"Such a little troublemaker, huh? I guess that's how it is when you're famous so young."
Mirei sighed helplessly. Watching Mirai go around adding everyone as a friend one by one, he could only read his own Pokégear account out loud for her to add.
Still, it wasn't a bad thing.
Bands often exchange notes and compete with each other; only that way can you write better songs. And when it matters, you can help each other—shared stage sets, collab singles, even joint album releases.
"Alright! New friends secured! You've got to come to our public show in Almia, okay?" Mirai beamed.
Under Mirai's lively influence, Hikaru almost forgot this was the world of Pokémon at all—it felt like he'd stepped right into some music anime.
Come to think of it, GOGO4's first goal seemed to be "make big money."
After the Go-Rock Squad dissolved in Fiore, maybe they realized touring paid even better, so they just… went straight.
Mr. Stu Deeoh hosted the closing of the exhibition match. He delivered a rousing wrap-up speech, and a grand fireworks display announced the end of the showcase.
After this, prize money would be paid out to each band, deals about track licensing would be discussed, and Pokéstar Studios would help publish their records.
In fact, quite a few small bands came precisely for that: if Pokéstar Studios helps release your music, you'll go big fast.
"Mr. Guitarist, you have to collaborate with us next time! Let's play something earth-shaking together~" Mirai still wouldn't give up on recruiting.
"If there's a chance," Hikaru answered noncommittally.
Still, long straight black hair Mirai was undeniably adorable.
"I already said I'm not letting him go!" Roxie was fiercely protective—though with her short height, her "anger" came off like pouting.
Which made Mirai find her even cuter. She slipped an arm around Roxie again, snuggling away, leaving everyone around them collectively speechless.
"Big bro." Marnie tugged on Piers's sleeve. He blinked, then came back to himself.
"Almost forgot…"
Marnie planned to challenge Roxie. Since Roxie was contending to become a Gym Leader, Marnie wanted to glean some experience.
Piers knew why. When the time was right, she intended to begin the Galar Gym Challenge.
Though that would still take a bit more time to build her foundation.
Marnie was still a little too young.
Galar's Gym Challenge isn't like other regions: you need a recommendation from specific people to participate. The other regions have no such restriction.
For now, Marnie just wanted to lay groundwork.
But just as Piers was about to ask, Roxie turned to Hikaru instead:
"Since you've decided to leave, have a battle before you go! A member's farewell match!"
"We grow through battle! With your power, I'm definitely going to become Virbank City's Gym Leader! Next time you come here, I'll be the one preparing a Badge for you!"
"Nice, I like it," Cook clapped Hikaru on the shoulder. "Buddy, don't forget: no matter where you head next, you're always one of the Koffing Band!"
Hikaru laughed. "Thanks. These two days were a blast. I might come back again."
"I'll hold you to that!" Roxie cheered. "Woohoo—then let's battle! Two-on-two rules!"
"Beat us to it," Piers spread his hands at Marnie. The deadpan girl tilted her head. "It's fine. Watching others battle can make you better."
"When we're finished here, we'll talk to Roxie-san," Piers smiled.
"What, a Pokémon battle? Wow, that sounds so fun! Can I watch from up close?" Mirai bounced.
In Fiore, the Go-Rock Squad once copied Capture Stylers to rile up wild Pokémon, causing major trouble for Rangers.
But battles with Rangers aren't "Pokémon battles" in the true sense—both sides are just leveraging wild Pokémon.
Outside Fiore, though, Pokémon battles are wildly popular—really, more like a foundational logic of the world.
"Haven't you watched tons of battles?" Yuki, the second brother, teased. They'd toured plenty and seen roadside matches everywhere.
"This is Roxie-san's battle! Totally different!" Mirai wagged a finger.
As for the venue, Pokéstar Studios had arenas everywhere—honestly, you can battle anywhere.
This farewell match drew quite a few who hadn't left yet. Even though it was an in-band scuffle, Roxie's popularity was way higher than the other members.
So the cheers came in waves.
"If I become a Gym Leader, I want to specialize in Poison!"
"I'm a toxin expert!"
Roxie tossed a Poké Ball. First onto the field: a Koffing from Kanto!
"Poison, huh… Well, as it happens, the type I'm best at…"
Hikaru didn't really have a single specialty—and his team comp was pretty eccentric—but thinking of his first partner, and the type that showed up most in his current and future lineups…
"I'm going with Steel!"
Thud! Out came not Aegislash, but Duraludon.
It immediately wanted a snack. Hikaru casually flicked it a Steel Gem. After chomping it down, Duraludon was fired up!
Appetizer handled—ready to fight!
"Duraludon—the same Pokémon Raihan uses," Piers's eyes lit up, while Marnie made a mental note.
"Steel resists Poison," Hikaru reminded. "So toxins won't help."
"Huh? You're a Steel specialist?!" Roxie scratched her white-haired head. Her best game was stalling with Toxic—but the weakness was obvious: Steel types blank it.
But…
A gleam flashed in Roxie's eyes.
If you think my poison's useless and look down on me—that's your big mistake!
"Flamethrower!"
"Hey! Who teaches a Koffing Flamethrower—that's insanely dangerous!" Piers took the role of designated complainer.
Unlike other Pokémon, Koffing stores flammable, explosive gases inside its body. If you use a flame move after spewing out Toxic, you can chain the interactions and, well… explode!
Duraludon was swallowed by searing flames.
"Got you!" Roxie threw up a V-sign. "Truth is, around Virbank you see way more Steel and Fire types than Poison! Thanks to the Virbank industrial zone, there are loads of Magnemite!"
"If I'm building a Poison Gym here, I've gotta have answers to Steel!"
"Not so fast." Hikaru smiled. Duraludon burst out of the blaze with a clang.
"Gurroaah!"
That all you've got? Fire doesn't scare me! Duraludon roared.
"Right—Duraludon doesn't mind Fire. That's part of how Raihan can scrap with Leon," Piers muttered. For Unova folks, Duraludon was rare enough that opening with "Steel fears Fire" was a normal assumption.
"Well then—"
Hikaru breathed out. Duraludon flared with psychic light. Only now did Roxie notice a thin sheen covering its body.
"Huh? What's that?"
"Mirror Coat."
A blinding white flashed—the effect returns double the damage from a special attack to the same target!
Koffing doesn't have many weaknesses, but one of them is Psychic.
Holy radiance swallowed it whole.
"Huh? Did it fail?" Mirai stared at the field, then looked at Roxie. "Is that all your power amounts to?"
"No way! My Koffing isn't ordinary!"
Roxie stuck up her thumb—but quickly remembered who'd just asked and stiffened her face. "Even if I lose, I'm not letting you have him!"
"Heehee." Mirai covered her smile.
Just then, a dark aura welled up around Koffing!
"That's Destiny Bond! After using it, if the user faints to a hit, the foe goes down with it!" Roxie whooped. "We fall together—that's the Koffing Band bond!"
"Who uses Destiny Bond to demonstrate 'bonds'…" Hikaru deadpanned. "You ending the band with a cold joke or what?"
"Anyway—did the Destiny Bond even go off?"
"Eh?" Roxie blinked. She noticed the dark aura straining outward… then shrinking back. Koffing rolled on the ground with swirls in its eyes—out cold—but its expression looked… blissful.
"W-what?! Destiny Bond shouldn't be stoppable!"
"Koffing, get it together—wait, ah!"
Seeing her Koffing's blissed-out face, Roxie jumped.
That status is—
"Attract," Hikaru coughed. "I had Duraludon use Attract beforehand so it would be infatuated. When that hits, the target has a hard time using moves."
"Yours is a female Koffing, right? My Duraludon is male."
A chill wind seemed to sweep the field. Even Piers involuntarily shivered, while Marnie tilted her head to quip:
"Duraludon knows Attract… Duraludon can learn that?"
"Who would swoon over a Duraludon?"
"Maybe—Raihan should try this next time," Piers murmured. "Even I didn't know Duraludon could use Attract…"
If it could charm Leon's Charizard… that would be prime entertainment.
As for gender, just raise a female Duraludon. There's no rule against bringing duplicates, right?
Hikaru wanted to snark too. In the future, his Duraludon had already mastered the move.
Sadly, Paradox Pokémon are nominally genderless—maybe they "feel" a gender, but Attract won't actually work.
And in the games, by Gen IX Duraludon can't learn Attract anymore. Probably because—let's be real—this hunk of aluminum learning Attract is… not normal.
A "steel fetish," huh?
"Darn it, did our bond just get cut off like that?!" Roxie stomped.
"There was never that kind of 'bond' to begin with," Hikaru sighed.
"Fine, then feel the real thing! If Koffing won't make you sense our friendship, I'll send out my ace—go, Garbodor!"
Garbodor is basically a garbage dump made manifest—the Poison-type mascot of Unova. Plenty of sanitation workers partner with Trubbish or Garbodor.
Hikaru remembered: the Battle Company president, President Shinnosuke, had a partner Trubbish.
"If you're sending Garbodor, you've got a plan."
"Exactly!" Roxie smirked, bass strings thrumming. "You can still switch now, y'know!"
"No need. Honestly, I came here—and joined your band—because of this Pokémon." Hikaru glanced at Duraludon. "So, if I want composite alloy, we keep fighting."
"Oh?" Roxie's eyes sparkled. "You're raising that one? Great—let me see how strong it is!"
"Garbodor, Drain Punch!"
Garbodor's arms can extend at will; those hose-pipe limbs sprung like coils and—bang—slugged Duraludon! Very fast!
Drain Punch: damage with the fist, heal for half the damage dealt. Among Fighting moves, it's top-tier sustain.
"Heh! That one stings! If Fire doesn't work, what about Fighting?" Roxie pumped her bass.
"Not really. I'm just being careful," Hikaru said.
Metallic light surged over Duraludon. Metal Claw snapped shut on Garbodor's fist.
A concussive blast rang out!
"Duraludon's frame is quake-proof. No matter the impact, it won't go down easily. Its special alloy body is mirror-smooth and hard to damage. And it's really good at 'return fire.'"
"Oh, different from Raihan's," Piers observed.
Hammerlocke's Dragon Leader Raihan likes blasting with waves—an aggressive set.
But Duraludon is also great at defensive counterpunching.
"Well then getting hurt is perfect for me!" Roxie struck a chord. "Let's go—Weak Armor!"
Ah, so that's it, Hikaru thought. This Garbodor didn't have Stench—its Ability was Weak Armor.
When hit by a physical move, Defense drops but Speed rises!
"Time to start—lighten up, then Rollout!"
Hearing "Rollout," Hikaru almost thought he was facing Whitney.
No more Poison stalling—straight into Rollout strats, huh?
Speed and growing power in tandem—yeah, Rollout can be misery. But not without answers.
As Garbodor's Speed ramped up—
"Stone Edge."
Hikaru gave the cue. Duraludon growled, and jagged rocks blasted outward. Garbodor was rolling so fast that only a few stones struck home—most whiffed or were shattered by its momentum.
"Speed's still climbing!" Roxie clenched a fist. The battlefield smoked; the crowd around them whooped with excitement.
"Not bad," Mirai nodded. "Speed plus scaling power—this Duraludon's in trouble now."
"So this is a Gym Leader's tactic? No—she's not a Gym Leader yet," Mirei murmured.
"This Garbodor's strong," Piers said. "Even without poison, the strat is nasty. Rollout's power keeps rising—one clean hit might drop Duraludon even if it resists Rock."
".Then why Stone Edge?" Marnie asked. "Why give it Speed on purpose?"
"You think it's on purpose?" Piers glanced at his sister.
The GOGO4 guys—newbies to real battling—also leaned in. They were used to making wild Pokémon spam moves; actual battle synergy was new to them.
"Stone Edge won't reliably land, and even when it does, it won't cleanly stop Garbodor. So… it looks like he's feeding Weak Armor on purpose."
"But why?" Marnie's twin-tails swished as she stared at the field. Roxie, drunk on speed, grinned ear to ear.
"Take this blow—packed with our bonds!"
Hikaru chuckled.
"Compared to Destiny Bond, this bond actually looks decent. So—"
Steel-gray power gleamed over Duraludon.
It dipped both arms, facing the onrushing Garbodor, and let out a low roar.
"Is he going to tank it?!"
"Even if Rollout ends, what about Drain Punch? With all that damage—Duraludon will—"
"No—he's got a plan, right?"
A plan?
Of course.
Duraludon's body suddenly spun up—then, like a top slamming into a top, it crashed into the rolling Garbodor!
Two massive forces collided—Garbodor thundered away and toppled!
"Garbodor is down!"
"Duraludon spun too—was that—?"
"Gyro Ball," Piers clapped. "I see it now, Marnie!"
"This move makes you spin and ram the foe—the slower you are compared to them, the stronger it hits!"
Exactly. In practice, Gyro Ball is both a "counterpunch" that can meet incoming moves head-on and a godsend for slow Pokémon, packing huge power.
Its speed calc uses actual values—that means it's affected by paralysis, Iron Ball, stat changes, Unburden, Tailwind, and so on.
The faster Garbodor got, the harder Duraludon's Gyro Ball hit.
And with Duraludon's quake-proof build, mere "impact" wouldn't faze it.
"Argh—we lost!" Roxie clutched her head and groaned at the toppled Garbodor. At the same time, she heard Hikaru say:
"I'll take that 'bond.'"
[Your bond with Roxie increased dramatically!]
[You defeated Roxie. Emerging Power has been strengthened.]
[Your Pokémon's EVs and growth rate have improved.]
The white-haired girl brightened at last. After recalling her partner, she smacked Hikaru's arm with a cheerful pop:
"Last thing—let's take a band art shot! Then go meet my dad with me!"
"If you don't mind, I'll shoot it for you?"
Mirai thrust her hand up, force-merging into the group—dragging her brothers along, too—and coaxing other band friends into a massive "group photo!"
"Sure, it'll make a great memento," Roxie huffed—but quickly got lost in Mirai's nonstop "Gym-Leader-chan, you're amazing!" flattery.
"Your Duraludon's really something," Piers said to Hikaru. "It's not just your music that's scary good—your battling is, too. I know someone who's a Duraludon ace, but his style's completely different from yours."
"If he saw today's tactics, he'd find them fascinating. Oh—if you ever come to Galar, swing by Spikemuth."
Piers never forgot revitalizing his hometown. Hikaru naturally agreed.
"You're the Spikemuth Gym Leader, right? Your songs are famous, too. If I head over, I'll definitely pay my respects."
"Aww, you actually know a nobody like me? I'm honored," Piers said, a bit flustered.
They chatted a while—trading a few musical insights—then Piers conveyed his sister's challenge request. Roxie slapped her bass and said challengers were always welcome!
As she pinged her dad and accepted Marnie's challenge, Sabrina walked over.
"You all looked like you had fun. Congratulations on the championship."
Sabrina handed Hikaru two items.
"What are these?" Hikaru looked down at the two TMs.
"A little earlier 'thank-you' gift," Sabrina smiled. "The Psychic move Stored Power."
"The more your stats are boosted, the stronger the move hits. It's a truly powerful Psychic-type finisher. Don't say I'm just hyping it up—use it and you'll see."
"The second is Psychic Fangs."
"In Johto, I stumbled across a Girafarig that knew this move, so I made it into a TM. Where it originally came from is still a mystery—and who can learn it is also… an enigma."
"This move shatters Light Screen, Reflect, and Aurora Veil, and ignores their damage reduction."
(End of Chapter)
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