Going Home

The next morning, Yuga took Vivillon and Ledyba out for training, but Ash was as diligent as ever, waking up even earlier than Yuga.

After exchanging a simple greeting with Ash, the two began training their Pokémon independently. Following Yuga's instructions, Ledyba started teaching Vivillon its flying techniques.

For small Bug-type flying Pokémon like Ledyba and Vivillon, flying is quite different from how larger Pokémon, such as Charizard or Dragonite, can soar into the sky with a single flap of their wings.

A strong gust of wind can easily scatter Ledyba and Vivillon, so Ledyba's flying techniques must be tailored to their small size, contrasting sharply with the methods employed by larger flying Pokémon.

For instance, when Ledyba uses Tailwind to accelerate itself, it won't simply ride the strong winds like bird Pokémon do. Instead, it must control the wind, guiding its direction, and ensuring that it maintains command over the airflow, whether it is rising or descending.

Larger Pokémon can afford to disregard the direction of weak air currents because their robust bodies make them unaffected by minor breezes; they only need to make a slight movement, and the airflow will be influenced by them instead.

However, small Pokémon must be cautious; if they are not attentive, it will not be them controlling the wind but rather the wind controlling them.

Ledyba's use of Silver Wind is a more advanced application of the Tailwind technique, reflecting a higher level of flying skill.

Tailwind, as the name suggests, is about following the gentle breeze. Although it's necessary to control the wind direction generated by the Tailwind technique, it still requires adhering to the general flow of the wind, which can result in a rather rough manipulation of the airflow.

In this scenario, besides its special acceleration effect, if a Pokémon aims to control its flight using Tailwind, the simplest action it can perform is a straightforward dash forward, which can also be angled upwards or downwards.

However, when controlling flight with Silver Wind, Ledyba exhibits remarkable skills in rapid ascents and steep descents, with the demands for controlling the wind far surpassing those of Tailwind.

Ledyba's rapid ascent and steep descent techniques utilize Silver Wind to create very subtle spiral air currents, managing to maintain these spiral currents around itself.

Because the spiral air currents move at a high speed, Ledyba can easily execute any desired action by manipulating these currents.

Ledyba is about 1.3 to 1.4 meters tall. Yuga watched as it demonstrated those spiral air currents, each only slightly larger than a thumb, resembling miniature tornadoes. These tiny tornadoes gathered beneath its transparent wings, allowing Ledyba to control them at will.

Yuga counted and found that Ledyba could create over twenty miniature tornadoes at once, swirling around itself. However, this is under normal circumstances; in battles or during escapes, controlling around ten at the same time is already the limit for Ledyba.

Creating these miniature tornadoes is not particularly difficult; the challenge lies in controlling them. The crux of this technique is learning how to direct them effortlessly.

Yet, precisely because this technique makes creating miniature tornadoes simple, the ability to repeatedly use Silver Wind significantly increases its enhancement probabilities.

One downside, however, is that while Yuga's Vivillon can use the Tailwind skill, it cannot learn Silver Wind.

Fortunately, Yuga quickly thought of a solution: he instructed Vivillon to use Hurricane in place of Silver Wind. The principle behind creating miniature tornadoes with Hurricane is the same as with Silver Wind; however, controlling it is far more challenging, and it lacks the enhancement effect that Silver Wind provides.

Nevertheless, Vivillon's enhancements have never depended on Silver Wind; its true potential lies in its signature move, Quiver Dance.

For Vivillon to flexibly utilize Ledyba's flying techniques, it must overcome two major challenges.

First is the fine control of the Hurricane skill.

Hurricane is a large-scale attack move that appears quite impressive whenever it is used. Thus, when this skill is unleashed, it can cause significant damage even without precise control.

However, Vivillon's goal now is not to use Hurricane to attack enemies but to make it assist in flying, which requires Vivillon to control the energy of flying-type moves with great finesse.

The second challenge is how to integrate the Quiver Dance skill into its flying techniques.

Vivillon typically begins its battles with Quiver Dance. The reason it learns advanced flying techniques is not only to evade enemy attacks during combat but also to successfully complete its Quiver Dance amidst the barrage of enemy assaults.

As Vivillon's strength has grown, it has now achieved the limit of Quiver Dance, allowing it to stack up to six layers simultaneously.

In the fast-paced environment of battle, even if Vivillon can perform Quiver Dance at high speeds, it still requires a certain amount of time to do so. Therefore, successfully completing six layers of limit Quiver Dance without being attacked becomes a significant challenge.

This makes integrating Quiver Dance into new flying techniques crucial.

With that in mind, after Yuga, Vivillon, and Ledyba discussed and formulated a general training plan for Vivillon, their day of training commenced.

True to its purple aptitude, Vivillon mastered the foundational techniques of Ledyba's Tailwind control within just one morning of practice.

Although both are Bug-type and Flying-type Pokémon, Vivillon's body structure is quite different from Ledyba's, especially in terms of their wings.

Vivillon has large wings, whereas Ledyba's wings are rounded and small. This means that Vivillon cannot simply copy Ledyba's flying techniques. Fortunately, Vivillon is smart enough to draw inferences from Ledyba's guidance and figure out what works and what doesn't for itself.

Halfway through the training, May arrived at the backyard of the Pokémon Center, planning to train her Pokémon.

Compared to the diligent Ash, May still had a long way to go.

After a brief greeting with Yuga, May found an empty space to start training her Pokémon.

As seen in the original anime, May eventually embarked on the path of becoming a Coordinator, a choice influenced by her previous experiences with Shun.

Currently, May's Pokémon include the Swablu that Yuga gifted her on her birthday, the Lunatone and Baltoy she obtained in the Mirage Tower, and her fully evolved Beautif and the recently captured Skitty.

Seeing May's Beautifly, Yuga had a thought. Compared to Vivillon, it seemed that Beautifly would be more suited to learning Ledyba's flying techniques because Huntail could learn Silver Wind, a move that Vivillon couldn't.

So he called out to May, "May, why not have your Beautifly learn a move from my Ledyba? I guarantee you'll shine in the Pokémon Contest."

May's eyes lit up at his words, and she rushed over, saying, "Really?" She never doubted Yuga's words.

"Of course!" Yuga nodded and then said to Ledyba, "Ledyba, show May a move."

Ledyba then demonstrated its exceptional flying techniques, captivating May with its performance.

Yuga smiled and asked her, "So, what do you think? It would be a great advantage for your Beautifly to learn this, right?"

"Mm-hmm, so amazing!" May nodded eagerly. This dazzling flying style would definitely stand out in the Pokemon Contest. However, she paused for a moment and asked Yuga, "Hey, where did your Ledyba come from, Yuga?"

Ledyba was captured by Yuga just yesterday, and neither he nor Max had mentioned it to anyone, so this was the first time May had seen it.

"Oh, I forgot to tell everyone. I caught it yesterday at Ancient Tree Park," Yuga said with a slight smile.

Thus, May's Beautifly joined the ranks of Ledyba's students.

However, May's Beautifly didn't have as high a potential as Vivillon, so its learning process was not only slower but also somewhat clumsy. Fortunately, Beautifly's personality was quite resilient, and it didn't get discouraged by the disparity in talent. After some time spent learning, it still made progress.

Vivillon and Beautifly were training with great enthusiasm, so much so that they lost track of time even until lunchtime, continuing their focused practice until Ash finished his training and passed by Yuga and the others.

"What are Mr. Shimizu and May doing?" he suddenly thought of something. "Mr. Shimizu is instructing May! How sneaky! I want to learn too!" What was his purpose for insisting on accompanying Yuga to Fortree City? It was to get guidance from Yuga, of course!

Finally, Yuga helplessly promised to also provide some guidance for him later, and only then did Ash happily join Yuga and the others for lunch.

Since they were leaving Fortree City the next day, in the afternoon, May, Ash, Brock, and Max continued to explore Fortree City, while Yuga and Luviya visited the gym to meet the gym leader, Winona.

The matters regarding the gym assessment had mostly been handled, and Yuga's return to the Fortree Gym was, of course, for the Nimora Chesto Berry Tree saplings.

When Luviya revealed to Winona that she wanted some Nimora Chesto Berry Tree saplings, Winona immediately agreed without hesitation.

Currently, the Nimora Chesto Berry Tree saplings were not worth much in Fortree City; they were practically unwanted even if thrown in the street. Most of the saplings derived from the ancient trees had naturally died after reaching a certain stage in the Ancient Tree Park. Since Yuga wanted them, why not give them away?

Moreover, she and Luviya had a long-standing friendship; their families had known each other for generations. Aside from her not-so-pleasant breakup with Wallace, she still had a very good relationship with Luviya, so she was willing to help her out.

Winona prepared a hundred saplings for Yuga, all of which had just started to grow. After Yuga inspected them, Winona helped him find a convoy to transport the saplings back to Verdanturf Town, and Yuga paid the transportation fee on the spot.

Early the next morning, Yuga and the others set off to leave Fortree City. Their next stop was Golden Color Town, followed by Lilycove City, and then after passing through Sootopolis City, they would change routes to Mossdeep City.

The Sootopolis Gym in Sootopolis City was an established gym and wasn't included in this assessment list, so Yuga and the others were merely passing through this time.

Additionally, Luviya's daughter, Liuqiya, had been training at the Liuli Gym under her uncle Wallace, so Luviya had the perfect opportunity to see her. It had been a while since the mother and daughter had seen each other.

Ash, May, and the others chose to continue traveling with Yuga and his group for a while.

During the journey, Yuga not only had Ledyba help teach May's Beautifly, but he also kept his promise to guide Ash's training. He had Vivillon teach Pikachu the move Electroweb, and he imparted a more efficient meditation method for Solrock and Baltoy.

Ash and his companions parted ways with Yuga and the others on their way to Sootopolis City because May was heading in another direction to participate in a Pokémon Contest.

When they said their goodbyes, both May and Ash's Pokémon had made significant progress. Not only had Beautifly begun to preliminarily utilize Ledyba's flying techniques (although it was still not effective in battles and performances), but the Swablu had also evolved into an Altaria, and Ash's Treecko had evolved into a Grovyle.

Time flew by, and two months later, after completing the assessments for the last gym, Yuga, Luviya, Mr. Norman, and Iori gathered in Ever Grande City. The four of them submitted their assessment materials to the Hoenn League headquarters before each returning home.

Once the gym assessment results were announced, it would be time for the next Gym Challenge. This year's Gym Challenge was set to take place in the renowned technology City of LaRousse in the Hoenn region, scheduled for the end of summer.

The Hoenn League intended for Yuga to serve as a judge for this year's Gym Challenge, but after being out on the road for several months and feeling exhausted, he directly refused. Ultimately, the heavy burden fell on Wallace.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Wallace was a model worker. Not only was he the leader of the Sootopolis Gym, but he also had the significant responsibility of being the executive committee member for the Showcase, and now he was also taking on the role of judge for the Gym Challenge. This was surely a case of the capable being overburdened.

In addition, Yuga received another piece of news: due to the impact of the Gym Challenge, this year's Pokémon League competition was postponed from its original end-of-summer date to the end of autumn.

The level of the League competition was not as high as that of the Gym Challenge, and when the two events clashed, it was clear that the League competition would give way to the Gym Challenge.

However, this was good news for most trainers, as it meant they would have more time to prepare and more opportunities to earn the necessary gym badges to participate in the competition.

On the day Yuga returned to the gym, he was warmly welcomed by everyone. Being away for several months was no easy feat, and that day, Audino had prepared a lavish feast to welcome Yuga back, which he enjoyed thoroughly.

Afterward, Yuga went to the Ecopark to check on Baltoy, Lunatone, and Solrock that had been sent back. They had all been arranged by Audino in the mining sub-Ecopark, and they were living quite well, getting along nicely with the Agron family and Tyranitar family in the mining sub-Ecopark.

Additionally, the Nimora Chesto Berry Tree saplings were planted in the volcanic sub-park according to Yuga's instructions by Audino.

Although the climate in the volcanic sub-Ecopark was hot, it did not lack water sources, making it a suitable place for the heat- and moisture-loving Nimora Chesto Berry Trees.

It had already been two months since the saplings were planted. Aside from a few that failed to thrive, most of the Nimora Chesto Berry Tree saplings had regained vitality. As for whether they would eventually grow into trees, further observation would be needed.

During Yuga's absence, the gym and Pokemon Day Care were well managed by Beidou and Suzuki, operating in an orderly manner. One could say that Yuga's role as a hands-off manager had been quite successful.