The Coach Took the Entire Show of Force

"Meow~ Meow~ Meow~"

Meownei seemed to be in a good mood, humming a tune the whole way whose lyrics Xin Mu couldn't make out.

Essentially, it was probably a Meowscarada song.

She was also carrying a trophy and a photo of the winning duo. Compared with the Luxury Ball they had won, these things weren't worth much in practical terms, but they represented a memory.

Meownei quite liked the photo, though Xin Mu felt it had one little flaw.

Because for that group photo... they had to include the equipment they had used in the first stage.

So a wheelchair that had nearly fallen apart was also in the picture, appearing as a fellow champion.

According to the staff, the competition had another tradition: the vehicles used by the top three finishers would all be collected and combined into various bizarre works of art for display.

As for who would be interested in that, Xin Mu had no idea.

When they returned to the school gate, Old Liu was standing beside a black sedan, waiting for Xin Mu.

"Teacher Liu, I'm back."

"I saw your rally race. You did pretty well. Have you eaten? Want to rest a bit first?"

"No need. We ate on the way back. We can go for the tryout now."

"All right. Get in first. Once I finish this cigarette, I'll drive you over. The school team's training grounds are pretty far from here."

Looking at the cigarette in his hand, which still had more than half left, Old Liu pointed at the sedan beside him, motioning for Xin Mu to get in first.

"Teacher Liu, you don't mind Pokémon riding in your car, do you?"

"Not at all. Go ahead. Speaking of which, does your Pokémon dislike Poké Balls?"

"Yeah. She never goes inside a Poké Ball."

"I see. You might have something in common with my daughter. She's a member of the 'Poké Ball Opposition Association.'"

This was a group that had emerged in society. They believed Pokémon shouldn't be confined inside balls, and that captured Pokémon deserved more room.

However, using Poké Balls had long since become an accepted custom, and the vast majority of people saw nothing wrong with them.

After all, ordinary Poké Balls weren't particularly restrictive. Pokémon could open them from the inside, too.

And with Poké Balls themselves supporting an enormous industry, the association remained an extremely niche organization.

Xin Mu opened the door and got into the back seat with Meownei. Some orange peels lay beneath the rear window, apparently there to remove odors.

Old Liu finished his cigarette in a few drags, then stood outside in the breeze for a while before taking the driver's seat.

"My wife doesn't like the smell of smoke."

"Understandable. By the way, Teacher Liu, where are the school team's training grounds?"

Xin Mu had wandered around campus quite a bit over the past several days, but he had never once seen the school team training together.

"It's normal that you haven't been there. Students in our department don't usually go that way. It's over by the north gate."

The university grounds were quite extensive. The commonly used classroom buildings and residential areas were all in the south, leaving the north gate practically "abandoned" most of the time.

With the campus speed limit, Old Liu drove along at a leisurely pace for over twenty minutes before reaching the school team's grounds. In Xin Mu's memory, this place should have been a stretch of hills. According to old campus legends, you could even catch illicit couples here.

But in this world with Pokémon, it had become the school team's exclusive grounds. There were even Pokémon battling in the woods nearby, apparently belonging to the team.

"Here we are. Our funding's limited, so this is what we've got. They really spend big in the capital. Even with land worth its weight in gold, their school team's grounds are bigger than several golf courses."

As he spoke, Old Liu lightly honked twice. The elderly gatekeeper seemed not to hear at all and remained sound asleep. Instead, an Eevee resting on him ran over to the control panel and pressed the button to open the gate.

"This is the school team's coach, Jia Qiong. And this is Xin Mu, the student I mentioned at the meeting."

In the school team's meeting room, Old Liu introduced them to each other. Everyone else was still training and hadn't come over.

"Is this your Pokémon? She looks pretty good, though I don't know much about Pokémon from Paldea."

Jia Qiong wore a tracksuit with "Donghuang" written on it. There was plenty of muscle beneath his clothes, making him look like a sports coach.

There were so many species of Pokémon that not even a dedicated Pokémon Professor, let alone a coach, could claim to know them all.

Professor Oak, for instance, was an authority among Pokémon Professors, but since he lived in the Kanto Region, he was still most familiar with Kanto Pokémon.

He knew Pokémon from other regions as well, but in terms of specialized expertise, he still fell short of local professors in many areas.

Battling was the most direct way to test a Pokémon's strength. Aside from that, they could also be assessed using equipment or other methods.

For example, by observing their coat color or checking how well their muscles had developed.

Besides serving as the school team's head coach, he was also its Pokémon breeder. In addition to devising tactics, he monitored how the team members' Pokémon were being raised.

All in all, his responsibilities were fairly extensive, and they had instilled certain reflexive habits in him.

"Coach Jia, wait! Don't touch her!"

Seeing Jia Qiong about to reach out, Xin Mu hurriedly called for him to stop, but it seemed he was a little too late.

Years of coaching had given him certain habits, and he saw nothing wrong with examining a team member's Pokémon.

And then...

Our dear coach found himself staring at the familiar ceiling.

"What a polished shoulder throw... You've raised your Pokémon well."

Xin Mu could have tried telling Meownei to stop. Given her personality, she wouldn't disobey his instructions.

But she already disliked other people touching her. In a game, an order like that would cost friendship points, never mind in real life.

Since the coach wouldn't heed the warning, there was nothing to be done.

As for why Meownei had thrown him rather than dodged, that was more like an animal instinct. A tiger wouldn't dodge when a rabbit kicked it. It would simply swat back.

Fortunately, this coach's way of thinking was rather unusual, and he actually started evaluating Meownei's shoulder throw instead.

"Coach Jia... are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Other students' Pokémon have thrown me before, too."

Right. A repeat offender who never learned his lesson.

"It wasn't a throw. Last time, he got handsy with someone's Machamp and ended up in an armbar. He nearly became the first coach in our school's history to die from a workplace injury."

Nurse Joy walked in wearing the same uniform as Jia Qiong and a pair of glasses. She was the Nurse Joy from the school infirmary, as well as the school team's doctor. Seeing Jia Qiong lying on the floor, she understood what had happened at a glance.

"We already understand the specifics, but the rest of the school team doesn't yet.

"To help them get to know you, we need to hold a Pokémon battle. That will also let us learn more about your Pokémon and then work out tactics for the competition. Do you have any other questions?"