League Shop

"Yazi!"

Roy pushed the door open and leaned his upper body against the counter of the Pokémon shop.

He casually greeted the female clerk behind the counter, who wore a high ponytail and had fair skin dotted with faint freckles.

At the same time, he teased the pink, star-shaped Pokémon beside her...

The League Shop was managed by the Pokémon League. As the shop's administrator, Yazi held a position equivalent to a low-level League civil servant and enjoyed all sorts of League benefits.

Bet you didn't expect it! Even another world had civil service exams.

"Cleffa, have you missed me lately?"

"Clef!"

Cleffa waved its little hands, indicating that it had not missed him at all.

Roy did not care whether it had missed him or not. He scooped Cleffa up and began vigorously petting it.

The more Roy petted Cleffa, the more addicted he became to its soft feel. He dared to say that this was definitely a Cleffa with the Cute Charm Ability. Otherwise, why did he feel so hooked every time he touched it?

Cleffa struggled fiercely. After finally escaping Roy's wandering hands, it angrily accused him to Yazi of the atrocities he had just committed.

But in Roy's eyes, Cleffa's angry expression was simply it acting cute and inviting him to do it again.

You invited me yourself, so don't blame me!

After another round of playing with it, Cleffa finally gave Roy a Double Slap, forcing him to put it down. Only then did it barely escape his wandering hands.

Damn human!

Every time he came, he messed up the hairstyle Cleffa had so carefully styled. Cleffa skillfully jumped down from the counter, pulled open a cabinet, took out a comb and a mirror, and began tidying its curls in front of the mirror.

Roy looked regretfully at his empty hands.

It seemed that he was only fairly popular among Ghost-type Pokémon.

The female clerk, Yazi, covered the corners of her slightly upturned lips as she watched Roy and Cleffa's friendly interaction. Cleffa usually feared neither heaven nor earth, but it was terrified of Roy coming to pet it.

Roy had discovered that the people in the Pokémon World were all exceptionally good-looking, especially the women. At least, nearly every girl he had met looked like a major celebrity.

"Yazi, give me two Poké Balls."

"You got your ID Card?"

Roy stylishly produced his ID Card and 1,000 Poké Dollars.

Yazi took his ID Card and compared the photo to his face. She then verified it at the card reader on the League counter. It was indeed Roy. They were close, but some procedures could not be skipped just because they knew each other.

After confirming it a second time, Yazi turned to the shelves, took out two Poké Balls, scanned Roy's ID Card, and registered the two Poké Balls under his name.

"Congratulations on getting your ID Card, little Roy. Your big sister didn't prepare anything in advance, so take this."

Yazi skillfully took a beige bracelet set with a blue crystal from the counter.

A Spatial Bracelet?

Roy naturally recognized the beige bracelet before him. Ever since transmigrating, he had been deeply interested in the technological products of the Pokémon World.

This Spatial Bracelet was a new-generation product from Silph Co.

As long as he touched the blue crystal in the center, he could bind it to his identity. After binding it, touching the blue crystal again would open its storage space, allowing him to put in or take out personal belongings.

Although Roy really liked the Spatial Bracelet before him, he also knew that one would cost at least tens of thousands of Poké Dollars. With Yazi's monthly income of 5,000 Poké Dollars, she had probably saved up for a long time.

Reluctantly, Roy pushed the Spatial Bracelet back.

"Yazi, this is too valuable. I can't accept it."

Seeing that Roy would not take it, Yazi pretended to be angry.

"Take it! This is a gift from your big sister. You've helped me so much all this time. If it hadn't been for you, I might not have even lasted through my first year.

Take it! If you don't, then you don't recognize me as your big sister."

Yazi forcefully slipped the Spatial Bracelet onto Roy's hand.

Since she had put it that way, refusing again would only make him seem too affected. Yazi personally fastened the Spatial Bracelet around Roy's wrist.

"It fits perfectly. Don't you think so, Litwick?"

The Will-O-Wisp atop Litwick's head flickered, forming the shape of a smiling face.

Yazi was no longer surprised by the Will-O-Wisp appearing above Roy's head. From being terrified at first to now daring to touch Litwick, she had put in a great deal of effort.

"Go on, try it out and see if it works well."

Roy bound it to his identity, then lightly pressed the blue crystal in the center of the Spatial Bracelet with his finger.

The Spatial Bracelet contained a total of forty square meters of space, larger than the apartment he had rented in his previous life. With a mere thought, he could control it and take out or store whatever he wanted.

"Thanks, Yazi!"

Roy had met Yazi during the latter half of the six months after he had been rescued.

By then, with the help of the two old men, Roy had already awakened Ghost Power.

He often went down the mountain to run errands and buy daily supplies.

At that time, Mt. Pyre had also gained its first official building: a League Shop.

But while there was a shop, there were no staff. The first clerk had been scared out of her wits by a Shuppet, immediately resigned, and left Mt. Pyre without looking back.

That was when the second unlucky person arrived: Yazi.

Yazi had earned her position as a League shop clerk entirely through her own efforts.

That was right. Even basic League positions had to be earned through examinations.

Since she had no influential backing and came from an ordinary working-class family, she had been assigned to the Pokémon shop beneath Mt. Pyre, a place no one was willing to go.

As a famous burial ground in Hoenn and the birthplace of countless urban legends, Mt. Pyre had all kinds of rumors surrounding Ghost-type Pokémon. Yazi knew about them too.

At first, she encouraged herself. She had already passed the exam, so she could not simply refuse to come.

For an ordinary person, this was already considered a decent job.

But then, while organizing the counter, she found a Duskull in one of the drawers. It made a face at her.

Actually, Duskull had only wanted to scare Yazi and feed on the emotional energy produced by her fear. It had not intended to harm her.

Who would have thought that one scare would make Yazi faint on the spot?

Fortunately, Roy, who had been heading down the mountain to buy supplies, heard her scream and arrived in time.

He used Litwick to defeat Duskull. After learning what had happened, Roy used Ghost Power to fill Duskull's stomach. From then on, Duskull had continued following Roy.

That was how Roy obtained his second Pokémon.

The League Shop was located not far from Mt. Pyre, so Ghost-type Pokémon often came by to cause trouble. Causing trouble was one thing, but the real concern was them absorbing her life energy.

On top of that, there was neither a League Police Bureau nor Trainers nearby. If danger struck, there were practically no other means of escape.

Luckily, Roy was there. Every time, he came to help chase away the troublesome Ghost-type Pokémon.

And most Trainers of Ghost-type Pokémon looked half-dead. Only Roy and Pheobe were different; the other was like sunlight in winter, often wearing a heartwarming smile.

"Oh, right. There's also the thing you asked me to buy for you."

Yazi pulled a huge Gengar plushie as tall as a person from the cabinet beneath the counter. It was the limited-edition Gengar plushie Roy had asked her to buy earlier, saying that he wanted to give it to Pheobe as a Present.

Since Ghost-type Pokémon had almost no popularity, ordinary malls did not sell related plushies. Yazi had even had someone purchase it on her behalf from Ecruteak City in Johto.

After chatting for a while, Roy saw that it was getting late and bade farewell to Yazi and Cleffa, who was making faces at him.