The Timid Poochyena (Please Bookmark)

Dian's eyes flickered. He did not order his Beedrill to dodge right away. Instead, he waited to see what would happen.

"Yip!"

Poochyena whipped its head around, ready to use Bite with its fang-lined jaws, only to find it could not close its mouth.

Beedrill held a poisonous stinger against Poochyena's upper jaw. Its gaze was cold and utterly unmoved.

"Yip..."

Poochyena's eyes went wide. It gave its tail a little shake, but the long gray fur on it drooped. It whimpered.

"Poochyena, don't be scared! You can do it!"

At its Trainer's encouragement, Poochyena was about to make a move when it saw Beedrill silently raise its other stinger. The sharp, poison-tipped point gleamed coldly, its reflection filling Poochyena's red eyes.

"Yip!"

Poochyena's fur stood on end again. Last time, it had been trying to intimidate someone else. This time, it was the one being intimidated.

"Whine..."

It slowly backed away a few steps, tucked its tail between its legs, then shot off in a blur... straight toward its Trainer. It ducked behind him and peeked at Beedrill with one round red eye.

"Ugh..."

Alina covered her face, a little embarrassed.

Beside her, Haya clasped her hands to her chest, wearing her usual delighted smile. "Poochyena is as cute as ever!"

Cute... Well, the way it ran away was pretty funny.

Rolf felt as though an invisible blade had pierced his chest.

He scooped up his Poochyena at once. "Poochyena! You're a wolf Pokémon, a noble purebred! You have to be brave and fearless!"

Faced with its Trainer, Poochyena immediately turned on the charm, putting on a pitiful look. "Yip..."

It blinked, touched its red nose to Rolf's, and wagged its tail happily. It seemed far more at ease with this than it had been in battle. Clearly, it knew the routine.

This was obviously not the first time it had done this.

"So it does have Rattled."

Dian smiled. An Ability was not always a benefit. For some Pokémon, it could be a burden.

But there was no judging it by battle alone. What proved a disadvantage in a fight might be an excellent way to get by in daily life.

This Poochyena might not be as fierce as others of its kind, but it probably received more affection than most.

At the very least, despite his exasperated expression, its Trainer was clearly fond of it deep down.

All bark and no bite...

Dian quietly took another step back. An upstanding young man like him really should not get too close to such a dangerous character.

Once Beedrill saw that its opponent had lost the will to fight, it flew back to Dian's side and greeted Misdreavus, who was still laughing nearby.

"Mis, mis~"

Misdreavus seemed delighted by the battle. She circled Beedrill a few times, then tilted her head and called out.

Beedrill shook its head helplessly.

"Come back, Beedrill."

After recalling Beedrill, Dian ignored Rolf, who was grooming Poochyena's fur, and walked back over to Haya and the others.

Was earning a little money really so hard? People kept wasting his time. Then again, perhaps it was pretty easy...

"What are you doing? Rongrong!"

Alina eyed him warily and immediately sent out her favorite Pokémon.

"Wait, Alina."

Haya picked up the Eevee glaring fiercely from the ground. "I already explained. Mr. Dian really is a good person. He didn't do anything to me, and he helped me recall Goldeen. And during that battle, Goldeen listened to me for the first time."

As Haya spoke, she broke into a radiant smile that instantly soothed the struggling Eevee in her arms.

She took thirty thousand in bills from her pink purse and held them out. "Mr. Dian, if you have the chance, please coach me again. There'll be something in it for you!"

Haya flashed a playful smile, then set Eevee back on the ground.

Dian's heart stirred at once—at the thought of a glittering financial future, of course.

He smiled without answering, then quickly disappeared into the nearby woods with Misdreavus.

Crack! A dead twig snapped in two beneath his foot.

Dian walked slowly through the trees. Only when he could no longer feel that gaze on him did he let down his guard.

She really was no ordinary young lady.

He had met plenty of rookie Trainers who spent freely. One had wagered a Heal Ball, and Tomoya had once lost an entire bag of Pokéblocks to him.

But this was the first time he had met one with a bodyguard.

He had seen Alina and Rolf in the Misty Forest before, and neither had been followed by a bodyguard hiding in the shadows. The guard had to be Haya's.

From the look of it, she had noticed someone following her too, and her actions had been a silent protest.

Both her leap from the waterfall and her invitation to battle had been that young girl's way of asserting herself against her family's wishes.

She might seem gentle, but there was probably more steel than softness in her.

Still, the important thing was that he had the money.

He was rather short on cash, after all. First, he needed to buy a batch of Pokéblocks and some poisonous herbs. Dian suspected that well-known poisonous herbs would be expensive, so he would have to research them himself.

Research cost money too. He had already gathered nearly all the free information he could find. What remained was behind a paywall.

Until now, he had been so broke he could barely make ends meet. How could he afford to buy information online?

Still, Dian thought the charges were fair. Researchers had families to support too, so there was nothing wrong with charging for their work.

The prices were reasonable rather than outrageous. It seemed most researchers in the Pokémon World had decent standards.

"Mis."

Misdreavus turned a ten-thousand note over in her hands, unable to understand why her Trainer worked so hard for pieces of paper like this.

Dian pointed at the note in her hands. "That's ten months of food for you."

Until now, he had used ordinary Standard Pokéblocks, which were reasonably priced. Feeding a Pokémon with a small appetite cost around five hundred a month.

But specialized Pokéblocks would cost a thousand a month, and that was still for a Pokémon with a small appetite.

As for raising a Snorlax? The thought was terrifying.

A Trainer would have to live and breathe money to afford that.

Even now, with three Pokémon to feed, Dian would spend three thousand a month on food alone. How was he supposed to live if he didn't get some money out of the rich?