With that, the trio led the rest of the exchange group over to the nearest testing machine.
Whatever anyone thought of them personally, the students who had been selected to represent the Sakura Alliance on this exchange trip were not here by accident. Each of them had earned their place. In their previous battle against David, they had looked outmatched — and they had been — but the reason wasn't that they were weak. It was that David's Salamence was on a completely different level.
Salamence was already a naturally imposing Pokémon, with raw power built into its very nature. But what David's Salamence had access to was something else entirely. Despite only being at the Superior level, it had been given two legendary-tier resources rated for a Level 1 Deity class. Across the whole of Cloudspire's history, there had likely never been another Salamence quite like it. Had David sent out any of his other Pokémon, they might still have won — but none of them could have dismantled thirty opponents with the kind of effortless, overwhelming force that Salamence had shown.
The exchange group had arrived in Cloudspire and been wiped out by a single Trainer before they'd even found their footing. The Sakura Alliance was already an unwelcome presence in the Cloudspire Alliance's eyes, and losing so badly, so publicly, had knocked the confidence right out of them. In the days that followed, they moved carefully and kept quiet.
That loss had also coloured how the students of Imperial City First High School saw them. Thirty versus one, and the thirty had lost — regardless of any explanation, that was an embarrassing result to carry. Most students had simply written them off.
But the move power tester didn't care about impressions. Numbers were numbers.
As the exchange group stepped up one by one, the scores came in — and not a single member of the group registered below 1,000 points. Several of the stronger ones sent out their Pokémon and hit scores between two and three thousand without apparent strain. Those results alone blew past the record that had been set moments before by the Magmortar who had only recently broken through to the Superior level. The gap between that Pokémon and these exchange students was not small.
And the leading trio hadn't even gone yet.
Dominic, watching from the side, kept his expression neutral. He wasn't surprised. An exchange team drawn from across an entire nation's worth of talent was going to look like this. Every one of these students was considered a standout at their home school within the Sakura Alliance. Scores like these were exactly what you'd expect from a group assembled at this level.
Under normal conditions — without David in the picture — a team of Superior-level Pokémon drawn from multiple schools and representing an entire Alliance would have been considerably stronger than anything a single school's student body could field. These students weren't weak. They had simply been unlucky enough to run into an exception.
Once the last of the exchange group's regular members had finished, the three leaders stepped forward. The entire sports field seemed to hold its breath. Students from other queues paused mid-test and turned to watch.
The current record stood at 2,300 points. Everyone wanted to know how far above that the trio would land.
Kuki Genichi was the first to go. He reached into his jacket and tossed a Poké Ball with a casual flick of his wrist.
Greninja landed on the field in front of the machine with light, precise footsteps — composed, its sharp eyes already focused on the target. Any damage it had taken from Salamence's attacks had long since healed. Whatever had happened during that battle had clearly not shaken it.
"Greninja — Water Shuriken, full charge."
"Gren — ninja!"
Greninja dipped its head slightly at the command. Water gathered around its hands, pulling inward and compressing rapidly, taking shape. A shuriken of condensed water formed between its fingers. It held the shape for a beat, then released.
The projectile cut through the air with a sharp whistle and struck the front panel of the machine dead-on.
"Ding — Move detected: Water Shuriken. Measured power: 5,452. Result: Passed."
The crowd erupted.
5,452. That was nearly double the record that had stood just moments before. Students stared at the readout. A few people repeated the number under their breath as if saying it aloud might make it make more sense.
The reaction was understandable. Even after seeing the exchange group's regular members score well, most students had already filed those results away under well, they're not totally useless without significantly revising their opinion. The earlier defeat was too vivid. The image of thirty people being swept aside by one Trainer had stuck.
But there was no arguing with 5,452.
Among those in the crowd who understood what they were looking at, expressions became serious. Every thousand points on the tester corresponded to a real step in battling ability. Five thousand points placed a Pokémon firmly at the professional level. Kuki Genichi — who was reportedly the least powerful of the three — had a Greninja performing at that tier.
People turned to look at David almost immediately.
If Kuki Genichi was this strong, and David had beaten all three of them without much difficulty...
Jingūji Yoira and Amatsuki Rosa stepped up next.
"Ding — Move detected: Iron Head. Measured power: 5,862. Result: Passed."
"Ding — Move detected: Psycho Cut. Measured power: 6,548. Result: Passed."
Fresh exclamations broke out with each result.
Amatsuki Rosa's Gallade was the one that drew David's attention most. The score alone was impressive, but it wasn't just the number. When Gallade executed its Psycho Cut, David caught something in the blade — a quality beyond the move itself. It wasn't Miracle Eye, the move — it was something closer to what skilled swordsmanship looked like when it reached a certain depth: an instinct for finding the opening in a target's focus, a precision that went past technique into something more like intuition. It was difficult to put into words, but David recognised it.
Gallade's talent for this kind of blade-work was clearly exceptional.
He thought of his own Lucario. It was approaching a similar threshold but hadn't crossed it yet. That wasn't a question of talent — Lucario's natural gifts were not the issue. It simply hadn't been training in this style for long enough. During the winter break at his grandfather's home, Lucario had only just begun studying proper martial arts under Mienshao's guidance. Given how short a time it had been, the progress it had already made had left Mienshao genuinely impressed.
But Gallade had clearly been at this for much longer.
Dominic stepped closer to the machine and examined it carefully. A faint mark had been left on the casing where the Psycho Cut had landed — a hairline trace, barely visible, already beginning to fade as the self-repairing metal slowly closed over it. But it had been there. The machine's surface had actually been scored by that strike.
For a Pokémon at the professional level, that was a remarkable result. Gallade's Psycho Cut had reached the upper end of what professional-level Pokémon were capable of.
When the Sakura Alliance members finished their tests, the sports field went quiet.
The students of Imperial City First High School had not expected this. Whatever they had assumed about the exchange group's ability, the numbers had reshaped that picture considerably. Dominic looked out at the crowd and gave a small, satisfied nod.
This was exactly what he had been hoping for. The Sakura Alliance's Trainers were not weak. They had lost because they had faced David, who existed outside of any normal scale. It was important that his students understood the difference — so that if they ever faced these opponents in a real competition, they wouldn't make the mistake of underestimating them based on a result that had nothing to do with the opponents' actual ability.
The silence stretched for a moment.
Then Dominic cleared his throat deliberately. In the hush, it carried across the whole field.
"All right — why is everyone standing around? We're not done. Keep going."
He turned toward the queue where David's group was waiting and raised an eyebrow.
"Miles, you're next. Let's see what you picked up over the break."