"No." Shiro shook his head firmly. "The Alola region isn't even part of the League territories right now. Forget detailed information. Getting your hands on an Alolan Ninetales would be extremely difficult."
At present, Alola was basically an unaffiliated frontier region. There wasn't even an official transportation network established there, let alone shipping routes operated by major companies. Most of the ships sailing those waters were pirate vessels.
On top of that, Aether Paradise's isolationist attitude made things even more difficult. Professors like Oak naturally looked down on a region that couldn't even solve its own problems.
As for Alolan Ninetales, there really weren't many League members who had even seen one.
Perhaps contacting Mohn over there might offer some chance?
If someone wanted to obtain a rare Pokémon without going there themselves, the odds were simply too slim.
Shiro could only shake his head. "I only heard some information about Alolan Ninetales from Professor Mohn of Alola at the last Academic Summit."
"The last Academic Summit?" Birch seemed to recall something. "Mohn... was he that nobody professor from some tiny backwater place?"
As soon as he said it, he became unusually embarrassed.
An excellent Pokémon Professor shouldn't be arrogant toward unfamiliar information. As someone who was equally proud and confident in his own abilities, Birch felt ashamed.
Even a young genius like Shiro hadn't looked down on an unfamiliar region. Instead, he had taken the initiative to learn about it, while Birch had simply ignored it.
Then again, Mohn was far too unkempt. With his slippers and oversized shorts, he looked more like someone who had come to go fishing than someone attending an academic discussion.
For a moment, Birch's feelings became complicated, and there was a little more admiration in his eyes as he looked at Shiro.
Among Pokémon scholars, a few deep exchanges on an academic topic were enough to reveal the difference between them. It was obvious that Shiro, who also held the title of Galar Champion, was stronger than him.
Humility, willingness to learn, and the drive for improvement were the qualities every researcher should have.
Shiro didn't care about any of that. He only wanted to use his advanced knowledge of Pokémon to finish fooling Birch first… Technically, it wasn't even a matter of fooling him. This was serious Pokémon research.
"Ahem, Professor Birch, your research is too narrow."
Birch nodded repeatedly with a serious expression. He was indeed somewhat narrow-minded in his research, although he felt that most professors and researchers were the same.
Why had he never heard anyone put forward an opinion like Shiro's before?
The other researchers were simply too poor at noticing such subtle information.
Or perhaps those who didn't study Pokémon environments simply became too familiar with the Pokémon in their own regions. After seeing them for so long, they naturally assumed that they were supposed to be that way.
Take Alola's Ninetales and Galar's Darmanitan, for example. Researchers in Alola and Galar would never imagine what those Pokémon looked like with Fire-type attributes. Their research simply wasn't focused in that direction. Even if they happened to encounter a Pokémon with a different type, they wouldn't pay much attention to it and would only consider it a normal occurrence.
Even humans changed their appearance according to their environment. So what was strange about Pokémon adapting to their surroundings?
That was a common belief among many people, but very few actually investigated the principles behind it.
"I think that instead of studying the environments Pokémon live in, it would be more promising to study why Pokémon can adapt to their environment to the point of completely changing their own types."
Shiro spoke freely. "That could also lead to many other research topics. For example, what allows Pokémon to adapt and change themselves under extreme environmental conditions? And how much environmental pressure is needed before they begin to change?"
"The time required for those changes, how much of their original types they retain after changing, and how well they adapt to their new types... all of these things can be studied in depth."
"Our target is Pokémon. There's no need to obsess over studying the environment itself."
Birch looked extremely serious as he quickly wrote everything down with a black pen. It was as if he had returned to the days when he was a research apprentice many years ago. Back then, his own research mentor had spoken like this while he kept taking notes.
It wasn't until he heard Shiro say that there was no need to obsess over the environment that a trace of disappointment appeared in his eyes.
* * *
It was almost noon.
On the small dirt road in Littleroot Town, two sedans raced into the town as if they were competing against each other. Neither driver cared about bumping or scraping against the other car. It almost looked as though they wouldn't be satisfied until one of them ran the other off the road.
The two cars stopped one after another in front of Birch's house. Mrs. Soyln had heard the roar of the engines from a distance, so she stood at the entrance and looked outside in confusion.
When the blue-and-white car in front finally opened, a rather sharp-looking woman with short, curly teal-colored hair stepped out from the back seat. She wore a casual dress, and her slightly pursed red lips curved upward.
Soyln's expression changed. She hurriedly asked, "Officer Jenny? You're here to... Is there some kind of problem?"
Although she spent most of her time in Littleroot Town, and sometimes went to the neighboring Oldale Town, she had still heard about the recently famous "Officer Jenny."
Personally appointed by the Chairman of the Main League, the prestigious Jenny family of the Kanto League had deployed their members throughout the police departments of every city in the League territories.
Aside from the distant Galar region, which refused to follow their orders, Officer Jennys had rapidly appeared in cities across the other regions within just a few weeks. With their highly active police work and the powerful and rare Kanto Pokémon Arcanine, they quickly took control of law enforcement in those cities.
There was even a saying going around now: if you ran into Officer Jenny, you might as well get ready to go to jail.
Even Gym-level trainers, whose status was somewhat above ordinary League citizens, couldn't escape the Jenny family's pursuit.
Seeing Officer Jenny suddenly arrive, Soyln felt uneasy. She was afraid that the Pokémon professor in her own home, who spent every day messing around with things she couldn't understand, had done something foolish again.
However, Officer Jenny was smiling warmly, and the red and blue lights on top of the vehicle behind her, which looked like a police car, weren't flashing. It probably wasn't anything serious.
Facing Soyln's question, Officer Jenny placed a hand against her chest and gave a slight bow. "You're Mrs. Birch, right? I'm Clara Jenny. You can just call me Clara."
As soon as Clara finished speaking, a loud car door closing came from the vehicle behind her.
A relatively petite pink-haired girl strode over with her high ponytail swaying from side to side.
"M-Miss Joy?" Soyln looked stunned. She glanced back and forth between Jenny and Joy. "Who exactly are you two?"
Nurse Joy wore the standard warm and friendly smile on her face, but a flash of displeasure passed through her eyes when she looked at Jenny. She then politely lifted the edge of her skirt and gave a slight bow.
"Mrs. Soyln, I'm Nora Joy. I'm here on behalf of the Joy family to visit Professor Shiro. Could you please pass a message to him for me?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Officer Jenny took two steps forward and stopped directly in front of Nurse Joy. Her taller body blocked Joy's face and line of sight.
"Mrs. Soyln, as you can see, I arrived first. So now, on behalf of the Jenny family, I'm here to visit the Birch Research Institute."
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