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The figure blocking Ash and the others looked like a duck. Its body was wide, and its limbs were relatively thin, but the powerful strength it possessed was still evident.
This Pokémon was a relatively rare Fire-type Pokémon that inhabited the Kanto region, Magmar.
Moreover, this Magmar exuded an Elite Four Class Aura, intimidating Ash and the others.
"Guests from outside, please return. You are not welcome here," a cold voice came from inside the house. It seemed he was the Trainer of this Magmar.
In Ash's Aura perception, there was only one person inside the house, and that was the bald man he had just bumped into.
In other words… the bald man he randomly bumped into on the side of the road was an Elite Four Class Trainer? That's quite unbelievable!
However, the other party was, after all, related to Gardevoir's background. Someone who could produce a 6S-rank Ralts was naturally not an ordinary person.
Ash glanced at Magmar's data. Its level was at the peak of Elite Four, an existence that none of his current Pokémon could contend with.
Last time against Koga, if it hadn't been for Champion Ash's help, he would have had no way to counter the Elite Four Class Crobat, unless he fought himself.
But now, he could encounter an Elite Four Class Pokémon in a remote, small place. Are Elite Four Class Pokémon so worthless now?
"Hello, I have no ill intentions. I just have a few things I'd like to ask you." Ash did not advance further, but instead shouted loudly towards the inside from the doorway.
In a situation without rules, an Elite Four Class Pokémon was nothing to him, but Ash wasn't a violent person, let alone that he still had something to ask of the person inside the house.
The bald man in the house was silent for a moment, then his voice became slightly calmer as he spoke: "Did the League send you to find me? It does surprise me that you were able to discover and track me here, but for the League to send a child like you to find me, they are truly regressing."
Ash: ???
"Um… what are you talking about? What League? What finding you?"
Bald man: … "Are you not sent by the League to search for my existence?"
"Who are you?"
Bald man: ???
No, you don't even know who I am, so why are you following me?!
"Who exactly are you?!" As the voice from inside came out, the small door creaked open, revealing the figure inside the small house.
Ash hadn't been wrong; this person was the bald man he had bumped into on the road. He had already taken off his wig, but his sunglasses were still on.
"I am Ash from Pallet Town. This is my partner Pikachu, Gardevoir, and my friends traveling with me, Misty and Brock," Ash took off his mask as a sign of friendliness.
Although he didn't know why this uncle looked so wary, with his reputation, the uncle should recognize him, right?
Indeed, after Ash took off his mask, the bald man's face instantly showed surprise, as if he was verifying Ash's authenticity.
After a long while, he slowly spoke: "You are the Ash who has recently risen to fame? Indeed, heroes emerge from youth to be able to train Pikachu to such a level."
This time, it was Ash's turn to be surprised: "You can tell Pikachu's level?"
"Heh, although I'm a bit old, I'm not so old that my eyes are dim. I can still tell your Professional Level Pikachu," the bald man said with a hint of pride in his words.
However, he was indeed worthy of pride, as being able to detect a Pokémon's level without battling was something that ninety-nine percent of Trainers in the world couldn't do.
Including Koga, whom Ash battled not long ago, he truly couldn't do such a thing.
"Uncle has good eyesight."
"So, since you don't know me, why are you following me and looking for me?" the bald man said straightforwardly.
Ever since the incident came to light, he had been living incognito, not appearing in the public eye, and had developed a formidable anti-detection method.
Even if someone truly saw through his disguise and wanted to track him down and catch him, he would shake them off in the blink of an eye.
But today, there was an unexpected turn. Until Ash stepped into this area, he hadn't noticed Ash. It was his Pokémon deployed around that discovered Ash's tracks, and only then did he belatedly realize he was being followed.
It was no wonder he initially thought Ash was sent by the League. After all, with such a sophisticated tracking method, besides someone sent by the League, could there be any other possibility?
And even with a mask on, Blaine could confirm that Ash's face belonged to a teenager, and to him, a teenager was a child's age.
Blaine had thought that he hadn't noticed Ash because Ash was too young, and he hadn't paid attention to Ash, which was why Ash was able to track him.
That's why Blaine said what he did at the beginning—that the League actually sent a child to track him.
Using a child to make him lower his guard, such a method was truly too despicable.
But now it seems… Ash doesn't seem to be from the League, and Ash doesn't even know who he is. If that's the case, then why did Ash come to find him?
"It's because of her. I wonder if you have any impression of her?" Ash moved slightly aside, and Gardevoir slowly stepped forward from behind him.
Blaine carefully looked at Gardevoir. A hint of amazement flashed in his eyes behind his sunglasses, but his face was filled with confusion.
He didn't recognize this Pokémon!
"This should be your Pokémon, right? This is our first meeting, so why would you think I'd recognize your Pokémon?" When it came to Ash's more famous Pokémon, they were Charizard, Pikachu, and Bulbasaur.
Because these three Pokémon had battled in a live broadcast across the entire League, and they had even defeated Elite Four Class Pokémon and defeated Elite Trainer Koga.
Although this Shinny Gardevoir was amazing and extremely rare, it had not appeared in the public eye, so it was natural that he didn't recognize it.
"You don't recognize her… Then, I wonder, Uncle, if you ever possessed a Ralts Pokémon Egg?"
"A Ralts's Pokémon Egg? How would I have…" Blaine's words trailed off halfway, and his expression instantly stiffened.
A Ralts's Pokémon Egg, could it be that…
"Come inside and talk." Blaine looked left and right, then opened the door, letting Ash and the others into the house.
No matter if there were people around or not, the following words could not be said casually in public.
After Ash and the others entered through the door, Blaine nodded towards Magmar. Magmar responded by nodding back at Blaine, then instantly vanished from its spot, continuing to hide in the shadows to guard the small house…
The interior of the house was very simple and unadorned, just a basic small house interior, but though the sparrow is small, it has all the vital organs. This place had a kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom, and other neat facilities; it was perfectly sufficient for one person to live here.
Ash and the others were led by Blaine to the table in the living room. The latter went to brew a pot of tea, and then sat opposite Ash and the others, taking off his sunglasses.
"Do you recognize me in this state?"
The three of them carefully looked at Blaine's appearance, then exchanged glances, all shaking their heads.
Brock felt a slight familiarity, but couldn't remember where he had seen him, as if it were a very distant memory.
"My name is Blaine. Surely you know that name, right?"
"Blaine?!!! * 3" Blaine's introduction made the three of them exclaim in unison.
They hadn't expected that Blaine, whom they had been trying to find ever since arriving at Cinnabar Island, would just appear before them like this!
For a moment, Misty and Brock both looked at Ash with strange expressions, and even Ash himself looked incredibly odd.
What did Professor Oak say before? He said that if he bumped into someone on the street, that person might be Blaine.
Ash hadn't paid any attention to this. He was lucky, but he wasn't so incredibly lucky as to bump into Blaine in a vast crowd just by colliding with someone. Blaine was someone the League had searched for tirelessly but couldn't find.
However, reality is always magical; he really did bump into Blaine!
Bumping into him was one thing, but the other party also happened to be related to Gardevoir. So Ash Lock-On to the other party's Aura, and then tracked him all the way here. If even one coincidence had been missing, they probably wouldn't be sitting face-to-face with Blaine here.
"It seems I, an old man, still have some reputation. You came to Cinnabar Island to challenge the Cinnabar Gym, right?" Blaine instantly stated the purpose of Ash and the others' arrival at Cinnabar Island.
"How did you know? Couldn't we just be here to sightsee on Cinnabar Island?" Misty asked curiously.
"That's just experience talking. I, an old man, still have a bit of eyesight," Blaine said calmly. In front of an old hand like him, many things could be seen for what they truly were with just a glance.
"We did indeed come to challenge the Cinnabar Gym, but after arriving, we couldn't find you, Blaine. We had originally planned to just treat it as a trip to Cinnabar Island, but we never expected that the person we randomly bumped into on the road would be Blaine," Ash also sighed at the wonder of fate. To be able to meet Blaine like this, it truly seemed like destiny.
"We do have quite a connection… Let's not talk about challenging the Gym for now. Let's first talk about the Ralts's Pokémon Egg you mentioned. How did you know I once had a Ralts Pokémon Egg?"
"Because Gardevoir said she sensed a familiar Aura from you, an Aura she seemed to have sensed when she was still an Egg. That is to say, when Gardevoir was still an Egg, you were already by her side, and for quite some time, otherwise Gardevoir, in her Egg stage, wouldn't be able to feel familiar with your Aura."
Hearing this, Blaine looked at Gardevoir, his eyes filled with unconcealed surprise.
"Where did you get this Gardevoir?"
"I picked it up."
"Picked it up?!!" Blaine looked at Ash with an 'are you kidding me' expression.
"I really did pick it up, and it was not long after I started my journey. At that time, we were at Mt. Moon…" Ash explained the entire process of finding Ralts in detail, and the more Blaine listened, the stranger he felt.
Is this possible too?! If Ash wasn't just making up an excuse, then his luck was truly unparalleled.
And the most important thing is, a made-up reason might be much more reliable than this real reason. Precisely because what Ash said was so outrageous, Blaine felt that Ash was telling the truth, because reality is often much more outrageous than fabricated stories…
"So, Blaine, when Gardevoir was still an Egg, she was indeed with you, right?" After saying so much, this was the answer Ash was looking for.
Blaine nodded silently: "That's right, that Pokémon Egg was in my possession at the time. But since you've already obtained it and hatched it, why are you still so fixated on where it originally came from?"
"What reason… Blaine, you know better than I do, don't you? What did you do to Gardevoir, or more accurately, to that Pokémon Egg? Will Gardevoir have any problems in the future? If there are problems, how can they be solved? This is why I am fixated on finding Gardevoir's original origin."
Ash's words greatly surprised both Brock and Misty. The former couldn't help but say, "Ash, what's wrong with Gardevoir? She hasn't had any problems all this time!"
"Gardevoir's talent is very unusual, not a talent that normal Pokémon can possess. You've seen Charizard's progress, right? He has that thing, which is why his improvement speed is so fast. But Gardevoir, purely with her own talent, has almost kept pace with Charizard's improvement speed. Don't you find that strange?"
Facing Ash's rhetorical question, both of them shook their heads in unison, which made Ash's next words get stuck.
"No, why aren't you playing by the rules?! Do you think Gardevoir's improvement speed is normal?"
"Compared to normal Pokémon, it's certainly not normal, but don't you have an even more abnormal one in your team?" Misty shrugged, then looked at Pikachu, who was standing on the table munching on snacks, and said.
Gardevoir's improvement speed was indeed very fast, not losing out even to Charizard, who possessed the rainbow wing, but Ash's Pikachu's improvement was even more abnormal!
Pikachu had now reached the Professional Level peak. Although it seemed to have been stuck at the Professional Level peak for about half a month, its rapid growth at the Professional Level before that had completely stunned Misty and Brock.
Is this the kind of improvement speed a Pikachu can have?
"Ahem, I'm talking about serious matters with you. Pikachu is different!" Ash argued vehemently.
His Pikachu had always been very unusual; its 6A-rank aptitude was even faster than the 6S-rank Gardevoir's improvement speed, which was indeed quite strange. However, the big shots in Pikachu's special group had already given a heads-up, stating that he would naturally know the reason for Pikachu's fast improvement later on.
Ash still trusted the 'himself' in the group very much, so now he only needed to deal with any potential future problems that Gardevoir might encounter.
"If I'm not mistaken, your Gardevoir not only improves quickly in level, but also has an extremely exaggerated talent for learning various moves, able to learn many moves she wouldn't normally be able to, right?" Blaine suddenly spoke.
"Yes, Gardevoir currently possesses seventeen different types of moves," Ash nodded, admitting.
Blaine rested his chin on his hands, his expression solemn: "Indeed, I never thought the experiment would actually succeed. Besides Mewtwo, the second successful experiment subject… However, unlike Mewtwo, who had infinite power from the beginning, did she start from scratch…?"