Pokémon Court-Chapter 452: Annoyed Terrance

"Forretress, use your final attack—Take Down!"

Forretress, whose entire body was covered with a shell as hard as steel, entered Rapid Spin state, unleashing a powerful strike with the force of its spinning motion.

"Let's decide the winner, Typhlosion! Wrap yourself in flames and use your most powerful Inferno!"

A young boy gave his command with enthusiasm: "Let's give it our all!"

The red-and-white spinning figure charged straight toward the challenger's Typhlosion. In the next instant, a massive shockwave erupted as the energy of their collision exploded outward, quickly engulfing both Pokémon.

"Forretress!"

"Typhlosion!"

A moment later...

"Forretress is unable to battle, so the winner is Sione from Smoke Town." Scarlet waved the flag.

Terrance let out a sigh. "You did great, Forretress."

After speaking, Terrance took out the "Coordination Badge" and handed it to the challenger.

"This is proof of your victory. Congratulations, that was a fantastic battle."

"No, thank you, Mr. Terrance. Your Forretress was really strong." Sione still looked somewhat shaken.

He had been among the Top 32 in the last Silver Conference and had thought that collecting Badges for the Ever Grande Conference wouldn't be too difficult. However, the 2-on-2 battle at Fallarbor Gym had already pushed him to his limits.

In fact, if Forretress hadn't been knocked out first due to the recoil from its own move, his Typhlosion wouldn't have lasted much longer either.

He had never faced an opponent with such a weird movement style and such devastating impact force. Throughout the battle, Forretress had relied entirely on Rapid Spin for mobility, making its movement trajectory difficult to predict. On top of that, Terrance had used Iron Defense, a move originally meant for boosting defense, to further reinforce Forretress. Its body had become incredibly tough, and when combined with the spinning momentum of Take Down, every attack left him on edge.

Fortunately, he had a moment of inspiration and chose to use his Starter Pokémon at the last moment, using Terrance's strategy to counter Forretress.

By leveraging the type advantage of fire, using moves like Flame Wheel and Inferno to both defend against and counterattack Forretress, Sione managed to endure and claim victory against Terrance.

"Your Typhlosion is also very well-trained," Terrance said with a smile.

After seeing Sione off, Terrance walked upstairs. His Gym duties for the day were complete, and he had also just awarded the very first Badge of Fallarbor Gym.

Since the opponent had the foresight to choose a Pokémon that countered Forretress's battle style, Terrance considered him qualified—at least to some extent. But actually... the main reason was that Terrance wanted to award a Badge on the first day of conducting Gym Battles, forcing himself to make a change.

He still had ways to counter this strategy, but considering that his opponent was a Top 32 contestant from the Silver Conference, he had already performed well enough. Terrance simply went with the flow and gave out the first Badge. After all, if he kept defeating every challenger, making it a habit, he would just be making trouble for himself.

"The fact that he managed to counter Beedrill's coordination technique already proves he's qualified. Even though he relied on type advantage to defeat Forretress... well, I'll be generous this time and give him the first Badge." Terrance snorted, then noticed Albus.

"Why are you watching Gym Battles again?"

"Because I was bored." Albus laughed. "But tell me, why didn't you use Self-Destruct move at the end?"

"That would have resulted in a tie, right?"

"Or, you could've had Forretress use Bide during the standoff. That might have let you win... You must have thought of these options, right?"

"Oh." Terrance responded.

"Hey, what's with that 'oh'?"

"Actually, there was another way to win," Terrance said.

"Huh??" Albus was surprised. "Let me think... there probably is. What was your idea?"

"I could've used 'Toxic' while colliding. With so many collisions, the opponent would have definitely been poisoned and wouldn't have lasted long," Terrance said.

"Right... Forretress is a Steel-type, so the 'Toxic' strategy could work... But wouldn't the poison get flung off due to the Rapid Spin?" Albus asked, puzzled.

"...That's true." Terrance suddenly realized.

Albus' face immediately darkened: "I'm starting to doubt whether your Forretress even knows Toxic. That move is notoriously hard to learn."

Terrance thought for a moment. "Yeah... it actually doesn't."

"Then why did you even bring it up!?"

"Because you were talking too much..." Terrance's lips twitched as he lost interest in continuing the conversation. This was just a Gym Battle, not a life-or-death fight...

This guy and that girl named Fujiki who was always around him were on completely different wavelengths.

After getting familiar, one would start rambling on and on, not regarding themselves as an outsider, while the other wouldn't say a word unless spoken to first...

"Can't you just go read some books with that friend of yours?" Terrance suggested. "Fallarbor Gym has a huge collection. They're all books I used to—"

"Ehh... I don't like reading....." Albus replied seriously.

"By the way, the food you brought out at lunch was really good. I could tell my Pokémon loved it. How about teaching me how to make it?"

"Go read a book. It's in there." Terrance walked away without hesitation.

"Perfect!" Albus suddenly exclaimed.

"???" Terrance

"I thought you didn't like reading."

Stopping in his tracks, Terrance was genuinely confused by this guy...

Albus nodded. "Yeah, but Fujiki is reading, isn't she?"

"..."

Terrance really planned to go draft new Gym rule formats now, but just before leaving, something came to mind. He turned back and said, "There's no one else around now. That conversation we left unfinished in the courtyard—can we continue?"

"What conversation?" Albus asked.

"You asked if I was curious about why you guys only have those few Pokémon..."

"Oh, that. I thought you weren't interested!"

"..."

"It's nothing, really. The reason is pretty easy to guess."

"Alright, I'm off. Don't forget to come for dinner." Terrance said helplessly.

—

—

Evening.

After dinner, Grandma Arlan suddenly called out to Terrance.

"I ran into Tetsu's kid on the road today. She seemed to be looking for you. If you have time, you should stop by their house."

Uncle Tetsu? Isn't that Kotoko's father?

"Kotoko?" Terrance's eyes flickered. Why would she be looking for me?

The next moment, Terrance suddenly recalled all the strange things about Kotoko since she came back. He had suspected something before, but he hadn't been able to draw any conclusions.

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However, after spending time with Albus and Fujiki today, something clicked. Even though there was no logical connection, when he boldly overlapped Kotoko's experiences over the past few years with Albus and Fujiki's...

It actually fit perfectly!

"Got it. I'll go over tomorrow." Terrance frowned slightly, said goodbye to Grandma Arlan, and returned to his room.

Then, he pulled out several drafts—proposals for all the new Gym formats.

Before submitting an official application, he needed to refine them as much as possible, picking the best plan among the options which maximize his own interests.

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