"Really? I came back in such a hurry..." Ash complained. After seeing May and Max off on the boat, he had rushed back so he could battle Gary.
"If you want to battle me, put it off until later. I plan to go to the Sinnoh region tomorrow," Gary said.
"The Sinnoh region? Are you going there to participate in the League Conference?" Ash asked.
"That depends on the situation. I'm mainly going there to travel and explore, and perhaps see if there are any Pokémon worth raising," Gary said.
"Is that so? Then I'm going to the Sinnoh region too," Ash said.
"Since you're both going to Sinnoh, why don't we go together tomorrow?" Tracey suggested.
"Okay! Let's go together."
Ash nodded repeatedly in agreement.
"Ash! You just got back, so why are you leaving again?" Delia suddenly appeared out of nowhere and glared at Ash.
"Mom...!"
Seeing Delia, Ash was intimidated by the instinctive pressure he felt from his mother and didn't dare look directly at her.
Ash also knew that he had gone too far. After all, he had only just returned home and was already planning to leave again.
"Delia, don't be angry." Professor Oak came into the backyard at that moment and helped Ash out. "Ash will have to go to the Sinnoh region sooner or later."
"Forget it. Then Mom will pack your luggage for you." Delia helplessly held her forehead and agreed to let Ash continue traveling.
Gary looked at the scene in front of him and couldn't help interrupting. "I want to travel alone. I never agreed to travel with Ash."
"Why? Isn't it better to have a companion to take care of you on the road?" Delia asked.
Delia had agreed to let Ash go so readily because he would be traveling with Gary, allowing the two of them to look after each other.
"There's no particular reason. It's fine to go to the Sinnoh region together, but traveling together is another matter," Gary said.
Delia immediately looked worried. Although Ash had traveled through three regions, he had always had friends with him. Now that he was going to the Sinnoh region alone, Delia was genuinely a little concerned.
"Delia, don't worry. You've seen Ash's current strength. Even if he travels alone, he'll be fine," Professor Oak comforted her.
"Yeah, don't worry, Mom. I'll be fine on my own, and Pikachu will be with me," Ash said.
"Pikachu!"
Pikachu nodded.
"Then I'll leave him to you, Pikachu," Delia said.
"Pika! (o'w'o)?!!"
Ash, just leave him to me.
Ash: (O_O)??
Ash always felt that something was wrong. Even if he wasn't very good at taking care of himself, he could still take care of Pikachu.
In the end, Gary and Ash decided to go to the Sinnoh region together the next day. As for how they would get there, they would take a boat.
Gary brought all his Pokémon with him, including all six of the Pokémon he had prepared for the Sinnoh region.
The next morning, Gary and Ash took a car to Vermilion City, where they boarded a cruise ship to the Sinnoh region.
The Sinnoh region was quite far from the Kanto region, and the cruise would take three days to reach it.
Three days later, Gary stood on the deck of the cruise ship, flipping through the latest Pokédex Professor Oak had given him. It contained detailed information about the Pokémon found in the Sinnoh region.
"Which Pokémon should I capture?"
Ash also came to the deck. When he saw Gary, he walked over to see what he was doing.
"I'm looking at the Pokémon in the Sinnoh region. Didn't Grandpa give you the latest Pokédex too? We'll be arriving in Sandgem Town soon. Why don't you look through it and find a Pokémon you like?" Gary said.
This time, when Ash came to a new region, just like in the Hoenn region, all the Pokémon he used in the Sinnoh League Conference, apart from Pikachu, would be Pokémon he captured in the Sinnoh region. He would only use his older Pokémon when facing Tobias.
"It's not too late to look at that kind of thing when you encounter it. Even if you look in advance, it's useless if you don't meet the Pokémon you want," Ash said.
Ash really believed in fate when it came to capturing Pokémon. Regardless of a Pokémon's potential or type, as long as he felt a connection with it, he would capture it.
Before the seventh generation, the only Pokémon Ash would actively seek out and capture was the regional bird Pokémon.
He captured Pidgeotto in the Kanto region.
He captured Noctowl in the Johto region.
He captured Taillow in the Hoenn region.
Now that he was coming to the Sinnoh region, he naturally wouldn't miss Starly. It seemed that the Starly Ash captured had taken the initiative to attack him before he caught it.
That Starly had high potential and great comprehension. Under Paul's guidance, it successfully mastered Brave Bird and performed very well during the later Lily of the Valley Conference.
Moreover, Ash was the child of destiny. Every time he traveled to a new region, he would definitely encounter all the Pokémon unique to that region during his journey.
When Ash traveled through the Sinnoh region, the only Pokémon he did not encounter was Cresselia. He encountered all the others in various ways.
"By the time you meet them, they'll have already run away after you read the Pokédex entry," Gary complained.
Ash couldn't find a way to refute that. He had experienced something similar during his rookie days.
He changed the subject and asked, "So, which Pokémon in the Sinnoh region do you like?"
"Lucario or Infernape," Gary said.
No matter how Gary looked at it, only those two Pokémon were suitable for his Sinnoh team.
Apart from Garchomp, the other five Pokémon Gary had prepared for the Sinnoh region were Pokémon from other regions that had gained new evolutionary forms in Sinnoh. Strictly speaking, the only Sinnoh-region Pokémon Gary had captured was Gabite.
"Lucario? Isn't that a very rare Pokémon? Is it common in the Sinnoh region?" Ash asked.
When Ash had been challenging the Battle Frontier, he encountered a Lucario while traveling to Rota City, and many wonderful things happened because of it. In the end, that Lucario died on the hill.
Ash had thought that Lucario was as rare as a Legendary Pokémon. He didn't know that Lucario was a Pokémon native to the Sinnoh region.
"Of course Lucario is rare, but it is a Pokémon unique to the Sinnoh region. Lucario and Riolu can also be found in the Unova region," Gary said.
"What is Riolu?" Ash asked.
Gary: (⊙_⊙)?!
Gary suddenly felt like leaving.
"Don't you have a Pokédex? Can't you look it up yourself?" Gary complained.
"Oh."
Ash reluctantly took out his Pokédex and searched for information about Riolu.
The Pokédex said, "Riolu, the Emanation Pokémon. The aura emitted by its body becomes stronger when it is afraid or sad, allowing it to alert its companions to danger."