On the Brink of Bankruptcy

Take Aaron, for example. After being hypnotized so many times, he merely felt that something was a little off, yet he still believed the information he held about the hidden Normal-type Gem was his chance to turn things around.

But the drawback was enormous: the target would wake up at the slightest disturbance. Once, a falling branch had made just a little noise, and the man had jolted awake. That alone showed how serious the flaw was.

"Misdreavus."

An exhausted Misdreavus kept Aaron bound and followed behind Dian.

Dian was tired too, but he had taken a Healing Crystal along the way to perk himself up. Otherwise, he would never have held out.

And he was not the only one. His Pokémon were exhausted as well, apart from Honedge, Slowpoke, and Quagsire, of course.

These days, Honedge absolutely refused to come out except when it was time to feed. As for Slowpoke and Quagsire, Dian had never even considered having those two watch Aaron.

He had not lost his mind, after all. How reckless would he have to be to leave those two vacant-eyed geniuses guarding someone? He would be lucky if they noticed something was wrong two days after the prisoner escaped.

Besides, he was so exhausted now that he had no time to check whether this Slowpoke knew the Psychic-type status move Trick Room.

If it did, this Slowpoke would be very valuable indeed.

And it had helped him recover Larvitar's Poké Ball, too.

Come to think of it, his Poké Ball was not locked, yet Larvitar had not come out all this time. That was a little strange.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The moment he emerged from the forest, the Pokémon Pokédex at his waist began chiming impatiently.

Dian took it out and checked. One message was from