"Oh? You've caught the Tangela? That's faster than I expected."
Lotto took the Pokeball handed over by Natsuhiko, observing the quiet and somewhat uneasy Tangela inside, and remarked with slight surprise.
At the same time, his eyes glanced over the wound on Natsuhiko's arm, gaining some understanding.
Natsuhiko stood expressionlessly in front of Lotto.
He concluded that encountering Yujira was a coincidence, simply because he did indeed find the Tangela in the end and put in some effort to capture it.
But he also decided that in the future, he would be cautious about deciding whether to accept or abandon the tasks assigned to him by this supervisor.
Mostly out of fear.
"Not bad, I'll have someone transfer the money to your card." Lotto nodded with satisfaction, placing the Pokeball casually on the table.
Seeing that Natsuhiko hadn't left, he asked in surprise, "Is there something else?"
Natsuhiko shook his head and said with a hint of meaning, "Supervisor, your shoes are nice."
Then he turned and left.
"Shoes?" Lotto looked down at his feet.
Black, high-quality, and intricately laced leather shoes, but when he noticed some rather conspicuous mud at the edges, he couldn't help but frown.
Moreover, the mud was quite special, blending seamlessly with the black of the shoes, almost invisible unless closely inspected, and emitting a faint, unpleasant odor.
He hurriedly and somewhat disgustedly extracted a tissue and wiped away the mud clinging to the edge of the shoes.
Seeing the shoes return to their clean state, he let out a long breath.
Then, as if something had struck him, he looked in the direction Natsuhiko had left, his eyes flickering.
Leaving the supervisor's office and having received his due payment of fifty thousand Alliance Currency, Natsuhiko felt a slight weight lifted from his heart.
With money in hand, he felt a bit more confident.
The Pokémon Egg of Yujira was temporarily left at the club, as there was a dedicated Pokémon Incubator in the club room, and carrying the Pokémon Egg outside would inconvenience his movements and might lead to damage.
Since nothing happened throughout the previous night, it was almost confirmed that Rocket Team had no intentions of targeting him.
Thinking about it now, it was somewhat laughable—would Rocket Team deliberately target someone as insignificant as him?
"Heading out?"
At the entrance of the club, Anai, who was cautiously trimming her nails behind the counter, saw him and couldn't help but ask.
"Yes."
Natsuhiko paused at the entrance, watching the drizzle outside, creating small puddles on the ground, with raindrops splattering into them, causing ripples.
"It's raining. The umbrella is beside the door, and getting your wound wet isn't a good idea," Anai reminded him.
Upon hearing this, Natsuhiko indeed saw a few ink-black long-handled umbrellas leaning against the side of the door, and he nodded silently.
He casually picked one up, opened it, and walked out with Weedle, gradually disappearing into the rain.
Anai did not pay much attention and continued to focus on her fingers, watching as the irregular nails became smooth under the emery surface on the back of the nail clipper.
She gently blew away the nail dust and murmured, "I'm really not used to these overly feminine things. However, soon, it will be soon..."
...
...
Goldenrod City West District.
Natsuhiko got out of the car with his umbrella and came to the most unwelcome slum area of Goldenrod City.
Because of the task, he missed the rendezvous with Sanfu, his informant in the slum, but he wasn't worried. As long as he came, he knew he could gather useful or, more likely, useless information.
As expected, after he conspicuously entered the slum, Sanfu quickly found him.
He jogged through the hazy rain to reach Natsuhiko.
"Sir, I thought you weren't coming." Sanfu panted and said.
Since he received some money from Natsuhiko, his life in the slum had undergone a dramatic change. No longer needing to worry about food every day, the money given by Natsuhiko, although not much, was a considerable fortune for him.
In fact, "wealthy" enough to use some food to gather a few like-minded individuals struggling in the slum to collect information together.
The goal was to exchange more money.
Natsuhiko observed a noticeably more spirited Sanfu, pulled out two hundred-value Alliance Currency bills from his pocket, and after some thought, pulled out two more, "The previous information was somewhat useful. This is your reward."
Seeing the four hundred Alliance Currency, Sanfu's eyes widened, and he hurriedly took them, stuffing them into his clothes with a sycophantic smile, "As long as it's useful to you, sir, it's good."
"Tell me about what's been happening lately," Natsuhiko said flatly.
"Right, right." Sanfu nodded repeatedly, digging out a tattered piece of paper filled with random scribbles.
He couldn't write, but there were too many events in a week, big and small, and he didn't know which were useful and which were not, so he used this method known only to him to jot them down.
Seeing the chaotic symbols on his paper, Natsuhiko's eye couldn't help but twitch.
"Let's start with what I think is more important. The first, about a week ago, a little brother of mine saw many people from the Trainer Guild flying east with a lot of Flying Type Pokémon..."
This should be around the time of the power plant incident, right?
Natsuhiko said nothing, just listening silently and offering no comments.
He hadn't held out much hope for the information Sanfu and the others collected; it'd be great if it was useful, and if not, it didn't matter. Still, it allowed him to deduce some truths about Goldenrod City from various incidents, primarily about the relationship between the Alliance and the Rocket Team, helping him avoid unnecessary trouble.
As Sanfu recited one item after another, he was cautiously observing Natsuhiko's expression for changes.
Seeing no reaction from him, Sanfu couldn't help feeling disappointed but continued to narrate faithfully.
Half an hour later...
"...And the last item... Fengluo River overflowed its banks during the rain..." When he said this, Sanfu appeared a little embarrassed. He had indeed noted every little thing, including this river flooding incident.
Upon noticing a change in Natsuhiko's expression, he quickly added, "Someone said they saw lightning over at Fengluo River... While it's raining in Goldenrod City, lightning is still quite rare..."
As he spoke, he couldn't help but lower his voice considerably.
He secretly decided that in the future, whoever provided such worthless information would get what was coming to them... heh heh heh...
"Not bad." Unexpectedly, Natsuhiko responded with "not bad," and didn't seem angry, allowing Sanfu to breathe a sigh of relief.
"As long as you're satisfied."
"Next week, at the same place. I don't need you to determine the importance of things; I'll decide that. Just report what you know. This time was not bad." Natsuhiko said "not bad" once more.
Although many of these pieces of information were indeed useless, who knows when they might prove useful?
It might not be apparent at first, but sometimes these seemingly unrelated pieces could connect into a complete logical chain.
"Where is Fengluo River?"
"That direction." Sanfu quickly pointed towards the west of the slum, "Around three to four kilometers after passing the slum's dump, you'll reach it."
"Keep it up; if you make me satisfied, you might even have a chance to own a Pokémon."
Leaving these words behind, Natsuhiko once again stepped into the rain.
"A Pokémon!"
Hearing those words, Sanfu's eyes lit up instantly.
For him, obtaining a Pokémon would indeed be a game-changer; it's the dream of everyone in the slum.
Just the thought of having a chance to get a Pokémon filled him with enthusiasm.
——————
The third update!
Emmmm... can't help but remind you, I've planted many, many foreshadowings earlier, not sure how many of you noticed (evil smile.jpg).