Ever Grande City.
Hoenn Headquarters.
The chubby old man Wattson was happily lying in a chair in the plaza outside the headquarters building. He gently rocked the chair while fiddling with a small electronic device in his hand.
Not far away, Flygon beat its wings and slowly descended beside him. Drake nimbly jumped down and recalled the Pokémon.
"Yo! Drake, why did you ride a Flygon back?" Wattson put the little gadget into his pocket and stood up in surprise. "Weren't you going to look for Birch? Where's Salamence?"
As one of the Elite Four members, Wattson knew his old friend very well. Ever since Drake had trained Salamence, he had always relied on it for travel and never used any other Pokémon.
Could it be...
"Salamence got hurt?" Wattson asked.
"Yeah." Drake let out a muffled grunt. "It battled someone and lost."
Wattson was confused. "A battle? Did you happen to battle another trainer while looking for Birch? Wait, what kind of trainer could defeat your Salamence head-on... Oh!"
He lightly struck his palm with his fist as he suddenly thought of someone.
"That new professor, the kid who's apparently also the Champion of Galar? I think his name is Shiro..."
"That's right." Drake nodded. "He happened to be nearby when I carried out the plan. His Corviknight defeated my Salamence in two moves. There are rumors that his strength is close to Champion-level. I estimate that's probably about right."
As he spoke and recalled what had happened at the time, Drake still felt a little frightened.
The moment Salamence was defeated, Drake had sensed a terrifying bloodlust coming from that Corviknight. It was as if the Pokémon would rush over and kill him the very next second.
There were also those Pokémon hidden in the forest. They should all have been Shiro's Pokémon.
Especially that Gengar...
Drake felt that it had already hidden itself in his shadow. If anything had gone even slightly wrong, he himself would have been bleeding on the ground.
Otherwise, Drake wouldn't have been so polite.
"He probably doesn't know what's happening in Hoenn right now." A trace of worry appeared on Drake's face.
"Why didn't you just tell him?" Wattson asked in return.
"I'm worried..." Drake paused and looked toward the League headquarters building. "He's the same kind of person as Birch. Besides, Shiro isn't from Hoenn either. If he were to obtain that thing, the situation could completely spiral out of control."
Wattson let out a helpless sigh. "Isn't Shiro one of Chairman Goodshow's people? He's already received the Chairman's approval, so he's a standard League member. What's there to be suspicious about?"
Drake remained silent for several seconds before answering, "No one can resist the temptation they offer, just like Team Aqua and Team Magma... Birch has already proven that."
"That's the power to create land and sea."
* * *
Littleroot Town, Birch Research Institute.
Birch had stayed cooped up at home for several days. Soyln hadn't left either and continued living as usual. Sapphire, however, had been restricted from going out. Only after desperately begging her mother was she finally allowed to leave, though she had to stay near Shiro.
During these few days, Shiro had been stepping up his training, both for himself and his Pokémon.
Yesterday afternoon, Cairo from Devon Corporation had sent word that he planned to visit tomorrow morning.
The day after Officer Jenny arrived, she had brought several League trainers and delivered what Shiro needed. That included the breeding method for Growlithe as well as special resources that could speed up its growth.
The special resource was a black-and-red ball that looked like some kind of special dog food.
After carefully examining it with his psychic powers, Shiro had roughly determined its composition. It was made by blending Charcoal, a Fire Stone, Berries containing a huge amount of Fire-type energy, and special Fire-type rocks.
The method of blending was extremely precise. The energy within the ingredients had been cleverly balanced at a single point.
After Growlithe ate it, the Fire-type energy would react violently and burst out, filling its entire body with fiery energy. Even its whole body would begin to burn slightly.
"Groooowl~"
In an open area of the eastern forest near the laboratory, Growlithe stood there pitifully, its entire body covered in flames as it whimpered. Unfortunately, no one was willing to approach it.
Sapphire had originally wanted to play with it, but it was still too dangerous, so she ran over to the stream instead.
High in the sky, Corviknight was training by itself. Since it was naturally weak to Fire-type attacks, it had no interest in playing with Growlithe either.
Bewear wanted to approach Growlithe from nearby, but although its Fluffy ability could help protect it from physical attacks, it would also cause it to take twice as much Fire-type damage… Playing with Growlithe for a while would probably leave it seriously injured.
Drakloak had taken Dreepy to battle Gengar.
Rhyperior only knew how to eat, sleep, and fight. It couldn't understand why the dog was running around everywhere.
As for Vibrava, because it often slacked off during training, its level progress was the slowest of all. These past few days, Shiro had ordered it to train harder. It had finally gained another level and reached Level 46.
Although it had already passed its evolution level, Shiro planned to delay it a little longer. There was no harm in waiting until it was close to the Elite-level before evolving.
"Growl~"
Growlithe's flaxen, fluffy fur had been dyed bright red by the flames. Its normally chubby orange body was covered in flickering fire, making it look almost like Entei.
It whimpered unhappily, causing only the Larvesta dozing beside Shiro to slowly crawl over.
Larvesta was also a Fire-type Pokémon, so it wasn't afraid of the flames.
Growlithe excitedly lowered its head and let Larvesta climb onto the top of its head. However, before it could run around happily, the little bug had already fallen asleep.
Larvesta was still a baby. Although its level was already close to the Intermediate-level, it still mainly relied on sleeping to grow. After all, it could steadily increase its level just by eating and sleeping.
Growlithe's excitement faded. Its large, round eyes became dull, and before it knew it, it had fallen asleep too.
In the stream several dozen meters away, Feebas stared blankly at Growlithe while flapping its fins.
It actually wanted to run over and join Growlithe, but it couldn't leave the water and could barely move on land.
Fortunately, there was still Sapphire.
"Hehe, Feebas, spin around..." On the riverbank, Sapphire moved her hand in a circle.
In the stream, Feebas began spinning around.
In the clearing of the forest, Shiro ended today's training, drenched in sweat. After wiping his face with a towel, he leaned against a tree and quietly watched as the flames around Growlithe gradually faded.
Growlithe was digesting that Fire-type dog food… The Jenny family called it the "Source of Flame," but Shiro preferred to simply call it dog food.
He had carefully examined the Jenny family's method of raising Growlithe. After studying it, however, he found nothing particularly special about it. Every point that needed attention had already been mentioned by Unown A.
It was the dog food that truly surprised Shiro.
Its effect was unexpectedly good.
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