"Yozora, the rookies from Pallet Town this year are all quite impressive. If Professor Oak learns about your results, I'm sure he'll be overjoyed!" Erika teased with a smile.
"Miss Erika, have you already battled with some of them?" Yozora was taken aback, realizing he had once again fallen behind in pace.
Well, it made sense. Not long ago, he had just finished a month of training on that remote island.
"That's right. They're all remarkable talents, especially that boy named Red. He was truly astonishing!" Erika's eyes shone as if she had recalled the battle, her expression still filled with awe.
"Red, huh?"
Yozora nodded slightly. Red was a chosen one—how could he ever be ordinary? Deep down, Yozora understood: sooner or later, that man would become his greatest rival.
The group soon arrived at the front of the Gym.
The female disciples were reluctant to see Yozora go. A few cheerful girls even handed him their personal perfumes as keepsakes.
Awkwardly, Yozora accepted them, bid farewell, and departed slowly.
At the Celadon City Pokémon Center, Yozora first used the transporter to send Magikarp back. Then he immediately called Professor Oak.
It was noon. The call connected instantly, and the familiar scene reappeared on the screen—
Sure enough, Professor Oak was eating instant noodles again, steam curling upward…
"Ah, Yozora! I just noticed you sent another Pokémon over, using a Research Ball no less. So who is it this time? Magikarp, or some new Pokémon you've recently captured?" Professor Oak asked eagerly.
"Professor, why don't you release it and see for yourself?" Yozora replied with a smile.
"Oh? So mysterious? Are you trying to surprise me?" Professor Oak's eyes lit up. He stood, picked up the Research Ball, flipped the switch, and released the Pokémon inside.
Bang!
A flash of white light—and a massive Magikarp, over 1.5 meters long, flopped out. Professor Oak hurriedly caught it.
At once, the Magikarp began wriggling and thrashing energetically in his arms.
Though Magikarp was purely aquatic, its vitality was astonishing. It could survive in the filthiest waters, and even out of water it could live for quite a while—at least a full day without dying.
Of course, the species only had that one redeeming trait: vitality. Normally, Magikarp's battle power was negligible—practically nonexistent.
"A Golden Magikarp? And… it's grown to such a size?"
Professor Oak's eyes widened in shock. "Could this be… a super Magikarp that combines both Shiny genes and Totem genes?"
But as soon as he said it, Oak shook his head. "No… impossible. If this Magikarp hatched from the egg you received, then it shouldn't have Totem genes at all."
As a titan of the academic world, Oak knew well: those uniquely gifted Totem Pokémon were marked from the very start. Even as eggs, they were extraordinarily large. Such eggs were called Totem Eggs.
Only Totem Eggs could produce Totem Pokémon!
Yozora's Magikarp egg back then—though it had Elite Four-level potential—had been a normal size. It couldn't have carried Totem genes.
And yet… here it was, massive. How could that be?
"Calcium tablets," Yozora said with a smile. "I fed it some every day, and it just grew like this."
"Calcium tablets?"
Professor Oak froze for a moment, then nodded. "Of course! Magikarp's body is almost entirely bone. Feeding it calcium would make it absorb nutrients more effectively! Yozora, you're brilliant—you actually came up with such a breeding method!"
Yozora nearly jumped.
He only knew this because he had seen it in the original anime.
But Oak… Yozora had merely said two words—"calcium tablets"—and the professor had instantly grasped the whole idea.
As expected of Professor Oak. His understanding of Pokémon truly was unparalleled.
"Professor, since Magikarp is a fully aquatic Pokémon, it's inconvenient for me to raise it while traveling. I hope you can take care of it for me—feed it a little calcium each day. It's still in a critical growth phase," Yozora requested.
"That's no problem at all. To me, this Magikarp is a precious research subject!" Oak laughed heartily and agreed without hesitation.
"Charmeleon! Come here!" Oak suddenly called out. Moments later, a strong, muscular Charmeleon burst in, blue flames burning at the tip of its tail.
It was Yozora's Charmeleon!
"Charmeleon, hey there!" Yozora greeted through the videophone.
Recognizing him, Charmeleon's eyes sparkled with joy as it roared happily.
Oak passed Magikarp to the sturdy partner. The professor was getting old—he couldn't carry such weight anymore.
Charmeleon, however, lifted Magikarp with ease, looking as though it were holding a normal-sized one rather than a giant.
Seeing this, Yozora's eyes gleamed. His Charmeleon had grown even stronger.
And then he noticed something else—
The Thunder Stone necklace once hanging around Charmeleon's neck was gone.
That meant Charmeleon had completely absorbed the energy of the mid-grade Thunder Stone.
"So, Charmeleon—did you learn Thunder Punch?" Yozora asked.
"Rooaaar!" Charmeleon cried proudly, confirming it had mastered the move long ago.
"And not just Thunder Punch," Oak chuckled from the side. "Charmeleon recently learned a brand-new move too."
"Oh?" Yozora's eyes lit up. "What move?"
"The Dragon-type move: Dragon Rage!" Oak revealed.
Dragon Rage!
Yozora's eyes widened in delight. Charmeleon had mastered Dragon Rage!
Unlike the games, where it dealt only a fixed forty points of damage, the real Dragon Rage was incredibly powerful.
Otherwise, in the original story, Ash's Charizard would never have one-shotted Gary's Graveler with a single Dragon Rage. As if Graveler only had forty HP? Impossible!
Everything suggested that Dragon Rage's power was immense—certainly not limited to some arbitrary fixed damage.
Even more thrilling, Charmeleon had awakened it on its own, without absorbing any Dragon Gem.
That proved it—though not a Dragon-type, Charmeleon harbored a potent Dragon energy within its body, strong enough to manifest Dragon-type moves!
If it could master Dragon Rage, then surely it could also develop Dragon Claw and Dragon Tail, right?
"Charmeleon," Yozora grinned, "just learning Dragon Rage isn't enough. Try channeling that Dragon energy into your claws and tail—see if you can develop new Dragon-type moves!"
Charmeleon's eyes shone. It nodded enthusiastically.
After catching up with Charmeleon for a while, Oak sent it off again, instructing it to carry Magikarp to the river behind the lab. Charmeleon dashed off eagerly.
Yozora's Charmeleon was nothing like Ash's rebellious one from the original tale. It wasn't disobedient at all. Both Yozora and Professor Oak could command it easily.
For Oak, that meant he had essentially gained another free assistant.
A young, energetic, incredibly strong assistant at that.
"Well then, Yozora—aside from hatching Magikarp, have you captured any other Pokémon lately?" Professor Oak asked, eyes gleaming with anticipation.
The instant Pokémon were mentioned, even his instant noodles lost their flavor.
Especially Yozora's Pokémon.
In Oak's view, nearly every one of Yozora's partners was extraordinary.
Just look at the four he had already sent over: Charmeleon, Kangaskhan, Nidorino, and Magikarp. Which of them wasn't exceptional?
Charmeleon, with blue fire burning at its tail, possessed the unique gift of resistance to water!
Kangaskhan, courageous and immensely powerful, carried the twin gifts of Fearless and Huge Power, even able to ignore the ghostly nature of Ghost-types!
Nidorino, its body bristling with razor-sharp, rock-hard poisonous spines, had the innate gift of Toxic!
And Magikarp, with its massive frame and Shiny genes—Oak hadn't even begun studying it, yet he could already tell it was far from ordinary.
"I recently captured an Aegislash…"
Yozora spent a while longer chatting with Oak, reminding him to eat fewer instant noodles, and promising to send Aegislash over when he had the chance. Then he hung up the call.
By one-thirty in the afternoon, Yozora had finished lunch and stepped out of a restaurant—only to notice the streets suddenly alive with commotion.
Officer Jenny had mobilized a large number of police officers. Sirens blared across the city.
Yozora walked forward a little and soon spotted Erika.
At that moment, Erika had released a massive Venusaur. With a single strike, it subdued two Team Rocket grunts, binding them tightly with its thick Vine Whip.
"Miss Erika, what's going on?" Yozora hurried over and asked.
"Team Rocket."
"We received a report that they were trying to reclaim Porygon." Erika's voice hardened.
"Porygon?" Yozora froze.
He had heard of Porygon before. Like Mewtwo, it was a man-made Pokémon.
But Mewtwo had been created from the precious genes of Mew combined with human DNA, resulting in the ultimate, overwhelmingly rare super Pokémon.
Porygon, on the other hand, could be mass-produced.
"Yozora, did you know? Porygon was originally manufactured by Team Rocket. They sold it at the Celadon Game Corner for 100,000 Poké Dollars each. That much wasn't a problem in itself. The vile part was—Team Rocket tampered with them in advance…"
Erika's expression darkened. "Even after being sold, those Porygon can still be easily reclaimed by Team Rocket!"
…
(End of Chapter)