I'll support you

"Won't you stay a little longer? I was planning to take you out for some local Paldean food tonight."

After witnessing Qingyu catch Riolu, Cynthia seemed to have accomplished what she had come to Paldea to do.

So she soon took the initiative to say goodbye.

Originally, Qingyu had been incredibly nervous about seeing his childhood friend for the first time in five years.

But once they actually met, he realized he had somehow already grown comfortable with being around her. He even felt a little...

Reluctant to let her go?

Qingyu glanced at Nemona beside him.

She kept saying that her idol was Cynthia, the Sinnoh Champion, yet now that she actually had a chance to meet her in person, she was too bashful to say much to her...

Was this the legendary Ye Gong Hao Long-loving dragons until you met a real one?

At least go ask for an autograph! I handed you the opportunity, and you're wasting it!

"No, coming to Paldea was a spur-of-the-moment decision. If I stay too long and the Paldea League finds out, I'll end up causing them trouble."

Cynthia smiled faintly and continued.

After all, she was now the Sinnoh Champion. Even if her sudden appearance in another region did not cause unnecessary misunderstandings, it would easily draw the League's attention.

Her reason for coming this time was simple: she just wanted to see how Qingyu was doing.

Now that Qingyu had moved on and intended to carry on the Sunshine Gym, she felt much more reassured.

"If things aren't going well on your own in Paldea, come back to Celestic Town and rest for a while. Everyone in town is worried about you."

"Once I get through this busy stretch. The Gym still needs rebuilding from the ground up, so I have to keep at it."

Qingyu waved a hand helplessly.

"You can't even take a few days off?"

Cynthia frowned slightly and tilted her head.

"Then if the Gym fails its evaluation, will you support me?"

Qingyu gave a helpless smile. Only after the words left his mouth did he realize what he had said.

I think I've gotten a little too comfortable...

Was that really something I should say?!

Cynthia froze briefly at his words, then smiled warmly and met Qingyu's eyes with a serious gaze.

"I'll support you."

Thump-

Qingyu felt as though his heart had skipped several beats. The chain reaction from that insufficient blood flow soon left his face flushed, and he instinctively turned away.

Mom, she's too good at this!

"Don't joke about that!"

"But you were the one who asked first~"

Cynthia's lively gray eyes looked straight at Qingyu. Her lips curved slightly as she playfully stuck out her pink tongue.

"All right, I'll stop teasing you."

"But I wasn't lying."

"Or rather, everyone in Celestic Town will always welcome you home."

And...

Leaving the last half of her sentence unspoken, Cynthia swung gracefully onto Garchomp, who had been waiting for quite some time, and turned to wave goodbye to Qingyu.

"See you~"

"Graaah..."

Garchomp shot Qingyu a ferocious glare.

These two sure dragged things out.

Neither of them could just get on with it!

Still, he was someone familiar. They might see plenty of each other in the future, so a goodbye was in order.

Imitating the Trainer, Garchomp raised a right scythe and gave a couple of perfunctory waves before launching away, soon becoming a shooting star on the horizon.

Left behind were Qingyu, waving in bewilderment, and Nemona, who for some reason looked incredibly excited.

That evening.

When Qingyu started his stream, quite a few viewers were already waiting in the Livestream Room.

Of course, their reason for waiting this time was probably a little different from before.

[Teacher Qingyu finally went live!]

[Streamer, Streamer, what exactly is your relationship with that Sinnoh Champion?]

[Glad to see everyone else is curious too. The Streamer ended yesterday's broadcast so fast that I was dying to know...]

After skimming the flood of chat messages, Qingyu scratched his head helplessly.

Compared to Steven, who had only appeared in a video's comments section, Cynthia personally showing up to send him a tip generated several levels more buzz.

Given Cynthia's worldwide fame, that one Paid Message of hers might have done more than his previous three days of streaming combined...

Well, this is awkward.

As a gameplay-focused Streamer, Qingyu only wanted to get past the topic quickly so he could begin his "carefully prepared" guide to the next Pokémon.

So he cut straight to the chase:

"Actually, Cynthia and I are childhood friends. Would you believe me?"

[??? Is the Streamer still half asleep and dreaming?]

[Someone with dark yellow piss, wake him up! Don't let him taste anything sweet!]

[Is this a try-not-to-laugh challenge? I lost!]

Qingyu had always made sincerity his selling point, as anyone could tell from the moment he started streaming.

He answered every question. Whether the chat believed him was their business.

The truth was too much of a coincidence, so explaining it would be pointless.

"Let's set aside anything unrelated to the stream. Today, we're playing a seriously strong Pokémon. Learn this one, and you're guaranteed to climb~"

Smoothly steering the conversation back on track, Qingyu opened Pokémon Champions.

The team editor still contained the same six Pokémon from yesterday.

His cursor moved over a sharp-eyed falcon covered in red and white plumage.

"Didn't someone ask me before whether there were any easier strategies to use?"

"There are, guys. There are."

"Today's star is this one! A Route 1 Bird found all over both Paldea and the Kalos Region, the evolved form of Fletchling-Talonflame!"

Since he had covered a Route 1 Mouse, he might as well cover a Route 1 Bird too.

As it happened, this Route 1 Bird was particularly beginner-friendly, even considerably easier to use than Maushold.

Yet its strength in battle was absolutely real.

Talonflame, the Scorching Pokémon.

It first appeared in the XY generation and immediately became the undisputed king of Route 1 Birds, a terrifying presence that even shook up the competitive metagame for a time.

As everyone knew, Pokémon that were easy to encounter generally did not have very high base stat totals.

Talonflame's base stat total was below five hundred, too.

Even with the reasonably good Fire/Flying typing it shared with Charizard, its stats on paper would only make its combat strength seem fairly average.

What truly catapulted it to the top was its utterly ridiculous Hidden Ability.

Gale Wings.

The effect of this Ability was very simple:

Flying-type moves could be used first.

But in actual battles, move priority made an enormous difference.

In his previous two streams, Qingyu had shown viewers how well entry hazards performed in Single Battles, and how to use Maushold's signature move to counter them.

This time, he would use Talonflame to teach his viewers a fundamental truth-

Your Speed tier is your lifeline, so priority reigns supreme!

[Speaking of which, if the Streamer wins another match today, he'll get promoted to Great Ball tier!]

[Reaching Great Ball in four days? That's ridiculously fast...]

[Going by yesterday's script, if Teacher Qingyu has bad luck in his promotion match, he'll probably run into someone scary. It is "smart matchmaking," after all~]

After pressing the matchmaking button, Qingyu glanced at the chat and casually replied:

"I'm about to reach Great Ball, after all. It's perfectly normal to run into a Gym Leader or an even stronger Trainer in Great Ball tier."

"No matter who my opponent is, I'm still pretty confident, okay!"

Matches against skilled opponents were inevitable, especially once his ranked rating rose.

If anything, rather than steamrolling the bottom three tiers, Qingyu was more eager to test himself against this world's Ace Trainers.

Before long, the indicator on the matchmaking screen stopped spinning.

His promotion match opponent appeared on Qingyu's screen.

ID: The simple life is the true life.

Below the name was an official League verification: Larry, Paldea Elite Four member and Medali Gym Leader.

Diary of a Flop, May 1

Happy May Day, everyone~

I'm sure you can already tell, but let me add a little clarification anyway!

The Talonflame in this novel is the pre-nerf version. I probably don't need to explain just how ridiculous Gale Wings was. Back then, it warped the metagame so badly that you practically had to be able to survive a hit from Talonflame just to qualify for competitive battling -.-

Also, I quite like the characterization of the Elite Four and Gym Leaders in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Larry always gives me that contradictory office-worker feeling of someone who's still alive but has actually been dead for a while now ()