After watching Feebas leave, Lucas took Shauna and Tomoyo to the Cottage and brought the Snorunt, who had been hiding there to Slack Off, back to the Breeding House.
Upon returning to the Breeding House, Shauna couldn't wait to have Lucas teach them how to battle. Lucas couldn't refuse her, so after discussing it with Gengar and the others, he decided to start by teaching them about type effectiveness.
He wanted to avoid a situation where someone might use an Electric type to attack a Ground type.
Lucas wore a pair of glasses he had snatched from Gengar's face and tapped a makeshift blackboard with a stick.
"Listen carefully; this content is very important."
Shauna and Tomoyo sat at a small table below, their posture very upright. Lucas was satisfied with what he saw and proceeded to list the various types on the blackboard.
"The most important thing in a battle is to make rational use of type effectiveness to achieve the best results, potentially even defeating an opponent in a single move."
Lucas swallowed. "Type effectiveness, as the name suggests, is the relationship between different types where some are stronger than others. For example, the Grass type is weak against Fire, Flying, Bug, Ice, and Poison types, but it is strong against Water and Ground, and it has excellent resistance to Electric types."
"Our Lilligant, for instance, belongs to the Grass type."
Tomoyo listened intently from below, even asking Gengar to bring her a pen and paper so she could take diligent notes.
Shauna glanced at Tomoyo's notes, then secretly ducked her head to take a bite of a sausage from Lucas's drawer. Later, finding it uncomfortable to keep ducking, she simply took it out and began munching on it openly.
"Next, I will list the relationships of type effectiveness for you. You must memorize them well."
Shauna nodded seriously.
After finishing the list, Lucas continued, "At the same time, we must note that some types are completely immune to each other. For example, Normal and Ghost types are mutually immune."
As Lucas continued his lecture, Shauna's head began to nod off, bobbing up and down. She still held the sausage in her hand, and there was even some unchewed sausage in her mouth.
"We can categorize battle effects as 'super effective,' which comes from type advantage; 'not very effective,' which comes from a type disadvantage; and 'no effect,' which occurs in cases of total immunity."
Shauna swallowed the sausage in her mouth and slumped onto the table.
"These are cases for single types, but in our daily lives, many Pokémon have dual types. For example, Gengar is Ghost and Poison type. For dual-type Pokémon, their type effectiveness will change accordingly."
Lucas looked at Shauna, who was now drooling all over the place.
He felt completely helpless.
If Tomoyo weren't still listening so intently, he would have wanted to end the lesson right there.
He motioned to Gothitelle, who took the sausage from Shauna's hand and gave it to Gengar, then brought over the blanket Lucas often used and covered Shauna with it.
Mr. Fujino passed by and saw Shauna sleeping soundly, a look of mixed amusement and pity in his eyes.
Mrs. Fujino secretly took out a camera and snapped a few photos of the sleeping Shauna from a distance.
Then, she left, feeling satisfied.
"Tomoyo, do you remember what types the Flying type is weak against?"
"I think it's... Electric, Rock, and Ice?"
Tomoyo didn't need to check her notes; she thought for a moment and then spoke.
Lucas couldn't help but be surprised. She was so smart.
Then he looked at Shauna next to her, who was sleeping so deeply she didn't know where she was.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Sure enough, there's always a slacker friend next to every top student.
"Correct. So, if a Pokémon has both Flying and Electric types, will it still be weak against Electric type moves?"
Tomoyo shook her head.
"Exactly. Because it has the Electric type itself, it cancels out the Electric weakness it would have had. And for the Water type, which would normally be neutral, it becomes a relationship of resistance—"
Lucas explained in detail.
"Is school over yet? Tomoyo."
Shauna mumbled, rubbing her eyes as she instinctively asked Tomoyo.
Tomoyo gave a hum of affirmation as she sat up straight and stretched.
"Great, I can finally go home."
After saying that, she looked at the familiar surroundings and realized she was at the Breeding House.
She covered her mouth.
"Oh no."
"..."
Then she peeked at Lucas and saw him sitting in the lounge area looking at her with a wide smile.
"Hee hee."
Shauna let out a little giggle.
"You asked me to teach you how to battle, and yet you slept the soundest."
Lucas feigned anger.
Shauna ran over and threw herself into his arms, saying in a clear voice, "But you're the one who told me!"
"What did I tell you?"
"On my first day at school, you told me that if I couldn't keep up with the studying, I should just eat well and sleep well. I did exactly that!"
Lucas: "..."
Mr. and Mrs. Fujino listened to her from the side, unable to decide whether to laugh or cry.
At that time, Lucas had said that because he was worried she wouldn't adjust to school life, since she had only recently recovered.
He hadn't expected his own words to come back and hit him like a boomerang.
"And it really was quite boring."
Shauna said with a pout.
Lucas sighed. "Then you're not going to learn?"
"No, I want to learn through actual combat! Maybe I'll learn it all in an instant that way!"
Lucas: "..."
Where am I supposed to find a real battle for you right now—
"Excuse me, is the owner here? I've come to challenge the Breeding House."
Lucas turned toward the door and saw a Trainer in a school uniform standing there.
Seeing Lucas and the others looking at him, he paused. "Oh? Is today inconvenient?"
Lucas looked at Shauna in his arms and shook his head.
"No, it's fine."
He then stood up and walked out of the Breeding House.
Shauna, Tomoyo, and the others stood in the front row. Lucas looked at the Trainer before him and said, "The rule is that you can use three Pokémon, while I will only use one. If you win, your challenge is successful."
The opposing Trainer nodded. "I know the rules. My teacher told us about them before I came."
Teacher? Told you? What does that mean?
Seeing the opposing Trainer send out a Mothim, Lucas thought for a moment.
"Vespiquen."
Soon, Vespiquen flew out from the backyard. She looked at Lucas, then at the Trainer and the Mothim, nodded, and moved to the center of the field.
Before starting, Lucas turned to Shauna and Tomoyo and said, "Watch closely."
Shauna and Tomoyo nodded.
As the battle began, the opponent had Mothim use Quiver Dance.
"So greedy? Starting with Quiver Dance."
Lucas muttered quietly, then reacted, "Vespiquen, Air Cutter."
The Air Cutter hit the Mothim while it was still performing Quiver Dance, instantly knocking it out of the battle.
"Flying type is effective against Bug type?"
Gengar, standing nearby, heard this and gave Tomoyo a thumbs up.
In the following two battles, Lucas intentionally slowed down the pace. While guiding Shauna and Tomoyo, he also gave some pointers to the challenging Trainer.
"I'm sorry, you've failed the challenge."
Lucas said regretfully to the Trainer.
The Trainer laughed. "My teacher was right; the owner of the Breeding House really is strong."
Lucas had been wondering who this teacher was and asked, "Teacher? Who is your teacher?"
"We are students from Jubilife Academy. This year, our school's field assignment is to come and challenge this Breeding House. It looks like I was the fastest to arrive."
The Trainer explained.
The field assignment is to challenge my Breeding House?
What on earth? Coming all the way from Jubilife Academy just to challenge a Breeding House?
If he hadn't failed to hear the name of the teacher from the Trainer, Lucas would have suspected it was Lucian's idea.
But Lucas had actually guessed correctly; it was indeed Lucian's idea. At that moment, Lucian was on his way to the Breeding House to rest.
"Will there be many more students from Jubilife Academy coming to challenge me?"
Lucas saw the Trainer nod. Lucas's face filled with pain; his days of slacking off were about to end again.
They had barely begun, and they were already over.
Once the Trainer left, Lucas turned and took Gengar, Shauna, and the others back into the Breeding House.
Behind Lucas, the faint outline of a Pokémon appeared in the air.
It hesitated for a moment, then followed Lucas inside the Breeding House.
Once inside, it looked around everywhere.
Just as Lucas lay down, a text description popped up before his eyes.
[Latias]
[————]