Chapter 268: Getting Cocky?
The doubles matches ended in a one-to-one draw, with both teams breaking even.
But due to their earlier deficit in the singles matches, the Sea Carp Team lost the overall competition.
The fans on both sides were able to accept this result.
The home crowd for Starlight and Frost celebrated their team's victory, while Arthur's fans online held their heads high.
This was because the most talked-about battle of the day—the showdown between the top rookies—had still been won by Arthur.
One side took the overall win, the other won the rookie battle. Everyone had a bright future…
With this, the Sea Carp Team was gradually returning to its proper place in the league rankings.
And Arthur's personal record continued its triumphant march forward!
The title of "Miracle Rookie" spread further and wider, with more and more people chanting it.
As a first-year player, he had broken so many records since entering the league—
To date, he had never been rotated out, with a 100% participation rate!
His current record was eleven wins and one loss, placing him head and shoulders above the rest!
In the doubles format this year, not even a veteran like Luna, who was on the verge of becoming a main singles player, had shown the same terrifying dominance as Arthur.
Major gaming media outlets were running headlines like, "A Mere Rookie, Yet So Terrifyingly Powerful!"
After this match, the Best Rookie award was basically his for the taking.
"Only four matches left."
One day at the club base, Arthur muttered to himself during a break.
"Yeah, only four matches left in the regular season. But the Yankee Team is still in there, so don't get too careless," Luna advised from nearby, where she was also training.
The Yankee Team was the last of the Kubfu Alliance's three traditional powerhouse teams.
The team's image had always been based on the Water-type starter line, which had a loose connection to their team name. After all, fish come from the water.
Previously, Arthur's team had already faced the other two powerhouse teams: the Demon King Team, who gave him his first professional loss, and the Jinchan Team, with their Champion-level Charizard and Prankster Sableye.
Both of those opponents had been impressive enough.
From this, one could deduce that the Yankee Team's strength was not to be underestimated.
Their record in last year's Champions Cup was even better than the Demon King Team's. Although they didn't reach the same heights as the Blaze Team, who carried the hopes of their entire region to a third-place world finish, they at least made it to the top eight. It was a decent showing, certainly better than the Demon King and Otter teams, who were eliminated in the first round.
Such an opponent naturally deserved to be taken seriously. He couldn't afford to get cocky.
This was what Luna was advising him about.
However, when it came to his mentality, Arthur believed he had always been very grounded.
"Don't worry. I never underestimate my opponents."
Luna gave him a strange look but didn't say anything more.
The reason she offered this advice wasn't because she didn't trust Arthur, but because some critical voices had started to rise against him within the team again.
Ever since Arthur had defied the arrangements of the club's coaching staff and insisted on training his Pokémon his own way, these voices had never completely disappeared.
His outstanding record, coupled with Little Lapras's stunning debut, had temporarily silenced the team analysts who had been constantly advising him to give up on her.
But recently, they had started to become active again.
The reason was—despite the upcoming battle against the formidable Yankee Team, Arthur had been spending a large amount of time training Little Eevee!
Training a young Eevee that, in their eyes, had no chance of competing anytime soon.
Yes, ever since returning from the match against Ivy and Bianca, Arthur had officially put Little Eevee's training on the schedule, allocating a significant amount of time to it each day.
Originally, Arthur had planned to wait until next year, when Little Eevee was nearly two years old, to begin its formal training.
Canine-like Pokémon could be considered adolescents at two years old, and their physical development would be more complete.
But alas, plans couldn't keep up with reality.
The sudden truth made him realize that he had likely severely underestimated the little guy's talent, so the training plan was moved up significantly.
And Little Eevee had not disappointed him. Its performance during this time had stunned even him, a veteran trainer and former Champion-level master.
It learned things so incredibly fast!
In just two days after returning, it had already learned the Fairy-type move, Baby-Doll Eyes.
Two days after that, Arthur went out for a match against a weaker team and won relatively easily.
During the post-match review, Little Eevee stared intently at the Incineroar in the recording. Shortly after, it managed to learn the move Bulk Up, which the opponent had used in the match, all on its own.
Then, a day later, while playfully fighting with Bella's Luxray over food, it imitated and learned the move Bite.
In just the first week of training, Little Eevee had learned a total of three new moves without much effort.
This caused the neighboring Greninja, who had spent over a month just to finally grasp Rest, to fall into deep contemplation.
Greninja had always considered itself the leader of Arthur's team.
But now, it was starting to feel a bit of pressure…
Have I seen too little of the world? Or is there something wrong with this little brother? Greninja often pondered this question lately, but could never find an answer.
Naturally, this made Arthur even more reluctant to slack off on Little Eevee's training, and the time he allocated to it gradually increased.
However, the experienced Arthur still kept a cautious mind, and he didn't go around proclaiming Little Eevee's outrageous growth rate.
For one, he didn't care for such empty fame.
For another, it was a precaution. After all, in any era, jealousy was a difficult disease to cure. Not to mention, since his transmigration, he had witnessed too many instances of crazy fan behavior in the internet age. There was no need to take risks while Little Eevee was still growing.
Because they didn't know the secret of Little Eevee, the team management couldn't understand Arthur's recent "unfocused" behavior. They had approached him several times, urging him to train his main Pokémon properly! To prepare well for the next tough battle!
But Arthur continued to do things his own way.
This infuriated the team analysts, who once again gnashed their teeth in frustration.
"Hmph! I think this kid has gotten cocky! He thinks he's got Best Rookie in the bag, so he can just coast through the next few matches. He's not taking the veteran teams seriously at all! When he faces the Yankee Team, I really want to see him lose!"
Recently, some analysts had even started openly criticizing Arthur within the club.
Human nature is always complex.
Although Arthur had never directly confronted these members of the coaching staff—at most, he would just deflect and make empty promises when their opinions differed—a direct conflict had never truly erupted.
But there were always some who thought too highly of themselves and couldn't stand his attitude.
Perhaps it was because, in Arthur's eyes, his Pokémon were his own to care for. He didn't need or want others to interfere.
And this made some of the younger analysts feel disrespected!
So they would gather together, loudly discussing Arthur's recent arrogance and conceit, laughing as if they had already made a pact to watch him make a fool of himself.
He's definitely going to lose miserably against the Yankee Team!
That's what these people thought.
Some of these whispers reached Arthur's ears, but he paid them no mind, simply shrugging them off with a smile.
He trusted his Pokémon.
Even with most of his time allocated to Little Eevee, the growth of Greninja and the others had not fallen behind in the slightest!
And so, a few more days passed in a flash.
The day of their next match finally arrived—
The Sea Carp Team would face the Yankee Team at their home stadium
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