Chapter 138 Invitation

Kuan-Kuan was informed that it could not put the ball inside its own body... whether by eating it or by opening its coffin lid to store it inside was strictly prohibited... Afterward, it reluctantly took the ball out, tossed it back to A-Feng, and let the other side restart the match.

It was evident that Kuan-Kuan felt somewhat constrained and clumsy from then on—after all, it didn't understand the rules at all!

Without Kuan-Kuan acting as the "spoiler," A-Feng, along with his Lucario and Gallade, could truly showcase their skills. Amidst the screams of the female fans cheering from the sidelines, their performance was exceptionally dashing and fluid.

Especially when A-Feng himself was dribbling the ball, he wore a look of "expressionless disdain," playfully toying with Hanamichi!

If it weren't for the strict prohibition against physical altercations among human contestants, Hanamichi probably would have already given him a real-life headbutt...

The training drill consisted of twenty alternating passes, and seeing that nineteen had already passed, it had practically become A-Feng's personal performance showcase.

However, right on this very last pass...

Lucario had just gained possession of the ball when two shadowy hands instantly coiled around it, while another two reached directly for the ball in its grasp!

Kuan-Kuan stared with its bead-like eyes; having watched for so long, it had roughly figured out the basic rules.

At that moment, Lucario spun around to shield the ball while using its innate Steel-type energy to condense a "bone rush" club in its hand, swinging it to shatter the shadowy hands lunging for the ball.

Forming this "bone club" with Steel-type energy was not technically a move, but rather Lucario's intrinsic power.

Although a Scrafty also rushed over with a headbutt, finally forcing Lucario to retreat a short distance, Lucario backhanded a swing with its bone club, batting the ball toward the direction of Gallade, who had moved into an open position. Earlier, Gallade had used [Double Team] to confuse other opponents, and now the distance was just right with no one guarding the surrounding area...

Once Gallade received the ball in this position, passing it back into the court would be completely unstoppable!

However, right at that moment, the Cofagrigus suddenly surged toward Gallade.

Given Cofagrigus's rather sluggish movement speed, it definitely wouldn't make it in time, but...

With a sudden flash, the "Cofagrigus" transformed into a "Gengar"!

Although its physique looked round and chubby, Gengar's movement speed was remarkably fast.

More importantly, Lucario's previous pass had been a low-trajectory flick, keeping the ball's position very low. Right at that moment, under the stadium lights, it cast an extremely long shadow trailing behind!

Although "Gengar" still hadn't caught up in time, a fraction of a second before the ball fell into Gallade's grasp, it "stepped" right onto the ball's shadow, and its entire body instantly melted into the shadow of the ball.

Gallade received the ball and used psychic power to make it hover beside itself. Meanwhile, due to the angle of the lighting, the primary shadow light source for the match ball shifted to a single lamp directly overhead, causing the shadow to shrink back instantly...

Indeed, Gallade had witnessed Kuan-Kuan's transformation at the critical moment, but after all, it was too sudden and caught off guard, having no idea how to react for a split second.

"Gengar" instantly emerged from the small patch of shadow directly beneath the ball—much like a colossal beast crawling out from a tiny hole!

Following that, it snatched the match ball in an instant and delivered an uppercut to Gallade...

Gallade countered with a back elbow, but its arm blade simply passed right through Gengar's body!

Out of the corner of its eye, "Gengar" glanced toward Hanamichi, but... A-Feng had already sprinted over a step ahead. "Gengar" suddenly waved its hand violently.

"Oh no! Too hasty..." While panicking, Megane rushed to block A-Feng.

However... no matter how one looked at it, this was a motioning action of throwing the match ball, yet no actual pass was made—leveraging the Ghost-type Pokémon's ability to become completely intangible and evade physical collisions, Gengar executed a fake pass that couldn't possibly look more real.

Simultaneously, "Gengar" gave a gentle bump with its body, passing the match ball across the midcourt...

It looked like a misplaced pass to an empty space, but "Scrafty" had already prepared in advance. A red streak flashed across—Scrafty was executing a genuine [Headbutt] move this time, having even jumped up to use it!

With a deafening "Bang—", the match ball smashed toward the other half of the court with astonishing force.

Although everyone knew that the "Barrier" would serve to weaken the impact, that overwhelming momentum... actually made the others freeze in their tracks for a moment or two!

Only Hanamichi, the partner of "Scrafty," bolted forward fiercely at that instant, leaping directly into the air to receive this long-distance pass.

"Bang—"

Even with the Barrier dampening the force, the sound of this ball was no weaker than when the [Headbutt] had collided with the ball earlier!

"Oh my..." Coach Anzai let out a sound filled with surprise mingled with appreciation... and a touch of apology.

As the ball was successfully intercepted, the training drill came to an end. Hanamichi stood holding the ball, striking what he believed to be a very handsome pose from behind, until two seconds later...

"Ouch, ouch, ouch..." Hanamichi dropped the ball, clutching his hand and wailing in pain.

"Wall-Wall is getting old too, well... if the Barrier stays active for too long, its effectiveness tends to wane, oh哈哈哈..." Coach Anzai let out a geriatric chuckle.

That's right, the impact hadn't been dampened enough on that final play.

Of course, this was also because Hanamichi's and A-Feng's Pokémon were indeed far stronger than those of the ordinary club members, especially Scrafty's physical power... which consequently placed a much heavier burden on Mr. Mime who was maintaining the Barrier!

Looking at Mr. Mime, who was bent over and appeared somewhat aged, waving and offering an apologetic smile toward him, Hanamichi found himself momentarily speechless.

Meanwhile, Kuan-Kuan and "Scrafty" were jumping up and down celebrating over there, and anyone who didn't know better would have thought they had scraped through a narrow victory rather than losing 19 to 1!

It wasn't until Kuan-Kuan noticed Ahm looking over that it instantly reined itself in, putting on an indifferent expression as if to say "so what" and "it wasn't even that fun."

Coach Anzai stared at "Kuan-Kuan" for a moment, then stood up from his seat and leisurely strolled over to Ahm's side.

"Young man, have you taken a fancy to anyone?" Coach Anzai took the initiative to ask first.

"Well... we're just looking around..." Renshi explained somewhat flusteredly, considering that he was essentially operating under the banner of the Sakuragi Research Institute to "bluff and wander about."

Coach Anzai didn't mind at all and stated directly: "I actually quite fancy you... Your name is Ahm, right? It feels like I've heard that name somewhere before... Never mind, it doesn't matter... You started your journey this March, didn't you?"

"Yes, that's right." Hearing the other party confirm the starting date of his journey, various evasive excuses already surfaced in Ahm's mind.

"Your Pokémon seem to possess a great deal of talent for foot-basketball... Are you interested in becoming a ringer?" Coach Anzai invited.

In professional foot-basketball matches, the most common roster combination was "5+5+5," meaning five human contestants paired with their five Pokémon partners, while the remaining five slots would mostly be filled by "ringers," though not necessarily sourced from the same trainers.

In the high school Pokémon league, there were still restrictions on "ringers," limiting not only the age and debut timeline of the ringer's trainer, but also capping the external assistance at a maximum of two Pokémon.

Generally speaking, the raw strength of Pokémon belonging to rookie trainers within their first three years of travel tended to be vastly superior to that of current students.

However, because Kube High School had previously been far from a powerhouse in foot-basketball, there hadn't been any pressing need to sign ringers.

It was just that now...

Perhaps the appearance of Hanamichi and A-Feng had prompted Coach Anzai to decide to give it a real push.

Just as Ahm was about to utter a refusal, Coach Anzai seemed to read his thoughts and added, "I know you're a rookie trainer and certainly don't have too much time to spare for foot-basketball. Besides, you actually don't need to come here frequently; you just need to transfer your Pokémon's boarding location to the school side, and then participate in a few days of intensive training before major tournaments."