Before the three of them stood a large wooden structure, with tall fences stretching out to either side.
This was the Safari Zone.
There must have been some kind of surveillance system in place, because as the group drew near, the iconic wooden gate swung slowly open.
Standing behind it was the warden of this territory — Kaiser.
He looked to be somewhere in his sixties, his silver hair combed back without a single strand out of place. The deep lines on his face were the marks of a life spent weathering storms.
His eyes were narrowed by instinct, but behind the squint lay a sharp, cutting edge. He was the kind of man you could tell at a glance was tough — not in terms of raw power, but in terms of sheer grit.
It made sense. Living alone out in the wild, guarding the Safari Zone... a man in that position would inevitably cross paths with poachers and worse.
What drew the eye most immediately were the two revolvers holstered at his hip — lovingly maintained, gleaming like mirrors. Their metal caught the sunlight with a cold, hard sheen, their presence announcing itself in silence.
...Though, Ash had to admit, pulling out revolvers in a world full of Pokémon was a bit of an odd aesthetic choice.
Not that firearms were entirely useless in this world — it was just that, more often than not, they weren't the right tool for the job. Especially against Pokémon that weren't made of flesh to begin with. Rock- and Steel-types didn't particularly care about bullets. Ghost-types cared even less.
For a Gastly or any other Ghost-type Pokémon, it didn't matter if you came at them with a pocket pistol or a Barrett — if the shot passed straight through, it passed straight through. End of discussion.
In that regard, Pokémon were simply the more adaptable option. Fire, lightning, gusts of wind — Pokémon could throw all of that and more, and they could adapt to almost anything.
Kaiser's gaze swept over Ash and the others with an expression that couldn't have been more transparent: Oh, another batch of troublesome brats.
But the instant his eyes landed on Janine, that cold hardness thawed in a heartbeat, melting into the warm, indulgent smile of an elder greeting a child they were fond of.
Kaiser: Ah, this one's family.
"Janine, girl — what brings you all the way out to see this old man today?"
Kaiser and Koga went back a long way. The two had been close friends for years. It was only natural — the Safari Zone covered a substantial piece of land, and anyone responsible for it couldn't avoid having dealings with the local Gym.
"Uncle Kaiser." Janine bowed respectfully and reached to her hip, drawing out the sealed scroll tube. She offered it forward with both hands. "My father asked me to deliver this to you."
This wasn't a question of Kaiser outranking her. It was simply a reflex drilled into her by a lifetime of ninja training.
"Hmph. That old goat Koga — what era does he think we're living in, still mucking around with these ancient relics?" Kaiser grumbled, though his hands took the scroll tube swiftly and efficiently, tucking it into the inner pocket of his vest without bothering to look at it.
"Stop standing around in the doorway. All of you, come in."
He had a pretty good idea the scroll didn't contain anything critically urgent. Because, whatever else Koga might be, the man was old-fashioned — not actually stupid.
If something genuinely important needed communicating, you made a private phone call. Obviously.
Messages sent by scroll tended to fall into a particular category: things that could be considered significant or trivial depending on your perspective, but which called for a certain... ceremonial weight in their delivery.
That was right. The whole point was ceremony.
Kaiser turned and led them all toward a small wooden cabin nearby that served as both his home and his office. The interior was simple and rough-hewn, thoroughly infused with the spirit of outdoor living — but kept with a fastidious tidiness that caught you off guard.
The moment Ash stepped inside, his attention was drawn to a large mural hanging on the wall.
It depicted Kaiser as a young man — a thick head of dark hair, a wide open grin, his whole bearing radiating a bright, unburdened energy. Cradled affectionately in his arms was a serpentine Pokémon covered in pale blue scales, its underside a clean white: a Dratini.
It had deep purple eyes. A small white protrusion on its forehead marked the horn still forming beneath the skin. White fins spread from either side of its head. Its round, oversized white nose sat at the center of a face dominated by large, blinking eyes — eyes brimming with total trust and dependence in the person holding it.
The background of the painting was a lake shimmering with reflected light, distant mountains rising softly behind it — a moment of warmth and tenderness preserved in pigment.
Ash understood at once. This was exactly what he'd read about in the original story — the Dratini and Dragonair said to inhabit this place. Their presence cast a legendary aura over the Safari Zone.
And the evolved form of Dratini and Dragonair was, of course, Dragonite.
Ash let his gaze drift away without lingering.
Dratini was rare and powerful, no question. But it wasn't an indispensable piece of his current team plan. A gentleman does not take what another man treasures. Even if it were a Dratini — it was Kaiser's. You couldn't just snatch away someone's dearest companion.
It was the same as it had been with Meowth.
Meowth was capable and useful, no doubt about it. But Meowth's heart belonged to Team Rocket. And a Pokémon Trainer worth the title couldn't afford to ignore what was in a Pokémon's heart when it came to catching one.
Someone like Vicious would never be anything but a small-time thug. That was why.
Before choosing a Pokémon, a Trainer could afford to be selective — compatibility mattered, after all. But Pokémon deserved the same right to be selective about their Trainers. Compatibility ran both ways.
And once that choice was made, there were simply things you didn't do. Things you couldn't do.
For Ash, the encounters and bonds along the journey mattered infinitely more than collecting rare Pokémon for their own sake. He had never intended to catch many Pokémon. That was his own way of doing things.
Besides — this was the Safari Zone, a protected preserve. League regulations strictly governed a Trainer's conduct here. And Ash could feel it clearly enough: the old man who appeared so ordinary on the surface was no pushover. Something in his bearing carried a weight that quietly radiated outward — and those two revolvers were almost certainly not just for show.
Even if Kaiser's combat ability fell short of Koga's, he was at minimum on par with Janine herself.
This was nothing like the slightly ridiculous warden from the animated series. The Kaiser standing before him was the unquestioned, genuine guardian of this land — and you didn't earn that title without something to back it up.
"Have a seat." Kaiser gestured toward the wooden chairs arranged around the room, then crossed to a storage cabinet and produced four sets of equipment with practiced ease.
Each set consisted of thirty Safari Balls — split white and green down the middle — along with what appeared to be a sturdy black fishing rod.
These were the standard-issue items for Trainers entering the Safari Zone.
"Here. You all know the rules?" Kaiser distributed the equipment to Ash, Brock, and Misty.
"Thirty Safari Balls each. One fishing rod."
"Inside these grounds, you may only use these specially made Safari Balls to catch Pokémon. Your own Poké Balls are strictly prohibited. Anyone caught breaking that rule..."
"...can expect to make the acquaintance of my Thunder Brothers."
He patted the revolvers at his hip without elaborating. The warning was perfectly clear.
Ash was momentarily puzzled. Thunder Brothers?
"Of course, of course! Understood completely!" Brock and Misty hurried to express their thanks.
They both knew that this equipment usually came with a fee attached. Getting it for free was obviously courtesy of Janine.
They weren't hurting for money — but who turned down free?
Ash took his Safari Balls and turned one over in his hand, feeling it carefully. The surface was smooth and pleasant to the touch. The internal structure felt roughly comparable to a standard Poké Ball — if perhaps a touch more primal, better suited to catching wild creatures in their natural habitat.
The moment he touched it, the System's brief information window surfaced naturally in his mind:
[Safari Ball: A special item manufactured for use in safari zones. Previously used in Kanto's hunting grounds and Sinnoh's Great Marsh. Features a camouflage pattern. A special type of ball.]
...Ah.
...So only the outside is special.
Functionally, not much of a difference from the ordinary kind.
Which was, honestly, true of most Poké Balls. The vast majority were essentially the same. Only a small handful had truly unique effects.
"I won't be needing one, Uncle Kaiser." Janine smiled and gently declined the set extended toward her. "I only came to deliver Father's message. I don't plan on catching any Pokémon here."
Janine wasn't short on Pokémon. And for her purposes, the ones raised through the Gym's own training regimen were simply more useful than anything caught out in the wild. Besides — Pokémon accustomed to living wild wouldn't adapt easily to a ninja's style of combat under normal circumstances. There was no point in forcing a change on a wild Pokémon's natural instincts.
Kaiser raised an eyebrow but didn't push it, only letting out a low grunt:
"You've always had your head on straight, that one." He glanced sideways. "Not like some starry-eyed youngsters who come in here with their eyes lighting up like they want to strip the whole zone bare."
Truthfully, Kaiser wasn't fond of Trainers coming into the Safari Zone to catch Pokémon at all.
Unfortunately, it was League policy. And complying with League policy was how you kept receiving League funding.
Kaiser: [Grumbling internally...]
Janine: [Sympathetic grumbling...]
Janine and Kaiser exchanged a few more pleasantries — asking after each other's health, talking briefly about Fuchsia City and the situation with the Laramie Clan on the plains. Nothing weighty; just the comfortable small talk of familiar acquaintances. The details were ordinary enough to skip over.
Kaiser's tone remained blunt and rough throughout, but the warmth in his eyes never wavered. In some sense, having no children of his own, he had always looked at Janine a little like a daughter.
As for Ash, Brock, and Misty — they might as well have been spare lightbulbs for all they could contribute to this conversation.
After a brief rest, the three of them prepared to head into the Safari Zone and explore.
Janine's errand was complete, and she intended to return to Fuchsia City.
"Mr. Kaiser, thank you for the equipment," Ash said on behalf of the group, meeting the old man's gaze squarely. "We'll respect every rule while we're here. You have our word."
"Hmph. You'd better." Kaiser crossed his arms and stood in the doorway, watching the young people go.
"Have fun out there — but don't forget. This place is their home. You're guests."
In Kaiser's view, the Safari Zone was where Pokémon lived as nature intended. Humans were visitors here, and visitors were all they would ever be.
With Kaiser seen off, the four of them left the cabin together and parted ways at the Safari Zone entrance.
"Ash!"
"Until next time..."
"I'll show you just how terrifying my Poison-type Pokémon can be!"
"I'll master the deepest secrets of the ninja arts through my training!"
Janine gave her farewell with that characteristic directness of hers — a declaration as much as a goodbye — then vanished in a series of swift, soundless movements, disappearing in a direction that was decidedly not toward Fuchsia City.
She clearly had other business to attend to.
Ninja Principle One: A ninja doesn't linger in sentiment. When it's time to cut and go, you cut and go.
...The only problem being that almost nobody actually lived by that rule anymore.
Koga and Janine still showed the most outward adherence to the code. Aya, for her part, treated the ninja rulebook roughly the way most people treated terms and conditions — something to click past without reading.
And Janine?
Well. You only had to look at the red tips of her ears as she disappeared into the distance to know — rules were made to be broken.
"She left in such a hurry~" Misty mused, watching the last flicker of her silhouette vanish.
"..." Brock was quiet for a moment. "People who are oblivious to certain things probably lead much more carefree lives."
"Okay, Brock, that's enough out of you," Misty said, having caught none of the implication.
But Ash had.
What was there to say, really?
A beauty bathed in silver moonlight? (Scratched out.)
A dashing young man with a bright future! (Confirmed.)
Once Janine had well and truly disappeared from sight, Ash, Brock, and Misty turned and stepped properly into the vast, teeming wilderness that awaited them.
Strictly speaking, there wasn't much real danger here. They'd come all this way — might as well enjoy it.
---
Back inside the cabin.
Kaiser watched through the window as the group's silhouettes receded into the distance. Only once they had been swallowed entirely by the lush green of the trees did the old man finally draw his gaze back in.
He moved to the table and retrieved the sealed scroll tube, unscrewing the cap with practiced ease and drawing out the scroll inside.
"What kind of era do we live in," he muttered, "and this old fool Koga still sends messages with one of these things. Ninja ways carved bone-deep, I suppose."
Sometimes, life calls for a little ceremony.
And sometimes, ceremony is just putting on a tuxedo to take out the trash.
Kaiser grumbled at his old friend's stubbornness as he unrolled the scroll.
The writing inside was small and dense, rendered in some kind of specialized ink. The content was considerably more substantial than Janine's simple "delivery errand" framing had suggested.
It contained a concise intelligence summary on Ash — his conduct and notable actions in Celadon City and Saffron City, his recorded clashes with Team Rocket, and even a veiled reference to his apparent connection with certain Legendary Pokémon.
At the end of the report was the heart of Koga's message:
[...I will be departing shortly for the Johto region to attend to a number of long-outstanding matters and lingering threats. I leave Fuchsia City and Janine in your care for the time being, old friend. As for this boy — Ash — he carries the weight of unpredictable variables. The future may see him stir great turbulence, or bring a turning of the tide. Having Janine travel in his company may prove to her benefit. In all things, proceed with caution.]
Kaiser's gaze lingered on the words departing for Johto and stir great turbulence for a long moment. The grey-flecked eyebrows drew together, faintly.
He slowly rolled the scroll back up and rose, moving to stand at the window.
His eyes drifted toward the direction the group had disappeared — as though they could pierce through the layers of forest and find the black-haired boy beyond.
"...Koga, you old devil. You slip off to Johto for a little peace and quiet, and in the same breath you drop a hot potato and your precious daughter in my lap. I'm going to be quite busy with this arrangement, I can see that already."
Kaiser spoke the words low and unhurried, his tone hovering somewhere between complaint and something that might have been anticipation.
Only those eyes — eyes that had seen more storms than most men lived through — held a flicker of quiet understanding, and something heavier beneath it.
His old friend had asked this of him. That meant there was going to be some stretching of old bones in the days ahead.
Behind him, near the doorway leading to the inner rooms, the air gave the faintest, almost imperceptible shiver.
For just a moment, a long and graceful blue form drifted past in the shadow without a sound — the luminous orbs along its neck catching the light in a faint, pearlescent glow, an X-shaped scar marking the small horn on its brow.
The figure passed and was gone, leaving behind only a breath of cool, damp air — the kind that carries the faint ghost of deep water — and the gentlest sway of a curtain.
That was Dragonair.
Dragonair was a formidable Pokémon. The singular complication was that the Dratini–Dragonair–Dragonite line belonged to the category of pseudo-legendary Pokémon — sometimes called late-bloomers.
Their growth period was exceptionally long, and there was no easy way to accelerate it. Forcing an evolution through artificial stimulation risked developmental deficiencies that couldn't be undone.
The Pokédex entry didn't make note of this, but even among members of the same species, individual variation could be enormous.
Dragonair, for its part, was genuinely elegant to look at.
Its pre-evolution, Dratini, wasn't bad either.
It was just a shame that the next evolutionary step produced Dragonite — which was, to put it charitably, rotund.
And Dragonite's design beyond its bulk was frankly a treasure chest of complaints.
If it happened to be a Shiny Dragonite, the situation only got worse.
Why are there wings on its head?
Why not just make the wings on its back bigger? That would have been fine!
"If you feel like it, go on and take a look at our guests..." Kaiser said with a quiet laugh, addressing his old companion.
At the Dratini stage, the life energy swelling within the creature was too great to contain — it couldn't be suppressed. The only release was through repeated shedding of the skin, nearly once a day, a continuous cycle of growth that accumulated over a long, long time before the transformation into Dragonair could finally occur.
And the step from Dragonair to Dragonite was longer still.
Dragonair stored immense energy within its body and could concentrate that force into the crystal-like orbs at its neck and tail to influence the weather. When the aura surrounding it intensified and it began to faintly luminescence, the weather in the surrounding area would shift in response. Since ancient times it had been revered by farming peoples as the master of weather, a divine being capable of summoning rain and calling forth sun at will.
As for when Kaiser's Dragonair would finally evolve into a Dragonite — that remained anyone's guess.
This was, perhaps, simply the gap between different levels of a Trainer's ability to nurture their Pokémon. The pace at which a Pokémon evolved varied with the Trainer raising it — the more talented the Trainer, the faster the growth.
If that Trainer possessed a particularly special ability — something like Viridian Power, or the innate gift of the dedicated Breeder — it was possible to accelerate a Pokémon's development still further.
In that regard, Aura — Ash's particular gift — wasn't quite the ideal tool for this job.
Aura could transmit emotion, amplify strength, extend one's senses outward, and achieve a great many other things. But its contribution to accelerating growth was, at best, a marginal one. After all, every discipline had its specialty, and this one simply wasn't Aura's.
____
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