Running into a distribution mission here had been unexpected. Wendy was willing to wait, because for her, even if she rushed straight to the Sinnoh region, she still wouldn't be able to find a Trainer she knew, one skilled at raising Pokémon and willing to take the Egg.
Rather, for the sake of helping that Egg grow safely and smoothly, learning those ancient legends from Hikaru was necessary.
So she remained at the end of Victory Road, gazing up at the sky, while Hikaru walked toward the final gate of the Pokémon League.
Many towers stood there.
Across the generations, Pokémon Leagues had generally been built around "towers" and "castles." Depending on the region, their designs and styles differed greatly. Even the Ranger Union headquarters, and the places where international resolutions were held, were usually combinations of castles and towers.
That pattern only started breaking in the seventh generation.
The seventh generation used mountains and caves. The eighth was a skyscraper, or rather Wyndon itself. And the ninth was a disc-shaped academy tower.
Beside the League stood a Pokémon Center where challengers could recover before battle. Since this wasn't the site of a tournament, there were almost no people inside. But the moment someone actually came in for healing, that meant...
For the local Nurse Joy, it was also a rare chance to become a bloodthirsty spectator. Especially when Hikaru stepped into the Pokémon Center, the slightly drowsy Joy instantly perked up.
"Something's happening!"
There were plenty of strong Trainers on Victory Road, but unless they trained themselves half to death, they never came here for treatment. Nurse Joy knew every one of them, yet Hikaru was a completely unfamiliar face. Which meant...
"You're here to challenge the Pokémon League?! That's amazing, a rookie~! You made it through Victory Road and beat all the Trainers in there, or at least battled every one of them?"
"The Pokémon League is a place that purely pursues strength and displays strength. For every Trainer, it's the greatest hurdle of all. Are you ready?"
Nurse Joy was intensely curious about Hikaru's arrival, but her hands never slowed as she operated the machine and carefully examined the six Pokémon appearing on the screen.
"There are a lot of species here I've never seen before!"
"Yes, some of them aren't the kind you see often around here," Hikaru said with a nod. "Do people challenge the League often?"
"Only Trainers who make it through Victory Road earn the right to challenge it." Nurse Joy smiled. "That's why I said you'd better be prepared. Once the challenge begins, you can't come back out until you either win or lose. If you lose even once, you have to start over from the beginning."
"There are four great towers. You can challenge whichever one you want first."
Nurse Joy cleared her throat. Seeing Hikaru's slightly strange look, she laughed a little awkwardly.
"Lately the League's been a bit short on staff, so they had me help with the introductions."
"But I've wanted to say this speech at least once for ages!"
"In the middle of the four towers, there's a stone statue. You saw it, right?"
"This Pokémon League is home to four mighty experts. In the southwest stands the master who knows the true nature of Ghost-types. In the southeast, the master whose Fighting-type skills have reached the divine. In the northwest, the master who has reached the pinnacle of Dark-types. In the northeast, the master who knows everything there is to know about Psychic Pokémon!"
"And when you defeat every one of these mighty experts with courage and wisdom-"
"You may ascend to the summit, where the strongest Trainer of all, the Champion, awaits!"
Inside Shauntal's tower, the dim lights suddenly flared to life. Amid the rolling chill wind, the scratch of her pen abruptly stopped.
Shauntal looked toward the entrance below.
The four towers served as the Elite Four's usual workspaces and resting places. They were, essentially, their offices inside the League, so each one had been decorated and arranged differently.
Shauntal's tower was packed with books and manuscript drafts. Crumpled-up rejected pages lay everywhere. Dim, eerie lights and all kinds of spooky objects were placed in every corner. With its spiral staircase, Shauntal could pull books from the shelves whenever she pleased.
"So you've come, Shopkeeper! And you picked me first, just as I expected? Even though Ghost is a relatively strong type."
As Hikaru rose up on a stairway carried by spiritual force, Shauntal looked a little smug.
"So? Isn't this Spirit Staircase fun? Past challengers used to get scared by it and think I was some powerful psychic medium. But actually, I can't use spirit power at all!"
"For people who are afraid of ghosts, this counts as Intimidate," Hikaru said. "It could keep them from performing the way they normally would."
"Oh, it's not that scary. I'm adorable, aren't I?" Shauntal said with a bright smile. "Besides, an Elite Four room should be gorgeous and dangerous!"
"You also became one of the Elite Four in Paldea, didn't you, Shopkeeper? What's your room like there? I bet it's decorated like some kind of steam workshop."
"My room?" Hikaru answered without hesitation, though there was a subtle emotion in his voice. "When the Paldean Elite Four battle challengers, they actually share the same waiting room and battle room."
"If you beat the first Elite Four member, they just call the second one out from the waiting room in the back. The design is extremely simple, with absolutely no personality."
Shauntal: "...?"
"Probably because they didn't have the budget," Hikaru said with a helpless laugh.
Every previous generation's Elite Four had their own rooms. Even the newly built Alola League had left enough dignity for the Elite Four by giving them their own cave arenas.
But in Scarlet and Violet, the Elite Four shared one battle room. It really did give off the feeling that the budget had been slashed.
And the Champion battle took place on the roof. Why did that feel like deciding victory and defeat on a rooftop, like if you lost you'd jump off the building?
"I-I see. Well, saving money is good too, haha..." Shauntal clearly didn't know how to respond, and looked a little embarrassed. "Maybe our League just values Trainer individuality more. Yes, let's go with that."
"It's simply because the Elite Four serve different roles there," Hikaru said. "Though the salary is good enough, so it doesn't matter much to me."
"Did you win your battle against Volkner?"
"You know I did!" Shauntal said. "That handsome guy who specializes in Thunderbolt was really strong, but in the end I came out on top!"
"So I'm not going to let you pass through here that easily, either! We're both Elite Four members, so let's see how the Elite Four of different regions compare! I'm much stronger now than I was in our last friendly match!"
"Oh, right, there's something else. I'm planning to write a new book, and I want to make you the protagonist. What do you think?"
"If it becomes a bestseller, I get half the manuscript fee and half the royalties."
"Eh?! That's highway robbery! Well... I guess it's fine! Then it's settled!"
She set down the spirit notebook and spirit fountain pen in her hands, both part of the complete supernatural set Hikaru had sold her.
"Shopkeeper, while you were away, it's not like I've been doing nothing. While your shop was closed, I was seriously studying under Granny Agatha!"
"You and Granny Agatha's teams have almost nothing in common..." Hikaru said. "Still, enough chatting. Let's begin."
"My first Pokémon is Aegislash!"
"Oh my! Starting with your ace right away?" Shauntal was startled, then raised her Poké Ball.
"Then my first one is this!"
The Elite Four battle officially began, and Shauntal's lead was Cofagrigus!
A Ghost-type Pokémon unique to Unova, Cofagrigus was something practically every major local Ghost specialist had on their team. It boasted extremely high Defense and Special Defense, and abysmally low Speed. In past battle history, it often showed up as Slaking's best buddy.
Cofagrigus pretended to be a beautiful coffin, and was said to seal greedy tomb robbers who mistook it for a real sarcophagus inside its body, turning them into mummies. According to legend, it could no longer remember that it had once been human. Cofagrigus liked eating gold nuggets, symbols of a king's wealth, which was why so many ancient tombs had murals of it.
And because its base Speed was only thirty, Shauntal's opening move with it was naturally -
"Trick Room!"
"Taaassh!"
Shauntal's Cofagrigus let out a cackling laugh as powerful psychic force instantly filled the entire tower.
"So you say you studied under the Ghost-type Elite Four, but your first move is a Psychic-type technique?" Hikaru said.
"Caitlin is my friend, after all," Shauntal said. "You'll forgive me, right?"
"Trick Room creates a bizarre twisted space. Under it, slower Pokémon act first!"
"The slower the Pokémon, the faster it moves!"
With a whoosh, Cofagrigus lunged at Aegislash, its purpose obvious.
Ability: Mummy.
If an opponent made contact with it, their Ability would become Mummy. In other words, they would effectively have no Ability at all.
In the games, that Ability only triggered when the user was hit by the opponent's move, so Cofagrigus was actively trying to get struck.
Of course, if Aegislash didn't dare attack, then it would instead have to endure Cofagrigus's offense!
"Aegislash's Ability is Stance Change!"
Shauntal pushed up her glasses. Even with her catgirl image, she suddenly looked like a sharp-eyed detective.
"Gathering information and reference material is what novelists do best. We can always find the material we want in old books and records!"
"Stance Change changes Aegislash's capabilities in battle! Its power while defending and its power while attacking are completely different!"
"If I seal off Aegislash's Ability, then it won't be able to switch between its powers freely!"
Yet when Hikaru saw Cofagrigus charging forward, and heard Shauntal's triumphant voice, he merely raised a finger and wagged it.
Aegislash neither dodged nor retreated. The instant Cofagrigus came close, it swung its blade!
The enormous sword suddenly blazed with light. Its pure heart-cleaving, invisible-enemy-cutting sword style activated.
"Shadow Sneak."
Aegislash's giant sword slashed down. Just as Cofagrigus gathered a Shadow Ball in its hands and hurled it at Aegislash, a blade of shadow burst through the Shadow Ball and cleaved the coffin so hard it nearly split in two!
"Shadow Ball should have been super effective!" Shauntal cried. She was amazed by the force of the attack, while also deeply shocked that her Cofagrigus had nearly been one-shot.
"Even under Trick Room, priority moves like Shadow Sneak still go first. The power was way above expectations, and it was even a critical hit. But all of that was already part of my plan!"
But things never developed smoothly forever.
The moment she saw Aegislash raise its shield, Shauntal immediately began doubting what she was seeing.
"...Huh? What's going on? It still changed into its defensive stance?! Its Ability should have already..."
She stared blankly at Aegislash as it shifted into Shield Forme.
Hikaru wagged his finger again.
"Under Trick Room, using Mummy to strike first, luring the opponent into a contact move, and then creating a winning setup point for the rest of the team - because Mummy spreads, it can seal off many troublesome Abilities."
"However, there is one mistake in that plan."
"Aegislash's Ability, Stance Change, is one of the Abilities that cannot be overwritten! Mummy does nothing to it!"
Abilities that cannot be overwritten were those tied directly to a Pokémon's own form changes or its essential nature. Mummy wasn't particularly powerful among Ability-suppression effects, so there were many Abilities it simply could not suppress.
Generally speaking, Protosynthesis, Quark Drive, Orichalcum Pulse, and Hadron Engine were also counted among the "cannot be overwritten" Abilities - though that could be understood as ancient and future energy being so strong that they could simply be forcibly activated.
But after later Scarlet and Violet updates, Version 3.0.0 changed those Abilities so they could be overwritten by other Abilities, and Orichalcum Pulse and Hadron Engine could even be copied or swapped.
Those fell into the category of "fake cannot-be-overwritten Abilities."
But Stance Change was different.
"To be precise, there are only fifteen Abilities tied to form-changing or a Pokémon's fundamental power that truly cannot be cancelled or overwritten. And unfortunately for you, Stance Change is one of those fifteen!"
"And in Unova, the only Ability not yet discovered that belongs on the same level as Stance Change is Zen Mode!"
As for what counted as a truly absolute ecological Ability and what counted as a fake one, that was really decided by game updates.
But sorry - no matter which version you looked at, the sword ghost's Ability always had extremely high priority!
"Raging Wield!"
Aegislash's massive blade spun violently like a giant windmill and smashed Cofagrigus's golden coffin to pieces!
"Oh dear, this is an ugly start!" Shauntal scratched her head. She hadn't expected Stance Change to have that kind of secret. Her planned "Pharaoh's Curse" strategy using Mummy as the infection starting point had collapsed on the spot.
"In that case, I'll just have to fight with raw strength!"
"Trick Room is still active. My second Pokémon... Golurk!"
"Use Imprison!"
If the opponent knew the same move as the user, then only the opponent would be unable to use that move.
"Aegislash is a Steel/Ghost-type Pokémon, so if I seal its Ghost-type moves, then for Golurk, Steel no longer hits a weakness!"
"Besides that, it resists Rock and Bug twofold, so it can completely block follow-up attacks from Head Smash and Fury Cutter, and Psychic can't suppress it effectively either, which means Psycho Cut won't be able to deal meaningful damage!"
"While it doesn't resist Dark especially well, for Aegislash, a Dark-type move without same-type attack bonus simply isn't scary enough!"
"Trick!"
The moment Shauntal ordered Golurk to use Trick, Hikaru's heart gave a jolt, but he immediately remembered that Shauntal's Golurk had Iron Fist, not Klutz.
A Klutz Golurk couldn't use its held item at all, which also nullified the item's negative effects.
That made Trick Golurk excellent at setting traps.
It could hold an Assault Vest or one of the Choice items, then swap its item onto the opponent at the right moment, forcibly locking the opponent into a move, and then follow up with Poltergeist so the opponent's own item attacked them, dealing huge damage.
But right now, Assault Vest and the Choice items were all things only Hikaru's workshop could produce. They only existed in battle company software. In ordinary battles, you wouldn't see them at all, so... there was no need to worry.
"Got it! A Ghost Gem!"
Shauntal's lips curled up. "Your Aegislash has a Rash nature! So the item I swapped onto it is a Liechi Berry!"
"Liechi Berry, originally from Lilycove City in Hoenn," Hikaru said. "When a Pokémon's HP drops below one quarter of its maximum, it activates and restores one third of its maximum HP. If the Pokémon dislikes bitter flavors, it becomes confused after activation."
"Exactly! If you get cornered, you're done for! Use Shadow Punch!" Shauntal even threw in a martial artist pose, punching forward. It looked soft and harmless, but with Iron Fist boosting punching moves, plus same-type attack bonus, Golurk's fist would hit with extremely impressive force.
Golurk's base Attack stat was a towering 124.
"Shadow Punch never misses!" Shauntal declared.
"Correct. Base 60. Under several different boosts, its effective power becomes a 108-power guaranteed-hit move. With the Ghost Gem boost, that becomes 140."
Aegislash couldn't learn Shadow Punch, only Shadow Claw. After all, it was a sword.
But if Shauntal still dared to attack first, knowing full well she couldn't seal off King's Shield, then her real goal had to be -
"King's Shield!" Hikaru gave the command, while Shauntal's glasses flashed eerily, like faint ghostly fire.
"Fell for it! Phantom Force!"
The dark energy around Golurk's punch instantly changed. It used a different ghostly tactic, diving into the shadows!
Ghost dive!
"Golurk vanished instantly!"
It wasn't Shadow Punch at all, but Phantom Force! That earlier punch had only been a feint.
Phantom Force, sometimes called a little Shadow Force, was a Ghost-type signature move that slipped through into another dimension. On the first turn, the Pokémon entered the other dimension to prepare. On the second turn, it attacked.
When it attacked, it ignored the target's Protect state as well as the Quick Guard on the target's side of the field.
And more than that, it forcibly broke through Protect, Wide Guard, and Crafty Shield.
With a crash, Golurk vanished from sight and then burst out of shattered dimensional space from another angle, driving a punch into Aegislash!
Phantom Force had higher base power - 90 - and after being boosted by same-type attack bonus, Iron Fist, and Ghost Gem, its effective power reached 210!
That punch should have been super effective, right?
"Huh?" Shauntal blinked. She immediately noticed something off. That attack should have dealt double damage, yet even though the punch broke through King's Shield, Aegislash itself didn't seem to react much at all.
Sure, it was in Shield Forme, with ridiculously high defensive power, but it still shouldn't have looked like that!
"Right, the god's blessing..." Shauntal recalled something she had heard. Hikaru's Aegislash had apparently received a strange blessing, one that turned all super effective attacks into normal damage, or even outright ignored them.
In other words, according to prior analysis, if you wanted to break down that Aegislash, its weakness actually became more ordinary things like Water and Electric - though even those would only deal normal damage.
"Thunder Punch!" Shauntal immediately shifted strategies. Electric light exploded around Golurk's fist with a crack of thunder!
Any punching move was boosted by Iron Fist!
"Iron Fist really is a pretty nice Ability," Hikaru said, "but in my opinion, it's still worse than Tough Claws!"
He looked toward Aegislash.
"Use Sacred Sword!"
"How is that possible?! Fighting-type moves shouldn't affect Ghost-types at all!" Shauntal shouted.
"A special martial art," Hikaru said, "a sword style that cuts down invisible enemies. When a Pokémon uses this move, it gains the effect of Foresight!"
Sacred Sword struck Golurk with a booming crash. Aegislash's Sacred Sword ignored the target's stat changes when it cut. Shauntal gritted her teeth.
"It doesn't matter! A legendary move may be strong, but Aegislash doesn't get same-type attack bonus on it!"
"Sacred Sword's power is limited! Golurk won't go down that easily. This isn't like last time!"
"But I really didn't expect it to come with Foresight... That means Ghost resistance went from zero to one times. But it still isn't super effective!"
"There's more than one kind of sword," Hikaru said with a laugh.
At that moment, Aegislash raised its massive shield. The three circles on it lit up with green light, while its other arm lifted high toward the sky.
Inside the dark Ghost Tower, blazing sunlight suddenly appeared.
Sunny Day!
Brilliant light gathered onto the shield, transforming into a sky-piercing blade of radiance!
Solar Blade!
"My Aegislash is a Sacred Swordsman that has sworn an oath," Hikaru said. "A Sacred Swordsman's attacks always land critical hits... and as a legendary effect, its damage is not merely greatly increased. It doubles in full."
Under the crashing strike of Solar Blade, Golurk collapsed with a thunderous fall!
"My third Pokémon!" Shauntal took a deep breath. Such an intense back-and-forth had forced her brain into overdrive.
One tactic after another had failed, but that was fine. She still had more.
"Jellicent!"
Jellicent, in appearance, was a large jellyfish-like Pokémon. The female form was pink like a queen, while the male form was blue like a king. It had been created in Unova as a counterpart to the Tentacool line.
And according to legends passed down through the ages, their kind were Pokémon transformed from the residents of an ancient city sunk beneath the sea.
In other words, they had close ties to the king of the Abyssal Ruins!
"Solar Blade!"
"Rain Dance!"
Torrential rain replaced the harsh sunlight, and Solar Blade's power dropped sharply. It slammed into the female Jellicent, but the mighty move that should have been super effective failed to knock her out in one blow!
Then a dark glow shone in her eyes, and the green light on Aegislash's shield quietly went out.
"Ability: Cursed Body." Shauntal let out a breath. "Shopkeeper, you're the real boss here, aren't you? I know that Aegislash is your ace, but you're not planning to clear me with just that one Pokémon, are you?"
"The cursed body. When it's hit by an attack, it can disable the opponent's move."
"Solar Blade is sealed now. And against your Aegislash, Water can deal plenty of damage at normal effectiveness, can't it?"
"And in rain, Water-type moves get a huge power boost!"
"Let me show you a move with maximum power under rain! As one of the few secret techniques that can actually be learned, my Jellicent mastered it this past month!"
"Recover! Then use Water Spout!"
Under rain, half-cover force!
(End of Chapter)
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