Yellow-Haired Roy

The next morning.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

"Roy! Roy! Open up! Let's battle again! If you lose, you'll be my lackey."

Outside the dilapidated warehouse, Roxanne pounded on Roy's door, but there was no response at all. She had come specifically to get revenge today.

To deal with Roy's two mysterious Ghost-type Pokémon, she had gone to the Academy library yesterday afternoon to look up information about Ghost-type Pokémon.

Only then had she discovered that Ghost-type Pokémon were immune to Normal-type and Fighting-type moves. No wonder her Onix's Whip Strike had failed to hit Litwick. So that was why.

She had not lost to Roy. She had lost to knowledge. This time, she would definitely take back what she had lost!

As for what she had lost?

Uh... don't worry about it.

Roxanne immediately decided to get revenge and make Roy write her a love letter too.

How dare he toy with her... feelings like that!

Yesterday, he had rather go eat with Fujino than come looking for her. Was she really less charming than some fat guy?

It was infuriating!

As for why she was not demanding her own love letter back, don't worry about that either.

Just as Roxanne confidently planned to crush Roy beneath her feet and make him her lackey,

she discovered a problem.

She had no idea where Roy lived.

The boys in class said there was no bed assigned to Roy in their dormitory, and they had never seen him in the boys' dorm building either.

Little Fatty Fujino only knew that Roy seemed to live somewhere around the back mountain, but he had no idea exactly where.

After saying that, Fujino was immediately rewarded with two solid punches from Roxanne. If he was going to lie, he could at least make up somewhere more believable.

Seeing that even the boys in class did not know where Roy lived, Roxanne could only ask the people Roy had blocked yesterday. In the end, none of them knew either.

Eventually, she had to go find Teacher Lina again before obtaining Roy's address.

What Roxanne had not expected was that Roy really did live in such a godforsaken place behind the Academy. It turned out Fujino had not lied to her.

Of course, she had already hit him, so apologizing was out of the question.

That morning, she followed the dawn light to Roy's residence.

Only an iron fence separated the warehouse from the back mountain. Looking up, she could see the mountain's outline. The mist winding through the mountains in the morning added an extra touch of mystery and eeriness to the back mountain.

Suddenly, Roxanne felt a cold presence behind her. Her body shuddered, and dense goosebumps rose on her exposed arms.

It was not as though she had never heard the legends about the back mountain.

Legend said terrifying Ghost-type Pokémon lived there. But then she remembered that Roy was a trainer of Ghost-type Pokémon, wasn't he?

And there was also Roy's Litwick, which looked cute but was actually disgusting.

Thinking about it that way, Roxanne suddenly felt that Ghost-type Pokémon were not all that scary after all.

After confirming that the shabby house converted from a warehouse was where Roy lived, Roxanne began pounding on his door.

She knocked for ages without getting any response. In the end, when a cafeteria worker came to the back mountain to collect supplies, he spotted Roxanne and called out to her.

"Little girl, stop knocking. That young man left early this morning."

He had left in the morning?

No wonder there had been no response for so long. But she had come specifically to get revenge today. How could Roy go out!?

Roxanne was furious.

Of all times, he had to go out now.

"Do you know where he went?"

Roxanne asked the man.

"No idea. He wouldn't tell me where he was going."

That morning, Roy had eaten fifteen buns at the cafeteria before leaving. By now, he was already a bona fide celebrity at the cafeteria.

Roxanne wiped the dust from the ground, took out her handkerchief and spread it beneath her, then plopped down in front of the door. She decided to wait until Roy came back!

But the cold aura drifting down from the back mountain made Roxanne shiver.

Maybe I should come back tomorrow?

No, Roxanne. How could she retreat because of such a minor difficulty? Roy dared to live here, so what was there for her to fear? Was she really inferior to him?

At that thought, Roxanne firmly sat on the steps outside the door.

"Is this the Pokémon Contest venue?"

At that moment, Roy, the protagonist of this story, was riding the old bicycle he had fixed up the day before yesterday. Comparing the promotional photo in the brochure in his hand with the enormous hemispherical building before him, he stared in fascination.

It was more than twice as large as the Academy's battle arena.

A steady stream of people filled the area outside the Pokémon Contest venue. Most were spectators here to watch the exhibition matches, while contestants registering for the event formed a long line at another side entrance.

After all, the Rookie Cup's rewards included rare things like Evolution Stones. Naturally, they wanted to give it a shot.

It could not be helped. Rustboro Academy was simply too far from here.

Seeing this, Roy headed toward the queue as well.

Suddenly, a little girl wearing a red bandana crashed into his leg. Roy was fine, but the little girl fell to the ground.

Since Hoenn was hot all year round, the little girl wore short sleeves and shorts. When her skin struck the ground, it was scraped open, and tiny spots of blood seeped out.

"S-Sorry, I... I didn't mean to. Waaaaah!"

When the little girl saw the blood on her leg and felt the pain, she began to cry.

Roy found the little girl somewhat familiar, but he could not remember where he had seen her before. He did not blame her. Instead, he helped her up and patted the dust from her clothes.

He took out a red bean bun he had brought from the Academy cafeteria that morning from his Spatial Bracelet and handed it to her. Then he took out a Potion and sprayed it over the scraped skin on her leg from the fall.

"It might sting a little. Bear with it."

Watching Roy carefully tend to her wound, the little girl's tears stopped falling.

Litwick on Roy's shoulder also floated out at the right moment. Working with Roy, it made all sorts of silly ghost faces appear in the flame atop its head to distract the little girl.

The little girl ate Roy's red bean bun as Litwick's various faces made her laugh. It was as though she had already forgotten the pain in her arms and legs.

After that practiced routine, the little girl instantly went from crying to smiling. Roy finished bandaging her wound and even tied it into a bow.

This seemed to be part of his daily life after coming to this world—taking care of Pheobe.

"That should do it. Little sister, did you come to watch the competition alone?"

"No, I came with my dad."

Just as Roy was about to ask about the little girl's father,

"Stop! Let go of that girl!"

A middle-aged man in a beige jacket hurried over and pulled the little girl into his arms. After checking her over and finding that she had only scraped some skin from falling and suffered no other injuries, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

If his wife Mitsuko found out about this, she would definitely nag him to death.

Roy recognized the man who had rushed over. He was Hoenn's strongest Gym Leader, Norman.

A trainer who could make Slaking suppress its Truant Ability and keep fighting continuously.

Slaking's base stat total reached 670, seventy points higher than even a pseudo-legendary Pokémon.

So, in order to balance Slaking's power, the designers had specifically given it the terrible Truant Ability to hold it back.

Truant: After using a move, it would rest the following turn.

It was equivalent to using only one move every two turns. And that was only in the games. In reality, once Slaking's Truant Ability activated, it would immediately collapse and go to sleep, completely ignoring its trainer.

No matter how chaotic the battle outside became, all it cared about was getting its sleep.

Of course, in that situation, the referee would directly rule that it had lost its ability to battle. Therefore, although Slaking was powerful, it was not very popular.

It was the sort of Pokémon that rich people did not care for, while poor people could not afford to raise.

So one could only imagine how terrifying a Slaking without the Truant Ability would be.

Since the man was Norman,

then the little girl who had just run into him was Hoenn's future dancing princess, May.

He had not expected to run into the female lead.

May looked to be only five or six years old now, even younger than Pheobe.

No wonder she had looked so familiar.

"May, does it still hurt?"

Norman examined the bandaged wound and looked at May with a pained expression.

"It doesn't hurt anymore, Daddy. That big brother sprayed medicine on me, and he even gave me a tasty red bean bun."

May swallowed the red bean bun in her mouth and shyly pointed at Roy.

Only then did Norman remember Roy standing nearby.

"Thank you, young man. I was too anxious just now..."

"It's fine. Since your daughter is okay, I still need to line up and register. See you next time."

After saying that, Roy politely waved goodbye to May and headed toward the contestants' registration line.

Roy had not expected helping May would make Norman do anything for him. May had merely reminded him of Pheobe.

He wondered how Pheobe was doing.

"What a warmhearted young man."

Norman sighed as he watched Roy's retreating figure.

"Daddy, that big brother is so handsome!"

"Hm? More handsome than me?"

"Mhm! More handsome than Daddy."

Crack.

That was the sound of a heart breaking.

"No! Wait..."

Hearing his daughter change her mind, a sliver of hope reignited in Norman's heart.

"I still haven't asked that big brother's name."

His heart shattered completely into dust.

Norman: He was definitely some yellow-haired punk.

The father, devastated by his daughter's words, held May's hand and entered the Pokémon Contest venue with their tickets.