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After thoroughly enjoying the hot spring bath and having a carefully prepared lunch at the inn, Li Xiang, munching on a giant banana, set off for Sakura University under Yan Hu's guidance.
The inn's lunch focused on all-natural ingredients—so natural that the fruit was picked straight from a Tropius's neck and served on the table moments later. The giant banana Li Xiang held was fruit from a Tropius's neck: fragrant, sweet, and filling. The key was that it wasn't cloying but very refreshing.
Besides that, there were out-of-season berries from Snover that tasted almost like ice cream. They were said to taste even better in spring, though it was a bit startling when the Snover walked over and snapped off a berry from its waist for you to eat.
One just had to get used to it.
There was another type of fruit from the grove on a Turtwig's back. It looked like an acorn, brown and tempting, but its taste was like eating an unripe plum—sour and astringent.
However, Riolu and the others loved it, gnawing on one nonstop. Corviknight even chased after a Turtwig, trying to eat the berries on its back.
Naturally, it got scolded by Li Xiang and sent outside to practice tongue twisters, required to enunciate clearly without pausing.
Thus, the large crow shouting tongue twisters at the sky successfully attracted the attention of many people and Pokémon.
In the car.
"Junior Brother, are you sure about this? Will we get kicked out?" Wang Dong patted Li Xiang's shoulder.
"I told you, we're just visiting and learning. Why are you so hung up on challenging them?" Li Xiang replied helplessly.
Even if he wanted to challenge them, now wasn't the time. He'd need to spend two or three years in higher education before doing something so cocky…... practically just asking for a beating.
Right now, he couldn't even beat his senior sister's Pokémon, only occasionally winning a match or two.
"Tch, Junior Brother, you have no ambition. And here I thought you were the nationally ranked number one..."
"Say that again and I'll get mad!" Li Xiang glared. Hearing that title once was fine, but hearing it too often felt grating. He clearly wasn't at that level yet. It felt like being set up for a fall, praising someone to death, hoping he'd eventually crash and burn.
"Fine." Wang Dong withdrew his hand sheepishly. He had really been looking forward to a battle challenge. Beating all of Sakura University's trainers would have been epic.
Lu Chengfeng laughed beside him. "Hahaha, serves you right for making Junior Brother angry! Hahaha!"
"Stop laughing, you idiot!" Wang Dong, embarrassed and angry, lunged at Lu Chengfeng. The two started roughhousing in the car until Duan Yu scolded them to stop.
Only the four junior brothers and Yan Hu went to Sakura University. The senior sisters had gone to play at Furong Mountain.
Like Japan's Mt. Fuji, as Sakura Island's first peak, it had various tourist attractions. Additionally, there was a nearby Ashibaka Shrine with a long history, even older than humanity's worship of the Tower Master Ho-Oh, symbolizing one of humanity's most primitive forms of Pokémon worship.
The Pokémon enshrined there was a fictional image, not any Pokémon Li Xiang recognized, and it wasn't recorded in this world either.
It was similar to the statues in front of Gyms in the first generation, looking like Rhydon but not quite. Who knew which scrapped Pokémon design it was? But using this gimmick, Furong Mountain had developed a thriving tourism industry. Climbing Furong Mountain was just one of the activities.
Interestingly, Mt. Dachong was right next to Furong Mountain, with the Ho-Oh Temple and Ashibaka Shrine facing each other across the mountain.
Whether they annoyed each other was unclear, but that's what happened when the first and second highest peaks were side by side. One had backing—even if that backing was elusive, it truly existed. The other had no backing at all, purely fictional.
Without the title of primitive worship and Sakura Island's Association needing Ashibaka Shrine to boost its economy, it wouldn't stand a chance against the Ho-Oh Temple no matter how many resources it had.
...…...
Sakura University.
The stone gate was magnificent and imposing, giving a sense of gravity. It was mainly huge, large enough to accommodate many Pokémon and trainers walking side by side.
As Yan Hu drove in, there were many Pokémon and students coming and going along the way. Most were fully evolved Pokémon, with hardly any in their basic forms. It looked pretty cool.
No registration was needed. There weren't even security guards on duty. Li Xiang looked up and saw several Magnemite scanning with their single eyes, Magneton on the streetlights, and groups of Watchog and Patrat.
It was clear that the important task of guarding the gate had been taken over by Pokémon. Using Pokémon as labor was quite common.
Entering the campus, like basic trainer schools and the Youth Training Camp, the first thing that caught the eye was vast numbers of battlefields, separated by sturdy wire fences and surrounded by greenery.
Every battlefield had people battling; there were no vacant fields at all. Looking further in, the main building was a Western-style, brown-red tower-like structure connected to surrounding buildings, with countless arched entrances. Further away, there was a large sports complex.
"I just contacted Kunimi; he said he'd wait for us in the inner compound of the school," Yan Hu honked the horn to scatter a few Pokémon blocking the way.
Nagayama Kunimi, Nagayama Taro's older brother. The brothers' names were a bit of a point of ridicule.
According to Japanese naming conventions from his previous life, Nagayama Taro should have been the older brother, as "Taro" often refers to the eldest son.
Unexpectedly, Taro was the younger brother, and Kunimi was the older one. Like Duan Yu and the others, this older brother had no interest in the family business and preferred being a trainer. But judging from him still being a reserve team member in his fourth year, he probably didn't have much talent as a trainer.
Arriving at the inner compound, Sakura University's inner compound was for teachers, professors, and students on the school team. Everything here was more professional. Ordinary students could enter but couldn't enjoy the benefits here.
Nagayama Kunimi stood at the entrance of the inner compound, waving vigorously when he saw Yan Hu's car.
"Sister Yan Hu!" he shouted.
Li Xiang looked up and saw that he bore at least a sixty to seventy percent resemblance to Nagayama Taro. Beside Nagayama Kunimi was a huge, black-backed, yellow-bellied honey badger that looked simple and honest, large and fat.
Typhlosion.
Li Xiang narrowed his eyes. Just by looking, it was hard to tell how strong it was, but he was sure it would feel great to pet.
Everyone got out of the car.
"You must be Junior Li Xiang, right? Welcome to Sakura University," Nagayama Kunimi walked up enthusiastically and shook Li Xiang's hand.
"Hello," Li Xiang nodded politely.
This visit was apparently suggested by Nagayama Kunimi himself, for reasons unknown. Since he had nothing better to do, Li Xiang decided to come take a look.
The facilities in the inner compound were clearly very different from the outside. There were fewer open-air battlefields and more open-air sports facilities.
As visitors, Li Xiang and the others went straight to the spectator stands. Coincidentally, there were regular team members battling.
Through Kunimi's introduction, Li Xiang briefly watched and found that, as expected of a former top-eight team, the students were really strong. Although the two battling below weren't as good as Jiang Shangrong, they were much stronger than him.
He released Riolu and Incineroar to let them watch the battle below properly and recognize the heroes of the world.
Beside him, Nagayama Kunimi explained with pride, then said regretfully, "...It's a pity. If we hadn't lost so badly against Mist City, our points should have been in the top six."
'Huh??'
Li Xiang turned to look at Nagayama Kunimi. Sakura's previous round was against Star Island, and the one before that was against Mist City? So, he had come to the enemy's stronghold?
"Junior, I heard you're going to Mist City University, right?" Sure enough, Nagayama Kunimi brought it up.
Li Xiang nodded without speaking.
"Junior, would you be interested in battling some of our reserve team students?" Nagayama Kunimi asked with a smile. "The alternates and regulars are busy with competitions and don't have much time, but our reserves are free. It so happens everyone is curious about your strength. How about a few friendly matches?"
'So that's it. Inviting me here so kindly was about gathering intelligence.'
If Li Xiang were in his place, knowing a rival school had such an overachiever, he'd also want to gather information on their Pokémon. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without defeat.
Li Xiang glanced at Yan Hu. She seemed unaware, her expression slightly strange. But battling was a normal thing; there was no reason to refuse, so Li Xiang agreed.
He hadn't gained many candies recently anyway, so he might as well earn some from these Sakura University students.
"Junior, you're generous!" Nagayama Kunimi was overjoyed and quickly took out his phone to call someone, stepping aside to talk.
Yan Hu walked over to Li Xiang. "Junior Brother..."
"It's fine. Battling is normal. I happen to be itching for a fight anyway," Li Xiang didn't mind. Intelligence would be exposed sooner or later anyway.
Besides, Incineroar and the others hadn't reached a new stage yet; grinding against these Sakura University students would be good practice.
With Nagayama Kunimi's "help" as an insider, the battle venue was quickly prepared right next to this gymnasium. When Li Xiang and the others walked in and entered the field, they found quite a few spectators in the stands, both students and teachers, and the number was steadily increasing as if being summoned.
"Senior Kunimi, what is this?" Li Xiang turned and gave Nagayama Kunimi a meaningful look.
Nagayama Kunimi's expression didn't change. "Junior! Look how enthusiastic everyone at Sakura University is!"
"Quite enthusiastic," Li Xiang rubbed his PokéBall. "I hope the reserves are enthusiastic enough too. I'm not afraid of losing; feel free to challenge me." He hoped they wouldn't give up halfway through.
"Of course, of course," Nagayama Kunimi would naturally be more than happy with that, even delighted to see it happen.
Under his arrangement, the reserve students gradually gathered at the other end of the field. Typically, a higher education institute's reserves often numbered in the dozens, mostly second and third-year students.
It wasn't realistic for Li Xiang to battle all of them, but taking on ten shouldn't be a problem.