He knows Pokémon better than me.

"Come on, let me show you around our Spike Town first."

Seeing that Morbeco's electricity had been almost fully released, Mari called it back to her shoulder and forced a smile.

"All right."

Xiao Zhi scratched his head, chuckled in agreement, and had no choice but to follow behind.

However, he was also very interested in this uniquely structured town.

Entering from the western entrance, the town appears quite desolate, overgrown with weeds.

But there have been quite a few changes inside—

It was still the brightest part of the afternoon, but the town seemed rather gloomy, with the houses standing on both sides blocking most of the sunlight.

These buildings look quite old, with worn-out walls covered in various messy and illegible street graffiti.

It's still afternoon, but the neon signs lining both sides of the street are already lit up, displaying all sorts of flashy and colorful signs.

For example, phrases like "Go Marie!", "The strongest Dark-type Gym", "Refuse Dynamax Battles", and "Revitalize Spiketown".

Every ten meters or so, you can see various iron gates covered with barbed wire. Looking inside, most of them are gathering places for small gangs, and people wearing shouting squad uniforms with strange hairstyles can be seen everywhere.

"Wow, your hometown is really interesting."

Xiao Zhi chuckled dryly, unable to find the right words to describe it.

Low emotional intelligence, a dilapidated town.

High emotional intelligence, decadent punk aesthetics.

He now finally understood why the whole town was filled with shouting bands.

I think it's okay~

Mary didn't react much to this; on the contrary, she felt quite comfortable.

After all, this is where she has lived and grown up since she was a child, and it has long had its own set of rules.

When the members of the cheering team who were passing by saw Mary, their eyes lit up. However, when they saw that Xiao Zhi, an outsider, was with her, their expressions turned annoyed.

"Wait a minute, this guy is the one you guys were talking about, Miss Mary's rumored boyfriend, right?"

"How dare they come to our headquarters!!"

"Are you taking her to meet my parents?! No way!!"

The crowd reacted with varying expressions, and some even began to wail and scream in agony.

Some people were even thinking of rolling up their sleeves, but when they saw the menacing armored dragon and Mary's angry gaze, they reluctantly pulled down their sleeves and could only follow from a distance.

After walking just two blocks, more than twenty members of the shouting team had already gathered behind me.

The two walked ahead, like gang leaders.

"Uh"

Ash had no choice but to forcibly shift his attention to his surroundings.

Upon seeing a red-roofed building resembling a Pokémon Center, he felt as if he had found his old home and quickened his pace to walk towards it.

However, through the "window" that no longer has glass, you can see that the person standing at the front desk, doing the job of "Miss Joey," is a middle-aged man from the shouting team wearing sunglasses.

The prop shop next door was staffed with employees dressed in the uniforms of the cheering squad.

In short, everything here is part of the shouting team.

"Somewhat similar to Po Town in the Alola region?"

Ash frowned. Over there, the local thugs Team Skull had completely taken over a small town.

Of course, the difference is that Po Town has completely lost its function as a town. Not to mention Pokémon Centers and shops, it has even lost water and electricity, and is essentially no different from the wilderness.

Although Spiketown was a bit chaotic, at least everything was operating normally. Soon, the two arrived at the most spacious open space in the town center, pushed open the iron gate, and entered. Behind them, there were already more than fifty members of the cheering squad.

On the stage at the end of the open space, a rock singer with an extremely flamboyant style was standing. He was wearing a black and white jacket, studded boots, and had a thin figure.

Its long, black and white spiky hair is quite similar to that of the Blocking Bear.

There were three Pokémon beside her—

A small band is formed by two vibrato salamanders, one low-key and the other high-profile, each bursting with blue and yellow lightning, and a blocking bear standing in front of a microphone.

"Damn it! Why are you all so useless?!"

At this moment, the man with long black and white hair was angrily cursing at the bear blocking the way. His face was pale and he had dark circles under his eyes, indicating that he had not slept for several days.

The three Pokémon looked at each other, seemingly frightened and at a loss.

Although the band's rehearsals haven't been going very well lately, it shouldn't be this bad, right?

Mary witnessed this scene and immediately went up on stage, interrupting her with displeasure:

"That's enough, brother! You've gone too far!!"

He must be possessed!
Not only is she like that to herself, but now she's treating these Pokémon she painstakingly recruited to form the band like this. Nie Zi wasn't like this before!

The members of the shouting team below were also taken aback; their leader had indeed been acting strangely lately.

However, on stage, Nie Zi simply held her head, stared wide-eyed, and kept repeating:

"Damn it, something's missing... something's missing?!"

Mary paused, a look of confusion on her face.
Although his older brother has been trying to revive Spike Town for years, he is under tremendous pressure.

Since Spiketown lacks a "Dynamax Point" and cannot host Dynamax battles, it has never been able to attract Galar tourists from other regions.

But after all, it's my hometown, so I can't exactly call on other residents to move, can I?

If it weren't for the fact that Nie Zi still managed to reach the top four at last year's Galar League tournament, even without using Dynamax—

Apart from Chibana and Dante, this is the best result they've achieved.

That's why the Spike Arena has been preserved.

Otherwise, even their dojo status might be revoked.

"Is it because of excessive pressure that you're in disarray?"

Mary's face showed more heartache, but Nie Zi was clearly not listening to anything at the moment. Unless he was defeated head-on, he would continue to be trapped in this frantic struggle.

Thinking of this, she took out a Poké Ball and decisively declared war:

"I'm here to challenge the Spike Arena! Let's have a match, brother!!"

Nie Zi was finally brought back to her senses by her sister's voice. She looked at Mary and seemed to have regained some of her senses.

Having not rested for many days and being in this state for a long time, his expression became somewhat distorted.

Boo hoo hoo-!
The Rotom drone has flown over to record the battle between the two.

As for the usually enthusiastic cheering squad around them, they looked around and were speechless for a moment.

Which side should we cheer for?

With the two sides already divided up, the battle began in a simple and brutal manner, taking place right in the open space in front of the stage.

Xiao Zhi's gaze fell on Nie Zi, and he stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"It seems... I really am possessed?"

And it seems he's felt this way before? (End of Chapter)