Silas hesitated for a moment, then nodded and accepted the invitation, finding an empty spot near Janine and her companions to sit down.
"Hello everyone, I'm Silas Alaric from Viridian City. I'm currently traveling."
He gave a simple introduction of himself.
"Iga."
"Kagari."
"Muki."
The three others, besides Janine, introduced themselves.
"Janine, introduce yourself," the middle-aged man named Kagari urged her.
Janine's ears turned slightly red. Her earlier boldness made her feel a little embarrassed now. "I'm Janine! A modern-day ninja! My goal is to become a Poison-type Pokémon Master and defeat my brother to become the new Gym Leader of Fuchsia Gym!"
The atmosphere grew a bit awkward.
Ahem. It was the younger man named Muki, who had first greeted Silas, that broke the silence. "Silas, I assume you're collecting Gym Badges, right? How many do you have so far?"
"Four," Silas replied, taking out his badge case and showing it to the group.
"Oh! That's impressive Pewter, Cerulean, Vermilion, and Celadon. Those are all really famous Gyms!"
The group expressed their admiration. Just seeing those four badges was enough to show Silas's strength; after all, the eight major Gyms were considered more difficult than the average ones.
"Well, I haven't taken on Saffron Gym yet," Silas added with a wry smile.
"Totally normal. That's the Psychic-type Gym after all. Saffron Gym is notoriously tough people say it's on a whole different level."
Hearing her companions talk like this, Janine wasn't too pleased.
"What's that supposed to mean? You think Fuchsia Gym is weaker than Saffron Gym?"
The group smiled indulgently and quickly tried to soothe her.
They had almost forgotten this little troublemaker couldn't stand hearing anything negative about Fuchsia Gym.
Even when it came to the Psychic-type Saffron Gym, which had a type advantage, she refused to accept it.
"My brother is definitely stronger than that Sabrina!" Janine declared with confidence.
The others all nodded along quickly, "Yes, yes, you're right."
"So, are you here to challenge Fuchsia Gym this time?" Iga asked Silas.
"That's right. I also want to visit the Safari Zone and the nature reserve," Silas replied as he put away his badge case.
"If you're planning to visit the Safari Zone, it's better to go there first. Both the Gym and the reserve are located on the outskirts of the city, so it's more convenient that way.
After your Gym battle, you can head over to the nature reserve to let your Pokémon recover. There's a Nurse Joy stationed there."
The group eagerly helped Silas plan his route.
The nature reserve wasn't open to the general public, but as a Pokédex holder like Silas, he could apply in advance and get permission to visit.
"Janine, your Koffing, Grimer, and Nidorina are fully recovered!"
A Nurse Joy named Green came over with a tray carrying Poké Balls.
"And Silas Alaric, your Snivy and Boldore are also ready to go."
On the tray, five Luxury Balls were neatly arranged.
"Awesome! Thanks, Green!" Janine jumped from her seat and collected her three Pokémon.
Silas also expressed his thanks and clipped the two Poké Balls back onto his belt.
"How about a battle?" Janine's eyes sparkled with mischief as she challenged Silas.
"Janine! That's rude!" Kagari quickly scolded her.
While it was common for Trainers to battle without much prompting, challenging someone right after a friendly chat could be considered impolite.
Silas politely declined. "It's a bit late, and my Pokémon just recovered. They still need some rest."
His response made Janine puff up her round cheeks in frustration, but soon, the spirited girl had a new idea. She dashed over to the front desk in a ninja-like sprint, playfully clinging to Nurse Joy while whispering something to her.
"Sorry about her, Janine has been spoiled since she was little," the others said with apologetic smiles.
From their overlapping chatter, Silas gradually came to understand the situation at Fuchsia Gym.
The current Gym Leader was Koga, Janine's older brother. Their father had been the previous Gym Leader.
During a mission, their father mysteriously went missing, which forced the barely twenty-year-old Koga to take over the Gym Leader duties.
It was a rather unfortunate situation a routine ninja mission had suddenly turned into a tragedy, and everyone was still saddened by it.
Fortunately, before the incident, Fuchsia Gym had just passed the Pokémon League's once-a-decade Gym qualification assessment, so they avoided the crisis of having their license revoked.
Over the past seven or eight years, Koga had trained hard, combining his natural talent with the family's deep heritage, and had just barely reached the Elite Four level.
Because of this, he hadn't been able to properly discipline his younger sister, Janine.
At the time of their father's disappearance, Janine was not even ten years old. Koga doted on his little sister and couldn't bear to be strict with her, so Janine grew up a bit headstrong.
However, due to the long-standing Iga-style ninja training at Fuchsia Gym (as opposed to the rival Koga-style), her personality never went truly astray she was just occasionally a little bratty.
To put it simply, she was kind of like a lovable troublemaker.
She often trained in Fuchsia City, both in ninja arts and Pokémon battling. The locals adored her.
After all, their previous Gym Leader had protected them and earned their gratitude. Seeing Janine grow up without a father made them feel sympathy for her. Even though she was willful, she knew right from wrong, and overall, she was a very likable girl.
Naturally, Silas didn't take her little antics too seriously.
"But I remember that Koga, the Gym Leader, has a daughter named Janine too?" Silas asked the three, as he initially thought he had mistaken her for someone else.
"Yeah, that's right. It's because of this Janine's stubbornness she insisted on giving her niece the same name as herself.
It wasn't a big deal, so Koga agreed.
As for the future, once the child grows up, we'll just refer to her by her last name.
After all, the child and Koga share the surname 'Koga,' while this Janine here takes after her mother's surname."
The three shrugged. That was just how things worked in the Fuchsia Gym family. It was rare for someone to do this, sure, but not unheard of in this world.
Silas nodded slightly.
In the Pokémon world, there were plenty of people with the same first and last names. Just take Joy and Jenny, for example no one knew how many of them there were. That's why everyone used prefixes when addressing them.
Otherwise, who would know who you were talking to?
Choosing not to mind whatever Janine was sneakily up to nearby, Silas struck up a conversation with the three in front of him.
The best way to understand a city was by chatting with the locals. They often knew little bits of information and hidden places that tourists wouldn't find.
Silas listened intently as they shared various tidbits he found it all quite fascinating.
"So that means locals in Fuchsia City aren't restricted to just one Safari Zone entry per year like us outsiders? You guys can go in three times a year?" he asked in awe.
That certainly counted as a resident benefit, though it wasn't mentioned in the city's general introductions. Still, it made perfect sense.
No wonder more Trainers set off from Fuchsia City than from most other places.
The limited number of entries was clearly there to prevent too many Trainers from rushing in to catch Pokémon. After all, the number of Pokémon in the Safari Zone was finite it couldn't handle an overload of visitors.
"Yep, it's actually pretty good," Muki replied. "But just because you can go in doesn't mean you'll catch the Pokémon you want.
Forget about your dream Pokémon it's tough even to catch any Pokémon in there."
The other two nodded in agreement.
"Totally. The Pokémon in the Safari Zone are crafty. You can't use your own Pokémon in battle you've got to rely entirely on food and personal charm. That's seriously tough."
Is it really that hard? Silas couldn't help recalling how, in his previous life, Ash caught a whole herd of 30 Tauros in the Safari Zone. That was insane.
And those Tauros were no joke either. They weren't just background characters they took on Drake, the Orange League Champion, in battle, fought against Gary Oak's Nidoking one-on-one, and even challenged Battle Frontier Brain Anabel. That was nuts.
And from the way they were referred to, you could tell how strong those opponents were.
"Have you guys caught any Pokémon in there yourselves?" Silas asked curiously. Since they lived here and had three entries a year, they had to have caught something, right?
"Of course!" the trio said proudly and released their Pokémon.
A Sandslash, a Jigglypuff, and a Venonat appeared.
Jigglypuff and Venonat belonged to Kagari and Iga, respectively. Silas hadn't expected these two uncles to have such cute-looking Pokémon they had a bit of a soft spot, it seemed.
"Iga and I aren't aiming to be strong Trainers," Kagari said, "so these two little ones are the only Pokémon we have. They've been with us for a long time."
"As for Muki," he continued, "he plans to travel in the future. He found a like-minded Sandshrew, and after raising it for a long time, it finally evolved into Sandslash. You two probably have a lot in common."
Muki waved his hands quickly. "I know my limits. I can't even beat Janine, let alone Silas. He's a real prodigy."
During their earlier conversation, they had learned that Silas was only 16 years old, and they were full of admiration.
He was clearly one of the League's elite Trainers his talent was extraordinary.
For the average Trainer, collecting all eight Gym Badges was a major achievement. But for Silas, it seemed like just a minor task.
"Muki! Are you talking behind my back again?!"
Janine appeared suddenly behind Muki like a shadow, hands on her hips and glaring angrily. Why should she be considered weaker than Silas? Just because he looked good didn't mean he was good!
Muki frantically begged for mercy.
The group broke into laughter.
"Hmph. We'll see who's stronger when the time comes",Janine thought to herself, watching Silas laugh at Muki.
"Well, I should head back. If I'm late, my brother will scold me again." As she spoke, Janine tossed a gray sphere onto the floor.
Poof!
A cloud of smoke burst out, and Janine vanished.
Silas coughed. This is literally ninjutsu. How do they even tolerate this stuff?
"Janine! How many times do I have to tell you not to use smoke bombs in the Pokémon Center!"
They could hear Nurse Joy yelling, full of helpless frustration.
....
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