The incident at the Blackthorn City and the Dragon's Den was finally resolved, and Ash also caught a Dratini, whom he had wanted for a while now.
Moreover, this is a Dratini with the move Extreme Speed!
This makes Ash almost unable to keep up with Dratini's speed. When it finally evolves into a Dragonite, it will truly show the power of that belongs to a Pseudo-Legendary.
A regular Dratini cannot learn the difficult Extreme Speed on its own, the only way it could even know this attack is by inheriting it from one of its parent. And that parent must be very powerful to even comprehend it.
In other words, this Dratini has a unimaginable pure Dragon Blood!
The most important thing is that this Dratini has extremely sharp eyes, which seems incompatible with his other gentle-tempered companions, but the compatibility between him and Ash is already very high to the point that it is almost unbelievable.
It is like an arrangement made by fate for the protagonist.
Ash could already feel a soul connection with him like all his other Pokémon's that have completed their Bind Evolutions with him.
The only other thing he has a connection to other than any of his Pokémon's is Maya, the Priestess from the Whirl Islands that he still regularly talks to. And that too because of the power he got from the Sea Soul. Now he and Maya can almost talk to each other through this, without needing any technology, they only needed their bond.
This Dratini will definitely become one of his strongest Pokémon's in the future!
After coming out of the Dragon's Den, Clair hosted the group to stay at the Blackthorn City Gym for a few days to thank them all for their help during the incident.
Now that Ash has finally completed in getting his eight Gym Badges from the Johto Region. He has now obtained the qualification to participate in the Johto Region Silver Conference. However, there are still three months until the conference even starts, so there is plenty of time for him to travel around and train his Pokémon's.
"Ash, the Silver Conference will be held in Silver Town at the foot of Mt. Silver in three months!" Clair served all of them delicious food cooked by her private chef's.
There are not many opportunities to have such a big meal during the trip, so now they are taking full advantage of this.
"Wow, it's so delicious!" Molly took a sandwich, sliced it in half with a knife, ate half of it herself, and fed the other half to Dratini who was on lying on Ash's neck.
'One young dragon and one little girl sharing a sandwich, this almost looks like one of those old fairy tales that I read about as a child.' Ash thought after seeing the scene. This brought some of the old memories he still held from his time as Luke in a old orphanage.
"But before that, we have to register for the Silver Conference first!" Brock clarified everyone's current route.
They first need to return to New Bark Town, complete the signing to participate in the Silver Conference, and then rush over to Silver Town to participate in the actual event.
Although it will take a full circle, three months is still plenty of time for them to return there if they do skip unnecessary places like the Whirl Islands and Cianwood City.
"Ash, if you want to go from Blackthorn City to New Bark Town, I can suggest you a pretty fast route to get there from here. This will be much faster than going all the way back."
Clair took Brock's travel brochure and flipped it almost to the end.
She pointed at a picture of a beautiful island and said with a smile, "Look, this place is called Alto Mare." She then continued to explain.
"It is known as the most beautiful city in the world because of its small but beautiful l canals going through the whole island. The buildings there are intricately intertwined with each other, so it is also called the City of Water~!"
Looking at the introduction in the travel brochure, this is indeed a city that must be visited, especially for Misty!
This is an isolated island off the coast of Johto Region. It is a canal city. Its main and traditional means of transportation is a long and narrow flat-bottomed boat with pointed ends.
Such a unique and wonderful experience, how can they not go as Pokémon Trainers that want to travel the world?
Seeing Ash's, Misty's and Molly's eyes shining, Clair smiled and said, "Also, the annual Pokémon Water Chariot Race, Tour de Alto Mare, in there seems to be starting soon. Misty, Ash, you guys don't want to miss such a competition, right?"
"Pokémon Water Chariot Race?" Ash and Misty exclaimed in unison, they must participate in that one!
It was an easy and happy decision that they made, so now they decided to target Alto Mare as their next destination!
Seeing that Ash had made up his mind, Clair smiled and said, "I have asked Grampa Kaburagi to prepare some tickets for you guys. It only take around a day to reach Alto More from the coast of Azalea Town!"
After eating and drinking, the group stood up decisively and said, "Thank you for everything you did for us, Clair!"
"It's nothing, compared to you guy's efforts and for helping the Blackthorn City Gym, all of this is insignificant compared to all of the things you guys did for us!"
With Kaburagi's help, Ash and his team came to Alto Mara from the Blackthorn City Airport to the Airport close to Azalea Town in the evening, just in time to catch the Pokémon Water Chariot Race held there.
"Thank you for everything, Mr. Kaburagi!" After getting off the boat, Ash thanked the elderly man sincerely again. This saved them a lot of time if they walked on road, now they were not that far from Azalea Town because of the private plane belong to Clair's family.
"You're welcome, Ash, Misty, Brock, and of course the adorable little Molly. I wish you all a pleasant journey!" Kaburagi returned with a smile.
It should be noted that this is indeed worthy of being called the most beautiful city in the world, Alto Mare, the City of Water!
The architectural style here is very unique, different from any other places that they have seen or visited. The small canals in the city are intricately crisscrossed, as if all the buildings are in the water. The scenery had both culture are uniqueness etched into it!
On the canal, you can see the unique flat-bottomed boats everywhere, and mostly Molly couldn't wait to run out and have fun on them.
Ash grabbed her before she went running off to somewhere. It was getting late now. They had to find a Pokémon Center to stay overnight and register for the Pokémon Water Chariot Race that would be held tomorrow.
This race is somewhat similar to the Extreme Pokémon Race that both Ash and Gary once participated in at the Township of Eggseter.
The long reins connect the Pokémon and the Trainer to complete the racing, but the racing path here is changed from land to the right water canal!
Alto Mare is obviously a tourist city, with a lot of Pokémon Trainers coming and going everyday. Every time the annual Pokémon Water Chariot Race is held, it becomes even more grand and popular with the traveling Trainers.
Therefore, many residents here provide rental equipment exclusively for this race. Ash and Misty easily completed their registration and found suitable equipment for them and their Pokémon.
On this day, the entire Water City of Alto Mare was paying attention to this competition. There were huge crowds of people standing on the bridges at the starting point and at multiple places where the racers were going to pass.
"The long-awaited Alto Mare Pokémon Water Chariot Race is about to begin! This annually held Pokémon rcaing competition is about to begin! Everyone, get ready"
Brock took care of Molly and stood there paying attention to Ash and the small figure.
Misty's partner Pokémon is Corsola, while Ash decided to use his Lapras to compete.
Originally, the best option was somehow his Dratini because he has the move Extreme Speed . Combined with Ash's inhuman physical fitness, he would surely be the winner.
But the main problem is that Dratini's body is way too slippery for the reins and can't be held at all. It's better to give Lapras, who has already started training, more opportunities to get faster.
Even his other Water-type Pokémon's will make this race too easy for him.
"The competition is about to begin. Who will get the glorious Alto Mare Medal?"
Right at the starting point, three Natu - spread their wings, and finally a Xatu with white wings - announced the start of the race!
"Come on!" Ash shouted happily, and Lapras rushed out before any of his competitors!
After a period of training with Ash and his other Water-types, Lapras became much stronger and was barely able to fight back against Feraligatr in the Lab during their practice battles! Of course the whole thing was watched by Ash's Slowking.
"Ash, you are very good at this! Let's see which one of us is better!" A nice looking guy whizzed past Ash, as his speed was a little faster than Ash and his Lapras.
This is last year's champion, Ross. His partner is a Wailmer, whose spherical body looks very slow.
But don't look at them like that. Wailmer is only in the first stage of evolution, but it already has a body size bigger than most Pokémon's. Its evolved form is the colossal Wailord!
"Ash, don't be stunned by us, chase after us if you can!" Misty also caught up with him, obviously she was very excited about such an activity!
"Haha, alright then, Lapras, let's speed up and show them our speed!" Ash laughed loudly, and his Lapras also increased his speed as he was also very much enjoying this!
After some acceleration after the start of the race, Ash, Misty and Ross confirmed the three leading position, leaving other players behind by several turns.