I caught a Pokémon

Do you know my name?

Xia You was not surprised by this.

Given the popularity of the Pokémon World Championships, news about him has been broadcast on television, short videos, and major websites more than once. Even in schools, workplaces, and shopping malls, people are talking about his undefeated record.

Furthermore, since Kanto and Johto are both located on the same continent and have frequent exchanges, and the popularity of the Quartz Conference has not completely faded, Xia You's name here is not to say that everyone knows it, but at least most people should have heard of it.

But just as he thought that Dr. Kōki had also watched his match, he heard Dr. Kōki laugh and say, "Are you the young man who published a paper with Dr. Oki and Dr. Uchiki a while ago? I've read that paper, especially your theory on the butterfly effect, it's really good!"

So that's how you found out your name...

Sure enough, these Pokémon professors were clearly more interested in academic matters than in the competition!

Knowing her own limitations, Xia You shook her head with a wry smile: "I'm really ashamed. Actually, I don't have any experience in scientific research, nor do I have any relevant academic qualifications. I just benefited from the two PhDs. I just said it casually, but I didn't expect them to write it into their paper."

"You're too modest," Dr. Kongmu laughed. "If you were just an ordinary person, you wouldn't be valued by two such distinguished doctors at the same time. In any case, that viewpoint is truly eye-opening!"

Because they helped him retrieve the Poké Ball, Professor Elm was very friendly to them and even invited them to the reception room for tea.

Through casual conversation, Xia You also learned that Professor Kuuki had studied at Yuhu University and was an outstanding student of Professor Oak. He also regarded Professor Oak as a great teacher and the most respectable rival!

Setting down his teacup, Dr. Kūki chuckled, "By the way, I also heard you're Sakuragi's assistant?"

"I'm not some kind of assistant," Xia You said with a wry smile again. "I'm just an investigator at the research institute, running errands for you. What? Does the professor know Professor Sakuragi?"

"Of course!" Dr. Kūki said, a nostalgic look on his face. "Actually, our circle is both big and small. Although we work in different regions, I have had many academic exchanges with Dr. Sakuragi and Dr. Uchigi!"

Xia You nodded knowingly.

Speaking of which, the names of these four professors—Ōki, Sakuragi, Uchiki, and Soragi—are all surprisingly related to the character 'wood', even though they are from different regions!

He took a sip of the tea, but because he didn't know much about tea, he could only tell that it was a type of green tea.

At this moment, the handsome guy next to him suddenly asked, "So, Dr. Kongmu, may I ask what kind of research you do?"

When his specialty was mentioned, Professor Elm became clearly interested. He straightened his posture and said with a gleam in his eyes, "It's about Pokémon eggs!"

"A Pokémon egg?"

What's there to study about this?

Before Xia You and the others could express their surprise, Professor Elm continued, "That's right. From my observation, all Pokémon hatch from eggs! And the shells of those Pokémon eggs usually have unique patterns, which people can use to guess the type of Pokémon inside."

"They're all laid from eggs!?" The handsome man was surprised; this was the first time he'd ever heard of such a thing, and he'd certainly learned something new!

"You wouldn't believe it, would you?" Professor Elm clearly anticipated their surprise. "Although some Pokémon appear to be mammals, they are actually oviparous! And what's amazing is that the Pokémon inside the egg can already see the outside world before it hatches!"

When talking about eggs, Dr. Kongmu looked very excited. It seems that these doctors can talk endlessly about their fields!

"Oh, right!" Professor Elm's eyes lit up as he said to Xia You, "Since you helped me retrieve my Pokémon, how about choosing a starter Pokémon from the Johto region? Unlike Kanto, the starter Pokémon in Johto are the Grass-type Chikorita, the Water-type Totodile, and the Fire-type Cyndaquil. Each one is excellent!"

Xia You declined without hesitation, offering a polite refusal.

"Forget it, let's leave this opportunity to the new trainers. I already have the three starter Pokémon from Kanto. They have some overlap in their roles, and I definitely won't be able to take care of too many of them."

"The three starter families, what an interesting title."

Dr. Kongmu didn't seem to mind Xia You's refusal.

The fact that Xia You could refuse a Pokémon that was offered for free made him realize that Xia You was fundamentally different from those trainers who only knew how to catch Pokémon.

The group sat in the research institute for a while longer. Seeing that assistants kept coming to report to Dr. Kongmu, they knew he was too busy, so they didn't bother him any further and took their leave.

Dr. Kongmu insisted on seeing them all the way to the gate before turning back to the research institute.

Watching his retreating figure, the handsome man said to Xia You, "Professor Kongmu has a very good impression of you, and I can tell that your refusal to accept your starter Pokémon just now has further increased his goodwill towards you!"

"Really..." Xia You touched her nose. "How come I didn't notice anything?"

Patting Xia You on the shoulder, the handsome man whispered in his ear, "Actually, befriending him will definitely be very beneficial for you. I heard from our insiders that Professor Elm seems to have a Master Ball. I think that must be very precious to you trainers, right?"

Dr. Elm also has a Master Ball?

Xia You stared wide-eyed in disbelief. She never expected that the refined Pokémon professor would possess a Master Ball, something every trainer dreams of!

However, although he really wanted it, he wasn't familiar with Dr. Kongmu, so he didn't have much hope for it.

Xia You sighed softly and shook her head: "A Master Ball that can catch Pokémon with a 100% success rate is not only attractive to us trainers, but also a huge temptation for anyone. Anyone would be extremely envious!"

The two chatted for a while, and after the handsome man glanced at the time, he also said goodbye to Xia You.

"Alright, I should be leaving now. Silver's escape this time was just a stroke of luck; he was fortunate to run into Suicune. But Team Rocket won't be so lucky next time! We plan to attack Team Rocket's base in Kaga Town in ten days, and we hope you two can join us!"

Chapter 289 Energetic Girl Nana

"Kaji Town in ten days..." Xia You gave an OK sign, "Of course we're fine with that!"

"See you then!"

After saying that, the handsome man waved to them, turned around and left, disappearing alone around the street corner.

Now, only Xia You and Na Zi remain.

Xia You stretched and said lazily, "Sigh, this matter is finally over. Now I can finally start challenging the various dojos!"

Sabrina glanced at him and said calmly, "So, which gym do you plan to challenge first?"

Xia You took out her phone and opened the map.

"Judging from the straight-line distance on the map, the closest gyms to here should be the Violet Gym in Violet City and the Smoky Gym in Smoky City. However, in terms of actual routes, although the road to Smoky City is not easy to travel, it is very close to Kaji Town. When meeting up with the handsome guy, we can avoid taking some detours."

Naza nodded: "So you're going to Inkstone City?"

"No, I plan to go to Violet City first and challenge the Violet City Gym!"

Naza: ? ? ?

Is there something wrong with this person's head? If you're going to take the long way around, why did you go through all that buildup?!

Seeing her adorable appearance, Xia You patted her face and laughed heartily, "It's precisely because it's too close that we can't go there first. Otherwise, we'll have nothing to do after the gym battles. So it's better to go to the Kikyo Gym first. After all, Kikyo City is located in the center of Johto, and it's easily accessible from all directions. We can go to Smoothie City after the gym battles!"

Although she was almost thrown off balance by Xia You's erratic thinking, Nazi naturally had no objections to his plan.

In fact, even if Xia You said she wanted to retire here for the rest of her life, she would stay with her forever.

It was nearly noon by then. The two had lunch nearby and then left Wakaba Town, heading west, intending to pass through Yoshihaya City again and go to Kikyo City.

Because they weren't in a hurry, they walked quite leisurely, chatting and enjoying the scenery along the way.

While passing through a forest divided by a river, Xia You learned from online descriptions that this forest was home to thousands of Heracross and Helios, making it a great place to catch Bug-type Pokémon!

Unfortunately, Xia You wasn't interested in either of these Pokémon, and since she already had the Bug-type Scyther, she didn't rush in.

However, at the edge of the forest, they saw the girl they had met the day before.

The girl was trying to catch a Pidgey, and what was most surprising was that she was cheering herself on with commentary while she was fighting!

"Chrysanthemum Leaf, it's the decisive round, we absolutely cannot lose! Go go go!"

Amid her cheers, Chikorita twisted the leaf on its head, staring intently at Popo. Then, a dozen sharp, blade-like leaves condensed on its head and hurtled towards Popo!

Whoosh whoosh!

Amidst a series of whooshing sounds, the green-glowing leaf blades kept striking Bobo!

Despite Bobo's attempts to dodge, it was still hit by most of the attacks. Unable to bear the pain, it swayed, lost its balance, and fell from the air onto the grass.

"Well done!" With victory in sight, the girl put the baseball bat to her mouth, using it as a microphone, and shouted encouragement, "Hopefully, starting pitcher Chikorita can make batter Wild Pop swing and strike out! Alright, Chikorita, now let's press our advantage and decide the winner with the fastball! Use the batting attack!"

Xia You paused and watched for a while.

To be honest, he didn't know anything about baseball, didn't know the terminology, and didn't know what a strikeout was, but he knew the girl was a baseball fan, which is why he associated baseball with Pokémon battles.

At that moment, after hearing the girl's command, Chikorita used Tackle and charged in front of Popo.

But just as it was about to attack, Bobo suddenly recovered, flapped its wings and flew away lightly, dodging the impact.

"Sigh!" The girl sighed first, but then quickly regained her fighting spirit. "What a pity, but it's okay. Even though the first ball was a bad one, we still have the second ball! Chikorita, use Razor Leaf again!"

Chikorita used Rapid Leaf again, and instantly, more than a dozen leaves hit Pidgey.

This time, Bobo lost all his strength, fell from the sky, and fell into a coma.

"Success!!"

The girl cheered and quickly took out a Poké Ball, made a standard baseball pitching motion, and threw the Poké Ball at Pidgey.

Deng!

With a flash of red light, Popo was successfully captured in the ball. It only took a few gentle shakes to capture it.

"Great! I've captured Popo!"

The girl was hopping and skipping, clearly very lively.

Perhaps because she was so happy, after successfully taming Bobo, she rhythmically swayed her arms and started singing!

"To celebrate this moment, let's sing a victory song! Now, let's begin: Riding the winds of Mount Raibou, lightning flashes by! Light Screen, Thunder Punch! Leer, Leer, Electabuzz! Go, go, Electabuzz!!!"

Xia You looked completely bewildered by the song.

He knew that Mt. Leybold was one of the high mountains in Johto, but there weren't any Electric-type Pokémon there...

And it has to be said that, as expected of a trainer, there is a Pokémon that matches the trainer's style. Chikorita was also clapping along to the beat, swaying its body to the music!

Hey, even if you're happy, there's no need to suddenly sing an awkward song!

Although Xia You also cheers for her Pokémon, she can't be as immersed in it as Xia You, and she can't talk to herself and get so excited all by herself like Xia You!

Putting that aside, you can tell from these things that the girl has a very warm personality.

Well, the feeling Xia You got from her was that she had a very energetic and vibrant personality!

But then again, that song, after listening to it so many times, seems to have a kind of magic to it, and it's surprisingly good!

When the song ended, the girl turned around and belatedly realized that she saw Xia You.

"Huh! It's you!?"

Her eyes lit up, and she strode towards Xia You.

"What a coincidence, we meet again!" She was slightly out of breath, looked up at Xia You, and gave a bright smile. "I'm so sorry about what happened last time. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Nana, and I'm a new trainer who just started from Wakaba Town!"

Chapter 290 Nana's First Experience

Just as Xia You had thought, she was indeed the girl named Nai Nai!

I never expected that after parting ways with her yesterday afternoon, a whole night had passed, and she had only walked such a short distance in all that time.

It seems that this was probably the first time he went out, and he wanted to catch every Pokémon he encountered, which is why he wasted so much time trying to catch them.

"My name is Xia You, and I am also a trainer." After saying that, Xia You introduced, "This is Sabrina next to me, and she is my partner."

Naza crossed her arms, raised her head with a slightly haughty air, her long, straight black hair swaying gently, showing no intention of greeting anyone.

"Xia You?"

Nana frowned, feeling that the name sounded familiar. After looking at Xia You more closely, she felt that she had seen his face somewhere before!

"Ah! I remember now!" she suddenly shrieked, pointing at Xia You and shouting, "You're the Quartz Tournament champion! I watched the replay of your final match!!!"

Nana's voice was so loud that Xia You had to cover one ear.

“No need to be so surprised…” He shook his head. “Every year, the tournament produces a champion, and each region combined produces at least a dozen champions. This year, it just happened to be my lucky break.”

As she spoke, Xia You was secretly pleased with herself.

Look, this is what it means to be humble as a champion. Even when recognized, you remain modest!

“You’re completely different from them!” Nana exclaimed, her eyes shining. “You won the championship with a perfect record! And it’s not just me, my dad, mom, grandpa, grandma, and other relatives have all watched your matches! They all like you very much!”

At this point, she seemed to realize something and excitedly said, "By the way, this is a rare opportunity, please have a match with me!"

"Want to fight you?"

Xia You looked her up and down.

Knowing full well that I won the championship, why would they still challenge me?

It can only be said that Nana is a newcomer and does not yet have a clear understanding of the strength of other contestants, let alone know what fear is!

But if you think about it from another person's perspective, if Ash were in the wild and encountered one of the champions he had seen on TV, he probably wouldn't be able to resist challenging him too!

only…