"Hey, hey! Have you heard? Two more people have shown up to compete for the spots."
"Yeah, I know. One's Ho-Oh's Messenger, and the other's the heir to the Pewter Gym."
"Seriously there weren't many spots to begin with, and now there are two more competitors."
"What are you talking about? As if you'd make the top eleven even if they weren't here."
"Exactly. My goal is just the prizes. There's no way I could compete for one of the Dragon's Den entry spots."
Throughout Blackthorn City, Trainers gathered in small groups, discussing the newest arrivals.
The topic of conversation was obvious.
Silas and Brock, who had put on quite the display at the Pokémon Center that afternoon.
A Elite-level Pokémon and its Trainer would attract attention anywhere.
That was especially true considering both of their identities and their young ages.
However, just as many Trainers had pointed out, their goals didn't actually overlap with Silas's and Brock's.
Trainers like the gentleman Hammond, who greatly overestimated themselves, were actually quite rare.
Most Trainers who made a living in the wilderness had a clear understanding of their own limits.
They knew exactly how far their strength could take them.
Otherwise they probably wouldn't have survived in the dangerous wilds.
The majority of those Trainers hadn't gathered in Blackthorn City to enter the Dragon's Den and capture Dragon-type Pokémon.
They were here for the ceremony's other rewards.
Blackthorn City and the Dragon Clan were famous not only for their strength, but also for their wealth.
After all, raising so many Dragon-type Pokémon wasn't cheap.
More importantly they were remarkably generous.
As long as a Trainer achieved a respectable placement during the Rising Dragon Ceremony, the rewards alone were well worth waiting several months or even years for.
That was why the ceremony, held only once every three years, remained so popular.
The ten Dragon's Den qualification spots alone could never have attracted so many participants.
At the same time...
Several truly powerful Trainers frowned after hearing the news.
"A Elite-level Pidgeot and Blaziken... troublesome."
"That Ninetales, on the other hand, shouldn't be too difficult."
A shadowy figure sat cross-legged in a completely dark room, quietly thinking.
Although it wasn't even bedtime yet, every light had been turned off, and the curtains had been tightly drawn.
"Kehehe..."
A sinister cry suddenly echoed through the room, causing the temperature to drop even further.
Two crimson eyes appeared behind the shadow.
The mysterious figure didn't react.
"Well..."
"I just hope the Dragon's Den contains the Pokémon I'm looking for."
"A Ghost-type dragon..."
"So there's another one besides the Legendary Pokémon Giratina."
Recalling the intelligence obtained from a certain organization, the figure once again cut off all contact with the outside world and sank into silence.
The crimson eyes behind them quietly disappeared.
Elsewhere in Blackthorn City.
Inside another room.
"Boss, what do you think?"
A thin, suspicious-looking man grinned wickedly.
"Stop entertaining those thoughts."
"Our objective this time is far more important."
The person addressed as "Boss" was a cold, expressionless woman.
A long claw-shaped scar stretched across her face, ruining what might otherwise have been beautiful features and giving her an intimidating appearance.
"A Ninetales that's awakened the power of one tail and an atavistic Pidgeot."
"Those are valuable merchandise."
"We'd make a fortune selling them to those researchers."
The skinny man licked his lips, clearly unwilling to give up.
From the way he spoke, it was obvious he possessed considerable knowledge about Pokémon.
"That Blaziken isn't ordinary either."
The third person in the room finally spoke.
"It gives me a very strange feeling."
"Tch..."
"Boss, we're really not going to do it?"
"Only three Elite-level Pokémon."
"Even if they're stronger than normal, the three of us together could handle them easily."
Seeing that the third person seemed somewhat supportive, the skinny man became even more enthusiastic.
An icy voice interrupted him.
"Didn't you understand what I said?"
"Heh... I understood, I understood."
"No unnecessary complications."
"I get it."
The skinny man immediately retreated with an embarrassed grin.
It was obvious that the female leader held absolute authority over him.
Of course that also had something to do with him being the weakest member of the trio.
The third person wisely changed the subject.
"By the way, Boss."
"Where did this mission come from?"
"I didn't think anyone could afford to hire all three of us at once."
"Team Rocket."
As always, the answer was cold and concise.
The third member nodded.
"That organization that's expanded so rapidly over the past few years?"
"No wonder."
"I heard they made a fortune from those crazy collectors recently. Looks like some of that money ended up in our pockets."
The skinny man chuckled.
"It's just a shame we can't continue this year's operation at Mt. Silver."
"No rush."
"We'll continue laying the groundwork afterward."
"I'm a very patient person when it comes to making money."
"Same here."
The conversation taking place inside the small room was chilling enough to make anyone's hair stand on end.
The identities of the three people were obvious.
They were the three leaders of the Gul Poacher Group.
Hunter R, Hunter P, and Hunter K were the codenames they used publicly.
Much like Hunter J of Sinnoh.
In a sense they were colleagues.
Despite the bravado in their conversation, poachers were still deeply wary of the Pokémon League.
The leaders of the various regional poaching organizations had formed a loose alliance for mutual survival.
Their letter codenames didn't necessarily represent their strength.
For example Hunter J alone commanded Sinnoh's largest poaching organization.
It was on the same scale as the Gul Poacher Group operating in Kanto and Johto.
She was called "J" simply because that was the codename she demanded.
As for how she obtained it...
Or what happened to the unfortunate person who previously held it.
No one cared except that unlucky individual and their subordinates.
A Kadabra with lifeless eyes stood motionless in the corner of the room.
An invisible psychic barrier completely sealed off the room.
That was why the three could speak so freely without worrying about being overheard.
"Now then..."
"Let's verify the intelligence once more."
The female leader unfolded a map and placed it on the table.
Meanwhile, back at the Pokémon Center, Silas had no idea about the undercurrents swirling through Blackthorn City.
There had been plenty of occasions in the past where criminal organizations or Pokémon poachers had targeted Blackthorn City, but without exception, every one of them had failed.
Being arrested by Officer Jenny was considered a relatively fortunate outcome.
When it came to protecting their city and the foundations of the Dragon Clan, Blackthorn's Dragon Tamers were notoriously ruthless.
"So that was the Reggie you've mentioned before?"
Holding a drink in his hand, Brock asked Silas.
Since the two battlefields hadn't been far apart, Brock had naturally witnessed Silas's battle against Reggie.
Although it wasn't his first time seeing Pidgeot's new appearance, it was the first time he had witnessed the overwhelming aura and pressure it displayed in actual combat.
"A bloodline reversion. Your luck really is unbelievable."
That was Brock's very first comment after the battle.
With his broad knowledge, he immediately recognized what Pidgeot's appearance represented.
With nothing more than that ancestral Pidgeot and the monstrously powerful Blaziken, Silas already ranked among the very top trainers below Champion-level.
"Yeah and his little brother too."
Having fully satisfied his mischievous side, Silas happily took another sip of his soda.
Perfect.
Brock shook his head helplessly.
Still, he was in an excellent mood himself.
Every trainer who had mistaken him for an easy target had been thoroughly defeated.
Thanks to those battles, the coordination between him and Ninetales had also improved considerably.
At the very least, they no longer ran into situations where Trainer and Pokémon were thinking along completely different lines during battle.
Although that currently limited part of Ninetales' power, in the long run it would only benefit both Brock and Ninetales.
"Come on, let's get dinner. We don't have to worry about anyone bothering us today."
Silas stretched lazily.
Thankfully, challengers were limited to one mandatory battle per day.
Otherwise, he'd have been worked to death.
The two of them left the room chatting and laughing.
The days passed one after another.
During the short week that followed, very few people foolish enough to challenge Silas or Brock appeared.
Which made perfect sense.
When everyone knew your opponent possessed Elite-level Pokémon, why volunteer to get crushed?
Besides, obtaining a ceremony token wasn't limited to just one method.
Well except for one particular person named Reggie.
For some reason, after that defeat, the guy seemed to have caught some strange illness.
Every single morning without fail, he would be waiting at the training grounds to challenge Silas.
Silas wanted to refuse.
Unfortunately, Reggie simply followed him around nonstop.
Teasing Paul was entertaining for a while...
But after several days, anyone would lose their patience.
Unable to endure it any longer, Silas spent seven consecutive days having Blaziken thoroughly educate Reggie.
The unbelievable part was that Reggie became even more enthusiastic the more he lost.
By the second-to-last day before the Rising Dragon Ceremony, Silas had already begun considering skipping his morning training entirely.
"It'll all be over soon anyway. Might as well give everyone a day off."
That was what he told himself.
So the night before, Silas shared the idea with his Pokémon.
As expected...
Led by Pidgeot, every Pokémon that had hands raised their hands.
Those with feet raised their feet.
Those with neither waved their vines or threw rocks in agreement.
Fortunately, not every Pokémon was like that.
Escavalier and Gallade, the two diligent youngsters, still continued their morning training inside their room.
"Just look at you all."
Lying comfortably in bed, Silas criticized his unmotivated Pokémon.
"Vulpix, lower the temperature a little more."
He casually issued another command.
"Pidgeot, reduce the wind a bit.
Serperior, put more power into Grassy Terrain. The air isn't fresh enough."
The Pokémon he called out all stared at him speechlessly.
They were convinced their Trainer was simply making excuses to be lazy.
But this time Silas genuinely wasn't slacking off.
His mind was working at full speed.
Over the past several days, although no one had challenged him, he certainly hadn't been idle.
Besides supervising and training his Pokémon, he had gathered a great deal of intelligence through his various information channels.
The overall quality of trainers participating in this year's Rising Dragon Ceremony was among the highest in its history.
For reasons he couldn't understand, an unusually large number of powerful and rather mysterious trainers had appeared.
Including himself, there were already twelve trainers publicly known to possess Elite-level Pokémon.
According to incomplete statistics, eight of them owned two or more Elite-level Pokémon.
"That's troublesome..."
Silas frowned.
And that was only the publicly known competitors.
Hidden among the participants were probably another five, six, seven, or even eight powerful trainers who already possessed ceremony tokens.
Altogether, there were likely at least thirty Elite-level Pokémon gathered for a single Rising Dragon Ceremony.
That was honestly absurd.
His luck simply wasn't very good.
In previous ceremonies, there had even been cases where trainers without a single Elite level Pokémon had managed to finish in the top ten.
After learning this information, Brock became even more convinced he had made the right decision.
Rather than worrying about rankings, he was better off continuing to build his bond with Ninetales.
Speaking of that silas couldn't help feeling rather speechless.
For some reason, Miss Lokoko the woman Ninetales transformed into had been appearing more and more frequently lately.
He had a feeling Brock was going to receive quite the lecture after returning home.
Of course, despite all the powerful opponents, there was good news as well.
Besides Pidgeot and Blaziken already reaching Elite level, Togekiss was also beginning to break free from the Elite-tier bottleneck.
That once again widened the gap between it and Ampharos, which had seemed capable of catching up.
In fact, Togekiss's growth had already surpassed its seniors, Gigalith and Serperior.
Even Silas found that surprising.
The little slacker hated training and had given him countless headaches over the years.
Its attitude had always been:
"I finished today's training, therefore I'm amazing."
It wasn't exactly wrong...
Just far less hardworking than the others.
According to Togekiss itself, getting stronger recently had felt incredibly smooth.
Every so often, it would simply experience another noticeable leap in strength.
Silas had examined it countless times but found nothing unusual.
Still, considering everything that had happened recently, he had begun forming a few theories.
Without enough evidence, however, he didn't dare jump to conclusions.
With the Rising Dragon Ceremony just around the corner, he could only postpone further investigation.
Regardless, Togekiss growing stronger was unquestionably good news.
Perhaps in just a few more months, he'd truly possess the strength of a Elite-level Trainer.
After all, he had never reached the semifinals of a regional League, so the Pokémon League had never officially certified him as a Senior Elite Trainer.
The League probably never imagined a trainer's strength could change so dramatically within a single year.
"Masato Ghost-type specialist. Ace Pokémon: Gengar..."
"The Bu siblings—Bugide, Buzhidao, and Buqing, specialize in Water, Fire, and Grass respectively. Their aces are the regional starter Pokémon, and each also owns a Psychic-type Pokémon..."
Information on one powerful trainer after another flashed through Silas's mind.
The more he thought about it.
The more excited he became.
Compared to a regional League, where opponents varied wildly in strength, the Rising Dragon Ceremony was far more appealing.
After all...
Every single opponent looked formidable.
"Heh I can hardly wait."
Bathed in the morning sunlight, Silas's eyes shone with anticipation.
...
Hi For access to additional chapters of
Director in Hollywood (40 chpaters)
Made In Hollywood (60 Chapters)
Pokemon:Bounty Hunter(30 Chapters)
Hollywood:From Razzie to Legend(40 Chapters)
The Great Ruler(30 Chapters)
Btth: Ascend to Pinnacle (30 Chapters)
Douluo Dalu: My Martial is Tyranitar (30 Chapters)
Join pateron.com/Translaterappu