With the sound of the river flowing nearby and the soft calls of insects and birds in the forest, Reiji and his Pokémon gradually drifted off to sleep.
By the second half of the night, he had thought it would be another quiet one. Instead, Spinarak's warning shattered the silence.
"Rak! Rak!" Spinarak jumped beside the tent, calling nonstop until it woke the sleeping Pokémon.
"Poli?" Poliwhirl got up and heard Spinarak's cries. It turned warily toward the depths of the forest. There was no light at all, but most Pokémon could see in the dark.
"Ki?" Kingler stood beside Poliwhirl, guarding its flank.
"Vee..."
The noise outside the tent stood out sharply in the quiet night. Reiji woke up, unsurprisingly, and crawled out with his hair sticking up in every direction. The moment he looked outside, he saw all his Pokémon staring toward the forest on alert.
After hearing Darkrai's translation, he finally understood what Spinarak was saying.
A web had been touched. A human had triggered it and was about to reach them.
Rustle, rustle.
Even without Darkrai translating, Reiji could hear someone running through the forest. A black-clad figure soon burst out from the trees, proving it really was a human. Spinarak's web had been right on target.
The person had barely emerged before Darkrai dropped them with Dark Void, giving them no chance to react.
In Reiji's words, anyone sneaking through the forest in the middle of the night dressed all in black was probably not a good person, so there was no need to hold back.
Looking down at the unconscious figure, Reiji called out, "Spinarak, take off the mask."
"Spina." Spinarak spat a strand of silk, stuck it to the black face covering, and yanked it off.
Reiji shone his flashlight over the person's face and saw a fair, oval face with an oddly gentle look to it.
"Oh no. Wrong person." Reiji had assumed the black-clad figure was a poacher, but the moment he saw that clean, gentle face, he hurried over and pulled off the person's hat. A mess of red hair spilled out, and his stomach dropped.
The black-clad figure was a Nurse Joy.
He had just had Darkrai hit Nurse Joy with Dark Void.
But what was Nurse Joy doing in the forest at this hour, dressed like that? Her clothes were torn in several places, and her pale skin was cut and bleeding.
Had someone been chasing her? She looked terrible. And then there was the Poké Ball. She was clutching it so tightly that Reiji froze the moment his fingers brushed against it.
[Latias]
[Type: Dragon + Psychic]
[Gender: Female]
[Potential: 79.99%]
[Level: 56.13%]
[Ability: Levitate/50.33%]
"Holy crap, Latias. It's her?" Reiji looked back at the Nurse Joy on the ground. So this was the Nurse Joy who had nearly shut down Cerulean Gym—the League's Pokémon Inspector. And now someone was chasing her.
Who the hell was bold enough to do that?
Chasing a League Inspector? Did they have a death wish?
Had Nurse Joy stepped on a Gym's interests and gotten hunted for it? Or was someone after Latias and had chased her down for that?
And in a place like Viridian Forest, there were only so many suspects. Most likely, it was those Team Rocket pests. They had probably set their sights on a Nurse Joy who owned a Latias.
"This... maybe I should pretend I didn't see anything." Reiji took two steps back, turned around, and started packing.
It was not that he did not want to help her. This mess was simply too big for him. Right now, Team Rocket was far too strong an enemy, and he wanted nothing to do with them.
If those pests had not been everywhere, he would never have killed so many Team Rocket members before. He had not even dared act as a fence for the stolen goods afterward; he had destroyed everything and erased all traces.
But after packing his things, recalling his Pokémon, and shouldering his bag, Reiji looked at the unconscious Nurse Joy and the Poké Ball containing Latias. His steps slowed.
"Damn it." Reiji sighed helplessly and went back to her. He picked up Nurse Joy's Poké Ball and put it away, then released Ditto and had it transform into a mask over his face. After that, he got ready to carry Nurse Joy into Pelipper's mouth.
"Hurry. I sense people coming."
Seeing Reiji dragging his feet, Darkrai warned him. The pursuers were probably here. If they did not run now, they might not get another chance.
The word pursuers snapped Reiji into motion. He released Pelipper and had it use Rain Dance, then placed Nurse Joy inside Pelipper's mouth and climbed on before leaving the riverbank.
He had the campfire put out with Water Gun, then poured a bottle of strong liquor over the campsite. The smell of alcohol would interfere with tracking, and another heavy rain would wash away their scent while slowing the pursuers down. Ideally, they would not find them at all.
He really did not want to run into Team Rocket. Anyone from Team Rocket capable of chasing this Nurse Joy had to be at least an Elite Four-tier Trainer. What was he supposed to fight with, his head? He could not win that.
Pelipper used Rain Dance at full strength, and with Drizzle added on top, the rain started heavy from the very beginning. It covered a wide area and would last for quite a while.
After they left, Reiji had Pelipper use Agility in the air to raise its speed. All he wanted was to get away from this trouble as fast as possible. The farther, the better.
A few minutes later, a group of people rushed out of the forest. Their leader wore black clothes, a red vest, and an mask. Reiji would have recognized him immediately.
"The scent disappears here. Houndoom can't pick up that woman's trail anymore."
"It didn't disappear here. Someone took her away. And this rain appeared out of nowhere."
Vicious walked over to the extinguished campfire. He could still see where Water Gun had put it out, as well as the liquor bottle beside it. The smell of alcohol was strong, clearly poured out not long ago.
He raised his head. The sky was packed with dark clouds, without a single star in sight. He knew they had not been gone long, but the rain had made tracking much harder.
"Tyranitar, Hyper Beam into the sky."
"Tyran!" Tyranitar looked up, not understanding why its Trainer had given that order, but it still fired a Hyper Beam into the dark clouds above.
The white pillar of light pierced the sky, briefly illuminating the night and the river below. Several kilometers away, Reiji saw it too and wiped rainwater and cold sweat from his face.
As the beam faded, the rain weakened. Vicious turned to the subordinates he had brought and shouted, "They can't have gotten far. Find them!"
"Yes!"
His men answered at once and scattered with their Pokémon, searching for the two people who had just left.
The beam of light had come from several kilometers away. Reiji glanced back once, then stopped looking. It was still night, and the beam had not reached them. He had two or three hours left to run. Once daylight came, getting away would be much harder.
After leaving the rain's range, he took out the Indigo League guide and flipped to the small map around Viridian City. He covered most of the flashlight with his hand, leaving only a thin sliver of light to read by. He planned to fly toward the coast. Viridian City was no longer an option.
If the pursuers caught him from behind while Team Rocket in Viridian City blocked him from the front, he would have nowhere to run. Worse, Giovanni was in Viridian City. Maybe Giovanni himself wanted Latias so he could clone her. Whatever the case, Reiji absolutely could not go there.
In the current situation, the only safe place he could think of was Professor Oak's place in Pallet Town. Professor Oak could protect Nurse Joy and Latias, and he would not be afraid of the pursuers behind them. From there, they could wait for the League to send help.
If he went to some small League branch instead, those Team Rocket lunatics might even dare to storm the town. Reiji did not want to gamble on that.
So first, he would fly to the coast, find a way to take a boat to Seafoam Island, then go from Seafoam Island to Pallet Town. The closest inland town to the beach at Seafoam Island was Pallet Town.
With the route replanned, he had no choice but to give up on the lighthouse for now. Getting Nurse Joy to safety came first.
Fortunately, his Pelipper was Advanced tier and had excellent stamina. Carrying one person while flying was easy enough. Carrying two was harder and slowed it down, but Agility could make up for some of that.
Good thing he was not the one being actively chased. Otherwise, this would already be over. He would never outrun them, and once they caught up, he was dead.
With the pursuers no longer immediately behind him, Reiji flew until dawn. When the edge of the sky began to pale, he knew they could not keep flying. A flying target in daylight was too obvious and easy to spot.
They were still some distance from the coast. From here, they either had to travel by land or wait until night to fly again. To avoid being seen, Reiji decided to hide during the day and fly in the dark.
Viridian Forest was huge, and he had already flown for two or three hours. He did not even know where he was anymore, much less the people searching for him.
He sent Darkrai into the woods to find a cave. It soon found one. Reiji had Poliwhirl rinse the cave out with Water Gun before carrying Nurse Joy inside and laying her down on a camping mat.
Nurse Joy had three Pokémon: a Chansey, a Venusaur from one of the starter lines, and Latias. Reiji put all three Poké Balls away for now. He would return them once Nurse Joy woke up.
He looked at Nurse Joy lying on the mat, took out disinfectant, and began cleaning her wounds. The sting made her brow tighten, and cold sweat kept forming on her face. She was probably having a nightmare.
This really could not be blamed on him. Who would have expected the person rushing out of the forest in the middle of the night to be Nurse Joy instead of a poacher?
To avoid any misunderstanding, Reiji did not remove her clothes while treating her wounds. He only disinfected the cuts visible through the tears in her sleeves and clothing, sprayed them with Potion, covered them with hemostatic patches, and wrapped them in bandages.
There were more than ten cuts across her body, large and small, on her arms and legs. Reiji disinfected and bandaged each one, then fed her a little water before covering her with a blanket.
Once he finished treating Nurse Joy, he released her three Pokémon. All of them were unconscious. Latias was in the worst condition. Her wings were broken and hung limply at her sides.
Reiji had Scyther go into the forest and cut two pieces of wood from a dead tree. Then he fed Latias painkillers, sprayed Potion over her wings, and fixed them in place for the time being.
Injuries this serious were not something an amateur like him could handle. Latias needed a proper Pokémon doctor.
The problem was that no Pokémon doctor was more professional than Nurse Joy. All Reiji could do was handle the simple treatment first and wait for her to wake up.
While bandaging Latias, he could not resist touching her a little longer than necessary. Compared with Nurse Joy, this Latias was far more tempting to him. She was a Dragon-type Legendary, the Eon Pokémon, and this was his first time touching one up close. He really could not help himself and stroked her a few extra times.
After indulging himself with Latias for a moment, he moved on to Venusaur, then Chansey. Chansey had the lightest injuries, and she woke up while he was still bandaging her.
"Chansey... Chansey..." Chansey opened her eyes in a daze and saw Reiji's disguised face.
There was no helping it. If he had to face Team Rocket, Reiji could not show his real face. Nurse Joy had the entire Joy family behind her. Once she returned home, Team Rocket would not dare retaliate against her openly.
But Reiji was just small fry. Team Rocket could crush him easily. He was afraid that if he spent too many nights walking dangerous roads, those sneaky bastards would eventually ambush him.
"Shh, Chansey. Keep your voice down. Lie still. I'm bandaging your wound." Reiji gently held Chansey down and guided her gaze toward the resting Nurse Joy and the other two Pokémon.
Once Chansey saw that everyone was still alive, she quieted down as expected. She let Reiji bandage the wound on her foot and did not reject treatment from a stranger. He looked like a good person, at least.
If Reiji could hear Chansey's thoughts, he would definitely have told her not to hand him the good-person card.
In this world, good people had a hard time surviving. He preferred being the bad guy. Bad guys did not get guns pointed at them as often, and they had a much easier time crossing moral lines.
After treating Chansey, Reiji helped her up and had her check the other Pokémon's injuries to see whether his work was acceptable.
"Chansey, Chansey." After checking Venusaur and Latias, Chansey nodded to Reiji, indicating that he had handled them well.
With Darkrai translating, Reiji understood what Chansey meant. He then helped her over to the bedroll where Nurse Joy was sleeping and let her sit against the cave wall to watch over her Trainer.
Only after finishing all of that did Reiji take out Pokémon food and feed his own team outside the cave. He could not let Chansey see his Pokémon.
Once his Pokémon finished breakfast and returned to the cave, he gave Chansey some Pokéblocks and Moomoo Milk.
For Venusaur and Latias, he pried their mouths open and placed a Pokéblock inside each. Pokéblocks would melt in their mouths, so at least the two Pokémon would not go hungry.
His own breakfast was dry bread. He definitely could not start a fire today. Smoke or light would draw the pursuers straight to them, so he had to make do.
After breakfast, he had Poliwhirl gather some dead branches to disguise the cave entrance. They kept working until the opening was blocked well enough that it could not be spotted from the sky and was hard to notice from a distance.
Then Reiji had Pelipper use rain over this part of the forest again, washing away the scent of their movements. Once the rain stopped, he sent Spinarak out to set up some webs.
He told Spinarak that if any strangers entered the area, it should quietly return to the cave and warn them. It must not cry out outside again, or they would be discovered.
Golbat was sent out too. If it detected humans approaching, it would quietly return and warn them, giving everyone time to prepare.
After having Darkrai pass along his instructions, Reiji pulled a blanket over himself and decided to rest for a while. Pelipper needed proper sleep too. They still had to travel again that night.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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