"Would you like to become my student?"
In Wally's limited experience of life, aside from those carefree years of early childhood,
he had been plagued by illness ever since he was old enough to understand things.
His body was frail, his lungs like punctured balloons, leaving him unable to do even something as basic as running.
His family protected him well, like a canary kept in a cage, beautiful, fragile, and lonely...
His parents were geologists and were always away, so his cousin, uncle, and aunt were among the few family members he had around.
Perhaps afraid of failing the trust Wally's parents had placed in them, his uncle's family barely even dared to let him leave the house.
But was this child truly happy?
Only he knew that the sound of the wind flowed through his blood. He longed to soar freely.
Even if he never returned, he could still shine in his own right.
Those days of being kept in captivity were like a pitch-black road at night, along which he had stumbled all this time.
Until that day, when he received a ray of light.
That person reached out a hand to him.
"I would!" Wally clutched Gary's right hand tightly, as though grasping at a lifeline.
"Good." Young Master Mao smiled in relief. "I've heard about your situation before.
"Unfortunately, the Pokémon League's latest batch of starter Pokémon are still being raised, so I'll give you two choices.
"First, wait six months. Go back to school, and in six months, I'll give you a starter Pokémon you like as your first partner.
"Second, trust fate. I'll lend you my Pokémon and an empty Poké Ball.
"Leave the Gym, head into the woods outside the city, and catch the first Pokémon you encounter."
"I choose the second!"