Encountering other humans in the wild would normally call for caution—but this was the Pokémon world.
For trainers to et in the wilderness was perfectly ordinary.
Reggie was an easygoing conversationalist.
His temperant was gentle, completely different from his younger brother Shinji. He was the type of trainer who treated Pokémon as family—the classic, orthodox style.
"Mr. Sora, did you co all the way from the Unova region to participate in the Lily of the Valley Conference?"
"No."
Sora shook his head.
"I'm not planning to enter the League tournant for now."
"Is that so?"
Reggie was puzzled.
He could clearly sense that Lilligant had been raised exceptionally well.
Even without battling, the aura she gave off was unmistakably strong.
Reggie had only felt a similar presence from the ace Pokémon of Gym Leaders.
In other words, Sora likely possessed strength comparable to a Gym Leader fighting at full power.
Such a powerful trainer… yet not interested in tournants?
He couldn't quite understand it, but he respected Sora's choice.
After all, the saying "true masters live among the common people" applied to the Pokémon world as well.
There were many trainers of unfathomable strength who simply had no interest in fa or titles.
What mattered to them was honing themselves and unlocking their Pokémon's potential.
"By the way, would you like to share a al with us?"
Reggie extended the invitation.
Sora accepted—and even took the initiative to guide the brothers to the beautiful lakeside clearing he had discovered.
Along the way, Sora ntioned that he needed to replenish supplies.
"No problem!"
Reggie agreed imdiately.
eting a fellow trainer in need out in the wild, he had no intention of being stingy. He planned to give Sora a full third of their food stock.
When Sora offered to pay, Reggie waved it off.
Supplies in the wilderness were hard to price anyway.
Rather than complicate things, it was simpler to treat it as making a new friend.
"Then thank you."
Sora accepted the favor.
Reggie truly was a good person—soone worth building a relationship with.
Throughout the walk, Shinji remained silent.
But his gaze stayed fixed on Lilligant, clearly intrigued.
That was normal for a child—being curious about unfamiliar Pokémon.
anwhile, Sora learned Shinji's actual age from Reggie.
Not twelve.
Ten.
The kid simply looked older than he was, leading Sora to misjudge.
Based on the tilines from the ani, Sora thought, Shinji should be roughly the sa age as Ash.
During the Sinnoh arc, Shinji wasn't a rookie trainer. He had already traveled through other regions before returning to his hotown to challenge the Lily of the Valley Conference.
So the age difference between him and Ash couldn't be more than about a year.
At present, Shinji had already reached the age to begin traveling and had received his starter Pokémon—Turtwig.
"This kid is pretty attached to ," Reggie explained.
"And I'm planning to challenge the Hoenn League in the near future."
"This trip is part of our field training."
"I see."
Sora now had a rough grasp of the tiline.
If nothing unexpected happened, this would likely be Reggie's final attempt at a League challenge.
Afterward, he would enter the Battle Frontier—where he would et Brandon, the legendary Pokémon specialist, and suffer a crushing defeat.
That event was what eventually caused Shinji's personality shift toward a strict strength-first philosophy.
If that's the case…
Ash should have already competed in the Indigo League and started traveling through Johto by now.
Then again, Sora reconsidered.
League schedules differ by region.
Just because the Sinnoh League had concluded didn't an the Indigo League had as well.
Once I reach Eterna City, I'll check the Indigo Conference dates.
If the timing works… I might even go watch Ash's match.
That version of Ash—the early, earnest one—still held a lot of nostalgia value.
It would be like revisiting a piece of childhood.
Of course, before that, Sora had another destination in mind:
The Azoth Kingdom.
The birthplace of mysterious advanced science—and the location of the next Mythical Pokémon he intended to recruit.
"Poné~~"
From a distance, Ogerpon spotted Sora and Lilligant returning. She waved energetically—then noticed the Reggie brothers walking beside them.
Her motion paused slightly.
She was very affectionate toward Sora, but around other humans, she still felt nervous.
"What Pokémon is that?"
Reggie stared blankly at the small green figure by the lake.
She looked almost like a human girl wearing a cloak.
"Is she from the Unova region too?"
Unlike Ash, most trainers did their howork on Pokémon from other regions.
Reggie was one of those responsible trainers.
Yet—
He had never seen anything like this.
Ogerpon had landed squarely in his knowledge blind spot.
Shinji also looked at Ogerpon.
But after a brief glance, he shifted his attention elsewhere—to another figure lying on the grass.
"Brother, what Pokémon is that?"
"Hm?"
Reggie turned—and was imdiately struck by the imposing presence of Ursaluna.
"Well… it looks a bit like Ursaring, but the color and posture are completely different."
In short—
He didn't recognize it either.
"That's Bloodmoon," Sora said calmly.
"It's a variant of a Pokémon called Ursaluna, a special individual of that species."
"Ursaluna?"
Another unfamiliar na.
Reggie was an experienced trainer who had traveled across multiple regions. His strength was easily on par with Gym Leaders.
Yet even his knowledge had limits.
His travels had been confined mostly to Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn—not the entire world.
"The world is vast," Sora continued.
"There are many Pokémon that humans still haven't discovered."
That statent, Reggie fully agreed with.
But Sora's next sentence left him completely stunned.
"Strictly speaking, though, Ursaluna is actually native to the Sinnoh region."
"Huh?"
Reggie and Shinji exchanged confused looks.
"Sinnoh?"
They were born and raised in Sinnoh.
They might not know every Pokémon by heart—but they certainly knew the region's native species well.
"You're right that Ursaluna is related to Ursaring," Sora said.
"A long ti ago—when Sinnoh was still called Hisui—Ursaluna lived on this land."
"Hisui…"
Unlike Shinji, Reggie recognized the term.
"I think I read about that in a book. It was the ancient na for Sinnoh."
And that led to the obvious question.
If Ursaluna was a Pokémon from the ancient Hisui era—
Where, exactly, had Sora found one?
—------------------------------
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