Chapter 379: Giovanni: "I'm a Grandpa? Wonderful!"
Mammon sat on the grass, relaxed and comfortable, ready to settle in and enjoy the battle.
Strictly speaking, this was a sparring match between his future wife and his daughter.
"Go, go~!"
"Both sides do your best and win~!"
"Ge-sss~ Ge-sss~!"
"Tini Tini~!"
A certain wishing star who occasionally loved joining in on the fun had produced some cheer sticks from who-knows-where and handed one each to Diancie, Terapagos, and Victini.
Then it cheered for the battlers in its clear, sweet, adorable voice, though it was anyone's guess which side it was actually rooting for.
"Mmm~ She's got such a strong aura of the Deity on her."
Azelf sat on Mammon's shoulder, staring at Akari in astonishment.
As one of the "Six Gods" of creation, Azelf was quite sensitive to Arceus's aura, and it could smell Arceus all over Akari.
"She's my kid. Not surprising," Mammon replied, completely unbothered.
Azelf: "..."
Azelf tilted its head and thought about it. Fair enough. The Deity did seem to be very friendly toward Mammon.
Compared to Mammon, Caitlin and Serena were watching the battle with far more intensity.
The battle had already begun. Akari's Hisuian Arcanine didn't have Intimidate, so nothing triggered at the start.
Despite the type disadvantage, Platinum hadn't switched out Froslass.
As the saying went, a trainer who couldn't fight a battle at a type disadvantage was no real trainer at all.
Besides, the main point of this battle for Platinum was to gauge Akari's current level.
"Flamethrower!"
Akari went straight on the attack.
Hisuian Arcanine crouched slightly, then launched itself at Froslass. The flames already burning in its gaping maw flared even brighter.
It opened its mouth and unleashed a blast of searing fire.
The Fire-type move Flamethrower!
"Shadow Ball!" Platinum ordered a counterattack.
Froslass rose higher, cupped its hands, and formed a pitch-black sphere of shadow, which it fired at the oncoming Flamethrower.
The black Shadow Ball and the crimson Flamethrower collided hard in midair, the powerful energy clash spilling out in waves of wind.
The two attacks ground furiously against each other. Then, to the shock of Platinum and the three watching, the Flamethrower slowly began pushing the Shadow Ball back.
That's right. Hisuian Arcanine's Flamethrower was gradually overpowering Froslass's Shadow Ball!
"Is... is that really an Arcanine Akari raised herself?"
Serena was stunned. She said it softly, in alarm.
This isn't right!
She and Platinum sparred together all the time, so she knew the strength of Platinum's Pokémon very, very well.
Froslass was the weakest of Platinum's main team, true, but this was Platinum!
Platinum was on the verge of becoming a full Champion-caliber trainer. She was practically a lock to be Team Rocket's next top-tier executive.
Froslass itself was already very close to Champion-caliber. And yet, in a head-on exchange, Froslass's same-type Shadow Ball was being overpowered by this Hisuian Arcanine's Flamethrower.
That meant this Hisuian Arcanine was every bit as strong as Froslass, maybe stronger!
But... how is that right?
By Akari's own account, she'd only been traveling for four months.
Champion-caliber in four months? How the hell is that right?!
"There's no mistake. She raised it herself."
A smile tugged at Mammon's lips. He took out his phone and started recording the battle.
Akari's strength didn't really surprise him. In fact, he'd noticed something: the "protagonists" of this world were all monsters, but they didn't grow nearly as absurdly fast as they had in the original canon.
Reaching Champion-caliber in a year would stun any ordinary person. But compared to the canon "protagonists," Champion in one year was just the starting line.
The "protagonists" didn't just all become Champions within a year; they also had even more staggering achievements to prove how strong they were. After becoming Champion, Red went to Cerulean Cave and defeated and caught Mewtwo.
After becoming Champion, May went to the Sky Pillar and defeated and caught Rayquaza.
Dawn caught Dialga (or Palkia), and Serena caught Xerneas (or Yveltal).
All of that happened in the actual game stories.
Mitsuki, before she even became Alola's Champion, had beaten Necrozma three times and forced it into submission and caught it. After becoming Champion, she single-handedly took down all of Team Rainbow Rocket. She was a veritable nightmare-difficulty raid boss.
To be clear, the "nightmare-difficulty raid boss" here refers to Mitsuki, not Team Rainbow Rocket. For Team Rainbow Rocket, Mitsuki was the nightmare.
And those were the results of just one year of growth in the original canon.
But Mammon was quite sure that in this world, they could reach Champion within a year without any trouble, and they'd be far from weak among Champions.
They'd never reach the absurd levels of the original, though.
For comparison: among mythical and Legendary Pokémon, even the lowest tier was something like the sun and moon gods, the black and white dragons, or Ho-Oh and Lugia.
To defeat those, you'd have to be at least a top-tier Champion, like Leon, Giovanni, or Lance.
They were top-tier Champions. With their main teams, they could go toe-to-toe with high-tier Legendaries and even win, but it would be no easy feat.
At the rate Platinum, Mei, Serena, and the others were growing, there was no way they'd reach top-tier Champion by the end of the year.
So Mammon reasonably suspected that their growth hadn't reached the canonical level of smashing through every Legendary within a year and treating them like chew toys.
That was just too broken.
It had to be the world nerfing them.
Yet even with their growth rate nerfed by the world, they were still prodigies whose talent could shatter an ordinary person's worldview.
At most, the time it took them to reach their peak had been slowed down. Next year, Platinum and the others would completely catch up with Leon and his peers.
That was also why Mammon had set the World Tournament for next year. Next year was when Platinum and the others would just about count as "fully grown."
But even with everyone nerfed by the world, there were still gaps between the "protagonists."
Take Mitsuki: she was already Champion-caliber last month, and she'd beaten Kukui in a full battle.
Mei, Platinum, and the others, protagonists as well, were only now just stepping into Champion-caliber. (A trainer only counts as Champion-caliber with six Champion-caliber main battlers.)
And now here came Akari, who was even more terrifying!
"Hsss~!"
Even Serena was experiencing, for the first time, what it felt like to be crushed by a gap in talent!
Her whole life, she'd been the one people praised. Ever since her debut, she too had been the "monster" everyone admired, recognized, and marveled at.
But now Serena truly understood what a "monster" really was. And when she thought about it, it didn't really surprise her.
"You really are Mr. Mammon and Dawn's kid. That's terrifying."
Serena said it from the bottom of her heart.
Mammon and Dawn, two monstrously talented people, had produced an even more earth-shattering prodigy.
How to put it? It made perfect sense, somehow.
But Serena couldn't help wondering: what if it were her and Mr. Mammon's child? Would that child also be a "monster" who surpassed their parents?
In a moment when neither Mammon nor Serena was paying attention, Caitlin's brows knitted tightly.
Her sense of danger was skyrocketing!
It's over! The worst-case scenario for me has actually happened. Akari really is a terrifying monster!
No wonder Arceus had personally chosen her for a trial. Champion-caliber in four months? Was that a kind of talent a human being was supposed to have?
Why don't you just ascend to the heavens while you're at it!!
Caitlin bit her pink lip. The air around her had gone frosty. She was almost angry enough to laugh. Damn it!
The battle went on. It wasn't only the Pokémon's own power; Akari's commands were exceptionally good as well.
She had Hisuian Arcanine use its superior agility, with intermittent bursts of Extreme Speed, to close in perfectly on Froslass, and land a Fire-type Raging Fury.
Then, during the back-and-forth, she deliberately showed an opening, and dodged Froslass's point-blank Water Pulse.
Water Pulse did four times damage to Hisuian Arcanine!
But Akari dared to command like that, dancing on a knife's edge, and Hisuian Arcanine didn't betray her trust.
After successfully dodging the Water Pulse, it landed a perfect Head Smash on Froslass.
The Rock-type Head Smash was super effective against Froslass. Froslass was unable to battle.
Akari took the first round.
"Good work."
Platinum recalled Froslass and comforted it first, then stared at the Poké Ball in her hand for a while before looking up.
The way she looked at Akari had changed a little.
"Mommy, how was that? How'd my Arcanine do?"
Akari said it with a sunny grin. To Platinum, that expression looked so much like Mammon's.
Mammon often wore that same beaming look, though usually... with some scheme behind it?
But surely Akari didn't mean anything like that. She'd probably just picked up some of Mammon's habits growing up without realizing.
"Very impressive~ Akari, I can't believe it. Did you really only start raising it after you got to Hisui?"
Platinum didn't hold back her praise. Losing one or two rounds early in a full battle was no big deal.
What surprised her more was: how could Akari be this strong?!
"Of course! Arcanine's one of my main battlers, you know."
Getting her mom's approval clearly made Akari very happy. Her eyes curved into crescents again.
One of your main battlers, but not your core, and certainly not your ace.
Is that the right way to read it?
Platinum's eyes glinted as she looked across at her future daughter.
Sure enough, Akari had inherited the outstanding trainer talent of both her and Mr. Mammon, and she was even more gifted than Platinum herself.
Then Platinum pressed her lips together into a smile.
But isn't that a good thing? She hadn't gone through nine months of carrying Akari, but that didn't stop her from being happy about how strong her daughter was.
Still, she couldn't let her daughter down too badly.
"Garchomp!"
Platinum decisively sent out her core battler, Garchomp.
Hisuian Arcanine was four times weak to Ground!
"Mommy's Garchomp!" Akari clearly knew Garchomp well.
After all, it was the core battler that had always been with Platinum, and would be in the future too.
Akari didn't switch out Hisuian Arcanine. She had absolute trust in her Pokémon.
This time, though, Platinum didn't let her guard down. She threw herself fully into the battle.
She didn't Mega Evolve Garchomp. Akari hadn't mastered any enhancement methods, so Platinum wasn't going to use one either.
Even without Mega Evolution, Platinum's Garchomp was still powerful. After a fierce fight, it defeated Akari's Hisuian Arcanine without taking too much damage.
"Amazing~ Mommy's Garchomp really is cool and strong."
Akari praised it, recalled the fainted Hisuian Arcanine with a few words of comfort, and took out another Poké Ball.
"But this next one's a lot harder to deal with than Arcanine, Mommy. You'd better be careful."
Platinum was curious. It was probably another Hisui-exclusive Pokémon.
Her crescent-moon eyes narrowed, Akari threw her second Poké Ball.
"Sneasler! Go!"
In a flash of white light, a silver-gray Pokémon standing on two legs slowly straightened up. Its two claws were black and red, long and razor-sharp, and its face wore a thick, malicious grin that sent a chill down the spine.
This was Sneasler, evolved from Hisuian Sneasel. Its typing was Fighting/Poison.
"Sneasler, huh. That really is a tricky Pokémon."
Mammon studied the dark, sinister Sneasler and couldn't help chuckling.
He didn't even need to think about it: this Sneasler definitely had Poison Touch!
A Sneasler with Poison Touch was an extremely troublesome Pokémon. And from its energy and physique, Akari had clearly raised it well.
This Sneasler was probably much stronger than the Hisuian Arcanine. It was likely one of Akari's core battlers.
Purely in terms of typing, though, Akari had deliberately chosen to fight at a disadvantage.
Sneasler was weak to Ground.
Mammon sent the video he'd recorded so far to Giovanni with a message:
"Dad, come watch your daughter-in-law and granddaughter battle."
Giovanni, who was at the Viridian Gym trying to figure out how many days it would take Groudon to walk back, saw the message.
Even the ever-composed Giovanni felt a rush of joy. I'm a grandpa?
Well done, Mammon!
The thought of getting to hold a granddaughter made Giovanni genuinely happy.
He was a grandfather!
But when he opened the video, all he saw was a pair of twins battling.
Expressionless, Giovanni sent Mammon a question mark.
What granddaughter?
Then he thought about it, and remembered his all-capable son's single flaw. This did seem exactly like something Mammon would pull.
Giovanni couldn't help sighing.
"Mammon, I know you've got a lot of girlfriends, but let me give you some advice: twins is pushing it."
"?" Mammon sent back a baffled question mark.
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