Chapter 136: The Interested Coffin Coffin

"Age aside for a moment, my Pokémon have never experienced Poké-Basketball training. I haven't even played it myself..." M.art could tell that Hado was just trying to save face and looking for "foreign aid."

Had it been any other trainer, even if they weren't capable themselves, they could mostly still send out their Pokémon to spar a couple of moves...

Although a real "Poké-Basketball" setup was expensive, during one's student days, there were always simplified alternative ways to play!

M.art was different, however. He had genuinely never encountered the sport at all, and naturally neither had his Pokémon, meaning he didn't even know the rudimentary rules.

"No problem! While the first group is practicing, I'll explain it to you simply. You won't need to do much anyway, just watch me work my magic!" Hado said, patting his chest.

M.art couldn't resist Hado's warm invitation... and admittedly, he felt a bit of curiosity himself. Right then, he released all six Pokémon he had on hand: Venusaur, Exeggutor, Rhyperior, Abra, Nidoking, and the beady-eyed "Cofagrigus."

Voltorb was with Professor Giant Tree, while Gengar and Clefable were with Professor Oak.

Hado looked them over one by one...

Venusaur was on all fours, which would be rather tricky. Although it had multiple vines it could use, its physical build wasn't particularly suited for Poké-Basketball—at least, not to Hado's beginner's eyes.

Exeggutor went without saying. Even though it walked on two legs, it... didn't have arms. Using telekinesis felt a bit lacking, and to balance the problem of telekinesis having a limited control range, the match balls were equipped with anti-psychic devices, making it impossible to control them over long distances using mental power.

Rhyperior and Nidoking were somewhat clumsy in build, and Abra didn't even need mentioning—a match ball simply couldn't be brought along with "Teleport"!

Finally... Hado's gaze landed on "Cofagrigus." At that moment, Cofagrigus extended four more shadowy hands from the darkness behind its back, all eight hands waving energetically.

"Huh?" M.art looked at Co-co with slight puzzlement.

"This is..." Hado had no acquaintance with "Cofagrigus" whatsoever, let now notice its "beady-eyed" trait.

"Co-co is a Ditto. Right now, it's transformed into a Cofagrigus, a Ghost-type Pokémon," M.art explained simply.

At the same time, M.art gave Co-co a strange look...

How come it seemed like it was dying to try out "Poké-Basketball"?

Otherwise, Co-co usually always maintained a "wise gaze," looking utterly indifferent to everything!

Yet now it was actually taking the initiative to show off, extending four extra shadowy hands... Was it just itching to play?

Cofagrigus didn't actually have "hands"; they were all shadow hands formed using Ghost-type energy. Four was a relatively easy number to control, while eight... actually felt a bit cumbersome.

Noticing M.art looking at him, Co-co immediately pulled all eight hands back in, then lay down flat on the ground, as if saying: Who wants to play? I wouldn't deign to play anyway...

"Huh? What's wrong with it?" Hado watched the Cofagrigus, which had completely turned back into a coffin, with confusion.

"Nothing... It's not very keen on entering the field, but if I go coax it, it'll still be willing," M.art said as he recalled his other five Pokémon, who hadn't been very enthusiastic to begin with.

As for Co-co...

M.art naturally coaxed it by offering a "step down," and upon hearing M.art speak thus, Co-co "reluctantly" got back up.

"Cofagrigus, right? In a moment, you'll just stay in your team's half of the court. Remember, teammates wear red ribbons, and opponents wear green ribbons. If an opponent gets the ball, you intercept; if a teammate gets the ball, you leave them be... In the unlikely event that you intercept it, pass it to me! When passing, don't worry about me failing to catch it; that barrier absorbs a massive amount of impact... However, don't let your body pass through the barrier—not any part of your body—and don't use any moves either!" Hado clearly just wanted Cofagrigus to make up the numbers, not expecting it to actually touch the ball.

Banning moves outright was obviously not how the actual rules went.

It was just that... Hado couldn't memorize which moves were prohibited anyway!

The last time they practiced with a real ball, a "Scrafty" got frantic because it couldn't steal the ball and used [Throat Chop], breaking the internal structure of the Poké-Basketball club's only professional practice ball at the time...

"[Shadow Ball] is allowed, but it must be used on the ball, not on other opponents or teammates. Will-O-Wisp can be used on opponents, but don't use any other moves," M.art corrected him slightly.

M.art had briefly glanced over the rules earlier, and then used a "whitelist" approach to tell Co-co which two of the moves it knew were permitted.

Naturally, Poké-Basketball wasn't a battle, and the moves that could be used were also restricted, generally falling into three categories: motivational moves used on oneself, weakening moves that could be used against enemies, and a subset of moves that dealt direct damage. None of these damage-dealing moves could be used to attack opponents; they could only be used for passing or dribbling.

"Right, exactly like that!" Hado said, looking as though it all made sense.

Actually, when external aid Pokémon took the field, the external aid trainers were allowed to give commands from the sidelines, but... M.art didn't understand the game anyway, so he chose not to make a fool of himself.

Meanwhile, Co-co was already staring straight ahead as the two teams in the first group began practicing passing and steals.

Because it was simply passing from one half of the court across the barrier to the other half, there weren't many tactical or strategic demands—just maintaining possession of the ball for their side as much as possible was enough!

M.art hadn't watched many matches before, and this was his very first time actually seeing people play Poké-Basketball...

When this match ball was on the human side, it was still just a "ball." Once it crossed over to the other side, the moment it passed through the barrier, a gyro-like outer structure would materialize around the ball.

At that point, the "match ball" would float and hover, requiring much greater force to make it move...

Right now, that spinning match ball was being controlled by a "Passimian."

M.art saw clearly from the sidelines that the Passimian had already used [Focus Energy] once. After dodging interception attempts by two opposing Pokémon, it struck a "throwing" pose and actually used the [Throw] move, fiercely hurling the match ball toward the other half of the court!

If there were no "barrier," anyone hit directly by it would definitely have been injured, but...

The moment the match ball passed through the barrier, not only did it instantly revert to the appearance of an ordinary ball, but its velocity plummeted as well, and the Dark-type energy wrapped around it was almost completely dissipated.

However, because the approach was so fierce, the other club members were clearly somewhat intimidated, allowing Kangshan—who shared mutual trust with the Passimian—to directly catch the ball...

After dribbling for five seconds, Kangshan used a head fake to pass to the opposing Oranguru—if no steals occurred, there had to be a five-second interval between each exchange between the inner and outer courts.

It was evident that Kangshan's own physical stamina, technique, and the strength of his Pokémon were beyond what the other members could match.

And for a Poké-Basketball player, that wasn't necessarily a good thing, seeing as Poké-Basketball was a team sport...