Chapter 567: The Flash Ghost Secured!

Yin Li Ma was sent out the door with a completely blank expression.

Although whether or not to award the badge was indeed at the Gym Leader's sole discretion, this was the first time in all his years studying abroad that he had received a badge after losing a Gym battle.

Is this even allowed?

He instinctively wanted to refuse, but by the time he reacted, he was already standing by the river outside the Gym, and the old butler Sebastian had even arranged a boat.

"Old sir."

"Once a badge issued by a Gym Leader is accepted, the principle is that it cannot be taken back — it gets recorded into the system."

The old butler smiled kindly.

Yin Li Ma: "……"

These days, badges can be forcibly given away?

He stepped silently into the boat cabin, and the moment his bottom hit the seat, he suddenly seemed to remember something and called out toward the outside:

"Mr. Gym Leader said earlier that he looked forward to seeing me again — will he be attending the Sanyou Conference as a guest?"

"No, as a competitor."

"I see — wait!?"

Yin Li Ma's eyes went wide; he even thought he had misheard and pressed again: "You said competitor?"

The old butler nodded: "Yes, you did not mishear."

"Competitor…"

The old butler's reply was like a spell, echoing endlessly in his ears.

It was not until the small boat reached the vicinity of the Pokémon Center and the boatman reminded Yin Li Ma to disembark that this handsome young man from Alola finally came back to his senses.

He gazed into the distance toward the Liuli Gym, whose architectural outline could no longer be seen, and murmured softly:

"A competitor participating in a Conference serving as a temporary Gym Leader… there's such a thing too!"

The world beyond the Alola region was truly dazzling and colorful.

Anything could happen!

And after entrusting his injured Pokémon to Ms. Joy's care, Yin Li Ma began searching online for Baimu — to his mind, someone like that must surely be famous.

And then…

"Hm?"

Yin Li Ma first pulled his phone screen closer, then squinted and held it farther away, his face taking on the expression of an old man on the subway looking at his phone.

What is going on?

The person in the picture was indeed the one he had just seen, and the Pokémon was indeed the one he had just seen.

But why does it say Coordinator on there?

And he's called the rising star of the Contest scene!?

Something doesn't add up!

Yin Li Ma's expression turned rather strange, when a burst of hearty laughter suddenly rang out beside him.

"Hahaha, you must have just come back from the Liuli Gym, right? So, did you get the badge?"

He turned his head at the sound, and what came into view was a man dressed like a sailor.

"Hello, I did just finish challenging the Liuli Gym…"

Yin Li Ma greeted him quite politely.

The man slapped his chest and said: "I'm Yohei! I'm a Trainer too! The Liuli Gym is tough to challenge, right? Let me tell you, of all the people who've gone to challenge it these past few days, there haven't been twenty but there've been at least fifteen — and not a single one walked away with the badge!"

"Fifteen people and not one got the badge?"

He pulled out his badge case in astonishment, looking at the Liuli Badge inside as if confirming the thing wasn't a fake.

"You have a badge!"

Yohei spotted that iconic three-droplet mark as well and exclaimed: "You actually beat that Baimu!"

"What?"

"Someone beat Baimu? For real?"

"That guy actually lost to a challenger for once — has he finally started using the Gym's Pokémon?"

"Amazing! Little au— uh, little bro!"

The people around them, hearing Yohei's words, immediately swarmed in like Sharpedo invading territory, staring at the Liuli Badge in Yin Li Ma's case — some in disbelief, some full of admiration.

He couldn't help but wave his hands hurriedly, quickly explaining: "I didn't defeat the Gym Leader — he said he acknowledged that I had the strength for an eighth badge, that's why he gave it to me!"

Acknowledged his strength?

The onlookers exchanged glances.

None of them had expected that the very first badge Baimu handed out would come in this form.

"This won't do — where has a Gym Leader ever fought with just one team of Pokémon?"

"Exactly! Adjusting the Pokémon based on the challenger's strength is what a proper Gym Leader should do! A temporary Gym Leader shouldn't slack off either."

"The next generation of the Liuli Gym is worrying… what was Master Adam thinking?"

The crowd gathered quickly and dispersed just as quickly.

But the topic of their discussion still revolved around that temporary Gym Leader called Baimu.

Yohei laughed and patted Yin Li Ma on the shoulder, saying: "Don't take it to heart — everyone's just been bored too long, so hearing that the Liuli Gym has a new Gym Leader made them get excited before they could help it."

"It's fine…"

He shook his head, growing ever more curious about Baimu.

A figure who had dipped his toes into both Contests and the League Conference, and whose achievements in both were strong enough to spark conversation.

Someone like that could never possibly fade into obscurity.

Hope we can meet again at the Colorful Leisure Tournament.

Yin Li Ma stroked the glass beads on his bracelet, inexplicably full of anticipation for the reunion at the League Conference.

Next time.

I will definitely win it back!

—

At the same time.

Baimu, flourishing in both glamour and battle, was communicating with N, who was far away in the Orre region.

Though they hadn't seen each other for nearly half a year, this savior of Pokémon still didn't fit in with the environment of Iron Town; the scorching sun had left no mark whatsoever on his Bai Xi skin.

It was just that there were more and more Pokémon around him; even during video calls he was surrounded by so many Pokémon that he was squeezed out of sight.

"Aoo-woo!"

At the sharp cry, all the Pokémon surrounding N were driven away.

A black-furred little fox leapt onto the communication console, proudly flicking its fluffy tail, the tip of which was tinged with red like a dancing flame.

"Zoroark! Long time no see!"

Baimu smiled and greeted it.

The two Dreepy Mespirit on its head playing stacking games also flew down, curiously looking at Zoroark.

"Hiyah?"

"Aoo—hiyah! Hehehehe~"

The Zoroark on the other side of the screen transformed into the appearance of Dreepy Mespirit and let out sharp laughter.

The Dreepy siblings were greatly startled and instinctively vanished into invisibility.

The behavior the two had recently been practicing was: the moment an enemy showed any unusual movement, immediately retreat and use invisibility to dodge. This habit, gradually etched into their souls, had slightly changed their personalities.

In the past, the younger Dreepy would certainly have been carefree and drifted about everywhere, while the elder Dreepy would have chased her younger brother around hitting him as if no one were watching.

But now.

It was clearly Zoroark that was stunned in surprise; the black-furred fox quickly reverted to its original form, opened its eyes wide, and leaned close to the screen. "Hiyah? Hiyah… aoo-woo?"

"Hahahaha."

Baimu scooped up a handful of air with both hands, precisely grabbing one in each, and rubbed the scales on their bodies to force them to reappear. "Those two aren't so easy to tease."

"Aoo-woo!"

Zoroark was a little unconvinced.

Hmm…

N's expression softened as he gently stroked its back, and in Zoroark's comfortable expression, said slowly:

I've already talked to Gengar. It has no objections to you.

"Really? That's great then."

He breathed a sigh of relief in gratitude, and looked toward the Pokémon transfer device not far away, where a black Dusk Ball engraved with a yellow H sat quietly.

Compared to the big fish of Fradali and Team Flare, Jarvis, whose plot against the nation had failed, was nothing more than a small shrimp.

Therefore.

His court trial proceeded very quickly.

He was smoothly sent off to the Orre region to plant trees and grow forests.

The shiny Gengar, just as Baimu had expected, was handed over to N by the International Police along with the rest of Jarvis's remaining Mega Evolution army.

Usually, Pokémon of criminals that did not subjectively help humans commit crimes would be given a certain amount of education and then released into established protected zones.

Once they adapted to the natural environment, they would be further released into the wild in locations chosen so as not to affect other Pokémon.

And ever since N decided to cooperate with the International Police and was willing to take in criminals' Pokémon to enrich the natural environment of the Orre region, most criminals' Pokémon would be arranged to be sent to Orre.

So Baimu's earlier desire to adopt the shiny Gengar through N was by no means without aim.

N was even more fully supportive of him accepting and raising a criminal's Pokémon. Even if the initial motive wasn't pure, for N, a lover of all Pokémon, what mattered was whether Baimu could properly take care of Gengar from then on.

——The answer was affirmative.

The latter's character had N's guarantee.

What remained was to see whether the shiny Gengar was willing. N had never forced any Pokémon; even though he trusted Baimu, as long as Gengar itself shook its head, he would absolutely not force it.

Fortunately.

Gengar was essentially a rather easy-going fellow; as long as it never had to see Jarvis again, anything was fine.

It never wanted to experience the pain of Mega Evolution waves again.

"Thank you so much, N. Without your help, I reckon adopting this fellow would have taken me much longer."

Baimu thanked him repeatedly.

It's nothing; this is also something I'm happy to see.

N's tone was, as always, gentle and calm. Also, regarding the Mega Evolution wave issue… if it can become like what you described, I have no objections.

The research data on Mega Evolution waves had long since been handed by Baimu to Yamone.

When the latter received it, he was first greatly shocked, thinking the former had been out in the world too long and his thoughts had gone dark; only after Baimu's explanation did he gradually understand the specific situation…

Yamone was very excited.

With Galar League Chairman Rose as his target, he had actually been racking his brain over how to bring out the characteristics of the Orre region.

Rose's success was basically attributed to the regional feature of Dynamax.

In order to better utilize Dynamax, Rose had specifically established his Gyms atop Energy Spots, ensuring that Dynamax appeared in every battle.

The grand spectacle of giant beasts brawling attracted far too many tourists.

Yamone was well aware that Orre couldn't copy Galar's model; apart from yellow sand and mineral deposits, this land had nothing, and they would need to create it with their own hands.

The Mega Evolution wave Baimu provided may not be the optimal solution, but at the very least it can guarantee a certain degree of attractiveness.

Of course.

The premise is being able to develop a Mega Evolution wave that doesn't harm Pokémon.

N is the third person to know about the Mega Evolution wave, told by Baimu personally. The former's attitude after receiving all the information was very clear — it must be on the premise of not harming Pokémon.

This is the bottom line.

"Having your support, I feel like reforming the Mega Evolution wave is already half successful." Baimu said with a smile.

N neither agreed nor disagreed, changing the subject to ask how his bonding with Steelix was going.

After Mawile fully mastered Mega Evolution and no longer became a three-minute fighter, Steelix's Mega Evolution was also put on the agenda.

The routine is still the old routine.

Finding common ground, seeking spiritual resonance.

To be honest, if the 【Heart of the Divine】 could be applied to his own Pokémon, finding common ground and such would definitely be very easy. Unfortunately, this psychic power inexplicably only works on Legendary Pokémon and Mythical Pokémon.

He could only slowly cultivate spiritual tacit understanding with Steelix.

So far progress has been slow.

Baimu certainly hadn't neglected Steelix, often calling it back for battles, feeding it, personally maintaining its joints and oiling its body surface, etc. Still, the time spent together was ultimately less than with Aggron and Mawile.

Ash and Lucario's aura attracting each other still took more than half a journey.

He'd been out half a year and completed two Pokémon Mega Evolutions, which was already very impressive. What he lacked with Steelix was simply that flash-of-insight-like breakthrough.

It had to be honed out through time.

Keep it up. Both Babena and Helena are very much looking forward to your performance at the Grand Festival and the League Conference.

N showed a faint smile.

Influenced by Natsume's publicity, too many people inside Team Rainbow were paying attention to Baimu, this cheap boss's performance — whether the former companions, or the executives from the original Team Magma who had turned over a new leaf.

Quite a few people sprouted the idea of setting out on a journey because of him —

Otsuka.

This thug youth who once tried to bully him but ultimately became one of his companions had heard successfully graduated from the literacy class, and was preparing to come to the Hoenn region to watch him participate in the Conference in person.

"I hope one day we can all escape this cage."

Otsuka always kept firmly in mind the words Baimu had tossed out before leaving on the day they met.

Even though Iron Town was no longer a cage, he still constantly strove to walk out of that small town and see the world with his own eyes.

He'd recently added Baimu's LINE account too, though he almost got deleted, what with the blank avatar, meaningless nickname, and strange greeting.

No matter how you look at it, it's a bot advertising account, right?

"Look forward to it."

Baimu smiled slightly at N on the screen, ended the call, walked over to the teleportation device and picked up the Dusk Ball.

He could hardly wait to have an intimate exchange with the team's new member.

——

Night.

Sootopolis Gym's ecological park.

Baimu specially picked out a wide lawn, had all his Pokémon gather there, and opened the Dusk Ball in his hand.

Poof!

Bai Guang flickered.

A wisp of grey shadow landed on the ground, silent as a deep swamp.

"Guoh~"

Aggron stretched out a claw and stopped Hydreigon, who was about to step forward. It was the most lively one in the team — don't scare this newcomer.

After all, everyone used to be enemies.

Dragapult hid itself in a corner. It had once ambushed the shiny Gengar, and the latter suddenly becoming a teammate left it unsure what to do.

In that case, let's just pretend no one saw anything.

Running away is shameful but useful!

Mawile, squatting on top of Steelix's head, propped up its chin with one hand and let out a bored yawn.

To prepare for the upcoming Grand Festival, it hadn't even played on its phone lately, worried about affecting its condition — as a result, the whole Pokémon had become listless.

Blissey held a bowl of exquisite Pokémon food, ready at any moment to present a welcome gift to the new teammate.

"Beep beep…"

Porygon2 turned its head and quietly reminded the pretending-to-sleep Lanturn to wake up quickly.

Milotic was playing and frolicking with the Dhelmise siblings.

"Milo~"

"Hiya!"

Baimu stood at the front of all the Pokémon, half-squatting and extending a hand toward the grey shadow.

"Come on out, there are no enemies here. Let's get to know each other, new little partner."

"Gho…"

A strange cry rang out.

The round, grey ghostly shadow slowly emerged from the ground, watching all the Pokémon and the youth before it nervously and curiously. The memories from half a month ago were vivid in its mind.

Really.

Really seeing this person again!