Chapter 519: Joey's Ecstasy

Swoooosh—

Clear droplets streamed across Bibarel's body; the faint flush on its forehead and nose tip quickly faded, and the white steam—as if it had just stepped out of a sauna—vanished along with them, leaving it looking utterly refreshed.

"Bido~"

It let out a contented low cry.

"No matter how many times I see it, getting overheated by your own move… it just doesn't feel very Pokémon or very anime."

All Baimu muttered, pulling out Mao Jin to dry the soaking-wet Bibarel.

The extreme heat of the Flame Storm had not only evaporated most of the pool water and finished off the Vibrava that was racing against time to recover, it had also affected the weakly Fire-type Bibarel itself, raising its body temperature in a short time to the point where it wobbled and swayed with every step.

So it couldn't be bothered with any ladylike manners.

It just had to be picked up through the lava suit, and cooled down quickly to avoid heatstroke…

A little funny.

But that was the situation—Pikachu has its days of running a fever from eating too much electricity, and Bibarel, special as it is, still can't isolate itself from the effects of a high-temperature environment.

Besides, that Flame Storm just now was no ordinary one—it was the result of a huge boost from Swords Dance plus a forced Ability mini-burst.

It could match the performance of a Mega-Evolved move.

And the reason for the burst…

"Refusing to lose to a junior so your move power goes up—what, are you the protagonist of a hot-blooded sports anime?"

One hundred and twenty percent of full power, right?

All Baimu scrubbed Bibarel's remarkably resilient hair vigorously with Mao Jin, then took out a small comb and tidied it up.

Steel-type Pokémon really are different from ordinary Pokémon in every way—take this hair, for instance: it looks soft and fine, but its toughness could be used to fish a Sharpedo.

"Bido~"

The refreshed Bibarel lazily yawned, seemingly worn out and starting to feel sleepy.

"Rest easy, I'll call you when it's time for dinner."

All Baimu took out its dedicated Luxury Ball, gently patted its head, and recalled it.

He turned and headed to the prep room.

Just in time—the battle between Kotone and her opponent on the TV screen was also reaching its end.

Piplup's Whirlpool was as formidable as ever—a power-fluctuating move cut from the same cloth as Pikachu's Thunderbolt, with a terrifyingly high ceiling when needed, hardly looking like a sustained-attack move.

However…

"What's with him? Crying that hard?"

All Baimu looked on in bewilderment at Takeshi, who seemed petrified, two fresh streams of tears trickling from the corners of his eyes.

Masato shrugged and said helplessly:

"Takeshi got rejected again—cold and merciless."

Hikari sighed: "I told you we should've held him back a little."

"Confession… to the one on TV?"

All Baimu froze for a moment, pointing at the dashing older-sister-type on the screen.

Miss Liuqi nodded seriously and praised:

"Amazing—that was the first time I've seen a confession that fast and a rejection that fast."

Takeshi's whole series of actions, even to a little girl who'd been around the entertainment industry, amounted to a particularly intense visual shock.

"Heh—"

All Baimu twitched the corners of his mouth and looked with pity at Takeshi, who had become invisibly even more gloomy.

The latter, tears streaming, was drawing circles on the ground: "Stop talking… please, please stop talking…"

Looking across so many seasons of the Pokémon series, Takeshi had appeared in at least four of them, and the accumulated number of rejections might already be in the hundreds, right?

What an indomitable spirit!

No wonder many anime fans called him "Master Takeshi"!

The pity in his eyes turned to admiration.

Setting aside the never-give-up part, daring to confess to someone he'd exchanged no more than ten sentences with on first meeting proved Takeshi's willpower was far from ordinary.

The key was he'd actually succeeded once!

Although, due to the fundamental law that the main cast cannot be casually split up, Takeshi had gone through countless trials only to return a single dog—yet those brief moments of "glory" couldn't be denied.

"Hang in there!"

All Baimu silently gave Takeshi a thumbs-up, which instantly turned the latter's tears from noodles into a fountain, leaving people flustered and at a loss.

"Ah, I've got to go to my match."

Miss Liuqi wanted to offer a few more words of comfort, but it was her turn to appear right away.

Masato laughed: "It's fine, we're used to scenes like this—Miss Liuqi, just go and battle without worry. Right, sis?"

"…"

Hikari didn't know what to say.

And the frustrating part was that Takeshi's low mood lasted the entire evening, indirectly affecting the food he'd personally prepared.

"So this is the bitterness of heartbreak~"

Harley, who had recovered from the shadow of defeat and rejoined the dinner alliance, tasted it and sighed.

Masato quipped: "It's just Bitter Berry Juice, so just say it's Bitter Berry Juice—what's with 'the bitterness of heartbreak'?"

Bitter Berry Juice.

It came from a green strawberry called a Berry Fruit.

A material for making Energy Cubes and an indispensable seasoning in Pokémon cuisine—looks like Takeshi's hand had shaken and sprinkled in too much.

Across the dining table.

All Baimu was chatting softly with Shun.

The latter, after a bout of self-criticism, had thoroughly set aside any pretense of competing with him, and was not only striking up conversation on his own initiative, but also asking him for advice on ways to make his Pokémon stronger.

What other methods could there be? Cheat a little and train, that's all.

Since coming to the Pokémon world, basically everything revolved around Pokémon. In the past, he could play games or short videos all day; now, even touching them briefly made him worry it would affect his Pokémon's rest.

When he did have free time, his first instinct was to go online and look up how others raised the same species of Pokémon. If two of them got into a quarrel, he definitely wouldn't sleep well that night.

The two quarreling ones, meanwhile, were snoring thunderously.

Tired? Of course he was tired. Taking care of over a dozen Pokémon was like taking care of over a dozen children with different personalities, but fulfilling? Truly fulfilling.

Every time they leveled up, he could be happy for ages; every time they learned a new move, he couldn't resist pulling out his phone to record it.

His photo album was basically stuffed full of all kinds of pictures of them — sleeping, eating, even including snoring in their sleep, deliberately causing mischief, the resulting angry expressions, and so on.

"..."

All Baimu watched as Shun was first shocked, then wore a thoughtful expression, and he propped his chin on one hand, listlessly poking at his vegetable salad with a fork.

He suddenly realized that his life seemed to exist solely for Aggron and the others.

Complaints?

Absolutely none.

After all, he was utterly engrossed in it.

—

The next day.

The final day for revealing the champion.

There were only three Contest Battles, the rules still had a five-minute limit, and counting preparation time and halftime, the morning was enough to draw things to a perfect close.

Mi Ke Li was quite excited, his opening words stirring and passionate, making people's blood boil.

A chorus of howls immediately erupted from the audience.

And in the preparation room.

Miss Liuqi quietly told All Baimu that a small part of the reason for Mi Ke Li's excitement was actually that after the Mi Ke Li Cup ended, he would soon be迎来 a long vacation lasting several months.

Until the Hoenn League Lilycove Conference was over, there was nothing for him to do.

The Gym Badges had long since been fully distributed to suitable trainers, the Water Pillar Award was about to be personally handed to someone else, and the Champion position had been thrown to Champion Dawu long ago.

Mi Ke Li could truly be said to be debt-free and light-hearted, free to do whatever he wanted.

Even if the Gym closed for a week it would be fine; meeting the bare minimum of receiving ten challengers per month was enough.

All Baimu listened feeling a bit dazed.

Ah~

Annual leave~

"What about you?"

He turned his head to ask Miss Liuqi, "You should be very busy from here on out, right?"

"That depends on whether you can beat me."

Miss Liuqi proudly put her hands on her hips and said: "If you win, I lose one ribbon and have to keep entering other Contests to make up for it, during which there'll be no shortage of promotional work.

"If you lose, I get the Water Pillar Award from the Mi Ke Li Cup, and I might be a bit busy for a short while — taking commercial gigs to boost promotion while the热度 is still there, and so on — but after that it'll be a long stretch of preparing for the Grand Festival."

"Then I'll try my best to make you work overtime."

All Baimu wasn't about to accept this provocation.

Besides, there was someone else he had to defeat first.

He looked at May, who was nearby; the latter, having just changed into her performance gown, clenched her fist and shook it at him.

"Don't say I didn't warn you! When it comes to Contest Battles, I might be a little different from last time!"

Last time?

You mean the day we first met?

"Then I'll be watching with great anticipation." All Baimu smiled.

From the previous two rounds of Contest Battles, it wasn't hard to see that May was a skill-type competitor — she did have fighting strength in battles, otherwise Blaziken in the Advanced Generation couldn't have tied with Sceptile in the end.

Based on All Baimu's gut feeling, her strength should be about the same as Dawn's... maybe slightly weaker?

Hard to say.

After all, he'd only sparred with Blaziken, and the sparring wasn't thorough enough at that.

Not long after.

The two arrived on stage, waving to greet the audience as they stopped at their respective positions.

The extremely fervent atmosphere of the venue was like two bombs, instantly igniting the desire for a showdown hidden in both their hearts, so much so that they almost wished they could rush up in place of their Pokémon.

People affect the atmosphere, and the atmosphere affects people.

In the past, All Baimu had always been the former, but now he was tasting the flavor of the latter.

Why?

Had the venue's atmosphere changed? It certainly had — the audience was more frenzied than yesterday, the number of people was still several times that of an ordinary Contest, and the pressure had greatly increased.

Had May given him a slight sense of danger? A little.

Because he recalled that scene at the Kaina Conference where he'd narrowly defeated Dawn with one-sixteenth of her score remaining.

At that time, he'd only been traveling for less than two months, wasn't very mature in all aspects, and his unevolved Bagon had been pinned down and beaten by that little penguin, Piplup.

Times are different now.

All Baimu took a deep breath, stroking his Poké Ball.

Ding!

The crisp sound rang out, and the five-minute countdown began.

Both sides immediately hurled their Poké Balls forward.

Bang bang!

"Jii—"

Golden stardust spiraled and swirled, and enormous, resplendent wings beat gently, sending a layer of light powder drifting down onto the golden star's surface—brilliant and dazzling.

Beautifly appeared above the Water Stage, dancing freely alongside the scattered stardust as it soared.

Beautifully raised!

All Baimu secretly admired the Pokémon. Long ago, when Milotic was still super rare, Beautifly was the original wealth code of Pokémon Contests.

It could score easily without needing much polishing.

But as the times changed and more people learned how to evolve Feebas, Beautifly was no longer the wealth code.

Of course.

As May's main Contest Pokémon, she had raised Beautifly with great care—its wings were every bit as gorgeous as that Vivillon in Kalos with its twenty patterns.

"What an adorable Beautifly!" Vivian called out as well.

All Baimu was just a little surprised—after seeing yesterday's Fire Storm, how did May dare to send out a Bug-type Pokémon?

Betting he wouldn't bring out Mawile?

Hmm.

You bet right.

"Happy~"

A multicolored musical score composed Chansey's rounded body, and the knitted nurse's cap atop its head made Nurse Joy's standard smile change abruptly.

Her eyes lit up like searchlights.

Vivian laughed: "The Pokémon Mr. All Baimu has sent out is—the Warrior of Healing, Chansey! I'm sure everyone knows its battle style well~ Let us wait and see!"

The Warrior of Healing.

Without a doubt, this was the special nickname Contest fans online had given Chansey after it won the Petalburg Contest using the Motherly Love strategy.

Nurse Joy was very pleased with this.

And Chansey, feeling the tens of thousands of eyes from the audience staring at it, was a little flustered and a little thrilled.

It thought it absolutely had to perform well, to tell its Trainer that its victory at the Petalburg Contest was no fluke!

An Ace might still be far away from it.

But as long as it took this one more step forward, it would be closer!

"Dodge to the side."

All Baimu's voice suddenly pierced into its ear.

Chansey didn't even think, balancing on one foot and suddenly spinning like a top. Its seemingly plump, slow body was extremely agile, successfully dodging a white silk thread that shot toward it!

The source of the silk thread was, unmistakably, the seemingly harmless Beautifly in the sky.

This fellow's originally curved mouthparts had at some unknown point stretched straight, and the bug silk it spat out was quite sticky and would actively curve to bind the opponent.

Unfortunately, Chansey dodged it.

"So fast!"

May was a little surprised, and faintly saw the shadow of Mawile in Chansey's spinning dance steps.

From the previous battles, it wasn't hard to see that All Baimu's Pokémon always possessed super-strong reaction speed—its normal movement speed might not be fast, but its reactions were absolutely lightning-quick.

She didn't dare think too long, and immediately shouted: "Keep spitting silk and chase after it!"

She had to restrain Chansey's movements.

Otherwise, she'd surely follow in the footsteps of Drew and his Flygon!

May knew very well that All Baimu's Pokémon's overall strength far surpassed theirs; if she didn't try every possible way to impose limits, she could only wait to lose.

"Grab the silk thread!"

All Baimu frowned and gave the order, reaching out his hand in a pulling gesture.

The standing area on the Water Stage was limited; dodging any further would mean dodging into the water.

In that case, better to take the initiative.

Chansey, catching a glimpse of its Trainer's movement from the corner of its eye, immediately stopped, raised its two little hands, and lunged at the white line shooting diagonally toward it, gripping it tightly!

"Happy!"

It chirped softly, trying to pull its opponent toward itself.

"Beautifly, use Aerial Ace to wrap Chansey up!" May shouted loudly. Even if she couldn't bind it all at once, spinning a few more times would work just as well.

"Jii!"

Beautifly responded, its broad butterfly wings beating rapidly as it circled around Chansey.

The scene looked a little comical, but as long as it could successfully bind Chansey, none of this would be wasted.

The points deducted from herself and All Baimu were ironclad proof!

May watched hopefully as Chansey tried to spin along with Beautifly's flight direction to avoid being trapped. Once it fell into her rhythm, everything would be easy.

"Don't panic—release Psybeam along the silk thread!"

All Baimu's command abruptly shattered her small hope.