"Well... there's a reason for it."
Owen scratched his head. How could he put it? His second Pokémon was already in place; all it lacked was an official status. If he could register Magnemite sooner, it would make formal training much more convenient.
Just as Owen was about to explain, Ethan cut him off.
"Forget it. We'll talk about this back in Fairview."
"Alright," Owen replied.
Evaluating a family's financial capacity, conducting background checks, reviewing a rookie's first-year performance—all of these administrative hurdles took time. Ethan couldn't give an immediate answer, and Owen understood that.
As the two headed toward the infirmary, the exchange match continued back at the gymnasium. Owen and Eevee, those two "Demon Kings" who had shattered the competitive balance, had actually done a favor for the rest of the team.
By picking off all of Riverside's top-tier players, they had left the opposing side with only average-level students.
Without the "god-tier" clashes from before, the atmosphere of the matches became much more harmonious.
Although Riverside was still technically stronger as a whole, both sides could now trade blows and actually learn from one another.
Since the number of remaining players on each side was different, the exchange match became surprisingly neck-and-neck, making the final result anyone's guess.
Near evening, as the exchange drew to a close, Ethan contacted Zoe back in Fairview.
"How did it go?"
"Thanks to Owen, we didn't lose."
"By 'didn't lose,' do you mean... You won?"
"Yes."
"Riverside No. 1 has always been a top-tier school in the province, while Fairview No. 1 is usually at the bottom. You realize what this means, right?" Ethan recounted Owen's performance.
The provincial league was divided into individual and team battles. As for the team events, even the professional trainers didn't harbor much hope. But for the individual matches, there were too many variables now.
"A five-man sweep..." "And he took out their main force."
Zoe fell into silence. Although she was the head of the New Star Project, she wasn't a professional coach; her role was to guide and teach general knowledge.
She never proactively audited their specific strength, only knowing what the trio chose to reveal.
Lynnea had her family's traditional breeding methods and secret move manuals; Zoe couldn't interfere too much there. As for Leo, she could take full charge if his father agreed.
But Owen, a grassroots trainer, had grown so rapidly that he clearly had his own secrets—likely unique breeding methods or move manuals.
Ethan and Zoe both knew this. From the "Counter Shield" version of Sand Attack, Owen had already shown a hint of talent for creating original move variations—the hallmark of a professional-trainer-to-be.
With such talented trainers, they didn't want to over-meddle. They couldn't exactly drag Owen into a room and demand he and Eevee confess everything.
Their relationship wasn't that intimate, and as professionals, they had to maintain a certain level of ethics. As long as Owen didn't do anything illegal, their job was simply to ensure he didn't stray onto the wrong path.
"I didn't call to talk about the sweep, though. It's about..."
Ethan relayed Owen's request to Zoe.
October 8th, Night.
By the time the school bus returned to Fairview, it was already past 8:00 PM. Before getting off, Owen stretched his limbs with a long yawn.
"Home at last!"
Since Owen didn't live in the dorms, he left school immediately. The day had been exhausting, but the harvest was significant.
He now had a much clearer positioning of Eevee's strength. Being able to pull off that win streak was largely thanks to the "Return Training Method." Most elite students, having gone through formal school training, were now approaching or exceeding the level of the "seeded" players from the Young Ho-Oh Cup. If he had stayed stagnant, he wouldn't have been able to maintain his lead.
"It's been two months since the cup. I wonder how much progress those dozen or so seeded players have made..." Owen muttered. He wasn't the only one improving; those gym apprentices were likely progressing even faster.
Owen needed to keep up the pace.
Upon returning home, he immediately pulled up his memories from the night before and began studying the move manual for Reflect.
Reflect is a move that raises a wondrous wall of energy to protect the user, weakening physical damage from opponents.
This move relies entirely on the utilization of Mental Power. To learn Reflect, a Pokémon must first possess sufficient mental strength.
Because Reflect is a relatively low-threshold Psychic-type move—one that even Pidgey or Oddish can learn—the mental power requirement isn't astronomical.
The three mental training methods recorded in the manual should be sufficient. Once the mental power reached the standard and the corresponding principles were understood, mastery would only be a matter of time.
Owen was most concerned with these methods. "Low threshold" was relative to Psychic-type Pokémon; Eevee was currently below the mark.
Method 1: Concentration. This required the Pokémon to lock its mental energy onto a single object. During this period, there could be no distractions or interference. The longer the focus, the better the training effect.
"Er..." Owen looked at Eevee, who was already lying on the bed staring at her phone. Watching shows definitely led to distractions based on the plot. Making Eevee concentrate was difficult. Magnemite could use this method, but... it was too inefficient.
Method 2: Mental Exhaustion and Recovery. For a Pokémon like Eevee whose mental power isn't naturally high, the manual suggested a "Memory Method"—memorizing vast amounts of data supplemented by brain-boosting nutrition. For a Pokémon like Magnemite, which already has decent mental power, they could directly practice Psychic-type moves to exhaustion, followed by rest and nutrition.
Method 3: Meditation. The manual recorded a rudimentary meditation technique specifically for Pokémon—a deep-breathing skill to calm the mind. Unlike the elite meditation used by the Celestial Heart Dojo, which could allow humans to use psychic powers or let an Abra learn Psychic before evolving, this version was much weaker. But Owen didn't have the luxury of choice.
Owen decided to have Eevee start training her mental power using the Memory Method combined with Meditation.
The content she would memorize? The plots of the shows she watched. This was exactly why Owen had promised her more screen time at Riverside... since she loved watching and remembering them anyway, she might as well train simultaneously.
As for Magnemite, although it was easier for it to concentrate than Eevee, Owen felt it should stick to its current routine: exhaustion training supplemented by meditation. This would most efficiently improve its practice with Hidden Power.
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