Relaxing time in Celedon City

In the evening Aoki revealed the good news to Misty about getting everything she wanted and him setting up a deal.

When he revealed the news that he set up a battle against a water-type gym leader, she got fired up.

"Before that don't forget that we have to get our 8th badge, " Aoki said.

"I didn't forget about it, I went to the Celedon gym to register and found that it was booked for the next three days," Misty said.

"Hmm, we have some time on our hands then. That reminds me ..how was the experience in the game center?"

"Well…" Mist fidgeted with her hair nervously….

"Come on don't be nervous.."

"I won the first few rounds and won some points but then I got greedy and started playing more and ended up spending everything," she said nervously…

She details how exactly she lost all the games and how much she won.

"Did you redeem anything ?"

"I-I could only redeem 3 full restores…rest of the points were used up when I was out of money," she said waiting to see Aoki's reaction.

"Well, it was not too bad considering your usual scores. Three full restores would easily cost us around 100k so good job. "

A full restoration was the strongest portion that could save any pokemon from any status condition and boost up their regeneration speed along with providing an ample amount of energy.

These medicines also worked on humans but could have been better than in Pokemons.

In the fight against Gengar, if not for his having a supply of Full restores, he and his Pokemons would have died mid-flight.

*****

In the night both Aoki and Misty gave their Pokemon the items to absorb that Aoki had brought from the Black market.

All these Pokemons courses and materials had wide usage. Some of them made evolution easier, some made the energy denser, some made the pokemon stronger, and some increased the potential of a Pokemon.

But it was not necessary that those nutrients would work as intended.

There are multiple instances where pokemon could be fed hundreds of corpses but still not become strong enough.

A prime example of this is Pokemon found in the wild.

Pokemon are cannibals and wouldn't hesitate to eat their own ones if required.

The boost received from the corpses becomes minimal when a Pokemon reaches elite rank, that is why Aoki now only gives his Pokemon parts of Pokemon that are only in the elite rank or above as lower than that will have no effect on them.

The things he brought this time were mostly given to Misty to boost her Pokemon's powers.

The next morning, both of them gathered around a lake outside Celadon city as Misty wanted to evolve her final member.

Heading to Aoki's advice and tips, Misty had trainers Seadra very well in both dragon and water-type energy making him ready to evolve.

Misty gave Seadra the dragon scale and a pair of water stones and asked him to start evolving.

Seadra was covered in a golden light as he started glowing. Starmie was there as a backup to use the Ice beam if things go downhill.

"Misty continues speaking to him and reminding him of the good memories," Aoki said as dragon pokemon especially the Kingdra time have a chance to go berserk after evolution as their dragon-type energy increases several folds during that time.

The evolution process was complete and fortunately, it was completed without a hitch.

Seadra was now a 2 m tall peak master-level Kingdra.

This Pokemon would be a monster in the water.

Unlike Seadra, Kingra could move more freely in the land as it had received a natural hovering ability.

"Thank god it worked out perfectly….congratulation on your evolution Kingdra ".

Kingdra stared at Misty for a few seconds with sharp serious eyes but his expression softened the next second as he enjoyed the hug from his trainer.

From a scared and terrified Horse that ran away in search of shelter to a large strong Kingdra, he would forever be grateful to Misty for what she did for him.

Misty called out all her Pokemons who congratulated Kingdra for reaching his final evolution.

Aoki celebrated Misty's all pokemon reaching the final stage with a lavish breakfast.

"Now then Misty, let's visit the Celedon Department store !!"

"Let's go!!"

*********

Almost three days had passed since Kingdra had evolved.

Aoki and Misty enjoyed themselves very well in Celedon City and visited almost all the noteworthy places.

Department store especially surpassed their expectations.

The interior designs, the availability of items, and the quality of the items were top-class.

Of course with all these things the prices were over the roof too.

"The quality and designs of the clothes are so great here. I am glad that I came here almost all of my clothes had got destroyed while traveling" Misty said.

Traveling through treacherous paths full of rocks, trees, and thorns is not good for clothes after all.

There are travel clothes specially available but their design is very bland so Aoki and Misty don't use them and replace their old clothes after coming to a new city.

"Which route would we take to Fuchsia City? " Misty asked.

"Let's go through Grandpa Canyon. I have never seen a canyon before " Aoki said.

"That's a good idea, I had heard that the scenery is very beautiful there. Will you take the gym challenge of Fuchsia city? "

"Yes, I would be collecting all the badges on the way. You should give them a try too. These battles are valuable experiences. We are currently in the first week of August.

If things go as planned, the preliminaries would be held at the end of August. And the main tournament would last max till the end of September.

Although the final date is not announced, this year's Pokemon league would be in the month of January next year so we have plenty of time to collect the rest of the badges. "

"Sigh, I have to work harder if I want to qualify for the tournament, with gym leaders participating I don't think I would be having an easy time.

I was thinking about returning home by November and training for the rest of the duration. I cannot stay dependent on you after all "

"That's true, If you want to grow as a trainer you must find the answer as to how you can grow stronger. Mindlessly training would not help you" Aoki said.

"Don't worry about it now, let's continue our shopping " Aoki stood up from his seat.

Last night Andre had contacted Aoki and told him that the gold he submitted has been sold.

He now had around 18 million in his bank account.

Aoki took a tour of the black market and deposited the next 50 kgs.

Andre told Aoki that this batch would take some time to be sold as he just sold the last one.

From him, Aoki took the contact of a person that would be willing to design the mega stone holders for his Pokemons.

Aoki went to the stop and selected two bracelet-type holders for Charizard and Gyarados and gave their measurements.

The material would be titanium, the current hardest metal known in the world which could easily withstand master to elite-level Pokemon attacks.

The material was equally costly but Aoki now had a lot of money so he didn't hesitate to order.

**********

"Hey did you hear miss Erika is going to act in a play tomorrow morning? "

"Yes, I know that. I just got to know that girls from Bell Tower are coming for this occasion too. Let's go we might still get tickets "

Two trainers quickly discussed and left the premise.

"Heard that Misty….seems like something interesting is about to happen. Wanna check it out ?" Aoki asked.

"Must be nice but I don't think we can get any tickets now as her show must be fully packed"

Aoki took out two cards from his pockets and showed them to Misty "Do you know what these are?"

Misty's eyes opened wide with excitement seeing what Aoki had.

"Where did you get VIP tickets from ?!"

"I told you about Steven right…he was booking tickets for the VIP seats so I made him book for us too"

"Thank You…..you are the best !!! "

Unlike Sabrina who appeared very less in Public, Erika could be seen outside of her gym very often.

Erika was the gym leader of the official Celedon gym based on grass type. She is the daughter of the last gym leader and has surpassed her mother in terms of strength.

Alongside being a gym leader, she was a teacher of botany and agriculture at an institute in the city.

Not only that, she was an idol very famous for her plays, acts, and traditional dance performances.

Aoki suspected that she was one of the Kimono sisters of Ecruteak city but that was not the case.

Erica was not only famous for her looks but also as a strong Pokemon trainer. She had won the Pokemon league three years ago too.

From what Aoki found out Erika had a lot of grass Pokemons but only used some of them for the gym battles.

They were Tangrowth, Gloom, Vileploom, Leafeon, Victreebel, Executor, and finally, her ace elite rank Venusaur which she rarely used in a trainer battle.

Unlike Surge and Sabrina who were known for thrashing trainers, Erika went easy on trainers so she was favored more by trainers.

The next day Aoki and Misty gathered in the largest auditorium and as expected, the entire hall was filled except for some of the VIP seat areas.

In the VIP area sat three familiar people. Steven in a suit, Wallace in flashy attire, and Phoebe in formal wear.

"Hey Steven thanks for booking the seats" Aoki greeted Steven and his two friends sitting in the VIP seats.

"Don't worry about it, it was a small matter" Steven said.

Now that Steven knew Aoki's true identity and the deal with Andre, he decided to befriend Aoki.

As he was raised as the future boss of the Devon Corporation, he knew how important connections were, and having a professor rising in fame in his friend circle was a perfect thing.

"Hey! I am Phoebe, I hope we get along " Phoebe greeted excitedly.

Her eyes were glued to Aoki but she controlled herself as she was in public and his girlfriend was with him.

She took out a pen and a piece of paper from her pocket and presented them to Aoki.

"Can I please get an autograph !! "

"Sure, no problem" Aoki gave her an autograph that she took back happily.

'Can't wait to see how much trouble he gets into when his identity is revealed to the world. It would be fun hehe ' Misty wondered.

Misty introduced herself and the fact that she was one of the participants in the preliminaries for the youth cup.

By now all 80 participants had received a mail regarding the youth cup. It was up to them if they wanted to participate or decline.

'If she is traveling with Aoki, she must be strong too' the Hoen trio thought.

They made small talk and as always Misty was able to befriend Phoebe. Misty had very good communication skills but most of the friends she made didn't last long during her childhood.

Some people made friends with her due to her family while some due to her looks but they started to break away when they found out about Misty's dangerous ways of having fun.

She used to venture into the wild areas without a single Pokemons which would people avoid at all costs.

She doesn't freeze seeing blood or corpses that new trainers take a long to process.

Anyways back to the current situation, Aoki asked when they were free for the battle to which he replied that they were free this evening.

"Sounds like a good idea, let's do that."

"I can register a battle place if you don't mind in the City"

"That would be nice"

Their conversation was interrupted as it was announced to make silence as the play would be starting.

This play was the Pokemon Version of the story of Cinderella where Erika acted as the main character and instead of the pumpkin ride, magic had turned her small Bellsprout into a majestic Venusaur.

The play started with a piece of emotional music as the condition of Erika was shown.

As this was a mixed media type of play, there was a dance piece to show her emotions.

The dancers that were behind Erika were quite skilled as well. Most of the stories followed the same path as the original except there was the involvement of Pokemon in them.

"Her acting is impressive, " Aoki said

"It's nice, right? I like the expressions she makes more" Misty commented…

The story reached its end as the handsome prince who Aoki heard was one of the gym apprentices took away Cinderella riding a Majestic Arcanine to a better future.

The curtains closed down which was followed by loud cheers and applause from the crowd.

The play was amazing for Aoki. He really likes the involvement of Pokemon in various parts of the story. The music and the dances describe emotions like happiness and sadness made the play gem.

"With so many movie theaters around, it is rare to see such good plays " Steven commented.

"She was beautiful like me and the serene flow of water…quite fitting for my style…I should ask her out " Wallace said with a narcissistic tone.

"Sigh! Don't bother you will embarrass yourself more" Steven said.

"Whoa !! it was so cool!!! I have to take her autograph too, wait for me" Phoebe stood out from her seat.

"Calm down Phoebe, we can meet her after booking an appointment with her first, that would make her comfortable too, " Steven said.

Misty and Aoki watched their interaction with amusement. It felt like Steven was the brain of the trip and was there to control them from running wild.