"Lucario — Aura power: Full Focus! Agility, then Swift Bullet Punch!"
The moment the command left David's lips, Psychic-type energy surged through Lucario's body. Its speed climbed rapidly, muscle and aura working in concert as the special Aura breathing technique — passed down from David's maternal grandfather — kicked into operation. Lucario's expression shifted, settling into something deep and focused, as though it had stepped into a different plane of awareness entirely.
On the battlefield, the blue-black figure shot forward like a bolt. A layer of cyan-blue flame ignited across its fur, and trails of afterimages streaked behind it in rapid succession. A sharp sonic boom rang through the open air — Lucario had broken the sound barrier. The official battlefield, nearly a hundred meters across, suddenly felt far too small to contain it.
In the span of half a breath, Lucario was already in front of its opponent. There was no wind-up, no telegraphing of intent. Both arms rose, Steel-type energy coating them like a second skin, and Lucario drove a fierce Bullet Punch straight at the Pokémon before it.
Its opponent was no slouch, either. Gallade's reaction was sharp, its body already moving the instant Lucario crossed the distance. The green arm-blades came up without hesitation, and it met the incoming strike head-on with a Sacred Sword — just barely deflecting Lucario's momentum.
The clash sent a shockwave across the field. Then, in the next instant, Gallade's green-and-white form vanished entirely.
Lucario didn't flinch. It stood still for just a heartbeat, eyes half-closed — and then, as if it had eyes in the back of its head, it spun around and drove a Comet Punch precisely into the blade descending from behind. The materialized Blade of Will shattered against that single, meteor-like strike.
Lucario gave no quarter after that. Riding the momentum of Agility, it pressed the advantage with relentless aggression. Gallade Teleported again and again, blinking to the far corners of the field to reset the distance — but each time it reappeared, Lucario was already there, closing the gap before Gallade could settle. In the end, the outcome was decided cleanly.
The match ended with Lucario's victory and Gallade's defeat.
The opponent had been Gallade all along. The two Trainers facing each other across the field were David and Rosa.
When the battle was over, both recalled their Pokémon. They walked toward each other, and there was an ease between them now that hadn't been there at the start — the kind of comfort that only comes from a month of battling side by side.
"Your exchange program at Imperial City First High wraps up tomorrow, right?" David said, unscrewing the cap of his water bottle and taking a slow sip.
Rosa paused at his words, then gave a quiet nod. "Yes. The group leaves tomorrow." A small smile crossed her face. "These past battles have taught me a lot. I hope we get another chance to fight like this someday."
The month had gone by quickly. Just the day before, the bulk of the Sakura Alliance exchange group had completed their stay at Imperial City First High, formally concluding the one-month program. Per the arrangement agreed upon by senior officials from both alliances at the outset, the group would go on to visit several other schools throughout Imperial City, spending anywhere from two weeks to a full month at each.
The Sakura Alliance had sent two exchange teams in total this time around. The second team, stationed over in Magic City, was following the same schedule.
But unlike Rosa, the rest of the exchange students wore their joy a little too openly when they learned departure was imminent. If you walked close enough to any cluster of them, you could catch snatches of hushed conversation:
"Finally... this month is actually over. We can leave."
It wasn't hard to understand why. Imperial City First High had been their very first stop in Cloudspire, and from the moment they arrived, it had been one setback after another. Nothing had gone their way.
David alone had left a mark on them they would not soon forget. When he was present, the exchange students could do nothing but stay quiet and keep their heads down. The core members of the group were, for the most part, the children of influential families back home in the Sakura Alliance — people who were used to carrying themselves with a certain air of superiority. Here, that feeling had been stripped away entirely.
There was nothing to be done about it. Even their three team leaders had been dealt with. What could anyone beneath them possibly do?
In terms of raw strength, a single Trainer on the Cloudspire side could handle all of them at once. And as for status — their distinguished standing within the Sakura Alliance meant nothing here. Cloudspire simply didn't recognize it.
To be frank, Cloudspire wouldn't ordinarily pay much mind to the Sakura Alliance at all. Had the world not entered the Alliance Era — an era where open conflict between alliances had become politically difficult to justify — history suggested that Cloudspire, once it had stabilized its own affairs, would have moved swiftly and firmly against a former vassal state that had not only broken ranks but had schemed quietly for years and driven a blade into its back when the opportunity arose.
So the exchange students had little choice but to keep their heads down and behave. Because if they didn't — if David or any of his companions decided they had reason to step in — there would be no one to complain to in Cloudspire, and nowhere to go for sympathy.
It had been a suffocating month.
That said, David's companions had grown considerably over the same period. The exchange team and the students of First High had not simply coexisted; they had battled frequently, sometimes with intensity on both sides. Even without David stepping in, Luke and the others held their ground against the Sakura group's leaders — Kuki Genichi and Jingūji Yoiraku — trading wins back and forth in a genuine contest.
Rosa was the one exception. She was simply stronger than any of the others at First High, and she knew it. The regular matches with the exchange team held little interest for her. Instead, she had fixed her sights entirely on David — and kept coming back, no matter how many times she lost.
David hadn't minded at all. Rosa's Gallade was among the finest Pokémon he had seen from any Trainer his age. It made for a genuinely worthwhile opponent, and a few occasional battles with it were never something he would turn down.
As the day's battle had shown, David hadn't deployed Salamence or Kirlia for this one. He had sent out Lucario instead.
Both Gallade and Lucario were elite Fighting-types. Gallade's mastery of blade-based combat made it an ideal sparring partner for Lucario, who had been dedicating itself to martial arts study with quiet diligence since the winter break. Lucario held the advantage in raw power, speed, and overall physical foundation — but in the precise craft of combat technique, it still had ground to cover. Gallade had been honing its skills far longer.
With that understanding, Lucario had spent much of the month deliberately holding itself back, keeping its output within a range that kept each battle competitive and meaningful. It had been a little rough to adjust to at first, but Lucario adapted to the constraint quickly, and the results spoke for themselves — its technique had sharpened noticeably over the exchange period.
Today's battle, though, had been different. Rosa had asked to see Lucario at full strength before she left, and David had granted the request without hesitation. He suspected she had wanted to see it clearly, to carry that image with her. A full-powered Lucario was still not Gallade's equal in skill, but its sheer comprehensive strength more than closed that gap. Even Gallade's Teleport — an almost unfair advantage for a close-combat Pokémon to possess — couldn't compensate for the difference in raw power.
After a short exchange of parting words, Rosa turned and walked away.
David watched her go. If his plans didn't take him to the Sakura Alliance any time soon, the next time they met across a battlefield would probably be at the World Pokémon Tournament. Both of them were top-tier talents from their respective alliances, and short of some unexpected turn of events, they would both be there.
He shook his head slowly. He genuinely respected her — her drive, her refusal to quit despite repeated losses, her clear-eyed dedication to becoming stronger. Those were the qualities of a real Trainer.
Rosa wasn't like the elements of the Sakura faction he disliked, either. The tension between them came down to the positions of their alliances, not any personal ill will. On a personal level, they could have been friends without any difficulty. That made it easier for him to think about her clearly, and to evaluate her fairly.
Her strength was real, though. And with a personality that actively sought out strong opponents, the schools she would visit next were in for a challenging stretch.
But that was their problem to deal with.