Chapter 320: Let's See If She's Worthy
League Year 184.
Celestic Town.
The blonde girl packed her bags and stepped out of her home.
More than a year ago, at the end of League Year 182.
Cynthia participated in the Sinnoh Regional Conference.
With three Pokémon averaging Lv. 38, she didn't even make it past the preliminaries.
The following year.
League Year 183.
Cynthia learned some inside information about the upcoming League system reform from her mother.
She knew that challenging the League in the future would require a team of at least six Pokémon.
So.
Cynthia wasn't in a hurry to participate in the next Regional Conference.
She chose to settle down with her three partners and see if she could find a few more partners.
By the end of the year.
Cynthia had indeed caught two more Pokémon.
They were Spiritomb and West Sea Gastrodon.
Spiritomb was the child of Carmela's Spiritomb and a wild Mismagius.
And Gastrodon was a Pokémon Cynthia caught during her travels.
Initially, it was just a small Shellos.
During this period.
Cynthia also met other Pokémon she liked or who wanted to follow her.
But for some reason.
Cynthia always left a spot open in this team.
Until the beginning of this year.
The Pokémon League officially announced the system reform.
Registering for the Regional Conference required challenging eight Gyms and obtaining eight Badges.
And the elimination rounds of the Regional Conference changed from the original 3v3 battles to 6v6 battles.
This meant.
Even if Cynthia's team obtained eight Badges, it wasn't enough to participate in the Regional Conference.
She needed to find the last partner!
Also because of the system reform.
Cynthia decided to go out this year, travel to other regions, and try challenging other regional Leagues.
But before that.
She had to find the last partner first.
"Ready to go find Riolu?"
Carmela looked at her daughter's determined gaze with a gratified expression.
After two years of experience.
Cynthia was no longer the rookie trainer who had just started.
She believed her daughter could now gain Riolu's recognition.
"Mm! I want to travel with Riolu. My team cannot be without Riolu."
Cynthia nodded heavily.
This was why Cynthia's team wasn't full.
Since before she even stepped out of her home to start traveling.
She had made up her mind.
Her future team must have that Riolu!
Even if in future competitions...
She might need to train more Pokémon or temporarily switch out a Pokémon, she would absolutely never consider switching Riolu out.
Riolu must always be in the team, by her side.
Just like Garchomp!
Professor Rowan had already promised Cynthia that he would send her to the foot of Wolf Mountain where Riolu lived.
She believed she could catch Riolu this time!
Because she and Garchomp and the others had been training very hard.
Just to defeat Riolu and make him willingly join her team.
They were very strong now!
"Then... safe travels."
"Mm! I'm off, Mom."
The Mightyena clan was no longer what it used to be.
The number of Mightyena in the clan reached 130, plus 20 Poochyena puppies to be fed.
The three mountains, five ridges, and two forests in the northernmost part of Mt. Silver.
Now all fell under the jurisdiction of the Mightyena and Vespiquen alliance.
Three mountains.
Wolf Mountain, Flower Mountain, Rocky Mountain.
Five ridges.
Five smaller mountains surrounding Wolf Mountain and Flower Mountain.
Two forests.
Two plain forests.
There wasn't much change in these areas; the wolf and bee clans were too lazy to manage the Pokémon living there.
As long as they didn't cause big trouble.
They lived as they did before.
Originally, Will didn't plan to expand the territory with the Mightyena clan because it would disperse their strength.
But later, he had to.
The wolf clan grew stronger and larger.
Wolf Mountain became a bit crowded.
Once the environment became crowded, the clan members would start to become irritable, and internal conflicts would occur frequently, hindering unity.
That was what Will didn't want to see.
And one more point.
Every Mightyena had different preferences.
Some liked living on the mountaintop plateau, some in the mountainside forest, but some liked living on the bare rocky mountain or the flat plain forest.
To let everyone run to live and play where they liked.
Will united with the Vespiquen clan next door to expand the territory.
Originally, the Vespiquen clan wasn't interested.
But Will said they could use more land to plant flowers and get more honey.
So Vespiquen was persuaded.
Wolf Mountain Waterfall.
Will sat under the waterfall, cooling his brain with the water flow.
Recently, he often felt irritable.
Because he was already Lv. 52, but still hadn't evolved into Lucario.
Will felt his relationship with Wolf Mom and these minions was excellent.
If there was Friendship or Happiness, it must have reached the standard for evolution long ago.
But he didn't understand.
Why he hadn't evolved yet.
Wolf Mom occasionally worried about this problem too.
But she didn't care particularly.
Whether Will was Riolu or Lucario, it made no difference to Wolf Mom.
He was her puppy.
Half a year ago.
Will went to Professor Rowan's lab, asking him to check if there was something wrong with his body.
Like in his previous life as a Piplup, where physical problems prevented evolution.
But no.
Professor Rowan said his body was quite healthy.
Healthy to the point of being somewhat excessive, requiring a change in the League's record data for Riolu.
Coincidentally.
Professor Rowan was quite interested in the problem appearing on Will.
Because he specialized in researching "evolution."
A Riolu so healthy and powerful, yet unable to evolve into Lucario, sparked his research interest.
After many subsequent research tests over half a year.
Professor Rowan believed.
Will's inability to evolve was caused by psychological reasons.
How to treat it specifically.
Professor Rowan gave only one suggestion: Find a trainer you like and who likes you, travel together, and forge a deep friendship.
This made Will numb.
Didn't this mean waiting for Cynthia to come find him?
The problem dragged on for so long without solution.
Will inevitably felt irritable occasionally.
But for someone possessing Aura Power and able to control Aura.
Such irritable emotions usually disappeared as soon as they surfaced.
So it didn't have much impact.
Just then.
"Woof!"
A bark came from nearby.
Then a Mightyena drilled out, barking at Will a few times.
"A human is coming up the mountain?"
Will frowned.
In this year or so, humans had strayed into Wolf Mountain before.
But generally, they were scared away by the Mightyena.
And this time.
This person came straight up the mountain.
That undoubtedly meant coming with a purpose.
What was on Wolf Mountain?
Just a bunch of Mightyena and Poochyena?
"Pokémon Hunter?"
Will muttered, curling his lip.
"You guys go deal with it; just drive them away."
As Will's voice fell.
Four figures drilled out from nearby, leisurely heading down the mountain.
No killing humans.
Will emphasized this to the four minions more than once.
Wild Pokémon beating up people.
Not a big problem.
But killing people.
Regardless of whether the person was good or bad, the wild Pokémon who killed them would basically be taken away.
Whether for supervision or execution depended on the identity of the person killed.
So.
Will basically repeated it to them every day in the past.
Believed they remembered it in their hearts now.
Near the foot of the mountain.
A blonde girl drilled out of a forest.
She reached out to pick a leaf off her head and adjusted the ribbon on the back of her head.
After all this time.
The originally black and gold ribbon had turned somewhat gray.
But Cynthia was reluctant to replace it.
She wore this ribbon specifically today, hoping that if Riolu had forgotten her, seeing this ribbon might remind him a little.
"Phew... Riolu should be near the mountainside, right? I remember Professor Rowan said when he came to Wolf Mountain for field research with Riolu, Riolu usually moved around the waterfall near the mountainside."
Cynthia twitched her ears.
She was trying to listen for the sound of flowing water.
As long as she found the sound of water flow, she should be able to find the waterfall.
Rustle.
Just then, the forest beside her shook.
Cynthia's expression didn't change; she calmly placed her hand on the Poké Ball at her waist.
The next moment.
Four Pokémon with somewhat ferocious appearances walked out.
"Hm?"
Cynthia frowned.
Looking at the Floatzel and Toxicroak, she recalled two years ago.
When the Mightyena clan came to pick up Riolu, there was a Buizel and a Croagunk in the team.
She felt these were those two little ones.
Only evolved now.
"Wonder if Riolu evolved too."
Cynthia felt some expectation in her heart.
If possible...
She hoped Riolu hadn't evolved yet.
Because she wanted to see Riolu evolve with her own eyes.
Opposite.
Toxicroak, Floatzel, and the others whispered, briefly explaining this blonde girl's matter to Cacturne and Pinsir.
Simply put.
This blonde was here to take their boss away.
Floatzel: "Taking Will away isn't impossible. He's so amazing; he can't stay in these mountains forever. The leader also wants him to go out and see."
Cacturne: "I think she's quite nice. Haven't forgotten Will after so long; I'm moved to tears. If a human treated me like this, I'd give myself to her."
Pinsir: "But letting her see Will so easily isn't good either."
Toxicroak: "Right. Why don't we test her to see if she's worthy of taking Will away."
The four agreed and nodded together.
Then they glared together at the blonde girl who wanted to come up and get close.
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