"First of all, we would like to thank contestant Ash for his saving of Tyranitar so beautifully, and resolving the crisis mid competition without damaging the buildings! For his contributions, we are awarded him the People's Award!"
This award was apparently a permanent award with status in Fula City. Used to reward people who have made outstanding contributions to the city in one way or another.
The awarding was given by the mayor of the city himself, which indeed showed the importance and their respect towards a world class trainer such as him.
According to what he heard, this man in front of him is also Margo's father. As the mayor's daughter, she was almost bullied in her own city. This man obviously did not do enough in some aspects, like being a father who keeps watch on his daughter.
"Now, to award contestant Ash who won the competition so beautifully. Allow us to hand you your rightful championship trophy! And as most of us have already guessed, this is the same Ash Ketchum who won the championship of our own Johto Regions previous Silver Conference and this year's Hoenn Regions Ever Grande Conference!" The host happily revealed Ash's identity, not going full length but enough to get the audience riled up. However, much of the audience already had enough information about him to know who he was.
Then it got even more interesting. Some random mob who was quite invested in this actually recalled that Ash came back from that mountain before the competition started. He met up with the man who won second place in the competition and said that there must be precious Pokémon on that mountain.
And since even someone like Ash seemed to want it, it must be very rare and very true.
At this moment, Callahan had no idea what kind of incident this random talk would lead to. He was frustrated, but the only thing he could do is to apologize to Kellie and say, "Kellie, I'm sorry, I couldn't get you a trophy for you!"
But Kellie was not disappointed at all, "No, my uncle is amazing, but it's just Big Brother Ash is very strong, so there's nothing we can do about it!"
Hearing this, Callahan finally felt relieved, but since he was used to bragging, he immediately said something pretty stupid, "Kellie, there is a super powerful and rare Pokémon nearby. I'll go and catch them for you!"
In fact, it wasn't just him who heard this and wanted to go check it out, it was spread as solid news by people.
On the way back to the hotel, Callahan found that the same Sudowoodo was following him.
"Sudo! Woodo!"
"I'm not your trainer. The Pokémon I caught were all returned just now. And… I didn't even catch you at all!" Although Callahan said this, the Sudowoodo just stuck out its tongue and tried to act cute.
———
It was getting dark, and Margo returned to her home and had dinner with her father, the Mayor of Fula City, "How was the Wind Festival? Did you have fun?"
"It was very fun!" Larugo replied jovially, "I rode the roller coaster and entered the Haunted House. How was your day, dad?"
"It was rather busy today for me, I'd say."
"Dad, when I was coming back, I heard rumors everywhere in the city that there is a rare Pokémon in our city." Margo was actually really worried about the Zeraora that lived in the ruins on the mountain.
But all the Mayor did was smile and pretended to be relaxed and said, "Those are just some lies made up, I've not heard of this kind of news."
"That, the Mythical Zeraora..."
All Margo said was the name, but was interrupted by her father. He suddenly said seriously, "Margo, listen to me, that Pokémon no longer exists! Don't cause panic in the city by saying anything like this. These words can damage our city beyond repair!"
Hearing this, Marho went silent.
Meanwhile, Ash took Molly back to the Pokémon Center. After Pikachu and Jigglypuff recovered their strength, Molly started clamoring to go up the mountain to see the big yellow cat again.
"You really like Zeraora that much?" Seeing that she had no intention of sleeping otherwise, Ash decided to go. He happened to buy some medicine from Ciel's store and wanted to go and check up on Zeraora's injury.
"Yeah, that Zeraora acts like an older brother protecting his younger siblings, just like you!" Molly said excitedly.
Molly had always liked to describe a person like this.
She said that her father is very similar to Entei, strong and gentle. After Professor Hale disappeared, she created an Entei to be her father with the help of many Unown's.
Now she finally met a powerful Pokémon which acted very much like Ash. Ash knew it too, he could see the compatibility between him and this Zeraora was unnaturally very high.
Walking on a mountain road at night was definitely a harder challenge compared to during the day. The darkness magnifies all the senses except the eyes, and any disturbance can cause people to panic.
But Ash and Molly don't have to worry, not only did Ash have his Aura Vision, but he had Ralts to use her Flash skill, causing the nearby area to light up like daytime.
"Hey, Big Brother, look, there is someone!" When they were walking along the path, Molly suddenly noticed a figure appearing in the darkness in the distance.
This beautiful girl happened to be one of the people who were miserably deceived by Callahan and his boasting.
He was just boasting like usual, but this girl believed him and had been searching in the mountains for a whole day to see if she could find the rare Pokémon.
It was very dark now, and this young lady looked like a mess. Her beautiful long hair was covered with leafage. Though there were some scratches, they were not any serious damage at least. She was simply too tired from walking so that's why she picked up a branch to lean on.
When it gets dark around these parts, Pokémon come out one after another and it gets more dangerous.
Oddish is one of the nocturnal ones and can walk far away at night. She accidentally screamed when it walked behind her with the leaves above it accidentally touching her.
Not to mention others like Golbat, who are actively looking for prey in the mountains, with their eyes that shine in the darkness.
All of this was more than enough to frighten someone as inexperienced as her, "Don't move so suddenly!"
"Hey, this way!" Ash and Molly waved to her from under Ralts' Flash. She quickly cheered up, but walked slowly to not trip on anything, "I'm saved, thank you very much!
Ash quickly took out an unopened bottle of fresh water and handed it over to her, "It's so dark now, and there are only some aggressive Pokémon around right now. What are you even doing in this forest at this time?"
The girl took it and took a big gulp, then handed over her phone, "I am… I'm here to find this. This Pokémon is super rare, you know?"
Ash and Molly took a look at it, "Oh, it's an Eevee!"
Molly liked Eevee very much. "Eevee is such a cute Pokemon, but Big Brother Ash never caught an Eevee until now."
Hearing this, the girl suddenly became frustrated, "Even you failed to capture this Pokémon? Is it really that rare and powerful?"
"I mean it's not exactly common, so I suppose it does fall into the rar category. However, the reason I didn't catch any of the ones I have seen in my travels is because fate didn't make me meet my destined one." Ash said with a smile, "It's getting dark now. You should go back. You can come back with us tomorrow when we finish our work."
"Really? That's great. With the help of you, someone who got first place in the catching competition, I will definitely succeed!" The young lady suddenly became excited, "By the way, my name is Risa, it's nice to meet you!" She introduced herself with a little blush on her cheek.
By the way she looked at Ash, he was mostly sure she did not hear about his other achievements from the host, something he didn't mind at all, and in fact welcomed.
"I'm Ash, and this is Molly!" As soon as Ash finished speaking, another flashlight shone through.
"Oi! You guys, this mountain is forbidden to enter at night. Don't you know Zeraora's Curse?" It seems that there are night guards from Fula City patrolling here now. They recognized Ash at the first sight, "It turns out to be you! It's already dark. Even if it's someone like you, sir, you should hurry down the mountain before anything unexpected happens!'
Ash frowned, "Zeraora's Curse? Can you tell me what this curse is about?"
He doesn't remember much about Zeraora, but he understood that it was a very kind Pokémon, but in Fula City, it was being called a Curse. Ash believed this is related to the story behind Zeraora's hatred of humans.
To someone of Ash's stature, these guards were more than happy to say what they knew and said frankly, "During the wildfire incident 50 years ago, it's said Zeraora cursed the entire mountain. As long as humans step into the mountain, a disaster will soon occur!"
So this is the so-called Zeraora's Curse. To him, it just seemed that this was someone covering up the truth about the wildfire that year.
Then Margo's father, the Mayor of Fula City, must know something.
Ash shook his head, "Risa, Molly, let's go!"