Chapter 61: This is a damn water gun?

After obtaining the seventh Badge, Ash and his friends wanted to take a boat to leave Crimson Lotus Island, but they coincidentally encountered a Karimi turtle.

Upon learning that the Karimi turtle had come to request reinforcements, the kind-hearted Ash and his friends immediately went over.

After a series of investigations, they found out it was Jigglypuff's doing; it was hiding inside Blastoise's shell and singing.

With the assistance of the Team Rocket Trio, Blastoise came to its senses, and Jigglypuff also appeared.

That's how it was resolved!

On the way, Xiaoxia noticed that the Horsea's condition was off, so she briefly returned to the Cerulean Gym, where she learned the Gym was planning to put on an underwater ballet performance.

The performance tells the story of a mermaid princess and Poké Ball being attacked by villains, after which a prince comes to rescue the princess.

The princess is played by Xiaoxia, and her sisters play the prince.

And Team Rocket is about to start causing trouble again.

By a twist of fate, the Team Rocket Trio ended up playing the roles of the villains.

【Xiba: Huh? Xiao Cilang is cross-dressing again!】

【Lily: Last time Ash cross-dressed out of necessity, while the Team Rocket's Xiao Cilang seems to cross-dress voluntarily every time; I feel Xiao Cilang really enjoys it!】

【Yulongdu: As everyone knows, cross-dressing is either zero times or countless times!】

【Ka Lu Nai: It seems Xiao Cilang really likes cross-dressing; I even suspect he's using the sabotage missions as an excuse to cross-dress.】

【Xiao Cilang: Don't talk nonsense, I'll sue you for defamation!】

【Wu Zang: That actually makes some sense; Xiao Cilang really does swap clothes with me every time, so there is some truth to that.】

"Wu Zang, what are you spouting? I don't swap clothes with you every time; stop spreading rumors!"

Xiao Cilang widened his eyes, looking at Wu Zang's barrage; as a teammate, not bothering to explain would be forgivable, but you even went and told them about it.

"I think Wu Zang isn't wrong; you're saying you learned ballet, so you actively wear those clothes, meow!"

Meow Meow had just finished speaking when his head got punched by Xiao Cilang.

"I did all that for the team!"

Xiao Cilang stuck out his neck.

Wu Zang and Meow Meow saw through him!

Finally, the little sea lion in the Gym stepped forward, fought against Ah Bo Monster, later evolved into a white sea lion, and together with Pikachu drove off Team Rocket.

After Team Rocket's disruption, the Cerulean Gym's tickets were sold out half a year later.

Finally, they were heading back to Viridian City.

The White Light Curtain faded, and it was time for the Black Light Screen to continue.

Ash and his friends finally arrived at Crimson Lotus Island, where they met an old man who loved posing riddles on the way.

The riddle he posed was instantly solved by Xiaoxia, revealing that the old man ran an inn at the mountaintop.

Upon seeing that the old man was a local, Ash asked him where the Crimson Lotus Gym was located.

As soon as the Crimson Lotus Gym was mentioned, the old man jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

Crimson Lotus Island was originally a holy land that all Pokémon trainers aspired to; the master of the Crimson Lotus Gym, thanks to having many powerful Pokémon, became a place many trainers aspired to, but later, due to the emergence of hot springs, it turned into a tourist spot, with visitors everywhere sightseeing!

All Pokémon trainers who came to Crimson Lotus Island came for the hot springs; the Crimson Lotus Gym master, unable to tolerate this, closed the Gym.

Perhaps seeing Ash and his friends' enthusiasm for challenging the Gym, the old man left a napkin for them.

"The path to the Gym lies within it!"

It was already late; they were preparing to find a place to spend the night.

However, Ash had already booked an inn on Crimson Lotus Island beforehand, so they wouldn't need to camp outdoors.

They enjoyed a lovely meal, then proceeded to enjoy the hot springs.

【Xiaoxia: Black Ash really thought ahead; he didn't end up homeless.】

【Ash: Compared to our situation back then, Black Satoshi and his group can be said to be enjoying themselves, not much different from how Xiaomao was back then.】

【Xia Bo: So you don't need to stay at my place? Are you planning to play for a few days and then head back?】

【Brock: Probably not; didn't Xia Bo of the Black World also leave a clue? Black Satoshi will surely find the Gym soon.】

Black World —

Indeed, as Brock said, they quickly figured out the information on the napkin; that old man lived in the inn at the mountaintop.

First they enjoyed the hot springs, then the next day they went to check it out.

Ash located the mechanism's position, roughly knew the old man's identity—he was the master of the Crimson Lotus Gym.

Using Wave Guide Power to investigate, he discovered that after triggering the mechanism, the revealed passage contained immense fire-type energy.

Ash had only sensed this on Charizard's body.

"Ash, how did you know there was a mechanism here?"

Xiaoxia stared at the steaming dark passage, wondering how Ash had figured it out.

"I just used Wave Guide Power to scan the surroundings; I didn't expect to detect a strong Wave Guide aura, and since there was no obvious path downward, I looked around and happened to find this mechanism."

Ash went down to verify his guess.

As a result, he still saw the old man from earlier down there.

"Old man, it turns out the master of the Crimson Lotus Gym is you!"

Ash saw four iron chains linked to an iron frame—this isn't the battle field, is it?

"It's me, I am Xia Bo, the master of the Crimson Lotus Gym, young man—do you want to have a three-on-three Gym battle with me?"

"Yes, I am Ash from Pallet Town."

Ash took out Squirtle's Poké Ball.

"Alright, my first player is it!"

Xia Bo released a Poké Ball first.

Golden fur gleamed, nine tails smooth and slender, figure well-proportioned, appearing noble and elegant!

Squirtle!

Squirtle came out of the spirit ball, and as soon as it appeared, it put on glasses.

Ninetales, go! Fire Spin!

Facing the countering phenomenon, Xia Bo had already grown accustomed to it.

Squirtle, Water Gun!

Squirtle's eyes flashed with a sharp light, quickly opening its mouth, a surging stream of water began to gather inside, like a thick stone pillar of water carrying an unmatched momentum, with a 'dong' sound, it roared and fiercely slammed into the fire spin released by Ninetales.

The water gun's power was unstoppable; the fire spin, upon contact, was instantly scattered and extinguished, while the water gun's momentum did not diminish in the slightest, still carrying surging force, pointing straight at Ninetales!

Ow!

Ninetales stubbornly resisted, but was still blown back repeatedly by the water gun, water splashing everywhere, letting out a painful roar.

Bang!

Ninetales was blown away, hitting the wall behind Xia Bo, cracks spreading all around, and it fainted!

Xia Bo mechanically turned his head, looking at Ninetales slammed into the wall, his eyes full of disbelief.

One water gun just defeated my Ninetales like that!

However, Squirtle's water gun doesn't look like a water gun; it looks more like a water cannon—its appearance, its power, simply a water cannon.

Are you really a Squirtle?

How is it different from the Squirtle I know?!

【Xia Bo: I didn't mishear, nor did I missee, Squirtle used Water Gun? Isn't that a Water Cannon?】

【Xiaomao: Theoretically it's Water Gun, but in practice it's comparable to a Water Cannon.】