"By the way, isn't there a Gym here? I want to visit it while we're here," Shiro asked.
He remembered that Fortree City had a Flying-type Gym, whose Gym Leader was Winona.
However, Winona had been very young even in the original anime and games. In the current timeline, she might not have become the Gym Leader of Fortree yet. Shiro was not entirely sure.
Dale pointed in a direction and led him there. "There is a Fortree Gym. The Gym Leader is a very kind middle-aged man. I'm sure he'll be happy to meet Professor Corviknight too."
'A very kind middle-aged man?'
Shiro tried hard to recall who he was talking about, but still couldn't remember anyone like that.
The two of them walked southwest from the lake. The surrounding trees looked like a huge primeval forest, with houses built several meters, and sometimes even more than ten meters, above the ground. They looked almost like Pokémon habitats.
"If these houses were built any lower, they probably wouldn't get enough sunlight," Dale explained. After living here for two months, he had already become quite familiar with the area. "But the Fortree Gym is an old building. Hmm... it looks a bit like an altar?"
Dale scratched his head, finding it difficult to describe the appearance of the Fortree Gym.
After walking for more than ten minutes, they reached the southwestern edge of the forest. In the distance, they could vaguely see a tall gray-white stone structure. A long staircase led all the way to the top, which rose even higher than the tallest trees.
It looked just like the Fortree Gym Shiro remembered. It really did resemble some kind of altar.
As they got closer, they could see two stone Pokémon statues on a platform around the middle of the structure. One depicted Charizard, while the other depicted Skarmory.
Behind the statues was a passage that seemed to lead inside the structure, presumably into the Fortree Gym itself.
The moment the two of them stepped onto the stairs, the Gym Trainers standing beside the statues at the entrance hurried inside.
By the time they reached the platform with the statues, a tall, thin, middle-aged man walked out from the passage. He had a refined appearance and looked to be around forty years old. He wore a blue and white robe, and he was clearly the Gym Leader of Fortree.
Dale waved at him first. "Gym Leader Barron!"
Barron smiled and nodded from the edge of the platform. His eyes then turned toward Shiro. After looking him over, he asked, "Sir, are you a trainer here to challenge the Gym?"
Hearing this, Cairo, who was behind them, had a strange expression. He looked as if he wanted to say something but couldn't bring himself to speak.
Shiro froze for a second. He hadn't expected the Fortree Gym Leader standing before him to not recognize him. Still, it would be awkward to say something like, 'You don't even know who I am?'
He simply shook his head and replied, "No, Gym Leader Barron. I'm the professor at the newly built research institute nearby. I came here to pay you a visit."
Barron opened his mouth and was speechless for a moment. He immediately remembered the news he had heard about the new professor in Hoenn. The professor was said to be extremely young, but he hadn't expected the person who had suddenly appeared before him to be that very professor.
Barron had lived in Fortree City for many years and was practically isolated from the outside world. Aside from using the telephone, he rarely touched things like televisions or computers, so most of the news he knew came through word of mouth.
Some time ago, the Hoenn League had called to inform him about the construction of the research institute.
Although Barron had been quite interested in it, he had never thought about getting electronic equipment to learn more about his new neighbor.
He quickly changed his tone and apologized. "Oh! Haha, I'm really sorry, Professor Shiro. Please, come inside."
Barron turned and gestured for them to enter.
However, Shiro waved his hand. "Thank you, Gym Leader Barron. I only came here to meet you and get acquainted this time. I'll leave it at that for today. Once the research institute is finished, I'll come visit you again."
"Of course, of course. Take care!" Barron said with a relieved sigh.
He had heard that Professor Shiro was also a powerful trainer, so he had been somewhat worried that the young man might be hot-blooded and decide to challenge the Gym because of some misunderstanding. That would have been troublesome.
Fortunately, there was no such trouble.
Barron watched Shiro and the others walk away. He felt somewhat emotional as he gave a simple wave to the two students beside him before returning to the Gym.
* * *
As they walked down the stairs, Cairo spoke with a laugh. "I remember Barron has probably never left Fortree City. There aren't any electronic devices here either, so he probably doesn't even know the Hoenn League's two new Elite Four members."
Dale thought for a moment. "One of them is called Sidney, and the other is Glacia, right?"
Shiro asked, "Does Barron have any children? In Hoenn, Gym Leader positions can be inherited, right? He doesn't seem particularly young anymore."
Cairo thought for a moment before moving closer and explaining in a low voice, "Barron does have a daughter. Her name is Winona, but..."
Shiro gave him an inquisitive look.
"It's just that Winona is very interested in the Pokémon Contests that have become popular in recent years. She wants to become some kind of Pokémon Coordinator. She's especially fond of a young man named Wallace, who is one of the most famous figures in the Pokémon Contest scene. Miss Winona likes him quite a lot."
Cairo hesitated for a few seconds before adding, "Our president's son, Steven, is a good friend of that Wallace."
After hearing this, Shiro gave a brief nod and didn't ask any more questions.
The Pokémon Contests were related to the Beauty research he planned to release in the next stage.
During this period, he had used some of his spare time to write quite a few research papers on Beauty. All that remained was to conduct the relevant experiments with Pokémon.
He planned to first complete the Feebas evolution experiment report at Birch's lab. Once the research institute was finished, Dale could handle the rest.
After the breeding facility was completed and the League approved the relevant research funding, there would be no shortage of Pokémon for experiments.
As for Wallace...
In the original anime and games, it was explicitly stated that he was a member of the Sootopolitans. He should be one of the leading figures of the younger generation. Shiro simply didn't know what his purpose was in promoting Pokémon Contests so aggressively.
After all, those ancient clans had once belonged to the former kingdom. Under the League's rule, it would be very inappropriate for them to openly appear in public.
There might be quite a few members of those ancient clans within the League, but if their identities were exposed in public and they were despised by everyone, things could become troublesome.
When the League had first been established, it had openly overthrown the kingdom system and sent many kings and nobles to the gallows.
Those ancient clans held many secrets of the Pokémon world, including information about Legendary Pokémon and Unown. Hunter J had also been a member of the Sootopolitans. The Unown she possessed had most likely been found with the help of the Sootopolitans as well.
For now, however, none of this had much to do with Shiro.
If those people eventually became enemies, he wouldn't mind having Hunter W bring the Hunters Guild and some Legendary Pokémon to have a little fun with Wallace.
Before they realized it, the group had returned to the lakeside.
"I'll be going to Professor Birch's lab later. If anything comes up, you can find me there..." Shiro said as he gave Dale a simple farewell. He then left with Sapphire, who had been squatting by the lake in a daze.
It was time to make his final stop and visit Birch.
"Mr. Cairo, would it be too much trouble to go to Littleroot Town now?"
**
**
**
Thank you for reading! If you'd like access to extra chapters and want to support my work, you can visit my P@treon:
P@treon/SilverShark769
Vote with Power Stones for Bonus Chapters!
Your support means a lot, thank you!