The Blackthorn City Gym was a Dragon-type Pokémon Gym. It could be said to be one of the most difficult Gyms to challenge in the entire Johto region.
Although, because of Dragon-type Pokémon, no one knew how many people came every year, drawn by its fame, and although many Trainers with a high opinion of themselves wanted to challenge the Gym Leader and considered it an honor to win the Blackthorn City Gym Badge, those who could truly accomplish it were very few. In an entire year, not even a handful appeared.
According to what was said, when the Blackthorn City Gym Leader considered a challenger worthy of recognition, that person could obtain the opportunity to enter the Dragon's Den. If they had enough luck after entering, perhaps they could truly capture a valuable Dragon-type Pokémon.
In the past, several Trainers had managed to reach this point.
And the most recent among them was now a famous Pokémon Professor known throughout the entire Pokémon League: Professor Oak!
According to what was said, when Professor Oak was young and traveled through the Pokémon world, after defeating the Blackthorn City Gym Leader, he received special permission to enter the Dragon's Den, and with very great luck, captured a Dratini with quite outstanding aptitude.
Although Cain was curious about the situation inside the Dragon's Den, he could not force his way in. After all, it was the base of the Drako family. Who knew what kind of experts were truly hidden within the Drako family?
Cain went up the mountain and found a relatively secluded place to settle temporarily.
He was not in a hurry.
Because Cain felt that, when he finished that thing Celebi believed he had come here to do, he would return to the original time and space. If that was the case, could Cain not use this place as a site even more useful than the Space-Time Continent?
No matter how fast the flow of time in the Space-Time Continent was, could it be more useful than Celebi's direct control over time?
Because of that, Cain was not in any hurry. Instead, it was better to invest more effort into training his Pokémon.
Only, Cain wanted to calmly train his Pokémon alone, but there were people who would not allow him to live so peacefully.
After all, this place was Blackthorn City. There were no small number of Trainers who came here for tourism or to challenge the Gym.
Then, this mountain of Blackthorn City was inevitably a place those Trainers loved to visit. Perhaps, with good luck, they might even be able to capture some good Pokémon.
There were quite a few who had this thought.
Because of that, visitors arrived from time to time at the place where Cain had settled. And most of these people, upon seeing Cain for the first time, chose to challenge him.
A Trainer who could choose to live directly in the depths of the mountain had to be an expert.
After defeating several challengers who did not know what they were doing, Cain's fame surprisingly grew all at once.
Aside from the Blackthorn City Gym Leader, another Trainer of great strength had appeared in Blackthorn City, hidden deep within the mountain.
Was this not exactly the feeling of a hermit expert?
Regarding such a person, the curiosity of most people even exceeded what they felt toward the Blackthorn City Gym.
And the most important thing was that anyone who challenged this Trainer had never managed to force him to use a second Pokémon. The entire process was a battle with a single Pokémon, and it was always a one-against-six victory.
Little by little, Cain even ended up having a small legend of his own, and the challengers who came attracted by his fame became stronger and stronger.
With the idea that training on his own was also exercise, and battling against other Pokémon was also exercise, Cain basically did not reject anyone who came.
...
Blackthorn City Pokémon Center.
Miss Joy and her Chansey were busy attending to the Pokémon of a Trainer who belonged directly to the League.
And this Trainer evidently trusted the Pokémon Center and Miss Joy very much. After handing his Pokémon into their hands, he let out a long sigh and sat down in the waiting area to one side.
At that moment, in the waiting area, he was not the only Trainer waiting.
"Did you all also go challenge the expert on the mountain?" this man asked as soon as he sat down, addressing several people who were conversing in low voices.
Because he had vaguely heard those people mention the names of several Pokémon: Gardevoir, Lucario, and Venusaur.
Were those not precisely the Pokémon that mysterious person used?
Upon hearing his words, the people who had been speaking quietly looked at him.
"It seems you also lost the challenge and brought your Pokémon to receive treatment, right?"
That man nodded. Some admiration appeared on his face.
"That's right. The opponent's strength is really far too great. From beginning to end, he only directed a Gardevoir, and with that, he defeated my six Pokémon."
"But he truly has the style of an expert. Although all my Pokémon were defeated, their injuries were not very serious."
The other people also nodded. Their feelings were almost the same.
"You faced Gardevoir, but I encountered a Shiny Venusaur."
"I encountered Lucario."
"I also faced a Shiny Venusaur..."
"..."
For a moment, the people in the waiting area began to say one after another which Pokémon they had been defeated by.
There were seven or eight people in total, and all of them had been defeated by that mysterious expert on the mountain.
"I heard from a friend that a Trainer whose strength was terrifying had appeared on the back mountain of Blackthorn City, so I came, drawn by his fame, to challenge him. At first, I thought it was an exaggeration, but I did not expect that he really was such a powerful Trainer."
"That is why I say that, sometimes, rumors are quite true. Although I lost against that expert, I learned many things."
"Yes... To be honest, I also challenged the Pokémon Gym Leader, but I feel that the strength of that mysterious expert may even be greater than that of the Pokémon Gym Leader. Perhaps... perhaps he has Elite Four-level strength."
The one who spoke was one of the strongest people among them, someone who also had a certain fame in the circle of traveling Trainers.
Because of that, his words had quite a bit of credibility.
(End of chapter)