Something Was Seriously Wrong with Pokémon High School

Pokémon Strategy and Raising, by Aquatic Fresh Bird

Synopsis:

[Go woo Pokémon!]

[Go change tragic stories]

[Go fulfill visions beyond reach]

Looking at the game interface, Shen Qi did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"Did a dating game really need to launch its player straight into the Pokémon world?"

Chapter 1: Something Was Seriously Wrong with Pokémon High School

A gentle, warm breeze stirred cherry blossoms down from branches laden with flowers. Another school year had begun.

Beside the Sports Field, a girl spread out a handkerchief, revealing homemade fruit-flavored cookies.

A bold Bellsprout ran out of the grass and gobbled them down with its sausage lips puckered.

An Oddish was rather shy. Its expression betrayed a desperate craving, but it simply did not dare leave cover.

This was... a real Pokémon world.

By the classroom window, Shen Qi stared blankly at everything on campus. Only after a long while did he withdraw his gaze and look at the text prompts floating before him.

[Go woo Pokémon!]

The animated pink lettering bounced, brimming with dating-game flair.

[Go change tragic stories]

[Go fulfill visions beyond reach]

This was a Pokémon game cartridge Shen Qi had dug out of a storage room, a heavily modified version he had never seen before that looked like a game about wooing pretty girls.

"Did a dating game really need to launch its player straight into the Pokémon world?"

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Shen Qi searched through the game interface for instructions.

Use the [Script Detector] to scan Pokémon and initiate an Emotional Script.

As the detector was consumed, the game would create an opportunity for the player to encounter the Pokémon and provide three keyword hints, which would serve as the basis for wooing that Pokémon.

[Go reap sweet bonds!]

"Doing this really won't get me hauled off to the police station?"

After that offhand quip, Shen Qi activated the only Script Detector in his inventory.

As long as he did not confirm that he wanted to begin wooing a Pokémon, the detector would not be consumed. It was rather like a treasure detector.

The Script Detector resembled a headband with insect antennae. Once he confirmed its activation, the detector icon lit up, its antennae swiveling back and forth.

"Shen Qi." A call came from outside the door.

It was a boy in shorts: Xiao Chun, the classmate who sat beside Shen Qi.

"School's been out for ages. Why are you still spacing out in the classroom? I've even finished my cleaning duty."

"Oh... oh!"

Only then did Shen Qi realize that, between accepting his new memories after crossing over and studying the text game, the setting sun outside had dwindled to a sliver beside the mountains. Even the students attending club activities had dispersed.

Xiao Chun had to return the classroom-duty keys to the gatehouse, so he shouldered his schoolbag and left first.

Shen Qi also picked up his schoolbag from the drawer, taking a look at the Script Detector while he was at it.

The activated detector was still working, but it had yet to find an Emotional Script.

On the windowsill outside the classroom, several Pidgey leisurely pecked at little bugs in the untended ground. The Script Detector showed no reaction to them.

"Does this thing even work?"

He had barely voiced his complaint when the Script Detector on the game interface suddenly flashed with brilliant light.

[Pokémon Emotional Script detected]

[Confirm wooing?]

The sudden prompt left Shen Qi a little flustered. The Pokémon closest to him were the Pidgey on the windowsill.

It did not really seem as though he was supposed to date a Pidgey.

After several seconds without confirmation, the prompt faded. If he hesitated any longer, the Emotional Script it had detected would disappear.

"Whatever. Having a Starter Pokémon is better than having none!"

He clicked to confirm, and the [Script Detector] disappeared.

Further prompts appeared in its place.

[Emotional Script: "Speedy Hot Girl"]

[Wooing difficulty: medium]

[Keywords: machinery, short skirt, competition]

"What... what kind of keywords are these?"

It said it would give him three keywords, but the Emotional Script's title also counted as information.

"Speedy Hot Girl" matched the short skirt among the keywords.

But... what was going on with machinery and competition?

What kind of heroine was this?

[Triggering an encounter opportunity...]

Shen Qi recalled the game instructions he had just read. Besides providing keywords, the consumed Script Detector would also give the player an initial opportunity.

It all depended on what that opportunity was like.

Gulp.

In the quiet hallway, the sound of Shen Qi swallowing sounded especially loud to his own ears.

The word "opportunity" meant something fleeting.

If he failed to seize it, his only Script Detector would be gone, and everything would be over.

One second, two seconds...

The ellipsis in the text box was still scrolling. Shen Qi vaguely felt his leg getting hot.

It was not his imagination. Something in his pocket was scorching hot.

He reached in, and the burning-hot phone nearly slipped from his grasp.

"What's wrong with my phone?"

The phone's temperature was rising sharply. At this rate, its battery was definitely going to explode.

Driven by his survival instinct, Shen Qi hurriedly flung the phone out the window, followed by an explosive bang-.

Along with it came a shrill whistle, like a gale sweeping through gaps between trees.

"Oh, crap!"

Realizing he might have caught some Pokémon in the explosion, Shen Qi hurriedly grabbed the windowsill and leaned out.

Outside the first-floor window of the Teaching Building lay a small patch of untended vegetation. A panicked figure ran out from behind the bushes.

It was a humanoid Pokémon a little over a meter tall, wearing a bright red flower ornament on her head. The flower's center consisted of golden filaments and red anthers, shaped like a crown.

Leaves hung down beside her cheeks like long hair, while the swelling leaf bud around her lower body formed the shape of a slightly flared princess dress.

"Lilligant?!"

A particularly beautiful, gentle Pokémon among Grass-types.

He had not expected the impoverished Pokémon High School to have a Pokémon that evolved under special conditions...

To Shen Qi's slight relief, Lilligant was unhurt. The exploding phone had not injured her; she had merely been startled and was running rather frantically.

Set against the pure moonlight, Lilligant resembled a princess fleeing her royal destiny, blending elegance with the poignant beauty of a displaced wanderer.

Clang-

An ill-timed metallic clatter broke the atmosphere, and Shen Qi slowly became dumbstruck.

Under the moonlight and the Teaching Building's lights, Shen Qi distinctly saw a pair of Pliers fall... out from beneath the running Lilligant's skirt.

"Uh... wha..."

[Ah-]

Lilligant's panic scrolled through the text prompt box. She had spotted Shen Qi peeking from the windowsill. Without time to retrieve the Pliers, she turned and continued fleeing toward Behind Pokémon High School.

The text game switched to a narrator-like account.

[A beautiful encounter beneath the moon had become awkward and chaotic because of the boy's clumsiness]

"How is that my fault?!"

Shen Qi climbed out the window. The encounter opportunity this dating game had created was utterly absurd.

And besides, Lilligant... Pliers.

What connection could there possibly be between the two...?

It did match "machinery" among the keywords, though.

[The boy stood rooted to the spot, too foolish to realize he should chase after her]

Prompted by the text, Shen Qi quickly realized that he really should give chase.

Unless he cleared things up with her privately, Lilligant would absolutely refuse to have anything to do with Shen Qi tomorrow. She might even keep far away from him.

He hefted the Pliers in his hand, and his eyelid twitched twice.

Hot girl, Pliers... this Lilligant didn't secretly have a penchant for street violence, did she?