Fellow Countryman

"Don't move."

A hand clamped around the Third Squad Captain's throat.

The Third Squad Captain froze as he reached for a Poké Ball, but just as he prepared to force it open, his left hand suddenly went numb.

Then, his body was abruptly hurled into the air before being viciously slammed to the ground!

"I told you not to move." The person behind the Third Squad Captain chuckled, easily slipped a hand into his clothes, took out the Poké Ball, and crushed its button with one hand.

The Third Squad Captain was horrified. Destroying a Poké Ball's switch just like that? How much strength would that take?

"Houndoom—" He opened his mouth, only to realize that his lips had gone numb, as though they had vanished.

Paralysis!

The Third Squad Captain suddenly understood. Human bodies were far more fragile than Pokémon bodies and simply could not withstand negative conditions.

What the hell was going on?

As he stared blankly, he saw the Haze around them dissipate. His Houndoom was being pinned to the ground by a little shark and beaten mercilessly.

All around him lay heaps of fallen Pokémon and people.

A fierce Arbok was binding a Houndoom, then viciously sank its Poison Fangs crackling with electric sparks into the Houndoom's body. The Houndoom let out a miserable howl before collapsing unconscious.

Nearby, Beedrill was chasing down a Ninjask at a terrifying speed. Its two long, thick stingers only had to graze Ninjask's body to knock it down.

High atop the cliff, Elekid held both hands high as lightning churned through the clouds overhead. It looked like a god commanding thunder itself. Whenever a person or Pokémon on the ground so much as twitched, a bolt of lightning descended and blasted them.

Dozens of damaged Poké Balls littered the ground, trapping large numbers of Pokémon inside and preventing them from coming out.

"Only... you alone... how... is that possible?" The Third Squad Captain's face was full of disbelief. His words came out in broken fragments, saliva dribbling onto the ground. He had considered that it might be a Pokémon League squad, or perhaps fellow poachers, but he had never imagined this was the work of one person!

And these Pokémon knew far too many moves!

"You think it's ridiculous, don't you? So do I." Heiduo planted a foot against the Third Squad Captain and laughed. "Over a dozen Pokémon and eight people, yet when faced with danger, you chose to attack each other for no reason? How exactly have you escaped the Pokémon League Police time after time?"

It was like how IG could not understand why G2 could beat RNG.

And G2 could not understand why RNG could beat IG.

Heiduo, who had nearly been thrown into prison by the Pokémon League Police, simply could not understand why these rookies, who panicked the moment they encountered trouble, had managed to escape every time.

Many of them had not even been taken down by him. They had been hit by their own companions' Pokémon moves and lost the ability to resist.

The Third Squad Captain had nothing to say. All he felt now was regret, deep regret. Why had he not driven those idiots out of the team back then? Had he kept them around just because they were easy to bully and exploit?

But there was no medicine for regret. The next second, Heiduo knocked the Third Squad Captain unconscious.

Thus, Heiduo's one-against-eight battle came to a successful end.

"Hiss! Be gentler!"

Inside the truck's cab, Elekid held a roll of bandages in its left hand while using its right to apply burn ointment to Heiduo's back.

During the chaos, Heiduo had unfortunately been hit in the back by a Flame Burst. The pain had nearly made him pass out.

Fortunately, the wound was not large. Combined with the built-in "hemostatic" effect of Fire-type moves, it kept Heiduo from collapsing due to blood loss.

After hurriedly wrapping the wound, Heiduo turned off the signal jammer and used his communicator to call the Police and Tuo Nan.

His luck was exceptionally good. The target Vaporeon was actually here, completely unharmed, with no missing limbs or anything.

After getting hit by a Glare in the Haze, those idiot poachers had actually been stupid enough to attack one another. Thankfully, he had dodged quickly, or a Flame Burst would have been the least of his problems.

It was clearly Paralysis, not confusion. How had they lost their minds?

As for the infrared goggles, Heiduo naturally could not let them put those on. The moment they shouted about them, he had already prepared to destroy the goggles.

That was another example of their stupidity.

Finally, there was the matter of stealing the Poké Balls. For that, he had Beedrill to thank. After teaching it Knock Off, Beedrill used its terrifying speed after three uses of Agility to smack everyone's Poké Balls onto the ground, where Gible, lurking underground with Dig, carried them away.

If every villain was this explosively stupid, it was not hard to imagine Team Rocket's downfall.

A thousand Zhuge Liangs could not defeat a thousand pigs under their command!

A godlike opponent was not scary. Piglike teammates were!

"Gentler!" Heiduo kicked Elekid. If Elekid's arms were not the longest among the four, there was no way it would have been the one bandaging him.

Elekid slowed down, looking aggrieved. "Bibi!"

Once the wound had been bandaged, Heiduo explained to Officer Jenny and Tuo Nan why he was here and what had happened. Then he hung up and waited for the Police and Tuo Nan to arrive.

For some reason, the voice that had called for help in Chinese had not made another sound after the fighting began. To be safe, Heiduo picked up some Potion and bandages, went to the back of the truck, and opened the cargo compartment.

What greeted his eyes were several stacked iron cages. Most of the Pokémon inside were listless and dispirited.

At the very top was an Eevee with its eyes closed. Its fur was a mess, and it looked utterly exhausted. One glance was enough to tell that it had not been treated well.

Yet aside from Pokémon, there was no trace of any human being.

Had they been moved? No way. Or were they among that group of people?

Heiduo turned and glanced at the bundled-up "idiots" piled together nearby. They were all rough-looking, burly men.

"Who was calling for help just now?" Heiduo cautiously called into the truck. Maybe there was a hidden compartment inside.

He deliberately spoke in Chinese, which he had not used in a long time. Since it had been so long since he last spoke it, his words sounded somewhat rusty.

Then something completely unexpected happened.

The Eevee that had been lying there with its eyes closed suddenly sprang up at Heiduo's words and looked at him. "Oh my god, there really is a fellow countryman! I finally found you! Compatriot! I've been listening here for ages! I thought it was criminals fighting criminals, but who knew it'd be a fellow countryman!" It bounced up and down excitedly.

Holy shit!

Listen to that! That thick Northeastern Chinese accent! It was definitely someone from China on Earth!

Eevee's words left Heiduo utterly stunned. It took him a long time to recover.

He had truly never expected that, besides the Meowth that could speak human language, there was actually an Eevee with a Northeastern accent in this world!

Oh my god!

"Wh... what's your situation?" Heiduo asked tentatively. He did not recklessly reveal everything. As the saying went, when fellow countrymen met, they might shed tears of joy—or one might shoot the other in the back.

One should never intend to harm others, but one must always guard against being harmed.

"What do you mean, what's my situation? Let me out! I'm so scared!" Eevee spoke again, but that familiar Northeastern flavor was gone.

It shook the iron cage desperately, as though it were terrified.

Heiduo had risked coming down here not to keep it trapped and watch it struggle, so he slowly opened the cage.

Seeing Heiduo standing there without reacting, apparently waiting for it to crawl out by itself, Eevee said pitifully, "Could you carry me out? I don't have any strength left!"

Then what was that just now, you jumping around like an overexcited husky?

Heiduo's face darkened. Behind his back, he signaled to Gible and Arbok, telling them that if anything seemed wrong, they were to use Glare and Brick Break.

An ordinary Normal-type Eevee would be easy enough to handle.

After making his preparations, Heiduo reached into the cage and gently lifted Eevee out, holding it in his arms. He also picked up the bandages and Potion tossed nearby.

"So comfy~" Eevee rubbed against Heiduo, then took a sniff of his scent. "Mm~ the fragrance of a cute boy~"

Heiduo: ???

What was wrong with this person?

Heiduo suddenly found this Eevee rather distasteful. No other reason—it was kind of creepy.

Seeing that Heiduo did not look pleased, Eevee gave an awkward laugh. "Ah! Sorry, sorry. It's been so long since I last saw a normal person that I couldn't help myself. Don't mind me, okay?"

As it spoke, its little paws tightly gripped Heiduo's clothes, as though it feared he would throw it away.

Heiduo gave it a perfunctory response and checked Eevee's information.

[Pokémon: Eevee / Gender: Female / Level: 5]

[Ability: Anticipation / Type: Normal / Trainer: None]

[Moves: Protect lv2 / Safeguard lv2 / Morning Sun lv2]

[Double Team lv2 / Heal Pulse lv2 / Rest lv2]

[Aurora Veil lv2 / Secret Power lv2 / Heal Bell lv2]

This was—!!!!

This had to be a Golden Finger! There was simply no other explanation besides a Golden Finger!

Heiduo stood frozen, stunned by the number and variety of its moves. Most of them were survival moves! So there really were creatures in this world that cherished their lives this much!

No, wait! Fear of death was a living creature's instinct...

"...You're incredible, in every sense of the word." Heiduo had nothing to say. Why did it not use one of its many recovery moves?

Of course, he did not say that out loud. Otherwise, would he not be openly revealing that he could see Pokémon moves?

Heiduo set down the Eevee that was reluctant to leave his arms and gave its body a rough examination.

Other than its scruffy fur, it had no major injuries, only a few abrasions.

There was still the possibility of internal injuries, of course, but with so many recovery moves...

What was it pretending for? Heiduo frowned. Eevee definitely had some purpose for acting this way. He could not keep such an uncertain factor near him...

But if he did not keep it close, it might expose his identity as someone from another world.

Tch! What a troublesome fellow! Could it not just be honest?

"Ah... you might not know this, but I know a lot of recovery moves. I need to be full before I have the energy to use them, though... Do you have anything to eat? Just a little~" Eevee seemed embarrassed when it mentioned this, or perhaps it found asking for food humiliating.

So Rest could not restore stamina... or did using Rest consume energy in order to restore stamina?

That was way too scientific, wasn't it?

Heiduo nodded. There was plenty of food in the truck, probably prepared for the poachers themselves. But since it was sitting there, there was no reason for him not to take it. He would not take much—half would do.

"Wait! Take me with you!" Eevee clung to Heiduo's pant leg and would not let him go far. "Don't leave me behind... those people are so scary!"

It was referring to the pile of helpless people on the ground, their hands and feet bound, still not awake.

If there had not been no blood on the ground, Eevee would have thought they were all dead!