Splash—
The incessant rain pattered against the black umbrella, echoing with every drop that fell.
Maplefall River was an inconspicuous little river on the outskirts of Goldenrod City. Far from the city center and close to the Slums, even fewer people paid it any attention.
Yet this very river provided many Slums residents with water for their daily lives. But because wild Pokémon occasionally appeared there, quite a few of the Slums' lowest-class residents had met their deaths in the jaws of vicious Pokémon.
The Slums had always been a place abandoned by Goldenrod City. No one cared if a few people died there.
Xia Yan had once been a resident of the Slums as well. But after his parents died, the young him would only have been bullied if he stayed there. So not long after he could remember, he left the Slums and wandered Goldenrod City alone, scraping by day to day.
Sanfu was someone Xia Yan had seen a few times while rummaging through trash cans, and gradually gotten to know.
But Sanfu clearly did not remember him.
"Perhaps this is why everyone in the Slums pursues Pokémon. In this world, obtaining a Pokémon and becoming a Pokémon Trainer—even the lowest kind of Trainer—is enough to change one's fate," Xia Yan silently lamented.
"Wuu~~"
The Weedle on his shoulder, which had remained silent the whole time, suddenly sprang up and covered its nose with its tail.
They were nearing the garbage dump by the West District. Nearly half of Goldenrod City's household waste was piled up here.
Even the rain could not mask the spreading stench.
Xia Yan did not care much. It was not as if he had never smelled anything worse. He had even slept in piles of garbage before.
"There should be a few