Auron smiled.
"Why wouldn't it fit? What you're worried about right now is just the chip damage sandstorm deals to anything that isn't Ground, Rock, or Steel."
"But when your team runs into a fast Blaziken or something similar, it can sweep you before the sandstorm ever has time to whittle anything down."
"If you add Togekiss to the roster, leaving aside its excellent Flying/Fairy resistances, just its 4× resistance to Fighting makes it a perfect team slot."
"Move-wise, it can hit and it can support: for offense there's Dazzling Gleam, Flamethrower, Aura Sphere; for support there's Tailwind, Yawn, Baton Pass, and the like."
"As for sandstorm chip, those fast Fighters are taking it too. What's there to be afraid of? With Togekiss resisting Fighting fourfold, it isn't going to go down before they do."
Yu Xiuzhu froze. That was true—built like this, there was no reason to fear an opponent stacked with Fighting-types.
"And there's another crucial point: coverage. Your team right now is basically all physical damage. Togekiss deals special damage. If you run into something with high physical bulk, you can send in Togekiss to cover the blind spot and hammer the opponent's weaker defense."
"And if you really can't get past your worry about sandstorm damage, add an Alakazam with Magic Guard."
"With Magic Guard, it ignores sandstorm chip entirely and resists Fighting, and its learnset gives you broad special coverage. That neatly patches a Sand team's shortcomings."
"And? And then what?"
Seeing Auron pause, Yu Xiuzhu hurried him along, eyes shining.
The others, however, couldn't help staring speechlessly at the notebook and pen in Yu Xiuzhu's hands.
"Is that necessary?" Dax Jonas asked, baffled.
Yu waved him off. "You don't get it. For Sand teams, everything Xiaoze's saying is straight gold. If this gets published, it'll absolutely kick off a new era for archetype teams."
"Okay, okay," Dax spread his hands. He did run a mono-type lineup himself, but strictly speaking it wasn't a full-on "system team," so the excitement didn't hit him the same way.
"Keep going—keep going," Yu urged, practically vibrating.
"The next part," Auron said mildly, "comes with a fee."
Yu bobbed his head at once. "Mm-hmm. As it should. What do you charge?"
Ashen Vale chuckled. He'd only been joking, and hadn't expected the kid to take it seriously. He waved it off with a smile. "It's fine, it's fine; just kidding. You two, go on."
Auron smiled too. "Right, ignore him—let's continue."
Suddenly Yu lifted a hand, signaling Auron to pause. "One second."
He pulled out his phone and dialed.
"Fugui! Where are you? Get to the National Research Institute—now. If you aren't here within ten minutes, you can forget you ever had an older brother!"
Before the person on the other end could reply, he hung up, then flashed a grin at Auron.
"Hehe—Xiaoze, please continue～"
"Sure. But you just called someone over, didn't you? Let's be clear: until Xiaoze's paper on Sandstorm systems is submitted, you are not to leak a word."
Auron hadn't spoken yet; Ashen got in first to warn Yu.
"Relax, relax. I'm not the loose-tongued sort. I know how the rules work," Yu said, thumping his chest.
Ashen, seeing the sincerity, nodded and let it drop. Auron, though, was still a bit lost—he didn't understand why they were making such a fuss about not talking.
It was Ji Qianyi who noticed his confusion and stepped in to explain.
"Here's the thing, Xiaoze—do you know what reward the first person to propose system teams received?"
Auron shook his head. How would he know? School sure hadn't taught that.
Ji Qianyi smiled.
"The first person to propose the archetype got named an Honorary Professor of the Dragon Nation Research Institute—the kind of post where you can do nothing at all and still draw a national salary."
"And for someone like you—if you successfully reform the system-team paradigm—the country's reward won't be any lower than that."
"Everyone used to develop system teams within a flat circle. What you're doing is breaking that two-dimensional ring and turning it into a three-dimensional sphere, making the whole system expandable."
"So we assumed you'd already coordinated with the officials. It wasn't until Dr. Lu spoke just now that I realized—you just… say things the moment you think of them."
She was half exasperated, half amused. Still, Auron was young; not understanding the stakes was normal. She didn't press him.
"What, really? Xiaoze, you haven't mentioned any of this to the officials?" Yu Xiuzhu blurted, just as startled as Auron.
Auron gave a wry smile. "Er, no. I had no idea."
Without a word, Yu tore the sheet he'd just filled with notes straight out of the notebook. He looked up at Auron with sudden gravity.
"I promise—I won't leak a single word before you publish."
"That's not necessary, not necessary!" Auron panicked. In his mind, this wasn't some earthshaking matter—he hadn't expected them to take it this seriously.
"Heh, don't worry," Dax Jonas said, slinging an arm around Auron's shoulders and guiding him gently. "Yu Xiuzhu's personality might be a little jumpy, but he's reliable. It's fine, it's fine."
Ji Qianyi covered her forehead and sighed inwardly as she watched Dax.
Sigh. With that IQ… what are we going to do about our future kids…
Auron blinked at Dax, still puzzled.
"No, I'm not nervous about that. I mean—does this really warrant such a big reaction?"
"All right; since Xiaoze doesn't get it, I'll explain. You step aside," Ashen said, shooing Dax with a smile, then turning to Auron.
"Xiaoze, this one's on me. I assumed your thinking about Sand teams was roughly the same as mine, so I figured we'd bounce ideas with Yu Xiuzhu. I didn't expect you to pull out something close to a complete guide right off the bat—that's what has everyone on edge."
He gave a rueful little laugh. He truly hadn't expected Auron to have already refined the theory down to specific Pokémon.
"Knowledge like system teams—ordinarily, you only learn it at university. It's only in college that most people can field a full six-Pokémon roster."
"And for higher-level stuff like what you're describing, standard practice is to hand the theory to the officials, let them trial it, and only when they've confirmed there are no issues do they make it public."
"At that stage, we generally don't announce anything to the outside world. After all, the Dragon Nation isn't the only great power out there. We have to make sure that if we take one step first, we can keep taking steps first."
Auron nodded, half comprehending.
"So… this counts as protecting knowledge?"
"Yes. You could call it that," Ashen said. "These archetypes aren't simple. But once you field a full team and show what it can do, everyone will start studying it. And then you—the one who proposed it first—will be left with nothing."
(End of this chapter)