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There was very little information provided about Doublade in the intelligence reports.
This was because Li Xiang intentionally rarely used it in front of outsiders.
Most of the time, he used the school team's training grounds to have internal practice matches indoors with Song Jie and the others. Using it for sparring sessions with others was exceedingly rare.
Therefore, strictly speaking, this could be considered Doublade's formal debut battle in the public eye.
Its opponent was a Venusaur that had already been on the field, had consumed a fair amount of its attribute energy, but still had decent stamina.
It was also the opponent's ace Pokémon.
Doublade didn't know an especially large number of moves; inherently, it wasn't fond of too many complicated techniques. After all, what it excelled at was only one thing—
Slashing!
No matter how troublesome the move, as long as it was related to slashing, this guy could learn it quickly.
It only liked slashing.
So, when facing Venusaur, there wasn't much fancy preamble.
- Land - Aerial Ace - Drawing Slash! - Shing! Shing!
Two crisp sounds, followed by a dazzling flash of silvery light!
The opponent had barely blinked before the silver light had already flown from the front of Venusaur to behind it.
The leaves and petals on the left and right sides of Venusaur's back shattered, scattering all over the ground, the cuts extremely smooth and even!
"Saur!"
Venusaur was stunned for a moment, then let out a cry of intense pain, because on its left and right sides, two terrifying marks, scorched by attribute energy, had appeared at some unknown time!
'Am I seeing things?'
The opponent's eyes widened, unable to believe what he had just witnessed!
No, not witnessed, because he hadn't seen anything. He blinked, a silver light flashed, and Venusaur was already in this state.
In a normal world, there would probably be two huge gashes there, maybe even with blood spurting out. But in the Pokémon world, the main method of attack is attribute energy, which mostly causes explosive damage.
Whether it's water, fire, or leaves, whatever can explode, does. So, the scene isn't overly bloody.
Outside the field.
The spectators were in an uproar.
Most of their dynamic vision couldn't keep up with Doublade's sword speed at all; their experience was identical to the person in the field.
Someone replayed the recording from their camera and found they had to slow it down by 32x to barely see the shadow of the two swords, and even then it was just a blurry afterimage.
This...
Is this really a speed the human eye can follow?
They looked at each other, almost seeing the word "ridiculous" in each other's eyes.
'Who the hell could react to that! You couldn't even use Protect in time!'
Although it probably had something to do with the close distance, since the two swords stopped not far after passing Venusaur's body, but even so, it wasn't something that could be simply blocked.
What was that move just now? Silver with a hint of sky-blue light...
'Aerial Ace?'
Holy crap! A real Aerial Ace!
At that speed, forget Pidgeot, it could probably slice down a Ninjask!
In the field.
"Vine Whip! Grab it!"
After a brief moment of stunned silence, the opponent decisively shot two vines from Venusaur towards the Doublade behind it.
The opponent was determined to catch Doublade, aiming directly at the sword hilts, completely ignoring the sheath. Clearly, he understood that with a Pokémon like Doublade, controlling the hilts made it difficult for it to mount much of a counterattack.
But Doublade's movement speed was faster than he expected.
Even before the vines were shot, the two swords had already flown into the air and slipped into the sheath Li Xiang threw over.
Return to sheath!
Magnet Rise was naturally used, eliminating the possibility of moves like Bulldoze causing it damage.
The vines landed on empty air.
The opponent clicked his tongue in annoyance; he had originally wanted to control Doublade's main body and then hit it with Bulldoze. He hadn't expected his opponent to see through his intention from the start!
"Sleep Powder!"
The damaged flower on Venusaur's back released a large amount of golden powder, rapidly spreading outwards!
Doublade was right in its path!
"Swords Dance."
In mid-air, Doublade drew one sword, its tassel holding the other's tassel, spinning rapidly like a windmill!
The Sleep Powder drifting over was quickly dispersed into the air by this gust of wind, unable to get anywhere near it.
'That works too!?'
The opponent's face darkened; he had never thought Swords Dance could be used like this, and the key was that it had succeeded!
The Sleep Powder was dispersed, with only a little sticking to the sword blades, but it was difficult to put the Doublade, an entity composed of two swords, to sleep.
The single long sword returned to its sheath once more. Its attack power had increased due to Swords Dance.
Drawing and sheathing the swords were the actions Doublade had performed most in its life. And it was precisely these routine actions, as natural as eating and drinking, that made the Aerial Ace - Drawing Slash seem so incredible.
Seeing Doublade's sheathing motion, the opponent felt a sense of foreboding.
"Fall back! Leech Seed!"
Venusaur quickly retreated and shot several seeds at Doublade.
These seeds sprouted mid-air, turning into slender vines that lashed out to bind Doublade.
However.....
Shing! Shing!
The soul-chilling sound rang out again!
A flash of silver light!
The Leech Seed vines were instantly severed, splitting into countless small segments in the air before falling to the ground.
Venusaur felt its scalp go numb and instinctively wanted to use Protect, but it was too late. Two silver blades once again swept past its body, adding two more wounds!
But compared to the previous two, the damaged area was larger and the pain more intense!
Another double super-effective hit!
"Venu!"
Venusaur cried out in pain.
But Li Xiang frowned.
If one sword attack really counted as one hit... previously, Doublade wasn't boosted, its innate level wasn't high, and it hadn't consumed many stat-boosting items, so not knocking it out was normal.
But now, after Swords Dance, even if two attacks were calculated as a dual strike, only counting as 1.5x damage...
Or even taking a step back and only counting it as one instance of damage.
In theory, Venusaur should have fainted by now, but the situation before his eyes was that it was still standing, covered in a faint green glow, with countless green light points descending from the sky and merging into its body.
It was obvious.
At the moment it was about to be knocked out, it stubbornly used Synthesis, resisting the sharply decreasing stamina, and successfully recovered some!
'The power of bonds?'
Looking at the moved expression on his opponent's face, Li Xiang understood it was probably a coincidence.
He had encountered another intangible Focus Sash.
A pity that this was just a futile struggle.
A Pokémon like Venusaur had very poor compatibility with Doublade. At least in this world, it did.
"Swords, come!"
Ignoring the puzzled looks from those around him, Li Xiang raised his right hand and shouted loudly.
In the distance, Doublade's pink eyes glowed slightly as it quickly flew above Li Xiang, completely ignoring the Venusaur that was using Synthesis to recover.
'The battle poem, appear!'
'My sword-energy spanned thirty thousand miles, a single sword's light chilled nineteen provinces! Blade of the Heart! Appear!'
Li Xiang chanted lowly and softly. The Doublade above him became enveloped in pink-purple mist, instantly transforming into two huge pink-purple light swords reaching to the heavens, looking incredibly dazzling!
'Psycho Cut is the Blade of the Heart! The stronger the heart, the stronger the Psycho Cut!'
And as long as this battle poem existed, Doublade's heart was unshakably firm!
On the sword guard surrounded by swirling fireflies, Doublade looked down at the Venusaur below, its gaze full of condescending disdain!
At this moment, deliver the final blow as the concluding period!
'EX——Calibur!!'
The two giant light swords fell like collapsing Mount Tai, abruptly slashing down where Venusaur stood!
"Protect!!"
The opponent was scared out of his wits, his voice cracking as he shouted the move.
The Venusaur, which had just recovered, also used Protect immediately, not daring to take the hit from these two psychic light blade pillars head-on!
However, Protect successfully blocked the first sword but failed to block the second one as well!
The second Psycho Cut struck Venusaur's body!
BOOM—!
The air exploded with a deafening sound!
A pink-purple light flashed brightly, engulfing everyone's vision!
...
Afternoon.
Li Xiang came out of the Pokémon Center and ran into Song Jie's sister.
Also white-haired with pink pupils, wearing a simple dress, she looked very much like a refined young lady from a good family—Anya.
She was carrying a small purse, a pink, chubby Wigglytuff by her side, waiting for something at a café seat.
"Oh, it's little brother."
This girl, who had once wanted to tease Li Xiang, acted as if nothing had happened, smiling gently and standing up to wave at him.
"Come here, come here~"
Sss...
'Others have pink hair that hides a dark side; do your pink pupils hide one too?'
If Li Xiang hadn't learned from Song Jie about the true nature of this sister, who appeared kind but was actually quite mischievous, and hadn't experienced it himself firsthand, he might have truly been deceived by this gentle and lovely facade.
He hesitated for two seconds and approached before Anya could come over and pull him.
"Senior..."
"Just call me sister, okay? You and Song Jie are the best of friends, after all."
Anya very skillfully put her arm around Li Xiang's shoulder, really treating him like her own younger brother, and pressed him down into a rattan chair at the outdoor seating. "This seems to be our second time meeting."
Her face was full of a warm smile, she emitted a faint, delicate fragrance, her nearly silver-white eyelashes were long and curled, and her skin was so fair and tender it seemed without a single flaw.
Such astonishing beauty—
'She's the female version of Song Jie, she's the female version of Song Jie. She's pink on the outside, black on the inside. She's a lesbian, she's a lesbian.'
At the moment his heart was about to waver, Li Xiang promptly activated the Three-Blind Perception Method and silently recited these truths.
He successfully reined himself in just before falling into the abyss.
"Whew."
Li Xiang let out a breath. When he looked at the confused Anya again, he felt even more that she resembled Song Jie, just that one had a more angular face, giving a somewhat masculine feel.
While the other had softer features, full of youthful girlish charm.
Their family's genes are really something else.
"Little brother, what's wrong?"
Anya didn't quite understand why he had suddenly closed his eyes, then opened them, and sighed.
"Nothing... Sister Anya, don't you have classes today? How do you have time to come here?"
Li Xiang was somewhat curious; logically speaking, Anya's studies should be quite demanding too.
"I came to find Abbie and the others."
Anya tucked her neck-length hair behind her ear, revealing a small, exquisite, jade-like ear.
To be honest, the move was very feminine. Extremely alluring.
But Li Xiang somehow kept substituting Song Jie into the image, which made it seem ridiculously funny.
After all, before Song Jie developed an Adam's apple, he was often mistaken for a girl.
It wasn't until he started developing properly during the Youth Training Camp and his face shape changed that people said such things less often.
Li Xiang had laughed at him countless times for it and had been beaten up countless times as well.