Chapter 101: Is That a Sword?
While Arthur had booked the room and begun his 'deep exchange' with Honedge, in the dojo's backyard, the grandmaster here and a young man were also engaged in a sparring exchange centered on Pokémon competition.
One side of the battle featured the pillar supporting this dojo: Empoleon.
The Pokémon brought out by the young man on the other side was a Lucario.
Lucario is a bipedal, upright, humanoid Pokémon resembling a jackal-headed figure. Due to its characteristics of intelligence, loyalty, and ability to understand human speech, it enjoys extremely high popularity among the general populace, perennially ranking in the top three on the most popular Pokémon lists across various regions.
As the final form in its evolutionary chain, its combat prowess is also considerable.
Although the direction Lucario generally specializes in isn't typically slashing-type skills, most of them also learn the move Swords Dance, used to enhance their short-term burst power during battles.
At this moment, the young man had brought his Lucario here primarily to seek guidance from the grandmaster regarding techniques related to "Swords Dance."
"Go, Lucario! I hope Senior will not hesitate to offer your guidance!"
After the announcement, the battle commenced, and the two Pokémon quickly engaged in combat.
Both sides favored a close-combat fighting style. The duel skipped the phase of exchanging ranged skills right from the beginning, and soon the field was filled with the dazzling gleam of blades and sword shadows.
A moment later, the battle concluded.
The dojo's grandmaster recalled Empoleon, stroked his beard, and smiled, "Raymond, ah, your Lucario has improved quite a lot again. After a little while longer, I'm afraid even I might not be able to handle you anymore."
The young man called Raymond humbly replied, "Not at all, Grandmaster, you're joking again. I'm still far from that level."
Just then, Raymond's phone rang, forcing him to pause the action of spraying Potion on his Lucario.
The grandmaster saw this and asked, "Is it something important?"
Raymond looked at his phone for a moment, then smiled faintly.
"It's nothing, just my mischievous younger sister. She's been sending me messages all afternoon, saying she met a particularly ridiculous person today at the Ghost Tower who grabbed a Honedge's hilt with his bare hands and even managed to subdue that Honedge instantly. I always feel like this girl is exaggerating."
The grandmaster stroked his chin and also chatted casually for a few sentences with a smile.
"Honedge, ah. I know about that type of Pokémon too. Back in the day, I also thought about trying to capture one myself."
Raymond smiled, "Could it be that Grandmaster also dreamed of roaming the world with a sword when you were young?"
Hearing this, the grandmaster laughed heartily and didn't deny it either.
"Haha, my dojo teaches the art of slashing and cutting. How could I not have had a swordsman's dream? A pity, though, that type of Pokémon is ultimately too dangerous. Not something an ordinary person can subdue."
Raymond nodded in deep agreement.
Living in Lavender Town, everyone knew a little something about Ghost-type Pokémon. Outsiders might not understand the terror of Honedge, but they were crystal clear about it.
Litwick, Honedge, Cofagrigus—these few types of Pokémon were each more terrifying than the last. If one wasn't a true ghost enthusiast, an ordinary person might lack the courage to even touch them, let alone subdue one barehanded.
While these two were casually chatting and tending to their Pokémon after the battle ended, suddenly, a logistics staff member from the dojo rushed into the backyard in a fluster.
"Grandmaster, a guest arrived this afternoon for the high-level training room. It might... require troubling you to personally go handle the situation."
The grandmaster frowned slightly.
Raymond, standing aside, also asked with concern, "What happened? Specifically what is the situation?"
His family had some connections with this dojo, and he was on good terms with the grandmaster and many people here; everyone recognized him too.
Therefore, the logistics staff member who came in didn't treat him as an outsider and told him everything from start to finish.
"It's like this: a guest came to the dojo this afternoon, strangely young, maybe not even twenty judging by his face. He was carrying a sword on his back, but I didn't actually see any Pokémon with him; perhaps they were all inside Poké Balls at the time."
"The moment he came in, he booked a high-level training room, didn't sign up for any courses, and just went inside by himself."
"Originally, we didn't think there was any problem, just treated him like some rich young master with a personal hobby."
"But who would have thought, once he went inside, good grief! In less than half an hour, he chopped through all the reserved solid wood practice posts in the training room! He came out and asked us to deliver another batch inside."
"That's when I felt something was wrong! The solid wood posts we use here are made of authentic Iron Birch, and they're solid core! Each one is this thick, and the quality is absolutely not compromised! Yet in less than half an hour, he chopped through all the solid posts in that training room! Is he trying to work his own Pokémon to death?"
"After sensing something was wrong, I asked someone to keep an eye on it. The result was incredible! Just now, another hour passed, and he came out calling for someone again, saying the solid posts were all chopped finished again, telling us to deliver another batch inside."
"I thought to myself, is this person perhaps here deliberately looking for trouble, right? Are there really Pokémon that train this hard? What do you guys think?"
Hearing the person recount this, Raymond also felt it was somewhat suspicious.
He immediately asked a question, "Did you see clearly what Pokémon he brought into the training room to train?"
The person recalled for a moment before saying, "I really didn't see clearly. When he opened the door for us to go inside, I only saw a Frogadier in the room, and also a small-sized Little Lapras. Besides them, there was an unrecognized Pokémon shrunk in a corner playing a handheld game console. Nothing else."
Hearing this, Raymond also started leaning towards believing the staff member's words.
What slashing skills could Frogadier and Lapras learn?
Is this person perhaps really here deliberately to cause trouble?
Being prudent, he also asked the Grandmaster again, "Master, recently here... have you had any business competition with anyone?"
The Grandmaster's eyes widened, so angry his beard almost stood on end right then and there.
"What competition? These days, the total number of people still willing to persist in opening a dojo are just us few old men. Do you really think this is some kind of highly sought-after profitable business?"
Saying this, he immediately stood up, "Come! Follow this old man and let's go see!"
Along the way, Raymond suddenly recalled something. He asked the reporting staff member again, "You said, that person was carrying a sword on his back when he came in?"
"Yes, that's correct. It was an ancient-looking sword, style seemed somewhat aged. Initially, I thought it was just a decoration. Later, the two times I entered the room to add more wood posts, I saw that the person had also drawn the sword and was holding it in his hand."
"But if you ask me, that's mostly likely just a prop for show. Besides, if you want to practice swordsmanship, go to the Children's Palace community center! This here is a Pokémon dojo!"
Although what this person said made sense, somehow, at this moment, Raymond suddenly felt an inexplicable premonition that something wasn't quite right.
The group followed the reporting logistics staff member and arrived at the door of a high-level training room.
Thanks to the excellent soundproofing, they couldn't hear any sound coming from inside for the moment.
The attendant knocked on the door.
Soon after, the door quickly opened.
It was Frogadier who opened the door.
Arthur was unwilling to delay time; his practice swinging the sword hadn't stopped even while the door was being opened.
Thus, the moment the door opened, everyone saw a flash of bright sword light flicker past. Arthur, shirtless, swung the sword down in one stroke, instantly and cleanly slicing the fixed wooden post before him diagonally into two halves.
Seeing this scene, the attendant who had opened the door exploded in anger on the spot.
"Guest! This here is a Pokémon dojo! It's not for you to play around with swords by yourself!! Please do not casually waste our training consumables here! If you want to practice swordsmanship by yourself, you can go elsewhere!! We—"
The attendant was filled with righteous indignation, becoming angrier the more he spoke.
He assumed Arthur had deliberately brought a sharpened blade here to cause trouble.
But who could have known, halfway through venting his anger, the back of his head was slapped hard with a resounding 'Pa!' by the Grandmaster, nearly causing him to tumble over.
"Grandmaster, why did you hit me?" he asked aggrievedly.
The Grandmaster glared at him exasperatedly.
"Are you blind?! Is that an ordinary sword?! That damn thing is a Honedge!!"
(End of Chapter)
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