Dratini? Actually, I Am-

Gold teasingly hinted to Heiduo that the man was a scammer.

Heiduo turned around and saw Gold swaying leisurely with his hands behind his head, Aipom standing on his shoulder and eyeing the middle-aged man maliciously.

The middle-aged man's face darkened when he saw Gold. "Go, go, go! Get out of here! Don't interrupt my business!"

He bent slightly at the waist, rubbing his hands together as he put on a fawning expression. "Don't listen to his nonsense. He's just a brat! I'm an honest businessman."

Yeah, right! That old bastard was rotten to the core!

Heiduo glanced at him and ignored him, instead saying to Gold, "Hello! My name is Heiduo!"

He held out his hand.

Although Gold was frivolous and seemed unreliable, he was actually highly capable and responsible.

In Pokémon Adventures, he had been one of Heiduo's favorite characters.

Gold stared blankly at Heiduo's hand. It was the first time someone had treated him so politely. He looked down at his own grimy hand before shamelessly shaking it.

"Hello, hello! My name's Gold!" He grinned, though friendliness sparkled in his eyes.

The middle-aged man watched the two getting along so harmoniously, his expression shifting. Though it was a little embarrassing, Gible's strength truly tempted him.

"Little brother, are you interested in Dratini?"

He went straight for his trump card, eagerly awaiting Heiduo's response.

"Dratini?" Heiduo raised an eyebrow. Generally speaking, Johto's Dratini primarily lived in Dragon's Den.

That was right beside Blackthorn City.

Countless Dragon type Trainers lived there, making it one of the most dangerous places in all of Johto.

Could this guy have caught a Dratini in Dragon's Den?

He would have been lucky if his head had not been smashed in.

Could he be from Dragon's Den?

Seeing that Heiduo had taken the bait, the middle-aged man smiled and lowered his voice. "That's right! I have a Dratini here with enormous potential!

"You know Lance, right? Lance, the Dragon-user of the Elite Four! Even he praised this one as having limitless potential!"

"Oh?" Heiduo became interested. Not because he believed the middle-aged man's nonsense, but because he wanted to see how the man would explain his way out of it.

Behind Heiduo, Gold frowned. Just as he was about to warn him again, he saw Heiduo hold one hand behind his back and give him an OK gesture.

His frown eased. He guessed Heiduo knew what he was doing and had not been blinded by the word Dratini.

Not far away, Shuangye sat on the sofa and watched coldly. She had no interest in warning Heiduo. If he was stupid enough to fall for it, she might even be happy.

The middle-aged man walked to one side and waved for Heiduo to follow.

Heiduo obediently followed him, and the two stopped in a corner of the Pokémon Center.

"Look!" The middle-aged man opened a Poké Ball.

Bang!

A flash of white light appeared, and a long snake with white fin-like appendages on both sides of its head, a large round nose on its face, purple eyes, a deep-blue body, and a snow-white belly coiled around the middle-aged man's arm.

Wow!

Heiduo was slightly surprised. It was his first time seeing a real Dratini, and its cuteness caught him off guard.

The middle-aged man was very satisfied with Heiduo's expression. He lowered his voice. "Well? I told you it was real, didn't I?"

No one could resist Dratini's allure. After all, its final Evolution was Lance of the Elite Four's ace—Dragonite!

As mentioned before, with Lance renowned throughout Kanto today, Dratini was no longer an extremely rare Pokémon under the Pokémon League's vigorous cultivation.

But that only applied to Kanto. In Johto, because it was Lance's hometown, control over Dratini remained rather strict. Any Dratini that appeared in the wild would most likely be taken back to Dragon's Den by its people.

Even in Kanto, the only places where Dratini had ever been spotted were the Safari Zone, deep within Viridian Forest, and various game corners.

The first two were key Pokémon League protected areas, while the last was a bottomless money pit.

But that did not hinder Lance's fans' enthusiasm for this Pokémon, nor their yearning for the powerful Dragonite.

Especially since this Dratini had supposedly been praised by Lance himself.

If the news was true, this Dratini would be inflated to an astronomical price!

Of course, that would be in the Black Market. No one would dare shout about it openly unless they wanted Lance to personally come smash their head in.

Heiduo narrowed his eyes.

[Pokémon: Dratini (Ditto) / Gender: None / Level: 30]

[Ability: Limber / Type: Normal / Trainer: Pu]

[Moves: Transform lv3]

Sure enough, this thing was not a Dratini.

Heiduo smiled discreetly. At least Pseudo-Legendaries had not become common as dirt, or he would have been deeply disappointed.

"You said more than just that before."

Heiduo pretended not to see through the fake Dratini, putting on an expression of desire that he was desperately trying to conceal.

The middle-aged man, Pu, remained calm as he took out a photograph.

It showed a man with flamboyant fiery-red hair and an aura of dominance surrounding his cape. He was embracing the sleazy middle-aged man in front of Heiduo, while the man held a Dratini in his arms.

...Did this world have Photoshop too?

Heiduo looked at the slightly unnatural photograph, speechless. At first glance, it really did seem convincing!

"Hehehe! So? Now you know I'm not a scammer, right?" The middle-aged man smugly waved the photo in his hand before revealing his true purpose.

"I see that your Gible looks pretty decent. In the spirit of helping a junior, I'm willing to trade this Dratini, with limitless potential and the future of a Champion-level Pokémon, for it! What do you say?"

The middle-aged man finally revealed his dagger. He stared fixedly at Heiduo, stressing words like "potential" and "Champion" especially hard.

Heiduo turned and looked toward the front desk.

He found that the Chansey who had been keeping Gible for him had already come out carrying a tray. Upon seeing Heiduo, she called, "Lucky! Lucky!"

He lost all patience for continuing to argue with the middle-aged man.

"Shuangye! Shuangye!"

Heiduo called for Shuangye. Shuangye, who had been idly sitting on the sofa, frowned.

But she still walked over.

"What?" Shuangye's tone was terrible.

Heiduo did not bother with her attitude. He pointed at the middle-aged man and said, "Is there a crime for fraud? I recorded him. The Ditto in his hand and on his shoulder is evidence—catch the thief! Good officer!"

By the end, Heiduo was already extremely impatient.

The middle-aged man's expression changed, and he immediately tried to run.

Gold, who had been waiting for a long time, swiftly ordered Aipom to block the middle-aged man's path.

But someone was faster than him.

"Shock Wave!"

Bright yellow electricity shot onto the middle-aged man, electrocuting both him and the "Dratini" on his body unconscious.

The electricity came from a Pokémon that looked seventy or eighty percent like Dratini, but was more slender, had a tiny white horn on its forehead, and two small wing-like fins on either side of its head.

It had three crystal-like blue orbs on its body, one at the base of its neck and the other two at the tip of its tail.

In short, it was an extremely elegant and beautiful Pokémon.

"Dragonair!"

The people in the Pokémon Center, drawn over by the Spark, cried out in surprise.

[Pokémon: Dragonair / Gender: ♀ / Level: 38]

[Ability: Shed Skin / Type: Dragon type / Trainer: Shuangye]

[Moves: Shock Wave lv3 / Dragon Tail lv3]

[Dragon Rage lv3 / Dragon Dance lv3 / Iron Tail lv2]

Wow!

Heiduo took his Poké Ball, bid Chansey farewell, and could not help whistling at Dragonair.

This was the genuine article. She really was beautiful.

Ignoring Gold's astonishment, Shuangye twisted the middle-aged man's arms behind his back as he lay on the ground. She also told Dragonair to keep an eye on Ditto, then took handcuffs from her pocket and efficiently restrained the man.

Only then did she take out a police badge from her pocket and show it to the surrounding people.

"Police business. Everyone else, disperse!"

The onlookers hurriedly scattered when they saw the badge.

Police gossip was not so easy to watch.

As they walked away, they muttered among themselves.

"Such a young officer?"

"Dragonair is so beautiful!"

"She's not from New Bark Town, is she?"

"Never seen her before!"

"Can police travel too?"

"That girl is so pretty as well!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

Heiduo walked over and took out a pen. He had not expected this world to have recording devices too.

His original intention in buying it had been to record the training methods and battle styles of Gym Leaders or other powerful people whenever he asked them for advice.

By listening repeatedly, he would always be able to pick up something.

But he had not expected it to come in handy here.

Shuangye snatched it away, shoved it into her pocket, then pulled the middle-aged man upright.

It was hard to believe that someone around four-foot-nine could keep a five-foot-six man completely under control.

"What's that recording thing you mentioned?" Gold stared at the pen in Shuangye's pocket, his eyes sparkling.

Right! This guy was DJ Mary's devoted listener—the kind who never missed an episode and recorded every one to listen to carefully afterward.

A recorder meant he could record radio broadcasts.

"Yes!" Heiduo nodded.

Gold turned around, grabbed Heiduo's hands with both of his, and begged, "Can you give it to me? Please!"

The Aipom on his shoulder looked just as pleading.

Uh...we had known each other for less than half an hour, right...?

Heiduo found it hard to refuse the expectant eyes of Gold and Aipom.

"Fine!" Heiduo said helplessly. At worst, he could buy another one in Goldenrod City. It was the most prosperous place in all of Johto, so surely it would not lack recorders?

"Thank you!"

Gold shook Heiduo's arm, overjoyed.

The two followed Shuangye to the police station.

Officer Jenny, who was sitting at the front desk reading documents, saw Shuangye escorting a middle-aged man with Gold and Heiduo behind her and asked curiously, "What happened?"

"Fraudster!" Shuangye cuffed Pu to a metal railing and took out the recorder and photograph.

Dragonair tossed the unconscious Ditto, whose eyes had turned into X's, onto the ground.

"Oh! It's this guy!" Officer Jenny's eyes lit up when she saw the middle-aged man. "We were too busy some time ago to gather evidence against him. You've helped me a lot."

As the woman who had searched Heiduo's backpack, she naturally knew whose recorder it was. She immediately called for officers to take the middle-aged man inside and extract the recording from the device.

"You three sit here for a moment. It'll be done soon!" Jenny called to them, then added to Gold, "Gold! Someone reported your Aipom for smashing his window again!"

Gold froze, then laughed awkwardly. "A misunderstanding! Officer Jenny! It's all a misunderstanding!"

Jenny ignored him and left.