September 1st.
With the arrival of a new month, the curtain quietly rose on another school term.
At Shirogane Steelix High School, Suguru Natsume began the final chapter of his high-school life in Class 3-A.
The third year was divided into five classes in total.
Four belonged to the Pokémon Trainer Course.
Only one belonged to the General Studies Course for students who had chosen not to become Trainers.
The number of students pursuing the Trainer Course vastly exceeded those in General Studies.
The reason was simple.
Shirogane Steelix High School was an elite private academy.
Nearly every student attending the school came from either a wealthy family or an influential background.
To put it bluntly—
There were practically no poor students here.
The greatest obstacle on the path to becoming a Pokémon Trainer was not necessarily talent.
It was money.
No matter how gifted a person might be, if their family could not even afford to purchase a Caterpie, then their talent would never have the opportunity to blossom.
At an ordinary public school, such as Shirogane First High School, the situation would be completely different.
The ratio between Trainer Course students and General Studies students there was approximately one to ten.
As for the single General Studies class at Steelix High, most of its students had not rejected the Trainer path because of financial difficulties.
They simply had little interest in becoming Trainers.
Or perhaps there was something else they loved even more.
…
The classes had been reorganized for the students’ third year.
Some of Suguru’s new classmates had studied with him the previous year, while the rest had come from the other second-year classes.
Ever since he entered the room, quite a few gazes had been directed toward him.
Suguru was seated in his usual place near the back of the classroom.
His expression remained calm, as though he had not noticed the attention at all.
Ever since he revealed his Shiny Beldum at the battle club, videos of him had circulated across PokéTok for a while.
The initial wave of attention had already faded, but the brief period of popularity had been more than enough for many students who knew Suguru personally to stumble across those videos.
Several classmates who had never known his true background were only now realizing—
There had been an absurdly important person sitting beside them all this time.
After hesitating for a while, a fairly attractive girl finally gathered her courage and approached his desk.
“Natsume-sama, may I introduce myself?”
She stood upright, clearly nervous despite the polite smile on her face.
“My name is Ran Umezaki.
My father is the Steel-type Gym Leader here in Shirogane City.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Suguru nodded.
He was not naturally cold or unfriendly.
After taking a closer look at her, he soon remembered where he had heard the family name.
“You’re Uncle Umezaki’s daughter, aren’t you?”
“I met your father about a year ago.
His Skarmory was exceptionally strong.”
The Pokémon Gym system in Japan was divided into three categories:
City-ranked Gyms.
Prefectural-ranked Gyms.
And National-ranked Gyms.
Every city in Japan was required to have at least one city-ranked Gym.
A supercity like Shirogane, however, possessed more than a dozen.
The minimum requirement for becoming the Leader of one was Gym-tier strength.
The more powerful Leaders had already reached the Quasi-Elite tier.
Above them were the prefectural-ranked Gyms.
Those were far less numerous.
Japan was divided into fifty-six prefectures, yet the entire country possessed only a little over one hundred and thirty prefectural-ranked Gyms.
On average, each prefecture had only two or three.
The minimum requirement for serving as the Leader of a prefectural Gym was the Elite tier.
Finally, at the summit stood the National Gyms.
There were only eighteen throughout Japan—
One for each Pokémon type.
Even the weakest National Gym Leader had to possess strength at the peak of the Elite tier.
Most were Quasi-Champion Trainers.
Suguru’s father, Senri Natsume, was the current Leader of Japan’s National Steel-type Gym.
The previous Leader had been Suguru’s grandfather, Gendō.
Ever since the National Steel Gym was founded, leadership had always remained in the hands of the Natsume family.
Each of Japan’s other Seven Great Houses also controlled one National Gym of its own.
Gyms existed not only to evaluate a Trainer’s strength, but also to determine eligibility for official tournaments.
For example, a Trainer who wished to participate in a prefectural Open Tournament first needed to defeat at least ten city-ranked Gyms within that prefecture.
To enter a National Open Tournament, the Trainer had to collect badges from at least ten prefectural-ranked Gyms.
As for National Gyms—
Their badges were qualifications for participating in world-class competitions.
Furthermore, a Trainer entering an international tournament needed to collect National Gym badges from ten different countries.
Collecting ten badges from National Gyms within one’s own country was not enough.
That rule existed primarily to prevent nations from secretly lowering the difficulty for their own representatives.
Every National Gym was monitored by the World Trainer Association.
Besides the scheduled evaluations conducted by the country in which the Gym was located, the World Trainer Association could dispatch inspectors without warning.
That ensured the Gym Leader’s strength remained legitimate and that all challenges followed international standards.
Within Kogane Prefecture, the Natsume family stood as the sole hegemon.
None of Japan’s other Great Houses maintained a major presence there.
Shirogane City, in particular, had been the ancestral stronghold of the Natsume family for more than a thousand years.
There were over a hundred Trainer families of various sizes throughout Kogane Prefecture.
Almost all of them regarded the Natsume family as their leader.
The families within Shirogane City were even more closely connected to them.
Many maintained long-standing business relationships with the Natsume family.
Ran Umezaki’s family was one such example.
Her mother was an important member of one of the Natsume family’s branch lines.
Through that relationship, Suguru and Ran could technically be considered distant relatives.
That was also why Suguru had met her father before.
“Really?”
The instant Ran heard that Suguru remembered her father—and even knew about his ace Skarmory—a delighted smile blossomed across her face.
“My father has mentioned you before as well, Natsume-sama.”
She had not approached Suguru with any unrealistic romantic ambitions.
Even if such thoughts had briefly crossed her mind, Ran understood perfectly well that someone like Suguru Natsume was far beyond her ability to pursue, much less control.
If she acted carelessly and offended him, she might drag the entire Umezaki family into disaster.
This was not some brainless romance story where everyone abandoned common sense the moment love became involved.
In this world—
Power came first.
Pokémon came first.
Once a Trainer became sufficiently powerful, even an entire nation might find itself unable to restrain them.
As long as a Champion-class Trainer did not betray Japan, the government would tolerate nearly anything they did within reason.
Even if the Champion eventually betrayed that nation, there might be nothing the government could do.
After all—
The traitor was already the strongest person in the country.
Who were they supposed to send to arrest him?
…
Seeing that Ran had successfully introduced herself to Suguru, several other students began to stir.
One after another, they gathered around his desk.
“Natsume-sama, my name is Taiga Sōma.”
A well-dressed boy stepped forward with a practiced smile.
“My family owns Sōma Pokémon Breeding.
Should you ever need a particular Pokémon, please feel free to contact me.”
Before Suguru could respond, another student immediately interrupted.
“Sōma Breeding is hardly worth mentioning.
Our Rinkawa Breeding Company should be Natsume-sama’s first choice.”
“My family owns several large Berry orchards outside Shirogane City!”
“Natsume-sama, Wailord Harbor belongs to my family.
A shipment containing the newest sports-car models arrived recently.
Say the word, and I’ll have one delivered to your estate immediately.”
Within moments, five or six students had gathered around Suguru.
There were even more waiting behind them for an opportunity to speak.
The industries controlled by their parents covered nearly every aspect of life in Shirogane City.
Pokémon breeding.
Berry cultivation.
Shipping.
Transportation.
Construction.
Medicine.
Food production.
Training equipment.
Real estate.
Nearly every business connected to Pokémon—or to the daily lives of the city’s residents—was represented among the students surrounding him.
To an ordinary citizen, any one of these wealthy heirs would be someone they could never afford to offend.
Yet now, every one of them was enthusiastically crowding around Suguru.
It was almost as though merely exchanging a few words with him would become something worth boasting about.
That was the reality of children raised in influential families.
As long as their parents educated them properly, very few would truly become incompetent wastrels.
These students understood their positions from a young age.
They knew which people could be offended.
They knew which people had to be respected.
And more importantly—
They knew which relationships could determine their entire future.
If one of them managed to earn Suguru’s favor, their family would benefit tremendously.
It might even increase their own chances of being selected as the next heir to their household.
They were nothing like Suguru.
Suguru possessed the Perfect Steel Heart.
From the day that ability awakened, his position as the future head of the Natsume family had practically been decided.
The rest of them still needed to compete with siblings, cousins, and other talented relatives.
For those students, establishing a close relationship with Suguru Natsume was not merely a matter of schoolyard popularity.
It could become the most important investment of their lives.