Sato continued chatting with Professor Oak for a while longer before tactfully taking his leave. After emerging from the underground laboratory, he quickly headed toward the rear garden of Professor Oak's Laboratory.
Although it was called a rear garden, the area behind Professor Oak's Laboratory was actually a massive Pokémon nursery, covering an area equivalent to seven or eight football fields. It contained all kinds of terrain, basically having been transformed into a habitat suitable for Pokémon of various types.
Sato's purpose in coming to the rear garden was naturally to see the Pokémon he had left in Professor Oak's care. Ever since he had traveled to the Hoenn region, he had gone a very long time without seeing these Pokémon.
Normally, the most he could do was communicate with Professor Oak to keep track of how they were doing. Now that he had returned to Kanto, he absolutely had to spend some proper time with them.
However, what Sato never expected was that the moment he arrived at the entrance to Professor Oak's rear garden, Crobat, Nidoking, Bellossom, Arcanine, and the others were already waiting for him there.
Thus, the instant he appeared before the group of Pokémon, they all rushed toward him and surrounded him.
Arcanine was the fastest. With a single Extreme Speed, he instantly appeared in front of Sato and began enthusiastically licking his face with his long tongue.
Next came Crobat, who quickly landed on Sato's shoulder and affectionately rubbed his face against Sato's.
Bellossom was not much slower. She threw herself straight into Sato's arms and hugged him, while the other Pokémon also crowded forward, greeting Sato happily in their own affectionate ways.
"Looks like everyone has been doing very well here. That puts my mind at ease. All right, let's have a party tonight!"
Seeing that all the Pokémon before him looked healthy and energetic, and seeing how enthusiastically they welcomed him, Sato felt a warm feeling spread through his heart. He happily responded while greeting the other Pokémon one by one.
Afterward, Sato took out all kinds of food he had prepared along the way from his backpack. He then held a lively outdoor feast with the Pokémon in an open area of Professor Oak's rear garden.
Ash, Gary, Professor Oak, and several researchers from the laboratory all received invitations from Sato and came over to eat, drink, and have fun together.
The atmosphere at the scene became exceptionally cheerful as a result. In the end, some of the Pokémon living at Professor Oak's Laboratory even joined the party without being invited.
The grand celebration continued until late into the night before finally coming to an end.
"It really is wonderful. Unfortunately, I can't travel with this many Pokémon. I suppose this is what they call a happy problem."
Sato looked at the many Pokémon who had already fallen into sweet dreams after the party. He was happy, yet at the same time, he felt a trace of regret and melancholy.
He genuinely didn't want to be separated from these Pokémon for such long periods of time. But ultimately, he was only one person and simply didn't have enough energy to personally raise so many Pokémon simultaneously.
Sometimes, Sato wondered whether it had really been the right decision to capture so many Pokémon.
If he couldn't take care of everything perfectly, why had he captured so many in the first place?
After all, many of the Pokémon here were exceptionally talented. Leaving them with Professor Oak instead of personally raising them—wasn't that a terrible waste?
But Sato quickly figured things out again.
For any Trainer, this was unavoidable.
Unless a Trainer had never intended to become a powerful Trainer from the very beginning, in which case they might only capture one or two Pokémon throughout their entire life.
Capturing outstanding Pokémon was something every Trainer loved to do. If they encountered an excellent Pokémon without a Trainer during their travels, then as a normal Trainer, they would naturally try everything possible to capture it.
Could they really just let such an outstanding Pokémon slip away right in front of them?
Even if they already had plenty of Pokémon and were struggling to raise them all, they still couldn't simply give up such an opportunity.
After all, once the opportunity was gone, it might never come again.
Even if it meant tightening their belts and living frugally, most Trainers would probably still choose to capture an outstanding Pokémon they encountered, because talented Pokémon were the foundation upon which every Trainer could build their future strength.
Besides, Pokémon were living beings. They experienced birth, aging, illness, and death just like anything else.
This was especially true for some ordinary Bug-type Pokémon, whose entire lifespans might amount to no more than a few years.
If one wanted to become strong, one had to seize every moment.
Therefore, any Trainer who aspired to become a powerhouse would need to capture as many outstanding Pokémon as possible while they were still young, strong, and energetic enough to raise them.
Once they eventually started a family and established themselves, making it impossible to travel all over the world anymore, it would already be too late.
Looking back, Sato realized that from the moment he became a Trainer to reaching his current strength—where he was already close to having a Pokémon break through to the Elite Four level—not much time had truly passed.
His journey had been extraordinarily eventful.
In particular, the period of adventure during which he rapidly grew stronger on the mysterious island was so extraordinary that it could easily have filled an entire book.
But ultimately, time had always been too tight for him.
On top of the missions assigned to him by those above him, his own hidden problems, his limited resources, and the increasingly slow growth of his original Pokémon as their levels and strength rose, there were simply too many factors holding him back.
In the end, he had decided to temporarily slow down the straight-line path of rapid advancement he had previously been following and instead look for opportunities to develop horizontally.
Now that he thought about it, however, although that decision had sounded wonderful, it had been somewhat detached from reality.
The reason was that he had overlooked his own strength and the resources available to him.
While pursuing horizontal development, he had finally realized the truth that one had to be strong oneself before anything else could be accomplished.
Without reaching the Elite Four level, there were many things that he simply couldn't accomplish no matter how much he wanted to.
Take his recent expedition to the ruins, for example.
Precisely because he didn't possess sufficient strength, even after seeing so many precious treasures inside the ruins, all he could do was stare helplessly.
In the end, he could only take a little of what others had left behind.
Then there was the time Giovanni had ordered him to become an undercover agent.
To be honest, Sato had really wanted to refuse at the time, but he hadn't possessed even the slightest right to say no.
If he had possessed Elite Four-level strength back then, Giovanni would certainly have shown him some consideration. How could he possibly have been sent to work as such a miserable undercover agent?
He could have simply become a provisional executive within a Team Rocket division and slowly accumulated his strength and influence.
Perhaps if he had been able to concentrate all his resources on raising Swampert back then, he might already have become an Elite Four-level Trainer by now and established his own faction within Team Rocket, complete with a force of his own.
However, looking at things now, although he had taken a rather long detour back then, he had nevertheless managed to build his nest in another tree—one that was even larger and stronger.
And he had even stumbled upon an unexpected mountain of gold.
Who could have imagined it?
The Groudon incident had unexpectedly allowed him to save so many powerful Alliance figures and establish relationships with them.
Because of that, he had suddenly received extraordinarily generous rewards.
The foundation he originally would have needed a long time to build had been completed almost overnight, while his own strength had consequently advanced by leaps and bounds.
Now, his wings were gradually becoming full-fledged, and reaching the Elite Four level was within sight.
Once Swampert reached the Elite Four level, he would be able to obtain even more resources and accelerate the training of the Pokémon from his original team that had already grown considerably.
After that, he would break the shackles binding him and freely soar through the vast skies.
"Perhaps after a little more time, I'll be able to start working on the mission the system assigned me. Next year's Hoenn League Championship... I'm taking it."
Sato leaned against Arcanine's warm, comfortable belly, holding a Pikachu that was already snoring peacefully in his arms.
He gazed up at the night sky, his face filled with anticipation.