Gloria's Challenge: You Have to Be a Trainer Today (Please Vote)

Time passed. Winter gave way to Kitakami's first spring rain, and everything stirred back to life. Plants put out tender shoots, growing strong beneath the rain and sun.

The hibernating Pokémon had all awakened, while those that had migrated somewhere warmer for the winter flew home to settle and breed.

It was mating season again, after all...

Wild Pokémon weren't like domesticated Pokémon, or those that had fully adapted to human society. They had their own ways of life.

Those habits might be fading as human society developed, but that didn't change the fact that Pokémon Eggs had been turning up all over the Manor lately. Anyone who didn't know better might think Mingyou was running a Pokémon Day Care.

He had no intention of interfering much. The eggs' parents could look after them; he would step in only if something went wrong.

It was now late March. Nothing else had gone wrong at the Manor in the past month or so, and he hadn't heard anything more about Team Rocket selling Counterfeit Fruit. Perhaps Lambda's arrest had made Team Rocket cautious enough to lie low for a while.

At the beginning of the month, thanks to Lance, the Johto League had sent representatives to Kitakami to discuss selling Fruit with Mingyou. Their long talks had ended on a happy note.

From now on, the Manor's Fruit would ship directly to the Johto Region. Mingyou had also brought up his plan to build a railway through Kitakami and start train service.

The railways connecting Hoenn, Johto, Kanto, and Sinnoh had all been planned and built by the Maglev Railway Bureau in Goldenrod City, Johto.

The project had taken nearly three years. Kitakami had originally been included in the plans, but its former Administrator and some residents had objected. They claimed