"Damn it! I, I..."
I was waiting in the stadium's dim corridor when I heard his voice.
"Shinji."
"...Is that... Yuto...?"
Honestly, this probably wasn't the best time to say hello, but there was no helping it now.
"If you want to laugh, go ahead. Laugh at me. I'm a complete clown."
"No, I won't laugh."
"Go on, laugh! I made such a huge joke out of you, and then I lost in the third round to a trainer I didn't even know! Laugh at me! What a miserable, pathetic loser!!"
He must have really taken the loss hard. Well, he had already been knocked out.
"Honestly, Shinji, I don't dislike your approach."
"...Huh?"
Coming from someone who knew that saying, it must have been surprising. Very surprising, judging by how Shinji looked like he'd been hit out of nowhere.
"No, I actually used to think the same way you do."
"Huh? Oh, no, but..."
"Strong Pokémon win battles. That's true. It's hard to win without strong Pokémon. Shinji, could you come with me for a bit? Let's have a special lesson."
With that, I led Shinji out of the stadium without giving him a chance to object.
In a corner of the forest on Lily of the Valley Island, I set up an impromptu "Pokémon lecture."
"Base stats, individual values, nature values, effort values..."
"Yes, those determine a Pokémon's basic capabilities. You're looking for 'strong Pokémon,' right, Shinji? I think your Pokémon tend to have high individual values. You caught them because you personally thought, 'I want to catch that one,' didn't you?"
"Y-yes!"
"Right. In other words, you have a real talent as a trainer for spotting Pokémon with high individual values."
"Thank you!"
*...Um, this has been bothering me for a while now. Can I ask