"Brother Luke is INSANE!" Daniel roared.
Bob swallowed hard, still processing. Brother Luke actually made the Top 8?
Elementary-tier tournament or not, the Piplup Cup was still an official, association-sanctioned municipal event — and in its entire history, no amateur had ever cracked the Top 8. And Luke had just done exactly that.
A small flicker of envy stirred in Bob, who'd been chasing the Trainer dream seriously for years. But watching Gastly hover close beside Luke, he shook it off. Brother Luke's clearly put in work nobody saw. Better to focus on my own grind than sit here being jealous.
"BROTHER LUKE IS AMAZING!" Bob and Daniel shouted together, adding to the general chaos.
The whole venue was buzzing. An amateur, breaking into the Top 8 of the Piplup Cup? Who even is this guy?
Up in the stands, Tyler — who'd advanced to the Top 8 himself — watched the replay with a mixture of awe and something close to reverence.
"Since the qualifiers, this Gastly's growth curve has been absurd," he murmured. "Of course Teacher Luke's got a Toxic Experience-tier approach to raising Pokémon too. Should've expected this."
A pack of reporters, patience finally exhausted, surged forward.
"How does it feel breaking into the Top 8 as a Finance Department student?"
"Any insight into how you've trained Gastly?"
Luke considered the question for a moment, then answered with total seriousness.
"Love."
The reporters blinked, then bent over their notebooks, scribbling it down without a second thought. Luke waved to his roommates in the stands and headed for the player's tunnel.
______________________________
"Bro, you actually WON," Daniel said, still visibly stunned once they regrouped.
"Eh, it's fine." Luke sighed, already dreading another early Saturday next week. "All thanks to somebody's surprise performance today."
"Kojie kojie!" Gastly nodded proudly from overhead.
"You're also the first non-Pokémon-major to ever hit the Top 8 in Piplup Cup history!"
Bob swallowed again. "Our whole grade's group chat is on fire right now."
Luke checked his phone — 99+ notifications, including messages from his counselor and several of his professors.
Counselor: Damn, kid, you've got skills!
Ms. Shaw, Student Affairs: Remember to bring a copy of your certificate next week — need it for the scholarship paperwork.
Professor Collins (Economics): Congratulations, Luke. (smiling emoji)
...and more. Luke, generally on good terms with his professors, replied to each one before opening the class group chat.
"Brother Luke made Top 8 in the Piplup Cup!"
"WAIT REALLY? Legend."
"Knew Class Rep Luke had it in him!"
Luke blinked, genuinely puzzled. Was Elementary-tier Top 8 really this big a deal? Then again — maybe this was the equivalent of an amateur beating an actual track athlete. He let out a tired sigh.
You'd never believe me if I told you the truth. My own Gastly signed me up for this behind my back.
"Brother Luke, thanks to you," Daniel said, elbowing him. "We landed contact info from a bunch of girls today!"
Luke: ?
I'm out there battling and you two are working the crowd?
Bob clicked his tongue, impressed with himself. "The second you waved at us, girls just started walking over."
"Wait, that's actually a real thing that happens?" Luke asked, genuinely surprised.
"There's one, Hannah — also made Top 8 — said she's a fan of your stream."
Bob's expression turned a little strange. "Brother Luke... she's not, like, one of your stream regulars, is she?"
Luke looked up at the sky. At my current follower count, it'd be weirder if nobody recognized me at an event like this. Not that it mattered either way — he wasn't exactly a celebrity who needed to dodge fans.
"Push her contact to you instead," Luke said.
Bob thumbed through his phone. "Looks like she's from Metro City University's affiliated high school, but already accepted into our program next year."
"Kids these days develop fast, you'd never guess she's still a junior."
Luke smiled. "I'm not adding her. But do me a favor and scout her tactics for me."
Bob's eyes lit up. "On it!"
______________________________
Back home, Luke checked the system readout.
[Remaining BP: 2050]
The match had netted 200 BP — not as much as a viral video, but a solid haul on its own. Replaying the fight in his head, the moment that stuck with him most was Gastly straight-up swallowing Nidorino's Poison Sting. Made sense, though — Gastly's Poison typing gave it quadruple resistance, so that hit had probably functioned more like a light snack than an actual attack.
At its current strength, Gastly genuinely had the foundation to start working on Toxic.
Luke rubbed his chin, eyeing the still-hyper Gastly with mild concern. Will-O-Wisp training had ended in an actual house fire. Toxic training carried an entirely different category of risk.
Still — high risk or not, Gastly's growth couldn't just stall out here. Luke thought it over and opened the system shop.
[Spend 2000 BP to redeem a Poison Gem?]
A ten-pull had a shot at turning one up naturally, sure, but Luke — never one to gamble when a guaranteed option was sitting right there — went ahead and redeemed it directly.
[Redemption successful! Remaining BP: 50]
Like the fire stone before it, the Poison Gem was dense with raw elemental energy, ready for Gastly to absorb directly. Sealed in a solid shell rather than anything actively radioactive, at least Luke didn't have to worry about it leaking anything dangerous around the apartment.
[Poison Gem: A dark violet gem saturated with highly toxic metallic compounds — ideal consumption for Poison-type Pokémon. (Just send it. Let's go.)]
Luke pulled the gem out of storage — translucent, faintly amethyst, genuinely beautiful — and clicked his tongue appreciatively. "No wonder Steven's out there digging up rocks across the globe. These things actually look incredible."
Gastly stared at the gem, drooling steadily onto the floor.
"Kojie (﹃)"
Luke handed it over. "Call me before you start training with this. No solo risks, understood?"
Gastly's eyes lit up, taking the gem with obvious pride.
"Mmm mmm mmm!" — leave it to me!
It floated off toward the desk, tugged the drawer open with its tongue, carefully retrieved the Toxic Experience scroll, and set it down neatly beside the gem — then flashed Luke an entirely too-innocent grin.
Gastly: (`)
Luke couldn't help but smile back.
______________________________
The Piplup Cup's Top 8 round would kick off next Wednesday, with a short warm-up window before then. Doing the math, Luke figured the semester would likely wrap right around finals season — cutting it close either way.
"Guess it's time to actually study," Luke sighed. "And since I've made it this far in the tournament, might as well bring some real effort to it too."
Half-assing anything wasn't worth doing at all — that had always been his rule.
Just as he pulled out his textbooks, ready to settle in and study with Gastly at his side, his phone buzzed.
A Line message. From a very particular contact.
"Vegetable Ice Cream": Online. Let's play.