Among Cynthia's Pokémon lineup, aside from Garchomp, she had also trained Lucario.
Lucario was, without question, an excellent candidate for Mega Evolution.
After Mega Evolving, its overall combat performance and raw strength would increase dramatically—
far more reliably than Garchomp's infamous "Mega-devolution."
And yet…
As the single most famous Pokémon Trainer in the entire Pokémon world whose identity was inseparably tied to Garchomp,
there was essentially no one else like her.
Somehow, it just felt wrong if Cynthia didn't Mega Evolve Garchomp.
For example, during battles in Wyndon Stadium in the Galar region, Cynthia once used the Dynamax mechanic to Dynamax Togekiss.
That was, strictly speaking, a reasonable and efficient tactical choice.
But it was never her most iconic moment—
never the scene people would remember as "peak Cynthia."
When a Pokémon Trainer reaches the decisive, do-or-die moment of a battle,
they must choose to believe in their ace.
Believe that their ace Pokémon possesses the strength and resolve to—
Hold up a collapsing tower,
and turn the raging tide at the very brink of defeat.
That is what an ace Pokémon is meant to be.
Just like a card game enthusiast, backed into a corner,
who still believes in their deck—
—and then topdecks a miracle draw, howling like a true "luck-sacking god."
This is what people call the bond between Trainer and Pokémon.
"Seriously—what kind of sane person Mega Evolves Garchomp?!"
After throwing out that blunt remark, Serena continued casually,
"Though, to be fair…"
"I'm not exactly a sane person either."
"So I am planning to reserve my Mega Evolution slot
for my Gible—after it evolves into Garchomp."
Serena's Gible was special.
From birth, it had been an illegal Pokémon—
one that could learn Dragon Dance, a move that Garchomp should never be able to learn under normal circumstances.
Thanks to Dragon Dance's excellent Speed boosts,
even if Mega Garchomp lost ten points of base Speed—
after a 1.5× Speed boost,
or even two stages of Dragon Dance doubling its Speed—
Mega Garchomp could still effortlessly outspeed many Pokémon occupying the same competitive tier.
Under those conditions,
a difference of two points… or even ten points of base Speed
became completely irrelevant.
So it's because your Gible knows Dragon Dance…
Cynthia wiped her laptop screen clean and typed out a message.
Her slender fingers rested lightly on the mouse—
but she didn't press "send."
She truly wanted to ask how Serena's Gible had learned Dragon Dance,
and whether it was possible to replicate or study that process.
But exposing her intentions so blatantly—
to fish for secrets—
felt inelegant.
Unbecoming.
Too desperate.
Cynthia deeply wished her own Garchomp could learn Dragon Dance—
a stable Speed-boosting move with no drawbacks, far superior to Scale Shot.
Scale Shot:
Fires sharp dragon scales to attack 2–5 times. After use, Speed rises, but Defense falls.
But still…
…Sigh.
Better to be patient.
Build the relationship slowly.
Wait for a proper, reasonable opportunity.
Sometimes, taking a detour in pursuit of success
is actually the shortest path.
"Well then," Cynthia replied with a soft smile,
"good luck to you and your Gible."
"I could already tell—you're definitely not a 'proper' person."
Would a proper person call complete strangers "brother… brother…"
every day on Poke-Line?
According to statistics,
people who frequently open conversations with "brother" and spam Chiikawa stickers
have an 89% probability of being—
…never mind.
Three days later, after allowing the Pokémon who had fought continuously to fully recover,
the elimination stage of the Sprout Cup Freshman Tournament officially began.
Sixteen challengers had advanced to the main event,
competing in one-on-one elimination matches.
Of the remaining fifteen contestants who cleared the preliminaries,
every single one was a Pokémon Battle major student.
Only Serena, a non–Battle major, remained standing.
Or perhaps…
a weirdo.
"Business Administration knowledge can absolutely be applied to Pokémon training and management,"
Serena said, arms crossed.
"So really—this outcome is perfectly reasonable."
"In previous years, there were non–Battle major students who joined the Sprout Cup just for fun,"
one teacher on the organizing committee remarked, clearly surprised.
"But making it past the preliminaries? That's unprecedented."
Wasn't this basically slapping the Battle Department in the face?
How was it that students specializing in Pokémon battles
were being outperformed by someone who was supposedly dabbling?
Another teacher pushed up their glasses and couldn't help muttering,
"Well, you should also mention that in previous years,
there weren't any freshmen starting out with a late-blooming pseudo-legendary either."
"…That's true."
"But where on earth did Serena even get that starter Pokémon?"
"According to her enrollment records," someone added,
"she didn't submit any information about a starter Pokémon at all."
"In the 'starter Pokémon brought to campus' field,
she simply wrote: 'None.'"
"Too low-key… far too low-key."
One teacher sighed in admiration.
"At such a spirited age, she doesn't show off at all—
instead, she understands the principle of 'a gentleman conceals his tools and waits for the time.'"
"This student… is truly something special."
In reality, the reason Serena had written 'None' in that field back then
was extremely simple.
At that time—
she genuinely hadn't raised a starter Pokémon yet.
It had nothing to do with being modest.
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