"Then I'll serve as the temporary referee for this battle."
After Qingyu accepted Nemona's challenge, the students around them quickly stepped back of their own accord, returning to a safe distance to watch politely.
Even Mewtwo's side was affected. The challengers had lost all interest in fighting and wanted only to watch the upcoming showdown between Qingyu and his student up close.
Of course, it definitely wasn't because they couldn't beat Mewtwo!
So Mewtwo simply let the students off for the time being and came over to fill in as referee.
"The challenge rules follow Victory Road. The Gym Leader will field five Pokémon, while the challenger may use six. There are also no restrictions on using items during battle."
"Yep, yep!"
Once Qingyu added that clarification, Nemona immediately nodded along in excitement.
"Teacher Qingyu, I understand everything, so let's hurry up and start battling!"
Ever since her first encounter with Pokémon battles as a child, Nemona had realized she was particularly obsessed with this sport that didn't require her to fight personally.
Of course, although she had always loved challenging strong Trainers, she had lost more often than she won, coming back for more after every defeat.
But after a month of Sunshine Gym Sneak Training, something seemed to click. In just six months, she rapidly transformed from a rookie into a fairly capable Trainer.
She seemed to win easily against every other Gym Leader, so she had collected badges at a decent pace.
However, those battles with the Gym Leaders hadn't brought her any joy.
To Nemona, Pokémon battles should involve Trainers and their partners working together, using all sorts of tactics to overcome the odds and scrape out victories against stronger opponents.
But in actual battles, she discovered that her growth along the way seemed to have