Galar, Mera-home
This is also one of the very destined tourist towns of Galar. It is famous for its fireworks display.
Rope arrived here by train and was taken aback.
"Leon? what are you doing here? Lost?"
Rope asked with some surprise.
Leon originally had a happy smile on his face. It became awkward almost instantly after hearing the words 'lost'...
"Er, not really, it was Cynthia who asked me to see if you needed help."
Leon scratched his head, then said.
Rope nodded and thought for a moment then said, "That's fine, but there don't seem to be any energy points around here, OK?"
Not being able to Dynamax without energy points was an annoying thing for most trainers in the Galar region. After all, Dynamax was really powerful. And the Dynamax Band wasn't exactly a rare resource like a mega stone.
"It's no problem, there's no Dynamax available most of the time if you're fighting outside. It's not like I'm only sparring in the wilderness area and in the arena."
Leon said fairly calmly, he was a champion after all, just like Professor Kukui was a solid champion level even without Z-Move, and Diantha wouldn't be without her champion level strength without her mega evolutions either.
These powers are considered gains, not fundamentals.
Besides, Dynamax itself is more limited than those two powers, which leaves the spectacle of Mega Battles out of the world's reach.
It also allowed Galar to monopolize this particular touristic item.
"That's fine then. Rope glanced at the sinking sunset and shook his head, "It's already very late, no matter how much I force myself, I have to rest."
After saying that he looked to Leon, who was off to the side, and asked, "How about the Pokémon Center here?"
Leon thought about it, but realized he didn't know what to say, so he simply turned back and pointed to the tallest building.
Rope looked in the direction of his finger and then stood in awe.
The tall and ornate building had the Pokéball logo of the Pokémon Center on it. Good lord, other areas of the Pokémon Center had a big backyard and it was already very emotional. But this Pokémon Center here, there are people who would believe you if you say it's a five-star hotel.
"You Galar people are already rich to this extent?"
Rope said rather emotionally. In the end, it was his first time coming to Galar, even though in the original world, he had already smashed the entire tower. A dozen or two fights a day. And Leon had also been beaten up by himself many times.
But in this world, he really came to this Galar for the first time. and then couldn't help but sigh with emotion that the development of the tertiary industry was really earning money!
"No, Galar's Pokémon Center is also all assumed according to League's rules. After all, it was the Joy family themselves who took over. As for the reason why the Pokémon Center here is so 'unique'."
Leon stroked his beard, then shook his head, "I have no idea."
That was normal, it wasn't a big deal after all. If Leon, who was the champion, knew all about such trivial matters, then either he was too idle or he was from this town.
Pokémon World doesn't really have a lot of communication between towns for the reason that it's more dangerous to go out into the wild. So unless one was an actual local, one wouldn't know all these trivia about a certain town like the back of their hand.
"Not a big problem, go ask Nurse Joy later."
Rope nodded, then spoke up.
Then he patted his backpack and said, "Let's just walk then, it's a pain in the ass to carry all this stuff this far..."
Leon turned around to lead the way, then asked with some confusion, "Why did you have to carry so much stuff when you came out?"
Rope shook his head and said, "Cynthia and Daisy and the girls had the Warrior Eagles send it over before I got on the plane, saying that a trip is a trip and that you have to bring everything."
The corners of Leon's mouth twitched slightly, then and its helplessness, "You guys...you could have left that sort of thing unsaid."
Rope shrugged, "But you asked."
"And wouldn't Sonia have a backpack for you if you went on a mission out of town?"
Leon thoroughly didn't want to talk to Rope.
What a person this was!
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Soon Leon and Rope arrived at Mera-home's Pokémon Center.
"Welcome to the two of you."
Nurse Joy looked at this one champion a PROFESSOR and said with a smile but not condescending.
The Joys were definitely over the top with their basic qualities. No Joy or Jenny would fawn over someone in particular.
That wasn't something they needed from either member of the family anymore.
"Nurse Joy, please get us two rooms."
Rope said somewhat helplessly as he felt the fiery gazes of the trainers around him.
Nurse Joy smiled and said, "Okay, Professor Rope!"
Just as Rope and Nurse Joy were talking, one of the small trainers next to them finally mustered up enough courage and trotted over to Leon, clutching his own Digger Bunny. A sudden bow was made in front of Leon.
Raising his head, he looked at Leon with a passionate and worshipful expression and said, "Champion Leon! I am your fan!"
"May I ask you to have a sparring match with me!"
Leon looked at the young boy in front of him and smiled, "Of course! A trainer's eye to eye is a sparring call."
Leon jerked his cape around and then struck his trademark pose.
"Let's meet the start, sparring!"
Rope looked at the guy pulling out his Pokéball and trying to be as hot as a little kid, and shook his head helplessly, "This Leon guy really is quite the pro-champion."
Behind her, Nurse Joy covered her mouth and laughed softly, "Champion Leon is a very responsible person, he's carrying Galar on his back!"
Rope sniffed but shook his head, "No one can carry another's fate on their back. Everyone should be responsible for their own life."
Rope had a somewhat emotional look on his face before he felt someone tugging at his sleeve.
Looking down, he realized that it was a little girl holding a Pokémon who was looking at him blearily.
Rope lightly smiled as he squatted down, then asked, "What's wrong, is there something wrong with the little sister?"
The little girl took a deep breath, then placed Togepi on the ground and pulled out a book and a pen from a small backpack behind herself.
She handed the book and pen to Rope, then said, "Professor Rope! I'm a fan of your work, and I love the stories you tell! Can you sign an autograph for me!"
Rope froze, then smiled, took the book and pen, and asked, "What's your name, little sister?"
The little girl timidly said, "My name is Gloria[1]."
Rope scribbled in the book.
Then returned the book and pen to the little girl and said, "There."
The little girl looked at the line on the book 'May Gloria always enjoy stories." She smiled happily, and was about to run away, but suddenly as if she had reacted to something, she turned around and bowed to Rope thankfully, saying "Thank you" before leaving.
Rope looked at the back of the little girl and smiled. He then looked over to Leon who was fighting with the little kid, and tsked at Leon's performance.
"This Charizard, he's on par with Pi Shen's acting skills."
The sparring game didn't last very long, and it wasn't long before Leon ended the 'intense' battle, and then walked with Rope towards the Pokémon Center's living quarters.
On the way, Leon asked, "I hear you're here to capture that hunter Malkin?"
Rope nodded, but said with some concern on his face, "Despite my intentions. But Malkin's reason for coming here should, unsurprisingly, be that mission arranged by Servants of God."
"Which means there's Plate here too?"
Leon frowned, how could Plate show up so far away from Galar?
Rope nodded, also seeing Leon's confusion saying, "After Plate becomes a Plate detachment, they travel to some other place to maintain order. The first Plate I encountered was a Poison Plate that I met near Cerulean City in the Kanto region."
With Rope saying that, Leon knew about it. Seriously, the League had started a big mobilization right now though, with almost all of the League's high-level warriors waiting to protect Plate and sabotage Servants of God's plans. But there are still a lot of people who don't understand Plate's importance and form of existence.
In other words, Rope made the entire League nervous just by himself. And when you think about it that way the man is truly outrageous enough.
There are too many people standing behind Rope. And with Rope representing their attitudes, whether or not what Rope said made sense, this League had to react in some way.
In that sense, if Rope is against the League, then the damage should be avoided much more than Servants of God.
After all, Rope has enough cards in his hand to split the League from the inside with very little loss of popularity, topple the League from the outside, and then restore the current level of governance in a very short period of time.
After all, it really isn't the executives that matter most in the League. Rather, it's the champions, the Elite Four, and those middle tier warriors.
This was the reason why the administrators of the League were always wary of Rope, harboring ill will while not daring to make a move at all.
"That said, I think I've heard something about this forest then..."
Leon rubbed his chin and then said.
Rope looked at his room, then stepped forward and pushed the door open, "Come in first, I'll explain the relevant things to you. This forest really isn't simple either."
Leon smiled at that and nodded, following Rope into the room.
Rope placed his backpack at the doorway and then scanned the room to see the coffee table.
He stepped forward and made it to the coffee table and Leon followed.
"What's wrong with the forest here?"
Leon asked with some anticipation as he watched Rope make tea.
Rope heard Leon's somewhat expectant tone and then gave him a somewhat puzzled look.
Leon smiled nervously. Joking aside, was it only little girls who enjoyed listening to Rope's stories?
No. Anyone in the League who was primed for these things was beyond curious about the information Rope had.
The more they got to this level of theirs the more they realized that force-wise, it was no longer very likely that they would ever be able to improve their own combat prowess. And there really wasn't much room for improvement in itself.
But in a sense, the hidden information, the precious intelligence itself is a kind of power. Poor information is one of the greatest advantages when it comes to battle.
So Rope's story was of great interest to everyone in the League.
Only of course Rope wouldn't just throw all that information out there. He was certainly in a position where he no longer had to worry about people victimizing him for that information. But sometimes the information itself could bring them danger.
Of course, more information was all meaningless to reality, which was why Rope didn't say anything.
"The forest in front of you is called the Sub-Kindred Forest. The probability is that the reason you have an impression of this forest is because of a paper on the Fountain of Healing that appeared in League earlier, right?"
"Dr. Chrom Molybdenum and Dr. Phossa Molybdenum published. They also claimed that they had found a sample of the Fountain of Healing. But in the end there was no follow up publication on the location of the Fountain of Healing or any other papers. So the study was considered to be nothing more than claptrap. The paper died after Dr. Chrom Molybdenum and Dr. Phossa Molybdenum died in a car accident."
"But their assistant back then, Dr. Zed, is still working on the content. But there hasn't been much buzz about it."
"Of course, according to some of my investigations, the Fountain of Healing does exist in the middle of this forest. And the ability of the Fountain of Healing should be related to Celebi. And the ones guarding the Fountain of Healing should be a Legendary Pokémon pack."
Leon's eyes went straight as he listened, a Legendary Pokémon colony.They had seen the video of Rope's battle with the Legendary Pokémon back then. A clan of Legendary Pokémon, how strong must this be!
"Don't get me wrong, although this clan is a bit stronger than Entei and the others, they embarrassingly don't have the existence of divine power or priesthood. It can only be described as nothing more than Celebi's wage earners. So the lower limit is higher, but the upper limit isn't that high."
That really wasn't nonsense. Let's just say that the Zarude's battle power is only slightly higher than that netted Suicune...
Leon looked back, then nodded, "Alright you go on."
"There's not much more to say. I'm not sure what the source of the healing spring actually is, all of this will have to wait until we get into the forest..." said Rope, pausing for a moment, "Let's try not to destroy the forest once we're inside. After all, it's the forest god's territory, if you somehow destroy the forest, it's very likely that you'll attract Celebi's malice.Celebi's own battle power may be average, but it can make you feel bad if it really wants to nauseate you by mastering part of the power of time and space."
That was true, in fact, just like these gods with power in their grasp, their skill moves were instead called under.
Like Ho-Oh's fusion of life force and fire into Sacred Fire, like Palkia's Spacial Rend, and Dialga's Roar of Time, these proprietary skills are actually manifestations of their powers.
Of course, some of these skills can't really be considered unique. Like Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire Entei can be used as well. This is thanks to Ho-Oh's bestowal. It's like Rope's Red Flame they can also use.
Of course, Rope's powers have not been molded until now. That meant that the exclusive skills that truly belonged to him weren't being developed right now.
Leon also nodded as he listened to Rope's words, although he hadn't seen Celebi, the God of the Forest, much less understood why the God of the Forest nevertheless held the power of time and space. But apparently, these two powers were just trouble.
It was as if the most annoying move when battling a Pokémon of the Superpower lineage was instantaneous movement...
Of course, when fighting a Pokémon of any lineage, the most annoying thing was of course guarding...
"Any other suggestions?" Leon asked again.
Rope pondered again for a moment and shook his head, "Nope, that's all we have to watch out for tomorrow. In fact, I'm not worried about any of this at all."
"After all, I do have a voice among the gods. I who originally had to think about whether or not to shake people don't have to think about whether or not that Malkin guy will get any other undercurrents to shade me."
"That way our meter...it doesn't take too much memory to remember the caveats."
Leon was puzzled by Rope's lame and sudden change of heart, but eyeing Rope's look of hijacking but not wanting to say more, he shook his head and stopped asking.
"Then I'll go back and take a nap, and you get some sleep too.Nurse Joy will bring our meals to the door at mealtime. I've sent Charizard down to let him know."
Rope nodded back, though he didn't know what had been spoken between the Charizard and Nurse Joy via Chansey, the dragon with the egg. But judging by Leon's confidence, he was pretty sure of his ability to socialize with that Charizard.
Rope waved his hand, signaling that Leon could get out.
Of course he knew Leon was tired too.
It was hard for people not to be tired after a long trip.
Rope had flown from Sinnoh to Galar all right. But as far as Rope knew, this Leon guy was still supposed to have an exhibition match at the Miyagato City Arena this morning.
By the afternoon it was in the border town of Mera-home. Pretty much across the entire Galar region as well.
Rope shook his head with a bitter smile even as he thought about it. Remembering that his brother Hep did end up going the researcher route. Following Sonia to study would really be worse than following Rope or even Daisy.
Don't look at the fact that Sonia also got the title of PROFESSOR a few years later, at a young age. But if you really want to talk about the level...Sonia really doesn't have any outstanding achievements at hand. At least that's how it is so far.
As for the situation in the game where Professor Magnolia took off her lab coat, covered Sonia with it, and Sonia became a professor...it's just a game, don't take it seriously...
However, Sonia's thesis sounds interesting, at least in its name. Similar to Rope's field of study, it's all about Legendary Pokémon and Ancient Mythology.
The specifics weren't in the game, so Rope naturally had no way of inferring the level of Sonia's paper.
But no matter how you think about it, it shouldn't be as strong as your own.
There's no such thing as hate without a cause, or love without a cause, and Leon's biggest goal in being so involved in his affairs is just to help out his brother. And it's still just preparing a way back for Hep.
But it was also obvious that Leon should have seen that Hep's talent was probably indeed average when it came to sparring. At least it was definitely no match for their neighbor's Victor, or Gloria[2].
So a researcher, might be a good direction to go.
Rope shook his head, accepting it was just a student. There were no more males at her institute besides herself. If you think about it, it's better to recruit a male.
Otherwise, there would inevitably be some crazy rumors outside.
If such a rumor as choosing a concubine happened to Rope, he would be immediately arrested by Cynthia and sent to the police station!
But he wouldn't do such a thing. After all, he didn't want to experience such a torturous, judgmental life.
Rope had closed his eyes as he thought about it. The exhaustion of the journey surged up, and the sound of even breathing soon resounded through the room.
On the other side of the room, Leon was doing the same.
It was natural for him to be so attached to Rope's affairs partly because of Hep. But seriously, he also really wanted to get acquainted with Rope. He was a smart guy. He could see that Rope was already on top of the situation, and those who were against him in the League would basically lose their power in the end. And those who can provide him with help will definitely gain benefits in the end.
What's more crucial is that Rope is on a side that represents basic justice. And that's what Leon is after.
There doesn't need to be much justice in the world. The world would already be a good place if basic justice could prevail.
Although he had only met him a few times, Leon could not help but believe that Rope could bring about this kind of basic justice.
So, with this feeling in mind, Leon similarly went to sleep.
Life is not easy, between running around, seeing more is one point, the initial heart gradually lost is another point.
——————————
Somewhere in the forest
Malkin chewed on the compressed cracker in his mouth and muffled his words.
Instead, an electric chattering voice came from the headphones in his ears.
"Evil old man, are you sure you don't need my help? I'm telling you, I've taken a beating before and failed missions, but I'm still strong. Really, don't look like I'm not as famous as you, old brother! But doing evil like this is something I want to do every day!"
The voice coming from the headset was inexplicably tiresome.
"Then come help me!"
Malkin said impatiently.
The person on the other end of the headset was instantly dumbfounded.
"...Ha! I'm kidding!"
"It's your show, old man hey! I won't wind up with you like!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Malkin heard a click.
"Tsk."
Malkin voiced out in disdain.
What he didn't know about this guy belonging to the strong man's insistence was, but this person's behavior really made him disdainful.
If you help, you help. If you don't help, then get lost, what a hypocritical thing to be.
What he didn't know was that in the midst of the darkness, a pair of eyes as brilliant as the morning star was looking at this strange 'thing'.
"Zarude sa! (This thing, similar like me!)"
[1] Not the same Gloria in Sword/Shield
[2] This is the Gloria from Sword/Shield