The first customer

The Cerulean Dome stood in the center of Cerulean City. It housed not only an aquarium and a swimming pool, but even a water park that opened only on weekends.

It also attracted plenty of Trainers seeking to challenge strong opponents, because the Cerulean Dome had another name... the Cerulean Gym, officially certified by the Pokémon League!

At that moment, an orange-haired girl let out a helpless sigh. Sitting beside the pool, she began muttering to herself.

"This shouldn't be happening..."

The girl rubbed her chin, lost in thought.

Anyone else present would have recognized her at a glance. She was Misty, the Cerulean Gym Leader known as the tomboyish mermaid! She was immensely popular throughout the Kanto Region.

She watched the Magikarp swimming in the pool with Psyduck, but no matter how she thought it over, she couldn't figure out what had gone wrong.

This Magikarp wasn't hers. A little girl had left it in her care. Her own Magikarp had evolved into Gyarados long ago.

As the Cerulean Gym Leader, her duty was to put Trainers who traveled from afar to challenge her Gym through their paces.

Her position and strength also earned her the admiration and affection of local Trainers, as well as children who had yet to become Trainers themselves.

That was why a little girl who often visited the aquarium had entrusted this Magikarp to her, a Water-type Pokémon expert, hoping she could help raise it into a Gyarados.

For certain reasons, she had gladly agreed to the request and promised to get it done within two weeks. Now, only three days remained before that deadline. Time was running painfully short...

What she had never expected was that, although this Magikarp should already have been ready to evolve and was working hard toward that goal, it was simply stuck.

She had no idea what was happening. Worried that its personality would change drastically after evolving into Gyarados, she had even made plenty of preparations to help it manage its emotions. Yet it had stalled at the very last step: evolution.

Perhaps because it had worked so hard for so long without managing to evolve, the Magikarp in the pool was feeling rather down. Suddenly, though, it seemed to hear someone's voice and immediately hid its disappointment, perking up.

"Misty~!"

A young voice rang out from a distance. Misty immediately stood and looked toward a little girl with two pigtails and a short skirt, then walked over to her.

"You're here early today, Xiaoxin."

"Yeah, it's the weekend, so there's no school."

The girl called Xiaoxin walked up to her with an innocent smile on her face, but she was trying desperately to hide the sadness in her eyes.

She was only a child, though, and a poor actress. Misty saw through her at once and lowered her voice a little. "Did something happen?"

"Yeah..."

Xiaoxin gently bit her lip. Holding back her tears and keeping a smile on her face, she went to crouch beside the pool and reached out to stroke the Magikarp as it swam over.

Only then did she speak, her voice choked with emotion. "My dad's condition got worse again..."

"..."

Misty said nothing. She had more or less guessed already. A while ago, Xiaoxin's father had suddenly collapsed while fishing at sea, and his companions had rushed him to the hospital.

The tests had revealed terminal cancer. He had less than two months left. For any family, that news would have been a devastating blow.

Although medical care had improved greatly in this era, people were still helpless in cases like this. At most, they could spend money to buy a little more time—unless they could find Legendary Pokémon to help. But how could something like that ever happen?

That Magikarp was a birthday gift Xiaoxin's father had caught for her while taking her out to sea.

When she received it, Xiaoxin had happily declared that she would raise Magikarp into Gyarados, then have Gyarados take their whole family out to sea to watch the sunrise.

After this happened, however, there was nothing her family could do. Still, to keep that promise to her father, Xiaoxin could only hold back her grief and stay strong. She had come running to the Cerulean Gym to ask Misty for help.

After hearing the whole story, Misty had agreed without hesitation. From then on, Xiaoxin had come to the Cerulean Gym every day after school to visit Magikarp.

Now that her father's condition had worsened, he might not be able to hold on much longer...

After spending a little time with Magikarp, Xiaoxin stood up. She still had to visit her father at the hospital and couldn't stay here all day.

Looking at Magikarp in the pool, she pressed her lips together, forced a smile, and said, "You can do it!"

"Gluub!"

Magikarp's gaze was resolute. This was what it had been working so hard for. As a member of this family, it would help Xiaoxin keep her promise, no matter what.

Then Xiaoxin turned to Misty and gave a small bow. "I'm sorry for all the trouble, Misty."

At those words, Misty put a hand to her chest and replied confidently, "Who do you think I am? I'm the world's most beautiful girl! Don't worry about a thing. Just leave it to me!"

"Okay~ Thank you, Misty~"

A little while later, after seeing Xiaoxin out of the Gym, Misty's expression changed in an instant. She clutched her head in utter panic. She genuinely wanted to do everything she could to help, but she had no idea how. Could someone please tell her what she was supposed to do?

Returning to the poolside, she smacked her forehead, overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness.

She took out her Rotom Phone in its Psyduck case, ready to swallow her pride and ask other Water-type experts whether they had any ideas.

She really didn't want to do this—it was far too embarrassing—but she was out of options...

The screen lit up, and rows of notifications appeared. One was from Magikarp King: someone was interested in a cosmetics set she had listed and had sent her an inquiry. She tapped it.

After quickly replying, she returned to the home page. Just as she was about to close it, a product recommendation caught her attention.

It read, "Worried because your Pokémon still hasn't evolved? Why not take a look?"

There were four such headlines in total, but her attention settled on the "Wellspring Ogre Tangerine?" that claimed to help Water-type Pokémon evolve.

"Huh? Is this for real?"

Looking at the azure tangerine, which seemed to have been photoshopped, Misty hesitated. Then her gaze drifted down to the price of the three-tangerine bundle.

"What the hell... 648?! Why don't you just rob someone? Do you know how many pounds of tangerines I could buy for 648? I could get a whole truckload wholesale!"

Misty couldn't keep herself from swearing when she saw the price. This listing was obviously there to scam idiots. Would anyone actually fall for it? It was a total fraud!

Normally, she wouldn't have bothered looking any further, but things were different now. Even knowing it was fake, after wrestling with herself for a while and calming down, she still couldn't resist tapping it.

Then, after carefully reading the product description, she began to feel agitated, her fair little hands unconsciously curling into fists.

As a professional Water-type Pokémon expert, how could she possibly believe in fruit that could speed up a Pokémon's development simply by being eaten? It was absurd—an insult to all the effort Pokémon put in!

Unable to hold herself back, she opened a private chat with the seller and sent a message...

Meanwhile, back at the Manor, Mingyou had just finished breakfast with Munchlax and was still washing the dishes. Suddenly, he heard a notification from the Rotom Phone in his pocket and instinctively stopped what he was doing.

"That was fast!"

Curious and hopeful, he dried his hands, took out his phone, and tapped the notification. It was a customer with a rather dopey-looking Psyduck avatar.

But when he saw the message they had sent, the smile vanished from his face. The corner of his mouth twitched, and his expression turned into one of resigned expectation.

He'd been chewed out...