Beside the bamboo grove behind the cabin.
Natsume had signed up for the Pokémon Contests in Cloudtop City this August, and was now practicing flashy moves with Feebas.
The Hearty Grains around the Farm at the foot of the mountain were handled by Sandslash and the others, so Natsume didn't need to worry too much.
"Good, Feebas. Very nice."
Natsume used Psychic to control the water balls Feebas had made, watching them float in the air.
Feebas nimbly hopped through those water balls.
The scales on its body looked even more gorgeous now.
"Feebas~"
Feebas took a deep breath.
Inside the water balls, a huge wave slowly rose up.
Feebas used Surf.
Under Feebas's control, the Surf Move looked like a flowing waterfall standing atop the giant water ball.
"Squirtle."
"Mudkip~"
Squirtle and Mudkip, lying by the water's edge watching this gorgeous performance, looked completely stunned.
Clearly, they'd both been shocked by Feebas's strength.
"Lotad~"
In the river, a lively Lotad suddenly jumped into the water ball Feebas had made.
Lotad swam over to the waterfall and leaped hard!
"Lotad."
Lotad cried out in alarm; it had only made it halfway up before the flowing water from Surf knocked it back down.
"Squirtle~"
Seeing that, Squirtle immediately happily jumped into the giant water ball too.
The outside of the water ball was supported by Natsume's psychic power, so Squirtle and the others wouldn't fall out of it.
The Sewaddle hanging from the bamboo leaves found that water ball looked pretty fun, so they swung down on their silk threads and jumped into it one by one.
"Eevee~"
Eevee jumped in too.
"Eevee~"
Eevee swam to the edge of the water ball and tried poking at the surface.
Eevee found that it had a lot of elasticity.
"Eevee!"
Eevee used Tackle, trying to smash the water ball apart.
However, its body bounced right back off the water ball.
Watching the little Pokémon tumble around inside the water ball, Natsume smiled.
"Alright, everyone."
"If you can smash apart the water balls I've wrapped in Psychic, I'll give you something tasty tonight."
The Eevee inside the water balls immediately got excited and started biting and ramming into them.
These little guys were all low level, while Natsume's psychic power had already reached Gym Leader level.
It wasn't going to be easy for them to break the water balls wrapped in his Psychic.
"Eevee~"
The Arceus lying off to the side also got up from the ground.
It shook itself off, then jumped into one of the water balls.
"Eevee~"
Eevee's form began to change.
It evolved into Vaporeon.
Vaporeon possessed the power to control water.
Because its cells were similar to water molecules, once Vaporeon merged into water, you could even fail to notice its figure.
The water inside the water ball began spinning at high speed.
The Pokémon inside all hurriedly jumped out.
"Vaporeon~"
Vaporeon let out a cry.
Whirlpool!
Bang~
The water ball exploded in midair, droplets falling like rain.
"Eevee~"
Vaporeon landed, its body changing back into Eevee.
Natsume looked at Eevee and praised it.
"Nice, Arcevee."
"Want to go challenge a Gym with me later?"
Eevee thought for a moment, then nodded.
This Eevee had very high potential, especially since it could freely evolve and devolve.
One day, if this Eevee could switch freely between all eight types, then it would already have a huge advantage in typing.
Natsume planned to train Eevee as one of his trump cards from here on out.
Gardevoir walked to Natsume's side and said softly, "Yamada Kaichou is here."
"Yamada Kaichou?"
Natsume said, "Then there should be results."
"Let's go, Eevee."
Natsume picked Eevee up from the ground.
"We'll go say hi to Yamada Kaichou together, and then head off to fight two Gym battles."
"Eevee."
...
Yamada Kaichou was in a great mood.
Ever since Natsume's Farm Gym was established, the number of tourists coming to Morimachi had been rising every day.
After the incident with Jirachi, many big shots had immediately taken notice of this third-rate little city.
Even inside the Association, they had already started discussing building a subway and an airport for Morimachi.
Hokkaido University was also preparing to build a new campus recently.
If nothing unexpected happened, the site would definitely be in Morimachi too.
Sharp-eyed merchants had already started buying up land in Morimachi to prepare for building luxury hotels and shopping malls.
That sent Morimachi's property prices skyrocketing.
Yamada Kaichou was confident that within five years, Morimachi would definitely leap into the ranks of a new first-tier city.
"All of this is because of Leader Natsume."
Yamada Kaichou let out a sigh as he walked across the grounds of the Farm Gym.
With his hands behind his back, Yamada Kaichou looked at this rising place before him.
Sandslash and the Diglett were leading a group of Trainers to work in the fields.
Although Natsume hadn't set any strict rules for challenging the Gym, at some point, having to work before challenging the Farm Gym had become a tradition here.
Because they often saw Sandslash teaching people how to plow, some tourists had even started affectionately calling Sandslash "Teacher."
"Yamada Kaichou, you look pretty lively."
Natsume's voice came from nearby.
Yamada Kaichou turned around and saw Natsume walking over, then laughed heartily.
"I'm already old."
"Leader Natsume, I came here today with some good news for you."
Natsume said, "The fossil ecological park I mentioned before got approved by the Association?"
Yamada Kaichou nodded.
"Yes."
"The Association plans to allocate 50 billion Pokémon Coins first to build the fossil ecological park."
"And they want Leader Natsume to oversee it."
Natsume said casually, "I'm not an engineer."
"It's better to leave professional work to professionals."
"Also, when construction starts, just send my Timburr in the Farm over to help out."
Yamada Kaichou understood what Natsume meant.
"That works too."
"Oh, and one more thing. The Association has already decided to promote the Farm Gym to a provincial gym."
Yamada Kaichou sounded even more excited than Natsume.
"As a provincial Gym Leader, the Association gives you a yearly subsidy of 10 million Pokémon Coins."
"And all secret realms in the country will be fully open to provincial Gym Leaders."
"Leader Natsume, congratulations."
As he spoke, Yamada Kaichou took out a document and handed it to Natsume.
Natsume accepted it calmly, then casually flipped through its contents.
He didn't really feel much about the Gym upgrade.
To Natsume, the Gym was simply a place for the Farm Pokémon to train.
At the same time, it was also a place for him to have fun.
When he felt like it, he'd come down and fight a couple of matches.
It was relaxing, and it also helped build his bond with the Pokémon.
Of course, as a Gym Leader, Natsume was still pretty responsible.
Nothing else aside, just the number of challenges he accepted was already something no other Gym Leader could compare with.
Still, an upgrade was a good thing.
It meant the challengers coming next would only get stronger and stronger.
And Natsume was also very interested in secret realms.
Secret realms were special spaces formed after space-time distortions.
When a space-time distortion occurred, space would fluctuate violently.
Various Pokémon, Evolution Stones, special treasures, and even historical relics could appear out of thin air inside the space.
That was why some people believed space-time distortions happened because planets from other timelines had been destroyed.
Those destroyed worlds were drawn toward this world.
As for why they attracted each other, maybe it was because their origins were the same.
Because the two worlds collided, space-time distortions formed.
Of course, that was only one theory.
Some space-time distortions would disappear naturally, while others would remain stable.
Those remaining space-time distortions became secret realms.
There weren't many secret realms in Japan that were fully open to ordinary people—only ten.
Those secret realms had already completely lost their exploration value.
They were developed into tourist attractions.
Most secret realms were used internally by the League.
Because of their special environments, some were used to cultivate special crops and precious Berries.
Others were used as research bases, or even as Pokémon prisons.
The secret realm in Cloudtop City was one such place.
Because it had completely lost its exploration value, it was used to imprison those Pokémon.
Natsume put away the folder and looked at Yamada Kaichou.
"About the Farm Gym, I have some other ideas."
"What is it?"
Natsume said simply, "You should know the Farm Gym's special features."
"I'm planning to divide the Farm Gym into two parts based on the Pokémon in the Farm."
"One part will be a city-level gym."
"The other part will be a provincial gym."
Natsume looked at the land around the Gym and said, "There's a lot of land here."
"I just need to open up another battle field."
"As for the Gym badge, the old city-level badge will stay the same. I'll just redesign a provincial badge."
Yamada Kaichou thought for a moment after hearing Natsume out.
"A Gym that serves as both a provincial and city-level gym, huh."
"There doesn't seem to be any precedent for that in the League."
Yamada Kaichou added, "The reason there's no precedent is because everyone thinks it's too much trouble."
"After all, being a provincial Gym Leader is already a symbol of status."
"Still, if Leader Natsume wants to apply, there probably won't be much of a problem."
Yamada Kaichou smiled.
"After all, a lot of tourists have already said this place is even stronger than some provincial gyms."
The strength of the Pokémon in the Farm still varied quite a lot.
Especially now that there were so many more Eevee and Pidgey.
Their strength was fine against ordinary Trainers.
But if they wanted to face people challenging a provincial gym, it would be a bit difficult.
"Then I'll leave it to Yamada Kaichou."
Yamada Kaichou waved a hand.
"No need to be polite. Compared to the contributions made by Leader Natsume, I've only done something insignificant."
"Oh, right. I noticed the Rotom in Leader Natsume's Farm seem really busy."
"Does Leader Natsume need to apply to the League for a few more Rotom assistants?"
Natsume smiled.
"Of course."
"No one ever thinks there are too many Rotom assistant Pokémon."
While Natsume and Yamada Kaichou were talking, Kiko waved from a distance.
"Natsume~"
Yamada Kaichou glanced at the girl walking over and smiled at Natsume.
"Alright."
"I'll take care of the rest."
"I won't bother Leader Natsume any longer today."
After saying that, Yamada Kaichou slowly walked toward the station nearby.
Kiko came over to Natsume with Jigglypuff.
She was dressed much more simply today.
Natsume looked at Kiko coming toward him and said, "I thought you'd take a good rest today."
Kiko helplessly picked up Jigglypuff.
"I did want to rest."
"But this guy still wanted to come here and play."
Natsume crouched down and looked at the pink Jigglypuff with a smile.
"Is that so, Jigglypuff?"
"Jigglypuff~"
Jigglypuff said that of course it wanted to come play, but Kiko herself wanted to come too.
"Is that so."
After hearing Jigglypuff, Natsume looked at Kiko and smiled.
Seeing Natsume's smile, Kiko's face turned a little red, and then she pinched Jigglypuff's cheek.
"What are you saying?"
"Jigglypuff!"
Jigglypuff struggled free from Kiko's arms and jumped down.
It greeted the Eevee by Natsume's feet, then ran toward the Eevee and Zorua playing in the land.
Kiko sighed helplessly.
"That little thing."
Inside the Hearty Grains field.
Victreebel, who was helping harvest the Hearty Grains, saw Kiko and waved its Vine Whip at her.
Kiko looked at Victreebel and happily waved back on her tiptoes.
"Hi, Victreebel."
Natsume said, "Looks like you two get along much better now."
"Yeah."
"Even though I was pretty scared the first time I saw it."
"But after spending time with it, I realized Victreebel's a good girl."
Kiko walked with Natsume toward the Gym field.
"Natsume, will the Farm be busy today too?"
"Not too bad."
"With Sandslash and the others here, I don't need to worry too much."
As Natsume and Kiko chatted, they reached the edge of the Gym field.
On the field, the one being challenged is a level 24 Timburr.
"Come on, Ashin."
A spectator outside the field shouted at the young man who was commanding a Raboot.
The challenger named Ashin said confidently, "A perfect start—I've got this!"
"Raboot, Agility!"
"Raboot!"
Raboot was a speed-type Pokémon.
It charged quickly toward Timburr.
"Whoosh, whoosh!"
Timburr swung the wooden beam in its hands and smashed it toward the charging Raboot.
"Now, Double Kick!"
"Raboot!"
Raboot leaped high into the air, kicked the wooden beam out of Timburr's hands, then twisted midair and followed up with another kick to Timburr's shoulder.
Bang!
Timburr's body was sent flying.
"Last move, Flame Charge!"
"Whoosh."
Just as the Timburr on the ground reached out to brace itself and tried to stand back up, the flame-covered Raboot slammed into it.
Bang~
Natsume watched the battle on the field and said to Arceus beside him, "Arceus, what do you think of this challenger?"
"Eevee."
Arceus thought Raboot was very strong.
Natsume said, "He's pretty good."
"But you're stronger than it."
Arceus looked at Natsume.
On the battle field.
"Yes!"
Ashin high-fived Raboot happily and said, "Win one more, and I can get the badge!"
"Heracross~"
Heracross thought this Raboot was about as strong as it was.
It carried Timburr to the rest area on the side and was just about to step in when it saw Natsume and Arceus walking over.
Natsume said to Heracross, "Sorry, Heracross."
"Can I let Arceus take this match?"
"Heracross."
Heracross looked curiously at Eevee beside Natsume.
There were a lot of Eevee in the Farm, but everyone there didn't seem to like fighting all that much.
Heracross also wanted to see what Eevee looked like in battle.
The spectators outside the field started discussing after seeing Natsume step in.
"Wow, that challenger's really lucky. He actually gets to battle Leader Natsume directly."
"Yeah, I just wonder which Pokémon Leader Natsume will use."
"Do you think he might send out Dragonite?"
The tourist beside them laughed when he heard that.
"Dragonite? Then let me thank you on the challenger's behalf."
The rules of a gym challenge were 2v2.
Ashin had already beaten Timburr, and if he defeated Eevee too, he would get the Gym badge.
Natsume looked at the Eevee standing in front of him and said, "Arceus, let's go."
"Eevee~"
Arceus glanced at Natsume, then stepped out from beside him onto the battle field.
This was still Arceus's first time taking part in a Gym battle like this.
"Eevee~"
Arceus looked seriously at the Raboot in front of it.
A breeze blew by.
Arceus's fur swayed gently.
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