Practice

Training ground.

Ten in the morning.

Heiduo held Ekans's Poké Ball and slowly walked to a corner among the many battlefields.

There, Serea leaned against the wall, waiting for Heiduo's arrival.

"You came?"

Seeing Heiduo, Serea straightened up, removed a Poké Ball from her waist, and tossed it onto the ground.

Smack!

A flash of white light appeared, and a Zubat sprang out, flapping its wings in the air.

[Pokémon: Zubat/Gender: Male/Level: 13]

[Ability: Inner Focus/Type: Poison + Flying/Trainer: Serea]

[Moves: Absorb lv2/Supersonic lv2]

[Wing Attack lv1/Gust lv2]

Gust? What kind of move was that?

Heiduo searched his memories but found no trace of it.

It was probably a new move that had appeared later on.

"For the two-person team battle nine days from now, I hope we can undergo nine days of basic coordination training together." Serea first explained why she had asked Heiduo to come to the training ground.

Heiduo had no objections, and he also had something he wanted to try.

To be honest, he was somewhat wary of Serea. There was no such thing as unearned kindness in this world. Out of so many people, she had chosen him specifically, so she naturally had her own motives.

He just hoped she was not what he suspected.

After all, Heiduo had a fairly favorable impression of Serea. She was such a beautiful young woman, had spared no effort in helping him, and was even willing to form a team with him.

"Serea!"

A sweet voice suddenly came from the distance.

A white-haired girl with a rabbit-ear headband and a lock of black bangs over her forehead ran to Serea's side and affectionately hugged her arm.

Looking at the girl's innocent and adorable face, Heiduo could not help feeling curious.

Were girls in the Pokémon world all this high-quality?

There were more than thirty women among this batch of new Team Rocket recruits. Their looks were all above the standard of his previous life; most had pretty faces and smooth, fair skin.

The few who did not measure up were only held back by their relatively plump figures.

As long as they slimmed down, every one of them could be considered an internet goddess from his previous life.

Even the freckles on their faces were cute freckles.

"Ah! Hello! My name is Shuangye!" The girl named Shuangye saw Heiduo looking at her and shyly released Serea's arm.

So this batch of Team Rocket recruits really was no good.

First there was the helpful Serea, and now there was the lively, adorable little Shuangye.

Did you people have any awareness that you were in an evil organization? Team Rocket's goal was to dominate Kanto and then conquer the entire world!

It would be a waste if you did not become idols at an entertainment company! Why sell Pokémon?

Heiduo nodded at Shuangye. "My name is Heiduo. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you!" Shuangye beamed and stepped forward to grab both of Heiduo's hands, shaking them vigorously.

"Shuangye! What are you doing here?"

Serea looked at Shuangye and asked with a headache.

Ever since Serea had helped Shuangye gain the recognition of her Pokémon yesterday, the girl had latched onto her like glue.

Yet Shuangye's face was so innocent and romantic that Serea could not bring herself to speak harshly to her.

Shuangye turned around and said with a smile, "I went looking for you this morning, but you weren't in your room, so I came looking for you!"

"Are you going to have a Pokémon battle?" She looked at the two of them excitedly and threw out a Poké Ball.

Bang!

A large rat with pale purple fur appeared on the field.

[Pokémon: Rattata/Gender: Male/Level: 11]

[Ability: Run Away/Type: Normal/Trainer: Shuangye]

[Moves: Tackle lv2/Quick Attack lv2]

[Bite lv1/Fury Swipes lv2]

"I want to join too, I want to join too! Serea, let me train with you, okay?" Shuangye raised her hand and looked at Serea with her large, adorable eyes. The Rattata beside her played around her feet.

Heiduo glanced at Serea and saw her eyes full of helplessness, immediately realizing that Serea seemed rather close to Shuangye.

He gave Serea a look, hoping she would deal with the person she had attracted.

But Serea returned a helpless look, covering her head with an expression of considerable distress.

Was she asking Heiduo to be the bad guy?

Heiduo looked at Shuangye. Judging by her appearance, the little girl was no more than twelve or thirteen, so after considering his words for a moment, he said, "Actually, Serea and I plan to form a two-person team to meet the results required by the squad leader nine days from now."

"Eh—so I can't join?" Shuangye lowered her head listlessly, pouting as the rabbit-ear ribbon on her head drooped down.

Seeing that its owner was no longer smiling, the lively Rattata clung to Shuangye's leg and looked at her worriedly.

"Not exactly. If you have a friend you get along well with, you can bring her here. The two of you can form a two-person team, and then train together with us—" Heiduo did not directly tell Shuangye to stand aside and stop bothering him and Serea.

Instead, he tactfully rejected her with a more practical issue.

That way, if Shuangye could not find a suitable partner anytime soon, she would not disturb him and Serea.

That was, provided she did not try to poach Serea, and Serea did not agree to her attempt at stealing a teammate.

Heiduo had seen this sort of blatant poaching plenty of times in his previous life. Back in school, two people could have everything agreed upon, only for someone to suddenly come over and talk one of them into switching sides.

It had nearly pissed Heiduo off to death.

Just as Heiduo thought Shuangye would be troubled, she raised her head, her eyes sparkling like stars. "Okay, okay! Wait here!"

With that, she hurried away.

"...I..." Heiduo froze, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly. Thinking it over carefully, he realized that made sense. How could a lively, adorable girl like Shuangye not have friends she got along with?

It was not as though everyone was like him, barely interacting with anyone.

He had not considered things thoroughly enough.

It seemed keeping quiet and making a fortune was probably impossible.

Now he could only hope Shuangye would not bring a whole crowd over. That would really be awkward.

"Sorry. I... really couldn't bear to refuse her." Serea moved closer to Heiduo and apologized quietly.

Heiduo gave her a slight smile. "It's no big deal. Actually, my impression of her is similar to yours. I'm just curious why she joined Team Rocket. Someone like her shouldn't have come to Team Rocket."

As an illegal organization aspiring to overthrow the Pokémon League's rule, its members might not all be utterly evil, but it was definitely not the kind of place where someone like Shuangye could survive.

Unless it was all an act.

...Heiduo covered his face. He had seen too many people in the special training camp who did not fit Team Rocket's image, making him constantly suspect that everyone here was an acting genius with a thousand faces.

"As far as I know, her father used to be a member of Team Rocket." Serea calmly said something that left Heiduo stunned.

Heiduo's expression turned strange. "Her father... who was he?"

"Her father is dead." Serea spoke unhurriedly. "Team Rocket's upper ranks said he died in a clash with the Pokémon League. But Shuangye doesn't believe it, so she joined Team Rocket in hopes of finding the truth."

Such a convoluted plot? It could be written into a novel!

Heiduo opened his mouth, unsure how to respond to Serea.

"What about you? Why did you join Team Rocket?" Serea turned her head and stared at Heiduo's face.

"...Me?" Heiduo pointed at himself. Seeing Serea nod rather seriously, he paused for a moment before saying, "I'm someone without a past, so I want to take control of my own future."

It sounded embarrassingly melodramatic, but every word was true.

Heiduo did not have this body's original memories. He did not know where he had come from or why he had joined Team Rocket, but to him, Team Rocket was an extremely important avenue for understanding this world transformed from anime, games, and manga.

It was even a path for him to become stronger.

"Without a past? What do you mean?" Serea seemed unable to understand what Heiduo was saying.

Her expression made Heiduo blush a little. He should not have said something so vague. "It just means I have amnesia. I've forgotten who I am, where I came from, and where I'm going... whether you believe me or not."

Serea looked at Heiduo, revealing a surprised expression for the first time. But it was extremely brief and disappeared soon afterward.

"I believe you," she said lightly.

"And you?" Heiduo immediately asked her.

Heiduo had been curious for a long time. Why had someone like Serea, cold on the outside but warm at heart, joined Team Rocket? Was it a special circumstance like Shuangye's?

"I... can't tell you for now. But please believe me, I mean you absolutely no harm!" Serea looked at Heiduo seriously.

Who was even asking about that...

Heiduo was somewhat confused, but since Serea was unwilling to say, there was no way he could force her.

It did not matter. He was going to leave Team Rocket sooner or later anyway.

To Heiduo, this place was merely a stepping stone. Once he had accumulated enough strength, he would definitely leave.

After all, outside the anime, Team Rocket had mostly been destroyed in both the manga and games.

It was not easy for the Pokémon League to tolerate an underground organization shitting all over its head. It watched Team Rocket extend its reach into every industry without acting, waiting until several middle schoolers and their Pokémon directly took down Team Rocket's boss before uprooting the organization entirely.

He did not know whether the Team Rocket here was the one from the anime or from something else.

In the anime, the writers had forcibly prolonged Team Rocket's lifespan to keep the popular Team Rocket trio around, turning Team Rocket into a large cross-regional publicly listed company.

So far, the Team Rocket here seemed closer to Pokémon Adventures.

That was because the author of the Ekans training notes he had received yesterday was Koga.

In Pokémon Adventures, three of Team Rocket's highest-ranking executives were Gym Leaders from the Pokémon League—professional double agents. Koga was one of those three double agents.

He was also the one who had done the best, eventually becoming one of the new Elite Four.

There had not been much description of executives in the anime, because the Team Rocket trio were the protagonists.

...Well, whatever. He would say goodbye to Team Rocket sooner or later.

After leaving Team Rocket, Heiduo would probably go to Sinnoh, because he had admired Sinnoh's Champion Cynthia for a long time.

Aside from that fool and Pikachu, the rest of his childhood had been filled with pirated Pokémon Pearl and Diamond game discs. The powerful Sinnoh Champion Cynthia had left a deep impression on him.