Bob blinked, confused. "Wait, didn't Ivysaur's Hidden Power just land clean?"
"If you're committing to a war of attrition, going aggressive right then wasn't the smart play," Luke said. "Magneton's got Sturdy as its ability — Ivysaur's power wasn't nearly enough to punch through it, so all that did was expose an opening."
Up in the commentary box, Marcus Reeves's take landed almost word for word the same.
"Too reckless," Reeves said, frowning. "Held that Hidden Power reveal even a beat longer, and the outcome's probably different."
"Young blood," Chairman Preston said, smiling. "Comes with the territory."
"Who's up next?" Reeves scanned the bracket sheet and raised an eyebrow. "A Finance Department student? Made it all the way to the Final Four?"
"The tournament's biggest dark horse, this year," Preston said, still smiling.
"Someone who wandered in halfway through, reaching the semis..." Reeves's tone cooled slightly. "Feels like it's cheapening what the Piplup Cup's actually supposed to measure."
He'd seen plenty of amateur competitors before — usually chasing raw power through sloppy, overly aggressive breeding shortcuts. It had shaped a fairly firm bias in him by now.
Preston just smiled wider. "This one's not your average amateur."
"His commanding puts some Superior-tier Trainers I've watched to shame."
Reeves frowned, unconvinced.
"You'll see for yourself," Preston said, chuckling.
______________________________
In the player's tunnel, Luke's jaw tightened. "Let's move this along, I've got a bad feeling about something."
Eevee was home alone, sure, technically nothing should go wrong — except none of my Pokémon are exactly "normal" to begin with.
Sitting in the prep room, the unease kept building, hands and feet steadily going cold. Only option: finish the match fast and get home to check.
"Kojie!" Sensing Luke's mood, Haunter nodded gravely. It produced a Petaya Berry cube from seemingly nowhere, tossed it once in the air—
"Awoo~ (⊙~⊙)"* —and swallowed it whole in one gulp. Its eyes went wide instantly, veins of red spreading through the whites.
"Kojie!"
Luke's expression flattened. Checked already — zero performance-enhancers in that thing, I swear.
______________________________
Luke stepped out of the tunnel, and the crowd erupted immediately.
"GO TEACHER LUKE!"
"Look, he's on the field!"
After barely a handful of public appearances, his fan section had already formed in the stands — banners and everything. Luke felt a flicker of secondhand embarrassment. Even glancing across the field, his opponent's own expression looked less like pre-match focus and more like starstruck excitement.
"Teacher Luke..." Hannah blinked at him. "Could you maybe... go a little easy on me?"
"I'll try to be gentle," Luke said, nodding with total seriousness.
He released his Poké Ball — red light flashed, and Haunter floated onto the field, grin firmly in place.
The stands buzzed instantly.
"Wait, Gastly actually evolved?!"
"Did he hold the evolution back specifically for the semis? That's next-level planning."
"Is THIS part of Teacher Luke's master plan too?"
Reeves studied Haunter closely, letting out a low "hm."
"This Haunter looks... genuinely well-conditioned."
Preston nodded. "Evolved less than a week ago, if I recall. Curious how well it's adjusted already."
Hannah sent out Breloom — kangaroo-shaped, a mushroom cap perched like a straw hat, body a mix of green and beige, red claws spread wide as it let out a sharp cry.
[Breloom. Grass / Fighting. Ability: Effect Spore.
Moves: Sonic Punch, Mega Drain, Stun Spore, Leech Seed, Spore, Bullet Seed, Substitute, Headbutt.]
Effect Spore was genuinely tricky — a random chance to inflict a status condition on contact. Between the moveset and the ability, this build looked like it had absorbed more than a little inspiration from Teacher Luke's own playbook.
Luke considered it briefly. The referee's whistle rang out.
"Battle begin!"
"Go, Breloom!"
Hannah, visibly thrilled just to be facing Teacher Luke, still kept her focus sharp. "Spore!"
A thick cloud of mushroom spores drifted out from Breloom's neck — enough on its own to induce drowsiness on contact, and with Effect Spore layered on top, brutally hard to dodge cleanly.
Hannah's mouth curved into a confident smile — right before her eyes went wide.
A quiet blue Will-O-Wisp bloomed across the field, igniting the entire spore cloud into a shower of drifting blue embers.
The stadium erupted at the sight of it.
Reeves stared, baffled. "Is Luke also running some kind of Coordinator-style setup?"
Preston just watched, a flicker of real admiration crossing his face. This kid never runs out of new tricks.
A wide spread of Will-O-Wisp danced across the field, and a shimmering light bloomed alongside it — Confuse Ray, clearly Haunter's work. Breloom staggered, visibly disoriented, steps growing unsteady.
"Haunter — Hex," Luke called, voice low.
"Kojie!"
Thick Haze poured out around Haunter's body. The Confuse Ray faded as the Haze swelled, swallowing Breloom whole. Haunter's low, sinister laugh carried out from inside the cloud, along with Breloom's muffled cries of distress.
The stadium went dead silent.
Bob and Daniel exchanged a look, both thoroughly lost. Is this still the Brother Luke we know? How did he get this strong in a single month?
As the Haze cleared, a battered, trembling Breloom was somehow still standing.
"Breloom, Mega Drain!" Hannah called, urgent.
Before it could even fully rise, another ghostly blue Will-O-Wisp bloomed across its body.
BOOM!!
Up in the box, Reeves looked like he'd seen an actual ghost. Hannah was only a high schooler, sure — but getting this thoroughly, completely dismantled from start to finish spoke to a gap in raw ability that went beyond skill level alone. Worse, Luke hadn't left a single opening for a counterattack anywhere in the exchange. No hesitation in that aggression — it wasn't strategy layered on top of instinct, it just WAS his instinct.
"I take back what I said earlier," Reeves said, sighing. "This is a Trainer with a genuinely sharp, aggressive combat style."
Preston blinked, thrown. Are we watching the same person? Hadn't Luke won the quarterfinals riding an extreme, patience-based Substitute-Protect-Toxic build? How was a supposed rookie switching this cleanly between two entirely different tactical identities?
"Kids these days really are something else," Preston murmured.
Breloom hit the ground, thoroughly spent. The referee's whistle sounded.
"Winner: Metro City University's Luke!"