A luxury hotel in Canalave City.
A certain Sinnoh Champion hadn't left her room in two days. The plush, hand-woven carpet lay buried under stacks of thick reference books and research materials, all hauled back from the Canalave City library — myths, history, ruins. Even on vacation, this was where Cynthia's attention naturally drifted.
As dusk settled in, she finally looked up from her desk, visibly worn out in a plain white T-shirt, and stretched with a long, satisfied groan.
"Mmm—"
Sprawled across the desk, she accepted the glass of water offered to her with a small smile. "Thanks."
Lucario gave a silent nod and returned to his post on the balcony, keeping watch. Roserade quietly gathered the scattered books back into order, releasing a faint, calming scent to ease Cynthia's fatigue. Glaceon hopped nimbly onto the desk and gave her cheek a cool, affectionate lick.
Cynthia's eyes softened into a smile. "Alright, alright, I hear you. I'll take you all out tomorrow."
Days spent slacking off always went by too fast. Just thinking about the League's endless formal obligations gave her a headache — but keeping Sinnoh stable was part of the job, whether she liked the bureaucracy or not. Fortunately, living entirely in the moment had always been her philosophy.
"Alright! One last night of gaming to celebrate before I'm back in the grind tomorrow."
She nodded to herself, exhaustion evaporating instantly, and pulled up the display screen with practiced ease. "Vegetable Ice Cream" was her alt account — friends list limited to just "Diantha" and "'Has Professor Rowan Eaten Today?'"
Diantha rarely played, only humoring her once every so often when Cynthia pushed hard enough. Thinking back to that Perish Song specialist from before, Cynthia swept her hair back, a small smile forming.
Not losing tonight.
Vegetable Ice Cream: Online. Let's play.
______________________________
Luke stared at his phone, baffled. Why is it that the second I try to actually study, someone always shows up wanting to game?
Turning her down wasn't an option — you simply didn't say no to a rich woman asking you to play with her. Sweet personality, nice voice — genuinely, what wasn't there to like about wealthy women.
Teacher Luke: Got it.
Teacher Luke: Voice chat?
Vegetable Ice Cream: Why?
Teacher Luke: Costs extra. Commentary's a premium service.
Vegetable Ice Cream: No, I understand.
Skeptical as he was of that response, the customer was god. Logging in for his first-ever paid gaming session, Luke asked, a little nervous.
Teacher Luke: Gentle or aggressive?
Vegetable Ice Cream: ?
Teacher Luke: Playstyle-wise. I've got range.
Vegetable Ice Cream: Whatever you're best at.
Luke exhaled, relieved. If she'd wanted an all-out aggressive style, he'd have been out of his depth — Life Orb sweepers, Dragon Dance setups, none of that was really his wheelhouse. He happily dragged Gengar into his lineup.
At the end of the day, Substitute-Protect-Toxic is still my bread and butter.
"Pay attention," he called to Gastly. "This is going to be your strategy someday."
"Kojie kojie!" Gastly nodded, practically vibrating.
The match started, and the second Luke saw the opposing lead, his brain briefly short-circuited. Water sprayed across the field as a pearl-white Milotic surfaced, cherry-red fins trailing behind it, letting out a haunting cry.
Luke immediately clocked the strategy. Coil would stack boosts to Attack, Defense, and Accuracy each use — and stacked high enough, it would eventually make Hypnosis land close to guaranteed.
But once the setup's this visible, it's just as easy to counter.
Luke smiled. "Trying to out-strategize me? Cute."
Across the match, Cynthia's mouth curved at the sight of the familiar Gengar — though what actually surprised her was that it skipped straight past Toxic or Perish Song entirely. Instead, it hovered in place, eyes glowing with something unsettling, a grin spreading wide across its face.
"Nasty Plot?" she murmured. "Change of pace, huh."
Nasty Plot would spike Gengar's Special Attack dramatically — at the cost of leaving its fragile frame wide open. But against a slow, setup-reliant Milotic like this one, going straight for the throat was clearly the smarter call.
"Gengar, Thunderbolt!"
A crack of lightning tore across the screen, dropping Milotic to critical HP in a single hit.
Gastly gave Luke a puzzled look.
"Kojie kojie?" — wait, this isn't the Substitute-Protect-Toxic thing, is it?
Luke coughed, awkward. "This one's not really for you. Next one will be."
Cynthia's second Pokémon came out: Togekiss. Luke had assumed Gengar would easily outpace it — until it became clear the Togekiss was running a Choice Scarf, its speed boosted well past his expectations. Out of options, Luke sacrificed Gengar into a Self-Destruct just to chip Togekiss down.
The screen lit up with a violent boom, Gengar shattering into pieces.
Gastly: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ
Wait. THIS is the strategy you want me to learn?!
Luke coughed again. "Not — not this one either. Or, well, maybe also this one, kind of—"
Cynthia's constant shifts in approach kept catching him off guard, but he held his ground through it. In the end, Luke scraped out a win — five Pokémon down to six, both sides on razor-thin health.
Once it ended, Luke sagged back in his chair. "This is exhausting."
"Rich women do not make their money easy to earn."
His phone buzzed again.
Vegetable Ice Cream: Again.
Teacher Luke: Again??
Vegetable Ice Cream: $700 per win. $430 per loss.
Teacher Luke: Be right there.
______________________________
Dusk gave way to full night. Luke, every muscle aching, slumped in his seat and typed with visibly failing effort.
Teacher Luke: I genuinely cannot do this anymore.
Five full 6v6 matches in one night. Two wins, three hard-fought losses.
"Honestly, good thing I lost a few," Luke muttered. "Otherwise this could've turned into best of seven."
On the other end, Cynthia stretched, thoroughly pleased with herself, competitive fire still burning bright.
Vegetable Ice Cream: You're good.
Vegetable Ice Cream: $2,900 total. Sending it over shortly.
Luke swallowed hard. Almost half a month's income in one night.Forget Boss Red — THIS is the real money.
Vegetable Ice Cream: Other games? You still up?
Teacher Luke: Yes!
Vegetable Ice Cream: You just said you couldn't do this anymore.
Teacher Luke: Whether I can or not, you're about to find out!
This world didn't have anything quite like EA or Nintendo, but plenty of other online games filled the gap. They settled on an FPS in the same vein as Resident Evil — right in Luke's wheelhouse as a lifelong console gamer.
By 1 AM, they'd downed the stage boss, and the end-of-level cutscene lit up the screen.
Vegetable Ice Cream: We actually cleared this...
Teacher Luke: Don't tell me you couldn't clear something this easy before?
Vegetable Ice Cream: ...logging off.
The sheer speed of that exit caught Luke completely flat-footed. I don't even log off my own stream that fast.
Still — this was not a woman worth annoying. He thought it over and typed carefully.
Teacher Luke: Get some rest.
He waited two minutes, then sent one more.
Teacher Luke: If you can't sleep and want to play again later tonight, just call.
No reply came. Luke set his phone down. Deep night had settled outside, wild Pokémon cries drifting faintly through the dark. He glanced up — Gastly already fast asleep on the ceiling. Luke yawned, eyes drifting shut without his permission.
Half an hour later, his phone screen lit up.
In a dim hotel room, Cynthia lay in bed, one slender finger tapping out a reply.
Vegetable Ice Cream: Okay.