Poliwag Loses Its Cool

Without any surprise, Poliwag's Water Gun missed.

Faced with Poliwag's feeble Water Gun, Long-winged Gull merely flapped its wings and let out an even more mocking cry, "Woo-oh, woo-oh, woo-oh, woo-oh..."

Long-winged Gull had only come over to see whether the human-and-Pokémon pair it had not seen all day were still around.

But as soon as it arrived, it saw firelight here. When it flew closer, it found that this was yesterday's human-and-Pokémon pair.

When Long-winged Gull first arrived, it did not make a sound. It was only after seeing Poliwag eat so eagerly that it burned its lips that it could not resist laughing at it.

It had not even bothered dodging Poliwag's later Water Gun, because there was simply no need.

"Yoyoh, yoyoh!" Poliwag was naturally upset that its Water Gun had missed, and it immediately got up and charged at Long-winged Gull.

But when Long-winged Gull saw Poliwag rushing over, it flapped its white wings and took flight, thinking, Does this little runt not learn? I can fly.

The outcome was obvious. Poliwag caught nothing and could only return to the shelter with its head hanging low, pouring out its grievances to Yu Hai. "Yoyoh, yoyoh..."

"It's all right. Once you evolve, you'll be able to hit it. Trust me," Yu Hai said, reaching out to stroke Poliwag's head and comfort it.

In truth, he was already laughing his head off inside. Long-winged Gull was great; he even wanted to give it a thumbs-up.

With Long-winged Gull drawing Poliwag's hatred, it could inspire Poliwag's fighting spirit to grow stronger. Otherwise, going from its carefree days to harsh training, he had genuinely worried that Poliwag would not be able to take it.

As long as Long-winged Gull was around, whenever Poliwag slackened off, wanted to play, or could no longer keep going—

He could use Long-winged Gull to draw its hatred, bring the gull out for a little stroll, rile Poliwag up, and ignite its fighting spirit. It was perfect.

"Yoyoh, yoyoh." After Yu Hai talked it through, Poliwag felt much better. As long as Yu Hai was there, no matter how wronged it felt, it could quickly recover.

After soothing Poliwag, Yu Hai kept piling food into its bowl, letting it turn its grief and anger into appetite. Eating was the right answer.

In order to eat the freshly cooked kelp and shellfish, Poliwag used Soothing Mist several times that night to heal the burns on its lips. Even its tail, injured when it caught Sharp-toothed Fish, recovered under Soothing Mist.

At the same time, while Poliwag was not paying attention, Yu Hai tossed some cooked shellfish to Long-winged Gull and began eating as well.

He had no choice but to eat; he was starving. He first took a big gulp of seafood soup to warm himself up, then ate some kelp, shellfish, and fish roe.

As a human, he soon felt full, but Poliwag had only just begun eating.

After that, he was responsible for serving food to Poliwag while secretly tossing shellfish to Long-winged Gull.

Finally, he removed Magikarp's fish bones, roasted crisp over the fire. To make them easier for Poliwag to digest, he crushed both the bones and the meat clinging to them before feeding them to Poliwag.

"Eat slowly, don't rush," Yu Hai said as he watched Poliwag wolf down the food before it. He was genuinely afraid that Poliwag would overeat.

Of course, he did not stop Poliwag from eating. Poliwag was still growing, and it needed to eat more in order to grow properly.

They were surviving on a Deserted Island, and food was limited. As long as something was edible, they would eat it, fish bones included.

A human like him could not digest this stuff easily, but Pokémon were different. Their digestive systems were surely far tougher than a human's.

If Poliwag did not want to eat it, he would not force it. But then it could only eat grass.

By the time Poliwag had nearly finished eating and drank the last mouthful of seafood soup, half of Magikarp's skeleton still remained. He crushed that half of the fish bones as well to make storage easier.

He saved the remaining fish bones for Poliwag's breakfast tomorrow. Poliwag needed to train its moves in the morning, so eating its fill before training was essential.

Magikarp's skeleton was truly huge. Even after drying it over the fire, this half of the fish bones still weighed around three pounds, by his estimate.

To keep Long-winged Gull from stealing it, he put the crushed fish bones into a plastic bottle, dug a hole, and buried it beneath the sand where they slept.

After finishing all that, Yu Hai added more firewood to the campfire, making sure there was enough to burn until morning, then prepared to sleep.

"Poliwag, I'm going to rest. If you can't sleep, keep watch for a while," Yu Hai said, leaning back against the huge rock behind him. He gazed at the stars in the night sky and let out a huge yawn.

This was his fifth night since arriving on the Deserted Island. The busy struggle for survival had left him with less time to miss his previous life.

He could not go back anyway, so there was no point thinking about it.

"Forget it. I should just get to sleep," Yu Hai muttered, shaking the longing from his mind. This world was not so bad, either.

For him, he could crush this world with knowledge from a higher dimension. He could indeed overwhelm many people that way, but not those with money powers.

Pokémon knowledge that had been useless in his previous life might create entirely different sparks in this world, provided that he could keep himself safe...

Once people had free time, they could not help but let their thoughts run wild.

He simply stopped thinking about it. He moved the foam board beneath him, which kept him warm, farther away from the fire, rested his hand on Poliwag, and fell soundly asleep.

After Yu Hai fell asleep, Poliwag quietly wriggled out from beneath his hand and glared furiously at Long-winged Gull in the distance.

"Yoyoh, yoyoh!" In order not to disturb Yu Hai, Poliwag went far away from the shelter before loudly cursing at Long-winged Gull.

Long-winged Gull, however, did not care in the slightest. It leisurely used its beak to preen its wings.

There was only one thing that puzzled Long-winged Gull: why had that human thrown food to it? It could not understand the human's strange behavior.

Although it had not eaten any of that food, that was the most basic vigilance for a bird. Unless it was sure food offered by someone else was safe, it would not eat it.

Of course, it had secretly hidden one shellfish beneath its claw. It planned to return to its nest and taste the food the human had thrown it.

No matter what that human intended, it would be safe in its own nest. Besides, that human would never find its nest anyway.

After preening its wings, Long-winged Gull heard Poliwag still chattering away as it cursed at it. It paid no mind and simply opened its beak to cry, "Woo-oh, woo-oh, woo-oh..."

As it cried, Long-winged Gull flapped its wings, carried off a cooked shellfish, and left the beach.

What Long-winged Gull did not know was that its cry was far more damaging than Poliwag's insults.

Because Poliwag lost its cool again.

So, whoever took it seriously lost. Poliwag was still not mature enough.

Once it could no longer see any sign of Long-winged Gull, Poliwag finally returned to the shelter in frustration. It lay beside Yu Hai's feet, its heavy eyes unable to resist the overwhelming drowsiness.

Its eyes slowly closed, and Poliwag fell asleep as well...