The child's actions caught the eyes of the entire beach.
Everyone didn't quite understand what Rope had just done to the man, but they all knew that it was obviously very unwise to bother Rope right now.
But the kid just went after Rope with a big grin on his face.
The child's mother was sitting on the beach, and she, who had been chatting with the other boy's mother, had a heart attack when she saw her child running over toward Rope.
"Koi!"
She got up violently and was about to go forward to stop her child, but the child was still too fast, and before she could stop him, the child named Koi had already run over to Rope's side.
Rope was originally enjoying the sunshine at a leisurely pace after watching the youth being chased away. Then lamented that this new ability of his was indeed quite useful.
Then he felt his left hand being hit by something. He turned his head to look over, then realized it was a beach volleyball.
Rope raised an eyebrow in confusion, then looked up slightly to see the small child running towards him.
Rope let out a helpless 'tsk' before getting up and holding the ball up.
By the time he was done with the maneuver, the kid had also made his way to his side.
Koi looked at the ball in Rope's hand, then looked at Rope again and said, "Brother! Can I have the ball back?"
Rope smiled and reached out to touch Koi's head and said, "Of course! But you have to tell brother what you were thinking when you were just chasing the ball."
Koi looked up slightly in puzzled thought and after a moment said, "Nothing, just chasing the ball."
"Do you recognize me?"
"Don't know, hey, brother, are you famous?"
Koi looked puzzled at the handsome-looking brother in front of him, but asked strange questions.
Rope had a happy smile on his face.
"No, just has a small reputation."
Rope said as he handed the ball to Koi, "I hope you'll keep chasing your 'ball' from now on."
Koi was getting more and more frustrated with the incomprehensible things this brother was saying.
"Okay brother. Thank you brother."
Koi results the ball and then politely thought of thanking Rope, then had a quick run towards where his friends and mother were, I guess.
"Mom! Everything that brother over there is saying is so weird!"
The mother looked at her son, who was unharmed, and then at the young man who was lying on the ground not far away, gasping for breath as if he had lost his strength, and was confused for a moment.
Looking again at Rope, he was already lounging down once more to bask in the sun.
"What did he tell you?"
Koi looked up and said, "He said to keep chasing the 'ball'."
The mother's heart fluttered, to keep her child in constant pursuit[1]? A very good blessing then.
The mother knelt down and patted the sand on the child and said, "Then you must remember what this brother said!"
Koi felt quite confused, but nodded obediently.
And this child's safe entry and exit made many people start to doubt their own ideas.
If this child could, then was the youth from earlier really just an accident? No one was sure, so everyone chose to wait and see.
And Rotom was likewise very puzzled, so he directly asked, "Rope, what's going on with you? Your new ability?"
Rope nodded with his eyes closed and said, "The new ability that Charizard brought to me after his evolution can form invisible flames around himself, able to make those with strange thoughts feel some thoughts by me when they are near me. It can then be burned."
Rotom was taken aback, "This ability is so strong? Deflecting defenses and reading minds at the same time?"
Rope shook his head, "Not quite, the ability to defend isn't very strong, nor is the ability to read minds, the combination of the two can be said to be somewhat useful I guess."
That being said, Rope also felt that something wasn't quite right. This ability wasn't quite like the Flame-Flame Fruit ability, instead it was more like another kind of fire seen in novels.
[Is this what Year calls a Power Seed? Using Flame-Flame Fruit as a basic, the ability developed yet has little to no range...]
Rope smacked his lips darkly, wondering just how high up the mountain Year and company were at...
"By the way, Rope, one of the memo reminders on your memo is to hurry up and Contact Steven Champion and go ask for the Perfect Fire Stone."
Rotom thought in a flash of his mind that this skill should have been brought by the Charizard evolution, so would the Growlithe evolution bring a copy of the new ability as well?
No wonder so many people wanted to do research with Rope! After all, where would one find this interesting research material?
That's why he took the initiative to remind Rope to make the call and hurry up and let Growlithe evolve, for one thing, if he didn't, the purity of the energy in that guy's body would be so high that it would explode. Secondly, he could also study Rope the guy himself in the meantime.
It can be said that it can kill two birds with one stone.
Rope nodded and said, ''I know, you can call him now. Though I don't know if I'll get through, who knows where that guy has gone to dig up rocks again."
This was one of the reasons why Rope wasn't in a hurry.Growlithe's energy purity could still be raised again.This wasn't in a hurry.With the aid of his ability,Growlithe and the others could be further strengthened in terms of energy level and purity.
And that Steven guy is indeed a bit of a godly dragon. It is indeed hard to find...
I wonder if the call will go through this time.
Looking at the alert on Rotom's Pokédex that it was dialing, Rope thought so.
————————————
Exit of a cave somewhere in Kalos
A dusty, dirty Steven in his miner's uniform and helmet is sitting under a tree to cool off.
If it wasn't for the platinum-colored Metagross behind him, no one would have recognized the champion of the Fang Edge region.
Of course, relatively speaking, as soon as Shiny Metagross appeared, everyone would know that it was Mr. Steven who had come...
Steven had a grin on his face, clearly very satisfied with the haul he had made this time out.
Speaking of which, should I just give the title to Wallace? Suddenly it feels so great to be able to just come out and dig for rocks! No wonder Dad is always thinking of giving me the chairman's position].
Steven thought as if in a state of enlightenment under the tree.
"Meta (There's a phone call.)"
Metagross poked Steven and pointed to the oversized backpack on his back.
Steven stroked Metagross' head and smiled as he reached into his backpack and pulled out his cell phone.
A quick glance at the caller alert made Steven happy as well. He had come out this time just for this guy, and he didn't expect him to come looking for him before he had even looked for him on his side.
"It's been a while since I've heard from you, Rope. no, it should be called Professor Rope now. congratulations!"
On the beach, Rope didn't have the heart to say, "Hey, burying me huh."
"Hahaha, how dare you. No kidding, what are you looking for me for? It's not looking for me to ask for a gift for becoming a professor , is it?"
Steven's hearty laugh came out of the receiver.
Rope shook his head and chuckled, "No way, I can't do something like ask for a gift. But if you insist on giving it, I can't stop you can I."
Steven squeezed his cell phone and laughed, "Haha, let's talk about it later, let's get down to business. What do you guys want with me?"
"My family's Growlithe is planning to evolve and needs Perfect Fire Stone Originally, I was planning to go to the market to buy some, but it turns out that it's somehow all out of stock lately. The speculation is awesome. So I came to buy it from you."
Steven revealed a look of reminiscence, after a while he said, "Perfect Fire Stone is no problem, when the time comes, I can directly give you a few pieces, not only can it be used when evolving. Perfect Fire Stone is also good to use to strengthen energy."
"But the money is exempt, we don't need to have so much between friends."
On the other end of the phone, Rope decisively picked up, "Hey, just waiting for your words, I won't be polite with you, a big account."
Steven laughed and scolded, "You guys, I'll get you a present later, just wait. I still have some rocks to dig up over here, we'll have dinner together later."
"OK, come to Kanto and I'll treat you!"
"OK, it's a deal. I'm hanging up now, bye."
"Bye."
Steven put the phone away, then fished out his loot from this outing from his backpack.
Steven opened the box, then looked at a bead-like stone inside, one that was orange in color with an orange-red gene-like bead inside.
This stone, was the result of Steven's outing. But it wasn't for collecting.
"I think that guy should be happy to get a gift like this."
Steven smiled and closed the box, then casually put the stone into his backpack.
He actually had the exact same stone at home, but since he hadn't dug it himself, Steven felt that giving it as a gift would not be sincere enough. So he simply came to Kalos to dig it himself.
Steven got up and made it to the Metagross forehead, then said, "Come on, let's go to the airport and head back to Hoenn."
"Meat. (Okay.)"
Platinum Metagross answered, then used her Confusion to shield herself along with her master, and rose up. Flying out quickly in one direction.
————————
Kalos, League Champion's office.
"Champion Diantha, Champion Steven has left Kalos and is on a plane to Hoenn."
A man with glasses reported as he looked at the Champion in front of him.
Diantha, who was working on her paperwork, looked up from her mountain of documents and sighed in relief, "The guy is finally gone. A person who came without saying hello, what can we do if something really goes wrong?"
The spectacled subordinate subconsciously held up his glasses, then secretly spat in his heart, "You can't even beat Steven Champion yourself, so what are you still worrying about other people's safety here."
However, since he himself couldn't defeat Diantha, this could only be thought in his heart.
"Champion Diantha, I still can't quite figure out what Champion Steven is here for."
The spectacled subordinate hurriedly sidetracked the topic, saving himself from literally stifling his spit in a moment.
"Probably... just here to dig for rocks?" Diantha also shook her head helplessly, Steven this guy was really spontaneous when he was casual, but he was really quite serious when he was serious.
"Without further ado," Diantha got up and left her desk, then said, "You go inform that Siebold guy to come and take over my work, he's been idle lately anyway."
"Okay, are you going to train again?"
"Eh."
As soon as the words fell, Diantha went straight out the door in what could only be described as a thunderous manner.
The eye subordinate also lamented, not knowing who exactly had stimulated her own champion, who had actually pushed off all her film engagements in recent times, and then focused on building up her strength.
It was unbelievable to the KalosElite Four Champion who had always viewed the Elite Four and the Championship as a side project!
"I wonder if we can have a slightly better result at this Championship Tournament...every year we're at the bottom of the regions...it's so humiliating."
The glasses subordinate thought so, and then proceeded to let out a self-deprecating laugh.
Not even at the level of a gym trainer, fucking with the League president's heart.
——————————
"Rope, are those people over there?"
It was getting late and Whitley had finally had enough of the craziness with the little ones, and when she returned, Whitley saw a whole bunch of people lying on the ground as soon as she hit her eyes, surrounded by what looked like fellow travelers who were taking care of them.
"Emm, they're probably all not very well and got weak from the sun."
Rope said with his eyes wide open.
Whitley looked at a man not far away who was nearly two meters tall, with a bronze complexion and a muscular body lying on the ground.
"That could just be that they are indeed physically weaker."
Whitley nodded fervently.
"Well, it's a new ability, I'll tell you more about it later when I'll the hotel."
"Sure. Say, don't we have to stay at the dojo this time?"
"There's no need, that Lt. Surge guy is a loner and doesn't even have a wife, let alone a family."
Rope spat mercilessly.
Whitley nodded and asked thoughtfully, "So who's the guy standing behind Lt. Surge?"
Rope nodded rather appreciatively and said, "Not bad, you're thinking about that too. Though you shouldn't be allowed to know so early is all."
Whitley rolled her eyes towards Rope.
Say what you want about knowing, you can think about these things once you start to use your brain.
"Lt. Surge used to be an Air Force Colonel. It was the military that stood behind him. There used to be Team Rocket behind him, but now it's down to just the military background."
Rope said as he gave Whitley the scoop.
Whitley did get his first clear picture of the complexity of the intertwined interests in the Kanto region.
"Is it the same in all areas?"
"It's all the same wherever there are people."
——————————
"Wow, Rope, that's a big boat! It's the first time I've ever seen a boat that big."
Whitley stood beside Rope, staring at S.S. Anne with both eyes.
"That's not true! Mind you, S.S. Anne is also in the largest group of cruise ships in the entire world."
Rope's words had a great sense of honor and glory to them.
"I've always wondered... Rope, what exactly is your connection to this ship?"
Whitley asked suspiciously.
"You'll find out later!"
Rope gave a mysterious smile.
[1] '追球' (zhuī qiú) means 'chasing a ball', '追求' (zhuī qiú) means 'to pursuit'