“Finally!
We finally made it!”
Sonia, covered in dust and looking utterly worn out, stared at Hulbury’s gate in the distance.
Only Arceus knew what she had been through over the past month!
She never should have listened to her grandmother.
What was all that nonsense about traveling with a Trainer being a basic requirement for becoming a Professor?
And of all people, why did she have to come out with this idiot childhood friend of hers?
The entire journey had been nothing but getting lost, getting lost again, and then getting lost some more.
She had lost count of how many patches of tall grass they had stumbled through!
“Aha!
I’m going to challenge the Gym!”
Leon, still without his beard and looking almost exactly like Hop aside from his hairstyle, was just as dusty and disheveled.
Even so, his eyes shone brightly as he grabbed his Poké Ball and shouted with excitement.
“Yes, yes, we’ll challenge the Gym first.
But you are not running off this time!
I’m leading the way!
Got it?”
Sonia grabbed Leon by the clothes and shouted.
“Yes, yes.
Sorry for the trouble, Sonia.
Haha.”
Leon also knew perfectly well how many wrong turns he had taken along the way.
Looking at Sonia, whose face was dusty and whose clothes had been scratched and torn, even someone as dense as him understood that this was his fault, so he immediately lowered his head and admitted his mistake.
“And no matter what, you can’t challenge the Gym looking like this.
We’re going to the Pokémon Center first.
The Pokémon need to recover, and you need to change clothes.
You can’t go into a Gym match covered in dirt.”
Sonia counted off the things they needed to do on her fingers.
“Great!
Then to the Pokémon Center!
Let’s go!”
“Hey!
You idiot!
Didn’t we just agree that I’m leading the way?!”
The two bickered their way through town, and somehow, they got lost again.
Not only did they fail to find the Pokémon Center, but after taking turn after turn through the streets, they ended up at the docks instead!
At the moment, the docks were packed with people and buzzing with noise.
“Looks like a festival!”
Leon stood on a wooden crate and looked over the lively but orderly crowd.
“It does seem like a festival.
Wait here.
I’ll ask my friend.”
Sonia took out her low-battery phone.
Rotom Phones had not yet become widespread, so phones still needed to be charged normally.
She sent a message to her friend, ‘Chewtle Can’t Use Withdraw’.
Little Yamper: Hello, hello!
Are you there?
We made it to Hulbury.
Is there some kind of event going on here?
Chewtle Can’t Use Withdraw: Huh?
Yeah, we’re holding the Great Catch Festival.
Are you at the docks?
Little Yamper: Yeah.
There are so many people.
What’s the Great Catch Festival?
Chewtle Can’t Use Withdraw: That’s hard to explain in just a few words.
Anyway, walk farther in.
Find someone and ask them for help.
Just say you’re here to watch the ceremony and that you’re Nessa’s friend, then head toward the ritual stage.
Little Yamper: Coming right now!
Sonia put down her phone and turned around, intending to leave with Leon.
Only to find that Leon had already vanished.
“Where did that idiot run off to now?!” Sonia shouted in fury.
…
At that moment, Leon was already being jostled through the crowd.
He squeezed left and right until the flow of people pushed him near a small wooden building close to the main platform.
“Where is this?”
This time, Leon really had not gotten lost on purpose.
He had been swept here by the crowd!
A large wave of people had surged inward just now, and he had been caught in the middle and carried along with them.
Click.
The door of the wooden building opened.
“Make sure you’re ready.
You’ll be going up soon.
Good luck, little Blake.”
Hathaway walked out of the small building with a smile and nearly bumped into Leon.
Fortunately, Leon quickly stepped aside and avoided her.
“Sorry, sorry.
Hm?
You are…
Leon, the boy participating in this year’s Gym Challenge, right?”
Hathaway was just about to apologize when she saw Leon adjusting his hat and recognized him.
“You’re…
Gym Leader Hathaway!
Please have a Gym battle with me!”
Leon’s eyes lit up as he shouted.
“Hahaha, no problem.
But not today.
Today is Hulbury’s once-a-year Great Catch Festival, and in Hulbury, everything gives way to the Great Catch Festival.
Also, unless there’s a very special situation, battling is forbidden during the festival.
How about the day after tomorrow?
I’ll have time then.”
Seeing Leon’s expression, Hathaway immediately knew he was the kind of rookie Trainer who genuinely enjoyed battling.
She had no intention of refusing him.
However, a Gym battle during the Great Catch Festival was absolutely impossible.
She also had other matters to deal with tomorrow, so the earliest she could set it for was the day after tomorrow.
Hathaway’s request was quite reasonable, too.
Gym Leaders were people as well.
In some regions, there were Gym Leaders who vanished constantly, and some did not even meet challengers properly.
Some put robots in charge of handing out Badges, while others went so far as to have a Legendary-tier Pokémon guard the door.
Compared to that, Galar’s Gym Leaders could practically be called endlessly accommodating.
“No problem!
Then I’ll visit the Gym the day after tomorrow!” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Leon wanted to have a battle right away, but he was not unreasonable.
If he were, he would never have become the Champion loved by all of Galar in the future.
“Good, no problem then.
As for today, enjoy the atmosphere of Hulbury’s Great Catch Festival.
You only get this chance once a year, so your luck’s pretty good.”
Hathaway patted Leon on the shoulder, then left with her Kingler.
“Char…”
Leon’s Charmeleon jumped out of its Poké Ball on its own.
Looking at the Kingler beside Hathaway, its expression became serious.
“You felt it too, didn’t you, Charmeleon?
Gym Leader Hathaway is a really strong Trainer.”
Leon understood what Charmeleon meant.
That Kingler was not simply large.
He could feel that none of the Pokémon currently on his team seemed capable of beating it.
“Char…”
Charmeleon nodded.
However, it had never once believed itself inferior to any Pokémon.
One day, it would definitely surpass that Kingler!
“You’re right.
We’ll definitely surpass them one day!
But the problem now is…
where’s Sonia?”
Leon had sounded full of fighting spirit at first, but reality quickly defeated him.
He was lost again.
“Char…” (.ŏ_ŏ)
Charmeleon was utterly helpless about this.
It had long since gotten used to its Trainer getting lost every day.
It felt that it absolutely had to learn how to read maps, or else their future would consist of nothing but getting lost again and again.
But maps were so hard to learn.
Sonia had tried teaching it for ages, and it still had not figured them out.
“Your online friend’s childhood friend got lost again?”
At that moment, another voice came from inside the wooden building.
This time, it sounded like a young boy.
“Yeah.
Apparently, she can’t find him now.
But there’s nothing we can do.
The docks are packed today.
Once someone gets pushed along by the crowd, even locals can lose their way, let alone outsiders.”
This time, the voice that answered was a young girl’s.
Leon felt like he had heard it before.
It sounded a lot like the voice of the online friend Sonia had talked to.
Then the person they were talking about was…
Knock, knock, knock.
Before Leon could react, Charmeleon stepped forward first and knocked on the door.
A Pokémon’s hearing was sharper than a human’s.
The moment Charmeleon heard that voice, it was able to confirm that it belonged to the same person.
This was perfect.
Someone could help take care of its directionally challenged Trainer before he vanished again the second no one was watching!
“Coming!
Who is it?”
The door opened, and Nessa poked her head out.