The next morning at nine o'clock.
The competition venue was already packed with enthusiastic spectators. A sea of people—lively beyond belief.
Although there were more than half fewer matches today than yesterday, the overall quality was several notches higher. Everyone's passion and excitement were even stronger than the day before.
In the VIP seats sat the same big shots of Wintergreen City, as well as the evaluators from the Pokémon universities.
Only this time, the evaluators no longer wore yesterday's relaxed expressions. One by one, they kept stern faces, looking extremely tense and serious.
Even the seats they had been sitting close together in had been spaced apart a bit.
It couldn't be helped.
Yesterday, they had still been on the same side, jointly excluding Miyazato Aisa—the person sent by the Military.
But after each of them spoke with their own university presidents over the phone, they had immediately become competitors.
After everyone had taken their seats, the four massive battle arenas in the center of the plaza slowly rose up once again.
Eight contestants filed into the venue in a line.
In an instant, thunderous cheers and applause shook the sky.
"Himeko!"
"Himeko!"
"Himeko!"
Hundreds of thousands of spectators in the stands chanted Isobe Himeko's name in an orderly, unified rhythm.
The enormous roar echoed in the air, carrying a truly stirring impact.
If you listened carefully, you could also hear that within the perfectly synchronized chant, there were a few faint voices mixed in shouting Joji's name.
In the procession of contestants entering the arena, Amano Joji walked at the very front.
After he reached his assigned spot and stopped, he lifted his head and looked toward his father in the VIP seats.
Amano Akio nodded at him.
The two communicated with their eyes.
Joji immediately understood—his father had already taken care of that matter.
At once, Joji felt much more at ease.
He glanced sideways, looking at Himeko, who stood a few contestants away from him.
A flash of hatred and the pleasure of successful revenge passed through his expression.
Above the venue, the massive screen began scrolling numbers for the draw.
Eight people, four battle arenas—one round was enough to finish all the matches and determine the four contestants advancing to the semifinals.
The draw ended quickly.
Joji and Himeko did not draw each other.
Each of them drew some random graduate as an opponent.
Next, the eight contestants paired off and stepped onto the battle arenas.
The set pieces on the arenas began changing.
Random terrain environments appeared.
Himeko's match was on Arena Two.
Opposite her stood a girl with baby fat and braces.
Himeko had just taken her position on the arena and was getting ready when the spectators in the venue erupted into even wilder, crazier cheers.
"Charmeleon!!!"
"Charmeleon!"
"Charmeleon!"
"..."
Once again, they demanded intensely, hoping Himeko would send Shiko out to battle and satisfy everyone's wish.
"I'm not going."
Before Himeko could even ask Shiko what he thought, Shiko decisively stated his decision.
After a full day of daily quests yesterday, he had accumulated another thirty experience points.
Now he was only ten experience points away from breaking through to level thirty-five.
As long as he finished today's tasks, it would be more than enough.
So Shiko had no intention of wasting his precious time sleeping, watching battles, and sunbathing just to satisfy the crowd's curiosity.
Himeko nodded.
She automatically ignored the noisy cheering and shouting.
Her hand went to Lopunny's Poké Ball.
A red beam of light gathered.
"Shoo-bi!"
That cute yet elegant pink "older-sister" beauty appeared once again before everyone's eyes.
Lopunny took the field again!!
Not seeing Himeko's most mysterious Charmeleon left the audience in the venue and in front of their TVs, as well as the big shots in the VIP seats, feeling a bit disappointed.
However, being able to witness this beautiful Lopunny's violent aesthetics once again wasn't bad either.
Himeko's opponent—the braces-and-glasses girl—sent out a mid Entry-level Buizel.
It looked fairly well-trained.
But unfortunately, it ran into Lopunny.
This time, Lopunny once again showed the audience a different side of herself.
No brutal fighting style.
No "one-hit victory" guerrilla tactics, either.
This round, Lopunny directly used human wrestling methods on Buizel!
All kinds of joint locks and ground techniques came out in succession.
Buizel didn't last even a few seconds under her hands before it passed out and lost the ability to battle.
The braces girl's remaining two Pokémon were even weaker than that Buizel.
Against Lopunny's offense, they naturally became even more helpless.
Lopunny once again accomplished the feat of taking down three opponents in a row.
From start to finish, the entire match lasted less than three minutes.
The stands burst into incredibly enthusiastic applause again.
"Seriously amazing!"
"Terrifying talent!"
"As expected of an S-rank evaluation—truly different!"
"What's even crazier is that this Lopunny is the same as yesterday—she didn't use a single move. It was all the most basic, simple combat technique and raw physical power!"
"I thought yesterday was shocking enough—who knew today would be even more outrageous!"
"..."
In the VIP seats, the evaluators watched Lopunny's performance and sighed repeatedly.
It was obvious.
Yesterday, this Lopunny had only been giving a small taste.
Today, she had finally shown a little more of her strength.
And even that seemed to be only the tip of the iceberg!
If she truly used moves in battle…
What kind of power and intensity would that be?
The evaluators didn't even dare to imagine it.
Himeko advanced to the top four with absolute ease.
She was the first to step down from the arena and return to rest.
Not long after, Arena Four also reached a result.
The winner was, naturally, Joji.
He still used his Dragonair to sweep through three opponents, achieving a crushing victory.
Only this time, the "crushing" came with at least some resistance from the other side, which made his winning speed a little slower.
Joji frowned slightly.
He said nothing, recalled Dragonair into its Poké Ball, and hurriedly left the venue as well.
Half an hour later, the four winners of the eight-to-four round were finally determined.
The morning matches were declared over.
Joji sat on his bed to rest.
He stared blankly at the three Poké Balls placed on his desk, lost in thought.
In his mind, Himeko's figure inexplicably surfaced—
Along with Shiko, Lopunny, and Kirlia.
For some reason, he suddenly felt a powerful, unsettling palpitation.
It was as if the shadow of defeat had abruptly descended over him.
That oppressive, uneasy feeling made him unable to resist calling his father.
"Dad! Is everything on your side really arranged properly?"
Joji asked.
"Relax! This time I paid a huge price before those old guys agreed to my proposal!"
"You just do what you need to do!"
When Akio said those words, it was obvious he was forcing down intense anger.
It looked like his father had probably had a chunk of flesh torn off by those old rivals.
After hanging up, Joji finally felt a bit more secure.
Then—
In the afternoon semifinals, Joji and Himeko once again, as if by tacit understanding, were not placed in the same group.
As expected, both of them easily defeated their opponents.
Himeko relied on Kirlia's masterfully refined control of psychic power.
She repeated the same trick as yesterday, directly slamming the opponent's Pokémon until they were unconscious.
Meanwhile, Joji still depended on Dragonair's crushing level gap to win his battle.
When the massive screen above the plaza finally displayed the faces of the two finalists—Himeko and Joji—
The entire plaza erupted into cheers once again!
This was the battle everyone had been waiting for!!
Between the two hottest championship contenders, who was stronger and who was weaker—
Tomorrow, the answer would be revealed!!
"Everyone! Please quiet down!"
Just as the matches ended, in the VIP stands, Akio stood up from his chair, took the microphone, and began to speak.
The moment he opened his mouth, the spectators below instantly quieted down, lifting their heads to look at him.
"As one of the sponsors and organizers of this Pokémon tournament,"
"after a brief discussion with the other sponsors and organizers, I've decided to change the rules for the upcoming finals!"
"The finals will change from a 3v3 battle to a 6v6 battle format!"
(End of Chapter)
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