Willpower granted them excellent mental defenses, making it easy for external psychic waves to control their bodies, but much harder to manipulate their minds—at least more difficult than controlling a human.
What Greninja could learn was the aspect of influencing the mind with the mind, dulling the opponent's senses—a skill whose importance in singles battles went without saying.
As for the multiple-blade style of attack, this chuunibyou creature was absolutely in love with it. Though its targets weren't human, Greninja itself wasn't human either, so it should be fine. Probably.
Li Xiang lounged on the sofa, spending the entire afternoon with his four Pokémon watching the God-Slaying Sword Art videos. There were minor incidents along the way—Corviknight knocking over a cola, Incineroar accidentally burning through the sofa cover, Greninja drooling all over the floor, Lucario chasing the three of them around with a mop while they wailed, and Metagross losing points and smashing its keyboard.
Such details weren't worth mentioning to outsiders.
Galarian Meowth's new fruit shaved ice—which was absolutely divine—also added to the joy of their break.
At the battle hall, the reserve team students who usually waited for Li Xiang to show up and spar found themselves waiting in vain.
They realized he had blown them off today. It was a pity.
In just one semester, the image of Li Xiang in their minds had evolved multiple times—from the guy who got in through the back door, to a promising freshman, to a battle freak who wouldn't let them rest, to a rising star in the Summer Tournament, and now—the eternal god of Mist City University!
Such an unprecedented figure, and they were eyewitnesses to history—even the very nutrients that fueled his growth. That strong sense of participation naturally turned them into Li Xiang's loyal followers.
When he didn't show up to battle them, they felt an emptiness inside. One couldn't help but wonder if they had a masochistic streak.
They lingered there, melancholic, worrying that he might never come again, sighing one after another.
Back at the villa, Li Xiang scooped up a spoonful of shaved ice, and just as he was about to put it in his mouth, he couldn't help but shiver.
He was momentarily confused. He hadn't even eaten it yet and was already shivering—was he that weak?
"Caw—"
"Scram!"
Li Xiang slapped away a large paw and glared at its owner.
Incineroar withdrew its hand pitifully, watching everyone else enjoy their shaved ice while it got none, ready to throw a tantrum.
"You've had enough cold stuff today! Do you even realize you're a Fire-type Pokémon? Not to mention—even if you weren't, eating too much ice cream is bad for you!"
Li Xiang rapped the table with the back of his hand, his expression stern.
Before he left, Galarian Meowth had made sixteen spicy ice creams and stored them in the fridge. When he returned, two were gone. He assumed Incineroar had only eaten two. But when he opened the fridge—whoa! Half were missing!
The only one in the house who loved spicy ice cream was this one. The others either couldn't eat it or weren't interested. Who else would have taken them?
The culprit was none other than the gluttonous tiger!
"Are you some kind of child prodigy with psychic eyes or Gintoki Sakata? How can you eat so much ice cream?!"
Li Xiang swatted away Incineroar's hand as it reached for his bowl again, ignoring its tearful expression.
"Roar."
Seeing that neither pleading nor throwing a fit worked, Incineroar just shamelessly rested its chin on its paw, looking utterly unimpressed—exactly like a rebellious teenager being scolded by their parents!
Li Xiang shook his head. Cats really do get less cute as they grow up. At least dogs were better. He reached out and stroked Lucario's neat, pointy ears—the furry texture felt fantastic.
"Lucario."
Lucario looked up slightly and gave Li Xiang a gentle smile. Truth be told, it no longer minded head pats, but not patting its head had become an unspoken understanding between them.
No need to make a big deal out of it. Pat if you want, don't if you don't. Simple.
After finishing their afternoon tea, Greninja tugged at Li Xiang's hand, eager to head to the training hall. It was impatient to try out the concepts of "cutting the three gods" and "controlling the three gods."
Since they had nothing better to do, Li Xiang went along.
The training hall was still the same spacious, empty environment—perfect for Li Xiang to test new ideas and practice new strategies.
The so-called "cutting the three gods" could essentially be summed up in one word: Extrasensory. But Extrasensory couldn't affect the opponent's senses—it was just a simple attacking move.
So to better understand the concept of mind influencing mind, they decided to start from scratch and go through it step by step.
"The video says that to cut the three gods, you first need to feel the presence of the gods—in other words, you must sense the existence of your own psychic waves."
Li Xiang held his phone, which had the video saved on it.
Greninja nodded, closed its eyes, then opened them again, tilting its head and scratching it.
"...Ninja?" (.ヘ°)
What did it mean to "sense your own psychic waves"? How did you even do that?
The video did explain this: "To sense psychic waves, you must first recognize the existence of emotions... you need to first..."
Li Xiang spoke, but his voice trailed off. The explanation in the video was just too abstract—that vague, elusive feeling.
Ah, it had been a while—that familiar feeling from when he first started learning martial arts.
"Tch, let's try a shortcut." Li Xiang turned off the video and looked at the confused Greninja. "Use Substitute to create another individual that is both you and not you. Have one of them use Extrasensory to observe the other—try it and see if it works."
This matryoshka method wasn't something humans could do, but Pokémon could.
"Ninja!"
Greninja's eyes lit up with understanding. It assumed a stance, let out a low grunt, and summoned its Substitute.
"Ninja! =('ヮ'三'ヮ'=)"
In an instant, one became two.
The two Greninja looked at each other, reached out, and shook hands as if to say "hello." This guy sure loved to put on a show.
Li Xiang didn't pay it much mind and told Greninja to begin the process.
The first to "attack" was the fake Greninja. It raised its hand and fired an invisible shockwave, sending the original flying.
"Whoa! I said sense it, not attack! Did you forget everything from the Three-Blind Perception training?!"
Li Xiang ran over to the original and helped it up.
The fake Greninja scratched its head with its webbed hand in embarrassment. It really had forgotten about the Three-Blind Perception method. How humiliating.
They started over. This time, the initial progress went more smoothly. With the aid of the Three-Blind Perception method, Extrasensory carefully wrapped around Greninja's body and slowly began to seep inward.
Then—
Bang!
A puff of smoke exploded in front of Greninja, and it was sent flying high again, crashing down hard.
"Hiss!"
The fake Greninja winced in pain—their consciousness was shared; of course, the clone felt the original's pain. But for the sake of better observing the psychic waves, it had chosen the original as the test subject.
Seeing this, Li Xiang didn't sigh or complain. He walked over, helped the original up, and patted its shoulder. "Everything's hard at the beginning. Don't get discouraged. This time, let's scale it back—don't use Extrasensory, just use the Three-Blind Perception method."
"Ninja."
Greninja nodded.
Compared to the elusive perception observation, using Extrasensory to observe internally was clearly more direct. But Greninja couldn't quite balance attack and control, so they had no choice but to take a step back.
The Three-Blind Perception method—a skill that had brought Li Xiang enormous benefits—had barely progressed since he'd achieved a minor breakthrough, nearly stagnating. He was still training it, but there was no progress to speak of.
Li Xiang had asked his senior sister if she was in the same boat, but her answer made him feel bitter—and regret making that call.
"Greninja, my chance at redemption rests on you! The last of the Big Three to reach minor mastery, yet the first to reach major mastery—I believe in you!"
He spoke earnestly, patting Greninja's head. Greninja stared back at him, utterly bewildered. He was starting early today.
They regrouped. The Three-Blind Perception method—sealing sight, hearing, and smell, relying solely on spirit to perceive the surroundings.
Sealing the three senses was easy for Greninja; a foam mousse did the job in an instant. The real challenge was what came next.
Li Xiang and Greninja stood face to face. He raised his right hand. "Greninja, which hand is this?"
Greninja raised its right webbed hand.
"And which finger is this?" Li Xiang raised his thumb first, then his middle finger.
Greninja mimicked him—then smacked Li Xiang in the face with foam.
"Pfft, pfft—okay, okay, enough messing around. You're pretty clear on my presence, huh."
Li Xiang wiped the foam off his face.
The connection between trainer and Pokémon was a strange thing—like how a trainer could roughly understand what their own Pokémon was saying, but couldn't understand another's. The reverse was also true.
When it came to the Three-Blind Perception method, Greninja had spent years using Li Xiang as its reference point. Even with limited sensory input, as long as it had a sliver of information, it could reconstruct his current state and movements through mental simulation. That came from years of observation.
So whether this counted as "perceiving" Li Xiang was debatable. And whether it could observe itself was another unknown.
The experiment began. Since their consciousness was shared, both Greninja had their three sensory organs sealed. They were like blind people facing each other.
Soon, both Greninja began moving, then suddenly lunged forward!
Li Xiang opened his mouth to speak, but saw the two Greninja pass each other by, each manifesting a pair of blood-red blades in their hands.
—They started a blind duel?
He wanted to call it off, but figured Greninja had its own plan, so he stepped aside and quietly watched.
In theory, two bodies sharing one consciousness fighting blind was like closing your eyes and playing rock-paper-scissors with your left and right hands—how could you not know what the other hand was throwing?
But unlike rock-paper-scissors, blind dueling had more variables, leading to unexpected outcomes—like misjudging the other body's position based on their stance, turning a chest strike into an arm hit.
Surprisingly entertaining. Much better than the self-deceptive fighting style they used with their eyes open.
Li Xiang watched from the sidelines, almost forgetting why they had come here in the first place.
"Hey, hey, hey! Don't get carried away!"
He called out just in time to snap Greninja out of its trance. It came back to its senses and slowed down the pace.
The blind duel continued. Li Xiang watched in silence, losing track of time.
Then Greninja excitedly shook off the foam mousse covering its eyes.
"Ninja!"
I found it!
It waved at Li Xiang excitedly.
"Oh! That fast!" Li Xiang was surprised. Usually, progress took days—how had it made a breakthrough on the very first day?