Cynthia let out a quiet breath of relief.
Then, when no one was looking, she pressed her fingernail lightly into Steven's hand.
"Ah—"
Only when she heard him wince did she look up, thoroughly satisfied.
"Ooooh!"
The class immediately erupted. Cynthia's face went red.
"Alright, settle down." Professor Kukui stepped in before things could get any louder. "Steven and Cynthia's personal life is their own business. Since they haven't made anything official, let's be respectful and leave it there."
"Yes, Professor Kukui!"
The reply came back in near-perfect unison. Kukui nodded, looking only slightly strained.
"Now then — the science lesson that Principal Oak was going to teach has been replaced today. Since Steven and Cynthia have come all this way, we're going to watch a battle between two Champions."
Steven smiled faintly. He and Cynthia had somehow become substitute teachers.
As Professor Kukui led the group outside toward the open field, Steven fell into step beside him and lowered his voice.
"Professor Kukui — Lillie didn't look very excited back there."
Professor Kukui was quiet for a moment. "Lillie is one of the strongest students I have when it comes to Pokémon theory. She knows more than most her age." He paused. "But because of something that happened to her when she was young, she's afraid to touch Pokémon. Battles especially make her uncomfortable."
"I see," Steven said.
He understood now why Principal Oak had been so eager to arrange this.
It wasn't only about broadening the students' experience. Part of it was about Lillie.
Growing up in a world built around Pokémon, yet being unable to reach out and touch one — Steven couldn't imagine it. He felt a quiet ache for her.
Professor Kukui ushered the students to one side of the field and kept a very deliberate distance between them and where Steven and Cynthia had positioned themselves.
Kiawe looked around, puzzled. "Professor Kukui, why are we standing so far back? This is supposed to be an exhibition match."
"That was the Champions' request," Kukui said, rubbing the back of his neck. He had already guessed why. These two were not planning to hold back.
Steven and Cynthia stood facing each other across the open field. The breeze off the ocean moved through the grass quietly.
"Are you starting with Garchomp?" Steven asked, his tone easy, a small smile on his face.
"Of course." Cynthia didn't bother pretending otherwise. Then something crossed her expression. "But no Mega Evolution — that's the condition."
Her Garchomp hadn't yet reached the same level as Steven's Metagross. A Mega Evolved Metagross would be a different battle entirely.
"Understood." Steven accepted without argument.
The two moved apart.
Bang! Bang!
Four flashes of white light burst across the field simultaneously. Steven released Scizor and Skarmory. Cynthia sent out Lucario and Roserade.
"Is this a two-on-two Double Battle?" Sophocles asked, leaning forward.
But Scizor crossed to the students' side of the field, and Lucario followed. They positioned themselves in front of the group, facing outward.
Skarmory remained beside Steven. Roserade stood beside Cynthia.
"They're acting as a safety barrier," Professor Kukui said, exhaling slowly. An outdoor battlefield had none of the protective barriers that a proper stadium would. The Champions hadn't forgotten that. "That's very considerate of them."
The students stared at the two Pokémon now standing right in front of them.
"Can we… touch them?" Mallow asked, barely above a whisper.
"You can," Cynthia called across the field.
Even from a distance, she had seen the look on their faces.
Lucario gave a long-suffering sigh but held still as Mallow and Lana reached out with trembling hands and placed their palms gently against its fur. Kiawe and Sophocles gravitated toward Scizor, poking curiously at the smooth red plates along its body. Scizor closed its eyes and bore it with quiet dignity.
"Lillie," Mallow said, glancing back, "aren't you going to try?"
"I never said I couldn't touch them," Lillie replied, very quickly and very firmly.
She did not move forward. Her hands stayed clasped together in front of her. But the retort, delivered with such determination and so little follow-through, made it hard to take entirely seriously.
"Go, Metagross!"
Steven drew the Poké Ball from his belt and sent it forward.
Bang!
"Metagross!"
The Steel- and Psychic-type dropped from the air and landed on four heavy limbs. The ground beneath it cracked immediately in a ring around it — fine fracture lines spreading through the packed earth from the sheer weight of impact.
"Garchomp — take to the sky!"
Cynthia threw her Poké Ball in a sweeping arc. It burst open at the top of its climb, and Garchomp emerged in a flash of white light. It swept the light away with one claw and released a long roar skyward.
"Grrr!"
"That's Cynthia's Garchomp!" Sophocles said, his voice pitching upward. "The same one that swept through six Pokémon at the Lily of the Valley Conference!"
"Steven's Metagross hasn't appeared in a Conference that I know of…" Lana murmured, looking at it carefully. "And its colouring is different from a normal one."
"It's a Shiny Metagross," Lillie said, without missing a beat. "Shiny Pokémon have different colouration from the rest of their species. They're exceptionally rare."
"Either way, they're both incredibly strong!" Kiawe clenched his fist at his side, barely keeping still.
Professor Kukui stood with his arms folded, watching the two across the field.
A showdown between Champions.
"Grrr!" Garchomp fixed its gaze on Metagross, scythe-arms flexing.
"Metagross." The Iron Leg Pokémon regarded Garchomp in silence, its four red eyes impassive.
"Come at me whenever you're ready, Cynthia," Steven said, his voice calm, one hand relaxed at his side.
He meant it. Exhibition or not, there was no reason to hold back.
"Don't take this lightly!"
The shift in Cynthia was immediate and unmistakable — the relaxed warmth of a moment ago vanishing entirely, replaced by something focused and sharp. The air around her seemed to change with it.
She really is something else, Steven thought, watching her.
The Cynthia who had been quietly holding his hand an hour ago and the Cynthia now standing across this field from him were almost entirely different people.
Cynthia reached into her right pocket and produced a tube of lipstick. She applied it with the ease of someone who had done it a thousand times, then held it lightly against her left cheek. At the base of the tube, catching the sunlight, was a small Key Stone — its surface shifting with faint colour.
"Garchomp—"
The Garchompite responded to the Key Stone's resonance. Light erupted between them in a blazing arc.
"Mega Evolution!"
The energy enveloped Garchomp in an instant — a brilliant, shifting cascade of light. The genetic pattern of Mega Evolution flared in a streak of colour, and when it faded, Mega Garchomp stood on the field. Broader, sharper, the silhouette of it completely changed.
"Is that Mega Evolution?" Professor Kukui said softly, something like wonder in his voice.
"What?! It evolved again?!" Kiawe stared.
Lillie turned to her classmates and began, in her careful way: "That's Mega Evolution. Professor Sycamore of the Kalos Region published research on it not long ago." She paused to make sure she had their attention. "It's a temporary transformation that occurs when a Trainer and their Pokémon share an exceptionally strong bond, triggered through a Key Stone and a corresponding Mega Stone. The transformation lasts only for the duration of the battle."
She glanced toward the field.
"This is the first time I've seen it in person as well."
Across from Metagross, Mega Garchomp brought its scythe-like arms together with a resonant crack and let out a roar.
"Grrr! I'm going to tear you apart, iron crab!"
Metagross did not react. Its eyes held steady, as calm and unreadable as ever.