We've reached the conclusion for the battle between Dokukage and Keahi! Who will win? Will Dokukage continue his streak and take out Keahi's last pokemon? Or will Keahi turn the tables and come from behind to win?
KedharS: Yeah, he's a really powerful trainer, he just doesn't draw a lot of attention to himself.
Aquahaze675: Yeah, he really is pretty tough.
Hellraiserphoenix: Hope it'll be worthy of the hype!
Pokemonking0924: Dokukage definitely has a lot of experience with his style of fighting, and a lot of tricks up his sleeves.
Rus4408: Yeah, I figured no one would care, so I made it epic instead to make you care.
JoshGamerV: No one says filler can't be enjoyable.
FinLay Real: Dokukage will start getting a lot more focus, don't worry.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 514
"Haikili, go! Finish that thing off!" K said, sending out his last pokemon. His Magnezone emerged from their pokeball, landing on the ground. The spikes dug into them, and Haikili buzzed in pain before floating up into the air, crackling with shadowy electricity as they built up a massive charge to unleash on Kagerou.
"And Keahi's final pokemon is his Magnezone!" Lila announced. "That Magnezone was pretty tough in the battle royale, but will it be enough to take out all three of Dokukage's pokemon?"
"Shadow bolt," K ordered.
"Magnezone," Haikili buzzed, firing a blast of dark lightning at the badly injured Accelgor.
"Accelgor," Kagerou whispered, slipping out of the way, his blinding speed still more than enough to dodge the lightning in spite of his wounds. Kagerou spread out his membranes, and crafter more water shurikens, firing the blades of water at high speeds towards the bulky pokemon. Haikili buzzed in pain as the blades cut into their metallic skin, but the move wasn't nearly strong enough to fend off the electric pokemon.
"So it's still got some fight in it, huh?" K scowled. "Well, fine then! We'll just have to finish it off completely! Because you can't run from the sky. Haikili!"
"Magnezone!" Haikili raised their magnets, a black cloud shooting out from their body. The shadows began swirling around, filling the sky with a choking black fog.
"Oh no!" Lila gasped. "Dokukage's Accelgor only has one hit point left! If he inhales any of that smoke, that'll be it for him!"
"Indeed," Dokukage nodded. "If taunt hadn't worn off, of course. Kagerou."
"Accelgor," Kagerou nodded, his body flashing. Engulfed in light, he returned to his pokeball, K's eyes narrowing.
"So you managed to slip away," he growled.
"Again, Kagemusha," Dokukage said, sending out his Golisopod once again, the pokemon who had started this battle in the first place.
"Dokukage has sent out his Golisopod again!" Lila reported. "Only now, Golisopod has been really boosted by all the buffs that his pokemon laid on him!"
"Yeah, but don't forget, Golisopod don't have a lot of good moves against Steel types like Magnezone," Akira reminded her. "He might have brute strength, but beyond that I'm not sure."
"Kagemusha, start," Dokukage nodded. Kagemusha shot forward, pushing shadows away as he charged, raising his claw and slamming it down on the center of Haikili's face, smashing the Magnezone into the ground.
Haikili beeped as the spikes dug into them, and they began charging with electricity, preparing another shadow bolt.
"Gol!" Kagemusha growled, jumping back, pulling away from the pokemon before it could unleash another Shadow Move.
"Yeah, that's a lot more speed than we saw from him before!" Dakota said cheerily.
"True," Akira agreed. "But Accelgor have a base speed of 145. Golisopod have a base speed of 40. That's a huge difference. Even with six speed boosts, he won't be moving nearly as fast as his Accelgor did, or even his Masquerain."
"Oh, that's not good, then," Dakota said, frowning. "So it's not a sure thing."
"We'll have to see," Akira replied. He was rooting for Dokukage, and indeed, Dokukage had put on an amazing show. But… it really did come down to this. His Accelgor probably wasn't going to be of much use now, and Masquerain probably didn't have the raw power to do anything. Dokukage had stacked up a massive amount of buffs on his Golisopod, and right now it was what he was counting on. So if Golisopod lost and those buffs went away… the rest of Dokukage's team would probably be swept up in short order.
Dokukage might have three pokemon left, but this was still not necessarily a slam dunk on his side of things.
Fortunately, this was something that Dokukage was quite well aware of. Having been training with these tactics since childhood, he was well-aware of how they could be subverted, and how fragile they really were. That's why he was taking great care and caution, to avoid getting sloppy.
"Kagemusha, use swords dance," Dokukage ordered. Kagemusha raised his claws and clashed them together, boosting his attack power. "Now, go."
Kagemusha shot forward, raising his claws, preparing to strike the Magnezone.
"That speed is nothing compared to what that Accelgor was capable of," K said. "Haikili, use thunder wave!"
"Magnezone," Haikili said, crackling with electricity. He released a shockwave of electricity that surged across the battlefield, trying to paralyzed Kagemusha.
"Golisopod!" Kagemusha said, pressing his claws together. He disappeared in a puff of smoke, getting replaced by a log. The electricity hit the log, doing nothing. The log couldn't be paralyzed, after all, and Kagemusha was unharmed.
"Kagemusha, use pain split," Dokukage ordered.
"Gol!" Kagemusha appeared from the shadows, his body glowing white. Haikili began to glow as well, the bug pokemon draining away his health to fill some of his own back.
"So that's your game, huh?" K scowled. "You're planning to use substitute to protect yourself, while draining my health away? But that won't work if-"
"Now, taunt," Dokukage followed. Kagemusha wasn't THAT much faster than the Magnezone, but he was still fast enough to bait the pokemon before Haikili could use a status move to try and stop his plans. Crackling with electricity, Haikili released another bolt of lightning at the Golisopod instead, hitting the log and bursting it to pieces as Kagemusha reappeared, unfazed.
"Now that you can only use attacking moves, you can't restrict our movement with that mist of yours," Dokukage replied. "Now, you'll have to settle for just your damaging moves."
"That works fine with me," K glared. "We'll hammer you until all your substitutes are broken. Haikili, shadow storm!"
"Magnezone," Haikili nodded, spinning the magnets attached to their body, creating a massive tornado around them.
"Golisopod!" Kagemusha shot forward and hit Haikili in the face with a sucker punch, knocking the pokemon off-focus. But as Haikili tumbled backwards through the sky, they still retained enough control over themselves to send the tornado flying at Kagemusha, tearing across the ground and sweeping up the spikes, flying right for the bug pokemon.
"Continue to weaken yourself with substitutes if you-"
"Aqua jet," Dokukage ordered. Water swirled up around Kagemusha and he dodged the tornado before it hit, going wide around it and turning, barreling straight for Haikili.
"A priority move again! I guess Dokukage isn't going on the defensive with his Golisopod, he's going right for the offense!" Lila gasped.
"I would too, if I was in his situation," Akira agreed. "He's not going to let up, and he's got the speed and power to let it work that way, too."
"Thunderbolt!" K ordered. Electricity began crackling around Haikili and they fired a bolt of lightning right at the approaching Golisopod, electrocuting him.
"GOOOL!" Kagemusha roared in pain, the water swirling around him enhancing the damage. But that was another calculated risk on Dokukage's part.
"Drill run," he ordered. As Kagemusha charged he began to spin, displacing the water with the force of his rotations as he turned himself into a drill, barreling forward at the hovering Magnezone, pushing through the electricity.
"Whoa, look at that speed!" Lila gasped, surprised by how fast the pokemon was spinning.
"That's a ground move," Akira noted. "If it hits…"
"Golisopod!" Kagemusha collided with Haikili, able to shrug off the pain of the electricity due to the boost in his special defense, and slammed the Magnezone into the ground.
"MAGNEZONE!" Haikili screeched, crackling with electricity.
"That was a powerful hit!" Dakota gasped.
"It was a critical hit," Akira added.
Dokukage had watched Raizer's Zeraora defeat Keahi's Magnezone in the battle royale. He had studied the pokemon's weak points, even though it was a Shadow Pokemon, and was aware of how much damage it had endured… and how much more he needed to inflict.
"Close combat," he followed. Kagemusha landed on top of Haikili and raised his claws, bashing the Magnezone with a barrage of blows so fast the Steel type didn't have time to react.
"Haikili!" K shouted. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Haikili… Haikili should have been able to easily overpower a pokemon of that caliber. Even with all those status moves buffing his stats, that Golisopod… it was just an ordinary pokemon! It shouldn't be able to compete with a Shadow Pokemon! It should have been completely annihilated, how… how was Haikili losing right now?!
K wracked his brain for answers, trying to figure out where it had all gone wrong in the battle. He shouted for his Magnezone to fight back, but every time Haikili tried to build up some electricity they were mercilessly shut down by a painful strike from Kagemusha's claw, the Shadow Pokemon completely helpless against their opponent.
"Yikes, that's almost as bad as the beatdown it got in the battle royale," Lila gulped.
"That Magnezone doesn't even have a chance to fight back," Dakota said, almost feeling bad for the thing. Almost.
"Golisopod have an absurdly high attack stat and it was boosted with a swords dance," Akira said. "I can't imagine that even a Shadow Pokemon could take much more, not after that drill run."
Akira's words came true soon enough, Kagemusha stepping off of Haikili and coughing into the black smoke, staring down at the badly dented pokemon.
"Magne… zone…" Haikili beeped, before the lights around their body dimmed and they lost consciousness, the shadows swirling in the sky fading away.
"And that is the end," Dokukage quietly said, returning Kagemusha to his pokeball. Without another word, he turned and left the battlefield, leaving K to stand there, completely dumbstruck by what had just transpired.
Lila gulped, her mouth flopping open and shut for a few seconds before she regained her bearings. "Um… Magnezone… is unable to battle, Golisopod wins. That means that Keahi Revanche has been eliminated from the tournament, Dokukage is the winner… and will advance to the next round…"
It was an unbelievable end to the event. Dakota and Akira were both stunned into silence staring at it, not sure what to say. But Dokukage had just completely defeated a team of three Shadow Pokemon without losing a single pokemon of his own.
"…That…" Cynthia's jaw dropped open as well. Like Lila, she was having difficulty making sense of what she had just seen. "That guy is only the Third Leader?! You're telling me that he's only the third strongest out of all of you?!"
Cynthia had beaten Callie (shut up, it counted!) the First Leader, and had narrowly lost against Mirar, the former Second Leader. Dokukage… Dokukage seemed miles above their level of skill, with such an impressive feat.
"So that means the other five are even stronger than him?" Nick asked, his eyes wide with shock.
"I don't know about that, that was way more epic than Alcea and Gabrielle's match, if you ask me," Reiner said.
"Well no one asked you!" Kate snapped. "Her highness would absolutely thrash Dokukage! Without even breaking a sweat! So there!"
Reiner rolled his eyes, not interested in debating the issue. It was getting late and the sun had finished setting, the stadium still bathed in the glow of the stage lights. The shock at the match had worn off now that the trainers had left the battlefield, and people were starting to pack up and leave even as Lila announced the upcoming brackets for tomorrow, which would involve the other four matches.
"Ian's fighting tomorrow, huh?" Sango noted as she stood up, only half-listening. "And Ayame…"
"Ayame's fighting against Gerard Alkwest, too," Cynthia said, shaking her head. "Can't imagine that's going to be fun."
"That guy Ian's fighting against that Lana girl, right?" Kate asked. "The one from the trip to Galar?"
"Yeah, and I think she's also working with the Phantom," Sango said. "Just judging by the battle royale, anyway…"
Kate and Sango didn't have the fondest memories of Lana, the older girl having given them a pretty hard time about their relationship with Blake during the trip. Reiner and Nikita got in on that feeling of discontent as well. Sango knew who she was rooting for, anyway.
"Let's forget about all that!" Cynthia said, leaping up and clapping her hands together, her mood brightening. "Let's go see Maddi! We gotta make sure she's okay! And we also need to find Blake! Celebrating time, Blake won his first round match!"
Sango rolled her eyes. It wasn't too long ago that Cynthia was bitter over the fact that Blake had gotten chosen to participate and she hadn't, and now the redhead was eager to cheer him on? Cynthia was just that kind of girl, she supposed.
"Good," Julia agreed, following after Cynthia. "I've been worried about Kitty since she got sick, anyway. We should probably see her, too. Make sure she's doing okay."
Julia had wanted to take Ayame's place and stay by Kitty's side, but she was still a little apprehensive about where she stood with the shorter girl. The two hadn't had that much time to talk since Kitty's whole mess during the Winter Tag Team Tournament, where her feelings of insecurity had led to her nearly losing herself to her harmonia.
"Aya never came back, so maybe she's 'congratulating' Blake in her own way right now," Cynthia sniggered, eager to walk in on the couple making out… or perhaps going even further.
"…I'll go with those two, since I'm worried, too," Sango said, looking back at the others and jutting her thumb at Cynthia and Julia's departing backs. "What about you guys, gonna come with?"
"We've got some other stuff to focus on," Reiner replied. He glanced at Nikita who looked back at him for a second, startled, and then nodded.
"Ah. Going to make out, thanks," Sango said, her voice dry and snarky.
"NO! IT'S HOMEWORK!" Nikita sputtered, Sango smiling at her embarrassment.
"I'll come with," Callie said. "I want to check up on Kitty, too. Nicky? Coming?"
"Uh, oh, yeah, totally," Nick said, still a little overwhelmed by the performance of Dokukage. Ninja were pretty cool, after all. Reiner nodded in agreement, totally seeing where Nick was coming from. Ninja were part of a boy's romance.
"I'll go back and find her highness, of course," Kate said. She was a little miffed that no one seemed to care, but she moved past it. Right now, her highness was more important!
Cynthia and Julia were the first ones to make it to Blake's waiting room, where they found the four of them… playing cards.
"…Oh. Well, that's boring," Cynthia scoffed.
"We couldn't watch the match since we didn't want to bother Maddi or Kitty, so we figured we'd just kill time waiting," Ayame explained, glancing up from her hand. "So? How did it go?"
"The Shadow Pokemon won again, huh?" Kitty asked, not looking forward to the idea of more Shadow Pokemon appearing at the tournament.
"…Actually, no, Dokukage won," Julia said, giving Kitty a reassuring smile. "There's nothing to worry about!"
"Really? Awesome!" Kitty chirped, her face brightening. "That… that's good."
"Seriously?" Maddi asked, nearly dropping her cards in shock. She'd fought Shadow Pokemon herself, and she found it hard to believe that someone had actually been able to win against a trainer who was using them. "How?"
Cynthia's eyes lit up, steam practically spraying out of her nose.
"IT WAS AMAZING, THAT'S HOW!" She exclaimed. "First, Dokukage was like 'fshh' and then Keahi was like 'mwahaha' but then Dokukage went all 'pyaow! Kacha! Wabowm!' and Keahi was all 'uwaaaaaa?' So yeah, kind of like that."
The visual display of amateurish martial arts moves did not make Cynthia's explanation any clearer to the four people staring dumbly at her. Julia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, explaining what had actually happened.
It was hard to believe, and Blake was almost sorry he had missed it. It sounded like an amazing battle, and while he knew how powerful of a move baton pass was, this was his first time really understanding the way that it could be used like this. To be able to defeat Shadow Pokemon so skillfully… he hadn't expected something like that to come out of this.
And there was something else to consider, as well.
Dokukage was going to be his opponent in the next round. He would be fighting against a guy who had managed to wipe the floor with a member of the Phantom's organization, completely smashing through a party of three Shadow Pokemon. And not only that, Blake had only made it to the next round because of Sylvia's trickery. It wasn't like he had actually beaten her. He had faith that Weiss could have won, but that wasn't the same as knowing for sure. And he wouldn't get any mercy from someone like Dokukage, that was for sure.
Blake was confident in his abilities, but…
"Man, my nerves are really getting to me!" Ayame loudly declared, throwing down her cards and rising to her feet, stretching. "As great as it was seeing Blake fight today, it just got me real nervous for my match tomorrow."
She looked over to Blake.
"I'm gonna go get something to eat, want to join me?" She asked.
Blake blinked for a second. He was about to open his mouth to reply, before Cynthia cut him off.
"Hey, why don't we all go to a restaurant or something, to celebrate Blake's victory today?" She suggested, drooling a little.
"…I'm not in much of a celebrating mood," Maddi dryly replied. Cynthia turned pale, glancing down sheepishly.
"…Sorry, Maddi," she replied, having forgotten that while Blake may have won his match, Maddi hadn't won hers.
"I'll call it a night too," Blake said, standing up. "Sorry, Cynthia, but Ayame looks kind of nervous right now… I'm going to hang with her."
"…Fine, do what you like," Cynthia sighed, shrugging her shoulders. She turned her attention back to Maddi as Blake and Ayame left the room. "In the meantime, Maddi, are you sure you don't need to go to the infirmary?"
Maddi rolled her eyes. She could just scream.
"Hey, so what's up?" Blake asked as he followed Ayame down the hall. "You're worried about tomorrow? Because Gerard is one of the Eight Leaders?"
"Huh?" Ayame blinked, tilting her head to the side in confusion. "…Oh! That? No, fuck that, I was just making something up to get us out of there."
"…Huh?" Now it was Blake's turned to be confused.
"Your faces was doing that thing where it gets all scrunched up because you're worrying about something," Ayame explained. "I figured you were kinda stressing out about having to fight against that Dokukage guy next round, and weren't really up to hearing Cynthia praise you while you were so nervous. So I thought of a way to get us out."
Blake smiled, honestly touched by Ayame's kindness.
"Wow, Aya, thanks. That really means a lot," he said.
"Any time," Ayame winked, Flipping him off for good measure, too. She blushed a little. "…Besides, I kinda… I did still want us to just have our own little dinner to celebrate, you know? Since you worked really hard and everything…"
Blake smiled. He could live with the circumstances behind his win, that was much less of an issue compared to Ayame's bright smile.
The first day of the Phantom Cup has come to an end! Four people move onto the next round, and four matches will begin shortly to determine the other four people in the next round! Who will win these battles? Will they be just as exciting? We'll have to find out!