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At five o'clock in the morning, Chris arrived at the Trainers' Association to board a special plane to the border.
The journey from Dragon City to the border would take four hours even on a special flight. Departing at 5 AM meant they would arrive at their destination around 9 AM.
Accompanying him was a girl dressed entirely in black combat gear. She wore a black mask and a black beret, wrapped tightly in dark clothing that revealed only a pair of large dark eyes.
From the moment he boarded the special plane, Chris noticed she was staring at him.
No need to guess—definitely a fan.
As a public figure, I need to get used to this kind of attention, Chris thought to himself. He settled comfortably into his seat, half-closed his eyes for a brief nap, then took out his handheld game console.
After returning to his hotel the previous night, Chris hadn't gone straight to bed. Instead, he'd taken Vigoroth to the training ground to evaluate its proficiency with Mega Punch and Body Slam.
The results showed that while Vigoroth's proficiency with Mega Punch and Body Slam wasn't particularly high, it had already begun developing Force Palm and Counter techniques.
This puzzled Chris. Before he'd left Vigoroth at the gym, it had just learned Force Palm and Counter techniques.
In less than a month, both Force Palm and Counter had been mastered! This meant Vigoroth could now incorporate "Force Palm" into its attack moves and use other techniques based on Counter mechanics.
Moreover, Vigoroth had already started working toward perfecting the combination of "Counter + Force Palm."
The goal was to reach peak proficiency with "Counter + contact moves + Force Palm" before evolving.
This speed... Chris could only describe it as terrifying. Vigoroth was learning and improving skills faster than even Blaziken and Greninja!
Could Vigoroth be a genius?
It wasn't impossible—after all, it was a Pokémon with perfect IVs in all stats.
However, after inquiring further, Chris discovered something interesting.
These techniques had all been practiced after meditation sessions when Vigoroth's body and mind were completely calm.
In a state of perfect focus without distracting thoughts, skill acquisition became twice as effective with half the effort!
"Meditation has this effect?" Chris had asked Blaziken and his other Pokémon to practice with Vigoroth that night.
The results were indeed remarkable.
So, Chris had trained for several hours the previous night, not resting until after 11 PM.
Suddenly, Chris felt a tug on his clothes.
Turning his head, he found the girl in black pulling at the corner of his jacket. She handed him a note with a line of elegant handwriting: "Master Chris, I'm your fan. Could I get your autograph?"
I knew it, Chris thought. She must be a fan.
"Sure," Chris agreed generously.
Signing something for a single fan? He was happy to oblige.
The girl handed over a Poké Ball, a pen, and another note. This one read: "Please write 'Shiny' on my Poké Ball!!!"
Chris was confused. And what was with the three exclamation points?
Write "Shiny" on a Poké Ball? Why would she want him to wish for her to find a Shiny Pokémon?
She was treating him like some kind of good luck charm.
Chris thought it might be more effective to ask Togepi to write the word "Shiny," but as for himself...
"Are you sure about this?" Chris gave her a sympathetic look.
The girl nodded very seriously.
Well... you can't blame me. This is what you asked for.
With a flourish, Chris wrote the word "Shiny" on the Poké Ball.
After he handed it back, she minimized the Poké Ball and tucked it into an inner pocket of her clothing, as if wanting to keep it close to her body like a talisman.
Chris shrugged helplessly, hoping it would bring her luck.
Turning back around, Chris picked up his handheld game console and resumed playing.
The last time he'd reached Mt. Silver, he'd immediately diverted to Viridian City without giving it a second thought. Mt. Silver was a Level 100 area! Either it contained a Legendary Pokémon, or as he suspected, the famous Red was there.
Challenging that now would be suicide!
So Chris decided to focus on other tasks first, like clearing the gyms in the Kanto region.
So far, he'd defeated four Gym Leaders: Brock in Pewter City, Misty in Cerulean City, Lt. Surge in Vermilion City, and Erika in Celadon City. As for why he hadn't challenged the Viridian Gym...
Because its leader, Giovanni, wasn't there.
Next on his list was the Fuchsia City Gym.
However, since he couldn't continue his gym challenge while on the plane, Chris decided to fly to Blackthorn City in the Johto region and visit the nearby Dragon's Den to hunt for Dratini.
It wasn't that he particularly wanted to train one.
If he could find a Shiny Dratini, then he might consider raising it, but for an ordinary Dratini, Chris had no immediate plans. It would be better to wait until he reached Meteor Falls in Hoenn and use Waterfall to find a Shiny or perfect IV Bagon.
Therefore, Chris's purpose in hunting Dratini was simply to catch some with good IVs to sell.
As soon as he reached the location in his game, before he could even start searching, Chris felt another tug on his clothes.
He looked at the girl again.
She handed over another small note that read: "Can you tell me how you met all those Shiny Pokémon?"
Her eyes were wide with curiosity, filled with the light of someone seeking knowledge.
Chris suspected this girl wasn't his fan at all—she was simply a Shiny Pokémon enthusiast.
"Can't you speak?" Chris asked in a low voice while holding the note.
The girl handed over another slip of paper with a single word written on it.
"Yes!"
"Since you can speak, why don't you?"
She turned over the note she'd just written and wrote two words on the back: "social anxiety."
Social anxiety???
Chris gave her a confused look. Less than three minutes after boarding the plane, she had already approached him twice. How could someone with social anxiety be so forward?
Oh, social anxiety when speaking!
"You mean you feel anxious when you have to talk?" Chris asked.
The girl didn't write a note this time, just nodded her head vigorously.
"Say something to me then!"
She looked confused.
Finally, Chris and the girl exchanged contact information and used messaging to chat.
Chris preferred this method anyway—he didn't want to disturb the other passengers.
Through their messages, he learned the girl's name was Eliana. She had just become a Pokémon Ranger during the New Year, and this was her first mission.
The reason she was asking about Shiny Pokémon was because she desperately wanted to collect them, having dubbed herself: "The Shiny Pokémon Collector!"
Her current number of Shiny Pokémon captured was... zero!