I, Gary, Want to Become a Pokemon Master

Chapter 690 - 690: Special Guest Trainer

"You have quite a lot of Pokémon."Dendra was genuinely surprised as she watched Gary teleport more than a dozen Pokémon in one go.

Raising Pokémon was expensive. Raising battle-ready Pokémon was even more so. Most ordinary Trainers struggled to maintain a team of six.

And that was just what Gary had teleported. Combined with the Pokémon he already carried, his active roster was clearly much larger.

"It's not too bad," Gary said casually. "I've caught a little over fifty so far."

Dendra's eyes widened.

Over fifty?

Even Champions and Elite Four members usually kept their main teams to around twelve Pokémon at most. Having more than fifty was practically unheard of.

Then again, Dendra remembered that Gary was Professor Oak's grandson. His family clearly wasn't short on resources, and keeping that many Pokémon probably doubled as research assistance for the Professor's work.

"It's cramped in here," Gary said, glancing around the Pokémon Center. "Let's head outside."

He planned to release the teleported Pokémon to let them stretch. More than half of them hadn't seen serious battle in a while. Several were Shiny Pokémon he had caught more for collection than combat.

Once they were outside on the training grounds, Gary opened all the Poké Balls at once.

Dendra's breath caught.

"So many... Shiny Pokémon?"

Her gaze immediately locked onto the differently colored Pokémon scattered across the field. Butterfree, Breloom, Venomoth, Nidoking—four Shinies in total. And interspersed among them were extremely rare fossil Pokémon she had only seen in textbooks.

"These... are all yours?" Dendra asked, still processing. Part of her had assumed these were Professor Oak's research specimens that Gary was simply borrowing.

"Yes, I caught them during my travels," Gary confirmed. "But because of their potential limits, their strength caps out around this level, so I mostly keep them at the Laboratory."

He went on to explain the breakdown.

The Shiny Pokémon and fossil Pokémon were all roughly Gym-tier in strength. His Hoenn-region Pokémon, with the exception of Breloom, were mostly Quasi-Elite. And his most recent catches—Pawniard, Drilbur, and the others—hadn't reached Gym-tier yet, but they were more than enough to handle academy students.

"Then you'd better perform well tomorrow," Dendra said, recovering her composure. "The students know they're fighting you, and they've been eager to test themselves. They've been preparing for a while."

"By the way," Gary asked, "what was the name of that female student I battled last time?"

Dendra's eyebrow twitched.

"Penny...!"

Penny was one of the academy's top students, and she had a lot of pride. If she knew Gary couldn't even remember her name, she would probably explode.

And yes, Penny was naturally among the twenty students selected to challenge Gary.

"Right, her," Gary said, nodding. "Do you think any of the students will use Pokémon given by their parents or elders? If so, I should probably prepare something stronger just in case."

"I don't think so," Dendra said, though she paused. "But if you're afraid of losing face, it wouldn't hurt to have one ready."

She hadn't expected Gary to care so much about winning or losing against students. He was still young, after all.

Gary wasn't actually worried about losing to a student in a fair fight. What concerned him was the possibility of some student bringing out a powerful family heirloom Pokémon just to secure a win. Penny had mentioned something similar before—using a powerful Persian that her family had raised.

The thing was, children rarely had the discipline to properly raise high-potential Pokémon. Even if they were given a strong starter, they usually spent more time playing with it than training it seriously.

Cynthia was a perfect example. She had received her Gible before she was ten years old, yet her Garchomp was currently only Level 76. That showed she hadn't seriously focused on raising it until her teenage years. If even a future Champion had that trajectory, what could you expect from ordinary academy kids?

Gary put the thought aside and turned to his Pokémon.

"Everyone, listen up. Tomorrow I'll be fighting the students of Naranja Academy. They're not weak, so don't get careless."

"Groo!"

"Scree!"

The Pokémon responded in unison.

Most of them were used to being near the bottom of the pecking order back at Professor Oak's Laboratory. The chance to fight actual Trainers was rare, and none of them wanted to embarrass themselves by losing.

After briefing them, Gary and Dendra returned to the staff dormitory to rest.

The next morning.

Students from across Naranja Academy gathered at the campus stadium. There were only a few hundred of them—mostly those who had qualified to watch.

"Who is this guest trainer anyway? They actually let us watch the matches. Is it someone famous?"

"I don't know, but we don't get to challenge him. Only the top twenty students from the preliminaries get that right."

"Could it be some well-known Trainer from another region?"

"Maybe. But if they just invited some random person to beat us, wouldn't that be boring?"

The students had known about the event for a while. Prior to this, students from ten different classes had competed in internal matches, and only the top twenty had earned the right to face the special guest Trainer.

As for who that Trainer actually was, most had no idea. Director Clavell had only said that he was an incredibly strong competitor who wasn't much older than them.

At nine o'clock sharp, an elderly man in an orange-red suit with white hair and a full beard stepped onto the central platform.

It was Clavell, the Director of Naranja Academy. While his official status was comparable to the academy chairman, within the school itself his authority was absolute.

"Now, please welcome Director Clavell to introduce today's event," the announcer said.

"Good morning, students," Clavell greeted the crowd. "The purpose of today's event is to show you firsthand the strength of modern League competitors. Chairman Clavell has specially invited a recent League Conference Champion to join us and test your abilities."

"A League Conference Champion?!"

"Who is it? The champion of the Paldea League?"

"Then I really want to see if League competitors are as strong as the rumors say."

"Keep dreaming. You didn't even make the top twenty, so you don't get to challenge him."

"I didn't say I wanted to fight! I just want to watch, okay?"

"Whatever..."

After waiting so long, the students finally knew who they were dealing with. The revelation that a League Champion had been invited sent a ripple of regret through the crowd. Many wished they had tried harder in the preliminary matches to earn a spot.

The students of Naranja Academy were all top-tier talents in their own right, especially the seniors. None of them believed they were inherently weaker than some random League competitor. Today, they would finally get the chance to prove it.