Charlie could not help himself. He leaned forward the moment Nova reached the crucial part, his eyes fixed and intent.
"So you worked out what that material actually was?"
"Yes. It took a lot of research — I spoke to several professors and scholars before I could be sure. In the end, I confirmed that it was a fragment of a Nihilego tentacle."
Nihilego.
A Rock and Poison-type Ultra Beast.
The pieces clicked into place for Charlie all at once. "Of course," he said, his voice quiet with realisation. "Ultra Beasts are fundamentally different from ordinary Pokémon. They don't belong to this world — they come from somewhere beyond it. Even a fragment of their body carries a kind of power that has no place here. A power that can bend the rules." He leaned back slowly. "That power must have bound together all the different venoms Nidorino had been taking in over the months. It was the missing piece."
As creatures from another world entirely, Ultra Beasts were aggressive by nature and overwhelmingly powerful. Their appearances had historically been accompanied by catastrophic events — disasters that swallowed entire regions whole. The Pokémon Leagues of every region watched them with extreme caution, treating each sighting as a potential crisis.
That wariness had, over time, hardened into something uglier.
Years of fear and suspicion had shaped how most people thought of Ultra Beasts. The association with terror and destruction had become fixed in the public mind. Few trainers dared to use a contained Ultra Beast in battle. Those that were deemed too dangerous — too violent, with too much destruction already behind them — were simply put down. No one stopped to ask what else their existence might offer. What could be learned from them. What could be used.
Nova's unconventional approach had not only produced a one-in-a-million Nidorino, but it had quietly cracked open a door of new ideas for Charlie himself. Even for a trainer who stood at the edge of Elite Four territory, that kind of fresh insight was genuinely valuable.
Nova watched Charlie sit in silent thought and allowed himself a small, private smile.
All that careful explanation, all those dramatic twists — and it was mostly made up on the spot.
The breeding formula itself hadn't required much real effort from Nova. He had followed the steps provided by the breeding system almost to the letter. Having that kind of advantage really did make everything simpler.
The question now was what he could actually get from Charlie in exchange for it.
Thelma arrived back at the table just as her father was still lost in thought. She had paid the bill and made a quick stop on the way back, and now she bounced over with her usual energy — and promptly smacked Charlie on the shoulder.
"What are you thinking about so hard? Come on, let's go home!"
Charlie startled, blinking back to the present. He gently guided his daughter back into her seat and then turned to Nova with a calm, measured expression.
"What you've shared has given me a great deal to think about. I feel I owe you more than I can easily repay. If there's something I can do for you, say it plainly."
Charlie's own team leaned heavily toward Grass-type Pokémon, so there were only so many of his own Pokémon that could directly benefit from the venom formula. But the insight itself — the idea of using Ultra Beast materials in breeding — had opened up a way of thinking he had never seriously considered before. That kind of shift in perspective had no easy price tag.
Nova had been waiting for exactly those words.
"If it's possible, I'd like to choose the reward for my outstanding internship myself."
Charlie understood immediately. The Pokémon Eggs given to top interns at the Sapphire City Gym were typically drawn at random from the nursery. Being part of the Gym's collection, the eggs generally produced Pokémon with solid potential. But Nova was clearly someone who trusted his own eye. He wasn't the type to leave something this important to chance.
"That reward is something you've already earned from your two months of work," Charlie said. "Letting you pick your own Egg barely scratches the surface of what your formula is worth."
"The thing is," Nova said, "I was hoping to choose not from the Gym's general collection — but from your personal one, Mr. Charlie."
The best things were always kept close. Charlie's private collection had a significantly higher chance of holding truly exceptional Pokémon — everyone in the field knew that.
Charlie nodded without hesitation. "I look forward to seeing what a talented young trainer like you does with one of my Grass-types." He paused, then added, "I'll also track down a high-purity Moon Stone for you. Think of it as a personal gift. Your Nidorino has been ready to evolve for a while now — don't hold back a Pokémon that good any longer than you have to."
That's Mr. Charlie for you. Nova thought. His reputation is well earned.
A high-potential Pokémon Egg from a private collection, offered without a second thought — and on top of that, a Moon Stone that solved Nova's most pressing problem and saved him close to a hundred thousand League Coins in costs.
Nova was so grateful that a very embarrassing thought briefly crossed his mind, and he forced it away immediately.
Thelma, meanwhile, was watching the two of them with narrowed eyes. Her gaze kept flicking from one face to the other.
What exactly happened while I was in the restroom? Why are they acting like old friends all of a sudden?
Both men were decisive by nature. Once the terms were agreed on, there was no reason to wait. After dropping Thelma home, Nova and Charlie slipped out under the cover of night and made their way into the greenhouse section of the Scatterleaf Gym.
The greenhouse was enormous — it took up nearly half of the entire Gym's floor space. Walking through it felt less like being indoors and more like stepping into a living forest. Charlie led the way, and Nova followed, quietly taking in the variety of Grass-type Pokémon thriving across a dozen different ecological environments. Thick canopies, marshy patches of ground, rocky clearings with creeping vines — each section had been carefully shaped to suit the Pokémon living within it.
The Luma Gym had long been considered one of the premier locations for Grass-type trainers in the Celestial League, and standing here in the middle of it, Nova could see exactly why. The scale and quality of the conservation area alone was unlike anything outside these walls.
He scanned the surroundings. The common, low-potential Pokémon he would have spotted anywhere were almost completely absent here. Even the moderately promising ones appeared only in small numbers, dotted here and there in pairs. The vast majority of the Pokémon here were of strong potential, and a handful of genuinely rare, high-potential individuals — the kind almost never seen in the wild — were present as well.
Nova kept his expression neutral and reminded himself very firmly: There's always something even better further in.
If he hadn't held that thought in place, he might have bolted toward a Bulbasaur with outstanding potential that he spotted near the path and never looked back.
Past the main greenhouse, they reached the Pokémon Egg nursery. Charlie led Nova to the very last room, pressed his fingerprint to the keypad, and submitted to an iris scan before the door unlocked. Then he gripped the handle and glanced back at Nova with a small, pleased grin — the look of someone about to reveal something they were genuinely proud of.
"Ready to be impressed?"
He pushed the door open. The motion-sensor lights came on all at once, flooding the room with warm light, and Nova stepped inside.
In the centre of the room stood a massive banyan tree.
A long section of its trunk had been carefully hollowed out and shaped into a natural cabinet — five open shelves, each lined with a soft layer of lush green leaves, each holding a small cluster of Pokémon Eggs resting quietly in the warmth.
It was, at first glance, a remarkable sight.
But the real impact came a moment later. Nova habitually activated his scanner — and immediately had to remind himself to close his mouth.
A golden glow.
A Champion-potential Pokémon.