Ye Ling

"Could you stop startling me like that? Do you even need to ask how I did on the exam?" He knew who it was without turning around. With his mature outlook, he had no friends besides the best buddy he had grown up with.

When he turned around, the burly figure blocked out most of the sun. Even at a hundred and eighty centimeters tall, Xiao Ran looked rather small beside him. Just as he wondered about his own good looks, he also wondered how the other boy had grown so huge. His parents weren't nearly that intimidating.

"Tsk, tsk. Listen to how smug you sound. Can't you give us ordinary people a fighting chance?" the boy complained, giving Xiao Ran's shoulder a vindictive squeeze with the hand draped over it.

"Jiang Cheng, I think you'd better take your paw off me, or I'll call Yueyue over," Xiao Ran said through gritted teeth. Without using Moonblast, he really couldn't match the other boy in raw strength. Pain was already spreading through his shoulder.

"Come on, man. We've finally been set free, ready to spread our wings and soar. Can you not bring up such a buzzkill?" Jiang Cheng complained. His grip loosened a little, though he still didn't let go.

"I've always wondered, actually. How does a two-meter-tall bruiser like you end up scared of a little girl? Are you henpecked? Or are you... one of those legendary masochists?" Catching a familiar flash of red out of the corner of his eye, Xiao Ran taunted him with a sly edge.

"Me, scared of her? No way! I just don't want to stoop to her level, all right?" Jiang Cheng immediately raised his voice, as though Xiao Ran had struck a nerve, but anyone could hear his lack of confidence.

"Really?" Xiao Ran asked with a devilish smile, unwittingly drawing the attention of quite a few Girls nearby.

"Of course! I could put that brat in her place in no time!" Jiang Cheng declared with boundless bravado.

"Who exactly are you planning to put in her place?" A clear voice rang out behind him. Lovely as it sounded, it made Jiang Cheng's hulking frame shudder.

Bro, you set me up! He shot Qin Ming an anguished look of silent accusation, but an instant later, his face had rearranged itself into a fawning smile.

Turning around, he saw a girl in a red school uniform, her dark red hair flowing down her back. Her delicate features were every bit as attractive as Qin Ming's. She watched the big fellow before her with an amused expression, while a series of cracks came from the knuckles of her slender, fair hands.

The girl's name was Yueyue, or Shen Yue in full. She was the daughter of Shen Lang, the leader of the Red Lotus Dojo, one of Nancheng's two major dojos. She had also been Jiang Cheng's intended bride since childhood. Barring any surprises, they would become formally engaged after the college entrance exams, spend a few years nurturing their relationship, and get married after graduating from university.

People in this world married early. To adapt to a world fraught with danger and preserve humanity's future, the legal marriage age had been lowered to eighteen, while Girls could marry at sixteen. Of course, almost nobody married before finishing high school. Married couples were fairly common at university, but only at ordinary universities. Few people married while attending Pokémon University.

"No one! No one! You misheard! It was Xiao Ran. Xiao Ran said he was going to put Lingling in her place!" Jiang Cheng's skill at passing the buck was truly exceptional. In an instant, he had thrown the blame straight back onto Xiao Ran.

"He wouldn't say that." Before Shen Yue could speak, a slightly cool female voice sounded beside them. Jiang Cheng's attempt to pass the buck had failed before he could even finish.

Hearing that familiar voice, Xiao Ran brightened. He pushed Jiang Cheng out of his line of sight, revealing another girl in a school uniform.

Unlike Shen Yue's fiery warmth, this girl had silky black hair. More than that, even dressed in the same school uniform, she radiated a chill that everyone could feel—a coldness that seemed to pierce the soul. Xiao Ran paid it no mind, however. The moment he saw her, he went over to greet her warmly.

"Lingling, you're out too?" Xiao Ran asked with concern, a gentle smile spreading across his face. This time, though, the Girls who saw that smile were destined to have their hearts shattered.

"Mm." The girl said nothing more, merely giving a faint nod.

"Let's head home. Mom said there'd be a surprise waiting for us. I can hardly wait." Xiao Ran deliberately kept his tone light, as though he were fascinated by the evening's surprise. But anyone who knew him understood that the usually composed boy was merely trying to coax a little smile from the girl before him.

"Okay." Her answer was still brief and cool, but Xiao Ran clearly didn't mind. He casually waved to Jiang Cheng and Shen Yue behind him, then walked toward the school gates alongside her. Even from a distance, they could still make out the boy's occasional, deliberately exaggerated gestures and the girl's steady, unchanging steps.

"Tsk, tsk. Only a simp like him could handle an ice queen like that!" Jiang Cheng sighed as he watched them leave.

"What do you know? Lingling has feelings for him. It's called love!" the red-haired girl said enviously, clearly displeased with Jiang Cheng's remark.

"Yes, yes, you're right about everything!" Jiang Cheng said, pursing his lips. Shen Yue knew nothing about what had happened back then, and even he, Xiao Ran's best friend, knew only the broad outlines. After all, they had all been young when it happened. But he knew that from that day onward, both she and Xiao Ran had changed. Of course, Xiao Ran was still his best friend. That would never change.

"Glad you know I'm right. Now, we need to have a proper discussion about this business of putting someone in her place!"

"Uh... Yueyue... I just remembered something I need to do at home. I'll be off, then."

"You bastard! Get back here!"

Unlike the commotion over there, Xiao Ran and his companion walked along in unusual silence. Of course, both were already accustomed to it. This way of being together, incomprehensible to most people, made them feel exceptionally comfortable and secure.

As someone who had been reborn, Xiao Ran had a childhood sweetheart everyone envied. On top of that, he had Jiang Cheng, a two-meter-tall best buddy. He had to admit that fate could sometimes work in truly mysterious ways.

With an adult's soul, Xiao Ran had originally wanted nothing to do with those childish kids. As an adult, he naturally couldn't go playing in the mud with a bunch of little brats, and that was indeed how he had spent his first few years.

Yet unexpectedly, first came Ye Ling, the childhood sweetheart who grew up in his home, followed by Jiang Cheng, the best friend who had somehow shared his desk for eleven years. Xiao Ran could only marvel at the wonders of fate. Most importantly, his best friend was Nancheng's richest man, while his childhood sweetheart had a car and a house, but had lost both parents.

Indescribable guilt and heartache rose from deep within him. Scene after scene from that year seemed to play out once more, and a trace of bloodshot red crept into Xiao Ran's eyes.

His family and Ye Ling's could be considered old family friends. Their fathers were both Alliance investigators, serving on the same team, and were close enough that when they bought their homes, they chose apartments directly across the hall from each other.

They had thought they could remain neighbors for life, watching their children grow up and start families... Tragically, however, Ye Ling's mother died from complications during childbirth on the very day she was born. From then on, her birthday was also the anniversary of her mother's death.

Afterward, her father raised her alone. Since they lived across the hall from Xiao Ran, her father, an Alliance investigator, often left her in the care of Xiao Ran's family. After all, Xiao Ran's mother was a breeder and university lecturer, with enough time to look after two children. That was how his childhood sweetheart entered his life.

Especially after the two started elementary school, not only Ye Ling's father but also Xiao Ran's rarely appeared at home. Being an Alliance investigator was an honorable profession, but also a busy and highly dangerous one. They mostly had to stay in touch through calls, and Ye Ling began living with Xiao Ran's family on a long-term basis.

With his adult soul, Xiao Ran showed the little girl plenty of care. Food, everyday necessities—whatever it was, he never forgot to save a share for her. Having never had children, he finally experienced the pleasure of raising a daughter. Naturally, what he received in return was Ye Ling's affection and dependence, a child's way of expressing love and closeness.

Sadly, the good times didn't last. Their life together, outwardly that of childhood sweethearts but in practice more like raising a daughter, continued for a full eleven years. On the day they graduated from elementary school at eleven, they joined a Summer Camp organized by the school. That camp marked the beginning of everything's destruction.

The world was not all light. The claws of evil and darkness reached every corner. In places beyond the Alliance's reach, the vast world held not only flourishing life, but endless darkness.

The Hall was one such organization. Its members had no convictions; everything they did served their own interests. Assassinating high-ranking officials was nothing to them. For the right price, they would even dare to assassinate an Elite Four member. Unfortunately, during one of their operations, they encountered a group of students attending Summer Camp.

Those hardened killers and assassins would never readily allow anyone to disrupt their plans, especially not a group of defenseless students and teachers. So they acted without hesitation.

Of course, they did not kill them. They captured them. No organization could endure without fresh recruits, and these children would be their future successors. A criminal organization had plenty of ways to make children obedient and compliant... and then teach them to kill.

It was Xiao Ran's first direct encounter with this world's darkness, and the first time in either of his lives that he had seen blood spray through the air. Having lived in an era of peace, he now faced the power and terror of Pokémon for the first time. For the first time, he watched living people lose their lives right before his eyes. And for the first time, he reacted like a child, freezing where he stood.