Time flew by, and a week had passed since Ash and his friends left Violet City, returning to their simple yet interesting journey once again.
The week's time had brought them much closer to Azalea Town, and it's estimated that in another week, they would reach Azalea Town.
In fact, Azalea Town wasn't far from Violet City, but during the journey, Ash and his friends had to train their Pokemon, rest, and even deal with Team Rocket's harassment. All these combined led to a slower pace.
Along the way, Ash also caught a stubborn Chikorita.
Encountering one of the Three Starter Pokemon in the wild is extremely rare. Back in the Kanto Region, Ash managed to catch all of Kanto's Three Starter Pokemon, but he never expected that upon arriving in Johto, he would come across Johto's Three Starter Pokemon.
The odds were so minuscule, even smaller than winning the first prize in a lottery.
The Three Starter Pokemon are not considered too rare within the league, otherwise, they wouldn't be given out as Starter Pokemon. Although there are some thresholds, compared to the conditions for obtaining a Quasi-God type Pokemon, those thresholds are almost negligible.
However, the probability of encountering the Three Starter Pokemon in the wild is not higher than that of a Quasi-God Pokemon. Given this rarity, the fact that Ash could repeatedly encounter the Three Starter Pokemon, even coming across Johto's Three Starter this time, seemed like a stroke of destiny.
This Chikorita's initial talent was not inferior to Bulbasaur's at the start.
Bulbasaur initially only had three A-Level talents, but it evolved to its current form all due to the divine held item. Now, the Chikorita seemed to be on the same level as Bulbasaur was back then.
[Species: Chikorita]
[Gender: Female]
[Attribute: Grass]
[Level: Ordinary Intermediate]
[Ability: Overgrow]
[Skills: Tackle, Vine Whip, Razor Leaf, Poison Powder, Reflect.]
[Six-dimensional Ability: Physical Attack B (A) Special Attack C (A) Defense C (B) Special Defense C (B) Physical Strength A (A) Speed B (B)]
This Chikorita was very outstanding in both attacks. Although her speed was a bit slow, it was insignificant. After all, Meganium, upon final evolution, has a relatively bulky build and doesn't rely on speed in its tactics.
Abundant physical strength is what Grass Type Pokemon need the most, and the talent Chikorita possesses represents a promising future.
When Ash first encountered her, she was incredibly stubborn. Even after being beaten black and blue, she wasn't willing to be captured by Ash. Her willpower was, aside from Ash's own Pokemon, the strongest he had seen!
Among wild Pokemon, her strong willpower was unparalleled.
In the end, before Chikorita lost her ability to battle, Ash had already stepped in to heal her. After all, if the fight continued, Chikorita might become the first Pokemon to lose its life before losing its battle ability.
This little one was just recklessly risking her life!
Ash is not the type to beat a Pokemon to death just for capturing it. Even if he couldn't win Chikorita's approval through battle, there were other methods, no need to rush.
Compared to capturing Chikorita, her health was more important. She was so stubborn that she didn't even care about her own life situation.
After Ash healed Chikorita's wounds, she made a complete 180-degree attitude change towards Ash. Initially stubborn beyond belief, never wanting to enter a Pokeball, a short treatment completely transformed her.
After her recovery, not only did Chikorita show no rejection of Ash, but she wanted to be close to him and even willingly entered Ash's Pokeball.
This turn of events simply left Ash's mind blank, astonished by such a method!
Exerting tons of effort to defeat the opponent didn't earn their approval, but healing the opponent did. Such a capturing method was indeed peculiar.
Coincidentally, many of the Pokemon Ash caught were captured in this peculiar way; the number of properly battled captures was rather few.
In such an amusing situation, Ash successfully captured Chikorita, adding a new member to his Pokemon roster.
Now, apart from the big three and Mewtwo, all of Ash's Pokemon are new.
Togepi is with Misty and doesn't count as Ash's Pokemon. Currently, Ash has Heracross, Chikorita, and Crystal Onix.
Aside from the fixed big three and Mewtwo, the other Pokemon are rotated regularly. This ensures balanced development of the Pokemon. As to why the big three are not rotated... naturally, it's because top-tier power is needed within the team; they can achieve their best growth under Ash's guidance, which is unquestionable.
Not to mention Pikachu and Gardevoir are unwilling to return to Oak's Research Institute, even Charizard, which is willing to return, doesn't grow as quickly there compared to being with Ash.
The growth speed of the top-tier power cannot lag behind. They are needed in critical battles, so while other Pokemon can be trained evenly, the same can't be said for the big three.
Hence, they became the fixed members of Ash's team.