Violet City

Violet City.

Located in the center of the Johto region, Violet City was surrounded by dense forests.

It was known as the city nestled within a sea of trees.

The most famous building here was Sprout Tower. Many monks trained within it, learning through cooperation that all living things existed together.

In Pokémon Adventures, the Pokémon they used were generally Bellsprout, causing the protagonist Gold no small amount of trouble.

It used a construction method called "flexible construction." During battles, the tower swayed back and forth. Rumor had it that this more flexible structure had better earthquake resistance, and many modern buildings used the same design.

Heiduo had no interest in it. In the games, he had been forced to control the protagonist through one monk after another just to reach the top and obtain the TM Flash.

You had to know, he had chosen Totodile back then!

By the end of it, he had to climb the tower three or four times just to get back down.

And since he had played through Gold, Silver, and Crystal, Sprout Tower had left Heiduo with psychological trauma.

Heiduo wandered around Violet City before finally stopping in a relatively rundown area.

"Trainer... School?"

Looking at the dilapidated building before him, although he had expected the place to be shabby, the actual state of it still gave Heiduo quite a fright.

How many years had this building been standing?

Heiduo reached out and touched the rotten fence. Its withered yellow wood let out a grating creak.

He quickly pulled his hand back.

"Big brother, may I ask what you need?"

A soft, sweet girl's voice sounded beside his ear.

Heiduo turned around and found an adorable girl with black hair tied into short twin ponytails. A shy Smoochum was hiding beside her.

[Pokémon: Smoochum / Gender: Female / Level: 25]

[Ability: Forewarn / Type: Ice + Psychic / Trainer: Crystal]

[Moves: Mean Look lv2 / Sweet Kiss lv2]

[Powder Snow lv2 / Confusion lv2]

Crystal?

Heiduo blinked. The name seemed familiar somehow. He looked carefully at the Smoochum, and when he noticed the star pendant on its chest, realization struck him.

Ah! It was Crystal!

Since Pokémon Adventures had been drawn by a Japanese author, it was perfectly normal for Crystal, one of the protagonists, to have two names.

After all, it all depended on the translation.

"Big brother..." Seeing Heiduo stare at her Smoochum, Crystal immediately became wary and gripped a Poké Ball in her small hand.

"Ah! Sorry, sorry. It's my first time seeing such a cute Pokémon." Heiduo immediately snapped out of it and apologized to Crystal.

Crystal fell silent, then suddenly broke into a smile. "I see—Principal! Arcanine, spring forth!"

She shouted, and the Poké Ball in her hand abruptly opened.

Bang!

A creature a head taller than Heiduo leaped out. Its fur was fluffy, its body bore orange-and-black stripes, and it looked both like a tiger and a dog.

It crouched low and let out a threatening growl at Heiduo.

"Really, really! I'm not lying! This is my ID!" Heiduo hurriedly raised his hands, kicked the eager Elekid, and showed Crystal his identification.

Holy crap, an Arcanine!

She already had one at this point?

As he thought, Heiduo let Crystal verify his identity. He was no kidnapper or Thief.

Crystal hid behind Arcanine and poked her head out to glance over the ID. Only then did she relax halfway.

At that moment, a balding man ran out from inside the school.

"What happened? What happened?" The man looked flustered. He saw a boy standing before Crystal, with both the boy and his Pokémon holding their hands up in surrender.

When Heiduo saw the balding man, he lowered his hands and went over to greet him. "Hello, hello. I'm a Trainer. My name is Heiduo."

"Uh, hello..." The balding man returned the greeting, then turned to look at Crystal.

Crystal understood. She recalled Arcanine, lowered her head, and stepped forward to apologize to Heiduo. "I'm very sorry. I think I misunderstood you."

The balding man looked at Heiduo, then at Crystal, as if he had thought of something.

"It's fine, it's fine." Heiduo cut him off a second before the principal could apologize.

This principal ran a charity school and had never charged his students money. Otherwise, the school would not have ended up in such a rundown state.

The balding man opened his mouth and said, "I'm the principal of this Trainer School. May I ask what you need?"

"Oh, I wanted to ask whether your school has a library."

In truth, Heiduo had already stopped hoping. A school with a library should not have been this small.

"Yes! Do you want to borrow books?" The balding man suddenly said something that surprised Heiduo.

Heiduo was speechless. More than ten seconds later, he bowed. "Please!"

Even if they were children's books, it did not matter. He could treat it as broadening his horizons.

The principal nodded, then pointed at Shuangye, who was hanging far back behind them. "May I ask who that is?"

"Sorry, she's my companion. She's rather shy, but please rest assured, she won't cause you any trouble." Heiduo explained. This was the one downside of the girl trailing behind him.

"All right."

The three entered the campus, while Crystal remained at the very back, occasionally turning around to look at Shuangye.

After entering the school, Heiduo discovered that although the building was somewhat old, it was very sturdy. Then again, if it were a dangerous building, no parent would dare send their child here even if they were paid.

Eventually, the principal led Heiduo outside a classroom.

There was a sign posted above the classroom door, with a large line of words written on it—Library.

"I still have things to do. Go in yourself." The principal did not enter. He seemed very busy and turned to leave.

Crystal glanced at Heiduo and Shuangye, then left as well.

She did not dare stay with people she had just met, even if they did not seem to have any problems.

She trusts me that much?

Heiduo was stunned for a moment, then smiled. She probably thought there was nothing worth stealing in the library.

That made sense. Even people who had received nine years of compulsory education could not understand the value of knowledge, let alone people in a world where attending school cost money.

When he entered the library, he was not met by a cloud of dust. On the contrary, there was a faint floral fragrance inside.

The library windows were open. There were six large bookcases, along with a big round table and seven or eight small chairs.

Rather than a library, calling it a reading room would have been more accurate.

He roughly looked over the books on the shelves. As expected, there were many children's books, followed by magazines and periodicals, with only a few proper works at the end.

Most of them were books Heiduo had already read, which disappointed him somewhat.

Sure enough, striking lucky like that rarely happened in reality. It was too dramatic. Though life itself was also dramatic, it had its highs and lows, its rises and falls. No one could have smooth sailing forever.

"Adventurer's Accounts... Feng? Who would choose a name like that?"

Heiduo took a book from the shelf because he was curious about its author's name.

After leafing through it, Heiduo discovered that it was actually an adventure diary covering the three regions of Johto, Kanto, and Hoenn.

Heiduo checked the time, then looked at the sky outside. It was still a while before dark, enough for him to finish the book.

He found a seat by the round table and began reading.

When Elekid saw Heiduo start reading again, it found the whole thing incredibly boring. Looking through the window, it saw children playing with Pokémon and tugged on Heiduo's clothes.

"Hmm?" Heiduo looked at Elekid. Seeing it point outside, he understood. "Fine, but you are absolutely not allowed to hurt anyone. Strictly forbidden."

Having received permission, Elekid quickly climbed through the window like an overexcited husky.

Heiduo helplessly shook his head. This guy was completely different from when they had first met. There was none of that arrogant air left.

"Crystal! Is this the new Elekid you caught? It's so cool!"

A snot-nosed little boy holding a strange creature with a green sprout growing from its head looked at Crystal with envy.

In the entire Trainer School—no, in the entire city—almost no one was unaware of Crystal.

She was an impressive person who could bring back five Pokémon from the wilderness in one trip. The impressive part was not the number, but her age.

Especially since Cubone and Arcanine were among them. Both were Pokémon whose prices had been shooting up on the Black Market.

At that moment, Crystal's Smoochum was happily running around with Elekid and several other Pokémon.

"No, he belongs to a big brother who came to visit the school." Crystal was not the sort to boast. She told the truth plainly.

"Aw..." The little boy dejectedly sniffed his snot back into his nose. If Elekid had been Crystal's Pokémon, he could have borrowed it.

Just as the two finished speaking, shouts and crying came from the distance.

"Crystal! Where are you!"

A somewhat deep boy's voice reached them. His tone was unfriendly, as though he had come looking for trouble.

Crystal's expression changed. She called Smoochum over and ran toward the source of the voice.

The other Pokémon scattered in all directions.

Elekid, left behind, watched Crystal and Smoochum run away. It fell into thought, then followed after them at an unhurried pace.

Before long, Elekid caught up to Crystal, only to find her arguing with three older boys. Beside them sat a girl crying on the ground.

Elekid pricked up its ears but could not understand much. Their words were too complicated for its current level of human language comprehension.

But then something that made its eyes light up happened. One of the three boys secretly opened a Poké Ball and released a bear-like Pokémon.

The instant it came out, the Pokémon swung its fist at the Smoochum standing beside Crystal!

Good chance! There's an opening!

Elekid's feet exploded with force, and its body suddenly turned into a streak of white light as it punched the ambushing bear Pokémon!

The bear Pokémon was immediately sent flying!

After attacking, Elekid suddenly realized in astonishment—why had it stepped in?

And why had it attacked?

Remembering what Heiduo had said, Elekid became uneasy.

P.S.: There's one more chapter.