He eats a muffin and thinks about whether there's a good way to get more money. Maybe he should've stuck around Nacrene a little longer, if you can find items to sell in the forest. Having to worry about money is kind of weird, usually Pops just handles that.

Is he going to school again, or does he have other plans?

School got out pretty early yesterday. He'll go ahead and try some more of that.

They're continuing the "field control" unit from yesterday. Today they're talking about a technique called Pursuit. Apparently, if you try to switch out your Pokémon mid-battle, normally it's easy to do that faster than the other trainer, but if you instruct your Pokémon to use Pursuit, they'll be able to intercept them and take advantage of the inherent vulnerability of their position to hit them harder.

He had no idea that switching out Pokémon mid-battle was even possible. Unless he's just talking about switching out an unconscious Pokémon, but why would you want to attack a Pokémon that wasn't even conscious?

(Unless that's a common strategy? He doesn't ... think so? But maybe Chili was just being nice, or maybe it didn't matter since Sebastian only had one Pokémon at that point.)

One of his classmates opines that she thinks it's kind of a useless move, since only bad trainers switch out their Pokémon. "Unless you really need the type coverage, I guess."

This starts a classroom argument about the merits of switching Pokémon. It's still not obvious whether attacking an unconscious Pokémon is a thing, but it does sound like switching out a conscious one is possible. It's not hugely popular since you basically lose a turn, and friendly challenges often play with the rule that you can switch out for free after knocking out an opponent's Pokémon, but it's possible.

He doesn't know what "type coverage" is. Or for that matter how to tell what's a "friendly challenge," if you aren't actively stopping a kidnapping.

"I don't see why you'd ever switch out a Pokémon," says another of his classmates. "I mean, even if it goes unconscious, you can just send in the Pokémon you'd have switched to, and then use a Revive."

The teacher pinches the bridge of his nose. "Can anyone give me a reason why that strategy might be ineffective?"

"Revives are expensive," says another classmate. "You should usually save them for emergencies, like if you're in the middle of nowhere and all your Pokémon get knocked out."

The first kid crosses his arms. "That sounds like a you problem."

"Revives don't even restore your Pokémon to full strength. In some situations it's way better to switch in cannon fodder."

"Maybe normal ones don't."

Something about that is a little upsetting! He's not entirely sure what!

"Even if you don't think they're going to switch, it's not like Pursuit is totally useless."

"Sure, but it sucks. Why would you use a move that sucks when you could, instead, use a move that didn't suck?"

"Maybe you're fighting a Ghost-type and your other attacks are all Normal or Fighting."

Ghosts are common knowledge here???

People fight ghosts????????

"I already brought up the type coverage thing earlier. But basically anything that can learn Pursuit can learn something better that gives just as good coverage."

"Blitzle can't."

"I said basically anything."

"Okay but Blitzle are super common so they count more."

"They're not even that common apart from around here."

He is still kind of stuck on the ghost thing. Are they just ... floating around? Surely people aren't literally fighting spirit mediums? (Surely he'd know if there were a country where spirit mediums were super common?? He only even knows about them because he's overheard Pops complaining about how one of them 'ruined the department's integrity' back before he was even born.)

"Why do you even know that much about Blitzle? Do you, like, memorize that for fun???"

"I'm going to be a Blitzle breeder when I grow up."

"...why a Blitzle breeder rather than something people actually want?"

"Well, I like Blitzle."

...well, now he's distracted trying to figure out how Pokémon reproduce...

(The teacher is happy to let this argument happen. It's educational.)

"Even if you like Blitzle you should still breed Pokémon that someone actually wants."

"I'm someone and I want Blitzle."

"Okay, but if no one else wants Blitzle then how are you going to make any money?"

"They aren't even that unpopular. You're just jealous."

"... That doesn't even make sense."

He should probably say something so that it doesn't seem like he's completely ignoring the class.

"I battled someone the day before yesterday who had a Blitzle."

"See? That PROVES Blitzle is popular."

"People use all kinds of random Pokémon, that doesn't mean they're actually popular. Anyways if someone wants a Blitzle they could just go catch one, they aren't that hard to find."

"Maybe I can breed them for people in Kanto. I don't think Kanto has Blitzle."

Eventually the teacher redirects the conversation back to the main topic. They discuss counters to some technique called Volt Switch for a little while, and then the class is dismissed for lunch.

He heads over to the park with his classmates.

"Can I see your new Pokémon?" asks the kid who wanted to see Amadelphous yesterday.

Yeah, sure, that seems fine.

He floats out of his Pokéball and baps the kid on the nose.

Awwww.

"So, I'm fairly new to this area, what sort of things do people do for work around here?"