Chapter 258: Starlight and Frost
With the win against the Wildgrass Team, Arthur's personal record now stood at an impressive eight wins and one loss!
Among all the doubles players in the entire league, he was now firmly in the top tier!
The nickname "Miracle Rookie" had been spreading like wildfire online lately.
Some people had even started to seriously analyze whether there was a genuine blood relationship between him and Suicune.
This kind of talk made Arthur want to flip a table on the spot!
However, to a certain extent, it also reflected the fans' recognition of his skills.
Everyone seemed to agree that the identity of a "human child" was too restrictive for his performance, which led them to creatively explore the issue of reproductive isolation between Legendary Pokémon and primates…
Although Arthur was grateful for their acknowledgment of his battle record and strength, he still found their speculations utterly bizarre and couldn't help but feel the urge to track them down through the internet and knock some sense into them…
Over the next few days, his fan page was flooded with all sorts of fanfiction that would make any furry enthusiast ecstatic, and the mystery surrounding his origins grew even more convoluted.
It got to the point where whenever Bella and Luna saw him, they couldn't resist teasing him.
"Hey, Arthur, you're not actually a hybrid, are you?"
To this, Arthur could only respond with a look of utter despair.
"All I did was use Lapras in one match… Is this really necessary?"
"Heh, you clearly don't understand the significance of a rookie pulling out three main Pokémon and maintaining an 88% win rate in their first three months."
"..."
Even though Bella was still praising him, Arthur inexplicably felt exhausted.
I suspect my teammates are messing with me, but I have no proof.
Fortunately, there was some good news after this match—
The club had finally stopped nagging him about catching new Pokémon, and no one was mentioning giving up Lapras or force-maturing Little Eevee anymore.
Perhaps the sting of having their words thrown back in their faces was a bit too painful.
Little Lapras had performed brilliantly as a newcomer in the match against the Wildgrass Team. If they were to suggest giving up on her now, and it got leaked online, they would probably be overwhelmed by angry fans!
As Arthur's win count grew, his fan club became more and more prosperous, a far cry from the weak group that had been easily crushed by the Otter Team's fans at the beginning of the season.
Of course, it was inevitable that as any group grew larger, it would attract all sorts of people.
Arthur's fan club was no exception.
As the saying goes: a big forest has all kinds of birds.
Luckily, Arthur had always managed this aspect very well.
He would often chat with the earliest high school fans who had added him online, advising them not to cause trouble or get into arguments, and that there was no need to win every petty fight.
When a young female fan was cyberbullied by Otter fans because of him, Arthur made a point to comfort her personally, but he still advised his fans to keep their retaliation moderate.
Posting some taunts after a win was fine, but taking it offline was strictly forbidden.
Under his guidance, his core fanbase remained relatively rational.
This, in turn, helped him gain a lot of goodwill from casual observers.
The online voting for the Best Rookie award was about to end, and Arthur was currently sitting firmly at the top of the leaderboard with a significant lead.
Before the voting closed, the Sea Carp Team had two more matches to play, but their opponents weren't particularly strong.
In Luna's words: "Kid, you've already reserved the rookie trophy. All that's left is for them to deliver it to you."
Two more weeks passed.
The Sea Carp Team's next two matches resulted in one win and one loss—a respectable outcome.
However, Arthur continued his personal winning streak through both matches.
Even when the team lost, his performance in his own matches remained consistently stable.
By now, two-thirds of the regular season was over. Arthur's personal record of ten wins and one loss stood proudly above all others, making the rookies from his year who were still warming the bench drool with envy.
Time flew by, and soon it was another weekend.
Weekend matches always had higher popularity and attendance rates, so the organizers would schedule more buzz-worthy teams and matchups.
In previous years, the Sea Carp Team rarely had the opportunity to play on a weekend. The few times they did, it was as a sparring partner and background fodder for a stronger team.
But this season, thanks to the strong performance of their doubles division, they had landed the weekend prime time slot several times in a row.
This time, they had scored another weekend match.
And their opponent wasn't a top-tier team, so they were no longer just the background.
They were facing a mid-tier team that had recently been renamed to Starlight and Frost.
That's right, it was the team Ivy and Bianca played for.
The team name was changed this year after it was bought out, and the meaning was incredibly straightforward.
The reason this match was specifically scheduled for a weekend was, of course, to create a direct showdown between the three top rookies: Arthur, Ivy, and Bianca.
On the current Best Rookie leaderboard, after the brother-and-sister duo from the Ghost Dragon Team were knocked down by their direct encounter with Arthur, only five rookies remained with over a million votes.
They were Arthur, the sisters Ivy and Bianca, a rookie from the Blaze Team, and another from the Yankee Team whom Arthur had yet to face.
The rookies from the Blaze and Yankee teams were currently serving as rotational players. One had only played in two matches, the other in four.
While their win rates were impressive, their participation rates made their stats less meaningful. They were mostly riding on the coattails of their teams' popularity, carried by their respective fanbases.
When it came to rookies with a 100% participation rate, only Arthur and the sisters Ivy and Bianca had a win rate over fifty percent.
It was no wonder the three of them had consistently held the top three spots in the rookie polls from the very beginning.
This direct confrontation was naturally hyped up by the league officials. The promotional campaign had started a week ago, even before the rookie voting had closed.
On the day of the match, the Starlight and Frost home stadium was adorned with posters and photos of the three rookies.
For newcomers, this level of publicity was truly top-tier.
It made Bella so envious she couldn't help but feel a little sour, as if she had just eaten a lemon.
She had also won Best Rookie in her year, but the treatment she received during the regular season back then was nowhere near this grand.
Even among the best, there were differences.
What the officials probably didn't know, however, was that long before the match even started, the three rookies they were trying to build a rivalry between had already made contact.
There was nothing Arthur could do about it. He hadn't meant for it to happen, but before he could even pay attention, his Little Eevee had caught a scent and darted off towards the opposing team's area.
He could only sigh in resignation.
In the Starlight and Frost team's lounge area, Ivy turned her head for just a moment and found an Eevee next to her Vulpix. It was skillfully using Copycat again to create a beautiful ice flower with Icy Wind.
Seeing this, Ivy couldn't help but smile.
Such a masterful technique for creating ice flowers… she had only ever seen one Eevee capable of that. She knew exactly who had arrived without even having to guess.
"Little Eevee, where's your master?" she asked with a grin, stroking the soft fur on the back of its neck.
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