Pichu hurriedly scrambled up, moving quickly to pick up the food that had fallen on the ground, thinking in its heart, if I don't move faster, Gible will soon disappear!
Just as Pichu was frantically bending down to pick up a Pokéblock, a small paw suddenly came into its view. When it lifted its head, it saw that Gible was holding a piece of Pokémon biscuit and was handing it over to it.
It turned out that Gible had noticed that Pichu hadn't kept up and thought that something had happened, so it came back to look for it.
While Pichu was surprised, it was also full of emotion: so Gible is actually a good fellow!
The friendship between the two little ones came about so suddenly. Before long, Pichu was cheerfully holding Gible's hand and acting together with it.
The competition was progressing in full swing. Although there were interfering Pokémon secretly causing trouble again and again, contestants were still, one after another, managing to fish up Pokémon.
The very first person to fish up a Pokémon was a middle-aged uncle. He was a local of Verdanturf City, and he wasn't a trainer, only someone who purely enjoyed fishing. He was a well-known fishing enthusiast in Verdanturf City.
This time, since YoYo Day Care had organized such a special fishing event, of course he participated without hesitation.
The uncle fished up a Wurmple, one of the most common Pokémon in the Hoenn region. When it was pulled up, it was still biting tightly onto the fishing line, even though the food on it had already been completely eaten.
What a greedy little fellow.
Wurmple, once it was pulled up, did not resist at all. It twisted its body while the uncle happily held it in his arms.
Although the very first Pokémon fished up wasn't some rare kind, the uncle wasn't discouraged. With full confidence, he swore that he would fight for first place.
The first person to fish up a rare Pokémon was a student from Verdanturf University. His patience wasn't very good. The surrounding contestants had already fished up Pokémon one after another, while he still had nothing, to the point that his mood became increasingly irritable.
But the goddess of luck was watching over him.
Suddenly, he felt his fishing rod jerk violently, so he quickly pulled it up. To his amazement, hanging on the line was a swaggering little Totodile.
The little fellow's temper was truly explosive. When it saw someone disturb it while it was eating, it immediately dropped the food in its mouth and lunged at the student. With its mouth full of sharp teeth, it looked as if it wanted nothing more than to bite the student's head off.
Each contestant was allowed to bring a single Pokémon onto the field. The student had brought a Marowak.
After all, since he had been admitted into Verdanturf University, his strength was naturally not bad. There was no way he would be troubled by a young-stage Totodile.
Sure enough, Marowak easily grabbed the lunging Totodile by its tail, then lifted its bone club and gave its head a light tap. Totodile immediately fainted.
When the student fished up such a rare Totodile, it instantly drew countless envious gazes from around him. At that, he was no longer anxious at all.
A single Totodile was enough to let him stand undefeated. Even if someone else fished up a hundred ordinary Pokémon, it would not be as worthwhile as him fishing up one Totodile.
It was just unknown what Totodile's potential would turn out to be… If it was of green potential, then… () Heh heh heh…
Just as the student was indulging without restraint in his wild fantasies, a commotion suddenly arose at a nearby fishing spot. It turned out that someone else had also fished up a rare Pokémon.
This time, the one who fished up a rare Pokémon was Duplica. What she reeled in was a Trapinch.
Trapinch was one of the original signature Pokémon of YoYo Day Care. As the first-stage form of the Dragon-type Flygon, its rarity was no less than that of a starter Pokémon.
Flygon had great popularity in Verdanturf City, because every day, a huge Flygon would patrol the skies above Verdanturf. Not only was it extremely majestic, it also gave people a very special sense of security.
Duplica had brought her signature Pokémon, Ditto, and with ease defeated the Trapinch, then placed it into the commemorative ball provided by YoYo Day Care.
This kind of commemorative ball was specially customized by Yuga, and it had the emblem of YoYo Day Care printed on it. He planned to give each of the contestants a few commemorative balls as souvenirs once the competition ended.
This was also a great way to promote YoYo Day Care!
Seeing her daughter successfully fish up a rare Pokémon, Erika cheered constantly from the outside, but because she was afraid of disturbing the contestants, she could only keep waving her hand.
As more and more people fished up rare Pokémon one after another, those contestants who had not managed to catch a single Pokémon began to grow anxious, but being anxious about this kind of thing was useless.
This fishing competition did not only test whether the bait the contestants used could attract Pokémon, but also depended on whether their luck was good enough. If one's luck was bad, it was very possible that they would not be able to catch even one.
The little girl who had given Yuga a hint earlier was exactly such a child without much luck.
The little girl's name was Sakurako. She sat at her fishing spot without moving, her fishing rod did not move either, and she had not attracted even a single Pokémon. Don't even mention rare Pokémon—she had not seen even a single Caterpie.
As time passed, the contestants at the fishing spots around her had all managed to fish up Pokémon, while she alone had not obtained anything.
Sakurako's parents looked extremely anxious from the outside. Sakurako's mother could not help but say to her husband: "Could it be that the Pokémon food I made isn't good enough?"
"How could that be? Didn't Sakurako's Torchic eat it very happily back then?" Sakurako's father comforted his wife with his words, but in truth, the anxiety in his heart was not much less than that of the mother.
Although her parents were almost frantic, little Sakurako's mentality was still considered stable. She simply sat there quietly and did not even think about changing to another fishing spot.
"Torchic~ Torchic~"
The Torchic accompanying her was getting a little anxious. It patted Sakurako's waist, as if to comfort her.
Sakurako smiled and gently stroked Torchic's head, saying: "Don't worry, I'm not anxious."
The reason why Sakurako's mindset was so calm was because she had never thought about winning at all. After all, there were far too many people participating in this event, while only ten people could receive prizes. The chance of winning was just too slim.
So rather than being flustered and panicked, it was better to maintain a peaceful mindset.
What's more, she was not someone particularly suited for or skilled at fishing. If she hadn't crammed some basic knowledge about fishing after signing up, at this point she would probably still be completely clueless.
In truth, there was a reason why Sakurako could not fish up any Pokémon, and that was because a Slowpoke had been guarding right beneath her fishing spot.
Although the Pokémon food made by Sakurako's mother could not be considered especially delicious, it was definitely not so bad that it could not attract a single Pokémon.
The Slowpoke guarding beneath Sakurako's fishing spot was one of the interfering Pokémon. Normally, an interfering Pokémon, after eating the bait on one angler's line, would immediately move to another spot, going after the next angler.
After all, contestants needed time to replace their bait. The interfering Pokémon were all still very young and did not have the patience to wait for anglers to realize their bait was gone and then replace it.
But Slowpoke was different. It was a true oddball. It had nothing else, but patience it had the most—it was an out-and-out lazybones.
Even though the Pokémon food made by Sakurako's mother was not especially tasty, it happened to suit Slowpoke's palate unexpectedly well. So it simply stayed nestled at Sakurako's spot.
Whenever Sakurako dropped in bait, it would eat once. When Sakurako dropped in again, it would eat again…
Because Slowpoke was an interfering Pokémon, even though it ate the bait, it would never bite the hook. That was why Sakurako had such bad luck.
Even if other Pokémon had the intention to come to her spot, once they saw Slowpoke guarding there, they instinctively avoided it.
Time flew quickly, and before long, the competition had entered its second half, yet Sakurako was still empty-handed.
Meanwhile, that fishing enthusiast uncle had reaped quite a harvest, managing to catch more than a dozen Pokémon all by himself. Although none of them were rare, he was still cheerful and content.
For him, the fun of fishing was far more attractive than winning; a great harvest was his true pursuit.
That student from Verdanturf City, although easily agitated, seemed to have incredibly invincible luck. Besides the Totodile he fished up at the start, afterward he continuously fished up a Budew, an Eevee, and a Flabébé. Although the number was not many, every single one was a rare Pokémon.
Duplica's performance could only be considered average. Although she had fished up a rare Trapinch earlier, the ones she caught afterward were mostly ordinary Pokémon.
Unless among these ordinary Pokémon there were some with green potential, otherwise it was almost impossible for her to take the championship.
In the grass, Pichu and Gible were happily playing together. Gible was responsible for biting off the fishing lines, while Pichu was responsible for collecting the food.
When their arms could no longer hold the load, Pichu and Gible would find a hidden spot and stash the food there, planning to take it back home after the event ended.
Unconsciously, Pichu had accumulated a pile of food, and the satisfaction brought by collecting made it deeply addicted.
However, when Pichu and Gible once again delivered food to the stash point, they discovered it was already completely empty.
M…m…my food, where is it?
(ó﹏ò) Tears immediately began swirling in Pichu's eyes.
Gible was furious as well. Even though it was not interested in that food, it had worked hard to help Pichu collect it, after all.
At that moment, Gible suddenly noticed some food scraps not far away.
"Gible~"
It nudged Pichu, and Pichu noticed them too. So the two little fellows followed the trail of dropped food scraps to search forward.
After more than ten minutes, Pichu suddenly stopped in its tracks. Its two ears twitched sensitively, as though it had heard some sound.
"Pichu~"
Pichu pointed in a certain direction and shouted excitedly to Gible. The two Pokémon parted the grass, only to see a round, chubby Pancham holding a pile of food and gnawing at it noisily.
"Pichu~"
Pichu immediately jumped out and accused Pancham of being a thief who had stolen its food.
Pancham, eating happily at that moment, was startled by Pichu suddenly jumping out. After hearing clearly what Pichu was saying…
(゜-゜) It was dumbfounded.
It had thought that the food was ownerless, so it had taken it away. Who would have thought that there was actually an owner! Besides, who in the world would hide food in the middle of a competition site!
Pancham immediately wanted to explain, but Pichu was so angry its eyes were red, and it kept on accusing Pancham of being a thief.
Pancham had previously always lived in the oasis of the Desert Sub-Ecopark, and because it had been chosen to be an interfering Pokémon, this was the very first time it had come out.
Its group members were very few, and it usually did not come out to play with other Pokémon, so Pancham was not very good at communicating with other Pokémon. Under Pichu's one-sided accusations, it was completely at a loss.
Finally, Pichu could not stand it anymore and rammed Pancham fiercely. Pancham staggered two steps and fell on its bottom, sitting on the ground with a thump.
This scene happened to be seen by Gothita and Cubchoo as they were passing by.
The justice-sense-overflowing Gothita immediately jumped out to "stand up for" Pancham, accusing Pichu and Gible of bullying with numbers, relying on strength to oppress the weak.
Pichu was almost about to die of anger; clearly, it was Pancham who was at fault!
Pancham knew that it itself was wrong, so it wanted to explain, but its mouth was too clumsy, and with both sides quarreling noisily, no one was willing to listen to it.
As the quarrel grew and grew, seeing that it was about to escalate into a fight, it was Gible who knew how to judge the situation. Looking at the icy breath already forming in Cubchoo's mouth, it decisively dragged Pichu along with the few remaining bits of food to retreat.
Although Gible's personality was domineering and stubborn, it was not stupid. How long had it even been born? Against Gothita and Cubchoo, it could not defeat either, especially with that chilling cold air on Cubchoo's body. Its instinct told it directly that it must not meet that head-on.
But although Gible retreated, retreat was retreat, this grudge it remembered clearly. As the saying goes, a gentleman takes revenge, ten years is not too late. For this little dragon, it was the same!
(へ╬) Just you wait!
After Gible and the others left, Pancham finally had the chance to explain the causes and effects to Gothita.
Upon learning that it had made a foolish mistake, the carefree Gothita did not care at all, nor did it even think about going to apologize to Gible, that junior.
It saw Pancham all alone, so it invited it to travel together with itself, and Pancham agreed. Although Gothita's good intentions had done a bad deed, it truly had helped it out of a predicament.
However, Gothita's overly strong "sense of justice," although often causing it to make blunders while doing good, also had times when it genuinely helped others out of trouble.
Seeing that the fishing competition was about to end, everyone had more or less gained some harvest, only Sakurako had not fished up anything at all. Even though her mentality was usually very good, at this moment she could not help but feel a little broken.
Sakurako's father and mother were even more anxious than Sakurako. Seeing their daughter gain nothing, they wished they could rush inside themselves and compete on her behalf.
Sakurako's mother was even more self-blaming, feeling that it was because her own skills were too poor, the Pokémon food she had made too lacking in attraction, so that she had dragged her daughter down.
At this time, Sakurako was also considering whether she ought to change to another fishing spot.
However, just at this very moment, her fishing rod trembled slightly.
The time goes back to just a few minutes before, when Gothita, after bringing along Pancham, the three Pokémon once again began wandering about interfering with the contestants.
As they walked, they came near Sakurako's fishing spot and saw Slowpoke.
Slowpoke had just finished eating Sakurako's bait and was slightly opening its mouth, yawning. That lazy look, it was enjoying itself completely.
Gothita looked at the food scraps all over the ground, then looked again at the completely empty fishing line, and immediately understood what had happened. It thought that this contestant at this fishing spot was far too miserable, to actually be entangled by this lazy Slowpoke.
So it called twice to Cubchoo, and Cubchoo understood at once. It walked over, grabbed Slowpoke by the tail, and started dragging it away.
Slowpoke struggled a couple of times, but not to mention its strength was inferior to Cubchoo, with its character of never lying down when it could be reclining, even struggling twice was already its limit.
So it gave up resisting, allowing Cubchoo to drag it away.
Not long after Slowpoke was carried off by Gothita and its companions, the rustling sound of movement came, and a small shadow parted the grass.
It looked left, looked right… hey… there was nobody here!