Kuro

Naru and I returned to the seats that we first sat in before going to the infirmary. We also came back to see that not only the next match had concluded, but the next one after that too, neither of us being able to observe the battles at all. A gabite named Lucas had apparently beaten a lucario with complete ease, the battle lasting a matter of seconds. Next, the honchkrow named Cole beat a scizor, seemingly the same way he beat his pidgeot opponent, but didn't have as hard of a time because of him being able to fly while his opponent was a sitting duck. At the moment, there was a frogadier and a noivern battling, neither one giving an inch. While the battle definitely interested me, there was something on my mind that I had forgot to mention to Naru back in the infirmary.

"Hey Naru," I started to ask, prompting her to turn her head to face me. "You said that Gallade who attacked you had a symbol on his body, right? A strange spiral with a hand of a bipedal in the middle?"

"Yeah, it's not a sight I can easily forget," Naru seemed to slightly shudder, making me feel guilty. "Why do you ask?"

"The pokemon that attacked my family when I was eight held the same symbol, all three of them." I told her, and she put on a thinking expression. "Although… It looks like Kai is somehow hiding his… It was on the top of one of his paws, it would be easily visible if he didn't do anything to hide it."

Naru seemed to ponder in thought just as I did. My mind wasn't too focused on how Kai was able to seal what seemed like a branding on his paw, I was instead making a connection. Since the three that attacked my family all had this symbol, as well as the gallade that tried to kill Naru, that would mean that it is most likely that the three did actually belong to an organization and weren't working alone. That cleared up another question I have had in my head for a very long time, however, a much more prominent and worrying question was all too present in my head.

If Kai has that symbol… Signaling that he is part of some kind of murderous group… then why is he a part of this organization? Isn't this place trying to stop the ones he works under?

I think Naru had the same thought, as she was also deeply thinking, possibly wondering why Kai could be a member here and a part of the murderous group.

Is he maybe a double agent? Could he be here for answers? Could he be here to figure out what they're up against? Could he be here to see the new recruits and what they may be up against in the future? Did he have a change of heart? Is he-

I rubbed my face with my two front paws, trying to push out all of thoughts and new questions that were begging to be answered in my head. I let out a heavy sigh and looked back at the arena to see the frogadier promptly slam the noivern to the ground, unconscious.

"There you have it! Moving on to the next round is J the frogadier!" Loud cheers erupted from the crowd, but not loud enough to silence the questions in my head.

I figured that, right now, there were too many uncertainties to assume anything about Kai and his involvement in both of the groups, but it's not something to completely push aside, so I decided to keep it in the back of my mind, not wanting to give myself a headache. I looked back down towards the large arena from our high place in the stands to see a metang and a bronzong repeatedly crash into each other, but the metang seemed to get the better of the clash every time, and I could tell the match wasn't going to last much longer. I decided that it would be better for me to focus on the battles happening in front of me rather than focusing on questions that I'm nowhere near answering. With that thought in mind, I kept my focus on the metang slamming the bronzong into the wall, promptly ending the battle.

Naru

I wasn't sure what to make of the information that Kuro and I had put together since we both told each other about of pasts. It really was nice to finally have a connection, to have some kind of affirmation between both the pokemon who attacked Kuro and his family, as well as my own attack. However, it also raised more questions… A lot more questions… I honestly didn't know if we were closer to coming to some kind of conclusion or farther. It's like we took one step forward but two steps back… I don't know what to think about it anymore. I let out a sigh and looked towards the battle going on in the arena.

There was a charizard flying high above an electrode, occasionally blasting fire towards the ground in order to sanction off the electrode to a corner of the arena. In order dodge some of the fire blasts, the electrode would rapidly spin around on the ground and kick up a large amount of dirt from the arena, keeping them out of the line of sight of the charizard. However, this really didn't matter in the end, as the charizard let out a gigantic blast of fire, directly into the center of the dirt cloud.

Once the dirt cleared, the electrode lie in the center of a ring of fire, unconscious. It looked like a lucky shot from the charizard, but I don't think it would have mattered, as the electrode was at a disadvantage the entire time. This bisharp announced the victory of the charizard, whose name was Sylph. After the end of the battle was announced, I felt a wave of anxiety hit me.

I guess my battle is next…

I sighed in slight dread as I knew that the pokemon I was going up against was not going to be an opponent I wanted to battle… considering that he beat a current member in a matter of seconds once he got an opening.

Guess I just can't give him the chance to properly strike… If I do… He'll annihilate me.

I tried to cast some of my uneasiness aside, hoping that maybe my nerves would subside if I distracted my thoughts for a little bit. I decided to turn to Kuro.

"What did you think about the last match?" I asked him, my voice shaking slightly.

"I thought it was a good one, the electrode did everything they could do given the situation, I honestly thought that kicking up the dirt was a very smart thing to do, but I think they were fighting a losing battle from the start." Kuro responded.

I liked listening to Kuro give his opinion on battles. He seemed like he was pretty keen on observing how other pokemon fight, and he seemed to analyze the way the pokemon battle for reference, as opposed to watching them for entertainment. It really is too bad that, because of the injuries that he sustained from his battle with Kai, he missed out on watching his next opponent fight, as the way he analyzes other pokemon fight would probably give him an advantage. I was always entertained by watching other pokemon battle, but I could never analyze them like Kuro does. I started to think that I should learn how to look at battles like that, Arceus knows it would help in this kind of place…

My thoughts were cut short, and my anxiety started to rise yet again when I heard the bisharp's announcement.

"Can the next two contestants please report to the prep room for the next match? Thank you!" The bisharp announced.

I shuddered, and shakily brought my paws to the ground, ready to head to the prep room.

"Good luck out there Naru!" Kuro said from behind me. "I know you have a tough fight ahead of you, but just try your best! Think outside the box if you need to! Just don't give up!" Kuro encouraged me.

I felt a warm feeling inside of me after Kuro sent me his encouragement, feeling my confidence begin to slowly grow.

"Thanks Kuro!" I responded with a smile that was a lot less nervous than it was previously.

I headed to the familiar metallic staircase that led to a familiar plain-looking metal door. I stepped into the prep room and put my jet black bag into the locker, still leaving my scarf wrapped tightly around my neck. I took a few breaths, ready to step out of the door into the dirt arena as soon as the light overhead turned green. I had no idea how to handle this battle, as the only thing I could observe from the battle between Kage and the gallade was that Kage is fast, and I can't leave myself open, not even for a second, or else he'll knock me out in that second.

I really need to make sure I don't give him an opening, but how do I really make sure? I can have all of my bases covered, but I need some way to hit him as well. That gallade only managed a few small cuts, and I'm not as fast as that gallade's slashes… So will I even be able to land a hit, even if I don't leave myself open?

I brought a paw up and lightly rubbed the side of my head, briefly closing my eyes to let my thoughts settle, otherwise I would just perk up my anxiety again. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw that the light above the exit had turned green. I took in a deep inhale and exhale, before walking out of the door, facing the large arena before me.

As soon as I set one of my paws into the arena, the crowd cheered loudly. I looked across to the other side of the arena to see Kage already there, stretching his limbs out and getting into a battle stance. I did the same, crouching down, ready to begin whenever the start was called, despite my nerves hindering my focus.

"Are both sides ready?" I gave a small nod to the bisharp and Kage did the same.

"Okay then! Let's get going! Three!"

I cleared my thoughts, ready to act.

"Two!"

I need to think of a strategy… But I need to observe his movements first.

"One!"

Don't let Kuro down!

"Battle begin!" The bisharp yelled.

As soon as those words were uttered, Kage sprinted forward, stopping in the middle of the arena. I didn't move from my spot, waiting to react to whatever he was trying to do. Soon after, he stuck one of his paws as deep into the dirt as he could, and then his fur seemed to tense up with electricity. Soon after, a gigantic amount of dirt practically covered the entire arena, making it so I couldn't see a thing.

Before I had a chance to think, I saw a dozen bolts of electricity fly at me though the dirt cloud. They didn't seem to have much accuracy, but one of them came very close to me, to which I hopped away from the area, turning into another puff of the dirt cloud. The sparks of electricity were still flying towards the area I was previously standing at, which clued me in on the fact that Kage didn't know where I was either, he just wanted to blind both of us knowing that his attacks had a wide range.

Does that mean he's launching his attacks from the middle?

I tried to confirm my thoughts by firing an ice beam towards where I saw Kage standing earlier. Sure enough, I heard a grunt come from where I launched my attack, suggesting that I hit him. The dust cloud soon cleared, revealing that Kage had started to push up towards me. He had flames gathered in his maw, which was something I really didn't want to come close to. Since Kage was faster than me and I knew I couldn't dodge at this range, I launched an ice shard directly at the ground below me, kicking up another large cloud of dirt. I had hoped that this would make me able to throw Kage off, but he very quickly reacted by sending multiple small bolts out, clearing enough of the cloud for him to get sight of me for a second.

One second was more than enough, as I quickly felt a searing pain soar through my body, and felt fangs impale deep into my skin. Feeling the heat go throughout my body was incredibly painful and I knew I had to do something. I payed attention to the positioning of Kage to me. He was a decent amount bigger than me, meaning that he was standing above my body in order to bite down on me. Taking note of this, I filled my mouth with a brutal cold, and bit down on Kage's leg as hard as I could. I heard him grunt, and clearly not wanting to deal with my fangs in his leg before I froze it over, he tossed me aside, sending me a decent distance away. I got back to standing on my four paws, still hurting from the previous attack, but the pain was more than manageable.

If I can handle it from a fire-type, then I can handle it from him.

I decided that I had to make some kind of move, I had to do something to get another hit in on Kage, the question was, what exactly could I do? While searching my thoughts, I noticed that Kage was shaking one of his front paws, more accurately, the one that I sank my fangs into. A thought then came to my mind, and I decided to act on it, despite not knowing if I'd just be wasting my energy. I focused on the air above and around me, causing small clouds to form over the arena, not quite reaching the stands. Small pellets of hail began to fall from the clouds, causing Kage little more than an annoyance to the shift to cooler weather, as well as the small ice rocks hitting him every so often.

However, I didn't do it for steady damage and distractions, I used it for my ability. I felt energized, and my body felt lighter. Kage looked at me, knowing why I had this feeling. He attempted to launch a thunderbolt at me, but I swiftly moved out of the way last second, looking like I disappeared. I could see the slight confusion on Kage's face, not knowing exactly where I went. In reality, I was slowly walking towards him, seemingly invisible. Once I got close enough, I hit Kage with the strongest ice beam I could gather at the moment. It propelled Kage backwards, launching him quite the distance, not enough to hit the wall, but it definitely did some damage, plus there was a small gathering of ice on the side of his body, as well as ice from my previous ice fang starting to accumulate on his leg, further impairing his movement.

The hail that I had set up was still falling, so I began to tread lightly towards Kage once more. However, this time, as soon as I was within attacking range again, Kage launched a thunderbolt directly at me at near point blank range. It hit me, causing me to shriek for a second, and also sending me a few feet back. I tried to stand up, and although I managed to get on all four of my paws, I was shaking and twitching, still feeling the electricity course through my body. It was hot too, not quite the same kind of heat I feel from a fire attack, but heat nonetheless, and I'm not exactly fond of heat. After I finally recovered, I noticed that the hail I had set up had stopped falling, canceling out my snow cloak. Now that I had lost my evasion advantage, I looked over at Kage to see part of his body still frozen, but he didn't even have to move in order to hit me, with a very strong attack as well.

Looks like I can't win just by impairing his movement…. I thought.

I saw Kage start to charge up another thunderbolt, to which I wasn't sure what to do. I wasn't sure if I could dodge in my current state, so I was at a loss.

If I get hit by that… I don't know if i'll be able to move with all of that electricity coursing through me… But what can I do?

I scavenged my thoughts, but then a familiar voice rang through my head.

'Think outside the box if you need to! Just don't give up!' Kuro's words echoed in my mind.

I considered any possible options that I may have had here, and I could only think of one. It was quite a stretch, I didn't know if it would work, and it would require me to dodge the attack, all of these things making it more unlikely that I would actually succeed.

But… That doesn't matter. In the end I can't give up! Right Kuro?

I readied myself, prepared for the thunderbolt that was about to be launched at me. I saw Kage back up a few steps, albeit slowly because of the ice wrapped around his leg and body. I saw his fur brightly glow with electricity, and soon after, a large bolt of lightning launched from his body, flying straight at me. In response to this, I shot an ice shard directly at the bolt, also leaping to the side, barely dodging it. My ice shard collided with the electricity, and began to glow brilliantly. I would admire its shine if I didn't need to focus on what I was doing as much as I did. The ice shard absorbed the light from the bolt, and fell short just before hitting Kage.

However, after it landed on the ground right in front of him, I focused, and made the small shard of ice explode, also releasing the mass amount of light. Since Kage was standing a few inches from this light, he immediately shielded his eyes, temporarily blinded. He reeled back a few steps, but then returned to his stance, eyes shut tight. Noticing my opportunity, I closed in on Kage, and I readied an ice beam, my goal to finish the battle. After I built it up, I launched the ice beam straight at Kage. It closed in on him, but right as it was about to make contact, I was caught off-guard.

Kage shot out another thunderbolt, it flying directly through my ice beam, overpowering it. The thunderbolt then made contact with me, causing me a searing pain that quickly made its way throughout my entire body. After the shock had worn off, I found that I couldn't move my legs, Or any part of my body for that matter. I then felt my weight drop to the ground, and I let my consciousness leave me.

Kuro

I watched from the stands as Naru dropped unconscious. She looked as if she had been completely paralyzed before her body finally couldn't take the battle anymore. I watched as the audino picked Naru up in her arms, and then walked in the direction of the infirmary. I wasn't worried about her safety, as I knew if the audino could heal the wounds that I received from Kai, then they can heal the wounds that Naru had sustained. I then saw a second audino walk up to Kage and heal the parts of his body that were frozen, as well as patch up some of the scratches and other wounds that he had sustained from Naru, including his temporarily impaired eyesight.

I had to admit, I was upset that Naru lost. She had fought so well, putting in a lot of damage to a Luxray that made quick work of a current member. She even made great use of her snow cloak ability, and the move she made to blind Kage was a brilliant idea. However, I guess it just wasn't enough to beat someone like him.

As much as I would have liked Naru to win, I couldn't deny that the battle that went on between her and Kage was a spectacle to behold, watching Naru slowly take away Kage's mobility and senses, all while slowly stacking up damage whenever she had an opportunity. However, watching Kage's ability to counter all of the things that Naru threw at him was also very impressive. He seemed to rely on the wide range he can cover with his attacks whenever his eyes weren't a liable option, a direct counter to Naru's strategy. Although, there was one point where he attacked with almost pinpoint accuracy when seemingly not being able to see, and I think he just felt the cold from the ice beam and traced it back to Naru. That's one weakness that some ice types seem to have, since their attacks and bodies themselves give off a very cold temperature to those around them unless controlled, they can't really sneak up onto opponents while in close range. With all of the pressure that Naru was dealing with, she most likely didn't consider the temperature of her attack to be a deciding factor in the battle.

Guess it can't be helped… She fought her hardest, and definitely stuck out, which will help her chances of being chosen for the organization.

I got up from my seat in the stands and started to walk down towards the infirmary, seeing a machamp and zoroark walk down the adjacent staircases, presumably being the contestants of the next battle.

I opened the plain door leading to the infirmary, walking into the white room, as well as the very soft carpet that was spread across the floor. I looked over at the single bed, and saw Naru under a few blankets, gently breathing as she slept. I also saw her scarf wrapped around her bag on the side of the bed next to her. She looked very peaceful, and I found myself smiling at the sight. I noticed that the audino that was here when I was laid up was nowhere to be seen, but I felt like I was being watched. Disregarding it as paranoia, I noticed that Naru began to stir in her sleep.

Naru slowly opened her eyes and rose her body up in the bed, releasing a large yawn, but slightly wincing at her remaining pain from her battle. She then turned her eyes to me, and seemed a bit surprised that I was standing about a foot away from her.

"Morning Naru," I greeted. "How do your injuries feel?" I then asked.

"Oh! Kuro! I feel fine, if a bit sore. Those thunderbolts didn't feel too great you know. I still feel the electricity soaring through my fur." Naru told me.

I lightly laughed at Naru tapping her entire body with her paws, seemingly trying to deter the feeling of an electrical shock.

"I'm sure it'll wear off soon, if that giant, stretched out wound that Kai gave to me doesn't hurt anymore, then your shocks can only last so long."

"I hope you're right… This is really bothersome… I feel all staticy…" She responded, lightly smiling.

"You sure put on a show though, I was really surprised when you blinded Kage with that ice shard, that was great thinking!"

Naru then seemed to slightly avert her eyes, looking to feel a small bit uncomfortable with my praise.

"It wasn't that amazing… After all… It didn't work in the end." Naru sulked. I didn't want her to feel bad about her loss, especially considering how amazing the battle was, but it was understandable. I mean, she put her all into that fight, and still ended up not quite emerging as the victor.

"Don't worry about the result too much," I said, lightly tapping my paw on her head once. "You battled great, but Kage is a tough opponent. Remember how he destroyed a current member in a matter of seconds? You weren't up against some random stranger with no skill, you were up against a pokemon that had clearly seen his fair share of battles. You did all that was in your power, and you did amazing. Honestly, with the creative moves you pulled, I'd be pretty surprised if you didn't get picked as a member!"

Naru looked at me with a somewhat baffled gaze, like she wasn't expecting encouragement, or like I said something strange. However, soon after, her dumbfounded gaze was replaced by a bright smile that gave me a chilling feeling in my spine.

"Thanks Kuro! Maybe you're right. I hope you are, I really want to get accepted with you!" She exclaimed, somehow brightening her smile even more.

I then felt a large amount of heat flush to my face and promptly averted my eyes. I wasn't sure why Naru was able to get this emotion out of me so easily, but it wasn't exactly unpleasant, so I didn't do anything to stop it.

"I'm sure we'll both be accepted in the end." I told her with a smile. "We might want to get to the arena now, the next battle may be close to over, and I'm up after this one."

"Sounds good! Let's go!" Naru got up, unwrapped her scarf from her bag and switched it to her neck. She then slung her bag over her body and walked next to me back to the stands we came from.

Once we arrived, I didn't even sit down, as I realized that the zoroark had overpowered their machamp opponent, signaling the end of the battle, which means that I would be up next anyway.

"There you have it! Victory goes to Vero the zoroark!" The crowd shouted, seeming amazed by the victory of yet another pokemon at a type disadvantage.

I guess types really don't matter much when you're skilled…

"Hey, Kuro, how do you feel about your next match?" Naru asked me.

"Well, I have no idea how this gabite fights, but I do know that the last battle that he was in ended in about thirty seconds, so I am a bit worried." I confessed, letting a slight sigh out.

As if on cue, I was called. Along with my opponent to the prep rooms, but not before a different announcement came out.

"Now, since we're entering the third main round of the application, the arena will now switch its environment once again!" The bisharp announced, resulting in collective excitement within the audience.

What kind of change is coming out now?

I looked down at the arena to see the blocks that made up its construction begin to turn themselves over once more, switching the mostly dirt ground with what looked like some kind of soft, yellow, foam-like flooring. It was certainly strange, not the kind of environment I would ever think I would battle in. Ignoring the strangeness of the field choice, I headed down the familiar metal staircase to the prep room.

After I entered the prep room, I placed my brown bag in the same locker that I have the previous two times. After that, I stood under the red light, waiting for it to turn green. Surprisingly, I didn't have the same large nervousness pass through me that I had prior to my first two battles.

Then again, One was my first battle and the other one was against Kai, so I guess there really isn't as much pressure this time around, despite me knowing that my opponent will probably be a tough one.

I looked up at the light above the exit, noticing that it had now changed its color to green. I promptly walked out of the door, and onto the yellow substance that now made up the arena. It was very soft to the touch, and I felt like if I slammed my head into it, I wouldn't have felt a thing.

I looked across the arena to see my gabite opponent, Lucas standing across from me. He was in a battle-ready position, his claws bared towards me. I crouched down, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. It was then that the bisharp asked us if we were ready, to which we both nodded.

"Three! Two! One! And… Battle begin!" The bisharp yelled.

Lucas instantly rushed me down, launching a light purple beam at me, all while his claws shined with a brilliant white color. Feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the two attacks flying towards me, I sidestepped out of the way of the beam and prepared myself for the onslaught that was most certainly coming from Lucas' claws. He slashed at me quite a few times in succession, but I managed to barely dodge all of them, before Lucas jumped back swiftly. I took notice of the way that he slashed at me, taking note of the way he swung his arms at me.

He has a pattern… I thought.

Lucas then engulfed his entire body in a blue aura, and rushed towards me. He came after me with incredible speed, and I just barely managed to slide under his rush. Once he quickly recovered, he began to slash at me with his claws again, just what I had hoped for. He slashed at me the same as last time, so the dodges I made weren't as narrow, I was expecting what was coming. I then waited for the one moment in his onslaught that he slipped up, near the end. He tried to take one last slash at me while getting into a position to bolt away afterwards. Because of his shift in position, he left himself open for a second. I promptly used that second to hit him straight in the side of the face with a dark pulse, sending him flying back and reeling. I decided not to push him, as he seemed to be expecting that, readying himself for an immediate counter. He then began to sprint towards me once more, this time jumping in the air, right above my head. He was readying a fire blast to hit me with, as I saw the small amount of flames building up in his mouth. This definitely confused me.

He most likely knows about my synchronize, so why is he trying to hit me with fire?

Unless… He's baiting me.

He looked like he knew this next attack would hit, like he thought I would take it on purpose in order to cause him some damage. Instead of doing this, as soon as the blast released from his mouth, I jumped in between him and the fire, my tail emitting a light glow. I then slammed Lucas' stomach with an iron tail. Lucas went flying back once again, getting dangerously close to the wall. Seeing my opportunity, I shot a small flurry of shadow balls at him. He seemed to think I was trying to push him into the wall with that attack, but in reality, I was just creating an opening. While Lucas was intercepting or dodging one of the many shadow balls that I sent at him, I used a quick attack to immediately rush him, something that greatly caught him off-guard. I charged over to him and slammed my head into the center of his body as hard as I could, launching him into the wall.

With that, I had won the battle.

"And there we go! The winner of this battle is Kuro the umbreon, going to the semi-finals! Also the third perfect victory we've seen today!" After the bisharp made that announcement, the crowd vigorously cheered.

What exactly is a perfect victory..? I wondered.

Deciding not to dwell on the though too much, I wandered out of the arena, wanting to head back up to Naru and I's spot up in the stands.

Once I made it back up, Naru was there to greet me with an incredibly positive attitude.

"Great job Kuro! I wasn't expecting you to pull off a perfect victory!" Naru exclaimed, somewhat flustering me.

"Yeah.. About that… What exactly is a perfect victory?" I asked, very curious.

"Oh, you beat your opponent without getting hit, the only others to do that before you were Kai fighting that chesnaught, and Lucas, in the battle before yours." She explained. It made a lot of sense when she told me what it was, and I felt a little bit embarrassed that I didn't pick up on that immediately.

"Really… I didn't even realize that I did… Guess I was too in the moment." I told her, scratching my head, still a bit embarrassed.

I cast my gaze down to the arena, and I saw Cole the honchkrow, going up against J the frogadier. The two were going back and forth very quickly, J trying to propel Cole into the ground, but Cole wouldn't let him, and even if he did, I don't think the softness of the floor would emit to any real damage. I watched as Cole landed multiple aerial aces on J, causing some pretty severe damage over time. Cole directly countered J's fighting style, as he usually tries to knock his opponents into the ground, but this environment makes that a useless strategy even if he does pull it off. This combined with the double team that Cole had set up to finish off J, put him at a huge advantage. This is a similar situation to how Naru fights by eliminating her opponent's mobility and senses, directly countered by Kage's ability to attack from anywhere on the arena, and also covering a wide area.

As expected, J couldn't withstand the onslaught of aerial attacks from Cole, and he lost consciousness, only landing a few small hits on Cole. After all was said and done, J was escorted to the infirmary, while I was glad I studied Cole's way of fighting, which was mostly aerial combat.

Now this raises the question, how do I counter that..?

I looked back down at the arena to see a metang and a charizard both enter the arena, looking eager to fight. After the battle was called to start however, I was distracted by a familiar luxray walking towards Naru and I.

"Umm… Hello Naru and Kuro. As you know, my name is Kage." He introduced himself. I found it a bit strange that he wanted to talk, but I decided that there really wasn't a problem with it, and it might even help me with getting used to being around others.

Not that anything would have stopped Naru in the first place.

"Hi Kage!" She cheerfully greeted. "That was a great battle I had with you! Although I don't know how exactly you tracked me while blind, but it was still great!" Naru energetically said.

Kage seemed taken aback from Naru's overly friendly attitude. Although, he still kept the conversation going.

"Oh, I just felt the cold from the attack you launched at me, it was enough to gain a general idea of where I should direct my attack." He explained, meaning my thoughts earlier were correct. "But I have to say, I wasn't expecting you to have something that blinded me, that was a pretty impressive maneuver."

"Thanks! I kind of thought of it on the spot though, I'm not some master at planning." She confessed. However, she turned her gaze to me, noticing that I wasn't talking, as I didn't find it necessary to interrupt the exchange between the two. "If there's anyone who can come of with strategies, it's Kuro here!" She said as she firmly placed a paw on my head.

"W-What? I'm not exactly a master strategist." I responded, Naru not removing her paw.

"Kuro can observe another pokemon's battling and notice small things to form a plan around, so if it's strategy that you want, just ask him!" She lifted her paw from my head, leaving me visibly flustered.

"Really? How close do you observe others, Kuro?" Kage asked.

"Well… I just look at the way other pokemon battle and if I happen to see something like a pattern or a weakness, then I act on it. I'm not some master at coming up with strategies, as most of my battling comes to my mind on the spot." I tried to disregard some of Naru's unnecessary praise.

"I see, that's still a very useful skill to have! Most of the time, I just rely on acting with my instincts, if I went in with a pattern or weakness in mind, I would probably perform better." Kage said.

"Well, it seems like what you're doing now is working perfectly fine, so you have no reason to seek out new ways to win a battle, after all, you beat a current member in a matter of seconds, if that isn't good battling prowess, I don't know what is." I assured him with a small smile.

"I think it's proof that both of our styles work, after all, you beat Kai with your way of battling, so you have impressive prowess as well!"

I slightly shivered at the mention of Kai, but quickly brushed it aside and gave Kage a reassuring nod.

I turned my eyes back to the arena, watching as Sylph the charizard has thoroughly knocked out her metang opponent, giving her the victory for the battle. Soon after the arena was cleared, the next two contestants were called, one being Kage, the other being Vero, his zoroark opponent.

"Well, it looks like I'm up, it was nice talking to you two! And Kuro, hopefully we'll meet in the finals!" Kage said, before walking off to the prep room.

After he had left, Naru looked at me with a curious gaze.

"Umm… Is something wrong?" I asked her.

"Nothing's wrong, I just thought that you may want to work on your social skills, you didn't say a word until I involved you." Naru advised me.

"Well… I've never really talked to another pokemon other than you or my parents before now, so what did you expect?"

To that, she gave me a light laugh, and we both turned to watch the next battle unfold.