Since they didn't seem to be planning anything, I simply said goodbye and left. Some of you might be wondering: Why did I let them go without doing anything? It's simple—they saved me from falling into the void back at that mansion (or at least helped), so I'm just returning the favor. But that doesn't mean I'll overlook it next time.
Anyway, after the run-in with Team Rocket, I decided to head back to the girls to see if they had finished shopping and to remind them that we only had ten minutes left until 6:00 PM—the time Sabrina said we needed to be at the Pokémon Lottery stall. Why? I had no idea. Why was I even going along with it? Because I was curious. Besides, it was just a random street lottery stall. What could possibly go wrong?
The Team Rocket stall was only three booths away from where the girls currently were, and luckily they had already finished shopping there. So it wasn't hard to convince them to head over to the Pokémon Lottery stall.
"Why do you think Sabrina told us to come here?" Celeste asked curiously.
Pikachu had already taken its favorite spot on my shoulder.
"No idea, but I'm curious and I want to see what happens," I said with a shrug.
"Honestly, I'm curious too about what's going to happen," Roxanne nodded.
None of us understood why Sabrina had said that, but everyone was curious to find out what would happen once we reached the stall. So we didn't waste any more time and headed straight there. The Pokémon Lottery stall was pretty close to our position, and with only five minutes left until Sabrina's predicted time, our heroes arrived at the booth. Normally, in a crowded market like this, a lottery stall would have dozens of people lining up to buy a ticket and try their luck. But in this case, there was no one. The stall was completely empty, with only the vendor sitting there on a chair, waiting for customers who, for some reason, weren't coming. This was a problem for him, because the earnings he made during his time at this market were what let him live comfortably for the rest of the year. His stall always made a lot of money every year, no matter what time of day it was—it was always packed. But for the last two hours, not a single person had come by, and he couldn't understand why.
"Should we go over?" Celeste asked curiously.
"Yeah…" Roxanne nodded.
"I think we should," I agreed.
I nodded mostly out of curiosity. How could a stall like this be completely empty when there were so many people walking around?
With that, the three of us walked up to the booth.
"Excuse me…" I started to say.
But the moment I spoke, the man sitting in the chair stood up so fast that even the fastest Pokémon would have had trouble following the movement. He approached us with a big smile.
"Hello, folks! Would you like to try the Pokémon Lottery? One ticket costs only 20 Poké, and you can win the prizes listed on this poster!" the man said.
Before saying anything else, the three of us looked curiously at the poster. This is what it said:
First Prize: 6 days and 5 nights all-expenses-paid trip to the famous 5-star hotel "Hano Grand Resort" on Akala Island in the Alola region. Includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and spa access. Second Prize: 3 days and 2 nights all-expenses-paid trip to the famous 5-star hotel "Hano Grand Resort" on Akala Island in the Alola region. Meals not included. Third Prize: Dinner for 4 people at the famous 7-star restaurant "Seven Stars" in the Sinnoh region. Transportation not included. Fourth Prize: A Poké Ball containing an unknown Pokémon inside. Fifth Prize: A Poké Ball containing an unknown Pokémon inside.
"And from the sixth prize onward, the prizes are things like packs of tissues, combs, and stuff like that. Would you like to try your luck?" the man asked.
The truth was, the prizes were… extremely tempting, especially the first and second prizes. An all-expenses-paid vacation at one of the most famous hotels in the world sounded wonderful.
"The prizes are definitely… tempting," Celeste said.
"And the price per ticket is pretty affordable…" Roxanne nodded.
Both of them were so excited imagining they might win the first prize that they didn't notice one important detail.
"Excuse me, but… isn't selling Pokémon prohibited?" I asked curiously.
In this world, the sale of Pokémon is strictly forbidden, so it was strange that a lottery stall had two Pokémon as prizes. That should basically be illegal.
"Yes, but don't worry, it's all legal," the man nodded.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Do you know what Pokémon Rangers do and what their job is?" the man asked.
"More or less, yes," I nodded.
"Well, one of their duties is to rescue injured Pokémon or those that have been rejected by their packs. They take care of the injured ones until they recover and then release them back into the wild. But for those that have been rejected by their packs, they can no longer live in the wild. After all, there's a reason they live in packs. If you separate a Pokémon from its pack, it becomes easy prey for predators. That's why they can't simply be released back into nature," the man explained.
"Excuse me, but what does that have to do with Ash's question?" Roxanne asked.
"It's simple. They can't go back to their pack or to the wild because they'd be easy prey, but they also don't want them to stay in captivity forever. So the Pokémon Rangers give certain merchants some of those Pokémon so we can raffle them off. Selling them is prohibited, but we're allowed to raffle a few each year. Everything is strictly monitored and controlled by the government, and I had to get a lot of permits for this. But if you're still not convinced, I can show you the documents," the man explained.
"I suppose one of the reasons they give them to you is because they can't take care of all the Pokémon they find," Celeste said.
"That's right. Taking care of all the injured or rejected Pokémon requires a huge amount of money, and they can't afford to house them all. So instead of releasing them into the wild where they'd die easily, they prefer to do this kind of transaction. By the way, we only pay for the permits—we don't pay the Rangers. They give the Pokémon to the government completely free of charge, and the government gives them to us after a ton of boring paperwork. In short, it's all to save the lives of those homeless Pokémon and to make room for many more," the man explained.
The explanation sounded pretty convincing, and there was nothing suspicious about his words, so none of the three of us said anything else.
"So? Now that you're convinced, would you like to try your luck?" the man asked.
"Yes. I'll give it a try," I nodded.
"Me too," Roxanne said.
"Me too," Celeste said.
All three of us were eager to win the first, second, or third prize.
"Great. Who wants to go first?" the man asked.
"Me!" Celeste said.
Before anyone could say anything else, Celeste stepped forward and paid the 20 Poké to the man.
"Perfect. Let's see what you get," the man said, pulling a small lever.
You know those machines that appear in almost every anime where you turn a handle and colored balls come out? It was exactly like that.
The man spun the lever until a small ball came out—a ball of color…