Mossdeep City

Mossdeep City is a city located on a small island. Due to its proximity to Ever Grande City and its mild climate—considered the most temperate in all of Hoenn—Mossdeep has always ranked among the most developed areas in the region.

In addition to the Mossdeep Space Center, which specializes in rocket launches, Mossdeep Gym, where the Mind Badge can be obtained, and the Pokémon Contest Hall, they provide comprehensive basic facilities for both Trainers and Coordinators.

Inside the Mossdeep City Pokémon Center, in front of a videophone.

"Akon, is it true?"

"Yeah, Teacher Teresa, Teacher Julian, and Teacher Issac... they can all vouch for it!"

"That's good." Terrance let out a sigh of relief.

Akon continued, "After Ralts evolved into Gallade, it still could only use 'Teleport.' At first, Gallade was pretty discouraged, but it didn't give up. Instead, it trained the blades on its elbows according to your training methods. Just a moment ago, it finally pulled off the 'Slash' move!"

On the other side of the video call was Terrance's classmate from Crown Academy, Akon.

Hearing the news about Gallade, Terrance felt relieved. There are at least a few months between Gallade's successful evolution and mastering the move Slash, right?

It was hard to imagine Gallade persevering through the monotonous daily grind of training its elbow blades.

"It deserves it, just like when it worked hard to master 'Teleport,'" Terrance said.

A Pokémon's evolution is a natural phenomenon inherent to a Pokémon. Some Pokémon evolve into different species under specific conditions during their growth. Evolution involves more than just physical changes; evolved Pokémon may become entirely different species, learn new moves, or sometimes even change types.

Sometimes, evolution is almost like a rebirth for the Pokémon.

Terrance recalled that Professor Rowan is an authority on Pokémon evolution. According to his research, 90% of all Pokémon are connected in some way to others through evolution. It seems Professor Rowan is currently studying whether evolution is a form of Pokémon reaching maturity and if even Legendary Pokémon might be capable of evolving.

Maturity... it makes sense. The more mature a Pokémon becomes, the more it can comprehend new things.

"Species really do matter," Terrance sighed. With Gallade as an example right beside him, this theory no longer needed questioning. A Caterpie using 'Tackle' wasn't even as strong as a Pidgeot casually flapping its wings.

After catching up with Akon about the latest happenings at the academy, Terrance gained a lot of new information.

"Alright, I'll return to the academy after I finish challenging the Grand Festival."

Ending the call, Terrance remembered the one-year promise he made with Kirlia when he sent it away. The battle between Gallade and Altaria...

To be honest, Terrance was really looking forward to it, eager to see what kind of results Gallade could achieve with its close to perfect 'Teleport' combined with its newly learned moves.

"Since it's now able to learn Normal-type moves, even if it can't learn Psychic-type moves, it can still try out techniques like Swords Dance, Leaf Blade, and Close Combat."

...

The first thing on Terrance's agenda was to sign up for the Pokémon Contest.

However, before signing up, Terrance received some interesting news.

For the upcoming Mossdeep Contest, Raoul Contesta and Mr. Sukizo would not be serving as judges. Instead, in addition to the local Nurse Joy, two professional Pokémon Contest judges were brought in.

This was supposed to be a normal occurrence. After all, Raoul Contesta and Sukizo often travel between different regions, so it's no surprise that they can't attend most Pokémon Contests….However, this was the first time Terrance hadn't encountered either of them.

This gave Terrance a strange feeling, but he also felt a little worry for the two judges. Such frequent "business trips" and "work" would be exhausting, even for young people…

"Terrance?"

Just as he was returning to the Pokémon Center, Terrance suddenly heard a familiar voice.

He turned around and saw a young man wearing a hat that covered his short silver-blue hair and dressed in a black suit. Who else could it be but Steven?

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Terrance exclaimed in surprise upon seeing Steven.

"Sir Champion….."

Terrance was about to tease him, but Steven quickly covered his mouth and pulled him into a corner.

"Shhh! Quiet, or it'll be a hassle."

Steven gave him a wry smile and made a shushing gesture, telling Terrance to keep his voice down.

Terrance shrugged, remembering Steven's current status. He had almost forgotten that Steven's status was quite different from before.

"What are you doing here?" Terrance asked in surprise.

With Steven having recently ascended to the position of Champion, shouldn't he be incredibly busy?

Could there be stones in Mossdeep City?

"My home is in Mossdeep City," Steven said. "But what about you? Are you here to participate in the Pokémon Contest?"

"You guessed it," Terrance replied.

"In that case, come to my house first."

Only four months had passed since the second half of the Champion League started, and during these four months, all of Hoenn's attention had been focused on one man.

That man had, in the most dazzling way, defeated the current Hoenn's Elite Four and became the Champion of the Hoenn League.

Steven Stone, the most talked-about Trainer in Hoenn at the moment.

"Congratulations, Steven."

Even though Steven's status had changed, Terrence was surprisingly at ease when conversing with him.

Just like their previous conversations, the two began chatting away.

Steven was actually preparing to leave Mossdeep City, and running into Terrance was purely by chance.

"It's all because of Team Aqua. They stole some data on a submarine propulsion device from a company under Devon."

As they talked, Steven didn't hide the reason why he was leaving; after all, the matter had already been reported in the newspapers. Although it was somewhat embarrassing, there was no need to cover it up. Team Aqua and Team Magma were becoming more and more active, and this time they even stirred up trouble for Devon. Having just taken the position of Champion, there was no way Steven could stand out of it.

"So he's going after those two organizations..." Terrance thought to himself.

Upon learning that Steven had important matters to attend to, Terrance didn't want to disturb him any further. Although Steven insisted it wasn't a big deal and that Team Aqua had long since fled—he was just going to handle the aftermath—Terrance still chose to say goodbye out of courtesy, not wanting to delay Steven's business.

"Good luck with your Pokémon Contest," Steven said as they parted.

After leaving Steven's house, Terrance noticed a figure in a nearby corner. Someone was holding a camera and muttering to themselves in surprise, "A mysterious visitor spotted leaving the new Champion Steven's home. Big news!"

It was, of course, a paparazzi. Ever since Steven rose to the top of Hoenn, all of Hoenn had been trying to track him down. Anything related to Steven was big news. This reporter had gone to great lengths, even camping out in Steven's hometown all this time. Finally, she had a scoop. While this might seem trivial to outsiders, she was already planning to exaggerate the story for maximum effect…

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