"Cooking Fish" and Grilling Fish

Shots of Pepper Breath hurtled toward the river one after another.

The blazing fireballs struck the cold river water. The instant the two met, a sizzling hiss rose from the surface, followed by clouds of steam billowing up under the intense heat.

But the river had plenty of water. As the water in front evaporated, the current behind it quickly surged in to replace it, leaving the river seemingly little affected.

Agumon's attack wasn't over yet, though.

After firing four shots in a row, Agumon took a long, deep breath. His chest visibly swelled, and once he had gathered all his strength, he launched another Pepper Breath barrage.

One shot... two shots... four shots... eight shots... ten shots...

Only when his stamina was completely exhausted did Agumon stop, panting heavily.

In midair, a full thirteen shots of Pepper Breath were hurtling toward the river in a straight line.

"Hissssss!!!"

A piercing, intensely unpleasant sound rivaling the move Screech erupted from the river.

Even Qingliu, who stood some distance away, couldn't help frowning and covering his ears.

Fortunately, the sound faded as quickly as it had come.

When he looked back at the river, the flames had vanished. All that remained were thick clouds of white vapor and... a patch of water that the heat of Pepper Breath had brought to a full boil.

Although the constant current from upstream would gradually cool and wash it away, there was clearly no one to cool down the fish caught in that patch.

A dozen or so Magikarp of varying sizes floated to the surface, belly-up, their eyes swirling.

At the sight, Agumon jumped straight into the river and began fishing them out.

Qingliu didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He remembered how, while they were making their way through the forest, Agumon had told him that years of practice had made him an expert at catching fish. He had his own method, and aside from being tiring, it almost never failed.

At the time, Qingliu had been curious about just what that method involved.

Now he finally knew...

So his so-called fishing method was blasting fish, huh?

Or, more accurately, boiling them alive.

Heat up the water and scald them to death.

Qingliu also finally understood why Agumon had been able to use Pepper Breath so many times in succession inside the Solaceon Ruins without showing any signs of fatigue. Apparently, it had all come from "cooking fish."

By then, Agumon had hauled every fish floating on the surface onto the bank and jogged back with them in his arms.

"Qingliu, you can eat all these fish. You don't have to save any for me."

Agumon set down his entire catch in front of Qingliu and spoke with great generosity.

Qingliu felt helpless, but also a little touched.

He shook his head and looked at the Magikarp on the ground. "We can't eat these. Magikarp are almost entirely bone. There's no meat."

"Magikarp? All bone?"

Agumon quickly crouched down and lightly tapped a Magikarp's body with a claw. Sure enough, its surface gave off the dull sound characteristic of bone.

Agumon froze.

He'd gone to all that trouble to catch fish especially for Qingliu, only for them to be inedible?

The Oran Berries being "too hard" earlier was one thing, but now even a fish was this hard. Was all the other food in this world the same?

For a big eater who loved food, this was nothing short of terrible news.

Honestly, at that moment, Agumon felt a little disappointed in the Pokémon world.

Qingliu saw what Agumon was thinking and reassured him. "Don't worry, we've just had bad luck. Everything we've happened to find has been tough. Besides, even if Magikarp had fewer bones and more meat, I couldn't bring myself to eat intelligent, aware Pokémon like these."

As he spoke, Qingliu crouched down and rummaged through the unconscious Magikarp, finally lifting one out from the very bottom of the pile.

"Besides, there's something edible here after all."

The Magikarp Qingliu had lifted was holding another fish in its mouth.

It was a small fish, red all over, with roughly the same coloring as a Magikarp. But it clearly looked different from a Magikarp, and it wasn't another kind of fish Pokémon either. It was just an ordinary carp.

Agumon noticed that it looked very similar to the fish he had caught in the Digital World. His dejection immediately vanished. "Then you eat that one first. I'll go catch a few more like it."

With that, he turned to head back to the river.

Qingliu stopped him.

"Take these Magikarp with you and toss them back into the river."

Agumon looked at the Magikarp lying on the ground with swirling eyes and asked, "Should we give them some Oran Berries to help them recover their strength?"

"No need. They're much tougher than you think. All they need is water."

"All right."

Agumon hoisted all the Magikarp up and headed toward the river.

After gutting the carp, Qingliu gathered some dry leaves nearby, skewered the carp on a stick, and piled up the rest of the wood. He borrowed a flame from Agumon and began grilling the fish.

Meanwhile, Agumon made several trips back and forth, bringing back three more fish. Qingliu cleaned each one and set them beside the fire to grill in turn.

"That's enough to eat. You don't need to catch any more."

"I'll catch a few more before it gets dark. If we can't finish them, we can take them along to eat on the road tomorrow."

As Agumon spoke, his eyes stayed fixed on the grilled fish.

Qingliu suspected that if Agumon hadn't caught these fish for him, he would already be drooling.

As for his offer to catch a few more, he was probably craving some himself. After all, Berries and meat had very different textures.

Qingliu didn't call him out on it. He nodded, told him to be careful, and returned his full attention to grilling the fish.

At some point, the sky overhead had begun to darken. A full moon quietly rose, and a few stars became faintly visible.

The branches in the fire burned, giving off waves of warmth and occasional crisp snaps as they broke. Beside the flames, the grilling carp began to release the appetizing aroma of meat.

Not far away, Agumon worked tirelessly. A large school of Magikarp fled from him in a blind panic, using Splash to leap onto the bank, only for Agumon to throw them all back into the river one by one.

The quiet, peaceful atmosphere left Qingliu utterly relaxed.

"I've been caught up in city life for so long, I can't even remember the last time I had a moment like this..."

As Qingliu gazed at the fire, scenes from his childhood began to surface in his mind.

Meanwhile, not far from where Qingliu was grilling fish, a figure breathing somewhat heavily slowly poked its head out from beneath a large tree at the forest's edge. It looked as though a small mountain sat atop its head.

It stared at Qingliu's position for a long while, then finally began creeping closer.