"Sit down first. What would everyone like to drink?"
After everyone arrived at Auron's small apartment laughing and chatting, Auron released all his Pokémon before turning to ask.
"Cola—oh, three bottles." Jace opened his mouth, but the very first word out, he caught Tim and Peter's eyes from the side and quickly corrected himself.
Tim and Peter both gave Jace a satisfied look.
"Two glasses of milk, please~"
"Lady Huajie Sweet Tea, please~"
Auron paused at the last request. "Do I even have that tea at my place?"
Serena quickly nodded. "You do! Last time when I was shopping, I bought some."
"Oh, oh. That explains it."
Only then did it click for Auron. He turned and headed into the kitchen to grab drinks from the fridge.
The others weren't idle either. Following Auron's lead, they released their own Pokémon as well.
The moment Tim's Dragonair popped out of his Poké Ball, he surveyed the room in all directions. The instant his gaze landed on Dratini, he drifted right over to follow her.
"Perfect timing. Help me bring these over to Tim and the others."
Auron had been worrying about how to carry so many drinks at once when Dragonair happened to float right past.
Auron didn't stand on ceremony. He handed all three bottles of cola to Dragonair at once.
What could Dragonair do? Under the watchful gazes of both Auron and Dratini, he cheerfully accepted the task. Curling all three bottles up with his tail, he flew off toward Jace and the others.
Auron watched Dragonair's retreating figure and laughed, turning to Dratini. "Didn't expect someone to take an interest in you at such a young age."
"Myu?"
Watching Dratini's confused expression, Auron laughed. "Never mind if you don't understand. Haha, let's go, little miss."
"Myu~"
Dratini paid no mind to Auron's words and continued happily trailing behind him. For her, simply being near Auron was enough.
"Here, milk."
"Thanks~"
After handing the milk to Simon and Lena, Auron settled onto the sofa.
"Is this any good? I honestly never noticed you put so much of this in my fridge."
Auron picked up two bottles of Lady Huajie Sweet Tea and examined them, turning to Serena.
His kitchen had three fridges. One was dedicated to the Pokémon's food and ingredients. One was for his own meals—since human food and Pokémon food sometimes needed to be stored at different temperatures, Auron had simply bought two separate ones.
The third fridge had been Jace's idea. He'd suggested that since Auron's place could serve as their gathering spot, they might as well buy another fridge just for drinks and the like. After all, there was plenty of room.
Auron had thought it over and agreed—it made sense. So he bought an extra fridge dedicated entirely to drinks. With weather this hot, the occasional cold one was a nice treat.
But during this stretch of time, Auron himself had barely touched any drinks, so he had no idea Serena had stocked so much of this particular tea inside.
"Because it's really good! It's sweet, so I just thought I'd buy a bunch more." Serena sat up slightly, plucked one of the bottles from Auron's hand, and said this with just a hint of self-consciousness.
Auron smiled, took a sip from his own bottle, and his eyes brightened. "Not bad at all, actually."
Serena lifted her chin with a little air of triumph. "See? I told you this one was good."
"Not bad, not bad."
Watching Serena's adorably haughty expression, something unexpectedly fluttered in Auron's chest. So after the compliment, he quickly turned his head and looked elsewhere.
"Oh—the Shadowed Doll evolved into a Cursed Doll."
Auron spotted the Cursed Doll sneaking behind Tim and Jace—who were chatting away happily—and his eyes lit up at once.
"Yeah, it evolved last night."
"Holy crap! That startled me!"
"Me too!"
Auron's words successfully grabbed Jace and the others' attention. When they turned their heads following his gaze, they found the Cursed Doll had been right behind them the entire time.
Seeing that it had been discovered, the Cursed Doll shot Auron a resentful glare—seemingly blaming him for ruining its scare plan.
Auron laughed and scratched the back of his head. He genuinely hadn't realized the Cursed Doll had been creeping up behind Jace and the others for a prank.
The Cursed Doll drifted lazily over to Haunter. Haunter shook his head with a bit of regret.
(Too slow. For us Ghost types, everything needs to hit three marks: fast, precise, ruthless. Next time you should...)
Watching Haunter and the Cursed Doll, Auron suddenly had a flash of realization. Both of these Pokémon could Mega Evolve too.
But then, thinking about the tight schedule of the freshman tournament, he reluctantly shelved the thought.
He and Jace had only just gotten their hands on Mega Evolution not long ago, but they'd been squeezing in practice sessions with their Mega Charizard forms throughout their training these past few days.
They'd even battled each other twice at the research institute in their Mega Evolved forms just a couple of days prior, so they were actually fairly familiar with it by now.
"Ugh, how did I forget about Simon's Haunter? My head's been entirely fixated on the two Charizard."
Auron thought to himself with some frustration. This was also a good reminder—he couldn't only be thinking about the two Charizard.
Just among their group of friends right now, there were quite a few Pokémon that already had Mega Stones.
Like Auron's Charizard, Jace's Charizard and his future Venusaur, Tim's Altaria, Peter's future Flygon, Hudi, Simon's Haunter, and Lena's Cursed Doll—among others.
"Tsk, I really should have thought this through more carefully. I didn't even realize Tim's Altaria could Mega Evolve too. What's wrong with my brain lately?"
Auron laughed bitterly at himself and tapped his own forehead. Now things were in a real mess—originally it could have been a group effort to shock the whole of Skyspire. Now it was just him and Jace.
Whatever. After this freshman tournament wraps up, I'll tell them about Mega Evolution then.
All those thoughts flashed through his mind in rapid succession. In reality, barely any time had passed at all—Haunter's earnest lecture to the Cursed Doll was still going strong.
"Whoa, Auron, come look at this!" Jace and the other two had their heads pressed together, eyes wide, calling Auron over to take a look.
"Just cast it to the screen, dummy."
"Right, right."
After Tim's suggestion, Jace quickly turned on the projector, while Peter picked up his phone and cast the video they'd just been watching onto the wall.
"Damn, that's impressive!"
Jace watched the projected footage and said with a tinge of envy.
Auron watched the video showing a single Dark Pulse wiping out the opponent's Pokémon in one clean hit. His expression grew serious.
"Don't worry—that's not the only clip. There's more. Keep watching."
Seeing everyone react with shock, Peter jumped in to add fuel to the fire.
"Holy crap, this year's freshman class really is something else!" Jace exclaimed as the video played on. Clearly, he hadn't seen this next stretch either.
"Though it's fine. I have a type advantage. If I run into this one, I should be alright." After his outburst, Jace settled back down cheerfully.