Chapter 283: That same move can still be used a second time!

White Light Curtain——

Ash and his friends discovered that the Wood Guardian had stopped eating; at that moment, a raging Loudred suddenly appeared. To deal with the Loudred's rampage, Ash had the Wood Guardian battle the Loudred, hoping to calm it down.

During the battle, both sides evolved simultaneously: the Wood Guardian evolved into Forest Lizard, and the Loudred evolved into Exploud.

The evolved Exploud became even more disobedient, wreaking havoc everywhere, and even left its trainer.

Seeing such a disobedient Exploud, Ash felt a sense of déjà vu—wasn't it just like his Charizard?

Exploud's trainer Guy couldn't believe it; the Exploud had been by his side since its Whismur stage, so why did it become disobedient after evolving?

【Summer Uncle: This Exploud's personality is pretty much like Ash's Charizard—both become disobedient toward their trainers after evolving and refuse to follow commands.】

【Ash: Exactly. Back then, my Charizard wouldn't listen to me at all, thinking I wasn't strong enough, and in the end I only managed to move it with sincerity.】

【Elise: Many Pokémon undergo drastic personality changes after evolution, possibly shifting from gentle to aggressive.】

【Tiantong: That Exploud behind the White Light Curtain is just like that; Ash being on the scene, he should be passing on his experience to that Exploud's trainer!】

【Ash: Uh… the Exploud has returned to normal, but it wasn't me who taught it……】

White Light Curtain——

As Ash said, it wasn't him who made the Exploud return to normal, but someone else.

Everyone knows these people!

Because of the commotion caused by the Exploud, the Team Rocket Trio secretly set their sights on it, preparing to capture it, but Guy, who arrived to help, thwarted them by aiding the Exploud in destroying their plan.

Thus, thanks to the Team Rocket Trio's unintended assistance, the Exploud was deeply moved, acknowledged Guy, and became obedient to him again.

The Exploud became obedient again, with no real loss, and the Team Rocket Trio were sent blasting off as usual.

The Team Rocket Trio are considered 'good people'…… everyone thinks so in their hearts.

All along, the Team Rocket Trio have done many bad things, but most of them ended up inadvertently helping Ash and his friends.

Afterward, Ash and his group arrived at North Orange City near Orange City.

They discovered that the locals greatly admired the Orange City Gym Leader, Chihli, while Misty and Xiaosheng were especially idolized here.

Upon learning that Ash had come to challenge Chihli, they began battling him, and it was still a rotation battle.

And when the Team Rocket Trio learned that everyone in this town admired Chihli, they came up with a plan.

That is, to disguise themselves as Chihli.

Jessie disguised herself as Mitsuko, James as Chihli, Meowth as Misty, and Wobbuffet as Xiaosheng.

This disguise wasn't very convincing, but the townspeople didn't suspect anything, thinking it really was Chihli's family.

【Chihli:???】

【Mitsuko: The Team Rocket dressing up like this is pretty hilarious; not going into showbiz would be a waste!】

【Xiaosheng: I'm done… spending all day doing petty theft.】

【Ash: Isn't this tactic the same as when we pretended to be Professor Oak before? And it actually works a second time!】

It's mainly because it works; if it didn't, they wouldn't bother!

The Team Rocket Trio all think that way.

The Team Rocket Trio's disguise as Chihli's family was seen through by Misty, and as usual, Pikachu sent them blasting off.

After the Team Rocket's farce, Ash and his party also arrived in Orange City, only to encounter another mishap.

This time it was a conflict within Chihli's household, but after clarifying, it turned out Chihli remembered today was their wedding anniversary and was discussing fireworks preparations with Miss Joy.

The misunderstanding cleared up; next up is Ash's challenge to the Orange City Gym!

Chihli sent out Slaking; despite its name, it's anything but lazy. Facing Ash's Pikachu, it gained the upper hand, but Ash then sent out his emotional Torkoal, which defeated Slaking with a single burst of flame.

Then Mankey defeated Torkoal, Pikachu faced Mankey, benefiting from the Static ability limiting Mankey, but ultimately collapsed from exhaustion alongside Mankey.

Both sides had only one Pokémon left.

Chihli's final Pokémon was Slaking, while Ash's final was Forest Lizard.

Slaking completely suppressed Forest Lizard, easily blocking its attacks, but Forest Lizard turned the tide by activating its Overgrow ability.

In the end, Ash defeated Slaking with a Leaf Blade!

Ash earned his fifth Badge!

Now it's time for the Black Light Screen to light up.

Ho-Oh's revival ability had no effect on Celebi; Celebi was merely asleep, not gone—its slumber was just greatly shortened.

The environment around Farnes also recovered, and this outcome is the best.

The Celebi sleep matter settled, Ash and his group continued their trek on foot.

Along the way they encountered a Torkoal that specializes in challenging Steel-type Pokémon in the Steel Valley; they happened to see it use Fire Wheel against a Steelix, not only dodging Steelix's attacks casually but also using Fire Wheel to catch Steelix's Iron Tail.

Then it unleashed a Fire Vortex, but the target wasn't the Steelix—it was itself.

Using the power of the Fire Vortex, a fiery-wheeled Torkoal shot up like a blazing meteor, soaring skyward with endless heat and pressure, crashing down upon the Steelix.

Boom!

A loud bang accompanied by violent ground tremors, and a huge crater suddenly appeared before everyone's eyes.

After the dust settled, the Torkoal stood firmly on the Steelix's back; although it bore several deep scars, its resolute gaze and upright posture conveyed an indescribable aura of dominance.

Meanwhile, the Steelix lay helpless on the ground, its eyes vacant and rolling, clearly having lost all battle capacity.

The remaining Steel-type Pokémon continued to emerge and battle the Torkoal.

"What a formidable Torkoal!"

Ash took a liking to the Torkoal, stepped forward to stop it, as the Torkoal had sustained considerable injuries and could no longer keep fighting.

After communicating with the Torkoal, he suddenly realized it was wailing bitterly; he then understood it was crying from being moved—this was the first time it had ever been shown concern.

Before Ash could even pull out a Poké Ball, the Torkoal began to cry; Ash and his companions laughed through tears, for the Torkoal was so emotional.

【Asha: In the black-and-white world, Torkoals are all this emotional; I'm thinking that getting along with them would surely be interesting, and given how kindly Ash treats Pokémon, I'd bet Torkoals often get moved to tears.】