Chapter 130: The Little Lapras
"Huh? Why are you so dirty?" Ryu asked, waking up to find Sprigatito licking her fur.
"Meow!" she immediately exploded, standing up and delivering a flurry of soft pats to his leg. She had worked so hard to protect him, only to be disliked!
"Let's go. I'll take you to the beach for a bath," he said, picking her up and heading east.
As they approached the sea, they heard a childish cry mixed with the sound of the waves. On the shore, a group of Pokémon—a Totodile, a Pichu, two Skiploom, and two Houndour—were protecting a small, baby Lapras. In the water, a colony of eight Tentacool were facing off against them.
"Meow?" Sprigatito, a little gossip, stretched her head out, wishing she could get closer to the drama.
Ryu, however, ignored them. He walked to the water's edge and began rinsing the mud off the bewildered Sprigatito. The two groups of Pokémon, however, couldn't ignore him. The Pokémon on the shore saw him as a potential powerful ally, while the Tentacool saw him as a potential threat.
"Pika," the Pichu said, running over to ask for his help.
The story was simple. The baby Lapras had gotten separated from her family and had been singing sadly in the sea to find them. She had accidentally wandered into the Tentacool's territory and woken them up in the middle of the night. The enraged Tentacool had chased her onto the beach, where the other Pokémon had come to her aid.
After hearing the story, Ryu felt a bit of a headache. In the old days, Lapras would have been clearly in the wrong for trespassing. But in this new era, where the concept of territory was changing, the shore Pokémon saw the sea as a shared space. From their respective standpoints, neither side was completely at fault, though Lapras was definitely wrong for singing loudly at night.
He finished washing Sprigatito and clearly explained his thoughts to the group.
"Meeow~" Fortunately, Lapras was highly intelligent. As the Pokédex stated, she could understand human language, and she understood Ryu's reasoning perfectly. She immediately and politely apologized to the Tentacool, taking all the blame upon herself.
"Tentacool..." the Tentacool leader replied, unimpressed. An apology was not enough.
"Meeow..." Lapras lowered her head sadly, large tears beginning to fall.
"Totodile?!" The hot-tempered Totodile, not quite grasping the nuances of the situation, got angry and charged headfirst into the sea.
"...Hmm?" Ryu, who had not intended to interfere further, suddenly caught sight of Lapras's shell, then looked across the sea in the direction of Cherrygrove City. He walked over to the crying Lapras.
"I'll help you convince them to forgive you," he said. "And in return, you carry us over there. How about it?"
"Meeow," Lapras quickly nodded.
"How to convince them?" he grinned at the curious Sprigatito. "Of course, by enlightening them with reason."
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