Celadon City in the Kanto region is famous for having the largest department store in Kanto, possibly even in the entire world.
Every street was packed with shops and stalls, each one brighter and busier than the last, making it the commercial heart of the entire region.
When Ash and his friends arrived, their eyes went wide like country kids stepping into a glittering metropolis for the first time.
Everything imaginable was on display, and every price tag made their wallets ache.
"Wow! This hair tie is so pretty… one thousand poke dollars?!" Misty's jaw dropped. "What kind of hair tie costs that much? Is it made of gold?"
"This pot looks great…" Brock picked one up, glanced at the label, and froze. "Two thousand?! What, does it cook the food for you?"
Even as Gym Leaders, they didn't have much extra money. Pokémon food, medicine, and supplies already drained most of their savings. Brock especially knew that pain, he'd been broke for most of his time as a Gym Leader, supporting ten younger siblings and an entire house full of Pokémon.
Since leaving home, he'd survived on the allowance Professor Oak sent as a "Gym Leader stipend." It was enough for his small team, but this place? This was daylight robbery.
The prices in Celadon City were beyond imagination. One glance was enough to make any normal Trainer lose hope.
Even Ash's face twitched as he looked around the luxurious storefronts. He had felt so rich after earning over a hundred thousand from wild battles, but here, that barely covered a single trinket.
After ten minutes of window shopping, Ash simply turned around and backed out of the department store. "Nope," he muttered. "Can't afford a thing."
After wandering through the city, the group headed straight for the Pokémon Center to rest and contact Professor Oak. Ash explained his plan to let Gengar train Primeape.
Professor Oak's face on the video screen froze mid-expression, eyes wide behind his glasses.
He'd expected a lot of things from Ash, but not that.
"Wait, what? Gengar teaching Primeape?" Oak stammered. "Ash, they're opposite types! Ghost and Fighting don't even, how did you...what..."
Ash waved his hand quickly. "I used Aura and sensed a Ghost-type energy inside Primeape. It feels like there's a higher evolution linked to it. Gengar's the best one to help with that. Anyway, gotta go, Professor. Bye!"
Before Oak could finish his next sentence, Ash hung up the call.
He leaned back in relief. He already knew Oak would bombard him with questions about Primeape's supposed evolution, but there was no way he could tell the real story. The group chat, the cross-world knowledge, it was all a secret he couldn't let slip.
When he turned around, Misty and Brock were staring at him suspiciously.
"Ghost energy inside Primeape? Detected by Aura?" Misty repeated slowly.
Ash nodded firmly. "Yup. Aura. Don't think too much about it. It's just a guess anyway, Primeape hasn't actually evolved yet."
They exchanged glances but eventually shrugged. By now, they were used to Ash's strange intuition and his knack for impossible luck.
With that settled, they set out for their next stop, the Celadon City Gym.
Around five in the afternoon, they arrived at the entrance, where a young woman greeted them with a polite smile.
"You've come at the right time," she said cheerfully. "The Gym Leader happens to be free today. If you'd come tomorrow, she might not have been available. Please, come in."
Ash blinked. 'What kind of Gym Leader has 'office hours'?'
"Do Gym Leaders get paid even when they're not here?" he muttered.
Inside, the Gym was filled with fresh flowers, lush greenery, and vines winding along the walls. The entire place looked more like a greenhouse than a battlefield, a vibrant, fragrant world of color.
Then, a soft voice called out.
"Are you the challengers?"
From deeper inside, a beautiful woman emerged. Her sleek black hair brushed her shoulders, and her elegant kimono swayed as she walked. She carried herself with calm grace, the image of a true Yamato Nadeshiko.
Brock's reaction was immediate. He sprinted ahead of Ash, blushing furiously.
"This humble challenger," he said dramatically, bowing low, "has come to challenge not only the Gym, but your heart!"
A vein popped on Misty's forehead.
"Don't you start that again!" she shouted, grabbing Brock by the ear. He yelped in pain as she dragged him back behind Ash.
Ash looked at Brock with a sigh. Sometimes he wondered if his friend had forgotten he was supposed to be the "mature older brother" of the group.
"Hello, I'm Ash from Pallet Town," he said, stepping forward to smooth things over. "I'm here to challenge the Celadon Gym."
The woman, who had been smiling politely despite Brock's antics, froze slightly at the name.
"You're… Ash?" she asked, her tone changing from polite curiosity to genuine interest.
Ash blinked. "Uh… you've heard of me?"
Erika gave a small laugh, one hand covering her mouth. "Heh… heard of you? Every Gym Leader in Kanto has heard of you by now. A rookie Trainer who's only been on the road for less than two months, yet somehow managed to defeat Sabrina of the Saffron Gym, and rumors say you might even possess Champion-level strength. When I first heard it, I honestly thought the League was joking."
Her words carried a teasing tone, but her eyes were serious. Because the rumor wasn't just gossip, it was real.
To defeat that Gym… in under two months of travel? It sounded impossible.
The Saffron Gym wasn't the strongest of the Kanto League's major Gyms, but it was infamously the hardest to defeat. The new Gym Leader, Sabrina, was known for her terrifying Psychic powers and her complete inability to "go easy" on challengers.
In fact, among all the Gym Leaders, her name had become a warning. Since taking over the Gym, she hadn't awarded a single badge. Not one.
Even veteran Trainers who had traveled for two full years couldn't defeat her. The other elite Gyms, Fuchsia, Cinnabar, Viridian, they were strong, yes, but at least they adjusted their battles based on the challenger's experience.
Sabrina, on the other hand, treated every battle like a test of survival.
So when Erika heard someone had actually beaten her, her first instinct had been disbelief.
To do that, one would need at least a team of Superior-level Pokémon, or possibly something even stronger. Trainers like that didn't exist among rookies.
And yet… here he was, standing right in front of her.
"How did you do it?" Erika finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Do you really have a Champion-level Pokémon? You've only been traveling for, what, less than two months?"
Ash rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Ah, well… I kinda, uh… caught a elite Gastly by coincidence. It just happened to be able to fight Sabrina's Alakazam on equal terms."
He gave an awkward laugh.
Erika blinked once. Then twice.
Caught… a elite-level Gastly… by coincidence?
Was this boy even listening to himself?
Her polite smile twitched slightly. "By coincidence, you say?"
Ash nodded earnestly. "Yup. I mean, it was really strong, but it decided to come with me. Lucky, right?"
Erika's inner thoughts were in complete turmoil.
What kind of 'coincidence' lets someone just stumble upon a elite-level Ghost-type Pokémon, one of the rarest kinds in existence, and catch it?!
Encountering a elite-level Gastly was one thing, catching it was another matter entirely.
She folded her arms gracefully, but her eyes were sharp.
"If I may ask, how exactly did you catch such a Pokémon? Even if you met it by chance, without another elite-level partner to subdue it… did you just walk up and catch it yourself?"
Ash coughed into his hand, laughing nervously. "Ahem… let's, uh, not worry about that part for now."
He quickly shifted the topic before Erika could press further.
"Anyway, since you have a elite-level Pokémon," Erika said, letting it slide but keeping her tone formal, "do you intend to use it in this Gym battle? If you do, I'll respond with the highest level of strength I can muster."
Her composure returned. She wasn't here to interrogate him, after all. The League had strict rules for Gym Leaders, to meet the challenger at an appropriate level of difficulty. But Ash clearly didn't fit any standard definition of a "new Trainer."
Who in their right mind would treat a boy who had defeated Sabrina, as a normal beginner?
Still, Erika knew that if he actually brought out that so-called elite-level Gastly, she'd have no realistic way to counter it.
Ash shook his head. "I probably won't use Gastly for Gym battles anymore. I mean, it's not a Pokémon I personally trained from the start. Strictly speaking, I don't have the skill to bring out its full potential, it only recognized me because of… some special circumstances."
He smiled faintly. "So I plan to rely on my own team from here on out."
Erika nodded slowly. That sounded… almost reasonable.
Ash continued, "My strongest Pokémon right now is Pikachu. The others are around Advanced, some Peak, some Mid. So I think it'd be fair to battle against your Superior-level Pokémon."
There was a long pause.
Her elegant smile stayed frozen on her face, but the words echoed in her head like static.
Less than two months of travel. A Superior-Peak Pikachu.
Her brain briefly short-circuited.
"You mean to tell me," she said carefully, "that in under two months, you've trained a Pikachu, a Pokémon that's notoriously hard to strengthen, to Superior Peak level?"
Ash nodded, entirely serious. "Yeah. When Pikachu and I first teamed up, he was already around Normal Mid-level, so he had a small head start compared to other starters. Plus, Pikachu's really hardworking."
"Pika-pika~," Pikachu said bashfully, rubbing the back of his head.
Ash grinned. "See? He's modest, too."
Erika inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled slowly, trying to keep her composure. "Superior level, then. I understand."
Her eyes sharpened, a quiet determination behind them. "Let's not waste time with words. I'll understand what kind of Trainer you truly are through battle."
She turned, her kimono swaying as she led them toward the battle arena.
Brock and Misty followed, glancing at each other. Misty whispered, "You know, if Erika hadn't been so composed, I think she might've fainted back there."
Brock smirked.
The battle arena, like the rest of the Gym, was filled with lush flowers, vines, and the scent of fresh blossoms. It looked more like a botanical garden than a battlefield.
Ash looked around, frowning slightly. "Uh, are you sure it's okay to battle here, Gym Leader Erika? If the fight gets intense, the plants could get damaged."
Erika smiled calmly and snapped her fingers.
At once, four small devices rose from the corners of the arena. A soft hum filled the air as translucent energy walls expanded, encasing the field in a shimmering dome of light.
Ash blinked in surprise. "What's this?"
"This," Erika explained, "is a field protection barrier approved by the Pokémon League. It was developed based on Aegislash's move, King's Shield. It prevents any attacks from escaping the battlefield. Everything inside is contained, but the outside world can still interact with it. Essentially, no power below Gym Level can break it from within."
Ash's jaw dropped. "There's something like that?!"
He turned toward Misty and Brock with a dramatic look, as if to say, 'Why don't your Gyms have this?!'