The morning was devoted entirely to Pokémon theory.
At first glance, a battle between Trainers might appear to be a simple contest of strength between their Pokémon.
In reality, however, victory depended on far more than raw power.
A Trainer’s ability to make decisions in the heat of battle, the compatibility between moves, a Pokémon’s Ability and typing, and even the secondary effects of individual techniques could all determine the outcome.
Having the stronger Pokémon did not necessarily guarantee victory.
The Trainer’s commands were an equally important factor.
If Pokémon strength alone decided everything, there would be no need for Trainers to participate in battles at all.
During combat, a Trainer had to observe the entire battlefield, analyze the opponent’s moves and Ability, predict their possible strategies, and immediately formulate the most appropriate response.
Whenever the opposing Pokémon used a move with an unusual secondary effect, the Trainer needed to determine how it would affect their own partner.
Should they defend?
Evade?
Or launch a counterattack before the move could take effect?
There was rarely enough time to hesitate.
Furthermore, Trainers needed to adjust their Pokémon’s move combinations according to the changing situation, maximizing their advantages while compensating for their weaknesses.
A truly magnificent battle was never the work of the Pokémon alone.
It was the result of Trainer and Pokémon understanding one another, fighting as a single unit.
For that reason, theoretical knowledge was indispensable to every Trainer.
That much went without saying.
In the afternoon, the class would hold its first round of Pokémon battles.
Aside from allowing everyone to gain practical experience, the matches would also give Kōya Natsume an opportunity to evaluate the strength of his students.
Class 3-A had thirty students in total.
Twenty of them were registered Trainers.
Naturally, the competition would be held among those twenty.
The format was a series of one-on-one battles.
The students had only been registered Trainers for about two months, and nearly half of them had yet to obtain a second Pokémon.
A one-on-one format was therefore the most appropriate.
“The student who takes first place will receive a resource suited to their chosen type, worth approximately two hundred thousand yen.”
Standing at the front of the classroom, Kōya calmly announced the rewards.
“Second place will receive something worth around one hundred thousand.”
“Third place will receive a reward valued at roughly fifty thousand.”
“If none of the available resources suit you, you may exchange the reward for its monetary value.”
Kōya knew that none of his students came from poor families.
A prize worth two hundred thousand yen might not seem particularly valuable to them.
However, a reward earned through one’s own ability carried an entirely different meaning from something simply handed over by one’s parents.
The atmosphere inside the classroom immediately became lively.
Quite a few students turned their gazes toward Suguru.
However, they were not praying that they would avoid facing him.
Instead—
They wanted Suguru to be their opponent.
A Trainer could only grow by challenging someone stronger than themselves.
In the eyes of everyone in Class 3-A, Suguru was undoubtedly the strongest student among them.
Naturally, they wanted the opportunity to battle him.
That willingness to face a powerful opponent was precisely the kind of courage a Trainer needed.
Several students had already begun considering which strategies they would use if they were matched against Suguru.
Sitting quietly in his seat, Suguru felt the undisguised gazes gathering around him.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
Why do I suddenly feel like the final boss? You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Every single one of them seemed eager to challenge him.
Once the arrangements were complete, the students followed Kōya to one of the school’s battlefields.
As an elite private academy, Shirogane Steelix High School certainly did not lack training facilities.
The school possessed a total of fifty-five Pokémon battlefields.
That was also why its campus occupied such an enormous amount of land.
Even some universities struggled to provide enough battlefields for all their students.
A top institution such as Shirogane University was a different matter.
Its campus alone was almost as large as a small city.
The students had already drawn lots before arriving.
Suguru had drawn number nine.
The first match would be number one against number twenty.
The second would be number two against number nineteen.
Following that pattern, Suguru’s opponent would be the student holding number twelve.
Suguru did not particularly care who that person happened to be.
His opponent, however, was already trembling with excitement.
“I’m fighting Natsume-sama!”
The boy clenched his fist, his face filled with anticipation rather than fear.
“I’m so jealous…”
The classmate standing beside him looked down at the number thirteen lot in his hand with a depressed expression.
He had come so close.
How frustrating!
Before long, the first match began.
The students holding numbers one and twenty stepped onto opposite sides of the battlefield.
One was a Water-type Trainer.
The other specialized in Ground-type Pokémon.
Although both had only recently become registered Trainers, their battle was surprisingly organized.
From the way they issued commands and responded to each other’s strategies, it was obvious that neither was new to Pokémon battles.
Practical battling required experience.
The more battles a Trainer participated in, the more calmly they could react to unexpected situations.
Most children from ordinary families rarely had the opportunity to experience Pokémon battles before officially becoming Trainers.
Even at the cheapest battle club, renting a low-level Pokémon and a battlefield for a single match would still cost several thousand yen.
And that was only when the borrowed Pokémon was extremely weak.
Children from wealthy or influential families lived in an entirely different world.
Under the careful guidance of their elders, many of them began interacting with Pokémon and participating in practice battles from an early age.
By the time an ordinary student entered their third year of high school, registered as a Trainer, and experienced their first real battle—
A wealthy student might already have been battling Pokémon since the age of seven or eight.
Sometimes, they began even earlier.
The difference in experience between the two groups was almost impossible to measure.
That was one of the many reasons common-born Trainers found it so difficult to rise above the rest.
Suguru himself was an even more extreme example.
He had awakened the Perfect Steel Heart at birth and possessed extraordinary natural talent.
Moreover, because he carried the soul and memories of an adult from his previous life, he had displayed maturity and intelligence far beyond that of other children his age.
As a result, his parents and grandfather had arranged for him to begin practicing Pokémon battles when he was only three years old.
As Suguru grew older, however, the strength of the Pokémon entrusted to him gradually increased.
Eventually, he began commanding Quasi-Elite and Elite-tier Pokémon.
He had even directed his grandfather’s Quasi-Champion partners in practice battles before.
Compared to the other students in his class, Suguru’s battle experience was on an entirely different level.
One match after another began and ended.
Before long, it was finally Suguru’s turn.
He stepped onto the battlefield and took out a Poké Ball.
Pop!
A flash of light descended onto the arena.
Instead of Beldum, the Pokémon Suguru chose to send out was Aron.
…
Pokémon Status
Name: Aron
Type: Steel/Rock
Level: 8
Aptitude: Quasi-Champion
Ability: Heavy Metal
Held Item: Hard Stone
Gender: Male
Natural Moves: Tackle, Harden, Metal Claw, Rock Tomb
TM Moves: Dig, Rock Slide, Protect, Sandstorm
Inherited Moves: Endeavor, Stomp, Head Smash
…
“Aron!”
The moment Aron appeared, he raised his armored head and released an energetic cry.
He clearly intended to sound imposing.
Unfortunately, his voice was still far too young and tender to inspire fear.
Rather than dignified, it sounded overwhelmingly adorable.
Under Suguru’s care, Aron had been raised with a combination of carefully selected ores and exclusive Pokéblocks from the System Shop.
His development could only be described as perfect.
Aron was already nearly seventy centimeters tall.
An ordinary member of his species stood at only around forty centimeters.
Furthermore, Suguru’s Aron had not even reached Level Ten yet.
He was still in the earliest stage of childhood and possessed an enormous amount of room for further growth.
The weather that afternoon was clear.
Golden sunlight fell across Aron’s metallic armor, causing its surface to gleam with an almost indestructible brilliance.
In many cases, one could roughly judge how well a Pokémon had been raised simply by examining its appearance.
Smooth and glossy fur.
Sharp, lively eyes.
Well-maintained claws.
A powerful tail.
A sturdy, properly developed body.
When a Pokémon displayed such qualities, the first impression it gave was obvious—
It had been cultivated with exceptional care.
And a Pokémon raised that well would never be weak.