Chapter 372 Choose your starting Pokémon!
Monday, October 8.

Today is a working day and the beginning of a new week for students and teachers at Grape Academy.

It had just rained a little last night, and the dazzling summer sun had not yet risen. There was still a considerable amount of water accumulated on the stairs leading to the gate of the Grape Academy.

The clouds in the sky showed signs of dissipating, and the air was filled with the fresh scent of rain. Students, in pairs or groups, with their partner Pokémon, ignored the splashes of water and walked towards the gate of Grape Academy, laughing and chasing with their friends.

There was still more than an hour before the class started. We walked down the stairs and arrived at the center of Zhuotai City, Sun Square, where a lively battle venue was set up.

Based on the icons of the 18 attributes of Pokémon, a colorful pattern like the sun is formed and surrounds the battle venue. This is a very famous landmark in Zhuotai City and it is also an area where many trainers fight.

The regular visitors here are the students of Grape Academy above the square. In addition, there are many traveling trainers, and even trainers from other regions will come here just to experience a Pokémon battle with the style of Padia.

Very rarely, well-known trainers would come to fight. Gym masters from the Padia region and even the Four Heavenly Kings had open battles here. In addition to the battle venues within the school, Grape Academy would occasionally set up the academy's examination venue here to reduce the burden.

The battle field is surrounded by a bustling crowd. The battle between the two trainers on the field is at its most intense. In addition to the cheers and support from the surroundings, office workers passing by can't help but stop to watch the battle. There are often incidents of students being so engrossed in watching the battle that they are almost late for work.

At this time, the fierce battle on the battlefield of Sun Square has come to an end.

Both sides in the battle are students from Grape Academy. One side is a lively black-haired girl with a single ponytail, and the other side is a boy with purple hair and a pair of fierce dead fish eyes on his expressionless face.

The two people fighting in Grape Academy uniforms were Nimo, the number one traitor under Luo Mu, and Shinji, who was just accepted last night.

The Pokémon they commanded were a Slimy Meow and a Forest Turtle.

Facing the "herbivorous" Nian Mei'er, Shinji had a disgusting fight and could only complain madly in his mind that the girl opposite looked innocent and straightforward, but her fighting style was very tricky and she directly grasped his weak spot.

Nowadays, most of the skill proficiency is concentrated on grass-attribute moves. The Forest Turtle, who can only use a few moves of other attributes unfamiliarly, was naturally defeated by Nian Meir.

Amid the cheers of the audience, Neemo smiled brightly and reached out to Shinji, who had taken back the Forest Turtle: "This was a battle that I benefited a lot from!"

Even though I was beaten up by you unilaterally.

Shinji, who had a blank expression on his face, twitched his lips. He just nodded silently, then withdrew his hand and turned away.

Shinji thought in his mind and calculated the time. The teacher's class should be about to start. He should go back to the academy first. The class address did not seem to be on the academy playground.

Shortly after Shinji left, Nemo, who looked very happy after the battle, stood with her hands on her hips and looked at Shinji's departing back. Two voices sounded behind her.

"Nimo, it's almost time to go back to the academy. It's time for class."

"How was the battle just now? That classmate's forest turtle was very strong. It was a pity that he met your slimy beauty."

The former was said by Mudan, who was carrying Ibrahimovic's backpack as usual, and the latter was said by Lopa, who ate the crepe in her hand without hesitation.

"It's very good, but I always feel like I've seen that classmate somewhere before."

Nimo first answered Pipa's question, then looked at Mudan.

"Let's go! The teacher said that he has prepared a surprise for us today. Hehehe. It won't be a battle with that Raphim King, will it? If not, the Regiace you mentioned, Xiaodandan, is not bad either!"

"I really don't know whether you are ignorant and fearless, or you have a pure heart."

Peony shook her head helplessly. In her opinion, Nemona had never seen the power of Regiace and Budcrest, so she wanted to challenge them.

Having witnessed Regiace's strength and toughness, as well as Bud Crown's ultra-long-distance teleportation, she never had the idea of ​​challenging him from the beginning.

Not to mention that the surprise prepared by the slightly sinister teacher is likely to be a shock.
The three of them came to Zhuotai City to have breakfast together. Although Grape College provides delicious three meals a day, students occasionally want to try new flavors, such as the milk toast that has been very popular in Zhuotai City recently.

It's just good quality toast spread with butter and hot milk poured on it, an ordinary breakfast that any family can make. But it has recently been highly praised for its taste. Even Ms. Feng of Paisley Mousse praised it after tasting it.

It is said that the owner uses secret Moo Moo fresh milk and butter purchased from other cities as raw materials.

Because many people in the queue could see the Angry Parrot flying into the store with a bag full of Moo Moo fresh milk and packaged butter, they became curious about the boss's source of goods.

Unfortunately, the breakfast shop owner has strong confidentiality measures, and the answer to this question remains a mystery.

"It is said that the breakfast shop will randomly open for a short period of time in the afternoon, selling dreamy milk pudding as a dessert for afternoon tea. It is often open for only a few minutes, and it is said that the super delicious limited edition milk pudding is sold out."

Walking on the stairs leading to Grape College, Pi Pa held her cheeks with her hands, her face full of longing.

“It would be nice if I could eat it one day.”

"Pipa, you really like desserts." Mudan sighed, and then looked at Nimo who was almost dead beside her, "As for this guy, his physical strength is still as bad as before."

You know, we have only walked less than one-third of the way up the stairs.

In desperation, Pipa and Mudan could only hold Nimo's hands respectively and carry her to the entrance of Grape College.

Looking at the campus style changing from warm orange to purple, a middle tone between cool and warm, the three of them suddenly started talking about the rumors that had been circulating in the academy recently, as if they remembered something.

"Have you heard about the recent haunted rumors at the academy? I heard that even the gold ring that Teacher Mimosa from the infirmary was going to exchange for her significant other was lost!"

Inside the Grape Academy, during the summer vacation, Ye Ci specially asked Clavel to build an indoor fighting hall in order to ensure the quality of Luo Mu's teaching.

Nemo and the other two ran into Shinji who had just left. There was Papa squatting beside them with a sad face because of Shinji's coldness.

Nimo, who had been fully revived, asked in surprise: "Classmate, why are you here too?"

Shinji glanced at Nemo and was not surprised. With Nemo's strength, it was natural for her to appear here.

Piper, squatting on the ground and drawing circles, said faintly: "He is the transfer student who joins us starting today. His name is Shinji."

Obviously, he hasn't recovered from the blow of finally having a friend of the same gender and saying hello happily, but being rejected directly.

Shinji just nodded gently to Nemo, Mudan and Pipa, hummed, then leaned against the wall, closed his eyes and said no more.

He is the image of a cold and cool guy.

The three girls looked at each other, and finally the enthusiastic Nemo took the lead: "Shinji-san, have we met somewhere before?"

Before Nimo could finish her words, the bell for class rang throughout the entire Grape College campus, and the voice of Luo Mu, who had arrived on time, was heard from behind them.

"Hey, is everyone here?"

The five people politely shouted to Luo Mu: "Good morning, teacher!" "Yes, good morning." Luo Mu replied with a smile, and then his eyes fell on Shinji who was leaning against the wall. "Shinji has also passed my test. We are all classmates in the future. We must build good relationships with each other."

After saying that, Luo Mu took the key and opened the door of the battle hall. He motioned for the students to follow him and walked into the brand new battle hall which had been fully ventilated and had no smell at all.

Nemo and the others had no choice but to follow, and Shinji waited until everyone entered the battle hall before setting off.

He looked at Nemo who was walking in front of him for a moment. Shinji didn't know if it was because he was born not good at dealing with such a hot-blooded fighting idiot, but Nemo's question made Shinji speechless.

It seems like she didn't remember anything about when my brother and I asked her for directions.

After a while.

Inside the fighting hall, Luo Mu announced the surprise that he had been keeping secret until now.

Beside him, three salt stone forts were lined up in a row, full of fighting spirit because of Luo Mu's promise of extra food.

After the battle with Qi Shu, his confidence increased greatly. During the time when Luo Mu was away, his younger brother Hu Hu, who had also been well trained, was also released from the Poké Ball by Luo Mu.

Luo Mu clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention to himself, and announced, "This is the first warm-up exercise after the summer vacation!"

"Botan, Papa, and Pipa will fight against Yanshilei, Nimo will fight against Huhu, and as for Shinji, you can observe your classmates' battles first to understand their Pokémon and fighting styles."

Shinji: ".I understand."

Silently retreating to the outside of the battlefield, Shinji cast a look of pity at Papa and the other two, and then fixed his eyes on the pot, curious about how this pot could fight Nemo.

According to his guess, Nemo should be the girl that Luo Mu mentioned, who is now capable of passing the eight major gyms and achieving a good result in the league conference.

The four of them didn't know that the nightmare was about to come. Even those who were usually not active, like Papa and Mudan, were now eager to try after a period of rest.

The victory of Blueberry Academy brought ample positive feedback, making them more motivated and confident in their usual training.

Luo Mu saw all of this, so as a reward, he chose to demonstrate the fighting routines of Yanshilei and Huhu in front of several students in the first class of this semester.

Luo Mu quickly arranged more detailed battle groups.

In the battle between Pipa and Shinji's Forest Turtle, the Pokémon he used was Monkey King.

Botan and Papper fought against two other Saltrocks that had not yet learned to regenerate themselves, using Sylveon and Godfather Pokémon respectively.

Nimo's Babu Tubo vs. Huhu Brother.

Luo Mu has already taught the specific fighting tactics to Yan Shilei and Hu Hu brother.

Even though he didn't have his own command and lacked the ability to respond to emergencies, there was no problem in making the routine work.

The battle started quickly, just like how Shinji suffered a setback at the beginning. The Abandoned Monkey and the Mastiff Godfather, who were good at close combat, were salted at the beginning. Then the Salt Stone Barriers directly began to use iron wall reinforcement, which was exactly the same as what Shinji encountered last night.

Mudan's Sylveon is better. Even though there is no attribute compatibility, as a special attacker, Sylveon still has a considerable advantage when fighting against Saltstone. Although during the battle, he was accidentally hit by Saltstone's salted spray and entered a painful salted state.

But the balance of victory is indeed tilting towards Sylveon and Peony.

As for Nemo, after being disgusted by Hu Hu's combination of power split + substitute + poison + sticky net/guard, she still chose to actively let Babu Tubo attack instead of defend to look for a chance to win, just like her character.

The four simultaneous battles lasted for a long time before the winner was decided.

The first to win were the combination of Peony and Sylveon. Their skill pool was not yet complete, and their evolution had not reached its peak. The Saltstone Fortress, which had no one to command it, was indeed struggling against the special attacker's Sylveon.

But the salt and stone pile still succeeded in making Mudan's already pale face even paler because of nausea.

This made Shinji, whose attention was diverted for a moment, look thoughtful.

The way to counter that tactic is to use Pokémon that are good at special attacks?

Papa and Godfather Mastiff were the first to become captives of the young version of the Salt Prince. After the battle, they were in a daze and took Godfather Mastiff to receive treatment from flower therapist Huanhuan.

Under Pi Pa's command, the Abandoned Monkey fought with the Salt and Stone Fort for a long time. Unfortunately, due to the pressure of salting and the lack of understanding of the properties of the clean salt in the Salt and Stone Fort, he was killed by the circular moves that the Salt and Stone Fort had initially constructed.

She was somewhat unwilling but received Luo Mu's advice.

"The property of clean salt can reduce the effect of ghost-type moves by half. You let the Forsaken Monkey gamble with the Fist of Fury instead of using a fighting-type move that restrains the Salt Stone Barrier. From that moment on, the outcome of the battle was already determined."

The battle between Nemo's Babu Tubo and Huhu lasted the longest. The tenacity of Nemo and Babu Tubo exceeded the expectations of Shinji, who paid close attention to every detail of the battle.

If Huhu hadn't hidden the power of the earth to restrain Babu Tubo, perhaps Nimo and Babu Tubo could have really defeated Huhu without Luo Mu's command.

Looking at Nemo picking up Babu Tubo who had fallen down due to the double blow of poison and the power of the earth, Luo Mu showed a relieved smile.

Nemo's growth rate is almost different every day. Looking at her skillful command of Babu-Dog, who would have thought that she hadn't even come into contact with the initial Pokémon half a year ago?
While Nemo and the other three were queuing up with their friends to receive the flower therapy ring treatment, Luo Mu called Shinsi over. When he observed Shinsi's thoughtful look, he knew that there was no need for him to summarize it himself.

"It seems that you have already understood something, which is good."

With the addition of Shinji, a trainer with a keen tactical sense, and his influence, the four students will definitely be able to reach a higher level based on their current foundation.

A trainer is someone who must clash with different opponents, absorb the advantages of his opponents and strengthen himself so that he can become stronger and stronger.

"Yes, I found that Saltstone doesn't seem to be very good at fighting against Pokémon that use special attacks. As for Huhu, I'm still sorting out the details of the battle."

"That's right, but the Saltstone Barrier is not in its complete state yet. It won't be too late to make conclusions after they evolve." Meeting Shinji's surprised eyes, Luo Mu smiled and took out three Poké Balls: "I heard from Principal Clavel that you haven't chosen the initial Pokémon prepared by the academy yet?"

Shinji nodded first, then hesitated and said, "I already have the tree turtle I received from Dr. Yamanashi."

"That's Sinnoh's business. It has nothing to do with Grape Academy." Luo Mu repeated the lines Clavel taught him very seriously. "Anyone who becomes a student at Grape Academy will have the opportunity to receive a starting Pokémon."

As he spoke, Luo Mu opened the three Poké Balls in his hand.

As the red light flashed, three initial Pokémon unique to Padiya appeared in front of Shinji.

Their names are – New Leaf Cat, Dumb Fire Crocodile and Runshui Duck.

Luo Mu smiled and said, "Come, choose your starting Pokémon!"

(End of this chapter)