So far, Ash's Pikachu had claimed the lives of two bicycles.
In theory, as Ash and Pikachu continued their journey, even more bicycles would fall at Pikachu's hands.
But according to some mystical logic, every fallen bicycle gave rise to a new bond.
Misty certainly hadn't traveled with Ash for so long just to collect a debt.
Perhaps that had been her intention at first, but if she really wanted the money, going to Pallet Town would have been her best option.
They traveled together more because they wanted to journey with friends.
So Misty forgot about the matter most of the time, but that didn't stop her from having a good, long talk with Ash whenever some outside factor reminded her of it.
"Sorry, sir. We didn't mean to. Pikachu isn't feeling well, and that's why this happened."
"Pika pi..."
"It's fine. I have a Pokémon too, so I understand. Just pay for the damage."
Xin Mu understood how it had happened, but that didn't mean he would magnanimously wave it off and pretend nothing had happened.
The school had insurance to repair its windows. He didn't.
At that moment, Misty was chasing Ash in circles outside, while Brock and Pikachu stood before Xin Mu to apologize. If you broke someone else's property, you had to pay for it. Any reasonable person understood that much.
"About that bicycle..."
"It wasn't expensive, and it's secondhand now anyway. Just pay me 150."
He had bought the bicycle online in his freshman year. With a shopping festival discount, it had cost only 300. It had a few minor problems, but it was still rideable, so he had kept making do with it.
Brock breathed a sigh of relief at the figure of 150.
Pikachu had electrocuted the bicycle into charcoal, leaving no way to tell what it had originally been. Bicycle prices varied wildly, too, so this could easily have turned into a real headache.
"Oh, right. That's 150 in Donghuang currency."
"That shouldn't matter, should it? Every region uses the same currency. There's no difference."
"It's fine. I was just mentioning it."
From what he had seen so far, they shared not just a language but a currency as well. It was a broader sort of standardization.
But just as Brock was about to take out his wallet, his hand suddenly froze.
It wasn't much money, but that didn't change the fact that they had none on them...
Their travels were done the traditional way: on foot. Except when crossing between regions or hurrying somewhere, they rarely used transportation. Once they arrived in a region, they converted most of their funds straight into supplies.
After all, the three of them often got lost in the mountains. Out in those deserted places, money was nothing but a pile of wastepaper.
They only withdrew money upon entering a new city, then converted it into supplies again. They had just completed that process not long ago.
Brock hadn't only just arrived, either. He already knew how this region differed from the others.
Locals in Donghuang didn't carry card terminals around, and QR-code payments weren't common outside Donghuang.
"Please give me a moment. I'll try to scrape the money together..."
Brock and Pikachu turned around and stopped Ash and Misty, who were still playing a frantic game of chase around a pillar. Unfortunately, that didn't solve the problem outright.
The three of them had plenty of odd things on them, but they couldn't scrape together even that little bit of cash.
A card from Kanto couldn't be used at just any ATM in Donghuang. At the very least, they would have to make a trip to the Pokémon Center, but it was a long way from here.
In the end, they thought of humanity's most primitive method of trade: bartering.
Since Pikachu belonged to Ash, Ash was the one who finally stepped forward and handed Xin Mu a Poké Ball.
"Sorry for breaking your bicycle, but we really don't have any cash on us. Would you accept a Poké Ball as payment?"
An ordinary Poké Ball had an official price of 200 apiece. There were slight regional differences, but the price varied very little.
Leaving aside higher-quality Poké Balls like Great Balls, ordinary Poké Balls weren't particularly expensive. They were well within the average person's budget.
And unless someone was a professional Trainer or a business involved in breeding Pokémon, they didn't need many Poké Balls. Often, they had no use for them at all.
Poké Balls didn't break very often, either. For ordinary people, they were like phones: you might only need one every year or two.
If Xin Mu hadn't had a Pokémon with him, Ash wouldn't have thought of using a ball to settle the debt.
"Sure, but in that case... I owe you 50 in change. Here."
Xin Mu really didn't have an empty Poké Ball, so he accepted the proposal and gave Ash his change.
Then he saw Brock take a notebook out of his bag, write something resembling a receipt, and hand it to Xin Mu to sign.
Judging by how practiced he looked, this didn't seem to be his first time.
"Aren't you a little too good at this...?"
"We can't help it. Accidents happen when you're traveling."
They broke things fairly often. Places like Pokémon Centers generally didn't demand compensation, but every so often, something would come up.
Brock also juggled several roles. He was the Gym Leader of the Pewter Gym himself and looked after a whole bunch of younger siblings, so he was quite experienced with this sort of thing.
"Enjoy your journey through Donghuang. Maybe we'll meet again."
Xin Mu fiddled with the Poké Ball in his hand. This was the first empty ball he had ever handled.
The red-and-white ball had a button. Holding it down switched the ball between its storage size and its usable size.
Apparently, Professor Westwood, the pioneer of Pokémon studies, had accidentally weakened a Primeape too much during an experiment to extract its rage energy. The Primeape had then shrunk down into the professor's glasses case.
That incident had become one of the reasons behind the creation of Poké Balls. Still, Xin Mu wasn't particularly interested in how the things actually worked. He knew his own capabilities and had no intention of pursuing a career in research.
Whether Poké Balls worked because Pokémon could shrink on their own or because of some new technology had little to do with him.
With his bicycle's final affairs settled, he planned to leave. Back in the day, he had long since grown tired of the food around the school, but a lot of time had passed before he transmigrated. Coming back here made him feel rather nostalgic.
But Ash called him back.
"Please wait!"
"Hm? Is there something else? We're already done here."
"Um... since we've gotten to know each other now, could we have a Pokémon battle?"
Ash's reason for stopping Xin Mu was simple. As someone passionate about battling, he was always challenging all sorts of people to Pokémon battles.
They included, but weren't limited to, rookie Trainers in new regions, long-established Gym Leaders, members of the Elite Four, Champions, and random passersby who caught his eye.
After paying for the bicycle, Ash had curiously scanned Meownei with his Pokédex. However, his Pokédex hadn't been updated with the Pokémon of Paldea, so it found no matching Pokémon.
Xin Mu had a Pokémon Ash didn't recognize and came from a new region, putting him squarely within Ash's range of prospective battle opponents.
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