After successfully advancing into the Top Four, only two matches remained.
The Sprout Cup semifinals and finals would both be held two days later—on Saturday, with great fanfare.
Coincidentally, Serena's Gible had just gone through an exhausting, grinding battle against Wartortle in the quarterfinals.
It badly needed proper recovery and adjustment.
Those two days of rest were therefore crucial—for both Serena and her partner.
Which, naturally, meant relying once again on Mimosa's medical support.
Free resources were still resources.
If you could use them—why wouldn't you use them to the fullest?
"No matter how much I specialize Gible's cold resistance…"
Serena muttered while waiting,
"a four-times weakness to Ice still isn't something you can brute-force past."
During this downtime, Serena continued her usual Poke-TV battle streams,
while also seriously thinking about something she had delayed for a while—
Her second Pokémon.
Of course, raising a second Pokémon required meeting several prerequisites.
The first was obvious:
The trainer had to be capable enough to manage multiple Pokémon at once.
For Serena, that wasn't a problem at all.
Many rookie trainers struggled because of split focus,
or because they lacked clear development paths for Pokémon training.
But Serena was different.
Years of experience as a Pokémon battler,
plus her past as an "unofficial" Pokémon optimizer,
had filled her head with an absurd amount of high-level information.
Urshifu.
Flutter Mane.
Chien-Pao.
Tyranitar.
Ogerpon.
Incineroar.
She could rattle off competitive builds and tactical roles for them without thinking.
Ironically, what she didn't know very well were extremely weak Pokémon—
things like Kricketune, Ledian, or Hypno.
Not because she disliked them,
but because they almost never appeared in serious PvP.
No one used them.
So there was nothing to copy.
And that led to the second prerequisite for raising another Pokémon:
Money.
Plain and simple.
"Now that my streaming income has stabilized,"
Serena nodded to herself,
"I can finally start planning for a second Pokémon."
"And the Sprout Cup champion's rewards are pretty generous too."
All the early investment she'd poured into Gible—
even at the cost of starving herself—
was finally paying off.
Once Gible grew stronger…
once it evolved into Gabite…
Serena would truly have a foothold as a professional Pokémon Trainer.
"…What the hell?! Three turns in a row and still no flinch?!"
"Serene Grace gives a 60% flinch chance with Air Slash, damn it!"
"And how does a 95% accuracy move miss again?!"
"Flinch! Flinch! Flinch already—WHAT?! STILL NO FLINCH?!"
"This trash game—I swear—%$#@&—!"
That night's stream was… lively.
Serena slammed her keyboard in frustration, roaring at the screen.
Tonight's content was intentionally light-hearted—
not serious ladder grinding, but pure entertainment.
She was running a classic gimmick setup:
Whimsicott for Tailwind
Choice Specs Togekiss, the infamous "White Devil"
3v3 singles
Under Serene Grace, Air Slash had a 60% chance to flinch.
With Tailwind speed control and boosted Special Attack,
the strategy was simple:
Click Air Slash.
Pray.
Repeat.
Type matchups?
Who cares.
Close your eyes and spam it.
Despite being a meme strategy, the core power was real.
Togekiss routinely topped usage charts in formats that excluded Legendary Pokémon.
When luck was good, it could flinch-lock opponents from start to finish—
never allowing a single move.
Those who lost to it felt sick to their stomachs.
Those using it?
Laughed until their faces hurt.
Of course, when luck was bad…
95% accuracy missed repeatedly.
60% flinch procs simply refused to happen.
Two imperfect probabilities stacked together,
conspiring to reach the absolute minimum possible outcome.
Pure RNG chaos.
Peak entertainment.
"Five percent miss plus forty percent no flinch—and you hit both back-to-back?
Serena should buy a lottery ticket tonight. That luck's rare."
"At this point even Serene Grace can't save you."
"Turning Serene Grace into Serene Darkness,
and Super Luck into Super Misfortune—that's talent."
After ten straight wins, the final match exploded in a spectacular RNG disaster.
Serena rage-quit the stream on the spot.
Just as she was about to shut down her PC,
a friend request popped up.
"…?"
Was it someone she'd flinch-locked into a mental breakdown?
Or someone who came to mock her after the Air Slash miss streak?
Serena frowned.
In her experience,
people who randomly added others usually weren't bringing good news.
Still—
It could also be a collaboration inquiry.
She checked the profile.
"Iono, Levincia Gym Leader, Den-Den Live creator…"
"…Wait.
That's an actual big name."
"…Have we ever interacted before?"
After confirming the stream was fully offline,
Serena quickly accepted the request and sent a greeting.
"Ciallo~~! (∠▽<)⌒☆"
"Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening—Hello~~~"
Almost instantly, Iono replied with her trademark greeting.
And then she froze.
(°0°〃)
…Wait.
She'd just lost the opening-line battle.
In terms of pure fun,
she lost.
Unacceptable!!!
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