Capítulo 242: Chapter 242
January 23rd.
In a card room on Entertainment Street in Alliance City, the atmosphere was lively and bustling.
This shop was set up specifically for the tournament participants during the seven days leading up to the tournament.
The shop was named "Alliance Kill."
Inside, groups of young people, ranging in age from as young as seven or eight to people in their thirties, gathered around tables. It was a popular card game during these days.
At one of the corner tables, the Monkey family was surrounding Hinata, guiding her through the game.
"Hinata, use 'Protect'!"
Ace quickly advised as the opponent used the hero character "Palkia's" special move, "Spacial Rend." He hurriedly instructed Hinata, who was sitting at the table, to make her move.
Spacial Rend was a powerful move, randomly targeting any player on the field, destroying one of their cards (except equipment cards) and reducing their health by one point, regardless of distance.
"Don't listen to Ace. 'Protect' has many uses; save it for later. You should use Grandpa's special move 'Loving Iron Fist' now to forcibly break this attack," Luffy suggested.
Garp's "Loving Iron Fist" could forcibly cancel the opponent's move, but it could only be triggered after another hero had already used a skill.
"Loving Iron Fist then,"
Hinata hesitated for a moment but decided to follow Luffy's advice.
She felt closer to Luffy, who always took her along, while Ace spent more time training with Infernape. So, deep down, she preferred Luffy as her big brother.
"Hahaha, I was waiting for this! 'Protect!'"
The other player gleefully dropped a card, blocking "Loving Iron Fist."
'Protect' couldn't be countered by another 'Protect.'
So even if Hinata used 'Protect' again, it wouldn't work. And in this game, she couldn't use it to block a move from two turns ago either.
This meant that Loving Iron Fist had failed, and Spacial Rend could continue.
Bang!
A virtual light and shadow appeared on the table.
[A half-human-sized Palkia slashed through the air, sending Spacial Rend to hit Garp.]
Garp's last bit of health was gone.
"No!!! Grandpa!!!"
Luffy let out a loud wail as Garp's holographic figure shattered into pieces and vanished.
Bang!
Blaziken, who had been watching, couldn't take it anymore and delivered a swift karate chop to Luffy's head.
Luffy: "We lost..."
Hinata lowered her head, feeling a bit sad.
"It's alright! We'll win the next round! Let me take over this time, and you can watch," Ace said, gently patting Hinata's head to comfort her.
This card game, "Alliance Kill," had become quite famous in Alliance City. The friendly shops even sold decks of cards, and people could buy a deck to play in Central Park.
Many trainers participating in the tournament couldn't resist buying a deck to take back and play with their friends from the pirate world.
Some were even considering using this card game to open casinos.
A few participants had become so immersed in the city's various entertainment and scenery that they had forgotten about their training.
Of course, some weren't swayed by these distractions.
Like Sabo, who wasn't there.
In the public training grounds on the outskirts of Alliance City, Sabo was undergoing special training with Typhlosion.
"It's still not right,"
Sabo frowned, rubbing his chin.
From his observations at the Pokémon Club over the past few days, he had noticed that most trainers had no concept of a "move pool."
The moves their Pokémon learned were mainly acquired naturally as they leveled up, with no additional focus on strengthening those skills.
The pirate world seemed to have a very different approach to training Pokémon compared to the ninja world.
In the pirate world, people focused on improving their Pokémon's physical strength, constantly enhancing their physical abilities.
Meanwhile, the ninja world placed more importance on Pokémon's moves, teaching them moves of different types and experimenting with new combinations or uses.
To be precise, the ninja world's training methods were closer to those of the original Pokémon world.
But that didn't necessarily mean the pirate world was wrong.
Who knew—perhaps the pirate world's training methods would produce stronger Pokémon.
At least for now, judging by their size, Pokémon from the pirate world generally seemed to be one or two sizes larger than those from the ninja world.
"Roar."
Typhlosion was panting heavily, exhausted.
Sabo had been thinking of taking advantage of the fact that many people in the pirate world didn't understand the concept of move pools. After all, moves learned naturally through leveling were usually only of the Pokémon's primary type, making their move sets limited.
Sabo didn't want to be at a disadvantage when facing Pokémon with a type advantage.
He was well aware of his own weakness—he was currently forced into specializing in Fire and Fighting types.
The reason he was "forced" into it was that he only had one Pokémon, Typhlosion.
Infernape, Emboar, and the others weren't considered his partners in terms of his career as a trainer; they were more like family.
But there was no other option.
The Pokémon Battle Tournament required participants to have at least six Pokémon, so Sabo had to ask Infernape and the others to help.
Even with Infernape, though, he still only had four Pokémon.
He'd have to borrow two Fighting-type Pokémon from Garp.
Borrowing Pokémon wasn't exactly ethical, but it was allowed by the rules.
This wasn't uncommon in the Pokémon world, and even Cerulean Gym Leader Misty had mentioned lending Ash her Water-type Pokémon to help him win a Gym Badge.
Still, with this team setup...
Sabo's group was being forced into a Fire- and Fighting-type identity.
Garp was in the same situation, but since he wasn't a competitor, he didn't care.
"Shadow Ball."
Sabo frowned as he pondered.
He had asked a moves instructor, and it had been confirmed that Typhlosion could learn the Ghost-type move Shadow Ball.
But why couldn't Typhlosion seem to grasp it?
This question related to a subject Sabo hadn't studied: history.
Long ago, in the Hisui region, during the era of ancient beasts, Typhlosion was a Fire- and Ghost-type Pokémon. Back then, Typhlosion was calm, elegant, and gentle.
According to a guide created by Dak, this was because the spiritual energy of Mount Coronet in the Hisui region gave Typhlosion its Ghost-type attribute.
However, after the eruption of Mount Coronet caused a massive disaster, that spiritual energy vanished along with it.
Since then, Typhlosion gradually lost its Ghost-type attribute, becoming purely Fire-type over time.
Typhlosion's temperament also became more irritable and violent.
Because of the lingering Ghost-type energy in its genes, Typhlosion could still learn some Ghost-type moves.
But Sabo didn't know any of this.
"Wait... I remember that skeleton guy was a Ghost-type trainer. Maybe I should ask him."
A lightbulb went off in Sabo's head.
There were few Ghost-type Pokémon in Alliance City.
Aside from the students of the Pokémon Academy, most people had an unconscious bias against Ghost-type Pokémon.
If you asked them, they'd say they didn't dislike Ghost-types.
But when it came to raising a Ghost-type Pokémon, they would instinctively feel reluctant and fearful.
Not even the eight gyms in the pirate world had Ghost-types.
This made Brook's presence all the more valuable during this time.
"Typhlosion, let's go find him."
Alliance City had been open to trainers for a week now.
The last time Sabo had seen Brook was four or five days ago, so he wasn't sure where Brook had gone.
But that wasn't a problem.
With Brook's appearance and unique Pokémon team, he must have become quite popular in Alliance City by now. It wouldn't be hard to ask around.
Just as Sabo expected, it didn't take long to find out where Brook was.
It was said that Brook had been training with his Pokémon during the day and performing for couples in Central Park in the evenings.
"Yohohoho~"
When Sabo arrived at Central Park, the area had already been taken over by a large group of couples.
He even recognized a few familiar faces among them.
For instance, Smoker and Hina, two well-known figures from the Navy, were sitting on the grass, listening to Brook's performance. The two were clearly in a romantic phase, whispering sweet nothings to each other.
On the other side...
Smoker and Hina had no idea that sitting together in such a place was giving people the wrong impression.
They didn't realize that the park became a couples' spot in the evening and had thought it was a children's playground.
Smoker had invited Hina to let her in on some information.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes, the Coordination Contest of the pirate world will officially begin after the Pokémon Battle Tournament ends. Didn't you and your Pokémon always want to perform on stage? Maybe a Coordinator role would suit you."
"This..."
"Do whatever you want. The seas are calm now."
Smoker encouraged Hina.
He knew his childhood friend loved being in the spotlight, and the Coordination Contest was the perfect opportunity for her.
After speaking, Smoker turned his gaze to the skeleton and the Pokémon ahead.
Was it just his imagination, or did the skeleton look like it was about to cry?
'Can skeletons shed tears?'
Banette was playing the tuba, and Gengar was holding a violin.
Brook sat at the piano, singing Binks' Sake.
(End of Chapter)
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