Yuga and Dory came out of the orchard. Reggie was still in the yard, and Dory immediately shouted, "Good morning, Brother Reggie!"
Reggie looked up and, seeing the two of them, smiled and asked, "How did you two meet?"
Yuga spread his hands and said, "You, the busy guy, didn't have time to entertain me, so I had to find some fun myself."
Reggie knew Yuga was joking, so he played along and looked at Dory, saying, "Then Dory… I'll leave the job of entertaining this big brother to you. He's a very important guest of mine!"
Hearing this, Dory puffed up her chest seriously and promised, "Don't worry, Brother Reggie! Leave it to me!"
Yuga chuckled and patted Dory on the head. "Alright then, let's go!"
As they walked out of Blue Sky Day Care, Yuga asked, "Does Veilstone City have a training hall?"
"Of course, I know where it is!" the little girl replied confidently.
Don't be fooled by her young age, she knew all the places in the city related to Trainers like the back of her hand. Though, it was only limited to knowing where they were.
"Great, then let's go take a look," said Yuga.
Originally, he planned to leave Veilstone City early that day, but now he figured it wouldn't hurt to delay a little. After all, he wasn't in any rush.
So, under Dory's lead, Yuga arrived at Veilstone City's training hall.
Veilstone City's training hall was similar in function to the newly built Verdanturf Arena in Verdanturf City. Of course, it wasn't as big, nor did it match the more advanced facilities of the Verdanturf Arena. After all, this training hall had been built long ago.
Still, it remained the most popular gathering place for Trainers in Veilstone City.
Many cities had similar facilities, but due to different local conditions, their scale, name, and architectural style varied.
Standing in front of the training hall's entrance, Yuga asked, "Have you ever been inside?"
"No," Dory shook her head.
Places like training halls didn't allow kids like Dory in unless they were accompanied by a proper Trainer.
"How about I take you inside today?"
"Really? That's amazing!" Dory jumped up excitedly.
After entering the training hall, Yuga first took Dory to the battle zone, where Trainers sparred against each other.
When the two of them entered the battle zone, a heated match seemed to be underway. Yuga squeezed into the crowd and discovered that he recognized one of the participants.
It was Maylene, the Gym Leader of Veilstone Gym.
Maylene was a hardworking Trainer and frequently showed up at the training hall.
Dory was small and short, unable to see anything from within the crowd, so Yuga picked her up.
"It's Sister Maylene!" Dory said excitedly when she saw the battlefield.
"You know Maylene too?" Yuga asked.
"Of course!" Dory said proudly, "Sister Maylene and I are good friends!"
Yuga thought about it and realized it made sense. Dory lived near Blue Sky Day Care, which was right next to Veilstone Gym. Of course they would know each other well. In fact, it was odd that he even asked.
Yuga only knew Maylene by name. Compared to when he first met her, she had already grown into a graceful young lady. On the battlefield, she was heroic and spirited. Her opponent was quickly defeated.
Maylene received thunderous applause.
Yuga looked at Dory and asked, "What do you think after watching this battle?"
Without hesitation, Dory replied, "Sister Maylene is amazing and so cool!"
Yuga asked again, "Anything else?"
Dory didn't understand what Yuga meant and didn't know how to answer, so she shook her head.
Yuga didn't press the question. Instead, he continued to take Dory to watch several more matches. In these matches, some people won, some lost; some were spirited and high-spirited, while others were disheartened and dejected.
Dory got all fired up from watching the battles. Her face was full of excitement, glowing bright red with enthusiasm.
"Trainers are really amazing!"
Yuga said, "You only saw the pride and joy on the faces of those who won. But what about those who lost?"
Dory froze upon hearing that. Through all the matches they'd watched, her attention had been drawn entirely to the victors and their applause, and she hadn't even noticed the ones who lost.
At that moment, Yuga suddenly pointed at someone and said, "Let's follow that person and take a look."
Dory recognized the man. He was the one who had just lost in a match earlier. She didn't understand why Yuga wanted to follow him but nodded obediently anyway.
That man was a middle-aged man, around forty years old. His appearance was still tidy, but his expression looked somewhat troubled. Dory figured it must be because he had just lost his match.
The middle-aged man walked over to the front counter of the training hall and said to the staff member, "Please open a training room for me."
The staff member smiled and asked, "What level of training room would you like?"
Of course, the price varied depending on the level of the training room.
The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Give me a first-class one!"
The training rooms—or more precisely, special training rooms—at the facility were divided into Third Class, Second Class, First Class, and Premium Class. The Third Class rooms had the worst equipment and conditions, resulting in the poorest training effectiveness. Premium Class, naturally, was the best.
Different places used different naming systems. For example, the Verdanturf Arena used Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Elite, but they all meant the same thing.
After hearing the man's choice, the staff nodded to acknowledge it and then asked him a few more questions about his training requirements before proceeding to register the room for him.
Because different training rooms were tailored to different types of training content, the staff had to clarify everything before assigning a room.
Once the registration was complete, the staff member smilingly tried to upsell: "Sir, we have incense available that can enhance your training efficiency. Would you like to purchase some?"
The man quickly waved his hands, saying, "No, I don't need it."
No way, he had already bitten the bullet just to rent a First Class room. How could he dare to splurge on something like incense?
The staff member continued, "Alright, we also have energy cubes of various levels, which can help your Pokémon quickly replenish energy after training. Would you like some? We even carry top-tier energy cubes."
The man waved his hands again, "No, no." He would just use the ones he made himself.
After a round of back-and-forth, the staff member ended up selling nothing. The middle-aged man awkwardly took his room number and left.
Not far away, Yuga turned to Dory and asked, "Do you know why that man didn't buy the incense or Pokeblock, even though they could clearly improve his training results?"
"Be… because he didn't have money," Dory replied hesitantly after thinking for a moment.
Yuga nodded. "That's right. Because he didn't have money. A Trainer's growth always demands more resources than they have.
"Look at that man, he's already middle-aged, yet he's still struggling with money. Now do you still think your parents are wrong for not letting you become a Trainer?"
Dory's face flushed red, and she said nothing.
Even though she had never told Yuga directly that she thought her parents were wrong, it wasn't true to say she hadn't blamed them even a little.
Yuga didn't speak any further and continued walking with Dory toward the training room area.
After a bit of searching, they arrived at the room where the middle-aged man had gone.
However, they couldn't see what was happening inside from the outside. Although there was a large glass wall next to it, the glass was one-way, it allowed those inside to see out, but not the other way around.
The training facility had to protect its clients' privacy, of course.
But that wasn't a problem for Yuga. With a casual gesture, his Mismagius appeared beside them and pulled the two of them directly through the wall.
Once inside the room, they saw that the middle-aged man had already begun training.
Seeing that the man paid no attention to them or Yuga, Dory felt very surprised. She wanted to speak, but Yuga stopped her.
After watching the man train for a while, Mismagius, following Yuga's signal, took them both back outside.
Standing once again in the hallway, Yuga asked, "Did that man look like he was working hard during training?"
Dory nodded without hesitation. "Yes, very hard."
The man's training intensity was extremely high, and he was training alongside his Pokémon. Before long, he was drenched in sweat, but he didn't stop. He kept pushing forward with his Pokémon.
Yuga continued, "This kind of hardship is just a drop in the ocean when it comes to a Trainer's career. And even though he worked so hard, put in so much effort, he still lost in the match."
Then Yuga took Dory to secretly observe several other people training. Every one of them was working incredibly hard and all of them were the same people who had lost matches earlier in the battle zone.
"Now, do you still think being a Trainer is something glorious and enviable? Being a Trainer is many, many times harder than you imagine!" Yuga said.
He remembered how even Maylene had almost given up her position as Gym Leader after being crushed by Paul.
The little girl's face went pale from Yuga's words.
Yuga's heart skipped a beat. Had he scared the child too much? That wasn't what he meant at all, he didn't want things to backfire!
After thinking for a moment, he said to Dory, "Come on, I'll take you to one more place!"
With that, Yuga picked Dory up and carried her out of the training facility. Dory was still dazed and hadn't quite processed what was happening.
Outside the facility, Yuga summoned his Dragonite. Holding Dory, he climbed on its back, and then Dragonite shot into the sky, drawing surprised gasps from pedestrians below.
As Dragonite flew higher and higher, Dory slowly snapped out of the blow she had taken earlier. It was her first time riding on a Flying Pokémon.
As the view around her grew broader, little Dory suddenly felt like her mind was expanding too. But she was too young to understand how to express that feeling, so all she could do was shout to let out her emotions.
Of course, part of the shouting was also because they were flying so high, it was a little scary.
In the blink of an eye, Dragonite flew them out of Veilstone City's urban area and brought them to a barren rocky mountain.
Looking at the bare stones below, Dory didn't understand why Yuga had brought her here.
But Yuga took out a Poké Ball and said to her, "Watch closely."
With a flash of light, Lapras appeared beside them. Yuga pointed at the rocky mountain below and said, "Lapras, Origin Pulse!"
"Lapras~"
With a long cry, two massive blue pillars of water shot downward. Accompanied by a deafening boom and trembling ground, the rocky mountain below vanished, replaced by a huge lake.
((‖)) A-Amazing!!!
Dory's eyes were wide and round as she stared below in disbelief.
Only once Dory had calmed down did Yuga finally speak: "Did you see that? Becoming a Trainer may require enduring all kinds of hardships, but what you just saw, that's the power possessed by a top-tier Trainer!"
Although praising himself as a top-tier Trainer was a bit shameless, it was simply the truth.
In the League, most Trainers liked to mentor the younger generation, it had practically become a tradition, and Yuga also wanted to carry that tradition forward.
He knew Dory wanted to become a Trainer, and he genuinely wanted to give her a chance. But he was also worried that, because of her young age, she might not be able to persist, so he took her to witness the harsh reality of struggling lower-tier Trainers.
With Dory's family situation, even if she really did become a Trainer, she would most likely be one of those lower-tier Trainers starting from the bottom. Whether or not she could eventually make a name for herself would depend entirely on her own efforts.
And precisely because she was so young, Yuga had been worried that the earlier experience might discourage her too much. That was why he now brought her to see the aura and strength of a top-tier Trainer, to reignite her dream.
"So now... is your dream still to become a Trainer?" Yuga asked again.
Dory nodded quickly, her eyes looking up at Yuga as if a rainbow had bloomed inside them, radiating dazzling and enchanting light.
If what she had seen before had made her feel like giving up, then what she saw now had made her resolve firm.
She wanted to climb to the peak of what it meant to be a Trainer, she wanted to see what the view looked like from up there, no matter how many hardships and obstacles stood in her way.
Yuga smiled knowingly. "Good. Then let's head back."
Yuga personally brought Dory back to her doorstep, and before saying goodbye, he handed her a phone number, it was Akai's.
"If you truly want to pursue your dream of becoming a Trainer, you can call this person. He can give you a chance to enter a Ranger School," Yuga said, handing her a slip of paper with the number written on it.
"Ranger?"
"Yes, a Ranger. It's a special branch of Trainers. If you're not sure what a Ranger is, you can look it up."
Whether or not Dory would ultimately want to become a Ranger didn't matter at the very least, Ranger School could serve as a stepping stone on her path as a Trainer, helping her avoid some of the more painful struggles early on.
The Ranger profession was extremely demanding. The job requirements were especially high, and the lifestyle was quite restrictive, which made most Trainers unwilling to take it on. As a result, Rangers were in short supply throughout the League regions, and Ranger School students would receive a certain amount of support and preferential treatment from the League.
Hearing all that, Dory was thrilled. She clutched the slip of paper tightly in her hands and said, "Thank you, big brother."
Yuga added, "But first, you'll need to convince your parents to agree to let you become a Ranger."
Dory responded with firm determination, "I will."
"Then I'll be going. Goodbye!"
And with that, Yuga turned and walked away without looking back.
"Big brother, will we meet again someday?" Dory shouted after him.
"If you can become a Trainer, there will be a chance for us to meet again!"