The Mysterious Ninth Gym

If Articuno had been an unexpected encounter on this trip to Johto, then the Growlithe Officer Jenny had given him was truly an unexpected delight.

On a sunny day, Hu Yang lay on the sofa with his legs resting on Growlithe's fluffy body, thinking just that.

With Growlithe around, he had barely thought about traveling for over a month. Instead, he had stayed home, taking Growlithe for walks around the island every day and playing frisbee with it.

However, looking at the time steadily passing on his phone, Hu Yang felt that he could not keep lazing around like this.

With that thought, Hu Yang got up from the sofa.

Growlithe, which had been lying on the floor, raised its head and barked in confusion, "Woof?"

"I'm taking you out for a walk," Hu Yang said with a smile.

Hearing that it could go out, Growlithe immediately perked up. It turned around and dashed away, returning to the living room shortly afterward with a sky-blue frisbee in its mouth.

"No, we're not playing that today." Hu Yang smiled, rubbed its head, and took the frisbee from it before setting it aside.

Growlithe's gaze followed the frisbee. Then it looked at the young man in front of it with even greater confusion. "Woof?"

Hu Yang went upstairs to pack his luggage, and Growlithe pattered up the stairs after him.

By chance, they ran into Slowking coming out of the laboratory. Seeing them like that, it asked,

"Are you getting ready to leave for Sinnoh?"

Hu Yang nodded. "Yeah. I need to go see a big guy I haven't seen in many years."

As he spoke, Regigigas's figure surfaced in his mind.

He had wanted to go several months ago, but Team Rocket and Growlithe had delayed him for a while, which