With the generous assistance of countless volunteers from all over and the League pouring vast amounts of resources into the effort, the reconstruction of Fallarbor Town was essentially complete after a week. All that remained were a few minor repairs and finishing touches.
Thus, after spending seven days assisting with the reconstruction, Sato stopped taking part in the rebuilding work and instead devoted himself wholeheartedly to raising the newly acquired Pokémon in his team.
After a thrilling adventure, what naturally followed was a peaceful yet rewarding period of steady growth.
On Route 114, in a wooden cabin near Muddy Lake, stood Sato's temporary residence. Early that morning, several Pokémon were diligently training in the spacious clearing before the cabin.
As usual, Pikachu floated in midair using its skillful Magnet Rise. Above its head, a newly formed Electro Ball was gradually taking shape.
Pikachu continuously poured Electric-type energy into the sphere, causing it to grow larger and larger. Before long, the ball of electricity had become twice Pikachu's own size.
However, Electric-type energy was naturally violent and extremely difficult to control.
Once the Electro Ball reached a certain size, Pikachu began compressing it. Despite its best efforts, it only managed to shrink the sphere to about half its original size before it became dangerously unstable. Brilliant arcs of electricity began leaking wildly from its surface.
Finally—
Boom!
With a muffled explosion, the enormous Electro Ball burst apart like an overinflated bubble.
"Pika..."
Seeing the giant Electro Ball it had worked so hard to compress explode once again, Pikachu let out a disappointed sigh before looking pitifully at Sato.
"Keep it up. The maximum size you can form is already much larger than it was a few days ago. I think it won't be long before you can create your own Light Ball."
Sato simply smiled. He popped a Gem-grade PokeBlock into Pikachu's puffed-up mouth before encouraging it.
Without realizing it, Pikachu had already reached Level 53, firmly entering the pseudo-Elite-Four tier.
Among wild Pikachu colonies, very few Pikachu ever managed to reach such a level, and most that did were already middle-aged or older.
Once they reached that stage, they would usually begin condensing a Light Ball, a precious treasure that could be passed down to future generations.
A Light Ball was an Electric-type treasure formed by compressing highly concentrated electrical energy.
Normally, the process was relatively simple. Pikachu merely needed to compress an Electro Ball to an extreme degree and infuse it with a small amount of its own blood to create the prototype of a Light Ball.
The eventual quality of the Light Ball depended largely on the Pikachu's own strength, along with the intensity and quantity of electricity infused into it.
The stronger the Pikachu...
...the stronger the Light Ball it created.
Likewise, the more powerful the electrical current and the greater the amount of electricity poured into it, the more potent the completed Light Ball would become.
Logically speaking, with Pikachu's extraordinary talent and superb control over Electric-type energy, creating the prototype of a Light Ball should have been effortless.
Reality, however, was far less forgiving.
Pikachu still needed much more practice before it could create one.
The reason was simple.
The electrical current inside Pikachu's body was now far stronger than that of ordinary Pikachu. A normal Light Ball prototype simply couldn't withstand the immense current it was trying to contain.
The source of that extraordinary current naturally came from the mutated Thunder Orb residing within Pikachu's body.
Furthermore, during its battle against Kyogre, Pikachu had absorbed part of the electricity generated by Kyogre's Thunder attack.
As a result, the intensity of the electricity within its body far surpassed that of an ordinary Pikachu.
Because the current was now so overwhelming, compressing it had become extremely difficult.
The only solution was to continue practicing little by little, steadily improving its control over Electric-type energy through repeated attempts.
Pikachu was as obedient as ever.
After taking a short break, it immediately began another attempt at compressing a giant Electro Ball.
...….
Compared with Pikachu's solitary training, things were much livelier on Bagon's side.
Bagon, Poliwag, and Lotad were engaged in a chaotic free-for-all.
Of course, since Bagon was the strongest of the three, Poliwag and Lotad naturally teamed up against it.
After several days of Sato's training and constant battles against Bagon, both Poliwag and Lotad had reached Level 18.
Under Swampert's instruction, they had also successfully learned four moves:
Surf, Waterfall, Dive, and Whirlpool.
As for Bagon, after battling Poliwag and Lotad no fewer than ten times every day, its level had quietly risen to Level 25.
...….
On the battlefield, the already heavily injured Poliwag and Lotad flanked Bagon from both front and back before simultaneously firing Water Gun.
Seeing this, Bagon immediately leapt high into the air, effortlessly dodging both attacks before diving toward Poliwag at lightning speed with a Headbutt.
However, the moment Bagon evaded the attacks, Poliwag and Lotad immediately adjusted the angles of their Water Guns, aiming about thirty degrees upward.
The two streams collided in midair.
Water exploded everywhere, creating a brief rain shower across the battlefield.
At that exact moment, Poliwag's body suddenly glowed with the light of a speed boost, allowing it to narrowly evade Bagon's descending Headbutt.
While Bagon's head was temporarily embedded in the ground after the attack, Lotad immediately launched a glowing green seed.
Leech Seed.
The instant it landed on Bagon, it sprouted into thick vines that tightly bound its body while steadily draining its stamina and transferring it to Lotad.
Seeing Bagon restrained, Poliwag boldly rushed forward.
It immediately began slapping Bagon's rear repeatedly with Double Slap, venting all the frustration it had built up.
Yet Bagon's combat experience far surpassed Poliwag's.
It had deliberately lured its opponent in.
The moment Poliwag closed the distance, Bagon yanked its head free from the ground and smashed Poliwag away with a powerful Headbutt, knocking it out completely.
Afterward, it used Ember to burn away the parasitic vines before easily defeating the unsupported Lotad.
However, after defeating Poliwag and Lotad, Bagon didn't proudly roar in triumph as it usually did.
Instead...
...it simply nodded respectfully toward the two defeated Pokémon.
After observing the trio over the past several days, Sato had long realized that Bagon possessed excellent battle instincts and had already mastered the moves it knew extremely well.
Poliwag and Lotad, on the other hand, were practically blank slates.
Whether it was battle experience or mastery of their moves, both still had a long way to go.
That was precisely why Sato had chosen Bagon as their sparring partner—to help them improve as quickly as possible.
Truthfully, there was no need for Bagon to level up too rapidly.
It only needed moderate daily training, regular exercise, good meals, and plenty of sleep.
Unlike most Dragon-type Pokémon, once Bagon evolved into Shelgon, it would stop eating altogether.
Instead, it would patiently wait for its body to complete its transformation before finally evolving into Salamence and soaring through the skies.
Because of that, the Bagon stage was the most crucial period of its entire life.
It largely determined how much potential the future Salamence would possess.
This stage was its period of energy accumulation.
If insufficient energy was stored before evolving into Shelgon, the Salamence it eventually became would inevitably be flawed.
At the very least, its potential would fall far behind that of a properly developed Salamence.
Sato had Bagon spar with Poliwag and Lotad partly because of its rich battle experience and moderate level.
But more importantly...
...he wanted Bagon to experience what it felt like to have opponents gradually catch up.
At first, Poliwag and Lotad were no match for Bagon.
Bagon defeated them effortlessly.
But as they steadily gained levels, accumulated battle experience, learned more moves, and developed better teamwork, defeating them became increasingly difficult for Bagon.
Just like today. Even though Bagon ultimately won, it had taken tremendous effort.
It had even resorted to a small trick to secure victory.
And because of that...
...its arrogance had noticeably diminished.
Bagon came from the Dragon's Den. Its horizons far exceeded those of any other Pokémon on Sato's team.
After all, it had grown up surrounded by incredibly powerful Dragon-type Pokémon, naturally developing a sense of superiority from an early age.
In the beginning, it refused to acknowledge anyone.
It was exceedingly proud—
—even Swampert, who could effortlessly put it in its place with a single finger.
For that reason, Sato had chosen this gradual approach, allowing Bagon's pride to fade naturally without crushing its fighting spirit, helping it truly integrate into the team.
Thanks to the high-quality businesses Steven had gifted him, Sato no longer had to run around worrying about money.
During this period, he devoted all his attention to training his Pokémon while assisting Swampert with its energy infusion.
His days were exceptionally fulfilling.
Training continued day after day.
Pikachu and the others improved steadily every day, while the progress of Swampert's energy infusion also advanced at a healthy pace.
However, on the twenty-first day of training on Route 114, a single phone call made it impossible for Sato to remain seated.
He had no choice but to immediately stop what he was doing...
...and return to Kanto.