After three days of rest at home, Ace once again set off on a journey.
This time, Ace didn't bring any other Pokémon, only Vulpix, Crobat, and Gible.
Crobat quickly carried Ace soaring over mountains and rivers, and soon landed near Viridian Forest.
Giovanni was nowhere to be found, and Team Rocket had collapsed. The Pokémon originally left to roam freely in Viridian Forest had now gradually developed their own ecosystems.
Ace recalled Crobat, then released Gible, and together they entered the largest forest in the Kanto region.
Returning to this place, Ace had a different feeling.
His previous trepidation had now turned into a sense of calm.
He came to Viridian Forest this time to find the protagonist of the upcoming storyline, Yellow.
The girl with the Viridian Power!
He wanted to confirm Yellow's status first. After that, he would set off to find the Elite Four.
Before his journey to Hoenn, Ace felt he couldn't deal with the Elite Four. But after the Hoenn trip, Ace was slightly overconfident.
So he wanted to seek out the Elite Four and see what level he had reached.
If he couldn't completely overwhelm the Elite Four, Ace would remain inactive and silently wait for the plot to begin.
However, if he could ensure an overwhelming victory against the Elite Four, Ace would immediately and decisively complete the main quest and resolve the Elite Four problem.
"Viridian City hasn't developed much yet, so Yellow's home should still be in Viridian Forest."
Ace looked around, observing the hidden Pokémon, and mused, "It looks like I'll have to circle the outer edge of the forest."
Just as he finished speaking, a Koffing rushed out from the bushes, fiercely charging at Ace.
Ace didn't move. Instead, Gible charged forward, suddenly opening its mouth and biting hard onto Koffing's body.
"Dragon Claw," Ace said calmly. Gible held Koffing's body tightly, while a light glowed on its sharp claws as it fiercely clawed at Koffing's eyes.
"Hiss!"
A bloody mark appeared on Koffing's eye. Koffing struggled in pain, and Gible bit down hard, directly tearing off a part of Koffing's body.
Landing on the ground, Gible chewed the tissue in its mouth and then swallowed it.
Koffing had never seen such a display and was so terrified that it quickly fled, not daring to look back.
"Gible, don't eat everything. It's not good for your health."
Ace looked at Gible, feeling a bit speechless. This Gible could be said to have a slight foodie potential.
Having only hatched not long ago, it was full of curiosity about this world, and its way of exploring it was to taste things with its mouth.
Basically, if it encountered something it hadn't seen before, Gible would take a bite to see if it was edible.
Because of this, many pieces of furniture in Ace's house mysteriously had chunks missing, making its demolition ability comparable to a husky's.
However, many things weren't that tasty.
Just like now.
Gible looked at Ace with a bitter expression. Koffing's body was not tasty at all and contained poison. From the frequency of its "chattering" teeth, it was clear it had been poisoned.
"One of these days, I'll feed you Chansey's cooking again."
Ace grumbled, took out an antidote from his satchel, and directly poured it down Gible's throat.
With the poison cleared, Gible looked adorable again.
However, upon hearing Ace mention feeding it Chansey's cooking, it immediately stepped back, shaking its head like a rattle drum.
Gible, which dared to eat anything, had such a traumatic experience with Chansey's cooking last time that it left an extremely terrifying psychological shadow.
Basically, whenever it saw a Chansey, its legs would tremble, and it wouldn't dare to face Chansey directly.
Ace stroked its slightly rough head, then continued to search for Yellow with Gible.
Perhaps Ace was lucky, after walking for nearly half an hour on the outskirts of Viridian Forest, Ace saw a small stream.
And in the downstream, where the water flowed more gently, a man and a woman were holding fishing rods, fishing.
The girl was precisely Yellow, whom Ace was looking for, and the person beside her, dressed as a professional fisherman, was Yellow's uncle, who had also guided her into fishing.
Ace slowly walked towards them with Gible. Yellow's uncle, with a cigarette in his mouth, glanced at Ace and Gible approaching them and asked, "Can I help you?"
"No, just passing by," Ace replied. He walked up to the two, glanced at Yellow, and asked, "Your daughter?"
"My niece."
Yellow's uncle shook his head, "A poor little fellow."
Ace nodded. Hearing Yellow's uncle say that, Ace understood that Yellow's parents had already passed away.
As for how they died, Ace was also interested in knowing. His purpose in seeing Yellow had already been achieved.
From Ace's perspective, he could tell that the current Yellow didn't have much experience in Pokémon battles. Her starter Pokémon was even a Rattata that Ash had casually caught for her.
It was hard to imagine that this very girl would later defeat Lance.
Of course, in Ace's opinion, Lance and Yellow's battle was an extreme case of Lance holding back.
Coupled with Yellow's incredibly powerful special ability, when she possessed enough determination and anger, she could temporarily increase her Pokémon's levels.
In other words, perhaps her Rattata was currently level ten, but if you truly angered her, you might be facing a level fifty or sixty Rattata.
Yellow's special ability was simply that unreasonable, and Lance, who had battled Yellow afterward, was also aware of this.
Therefore, Lance held back against Yellow. The fundamental reason was that Lance was interested in Yellow.
As fellow possessors of the Viridian Power, and with Yellow having such incredibly terrifying talent, Lance believed that perhaps by acquiring Yellow, the union of two Viridian Power users would lead to offspring possessing even greater power.
Of course, this was Ace's conjecture, and whether it was true remained to be seen.
However, from the information Ace knew, Lambda, one of the Three Beasts of the re-established Team Rocket in the future, once disguised herself as Yellow, causing Lance to waver and thus be defeated by her.
To say that Lance didn't have any ulterior motives towards Yellow, Ace wouldn't believe it for a second.
But despite all this, Ace hadn't spoken a single word to Yellow.
Because their ideologies were fundamentally incompatible.
Yellow pursued non-violence, and harmony between humans and Pokémon, and her battle style was to not harm the opponent's Pokémon.
Ace, on the other hand, was more ruthless. Apart from his own Pokémon being family, anyone who attacked him was an enemy or opponent.
For these beings, they could be killed, and everything about them, including their lives, could be transformed into nourishment for his own strength.
Therefore, Ace and Yellow were destined to be on different paths.