Chapter Thirty-Seven: A Rematch with Ash

“Xiao Zhi versus Am, three-on-three, standard singles rules, no items allowed... Battle, begin!” At this moment, Brock was acting as the referee on the sidelines.

With the announcement of the battle’s start, both Am and Xiao Zhi released their first Pokémon.

“Pika, pika!”

“Saur!”

It was a classic case of rivals meeting again, eyes blazing with intensity. Both sent out the very same Pokémon that had faced each other a month ago at Professor Oak’s lab: Pikachu and Ivysaur—though back then, the latter was only a Bulbasaur.

“Bulbasaur, huh? That puts Pikachu at a slight disadvantage in terms of type,” Brock muttered quietly from the sidelines.

But Xiao Zhi didn’t give this minor disadvantage a second thought.

“Pikachu! Use Quick Attack!”

“Pika pika pika…”

By now, Xiao Zhi and Pikachu worked together with perfect synchronicity.

As the energy of the Normal type surged through its body, Pikachu’s movements became astonishingly swift!

Quick Attack was a textbook example of a priority move.

In this world, battles weren’t turn-based. Priority moves didn’t simply grant higher initiative; rather, they allowed a Pokémon to “pre-spend” energy before its “energy gauge” was full. However, after the gauge did fill up, the borrowed energy still had to be repaid with a skill cooldown. (See Note 1.)

But Pikachu’s tactic was all about seizing the initiative!

“Garlic, hold steady!” Am instructed, reminding his Pokémon to “respond to all changes with constancy.”

After all, in this reality, Quick Attack wasn’t just a single strike—it was a state of acceleration. If Ivysaur attacked recklessly now, it would be difficult to land a hit on Pikachu.

Pikachu darted nimbly around Ivysaur, circling before suddenly lunging in for a body slam just as Ivysaur lost track of its movements.

Pikachu’s speed was truly remarkable.

Its base speed stat was 90—a respectable number. And that only measured skill preparation speed; its real movement speed was even greater. In terms of raw acceleration and agility, Pikachu was actually faster than its evolved form, Raichu, with its base speed of 110.

Ivysaur was struck on the side by Pikachu, whose body was wreathed in Normal-type energy, causing it to sway—though thanks to its larger size, it didn’t roll over as it might have before. However…

Ivysaur couldn’t help but notice that this yellow rodent, despite not having evolved, seemed… to have grown even more than itself.

Fortunately, the effects of Quick Attack soon faded.

“Garlic! Bind it!” Am commanded.

“Bind it” wasn’t the name of a move; it was simply Am instructing his Ivysaur to use its vines to limit Pikachu’s evasive maneuvers.

Even in its normal state, Pikachu was much faster than Ivysaur. But now it wasn’t a contest between Pikachu and Ivysaur’s body—it was a contest between Pikachu and Ivysaur’s vines, which Ivysaur had specifically trained!

In battles that went beyond specific moves, both Ivysaur and Venusaur relied not on fangs or claws—but on those two vines. Am’s regular training regimens for Garlic centered on controlling them with precision.

Pikachu was indeed agile, even using Ivysaur’s outstretched vines as springboards to leap, but in the end, it was still caught in Ivysaur’s grasp.

This wasn’t the actual Bind move—just a physical hold. Two vines alone couldn’t restrain Pikachu’s full power for long; it would soon break free.

But Am only needed a single “opportunity”!

Seizing the moment when Pikachu was about to break loose, Am gave a decisive command: “Garlic! Use Sleep Powder!”

Ivysaur’s bud opened slightly, and a cloud of pollen burst forth, drifting directly toward Pikachu.

“Not good!” Xiao Zhi cried out in alarm. He shouted, “Dodge!” but it was already too late.

Pikachu struggled briefly, then quickly succumbed and fell into a deep sleep.

Sleep Powder was a high-quality move, but its accuracy was only 75—a difficult technique to land. Although Am liked to employ such moves, he hadn’t focused Garlic or his other Pokémon’s training on maximizing its effectiveness; they just had ordinary proficiency.

Normally, Sleep Powder was placed in a dominant genetic slot, consuming a skill use—and turning the pollen produced by the Pokémon into a sleep-inducing dust.

Getting the pollen to actually hit the opponent was a matter of technique.

In the heat of battle, it was easy for an opponent to dodge such moves; that’s why Am had first ordered Ivysaur to restrain Pikachu.

“Now… gently set him down,” Am instructed.

Actually, Ivysaur was already familiar with this routine even without direction!

In this real world, the Sleep status not only meant the chance of waking increased with time, but also that being attacked while asleep raised the odds of waking up. So… the best strategy was to avoid normal attacks for now, wait, and then unleash a powerful move.

If a sleeping Pokémon took a direct hit from an attack move, it would most likely wake up. But being attacked while asleep, without any defense, also meant a greater risk of suffering a critical hit.

Ivysaur’s skill preparation was generally slower than Pikachu’s, but with Pikachu asleep, there was no pressure. Both sides finished preparing their second moves at about the same time!

“Pikachu! Get up, Pikachu…” Xiao Zhi kept calling out, hoping Pikachu would wake sooner.

Once Am saw that Ivysaur was ready, he commanded, “Garlic! Use Sludge Attack!”

At the same time, seeing that Pikachu still wasn’t waking and Ivysaur’s bud was already trembling in anticipation, Xiao Zhi had no choice but to recall Pikachu.

“It’s up to you now, Bulbasaur… be careful on defense!”

The Poké Ball withdrew Pikachu, and at that very instant, another Pokémon was released—no need to worry about dodging a move through this switch.

For Xiao Zhi, it was better to have a fresh, alert Pokémon take the attack, so it could at least try to defend itself.

As soon as Xiao Zhi’s Bulbasaur appeared, Ivysaur’s back erupted in a spray of purple poison that struck it head-on…

————

Note 1:

In this story’s setting, priority moves from the games are moves that can be used by pre-spending the energy gauge.

Moves that have negative priority—so-called delayed moves—require the energy gauge to be consumed normally, and can only be released after the gauge has filled again.

Both priority and delayed moves only consume the energy gauge once; when a delayed move is finally executed, it does not consume the newly filled gauge again.

The exact amount of priority or delay is not differentiated—speed and reflexes alone determine the outcome.

For moves like Solar Beam, which require a turn to charge, the move is released when the energy gauge has filled a second time, and that second full gauge is expended.

As for moves like Hyper Beam, which cause a turn of immobility in the game, using such a move in this world causes the next energy-gathering period to be halved in speed.