Pokémon Court

"Gym battle? Now?"

Looking at Lucy Joy's serious expression, Terrance asked, double-checking.

"Yes, this Gym's situation is a bit unique, as you already know. You'll soon be engaging in a few Gym battles. Don't worry; you have two months to adjust to your role as the Gym Trainer. These one or two battles won't weigh heavily in the overall evaluation."

Lucy Joy thought Terrance wasn't ready yet, so she tried to reassure him to relax.

"I understand. Let's go inside," Terrance replied.

Terrance hadn't expected to face a challenge immediately after arriving at Rogge Gym as a temporary Gym Leader.

"According to the information Examiner Joy provided, Rogge Gym's evaluation focuses on the fundamentals."

"As long as I handle these challengers first, I should be able to set the content and rules for future Gym battles. However, given the tight schedule, let's base the battles around 'fundamentals' for now."

Following Examiner Joy into the Gym, Terrance wasn't worried about the battles. Instead, he was unsure how to establish a standard for awarding Badges.

Even if Terrance could defeat all the challengers, that wasn't the right approach…

Awarding too many Badges or too few is unacceptable to the League.

A Gym Trainer must, based on the core evaluation principles, establish a standard. When the challenging Trainer meets this standard, the Gym Trainer should appropriately ease the conditions and award a Badge. This is the correct way to conduct Gym battles.

The Gym was quite spacious. Being a Normal-Type Gym, the interior architecture had a simple style. Terrance quietly followed Examiner Joy as they walked down the corridor and into the Gym.

"Examiner Joy, you're here. I've already contacted Kuraki from Rogge Gym, and the Gym battle is about to start. The challengers are waiting in the battle arena."

A young man dressed in an inspector's uniform ran up to Lucy Joy and Terrance to report.

Kuraki was that apprentice of Rogge Gym.

"Oh, so this is Terrance? Hello, I'm Aida, the second examiner for this phase of the assessment."

"Hello, Examiner Aida," Terrance replied.

"In that case, let's head to the battle arena," Lucy Joy said, turning to Terrance.

"No problem," Terrance said with a smile, ready to battle at any time.

…..

…..

Rogge Gym, Battle Arena

Three men and one woman, all Trainers, were waiting under Kuraki's lead for the arrival of the Gym Trainer.

"A new Gym Trainer? Will the battles go off without a hitch…" muttered a chubby Trainer, who had been nervous ever since hearing the morning's news. If Mr. Shin were still in charge, victory would've been nearly guaranteed.

Why… why did they have to switch Gym Leaders now?

"It should be fine, right? Rogge Gym is known for being friendly to rookie Trainers. The tests are all about battle fundamentals. The common Pokémon here are Taillow, Zigzagoon, and Skitty!" another boy said.

The remaining two nodded in agreement, finding his reasoning logical. For a basic Gym aimed at rookie Trainers, there was no reason to make things hard for the challengers just because the Gym Leader changed.

Having been stopped outside the Gym that morning, the four challengers had grown familiar with one another.

Kuraki's face turned dark. Inwardly, he roared, Could you all stop discussing Rogge Gym right in front of me?! How am I supposed to respond?!

"Look, someone's coming!!"

The doors swung open, and three people stepped inside.

The short skirt-wearing girl Trainer looked over in confusion. That strange guy from before was definitely not the Gym Trainer. Could it be… that woman?

The group examined her closely and was shocked. Although her outfit was different from the usual Nurse Joy uniform, her face and hair were unmistakable—this was a real, living Nurse Joy!

"Could it be… the new Gym Trainer is Nurse Joy?!" the chubby Trainer exclaimed in surprise, then grew excited.

In his mind, Joys were always kind big sisters. Surely, her battling skills wouldn't be that good, right?

Meanwhile, Terrance, who was about their age, was subconsciously ignored.

"They're finally here." The apprentice, Kuraki, was on the verge of tears.

"This is Terrance, the temporary Gym Trainer of Rogge Gym," Aida introduced.

"Hello, I'm Terrance, the temporary Gym Trainer for Rogge Gym. Are you the challengers?" Terrance smiled warmly, paying no mind to the group's incredulous expressions.

Their surprise didn't last long. They quickly recovered. After all, they had seen young Gym Trainers before. Rustboro City's Miss Roxanne, for instance, was an incredibly skilled Gym Trainer and a well-deserved top student.

"Well, let's start the Gym battle…" Kuraki muttered, casting a curious glance at Terrance. He hadn't expected the new Gym Trainer to be a kid.

"I'll go first!" Although the chubby boy's mood had gone through several ups and downs, and he was neither facing Mr. Shin nor Big Sister Joy. However, if his opponent was someone his own age, then there was no need to worry too much!

Of the four challengers present, only the girl hesitated as she looked at Terrance, wanting to say something but stopping, seeming uncertain.

"I'll act as the referee," Kuraki announced.

With that, everyone except Terrance and the chubby Trainer retreated to the spectators' seats.

Aida said: "Inspector Lucy, does Terrance know the evaluation criteria for Rogge Gym?"

"It was mentioned in the materials given to him," Lucy Joy replied.

"Oh, this is interesting. As the new Gym Trainer, will he follow the existing rules, apply his own standards for evaluation, or simply engage in pure battle and overwhelm his opponents?"

Aida didn't doubt Terrance's skills. He had watched the Grand Festival video. Just the Beautifly's strength was far superior to that of its peers, having been raised exceptionally well. Not to mention, Terrance had easily passed the "actual battle" assessment. If he didn't have some skills, Terrance wouldn't have been able to even apply for the Gym Trainer position.

"I don't know," Lucy Joy replied.

Once Kuraki finished announcing the basic information of both sides, the Gym battle officially began. Since Terrance had to face all four challengers, the format was set as 1v1 matches.

At that moment, among the four challengers, the girl muttered to herself. Finally, she seemed to recognize something and exclaimed, "Oh no! He's not an ordinary Trainer. Gon's in trouble!"

The other two challengers looked at her, confused.

"Terrance, Terrance! He's the reigning champion of this year's Hoenn Pokémon Contest and the current Top Coordinator! I've seen his Pokémon Watch advertisement!"

"Hey, Gon! Be careful in the match—your opponent is really strong!" the girl shouted, standing up.

The chubby Trainer froze, stunned.

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