Day 44 of the journey to Kanto. Cloudy.
Reiji slept until noon, but Nurse Joy woke up before him.
Her eyes opened hazily. The first things she saw were the damp roof of the cave, the blanket over her body, and Chansey holding her hand.
"Chansey? Chansey?"
"Chansey! Chansey!" Chansey heard her voice, opened her eyes, and immediately woke up when she saw Nurse Joy tugging at her. Then she pointed toward Reiji, who had his back to them.
"Who is that?" Nurse Joy saw his back and instantly panicked, afraid he was like the people who had attacked her and wanted to steal her Pokémon.
"Chansey, Chansey." Seeing her Trainer getting agitated, Chansey quickly comforted her and pointed toward Venusaur and Latias.
Venusaur was already awake, but Latias's injuries were too severe. She had not regained consciousness yet.
"Saur... Saur..." Venusaur called softly, careful not to wake the other sleeping Pokémon.
In truth, the cave only held Nurse Joy's three Pokémon, along with Reiji and Pelipper. Chansey and the others had not seen Golbat or Spinarak outside.
When Nurse Joy saw the bandages on Venusaur and the wooden splints fixing Latias's broken wings, she finally relaxed. The stranger had not hurt her Pokémon. He had treated them instead. That at least meant he was on the League's side.
"Chansey, Chansey." Chansey pointed at Nurse Joy's arm, telling her that he had treated not only them, but her too.
"Me? Bandages?" Nurse Joy looked at the bandage on her arm, then lifted the blanket and saw her bare legs. Her thighs, calves, and even the soles of her feet were wrapped in white bandages. Her black thigh-high socks were gone. The sight of her pale legs covered in bandages made her face flush at once.
Reiji had not removed Nurse Joy's clothes, but the socks had been in the way, so...
Chansey did not notice Nurse Joy blushing. She helped her sit against the cave wall, then picked up the bread and milk from the ground and handed them to her, urging her to eat.
"He gave you these too?" Nurse Joy asked, looking at the food.
"Chansey, Chansey." Chansey nodded and pointed at Reiji, indicating that it all belonged to him.
Nurse Joy sighed, tore open the package, and ate the bread with the milk. She had not eaten since last night, and her stomach had been growling for a while.
"Hah..." Reiji heard movement behind him and woke up too, but he did not turn around right away. Instead, he pretended to stretch, letting Nurse Joy know he was awake.
Only then did he have the resting Ditto change shape and cover his face again like a mask before turning to face her.
It was not that he wanted to hide his real face from Nurse Joy. He just did not want the people chasing her to see it.
"You're awake. Who's chasing you?" Reiji turned, opened his bag, and took out some food to fill his stomach while asking whether the pursuers were Team Rocket.
"Who are you? Shouldn't you introduce yourself first?" Nurse Joy did not follow his lead. She was still treating him with maximum suspicion.
"Sorry, Nurse Joy. I'm not trying to hide my identity from you. I just don't want your pursuers seeing my face." Reiji spread his hands helplessly, then added, "Right now, you can only trust me. Unless you don't care what happens to them."
His gaze shifted meaningfully. Nurse Joy followed it and looked at Latias, still unconscious. In her current situation, she had no choice.
"Fine." Nurse Joy finally softened. At the very least, she had learned that the face in front of her was fake. His identity was unknown, but he had saved her. If he was afraid of being dragged into her trouble, she had no right to complain.
"The one chasing me is the Pokémon Hunter Vicious. I saw him capturing Celebi, and then... this happened. He set his sights on my Latias."
"What do you mean, 'this happened'?" Reiji saw her fist clench around the blanket, then loosen, then clench again. He already knew what had happened. He was not asking just to provoke her.
Had she just rushed out without even checking the enemy's strength? Had she seen someone poaching and charged straight in?
Vicious was someone who could fight Lance head-on. At minimum, he was a veteran Elite Four-tier Trainer, maybe even at the very peak of that tier. What made a sheltered young lady think she could run in with one Latias and stop him? That was not courage. That was refusing to understand reality.
"It just means that happened!" Nurse Joy gritted her teeth and glared at Reiji, furious. He clearly understood, so why did he have to ask?
"Got it." Reiji wanted to laugh, but he forced it down. He could not irritate Nurse Joy any more. So the cold, intimidating Nurse Joy who had gone to investigate Cerulean Gym and forced it to close had only been an act. This was the real one.
Damn it, he had even been checked by her back then. Who was he supposed to complain to? And now he did not even dare use his real voice, afraid she might recognize him. He could only change the subject.
"I've run into Vicious at Grampa Canyon before. He fought Lance evenly and had a pseudo-legendary Tyranitar. When you run into someone like that, you call for backup. You don't charge in."
"I didn't charge in. I just... I just..." Nurse Joy avoided his eyes. Her voice grew quieter and weaker as she spoke, until even she could not keep going.
"Yeah, understood." Reiji sighed helplessly. Maybe she had spent so long as a Pokémon doctor that she had almost forgotten what the Trainer world was really like. Out there, it was survival of the fittest.
"There you go again. What do you understand this time?" Nurse Joy pouted and did not bother arguing. He had guessed most of it anyway. But the fact that he had met Vicious caught her attention. "You've seen Vicious before?"
"I have. The Team Rocket Boss's top enforcer. One of Team Rocket's highest-ranking executives. In the underworld, his name is infamous. You've never heard that?"
"What? A Team Rocket executive?" This was the first time Nurse Joy had heard of Vicious's other identity. The League had always listed him as a wanted Pokémon Hunter.
If he was one of Team Rocket's top executives, the situation was completely different. A Pokémon Hunter was a rat everyone wanted off the street. Team Rocket was an organized terrorist group with discipline, structure, and a clear agenda.
Inside the League, Team Rocket had long been the number one enemy. In the anime, their history could be traced back at least as far as Giovanni's mother.
Their whole strategy was aimed at the League. Resource allocation, operational efficiency, performance evaluations, even cultural education—Team Rocket had all of it. They were digging at the League's foundation. How could they not be the League's top enemy?
"What, you're only finding out now that Vicious is Team Rocket?" Reiji found that strange. When Vicious attacked Grampa Canyon, he had Team Rocket support with him. Did the League really not know?
"I really only found out now. I always thought he was a Pokémon Hunter. Who knew he was also Team Rocket?" Nurse Joy gave a helpless, bitter smile. That was not what the wanted notice had said.
"Now you know how dangerous he is. In the League, probably only Lance can go a few rounds with him." The battle Reiji had seen that night had rebuilt his understanding of Elite Four-tier Trainers. They were terrifying.
As for why the League did not use Team Rocket's name on the wanted notice, Reiji did not know. They probably had their own reasons. Either way, Vicious was extremely strong, and the pressure on them had just gotten much heavier.
"Thank you," Nurse Joy said quietly, dropping the previous topic.
"What?" Reiji had heard her, but he pretended he had not and tilted his ear toward her.
"Thank you for saving me!" Nurse Joy's face turned red as she raised her voice. Then she turned away and refused to look at him. This man had no shame and was far too good at annoying people.
He clearly heard everything. Whenever something was embarrassing, he understood it perfectly. But at times like this, he acted like he had not heard a thing. It was infuriating.
"Heh." Reiji smiled and kept eating his bread. Outside the cave, the rain had stopped.
"Hey, what's your name?" Nurse Joy lasted less than two minutes before speaking again.
"Rai." That name was everywhere near the coast, so Reiji did not have to worry about her connecting it to his real name.
"Rai. Such an ordinary name," Nurse Joy muttered under her breath. A name alone gave her no way to guess who he was. More importantly, he had seen Latias and shown almost no greed or excitement. That was rare.
As a Trainer herself, she understood Trainers' little thoughts far too well. Latias was an extremely rare Dragon-type Pokémon. For him to stay this calm was impressive. He was not bad.
"Where are we going next? Have we shaken them off?" Once she set aside the matter of Latias, Nurse Joy asked about the pursuers.
"We're going to the coast, taking a boat, and finding Professor Oak. Also, don't say 'we.' I'm not the one being chased. You are." Reiji sat at the cave entrance, looking out at the harsh sunlight outside. He did not look back, so he missed Nurse Joy's darkening expression and the way her small fist tightened.
If she had not been injured, Nurse Joy would have jumped up and beaten him. Every word out of his mouth made her want to punch him.
"Why Professor Oak? Why not Viridian City? There's a Pokémon Center there too." Nurse Joy forced down her anger and took several deep breaths to calm herself. Then she looked worriedly at Latias. Her Latias needed treatment.
"Viridian City has a Team Rocket base. Going there is asking to die. Since Vicious dared attack you, he definitely won't let you return alive. Around here, the only Trainer who can protect you is Professor Oak."
"Professor Oak is that strong? Isn't he a researcher?" Nurse Joy was young and had not heard much about Professor Oak's past as a Trainer. She knew plenty about his research, though.
"Professor Oak was a Trainer from the same generation as Agatha of the Elite Four. He shouldn't be much weaker. Keeping you safe from Vicious shouldn't be a problem."
"What about you?" Nurse Joy realized the question was stupid the moment it left her mouth.
"What do you think? If I were that strong, why would we be running? I'd drag Vicious back and claim the reward." Reiji stared at her in disbelief until she lowered her head in embarrassment. Only then did he let it go.
"Right, what's your name? I can't just keep calling you Nurse Joy." Reiji turned back toward the cave entrance. Nurse Joy was more like a family title, similar to calling someone doctor or nurse at a hospital. It was not her actual name.
"My name is Yukari. I used to be the Nurse Joy of Saffron City."
"Rest up. We move tonight." Reiji leaned against the cave wall, took out his notebook out of boredom, and scribbled for a while. Once he got tired of writing, he pulled the blanket over himself and slept until nightfall.
"This guy..." Nurse Joy had given him her name, but he still reacted with that same bland indifference. Her little fist tightened again.
She had never been treated like this by a man in her life. Her pursuers had always answered every request and bent over backward for her.
But this stranger was impossible to move. He barely even bothered looking at her. It was a frustration she had never experienced before.
If Nurse Joy knew that Reiji hated simps more than almost anything in this life and would never become one, she would understand his attitude.
Reiji had lived through a society in his previous life that had already gone insane.
Chase someone while having your own opinions, and you were called toxic.
Chase someone while agreeing to everything, and you were called a simp.
Stop chasing, and you were called passive and single forever.
So Reiji could not say he had no interest in romance. It was more that he had less than none. It was nothing but trouble.
Nurse Joy had no way to deal with him when he acted like a hedgehog. After sulking for a while, she lay back down. She had too many wounds, and every movement pulled at them painfully. All she could do was cover herself with the blanket and rest until night came.
Night.
When Reiji woke again, everything had already been packed, including the trash. He planned to throw it away once they reached the sea. Leaving it in the forest would be the same as telling the pursuers they had been there.
After Nurse Joy recalled the still-unconscious Latias and her other two Pokémon, Reiji told her to climb into Pelipper's mouth. She immediately objected.
"Why? Do you only have one Flying-type Pokémon?"
"What else? If you catch a cold flying at night, I'm the one who has to deal with it." Reiji clicked his tongue. Easy for her to complain when he was the one doing all the work.
"Hmph. I never asked you to save me," Nurse Joy muttered in dissatisfaction. Why did every sentence out of this man's mouth have to be so irritating?
"Fine, fine. Do whatever you want. Stay in Pelipper's mouth, ride with me, or stay here and wait to die. Pick one." Reiji looked at the darkening sky and did not rush her. He was not the one being chased, after all, and he had no intention of spoiling her.
"I'm not riding with you." Nurse Joy's face turned red the moment she heard that option. She thought of her socks again—how this man had taken them off and bandaged her legs. No one had ever done that to her before.
Too embarrassed to look at Reiji, she refused his help and had Chansey support her instead. Slowly, she climbed into Pelipper's huge mouth.
"Peli..." Pelipper was speechless. They were the ones nitpicking, but it was the one who had to fly. Maybe it should just not fly at all.
"Pelipper, blow the branches away from the cave entrance." Once Nurse Joy was settled, Reiji climbed onto Pelipper's back. Pelipper used a gust of wind to clear the dead branches from the cave mouth, and they left the cave.
He just needed to get her to Professor Oak's Laboratory as soon as possible. He was not her caretaker. Who was she acting like a spoiled young lady for? Ridiculous.
At the same time, heavy rain fell again, washing away the scent they had left behind and delaying the pursuers. Finding two people in a vast forest was easier said than done.
However, Reiji had overlooked one thing.
The inside of the cave was sheltered from the rain.
Around midnight, a group of people appeared near the cave. Before long, they found it. A large black dog entered, sniffed around, and barked fiercely at its Trainer.
"Lord Vicious, they hid here all day. That's why we couldn't find them. The cave was covered with dead branches, so the Pokémon in the sky didn't spot it either."
"Don't make excuses. You didn't find them. That's all." Vicious glared viciously at his subordinate, then took out a map of Viridian Forest. He marked two points on it and drew a line between them. Then he suddenly understood.
"They're heading for the coast. We'll go there and wait for them." Vicious tossed the map and pen to his subordinate, sent out a Flying-type Pokémon, climbed on, and headed straight for the sea.
In the second half of the night, Reiji was still flying toward the coast. They had stopped only once to rest along the way. If Pelipper had not been an Advanced-tier Pokémon, it would never have had this kind of endurance.
Then, deep into the night, Reiji changed direction, because Darkrai had returned from watching the cave—and it brought bad news.
"They know you're heading for the coast. They've gone ahead to wait for you."
"Heh. Leaving you behind was the right call. Then we're not going to the coast." Reiji had left Darkrai there to see whether those people could find the cave.
If they could, it meant they were not going to let Nurse Joy go. They would not stop until they captured Latias and silenced her.
Against hounds like that, the road ahead would not be easy. Fortunately, he had kept an extra card up his sleeve and played a little misdirection—truth mixed with lies, real trails mixed with fake ones.
By the time the pursuers realized he had changed direction, it would be dawn at the earliest, maybe even noon.
They could estimate what kind of Flying-type Pokémon he was using, and how many people it was carrying, by calculating flight time and distance.
If Vicious still had not seen them by noon tomorrow, he would realize he had been tricked and figure out they had changed direction.
From three in the morning until ten the next morning, that was the escape window Reiji had bought. During that time, Pelipper could not rest. It had to keep flying.
To cover more distance, he had Pelipper use Agility three times. The goal was simple: fly as far as possible within the time they had.
With the same distance to cover, raising Pelipper's Speed by six stages meant four times its base speed—four times faster than normal.
Of course, real speed did not work that cleanly. Pelipper needed rest, its stamina would drop, and it was carrying two people, so it could not stay at top speed the whole way. Even then, it was still about twice as fast as usual, and that was enough.
Reiji had already calculated the distance to Pallet Town. At Pelipper's pace, if it rested half an hour for every five hours of flight and kept replenishing its stamina, they could make it. Pelipper was built for long-distance flight over the ocean; otherwise, it would not survive out at sea. Pidgeot might not even have better endurance than it.
After flying until dawn, they only needed to continue through the day and keep going until midnight to reach Pallet Town. They would not take a passenger ship after all.
A ship following the coastline to Seafoam Island would need at least a week, and who knew how many times they would be intercepted along the way.
Reiji did not have the patience to play hide-and-seek. Better to make Pelipper suffer a little and fly straight to Pallet Town in one go.
[End of chapter]
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