"What?!"
Matsumoto was stunned; the Flamethrower had actually been deflected. The spectators below were equally shocked. They never knew it could be played like that—deflecting a Flamethrower with physical movement was a real eye-opener for them.
After the initial shock, Matsumoto quickly regained his composure. Even if Scizor could deflect Flamethrower, it was still trapped within the Fire Whirl, wasn't it?
Eichi checked the time; three and a half minutes had passed. There was only a minute and a half left before class started.
Eichi spoke calmly, "Scizor, use Cross Slash. Finish this in one minute."
The crowd erupted at his words. Matsumoto sneered, "With your Scizor looking like that, you think you can finish my Magmar in a minute? I think it'll be my Magmar finishing your Scizor in a minute!"
"Haha!"
The spectators found Matsumoto's logic sound. Looking at Scizor's current state, it seemed very difficult for it to defeat Magmar.
Tetsu, however, thought differently. He had just heard Eichi tell Scizor to use Cross Slash. He hadn't heard of such a move before; he only knew of X-Scissor. He wondered if Eichi had misspoken.
Suddenly, Tetsu's eyes narrowed. A thought struck him: a Combination Move.
Scizor continued to spin rapidly. During the rotation, energy could be seen gathering around it, concentrating into its two pincers. Although Matsumoto was mocking Eichi, he didn't dare be careless. He worried Eichi might have a secret weapon.
Fifty seconds passed. Scizor suddenly stopped its rotation, and Magmar seized the opening to attack.
"Magmar, use Fire Blast!"
Magmar opened its mouth wide and unleashed a massive burst of flames. The fire formed the shape of the character "大" in mid-air as it surged toward Scizor. As the flames erupted, the surrounding temperature spiked once more.
Meanwhile, Scizor's attack was ready. It crossed its pincers and slashed forward in a cross motion.
A massive cross-shaped wind blade formed, striking toward the Fire Blast.
Though the cross-shaped blade was smaller than the Fire Blast, its power was far superior. The audience knew the climax had arrived; the winner would be decided by this single exchange.
On one side was the cross wind blade, kicking up miniature whirlwinds around it. On the other side was the "大" shaped fire, burning with intense heat.
A second later, the two moves collided. However, there was no deafening explosion as expected.
Everyone's faces froze in shock. Matsumoto and Ishida looked on in utter disbelief.
When the two moves met, they didn't cancel each other out. Instead, the cross wind blade sliced directly through the flames, passing through the Fire Blast and leaving a cross-shaped gap in it.
Magmar stood there in a daze. By the time Matsumoto reacted and shouted for it to dodge, it was too late. Magmar was hit directly by the cross wind blade.
Bang!
With a scream of pain, Magmar was sent flying. It crashed into the ground and couldn't get back up. Tetsu ran over quickly. After seeing that Magmar had completely lost its ability to battle, he announced excitedly, "Magmar is unable to battle! Scizor is the winner!"
Eichi looked at his watch and said, "I said I'd finish your Magmar in one minute, and I didn't need a second more."
As soon as he finished speaking, warm applause broke out from the crowd. Eichi had won. He finally defeated these two arrogant guys, dealing a heavy blow on everyone's behalf.
Every student inside the arena, outside the doors, and leaning against the windows began to clap.
"As expected of Eichi, he's amazing!"
"That's what those two get for being so arrogant!"
"Thank you, Eichi, for letting us vent our frustrations."
"What was that last move Scizor used? It was too strong!"
"Scizor is so cool!"
All sorts of discussions filled the air. Eichi pulled out a Poké Ball and recalled Scizor.
Tetsu ran over with an excited face and held out his hand. Eichi understood and gave him a high-five.
"We won! We won! Eichi, you won!" Tetsu shouted excitedly.
"You saw that, right?" Eichi replied.
"I saw it! Eichi, you are truly incredible!"
"Let's go," Eichi said. "Class is about to start."
With that, Eichi headed back to the classroom with Tetsu following close behind. "Eichi, what was that move just now? Did you learn it from Mr. Muramasa?"
The two soon passed by Matsumoto and Ishida. Matsumoto was still in a state of shock, unable to believe he had lost.
During his long travels outside, he had certainly lost before, but he had never lost to someone his age or younger. Yet today, he had lost. Not only that, he had been defeated by a Pokémon that he held a type advantage over, and the match had ended in under five minutes.
Worst of all, he knew this Scizor wasn't even Eichi's strongest Pokémon, while Magmar was his own ace. The blow to his ego was massive.
Ishida walked over to Matsumoto with a dejected expression to comfort him. "It's fine, Matsumoto. It was just one loss. A one-on-one match can't reflect your true strength. Next time we'll do a two-on-two or three-on-three match; you'll definitely win then."
Matsumoto didn't hear a single word Ishida said. He didn't even know how he eventually made it back to the classroom.
As Eichi walked out, he ran into Joylin. It turned out the next period was her class. When she arrived, she had wondered why a crowd was gathered around the class's battle arena. Upon asking, she learned Eichi was having a Pokémon battle.
Since Joylin was there, Eichi greeted her. Although everyone was a little late getting back to their seats, she didn't scold them. However, she seemed a bit annoyed with Eichi—likely because he hadn't gone to see her immediately after returning, which made her quite upset.
After class, Eichi asked Tetsu why Matsumoto and Ishida hadn't challenged Sato or Konan yet.
"They planned to," Tetsu explained. "But Sato and Konan suddenly took a week's leave to go home. No one knows why, so they missed their chance."
"That is a bit strange," Eichi remarked. "Both of them taking leave at the same time. I'll ask what happened when they get back."
Just as he finished speaking, his communicator rang. He pulled it out and looked at it. Huh? It's a call from Big Sister Amelie.
She hadn't called him in a long time. Was something wrong?
After he picked up, Amelie's voice came through the speaker. "Hello? Eichi."