"Anni!"
For some reason, Annihilape now felt especially powerful, radiating a fierce presence and a cold, unshakable resolve that seemed indifferent to life or death.
"Return."
Gary recalled Annihilape into its Poké Ball.
"System, exchange for the Ice-type move Snowscape." Gary decided on Snowscape for the Ice-type skill slot.
He chose Snowscape mainly with Cetitan in mind, since weather-related moves were generally more difficult to learn. At the moment, Gary had no shortage of offensive skills, so it made more sense to pick from weather, terrain, or utility-type moves.
[Ding! Skill exchange successful.]
Once the exchange was complete, Gary stepped outside the Pokémon Center and released Cetoddle.
"Ceto?"
Cetoddle looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. Even though everything felt strange, it wasn't the least bit afraid with Gary nearby, and seemed quite carefree about it all.
Gary took out the Top-grade Ice Stone from his space backpack.
"Here, Cetoddle. Take this—you can evolve into a Cetitan, just like your mother," Gary said.
When it came to breeding Pokémon, Gary believed in evolving them early whenever possible.
The size difference between Cetoddle and Cetitan was significant, so evolving early would help it adjust to its much larger body more smoothly.
"Ceto."
Cetoddle had no objection to evolving and readily accepted the Ice Stone.
The moment it touched the stone, the cells in Cetoddle's body activated, and its form began to glow with white light. Its body grew rapidly, quickly reaching the size of a car—though compared to its mother, it was still noticeably smaller.
After all, Cetoddle had only been born a short while ago and was still a child. After a year or so of raising it, its size would reach the normal standard for a Cetitan.
After that, Gary went to prepare dinner for his Pokémon.
The next day, Gary rode Articuno back to Mesagoza City, planning to return to the Sinnoh region—though he wouldn't be able to leave until the following day.
Since there was only one flight every three days, he had no choice but to spend another day in Mesagoza. As it happened, Gary had nothing else to do, so he decided to use the day to tour the city.
After arriving in Mesagoza, Gary made his way to Naranja Academy, a world-renowned school. Now that he was in the city, he naturally had to take a proper look around.
Naranja Academy was open to the public, but during class hours, visitors weren't allowed to disturb the students in the teaching buildings.
The academy held a very high status in the Paldea region. Even the Pokémon in the hands of its principal, Clavell, had reached the Elite level.
The Gym Leaders and many of the powerful trainers throughout the Paldea region were all graduates of Naranja Academy. Even Team Star was an organization founded by students within the school.
The leader of Team Star was a girl named Penny. Her background was far from ordinary—her father was Peony.
Peony had been the Champion of the Galar region and the predecessor to Leon. However, after his brother Rose became the president of the Alliance, Peony voluntarily stepped down and left.
In any case, the students of Naranja Academy came from remarkable backgrounds—and the teaching staff was no different. Each instructor was a top-tier expert in their respective field, and more importantly, they were all powerful trainers as well.
As he walked, Gary came upon an open battlefield where students from the school were battling.
"They're pretty green."
Looking at the Pokémon in the match, their levels weren't high, which suggested these students were likely freshmen.
[LV10 Sprigatito ♂ / Gym]
"Meowscarada!"
Gary was caught off guard when he saw the Sprigatito.
Among the three Generation IX starters, only Sprigatito's final evolution stood out as particularly striking, which had earned it a great deal of attention—especially its final form, Meowscarada, which was extremely appealing.
That said, Gary wasn't personally drawn to Meowscarada's looks so much as its strength. Its signature move, Flower Trick, was remarkably powerful, since it was guaranteed to hit—and always landed a critical hit.
If Gary had to pick one of the three Generation IX starters as his own Pokémon, he would definitely choose Sprigatito.
"Now I'm tempted. I kind of want to catch one too," Gary said, a little excited.
Unfortunately, it was just a passing thought. Resources were limited, and Gary couldn't afford to raise too many Pokémon at the moment—he still had plenty of Pokémon he hadn't gotten around to training yet.
Gary sat down on a public bench outside the fence and watched the students' Pokémon battles while sipping the coffee he'd bought on campus. Because the academy was open to the public, the campus shops did brisk business, though prices were a bit steep. Still, he'd heard that students got fair pricing when they bought things—essentially a bit of a rip-off for outsiders, but not for the students themselves.
Gary planned to stay until noon and then have a meal at the Naranja Academy restaurant, but before that, a group of women with long hair walked over toward the public battlefield.
"Huh?"
Gary looked at the woman leading the group and felt a little confused. He didn't understand why she had such a fierce expression. What's more, Gary actually recognized her. Her name was Dendra, and she was the teacher in charge of battle instruction at Naranja Academy.
Maybe a battle class was about to start, and she'd come over to this area for it.
However, Dendra's next words left Gary baffled.
Dendra put her hands on her hips and called out, "Which class are you from? Why are you slacking off over here instead of heading to the gathering over there?"
Gary broke out in a cold sweat.
Dendra had mistaken him for a student of Naranja Academy.
"Uh, Teacher—"
"Come with me."
Before Gary could finish, he was dragged off by Dendra to the training grounds, arriving at a battlefield where the students there had apparently just finished their matches. Dendra pushed Gary into the command area, then called another student over.
"Penny, come battle him. Let's do a one-on-one duel," Dendra said.
"Okay, Teacher."
Penny walked to the command area.
Gary was surprised when he saw Penny take her position. Although she shared a name with Misty's third sister, this Penny wasn't Misty's sister—she was Peony's daughter.
Penny was the founder of Team Star, but this was the anime world, and Team Star had never appeared in the anime's storyline so far. Whether it even existed here was uncertain.
"Who is he? Why haven't I seen him before? He's pretty handsome." Penny looked at Gary and immediately noticed he was rather good-looking. In theory, the girls in each class kept tabs on all the handsome guys around, so a new face stood out.
The Naranja Academy in the games accepted students of all ages, but the academy in the anime only accepted students between the ages of 6 and 18, not everyone.
"This is such a headache. Well, might as well have a battle for fun." Gary wanted to explain, but since they were already on the field—and his opponent was Penny, no less—he figured he might as well see just how strong the anime version of Penny really was.
"You two, hurry up and take out your Poké Balls," Dendra urged.