Iron Tail!?
Paul was stunned for a second.
He thought to himself:
Let's not even mention how Iron Tail doesn't deal particularly impressive damage to Crocalor. Besides, right now, Pikachu's Iron Tail shouldn't even be able to hit Crocalor while it's underground…
But reality hit Paul like a sledgehammer.
Pikachu, with a surprising agility that didn't match its chubby appearance, leapt into the air, twisting in midair like a diver during a dive.
At the same time, the lightning-shaped tip of its tail shimmered with a metallic sheen, as if coated in steel.
In the next moment—
Harnessing the force of its spin, combined with its own strength—
Pikachu's small body unleashed a power that made the entire battle arena tremble. Its Iron Tail slammed down onto the already cratered field, producing a thunderous boom!
Immediately, cracks spread out from where Pikachu's Iron Tail struck, fanning out like a spiderweb.
As for Crocalor underground, it was shaken loose and sent flying, landing with a splat on the battered field—out cold on the spot.
Seeing this, Ash and Pikachu hugged each other in excitement.
"Alright!"
Paul was completely dumbfounded.
Wait a minute...
You call that Iron Tail? I'd believe it if you said it was Earthquake!
Paul stared intently at Ash, whose heart was pounding.
This kid named Ash is kind of ridiculous...
"Cough, cough—"
A light cough from nearby interrupted Paul's spiraling thoughts.
Looking over, Paul noticed that Lucas had somehow walked over next to him. Their gazes met, and Lucas gestured with his eyes toward the battle arena.
Crocalor, now unable to battle, was still lying there.
Paul quickly snapped out of it, rushed over, crouched down, and scooped Crocalor into his arms.
Crocalor slowly awoke, meeting Paul's gaze and offering a slightly apologetic look.
Paul's expression remained stiff. The earnest words in his throat wouldn't come out. In the end, he simply kept his face taut and said awkwardly, "It was my misjudgment."
Just then, the light above Paul's head was mostly blocked out.
"Is Crocalor okay?"
Looking up, Paul saw it was Ash, grinning brightly.
"...No need for your concern. The battle isn't over yet."
Paul ignored Ash's outstretched hand. He didn't need anyone's sympathy.
He got to his feet by himself, handed Crocalor over to Shizuka—who, as a former Nurse Joy, along with her partner Chansey, would treat Crocalor.
Then Paul looked at Ash, emotionless. "Let's continue."
"..."
Even the thick-headed Ash noticed something was off.
Is Paul...annoyed with me?
But Ash, being Ash, never bothered to read the mood. If he could, he wouldn't have a rep for zero emotional intelligence and negative romance skills.
The moment he heard they would continue, he tossed those thoughts aside and returned to his spot, full of fighting spirit.
Paul, meanwhile, gripped a Poké Ball he'd handled countless times and pressed the button.
"Grotle, prepare to battle!"
"Wow, another Pokémon I don't know!"
"Pikachu, I'm counting on you again!"
Ash sent out Pikachu once more.
This round ended quickly.
Because Pikachu was still suffering from the injuries Crocalor inflicted earlier, Grotle didn't have to work hard to defeat Pikachu.
This left Lucas, who blew the referee's whistle, a bit uncertain.
He couldn't tell if Pikachu was really out of options or just putting on a show because the time was right. Should I say, as expected of a veteran performer—truly terrifying!
When Shizuka took Pikachu for treatment, Ash innocently asked, "Miss, you look a lot like Nurse Joy! And your partner's a Chansey too."
Only after Shizuka explained did he realize she was actually a former Nurse Joy!
With Ash pestering her with starry eyes, asking all sorts of questions, Shizuka exchanged a look with Penny, who was helping, and they came to a conclusion:
This temporary classmate of ours seems a bit...single-celled.
The second round soon began.
But this time, Ash didn't send out his seemingly harmless Pikachu.
With a flash of red, Ash released a Charizard with sharp eyes.
Although Charizard was still on the smaller side compared to its kind, it had made real progress in the Charicific Valley.
Just like in the school tournament finals against Penny's Flareon.
Despite a complete type disadvantage and being lower level, Paul and his Grotle were utterly crushed by Charizard's vast battle experience and overwhelming strength.
At least, after Grotle evolved into Torterra, it stood a chance against Flareon. But facing Charizard, it was even worse than before—completely one-sided.
Not only was it weak to Flying, it was also weak to Fire; its powerful Ground-type moves that worked well against Fire types could be dodged by a flying Charizard, and Grass-type moves were quadruple resisted.
Even Lucas wouldn't have been able to turn the tables here.
The battle ended.
Ash had a blast, but Paul was miserable.
He never imagined he'd get run over by such a blockhead.
It was even more frustrating than missing the Terastal Orb in the previous school tournament.
Afterwards, even during Lucas's lecture, Paul was unusually distracted. It was easy to imagine how badly this loss affected him.
But Ash was worse off.
Barely seated, he immediately dozed off on his desk.
It wasn't that Lucas's lecture was as soporific as a Drowzee's hypnosis—it was just Ash's constitution. No matter how interesting the class, if it was theory, he'd get sleepy.
At Kanto's academies, trainers like Ash are typically labeled as "Traveler Type", "Practical Type", or "Intuitive Type".
Their progress comes entirely from battle experience, and they only maintain the bare minimum of theoretical knowledge.
Seeing Ash like this, Lucas pondered how hard it would be to make Ash memorize the type effectiveness chart before the Silver Conference...
The theory class ended quickly.
As soon as class was over, Ash perked right up and immediately challenged Paul to another battle.
Of course, Penny and Shizuka were also invited.
Paul, still fuming, agreed without hesitation.
Penny and Shizuka exchanged a glance—they were curious what other Pokémon a trainer with eight badges had—so they accepted.
The four of them went to the outdoor battle arena, while Lucas waited for the workers to bring Ground-types to repair the field, inspecting their work before finally leaving.
Lucas silently made up his mind:
Next time, I'll use my authority and get Dendra—who's both nominally and actually my subordinate—to handle this work. Why push myself when I can put others to work?
By nearly 5 PM, Lucas finally left Naranja Academy with a thoroughly satisfied Ash.
As soon as they landed at home and Ash dismounted Charizard, a green "little cannonball" shot toward him.
Ash caught Larvitar in one hand without even wobbling.
This made Lucas fall silent.
Careless again—forgot to capture this "Super Rookie" moment on camera.
Looking closely at Ash's arms, Larvitar still had some traces of drool at the corner of its mouth—clearly just woken up.
Shortly after Larvitar burst out, Oranguru, who'd been tasked by Lucas to care for it, followed.
"Young master, you're finally back!"
Oranguru looked at Lucas as if it had found its backbone.
The Calyrex King had taken Glastrier and Spectrier to the town to inspect the environment and ore output these past days, so only Lucas could make decisions.
"A Pokémon that can talk, just like Team Rocket's Meowth...?"
Holding Larvitar, Ash stared blankly at Oranguru.
Earlier at noon, Oranguru had been supervising the new house and hadn't met Ash—this was their first meeting.
Clearly, Oranguru had given Ash quite a fright.
"That's telepathy, just like Entei."
Lucas patted Ash's shoulder. Seeing Ash's look of sudden understanding, he turned to Oranguru.
"Did something happen?" Lucas asked, frowning.
Oranguru looked troubled, shook its head, and then nodded.
Using telepathy, it explained what had happened:
Not long ago, Larvitar woke up.
Not seeing Ash or Lucas, it nearly cried loud enough to lift the roof, scaring the Eldegoss sunning themselves on the balcony above.
If that was all, it could have just waited for Lucas and Ash to return. Larvitar would have calmed down soon enough.
Of course, Oranguru had tried its best.
For example, it used Psychic to float Growlithe's old toys to amuse Larvitar.
That distracted Larvitar for a moment, but its mood soon deteriorated again.
At that moment, Larvitar noticed a wooden box in the corner of the living room.
Since being placed there, the box had barely been moved. If not for Oranguru's meticulous cleaning, it would have been covered in dust by now.
For some reason, Larvitar was very interested in the box. It clung to it and refused to let go, forgetting even to be stiff around strangers.
With no choice, Oranguru gave in and unlocked the box.
Inside were two ancient-looking wooden tablets.
Oranguru remembered Lucas bringing them back from Johto when he went to collect Silver and Gold Berry seedlings.
Since nothing ever happened with them, they were just locked away in the box in the corner.
Oranguru had no idea why Larvitar was interested in the tablets, but knowing their history, it allowed Larvitar to touch them.
Then, something unexpected happened.
The tablets suddenly emitted a blinding light. Oranguru forced its eyes open out of responsibility, trying to see what was happening.
What it saw was bizarre:
The two tablets floated up, transformed into two Pokémon Oranguru had never seen before, and flew straight into Larvitar, vanishing!
When the light faded, only the empty box remained, a dumbfounded Larvitar—who decided to just freeze in place—and a mentally collapsed Oranguru.
Larvitar then went back to sleep until Lucas and Ash returned.
After hearing Oranguru's story, Lucas fell silent for a while.
Looking at Ash and Larvitar, he said quietly, "Let's go inside. Bring me the box—I want to take a look."
Although Lucas didn't blame Oranguru, Oranguru still felt it had been too negligent—a mistake a perfect Pokémon butler shouldn't make.
It forced itself to perk up and went to retrieve the box, dejected.
A few minutes later, in the living room—
Lucas accepted the box from Oranguru and examined it.
The box's faint wood scent lingered, but inside it was now empty. The tablets were gone.
But that wasn't important. Looking at the box, Lucas recalled where the tablets had come from.
After resolving the Unown riot at the Hale mansion and the incident with the Crystal Tower's Entei, those two tablets had suddenly appeared behind him that morning, clattering onto the floor.
Thinking back carefully—
He remembered the tablets bore patterns different from Professor Oak's set. Instead of the 26 alphabetic Unown, these had "Exclamation Mark" and "Question Mark" symbols.
According to his knowledge, the tablets were the dormant forms of Unown. There are 28 Unown, including special ones for the exclamation and question marks.
So, it could be inferred that these tablets were the "Exclamation Mark" and "Question Mark" Unown, possessing mysterious powers.
But why did these two Unown react to Larvitar and enter its body? Lucas had a vague idea, but wasn't sure yet.
After some thought, Lucas glanced at Ash and Larvitar, then whispered to Oranguru: "Pay close attention to Larvitar's condition these next few days. Don't tell Ash for now—he's too impulsive."
"Let's wait until Calyrex returns before running more checks."
Oranguru nodded lightly. "Understood."
…
The Next Morning
Ash, sprawled out with Pikachu and Larvitar, was mercilessly woken by Lucas.
"Get up—it's time to work."
Ash yawned, eyes wide in confusion.
Work? What work? Is he talking to me?
Lucas, holding a box full of Poké Balls, gave Ash a mischievous grin.
That row of white teeth made Ash inexplicably nervous.
The next second, his premonition was fulfilled.
Lucas said, "Free training, including room and board, comes with a price, of course."
"Professor Oak has already sent all your Pokémon to the Pokémon Center in Los Platos Town, and the other side has handed them over to me."
"Now, it's time for some happy farm work."
…
…
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