Qiao Ran knew about Dianxi's condition. Her fear of water would probably be difficult to change anytime soon.
Although "ordinary water" was not "move water" and would not hurt her, the idea that water was dangerous had long been etched into her mind.
"If we get the chance, we can slowly get used to it in the bathroom first."
"Mm... that does seem a little better." Dianxi nodded seriously.
Soon, night fell.
Qiao Ran finished washing up and even helped Dianxi overcome her fear enough to take a bath. Everything was ready.
Just as he was about to get into bed and rest, he heard a burst of noise from outside the door.
—Yes, strange sounds seemed to be coming from the otherwise quiet ship cabin.
"You little rat, where the hell did you come from...?!"
Clang! Clang!
Qiao Ran had no idea what was happening outside, but before long, someone knocked on his door.
"Open up, open up! Save me! I know you're in there!"
An unfamiliar girl's voice came from outside. Qiao Ran exchanged looks with Vulpix and Dianxi beside him, but they seemed not to know who the voice belonged to either.
"Who are you?"
Qiao Ran asked cautiously.
"Let me in and you'll know who I am! You're the tournament champion, aren't you? You definitely know me!"
The girl's voice grew increasingly frantic, and she began pounding on the door.
"Hurry up! Do you want me to get caught?!"
"..."
Qiao Ran could sense her urgency. After thinking for a second, he opened the door anyway. She knew he was the tournament champion... perhaps she really did know him.
Strictly speaking, not many people knew that Qiao Ran had become champion.
Although plenty of footage from yesterday's tournament had spread online and racked up a huge number of views, most of it was blurry. Even the clearer clips were focused entirely on Dianxi, while he, the Trainer, had become little more than a pixelated blur. Even people who knew Qiao Ran might not recognize that blur as him.
The moment Qiao Ran opened the door, the girl outside slipped into the room like an agile cat.
With a backhanded motion, she shut the door completely.
"Whew... I'm exhausted. Finally safe."
Only after doing all that did she lean against the wall, her chest rising and falling as she panted softly. Qiao Ran looked closely and realized that the girl before him did seem familiar.
Long black hair, apparently in her twenties, with a rather ordinary face...
"You're..."
"I'm that person, you know... Hmm, you should understand once you see this."
The girl looked at Qiao Ran, and he was shocked to discover that her pupils were a pure sky blue.
As she spoke, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a Poké Ball. In a flash of light, a Smoochum appeared in the room.
"Smoochum, Smoochum—"
Smoochum tilted her head at her female owner, seemingly unaware of what was happening. Seeing the Smoochum, Qiao Ran suddenly remembered something.
"Ah... you were in that tournament..."
Qiao Ran remembered now. He had watched this Smoochum for quite some time back then, and she had even made it into the finals.
"Yes, yes, yes! I was a contestant too, but I've run into a little trouble now. I might need your help."
The girl nodded like a pecking chick. Then, under Qiao Ran's astonished gaze, she reached for her hair—
—and tore off her long black hair.
"..." Qiao Ran's mouth fell open. Her... hair could be detached???
He quickly realized that she had not torn off her hair at all. She had removed a wig.
Once the black wig came off, long, flowing golden hair spread over the girl's head, gleaming faintly. One look was enough to tell that it had been well cared for.
Not only that, she pulled a bottle of some unknown liquid from the backpack behind her and smeared it over her face.
Before long, her formerly ordinary, twenty-something-looking face turned into one that appeared about the same age as Qiao Ran. Her appearance had also become many times more refined, and her fair face even carried a hint of foreign features.
She was actually quite cute and pretty.
"Whew... this is so much easier. Those people definitely won't be able to find this little—me now! Hehehe."
The girl pulled out a mirror and examined herself, a smug smile of triumph spreading across her face.
However, she soon noticed Qiao Ran standing nearby with his mouth wide open, staring at her in utter disbelief.
"You... what was that...?"
Qiao Ran swore this was the first time someone had performed a head-changing magic trick right in front of him.
She had completely become a different person!
Where had that ordinary black-haired girl gone? Where was that huge ordinary black-haired girl from just now??
"Hm...? Is something strange?"
The blonde girl raised a finger and gently wagged it in front of Qiao Ran.
"Makeup and stuff are girls' exclusive magic."
Knock, knock, knock—
Just then, Qiao Ran's door sounded again...
The two people behind the door both jumped in fright.
Who Was in the Photo?
"Emergency room inspection! An unchecked dangerous individual snuck aboard just now. Have you seen that person?"
Qiao Ran opened the door to find several crew members standing outside, holding flashlights and sweating profusely.
"She's a girl with long black hair, looks to be in her twenties..."
"Sorry, I haven't seen her. I've been in the room with my two younger sisters the whole time. We were already getting ready to sleep..."
Qiao Ran shrugged, indicating that he knew nothing. Since he had decided to cover for her, he would see it through to the end.
One of the crew members leaned in to take a look. Sure enough, he saw only Dianxi and Vulpix lying in bed beneath the blankets.
After silently grumbling about how this guy had such beautiful younger sisters, he backed out.
"Sorry to disturb your rest. If anything unusual happens, please call our number directly. It would be troublesome if that dangerous person tried to cause damage."
"I understand."
Qiao Ran nodded, then shut the door after seeing them out.
After that, he walked over to the wardrobe beside him and opened it.
"Whew—ah— I almost suffocated in there."
The blonde girl pinched her nose, looking uncomfortable as she curled up inside the wardrobe.
"So, who exactly are you? The crew said you snuck aboard. Why did you do that?"
Qiao Ran stared at the girl before him with a hint of scrutiny in his eyes.
Dianxi and Vulpix were also watching her closely. If she made even the slightest suspicious move, they would make sure she paid for it.
As long as they were there, they would never allow anyone else to hurt Qiao Ran in the slightest.
"You can call me Eve... As for why I snuck aboard? Isn't it all because of you!"
The girl calling herself Eve crawled out of the wardrobe and glared at Qiao Ran with resentful eyes.
"If you hadn't suddenly shown up, I definitely would have won that tournament. Then I'd have had money to take the ship."
"Instead, I had to sneak into the cargo hold and stow away... Those boxes of vegetables were disgusting."
Qiao Ran: "..."
This girl... was even more ruthless than him. She had planned to earn her ship fare through the tournament?
"If you don't have money, why did you come here? This ship isn't cheap either..."
"Because you're here. And I heard there'll be another tournament on this ship... It'd be great if I could take part in it." Eve giggled.
Still, Qiao Ran was a little confused.
"You really don't have any money? You look about my age. If you have an adventurer's license, the League gives you subsidies, and you can get discounts on train tickets, ship tickets, and plane tickets."
"I'm only in my second year of middle school. How could I possibly have something like that?"
Eve rolled her eyes at Qiao Ran, then pulled a wrinkled piece of bread from her backpack and began nibbling on it like a hamster.
"Second year of middle school... Why did you run away?? Don't move. I'm calling the police."
Qiao Ran's mouth twitched slightly.
"No! I don't want to go back to that kind of school. If I keep staying there... I... I don't want that kind of life..."
"I want to travel and become a great Performer! You can put on performances like that, so you must be a kind person. You'll let me stay here until this ship docks, right?"
Eve sprang to her feet. It was clear that she was truly agitated.
"No. Even if you say that, I still have to call the police. Seriously... running around a place like this in the middle of the night. What if bad people kidnapped you?"
Qiao Ran took out his Rotom Phone. When it came to a matter of principle like this, he had to tell the police.
Otherwise, if the crew found out, he might even get charged with some ridiculous crime of a minor kidnapping another minor.
"Don't... don't call!"
Eve's eyes darted around as she offered a tempting condition.
"H-How about this? If you take me to Jinling, I'll transfer you a large sum of money as payment. How about it?"
"You're obviously lying, right? You don't even have money right now, so how could you pay me?"
"I'm not lying. My older sister is in Jinling. As long as I get there, I can definitely pay you a decent reward... If you don't believe me, look at this."
Faced with Qiao Ran's doubts, Eve took out her phone and opened her photo album.
"See? This is my older sister. She has her own company in Jinling. As long as I find her, she'll definitely figure something out."
Eve spoke with complete conviction as she flipped through the photos one by one on her phone.
Qiao Ran leaned over to look. Sure enough, there were pictures of Eve... and a beautiful blonde woman with blue eyes.
The blonde beauty looked to be in her twenties. Both of them were smiling happily, and they did indeed resemble each other somewhat.
There were many photos of them on the phone, and Eve kept flipping for a long time without reaching the end.
"You believe me now, right? I really do have family in Jinling. It'll definitely be fine if you take me there."
Eve was desperately trying to gain Qiao Ran's trust, because she knew that if she wanted to stay here, she would need this man's help.
If he refused to help her, then no matter how hard she tried, it would be useless.
"Even if you showed me the photos..."
Qiao Ran frowned. He was still conflicted; this was genuinely difficult to judge. Should he trust this girl?
While Qiao Ran was still thinking it over, a photo flashed past his eyes.
He had seen only a tiny glimpse of it, but the vaguely familiar figure made his entire body jolt.
"Wait! Go back to that photo! Let me see the one from just now!!"
"A photo?... Ah... okay."
Eve had no idea why Qiao Ran had suddenly become so agitated, but she flipped back to the photo anyway.
It was a photo of three people: Eve, her older sister—and a brown-haired girl. The three of them seemed to have taken the picture together on a school field.
"You mean her? She's an employee my sister's company hired recently. She came to my school with my sister half a month ago..."
"I heard she's a very powerful Trainer."
Eve took the initiative to introduce her, but Qiao Ran's breathing grew more and more rapid as he stared at the figure in the photo.
"This person... is..."
Even Qiao Ran's voice was trembling.
He truly had not expected to see this person in a photo he had stumbled across by chance.
"Fine... I'll take the job... This time, I'll take you to Jinling... Yes, I'll get you there..."
"Huh? You're going to take me there??? Yay! That's great!"
Even though she did not know why Qiao Ran had suddenly changed his mind, Eve happily made a V sign.
As for Qiao Ran, he stared fixedly at the brown-haired girl in the photo, never looking away for even a moment.
—That bun-like hairstyle on either side of her head, that impossible-to-miss chest, and that iconic combination of a miniskirt and black stockings...
This girl...
Wasn't she one of the female protagonists of the Pokémon world—Mei?!
How could she possibly be here?!!!
Do You Want to Participate?
Mei—or rather, Mei.
She was a girl from Castelia City in the Unova region of the Pokémon world, and a character Qiao Ran knew very well.
She had a bright, sunny personality and a remarkable talent for facial expressions. She often made adorable expressions that left people laughing helplessly.
Just how familiar was Qiao Ran with her? Familiar enough that he had once gone on adventures in a game using her identity.
That signature hairstyle and figure were especially unforgettable. Once someone had seen them, it was basically impossible to forget them.
Qiao Ran had experienced many games and used many female protagonists from the Pokémon world.
But none of those heroines had been as "prominent" as Mei. The scariest part was that she was only a little over ten years old.
Before you continue