In Verdanturf Town, it was very easy for Yuga to investigate someone. By the next day, the basic information about the girl mentioned by Ninetales had already appeared before him.
The girl's name was Gwen, fourteen years old, from the Johto region. However, she was not a Trainer; the only Pokémon registered in her file was a Vulpix, and there was no mention of a Ninetales.
As for the Ninetales that followed her, its origin was a mystery—it seemed to have suddenly appeared by her side.
Gwen's reason for coming to Verdanturf Town was merely to travel with her family; she appeared to have no other reason.
Yuga did not dig any deeper into the investigation. Since she posed no threat, continuing to look into her would verge on invading her privacy.
Robert stayed at Yuga's place once he arrived in Verdanturf Town, but he didn't stay long. That evening, after having a meal at Yuga's, he left town again.
That night, when everything was silent and everyone was sound asleep, Ninetales suddenly opened its eyes. In the darkness, its eyes glowed with a deep violet, mysterious light.
Ninetales glanced at the Litten that was lightly snoring, then stood up quietly, leapt off the bed without making a sound, and jumped out the window.
Outside the window was a balcony. With the help of the balcony, Ninetales easily leapt onto the roof. The silver moonlight cascaded over its body, giving it a hazy yet sacred beauty.
The alert Flygon was startled by Ninetales. As soon as it lifted its head, it saw Ninetales bathed in moonlight. Under Ninetales' gaze, it slowly lowered itself back down again.
Seeing this, Ninetales turned its head back in satisfaction. Then it leapt again, landing on the roof of another building, and in the blink of an eye, it vanished into the moonlight.
The second after Ninetales disappeared, Nana suddenly appeared on the rooftop. She looked in the direction Ninetales had left, stayed for a moment, then teleported back to her room to continue sleeping.
Because of the Team Rocket burglary incident, both Nana and Flygon had become more vigilant than before. Once they realized the commotion was caused by Ninetales, they didn't pay it too much attention.
Ninetales, having left the YoYo Day Care, dashed all the way to a hotel in town. Before long, it pinpointed a specific room and arrived on the balcony of that room.
The moment Ninetales appeared, the other Ninetales inside the room—who had been sleeping—suddenly opened its eyes and looked toward the balcony.
On the balcony, Yuga's Ninetales' eyes glowed purple, and a wave of psychic energy spread out from its body as the center.
At the same time, the Ninetales inside the room made the same move.
The two waves of psychic power clashed invisibly, making the window rattle and clatter loudly.
The noise disturbed the sleeping girl on the bed. She murmured in her sleep, and the two Ninetales immediately ceased their standoff. Yuga's Ninetales leapt off the balcony.
The Ninetales in the room hesitated for a few seconds, glanced at the still-sleeping girl, then jumped out the window and chased after Yuga's Ninetales.
Under the moonlight, the two Ninetales sprinted swiftly and soon arrived on the outskirts of Verdanturf Town, far from the residential areas. Yuga's Ninetales suddenly stopped in its tracks, turned around, and launched a Flamethrower toward the one behind.
The pursuing Ninetales quickly dodged, narrowly avoiding Yuga's Ninetales' attack, and then immediately returned fire with a Flamethrower of its own.
Yuga's Ninetales did not dodge, letting the flames engulf its body.
Suddenly, the raging fire transformed into a crimson vortex, which was entirely absorbed into Yuga's Ninetales' body. After absorbing the Flamethrower, its fur began to shimmer brilliantly.
Yuga's Ninetales has the ability Flash Fire. Fire-type moves don't harm it—instead, they power it up. The opposing Ninetales had the ability Drought, which, in the middle of the night, had limited usefulness.
Seeing Yuga's Ninetales completely unharmed, the other Ninetales quickly realized the key and stopped using Fire-type moves. Instead, it used the Dark-type move Dark Pulse.
Yuga's Ninetales swept its tails across the ground, and a surging red shockwave rolled out, forming a scorching wall of heat that blocked the Dark Pulse on the other side of the wall.
At the same time, Yuga's Ninetales' eyes suddenly burst with brilliant light, and then the opposing Ninetales found that it couldn't move at all.
Boom!
The opposing Ninetales was ruthlessly thrown out by Yuga's Ninetales using Psychic.
"Ninetales~"
The opposing Ninetales let out a wailing cry. In the next second, its figure flickered, and countless identical Ninetales appeared around it.
This wasn't the move Double Team, but illusions created by the Ninetales using psychic power.
"Ninetales~"
Countless Ninetales howled toward the sky, then swiftly ran in circles around Yuga's Ninetales, making it impossible to distinguish which one was the real body.
Yuga's Ninetales stood motionless in place, its eyes rapidly scanning, then suddenly used the move Inferno to form a ring of fire. The fire ring spread outward quickly, and the running Ninetales figures twisted under the flames, though the illusions did not disappear.
Seeing this, Yuga's Ninetales shot two beams of light from its eyes, striking one of the Ninetales.
"Ninetales~"
The Ninetales let out a miserable cry as it was thrown away, but it quickly disappeared again into the swarm of illusions.
Yuga's Ninetales relentlessly pursued, unleashing an extraordinarily powerful burst of psychic energy centered on itself, shaking the surrounding earth.
Boom!
Waves of psychic energy surged outward. All of the Ninetales illusions instantly disappeared without a trace, and the Ninetales who had created the illusions was sent flying and suffered considerable injuries.
Yuga's Ninetales was about to continue attacking, but the opposing Ninetales suddenly used telepathy to speak.
"Please wait a moment."
Hearing this voice, Yuga's Ninetales paused its attack and asked, "Who are you? Why did you appear in Verdanturf Town?"
Although Yuga had given up on investigating this Ninetales, his own Ninetales, for the sake of caution, had still decided to probe this fellow of the same species. If this fellow had any ill intentions, then...
In any case, it would not allow anyone to disrupt the peace of Verdanturf Town or endanger Yuga's safety.
The opposing Ninetales got up, and with a flash of light from its body, all the dust on it was automatically swept away.
"My name is Lokoko," said the opposing Ninetales by way of introduction. "I only came here to travel with my young master, and I have no ill intent."
"How do I know whether what you're saying is true or not? A powerful Pokémon like you shouldn't be following such a weak human," Yuga's Ninetales questioned suspiciously.
The stronger a Pokémon was, the more it pursued what people call a sense of recognition. Yuga's Ninetales was no exception. If Yuga had been a weak human, no matter how much he had helped back then, it would not have agreed to stay by his side. Even if it wanted to repay the favor, it would have chosen another way.
"I'm not lying," said the opposing Ninetales earnestly. "I can prove it."
As it spoke, it released its psychic power, allowing Yuga's Ninetales to connect with it. That way, Yuga's Ninetales would be able to sense whether it was telling the truth.
Yuga's Ninetales carefully extended its psychic energy, wary of any tricks, but the other side didn't make any sudden moves. The psychic energies of the two Ninetales successfully linked together.
Lokoko was a Ninetales who had lived for two hundred years. It had once lived together with its master. One day, its master left home and set off on a journey, leaving Loke alone in the mansion.
As time passed, the mansion became dilapidated, but Lokoko, due to the restrictions of the Poké Ball, was unable to leave the mansion's area.
In the blink of an eye, two hundred years passed. During those two hundred years, Lokoko became increasingly powerful, but its master never returned.
Later, three teenagers came to the abandoned mansion. One of the boys looked almost identical to Lokoko's former master. Lokoko even considered keeping that person to stay and accompany it, but in the end, it gave up on the idea.
No matter how much he looked like him, he still wasn't its true master.
With the help of those three teenagers, Lokoko broke free from the restraints of the Poké Ball and left that abandoned mansion.
Originally, Lokoko had planned to travel around—after all, more than two hundred years had passed, and its master was no longer around—but during its journey, it encountered its current little master, who turned out to be a descendant of its former master.
This little master was a very kind person, so Lokoko decided to stay by her side.
After hearing Lokoko's story, Yuga's Ninetales fell into deep thought. Judging from the spiritual energy fluctuations from earlier, it indeed had not lied.
So after all that, it turned out that it really was just here for sightseeing.
"If that's the case, then I'll take my leave. Make sure you behave yourself in Verdanturf Town." After saying that, Ninetales disappeared.
Seeing Yuga's Ninetales leave, Lokoko let out a sigh of relief. It truly hadn't expected to encounter such a powerful fellow clan member while traveling in Verdanturf Town.
Lokoko had been isolated from the world for over two hundred years and hadn't had much time to understand the outside world. Even though Yuga was famous, it didn't know about him.
Lokoko had thought it was already strong enough—after all its time traveling, it hadn't encountered a real opponent until today's sudden setback.
Back when they crossed paths in the park yesterday, Lokoko had sensed that the other party was unusual but had never expected the other's strength to far exceed its imagination.
After resting in place for a while, Lokoko returned to its little master's room.
When it got back, the little girl, Gwen, was already awake. She looked at Ninetales and asked, "Ninetales, where did you go?"
"I went out for a short walk. The moonlight tonight is beautiful," Ninetales didn't tell the truth.
"Oh, then go to sleep early," the little girl mumbled and soon fell asleep again.
Ninetales walked to the bedside, lay down gently, and closed its eyes.
When Yuga's Ninetales returned to the room, it saw Nana standing quietly at its doorway and asked aloud, "It's so late. Why aren't you asleep? What are you doing standing here?"
Nana countered, "What about you? Where did you go?"
Ninetales didn't hide it and simply replied, "Yesterday, I came across a powerful fellow clansman. I went to confront it. Its strength is quite decent."
Upon hearing this, Nana didn't ask any further questions and turned around to return to her room.
The next day, neither Nana nor Ninetales told Yuga about what had happened the previous night. Yuga, unaware of everything, saw Lokoko and Gwen again at the YoYo Day Care's store.
Gwen had come to buy Pokéblocks for her Vulpix and Lokoko. The products of the YoYo Day Care had already become a signature of Verdanturf Town; many people who came to Verdanturf Town as tourists would stop by to buy something to take home as a souvenir.
After what had happened the previous night, Lokoko felt a bit fearful when it saw Yuga. It thought that Ninetales' actions the night before had been directed by Yuga.
Yuga was somewhat surprised when he sensed Lokoko's fear. How could such a well-trained, Master-level Pokémon be so timid?
But he didn't think too much of it—whatever was going on with someone else's Pokémon was someone else's business. It had nothing to do with him.
After Gwen and her group finished their shopping, they left, and Yuga completely put the matter out of his mind. Then in the evening, that Ninetales suddenly ran to the YoYo Day Care seeking help, saying that Gwen had been taken.
As it turned out, Lokoko had already been targeted by some people during its travels. They had waited until today, when Gweb's family was leaving Verdanturf Town, to make their move.
Lokoko was highly skilled in the art of illusions, and it was precisely because of this ability that those people wanted to capture it. With such a talent, Lokoko could be sold for a very high price.
However, those people had underestimated Lokoko's strength and weren't able to deal with it at all. So instead, they captured Gwen's family. They were equipped with black-market escape technology, so even though Lokoko was a Master-level Pokémon, it still wasn't able to stop them.
Before they left, those people left a message: if Lokoko wanted to rescue Gwen's family, it should go to an abandoned mansion on the outskirts of Verdanturf Town tomorrow as agreed.
Lokoko knew those people had surely set up traps waiting for it. If it obediently went to the meeting, it might not only fail to rescue Gwen's family but also end up getting itself caught.
After thinking long and hard, Lokoko thought of Yuga's Ninetales, and so it rushed to the YoYo Day Care to ask for help.
After hearing Lokoko's plea for help, Yuga was furious.
"To think someone would dare stir up trouble within the bounds of my Verdanturf Town—do they think I'm invisible?!"
(Yuga: That little burst of dramatic flair actually felt kind of awesome!)
As he finished speaking, Yuga beckoned with his hand, and a Natu appeared beside him. This Natural Bird was the leader of the Natu group.
"Go check whether there have been any suspicious people around Verdanturf Town lately."
Natu gave a nod and immediately disappeared from before Yuga and Lokoko.
"Alright, don't worry. We'll have news soon—there's no need to panic," Yuga said, comforting Lokokk.
"Th-thank… thank you…" Lokoko stammered, still feeling somewhat fearful of Yuga.
Yuga's patrol forces were extremely effective. At his command, the Natu, Ghost-type Pokémon, and Houndooms all mobilized, scattering throughout every corner of Verdanturf Town. Within less than half a day, there was already news coming back.
"The Natu sent word back that some suspicious people had appeared today near an abandoned building on the east side of the town. Let's go take a look," Yuga said to Lokoko.
Because Verdanturf Town was in the process of being upgraded into Verdanturf City, the League had been constructing many new buildings and facilities in town. At the same time, some areas were being abandoned and marked for redevelopment. The abandoned building on the east side of town was one of those areas.
Yuga climbed onto his Dragonite, took Lokoko with him, and under the guidance of a Natu, they quickly arrived at the destination.