"Indeed, Trainers from family factions have a much higher baseline than civilian Trainers. It looks like we'll need to be extra careful whenever we run into family Trainers in the future."
After hearing about the battle, Icarus's expression turned serious. If even a collateral member of one of the Four Great Families could use combination Moves, then the level of skill he and his companions possessed was probably only upper-middle tier — or perhaps merely average — among the Great Families.
Although he had already expected this outcome, seeing it firsthand still felt discouraging.
After all, he was someone the Gym Leader's family once wanted to recruit through marriage.
(Previously, Old Master Arai had personally represented the Third Branch in inviting him to marry into the family.)
Originally, Icarus had felt somewhat smug. He thought he was a true genius for developing combination Moves and progressing so quickly.
Reality, however, gave him a harsh slap in the face.
Among commoners, he was undoubtedly considered a genius. But within the family factions, he could only be called talented.
He already knew who the true monsters were — the previously mentioned seeded contestants, the elite Trainers from the great families, and the civilian Trainer Qi. All of them had reached the Superior stage at a very young age.
There was no point talking about fairness, lucky opportunities, or resource allocation.
Absolute fairness simply did not exist in this world.
Even Icarus himself had only reached mid-level at sixteen because of repeated lucky encounters.
Of course, an opportunity was only considered fortunate if you had the ability to seize it. Without the ability, it wasn't an opportunity at all — it became a disaster.
Take the Tauros incident as an example. If Icarus hadn't reacted quickly enough, a slower-thinking Trainer would have been trampled into paste by the stampede.
"It's fine. They're Superior-level at twenty, but I'm already mid-level at sixteen. I can definitely catch up."
After silently encouraging himself, Icarus led the other two toward another battlefield. Since the next round wouldn't begin until evening, he decided it would be better to continue observing the strength of the family factions.
Originally, he had planned to go sightseeing around town, but after realizing how shortsighted he had been, he completely lost interest in shopping. Right now, he only wanted to understand the true baseline strength of the family factions.
…
After watching dozens of battles — all specifically involving family Trainers — time unknowingly approached five in the evening.
"Let's go eat first. The next round of qualifiers starts at 6:30."
Seeing the current match end, Icarus felt they had gathered enough information for now. He stood up and spoke to the two beside him.
"Yeah, I really learned a lot today."
"Same here. I didn't expect basically every family Trainer to know combination Moves."
The two followed behind Icarus as they left the spectator seats.
The afternoon's observations had indeed been eye-opening.
Before today, since they had never truly interacted with family factions, all three believed they were already doing fairly well. Although their strength might still lag behind for now, they thought they could eventually climb into the upper ranks of their level with enough time.
But after today, they realized that the baseline strength of family Trainers was at least one or two levels above that of civilian Trainers.
Combination Moves were practically standard knowledge among them, and their Pokémon were almost universally raised according to proper breeding manuals.
Most importantly, after observing for an entire afternoon, they noticed that the majority of those Pokémon were developed well above average standards.
It truly highlighted the difference between Trainers backed by a family and commoners with nothing.
The breeding manuals Icarus had risked his life to obtain were simply handed out for free within those families as long as one met the requirements.
Earlier that afternoon, Icarus had even seen a Trainer from Luna's family. He appeared to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old and only an Ordinary low-level Trainer. His Pokémon was also a Raticate, but its overall development and performance were obviously superior to the Raticate from the earlier civilian match.
Of course, in Icarus's eyes, that was still just average. He felt any one of his three Pokémon could defeat it.
Still, it also proved that Luna's family was genuinely lacking in talented members. Otherwise, they wouldn't have sent only a low-level Trainer to participate in this tournament.
After dinner, Icarus immediately returned to the Gym lobby and began waiting in the resting area for his next match.
"Contestant Number 378, please proceed to Battlefield 7!"
Perhaps because nearly half the contestants had already been eliminated, it didn't take long before the broadcast called his number again.
"Let's go~"
"Icarus! You can do it!"
"Good luck!"
After a brief farewell, Icarus walked alone toward the contestant area.
"Oh? It's her?"
After verifying his identity and entering the battlefield, Icarus was momentarily stunned when he saw his opponent.
Coincidentally, the girl across from him was equally shocked.
"It's him! I didn't expect this Team Rocket member was originally from Aoki Town!"
The moment she recognized his distinctive face, a surge of anger instantly rose inside her.
That's right.
This opponent was a familiar stranger.
Familiar because during that forced mission, Icarus had thoroughly searched her body from head to toe.
A stranger because he still had no idea what her name actually was. He only knew she came from the Eizaki family and had been the top student of her generation.
"Standing on my right is Trainer Aoi Eizaki of the Eizaki Family!
Standing on my left is Trainer Icarus Aoki of Aoki Town!"
Fortunately, the referee's introduction immediately solved that problem for both sides.
"So this bastard's name is Icarus Aoki… Fine. I'll make you cry in this battle!"
Although Aoi came from the Eizaki family, she was only a collateral branch member. The fact that she had become the strongest among her peers despite that status wasn't just due to talent — it was also because she was exceptionally mature for her age.
So even though she recognized Icarus, she understood perfectly well that she was now part of Team Rocket and absolutely couldn't expose herself recklessly.
Her anger had to remain buried deep inside.
On the surface, she maintained a cold, expressionless face.
After all, from an outsider's perspective, she and Icarus should never have met before. If she suddenly exploded with rage the instant she saw him, it would obviously look suspicious.
"She's smart. Makes sense though. To become first in her generation within one of the Four Great Families, her emotional control must be excellent."
Seeing her pretend not to recognize him, Icarus silently gave her praise in his heart.
If she had truly rushed over to confront him recklessly, he would probably have needed to flee immediately or prepare for a public conflict.
In fact, just moments ago, he had already considered exposing the Eizaki family to save himself if things got out of hand.
After all, if the choice came down to investigating a Great Family or a commoner, the authorities would definitely target the family first. At that point, Icarus might even have been able to lessen his own punishment through cooperation.
"But she's definitely still furious. Well… I did search her entire body back then."
Naturally, Icarus still noticed the anger she was suppressing — her tightly clenched fists and heaving chest made it obvious enough.
"Both contestants, release your Pokémon simultaneously!"
The referee, of course, noticed none of this tension. After finishing the introductions, he immediately ordered both sides to send out their Pokémon.
"Go, Raticate!"
"I choose you, Pidgeotto!"
Both Poké Balls opened at the same time.
As expected, Aoi used her starter Pokémon — the former Rattata that Pidgeotto had once easily defeated. It had since evolved into Raticate.
Meanwhile, Icarus once again chose Pidgeotto.
Since he already recognized her, he was almost certain she would use Raticate.
In that case, why not use a Flying-type Pokémon to suppress her again?
Besides, although she looked calm on the surface, who knew how much resentment she was bottling up inside?
So Icarus deliberately gave her a chance.
He would defeat her once again using the exact same Pidgeotto that had humiliated her before.
"Ratta! Ratta!? (◣д◢)!?"
Unlike its Trainer, the simple-minded Raticate immediately recognized Pidgeotto as the opponent that had crushed it before.
The moment enemies met again, rage erupted in its eyes as it glared furiously at Pidgeotto.
"Pii-beep~"
Pidgeotto, meanwhile, clearly didn't remember the Raticate at all. It reacted with complete indifference.
"Battle start!"
The referee merely assumed the Raticate had strong fighting spirit. Since he wasn't a Pokémon language expert, he naturally failed to understand the deeper meaning behind the growls.
"Raticate, Quick Attack into Bite!"
Clearly wanting to seize the initiative while Pidgeotto's altitude was still low, Aoi immediately ordered an aggressive opening attack.
"Ratta~ Shua!"
Raticate instantly leapt upward at high speed, opening its jaws wide as it lunged.
Using the momentum from Quick Attack, it actually managed to jump over ten meters high.
"Pidgeotto, Quick Attack upward! Then Air Slash to knock it back!"
In Icarus's opinion, the battle was already decided. Letting her attack first was simply his way of seeing how much this former captive had improved.
"Shua! Whoosh whoosh~"
Pidgeotto rapidly shot higher into the air before flapping its wings twice and launching two sharp Air Slashes downward.
"Puchi Puchi"
Raticate's Bite hit nothing but empty air.
Suspended mid-jump with no footing, it could only helplessly watch as the Air Slashes tore two large wounds across its body.
"Bang! Ratta~"
The impact immediately blasted Raticate back onto the ground.
"Pidgeotto, maintain altitude. Use Gust and slowly wear it down."
Previously, Raticate had only barely reached ten meters by combining Quick Attack with its jump.
Now that Pidgeotto had climbed over twenty meters high, Icarus was certain it could never reach him.
"You… despicable!"
Seeing Pidgeotto rise to the maximum allowed height, Aoi was furious beyond words.
"Whoosh whoosh~"
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh~"
Pidgeotto, meanwhile, cared nothing about whether the tactic was shameless or not.
Its job was simply to obey commands and win.
Strong gusts and twisting whirlwinds repeatedly swept across the battlefield.
"Ratta~ Ratta! Dah!"
At first, Raticate could still dodge while enduring the attacks. But after running around continuously for so long, its speed inevitably slowed, and injuries gradually accumulated across its body.
"Are you even a man?! Fight me head-on if you dare!"
Seeing this hopeless situation, Aoi finally shouted at Icarus in frustration, trying to provoke him.
"Pidgeotto, continue."
Icarus remained completely unmoved by such childish taunts. He coldly continued the kiting strategy.
"Ratta! Ratta-dah~"
As Raticate slowed further and further, it inevitably suffered several more direct hits from Gust, crying out painfully.
"Bastard!"
Watching her partner desperately struggle while only being forced to flee, Aoi felt helpless and unwilling.
But seeing Icarus remain entirely unaffected, she finally raised her hand.
"Referee, I surrender!"
The moment those words left her mouth, she unexpectedly felt a strange sense of relief.
"Pidgeotto, stop."
Hearing the surrender clearly, Icarus immediately ordered Pidgeotto to halt its attacks.
"Very well. Contestant Number 378 on the left is the winner."
The referee instantly announced the result.
"Return, Pidgeotto."
After winning, Icarus nodded politely toward the defeated girl before recalling his Pokémon and turning to leave.
"You worked hard, Raticate."
Aoi also recalled her badly injured partner. After quietly comforting it, she stared at Icarus's retreating figure and gritted her teeth.
"Icarus Aoki… I'll remember that name.
My item wasn't so easy to steal."
She was not an ordinary girl.
Just as Icarus suspected, becoming first place among her generation in the Eizaki family despite being from a collateral branch required far more than just talent.
It required cunning and composure.
That low-grade item had been worth 200,000 Alliance currency.
Maybe that amount wasn't much to her now, but back then, before she advanced further, that money could have allowed her Raticate to reach Ordinary Level at least half a month earlier.
More importantly, she had hidden the item there purely as an emergency measure while escaping.
After all, who would normally hide valuables in such a private place?
At the time, that 200,000 Alliance currency had been her greatest asset.
Especially after her parents died, her life within the family had only become harder and harder.
If her parents' Pokémon hadn't left behind a Pokémon Egg before their deaths — allowing her to obtain a Rattata — she might never even have become a Trainer.
Large families were not always kind places for collateral branch members.
Especially not for an orphaned collateral branch girl who inherited a considerable amount of family property.
Now that the item had vanished, she naturally understood what that implied.
There was no way Icarus could have found it without thoroughly searching her body.
When she woke up inside Team Rocket headquarters, she was still wearing the same clothes from before.
Everything else remained intact.
Only the hidden item was gone.
Which meant that scar-faced man had definitely found it.
And if he found that…
Then he must have searched every part of her body.
Thinking about it now, her face couldn't help turning slightly red.
Even though she had secretly checked herself afterward and confirmed she was technically still a virgin…
If someone had searched her that thoroughly, could she really still consider herself untouched?
-------------Author---------------
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