, the Nancheng Pokémon Contest finally arrived. Perhaps the Mega Stones had drawn too much attention from the higher-ups, because this contest received little attention and barely any publicity.
As a result, there were not many entrants. After the auditions, they could not even muster 128 competitors for the preliminaries. Sylveon then powered straight into the final four using nothing but Misty Terrain, Baby-Doll Eyes, and singing with Disarming Voice.
Among those four finalists, aside from Xiao Ran, all the others were trainees from a film and television company, hoping