Every generation since Gen 5 had featured some version of a Battle Restaurant — Trainers could challenge the house for rewards and free meals. Luke had always thought it was a genuinely clever setup.
The customer is God. I show up hungry and happy, and you want me to run a pokémon: battle before I eat?
In this parallel world, though, the sport had a genuine cultural grip — exhibition matches everywhere, even bleeding into restaurant floor shows. Turns out pokémon: battle could work up an appetite just fine.
Out of respect for the performers on stage, Elena had already returned to her own table. Luke settled in and watched the show with real interest — clearly modeled on Wallace Cup choreography, Primarina's ethereal vocals layered over Floatzel's shifting curtain of water, drawing a full round of applause.
After the main act came the challenge segment — a shot at free meals for anyone bold enough to step up. A steady stream of amateurs took the stage.
Luke propped his chin on one hand, glancing at Gastly, currently working through a chocolate soufflé. "Want to give it a shot?"
"Kojie!" Gastly, chocolate smeared across its mouth, shook its head firmly.
"Could've saved us $150," Luke sighed, a little wistfully. "Eh, your happiness comes first."
A fresh round of applause rose as Elena, heels clicking, stepped onto the stage — Granbull at her side, its presence noticeably sharper than the timid energy it had shown the first time they'd met. She lived up to her school-team reputation, cleanly defeating three challengers in a row, then bowed gracefully to the crowd's cheers.
"Alright, Gastly, time to head home and sleep," Luke said, stretching.
"Kojie~~~~" Gastly, visibly rounder than usual, sprawled bonelessly across the table, showing zero interest in moving.
After sitting through countless Master Rank pokémon: battle matches, Luke had long since lost patience for amateur-level performances like this. From his seat, he could already see both sides' next moves coming before they made them — nothing here had come close to surprising him.
Granted, that was easy to say from the fifth floor looking down. Put him on the actual first-floor stage, and he'd probably be sweating just as much as anyone else.
In the system, a progress bar sat quietly beneath his Cooking Lv1 entry.
[Cooking Lv1 (67/100)]
Working through star-rated cuisine all night had nudged his proficiency up a notch — appreciating good food, apparently, was its own kind of training toward mastery. Even without going the Trainer route, running a cozy roadside restaurant someday didn't sound like a bad backup plan.
At checkout, the waiter smiled. "Sir, someone's already covered your bill."
Luke raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? Who?"
"The young lady who competed earlier — she used her winnings to cover your meal."
Since Luke wasn't planning to compete for a school team spot himself, Elena — technically ranked below him after their earlier match — got to keep her position uncontested. This was her way of saying thanks.
Sharp as ever, Luke caught the meaning instantly and gave her a small nod across the room, accepting the gesture without a shred of guilt.
Hell yes. Just saved over a hundred bucks.
______________________________
Night air drifted through the bright, bustling streets of Metro City as Luke and Gastly made their way home. The Piplup Cup's top-sixteen round was set for Saturday — which meant Luke had a deadline. He wanted "Teacher Luke Teaches You Pokémon Battling #05: The Perish Song Team" finished and out the door before then. Million-view videos meant real creator payouts, and the BP from its ongoing spread would put him that much closer to finally affording Gastly's Protect TM — the last missing piece of its full Substitute-Protect-Toxic kit. Anything dirtier could wait until after evolution.
Right about then, Gastly wobbled unsteadily in midair, looking distinctly unwell.
"Kojie..."
"Told you not to eat that much."
Gastly: Σ(°△°|||)︴
"Do NOT throw up on me—"
______________________________
Back home, Gastly flopped onto the ceiling and passed out almost instantly. Luke showered, sat down at his laptop, and got to work editing the Perish Song footage — the Master Rank clip against a Garchomp that strong was gold on its own. He could already picture the reaction once it dropped; the comments section was going to be a warzone.
Still, one clip alone wasn't quite enough. Luke thought it over and reopened the game.
Vegetable Ice Cream's icon still sat grayed out, offline. Whoever this person actually was, the impression had stuck with him.
"She did say companionship gets billed separately... could I squeeze another payout out of this?" he muttered, rubbing his chin — then caught himself. "No. Professional ethics. Already got paid once, can't double-dip."
Scanning his friends list, only one name showed green: Gold.
As the protagonist of his own arc, Gold's raw instinct for scrappy wild battles was genuinely impressive. His actual command discipline in a formal pokémon: battle match, though, left a lot to be desired — and "pokémon: battle" as a competitive format leaned hard into precise commanding above all else. Ranked seventh in the world, Luke represented an absolute mismatch for someone at Gold's level.
Didn't stop Gold from losing every time and immediately begging for a rematch anyway. Bad at the game, but can't stop playing it — that summed him up pretty well.
Luke's mouth curved into a grin. Perfect footage material, honestly.
He opened the chat.
Teacher Luke: You up? Get online.
Gold: Wait for it, your grandfather's arrived!
Half an hour later:
Gold: That one doesn't count!
An hour after that:
Gold: I am NOT giving up today!
Two hours later:
Gold: ...I'm done. (waving emoji)
Teacher Luke: Solid effort. Actors couldn't have staged a reaction that good.
Gold: ???
I was genuinely trying my hardest, okay?! Is it MY fault your strategies are this filthy?
Fuming, Gold vented in the group chat instead.
Gold: Perish Song is disgustingly unfair!
Gold: There's no rotating out of it, even defensive swaps don't work!
Blue: Lorelei's Sevii Islands team runs that exact strategy. She's terrifyingly good at it.
Gold: Σ(°△°|||)︴
Blue: Red would know — he's fought her before.
Ten minutes of silence, then:
Red: Perish Song's actually one of her rarer sets — she's got a whole different core she usually runs.
Red: Wait. You ran into a Perish Song user?
Gold: ...No, it's Teacher Luke's next video, before it even drops.
Blue: ?
Even Blue, unshakable as he usually was, couldn't quite hide his surprise. Substitute-Protect-Toxic. The Minimize team. Now Perish Song. That made three original strategies out of Teacher Luke, all inside a couple of months — each one brutally difficult to execute, but with payoffs to match the risk. And every single one of them shared one common thread: dirty.
Just what kind of Trainer is this guy, pulling off tactic after tactic at this level?
Red, for his part, wasn't especially surprised. He'd already quietly filed Luke away as a future rival worth watching.
"Of course he did," Red said, half a laugh in his voice.
______________________________
Back at his desk, Luke finished stitching the footage together and stretched, joints popping. He clicked Upload, a faint, satisfied smile tugging at his mouth.
[Uploading video... your new video is live!]
[Click to watch: "Teacher Luke Teaches You Pokémon Battling #05: The Perish Song Team"!]