"Are you not feeling well?" Pam glanced at Sailor, who was lying on the floor, and stopped her hand from starting the bus. "Are you sick? Do you need me to take you to the Pokémon Center?"
"Rattata." Sailor shook its head weakly, slowly climbed onto the seat, pulled the seatbelt on with its paw, and urged Pam again: "Rattata!" (If we don't leave now, I'm going to magically transform into a big rat on the bus!)
Sailor urged.
"Alright then." Pam looked at Sailor with concern once more and stepped on the gas.
Probably because it usually came to the desert just to play with Sandy, Sailor had never felt the road from Pelican Town to the desert to be so long. It sat in agony in its seat, watching the bus slowly make its way toward the desert.
"Rattata——"
Hearing the noise, Pam looked up at Sailor in the rearview mirror. In a brief moment of distraction, she vaguely noticed a faint light emanating from Sailor's body.
She rubbed her eyes just in time to see Sailor cry out and forcefully suppress that light.
"Are you really okay?"
"Rattata——" (Don't talk to me——)
Sailor desperately extended a paw.
The bus unhurriedly came to a stop at the stop. The moment the bus stopped, Sailor ejected from its seat like an arrow from a bow, so fast that Pam could barely see its afterimage before Sailor was already gone from the bus.
"Rattata! Rattata!" (Nacli! Where's Nacli!?)
Sailor searched frantically in the sand.
Because it usually liked to stay in the scorching sand to evaporate the moisture Nacli picked up at the farm, Nacli would mostly hide in the sand, only burrowing out in the afternoon.
"Rattata, Rattata——Rattata!"
Not far away, Sandy was holding Cacnea, looking at the desert scenery from the window.
Although she was long used to it, since Sandy really had nothing to pass the time, apart from occasionally chatting with that bodyguard who never spoke back to her, she mostly just stood there, watching a gust of wind blow by, kicking up sand from the ground and knocking a few leaves off the nearby trees, and so on.
"——What's that?" Sandy looked in confusion at the constantly rising yellow sand not far away and pondered for a moment: "A sandstorm?"
It had been a long time since such a thing happened in the desert. Sandy thought for a moment and patted the bodyguard's shoulder next to her.
"Since there's no one here anyway, I'm going out for a walk. Watch the shop for me."
The bodyguard didn't move.
Used to this, Sandy took it as an agreement. Hugging Cacnea, she happily walked toward the sand not far away.
When she reached the sand, she noticed that quite a few sand dunes had popped up nearby. Some places even had clusters of sand erupting out like volcanic ash.
"What is this, a volcanic eruption?" Sandy tilted her head in confusion. "Or some kind of quicksand trap?"
Before Sandy could figure it out, a head suddenly popped out from the spot constantly spewing sand.
"Ah, it's you, Sailor!" Sandy said excitedly.
Before she could finish her words, she saw a white light once again emanating from Sailor's body.
She didn't know if it was her illusion, but she vaguely felt that under the illumination of the white light, Sailor seemed to be changing.
Come to think of it... did Sailor get fatter?
"Rattata, Rattata!!!!"
The next second, Nacli's head drilled out of the sand nearby. It immediately scurried over to Sailor and pressed a rock onto Sailor's body.
"Rattata." Sailor paused and looked down at its paws in terror.
"Rattata?!" (Wait, I'm still small!)
After feeling around its body with its paws, Sailor finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Just a little bit more, and I would have evolved into a Raticate——
Sailor exhaled, gratefully thanking the Nacli beside it. "Rattata!"
Meanwhile, in Kalos, Santalune City.
Santalune Gym.
Having fed Ribbon a little bit of a Stardrop beforehand, plus equipping it with two rings, Ron gestured to Ribbon and let it do its own thing.
"Rattata~"
Ribbon called out to Ron, turning its head to face Viola's Surskit.
"Its level is 10, right?" Viola confirmed with an assistant beside her.
Originally, Viola had planned to send out her strongest Bug-type Pokémon. However, upon learning that Ron was going to use Ribbon, Viola stuck to the normal order and sent out Surskit.
After all, knowing Ron's true strength, there was no need to make things difficult for the cute Ribbon.
With this in mind, treating it entirely as a training session, Viola had Surskit launch an attack.
"Surskit, use Quick Attack!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Surskit began moving rapidly across the field.
Treating this as a rehearsal for its Contest Battle, Ribbon tried its best to recall the Contest battle styles it had learned from TV, and began its offensive against Surskit.
"This is the first time I've seen this kind of Gym match..." an assistant said, watching Ribbon start chasing Surskit around the field. "Has our battle mode turned into a track meet?"
"Who knows..." the other assistant said. "A level 10 Rattata probably has a hard time mastering any special moves. On that basis, catching up to the extremely fast Surskit is obviously a pipe dream."
"Seems like it——"
Ron had no intention of commanding at all. Although he had already earned two Gym Badges by now, in reality, not a single Gym match had been won through his own tactical brilliance.
As shameful as it was to admit, it was obvious that Ron's experience in live battles wasn't much better than Ribbon's.
Especially in a Contest Battle, which required the Trainer and Pokémon to react and perform together.
Ron really couldn't provide much help; everything depended on Ribbon itself.
"Rattata——" Ribbon chased the absurdly fast Surskit around the field in despair.
Back and forth, Ribbon had a sudden flash of inspiration, turned its head, and started digging at the ground.
"Ah... it seems to have learned Dig." Saying this, one of the assistants yawned. "Should we go have some tea? I just bought this from Lumiose City a couple of days ago."
"Sure," the other assistant nodded. "I heard Coumarine City is going to launch some new tea. A friend at the research institute helped me get a little bit a few days ago."
Saying this, she added somewhat mysteriously: "It's a magical kind of tea; supposedly it tastes like your favorite flavor."
Seeing her mysterious look, the assistant became interested.
The two sneaked off to get a teapot, then prepared the essential macarons for afternoon tea, leisurely setting up their break.
"Good thing it's a Rattata, not a Kakuna or a Metapod." Glancing at the track meet in the arena, the assistant said, "Do you remember that Trainer from last year?"
"You mean the time when both sides happened to evolve right in the middle of the match? And one side became a Metapod, while the other was a Wurmple that Viola had just taken back, which suddenly evolved into a Cascoon?"
The assistant recalled, "That was a disaster."
Because a Gym Leader couldn't surrender when they knew the challenger didn't meet the requirements, and the challenger wasn't willing to quit at that point, the arena was ultimately left with nothing but back-and-forth cries of "Cascoon, use Harden!" and "Metapod, use Harden!"
The two laughed as they recalled this.
"Really——"
Hot water poured into the pot, and a rich aroma instantly filled the gym.
"Surskit, use Bubble Beam!"
"Rattata!"
Ribbon let out a highly ritualistic cry, then immediately ducked into the hole it had just dug.
"Ribbon, use Dig," Ron translated after the fact. He then enthusiastically provided commentary: "Ribbon gracefully dodged the Bubble Beam, point!"
"Rattata!"
Ribbon's voice echoed from inside the hole.
Viola laughed, looking up at Ron, who was playing along with Ribbon, and joined in.
After all, since the Pokémon allowed in a Gym match were limited to two, if Ribbon was knocked out, Bellossom would be up next. It would be a one-sided massacre, so playing with Ribbon wasn't a bad idea.
As for Viola, she was still pondering how her Pokémon could possibly deal with Ron's Bellossom.
While Viola was still thinking, a sneaky paw reached out from the side and tugged at her sleeve.
"Hmm?"
Viola looked down and saw Indeedee looking quite mysterious.
"Indeedee, indeed."
"And you are?"
At Indeedee's gesture, Viola lowered her voice.
"Indeedee." Indeedee pointed at Ron.
"In——"
"Ron's Pokémon?" Viola asked.
"Indeedee, indeedee!"
Indeedee nodded vigorously, then handed over a cup containing tea.
"Indeedee."
Through pointing and gesturing, Viola understood Indeedee's meaning. This cup of tea was from Ron, but he was too embarrassed to give it to her himself.
"I see, thanks then." Viola happened to be a bit thirsty. She smiled at Indeedee and took the cup of tea.
"It smells so good, is it a Pelican Town specialty?"
"Indeedee!"
Indeedee nodded repeatedly.
Seeing this, Viola took a sip. A bizarre flavor instantly spread through her mouth.
A flavor Viola completely hadn't expected just triggered her memories.
She couldn't even figure out why drinking tea would make her remember her time in the forest photographing those interesting Bug-type Pokémon. Anyway, this flavor was like a rope, suddenly pulling all her memories forward.
She blankly looked at the teacup in her hand, then raised her head and saw Ron's face, along with recalling the moment she ran into Ron in the forest.
A strange fondness slowly bubbled up in her heart at that very moment.
Ron felt a chill down his spine out of intuition. He looked up and saw Viola staring straight at him not far away, still holding up a teacup.
Wait——a teacup?
Ron took a deep breath and searched the gym for Indeedee's figure.
Unsurprisingly, he saw it currently lying next to the two assistants, generously distributing the tea leaves that Ron had brought out to pilot test in Santalune City and Lumiose City.
"In, indeedee!"
"You have this kind of tea too," the assistant asked. "Is it really okay to give it to us?"
"Indeedee!" (Of course! But the one giving them this isn't me!)
"Indeedee!" (It's that handsome, gentle Ron of mine!)
Ron immediately used a Poké Ball to recall Indeedee.
The assistant noticed Ron and smiled at him. "Thank you for the gift! I didn't expect you to have this tea... it's highly sought after at the research institute, and I only managed to get a tiny bit."
"You're welcome——" Ron said, remembering his previous speculation about the tea, and couldn't help but ask tentatively, "By the way, after drinking this tea... do you feel, uh——"
Ron struggled to phrase it: "Do I seem any different to you?"
The two assistants exchanged a glance and then laughed.
One of them said with a bit of teasing, "Indeed, you seem surprisingly generous!"
"——That's not what I meant." Ron said, realizing his goal had been achieved anyway, so he didn't dwell on it. He turned back to the field and continued cheering Ribbon on.
"Rattata! Rattata!"
Ribbon is still much more pleasing to the eye.
Thinking this, Ron pressed down on the wobbling Poké Ball and looked at Ribbon, sighing with emotion.
After all, she is my daughter.
With this in mind, Ron continued to play the cheerleader.
Meanwhile, at a ranch on the outskirts of Santalune City.
The Miltank at the ranch were acting a bit strange today. The ranch owner looked at the fresh pasture grass that would usually be fought over and devoured instantly, and fell into a brief contemplation.
"Are they sick? Why are they all looking in that direction?" The ranch owner wondered, watching the Miltank lying by the fence, seemingly contemplating whether to break out. After a moment's thought, he opened the gate.
In an instant, the Miltank in the enclosure surged toward the gate, then rushed out of the ranch in a swarm.
In order not to fall behind the other Miltank, some even used the move Rollout to help themselves run at the front of the pack.
Looking at the empty ranch, the owner belatedly realized what was happening and shrieked.
"Quick, chase them! All our Miltank have run away!!!"
At the same time, the two workers inside Ron's factory had just finished their day's work and were about to get off to rest. Opening the door, they saw that the grass Ron had planted today had somehow been taken over by a herd of Miltank.
Meanwhile, the Zubat acting as the security team was doing its utmost to drive away these rampaging, locust-like Miltank.
The next second, the two workers exchanged a glance and screamed.
"Quick, call the police!!"
"Is calling the police going to help with Miltank?!"
"I don't know, but if the grass we just planted today gets eaten, will they deduct my wages?!"
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