What Was So Fun About This Thing, Anyway?

The standing water outside Life City's entrance was no obstacle for a heavy truck. Its towering tires carved a path through the muddy water.

"Get your Pokémon out of the water! Don't come complaining to me if I hit one!"

The driver seemed to have had some unpleasant experiences before. After two quick honks, he leaned out of the window and shouted at the Pokémon in the water and the people nearby.

What the driver hadn't noticed, however, was that the biggest thrill had been hanging off the back of his truck all along.

If he'd known there was a "guerrilla fighter" standing on his rear bumper, he would have swum over to drag the guy off if he had to.

He simply hadn't imagined anyone would still dare to hitch a ride on a truck like that these days. The student riding along reached dry ground without a hitch and left before the driver got out.

"Meownei, wait here for a bit. I'll be back after I drop off the food."

Xin Mu did remember where the wall was, but getting there meant taking a dirt path through a small grove. After the rain, the path was all mud, and Meownei would probably get her feet covered in it.

Meownei's feet weren't exactly clean after walking all that way following the downpour, but walking on paved roads was still very different from walking through mud.

He'd already noticed during the Gym battle that Meownei didn't particularly like that kind of terrain. Getting mud all over her feet would also be a hassle once they got home, so he hadn't planned on bringing her along.

Returning to her Poké Ball would have avoided plenty of problems, but Meownei's dislike of Poké Balls meant she wouldn't consider it.

"Meow~"

"Hold on to this for now. I wonder what souvenirs the other Gyms give out. It'd be interesting if they were all like this."

The realistic scale model cost tens of thousands, and since it was a Gym giveaway, it was a limited edition as well, which inflated its price somewhat.

For a Gym Leader, however, the actual cost wasn't that high. Their side businesses and League subsidies already brought in plenty of money, and the Ground-type Blue Sky Technical Academy Gym had even more practical applications in everyday life.

Those Ground-type Pokémon could be seen prospecting for mineral deposits, working on underground construction, and carrying out mine rescues.

Xin Mu wouldn't be going anywhere outside Meownei's line of sight, so she had no objections and stood by the roadside waiting for him to return.

Before long, Xin Mu reached the wall and spotted Zhang Lin wading out in a pair of slippers.

"Did it flood inside too?"

"There's some standing water, but it's not as bad as out front. By the way, that Gym battle of yours was ridiculous. With a Meowscarada that strong, why didn't you get special admission into the Battle Studies Department?"

"Uh... would you believe me if I said I only just finished raising her?"

"If you raised her to that level in four years, you should've gone into the Pokémon Breeding Department."

People who could reliably raise powerful Pokémon were just as scarce as powerful Pokémon themselves.

There were plenty of Pokémon with exceptional potential, but eating, drinking, and sleeping alone wouldn't make them grow strong. Training and care had always been crucial.

Most people with a strong talent for battling knew a thing or two about raising Pokémon. They just weren't quite as proficient at it.

"I'm graduating anyway, so don't sweat the details. Here's lunch for your dorm. How'd you find out the details of the match, though?"

"Didn't you check their Gym's homepage? They posted a recording of your battle."

"They actually post videos of themselves losing?"

"Of course. How else would they attract more challengers? Whoever edited this video must have a grudge against the acting Gym Leader, though. They even included the footage of his failed aerial entrance."

Zhang Lin scrubbed through the video he'd been watching and held it up in front of Xin Mu.

[Why didn't he Mega Evolve? Does he not know how, or does he just not want to?]

[He couldn't! This guy's Pokémon that can Mega Evolve is that Pidgeot, and it got one-shot right at the start!]

[Hahaha, what goes around comes around! Now it's this guy's turn to get humbled!]

Among the scrolling comments were Trainers Rong Fei had defeated, cheering at his misfortune. Thanks to the acting Gym Leader's habits, his online reputation had recently taken a sharp turn for the worse.

Unlike other Gym Leaders' lectures, his always carried an air of superiority that rubbed plenty of people the wrong way.

Seeing him get humbled brought them together in a quiet moment of shared satisfaction.

Xin Mu never appeared in the footage, however, and even his voice giving commands had been specially altered.

"I'm guessing... the old Gym Leader probably edited it."

An ordinary staff member probably wouldn't target the boss's son like this. After all, he might be their future boss-unless their current boss had told them to do it.

"Couldn't say. By the way, there's an Intercollegiate Pokémon Rally in a few days. Interested?"

"A Pokémon rally? Do the Pokémon drive?"

"No. I'll send you the link later so you can take a look. Oh, and I transferred the money for the food."

Zhang Lin returned to his dorm carrying the hopes of all his roommates, while Xin Mu took Meownei back to his rented apartment.

"Wait a second. I'll get you a towel... Actually, let's just rinse your feet off."

Even though Meownei hadn't walked through the mud, she still left a trail of footprints behind her.

When it wasn't raining, a few scuffs on the doormat would normally do the job. Doing that now would only mean having to scrub the mat again.

"Don't move your feet around, okay? If you get the wall dirty, it'll be hard to get the rental deposit back."

After setting the excavator model aside and telling Meownei to stay still, Xin Mu scooped her up in a princess carry.

He didn't want to dirty the floor or his own clothes, so this seemed like a reasonably sensible way to do it.

After all, Meowscarada wasn't the same size as a Sprigatito that he could simply pick up.

Meownei did stay still, but even when Xin Mu set her down on the bathroom floor, her hands remained on his shoulders. She showed no intention of letting go.

"You're down now. Here's the showerhead. I'll get you a fresh towel."

Watching Xin Mu leave, Meownei suddenly felt a little nostalgic for her days as a Sprigatito.

In her memories, when she was a Sprigatito, she could lie right on top of Xin Mu's head, and he would wash her whenever she got dirty.

Having hands after evolving made plenty of things more convenient, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she'd lost some of the fun.

Apparently deciding that the earlier battle had left the rest of her a little dirty too, Meownei went ahead and gave herself a thorough wash.

While she was bathing, though, she kept hearing strange noises from the room outside, along with the occasional burst of laughter from Xin Mu.

By the time she dried herself off and came out of the bathroom, she finally discovered the source of those odd sounds.

A bag of rice sat on the floor, with a moisture-proof storage bin beside it. Xin Mu was holding a remote control, transferring the rice a little at a time.

"Meow? (What are you doing?)"

"Playing. This thing has quite a few features. It can even haul a ten-kilo bag of rice. Want a turn?"

Meownei said nothing. She simply picked up the bag of rice and poured it all into the bin in one go, demonstrating what efficiency really meant.

She didn't seem to understand why her Trainer was so interested in something so inefficient.