Over the next few days,
Baimu stayed in the Sacred Forest instead of returning to Battle Mountain, spending all his time petting Big Cat and following events through his Porygon Phone.
As expected,
Batlthas defeated Zhengyi again. Before the mighty stag beetle warrior, the evil dinosaur was no match.
It fit the whole Bug-type-beats-Dark-type theme—
Kamen Rider would always win!
Leo sighed. "What a shame."
He had arranged to face Batlthas in the main tournament, only for Baimu to get in the way.
Baimu laughed. "Batlthas couldn't beat me either. You two can have your match privately as fellow losers."
"..."
Leo shot him a sidelong look. "Are you the type who gets cheekier the closer you are to someone?"
He had been so polite just yesterday.
Baimu chuckled as he stroked the fur on Raikou's cheeks. Sure enough, every cat got chubby cheeks!
He didn't dwell on the disappointing subject.
Leo invited him out for lunch.
It was hard to turn down village chief Logan's warm invitation. But Baimu wanted to have lunch with the Ho-Oh Guard too...
After a brief struggle,
he called out Shiny Gengar and served the Ho-Oh Guard some dry food from his stash.
"Rrrow~"
Raikou gave a low growl, a hint of anticipation in its voice.
Entei and Suicune turned to look at it.
If they hadn't all come together, they might have suspected someone had replaced Raikou with a Ditto.
Affectionate, greedy, and lazy-looking.
It was no different from the cat Pokémon they often saw in cities.
But this was Raikou!
Raikou ignored them. The familiar dry food reminded it once more of its Bond with Baimu, regardless of how different he was from it.
That was right.
Tasty food was another big reason it liked Baimu!
Raikou dug in without a trace