Chapter 129: I Will Protect You!
After lunch, Ryu and Sprigatito strolled around the mountain. In just over ten minutes, he found the entrance to Union Cave, marked by a tattered wooden sign.
"Meow..." Sprigatito looked at the cool, dark cave, feeling a bit scared.
"Hmm, it's a bit cold. Let's put a little jacket on you," Ryu said, pulling the white cotton jacket Sora had prepared from his backpack. It was too small for him now, but on the 0.3-meter-tall Sprigatito, it looked like a little quilt.
"Meow," she shivered, then felt the warmth.
After sharing a macaron, Ryu picked up Sprigatito and entered the cave. It was dark and bumpy, but Grovyle's leaves were sensitive to the wind, allowing him to easily navigate by sensing the air currents, never getting lost.
"Meow~" Sprigatito didn't dare to fuss in this spooky place. She curled up in Ryu's arms and, feeling extremely safe, soon began to purr softly, falling asleep.
They walked for over an hour and finally exited on the other side of the mountain.
"Finally, it's not a forest anymore," Ryu breathed, looking out at the endless plain before him. Unlike the overgrown wilds of a thousand years ago, the grass here was neatly trimmed, and a wide, flat dirt road, clearly made by the Johto League, stretched across it.
"Meow~" The sunlight woke the drowsy Sprigatito. Realizing she was out of the scary cave, she immediately tilted her head back and began to sing loudly.
"You're so energetic. Then you can walk by yourself," Ryu said, putting her down and starting to run forward.
"Meowth!" she panicked, churning her four short legs to desperately chase after him.
After they had messed around for a while, Ryu lay down on the grass, basking in the warm afternoon sun. In his past two lives, he had always longed for a simple, peaceful life like this. He lay on the grass while Sprigatito played with a ball of yarn nearby. The leisurely time calmed his mind, and unknowingly, he fell asleep.
"Meow~" Sprigatito, chasing her yarn ball, rolled over and discovered the sleeping Ryu. She quietly tiptoed onto his chest and began to gently knead, a sweet, aromatic scent emanating from her paws. The scent made Ryu sleep even more soundly.
Swish swish.
A rustling sound came from the nearby grass. Sprigatito's pupils immediately became vertical slits. Two Rattata were approaching, their eyes fixed on the backpack on Ryu's stomach. But Sprigatito misunderstood. She thought they wanted to harm him.
"Hiss!" She leaped from his chest, her fur bristled, and she bared her teeth. The Rattata, seeing there were two of them, bravely continued to approach.
Sprigatito was truly angry this time. She used Tail Whip, and as the two Rattata were momentarily distracted, two pink sakura petals appeared out of thin air and shot toward one of them.
"Rattata!" It was hit in the head and immediately fainted. The move was Petal Blizzard. It was an inherited move, one that only Sprigatito could learn among all Grass-type Pokémon, and it was a sign of her incredible, latent potential.
"Rattata?!" The other one, reacting, charged forward with a [Quick Attack].
"Meow!" Sprigatito, lacking experience, took the hit head-on and was sent rolling in the dirt. In the past, she would have burst into tears, but now, her mind was focused. 'I absolutely will not allow them to harm Ryu!'
She gripped the ground with her paws, and a [Razor Leaf] shot toward the Rattata. Recalling the sight of Ryu battling the Ariados, she immediately charged forward, following her own attack. The Rattata dodged the leaf, but before it could become complacent, Sprigatito's [Scratch] had already reached it. Its eyes rolled back, and it fainted.
"Meow!" The victor of the battle... was Sprigatito!
[Inorin Note:
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