The first match in Arena No. 3 ended the fastest of them all. From the referee's announcement to the conclusion of the battle, less than three minutes had passed. With nothing pressing to occupy him for the moment, Kael found himself with some free time. Unlike the other contenders, who crowded around the three arenas to scout so-called "opponent intel," he instead wandered leisurely through the Cerulean Gym on his own.
He had already seen through most of the trainers who had come to apply for the temporary Gym Leader position. Aside from a handful who were genuinely eye-catching, the rest were all middling at best—no longer beginners, perhaps, but still several tiers away from true elite trainers.
Without realizing it, Kael had drifted away from the main hall and stage area and arrived at the pool section. This seemed to be where the Cerulean Gym trained its Water-type Pokémon. Numerous rectangular pools were laid out in neat rows, each home to a number of Water-types, most of them common sights in the Kanto region.
Staryu, Poliwag, Tentacool, Seel…
"Wait… that one is—"
Kael's attention was suddenly drawn to a small, earthy-yellow figure in the far corner of the pool area. It had blue, forked fins, mottled yellow-brown markings across its body, and disproportionately large eyes that seemed perpetually vacant. The little creature hovered motionless in the water. If it weren't for the occasional bubbles escaping from its mouth, one might have wondered whether it was even alive.
It was a rather awkward-looking fish Pokémon. Its overall shape was somewhat similar to Magikarp, but smaller in size—and noticeably rougher in appearance. Its eyes lacked liveliness, and its uneven, dull-colored scales gave off an impression that many would find hard to warm up to at first glance.
"Feebas…"
Kael was genuinely surprised. Why would a Pokémon like this appear in the Cerulean Gym? Feebas preferred very specific habitats—usually waters thick with aquatic plants. Unlike Magikarp, which could be found almost anywhere in the world, Feebas was far rarer.
Because of its unremarkable appearance, even when trainers happened to fish one up, they rarely chose to catch and raise it. Most treated it as just another ordinary fish and tossed it back without a second thought.
Even fewer people knew that in the Hoenn region, a Pokémon praised by locals as possessing dreamlike beauty—Milotic—was, in fact, the evolved form of the very Feebas now floating before Kael.
The truth was often hard to believe. How could a Pokémon that looked so plain and unimpressive transform into something as breathtaking as Milotic? Milotic—Venus-like in name and presence, differing from the goddess of beauty by only a single syllable.
If Kael hadn't retained fragments of knowledge from his previous life—knowledge that Feebas could evolve into Milotic—he asked himself honestly whether he would have shown the little Pokémon any interest at all. At most, he might have glanced at it twice out of mild curiosity. That was simply human nature; there was no right or wrong in it.
After all, Milotic was even rarer than the pseudo-legendary Pokémon found across various regions. It possessed not only peerless beauty, but also mysterious and formidable power.
Feebas itself was uncommon, and among them, those capable of evolving into Milotic were rarer still. The evolution conditions were simply too demanding. Even trainers who knew the method could only obtain a Milotic under extremely fortunate circumstances.
Kael knew the method—but whether that knowledge still applied in this real, living world was another matter entirely. To evolve Feebas into Milotic, a trainer didn't train its combat strength, but instead honed its beauty. And even if that elusive "beauty value" reached the required threshold, evolution still required a special catalyst to trigger the evolutionary light: the Prism Scale.
The Prism Scale was a mysterious scale that shimmered with seven-colored light. According to records, it formed from a scale shed near Milotic's neck after one died naturally.
This information was something Kael had obtained after hacking into the main computer of a Water-type Pokémon research institute in the Hoenn region. If that data was accurate, it meant that every time a Feebas evolved into Milotic, somewhere, another Milotic had already faded away. That was why naturally evolved Milotic were almost never seen in the wild. The conditions were simply too harsh—encountering a wild Milotic was no easier than stumbling upon a Legendary Pokémon.
...
"Hey, do you recognize that Pokémon?"
A lively girl's voice suddenly rang out.
Kael turned around. It was the purple-haired beauty who had just served as his referee—her name was Violet, if he remembered correctly.
"You haven't answered my question yet."
With her hands clasped behind her back and a hint of mischief in her smile, Violet skipped over to his side. "You've been standing here for quite a while. Don't tell me you've taken an interest in this little one?"
"I wouldn't say that," Kael replied smoothly, lying without batting an eye. "I don't really know it either. I just noticed a Pokémon I've never seen before and got a bit curious."
"Isn't it just because it looks… kind of rough around the edges?" Violet said with a light laugh. "At first I thought it was a Magikarp with a skin disease. Later I asked Nurse Joy and found out it's a Pokémon from another region called Feebas. The name really fits, doesn't it?"
She giggled.
"Hm?"
Kael, sharp-eyed as ever, clearly caught the flash of indignation in Feebas's eyes beneath the water as Violet spoke. With a flick of its blue tail, it swam deeper into the pool.
"Heh, guess it got offended."
Violet noticed the movement too, but didn't think much of it. "My youngest sister found it by accident while playing on the beach. Its fin was injured and it had washed ashore. If she hadn't been kind enough to help it, the poor thing might not have made it."
Her tone was casual—but beneath it lay an unspoken truth: sometimes, all it took was a little kindness to keep a fragile life afloat.