After arriving in Pewter City, I headed straight for Brock's house.
As I walked, a question suddenly occurred to me.
Wasn't Professor Oak in charge of the Pokémon transfer system? Now that he had joined the Shuttle Corps and was no longer at his lab,
was the system still running? I figured it was, since the streets were full of Pokémon Trainers.
If the system had really stopped working, I would surely have heard people discussing it. But if it was still running, how did it work?
(Note: In the games, Bill originally invented and managed the Pokémon Storage System. In the anime, Professor Akihabara developed it, and Pokémon were generally transferred to the professor in their Trainer's home region for safekeeping.)
While pondering this as I walked, I found myself at Brock's front door. Perhaps Brock would know something about it.
Ding-dong, ding-dong.
"Excuse me, is anyone home? Is Brock here?" I asked as I pressed the doorbell.
It seemed no one was home. Ten years had passed, and Brock's nine siblings were all grown up. Perhaps they were each busy with their own lives.
With no one answering the door, I had no choice but to head to the Gym instead.
"A new challenger! Welcome! Huh? Isn't that Ash?"
Jiro was standing in the Gym Leader's position.
"Ash, it's been so long! What happened to you? You suddenly disappeared without a word a few years ago. My brother has been looking for you ever since."
"That's pretty much what happened. Oh, do you know where Brock is now?" After explaining the events of the past few years to Jiro, I asked him about Brock's whereabouts.
"My brother is a Pokémon Doctor now. After qualifying, he started traveling around, treating injured Pokémon. Actually, he came back just three days