⚠️ Spoiler Status (Chapter 201 - 400): Find more details on my Patreon here:
Visit: patreon.com/posts/pkcl-state-201-117107102
---
In the afternoon, after being notified by the loudspeaker, Cain headed back to the battlefield.
Seeing the prizes for the top three on the referee's table, Cain thought those items were extremely tempting.
If he didn't genuinely want to compete for those prizes, he might have already withdrawn.
If he left now, all the danger would have nothing to do with him.
But after returning from the sailors' quarters, Cain had thought for a long time and finally decided to stay.
The first reason was that the tournament prizes were indeed attractive. Additionally, those items were displayed so blatantly that anyone would feel tempted to look at them. This was a very clever strategy on Yamamoto's part.
However, if it were only about the prizes, it wouldn't have been enough for Cain to decide to stay. The main reason was the old man Matsuda with whom he had shared a meal. With his presence, at least Cain wouldn't have to worry about facing an enemy so powerful that he couldn't defend himself or escape.
Moreover, Cain didn't believe that if the League had detected something, they would only send a single Elite Level Four trainer.
What Cain didn't know was that Matsuda's actions were completely voluntary and that the League hadn't actually sent any combatants on board. Most of the League trainers on the ship were fairly weak. Even someone like Jin was considered one of the stronger ones among them.
If Cain had known this, he probably would have reconsidered his decision.
The League usually won through sheer numbers, which had given Cain the false impression that there would always be additional support.
The second reason he decided to stay was that the group to whom the blue handkerchief he found belonged, while powerful, was not as threatening as Team Rocket.
But that wasn't the important part. The crucial thing was that, as Cain recalled, that organization shouldn't have revealed itself to the world at this point in the timeline.
If they caused a big commotion, they might attract the League's attention before they were fully prepared.
Therefore, Cain thought the leader of that organization, if they had any common sense, wouldn't do anything that would draw too much attention from the League.
So Cain only needed to stay on guard against the crafty Yamamoto.
Cain took his position. When he arrived, both the audience and his opponent had already been waiting for a while.
If he had arrived a few minutes later, he would have been disqualified from the tournament.
Cain's opponent was a young woman in her twenties with a black ponytail and an ordinary appearance.
Cain had no memory of her.
Only after the referee introduced her did Cain learn that the young woman was named Kyoko.
The battle began immediately.
Cain sent out his signature Pokémon, Slowpoke.
Kyoko, clearly having studied Cain, sent out her Grass-type Pokémon, Gloom, to take advantage of the type advantage over Cain's Water-type Pokémon.
Under Cain's system analysis, Gloom had a dark yellow aptitude, was level 22, and was a fairly standard Grass and Poison-type Pokémon.
Cain had bet on the Flamethrower TM in his battle against Takaya Imamura, so Kyoko assumed Slowpoke hadn't learned any Fire-type moves, allowing her to make full use of the type advantage.
But she clearly hadn't considered that Gloom, also being a Poison type, was vulnerable to Psychic-type moves.
"Slowpoke, don't hold back. Use Psyshock and go all out."
Aware of the possible danger on the ship, Cain wasn't in the mood to play childish games with these novice trainers.
He attacked first, ordering Slowpoke to use its strongest move with the simple goal of ending the battle as quickly as possible.
"Gloom, use Stun Spore," Kyoko ordered without hesitation.
Gloom, a Pokémon that quickly learned powder techniques, could be quite effective in battle if its moves were used correctly.
But for Slowpoke, Gloom was simply too slow.
Gloom's Stun Spore move, clearly not well-trained, was so slow that it hadn't finished releasing the powder when Slowpoke had already launched the Psyshock move twice.
With the advantage in level, aptitude, abilities, and type, Gloom was directly defeated by Slowpoke's Psyshock move.
Fortunately, Slowpoke held back at the last second; otherwise, Gloom would not only have lost the ability to fight but might have died.
Kyoko, biting her lip to hold back tears, stared at Cain, who maintained an indifferent expression. After a moment, she threw another Pokéball.
This time, she stopped trying to exploit the type advantage and sent out her strongest Pokémon, the Pidgeotto that had made her stand out in the preliminary rounds, a level 25 Pokémon with light green aptitude.
This was Kyoko's starter Pokémon, which her father had captured with much effort.
Pidgeotto, using its flying ability, had made it easy for Kyoko to break through in the preliminaries.
"Fly, Pidgeotto! Use Gust," Kyoko ordered.
"Slowpoke, use Protect and then Calm Mind."
Both Pokémon had no type advantage over the other, meaning the outcome would be decided by pure skill.
Pidgeotto, being Kyoko's starter Pokémon, had a much faster skill execution speed than Gloom.
Pidgeotto quickly formed a tornado in front of its wings and launched it toward Slowpoke, enveloping it.
Slowpoke, without moving, used the Protect move to block the attack and then entered a meditative state with the Calm Mind move.
Having practiced this move a lot, Slowpoke executed it perfectly, protecting itself and meditating almost simultaneously.
When it finished meditating, Slowpoke opened its eyes.
"Slowpoke, let's finish this quickly. Use Psyshock, then Water Gun with Confusion, take it down."
Slowpoke's eyes glowed, and just when Pidgeotto thought its attack had been effective, it was quickly struck by Slowpoke's Psyshock move. Then, the Water Gun move powered by the Confusion move hit it, increasing both its power and speed.
Dazed by the Psyshock move, Pidgeotto started to fall, being struck by the Water Gun move before reaching the ground.
"Pidgeotto! Hang in there! Use Gust!" Kyoko shouted, tears in her eyes as she looked at her fallen Pidgeotto.
"Slowpoke, finish it. Teleport and use Headbutt."
Slowpoke instantly teleported beside Pidgeotto, which was still trying to stand, and launched the Headbutt move.
Boom!
The ground sank under the impact, leaving Pidgeotto incapacitated in the crater.
Slowpoke teleported back next to Cain, looking coldly at Kyoko while waiting for her to send out another Pokémon.
Too weak, simply too weak.
That was Cain's first impression. Seeing how other trainers fought so fervently, but when it came to his turn, the opponents seemed too weak.
These trainers who had never experienced a real battle, who had no clear direction in training their Pokémon, simply didn't awaken his desire to fight.
With tear-filled eyes, Kyoko picked up her Pidgeotto.
Looking at Cain, who showed no sign of offering comfort, she finally broke down in tears.
(End of chapter)