"She's here, Aya!"
"Aya, I love you!"
"Let's gooo~!!! We're taking off!!!"
The moment Aya stepped out in her pink ninja outfit, every thirsty viewer in Caster's livestream lost their minds, flooding the chat with comments that had no business being written.
Caster just looked at her, completely deadpan. Watching Aya strike what she clearly believed was a dramatic entrance pose, he had one thought: God, that's embarrassing.
"Your perception is remarkably sharp. Every trap in the dojo failed to catch you. Genuinely impressive."
Aya rose to her feet, and the movement offered a brief glimpse of her legs beneath the hem of her outfit, giving her an undeniably striking presence.
She noted it and moved on, pulling her attention back to Caster with eyes full of curiosity.
Then she caught herself, straightened up, and gave a cool, dismissive sniff. "You're here to challenge Fuchsia Gym, aren't you? Before the official battle starts, you'll have to get through me first."
"Veee~"
Out of nowhere, a Venonat had appeared at her side, practically vibrating with excitement.
"No problem."
Caster smiled and accepted without hesitation.
He already knew Aya's actual battling skill was pretty average. If she were anything special, Koga wouldn't have passed the Gym to his own daughter when he moved up to the Elite Four.
He reached for a Poké Ball and threw it.
"Drat~"
In a flash of red light, a Dratini materialized, its big round eyes catching the light.
"Wait, is that really his Dratini? It's adorable!"
"Adorable? It looks... thick to me."
"Big. Built. Solid. That's just how Caster raises his Pokémon. You saw his Gyarados. You'll get used to it."
"Dratini, CHARGE!!!"
"Okay but then why is his Pikachu still tiny?"
"Because small and cute is also valid, alright?"
Dratini had a solid following in Kanto.
Even though Caster's audience was full of degenerates, when it came to an actual Pokémon battle, they were firmly on Dratini's side. Venonat was just some common bug you found on the side of the road.
"Venonat, use Stun Spore!"
Aya was visibly caught off guard by the Dratini, but she didn't waste a second before going on the offensive.
Stun Spore: a move that could leave the opponent paralyzed.
The three-powder combo was Venonat's bread and butter.
Its ability, Compound Eyes, bumped the accuracy of powder moves up significantly.
"Veeee~"
A thick cloud of spores erupted from Venonat's fur and rolled toward Dratini in a choking wave.
To make it worse, they were inside an enclosed room, leaving Dratini almost nowhere to move.
In the anime, Ash had once tried using Pidgeotto's Gust to blow away a Stun Spore cloud, only for it to bounce off the walls and hit his own team instead.
"Here we go! Fuchsia Gym's signature opener: the Stun Spore setup!"
"Fuchsia trainers love stacking conditions. Paralysis is just the start. After that comes poison, sleep, confusion. Stack enough of them and your Pokémon just falls apart."
"Nooo~ Dratiney is precious, how could they do this to Dratiney..."
Half the chat had been through Fuchsia Gym the hard way and felt every bit of it coming back. This place was genuinely rough if you weren't ready for it.
Caster didn't move. He just watched.
Hum.
A soft shimmer rippled across Dratini's body.
The spores landed. Nothing happened. Not a single one stuck.
"Safeguard! Are you kidding me!"
Aya bit her lip, the pressure showing on her face.
Safeguard blocked status conditions entirely, and it had just shut down her whole gameplan.
With the debuff route closed off, she went straight to damage. "Venonat, Psybeam!"
Psybeam: a Psychic-type move that dealt damage and had a chance of leaving the target confused.
"Extreme Speed!"
The second Caster called it, Dratini turned into a streak of light and hit Venonat before the move could fire, sending it skidding across the floor.
Then, while Venonat was still down, Dratini coiled itself in crackling draconic energy and launched straight into it.
Dragon Rush.
BOOM.
When the dust settled, Venonat was flat on its back, eyes spiraling.
"That's it?! Dratini is on another level!"
The chat exploded. Plenty of them had earned the Soul Badge at some point, but their first run through that tactic had been a disaster.
And Caster had just cut through it like it wasn't there.
The difference in skill wasn't subtle.
"I lost."
Aya looked deflated for just a moment, but her expression sharpened quickly, and when she looked at Caster again there was something earnest in it. "Challenger, what's your name? You've got sharp instincts and real talent. You were practically born for this. Why not stay at Fuchsia Gym? I could have my brother take you on as a student."
A faint flush crossed her face as she finished.
The chat went quiet for half a second, then went completely off the rails.
Being taken on as a Gym Leader's student was something most trainers only dreamed about.
And Caster could have it by saying two words.
The envy was practically radioactive.
"Caster, don't do it! She's setting a trap, don't fall for it!"
"Exactly! With your talent, you should be aiming for an Elite Four mentor at minimum. A Gym apprenticeship? That's way beneath you!"
"Streamer, she's after your soul! Get out of there while you can!"
"Caster, listen to me: once that fishing rod is in your hands, everything else in this world stops mattering. Love, heartbreak, none of it. You are a fisherman. Stay true to that. Don't let anyone pull you off course!"
The messages kept piling in, all of them pushing him to say no.
Watching Caster succeed was, for a lot of them, somehow harder to sit through than failing themselves.
The envy had done something ugly to more than a few of them.
"A Gym student. An Elite Four student."
Caster skimmed through the flood of comments and let out a quiet, amused breath.
Please.
Champion Blue had offered him something an hour ago and he'd turned that down too.
Caster shook his head. "Sorry. Ninja life's not for me."
Right then, a round, armless Pokémon came rolling in from somewhere down the hall.
It looked like a Poké Ball with a face: red on top, white on the bottom, no button.
A Voltorb.
BOOM.
It exploded. Smoke swallowed the room.
When it cleared, Koga was standing there in full ninja gear, hands moving through signs, his expression stone cold. "Aya. You are still so far from where you need to be."
He could see exactly what had happened. His little sister had gone and developed feelings for Caster.
A ninja.
If you can't keep your own feelings in check, what kind of ninja are you supposed to be?
"I'm sorry, brother. I let you down."
Aya's expression fell, and she dropped immediately to one knee.
Koga exhaled sharply through his nose, then shifted his gaze to Caster. He wasn't happy about this. Not even a little.
He'd stepped away for a short while and nearly came back to find someone walking off with something he considered firmly off-limits.
In fairness, he couldn't really blame Caster since Aya had made the first move.
That didn't make him feel any better about it.
"I am Koga, Leader of Fuchsia Gym."
He spoke in a clear, measured tone. "You're here for the Gym challenge. Then I'll be your opponent. One-on-one. Any objections?"