The ways of Arceus were truly strange. The person who killed that old man had taken his strongest Pokémon, Venusaur, but had overlooked the most valuable Emerald Orb.
Anyone who raised Poison-type Pokémon could not possibly avoid being harmed by poison. Accidents could happen at any time, and there were no shortage of people who had lost their lives because of them.
Now that Tetsuya had the orb, he naturally no longer had any worries when raising Poison-type Pokémon. Even if he ventured deep into the poisonous miasma forest, he would not need to take any precautions against the miasma, nor would he have to worry about any poison-related surprise attacks.
The benefits were indeed considerable.
But the cost…
---◓---
Tetsuya continued inspecting every room. Almost everything had been destroyed by the fire, leaving nothing useful behind for him. In any case, the old man had already dissolved into a pool of blood, so there was no need to do anything more. At the very least, Tetsuya was safe now.
Returning to the site of yesterday's battle, Beedrill's body was already gone. It was very likely that Venusaur had completely destroyed Beedrill to vent its anger…
"…"
After mourning for a while, Tetsuya could only leave.
He continued traveling through the deep mountains. All of his Pokémon needed time to recover, so their training naturally came to a halt. Although their condition and spirits were gradually recovering, they still needed to visit a Pokémon Center for a thorough recovery.
After wandering through the forest for an entire week, Tetsuya finally found the location of Fuchsia Gym.
The current Fuchsia Gym location was extremely well hidden, and if he had not wanted to investigate the situation, he would never have gone out of his way to find a Gym like this. After all, the previous Fuchsia Gym Leader, Asea, had died at his hands.
In truth, Asea could not really be considered a "bad" person. It could even be said that she had merely acted impulsively in her pursuit of power, or perhaps she had simply wanted to avoid humiliating her teacher…
Combined with Tetsuya's manipulation, this had driven her to take such desperate measures and attempt to snatch Tetsuya's Pokémon, only to needlessly lose her own life instead.
There were surely still many of her pupils within the Gym, and some of them might even be searching for Asea's whereabouts. No matter what, Tetsuya needed to confirm the situation for himself.
Upon entering Fuchsia Gym, Tetsuya found the place desolate, with only a single woman sweeping the courtyard.
"I'm here to challenge Fuchsia Gym," Tetsuya said.
"Don't rush me, boi! Wait until I finish sweeping," The woman said, waving a hand.
"…You're the Gym Leader?" Tetsuya asked with a hint of doubt.
"That's right," The woman replied.
Tetsuya found this very strange. He knew perfectly well how Gym Leaders were treated. Even if conditions were somewhat harsh deep in the mountains, how could there not even be someone to sweep the grounds?
"Then why do you still have to sweep the grounds yourself?" Tetsuya asked.
"Sigh… you don't know what happened. My mentor is Leader Asea, but she disappeared without a trace several years ago, so I've been managing Fuchsia Gym in her place. I've sent all the pupils out to search for her, so right now I'm the only person in the entire Gym," The woman said.
"May I ask if there are any clues…?" Tetsuya asked with concern.
The woman helplessly shook her head.
"Then I'm Tetsuya, and I'm here to challenge Fuchsia Gym. Please tell me your rules," Tetsuya said. There were far too many unsolved cases in this world. Since there were still no clues, this matter would never have anything to do with him.
The young woman said listlessly, "I'm Die, the acting Gym Leader of Fuchsia Gym. The battle format is one-on-one. Let's finish this quickly."
Tetsuya threw out Spinarak's Poké Ball. Spinarak had suffered the lightest injuries to begin with and had recovered quite well by now, making this the perfect opportunity to give it some battle practice.
And this Die was merely Asea's pupil, so her level certainly could not be that great.
The moment Die saw that it was a Poison-type, her expression turned somewhat unpleasant. "You clearly know Fuchsia Gym is a Poison-type Gym, yet… you still brought a Poison-type Pokémon to battle!
Are all you Challengers nowadays trying to humiliate our Gym!? If my mentor were here, how could she possibly let you act so arrogantly!?"
Having once been a Gym Leader himself, Tetsuya could understand that feeling. If a Challenger used a Pokémon of the same type that the Gym specialized in, the Gym Leader would instinctively assume they had come to humiliate the Gym and would fight even harder.
At times like that, the Challenger would be the one to suffer, often ending up thoroughly defeated.
Tetsuya therefore said, "I only have Poison-type Pokémon. From the way you're talking, has someone else also used Poison-types to challenge Fuchsia Gym?"
"Enough! I don't want to mention that annoying guy. He's only taking advantage of the fact that Fuchsia Gym has no one to lead it… What does showing off in front of me prove!?" Die seemed rather indignant as she sent out her Venomoth.
"Psybeam!"
Die launched the first attack. After all, she was not a Gym Leader and did not possess that same composure. If Asea's teacher had not been Agatha, Fuchsia Gym would probably have changed hands long ago.
For now, Asea was still officially listed as the Gym Leader, but if there continued to be no news of her, she could only be treated as a missing person.
It was indeed difficult for Spinarak to make use of its advantages within the courtyard. There were no trees to serve as a means of movement, while Venomoth could fly, making both its attacks and defenses very agile.
"Use String Shot on the wall to dodge, then look for an opportunity to attack." Tetsuya spotted a nearby wall and immediately gave the command.
Spinarak used String Shot to attach itself to the wall, then pulled its body along and nimbly avoided Venomoth's Psybeam.
By the time Venomoth realized that Spinarak had already escaped, Spinarak was clinging to the wall and had fired Spider Web.
Spider Web immediately ensnared Venomoth. Trapped within the web, Venomoth lost its flight capability and plummeted to the ground. The silk at the center of the Spider Web pulled Spinarak toward Venomoth, with Megahorn already prepared.
The horn atop Spinarak's head suddenly grew to three times its original length as it bore straight down on Venomoth!
At this point, Die could only stare dumbfounded, completely at a loss. Spinarak's Spider Web was not so easy to break free from, while Spinarak's attack had not left the slightest opening, flowing seamlessly from one move to the next.
Die could not help covering her eyes!
By the time she peeked through her fingers at the battle, Venomoth had already been incapacitated…
"Sigh… all right, I lost." With that, Die recalled Venomoth.
Tetsuya said nothing more and simply recalled Spinarak. This battle had been somewhat unnecessary for him. It had merely been a temporary measure to confirm the situation regarding Asea.
"…This is the Soul Badge, proof that you defeated Fuchsia Gym. It's a good thing Fuchsia Gym is so remote. Otherwise, with this Badge being so easy to obtain, wouldn't Trainers be flooding through our doors?
'It's all because I didn't study properly under my mentor back then, so now I'm this weak…'
"I've been defeated in an instant by another Trainer using a Poison-type Pokémon. Losing to Koga-teme's Muk last time was one thing, but this time I actually lost to a Spinarak that hasn't even evolved yet…"
Die muttered to herself.
"…What? Koga?"