Pokémon from Galar

Because it had been exposed to the elements for so long, it was quite weathered. Marie only glanced at it briefly before walking into town. Compared to this, the statue of the unknown Pokémon, which she had only discovered recently, was probably more worth seeing.

"There are more people on the streets now."

After arriving at the Pokémon Center and temporarily entrusting their Pokémon to Nurse Joy, Yuri chatted with Marie while waiting in line to buy bubble tea.

"Because of the statue? Or that researcher?"

"A statue, perhaps? That researcher left in less than three days. How can that attract people?"

Yuri smiled and shared her guess, which was roughly as follows.

The news of the resurrected Pokémon has not spread, and the person in charge is also missing, so most people are actually here to see the unknown statue.

"Where should we go first after we find a hotel?"

"Let's go visit that ruin. It's on the way anyway, no rush."

"Hehe, I'm planning to go see Cai Dou. I left in such a hurry that I didn't even have time to say goodbye. I need to go apologize."

"...Then I'll go with you, after all, I also have responsibilities."

Mary smiled somewhat embarrassedly; in truth, the blame still fell on her.

Let's go together!

……

The two of them came out of the Pokémon Center and walked down the street. There were many vendors on both sides, some were open shops, and some were just randomly set up stalls. They sold all sorts of strange things, including all kinds of inexplicable little items, and some stones that were said to be fossils.

This land does indeed contain a lot of fossils, so it's not hard to understand why the researcher would choose to come here. After all, another area with a high density of fossils is in the wilderness, which is not a good choice for someone who is not strong enough.

Yuri looked on with great interest at the strange and wonderful vendors, many of whom were selling Pokémon evolution items.

The most common type is probably evolution stones. These natural minerals are relatively easy to obtain and not particularly expensive, much cheaper than things like Spirit Cloth.

Of course, Pokémon teams like Yuri and Marie's have almost no members that need expensive items to evolve. Only Vulpix needs an Ice Stone, and Eevee might need an Evolution Stone.

They are a fairly easy team to manage.

After passing through the bustling market, as you approach the city center, various ramps and staircases begin to appear. The city has a significant elevation difference, and walking through it is quite physically demanding.

Exhausted, Yuri called Balu out halfway through the journey, then sat in the bend of Balu's tail, like riding a cable car, holding onto Balu's tail in a leisurely manner.

Mary raised her eyebrows and finally sat down herself. The two girls together weighed less than 100 kilograms, so squeezing onto Balu's tail was no burden at all for Balu.

I booked a room at a hotel near the dojo, intending to visit the ruins, but unexpectedly ran into Aya on the way back from her destination.

"Oh, Miss Rainbow Bean, it's been a long time!"

Upon spotting Aya walking towards her, Yuri, sitting on Baloo's tail, raised her hand and waved, easily attracting Aya's attention.

"...Long time no see, what are you all doing here?"

Aya raised her hand in greeting, then looked the two girls sitting on Balu up and down; they looked more like children.

"We're planning to visit the old ruins. Where's Ayako?"

"I just got back from there and was planning to rest for a bit. Is this the friend you mentioned? Hello, I'm Cai Dou."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Mary."

Seeing the outstretched hand, Mary instinctively jumped down, straightened up, and then shook it. As rumored, Cai Dou was indeed not very cheerful and was a very cool and serious woman.

"You came to Sootopolis to challenge the Gym Leaders, right? This Dragapult looks pretty strong."

"Yes, but I haven't decided which gym to challenge yet."

"Ah—about this, because I've been in charge of work related to that new ruin recently, the frequency of challenges I've arranged has been very low. If you want to challenge me, you'll have to consider the waiting time."

Although Bea seemed eager to fight Pazu, she still explained her situation seriously: the Fighting-type gym had recently been busy with the ruins, and they were indeed a bit overwhelmed with gym challenges.

With Onio being his usual self, and Bea not being able to count on him for help, she had no choice but to shift the gym challenge to him.

Mary paused for a moment, then nodded knowingly and said with a smile:

"Thank you, Gym Leader Bea. I will consider it carefully."

"It's nothing, it's what I should do."

"Eh—so busy? I was planning to take Onion Soldier to train with Aya-chan again..."

Yuri scratched her head, completely at ease. Ayame seemed to enjoy this way of interacting; her expression softened considerably, and she nodded, saying:

“You can come anytime. When I’m not here, your other fellow disciples can also practice with you. Your Onion Warrior is a rare opponent.”

"Oh, I understand! Thank you!"

"You're welcome. I'll be going now. Goodbye."

After saying goodbye, Ayaka waved and headed away from the gym, leaving Marie and Yuri behind. At that moment, Yuri quietly leaned close to Marie's ear and whispered:

"Listen to me, listen to me. I think Miss Ayaka and Onio have a very good relationship."

"……Why?"

"Actually, when I mention Onio in front of Ayaka, I always feel that the atmosphere becomes very comfortable for Ayaka."

"Is this really not some weird fan filter...? If it were that easy to spot, it would have been discovered long ago."

"Well—but I just believe it!"

In fact, Yuri herself was only half-convinced, so she forced herself to refute it once and then stopped there.

"Let's not discuss this kind of gossip. Instead, I've decided to challenge the Ghost-type Gym. Every little bit of time saved is a good thing."

"Hehe~ I told you to challenge Onio a long time ago, really~"

Hearing Mary's words, Yuri chuckled.

I'm stuck...

I was stuck for two hours, and finally decided to just write for a day. My old, rather casual outline is no longer usable, so I'm a bit lost and confused about how to write it. It feels like no matter how I write it, the villains all seem to lack intelligence… It's frustrating.

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Chapter 215 Ghost-Type Gym

"Marie-chan~"

"what?"

"Why is Galarian Ponyta called Ponyta? The two are so different, how are they classified as the same?"

"Forehead--"

The two leaned against the railing, gazing down at the town of Su Chuan, when Mary was stumped by this question.

"How would I know... According to legend, Ponyta became what it is today because it lived in the Forest of Light for generations, so maybe Ponyta was once on fire too."

"But that seems to be just a legend; there's no concrete evidence to prove this morphological change."

It seems Yuri did her homework too. Mari shrugged, staring in the direction of the Mystic Forest, and said with a smile:

"I don't know. Besides, it's just a name. Even Little Pony might not care."

"Hehe~ Do you think I should try to catch a little Ponyta? The videos I saw online are so beautiful!"

"Ponyta is a psychic, intelligent and selective. It doesn't like people it doesn't want, so it won't be easy to win it over."

Psychic-type Pokémon tend to have this problem: they rely more on intuition when choosing a trainer. However, conversely, a trainer who owns Ponyta is almost certainly a good person, while those who are a bit bad will basically only get kicked by Ponyta.

"Hey, I was just saying. Who doesn't like cute Pokémon?"

Yuri turned her head to look at the two gyms and the Mystic Forest in the distance, rested her chin on her hand and leaned against the railing, with the ruins managed by the gym staff behind her.

Beside the ruins, many professionals were trying to restore the broken murals.

Even if there are ruins hidden beneath the murals, the murals themselves, as relics of the past, still need to be protected. The Pokémon League cannot simply stand by and watch the murals be destroyed.

Of course, none of this was something Mary needed to worry about. She was just here to broaden her horizons and see if the Sword and Shield gods looked cool.

Many people share the same idea as Marie; most of them came to see the new ruins and the unknown Pokémon.

As for Peter, because Chairman Rose deliberately suppressed the news, everyone only knew that a trainer accidentally broke the mural and discovered the ruins, so basically no one condemned him.

I wonder where Peter went at this time, or if he was taken away by Poppy for some kind of "education".

Lost in thought, Mary, with the wind blowing, lazily tilted her head and looked at Yuri. Could this silly, cheerful girl really beat Dante this year...?

"What's wrong? Why are you staring at me like that..."

Feeling a little hot under her gaze, Yuri raised her hand to press down the strands of hair that were being blown around by the wind and looked at Mari.

"nothing……"

Mary suddenly reached out and placed her hand near Yuri's cheek, her fingers brushing against the ends of her hair as she smiled and said:

"I just think your hair has grown quite a bit, don't you want to get it cut?"

Unexpectedly, Mary made such an ambiguous move. Yuri subconsciously shrank her neck, feeling her cheeks getting hotter and hotter. She quickly turned her head away and pretended not to care, saying:

"I'm thinking of getting a new hairstyle, so I'm planning to grow it a little longer."

"Really? Should I get a different one too?"

Withdrawing her hand, Mary noticed Yuri's flushed cheeks but didn't point it out, only secretly smiling to herself.

"For Mary-chan, just undoing her hair should be enough, right?"

"That makes sense, why don't we give it a try?"

Without hesitation, Mary straightened up, then raised her hand to untie her braids, letting them fall loose, transforming her pigtails into long, flowing hair. Yuri then took a baseball cap out of her backpack and handed it to Mary, who casually put it on.

After taking out her Rotom phone to fix her hair and checking her appearance, Mary turned to Yuri with a smile and asked:

"How about it?"

"pretty good."

Having lived together for so long, I've gotten used to Mary's long hair. At this point, it's not a matter of whether it's amazing or not; it's just that it suits me.

"Let's go down now. We still need to register at the dojo. I don't know how many days it will take."

"Maybe we don't even need to wait. Didn't they say before that not many people had broken through to the Fire-type Gym?"

"That's what they say, but there are probably quite a few people stuck in Suchuan Town."

He casually took Yuri's hand, and the two walked together toward the stairs leading away.