Pokémon from Galar

Ralts, who was standing next to her, finally couldn't stand it anymore and bent over, covering her mouth and laughing. She leaned her whole body against Ichigo's legs. Although it was unclear what had made Ichigo laugh, it seemed that she wouldn't be able to recover for a while.

Mary walked over, bent down, picked up Sis-chan who was about to collapse to the ground, and put her in her arms. Then, she grabbed Sis-chan by the collar and buried her head in her chest, shaking and laughing.

"...Never mind, let's go."

Unable to stop the hysterical laughter of Sis in her arms, Mari called out and led everyone back towards Yuri's direction.

Chapter 47 Yuri's Gym Battle

Time quickly came for Mary's gym challenge. Yuri's turn was scheduled before Mary's, so Mary went to the audience alone.

Although there is a players' lounge backstage, you can only watch the live broadcast on a big screen there, which is not as comfortable as watching it live. Moreover, Yuri herself said that she would be more motivated if she could see Mary in the audience.

Since she had already spoken up, Mary had no choice but to walk back into the noisy audience.

Today, both Sis and Balu, who were supposed to play, were kept in the ball by Mari to rest, while only Ichigo and Xiaochu watched the game with her.

"Chirp... (There are so many people here...)"

Not used to this kind of occasion, Little Chirp slumped listlessly in Mary's arms. Having always lived in the wild, she had never experienced such a noisy time before.

"You'll get used to it. You'll have to fight with this kind of noise in the future."

"Chirp? (How much longer until it starts?)"

"It'll start soon, just wait for the next host to finish speaking."

Mary actually had the idea of ​​letting Chiu and Sis challenge the gym, since neither of them had much combat experience, and it wouldn't hurt for them to experience it against a relatively gentle opponent.

Unfortunately, Palmo was already assigned when I registered, and unless there's a special reason, they generally won't let you change the Pokémon you register for halfway through.

"Ee... (Is Yuri alright...?)"

Having already become familiar with each other, Ichigo sat in the empty seat next to Marie, looking up at her trainer's face with a slightly worried tone. Marie reached out and patted Ichigo's head, smiling as she said:

"No problem. They specifically bought the skill machine from me and trained so hard, so it'll definitely be fine."

Yuri forcefully bought the skill machine from herself for Yumianmian; she's made such a big decision, there must be no problem.

Mary pinched Ichigo's ear, showing a certain degree of confidence in Yuri's challenge.

……

Yuri changed into her competition uniform and sat in the players' lounge. Listening to the host's voice on the screen next to her, she clasped her hands together, looking a little nervous.

Unlike Hep, Yuri is just an ordinary girl, at least in terms of personality. Suddenly having to step onto such a big stage makes it impossible for her to calm down.

I heard that dojo challenges in other regions have no spectators at all.

Yuri tugged at the glove on her right hand, inwardly grumbling about Galar's gym battle system.

"ah……"

"Tearful Lizard?"

Watching Sobble suddenly pop out of its Poké Ball, then skillfully climb onto her and press its face against hers, Yuri tilted her head and rubbed her cheek against her friend.

"...Are you trying to comfort me?"

I raised my hand and gently patted Sobble's head. The little guy who used to be so timid is now starting to comfort his trainer.

"Ya ya~"

"Thank you."

Although she couldn't understand Pokémon's language like Marie, Yuri still felt that she could sense Sobble's emotions at this moment.

He reached for a bottle of mineral water given to him by the dojo and gulped down a large mouthful.

"what--"

Yuri let out a long sigh of relief and scratched her bangs. She had been encouraged by her Pokémon, so she couldn't continue to be so nervous!

"Go for it, Yuri! Mari-chan is waiting outside for your entrance!"

In the empty waiting room, Yuri was trying to encourage herself when, after the host finished speaking, there was a sudden knock on the door.

"Please, please come in!"

After hearing Yuri's permission, a uniformed staff member opened the door and politely said:

"It's time for you to go on stage, little girl."

"Okay, okay! I understand!"

Yuri stood up somewhat stiffly and touched the four Poké Balls that were already hanging on her waist. Although the spots for the battle had already been decided, Yuri didn't have the habit of handing over her partners to others when she went on the battle.

Feeling the weight of the Poké Ball and calming herself down a bit, Yuri stepped out of the waiting room and walked down the long corridor.

The staff member noticed Yuri's reaction, smiled, and closed the door to the lounge. Every time he saw a new challenger making their debut, he felt as if he were seeing the future of Galar, which made him genuinely happy.

Keep it up, little girl.

Silently cheering for this trainer making their debut, the staff member left and returned to their post.

She hadn't noticed it while in the corridor, but as Yuri walked out of the long corridor against the light, a sudden cheer engulfed her—the huge battlefield and the densely packed crowd.

After watching the scene from outside the screen for several years, Yuri stepped into it for the first time, wearing her competition uniform.

Oh no, I can't find Mary...

As Yuri walked towards Gym Leader Aro, she raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight, trying to find Marie's location. Unfortunately, with the crowd surging around, even though she knew Marie's general direction, she still couldn't find that familiar figure.

"Nice to meet you, challenger. Your name is Yuri, right?"

A gentle voice startled Yuri awake. She quickly turned around and found Gym Leader Alo standing in front of her, smiling at her.

“Hello, Mr. Yalo.”

Yuri nodded somewhat awkwardly, feeling a little overwhelmed by her momentary lapse in concentration. Yaro, however, waved his hand dismissively.

"Don't be nervous, this is just a normal Pokémon battle. I'm looking forward to your performance."

After saying that, Yalo nodded and turned to walk towards the trainer's standing point.

"..."

Before Yuri could answer, she turned her back, gripped the Poké Ball with her right hand, clenched her left fist and took two deep breaths before reaching the designated spot.

Yuri looked up and, quite by chance, met Mary's gaze. At this distance, she couldn't hear or see what Mary was saying, but Yuri managed to calm herself down quite easily.

Upon hearing the announcer's announcement to begin, Yuri removed the Poké Ball from her right hand, which had been gripping it, and then pressed the switch.

"It's all yours now, little Mianmian!"

As if using all his strength, he threw it forward with a sudden burst of energy.

"nya~"

With a flash of red light, Cotton appeared on the field, and the Poké Ball bounced back in mid-air from the force of the Pokémon's appearance, landing back in Yuri's hand.

Meanwhile, the gym leader standing opposite him, Yaro, also sent out a baby Cotton.

"nya!"

"call……"

Yuri let out a breath. She knew that her opponent was waiting for her to make the first move. This was a habit of several gym leaders when facing newcomers, and Yaro was a prime example of this.

"Little Mianmian, sing in turn!"

"nya~"

Across half the area, Yu Mianmian bounced around in place and began to sing, while the other side waited until they acted first before giving the order.

"High-speed rotation and magic leaves."

It was a familiar combination attack. The little cotton on the other side reacted quickly, and emerald green leaves began to appear around its body. At the same time, as its body spun, it formed a vortex that cut through the air at high speed, pressing towards Yuri with an unstoppable momentum.

Chapter 48 Battle against Gym Leader Alo

Completely different from the feeling she had in the audience, when Yuri actually faced this move, she realized that this combination of moves was much more powerful than she had imagined.

So how exactly did you train... to the point where you could train a tracking skill like Magic Leaf to the point where it was completely under your control?

The rapidly spinning magic leaves enveloped the little cottony body, so that with the current damage from the round, it could only temporarily disperse the magic leaves, but could not penetrate to the innermost part and attack the body.

Yuri didn't have time to think too much; her opponent's little cotton-padded jacket was closing in, and she only had one card left—it wasn't the time to play it yet.

"Continue to sing in turn to scatter the magic leaves, then get ready to spin at high speed and charge in!"

“Nya~”

Upon hearing the command, the little cotton-puff, which had been dodging, suddenly changed its movement and began to spin rapidly with its slender body. Just as it was about to be hit by the opponent's magic leaf attack, a song floated from Yuri's little cotton-puff's mouth.

Then he crashed headfirst into the formation of magic leaves.

Seeing that Yuri's plan was about to succeed, Yaro waved his hand and shouted:

"Shoot it back with a flying leaf blade!"

The Gym Leader of Yaro suddenly changed his attack on Cotton Candy, and the Magic Leaves surrounding him abruptly stopped, then all of them shot towards Yuri's Cotton Candy.

This move really startled Yuri, turning the magic leaf into a flying leaf dagger... Didn't she need to prepare for this? She just changed it like that?

The dojo master's training methods are indeed impressive.

Unfortunately, now is not the right time, otherwise Yuri would definitely have tried to ask Yaro for advice.

"Be careful to dodge, don't get knocked away!"

With some concern, she offered a word of advice: Young Cotton's light weight is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Young Cotton knew her trainer's tactics before the match and now she knew it was an opportunity.

The opponent abandoned the magic leaf that acted as a barrier, which presented an opportunity for us to attack. As long as we can defend against this wave of attacks and prevent the distance from widening again, we can find a chance to turn the tide of the battle.

The flying leaf blade struck Yuri's baby cotton without mercy. Although the damage was insufficient, it widened the distance between the two baby cottons slightly.

The large swaths of cotton that bounced out with a thud were caught in Xiao Mianmian's hands, and she flung them out in clumps, blocking some of the attacking flying leaves.

"Now!"

Upon seeing this, Yuri immediately shouted out her command. Before the opponent could mount an effective defense, Yuri's Cotton Cotton suddenly lowered its head, and a large ball of pollen fell into its hand. It then swiftly and forcefully hurled it at the opponent.

"Magic leaves block the pollen clusters!"

Yaro reacted quickly. Upon seeing Yuri's little cotton ball throw out that little ball, he immediately understood Yuri's plan and swiftly gave instructions.

Unfortunately, it was still a step too late. The pollen ball was detonated very close to Yalo's baby cotton ball, and a large amount of Bug-type energy swept over the baby cotton ball.