"No!"
When Aiden shouted the name Flamigo, Nemona, who already had a solemn expression as if she herself was battling Teacher Azure on the field, suddenly frowned and slapped her thigh.
"You"
You're slapping the wrong person!
Arven's mouth twitched, but after noticing that Nemona was completely immersed in her own world, he could only shake his head helplessly.
Once she entered this state, Nemona was completely incapable of listening to others. "This Flamigo's ability is definitely Costar!"
Nemona had already stood up excitedly, her eyes locked tightly on the third Pokémon Aiden had sent out.
As soon as she spoke, many students began to whisper among themselves.
"Costar, what kind of ability is that?"
"I think it's Flamigo's signature ability, but we don't have that Pokémon in Unova—"
"Why worry so much? Just scan it with a Pokédex and you'll know~"
Soon, many students took out their Rotom Pokédexes to learn about this Paldea Pokémon's signature ability.
"Costar—effect is that it copies the stat changes of its ally when it enters the battle???"
The simple and clear effect brought them quite a shock.
After all, since Teacher Azure had used it, it meant—
The evasion boost from Minimize could probably also be inherited!
Generally, new trainers would scoff at such an ability, as it's essentially useless in single battles.
Veterans who understood double battles might think this ability could occasionally have surprising effects.
For example, after successfully using Dragon Dance, could there be two powerhouses on the field at the same time?
But Teacher Azure chose a strategy that would get the most comments from the audience—he copied Minimize!
As soon as Flamigo entered the field, it immediately looked at its teammate, Muk.
With an incredibly fierce gaze locked onto its ally, its body began to shrink rapidly, just like Muk's.
Meanwhile, Muk's body also underwent some slight changes, though not very obvious.
[???? Teacher Azure, what are you doing!]
[Oh my god, double Minimize, good thing Smeargle fainted quickly, otherwise both Pokémon would have disappeared—]
[I have to say, I'm not surprised at all that Teacher Azure could come up with such a bizarre playstyle!]
"I told you, it's a scientific Minimize team. In double battles, it can directly copy the number of Minimize uses from its teammate, doubling the effect. Isn't that very scientific?"
Ignoring Drayton, whose face had already turned pale, Aiden said with a smile.
Unfortunately, his opponent happened to be Drayton, whose team had very powerful offensive capabilities. Otherwise, Smeargle might have lasted another turn.
This way, there were now two Pokémon on the field, both minimized to their limit. If the opponent didn't use moves that counter Minimize, they might not be able to land a single hit by the end of the battle.
But the desired effect had already been achieved.
"Drayton, you did well, but let's pause the battle for now."
Aiden waved to the opponent, signaling that he could step down.
After all, this was just a teaching demonstration. If they really fought to the end, it might not be a good thing.
Drayton didn't want to encounter such a tricky strategy, and he was afraid of what would happen if he was swept by Dragon Rush, or even worse, knocked out instantly by bad luck—
That would be embarrassing.
So, leaving it at this point was the best choice!
"Many Pokémon may be unpopular, but that's only because the current mainstream environment is single battles, so some abilities can't be utilized."
"For example, the Costar ability has much more room to shine in double battles."
After Drayton stepped down, Aiden smiled again.
"And this is the concept I wanted to introduce through this Minimize strategy."
"Since Blueberry Academy's main battle format is double battles, students can also try to find these less common abilities or Pokémon to discover new playstyles that suit them better."
"In a sense, this is also a form of 'treasure hunting,' isn't it?"
"As expected of Teacher Azure!"
Nemona was, as expected, the first to agree with him, though her gaze remained fixed on the Muk, which had already returned to its normal size.
She really didn't know much about Alolan Muk, so she had a question in her mind. "Teacher Azure, what ability does this Muk have?"
Nemona always asked questions directly when she had them, and this time was no exception.
Aiden was somewhat surprised by her question but also very pleased.
He originally thought giving the students some guidance would be enough, so he hadn't mentioned anything about Muk.
But since Nemona asked, he wouldn't hide it.
"It's the Power of Alchemy ability."
"The effect is that when an ally faints, Muk can inherit its ability upon leaving the field."
"So actually, at the same time Flamigo entered the field, Muk immediately changed to the Moody ability."
In actual battles, the effect of Moody wasn't as obvious as in the game, where it would directly trigger two different colored lights and give a text prompt.
However, experienced trainers could still tell.
Muk's eyes had become sharper, and its body had become softer at the same time, clearly indicating a significant boost in Attack and a decrease in Defense.
This was also one of the reasons it partnered with Smeargle—it was already hard to hit after using Minimize, and if its Defense or Special Defense were further increased due to the ability's effect, it would be even more ridiculous.
"I see—"
After listening to Aiden's words, Lacey looked thoughtful.
She felt she had a new understanding of the Minimize strategy.
But, she was still concerned!
"Teacher Aiden!"
After thinking for a moment, Lacey suddenly raised her hand, and only after getting Aiden's nod did she ask her question.
"Although Smeargle can allow Muk to use Minimize relatively safely, if the opponent has moves like Dragon Rush, Minimize would be meaningless, right?"
"And it feels like relying solely on evasion to stall for time doesn't allow you to seize control of the battle—?"
"That's true."
Aiden acknowledged her words.
"But, what if we change our perspective?"
After all, the Minimize team itself is more of an entertainment-focused lineup, often used to torment opponents—
To truly make the Minimize team powerful, it was missing a big brother riding a black horse.
With Calyrex's high speed, it could directly use Baton Pass to copy the evasion boost upon entering the field, and it wasn't very afraid of moves that bypass accuracy—Calyrex's only weaknesses are Ghost and Dark, and in the generation it appeared, there were no moves that countered Minimize for these types.
So, a minimized Calyrex could reduce the probability of being hit to a minimum without paying much cost.
Its own explosive firepower also meant the Minimize team didn't need to rely on Muk poisoning to stall for time to win—it could directly sweep the opponent with Astral Barrage.
Ugh, Astral Barrage, Astral Barrage!
This is the true complete form of the Minimize team.
Unfortunately, Calyrex is still lying on some mountain somewhere, and he temporarily couldn't get it to use as material for his students—
A bit of a pity, but there was nothing he could do.
He couldn't just go to the Crown Tundra for this matter!
After giving the students a simple lesson and expanding their thinking, Aiden planned to have the students form random pairs for the rest of the time to explore more new strategies through actual battles.
The morning passed quickly. Nemona and the other three had a great time, experiencing a double battle that was rare to see in Paldea.
Especially Arven—
His Pokémon were really suited for double battles. They could have good coordination with any partner, and he had all sorts of strange moves.
As soon as his Garganacl appeared, students whose teams were mainly Water-type Pokémon were almost scared to tears.
Even the team formed by Nemona and Lacey was no match for him, being easily defeated by Arven and Penny.
With Arven's abilities, it was indeed a waste for him to be a researcher or breeder—Aiden felt this regret for the umpteenth time.
But there was nothing he could do. After all, Arven's own wishes were most important. He just enjoyed the happiness of raising Pokémon and had little interest in commanding them in battles.
In the Pokémon world, the main focus is on diverse development, and those willing to specialize in the trainer path are actually the minority. In any case, the students learned a lot in this class, and Aiden also completed his debut as an "exchange teacher," which was truly worth celebrating.
When it came to the students' free time in the afternoon, Aiden didn't forget that he still had important business—to go to the Dragonspiral Tower to retrieve the Light Stone that Reshiram had transformed into.
After bidding farewell to Principal Cyrano, Aiden mounted his Salamence and flew in the direction indicated by the Rotom Phone map.
The Dragonspiral Tower was located north of Icirrus City and was said to be the place where the Unova's thousand-year war ended.
When Aiden arrived in the nearby airspace, he easily spotted this very special building.
Time had left many cracks on the tower's body, and there were already many gaps on the exterior, through which one could vaguely see the interior.
There were also collapsed stone pillars everywhere inside, but for some reason, the overall structure of the spiral tower had not collapsed, seemingly achieving some kind of delicate balance.
Perhaps it was caused by the power of the twin dragons?
Aiden didn't dwell on this question. After all, even if it collapsed, the people of Unova would always rebuild it.
This was Unova's oldest building, and it was also the birthplace and resting place of the black and white dragons. If it really collapsed, it would definitely be a terrible omen.
But does Unova have such a saying?
"Roar!"
"Good work, Salamence."
Salamence slowly landed on the top of the tower, and Aiden leaped from its broad shoulders.
Since he had a flying Pokémon, of course, he didn't need to climb up layer by layer like in the game, even having to overcome obstacles and accept challenges from all trainers who made eye contact along the way—
And Aiden's goal for this trip, the "Light Stone," was placed so openly on the stone steps in the very center.
As he gradually approached, the originally ordinary white stone quickly began to flash with light, as if guiding him to continue forward.
"..."
Aiden was momentarily speechless.
Is this a traditional art form in the Pokémon world?
The two gems in Hoenn also seemed to be placed directly on the mountain tops, as if afraid the villains wouldn't know their location.
Unova was at least a bit better. Although this was also a stone, it was at least transformed by a legendary Pokémon and had its own consciousness.
If taken by someone not recognized, they might have to endure the anger of a deity.
So even Ghetsis probably didn't have the guts to touch it.
Aiden thus walked straight forward and held up the seemingly heavy Light Stone high.
"Reshiram, get★daze!"
After uttering this famous line, Aiden suddenly felt a bit unfulfilled.
"Isn't this a bit too easy to obtain? Why do I feel like there's no sense of accomplishment at all—"
"Logically speaking, shouldn't N be riding Zekrom over right now to have a big battle with me, and finally successfully persuade me with words?"
[—Zekrom is not here. It has already left, following the 'Hero of Ideals' it chose.]
[However, if you're interested in it, you can go to Nimbasa City now.]
[I can feel that Zekrom's presence is there.]
The telepathy from Reshiram appeared again, confirming Aiden's thoughts.
It was clearly not asleep at all. The stone form might just be their usual charging mode to save energy for when it's needed.
"Nimbasa City—don't tell me he's going to ride the Ferris wheel?"
Aiden thought to himself.
He suddenly remembered that N did indeed have a hobby of riding Ferris wheels.
Perhaps to make up for his childhood?
Anyway, he didn't have much to do recently, so he could go there.
Even if he didn't find N, he could see this most vibrant entertainment city.
Consider it a vacation for himself!
However, just as Aiden was about to ride Salamence away, he suddenly heard several sounds of breaking through the air.
Looking up, a rapidly flapping Flygon had already arrived above the Dragonspiral Tower, and there seemed to be someone on its back.
It was an old man with completely white hair and beard, who, on the contrary, appeared very energetic.
Under the white shirt covered by overalls, his muscles were exaggerated, not at all like an elderly person.
And Aiden immediately knew his identity the moment they met.
Mayor of Opelucid City, Opelucid Gym Leader, Drayton's grandfather.
Drayden!
The Flygon didn't make a move but cautiously approached him.
So Aiden wasn't in a hurry to leave and simply stopped in place, waiting for the other's next move.
From his impression, the family Drayden represented was responsible for safeguarding the DNA Splicers, so they had a deep connection with the black and white dragons.
They might even have a direct connection to the bloodline of those two heroes.
So when he sensed someone had come to the Dragonspiral Tower, the other immediately rushed over, right?
Anyway, he was the "Hero of Truth" acknowledged by Reshiram himself, so there was nothing to fear.
When the Flygon came to low altitude, Drayden on its back finally recognized the visitor and clearly relaxed.
"So it's you—"
"It seems, Mr. Aiden, you have already gained Reshiram's approval and become this generation's 'Hero of Truth'?"
Drayden quickly leaped down, landing not far from Aiden, and extended his hand to him.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Aiden."
"I am Drayden, the Gym Leader of the Opelucid Gym."
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