Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 119: Challenging the Celadon Gym

Celadon City Pokémon Center, Kanto Region.

"Great—I won’t have to worry about Pokémon carrying limits anymore."

Rio looked at the Poké Balls on his belt and smiled. He had just operated the system at the Pokémon Center to disable the Pokémon storage transfer system. From now on, when he caught more than six Pokémon, they wouldn’t be automatically sent away.

Why did he do this? For friendship, of course. If he caught a Pokémon but didn’t keep it by his side, how could he encourage it, support it, and make it feel his care—through sheer willpower?

He now had Charizard, Munchlax, Primeape, Red Gyarados, Gengar, Froakie, and Raikou. If not for Gengar being in an ancient Poké Ball and not officially counted, Raikou would have been transferred the moment it was caught—and sent to the Lavender Town Pokémon Center. The Nurse Joy there would have been absolutely terrified to see a Raikou suddenly appear in the backyard.

To avoid that, he had disabled the storage transfer system, just like Unova Champion Alder—though in Alder’s case, it was because he was too old to figure out how to use it. For Rio, it was because he felt the system had more drawbacks than benefits.

"Now I can challenge the Celadon Gym."

Rio pulled out his phone to check the Gym’s address, then released Charizard and flew over. Moments later, he arrived above the Celadon Gym.

"Not bad—fits a rich heiress’s Gym. Much more grand than Cerulean and Pewter City’s Gyms," Rio admired.

He recalled Celadon Gym’s status among Kanto’s eight Gyms. As the Gym in Kanto’s second-largest city, it was the nominal leader of the eight—though only nominally. After all, Saffron’s Psychic Gym, Cinnabar’s Fire Gym, Vermilion’s Electric Gym, Fuchsia’s Poison Gym, and Viridian’s Gym were all under Team Rocket’s control. If Celadon gave an order, only Cerulean and Pewter would listen—the other five would treat it like a joke.

"But why isn’t there anyone waiting to challenge it?" Rio noticed the lack of a queue outside, unlike the crowds at Pewter and Cerulean.

After asking around, he understood—to challenge Celadon’s Leader Erika, one had to first defeat her Gym trainees. Only then could they face her. So everyone was lining up at the side entrance.

Rio joined the queue. Before doing so, he released Froakie and Gengar.

Why? Because he couldn’t afford to waste any time improving their strength. Froakie’s level and power weren’t enough to participate in today’s Gym battle. Instead of keeping it by his side, he let it find an open area nearby to practice move proficiency. With its vengeful mindset, it didn’t need supervision—like Charizard, it would train on its own.

All he had to do after the battle was give it timely feedback: "You really are the genius I knew you were—your proficiency went up by so much, you’re getting closer to revenge!" That would satisfy its expectations and give it a sense of security.

As for Gengar—he was releasing it purely as a babysitter, to make sure no one interrupted Froakie’s training or tried to catch it. Despite being a hundred years old, with a mouth that was a bit too chatty and sharp, Gengar was still reliable when it came to getting things done. Watching over Froakie for a while shouldn’t be a problem.

"Oh, and if you get hungry, use this money to buy food—don’t just take things without paying. That’s rude," Rio added, handing some cash to Gengar.

"Kid, we get it, we get it—you’re way too strict. Even Gus wasn’t this nitpicky. Why should I pay for things I can just take? You worry too much." Gengar took the cash with a dissatisfied huff, then used its psychic power to carry Froakie away.

Okay—scratch that. Maybe "reliable" was a bit of a stretch... Rio shrugged helplessly and joined the queue.

Gengar flew about a hundred meters away, found an empty spot, and set Froakie down. "Alright, little Froakie—train hard here. Don’t die from Raikou’s attack in six months before you’ve even avenged your family."

Froakie shot Gengar a sidelong glare. It found this hundred-year-old ghost extremely annoying. Just because you’ve lived a long time doesn’t mean you have to keep reminding me—I was already stressed enough, and now I’m even more stressed. If it weren’t for the power gap, it would have hit Gengar with a Water Pulse.

"Froakie~" Froakie hopped to the other side and started practicing Water Pulse on its own.

"So rebellious, so rebellious—youngsters never listen to good advice," Gengar sighed, watching Froakie.

Inside the Celadon Gym.

After waiting in line for over an hour, Rio finally made it inside. His opponent was one of Erika’s trainees—a girl named Mia. She sent out a Level 29 Victreebel.

Rio decided to send out the Red Gyarados—all his other Pokémon were higher-level, so he’d let the Gyarados grind some experience. He kept it grounded, though, to avoid the hassle of explaining why it could fly.

In the spectator area, a beautiful young woman in a kimono with large, doll-like eyes appeared.

"That’s the S-rank challenger?" Erika asked the trainee beside her. She had been playing with her Pokémon in the back garden when a trainee called her over to watch an S-rank challenger.

"Yes, Gym Leader—here’s the challenge record." The trainee handed her a tablet.

Erika took it, and her calm expression shifted to surprise. "Impressive—first, he used a Charmeleon to narrowly beat a Quasi-Elite Four Onix in Pewter City. Then in Cerulean, he used Charizard and Munchlax to beat two of the Gym’s aces. Sure, Daisy blamed luck for her loss, but she still gave him a Champion-level rating. Not bad at all."

Erika nodded as she read, then turned her gaze to the battlefield. The Red Gyarados was dominating—one Hyper Beam had taken out her trainee’s Victreebel, and now it was facing the trainee’s second Pokémon.

"It seems this Rio has trained another powerful shiny Gyarados. His training skills are exceptional—I’ll need to use my ace against him."

She paused, then added softly: "I just wonder about his character. Will he be willing to fight for the League’s justice?"

"Gym Leader, we could test his character," the trainee beside her suggested.

Erika’s eyebrow lifted, and her pretty face fell into thought. Just then, another trainee ran over.

"Gym Leader—bad news! The Eevee we rescued from Team Rocket has gone missing!"

"What?!"

Erika’s train of thought shattered instantly.