"Mr. Bonji, Mr. Bonji."
Seeing what was happening, James hurried over and pulled the old man away from Silas.
The old man, known as Mr. Bonji, seemed completely oblivious to everything around him. He continued staring intently at Silas, the excitement shining in his eyes speaking for itself.
"Mr. Bonji?"
Hearing the name, Silas froze for a moment before remembering who the old man was.
The last time he had heard that name was when he was obtaining the GS Ball. He had heard about him from Mr. Pokémon.
"You're the author of Ho-Oh Is My Life, aren't you? It's a pleasure to meet you."
Silas more or less understood why the man was so excited and greeted Mr. Bonji with a smile.
"Hello, hello." Mr. Bonji's face was filled with delight. "I've been looking for you for such a long time."
Silas completely believed him.
Several months had already passed since the incident in Goldenrod City, and most people had almost forgotten about it by now.
Finding a Trainer like him, who was constantly traveling from place to place, really wasn't easy.
Just two days ago, Silas had traveled all the way from the easternmost part of Johto to the westernmost part. One could imagine how difficult it had been to track him down.
"Let's talk after we've finished eating. I'll do my best to answer your questions."
Silas gestured for Mr. Bonji not to get so worked up.
He knew his own situation better than anyone.
He wasn't the Rainbow Hero mentioned in Mr. Bonji's book. The Legendary beasts themselves had already said so.
"All right, all right."
Mr. Bonji didn't press him any further.
As long as he had finally found the person, there would be plenty of time to ask his questions.
A fairly large table, though not particularly spacious, now had eight occupants.
More precisely, there were seven people and one Pokémon.
"Meow, could you stop looking at me like that? It's kind of creepy, meow."
Meowth, who was licking its paw, keenly sensed Silas's gaze and shifted uncomfortably in its seat.
If not for the fact that Silas was James's friend, Meowth swore it would have already given this human a few swipes.
Silas chuckled.
"Nothing. I'm just curious how a Pokémon learned to speak human language.
"Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. How about I buy you a meal?"
"Meow, we're all friends here. You don't need to do that, meow."
Meowth excitedly waved its paws.
"Then I want two Pokémon meals, meow!"
James smiled helplessly from the side.
Fortunately, he knew that such a small amount of money meant practically nothing to Silas.
"This is Meowth, and this is Jessie. They're my partners for now."
He introduced the red-haired woman beside him.
"Add 'beautiful woman' when you introduce me, you idiot!"
Jessie punched James without hesitation.
Then, when she turned toward Silas, she immediately switched into the demeanor of a proper lady.
"Hello, my name is Jessie. It's a pleasure to meet you, handsome."
"It's a pleasure to meet you too."
Silas smiled and nodded toward Jessie.
This woman, who would eventually become something of a big-shot among Team Rocket's trio, still seemed rather inexperienced at this point.
"The Team Rocket trio, huh? Tsk, tsk, tsk."
Silas's gaze swept over the two humans and one Pokémon, and his feelings were difficult to describe.
Come to think of it, could these three really survive being blasted off without a scratch every single time?
He was genuinely curious.
"Since we're all friends, and James and I haven't seen each other in a long time, I'll treat you all to this meal."
As his thoughts wandered, Silas called waiter over and let the Team Rocket trio place their orders.
"Sure, sure!"
"Thank you so much, meow! James is so lucky to have a friend like you, meow."
Before James could say anything, Jessie and Meowth nodded enthusiastically.
It wasn't that they were incapable of feeding themselves with their current income. After all, Team Rocket's benefits weren't actually that bad.
If they hadn't later become so obsessed with capturing Ash's Pikachu and presenting it to Giovanni, they wouldn't have needed to take odd jobs just to scrape together enough money for food.
Their current reaction was purely the result of having spent so long living through hard times.
James could only shake his head helplessly and give Silas an apologetic smile.
Honestly, he was very glad that he had met a friend like Silas before leaving home.
Silas waved his hand to indicate that it was fine, then turned his attention toward the last person.
"Beautiful Ms. Jasmine, my name is Eusine. You may also call me by my affectionate nickname, Minaki. Would I have the honor of inviting you to a café to enjoy a delicious meal? The atmosphere here is far too unsuitable for a beautiful lady like yourself."
The man in the purple tailcoat, whom Jessie had called a narcissistic freak, moved enthusiastically toward Jasmine and began hitting on her.
"I'm sorry, but I still have to eat. Could you move aside? You're starting to affect my appetite."
Jasmine delivered the extremely firm words with an apologetic expression.
Silas nearly burst out laughing.
That was simply Jasmine's personality.
Despite her gentle and delicate appearance, it was obvious that she couldn't possibly be as weak-willed as she looked.
After all, Jasmine's ace Pokémon was Steelix, while Pokémon such as her Empoleon weren't exactly the most easygoing types either.
How could a Trainer capable of commanding Pokémon like that possibly be indecisive?
Eusine's smile instantly froze.
"Stop embarrassing yourself and get over here."
Mr. Bonji called out impatiently.
Eusine's expression shifted several times, but he obediently returned to his seat.
Mr. Bonji clasped his hands together and apologized to Jasmine.
"I'm sorry. His parents spoiled him rotten. I'll talk to his grandfather later and have him teach the boy a lesson."
Jasmine didn't even spare him a glance. She simply continued chatting with Silas.
Mr. Bonji didn't find the situation awkward at all.
Put nicely, he was a bestselling author.
Put less nicely, he wasn't a particularly powerful Trainer, and much of what he wrote in his books wasn't based on his own experiences.
It wasn't difficult to understand why some people regarded him as nothing more than a fantasist.
Besides, a Gym Leader like Jasmine was someone he normally wouldn't have had any opportunity to interact with.
Silas, meanwhile, suddenly remembered why the man named Eusine seemed familiar.
Last year, while traveling through Rainbow City, he had seen this man use Jumpluff to construct an image of Suicune.
A devoted pursuer of Ho-Oh and a devoted pursuer of Suicune?
Silas thought to himself.
The two were surprisingly similar in terms of their relationship with the Legendary Pokémon they pursued.
"Thud!"
Before long, Janina brought over the meal sets ordered by everyone.
Mountains of food covered the entire table, so much that they could barely even see each other's faces.
"Well, I won't stand on ceremony. Let's dig in!"
Jessie and Meowth didn't care about the conversations between the others. Their eyes lit up as they picked up their knives and forks and buried their heads in the sea of food.
"W-Wow, that guy named Silas really is a good person, meow."
Meowth couldn't even remember how long it had been since it had eaten so freely.
Or rather, ever since it was born, it had lived a life where it was full one meal and starving the next.
Even after joining Team Rocket, Meowth didn't dare eat as much as it wanted. It was afraid that doing so would affect Giovanni's impression of it and jeopardize his affection toward it.
Unfortunately, Giovanni still "demoted" it to a field team as a Pokémon.
After all, it had tripped over a mop while delivering coffee, spilling Giovanni's coffee and a bucket of water, and had even ended up electrocuting itself into an utterly pathetic state.
The one thing worth being thankful for was that its teammates, Jessie and James, were both good people.
Silas had no intention of introducing the Team Rocket trio to Daisuke.
He was afraid the veteran wouldn't be able to resist pulling out his Pokémon and sending the three of them straight to the bottom of the sea.
That man had truly been on the battlefield before, so dealing with the current Team Rocket trio would be no problem for him.
"By the way."
Silas wasn't frantically stuffing food into his mouth. Instead, he chatted with James while eating. "This morning, I ran into people from the Yasuhara family. They were two very cute twins, and their butler even asked me about you."
"Yasuhara? Oh~ I remember now. You didn't tell them, did you?"
James froze for a moment before becoming somewhat nervous.
Even now, he still thought his whereabouts hadn't been exposed. After all, he was ultimately a young master who had never left home and had spent his entire life being educated and confined there.
Silas didn't say anything unnecessary.
"Don't worry. I genuinely didn't know where you'd been these past two weeks, so I simply told them I didn't know."
"That's good, that's good."
James's tense body immediately relaxed.
"Last time, you asked me how to raise Koffing. I'm not particularly good at raising Poison-type Pokémon, so I specifically asked Janina in Fuchsia City for help. I've already sent the detailed information to your Pokédex. Remember to take a look."
"Okay, thanks.
"I've also asked a few trustworthy friends to help me obtain Camerupt magma.
"It's a shame. If I'd gotten it earlier, those few Pokémon I kept at home for heating could have helped out."
Silas didn't want to hear any more of James's humblebragging.
Using Advance-level Pokémon as heating devices was probably something only a genuinely wealthy family could afford.
Especially since Pokémon in the Numel line couldn't stand being hungry for even a second. If their stomachs were empty, they could easily erupt with magma reaching thousands or even tens of thousands of degrees.
The cost of food was actually secondary. The real expense was paying breeders to look after them.
The group chatted casually, with one topic leading to another.
Although they weren't particularly familiar with one another, Silas served as the bridge between them, so the atmosphere remained fairly pleasant.
Jasmine's appetite also gave James and the others, who were seeing it for the first time, quite a shock.
The petite girl actually finished an entire set meal by herself, accomplishing something even Jessie hadn't managed to do.
"Impressive, little girl!"
Jessie slapped Jasmine on the shoulder in her usual carefree manner and praised her.
As far as she was concerned, there was no difference between a Gym Leader and anyone else.
"So, you're saying that after you learned to speak human language, you felt like you couldn't evolve anymore?"
Silas stroked his chin as he asked Meowth.
Meowth, its belly swollen from eating, let out a series of satisfied burps.
"That's right, meow. I don't know why either, but it's pretty good this way, meow.
"It's just a shame I can't learn too many moves."
Is that so?
Silas fell into thought.
It wasn't difficult to understand. After all, in his memories, the Haunter from Maiden's Peak seemed to have been in a similar situation.
That Haunter had lived for hundreds of years, could use illusions, and could speak human language, yet it never evolved.
Silas didn't believe that it was incapable of evolving. The only explanation was that after using up a large amount of its potential in other areas, it became difficult for it to undergo a physical change in form.
But Silas always felt that things weren't quite that simple.
Considering how mysterious Pokémon could be, learning human speech shouldn't be enough to prevent one from evolving.
Perhaps Meowth itself deeply hated the appearance of a Persian, making its situation different from ordinary evolution.
Pokémon were rather spiritual creatures, and whether they evolved depended heavily on what they truly wanted in their hearts.
If a Pokémon genuinely didn't want to evolve at all, the light of evolution wouldn't appear.
Since he couldn't figure it out, Silas stopped thinking about it. He wasn't a mind reader living inside Meowth's stomach.
"I heard from James that you're incredibly talented at inventing things. When I need your help with something in the future, don't refuse me. I'll make sure you have all the highest-quality cat food you can eat."
Silas spoke to Meowth.
Even if James hadn't mentioned it, Silas would have found a way to sound Meowth out about it.
Meowth of Team Rocket's trio was truly a technological genius.
"The highest-quality cat food?!"
Meowth suddenly felt as though its full belly had shrunk back down.
It patted its chest confidently.
"Don't worry, meow. James's friends are my friends too, meow. If you need anything, just come to me. You can tell James and he'll pass the message on to me, meow."
Meowth swore that this definitely wasn't purely because of the highest-quality cat food.
Rather, after all these years, Silas was one of the few humans who treated it like a normal Pokémon.
The looks it received from everyone else made Meowth feel disgusted.
"BOOM!"
Just as the restaurant was filled with lively conversation, a tremendous rumble suddenly rang out.
"This thunder..."
Daisuke and Jasmine frowned almost simultaneously.
They exchanged a glance and stood up in perfect understanding.
The sailors, who had been chatting loudly and joking around just moments ago, also became serious.
They put on their clothes, recalled their respective Pokémon, and looked toward Daisuke and Jasmine.
Silas hurriedly asked, "What happened?"
"Something might have happened. This thunder doesn't sound right. It doesn't sound like the thunder from an ordinary storm."
Daisuke said.
"Hmm. You can go to the Pokémon Center nearby and take shelter there for now. It's quite safe.
"Don't worry. Things like this happen quite often. Once it's dealt with, everything will be fine."
Jasmine said as she looked out at the pitch-black night.
"I see." Silas pondered for a moment. "Then I'll go take a look too. I should be able to help a little."
"Sure."
Daisuke was just about to refuse when Jasmine decisively agreed.
Only then did he remember that although Silas was incredibly young, his strength was actually considerably greater than his own.
"However, this kind of thunderstorm isn't very suitable for your main Pokémon. Be careful."
With that, Jasmine strode out of the restaurant.
"Sparkle, let's go."
An Empoleon appeared beside her, shielding Jasmine's body from the rain pouring outside.
"James, you go to the Pokémon Center first. Here's the key to my room. Just go inside. I know you'll figure something out."
Silas hurriedly pulled out the key to the room he had reserved before the meal and followed Jasmine, Daisuke, and the group of sailors out of the restaurant.
"Wait, meow!"
Meowth waved its paw in confusion.
"Is he an idiot? Why doesn't he just stay here and take shelter with us, meow?"
It looked at James.
..
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