"What a load of nonsense."
Shen Qi wanted to laugh as soon as he saw the headline.
The media had all kinds of theories about Little Sheep withdrawing from the race. Some claimed he had been paid off, which was already absurd enough, but this one claimed Shen Qi had been fooling around before the race, affecting his competitive form.
That was even more ridiculous.
Poor competitive form would, at most, mean a poor performance. It would hardly make him drive steadily off the track for a leisurely spin.
Lilligant visibly twitched when she saw the headline, but soon calmed down, knowing it was nothing but a pointless rumor.
Lopunny's ears had initially risen slightly with concern, but she soon figured it out too.
"Heh, let's see just how flimsy this supposed photographic evidence is."
Besides the manuscript, there was a photo printed from a digital camera.
On a late-night street, Shen Qi was waving goodbye to someone ahead of him. Across from him were... the Lurantis Sisters!
The Lurantis Sisters were blowing kisses back!
"Gasp!"
He had never expected anyone to photograph the Lurantis Sisters delivering Sayaka's Testing Crystal to him.
If they had been the Feraligatr brothers rather than the Lurantis Sisters, there would have been no issue at all.
If the Lurantis Sisters hadn't been so flamboyantly dressed and hadn't blown him kisses, it wouldn't have been much of an issue either...
But there were no ifs about it!
It was indeed the kiss the Lurantis Sisters had blown him as they parted after meeting him in a private room at the bar.
"No! Lilligant, let me explain!!"
"Ah-"
"Nah-"
Lilligant and Lopunny shrieked repeatedly.
Florges enjoyed their expressions, then quickly realized something was wrong.
Shen Qi was Florges's Pokémon Trainer now. Instead of spending the evening