The sea breeze, tinged with a salty tang, swept through the streets of Canalave City.
On the breakwater, a Shinx flicked its tail, chasing dandelions carried by the wind.
Fishing boats at the harbor had just unloaded their fresh catch. The claws of Krabby clacked loudly inside bamboo baskets, drawing a crowd of curious Psyduck to watch.
The city's clock tower rang out the noon bells. Sunlight spilled across the blue rooftops, reflecting dazzling rays of light.
Trainers battled on the beach—an Elekid's Thunderbolt collided midair with an Octillery's Hydro Pump, the splashing water forming a small rainbow under the sun.
Far out at sea, a luxury cruise ship slowly departed the port. In the foamy wake behind it, several Tentacool followed along the vessel's trail.
"Bini~ binibini~"
After a thousand years, Victini—finally free from Eindoak—perched on Sora Kenji's shoulder, her bright eyes completely captivated by the seaside city.
Canalave City lay in the southwestern part of the Sinnoh region. Sora Kenji had disembarked here, and his next step was to board a cruise ship and travel by sea to Kitakami.
"Hungry?"
"Bini~"
The little one shook her head. Sora Kenji had prepared plenty of snacks for her, so she wasn't hungry yet.
"Then let's buy the tickets first, and we'll eat on the ship."
"Bini!"
Everything about the outside world fascinated her—especially the wide variety of food.
Eindoak was rich in fruit, but after eating it for a thousand years, even the most delicious produce would eventually grow tireso.
That had been exactly how Sora Kenji first attracted Victini.
He played to her tastes—bringing foods that didn't exist in Eindoak and venturing deep into the forest.
If once didn't work, then ten tis. A hundred tis.
After half a year of persistence, Sora Kenji finally drew Victini out—and discovered the little V-shaped rascal secretly sneaking around to steal the snacks he had bought elsewhere.
"I'll go buy the tickets. V, play with Lilligant for a bit—and don't run off."
As he spoke, Sora Kenji took out a Poké Ball.
A flash of white light appeared, and a Pokémon resembling a young girl materialized before them.
Her head and torso were white, with bright red eyes. A vivid red flower adorned her head, its golden filants and crimson stans resembling a delicate crown.
Her arms were long, dark-green leaves. Around her neck was a ring of golden sepals, while her lower body was wrapped in pale green, tulip-shaped leaves, like a graceful dress.
She was Lilligant, a Pokémon from the Unova region.
"Lilligant~"
Lilligant yawned softly, as if just waking from a dream. She raised her leaf-like hand and gently waved at Sora Kenji and Victini.
"Thanks for your hard work. Go ahead and enjoy so ti outside."
Sora Kenji stroked the flower atop Lilligant's head, making the girl happily squint her eyes.
Aside from Victini, Lilligant was Sora Kenji's only other Pokémon—his true starter, raised from a Petilil.
Living in the Pokémon world without a Pokémon companion had made Sora Kenji feel deeply insecure.
However, raising and caring for Pokémon required trendous effort—and even more money.
So when choosing his partner, Sora Kenji made a very practical decision: he picked the easiest type to maintain—Grass-type Pokémon.
Grass-types could survive through photosynthesis.
They required little food, preferring instead fertile soil, clean water, and abundant sunlight.
Most importantly, Grass-type Pokémon were generally gentle in temperant—perfect for a beginner trainer like him.
"Bini bini~"
Victini was already very familiar with Lilligant.
Back when Lilligant had still been a Petilil, the two of them often played together in the forests of Eindoak.
And unlike Victini, who behaved like a mischievous little troublemaker—
Lilligant was an exceptionally gentle child.
Technically, Victini was far older than Lilligant.
Yet in their interactions, Lilligant often acted more like the older sister, taking care of her.
By the ti Sora Kenji finished lining up to buy tickets, the two little ones hadn't wandered far. They stood on the seawall, watching schools of fish and Water-type Pokémon swimming through the blue ocean.
"Let's go."
After purchasing the tickets, Sora Kenji picked Victini up into his arms and extended his hand toward Lilligant.
"Lilligant~"
She placed her leaf-like hand into his palm. He gently took it—like holding the hand of a younger sister—as they began searching the dock for their cruise ship.
Canalave City didn't have a dedicated route to Kitakami. Instead, the island was simply one stop along a longer voyage, with only two ships docking there each day.
The current tiline should be several years earlier than the events of Scarlet and Violet.
Standing on the cruise ship's deck with the sea breeze blowing against him, Sora Kenji silently reviewed what he knew about Kitakami.
Even during the original storyline, Kitakami was just an obscure little place.
Now, before those events, its developnt is probably even more backward.
The Pokémon world differed from Earth in one major way—there was no concept of nations.
Instead, there existed a special institution known as the League.
However, the League's internal governance was remarkably loose.
Simply put, there was no strict hierarchy. Every city, town, and village functioned independently.
League authorities relied on Inspectors and International Police agents to supervise different regions.
Beyond that, there were the Joy family, the Jenny family, the noble classes present in every region, and newly rising rchants and wealthy tycoons.
Whether a town or village could develop depended entirely on whether it had investors—and heritage.
For example, in the ani, there was an elderly woman who developed a coastal city, and companies willing to pollute the environnt to build factories. Larger corporations like Silph Co. and Devon Corporation were pri examples of investors.
As for heritage, that ant historical landmarks, Pokémon legends, unique festivals, or famous events.
Because of this, the beliefs and cultures of people varied dramatically from place to place across the Pokémon world.
So advanced regions had already entered the information age.
Others remained stuck in tribal conditions—places where people might not even know televisions or computers existed, let alone the Pokémon League.
After all, strictly speaking, the League itself had only been established sixty or seventy years ago.
As for those fanfiction stories that depicted things like a universal Champion's Road video ga—an instant battle simulator containing detailed data on every Pokémon species—
With livestreaming, global connectivity, and a worldwide synchronized network—
Sora Kenji didn't even want to comnt.
To create such a ga, you would first need to connect every region in the world.
You'd have to invite professors from across the globe, recruit trainers who owned all 800 species of Pokémon, and compile academic research on each species' traits, attributes, moves, and personalities across countless individual variations.
What company could possibly handle a project of that scale?
And even if one could—why would governnts and researchers hand over such proprietary knowledge and sensitive data to a single private corporation?
After living in the Pokémon world for a year and a half, Sora Kenji's deepest realization had been this:
Information moved slowly—and it was tightly controlled.
While staying in Eindoak, the number of Pokémon species he had encountered was extrely limited.
If not for his mories from Earth, he might not have even known that Pokémon like Pikachu existed.
And that—
was the everyday reality for most people in the Pokémon world.
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