After saying farewell to Ash and the others, Lucas returned to Goldenrod City, then took the Maglev Train and arrived in Saffron City by dusk.
Saffron City.
The largest and most prosperous city in all of Kanto, much like Goldenrod's position in Johto.
The headquarters of the world-class corporation Silph Co. towered right in the city center, impossible to miss.
The city was also home to the Saffron Gym, guarded by the formidable Psychic-type Trainer Sabrina, known as the Humanoid Pokémon.
But none of that had anything to do with Lucas right now.
If it were earlier, he might have considered dropping by Sabrina's gym to see whether he himself had any talent for Psychic-type abilities.
But after being shot down three times—by Oranguru, Mewtwo, and Calyrex—he'd given up on that dream.
The moment he stepped off the Maglev, he saw people from the Kanto League already waiting for him at the station exit.
The woman had long, wavy blue hair, wore a yellow midriff tank top, white three-quarter pants, and yellow high heels that matched her top.
Her face was set and serious, and a palpable oppressive aura rolled off her, causing passersby to unconsciously keep their distance.
Some people clearly recognized who she was, but even so, they didn't dare approach her under that pressure.
The woman seemed to already know what Lucas looked like. As soon as he stepped past the ticket gate, she strode toward him on her heels.
Lucas motioned for Delibird to stick close behind him so they wouldn't get separated in the crowd, then looked up at the woman now standing before him and greeted her with a smile. "Didn't expect you'd personally come to pick me up, Elite Karen."
"The others are all busy. But Chairman Goodshow said we mustn't slight you, so he sent me from Mt. Silver to Saffron to meet you in advance."
Karen nodded slightly and glanced toward the station exit.
"I parked the car outside. It's too late to go to headquarters today. The League wants us to rest in Saffron for the night. The hotel's already booked; I'll take you there."
Beyond the intimidating aura that came from being an Ice specialist, Karen herself exuded an efficient, capable air. She wasted no time or words.
Under her guidance, Lucas and Delibird got into her black jeep.
His surprise must have been a bit too obvious, because as she weaved deftly through Saffron's busy streets, she pushed up the night-vision polarized shades on her nose and said:
"There's nothing strange about it. I'm a practical person. I often have to travel between wild areas and different cities. Naturally, I picked a high-clearance, rugged vehicle as my ride."
"Deliiii~"
Delibird nodded. It agreed: practicality was best.
Lucas looked thoughtful.
Indeed, unlike in Alola, in major Kanto cities most Pokémon were not allowed to carry people on public roads.
The only exceptions were Pokémon like Dodrio—and even then, you needed a certified license to travel with them.
Even as night fell and the sky darkened, the streets remained as crowded as ever. Karen glanced at Lucas, who was absorbed in watching the passing scenery from the passenger seat, and asked, "Are you free tonight?"
Lucas blinked. Not knowing what she had in mind, he chose the safest possible answer.
"Let's… say I'm not. I pulled an all-nighter yesterday and planned to get an early sleep tonight."
"I see. Then let's do it another day."
Karen nodded lightly, her demeanor refreshingly unforced.
A string of question marks popped up in Lucas's head. He hesitated a moment, then asked, "Can I ask what you wanted me for?"
Karen didn't answer immediately.
Only after the jeep had taken a few more turns and finally stopped in front of an upscale hotel did she stretch with her arms crossed and reply in a lazy tone:
"I rushed here from Mt. Silver without stopping. Taking a little interest isn't too much to ask, is it?"
"If you don't mind, once we reach Indigo Plateau, have a one-on-one Pokémon battle with me."
She didn't bother to hide her desire to battle. Perhaps most Pokémon Trainers were like that.
"No problem," Lucas nodded. "Though I didn't bring my ace with me on this trip."
"Then just send out your main attacker. Oh—and I'm quite interested in that Dragonite that defeated Moltres. There's no record of you taking any flights, so I'm guessing you rode it here, right?"
Spreading her hands, Karen seemed very satisfied with Lucas's straightforwardness.
"You know, our Johto League Champion's ace is also a Dragonite. I've never given up on taking that title. I've done a lot of training for that matchup—so I might be unexpectedly well-prepared against you."
"Fair enough."
Lucas unbuckled his seat belt, then went around to the back to gently unstrap the Delibird sitting obediently on the child seat and help it out. Under Karen's lead, all the check-in procedures were completed in one go.
On the top floor of the hotel, outside his room, Karen leaned against the doorframe and waved.
"Get a good rest. It'll take us about half a day to drive to Indigo Plateau tomorrow."
"Got it."
Lucas closed the door and exhaled in relief. He looked at Delibird, who was curiously examining the hotel room, thought for a bit, then took out his Poké Balls and released everyone.
Dragonite, Moltres, Arcanine, Victini, and Raging Bolt… Yes, this so-called top luxury hotel in Saffron had ceilings high enough for Raging Bolt to stand up straight.
From the shadows, Mimikyu crawled out. Lucas picked it up, then pulled a piece of high-quality fabric and some needle and thread from his bag. He called to Moltres, who'd suppressed its flames and was now stalking around the room like a big walking chicken:
"Keep an eye on Arcanine."
Even if the room bill was on the Kanto League, Lucas still wanted to avoid causing too much damage.
Moltres nodded to show it understood, then turned to look at Arcanine, who was lying near the door.
To its surprise, Arcanine only glanced at the neatly placed disposable slippers, then calmly looked away, showing no interest at all.
Moltres: "…"
So he only fixates on my slippers, huh. Talk about principles.
Moltres sauntered over to Arcanine and began to slowly preen its fur with its beak.
On the other side of the room, Lucas tried to sew the fabric into a new disguise coat for Mimikyu, using it as a live model. Unfortunately, his skills clearly weren't there yet, and the final product looked rather tragic.
Mimikyu, swaying its wooden tail, didn't mind in the least.
But Lucas had promised to make it a cute doll-style cloak, so he had to do it properly.
He folded the failed prototype neatly and tucked it into his bag, then took out a second piece of fabric to start again.
…
Time slipped by until the night grew deep—around eleven o'clock.
He still hadn't produced a cloak he was satisfied with, but the experience he'd accumulated was real enough. Stifling a yawn, Lucas looked over at his Pokémon, who had all fallen asleep in a heap.
Dragonite and Raging Bolt had just spent ages playing slide with Victini; no wonder they were exhausted.
"Time to call it a night."
Drowsiness surged up, threatening to swallow his consciousness. Lucas yawned again, lay down on the bed, and drifted off with Delibird in his left arm and Mimikyu in his right.
With the two of them there, he didn't even need to turn on the air conditioner. Their cool bodies chased away every trace of the summer heat.
…
The next morning—
Freshly washed and dressed, Lucas stepped out of his room and immediately bumped into Karen, who was leaning casually against the hallway wall.
He blinked, then said sincerely, "Standing like that makes it feel like you've been in that pose all night."
Karen didn't respond to the jab. Brushing her hair off her shoulder, she cocked an eyebrow. "Let's go."
"Okay."
Her jeep was still parked in front of the hotel. Lucas and Delibird settled into the backseat. As the engine roared to life, the jeep rolled out onto the road, heading toward the most solemn place in all of Kanto: the Pokémon League at Indigo Plateau.
On the way, Lucas fished a camera out from Delibird's tail and began flipping through its photos with it.
The camera had only been with Delibird for less than a month, so there weren't that many pictures.
But what grabbed Lucas's attention most was a photo taken in a forest.
Lush trees with dense branches blotted out the sky. The light in the forest was so poor that even though the photo was taken in broad daylight, it looked like night.
If it were just a dark, gloomy forest, it wouldn't have stood out.
The key was a mysterious creature in the distance, hiding in the sea of trees like a little fairy and glowing with an emerald-green light.
It was too far away to see clearly, but judging from the outline… it looked very much like that Pokémon.
In his mind, Lucas pictured a small green body with transparent gossamer wings on its back and two thick, black eye-rings: the Mythical Pokémon Celebi.
Celebi, who could freely travel through time.
If there was a Celebi there, and the forest was that dark and eerie, then it had to be Ilex Forest.
Delibird's luck was insane—managing to snap a photo of a Pokémon as elusive as Celebi.
Blushing from his praise, Delibird bashfully scratched its head with a wing.
Still marveling, Lucas opened the camera's instant print function and printed the photo on the spot, planning to put it into his album later.
…
Half a day later, they arrived at the Kanto League Headquarters, Indigo Plateau.
Walking up the long stairs of dark gray stone, Lucas and Delibird looked back down.
Rather than feeling like they were standing on the most solemn ground in Kanto, the view below looked more like a scenic resort, with large facilities scattered around the beautiful landscape.
They were walking a perfectly safe road. Just a little further out lay the famous Mt. Silver range, notorious for its treacherous terrain.
Karen's voice drifted down from ahead.
"With the League's power and scale growing in recent years, safe roads leading to Indigo Plateau have long since been built. Aside from Trainers who deliberately want to test themselves, very few people still challenge Victory Road."
Lucas pulled his gaze back and continued up with Delibird. "So down there is the stadium, the Trainers' Village, and all the other facilities for the Indigo Conference?"
"That's right. Times are changing. Trainer rank divisions are more detailed than ever. Kanto's League is also considering adopting Sinnoh's Champion League system—letting free gym leaders and past League champions compete to decide who has the right to challenge the Elite Four and Champion."
She chatted about Kanto's recent changes without even turning around.
"I heard Paldea's system is a bit different from Kanto's?"
"It is," Lucas replied, thinking for a moment.
His mind flashed back to his own Champion assessment in Paldea. The early interview rounds, in particular, felt less like challenging an Elite Four and Champion, and more like Geeta recruiting strong Trainers as corporate staff.
Idle talk made the climb feel shorter. As they chatted around topics that didn't touch either region's secrets, the long stairway that looked like a ladder to the sky suddenly ended, and the grand buildings of the Kanto League came into view.
Aside from the League's imposing architecture, the most eye-catching thing was the blazing orange flame burning in a silver cauldron in the center of the front plaza.
"That's the Sacred Flame?" Lucas asked, almost certain.
"Yes," Karen nodded. "A never-ending fire born from Moltres, used as the symbol of the Indigo and Silver Conferences."
Then, her expression turned a bit complicated.
If she remembered correctly, Lucas also had a Moltres, didn't he? And even Articuno and Zapdos.
At least the Sacred Flame here came from an exceptionally strong Moltres. That was some small comfort.
Lucas thought of how he usually used his Moltres's fire at home—to keep warm and to cook—and wisely shut his mouth. No need to court trouble here.
The Sacred Flame was a core part of the spiritual faith of Kanto's people, after all.
They were almost at the main entrance of the Kanto headquarters. All they had to do was walk past the silver cauldron.
But before Lucas could step around it, the Sacred Flame inside suddenly surged as if sensing something, billowing upward to form a wall of fire that blocked Lucas's path.
"?!"
Fortunately, Lucas and Delibird reacted quickly and stopped at the same time. If they'd taken one more step, his eyebrows and Delibird's feathers might have been singed.
Karen, who'd walked ahead without provoking any reaction at all from the flames, halted and stared in shock.
The Sacred Flame… was reacting?
Feeling the wave of heat on his face, Lucas's expression changed. He could vaguely sense that the Sacred Flame wasn't aiming at him.
More like—
A Poké Ball on his belt trembled and opened on its own.
Moltres appeared in the plaza in a flare of fire.
The moment Moltres appeared, the Sacred Flame that had blocked Lucas and Delibird seemed to have found what it was looking for. The overflowing fire obediently flowed back into the cauldron, then began to gather and take shape, condensing into a flaming, long-crying, illusory firebird.
Its appearance was almost identical to Moltres.
Staring at the living, breathing firebird in the cauldron, Lucas's eyes went wide.
It's really alive!?
Karen's eyes, too, were full of wonder. For a moment, she couldn't maintain her usual forbidding Dark-type aura and muttered to herself, "It really is alive…"
Ever since she became one of Johto's Elite Four, she'd heard rumors that the Sacred Flame possessed a will of its own.
But seeing it with her own eyes was something else entirely.