"Completely lost the Aura?" Korrina's grandfather was momentarily stunned before he shook his head and said, "Although I can't manifest Aura power myself, after raising Lucario for so many years, I do know that Aura power is the manifestation of a living thing's 'essence'..."
"Everyone possesses Aura, it's just a matter of more or less. As for completely losing one's Aura..."
"Unless a miracle occurs, otherwise... you understand, child."
Terrance had already anticipated this outcome, but upon hearing it, he couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.
"Thank you for your answer." Terrance gave a slight nod of gratitude and sighed inwardly. As expected... something even the League couldn't handle wouldn't be something he could solve just by casually asking a related person, even if he had traveled four years into the future.
"Come to think of it, I still don't know your name," Korrina suddenly said.
"Me?" Terrance paused. As for his name, he thought for a moment, then slowly said, "I'm Terrance, from Cerulean City in the Kanto region."
Before speaking, Terrance had considered using an alias, but then he thought that using his real name might make it easier to find Teacher Teresa and Akon, so he gave up on that idea.
"Kanto Region?" Korrina said in surprise.
Just like Ash...
Are all Trainers from the Kanto Region this strong?
Looking once again at Korrina and her grandfather, Terrance said, "Anyway, thank you both. I still have something to attend to, so I'll take my leave."
Because of Terrance's words, the two didn't try to keep him. Even though there was a strong air of mystery about him, both in the questions he asked and in his strength, the old and young of Shalour Gym suppressed their curiosity.
Watching Terrance's departing figure, Korrina spoke up: "Grandpa, the question he asked..."
"I don't know. But it probably wasn't about himself, otherwise your Lucario would've sensed it immediately."
"Lucario, you worked hard in that battle." Korrina looked at Lucario and comforted it: "From now on, we'll have to train even harder. But it seems that person doesn't plan to participate in the Lumiose Conference... It's going to be tough to find him again for a rematch."
"A rematch, huh?" Korrina's grandfather stroked his chin and said, "The gap between you and that Trainer who just left is still very large. You'll need a long period of training to catch up."
"Grandpa..." Korrina was taken aback. No matter who she had battled before, no matter what kind of challengers she faced in the Gym, her grandfather had never spoken so highly of an opponent.
"I'm not deliberately overestimating his strength..." Korrina's grandfather shook his head and said, "That Altaria of his was clearly holding back. It didn't fight you with full power."
After speaking, Korrina's grandfather turned and began walking toward the Tower of Mastery, "Today's younger generation is truly frightening. I wonder which force raised someone like that."
Korrina watched her grandfather leave, speechless. She didn't doubt a word of what her grandfather said. After all, her grandfather was a veteran Trainer of the Kalos region. His strength and outlook weren't something she could question.
...
...
One day later.
Anistar City.
Similar to Shalour City, Anistar City is located in the northeastern corner of the Kalos region, also adjacent to a vast body of water, with a cold climate.
The northern part of the city is built on a platform that extends from the land, and most of the buildings have roofs with a navy blue vertical stripe design.
What makes this place particularly unique is the presence of a giant pink crystal in the northern part of the city. There is a hollow ring in the center of the crystal, giving it a mysterious appearance. It is said to have fallen from space 3,000 years ago.
This pink crystal is called the Sundial.
To Anistar City, and even to the entire Kalos region, the Sundial holds great significance. But today, a major incident occurred at the Sundial.
A Meowth-shaped hot air balloon floated above the Sundial. Inside, a man and a woman in silver uniforms, along with a Meowth, laughed wildly, jumping about and shouting, "The Sundial Stealing Plan begins!!"
At the same time, inside Anistar Gym, home to many Trainers skilled in using Psychic-type Pokémon, everyone wore grave expressions.
There was commotion coming from where the Sundial was. It seemed that criminals were attempting to steal it. Such brazen behavior was practically a direct provocation to the local Gym and police.
Unless the perpetrators were gods, there was no way they could escape after doing something like this!
"Team Rocket!! No way, are they trying to steal that?!"
Several Trainers rushed over, glaring furiously at the hot air balloon in the sky and the massive device that had suddenly latched onto the Sundial.
But no matter how they tried to stop them, the two in the sky paid no mind, continuing with their reckless actions.
Olympia, the Gym Leader of Anistar Gym, known as "the person who makes paths with starlight", could use her psychic power to perform miraculous divinations. The fact that the Kalos region suffers fewer disasters compared to other regions is largely thanks to Olympia's contributions.
A mysterious Trainer like her, of course, couldn't stand by and watch the Sundial of Anistar City be stolen.
"Future Sight!" Though she hadn't physically left the Gym, the moment Olympia opened her eyes, the entirety of Anistar City came under her surveillance.
"You who harbor ill intent toward the Sundial…"
As this Gym Leader revealed her power, above the Sundial, the Team Rocket trio's hot air balloon was instantly locked on by several wormholes that appeared out of thin air.
The sudden change in the sky shocked the Trainers below.
Bursts of psychic energy blasts shot out from the wormholes. This unexpected turn of events not only stunned the Trainers below, it also absolutely terrified the Team Rocket.
The psychic energy blasts were just about to strike—
"Mismagius, Shadow Ball." At that moment, a voice rang out. A strange Mismagius appeared like a shadow, instantly firing several condensed orbs of shadow energy that intercepted the psychic energy blasts from the "Future Sight" move.
What?!
Inside Anistar Gym, the Trainers below were once again stunned by this new development.
The Shadow Ball and psychic energy blasts canceled each other out. Though it didn't harm the people on the hot air balloon, the resulting shockwave still managed to damage the control device beneath it.
Team Rocket, still reeling from the earlier fright, quickly realized they had escaped danger. Without hesitation, they severed the connection to the device and hastily steered their hot air balloon into a rapid retreat.
"Darn it, what the heck just happened, meow!!"
Who was that?
The Trainers below looked around frantically, trying to find out who had saved Team Rocket, but they found nothing.
"Crap..." Terrance, who had escaped the scene with the help of Gallade, wore a bitter expression. When he saw a familiar face… he had gotten too emotional.
He completely forgot that the James of this timeline didn't know him at all. He wasn't the "friend James" he had once met.
And just now, among the crowd below… was that Ash?!
Having just arrived in Anistar City, Terrance was completely baffled, still trying to make sense of the situation.
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